Tuesday 10 June 2008

Blossoms and Glass Slippers


Wow! Two posts in one day, just to alleviate the guilt I feel at not posting for two months-and to prove I'm not a lazy arse! The following pictures depict a work in progress, Sengen, the Japanese goddess of the blossom and Mount Fuji.

I've finally found a way around my inability to produce a proper finished drawing. Since line drawing is not my area of expertise I've decided that my sketches should be done using thread. Initially I worked via a process of rough preliminary sketches before moving on to final pieces. This process has been pretty trial and error, sometimes it works, sometimes I end up with a pile of crap on my canvas.

For some reason the process of thread sketching works for me. I'm not sure why, perhaps because it feels as though each one could stand alone as a piece in itself, or maybe its because I can explore shape, form and composition while still using colour. Who knows? The odd thing about this piece is I don't actually feel that it would work as a painting, perhaps the composition is a little fussy, but in this medium it works for me.


So anyway, there you go, let me know what you think!

Cards Cards Cards!

Its been a while since I updated this blog, certainly less than I had hoped, but as with all creative people on occasion real life rears its ugly head. I've been dealing with some things in my personal life which has meant creatively speaking, things have been somewhat slow. I don't feel any particular compulsion to over-share on here, but I would like to thank the family and friends who read this for everything they have done for me over the last few weeks.

So.... in the spirit of saying thank you....here follows a selection of the thank you cards I've been making- just to show that no matter how absorbed I've been in the madness of my day to day life I very much appreciate everyone else's efforts.


First up, this was made using a selection of products from the "Mira Colle" range by Brenda Walton for K&Co. I may have mentioned before that I'm relatively new to scrap booking products, not being a scrap fan, and I can't quite remember what it was that got me hooked-although I think Amy Butler's Sola and Belle fabric ranges had a lot to do with it!
This card marks the first time I've used one particular range of products exclusively in a piece. Often I tend to combine bits of my favourite ranges, but Mira seems to fit perfectly. I started with a base from the Mira matte pad, (at the risk of sounding ignorant, does anyone know what a matte pad is actually for? As I've said I'm not a scrapper) since this card is intended for a visually impaired relative texture is doubly important.

I then began adding embellishments. Rarely do I plan my cards at length, I'd had a couple of packs of Mira Lantern Grand Adhesions that I'd been wanting to use for a while, so I went with the string of lanterns idea presenting in the packaging. The copper wire is secured by brads, both supplied in the pack (an idea I will definitely be borrowing!) and I picked lanterns with plenty of raised patterns to feel, and tassels and ribbons to finish.

Since my background choice reminded me of a hazy summer garden I decided to go with it, cutting and trimming Mira glitter stickers in gold, copper and red to create flower stems in the foreground. The flowers were created using Mira Mulberry paper flower brads. K&Co Grand Adhesions and brads are usually made up of three layers-in this instance I swapped a few layers around, and only used to top layers of some of the adhesions to create different depths.

I then finished the whole thing with a smattering of embossed paper dragonflies and a couple of pretty birds on the wire.

Close up of the lanterns: I fell in love with this particular set of Grand Adhesions right away. Each one comes painted, embossed or foiled with different pattern which are incredibly multi-layered. They are all finished with little ribbons or tassels at the bottom- undeniably gorgeous!


Ah, the lanterns are back again! Those of you who have read this on a regular basis (my condolences, but thank you anyway :-D) will notice the similarity of this card to one I posted on here a few weeks ago. You would be right in assuming its the same, I did a couple in a similar way, but when I saw it against my more recent efforts I figured it looked a bit unfinished. I'm still not 100% convinced the composition works with its latest addition, but I do know the intended recipients will appreciate it and that's what matters.

This is possibly my favourite- Brenda Walton's designs come out again, this time in the form of dresses from her Dollhouse chipboard alphabet, and a few bits of Mira Colle too. The Dollhouse range is one of those collections that I think works better when mixed with other pieces, use together and its all a bit too sugary. Having said that, the alphabet box these shapes came from is absolutely one of my all time favourites.

Like with the first card I used a patterned page from a K&Co matte pad (McKenna I think). I decided that in keeping with my current love affair with the wire suspended on brads combination, to follow a theme that popped into my head every time I went rummaging through my crafty bits looking for chipboard shapes.


It might be a little obvious, but the pretty little dresses from the Dollhouse box lend themselves perfectly to being used as part of a quirky domestic scene. I added small strips of brown paper to create clothes pegs, and like in the first card I used Mira Colle glitter stickers to create swirly flower stems. The flowers themselves are a mixture of silk flowers, Mira cut-outs, and cut-outs from the "Smitten" range with various metal brads at the centres. I fixed some of the flowers using foam pads, while simply gluing others flat to create the illusion of depth to the composition.

Close up of clothes: One of the occasionally great things about K&Co chipboard alphabets and shapes is that they are all double sided. I say occasionally because often I like both sides equally, which results in the need to buy two of everything (such a pity!) and sometimes I end up with a major case of too much to choose from. Luckily in this instance I feel I made a good decision!

Ordinarily I would have put the least heavily embellished shape in the centre (the one on the left) but as its shape was similar to the one on the right I decided to aim for a little symmetry.

Close up of flowers: As I've already explained how I achieved this look I just wanted to give you a closer look at the patterns on the flowers, which may otherwise be missed.

Close up of Butterfly: Just because they're pretty!