More autumn leaves - made from paper and cardboard

I recently bought a new Sizzix Bigz dies called Tattered Leaves.  I noticed that my seasonal tree was looking a bit sparse, so  decided some extra mixed media leaves would be just the thing.  I cut them out of greyboard which was recycled from a posting envelope.  I decorated them with book pages, kraft card, inking around the edges with red or orange pigment ink and a bit of gold gilding polish for a touch of richness.  On one, (top right in the photo), I covered kraft card with gilding flakes. 

I used a leaf vein embossing folder to give the backs some interest and the inking and gilding wax too.  I am really pleased with how they turned out and they have livened up the seasonal tree.

They go well with the felt leaves I made, using my own felt, a few years ago.  You can also see the November ATC in the middle of the tree. 

I am joining in with the CountryView Crafts Challenge - 'Anything but a card' again! 

Artistic endeavours

Back in March 2020, before the world changed, the powers that be at work decided we should have 'Wellbeing Wednesdays' all through March.  Lots of different activities were on offer, for both students and staff and I signed up for ceramics/pottery, which was an open session over lunchtime.  I went with a colleague and we had a great time.  She made a vase, while I started off smaller with some decorations, using biscuit cutters.  We added any patterns we wanted and then returned the next week to glaze them.  The lovely art technician had fired them in the intervening time.  I decided on white or clear glaze for the hearts...

...and the most gorgeous blue/green glaze for the sun, stars and moon, (which is much nicer in real life than the photos would have us believe) which I had left unpatterned.  This was my first attempt at glazing and the gentle painting activity was very enjoyable.  

I made one sun into a sunflower, which had to be yellow, of course.  These were then fired and given back to me.  Buoyed with my success, I planned a more ambitious project of a ceramic running hare, with impressed patterns on it and glazed in white, blues and greens.  I had also planned to make some gemstone dangles to add to it. I worked diligently on the design and found the stamps to make the patterns.  I turned up to work, looking forward to that day...only to find the campus was being closed, we had to gather our things and go home.  I have been working from home ever since. My hare remains in plan form and one day I hope to make it, but not at the moment.  I could make it in polymer clay, so that may be a possibility.

However, I have now started some of the activities from my Wanderlust 2021 course.  Above is a loose watercolour mandala design, which started out as circles drawn with a compass and just developed as I went along, after having watched a video.  I really enjoyed creating this as it was so meditative and just gently grew. I started off with the watercolour sections and then added the pen drawing a circle at a time.

 I added some glitter to a few areas.  I am going to make some more of these, I think, using some of my metallic gouache.

Send a Little Love Swap 2017

I have just taken part in Tracy (at Mad About Bags') 'Send a Little Love' swap 2017.  I have taken part in this swap for several years and always enjoy it.  This year I was partnered up with Pilar from Cenefas de Flores who is from Barcelona.  We were given some guidelines with this swap:

"The idea of this swap is to send 5 things to include :

Some sewing or yarny notions that have a love theme

Something heart shaped or themed

Something deliciously edible

Something handmade

Something red "

So, we emailed and looked at each other's blogs, as usual, to pick up some clues and then we got making and swapping.  My parcel from Spain arrived and it was the hardest thing not to peek before grand opening day, although I did manage to leave it alone until then.  As you can see from the top photo, I had been sent the most beautifully packaged gifts.  I loved the floral tissue paper with the labels.

Here's what was inside...wow!  There was ribbon, lip balm, heart shaped decorations, rose scented flower petals, violet flavoured sweets, heart shaped buttons, pompoms, red flower linen material, two beautifully made cross stitched pin cushions/decorations, a fridge magnet and two recipes.

 I was, yet again, extremely lucky.

 She had been so generous.

 Aren't these absolutely stunning? I found out that the little black cat was inspired by Scruffy.

The wooden decorations will be added to my seasonal tree stash.  Thank you Pilar (she has put her post up about the swap too) at Cenefas de Flores so much for all the lovely gifts - they are fantastic - you were an amazing swap partner. 

So here's what I sent to her.  The heart swap things are on the left, including heart bunting, heart cutters, love heart sweets, heart ribbon and washi tape, a felt heart (of course), a heart mug and a polymer clay and gemstone bookmark.  On the right are the extras, a UK cross stitch magazine, some pearl earrings and some wooden pegs.

 Here's the heart things...

...and the extras.  I did wrap them in heart wrapping paper, but forgot to take a photo before I packaged it all up.  Thanks to my lovely swap partner and also to Tracy for doing the organising. 

Scruffy enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper, but of course he moved when he saw the camera and although he does actually have his eyes open in this photo (amazingly), he is studiously ignoring looking at the camera.

Easter eggs

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter weekend.  We stayed at home but really enjoyed having an extra couple of days.  I made some Easter decorations, based on an idea I saw on Sew for Soul Blog, although I used tissue paper painted with acrylic as my base layer.

It was a little fiddly to cut the images out of the paper napkins, but I am pleased with the way they turned out.  I also decorated some others with pastel dots and tissue paper stars, but they aren't quite finished yet. The lilac in the top picture had to be cut from the tree as it was a wayward branch which threatened to hit us every time we went near it, but it is scenting the room nicely and adds a bit more Spring to the Easter decorations.

Here's the real thing, looking beautiful against the blue sky we had over the weekend.,

Lilac is not the most beautiful of trees for most of the year, but then it really does earn its place for three glorious weeks in Spring.

Stitching Sundays 25

 Stitching Sunday is here again and I have finished my bird and snowflake decorations at last...

 Here they all are and I am pleased with the way they have turned out, although there was one alteration along the way.  I originally made this bird shape below in the blue felt and embroidered stars on him.  However, seeing him on the tree with the others, I noticed he wasn't hanging straight and he was just too different from the others, so jarred a little.

 I unpicked him and cut him out into the same shape as the others, adding a similar swirly pattern.

Much better, I think!
Yesterday, in our local bead shop, we saw some felt balls at 10 for £1.50.  Now I know what you're thinking - 'you make felt, Ellie, so why didn't you make some?' -  I should have made some but actually, I couldn't make them as cheaply as that.

 We chose some pale colours which would go with the other decorations.  To allay some of my guilt for buying them, today I decided to pretty them up and put my own stamp on them.

Here they are, after being prettified.  I have sewn sequins on three and done swirly embroidery on the other three.  The flash doesn't help in picking out the details, but hopefully you can see some.  Now all they need is a hanging loop and then I hope the tree will be finished!  (As it has taken me quite a while to make the winter decorations, I may keep them up until nearer the end of March).

Projects galore!

 My blog seems to have been rather embroidery-biased over the last few weeks, so I thought I would share a few bits and pieces I made for Christmas.  Above is a collage (created courtesy of Picmonkey) showing some of the jewellery and decorations I made for various friends and colleagues.  I made some polymer clay decorations and adapted the gemstones, colours and sentiments to suit the recipient.  I think they were liked!  The macrame bracelets were for presents too, as was the memory wire one. I have now purchased lots of little gemstone chips and nuggets to make lots more memory wire bracelets.

My other main project was another rabbit, as my friend who saw my originals asked how much one would be, so I suggested making her one for Christmas.  (They take me a long time to make, with many trials, tribulations and frustrations along the way, so if I charged for them, the cost would be prohibitive).  She asked for a Spring colouring for her rabbit, so off I went.  She ended up being a bit like a daffodil and the ear material was from the puffed sleeve dress which started this whole rabbit thing.

 Before I gave her to her new owner, I did a little photo shoot with my original rabbits...they looked rather aloof and uninterested, I thought.

All three together for the last time.  The yellow rabbit's new owner seemed very pleased and had decided to call her 'Martha' which does suit her (I haven't even got round to naming mine yet - 'the pink one' and 'the blue one' is as far as I have got.)

Happy Easter

 Here is my Easter celebration 'tree' which has been a joint 'Foster' creation.  I decided I wanted something to hang felt (and other) decorations from and found a simple tree design in a craft book (Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle - details on amazon, here), showed the picture and instructions to Chris, who then went off and made it and I love it.  He is great!  I then had the fun of making decorations for it.

 I found the little bird and rabbit pegs at Paperchase and thought they would be perfect for securing the decorations and for looking lovely by themselves.  I made the felt eggs and flowers using my own hand made felt (of course) and hand embroidery.

 I have made several decorations in different colours.  I also spotted some commercially made egg decorations so added a few of those too.  The lovely daffodils were provided as an Easter gift by my work colleague, Leanne, (a big thank you to her)and have made all the difference to the display.

I feel that I need more flowers though, and then there are chicks and rabbits to make - although I probably need to make some more felt first. (They'll perhaps be ready for next year!)  Of course, my 'tree' will be useful at other times of the year too, so may well appear in other posts.
Happy Easter!