Any occasion cards

Time to create another batch of cards to personalise and send as any occasion arises. I decided that I would feature some of my art on the cards and then embellish them with stitched elements.
Step 1 : Copy art to a Word document and re-size to get at least 4 images on an A4 page. Print on sheets of special paper (I used photo paper but have also used 160gsm textured card in the past). Trim and place on card fronts. Don't worry if some don't look great at this stage. Some will already be lovely and may be added to your stash immediately because they probably just need words to finish but I can never resist adding some kind of stitched element.

Step 2 : Add stitch and sari ribbon

Step 3 : Add found words and other stitched elements appropriate to the occasions as they arise. These ones are finished : 

You can see the previous batch using similar techniques HERE.

Any Occasion Cards

I love making cards and I haven't done a batch for a while. My go-to supplies are using serviettes, stencils, and sari ribbon with machine stitching. Mostly I finish with some found words. This first was recently made for a bereavement

I had a few birthdays that I wanted to make cards for recently and one of my friends had asked if I would ever make cards with my art on them. I have done this previously, so was happy to be reminded. I printed some of my faces onto photo paper and that gave me a few easy options. 

When I was preparing for my stencil class I had a wee play with spray and printing and got these bases made

Not long after I needed to make another birthday card : 

Unfortunately I'd forgotten how reactive to wet media the dylusions spray is. I think it looks okay now finished but you can see where it blended where I didn't intend when I initially glued down the serviette. The rest of the batch got a spray of workable fixative before I decided next steps.

As it turned out, I used stickers next. Aren't they pretty? And I still had some of my own art printed from before, so I decided I'd stick them down too. 

The butterfly addition was inspired by the other butterflies on the stenciled cards. The next night it was time to be inspired by gorgeous sari ribbon and my sewing machine

I decided that in fact these cards are ready to stash as ready for the next occasion. All they need are some found words to be finished.

I can add whimsy, or birthday greetings - these words are not glued down. I have yet to decide how they will be completed

I threaded my machine with different cotton, and the remaining faces got some sari ribbon and stitch treatment 

I really love how I now have a stash of cards that can still be personalised when I have a specific need.These hopefully will keep me going until I'm ready to make my Christmas batch

Work Diary

I am VERY lucky that I work as a part-time school librarian - only a few hours per day and only during term time which doesn't start until the end of the month so I'm still on holiday!
I always like to pretty up my work diary for the coming year as one of my holiday projects. Last year I doodled on the cover with moonlight pens,

and re-used my Term tabs and sari ribbon bookmark from the previous year

This year I decided that I would like to go in a different direction. It's really nice to use copies of your own work in a different way, so I decided to use this progress photo of a journal page from earlier in the month

This piece eventually became my "Transform Butterfly" - the first lesson in Life Book 2016, and the first page in my new art journal this year. I printed it on photo paper, and glued it to the front of my diary before adding  some lovely tape and my own lettering.
I've added some new tabs but managed to stitch on that same sari ribbon bookmark to the plain black ribbon again. 

It will make me happy to use this, but I'm also happy that I've got another couple of weeks before I have to!!

Birthday cards

A few more cards to share. The first started as a piece of gelli-printed cardstock. 

I glued on some pieces of serviettes, some found words, and then machine stitched that to the card base. 

The next was for a friend who loves red. I like to use serviettes and thought a flower would be nice so this one fit the bill 

The yellow stencil design in the background was chosen for a bit of sunshine on a very wet day, and because that stencil was still out from my last project...Sometimes decisions simply arise from what's easily to hand :-)
Favourite additions of sari ribbon, machine stitching and a butterfly stamp and this one was complete

Don't feel despair if you make a stitching mistake.....I decided I needed another line of stitching on the sari ribbon, but on the second go forgot to open the card! Redeemed by unpicking, restitching, and then disguising the holes inside the card with some other decorative stitch so that will be a feature when she opens the card and reads the message. If you click on the photo you'll see the holes still there from the mistaken stitching, but I don't think she'll notice.

While my machine and supplies were out, I decided to add to my stash of cards. Now that my new machine is up in pride of place on the big table in the middle of my studio to use every day, I do my journal work on the narrower table in the window. 

My old machine rests underneath on the floor, and is portable enough to just pop up when I need to add stitching. I love that I don't need to worry about whether I am stitching through paper, or if the glue is quite dry....it never lets me down.

When I use serviettes in my art, I pull off the bottom 2 layers. When I made the red card above,  I noticed that the middle layer had quite a definite, though softer, print from the top layer, so thought I might be able to use that too :

I liked it so much that I used both layers of a flower on a 3rd card :

and here they are now :

Just need to finish that left one. Once I know what the occasion will be, I will add some nice found words.

Week 18 : DLP 2015

Information about the FREE Documented Life Project is HERE. We're into a new month and a new theme for this project : 

Got behind in finishing last week's challenge. 

I saw it, was enthusiastic, immediately inspired with an idea and did my gatherings

1. wrote words that make up my life onto coloured watercolour strips

2. fabric gatherings - cotton strips and sari ribbons

3. spritzing of dylusions sprays into the journal - being careful to leave some white space...then somehow I didn't make make time to work on this for the rest of the week! You know how life sometimes just overturns your best of intentions - plus I HAD to make that skirt  - and that's part of the fabric of my life ;-)

I love this piece of sari ribbon - frayed, torn, but glowing with colour and still beautiful despite the imperfections. It was the first thing I attached to my page. I put my journal page under the machine - tricky but okay on the edge. I zigzagged the divisions for my days. On the back it looks like this :

Turns out that this week's challenge is "stitch" so when I turn the page this will be a good start!
My original intention was that the fabric of my life is interwoven with a number of different elements so I was going to literally weave the strips of watercolour paper words and the fabric before placing them on the page. However, before I got to that stage, my Dad got sick and ended up in hospital - it was a stressful couple of days but he is back at home and comfortable again. It reminded me (although I don't really need reminding) that in the fabric of my life, family is at the centre. So my page evolved like this

The photo is glued in the middle of my spread, and I'm trying out strips of fabric and some of the torn words. It's okay but fairly busy. To attach the fabric to the page I iron on strips of fusible webbing. 

It is fabric glue, and when I tear away the backing I can then iron the fabric directly to the page. In the end, I kept the page quite simple.

I am proud that I left white space (I never seem to be able to manage that!). And I didn't need to add words, because when I look at this finished spread I see colour, my family, imperfection, beauty, darkness and light, love and stitch, and I am full of gratitude for what makes up the fabric of my life, and joy that I have created another spread in my journal.
Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE. You can see all my posts about this project HERE.

On A Lark

I did 2 quilt classes recently with Karen K Stone - quilter extraordinaire. My first was called "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues" - I shared some of Karen's quilts and the beginnings of my quilt HERE. My second class was called "On a Lark" - this is Karen's sample from the class

"On a Lark" by Karen K. Stone

As you can see it is a riot of colour and fibres - very fun. Since I want to complete my "Wild Women..." quilt as a full size project, I decided to go smaller with this second class. These were my stash gatherings :

And my piece progressed quite quickly on the day:

Adding loads of fibres is great fun. They totally change the look of the piece, and feel lovely to touch as well - I used a variety of sheer and fancy ribbons, wools, and sari ribbon.

I'm not working on a regular shape and you'll see why at the end. Once home, I added many more fibres from my stash and things progressed along. We have just had a long weekend in New Zealand, and I managed to complete this project : 

Some close-ups to show the gorgeous textures

Love the way the sari ribbon frays as shown above. Then I trimmed the piece ready to put it together

Here's the completed fabric folder -  I used the same variegated thread in the top and bobbin, and went around the raw edges and joined seams with a machine satin stitch. Click on the photos to see them larger.

Front view closed

Front open

Back

I could have attached a cord to it and used it as a bag, or I could have gifted it to a friend, but I'm using it as a lovely home for the individual art pages from my Life Book lessons until they are ready to be bound at the end of the year.