Digital Fun

Today I finished my Paper Dolls and I will be sending them to my swap partners in the next few days.
Below is the result of an hour's relaxation at the computer. I like the colour and texture of these images.

More SerenTex

There are four new posts on SerenTex for those who enjoy textiles.

SerenTex

This is a taster of what you will find on SerenTex today.
I personally spent the afternoon enjoying myself finding out how to create a PowerPoint presentation that Mary needs when she is giving a talk to the EG on Textile in South Western China where she went on holiday recently.

My latest Postcards

I have a lot of eye candy for you today. These are all the latest textile Postcards I have received.



I'm afraid these look rather messy on my website tonight. but they look very neat while I'm creating them. They seem to move after I have finished.


These are from two different lists, covering Self Portraits, Cut-outs and Own choice.

New Look Blog

Some of you may have noticed that I changed the look of my blog recently. My blog is now the Beta Blogger and I must say I'm very pleased with it and as it gave me the facility to change the appearance of the blog by choosing a new Template, that's what I did. But I missed my black background and decided to go back to the old template, unfortuately I lost all the extra information I had in my 'side-bar'. I am now in the process of re-doing it.
I have managed to put my two group logos back, Loose Ends and Bloggers who Embellish. It will take some time to get it ship shape again I'm afraid.

Beautiful morning

This top image is a special one for K in Australia, who likes the bracken on our Welsh mountains. The sun was shining on a small patch of bracken this morning and out came the camera just for you K!


A few minutes later I saw the beginning of a rainbow at the foot of the mountain.


It gradually moved while I stood at the window taking one photo after another.


Then the early morning sun shone on the Autumn trees.

Digital Art

During my recent holiday in the south of France I took this photo of some tiles on the outside of a house in Villefranche, I isolated part of the design and used it to create new images. Most of you know by now that I procrastinate all the time and that is what I was doing tonight. I sarted playing with these tiles and I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how they developed. I could go on doing this forever and it is all with the intention of creating a real piece of stitched art with them one day.







For those interested there are more of these images on DG's Photos and Digital Art

Paper Dolls

Here are my paper dolls all coloured. I'm not very happy with them just now as they are all very wrinkled and look a bit messy. Maybe they will look a bit better after they are cut out. Don't worry as these are just my usual 'proto-type', in other words my failures. I always have them and this is the way I learn, by making mistakes. But it's Ok to make mistakes when creating isn't it?


Click for a larger image. Below are closeups of the dolls.


I have already stitched two more, but this time I have learned from my mistake and bonded the fabric to the Pelmet Vilene before stitching. I haven't yet coloured them in as I'm not quite sure what effect being wet will have on them.
All is not lost with the proto-types either as I'm going to follow Sara of Mainly Zaz... suggestion of making a feature of the mistakes, so watch this space.

Busy day

I've had a busy day. This morning I went to town to get some thick card to finish off my Paper Dolls and I almost finished them this afternoon. This project has given me a great deal of pleasure up to now.


This photo was taken yesterday morning when it was very calm.


Today it was a very different story and it was very rough, too rough to open the window to take photos.


Later this morning I saw the sun breaking through for a moment.


It was still rough this afternoon, but the sky was clearer.

Paper Dolls

You will have realised by now that I have a variety of interests and a mind like a grasshopper! Well, I have added another interest to my list. It's making Paper Dolls. When a list I was on decided to swap Paper Dolls, I decided to join in and although I had not seen a paper doll for a long time my head was full of ideas. I used to enjoy playing with them when I was a child. I had a Paper Doll book every Christmas, which I had to cut out carefully or the shoulder tabs that held the clothes to the shoulders of the doll would come off. I also copied the shape and coloured my own when I tired of playing with the ones in the book.


These are grown up Paper Dolls that I stitched out today. I don't suppose any of you knew there were such things as grown up Paper Dolls? Well, there is now. I have not enjoyed myself as much in a long time and I can see myself making these for a long time to come. This lot is going to be series of 10 dolls all with a theme of Autumn. I have many ideas for making dozens more.

The dolls start out as an idea in my head which I then sketch roughly, digitize with my Artista software and stitch out with the Bernina Embroidery Module. Yesterday i bought some Inktense Derwent Coloured Pencils so I could colour in these dolls. As the name suggests these pencils when used with a little water can give intense colour which will not wash out. the doll in the centre is already coloured. they will eventually be stuck on to stiff card and have a stand attatched at the back. I'm not sure how I will manage this, but I dare say I will get there with a bit of trial and error.

New York

I was looking for something to blog this evening when I came across these photos taken on a trip to New York.


I bought this shiny red apple especially so that I could photograph it in my hotel room in The Big Apple.


I took a bite of The Big Apple.


This was a colourful display in the foyer of our hotel.


I took this photo of Broadway through the window of Starbucks. If you look carefully you can see the starbucks logo on the window and the bags of rubbish ready to be collected in the morning! Makes me wonder sometimes why I have taken some of my photos. There must have been some reason.

Autumn

Autumn has been rather late arriving this year, but it has been worth waiting for. Wednesday I drove to Chester and I could not get over the beauty of the trees, they were spectacular. Because it was raining so much when I set off, I left the camera at home, so I could not take any photos.


I decide to go to Betws y Coed yesterday to take photos of the trees, because 'Coed' is woods in Welsh and the place is full of beautiful trees. When I arrived I was rather disappointed as the trees were not as colourful as the ones on the way to Chester, for the simple reason it had not been raining. the colours were not as intense. But I took lots of photos anyway. I will be putting some up on my Photo Blog DG's Photos and Digital Art if anyone is interested.



This was taken at home.

SerenTex garden project

I forgot to mention that I have posted some photos on SerenTex .
We visited the local hospice yesterday. We had offered them a hanging which they were pleased to accept. The hospice Manager told us that visitors and patients alike enjoyed looking at it and they often liked to touch it and feel the texture.

My woven project

My woven fabric is continuing to develop, but I don't think I am going to be able to cut it up for my postcards. It might become a cover for the large album where I put all my received postcards though.


I put some wine coloured acrylic and some purple together on a flat surface. I did not blend them together, just drew a knife through them once or twice, then used a spiral stamp here and there. I am quite pleased with the result.


I played with the image in PSP and this has me thinking of large cut-out spirals and Xpandaprint. We'll see.