Birthday present for Jacqui

I thought I'd make something in the style of Beryl Taylor for Jacqui's birthday, as I know Jacqui loves Beryl's work. I've made paper quilts in this style before, but I thought I'd stretch myself a bit by moving out of my colour comfort zone and have a try at using pastels in the way that Beryl does. Beryl's colours always look so pretty, and I don't do pretty that well!

I used good quality watercolour paper - Fabriano Artistico Aquarello hot press. I cut and tore the paper, then brushed it with water before spraying with 3 colours of Sticky Fingers colour wash sprays - lilac, aqua, and pink. The water helps the colours blend where they meet.

I gave the main background area a very thin coat of watered down gesso, as I thought it was a bit bright. This was nearly a disaster as of course, the base layer of colour is water based, and adding thin gesso was not a good plan as it started to lift the original colour! I dried it as quickly as I could before all the colour disappeared. Once dry, I stamped down each side using Stewart Gill paint and a grungy Fleur-de-Lys stamp.

I cut a piece of the original darker coloured paper to go across the top, then punched flower shapes out of it. I attached the top strip with brads, adding a layer of organza to soften it. I punched some tags and inchie squares from the darker paper, and embossed them in cuttlebug folders, along with a piece for the bottom. I used the flowers I'd punched from the top piece to decorate the tags and added these plus a couple more flowers to the right hand side, using brads. I sewed the squares down the left hand side, adding square sequins and blue beads.


For the main central panel, I coated some of the paper with gesso and added Stewart Gill Fresco Flakes. The white flakes looked a bit stark, so I gave them a coat of watered down aqua colourwash, then sealed the flakes and colour with soft matte gel medium. I made a frame using water soluble paper and a rubber stamp, then painted it with pink paint, and added Treasure Gold in Aqua and Whitefire. I stuck the frame onto a slightly distressed image transfer (made using water and an inkjet print in the Wizard), and added these to the Fresco Flake background. I sewed some buttons top and bottom, adding 3 gold beads to each.


For a final touch, I stamped and decorated some tags, and added them all to the bottom of the quilt, using two eyelets.

I am not sure this quilt is finished yet, I think it may need a thin ribbon down the side and possibly a horizontal element or two on the Fresco Flake background. I'll leave it for a day or so to make up my mind. Please feel free to make suggestions using the comments box!

I did add a few small gold sequins here and there, just to make it look a little more 'finished'. Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy. See if you can spot the difference!

Meander book pages

I'm involved in a round robin meander book swap. We have chosen to use pelmet vilene or canvas as the base of our 3.5 inch pages, which are mixed media. Each player has coloured their pages, and set a theme, and sent two pages out to each player. When we get our pages we are to decorate both, keep one and return one, so we will each end up with two meander books - one of our own pages for everybody else's books, plus one of everybody else's pages for our own book. Make sense? See Cloth paper scissors issue 5 Winter 2005 for mixed media meander book example and instructions.


Eva chose her theme to be 'rainbow' and has sent a different colour to each player. I got red. Eva wanted texture, but no words. I painted a paper doily, and stuck some of that on the page, then added some Stewart Gill gilding flakes (very shiny!) and made two textured hearts from Friendly Plastic (ironed between silicone baking paper till thin, then stamped into, and finally re-heated and cut using a small cookie cutter). I covered the wholepiece with red organza, and used french knots and fly stitch to 'trap' the hearts and hold the layers together. It's been a while since I embroidered!


Annie send some very subtly coloured pages, and set her theme as 'birds'. I printed a bird I created earlier in the year, and ran the print (coated with gel medium) through the Wizard to create an image transfer.


I used gold machine embroidery thread to sew an eye, the beak, and an outline - all by hand.


I added some green and purple organza 'feathers' to the tail.

I added 'feathers' to the wing, fly stitch to give the body texture, a few french knots for interest, and blanket stitch all round to finish the edge off. It took me AGES. I managed to tangle all the threads. I now remember why my interest in embroidery didn't last too long last time I dabbled!!


I hope Annie likes it.

And now for something completely different

This piece is a gift for somebody who set their theme as 'botanical'. I have tried to use muted natural colours, to bring a feeling of a botanical illustration book page to the piece.


I gathered the flowers and leaves from my garden, and used the microwave to 'press' them, or dry them. I used a sandwich of ceramic tile, kitchen paper, plant matter, kitchen paper and another ceramic tile, and 'cooked' it on full power for 2 minutes, then 15 second bursts until the plants were dry.

The background is made from pages from an old Welsh language book, with the flowers and leaves adhered using gel medium, and white gesso painted over the whole thing. The stone carved image is an image transfer, with the 'missing sections' drawn in pencil. I finished the piece with a quote by Keats - 'the poetry of the earth is never dead', and mounted it onto some green mount board which had been stamped with Versamark ink.

Queen of the extreme

I made a gift for a friend who set the theme as 'queenly'. So, here is the 'queen of the extreme' paper quilt, which will be whizzing round the world as soon as I can work out how to package it safely (thinking it might be packed with foamboard as a lightweight stiffener).

The paper was torn and sprayed with several purple colorwash sprays, and I added gold embossing powder down the torn edges. Some paper was cut into fancy shapes and run through the Wizard in cuttlebug folders, and applied some Treasure Gold to highlight the pattern, and some self adhesive gems before adding these pieces to the very top and bottom of the quilt.


I ironed some fantasy film onto dark cardstock, then cut that into squares and ran those through the Wizard in the cuttlebug folder, and highlighted the pattern with Treasure Gold. I mounted those onto larger plain squares with buttons, and added them to the top and bottom, layered over some purple organza ribbon. I added some punched flowers between the squares.

I sprayed some small tags, and added brads and embellishments, then layered those over some chiffon down the right hand side, with punched flowers in between.

The main image is a transfer onto fabric, and the 'frame' is lutradur, with puff paint stamping, sprayed with colorwashes, and foiled on the high points, before small holes being amde with a fine soldering iron. the little crowns are brass charms, the larger crown is german scrap.

Image transfer card

Well, I didn't make a card for months, and then I made two in a week!



This card is for Jenny, and the lady on the front is an image transfer created from a simple digital collage. I found a picture of some lace on Google, and worked on it in Photoshop Elements. I removed the background with the magic wand tool, then changed the colour of the lace. The lady is a copyright free image from Art-e-zine, and I changed the colours to be blue hues, and then layered her over the lace background and printed. I smeared the print with a thin layer of regluar matte medium, and smeared a piece of linen with a similar thin coat, then ran the paper and fabric threough the Wizard, twice.

I layered the transfer onto pearlescent blue card, duck egg blue matte card, and then onto the main background, which is stamped and embossed pearlescent blue card. 3 little start charms finished it off nicely!

Fiona's IT girl gift

Layers of watercolour paper, coloured with colourwashes,
some embossed in Cuttlebug folders.

I combined the papers with gel medium image transfers onto linen,
ribbons, organza, sequins and beads to make a paper quilt.
Inspired by Beryl Taylor.....

I hope Fiona likes it!

Image transfer card

This is a card I made for an image transfer swap on CCSwaps. I haven't made a card for months. The botanical image was transferred to a piece of linen by printing the image onto Epson double sided matte photo paper, then smearing both the image and the fabric with a thin layer of Golden regular matte gel medium, and running the paper and fabric through the Wizard.

I am finding this method for creating image transfers is pretty reliable and works well onto fabric, gessoed mount board, watercolour paper...


I layered the fabric image transfer onto watercolour paper, then onto embossed card (used the 'distressed stripes Cuttlebug folder for this), and then again onto more watercolour paper. The papers were coloured with pesto and butterscotch colorwashes, and I used small scraps with brads and ribbon to make the embellishments above and below the main image. The whole thing was layered onto green cardstock.

And now for something completely different

I am making a gift for Fiona, based on the theme of 'Inspiration' - whatever inspires me as an artist. It has been hard for me to think of one thing or person that inspires me, as I draw inspiration from all sorts of places.

So I put that to one side, and started working on another swap - an image transfer swap Annie, and then I found my inspiration LOL


I am inspired by Beryl Taylor's work. She makes beautiful wall hangings from watercolour paper and fabric. But the thought of all the sewing puts me off. So, I decided to see if I could create something based on her work with less sewing and no fabric. I'm delighted to say the watercolour paper held up well!

I used colourwashes in greens (Annie's favourite colour) for the background, with splashes of autumnal golds, on torm pieces of heavy watercolour paper. I used 2 gel medium onto fabric transfers, and layered the papers and fabrics together with gel medium. I added brads to one strip of paper, and eyelets to another, then sewed beads and sequins onto ribbons through the watercolour paper. I'm quite pleased with this, and now I have the process sorted out, I'll make a start on Fiona's!!! Thinking mainly turquoisey blues with a touch of hot pink or purple...

Watch this space!

In This House pages

On a (mainly Australian) swap group, we are doing an 'In This House' chunky book. We needed to make 15 pages each, using a standard template, where the total page height is 8 inches, and the width is 4.5 inches. Each of us had to choose a different theme for our pages, thereby ensuring no duplication within the books.


I chose 'The Welsh House' - Ty Cymreig - for my theme.

The front and backs of my pages were mat or mount board (used in picture framing), and I covered them with pages from an old Welsh language New Testament. I gave them a wash of lightly tinted gesso, to provide a chalky finish and a 'key' for what I planned to add.


For the front of the page, I created a digital collage, and printed it onto transparency, adhered top the page with Glossy Accents, and trimmed with German Scrap. The collage is made from photographs I have taken over the last year or so, and each element represents something form Welsh history, or which is culturally important.

The fossils represent the ancient landscape, where much of Wales was under the sea, while the modern landscape forms the background to the page. The carved standing stone represents the Celts, who were living in Wales 1500-3000 years ago. The Roman soldier represents the invaders who had such an effect on Wales 2000 years or so ago, the medieval character represents the Norman invaders, who arrived a1000 years o sao ago, and changed the culture and society completely. The timber framed roof is an image of a 1404 house in Beaumaris, the iron signpost in the bottom right hand corner reopresent the industrialisation of Wales (the world's first industrial country) in the 19th century, and the carved Ram's head represents the craftsmanship which abounds across Wales, and also the fact that we have so many sheep!!!


For the back of the page, I decided to use image transfers. I wanted the page to look older and more distressed thatn the front. I printed the reverse images out onto good quality photo paper (Epson double sided matte), then coated them with a very thin coat of soft gel, rapidly followed by a second coat, probably before the first coat was dry. Then I laid the immage onto the page, and ran them through my Wizard. It was easy to peel the paper off and leave the image on the page. I started with an image of a map of Wales:



and added two ladies in 17th century Welsh costume:


then a chapel:


and finally I picked a fern frond from my garden, dired it in the microwave, adhered to the page with gel medium, and painted over it with gesso. I hope I don't fall foul of the Australian customs people with that!

Deco Book

Here is my page in somebody else's Deco book...




I covered the cardstock with metal tape, added colour with alcohol inks, added a packing tape image transfer, framed it with some german scrap and stamped some leaves.

Altered board books 2

I may be getting the hang of blogging
but my new scanner is defeating me....

My old Canon used to take great scans of 3D objects, but this HP one
definitely doesn't like things protruding from the page!

I wish the image was better, but perhaps it is fitting,
as Bren's book has been the most challenging yet.

The theme was YOU (as in ME!!!) and I found it really
difficult - perhaps I don't know who I am...
But I do know what I like, so went with that.

The background was something I wanted to try out, and I really love
the effect - it is pieces of shiny metal repair tape from the DIY store,
all cut up into small rectangles and stuck down,
then little dents put in using the end of a dry embossing tool.

I coloured it with stream alcohol ink and some gold mixative.
I took a permanent marker and wrote things about myself,
my likes, loves, and dislikes around the edge of the page.

At this point I came to a complete standstill for a couple of weeks
because I couldn't decide which images to finish the page with,
or how to apply them. I have laid many stamped images
and photographs onto the page
and taken them off as they just weren't 'right'.

Finally, I realised I didn't want to obscure the background,
so as you can see, I have used packing tape transfers
for the images - all of which are of things I love!