Saturday, September 21, 2013

Trip to Paris - I wish...

A few weeks back (see my August 8 post) I shared a journal page created with lots of mixed media elements I had laying around - Gelli print, stamping, chalks, silk, etc. I loved it so much I decided to turn it into fabric via spoonflower (if you haven't visited spoonflower.com yet, you are in for a treat)! My fabric (and wallpaper) came this week and I had to make something with it right away. Starting with one panel of fabric, I cut it in half horizontally to make the top of the bag. I found a black on black swirly fabric to lend a bit of sophistication for the bottom of the bag and the handles, and some wonderful tassle trim for embellishment. Been playing with Tim Holtz grunge paper and tattered florals die cut and stamps with embossing powders. And had a great Art-i-cake pendant by Amy Labbe that has a tiny photo of the Eiffel tower in the center of a metal flower - been saving this one for a special occasion. Tucked a scrap of black lace up under these two elements for a bit of panache. This was stitched on the front just below one of the handles. I also had some wonderful rose taffeta that I used for the lining so she has some fancy underpinnings. Can we say ooh la la????

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Making My Own Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite season but we have to wait awhile sometimes for the least bit of color change. We do have some trees that flower & turn from yellow to rust in the fall season. And my Chinese tallow tree has been turning and dropping leaves for the last few weeks. But what I love to see is rolling hills and gentle mountains draped in the colorful finery of fall from my childhood in East Tennessee. So I have to make my own. This is a silk piece I am playing with. The dyeing is done but I still have a bit of embellishment to finish. Will show the finished piece soon!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Playing with Shrink Plastic

The weekend testing grounds... die cut shrink plastic! I used the Tattered Florals die from Tim Holtz and sandwiched a piece of shrink plastic between two sheets of grunge paper (another TH product). Ran this through my Vagabond. I also slipped in a piece of plain card stock against the outside plate furthest from the cutting blades. This seems to give me a better cut from the grunge paper and the grunge paper cushions the shrink plastic so it doesn't break or tear. Then I punched holes in my floral shapes, used various stamps with StazOn ink in Royal purple and used my heat gun to shrink the plastic. I didn't want flat flowers so stopped heating before they went totally flat and teased some of the ends up while they cooled. There is a white card stock shape in the last photo so you can see the amount of shrinkage. The largest flower went from 3-1/4" to about 1-1/2". End use? Don't know yet but really happy with the results. They will find their way into art somewhere!