More ATCs

This was last night's sunset below here.


Below is the sunset a couple of evenings ago and I think this one has possibilities. I love the stripey look.


Below is a close-up of the part I love most.


The last couple of days the postman brought me three more lovely ATCs. These were traded with a group from the Surface Design group and we all had to use a technique that we had not tried out before and describe how we made them. I have really enjoyed it.

These came from Britta, Debbie and Judy.

More Bubbles

My favourite way of relaxing is playing with one of my paint programmes, especially playing with colours. Colour Wheels and rules don't come into it, I just know when I like something. The top two are my favourites here, I wonder which colours you like? I have decided that I will concentrate from now on using my digital art for the purpose it was intended as design for textile art. This is what I always have at the back of my mind when I'm digitizing.

I've saved so many images that would convert into textiles or mixed media work and very few of them have been used yet. I think these could be useful, maybe using stitching, Tyvek and a heat gun. So watch this space.





i was messing about with my blog tonight and I accidentally got rid of all the groups I belong to. What a nuisance, I think I will leave have ti leave it like this for now.

Textile Art

When I was interviewing Mary Spence for Issue 8 of Fibre & Stitch I fell in love with this beautiful piece of textile art, which Mary called a Practice Piece and had more or less discarded! Then she said quite casually I could have it. I am delighted with it. Thank you Mary.


I was washing a couple of dusters recently and noticed all these lovely bubbles and went to get my camera, but I had forgotten all about it until Helen Alexander heb-art journal suggested this as a topic on her blog Today's Title is.... I had always intended to have a bit of a play with it and below you can see some of the fun I had doing just that.

SerenTex meeting

There was a meeting of SerenTex on Tuesday and above you see a few of the members who were present. If you pop over to the SerenTex blog you can see a little of what went on there.
I have been doing some painting and designing at home and have had a 'fun' day all by myself. I love colours! I think my colours are becoming brighter all the time and this could be because I use the computer so much and my brain has got used to the bright colours I look at all the time. Most of my favourite blogs have bright colours. Have a look at Ro Bruhn Art here for one.



These are some of the papers I had painted and they are all very colourful. Next I used a roller on them.


I had borrowed Sue's rollers, but they were so very clean I decided not to use them with black paint. If anyone knows where I can buy some of these rollers I'd be very happy to know.


So I made some of my own instead, using a couple of those rollers you buy to pick fluff off your clothes. I'd bought 2 very cheaply at the pound shop. I'd also bought some of the felt pads to put under chairs to stop them scratching the floor. These included strips. It was these strips I cut up and stuck onto the rollers.


Here are some stamps I made very quickly as you can see.


And here are some of the results. I think I really went a bit mad today (smile). Some I loved, some I hated, but I had so much fun playing. This one below just had a mind of it's own and I just wonder if it was a conversation I had with my husband this morning that was in my subconscious. He'd mentioned in passing a friend who has a narrow boat on the canal, but the colours are not right in this one I'm afraid.


For a fun day or to give a lift to the spirits I can highly recommend this!

Encaustic art

This afternoon I had intended trying to use my sunset photo as inspiration for some Encaustic art, painting and embellishing. I had just finished the Encaustic sample and was about to try a painting, hoping it would turn out to be easier for me! When the door bell went and it was a friend come to show me a church banner she's just finished. She's started it in 2004 when I gave her a little help with the design size. It has been a lot of work for her, but I'm sure you will agree that it turned out really well.


Below is the encaustic sunset which a few of you challenged me to make and believe me it was very difficult, but I won't give up, I shall try and try again until I'm happy with it (smile) But I do love the seagulls, it seems I really have got the knack now.



Tonight was the North Wales Embroiderers' Guild night and we had a talk and demo by a lady called Jan Gardner who was really inspiring. She is going to let me know when she has a course going locally. You will find her website here Jan Gardner. If you have a love of colour, then you will enjoy her work as much as I do.

More goodies

This is a textured textile piece of fabric I have just finished. I seem to be going for 'very' textured work recently, but I'm not sure what I will use it for yet. My ATC Album needs a cover or a couple of postcards perhaps. I used part of it for my new header. I'm not going to write a lot today as I have promised myself to go and play in my workroom for a couple of hours.
Below are the lovely ATC's the postman brought me yesterday and they are all wonderful additions for my growing collection. They were all beautifully presented.


From Jan Ziebol who says she lives simply on the banks of the Mississipi. You can see some of her work here Jan Ziebol


From Deb Hardman who is an Alaskan fiber artist & quilter.


From Annie in The Netherlands.


And anther from Nadia Bekker of Patch and Stitch again from The Netherlands.

Tonight's sunset

The sunset was again quite spectacular, but so different from last night's. There were some seagulls around and I kept hoping one of them would fly in front of the sun for me. I enlarged a small part to show you how close I got to a great shot! I kept taking one photo after another until it disappeared behind the hill.




Here is what I received from a Ragged Old Blogger called Heather (smile) this morning. We traded ATC cards, but I had a bonus when she sent me both these lovely samples of textile art.



I've been out all day, but I did do some Encaustic art yesterday and I just had to show you my grass and seagulls. These are close-ups of a small card and I do hope our tutor, who was Dianne Sawyer from Somerset will take a peep at them as she was so good when I had problems with the flick of the wrist needed to make these. But I think I might have got it at last. Thanks for a great class Dianne.

Tonight's sunset

I know I said here that I loved a rather colourless sunset as much as the colourful ones. I'd forgotten we had sunsets like this sometimes and this one really was this colour tonight. Honest!

My first attempts at Encaustic Art

I was horrified when I saw my Birthday photo and realised once again that longer hair really doesn't suit me. One of my daughters in law is my hairdresser and she cut it for me Friday evening and I feel 10 years younger (as I always do after a haircut). So I asked my husband to take this photo of me today. I'm usually on the other side of the camera. Do I look more like myself now Jackie? (BG)

Below are the pieces that pleased me most. The first one has been transferred to fabric and did not transfer very well as I obviously didn't use enough coloured wax.


I'm very pleased with the two below. the tree was put there to camouflage a spoilt bird and I think it's a good addition to the painting.




The one above is fantasy art and I'm going to enjoy these as I can look for unexpected images to play with. But my favourite one of all is this little bookmark which accidentally turned out to look like a sunset with stormy clouds gathering overhead.



I went to Chester today and met an old friend I hadn't seen for years who has a Craft Shop in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, UK. She also has an on line shop here Crafters Corner and I said I'd give her a mention on the blog. Please go and have a look.

Encaustic art

Sunsets like this are just as beautiful in my opinion as the very colourful ones and I couldn't resist showing you this photo I took this evening.


I had a wonderful day learning how to do Encaustic Art. I'm going to share a secret with you all. Eight to ten years ago I fell in love with Encaustic art at a Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally when I watched Michael Bossom demonstrating and selling the coloured wax and all the necessary material. I didn't buy anything then, but the following year I bought a starter set and an iron and a couple of books about it. when I came home, I'm afraid I had cold feet for some reason and never got around to trying it out myself. That is, until today. I know I'm going to enjoy it this time round as I just needed the opportunity to do it with a good teacher at hand.







I thought you would enjoy looking at the colourful art created by the class today.

I'm home

These are my latest ATC's made before I went on holiday and below are some lovely work waiting for me when I arrived home.


Here is an ATC from Terri which I was so pleased to add to my collection. Here is her website and if you haven't come across it before you are in for a treat Handcrafted Art by Terri Stegmiller.


And this is another beautiful one from Michele Guthrie. Here is Michele's website Textile Traveler.


This last one is another one I love made by Marga of Margas Crafts and was made using the paper cast technique from Maggie Grey's book 'Paper and beyond'. Marga made a lovely 'jacket' to go with the ATC which is shown in the photo here.


I know you will love this Brithday card made for me by my friend Joan Park who is a member of SerenTex and wrote an article for Fibre and Stitch. This is how she imagined I was enjoying my holiday in Tenerife.