Revamping the old sand bag.

The sand bag in my laundry was looking terrible for a long time

and it was time for a new cover.

These pieces of fabric are off cuts that I bought 

at "Kamers vol geskenke", or as they are now known,

KAMERS.

Heavy duty upholstery fabric is from Design Team.

A South African based company that prints

beautiful designs.  

Some of the pieces of fabric I cut smaller and 

others I left the same.

Then I stitched them together and ironed the seams.

Then it was time for the top stitching.

I did some more measurements and sew along the long edge

of the bag, then stitched the short ends. 

Then I turned it inside out and slided the 

old bag into it's new cover, through the opening I have left at the side.

It was so quick and easy, 

but you do need the right fabric. 

I plan to make some coasters with the pieces of fabric that are left over.

But for now I will be taking a break for a couple of weeks.

I hope to see all of you again in the new year. Have a wonderful 

holiday and take good care of yourself.

xx

A Felt Mobile

On Sunday we took the trip to fetch my mother in law.

The round trip took us eight hours.

She will be spending the holidays with my sister in law.

Because she has Dementia it is not always easy and there are challenges.

She also spends hours in her room at the old age home which 

she shares with a room mate. 

To brighten up the room a little bit, I made this butterfly mobile.

It still needs the strand from which it must hang and maybe a few beads 

to catch the sun. But hopefully it will brighten up the window a little bit.

The red and blue flowers are both needle 

books for my Crafting friends. 

I am still finding my feet in the free style embroidery

field, but I am enjoying it. It is relaxing.

I think I now understand why women loved ( and still love )

the craft of embroidering and crochet so much.

All the small cloths made by grandmother and 

aunt, they are all cloths of sanity.....

They did it to keep their sanity.

It reminds me of the pin:

I knit so I don't kill people.

Keep crafting is all I can say!

xx

Needle books as gifts

A few of my crafting friends also do needle work, 

so I decided to make them each a needle book.

These are the two that I finished and there are many more to make.

. 

Each book has two white felt pages inside that are 

just smaller than the cover.

The back page is the same color as the front and

also out lined with blanket stitch.

Beads... of course there must be a bit of bling so 

all those beads from our stash came in handy.

(so did a few buttons and charms)

Working with the invisible thread to get the beads in

 place was a bit of a challenge, but worth it.

xx

Small Shopping Tote

This is a Christmas gift for my niece.

Instructions:

1. Make a drawing on paper just to help you get started.

2. Cut out the felt circles by hand.

3. Arrange them on the tote. 

4. Make a note on your drawing of what goes where.

5. Use Blanket stitch and French knots on the Flowers.

and Back stitch for the stems of the flowers.

There is a little secret to embroidery these days.
It is a FriXion Pen. You draw directly onto the cloth
and embroider over it. When you are done you can
just put the heat of a hairdryer onto it and the line will
disappear. 

Felt Needle Book

This little book started it all.

I needed a place too keep my needles while working on 

a small shopping tote for my 2 year old niece.
I had a look on the internet and got a few ideas.

It had to be a quick and easy project, 

because there were other projects waiting.

The last embroidery work that I did was about twenty 

years ago. That was candlewicking. Before that it was in 

High School, in Mrs. van der Walt's Needle Work class.

It was a table cloth on which I spent hours!

During one Home Economics class I would not stop talking and

we were busy at the stoves learning how to make 

Koeksisters, so she threw a piece of dough at me.

I think the whole class remembered that day although 

I can not remember how the Koeksisters turned out!

Now the felt embroidery bug has bitten me and

there are more projects that I will share with you soon.

Altered Suitcase

Here is the sweet little suitcase.

It will be interesting to see how the suitcase will age, 

because there are a few different surfaces 

that I painted with the same paint.

The inside was done with paint, serviettes and gel medium.

After the market I will use the suitcase to display 

my handmade cards.

Have a lovely week!

Christmas Market

Getting ready for a Christmas market that runs for ten days was hectic. 

And still, I don't have a clue what will sell and what not.

We put up the stall and table on Tuesday and 

yesterday was the first day of selling.

These clip boards are my favorites. Both landscape and portrait.

All of them stenciled! Some of them aged.

Then to add something cute to the table I also painted this small suitcase.

I think it belonged to my sister. It was hers in Grade 1. 

There is only space for your pencil and your lunch.... and

maybe your jersey if you really tried hard.

Now again I am guilty of not posting the "after"

photos but let me tell you what I did. 

I painted the outside with 3 layers of paint. Waxed it and aged it.

On the inside I ripped out all the existing paper, sanded it lightly.

Then I painted it with one coat of white paint and decoupaged 

a few serviettes to the inside.

I will take photos and share it with you, because it is the cutest 

thing ever!

Small Art Journal

For this small art journal, these are the products I used.

Not on the photograph is a small water mister and the Glimmer Mists.

The paper I chose to work on was 200gsm Water Colour Paper.

Add some scrapbook paper and card stock and you are all set.

These two pages was coloured by using the distress inks.

Here I used the Distress paint to colour the paper. Then a mask

and some glimmer mist to create the pattern.

 

Colour the paper with Distress stains.

For the next layer use stencils and Distress inks.

Apply the Distress inks with an applicator tool. 

Colour the paper with Distress stains and use 

some stickles on the heart.

Colour the stamped image with the Distress markers and the water pen.

I used the inked up stencil, sprayed it with a little water 

and placed it face down on the paper to get this effect.

Doodle around the edges and create your own patterns

by working with the paint splatters that you have on the paper.

Here again I "go with the flow" with my Doodling.

On the last page, I created a few simple Doodling patterns. 

Stick the piece of paper down and use it as a reference.

Mixed media canvas

This was the last class we did and as usual

I post the tutorial after the class.

Materials:

box canvas

gesso

paint brush

baby wipes

Distress paint

Distress stains

Distress Markers

Distress ink pads

Applicator tool

heart doily

gel medium

tissue paper

canvas paper 

water colour paper

heart die

heart embossing folder

chipboard word

Mono multi glue

water pen

Archival ink pad

stamp

Paint the canvas with a layer of gesso and let it dry

Decide on colours for your project and paint the canvas.

While the paint is still a bit wet, wipe off some of the paint 

with your baby wipe. Let it dry.

Tear the tissue paper after you have decided which section to 

use. Place all the elements on the canvas and do your layout.

Use gel medium and glue down your tissue paper and let it dry.

Glue the doily into the canvas with gel medium.

Make your heart element. 

Use gel medium and glue the canvas paper and the 

water colour paper together. While it is still damp, put it through 

the die cutting machine and the embossing folder.

Leave to dry.

I made two hearts and then decided on the pink and white one.

Use your applicator tool to deepen your colours on the canvas

and to colour the heart.

Place washi tape strips on the canvas to fill some of the empty spaces.

Paint the word with distress paint and let it dry.

Turn the word over and apply little dots of Mono Multi Glue.

Let the glue dry before you place the word on the canvas.

Take the Distress markers and draw shadows in and around the doily.

Use a water pen to soften the effect.

Stamp around the edges with a stamp and Archival ink.

Sew a little charm to the heart.

Place the heart on 3D foam squares and adhere to the canvas.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial.

Keep well!

Art Journal Cover

Fly!

This is the cover of the art journal.

I found the letters for the cover in my stash. 

I made them years ago for another project 

and never used them. The colours and the theme matched, 

so.... I  used the word!

For the cover I used:

chip board

gesso

paint

tissue paper

gel medium

stamps

distress markers

grunge board elements

rub ons

 I finished the journal by binding it with my Zutter.

The colours of the cover are happy colours.

That was what my intention was with this journal.

A bit of colour therapy.

It is like a pair of new shoes, you need to look at them.

This is half the pleasure!

So I displayed the journal in my studio so I can look at it.

Have a good weekend.