Extreme crafting...

I mentioned in a recent post that I'd sent for an Extreme knitting kit.  It arrived yesterday, and I've finished it.  I suppose that's a good thing, and a bad thing.  The kit itself cost just under £40 - that included 8 balls of yarn, a feather cushion pad (41cm) and Extreme knitting needles (19mm x 500mm).  2 of the yarns were the same, and I used 7 yarns at once.   It is a concept devised by Rachel John and here's a video of her setting a world record (1000 yarns) 
Anyway, here is the knitting not long after I'd started it last night

The needles across the knitting are 3 3/4 mm. 

The finished cushion

And now a close up of the stitches

Now having done this - I decided to knit a cover for my phone, along the same lines, but using 4 yarns - 3 of the ones in the cushion cover, and one of my own - on 5 1/2 mm needles

I also did some baking today - this was  inspired by my reading of a book "Shades of Grey" by Jasper Fforde.   There is a section in it which ends "And all in the time it takes to bake a tray of scones".  I happened to mention on my FB page that I fancied making scones and my pal offered me some home made jam to go on them.   So I had to bake  - haven't made scones for years, the result was pleasantly pleasing, but I don't get the jam until tomorrow.

And finally (for the pics anyways) I got a Sheena Douglass stamp set from friend "As Scene on Screen 1" so I had a bit of a play - used water colour pencils for the first time

Another practise piece which may well make it somewhere.     And after I'd done it I discovered she has some video tutorials of lots of intersting stuff on her blog/website

It could be another week till I post again, so stay safe out there in blogland and thanks for reading


Later folks
xx





Fusioneering

Being all inspired yesterday I decided to turn to the paint fusion techniques from Sheena Douglass.  Because I was watching her demonstrate on the TV at the same time, I thought I'd give it a go without having the instructional DVD on. 

So this is my first sample

I was very pleased with it.

Then I turned the DVD on, and followed the examples through in the order she demonstrated them.  They started at the easiest and of the 4, Lavender (which is what the picture above is a representation of) is the final one.

So I thought - "ok, let's do it in the right order"

So here's the next sample - which has 3 of the 4 on it, including my 2nd attempt at the lavender

I'me even more pleased with this - so much so that I'm going to take it into work and put it on the wall next to my desk.  It's not perfect, but I love it.

Then finally - this is the bouquet  that I made my original attempts with a few weeks ago and the pics are further down on this blog but they are included again for your convenience

I've had great fun, and I'm not a painter - yet

Later folks xxx

practice pieces

Well folks, my brayer arrived yesterday, as did my Mountain Meadow big and juicy ink pad, along with a couple of other goodies.     And today Barbara Gray was on Create and Craft so I got all inspired.  First of all I thought I'd try a bit of a scene, but I also wanted to use my new Tales of the Ocean, designed by Sylvie Ashton for Joanna Sheen.   Sylvie has the most fantastic blog, she is very talented and gives away amazing free digital stamps.

So I went all nautical, with limited success it has to be said.   After a few experimental runs with a brayer on some ordinary copier paper I thought it time to take it onto the silk art card.   that bit was ok.  But then it came to the stamping.  That wasn't too bad.   But the little bit of colouring with promarkers was not good at all.   It seems to go ok when she does it on the TV, but then she does it direct onto the card, not once it's been brayered - at least not that I noticed.  So perhaps that needs a bit more experimentation.

But now for the specimen



Then I thought I'd have a go with the technique when you stamp in clear ink (versamark) first, then print over it - resist technique I believe, but the stamp was too big for my acrylic blocks, so I thought "oh what the hell" and inked up with versamark then gently put it on the card and pressed.   Took it off then ran over the card with the inked up brayer.  It would have been lovely, if only I'd remembered to take some of the ink off first, so it took forever to dry.  And I didn't leave it long enough before I fiddled with it.   So I had another go.   Which was better in terms of the quantity of ink, but I think I pressed a little too firmly when stamping the image.

Then finally I ran the brayer over the stamp, and as it has a repeating pattern , if you line it up properly will look seamless.   You can see my seam, but if I make it into a card, I'm sure I can find a bit of ribbon somewhere.

I do have plans for at least one of these specimens that involves a mermaid, might not get it done today, but  when it's done, it shall be shared.

And here is the link to Sylvie's cards - just so you can see the full potential of her stamps

Oh and I've invested in an Extreme knitting cushion kit. 

Laters

xxx

More candy alert

Still not mine - go check it out here

looking for a cable

I eventually finished the first side of the fence but didn't have the SD card in my camera and can't find the cable to upload from camera.

So instead have a picture of some shoes that I don't think I'll ever wear again given the way I'm aching right now.

I bought them quite a while ago after a friend told me she had seen the most fabulous shoes in a charity shop, but they were too big for her.   So I went and bought them.


It's later - I've brought the laptop to my bed in the likely eventuality  I can't get out of it tomorrow.

Photographic evidence of fence

Firstly - approx 6.45pm - I had been taking regular breaks because I'm not full of beans, and can't keep going from start to finish (certainly not when it comes to painting a fence anyways) and had been told, by a FB friend that I had to stop slacking off and finish it.   So this is what it was like at that point.

And then, shortly after 8.30 when i had finished it - although truth be told, I will have to do a bit more if I'm to finish this side properly - as you can see it's not a fence made up of fence panels, it's made up of planks of wood - at the last count 217 still standing (should be about 225) and really the sides of each plank should be painted.  However I was running out of paint in the tub I was using, so on the last few planks I didn't even attempt to do the sides.

I know I still need to go back to my post of this morning and complete the details about the card, but there's always tomorrow.


Later folks
xxx

Busy Busy Busy

A quick, earlyish morning post before I go and paint the fence

A card - will add details later but would like to enter into the latest MSE challenge which is based on a sketch

The fence - including the hole I had to climb through, firstly to take the picture, and will have to climb through again to paint it.

Back with the after photo later xxx

Blog Candy

I think it's Easter Sunday, and with that in mind I'm giving you the opportunity to win some blog candy (which,not being an Easter Egg won't make you fat) courtesty of Maria Simms.  Maria and I are FB friends, but I can't remember if I asked her or she asked me,   But either way we are friends and she is a very talented lady.   So talented is she that she is on the design team for, amongst others, Barbara Gray and HunkyDory.  This weekend she was introduced as a new guest craft demonstrator on Ideal World so I went in search of her blog and discovered she is giving stuff away.  So, being the generous soul that I am, I thought I'd tell you all about it.  And it's got nothing to do with the fact that it's a condition of the giveaway that it's posted on your blog.  Nothing I tell you........

And, with my frugal head on (which is still not doing so well) by using TopCashback I have earned myself about £100 of cashback.   So using some of this I have ordered a couple of crafty things from Amazon, and I am about to receive my 2nd payment which I'm opting to get as credit to my paypal account.  I then intend to use this to get a brayer and some big and juicy stamp pads so that I can practice with the Barbara Gray stamps and free DVD I ordered from C&C in the big Easter weekend giveaway (DVD free)   And to bring this entry back full circle, I also ordered the gorgeous HunkyDory pick of the week (with free luxury cards) on which show was the lovely Maria.

Just as well it's payday before the the paint fusion POW on Royal Wedding Day.

Best continue tidying so I got some room to store my new goodies

xxx