Collages and Stitch

This week I've been keeping the creativity going and out of the prompt jar came the theme of Samplers and the colour Orange.  I chose to do a different embroidery stitch on each little collage square, and I'm using bits of dress pattern and some vintage embroidery transfers that I've had for absolutely ages! Still a few squares to go, and in case anyone is wondering what the sellotape is for, I use it to hold down the threads on the back when starting and finishing, instead of using bulky knots.

 

 My prompts are written on different colours of paper to depict themes, colours and techniques.  I haven't used the technique prompts yet, they are an extra help if I feel uninspired!  I know a couple of people have wanted to know what my prompts are so for anyone interested here are the lists.

Themes: birds, tree houses, seasons, landscapes, maps, text, gardens, samplers, beach, shadows.

Colours: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, neutrals, pink, grey, turquoise.

Techniques: tissue paper, wax, metallic, stencils, teabags, stitch, watercolour, pastel/chalk, photographs, die-cuts

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

Mini Collages

I have recently been making little collages and have found them very enjoyable to do and also quite addictive.  To get myself organised I decided to make some grid stencils.  It's something I was taught to do in an art class many moons ago at college, and it's a useful way of displaying small samples of textiles, textures, techniques and so on.

These are A4 and fit my sketchbook perfectly - it's neater and quicker than trying to approximate the grid squares or re-measure each time. I made several different sized grids and the effort it took to work out the measurements and cut them out is more than worth it!

This week I picked the words 'Maps' and 'Turquoise' from my prompt jar and have spent a little time each day putting ideas down onto the collage grid.  

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Kickstarting Creativity!

 Making small collages for the last couple of weeks has been a good way to kickstart my creativity.  However, sometimes I struggle with what to do with the blank piece of paper in front of me - so I've come up with a prompt jar.  I've written colours and themes on different coloured paper squares and I can dip in and get a starting point for my next collages.  I've thrown a few 'techniques' into the mix as well in case I'm really stuck!

This week I picked out 'yellow' and 'tree houses'.  The combination didn't exactly thrill me and I was tempted to re-pick, but that's not really in the spirit things.  I also felt week one was a little early to give up on the idea, so I went with it and started enjoying myself!

12 little squares being worked on - a mix of home made collage papers, some wrapping paper and a few old postage stamps thrown in - and a bit more of an emphasis on ladders than I was expecting!

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

Mini Grid Collages

 I decided to try and kick start some creativity this week by creating a grid of 6 little collages.  I was recently inspired by Angela (@Felix the Crafty Cat) to make my own collage papers.    It's been fun and quite addictive - I'm already planning my next lot of collages! 

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

Silver Acorns

In my previous post I showed some silver pendants in production stage that I was making for Christmas presents, and here they are finally finished - all given and well received!   The tiniest one was very fiddly, it's only about half an inch long but it was for my sister to wear alongside an oak leaf that I had made for her a while ago.

Sitting on my desk this week are some prints that I did at a photo printing workshop several years ago.  I brought them home and promptly lost them - it's always niggled me that I never knew what happened to them.  Well this week  they fell out from between the pages of one of my old craft books that I apparently don't look at very often!  They aren't as nice as I remembered - the more frustrated I got at losing them the nicer they became in my mind!!

I can't remember how we made them but it involved real leaves, photo paper and plenty of shaving foam and sudacreme!  Now I'm sitting looking at them wondering if I could use them for anything - the mind is a blank at the moment!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW.