Christmas Trees from Catalogues

Hello everyone - here I am again to show you how I have been wasting (?) my time making this tree out of a catalogue. If you need instructions just go to Pinterest and search for the title of this post and many will come up for you. I am making trees as part of a demo I am doing at our church ladies meeting in December and thought I would let you see how busy I've been LOL !!!! I took off the front and back cover of the catalogue and laboriously folded well over a hundred pages - stuck the first and last page together and a few others as well which were showing a bit wide....sprayed with gold and sprinkled with glitter.....added a few stars here and there and one for the top. I then stuck the base unto an empty ribbon spool to make it easier lifted. I don't think anyone who will be at the meeting will be aware of my blog so probably ok to show.

A Card for a 'Centurion' !!

Again it is quite a while since I posted....here is the latest offering which I've made today. Base is pearlescent, layer of mountboard covered with peachskin fabric in pink....an Anna Griffin gold frame (brought in from the U.S.) surrounded by handmade ribbon flowers...leaves cut from a Cheer Lynn border die and the gold 'frond' which I think is Memory Box. The handwritten greeting in pink gouache....majenta paled down with Permanent White gouache....it has a matching box with 100 on it cut from Papertrey number dies. Hope you like it....will apologise for the quality of the photo....my skills are zilch, as you know.

And finally.....

This was a gift to a neighbour - this and the last card (the alium one) were embroidered on heavy (140gsm) watercolour paper....just beginning to get into this and love it....first of all I 'spattered' goache artist paint to represent some of the background blossom....it is not as simple as it looks. I had to practice this many times to get it sort of right. Then I went in and embroidered even more knots and beads to represent clusters of blossoms.....it was all about cherry trees you see, although the poem is about any tree.....our avenue is lined with them and they are about to burst forth....it was framed in a gold frame with a little gold slip to raise the glass above the beading etc....I was pleased with it. Didn't photograph it framed as glass is a pain (or pane?) to get right.

A couple of cards....

Here are two cards - one very elaborate one...fabric from Naturaleigh - you can see I am very fond of french knots...even the lady's posy is not forgotten. This card was A4 size....with a box decorated with more fabric and a shabby chic rose....money was no object I was told! The other card was first stamped with a stamp from Papertrey (U.S. stamps to die for mostly) and even more french knots with a pearl for the centre.

A little machine embroidery

This is a woodland scene with bluebells....worked on painted calico...zig zag and straight stitches. Took forever to do given all the thread changes on the machine (just an ordinary machine). It also hangs unglazed and gets the hoover pointed at it too....the mount is fine hessian which just looks as good as the day it was hung. It hangs on a wall which gets no sun whatsoever and the colours have remained true because of that.

Specifically for Embroiderers....

Hello everyone, here I am again coming with apologies for not being regular in blogging. I do have to confess that the reason I am here is mainly to show some interested embroiderers some of my work..and being fairly computer illiterate I have no idea how to do links and photos and all of that except for here (and maybe not if it doesn't go well). Should say embroidery really started for me when Jan Beany was on tv many years ago - it was a programme called 'Embroidery' (what else) and there was an accompanying book to go with it....this is my interpretation of one of the 'pictures' in it. It is meant to be a cross section of a border in a garden. Worked on calico... Green velvet hosta leaves were attached with long stitches to represent veins. They were edged with chenille yarn. Then there are Michaelmas daisies...straight stitches in a circle and a french knot for a centre...then more grasses, including heavier ones, more french knots and there you have it.....It is very old, it is not glazed and I like people to touch and feel it....yes, the calico needs a bit of a clean....it gets the hoover pointed at it to remove the dust!

Hello - and apologies!

I do apologise for my lack of posts.....been trying to take a little break but also trying to do some writing - hoping to post a few photos of my most recent work...our weather is very cold and I just wish it would take itself off somewhere else and let us get on with Spring but imagine I'll have to wait a wee while yet. I liked the words of this piece of calligraphy and they were written by an American, George Washington Carver, who was a botanist (hence the 'ferns' down the side) educator and inventor. I used Fabriano Artistico watercolour paper (very thick) and sponged the background with the green and also a very pale purple which are the two colours of the silk which is down the left hand side.....someone very kindly sent me a little bag of offcuts and they are little gems....this is the first one I have used and it looks so well in reality. The metal ferns are die cut from Meadow Green dies from Papertrey...then stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy ink - you won't see this but it is there. Best wishes to all. Joyce