Happy New Year

Thank you to all who have visited my blog, left a comment, or 'liked' this last year. Hope you will return again next year!

Happy New Year everyone, hope it is going to be a good one!

Morning Cuppa for King Bird

A digital collage.

The bird, cup and crown were free from the Graphics Fairy. The striped background was purchased. The doily belongs to me and the I created table.

Gifts to Friends

You saw the gifts I received from my arty friends yesterday, today you see what I made them.

A chicken doorstop - Gill keeps chickens so this is one she doesn't have to feed. I hand painted and stamped the fabric. I used real feathers for the tail.

A handmade book for Marian to keep notes for inspiration perhaps. I hand painted some fabric [the coloured strips] which were layered with other fabric, distressed and embellished with hand embroidery. There was also layers of vintage lace, which was also distressed and some vintage buttons.

I used free hand machine embroidery on the back instead of hand embroidery.

inside I printed her name

there are a few pockets to keep bits in

and an attached book mark

For the dog lover Helen, a dog doorstop.

I used a knitted cardigan for the main body and head and felt and faux leather for the eyes, ears and nose.

And for Vicky, a needle book. You may remember seeing this fabric before as it was a sample page for my TAST stitches. I was going to use it for a book but when Vicky said it was her favourite page I thought I would put it aside for a Christmas gift and decided on a needle book eventually.

inside are felt pages for needles and pins etc.

hand painted fabric, devore, hand embroidery, layered.

All Present and Correct

These are the lovely handmade gifts I got from my talented arty, crafty friends.

Bags of things from Gillian.

I love the way she has done this button.

An unusual house in a cup pin cushion from Marian.

She's used tweeds and felt for the house and has embellished with hand embroidery.

She also made the lovely cup and hung a verse on a tag from the handle.

Helen made each of us a full book of inspiration, all different.

She has collaged images relevant to our interests and included other bits and bobs like the little bones on the dogs turbans.

And sparkly gems....

and buttons...

and a butterfly envelope complete with butterflies...

and a pocket with vintage postcards, etc....

Vicky has screen printed a pink Christmas tree design on a bag.

She has used this tree on a fabric called 'sugar coated Christmas Tree' on a background of stars, also with coordinating fabrics, which are available at Spoonflower .

She has also made this cute little brooch with the same tree with a laser cutter.

Didn't I do well?

TAW - Christmas Tree, and Houses

Take a Word challenge - the theme is 'Seasons Greetings! - design a card for the season or New Year. Drawn on a tablet.

Spot the differences?

Happy Holidays everyone!

Big Nose Reindeer, SPA - Angel, Collage

The reindeer was drawn on the tablet. [Samsung Galaxy Note]

The postcard, also digital was done for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge - Tiny Angel.

The woman has a tiny angel in her hands [click on the image for a better view]. I used a vintage postcard for the background. The woman's clothes and her background are my designs/art work. The angel was from the Graphics Fairy.

It's a long time since I've used a 'real' sketchbook, I did this last week but forgot about it. The sections with the birds are pieces of wrapping paper. I used letraset aquamarkers for the tree.

Snowmen on a Branch

Angel

Two Snowmen

black snow but a white snowman

or white snow and a black snowman

actually I have made snowmen when they have looked quite dark, when dirt has been rolled in the snow, by accident.

Who's Crackers?

I made some fabric crackers for when my arty friends came for lunch, I thought they would be good to use as tree decorations. I say crackers but they won't actually crack. I hand painted and stamped the fabric and stitched on some trim at either end. I used a card roll from wrapping paper to wrap/stick the fabric on and then decorated with ribbons, mini fir cones etc. But that is not all - I put small treats inside too as the crackers can be opened up one end, treats removed and refastened.

Sorry about the bad photos, it was fairly dark and I took them in my messy studio.

Inside there was a peg snowman. I painted an old fashioned dolly peg with white paint, made a hat from some packing [foamy] material, used pens to add features and a scrap of fabric for a scarf.

Also a small roll of hand painted washi paper, I used a recycled mini thread reel to wrap it on. A hand made glittery card button, stamp and circle shaped cut outs [from old Christmas cards], stars on a rope [from a string Christmas decoration], a sweet, Christmas themed gold shapes and a reindeer stick on.

Crazy English Language

I received this email which I thought I would share with you about the peculiarities of the English language. "You think English is easy?? I think a retired teacher was bored...THIS IS GREAT! Read all the way to the end................. This took a lot of work to put together! 1) The bandage was wound around the wound.2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had torefuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..7) Since there is no time like the present,                                                           he thought it was time to present the present.8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object.11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.12) There was a row among the oarsmen                                                           about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise                                                           guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this . There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top                                                           of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and cleanUP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't giveUP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP,for now my time is UP, so.......it is time to shut UP!Now it's UP to you what you do with this                                                           email."

Orange Flower

I used the mirror tool in sketchbook pro again [draw one side and the other side mirrors what you draw]