Something to play with.......

.... I have a lot of toys and some I haven't played with for a while.  With last weeks Sunday papers there  was a supplement which had great fashion pictures on a rather nice paper and I suddenly wondered if Citra-solve would work. Haven't even thought about it since this post  in 2011. To my delight it worked

Then I wondered what would happen if I put it through a stencil?

That worked too.  I thought they would make good backgrounds so I scanned them in and then I played a bit more. I combined them digitally in  Paintshop Pro..

this one used one of Seth Apter's stencils.

Here are the stencil masks I used. Please feel free to use.

Now I want to incorporate them into some kind of book pages. We'll see.

Week 11 in 1 Year of Stitches and my little clump of trees looks like this.

I have prepared things for the exhibition, a bit of a chore,  I love making, not too keen on finishing off.

Some time ago I made these art prompts

Wanting to play with paint I drew out three, funnily enough they turned out to be March,Rain and Peeling Paint

Here it is tidied.  The tree is made from a technique I learned from the late Renate Keeping, on memorable visit to ~The Keeping Gallery.

 

This has gone in my "Because I Felt Like It" book..

Keeping a secret......

for months now. Way back in September 2013 I treated myself to two stencils designed by Seth Apter and produced by Stencil Girl.

I was really pleased with them and I used them on my gelli plate. The TIME one spoke to me and the more I looked at it the more I had a picture in my mind  of Times Square in New York  with all the theatre and advertising lights.

How replicate that? ......total madness.......in beads. 

It has taken me nearly a year to complete, putting it away when I grew tired of picking beads out of the sofa, the carpet and other places.  When we had cats I used to blame them for the fact that beads spread everywhere but no....it's me.

So here it is, I am pleased to say that Seth likes it and is happy for me to exhibit it.

and a close up

I have an idea to use the first stencil to decorate the lid of a box to hold all my UFO's but I think I will probably chose another medium rather than beads.

Thanks again Seth is was great fun.

Happy Easter everyone.

Look....

what arrived today,only a week after I ordered them from Stencil Girl 

Stencils by the very talented  Seth Apter.  I am hoping that they will soon be on sale in the UK so that I can buy the third one in the set  but I couldn't wait to buy these.  I think I  feel a gelli session coming on? Rust colours of course Seth! I love the text and all the different textures.

Another reason for celebration is the return of Australian Masterchef to my TV screen.  Far superior to the English version, no "significant looks" between the judges for a start, much more inventive challenges and on the whole a great hour of  relaxation. another favourite "The Newsroom" has also returned so with these and the start of the NFL season and the imminent beginning of Strictly my place on the settee is booked, with sewing accompaniment of course.

Also looking forward to the Stamping Show at Ally Pally this weekend.  

Seven years on.......

so where did they go since I started this blog. I was going to put this at the end but decided that you might not get that far so....I would like to thank all the people who I have "met" over these years. I am not going to mention names as I would be bound to miss someone but if you follow you will know the people who have become an important  part of my life.I thank all the generous people out there who share their knowledge, often freely. Thank you for reading and following my butterfly mind.

 I thought it would be a good time to change the layout. I tried all the dynamic ones and decided that was too big a jump for one of my advanced years so in the end I settled for this.  Still not sure.  Anyway the story continues...

There are a lot of really cool stencils out there but I don't seem to have many of them and then I had a moment.  Some years ago cutting up plastic bags to incorporate into bits of stitchery was all the rage and so you take one of these,

one of those very thin bags for vegetables, and then cut it up into little strips (easier if you fold it)

The lay the strips out, in layer,s on a piece of greaseproof paper, cover with another and iron .  You will see the plastic shrink and it sticks together where it crosses

 I then became excited and forgot to show the plastic on the painted gelli, but this is it after I pulled the print.

and this is the print

another

 

and this is where I cleaned the brayer

The plastic is very fragile and can only really be used once or twice but you are left with a great collage element.