tuting

I am trying not to over heat as we experience a heat wave.  whoo!   I need to make up some samples with little tutorials for DD#1 and get these all into a 12 x 12 box and sent away!  The box is going to be a challenge in itself.

I started plain and simple. This youngster is now five and trying to get the front wheel of his two wheeler up off the ground like the big boys!  :O  Posting these is great.   hmmm?  I may need to find some upward motion to the space to the left of the bicycle.  I could make a u-turn and stamp some arrows in front of the bicycle!

Another painted white page (gelatos) with design decisions based on an oops! lol  The yellow dots are over kill but are down for good . ;)

 I decided not to guild the lily on this one.  The black page was a black and white pad I spontaneously grabbed.  It is sure gonna be useful!   

The gal in green was specifically to demo buttons.  The lettering should be more prominent so I also explain the not so good and how it can be improved. This DD is a perfectionist so I want her comfortable with 'good enough' as she learns.  I also forgot to 'thread'  the button holes!  Sorry for the blur.  I am working deadlines.  :(

Lots could make this better but I was limited to the size of her pages, the size of the photo and the pertinent area of the map I adhered with gel medium to the page.  I also believe that not every page should be a star as memories have the precedence.

I do have a few more great ideas to try and then I need to make the kits and find that box. 

I am very anxious to pick up where I 'leaved' off!   The stencils are cut and next will be the foam stamps. :)

Kits, kitties, and kids

I have managed to lure DD#1 into the scrap booking hobby.  She lives in the frozen north and sent me a cheque to get her some supplies.  Now that was fun.  But this is a lot of paper and could be overwhelming to a newbie.

I have a helper and we will make up some kits for her.  I plan to do up a couple of pages, write a tip sheet,  group some combos and try to send it all away!  There is some seriously cute stuff here!  lol

The newest batch of kitties has proven to be quite friendly and this kiddo has a choice of four willing and one not so willing!  lol  She is quite the little character!

This is really the first visit where she has shown any interest in my dolls.  I hope we aren't going to need umbrellas, rain coats and rubber boots because I plan on spending the day outside.  'kay, lets see what kind of mischief we can get into!

Wow, laundry???

 I've been doing laundry and it hasn't been socks!  lol   No time for small stuff.  I'm thinking big!

 I need some fabric for block backgrounds.  So I sprayed away.  I might better have actually got out the dye apparatus but I was too far gone to stop and refocus.  ;)  This is the front which is more vibrant.

This is the back or underside of my spraying.  I was thinking that this might be too light and bright for what I have in mind.  The fabric is white feather ticking, a tight weave 100 % cotton  and cheap considering it is a good 100 inches wide.  I split it down the middle and it is still a bit wider than my table. In attempting to get all the fabric I started scootching it up.  aha!  I could get hills and valleys and maybe the colour would migrate around!  So I hung up the first piece to dry and found the rest of the fabric and started a second piece.

I wanted it a bit more muted and with some yellow greens.  I was a bit like a mad scientist.  I did try for hills and valleys. The movement was not quite what I hoped but still okay.

It has some blotchy areas as I tried different spray bottle nozzles.  Some were not sprays but spits!  :O  But I resisted doing more as I can fine tune later if necessary.

But I am sure to find the backgrounds I need in these two pieces so I can begin to think about the blocks themselves.  I want them to be about the size of my gelli plate.

 I need to make bigger/fuller leaf stencils and masks than I had used on my first attempt at making my own fabric.

 Then I remembered the Ikea fabric I bought for backing a lap quilt that also needed to be prewashed.

I now have some great inspiration for leaves.  These leaves are very close to my ideal!  It is coming together!!!

The rest of the week is gonna see housework, weeding and babysitting.  vbsigh  But I do hope to make some progress on getting my stencils and some more stamps made.  So I shall 'leaf you'  with a full laundry basket of fabric and a promise to turn over some new leaves next week.

I do believe I finally have something along the fabric line to show for The Needle and Thread Network.  I wonder what is in their laundry baskets?

Adding to my stash

I do believe I just may have some useful stuff to stack in the fabric shelves!

I laid out fabric and paint on my large cutting table.  I kinda had a few thoughts but not a real plan.

I started laying down masks and stencils and sprayed away in various areas.

Then I began to add the stamps.  I saw that I wanted the stamps and even the stencils under the spray drift and I also quickly realized I did better on the large pieces of fabric.  So I went back and did the areas that had been covered by smaller chunks of cloth.

I let the first attempt dry and repositioned the white cotton fabric and began to lay down the larger motifs in an all over way to get good random coverage.  Then I misted this with water and did some spraying.

 This is the earlier attempt and was necessary so I could begin to figure what works best for me. The stamps are definitely better with two layers of foam.  I have several questions that I will need to find some answers for.  Should I work dry or wet  is an important one.

This is the whole piece of white cotton.  I had started on the far right side.  Then I removed the overlapping fabric for the off centred section. The near left side is the last bit of experimenting that I did.

Now if this is the kind of fabric I would use for something like borders what would supporting fabrics look like?  What if I did some small pieces of fabric for the actual blocks themselves?  hmmmm 

If you build it...

will they come???

 'they' being my art elves that peer over my shoulder and study what I have gathered on my work table.

I wanted to be able to stamp as well as stencil so I got out my fun foam and traced through a stencil.

 I didn't totally stick to the plan as I do have to be able to cut this out.

  The cutting turned out to be surprisingly easy.

To better position the stamps I began to cut my foam board to echo the shapes.  The foam is sticky backed.

This really is easy peasy and lots of fun.  Not to mention slightly addictive!

I was a bit worried that the foam might be too thin so I just stuck two pieces of foam together and then cut shapes.

I hope the elves approve and show up for the test drive!  ;) ;)

Leave the colouring to mother nature!

Next step in the leaves series was to cut stencils and use some colour.

I had tried to print a saved image on a file folder but I need to get new ink so I placed the black and white print on my left and I just kinda drew the main shapes I wanted keeping in mind that I had to then cut it out. ;)  It is kinda like tracing only the paper is not underneath but alongside.  To take it to another level I need to not look at what I'm doing and never lift my pencil. :O  Next step!!!   But in the mean time...

I  need to remember to use both sides of the stencil and the mask.  I also think I should put a protective coating on them so they last a bit longer.  Just like real life, I was dropping leaves. lol

I did two samples.  I like the softer look better and I need to use a bit less paint on the gelli plate.

I thought I'd kick the colours up a bit and smeared the lines of paint with my fingers.

This is all quite fun but the end goal is to do this on fabric so I need to do a bit more preplanning.

The backgrounds are colourful but I need to colour up my leaf designs as well.

But this can also be the first layer in a complex fabric.  I'm beginning to feel like mother nature's helper!  lol

Willowing

Prairie Silk Willow tree

 The branches weep and have a downward drop. The leaves are a very simple shape.  They are also a lovely blue green. colour with a lovely silvery sheen.

I gathered up a number of branches.  Unfortunately the branches of this tree and other willows fall frequently. The good news is that it is always making new  branches. ;)

I spent a lovely hour or so gelli printing the 'real deal' with black paint on white paper and deli paper.  These will dry on my line and I will make photos of the individual papers for future use.

 These are examples of the first prints which have lots of paint on the plate.

 Then I will take a second with the paint that is left and sometimes with some repositioning or recycled paper.

 The leaves have paint on them and I will press them onto white paper as well.

I can also pick up another print from the gelli plate if I lightly spritz it with water.

The very last print I pull is usually on the deli paper and is faint or more delicate.

After I photograph and save the images on my computer I will then begin to make stencils from the original pages and play with colour.  But that is for another day!