Little Book of Insects

I decided to have a little play at book-binding this week as I wanted a notebook for sketching and jotting down ideas about moths and other insects.  I was quite pleased with how neat the binding was, as I am usually rather haphazard with where I make my holes, often piercing them too close together despite marking them out.

Whilst decorating the front of the book I forgot I'd used olive green thread for the binding and it doesn't really match the decoration, but I don't think it's too noticeable and perhaps I'm being a bit pernickety!

I am sharing this over at Julia's WOYWW and the 
Mini Album Makers Challenge.


Update: I was so pleased to make the Top 5 this month - thank you to the team from the Mini Album Makers Challenge.

Stamping and Smudging!

I like to have a good stash of cards to hand and so I've just made a batch for the coming months.  I used the same stamps but stamped firstly on one card and then directly on to a second, using Distress Ink but without re-inking the stamp.  I changed it around a bit so they each had some first and some second generation printing on them. I smudged the freshly stamped images with a clean blending tool and added some gold flakes to the edges of the darker one.   

Different stamps but the same technique as above with these next two cards, but I added some pearl drops to highlight some of the foliage. I usually add a sentiment or banner later when I know what I want the card for.

  

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

August's Forgotten Stash

Continuing my monthly project of using a forgotten item from my stash, this month I'm using a Tim Holtz butterfly punch. I haven't had it that long but it was purchased on a whim with no idea in mind about what I would do with it!

So, keeping with my theme of my garden at night I played about in my sketchbook and using a resist technique with a flower stamp and some new Distress Crayons I created a moonlit background - perfect for the butterfly punch which now became a moth punch!  I added double layered moths with gold ink edging and a stamped vellum top layer.

I'm joining Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday 

June's Forgotten Stash and the Peppered Moth

For June's Forgotten Stash project, where I find stash I've never used and decide whether to keep it or move it on, I dug out a bark effect embossing folder - never used and long forgotten.  I was inspired by a beautiful card made by Shoshi here (do pop over and have a look, her work is beautiful).

My idea though was moths (of course) and the camouflage of them against the bark - I wanted to create dark moths against dark bark.

I was also influenced by the story of the Peppered Moth - through research in the 1950's it was thought to change to a darker shade to blend in with the industrially polluted cities of England.  A fascinating story on many levels, and well worth a Google!  I'm adding a link to a recent BBC news story concerning the current research for anyone interested.

I used an old photo album page as the frame and I covered the embossed bark so thoroughly it's difficult to see it, but you can make it out in the image below.  

I am linking up with Jan (who is Julia once again!) for WOYWW.  Sending love and best wishes to the both of them and thanking Jan for holding the fort so superbly once again!

Midnight Garden Sketchbook Pages

Some pages from my Midnight Garden sketchbook.

I photographed some of the pages with a large and beautiful, almost black butterfly from my collection of old dead ones!  It reminded me of moths at night. I especially like it against the vivid blue of the cyanotype backgrounds.

I am linking up with WOYWW - click on the link to see what other people have on their desks this week.

Midnight Garden

Some sketchbook pages on my desk this week, for WOYWW.

The theme being the garden at night - one of life's pleasures is sitting in the garden as dusk falls and seeing the changing colours and shapes, the moths and  other creatures that appear - we have a hedgehog that has been visiting us over the last few weeks - and even the scent of some of the plants seems to intensify later in the evening!

Night Garden

I love my garden in the late evening, when the sun has gone down and the scents are often at their strongest.
                                                                                     

   I've been using fresh foliage picked from the garden for making cyanotype sun prints, then screen printing with beautiful, creamy Jacquard textile paint, 
and lots of machine and hand embroidery - and there's lots more still to do!

Heuchera flower sun prints with printed seed heads

Printing over the marks left by teabags!

I knew moths would have to sneak in somewhere!

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

Paper Artsy - Niche Challenge

For Paper Artsy I crocheted my own niche!  

I used a nesty brown colour yarn and needle felted over it. 

 I decorated it with lace, beads, feathers, vintage millinery flowers,

moss, moths and a miniature cup and teapot.

Bunting was added - it looked too twee.

Bunting was taken away - the top half looked too bare.

Bunting was added again - still unsure.  
Bunting might be removed again depending on my mood!

I was initially inspired by the beautiful image of a small cart with the bird in it  (on the Paper Artsy blog here) and I planned to make a little nest for a bird, with lots of precious bits collected.  However, as often happens it turned out differently to how I imagined and I ended up with a tea party and not a bird in sight!

Vintage Moths and Yarn Cards

On my desk this week are some lovely vintage yarn cards I found at an antiques fair recently.  I had to get them as they were perfect for my ongoing project of Decay and Repair.   I love the delicate mint green colour and I knew I had some similar coloured moths in my collection.  

I'm linking up with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, why not pop over and have a look at what other people have on their desks this week.

WOYWW #270 and Moths and Yellow Roses

I don't know why I'm sharing my desk for WOYWW this week - it's a complete disaster!  The last week of the ICAD challenge just didn't happen for me - below you can see one of several failed attempts at an index card - I somehow couldn't get the ideas out of my brain and onto the actual cards!  I now need to find the Oomph to tidy my desk - I just hate it being messy and unorganized!

Failing at the index cards I turned to my trusty old moths and photographed them on a little pink dish that I picked up in a local charity shop, a rose from the garden and an old book.  Mmm, salmon pink and yellow - not sure about that colour combo - but it's growing on me!

Decay and Repair Embroidery

This week for WOYWW I have done another 4 index cards for the ICAD challenge.  As part of my decay and repair theme I was pleased to find a couple of old button cards which I used as backgrounds - one still had the white circular marks on it where the buttons had been (top right).  

Also this week, with it being too hot to do much I got stuck into my new, updated copy of The Subversive Stitch - Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine' by Rozsika Parker.    It's a fascinating book for anyone who loves embroidery and needle craft, or has an interest in women's history or feminism - it was an incredibly useful book when I was studying for my degree in Textile Art and I was so pleased to find it had been republished and brought bang up to date.

NIGHT MOTHS AND EMBROIDERY

For WOYWW my desk has been busy this week! I have been having great fun trying out a new technique I learnt about from the incredibly talented Morag over at Paper Rainbow.  It involves Citra Solv cleaner and National Geographic magazines, and the process dissolves the ink leaving beautiful background papers.  For anyone interested I found this tutorial here particularly helpful.   The backgrounds on this weeks index cards for ICAD are all from my first attempt at this technique and they led me to work with darker colours and a night time feel - I ended up with a wonderful mix of highly patterned papers and more subtle ones like these - you never know what you are going to get!  I introduced blue as I adore this peacock shade but very rarely use it - I thought the black really enhanced the vividness of it.  I used some pieces of real wings from my old antique collection and I matched them with some brilliant blue embroidery thread  and black lace.

Some close-up details

I love the darkness of this one with the delicate blue spots - so perfect for my theme! 

I used some of the Victorian butterfly wing jewelry I've collected over the years to photograph with the index cards, including a brooch that fell apart when I picked it up - strangely I was thrilled, as I would never have pulled apart a perfectly good piece of jewelry but I love the old, broken look of it and I know I'll put it to good use in the future!