Sneak peek on a work in progress.

Yesterday, after I had finished the 'secret squirrel' project, I spent part of the afternoon and the whole of the evening doing something 'just for me'.

I am trying something totally new to me, and this is a work in progress, there is still lots to do.



I cut up a piece of an Indian hand stamped scarf which I bought in a charity shop - which I am going to make into my very first bag.

It is totally trial and error - no pattern - no bought 'special' supplies - just playing around.

So this is it laid in the shape of the bag - I still have to interface it, line it, do lots more to it.



I cut out a piece of the silky material - and that was hard in itself as it slid all around on the work top. I guess I should invest in all the right 'stuff' first - but I really needed something to get totally absorbed in, without thinking of anything else - and this was just what I needed.

The purple material on the left is a piece of one of those old Indian cotton skirts that I bought years and years ago from a charity shop but it was too big - it somehow
escaped the dustbin! I had sewed it on beside the image which I printed on special material.


I had one piece of the 'hairy' knitting thread which I have stitched on (I should have been more careful when I photographed this and moved the stray 'bits' which show on her face and on the purple material!) On the right, the dark blue looking thread (the only piece I have) is in fact a very dark green and matches the pattern on the scarf material. I will arrange it neatly and sew that around the lady. I really wish I had a little purple flower or some purple or green beads to sew into her hair as a little decoration. You won't believe how long it took me to make that little necklace and sew it on! - And I have also put on pieces and taken them off again after spending ages sewing. I also need something in the top left corner - don't know what yet. Can't find anything - so will have to try and work out how to dye something without any dyes. Maybe with some purple ink - but need to check to see if it will 'leak' or run if it gets wet!




I took the cord out of the old skirt and will use that for the bag (as I have laid out in the photo), and I have made a 'flower' from a piece of the skirt border which has some gold pattern on it - I will add that too.

Oh I nearly forgot this bit I was rather pleased with - and how I had the patience I don't know. I had a small bit of net curtain, which I coloured for some reason a while back and as I was looking at it, I worked out that if I cut out a bit in the middle of a pattern, it would not only look the same colour as the lady's dress, but I could also cut it in a way to make a collar!


I still have a very long way to go before this ends up as a bag - or if I mess it up it might end up as a collage for a book cover or something.

Inspiration and a tute on how to make the 'flower' from Lilla's blog, if only I had a smidgen of her talent.

Image from one of my purchased Victorian image cds, and also appears here

Secret Squirrel!

Well you may think that I have been idle in the crafting department - but far from it - I have been working on a 'Secret Squirrel' project that has literally taken me days to put together. Having messed it up more than once - and working to a time schedule - its been quite stressful. But it is all done now and once it has been posted out to the recipient, and she has acknowledged its receipt, then I can post the finished project on here.

I have missed crafting so much - but I am back!

And to get me back into the swing of things I thought I would try a challenge on Gothic Arches which is to put a Gothic arch onto a tag

Now this is all experimental - but here goes.

I recycled a clothing tag, that Dee sent me (sadly she doesn't have a blog) but thanks Dee, I am using them!



After peeling off a label it left a nice surface to stamp on - so I did.

The reverse took more work. I scraped off a price tag, then painted over it all with soft lime acrylic paint, to cover up all the printing on it, then stamped it with my favourite 'Love' stamp which I also used above on the back.

Next I cut out a Gothic Arch on some thick material and stamped on that, and attached it to the tag.

The lady was printed on some special paper I am trying out - its a bit fiddly - you print it, let it dry for a few hours, put on a sticky sheet, leave that to set for a while, then peel off the backing of the sticky sheet to glue it to the surface and then treat it like a 'rub on'


At this stage I feel I have to say that this looks so much better in real life. The background showing through the image is really subtle in daylight and not as harsh 'tattooing' as it looks here!

The image reminds me of a younger version of me - years ago - when I used to have curly hair - and romantic weekend trips to Bordeaux one summer.

Alas - that is a story for a book not a craft blog!

Just a card - The Blue Lady

I was browsing through a CD I bought years ago of Victorian images, looking for something to inspire me - and came across this one. I have always loved this picture and decided I would try and make a card out of it.

(click to enlarge)




I inked and stamped a background first to mat it on.

I very very carefully, using a toothpick and glue, added some glitter to highlight her heavily embroidered gold layer of gown - around the neckline and hem. That took ages to do, but it 'real life' it really lifts it and gives it a rich texture, and accentuates and adds weight to her heavy gown.

It's only a simple card - but I just love the image. I might print her on to material.

My next foray into the 'arty crafty' world is to try and make a bag.........
it will take some time I am sure - so don't expect any posts about it real soon.

My project today is to process a carrier bag full of French beans - which I picked from my allotment - to freeze for the winter!

A bird does not sing............

Still using the deconstructed, soaked cardboard box paper. This time a tag using a stamp from the Serenity plate as before.

(click to enlarge)



I am still experimenting with fabrics and stamping etc. This time I have used a canvas type cotton, and cut out the area I wanted. I carefully cut out around the birds and butterflies. I wanted to accentuate the two tiny birds singing to each other - they are so tiny that I thought they got somewhat 'lost' in the over all design of the stamp, but by using the fabric the contrast between that and the cardboard accentuates them.

Serenity - on recycled brown card and swatch sample

You might not be too impressed with these looking at the photos (click to enlarge) but in 'real life' I really like them.

These are still using the cardboard box layers - and this tag is a recognisable tag shape for a change.

The reason I like these is because of the textures and colouring.


Another experiment stamping on a very textured scrap of upholstery material - just as small sample I had. Every time I look at them I 'see' different things.

The stamp is from the 'Serenity' plate - which I bought from Happy Daze. When you hold one in your hand and really study it - you can see not only the stamping, but all sorts of scenery created by the random colours.





The two images look so different don't they when stamped on material. This was a large piece of the cardboard layers which I folded in half. If you look closely you can see that where I frayed the top, the fraying almost looks like tree branches, and the shape continues on the brown paper where I stamped and offset the tree image underneath.

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