Christmas Tree

I bought a little 2 foot tree to decorate and take to the hospital and decided all the ornaments should be non-breakable and handmade, everything but the string of beads met that criteria. All the ornaments I made are recycled paper and needle felt.




I played with some colour blending for these ornaments and used cookie cutters for the heart and star shapes. Most of the paper ornaments were cut with a Spellbinders die.

ATCs For June "All Stitched Up"

ATCs For June "All Stitched Up"
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

One of the themes for the Byhand ATC monthly swap is stitched.These all have a layer of craft felt cut with the Sizzex ATC die and fabrics from sample books purchase at Ruby Dog's Art House back when they were still on Maine Street. Some have several pieces of fabric and all are finished with buttons.

More March ATCs

Well I continued to finish up some more apple theme ATCs for this month's swap. This first group "Fractured Apple" I printed a black and white and a colour photo of my apples then cut them out with the Funky Squares Cuttlebug die. I mixed the 2 images together and mounted them on metallic cardstock embossed with Cuttlebug embossing folders.
This set uses apple stickers from Ruby Dog's Art House, some have an embossed felt background and some are on green cardstock. All the stickers are stitched on watercolour paper and layered with red and silver floral mesh with bits of lace, ribbon and buttons.

My First Felt Bead

My First Felt Bead
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I finally did it!!! I made a wet felt bead. I went to the Farmers Market on Sunday and after checking out all the fruits and vegetables that were available and buying a nice supply I checked some of the other booths. What a great discovery of a lady at one of the booths with colourful pieces of wool roving. She allowed me to choose a couple of colours and showed me how to make a wet felt bead. I came home with this treasure which I may embellish with some seed beads and turn it into a necklace, I haven't decided for sure yet. If I do I'll post the results.

52 Quilts Journal Week 3

Well I'm finally back to my weekly journal quilt project after doing only 2 pages and then having to move. I plan to keep up with 1 page a week for a total of 52 weeks and use something recycled on each page.
I tried out my first needle felting without using a fabric background and created this flower. Any resemblance to a living flower is accidental, but if you think it looks like a real flower let me know. I had fun with this, the petals are made from Bernat Felting wool yarn. I used a piece a little longer that double the size I wanted the petal to be, fluffed the yarn and folded it in half and needle felted from the fold, leaving a small area at the cut end unfelted. I made 7 petals, overlapped the unfelted ends and needle felted to join into a flower. For the centre I made a small ball of another colour of the yarn and needle felted it to the flower and stitched assorted size beads on. Size 10 seed beads are 3 bead back stitch which also sews the flower to the journal page.
The page back is fabric from a fabric sample book which was saved from being discarded. The background is part of a piece of felt I made many years ago for a long forgotten project. I used more of the Bernat yarn to couch around the brown areas of the felt with magenta nylon thread. The ends of the yarn are needle felted to add interest and prevent them from unravelling.

100th Blog Post and Blog Candy

Post has been edited and the rest of the blog candy photos added.





Before I get started, just a reminder that Lisa Volrath at Ten Two Studio is running a St. Patrick's Day countdown so do go check out the free images there after you finish reading my post.
Well this is finally it, my 100th post, well part of it anyway. I've had to keep quiet here for awhile because I wanted the 100th post to be about my latest prizes and they are not quite ready yet but I just can't keep quiet any more and I just can't wait to show you the third place blog candy. I will edit and add the first and 2nd. prize in a day or two. Now how's that for putting pressure or motivation on myself? In the meantime go ahead and post a comment on this post to be in the draw if you don't mind risking what first and 2nd prize will be.
This journal for third place is the third assignment for my course. The project was to use old book paper and a chipboard flower or other shape and paint with stamp pad ink and a wet paint brush. The ink is stamped onto freezer paper used as a palette and then painted on the book paper which is glued to the chipboard;, but instead of a flower, I decided to do the journal covers. This little Zutter bound journal is 4.25 inches by 5 inches with 12 blank watercolour pages just waiting for your art to be added. For the inside covers, I added some green cardstock that I had mono-printed with gold and pearl gel paint. The chipboard and wires are small pieces leftover from the 12 Days of Christmas Gift Journals. I used brads to add a decorated chipboard shape stamped with "Friends" in green Stazon ink. There is also a Quietfire Design quote stamp which was stamped on the blank white sheet from a paper napkin and glued over the old book paper and a bunch of ribbons tied onto the wires. This was a fun project, I hope you like it.

Well the pressure I put on myself worked, the prizes were finished in a few days. It has just taken me more time to get online to post them. Well here they are. Second prize is a 5X5.5 inch knit felted bag. It is bias knit in garter stitch with a self striping wool and soy yarn and then machine felted. This little bag will arrive empty just waiting for you to fill with tresures.
Now for the first prize, a 5.5X6 inch felt bag which I designed with a diaganal flap. This is again bias knit garter stitch from a 100% wool yarn and machine felted. Next I needed just the right button, so I checked out my collection and could not find just the right one, so I went to a jar of vintage buttons my Mom had given me and this one seemed perfect. This little bag comes with a 4X4 inch journal tucked inside and you can read more about it in my next post. Of course you could remove the jouranal and fill the bag with whatever treasures you would like. Now to win one of these prizes leave a comment on this post by March 28, 2009 and I'll draw 3 names on March 29, 2009. Please check back after Mar. 29 to see if you are a winner, I will then have instructions for claiming your prize. Good luck to all of you, I hope you have as much fun as I did.

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.

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.