RUBBISH WEATHER FORCES CRAFTING!

So much for summer.  It's been perishing cold up here on the Solway coast for the last two days! So instead of gardening so much, I've turned my attention to a cardboard box.  Yes, you heard that correctly!  My son got a new pair of boots, and since he's a size 12, the box was pretty big.  So, it's going to be turned into a storage box for my Sizzix dies.  No point in having a boring old box when you can pretty it up!

So far,I've painted the inside with gesso and then will do the same with the outside.  After the second coats, I'll add texture with die cut shapes and stencils, then I'll spray or brush colour on.  A big boot boring box will become a splendid sizzix storage system!  I'll post pictures as I do the stages.  I've made journals the same way - here are some pics:

Talking of die cutting, here are some photos of some baltimore-style panels we've been doing at class.

Barbara's Baltimore

Dilys's purple Baltimore

Barbara's jazzed up bag

  
I love Baltimore quilts, but they take so much time, and as I'm always in a rush to get things done, I decided to have a go at a different method.  I backed some fabric with Bondaweb, then cut flowers, leaves and butterflies with my Sizzix Big Shot.  If you don't have a die cutting machine, you could just free cut the appropriate shapes.  They're then arranged on your background fabric in the design you want.  Next comes the fiddly bit - free machine stitching.  I like to call this style "sketchy stitching", or you could even say Skitching (sorry)!  You basically stitch round the inside of the shape with a fine black thread so that it looks like you've sketched it.

My circle of flowers

Oops - left a thread!

Die cut Autumn leaves in a wreath

The leaf on the left is two layers of organza bonded together then die cut when cool.

The organza leaves add a bit more sparkle

 Simple really!  They look lovely. 

While I was walking Daisy the other day, I noticed some ash trees along the cycle path.  They have clumps of seeds, (I think called keys,like sycamores) that looked really striking. I took some photos: they will somehow be turned into a design (not sure how yet).
See what you think

pompoms of ash keys

They look like cloud pruned trees

 I love the colour

and the way they're arranged like overlapping scales.

Imagine a cream background with felt in this limey - green colour, cut into circles with felt tongue / scale shapes appliquéd on with darker green skitching....
That will keep me busy  for a while!

Looking forward to next weekend as it's WOOLFEST. This is one of the highlights of my year.  It's a 2 day show celebrating everything to do with wool (no, really!).  It's at Mitchell's Auction Mart at Cockermouth 26th & 27th June.  If you have the chance, do visit!  Maybe I'll buy the dye to have a go a the ash pompoms!

See you soon,
Love Gill x