Saturday, September 30, 2017

Second Placemat Fabric Book

So I received some gorgeous square placemats from my lovely niece a couple of years ago for Christmas. There happened to be six of them, and I hope she doesn't mind that I cut one in two to be a base for a fabric book. Placemats make a great base, because they're already two pieces of fabric sandwiching a thin layer of cotton quilted between them.

I used an old used quilted placemat for the first fabric book I ever tried, this being the second. It's worked out great. The padding gives the pages a sturdiness for working on, and if you don't like the color or pattern of the placemat, you can sew/glue another fabric, lace, etc. over it and go from there.

In my first book, I sewed a beige lace fabric over the pages before I sewed the book together, because that mat had a pretty side and a plain white side and I wanted a book of laces and frills.

This book is pretty on both sides (the colors are more vibrant than they appear here) and I'm not sure yet what the theme is going to be, or if I want more pages in it, so I haven't sewn it together yet. It has scalloped edges, which means when I cut it in two, one edge on each page is straight and raw, but that's an easy fix. I'll just add a ruffle, lace, or something to match my theme!


This is one side of the mat, brown with a little white leaf-like pattern...


The other side is a gorgeous paisley print in browns and golds with flecks of blue, so I have four book pages in each color. The mat happened to be a twelve inch square, so the double page is 6" x 12", and when it is folded and sewn, the book will be 6" x 6" square. Like this...


I haven't decided, for sure, on the embellishments, but I have a lot of ideas...


I chose the paisley side for the cover and am trying out different ideas to sew or hot glue on. The woman and gold shape came off an old Red Hat Ladies Society tee shirt that I had when mama and I were members. The lace is half a collar off an old dress left over from a church yard sale that I confiscated years ago. I knew it would come in handy one day! :D Not sure if I'll use it here or not though. Still pondering!


An old doily that mama crocheted and used when I was growing up. She gave it to me, along with some others she found when clearing out stuff, not long before she died. I can't bear to cut it up, but I might hand stitch it to a double page in some way...


or I might hand stitch it to the cover, like this. It will be where it can be taken off in one piece, in the event that someone wants to use it after I'm gone. It's a beautiful piece, and I love it, but don't use them on my furniture, which is why I want it where I can enjoy it as long as I am here. :)

If you want to see my first attempt at a fabric book, which is also still a work in progress, but much further along than this one, go to my sidebar, where it says labels, and click on fabric books. It should take you to the post of what I have so far.

Will share more when I figure out where I'm going with this book. To be continued...

Friday, September 29, 2017

Mindy Lacefield "Frolic" Class

Quite a while ago I took a class from Mindy Lacefield called "Frolic" and it was a lot of fun. I love her animals and people!

I probably shared an earlier version of this painting sometime before now, but the other day I was looking through an older sketchbook and came across it again. It told me how to finish it and I listened, and here she is! I really like her now!


The background is collaged, stamped, stenciled, written on, smudged, and whatever else I felt like doing to it. I copied her drawing of the rabbit and tried to follow Mindy's instructions for painting it. Not exactly like hers, but I'm happy with it and I learned from it! The dress pattern was made by writing "The Lord's Prayer" in different directions and colors layered over one another, because I truly needed to pray that prayer that day, and every day. The overall colors harmonize better now too. I love when I find an unfinished piece and know what it needs to finish it! :)

Teabag Paintings: Cup and Tree

Still learning to paint used teabags! I love it! So far, all of mine have been on intact teabags with only a slit in the bottom to pour the dried tea grounds out through, and I've only painted on one side and wrote my name and info on the other. However, I've noticed that other people are cutting them in two, opening them up and painting on single layers, and/or stitching them together to do all sorts of interesting things with them. I'm loving working on the bags, so I will be trying more different techniques on them too. Here are the last two I've painted.


This one, with the cup, is just playing with watercolor/inktense pencils, white gesso, and stabilo pencil, and I just made it up as I went.


The tree is also a made up as I go piece, and is done in watercolor/inktense pencils and gel pens. Unfortunately, the white gel pen clogged up on me in the middle of the tree and I had to use a white stabilo pencil on part of the branches, which made them not as sharp as I wanted, so I kind of went over them with a gold gel pen to add a little detail. I think it looks kind of dusky and okay...

The tea stained bags affect the colors and any grounds that get left in the bag also affect them, sometimes leaving interesting textural effects. So you don't always know how they'll turn out, which makes it fun, as well.

Anyway,  I'm out of used teabags for now, so I'll either have to brew some tea, or dig out some that I have saved before and haven't used.

I have yet another project working in my head. I would love to make a calendar with my art for each month, which will require me to make decisions (not my strong point) on which art to use, make good pictures of each, and get it published. I would love to do some for Christmas gifts, but I'm not sure I'll feel like it and have time, because of health problems and still trying to settle my mom's affairs and get everything in order at her house and mine. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but, with God's help it'll be ok!

Keep learning and creating!

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

"Sheeple" Tea Bag Painting

Another teabag painting, just out of my head! It was meant to be a sheep, but it's face looks more human, so I'm calling it a Sheeple! :D


The sheeple (white gesso) and back ground were finger painted on to start with. His face started out a finger print. Then there's a layer of Posca Marker Pens to make the blue lines, grass, flowers, legs, nose, and wool. Then a layer of stabilo pencil, gel pens, and watercolor pencils, some fixative spray, and I called him done. Fun stuff!

Someone comment that he looks like he has a secret. I said, "He does." :D

Rooster P's First Kittens

Rooster Poot (hubby's name for her) came here back in the spring and adopted us, mostly hubby. A couple of weeks ago she literally made a nest out of the leaves in the open car shed and had four kittens. She kept them here for several days, before moving them into an abandoned boat in front of the house, which hubby covered with a tarp to keep them dry.



These pictures were made the day after they were born. They are beginning to open their eyes now.

Yesterday, she moved them to our kitchen door stoop, and they started appearing and disappearing. One time we would look and there would be different numbers or different colors. The next time it would be different kittens. We couldn't figure out what she was doing and why.

This morning when I looked out there were two kittens, but different ones from last night. I got a cup of coffee and looked again, just in time to see Spotty B, one of the other cats, get a kitten by the nape of the neck. I yelled at her to drop it, but she grabbed it and took off out the driveway with it.

Mystery solved! Spotty B is stealing Rooster P's kittens and poor little Rooster P is stealing them back. It's funny, but it's also sad that Spotty B wants the kittens bad enough to steal them from a loving mother cat like Rooster P. It reminds me of stories about women who lose, or can't have, babies and want them so desperately that they steal some other mother's.


Rooster P and her babies


Spotty Belly, the kittenapper


Bloomer is just amused by it all!

Nothing much we can do about it, but hope they work it out. They're not fighting or anything, just moving kittens back and forth. Maybe they can both mother them! I've seen cats do that before.

Nothing like early morning drama to wake one up! :D

Tea Bag Art-First Attempts

First I saw an awesome class on tea bag art offered online, but I didn't take it. Then I researched it on Pinterest, and watched a couple of youtube videos. I have cataracts and am not seeing the best right now, but I decided to give it a try, because I love miniature things.

I had previously saved some used bags and opened them up to sheet size for use in mixed media journals, etc., but, for these, I saved used tea bags until I had a few. I let them completely dry with the tea still in them (to add to the color), cut a small slit in the side, or bottom, or the bag and poured the dry tea out (I saved it in a little jar to use for something else), and got started.


I started the middle one by collaging (gluing with gel med) a piece of brown paper that I had used to clean off my paint brushes, stamps, etc. onto it. You can seal the bags with a coat of white, or clear, gesso, but I tend to forget that step. For the left one, I brushed on a layer of white gesso for the background, then mixed white gesso with sort of a reddish brown acrylic color and painted in the shape of a head and shoulders. For the one on the right, I just brushed in a bust shape while I still had the paint on the brush.

Not necessarily how other people do it, but it's how I'm doing it. :D


Works in progress: Curley Dots has had acrylic inks, some irridescent, and stabilo pencil added to her. White lady has  had white acrylic paint and stabilo pencil added, and Lost has had a word, washi tape, acrylic paint, stabilo pencil, and gel pens added.


Calling them done after adding a few stripes, gold gel pens, and a bit more stabilo pencil. I wrote my name, date, the title, and the medium on the back and sprayed with fixative or sealer.

"Lost"

Close ups:                                                      
"White Lady" and "Curly Dots"
I have enjoyed playing with these a lot, and have some more ready to paint. I've seen them opened up and painted on too. I'm thinking it would be cute to use them in art journals, collaged pieces, or put a few of them together in a frame or on a book cover. Yesterday, it occurred to me that if I painted both sides and laminated them, they would make cute ornaments or gift tags.

The tea bags are sturdier for working on than one would think, Water colors are especially pretty on them. So I will be trying some of those too.

I have so many irons in the fire already, but I'm currently taking Ivy Newport's mini portrait class, Between Shadow and Light, although I've only watched the first three videos so far and haven't actually done any work yet. I've also signed up for Olga Furhman's year long class, Paint Your Heart and Soul, with 24 teachers and classes, which starts in January 2018.

I still have art classes half done, and I'm really wanting to work on my fabric books, and I have a yen to work with my weaving again. How does one learn and do everything? Yikes!!!

Oh, well, I'm thankful for what I get to do and learn. There's so much wonderful stuff for us creatives online, and so many generous teachers that I'm genuinely grateful for, that it's kind of overwhelming, but I LOVE it, and will keep doing as much as I can!

Keep learning and doing whatever it is that makes you happy!