Christmas Postcards

I've finished off a couple of small collages which threatened to hang around unfinished throughout the coming year, 
and that's me finally done with Christmas stuff!

I had a lovely surprise right before Christmas when a little parcel arrived from my very good blog friend Lynn over at One I Made Earlier Today - 

she had sent me a pack of beautiful postcards depicting different plants used for dying, with information and dye recipes on the back of each one - they are  gorgeous and inspiring, and I think the Cochineal card is my favourite - who could resist those dear little embroidered beetles!

 Thank you so much Lynn!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year.

Christmas Baubles and WOYWW #342

No time for arty crafty stuff this week,

but baubles are everywhere 
and the decorations make the house feel magical!

I want to send huge hugs and heartfelt thanks to all my arty crafty friends in blogland who leave such kind, thoughtful and inspiring comments, and I would like to wish everyone who celebrates it a very Merry Christmas and a happy, sparkly and creative New Year.

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Autumn Postcards

A couple of small autumn postcards needed to be finished off, but that is all that's been done at my desk this week - Christmas festivities are taking over!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Christmas Cards

After a couple of weeks break I'm back and busy making Christmas cards. 

 However much I hate using glitter, I really think the cards needed it - I'll probably be cleaning up the sparkly stuff well into the summer by the look of my studio! 

Please excuse the quality of the photographs - I shall re-do them if we get better weather! 

I am linking up with Julia over at WOYWW.

Christmas Tags

Christmas tags are made and ready to go - now on with the Christmas cards!

The only colour added was Black Soot distress ink to the leaves and the petal edges of one of the flowers.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Loving Red

I'm so enjoying working with red.

It's festive and wintery and I think I might turn some of these into Christmas cards!

Some garden inspiration

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Autumn Art

Time to leave my summer/night garden behind.

I''m being overwhelmed by spectacular autumn colours - so I decided to celebrate the season with vintage postcards, thermofax screens and embroidery threads!

This has to be my very favourite time of the year!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW for another week of sharing what's on our desks!

Autumn Gift Tags

After a horrible couple of weeks that has had bad news coming in from all directions, I finally felt able to settle down in the studio to catch my breath and 'escape'.  We have a lot of birthdays in October so I got on with making gift tags and birthday cards - it was very relaxing and I enjoyed 'playing' with dies, stamps and glazes that I hadn't used for a long time - it almost felt like having new stash!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW and then I'm off to print some co-ordinating wrapping paper and gift bags - a perfect activity for a rainy day!

Halloween Tags

This week I was delighted to do a demonstration for Paper Artsy - I made a Halloween necklace and bracelets using the Tim Holtz Poinsettia die - you can see it here!  I do love this die and since then I've been playing around with it and making Halloween tags for gift bags for the adults - it doesn't seem fair that the children get all the treats!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Halloween Jewellry and Paper Artsy

I was delighted to be asked back to do another demo for Paper Artsy -

the theme being wearable art.

  I just love the Tim Holtz Poinsettia die and I've been thinking for a while that it's much too nice to keep just for Christmas, so I decided to give it a Halloween twist and make a necklace and cuff.   

I stamped the petals in gold using some Paper Artsy stamps, edged them with Glossy Accents and black glitter, and then assembled the flowers.  I then used a hot glue gun and added leafy ribbon or beaded wires between the petal layers.  Before fully cool, the hot glue allowed the petals and wires to be arranged at the right angle to give a good 3D effect.

If you would like to see more details about how they were made please pop over to the Paper Artsy blog here.

Tangled Yarn and WOYWW # 330

This week I found the most beautiful yarn, in rich autumn colours, just waiting to be used for collage, weaving, embroidery, or whatever!  

I decided I'd spend a few minutes winding it from a skein into a ball, so it's ready to use.  Wow, what a mistake - 3 days of unravelling later and it looks like this!  How anyone knits with this is beyond me - it's a mass of knots and so far I have six tiny balls of yarn and I'm about half way through it.  Very soon I can see the rest falling 'accidentally' into the bin!

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Midnight Garden Collage

Another little collage in my Midnight Garden series.   Embroidery on Cyanotype printing and a beautiful Japanese stamp that I have finally found a home for!

If you want to see what's on other people's desks this week they why not pop over to WOYWW.

Night Garden Sketchbook Pages

Not much on my desk this week, some printing onto the silk I eco dyed a few weeks ago, and some more pages from my sketchbook.

Thermofax printing - supposed to be the night garden in the moonlight but looks more like frost and snow!  Will have to re-think that one!

 The lighting somehow turned the black butterfly and lace into shades of brown - but I rather like it anyway!

I'm linking up with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Night Garden Sketchbook Pages

Some pages from my Midnight Garden sketchbook.
My favourites in the garden at the moment are Poppy seed heads, Bracken (a vigorous invader from next door!), Fennel and Agapanthus.

Pen and ink drawings - silver moonlight and soft shadows

I'm linking up with WOYWW - why not pop over and see what other people have on their desks this week!