Blackwork Embroidery

The small pin cushion I made last yr. after taking a class at the local library. I found it so calming to work on and I loved the little pattern it made. It is blackwork embroidery. I haven't been able to find alot of info for beginners. There is a book called Blackwork for Beginners but it didn't help me so much. So I started the same pattern again. I am not sure who will receive the new pin cushion. This one belongs to my mom. I am thinking to try and make it into a sachet filled with lavender. Maybe I will do more and give as small gifts for the holidays.

Leaf Printing

I made some leaf printed thank you cards last year and yesterday I got the urge again. My son and I had a blast.

Supplies:
Acrylic Paint (We used assorted greens and yellows)
Pre made note cards or cardstock
Brushes
Plastic plate or paint palette
And Leaves of course ( the ones with raised veins work best)

Sort through your leaves and pick one that you like. Turn the backside and apply chosen color with your brush ( not too heavy) . Flip over and lay on the card. Press with your fingers to get all the paint to the paper(don't worry if it squishes out a bit). You can pull up a little to see if it has all transferred. If not lay it back down and rub again. And then pull up. They aren't meant to look machine made. It is supposed to have the hand made feel so not always will the paint transfer perfectly and that is great. Then move onto other leaves and colors. You just work very intuitively and don't worry if you don't like it it is only paint and paper. I usually can't wait to pull up the leaf to see what it came out like. And I don't clean my brush all the time in between colors. Since I worked with similar colors it was fine.

This is so easy to do and so much fun. Gather your supplies and you can make tons of these as inexpensive gifts or keep for yourself and send to your friends and family with a little note inside.

Have fun with this. You will want to do leaf printing on everything ( and your kids will too)!!

I am going to include this set of cards (tied with a pretty little ribbon) with the next piece of art sold in the shop!!

Paper Flower Experimenting

So after seeing Eloise Corr Danch's beautiful paper flowers she did for Macy's I felt very inspired to try making some different, more sculptural flowers myself.

I saw this post on the Oh So Crafty blog a couple of weeks ago. Tricia made some awesome fabric flowers that she turned into a brooch and she was so kind to give instructions on how to do it. It is super easy! I tried to make one with paper. I am not so satisfied with it. I don't like seeing the wire so much.

So then I tried a couple of more today.
One with coffee filters and the other with white paper. I wrapped the stems in MS green floral tape (love this green).
I am going to keep playing (the fun part) and do a white wreath, also a white/blue wreath as well. Seeing that color combo alot and it is a classic color story.

Let me know what you think. Also, did you get to here Amy from Pikaland give her talk on creativity in Etsy's virtual lab the other night? It was awesome!! She is going to post a round up of the talk on her blog shortly in case you didn't get to stop in.

Rocks

So I don't think anyone is reading this but I still am posting... I am going to be doing some rock decorating. Letters, words, objects. I love using up my scraps. I don't like to waste anything. I did some painting for flowers last night and I used some scraps today.

Dip/Drop Dye Coffee Filters

I needed to make some flowers for my wreath AND I wanted to a fun thing with my son so we dipped and dropped some dye onto coffee filters. We folded them up and dipped a corner in and then unfolded and dropped some dye on. It was fun for the both of us but we quickly ran out of space to place all of our creations. Maybe this would be good for an outside activity with a clothesline to hang them on. I think the colors came out great and I was able to use them to make some flowers.
Ryan dropping the ink on.

Getting ready to dip. One on table open after just dropping the dye on.


I needed to make some flowers for my wreath AND I wanted to a fun thing with my son so we dipped and dropped some dye onto coffee filters. We folded them up and dipped a corner in and then unfolded and dropped some dye on. It was fun for the both of us but we quickly ran out of space to place all of our creations. Maybe this would be good for an outside activity with a clothesline to hang them on. I think the colors came out great and I was able to use them to make some flowers.

I used LUMA dye. It is pretty old. I used it in college. You can use any sort of watercolor with a dropper. The colors of LUMA are very vivid and you don't need much to get a great vivid look.

Paper Heart Project

Paper Heart Project-
So I had this idea after seeing a cool group project over on Flickr called The Paper Quilt Project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperquiltproject/
I decided I would aim to make a heart a day. A small piece of art reflecting something from the day, a wish for the day, a memory. It had to be something easy to do since I am so busy with the kids but it is a way to try out different things while creating a keepsake for yourself and family. So I haven't done one every day. No big deal. I do it when I can. When my kids are eating a snack or playing or I do it with my 3 yr old son. I then just jot down the date and a couple of lines and done. It doesn't have to be perfect or pretty or anything really. I think it will be fun to go back and look at these later. I am thinking I may stitch them together at some point ( not sure how long I will keep at it) and frame them. I think it would be cool for others to join in. It could also be great to make a collaborative Paper Heart Project such as The Paper Quilt Project above. Any takers?

Torn Paper Project