Foam stamps and catfish!

Here's a round-up of what I got up to yesterday in regard to all things crafty. I made a few more stamps for use when gell printing. They're simple shapes, inspired by watching Elizabeth StHilaire on YouTube and her Botanicals foam stamps that represent stylized versions of poppy seed heads, leaves and flowers.

I used Hobbycraft adhesive backed craft foam and leftover pieces of plastic to stick them to. Plus a hole punch to add the dots. The resulting prints aren't sophisticated, but I'm happy with them. They add a natural look to a background, and you could paint or draw more finely detailed images over and around them.

I also decided to make a - well, what do I call it? It's a single sheet of cardstock folded into three. In a Megan Quinlan video she refered to such a folded card as a book, so maybe it is a mini-book? I'd previously made a little collage in a journal, with the wording 'Keep Our Oceans Plastic Free'.

I particularly liked the dark blue gell print that formed a couple of the waves, so yesterday dug out the gell plate and tried recreating that. But of course I couldn't! One of the joys of gell printing is that you never get exactly the same results twice. However, that's also one of the frustrations. Maybe the best way around that in future is to scan favourite prints and keep them digitally so future copies can be made. Anyway, I made a stack of blue themed gell prints and set about cutting and pasting them.

Below is the outer side laid flat.

The cardstock is folded so the waves overlap at the front.

Inside I stenciled and stamped, then - added a catfish! Because ... just because. Sometimes you need a little whimsy in your life to brighten up your day.

I rather like the idea of making a stuffed toy in the shape of my catfish. Time to burrow around for suitable green material. I'm seeing shimmery metallics and sequins, what do you think?

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Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

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