Needle Felting

Well I finally did it. I've been wanting to try needle felting for a very long time and I went in to Vancouver yesterday and got the tools to get started. I bought a holder that can hold up to 3 needles and it came with medium gauge needles, so I also bought some course and fine loose needles. For this, my very first piece of needle felting I used a piece of felt I made quite awhile ago for the background and used Bernat Felting wool for the flower, leaf and stem. I will incorporate this 6" X 6" piece into my felting journal. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I am definitely hooked on needle felting.
Next I tried a needle felt ATC. I used Bernat Felting wool yarn for the flower, leaf and stem on an acrylic felt background. It turned out quite well, but is much easier to get results with a wool background. Next I'll have to try the dyed wool silvers I bought. To start with I used some of the short ends I had leftover from the knit felting I did for the 12 Days of Christmas Gift swap I participated in on the Byhand Artists Yahoo group last December.
Now, since this is my 99th post and I have something planned to give away on my 100th post, I better go and hurry up finishing the item I'm planning to give. Keep checking it should be here soon.

Altered Tin

Altered Tin
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This is the second part of assignment 2 of the online course I am taking. I used a large tomato tin and painted with white craft acrylic paint with a little of African Violet paint mixed in. The centre band is a strip of coffee stained cotton fabric rubber stamped with a floral background stamp with purple dye based ink. A strip of green ribbon is added along the top and bottom of the cotton and silk daisies are glued on. The feet on the bottom of the tin are three sets of 3 buttons glued together and the handle on the lid is 2 buttons and a chipboard button glued on. You may like to see a previous altered tin I created for holding ATC blanks. I think this one will be a Note caddy for holding notes and quotes I collect.

Card Box and Some Cards

I have been working on an online class and the first project was to decorate a box to use for blank greating cards and fill it with cards cut from scrapbook cardstock. I used a plain craft storage box from Michaels, the kind that has index dividers for photos. For decorating my box I used matt medium to apply torn pieces of sheet music, other collage images and paper napkins. I finished with stamping several quote stamps from Quietfire Design. I haven't filled my box yet, but I have made a good start. The second assignment was to decorate one on the blank cards using stitching, well once I got started I had to do 3. Two of the cards are from a 2 sided pink cardstock. I used the lighter side for one of the cards and sponged pale pink paint on the darker side of the cardstock. The third card is made from another two-sided patterned scrapbook cardstock. Two patterned scapbook papers are cut or torn, edged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, layered and stitched. These were applied to the card base and the Cherish stamp from Quietfire Design was stamped on silver cardstock tag or metal sticker.

What You've Been Waiting For

OK I know you've all been siting there holding your breath for this(grin). And the winner of the Created Byhand Challenge art from Jan. 13 is.......drum roll please, K.J. McLean. Now all of you are winners in my book, so if K.J. McLean and each of the rest of you will send me your snail mail to okanagan_spirit at yahoo dot ca (and change that back to proper format) I will start sending something to each of you next week. Thanks to all of you for taking part in my little draw and I hope to be back later today with some of what I've been doing for the last week or so.

Valentine Countdown

Starts today at Ten Two Studio so check every day for new images until Feb 14.

Geometric Faroese Shawl Knit-Along

This is another shawl knit-along I am working on with a Yahoo group which is moderated by Agnes Argan. It is her design for the Geometric Faroese Shawl and she posts another part of the pattern at somewhat regular intervals. I am quite far behind right now as 5 clues have been posted and I have just gotten started on clue 2, but I am progressing at a steady pace. I am using a dark green fingering weight yarn with 3.25 mm. needles. I think the pattern is quite lovely so far and I am enjoying knitting this shawl. This style of shawl is one of my favourites as it is so easy to wear.

Holiday Mystery Shawl Knit-Along

Holiday Mystery Shawl Knit-Along
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I am participating in a shawl knit- along on Holiday Mystery Gifts Knit Along Yahoo group. Instead of a shawl I decided to to a tablecloth in bedspread cotton no. 10 in ecru on 3.00mm needles. This is clues one and 2 finished. The designer posts several pattern choices with each clue and I chose to start with Birds Eye, then knit Inverted Aran Wheatears and finished up clue 2 with Fircone. I have started clue three knitting Candlelight pattern. This will take me a few days and I will have another photo then.

Created Byhand Challenge Jan 13

Created Byhand Challenge Jan 13
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The theme for this weeks challenge is to use the word love somewhere in a project. I created a piece with gel paints then cut it into three quarter inch squares to make the L. I placed these on a black cardstock rubber stamped with a woven background stamp in white pigment ink. The letters "o, v, e" are alphabet stamps embossed with detail copper embossing powder. This is a 4X4.5 fat book page format. You can see more entries here at the Created Byhand Challenge
I think it's about time for some blog candy, so I will draw from names of anyone who leaves a comment on this post and also says they collect fat book pages and would like this one. The draw will take place on Jan. 31, 2009 so check back then.

Edit: I will do the draw sometime on Sunday, so anyone who wants to get a last minute entry in the draw has until Sun. morning.

Bee Tag Set 2

Bee Tag Set 2
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here is some more of the tags for my "Tell The Bees" tag book. I made two versions of the Garden Buddies and I'm not sure which one I'll use, but I' m leaning towards the funky flower background.

Felt Wrap

Felt Wrap
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I've uploaded all the pages from my book for the 12 Days of Christmas swap to my Flickr account. Here is a link for the slide show

or just click on the photo to go to this set of photos.

Bee Tag Set 1

Bee Tag Set 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I've been working on some tags to make my own version of a "Tell The Bees" tag book. These are what I've done so far. Most of the images are collage images from PC Crafter. I've used a distressing tool, chalks and Vintage Photo" distress ink. I also painted Making Memories Asphalt paint on sequin waist and pressed in on to a tag painted with Making Memories Shopping Bag paint.

The Last Group of Journal Gifts

These are more of the felt knit journals for the 12 Days of Christmas swap. Judy, Louise and mine are fastened to the o-wires of the Zutter journal with half hitch cords with shell buttons on the spine. Judy's has a garter clip fastener, Louise's is tied with ribbon ties, Wendy's is a crochet cord held in place with a button and wrapped around the journal and mine is also a crochet cord with a button that the cord is wrapped around to hold it closed. For fastening Wendy's felt cover to the journal, I let my rebellious muse out again and did free-form crochet chain loops. This is the first time I have done felt knitting and it was a fun adventure. The first part of the journal has some of my artwork and favourite quotes and the last half is blank or background pages for the recipients to add in some of their own favourites. I will show some of the pages in my next post and maybe some of the covers under the felt which are all done with handmade papers.

More of the Journals

This is the next group of the journals I made for the 12 Days of Christmas Gift swap and this time I had four finished at one time and was able to photograph the stack. Usually the gifts were mailed at different times in order to get to the most distant destinations on time. The journals for Linda T., Jane, Nicolette and Carolyn are more felt knit covers with half hitch cords or lace ribbon to hold the felt covers to the Zutter bound books. most have shell buttons on the spine, two have ribbon ties, 1 has a garter clip and one has a sleeve clip for a closure. I didn't keep track of which one was sent to each of them, so I hope these ladies will leave a comment to let me know. The last group will be posted in a while.

My Gifts For The 12 Days of Christmas Swap

Now that my day 9 gifts have been opened I can show you the 13 books I made. The ones for Melanie, Beth, Linda C. and Kristy are knit with various wool yarns then felted in the washing machine with hot water wash and cold water rinse. I used ties, lace ribbon or half hitch knots to fasten the felted covers to the Zutter Bind-it-all books. To fasten the covers closed I used garters or sleeve clips. The cover for our hostess, Mary-Beth was the only one made differently. For hers I used a piece of felt I made a long time ago and recently found in my stash. This piece was made by laying wool roving in the brown and white pattern, basting it between fine netting and felting in the washing machine with hot water wash and cold rinse. I cut the felt to size and let my rebellious muse out to couch yarn leftover from one of the other knit covers in a random design. Although i usually like things finished neatly, I left the ends hanging out of the edges, and used a garter clip for the closure. I'll continue with the rest of the books in a new posts in a little while.

Silk Ribbon Embroidery Christmas Stocking

Silk Ribbon Embroidery Christmas Stocking
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Whatever way you celebrate, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. In keeping with the season I just dug another project out of my PNE and IPE entries bin. This is crazy quilt with silk ribbon embroidery, charms and buttons. My entry won Best in Class for Christmas Stocking at the PNE in 1997 and first place for silk ribbon embroidery at the IPE in 1998.

Monthly ATC Swaps for December

The theme for this months ATC swap at the Grind is hands, and I have not managed to create for the theme before, but I did this time. It's great that I came across a bag full of fun foam hands and feet so I figured I could do something this time. I cut watercolour paper to ATC size and glued the foam hands on. These were painted with gesso and when dry they were painted with aqua or pink craft acrilyc paint mixed with white sparkle gel. After the paint was dry I stamped with an alphabet background stamp. The letters are computer generated "die cuts" printed and cut then glued on the cards.

Monthly ATC Swaps for December

On Sat and Sun I completed 27 ATCs, now I will select some to send to Yogi for her Byhand Artists monthly swap and take the rest to the monthly swap at the Grind in Vancouvernext Sunday. The last 2 groups "Starry Night" series are white or burgandy organza on blue or pink cardstock. All the images are from the Ten Two Studio Christmas Countdown. I used various charms, fibres and peel-offs to embellish.
The first group "Winter Wishes: series started with a background painted on watercolour paper. I coated the paper with matt medium and painted Vancouver Grey, African Violet and Paper Bag acrylic paint on while the gel medium was still wet, blending some of the colours and wiping some of the colour off in areas. When dry I stamped with a flower and flourish foam stamps with Spotlight acrylic paint. This was scanned and reduced in size for the background of the ATC, printed on acrylic paper. I also stamped and embossed snowflakes and then embellished.

12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap

I am part of the byhandartists Yahoo group 12 days of Christmas gift swap and the plan is to make 12 gifts and send one to each of the other 12 members of the group. Each gift is labeled with the day number it is to be opened, with day 13 being opened on your own day. My day is Day 9, so on day 9 when all the others are opening my gift I will be opening day 13 gift. This must be ooh and awed over without revealing what it is. The rest of the gifts can be talked about to our hearts content on the day they are opened. All the gifts have been sent and received and so now we wait until Dec. 13 to start opening Day 1 gift, hey that's tomorrow, oh goodie. In the meantime I have been collecting the gifts in this basket and admiring the lovely packages every time I walk by. Don't forget to check my previous post or the sidebar for a Blog Giveaway and a great sale at Artella.

New Artella Affiliate Program

Affiliate Program. I hope to explore more creativity I have been busy with a number of projects for the last while and one was to join the Artella with this program, share some giveaways with you and perhaps earn a little money with your help so I can buy more art supplies. I downloaded the first ebook freebie and tried out a project inspired by one in the book. I did not have all the supplies listed so I just created my version with what I had on hand. I made these 3 ATCs based an a card project and hope to try more soon. For these 3 I used a yellow-gold cardstock for the background and stamped with a crackle image from a cube stamp and embossed with Pirate's Gold embossing powder. I cut a 2 inch square from dark red cardstock. The small squares are green, brown and yellow-gold cardstock stamped with another image from the cube stamp and embossed with a mixture of Dragon Red, gold and silver embossing powders. These were cut to three quarter inch squares, glued to the 2 inch red square and this was glued to the ATC background. The final touch is the ribbon glued to the top. If you would like to download your own copy of this ebook please use this link or check out the link in my sidebar. If you would like to check out the Annual Gala Sale here Save 55% with the Artella Holiday Gift Gala Super Sale!

or perhaps you'd like to explore other parts of the Artella store here Find thousands of creative products in The Artella Store!

Christmas Countdown

The Ten Two Studio Christmas countdown has started today, so go to the link for some great collage images.

08 Nov ATC Happiness

08 Nov ATC Happiness
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

A scan of Happiness magnet I found in the front door threshold when we moved in. I cut out the image and mounted it on purple cardstock. This was mounted with foam mounting tape on gift bag paper which I misted with water, crumpled then smoothed out and mounted on purple cardstock.

08 Nov ATC Passionate Purple

08 Nov ATC Passionate Purple
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

More of the ATCs taken to the Monthly Grind swap. Gift bag paper mounted on purple cardstock with Cutlebug die cut flowers and one with a silk flower.

08 Nov ATC A Little Fish Music

08 Nov ATC A Little Fish Music
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some of the ATCs I took to the Grind swap last Sun. For these I started with torn music paper background glued to watercolour paper with matt medium. I scanned the background added my fish image and and printed on watercolour paper. The fish outline was highlighted with black Crayola sketch markers and then coloured with Portfolio Pastels. This was then scanned again and re- sized to ATCs The border of each ATC was then coloured with Portfolio Pastels and blended with a wet paint brush.

Last Sunday was the monthly ATC swap at the Grind in Vancouver, but before the swap began those of us who participated in the "Tell The Bees" tag book received the finished books. Here is my whopping 60 tag pages book. Thanks to our Queen Bee (host) Penelope Harris we have a beautiful book to treasure. Can you smell the beeswax. The covers Penelope created look wonderful and are candy foe the eyes and nose. Our ambitious Queen scanned all the tags, cut and punched them, designed the backs, collected secret messages and bee lore, as well as the wonderful little bead and wire bee on the name tag. All the art is wonderful and a big thanks to the other 14 worker bees. You can catch a glimpse of my tags in the book and check them out in my previous post.

ATC Oct 2008 Flower Garden

ATC Oct 2008 Flower Garden
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some paper napkin applique ATCs and one yoyo ATC I made for the Sept ATC swap at the Grind. I added small wooden picket fence embellishments to some and small pieces cut from silk flower bushes to others. The bottom right hand corner ATC is paper cut from a gift bag and embellished with a fabric yoyo and button. I made yoyos many years ago, but this is the first one I've made in a long time and the first time I used the new Clover template. It makes the process quicker and easier to do.

Pink Rolodex Swap 2008

Judy of the Byhand Artist's Yahoo group is hosting a Pink theme Altered Rolodex swap and this is a sample of my contribution. I started with a fan brush and painted the woven pattern with 2 shades of acrylic craft paint. I adden a small piece of weaving and the quote "friendship is woven of many threads" The back uses photos of some of my alrered heads and a piece of pink ribbon.

BeeTags Oct 2008

BeeTags Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I am participating in a "Tell The Bees" tag book swap and these are my contribution. Each artist is required to make 1 to 3 tags.

ATC Coffin Oct 2008

ATC Coffin Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

ATCs using the Quietfire Design coffin template. For 3 I used Cuttlebug embossing folders for the coffin and rubbed copper pigmant ink on. The other 2 I cut the ciffin a little smaller and cut it into pieces. I then glued to a larger black coffin shape and embossed with gold embossing powder. Pieces of plastic skeleton, wooden birds and stickers are the embellishments.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 5

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 5
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well here I go again, falling behind on the knitting and then more behind on posting. It is still a puzzle what I am making, but I'll post clue 6 later tonight.

ATC Oct 2008 Wax Play

ATC Oct 2008 Wax Play
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Todays play time I decided to try melting wax crayons for the first time. I used a piece of corragated cardboard and pealed most of the top layer of one side I was pleased with the results, then decided to add the beads. I think they look like a waterfall. I'm sure I'll be doing more of these.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clues 3 and 4

Holiday Mystery Knit Clues 3 and 4
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well I got a little behind on the mystery kniting and when I started knitting to catch up I forgot to stop and take a photo after day 3. Here is day 3 and 4 finished and photographed all at once. I finished knitting on Oct. 3 and just got time to post now. This is still a mystery at this point. Any ideas?

ATC Oct 2008

ATC Oct 2008
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I spent time on Sat. Oct. 4 playing with my Cuttlebug embossing folders, rubber stamping and my first try at Spirelli. Some had pigment ink rubbed over with a cosmetic sponge to highlight the raised portion of the embossing.

Delicate Bloom ATCs

Delicate Bloom ATCs
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

More napkins with rubber stamping and gold embossing. The more faint images are done with the second layer of the paper napkin. Most of these were traded at the Sept swap at the Grind.

Tea Time ATCs

TeaTime ATCs
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some of these were sent for the Sept Byhand Artists monthly swap and some were swapped at the Grind swap for Sept
All are napkin backgrounds with vintage premium coupons which were in Nabob and Blue Ribbon tea and coffee.

Guardian Angel

Guardian Angel
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Way back in another lifetime, or last year my friend Linda T asked me to make something for her guardian angel. I was very slow getting this done and by February of 2008 I was about half done the beaded stole I chose to knit, then disaster hit and I slipped on ice and fractured my wrist. Of course this put all knitting on hold for awhile and when I was finally able to hold knitting needles and knit again a new disaster reared it’s ugly head, I had redesigned the stitch pattern to fit the small format of the stole and to add beads. Well of course I had not written my pattern down, so I had to rip back to see what I was doing and write my pattern down. So now I could finish the stole which is knit in gold cotton thread about the weight of bedspread cotton and has multi-coloured beads added in. So now, when Linda had probably given up all hope of ever seeing her guardian angel again, and before any risk of her getting lost in the sea of moving boxes, I mailed it back to her in August. There was a little purse which had small blessing cards and so my blessing to Linda was “Live life with a peaceful mind”.

Heavy Knit Socks

Heavy Knit Socks
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

While getting ready for the big move I found a number of treasures, and this pair of socks was one of them. One sock was done and the other just needed the toe finished, so I finished it before packing them. These are knit of a wool and acrylic blend yarn of unknown brand and is a bit heavier than knitting worsted. They should be nice and toasty when my garage studio is in operation and gets chilly.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 2

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 2
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The second clue was posted and I've finished this part, but still no clue as to what I am making. Any ideas? At least I am keeping up so far.

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 1

Holiday Mystery Knit Clue 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well, since I fractured my wrist last year, I have been slowly getting back into knitting. The Holiday Mystery Gift Knit-a-long Yahoo group has just started a special project with no information as to what we are knitting. This is day one of the pattern clues and I used Berella 4 knitting worsted in medium navy on 4.5mm needles. Now I just need to wait for Tue. to get the next part of the pattern. I will post the next part as soon as it is knit. This is a great way to get my knitting fingers moving and I can't wait to see what this becomes.

52 Quilts Journal Week 2

Since I was on a role I started the week 2 quilt on Sun. For this one I chose a dark blue and gold print from my sample stash and recycled a crochet sample motif. This is the first try at crochet since I broke my wrist and the sample turned out a little large for an ATC, so here it is on my mini quilt. I stitched it on with assorted brown and cream beads and then joined it to the back of quilt 1 to make a page for my journal. Later I will join this to 2 more quilts to make a signature and eventually decide how I will bind the journal.

52 Quilts Journal Week 1

I have decided to take the challenge of creating a 52 Quilts Journal, one a week for a year. I sure hope I can keep it up so here goes. The idea comes from the Feb/March 2008 issue of Quilting Arts magazine and the challenge is to use something recycled or found in each quilt. Since most of the fabric I will use is rescued from fabric sample books that were destined for the landfill, I have that covered, but I will try to incorporate something more is each quilt. I have chosen to make my quilts 6 in. X 6 in. My first quilt for the week ending July 12, 2008 is from my fabric sample stash and the recycled item I've used is a mesh vegetable bag stitched down with 2 sizes of blue and greenish yellow porcelain beads. I think I'm off to a good start and will likely try out different techniques I'd like to explore for future projects.

Christening Dress

So here I am with more historical projects. This Christening dress is sewn from handkerchief linen and the neckline and sleeves are trimmed with a crochet lace edging. The centre panel is assorted crochet samples and motifs in white and ecru cotton. Most of the lace was in my stash and I decided this was a good place to use them. The lace on the bottom is filet crochet and I am pretty sure that I designed and charted it. The crochet roses were created for this dress and buttons were collected from family, including one from a wedding dress. I created this dress for a family member a few years ago.

Stocking

Stocking
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I haven't had much time for creating lately but while I was cleaning I came across some photos of past projects, so I'm sharing a bit of my history today. This PNE second place winning stocking is a lace sampler knit with worsted weight yarn with a cotton lace edging added below the ribbing. Burgandy and white flowers and ribbons trim the back. This was made for a niece and there was a bit of a panic when I went to pick up my entries and it was missing. It was soon found with a group entry and all ended well.