Prints Charming

Today I felt compelled to do some print making. We had talked about journals in a group that I am in and I have wanted to do some stamping or printing. In college I did some lino block carving and screen printing, but to be honest, I hadn't done much with it in many years. I had taught a class and I dug out these old lino blocks and decided to play with it for some background pieces for journaling, atc's, etc. I have some others that I made of foam, but couldn't think of where I put them! Finally it dawned on me that it had to be with the stuff I used to do discharge dyes with when I did another class. Oh well, I shall work on them another day. Anyway I was glad to find my other two blocks to print with.

I started out with my hand carved lino block of doodled designs.



Then got out my brayer, my glass board and printing supplies to set out to have a ball running my own little print shop. Before long, I had enough pages to start my own book! I printed on fabric, hand made and specialty papers.



I played with different colored background and print colors. Even though I like them all, I think my favorites are metallics on a dark background.







I also printed with this block



Not really the best detail since I was just using Apple Barrel acrylics. This was also printed on a vintage plastic rayon towel that I found amongst my FIL's things at the old house. They were still in the original package begging for me to use! My guess is that it was from the 1950's.



I think this is my favorite color background for it.



I have been having so much fun playing today. My husband wants to go to the Asian festival tomorrow, so I had best get some sleep. Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday outing with family and friends. I shall play again with my prints charming another day and I thank those who serve, that allows me to do this.

Creative Juice

Well, haven't had a chance to post my metal pieces yet as I am still working on some, but in the mean time, to show you that I am still busy creating, I have posted some new eye candy. In the past 10 days, I have finished machine quilting almost 4 quilts and worked on some letters. I hadn't decided if the letters would become part of a chunky book or a banner, but I am leaning on towards the later. These were so much fun to do!

Give me a "C"



Give me an "R"



Give me an "E"



Give me an "A"



Give me a "T"



Give me an "E"



What does that spell?



Since these are 4 X 4's, I was thinking that they would make a great chunky book, but, remember that shelf that hubby just put up? I am thinking of using it as a banner to run across the top. Instead of making a swag, I may do it differently since the charms on each of the blocks are different so they will hang funny if they do, so may either use 2 way sticky tape to hang from the edge or what if I suspend each from chains or rope attached to it's own shelf scarf? Any other ideas? What would you do?

I did a bit of recycling with some charms that I made. I wished that I would have taken a photo of it before, but will describe it to you. I had these ugly earrings that were made of a checkered fabric. There were 3 round pieces. two with that fabric and one shiny black one. The black one took on a life of its own and is actually hanging from the "C". The fabric ones, I repainted and added lobster claws for a trade. Now I love them! I used one in the first "E". Seemed fitting as it reminds me of hypnosis!







I also finished machine quilting these quilts. I love the colors on this one! I am partial to hand dyes and batik fabrics. I did an all over freehand design on this one.



This is the back of the quilt




I love the colors in this one, so nice and soft looking. I used an all over panto pattern called feather me. It's one of my favorites!



This is a 4 patch done stack and whack style. It didn't photograph well on the clothes line because of the trees and time of day.



I had hubby hold it up from the deck. This is the back. I love seeing the backs more than the fronts!



Well, I have one more quilt on the machine about 3/4's finished, so I had best get back at it as I promised it for tomorrow, so back to creating art and stitches!

We Have Winners!

I hadn't forgotten about the necklace drawing, Just been very busy on Mother's Day. Hope everyone had a great day! My daughter gave me a dozen roses and both sons called, so life is good! Life is also good for a couple of winners! The winners are from:
Sharne's Bit & Bobs and Patty Skypants!!! Congratulations ladies! As soon as I get your addresses, I will have them on their way to you!

I have a couple of ATC's to share with you that I have finished up and getting ready to send them to a gal in Louisiana.



The theme was Love Houses



This one was our choice to send, so I decided on a Mermaid with a lovely poem that reads:

A sea shell is never empty,
it's filled with lots of things.
It holds the sounds of crashing waves,
and songs that mermaids sing.

I am always amazed how things look blown up, because I have to paint so tiny, especially the eyes! The highlights in the eyes are even smaller than the head of a pin!

I had made this party gal and couldn't help but put a fork in each hand! It's perhaps how I have been feeling lately, wanting sweets, but I am trying so hard to stick true to my diet. I went to the Dr. today and she is very happy with me as I have now lost 50 lbs. Now to just keep it up! Maybe if I blog about it, I will have to! Twenty years ago when I quit smoking, I told people that I quit and I felt I couldn't go back on my word. I quit cold turkey. However, one can not stop eating entirely!



It never fails, I usually have at least one fur baby get into a photo. So here's Boa, my little party crasher! They always look so innocent when they want to steal the show.



I am working on some metal ATC's and can hardly wait to finish them to post. I love how they are turning out and I have 10 in the works, so you might say I am into heavy metal lately!

Trading Spaces

I have been working on utilizing some new areas for me to work. My sewing area was in the next room and I had nothing to do my paper crafts in except for a table and no cabinets. I only wished that I would have taken a before photo, but I shall describe what it was before to somewhat get the picture.



I have a very large kitchen and have divided part of it for more space to sew and do my art work. The window treatment before were some plaid forest green kitchen curtains. Those came down and wanted to put up a shelf for more of my work pieces to be on display. The rabbit contains all of my Alice in Wonderland charms at the moment and the hanging photo piece is filled with ATC pieces. A couple of projects we did with Leilani, a photo of my husband when he was a baby and other odds and ends. The old pharmacy shelf I picked up one time when a store went out of business. It was the perfect place to put my brads, beads and other small things. I use to have a freezer sitting in that corner.



I love my little nook area where I work on ATC's, chunkie books, work on jewelry, stamping, etc. It had just started out with just the table that I had picked up at a yard sale several years ago. Then when I was in the thrift store, I ran across this stacking shoe shelf. It was just the thing I needed to make it more like a hutch for storage. Other stacking pieces I had and it all seemed to fall into place. The one cabinet under the table is actually my Koala drawer that fit fantastically! The other is a filing cabinet. Both are on wheels, so I can move at will. I love wheels!

In the corner is a white microwave stand that I picked up at a yard sale for $25.00. Great wood cabinet and it has a pull drawer you can see partly open at the moment, which comes in handy when I need that extra space to be working on something. The big cabinet holds my rubber stamps , paints, etc. As you can see Miss Fritzie is helping me make stuff!

Look at me! I am getting wings!



OH OH, she's serious! She's got the super glue out now!



O.K., now where's my halo!



I love my new sewing corner! Where the sewing table is now, use to be an ironing station. It is now in the room beyond the double doors. I will show that room later when I get into sorting more stuff and putting things where they belong again. It's a never ending battle! LOL The cabinet to the right of the sewing table, I had just picked up at a consignment store for $48.00. I love it that the drawers are long, deep and well constructed! You can also see my computer desk where I am much of the time when I am on line.


Here is the baby quilt that I had just finished binding for my husband's boss. They named their little boy Noah, so couldn't resist quilting up this cheater panel for him.



I also finished more Moulin Rouge chunkie book pages!
Some of you know me by now that I would certainly have to do something with pasties! LOL



I also wanted to do another interactive one. The blades spin and the door opens.......



to something quite revealing!



Here are 8 that I have finished. Two I shall keep and the other 6 are for trade



This is what the back of the chunky book pages look like



Whew! Lots of work here and speaking of, there is a mess already to clean up after all of this! I will have to see if my little helper, is flying around here somewhere.

Oui CanCan with a Kicker!

Another rain miserable day so decided to do another Moulin Rouge page for my chunky book. I decided to make this interactive so that she would kick. I also did another group just to see how many I could put on a 4 X 4 piece and I thought it turned out well considering the bulk with the added lace. Certainly a different style but I love it!



This week "I won" a blog drawing from Kim's blog site. She will be sending me a jewelry magazine and in the event if I were I winner, I would pay it forward, so if you remember the charms I was doing several entries ago, I decided to make them into a necklace with a bail and I shall be giving away two of them:) All you need to do is to be a follower if you aren't already and if you win, to pay it forward as well. The drawing will be on Mother's Day, so may you be one of the two lucky moms who wins and will be kicking up her heals!