Wednesday, November 19, 2008

More Chrissie cards.....

these ones i made using the fabric pastels again , this time mixing up the colors. I bought some Christmas stickers to add to them but another really good way is to recycle old cards.
Trouble is i can never find where i put them, when i go to make them!
I have heaps put away somewhere! I love sequin mesh , its so versatile.....



These were gift tags ......
I also wanted to say how much i enjoy this blogging thing. Its opened up a whole new online world. I have met some wonderful people from all different parts of the world and very much appreciate all the nice comments too.

Now i am off to play with my new embellisher.... ooohhh cant wait... Jenxo

Thursday, November 13, 2008

do I love this fabric or what....

I was in Big W and thought i would just check their fat 1/4's. And i found these....


You very rarely find fabrics like these in the patchwork shops here [although one of them does have a few vintage fabrics and a beautiful range of Kaffe Fasset]

Who'd have thot.. [as Kath would say!] that i would find fabrics [from Indygo Junction, no less] in the el cheapo of dept stores!!!

Anyway i have been making Christmas cards of the 'very quick variety' and made some using this fabric. Not what i originally intended it for tho!

The background of these are fabric pastels, i love smudging and blending them. My sewing is particularly wonky, i forgot to change the stitch down,
[nahh i really meant to do it like that!]









Sant looks like he's been tippling a bit much egg nog, dont ya think !! jenxo

So very lucky....

to have such a wonderful swap with
Debbi and Jacky. Look at these wonderful asian atc's i recieved....

from Debbi.....


and from Jacky.....



Jacky also sent one of the prettiest paper napkins i have ever seen, such beautiful bird images.
Made my week, i keep taking them out to gaze at them!!!!
Thank you both......

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Been feeling a bit neglectful of my blog this week. This spring allergy is being very stubborn but i think its starting to go now! We had some wonderful rain yesterday so that should help with the pollens too.

Apart from working, eating [lots... a side effect of the tablets, unfortunately] and going to bed early [another side effect] i am not getting much making done! However i did finally finish these two atc's for an image transfer swap.
The pics had been printed onto glossy photo paper and then i sprayed them with water and pressed them face down onto calico. Burnished them and peeled them off. They worked really well and i like the ghost like images left on the original pics too.
For the backgrounds i used Twinkling h2 o's left to go really syrupy so you get that rich metallic effect. They look a lot richer than my pics.






My original image transfer cards got lost in the mail although i suspect they may not have made thru customs as they contained vegetable matter.
For these i spent a very enjoyable afternoon, smashing flowers! It wasnt so good for the little green caterpillar unfortunately!
I found watercolor paper worked the best and layed it on a firm padded surface.
[used corrugated cardboard covered with glad wrap from my wet felting] Layed the flowers face down and covered with baking paper. Then you smash away with a rubber mallet or i used the end of my wooden rolling pin. I did this a little while ago and there werent many flowers out but i am really keen to try it again now that my garden is in bloom. Plenty of weeds too seeing as how i dont spend any time outside at the moment!
Juicy type flowers worked best and the grape hyacinths literally exploded and left behind little dark seedy bits which looked wonderful. Then i touched up a few areas with my water soluble crayons. This technique apparently works well on fabric too but i have yet to try that too. I actually found this in the Aust Womens weekly a few months ago [the one with olivia nj on the cover!}

Sample backgrounds....