Happy Mothers' Day and More Collographs

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mums out there. I am alone today, the young people are busy so I have done two loads of laundry, vacuumed the house and cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms !! OK so that was this morning I have now started to enjoy myself making more collograph prints. Before that though can you tell what this drawing is.... I am making myself draw every morning for at least 10 minutes before I go to work. I have noted what this is at the bottom of this picture heavy blog in case your guess is wrong!!. Anyway to collographs - yesterday I spent the day with my daughter, playing with the Big Shot - she made cards whilst I made three rather twee collograph plates. As I have the long plate for my Big shot I decided to make three long plates.

Falling leaves.....

Cogs and lace

and Daisies.

This morning I decided to try printing with the Daisies - the first print on paper came out rather well

so I thought I would try one on cotton (with a view to quilting it)... not bad...

Now I am starting to cover the kitchen floor with drying paper and cotton prints.

I will move onto the other plates in a moment, watch this space - I am loving this game. I will need to get some better ideas for plates (less twee) for the future. Such a versatile piece of equipment - this Big Shot.

The answer to the drawing at the start of this post - It's a dead rose minus the petals. Did you guess it correctly or is my drawing so bad??

First Collograph prints - Big Shot

My first attempt at collograph prints.. OK so the plates are not too briliant but I was just trying to make a plate that would work! Also my use of colour leaves a lot to be desired but again this was my impatience to see if the principle works - and it does!! Next I will think through a better plate and colour combination but at least I know I can do this too!!

Muse 4 Update and Sizzix Big Shot playing - photo heavy post

Another day at 'Aunt' Jane's and the 'grouting' on the main Muse 4 Body is complete and I am now starting on the 1 inch border of grouting that will run all round the piece - it's not easy to see here because there was not enough space to hang the piece fully.

Back at home my dining room table currently looks like this - at one end I have drawing stuff - yes I am trying to make myself draw for 10 minutes every morning before I go to work -

YES I am trying to draw - here is my latest 'dead' rose (sorry pic is on its side) it needs to be a bit longer. I will show you more from the sketchbook another day..

At the other end of the table is the Sizzix machine and my practice runs.

I ordered some more dies - yes more - Have to show you them as they excite me and I need to share!! :-).

These are the most beautiful tiny flowers - it is a 20p piece next to them to show the scale and they cut out of fabric just perfectly !!!

Next two Tim Holtz dies - the cogs

and tattered leaves - both are great !!

Then the 'sale' priced (ie 1/3 the price!!) Sizzix Fleur de Lis - I cut this out of stretchy velvet and it worked a treat !!

Sizzix say that their fine Sizzlit dies are just for card stock but hey - they don't say you can't try fabric - so I did - These flower dies work just fine on crisp cotton

and here is a close up of the check fabric just freshly cut still on another sizzlit die, which also works through fabric.

Oh and crisp cotton even embosses...

I know it would wash out if washed but the ideas running around in my head never get washed so the embossing may be another string to the bow of excitement - where's the catalogue for embossing folders ??? Quick find it for me!!

Just to do one 'useful' thing with this lovely machine rather than just playing I had purchased this rather plain Mothers' Day card for next weekend - (I don't like all the overly lovely cards - my mum is not that type of person - far from it!!).

But this card was a bit too plain so hey presto it now has a couple of card stock and fabric extra flowers !! Not bad!!

Now I am off to try a collograph print through the machine. Then I must just must organise some ideas - maybe a list.

For Sale

As part of the wonderful kit I purchased the other day - the Big Shot - there was included an accessory kit. It is in a lovely white case and contains: a pair of fine-tip scissors with a protective cap, dual-purpose spatula/burnisher, 6" metal ruler with cork back, craft knife with protective cap, fine-point reverse tweezers and die pick with protective cap. Additionally, the case leaves space for an eclips Machine Blade Holder and a Craft Knife Replacement Blade holder. Closed, the Tool Kit measures 5 1/4" x 8 1/4" x 2"

As I already have a similar set I would like to sell it - Value is £22, however I can't put it on Ebay as they don't allow knives. So I offer it here to any of my blogging friends for the bargain price of £15 which will include postage within the UK. If you would like this fantastic set please email me.

Muse 4 update and a useful purchase

Muse 4 is large, so to stitch the grout I have been working on the floor in my living room, as the grout is all hand stitched. It's not easy - so think how wonderful it was to be able to use a table again yesterday. I went to 'Aunt' Jane's (Jane Lemon) for our sewing session - I love going there so regularly. Jane not only is a great inspiration, but is a brilliant advisor. I love her opinion on my work and of course she has the space in her work room. Here is a close up of Muse 4 - I have nearly finished the grout on Muse - then it will be a good inch of grout round the outside binding. At Jane's I was able to pin her up on the back wall to get a good look..... you can see I have completed the vertical grout and am nearly at the bottom of the horizontal grout. Jane said she was really proud of my work!! What a compliment - she believes my work has really 'blossomed' over the last few years - with the costumes and the Muse series. She also made me finally let go of the idea of getting a degree - SHE says I don't need to prove to ANYONE just how good I am !!!! - I am so proud of myself, to be complimented by 'Aunt' Jane!! Can you see me still glowing with pride!! I am back there again next weekend - can't wait.

On my way home I popped into In Excess - they have a lovely ever changing stock - excess stock obviously... Look what I found -

not sure what they are really meant to be used for but.. I think such a useful item for holding my quilt when putting it under the machine... there are 12 in the pack and all for £1 !! Bargain - wish they had been there sooner!!!

Look what I Just ordered

I have just decided to treat myself to this....... What a brilliant collection and too good a price to pass up from Cutting Edge Crafts (on line) I have no intention of using it for paper or cardstock but we shall see and I just had to add these swirl dies too. I have been watching various people use the Big shot with fabric - seems to work so have to give it a try. Oh and we also used Maggie Grey's Big Shot for making collographs - so another thing for me to work on. See Maggie's blog post here

Can't wait for it to arrive!!

Muse 4 - Grouting

I showed you Muse 4 with the squares stitched on a couple of posts ago. I have since been making miles and miles of grouting - this is made from stitching on water soluble fabric and then dissolving it. The colours are a mix of the colours used for the squares. This is what it looks like whilst still on the fabric,

then dissolved and gently wound round some paper to keep it untangled -

you can see the dissolved result in the background of this photo - some rows are very fine, some are double.

The hard part is stitching it onto the main piece. I tried to do this by machine but as the piece is so big it is too difficult so I am had stitching it all - with the piece rolled and laid out on my table. Tough work. but I hope it will look good in the end.

Lavender Hearts

So my daughter has been very busy making these lovely hearts - each one is roughly 4 inches and is filled with polyfill and lavender so not only would they look lovely hanging but they smell divine too. She leaves the edges rough so that they have that 'cottage chic' look, true patchwork!!

We have put them in my Etsy shop at roughly £3 each or if anyone orders/purchases 3 or more we can reduce the cost. - Want any???? Oh - and the cushions may be added there soon too!!