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“Two” Many Ideas and More

Saturday, January 14th, 2012

The first post of the new year…. now that we are nearly 2 weeks into it….  I have actually finished a few little quilts in addition to my latest set of art cards for the “Arts in the Cards” group.  Each month a new theme is chosen as a guide for the cards we send out to each other. I have only been a member of the group a year or so, but this  month is the second anniversary of the creation of the group, so the theme was Two.

My Inspiration

The above photo shows one of the inspirations for my cards. Actually, I had originally thought that I would do a tiny quilt with a pair of Tulips blooming on it… Two Tulips, but while experimenting with a new die cutting machine, I happened to notice that some of the vine and leaf die cut pieces looked like they could be twos, and another idea began to form. I then thought about “two peas in a pod”…. another idea (see little “peas” upper right in the photo above)…. THEN came the Google results…. I found that the traditional gift for a second anniversary is cotton (ok, cotton Tulips would work), then I found that there was a flower for that anniversary- Cosmos…. I love Cosmos and more ideas were flowing.  I should have stopped at that, but I pulled up a dictionary which had the definition and tons of extra information, too…  I did some playing with the definition and other words from the dictionary in a word cloud program. The program put the words in different sizes and colors in random order and I did a print out (also showing in the photo- upper left).

Printed Insides

By the time I got  done with playing on the computer, I  realized I had too many ideas to put into one little art card, so I decided that I’d add another two… Two cards.  The photo above shows the text I ended up with along with more that I added, printed over photos of Two white Cosmos flowers. I decided that the two cards would be connected in a hinge fashion with one long piece of the printed card stock. The photo above shows 3 of the inside pieces printed and in the process of being cut to size.

Creased Insides

Once the insides were cut from the card stock, the center creases were made. I also ended up fusing some little “scraps” of the vines that also looked like 2′s in the inside.

Peas

When I first thought of doing “two peas in a pod”, I needed to figure out how to make the peas…. I squeezed out drops of a metallic pea green paint on parchment paper and allowed them to dry over night.

Tulips Start

Above shows one of the little Tulip sides that I decided to make as tiny “quilts” using a thin interfacing as a “batting” so that I could do the stitching.

Two Vines Fused

In the photo above, the die cut vines with leaves 2′s and single leaves fused and “smushed” to make little pea pods.  The background fabric for these is a white with silver glitter that was then fused to a thin fusible interfacing. The one upper right is the first I played with, placing the flowers and butterflies… I decided it would be much easier to stitch the vines first, then add the flowers and butterflies after that.

Beginning Stitching

I used a green variegated thread to stitch around the edges of the vines and leaves, and added little curly tendrils to the pea pod.

Ready to fuse to inside

After the green stitching was  done, I switched to clear thread around the tulips, butterflies and flowers. The little quilts were now ready to fuse onto the inside that would connect the two little “quilts”.

Cooled Under Pressure

This photo above, shows the stitched “2″ sides after they have been fused to the other side of the inside printed card stock. Once both little quilts were fused to the outside of the inside, the pieces were folded and cooled under a weight to keep them flat. When fabric is fused to card stock, things tend to want to curl, so the weight flattens things while they are hot, then when cool they will stay fairly flat.

Outsides of the Double-Sided Cards

This photo shows most of the cards after they had cooled. To finish the edges, I dabbed them with a stamp pad with purple ink. You can see Two of the cards standing up like little sign boards. I did find I had a problem with the ink. After I put it on, it seemed to want to rub off, so I ended up brushing on some gel medium to seal it.

Cosmos and Peas Finished

Here is one of the Cosmos, 2, Butterflies and Peas sides… you can see a bit of the inside printed card stock. If you look really close, you can even see the two little peas made from the paint tucked into a fold in the pod.

Two Tulips

This photo shows the Tulip side of one of the cards…

Two Many Twos Finished Group

This photo shows a group of the finished cards, with some showing the Tulip side, and some showing the Two Peas and more side, along with one open to show the inside of a finished card. “Two May Two’s” were then packaged in archival art card sleeves and sent to their new owners.  I really never thought I would end up with so many ideas for what one would think was a simple theme….  If you would like to see what other members created for this round as well as others (if you want to do a bit more scrolling) see the Arts in the Cards Blog where each of us have posted our creations.

Big Shot Machine with First Cut

This is the new tool I have been playing with that led to many of my ideas. It was one of the vine cuts shown in the photo above with the machine. The die shown is the first one I got with the machine. I also got a couple others, but this was the one that I have played with the most. I wanted to see just how many different designs I could make using  just one die. The die cutting machine is designed for scrapbooking and paper arts to cut paper and other similar art materials. I had seen a video online showing one being used for cutting fabric, and that got the wheels turning. I do a lot of fusible applique and have been doing more with tiny pieces and even with my straight handled scissors, cutting is hard on my hands and takes a lot of time.

2 Motifs

This photo above shows two full motifs that were cut with the die. I cut two pieces of Wonder Under backed fabric right sides together using the whole design on the die. Most of the designs I have come up with have just used parts of the motif with fabric folded in different ways.

Die Play on Dyed Fabric

This is a photo of one of the first pieces I played with. I took a 6″ square of white fabric, folded into quarters on the diagonal, run through the machine just using part of the die design. I pulled the vine pieces out of the square and fused them on the outside of it, giving me what you see here.

 

Vine Heart 5″x7.5″ SOLD

This little piece above is one of the little experiments I began with and finished. This is 5″x7.5″ in size, and I arranged the vines to make the heart shape and swirl below. I began quilting with green thread on the vines and added little tendrils, then I added more quilting with the clear thread to fill things in. This ended up going to a new home after I showed it at my local quilt guild’s show and tell…. My first sale of the year!

I now have some more dies to play and see what new things I can come up with. So far this little tool has been helping me to get the old creative juices flowing again. If you are interested, I have been adding photos to a Die Cutting Album  on my Facebook profile page.  I have two more little pieces finished using die cut fabric and have photos there. I plan to get any new pieces listed in my ArtFire Art Quilt Shop also.  If all goes well, I hope to add new posts more often this year.

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Posted in Art Cards, Art Quilts, New Projects, Play | 1 Comment »

Back in The Studio!

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Since my previous post, I think it has misted or rained part of just about every day. Thankfully, nothing really measurable, and only a couple brief downpours. We certainly could use a dry spell.  One thing about the soggy outdoors, is that I have been back in the sewing studio…. Finally! Since starting the Weekly Journals, I actually have been able to make a small piece each week!

Sunflower Photo

This photo is one that I have taken of my only Sunflower. I didn’t plant it, the birds did, and this is the only one that I allowed to grow… This one grew at the end of the row of planters along the walkway to the driveway. The Black Oil Sunflowers are much shorter than most varieties, and their petals are much shorter… Not  as striking as many other varieties, but this one did add a splash of yellow out front. If you look closer at the photo, you can see a few visitors… 3 different typed of bees.

Week 3 Sept 18 Sunflower

Since my creativity has been near non-existant, for my week 3 journal I decided  to print the Sunflower photo onto cotton and play with different threads and stitching over it.  Since there is nothing that a colored thread can do to improve upon the beauty of the petals, I used a clear thread there.  For the flower center, I played with one  way of following the rows of florets. They seem to swirl toward the center, so I did a bunch of repeating “S” curves intersecting in the center. I used a variegated thread in shades of golds and browns, but if I were to do this again, I would use a different thread. In this, the darker brown shows more than I would like… Trial and error… Just what these journals are for….

Week 3 Sunflower Detail

This photo shows a corner of the piece close up. I used a deep green to tanish variegated thread for the fill quilting behind the flower. I didn’t really want the quilting to stand out, so I played with a “sort-of-herky-jerky” kind of stippling. I have never been able to successfully stipple and have always avoided doing it. Since I often have shaky hands these days, I thought I would try the shaky look. With the values in the thread going from very dark to quite light, I tried to get the lighter stitching in the lighter areas and the darker thread in the darker areas… Not sure about the thread choice here, either.  Something with less shift in values would have been better, I think. The piece is bound with an earthy, mossy green yarn couched on the edges. Finished size- 8″x10″.

 

Studio Organization- Cutting Table Pile

The Sunflower journal was finished in little bits and pieces of time during a very busy weekend, and as usual, I ended up with a major fibro flare (or should I say total Crash). It was a very enjoyable weekend, but I paid for it with days of barely being able to sit up. Finally by Thursday afternoon, I was a bit less wobbly, and while trying to figure out what to do for week 4′s journal, I ended up in a cleaning, sorting and purging mood. It all started out innocently enough when I decided to poke around some of my fabric shelves and then pulled everything off them (piled onto the cutting table of course).

 

Studio Shelves

The shelves in question are mostly covered by my design wall, so I really didn’t know just what was there… In the photo above, you can barely see those shelves to the left of the design wall with the batting flapping over them. I found all kinds of forgotten treasures….The main group of shelves that are seen in this photo are just a part of the wall to wall shelves that Ken made for me that cover two of the studio walls. Most of the end wall shelves are behind the design wall.

 

Studio Organization- One View from the Door

From this view, you can see my ironing board and machine past the cutting table. The pile on the table was shoulder high at this point. Buried on the shelves I had emptied, were rolls of Contac paper, Freezer paper, various types of stabilizers and more. I decided that these would be much more accessible if they were on the shelves to the left of the ironing board….  Next step… empty those shelves too…  The photo above was taken after those shelves were filled back up.

 

Ironing Board Shelves

All the rolls of various stuff that is necessary for creating are now neatly on the shelves where I can easily see them and use them. I did have to do a bit of fudging to make the shelves deep enough to hold the rolls so the ends would show…. Foam core is wonderful stuff (inside the empty Strathmore Paper boxes)! I even have a shelf that I will use for stacks of Wonder Under backed fabric pieces that are too big for the containers I store them in. There are clear containers of various sizes and shapes with the smaller “Wonder Undered” pieces on the shelf that is even with the ironing board surface…. (buried in the photo above).

 

Studio TV Corner

Well, as any cleaning session tends to go…. cleaning one area led to clearing and re-organizing other areas. The corner shelf above the TV was a real problem…. I had nearly a garbage bag full of Wonder Under backing papers that were stuffed on that shelf. I usually save all the backing paper because it comes in really handy, but there is a limit to how much of the stuff I really need. Now with the excess gone, I now have a couple of tubs of fabric there.

 

Buried Machine Again

The cutting table is not the only thing that got buried in the cleaning process…. Why is it that things always look so much worse before they get better.  I found a lot of random blocks, WIP’s, and odd fabrics. The painted piece on top of the pile is a piece of fabric that I played with years ago…. Lots of random flowers and leaves, etc.

 

Studio Neat Shelf

Here is a photo of the TV corner before I put the tubs of fabric on the corner shelf. The shelf above the window was another disaster zone that had random UFO’s, tissue and other papers, and whatever… I cleared everything off, and decided that this would be a better place for my backer boards, mats, archival bags and wide format paper. These things were on the shelf over the ironing board, and  needed to climb on my chair or use a step ladder to get to them.

 

Studio Paper Organized

Above the shelves by the cutting table, there are more shelves to the ceiling. This area is a bit out of the way, but I can access things without too much trouble, so I decided that the papers could be stored on the lower shelves. Things higher up are used rarely. There is a tub of random, fun collage goodies to the right of the rolled papers.

 

Studio- Under Cutting Table

This area under the cutting table is also a bit neater. I am not happy with where the paper cutters are stored, but for now it will work. The laptop case contains my “traveling beading  studio”. More white and off white fabric pieces and scraps are in the plastic tubs.

 

Tub on Wheels

This is the space between the cutting table and the design wall… just enough space for this plastic tub. During this cleaning spree, I even took everything that was piled on top of this off (and added it to the cutting table), and sorted out what was inside. I thought it would be great if I could have it on wheels, and was going to do a “Suzy Homemaker” job of putting casters on a piece of plywood, but Ken did this up for me! A much nicer job that I would have done. Now I will be able to move this out of the way much easier if I need to access the shelves or electrical panels behind my design wall.  I won’t kid myself….. this will probably be stacked up again, but it will still be easier to move (so far only two flat boxes of scraps are there now).

 

Studio Chair Space

Just to be sure no one thinks everything is in order…. it’s Not!  The counter to the right of my machine with the laptop and printer and drawer units isn’t getting organized this trip…. I don’t think…. the area my chair is in is not that roomy…. While I am sitting in it right now typing this, the corner of the cutting table is at my back…. The floor does need cleaning, but it will never be pretty again… most of the black that shows is where the top surface of the tiles has worn off from my chair rolling over it. It was supposed to be commercial tile, but it didn’t have the nice glossy finish that it should have had on it. In order to have the room I do at the design wall end of the room, the table is rolled to block more than half of the doorway…. Pretty cozy…..

 

Studio- Empty Shelf Over Ironing Board

So far, the shelf above the ironing board and sewing machine window is pretty empty. This is where I stored the backer boards, mats and bags…. really hard to access because it is higher than the top of the shelf units which are 6ft high. I will probably be stacking clear plastic tubs up there with various fabric bits and pieces. Ken made the two shelves over the windows too. I can use every bit of wall space for storage to the ceiling on every wall.

 

Painting Sample

Here is a photo of that fabric painting sample that was on top of my machine a few photos back. I was experimenting with painting flowers. This has been hiding out for many years…. I think I did this before I really got into sunprinting. Since I ran across this, I thought it would work for this week’s journal piece.

 

Painting Sample Pink Flowers

I decided to play with various threads like last week…. I began with a cranberry to light pink variegated for the bright pink flowers.

 

Painting Sample Quilted Detail 1

I did some of last week’s jerky stipple type stitching for the paint dabbed floral areas. I started with some of the cranberry thread, then switched to a purple to rose to lavender thread for more of the random flower look.

 

Painting Sample Quilted Detail 2

I used the purple variegated for the rest of the purple flowers, then used a variegated green with deep to lime shades for the foliage. I tried to make the purple painted blobs look like Tulips. I used the greens for a grassy look along the bottom. I also outlined the  leaves for individual flowers and did a sort of upside down scallop for random foliage.

 

Week 4 Sept. 25 Journal- Painted Sample

And here is the full view of the piece. It is just over 8″x10″ in size. You can see the Irises and to the left, what looked to me to be an attempt to paint a Delphinium, so I stitched it that way.  This is by no means very artistically correct, but as a piece to play with I learned more about what I do and don’t like about using variegated threads.  I didn’t bind this piece because it may be screaming to be cut into small sections that would look better separate from the whole.

Now that I am 4 whole weeks into making these journal pieces, I am feeling really good about getting myself into the studio and actually stitching something at least once a week. Now that the studio is almost reorganized again, maybe it will be easier to find things and maybe I’ll get that “creative groove” back!

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Posted in Dyed or Painted Fabric, Play, Weekly Journal Quilts | 3 Comments »

Colorful Fabric Dyeing Results

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

This post will mainly show some of the fun, colorful fabrics that I dyed in the past week. I usually use paint because we have a well that is not very reliable in the warmer months. Right now, there is still snow on the ground, and with the melting going on, all the springs are running full tilt so I am playing while I can.

Windbreak Trees March 24, 2011

This is what had me in great need of some “Color Therapy”. This was what it looked like heading up the driveway last Thursday after another snowstorm on Wednesday. I started ripping fabric, scrunching it into containers, and squirting on colors while the snow fell. Thursday was the first wash-out day.

4 Yards in Dye Pan

The above photo shows one of the first batches soaking in soda ash.

Multi Color Yard 1

Here is one of the pieces from the first tub…. As you saw in the earlier photo, I just randomly squirted concentrated dyes onto the scrunched fabrics.  This is only one of 4 pieces from the first sweater sized tub. The next few pieces that I did were sample fat quarters to see what the colors I had would look like.

Cerulean Blue and Fuchsia

Fire Red and Cobalt Blue

Mixed Blues Quarter

The above piece is a mix of 3 different blues. Some of the blues ended up nearly the shade of the sky in the first photo.

Spring Green

1 Yard Brights 1

This and the next large pieces were done in the same tub. I used less colors and kept them clearer by not overlapping them much. For the green, I mixed yellow with a couple of the blues, then added it. The above photo was randomly scrunched, while the lower one was sort of fan-fold scrunched on the diagonal, then packed into the tub.

1 Yard Brights 2

Mediums Yard

The piece above was scrunched similarly to the previous one, but I diluted the dyes before adding them so the colors would be less intense.

2 yd Plus Mediums

This piece above is over 2 yards that was scrunched into the bottom of the sweater size tub. I used diluted dyes for this one, too so the colors are similar to the one before it. I was trying to get a lot of different “garden-like” areas to play with. I had to lay this on my bed to take the photo, so it is hard to see all the details.

2 yd Brights

This piece above is another bright one that I expected to come  out  much different… I guess that is one thing about fabric dyeing, you don’t know for sure what you will end up with until the fabric is completely rinsed and dried.

Fuchsia

Here is a piece done with Fuchsia, the way I scrunched it into a small square container allowed it to be deeper in some areas and much lighter in others.

Fire Red Quarters

Here are two pieces done with Fire Red. The lighter piece was scrunched and placed on top of the first piece so it got less dye on it.

Yard Spring Green

This piece is a color that I am hoping to see outdoors someday soon…. Some bright springy green would be a nice change from the white snow and brown mud…. At least I have been able to play with lots of pretty colors indoors while waiting for the gardens to bloom again.

Once I finish another big day of ironing, I will have more pretties to show. I have even dyed up some sad looking towels to give them new life as well as some white shirts and tops… A great way to update the wardrobe.

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Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 3

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

It’s been a while since my last post about my Inktnese play…. Today I finally finished a batch of ATC’s made from my test pieces. Before I show the finished cards, I will show how things went when I tried the blocks on a cotton sateen fabric.

Cotton Sateen Sample 1

Right from the start, I did not get the results that I had expected. Since the sateen has a smoother surface with a bit of a shimmer, I thought it would have less bleeding trouble…. Just the opposite as the photo above shows. As soon as I got a little water on the pencil or block marks, I ended up with color bleeding badly. The intensity of the color was also not as good as it was with the cotton muslin. Before I did too much more, I decided to try coating the fabric with thinned acrylic medium in the hopes that the coating would reduce the bleeding.

Cotton Sateen Sample 2

Amazingly, the coat of medium thinned with water to the consistency of cream, did not cause more of the color to bleed on the florets I had first colored. Once the first flowers dried, the color seemed to stay in place nicely. Once the fabric was dry again with the medium on it, I ironed it. Now when I added the Inktense pencil and Block colors, they both went on much more smoothly. When I then used the blender pen to wet the color, I had no bleeding and the colors were more intense than on the untreated fabric. Lesson learned….. The left and top two smaller florets in the above photo were done before I added the medium coating. The florets middle and right are the ones I did after the fabric was coated.

Comparison

I really liked the way  the Inktense Blocks and pencils reacted on the medium  coated fabric. This photo shows the first piece I did on the right, and the one on the sateen on the left. This was just before I wet down the background colors of the new piece. I wanted to do the two pieces nearly the same way to compare. As you can see, I ended up with the colors a bit different on each piece, but I learned a lot working with them.  On fabric, when using the Inktense blocks or pencils, coating the fabric with acrylic medium first lessened the tendency for color bleeding. On the sateen, the colors were also more intense on the pretreated fabric.

Delphiniums Stitched

Both of the sample pieces were destined to become Art Cards for an upcoming exchange. I fused the fabrics onto Peltex interfacing, then added some free motion stitching with a deep blue rayon thread. I also added a bit of texture and interest with white pearlescent paint and a touch of black in the centers of each floret that faces forward.

First Piece Cut

This photo shows the first piece cut into 6 art cards. I ended up adding the butterflies with the Inktense blocks with pearlescent paint over them to fill in the empty looking areas.

Sateen Piece Cut

Here is the second piece cut apart into 6 more cards. More butterflies added here, too.

Delphinium ATC's Group A

There is what the cards look like after I couched a blue variegated yarn on the edges using the deep blue thread. Group A above, Group B below…

Delphinium ATC's Group B

Now that I have these done, I will be doing some more playing with the Inktense blocks. I am seeing what I can do with just the blocks in my sketch book…. I am trying to use just the blocks with my blender pen. The corners of the blocks do well for fine lines, and then I can fill in with the ends. If I can get used to only 12 colors and how to blend the colors I want, it will be great to just keep my tin of blocks, blender pen and sketchbook by the couch for evening sketching or to travel with.

I will be moving on to playing with dye on fabric for a while… With our latest snow storm and more white on white or mud when the snow melts, I need some serious color around….

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Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 2

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

As promised, here is part 2 of my experimenting with Derwent Pencils New Inktense Blocks.  In the previous post, I showed a Delphinium flower stem colored with the blocks.

Delphinium Flower Dry

This is the Delphinium on white cotton fabric after it finished drying. The color lightened a tiny bit, but is still nice and bright.

Inktense on Paper

Before I played with the blocks on fabric, I did a little on a sketchbook page. The photo above shows a few Delphinium florets that I began with. The upper right and middle fully open florets were done completely with the Inktense Pencils. The other florets were outlined with the pencil, then the blocks were used to fill in the petals with the color. I used the same Deep Indigo and Sea Blue with tiny touches of Fuchsia. I added all the colors dry, then dampened with my blender pen. There is not much difference, but the florets done only in pencil show more “sketchy lines”.  You can see the direction I drew on with the blocks and used the blender pen, but there aren’t the distinctive pencil lines. (A more experienced pencil artist could probably get a less “sketchy” look with the pencils, but the blocks made things very easy for a relative beginner like  me.) You might be able to just see the faint, still dry Fuchsia color I added to the background by using a long side of the block with very little pressure. I was doing an experiment before doing the background on the fabric piece.

Water Over Dry Inktense

The next experiment I did was over part of the drawing on the fabric. I wanted to do a wash of color for the background, so I added some plain water with a brush over a small section to see what would happen. With fabric, colors will run very easily. There was very little bleeding of the blue into the white background, and all I did with the pencil and blocks was to wet it with the blender pen. (Just ignore that funky green below the flower, the fabric  was a “printing failure”… the paper backed fabric jammed in my printer, leaving just a strip of the image and a few black streaks here and there along the sides.  Mistakes on fabric are just opportunities to do something else with it.)

Dry Cotton

While the test area dried on the first fabric piece, I decided to play with another piece of fabric… Here is the white cotton I began with.

Wet Cotton

The fabric sprayed with water and smoothed onto an acrylic sheet to begin like I would when painting my fabrics with acrylic paint.

Adding Sea Blue

The Sea Blue block rubbed over the wet fabric…. I had a sky of sorts in mind….

More Colors Added

I then did some passes with the Fuchsia block and more of the Sea Blue, hoping to end up with some lavenders when the colors mixed. I added the greens available in the 12 block tin to see if I could get some mountains….. None of the greens are near what I usually use, so some over-mixing will be needed. This is a “guinea pig” anyway, so a perfect place to play….

Water Brushed Over Colors

Above is what the piece looked like after I used a very wet half inch brush over the Inktense colors. There is also a nice brown in the set that I used in some of the lower edge areas. By mixing the Apple Green and Leaf Green in different ways, I got colors more to my liking. I think I also added Apple Green over some of the Teal Green that in the beginning really looked out of place.

Colors Blended More

Here is what I ended up with after a bit more blending and adding a tiny bit of the Sun Yellow to the horizon. I did a bit too much blending in some areas and started making “mud”, but like with the paints I usually use, I never know what the dry end result will be…..
This morning, this is what the dried fabric looks like. The areas that were too bright dulled down a bit, and I like the look better. I am not sure if this will become a finished piece in it’s entirety, but if not, it will work nicely for part of a book cover or something else. I LOVE how easy it was to do this…. I didn’t need to pull out my paints and brushes that I haven’t had out in a while. All I needed was the fabric, acrylic  sheet, Inktense Blocks, a spray bottle, little cup and  a brush. Very little clean-up needed. This will be super for coloring up small pieces of fabric needed for various projects.

Background 1 Added

Back to the Delphinium piece…. The test area dried with next to no bleeding, so the next step was to add a light bit of the Fuchsia block used on it’s side. I only wanted a wash of color,so kept the pressure on the block very light. You can see a couple of streaks at odd angles due to some extra “stuff” under the fabric that was on my work table…. A clear table is hard to keep in my studio.

Water on Part

This photo above, shows the top half of the piece after I brushed over it with a sloppy wet brush. I had to take the paper backing off the fabric because the paper was curling badly…. another lesson learned…. The pink color was very light, except where a corner of the block rubbed harder, or whatever was underneath caused a deeper streak. The water was brushed over everything, even the previously colored flowers.

Fuchsia Used with Water for More Color

I wanted a little more color, so I used my brush on the block of Fuchsia to pull color into my little cup with a little water to make some liquid color to add here and there.

More Colors Added over Wet

Here is the piece with a little bit of Sea Blue and Teal Green added to give more interest to the background. This photo was taken before I did more wet brushing over the new colors.

Fabric Dry Adding More Flowers

This photo above shows the fabric dry again, you can see how there is just a bit of mottled color for the background. I decided to add another flower stem next to the first one.  This one is going to be lighter, using mostly Bright Blue. I began as with the first one with the pencil for the outlines.

Adding Leaves and Stem

I drew in the leaves using my Ionian Green Inktense Pencil for the outlines, and filled in with the Apple Green and Leaf Green blocks mixed to get the shade I wanted. The photo above shows the leaves still dry.

One Leaf Wet

This photo above shows how the colors change with the addition of water. The right leaf has been partially gone over with the blender pen. With a bit of “scrubbing” with the pen, I was able to blend the two shades of green blocks.

New Flower Done Damp

This photo shows the new flower stem after the petals were filled in with color and dampened. I mixed a little of the Deep Indigo with the Sea Blue and tiny touches of Fuchsia on the petals while the pencil was dry.

Done Dry

Ta-Daaa! Here is the piece fully dry this morning. This is destined to be chopped up into ATC’s for my exchange group. I was amazed how little color bleeding I got from the deep blue flowers when I brushed the water over them to do the background. I did blot a couple of spots, and found a few areas that some of the color transferred to my paper towel, but most of the previously dampened and dried color stayed in place. I will probably play with covering the fabric with different acrylic mediums to see what happens. I love to play with the pearlescent, and wonder what a little gloss over the top will do…. More play time needed :)

Hopefully I will have another update tomorrow or the day after…. An errand running afternoon is ahead, so I have no idea what the body is going  to do when I get back home.

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Posted in Dyed or Painted Fabric, New Projects | 8 Comments »

Playing with Inktense Blocks Part 1

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

I was amazed a while ago when I left a comment on the Facebook page of Derwent Pencils for a chance to win a tin of their brand new Inktense Blocks, and WON!! I was one of five winners, and my new tin of fun arrived over the weekend.

Inktense Blocks Tin

I spent the weekend with a nasty fibro flare, so I didn’t do anything with them until yesterday. I got a design drawn out on some cotton fabric backed with Wonder Under with the paper backing, making it easier to draw  on…. Today, Tuesday, I finally cracked open the plastic seal on the Inktense Blocks.

Inktense Blocks Opened

This month’s theme for the “Arts in the Cards” ATC group is Indigo… anything goes that uses any shade of blue. My first thought was Delphiniums, of course…. I love them and they come in so many great shades of blue. I first drew (actually traced an enlarged drawing) a Delphinium stem lightly in pencil, then outlined the flowers with my Deep Indigo Inktense Pencil. After outlining, I went over the Inktense with something I have had lurking in my supply drawer for well over a year….

Blender Pen with Inktense

In the above photo to the right of the colored pencil is what I found works super for wetting the Inktense pencil, causes minimal bleeding on the fabric, and is so much easier for me to use than a tiny paintbrush with water. I bought a set of blender pens at a Stampin’ Up! party for Scrapbooking. I first intended to use the pens with my water soluble wax pastels (I also bought colors of those I didn’t have yet that were demonstrated that night). Due to the creative block problem, I had not even opened up the box of  3 pens I bought until now.

Blender Pen with Inktense Pencil

As you can see in this photo above, the blender pen has a nice sharp tip and is easy to control. You can see how the color of the Inktense pencil intensifies when water is added to it. My first attempt at using my pencils with the Chickadees was a real learning experience. It took a lot of time to reload the brush with water and(or) medium. The blender pen fed a constant supply of water to the tip…. It was just like tracing over the pencil with a felt tip pen.

Blender Pen Over Inktense Pencil Outlines

This photo shows what a section of the Delphinium florets looked like after they were outlined with the Inktense pencil and then dampened with the blender pen. I finished all of the outlines, then allowed the fabric to dry. The Inktense pigments are permanent after they have been totally dissolved with water, then dried.

Inktense Blocks Sample Marks

Once the outlines were dry, the fun began with the Inktense Blocks! The new blocks are the solid pigment, without the outer wood of the pencils. They look like, and can be used like pastels to add color to a project. I made a few sample marks to get a feel for how the blocks would work. I began with a swipe with the full end of a block, then drew a line using a corner of the block. The block used in the above photo was the Deep Indigo, the first wide one was pressed harder than the second wide one. It looks nearly black when dry, and the first marks I made left a few crumbles as the edge was smoothed up. I brushed off those loose bits into a little cup.  I will show what I did with the “crumbles” later….

Inktense Blocks Added On Fabric

I used the end of the block to fill in the petals with color. I didn’t add too much to start, so I could test the waters, so to speak.

Adding Water to Inktense

You can see what a difference the water makes with the Inktense pigments. The first lines that I colored and dried stayed in place nicely, and it did not take too long to really brighten up the flowers. The blocks are great for coloring larger areas without getting the “scribble” lines I always end up with using the pencils. Using the blocks on cotton fabric is a little more challenging than smooth paper. The weave of the fabric grabs the pigment from the blocks, causing some streaks and more color to be laid down where the backing paper had wrinkles, too. “Scrubbing” a bit with the blender pen helped to move the color to where I wanted it.

Blender Pen on Inktense Block

Another way to use the Inktense Blocks is to treat them as you would a solid watercolor paint. I wanted to add a bit of purple to the flowers, so I used the other tip of the blender pen (each pen has 2 tips) like a paint brush to pick up some of the pigment to accent the flower petals.

Adding Fuchsia with Pen

The above photo shows the Fuchsia Inktense added to a floret. I had already added a bit of Sea Blue over the Deep Indigo to vary the color in the petals more like they are in nature. The first streak or two of the Fuchsia were a bit intense, but with a bit of work I was able to blend them in a bit.

Two Florets Colored

This photo above shows two of the florets fully dampened with all 3 colors used. The rest of the florets have just been colored in with the dry blues, ready for water.

Inktense Crumbs in Cup

Ahhhh…. back to the crumbs…..  I brushed the crumbles into a bottle cap and dropped a bit of water onto them. This is another way the Inktense Blocks can be used…. They can be grated and mixed with water to make a liquid watercolor paint. To play with my flowers, I just added a drop or two at a time and used the blender pen as my brush.

Delphiniums Colored

The final photo for this post…. I used the crumbs mixed with water to add more color to the petals. There were crumbs of both shades of blue, so that helped to even out some of the streaking I ended up with. The upper florets were still damp when I took the photo and looked a bit deeper than they ended up. The lower ones that are quite light hadn’t been painted over with the liquid color yet. I will let this dry over night and see what I decide to play with for the background… I am not sure what color I will try yet….. To color in the large background area, the blocks can be used along the long edges to quickly lay down a lot of color. I am toying with the idea of using a very light touch of the Fuchsia for a pale pink background that will add a cast of pink over the flowers, too if I just go over the whole thing with the color… I plan to add a bit of pearlescent paint to the floret centers, so losing the white there will not be a problem…. Tomorrow I will try to have another update….

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Posted in Dyed or Painted Fabric, New Projects | 6 Comments »

Recycling Can be Beautiful!

Friday, March 4th, 2011

The ATC exchange group, “Arts in the Cards” had Reduce, Reuse, Recycle as our latest theme. With ATC’s being so small, they are a great way to use little bits of this and that to create unique art pieces.

ATC Base

For this group of cards, I began with a piece of fabric paper that I made at least a year ago. It consists of a faded  piece of fabric covered with pages from an old book, pictures from gardening catalogs, and tissue papers saved from gifts I had received. Much of the surface was covered with pearlescent medium and I had stamped some large butterflies with blue paint. I started by drawing lines for the edges of the cards so I knew how to lay things out for each card. If I had paid attention earlier, I would have noticed that the left 3 cards were drawn too small… I found that out when I was cutting the cards apart in one of the final steps…. Oops!!

ATC Base with stamp waste

The next step was to add the “waste” from a couple pages of postage stamps. These were from Hawaiian Rain Forest stamps that Ken came home with after I asked him to get me some “pretty” stamps…. flowers preferably….. The Hawaiian stamps were the prettiest the post office he went to had. After the stamps were used, there were a lot of pretty “stickers” left behind. I left many of the pieces as they were, and cut others apart. The above photo shows the paper fabric with the stamp waste applied.

Stamped Flowers and Some Butterflies Added

Once I had the stamp waste on, I tried to figure out where I was going to place some pink paper that I made from junk mail and waste paper from the printer, that I had textured by pressing heavy lace into the wet pulp.  (A little piece of the paper is in the above photo with colored in circles on it, next to the glitter.) The paper didn’t look right, so I pulled out my pearlescent medium and a flower stamp to add flowers with. The flowers were too pale, so I added fuschia colored glitter to the wet medium. The glittery flowers lost their definition, but added lots of color. I then stamped more flowers with white opaque paint, and even added white over the glittered flowers. I still wasn’t happy with the flowers, so I pulled out my Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils to add more color. I added yellow to the flower centers, and orange to the petals.

Recycle ATC's before cutting

Somehow while clearing my cutting table to work on or finding supplies, I found a piece of black sheer fabric with the glittery butterflies.  The fabric was already backed with Wonder Under, so I cut out the butterflies and added them. I didn’t have enough for each card, so I found a chunk of printed organza backed with Wonder Under with butterflies and flowers on it. I cut out butterflies for the cards that needed them and also some flowers and leaves to add to other cards that were lacking. The white organza didn’t show up very well, so I used more of the pencils to brighten them up. I added fuschia and orange to the butterflies, and made their bodies and antennae black. The photo above is what the cards looked like just before I cut them apart.

I added Wonder Under to the back of this piece, so I could fuse to card stock backs. When I cut the first 3 cards from the left end of the piece, I realized that I had not measured right for my first line and they were all nearly 1/4″ too short. No problem, I used trimmings from other cards to add to the short ones to make them the correct size (I thought I had all of the cards a bit oversized…. Not).

Finished Hawaii Dreamin' Cards

The cut pieces were fused to the card stock backs, and I colored the edges using a lavender stamp pad that I had never used…. One of those things I picked up from the craft store, thinking it would come in handy some day. In my excitement to get the finished  cards out in the mail to their new owners, I forgot to take photos of all of the cards in the batch…. Above is a photo of the card I am keeping for myself, and 3 extra cards. Thankfully I had a few extras or I would have only had one finished card to show.

It was fun playing with things that would have ended up in the trash or were just being ignored. I also like the images on the postage stamps and around them. Since things are so icy outside still, I could at least play with flowers indoors and dream of visiting Hawaii….  Soon, three of the above cards will be available as ACEO’s for sale in my ArtFire Studio…. I’ll add a link when they are listed…. I guess it’s time for sleep now….

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Posted in New Projects | 4 Comments »

More Playing with Inktense Pencils

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

After finishing my little Chickadees, I decided I needed to see what else I could do with my Inktense colored pencils. I sold out of my covered mini photo albums, or brag books in early December, and really need to get more made. The covers were made using sunprinted fabric or photo transfers along with whatever dyed or painted fabric I thought looked good with the focus piece.

Brag book- Set of 4

This photo above shows a little group of the books I finished last fall. I try to use my best sunprints for the focus fabrics on the fronts of the covers, but I have LOTS of prints that just don’t have that WOW factor…. They are either not very sharp, or otherwise pretty boring.

Cosmos Sunprint

This photo shows one of the “wishy-washy” sunprints. The fern printed OK, but the Cosmos flowers are pretty blurry. Also, there isn’t much contrast in the piece of fabric. I could jazz it up with stitching and thread, but decided this was one good “victim” to try my pencils on.

Cosmos with Pencil

Above is another sunprint from a similar batch after I outlined the flowers and centers with the Inktnse pencils. I used Fuchsia for the petals, and Sun Yellow for the centers. I lightly dampened the fabric just were I wanted to add color with water, and added the pencil. Since I love all things sparkly, I decided to see what happened if I used my iridescent medium over the pencil to finish things. I used very watered down medium over the flowers, then added some thicker pearl to the flower centers, dotted over the yellow. With the water just where I wanted the color, and careful placement of the medium, I got pretty sharp lines.

Maple Sunprints

This is a sunprint of a couple of Maple leaves on nearly black paint.

Penciled Maples

This photo above doesn’t do justice to these leaves, but here is what happened when I drew the veins in the Maple leaf sunprints done on black. I started by just adding water over the pencil, but since I was playing with sparkle, I decided to add some to these… The effect gives an impression of the sun shimmering off snow on a very cold day. I kept the pearlescent medium just in the leaf areas. The actual look is much softer than the photo.

Ginkgo Sunprint

Here is one of my Ginkgo leaf sunprints on black…..

Ginkgo Cover

I tried a similar idea with the Ginkgo sunprints. I added Fuschia colored veins with the pencil, then used the pearlescent medium that wasn’t as watered down as on the Maples. The thicker layer of paint nearly covers the color completely. The camera is also picking up a lot of shine…. in real life, at different angles, you see varying amounts of the pencil color.

Fern with Flowers

Here is what I ended up with when I dipped the Violet pencil in water, then scribbled over a small flower stamp I have. The stamp gave a faint outline that I then traced over to get more color. I again used very watered down pearlescent medium over the pencil, then thick medium for the centers. The flower centers are sparkly even though they look white here.

Album Covers in Progress

This photo shows some more of the sunprints I played with. A  couple more on black, where I added color, and other sunprints I added little bits of color to. I have used some of last Spring’s dyed fabric for the remainder of each cover. The pieces used here are pretty bright and pull colors from the pencil I added. It will be fun to see how these look when I get them finished.

One thing I discovered while starting these, is that the little sketch book I made and used for my bird sketches will fit just right in one of these covers. I didn’t really pay attention to the size of the book I was making- I just cut the heavy drawing paper I had and folded, but the pages ended up being 4″x6″… just the size of the photos that fit in the albums that go in these covers.

So far this year is beginning much more creatively than the past couple…. Now to get these albums  finished so I can list them in my Andrus Gardens Studio on ArtFire.

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Posted in Book Covers, New Projects | 7 Comments »

Flying Flowers in My Newest Art!

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Since the ground is now frozen, and my gardens finally have a bit of a blanket of snow, there are no pretty treasures to be found growing. There are pretty treasures flying around, though…. I have been enjoying many more birds this winter since I put up a couple of new feeders in my front door garden. I can see them from my kitchen window while working at the sink, or through the window in the entry door in the living room.

New Bird Feeders

The feeder with our last name on it is one that Marla gave us a long time ago. I had it hanging a number of years ago off the deck where I have another feeder, but lately it has just been a decoration. I purchased the lantern looking one from Walmart, not really heavy, but holds a lot of seed, and has a tiny perching area that discourages the larger birds. We have had a few Blue Jays visiting, but they have not been too obnoxious. I am now wishing I had a camera that had better zoom capabilities… this is the closest I can get from the kitchen window. If I go outside, I tend to scare them off, and it is too cold to “lie in wait” very long this time of year.

Junco on Deck Chair

This is the best I could get of a Junco sitting on one of the deck chairs. The door is about 10 feet from where this bird was sitting. As I crop and enlarge the photos, I loose detail in most photos. Junco’s are tricky this time of year, too, with their dark coloring against the white snow.

Cardinal and Finch on Ground

The above photo shows a Cardinal and a Goldfinch on the ground under the feeders. There have been lots of the little Goldfinches… this photo is not too great… It lost a lot in cropping.

Chickadee on Feeder

Above is a Chickadee on one of the feeders. These little guys are really fun to watch, and I have sketched out a few of them and used them for a batch of art cards.

Another Chickadee

Here is another one perched on one of our deck chairs…

Sketchbook- Birds

I printed out some photos and used them as guides for some sketches. I played with Chickadees more than the others… There is one Nuthatch and a Titmouse on the pages shown. Just above the sketchbook is a piece of fabric on freezer paper, and above that is a piece of paper. I began playing with the Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencils I got recently. You can see how the water I put on the first fabric Chickadee caused the color to  run. I had a lot of learning to do….

Chickadees on Fabric

I wanted to make Art Cards using some of my Chickadees, so drew outlines for the cards and sketched on the birds. I then colored in a couple of the birds after dampening the fabric with water. The first one I did was the right one, and the color bled into the background. I tried to hide the problem by adding extra blue… it didn’t hide it well. After that, I scribbled the blue on the wet fabric, allowed it to bleed for the sky, then dried it with the iron before dampening again and letting it almost dry before using the black and gray pencils.

Chickadee Art Cards in Progress

This photo above shows another group of art cards colored. I added the brown pencil to look like the ornamental grasses that many birds like to perch on to find some seeds,  or eat seeds from feeders. I let the grass lines bleed a bit to make it look  more like the fluffy, soft grass heads. Most of the black pencil stayed where I wanted it once I was sure the fabric wasn’t too wet.

Chickadee Grass Stitched

Once I had the coloring done, I fused the fabric to Peltex, then stitched the outlines of the birds with clear thread. I used gold metallic thread to add some shimmer to the grasses. When the sun hits the grasses just right, they look like they are sparkling, so the gold thread seemed to fit. My first bird is the upper middle one. The extra blue sticks out a lot…. that will be the card I keep for myself. After the stitching was done, I cut the cards to size (2.5″x3.5″), printed fabric for the backs, and tried to decide which yarn to use to bind the edges. My first thought was to use a deep blue stitched on with a variegated blue thread, but I didn’t have just what I had envisioned (and I thought I had a huge collection of yarns).

Chickadee Art Cards Group 1 Done

In the above photo, you can see a peek of “my” card upper left… I started trying a light blue yarn with the variegated thread… I didn’t like it… that is my card, so no problem…. I tried a different thread in light blue with white yarn…. not bad, but not what I wanted… Two more tries- a nubby dark blue, then a black suede…. not quite my vision…. Finally I used my favorite black yarn that has silver metallic through it. It is just the right weight of yarn to border the cards and not take away from them. Some times it takes a few tries to get things “just right”. The group above will be sent out for this month’s Arts in the Cards exchange.

Chickadee ACEOs for Sale

This is another group of cards that will be available for purchase in my ArtFire Studio. After trying a couple of different ways of being sure the pencil was permanent, I found that fabric medium worked the best with a minimum of bleeding of color after I painted it on. A drop of gloss medium added to the little beady eyes helped them show a bit more. It has been a fun learning experience putting these little “flying flowers” into my art.  I know I will have to do a lot more playing with the watercolor pencils. They will work great for my “regular” flowers, too.

Single Chickadee ACEO

This is a close-up shot of one of the ACEO’s that I have listed on ArtFire. They are now available- Choose from #1,#2,#3 or #4 in this listing, or Choose from #5,#6,#7,or #8 in this listing. Now I need to get back to making more mini photo albums…. and maybe play with my pencils on some of them.

Posted in Birds, inspirations, New Projects | 6 Comments »

Two More Little Quilts….

Monday, September 13th, 2010

I finally finished another Fast Friday Fabric Challenge! This time I ended up with two pieces instead of one…. even if it was by mistake :)

Black and Gold Blooms

This  is the quilt I meant to make… “Black and Gold Blooms” is 8.5″ wide by 12.5″ high, and is available for purchase in my Art Quilt Studio on Artfire, (just click  on the name of the piece to go directly to the listing). I wanted to use one of the sunprints I did during my latest sunprinting sessions. (This post shows some of the fabrics I printed, and this post shows more of the process of creating the sunprints.)

This month’s Challenge was to incorporate metal into our quilt in some way. I have had a roll of the gold metallic ribbon for quite a while, and decided to use it for a bow “holding” the bouquet of flowers in the sunprint. I had also collected a set of metal letter charms that I thought would work nicely, too. I used a sheer fabric in gold with metallic accents for the section beside the sunprint.

Black and Gold Blooms Detail 1

Here is a detail shot showing the butterfly made from Angelina fibers with details stitched with gold metallic and black threads. The centers of the Nicotiana flowers are parts of snap jewelry clasps that I had collected at some point in the past.

Black and Gold Blooms Detail 2

This detail shows the bow made from the metallic ribbon, and hand stitched into place.  The hearts and vine design was free motion quilted into the lower black panel, and the veins of the leaves and flower details are also stitched with the same gold metallic thread. The letters BLOOM are hand stitched onto the gold side section.

As I mentioned, I made two pieces instead of just one…. The mistake I made….. I grabbed the wrong sunprint to use. I had two prints cut to nearly the same size, and had the one I wanted to use pinned on my design wall with the other pieces ready to use. For some reason, I grabbed the other piece I had cut that was just lying on the ironing board.

Black and Gold Dream

This is the piece that got made by “mistake”….“Black and Gold Dream” is 7.25″wide by 12″ high, and is also available for purchase in my Studio on Artfire.

I really wanted to use the heavier ribbon with the less delicate sunprint. For some reason, I didn’t realize I had the wrong one in the piece until I was quilting with the gold thread and something didn’t feel right…. I happened to look at the design wall, and there was the sunprint with the Nicotiana flowers that I wanted to use…. I almost just finished this piece and let things be, but the other sunprint was telling me it wanted to be used, so I did them both. The sunprint in this piece is of lacy Queen Ann’s Lace foliage and Pansy flowers. I found a thinner, more delicate gold ribbon to use for the bow on this, and used the word DREAM along the side.

Black and Gold Dream Detail

This detail photo shows a couple of the flowers and the gold butterfly beads flitting above the flowers. I used small confetti butterflies in the sunprint, and thought the two teeny-tiny, and one small butterfly beads fit well.

Both pieces are similar, with the same fabrics used for the side and lower panels, but they each have their own personalities.  Sometimes “mistakes” end up turning out pretty well!

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Posted in Art Quilts, Available for Purchase | No Comments »

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