Playing with cardboard and paints

Before Christmas I was given 'Permission To Play' by following along with Carolyn Dube from A Colorful Journey blog and started making a little cardboard book.

If you would like to follow along, Carolyn has generously offered this tutorial for absolutely free. Just click on the Permission to Play link and register. You will be guaranteed lots of fun and gain lots of inspiration from Carolyn who has a fun way of showing us how to be free with our art. There is a Facebook page where you can share your work called A Colorful Place to Play.

Here is my little book which I am calling finished - but may not be!F

FRONT PAGE

.BACK PAGE

On Sunday I decided to play around with some fabric paints I have had for years and years. They are a Jaquard product, Dye-Na-Flow. They are easy to use, very saturated colour and can be used on many surfaces. I colourised some backgrounds of pieces of white cotton I had used to try out different techniques. Silly me forgot to take before photos but I was very happy with the finished pieces.

While I was at it I used them on my art apron too which I had made before Christmas. It is going to be worn at our new textile art group gatherings at Toowoomba Quilters. We call ourselves TAG - Textile Art Group. A lot of the backgrounds of the collaged pieces were white so I went to town with COLOUR!! Makes me happy now.

Until next time, have fun, Dianne.

 

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D Days – Deadlines * Drawing * Done

It has been a busy time  here at EPQ central. 

There has been family stuff going on and lots of frantic work being done due to deadlines.  Thank goodness for those DEADLINES – it seems to motivate me to get things DONE.

The first thing done and finished was the art quilt for our exhibition in September.  The theme was ‘Botanica’.

Here is the reveal of my piece “From the Seed”.  Lately I have been fascinated with seeds and seed pods and the first thing that came to mind for botanica was this very subject. 

Readers may recall when Shirley and I experimented with dyeing fabrics from botanicals.  It was loads of fun with some success and some we won’t talk about.  Some of the fabrics I have used in this piece are from those experiments.

As you may know, I have been doing lots of collage both in fabric and paper this year, and after seeing Jane La Fazio’s work, I was inspired to lay down the foundation of the piece with fabric collage and use lots of hand stitching and other techniques to bind the components all together.  Make sure you visit Jane’s site HERE and go to her gallery to see her beautiful fabric collage pieces and other creative works.

The top of my commissioned quilt is DONE.  It is the Ferris Wheel pattern from Karen Griska and it was loads of fun to put together – albeit time consuming.

Now just for the quilting which I hope to achieve over this weekend.

I can DRAW! 

When Lilian and I were playing with painting over the school holidays, I refurbished some of my background pieces in my little repurposed diary art journal.

 

This background was too busy and there seemed to be nowhere to go with it, so I made up my mind that I could draw something really simple and I did.  The pear was drawn with a charcoal pencil and then I filled the background in with gesso.

Another busy background was painted over with this white urn which I splattered with dark grey paint.  If you say you can draw  - YOU CAN (so they say).  My next aim is to draw a face in one of my journals.

I am quite fond of this collage I did some time back incorporating some really cute selvedges given to me by a friend. The dressmaker model clip is from Karen at the Graphics Fairy. 

In the past two weeks we have celebrated a life and a marriage.

Our dear brother in law, Tony,  passed away suddenly and he will be sadly missed by all of his family and friends.  He was just 59 years and 11 months.  Tony was dealt quite a bit of rubbish in his life and he always faced things head on and got on with it and never complained.  A valuable lesson we have learned from him. RIP Tony

My DH’s nephew got married and we celebrated with them this past weekend. We thought we were going to their engagement party and they surprised us and got married.  It was a beautiful day.  Congratulations to Daniel and Elisha – a very handsome couple.

Lilian enjoyed herself at the wedding on the jumping castle. You can see around her mouth where she really enjoyed some orange slushies too  LOL.

Until next time – happy creating – Dianne.

A Big Birthday - Best Wishes – Best Friends - Bits of Art

 

Yes, it was a biggy!

The actual day was on a Tuesday, and so on the Saturday, my darling husband and daughters arranged a family luncheon.  I did not have to do a thing – it was lovely and I was spoiled.  Our oldest daughter made the cake and it was a white chocolate mud cake.  I love white chocolate and the cake was delicious!!

Hubby doing the dishes  xxx

Lilian did her own make up especially for the occasion.

 

Even Bella, our 13 year old border collie cross, joined in the party and enjoyed some attention from our youngest daughter.

On the Monday my dear friends from quilting joined in celebrating, and we had lunch at ‘The Two Birds’ cafe.  All their food is homemade on the premises – it was yummy.

Around the table L-R  Vicky, Marilyn, Linda, Loretta,Shirley,Joan, Marleen & Moi.

  They also spoiled me rotten.

Beautiful gifts – thank you my dear friends. 

On the day of the birthday my hubby took me to the flicks and lunch.  We saw ‘The Book Thief’.  I enjoyed my day.

A few weeks ago I did this collage/painting spread on a piece of old card. It will be a book cover one day.

Front Cover

The branch part of this image is a collage taken from a picture in an old National Geographic magazine.

Inside cover

Bird image from Karen over at Graphics Fairy.

I have to finish with my cute little Lilian.  This is how they come out of prep each day holding hands – very cute. (Lilian in the middle)

 

Until next time……………..Dianne

Fabric Covered Handmade Journal & More Pages

 

This is one of my finished spreads.  In my 2003 diary, I noted our then 19 year old had had her wisdom teeth out – hence the page about smiling and teeth.

The other page had a photo of cups and saucers, so I went with that theme and journalled about how much I love a good cup of cha, and how it seems to be a panacea for all sorts of troubles – well here in Oz anyway!

This is another page using my hand made rubber stamp.  It is unfinished.

This page went to this:

 

The inspiration for the little house came from the latest Quilting Arts Magazine and these gorgeous fabric houses made and designed by Jacqueline deRuyter shown below. 

I am definitely going to make some of these fabric houses one day.  They are soooo cute.

The wish page is finished and the other page on the right is unrecognizable as this now, but still a work in progress.

This is my first ever handmade journal.  I wanted to make a fabric covered journal using my own fabric collage pieces and my own papers.  Seeing as I couldn’t find a tutorial for exactly what I was wanting, I had to wing it.  There were many lessons learned, but ultimately I am very happy with it. 

It is going to be for me, so I am just going to love all it’s little imperfections

The back                                                                        The inside pages

The middle of the book showing the pamphlet stitch.  I used a tutorial on You Tube by the generous and talented Diana Trout.

The link for pamphlet stitch  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6xGwU-UoJE

Until next time……………Dianne

Sewing Projects Finished & More Art Journal Pages

 

The sewing has been simple stuff slotted in between art days with Lilian and general family life.

‘Artiste at work – paint comes off skin easier than clothing and it was 39 deg in the dining room! The temperamental artiste would not get her hair brushed and tied back either!’

My one and only gorgeous sister is having a birthday soon, and I really wanted to make her a couple of placemats.

Her and her hubby are ‘empty nesters’ now, so I did them a placemat each.  I have also purchased a couple of  stable tables for them so they can do activities and eat a meal in front of the tele.  That is what we do most of the time here now. 

I wanted something modern (and easy peasy ) and quick to make.  This pattern in the Quilting Arts Gifts magazine from some years ago fitted the bill.  Hope she likes them. 

Lilian needed a library bag for school, so out of the same Gifts book I made my favourite drawstring pattern which I have used many times now.  I used a cute little fairy and cup cake fabric I bought locally at MK Sewable.

The following art journal pages were done while Lilian was amusing herself with her painting. She was a great inspiration.  Little children have no inhibitions or preconceptions when it comes to art – it was an incredible experience to share with her.

Lilian did this paper cutting with no prompting and no guidance from me

With her permission, I used it as a stencil on this journal page.  Doesn’t it make a wonderful background?

Hoarded away in my cupboard I have many old diaries such as this one.

This one was from 2003 and the little bit I wrote in it at the time made very interesting reading.  I decided to repurpose it into a journal and use some of the anecdote in the journal writing, and utilize some of the pictures into the design of the pages. It usually begins with a coat of gesso.

Inside pages

I forgot to take a picture of the before page for this spread, but it was a table with a quilt draped over it.  I have just followed the lines and adapted it to suit what I call ‘Our Kitchen’ page. P.S. our kitchen is NOT these colours!!  It WAS in 1980 LOL.

Since taking the photo I have written into the right hand page as well.  The two pages, although I like each of them individually, don’t sort of ‘go’ together, so I have learned from this.

More pages soon. Loving the process

 

Until next time……………Dianne