Gingerbread Men and Comic Art

I finished up two more PC's for the Christmas PC swap at Surface Design. I used Linda's little gingerbread men from her new book and shrunk them down. Linda gave me the great idea of using metallic paint for the cookie sheet. So, here are the little gingerbread men!

















Also, I really love those old romance comic books from the 70's and before. Even though I was not old enough to read them! I have collected a few of these comics and they are so cheesy that they are great! But, I mainly love to look at the art in them. It's kind of funny with this comic book art back in the 40's they were allowed to show more risque type of women with hardly any clothes on ...then there was a sensor board that was put into place and the look of the comics changed. But, I love the whole genre. I am also a big fan of Roy Lichtenstein, so I guess this goes hand in hand. Back when I was at University in the early 90's I was fortunate enough to go to a signing he was having and I have a couple of his art works as posters that are signed. I'll post a picture of one of the posters when I get a chance.

So, one of the things on my "quilt goal" list is to make a comic book type of heroine to cloth. So, I started today practicing with the eyes. This also could be a great intro if I have some time to sign up for "Sketch to Stitch" PC challenge at Surface Design.

In the mail and more Christmas PC's

I got this great little journal cover with a journal from Jackie. It really has great texture and I love admiring all the different surface demensions of it.










Also, in the mail, a lovely snowman from Helen, isn't he great?










I did another Christmas theme PC...this one with trees and snow. One of my favorite things in winter, is to see beautiful evergreen trees coated in white virgin snow. I don't see them much where I live. Maybe when I am rich and retire, I can have a nice cabin in the woods somewhere.





I think what I would like to try next is to cut up a piece of special fabric that one has difficulty parting with! I am going to work on a couple of sketches and see what I can come up with. Stay tuned...

P.S. If anyone tried to leave me a comment yesterday, it is now somewhere in Cyberspace, so if have a question..please ask again. Thanks!

Christmas Cards

I got this really great doll book from Linda, who made a paperdoll book called "Not Your Mother's Paper Dolls".

I decided I would make some Christmas cards from them. I made this Father Christmas below but instead of using paper, I used fabric. I also got some practice in on french knots! I think the one thing I would do differently if I could would to not define the lower part of his eye. When I did this, I was almost done and then could not turn back. Other than this, I am pretty happy with the way he turned out. His beard is made of angelina fibers. Also, it's funny how you find cheap things and think I don't have a use for this now but maybe later. I got this glitter snow stuff from Joann's really cheap and I just used this to define the fur. But, it is a hazard to buy things that you think you might use later as well. I know we all have a few boxes of "Future Uses." You can double click for more detail on Mr. Santa. My next project is a gingerbread man...but I am trying to figure out how to do a good cookie sheet. So, if anyone has any ideas..let me know. I tried tin foil but I don't like how it looks. I am thinking I might use a piece of felt or draw it.

Terri's box and a postcard

We all decided at our round robin to embellish the boxes we have. I added some gold swirls, a dragonfly, and some trims to the ends. My last box to complete with be Sue's box. But, I think I'll take a little break from boxes and try and get some other things done. I really loved the boxes I got from Sue and Terri and wish mine could have been more elaborate. It was a great experiment and all these different boxes are really great.

I also turned the softsculpt into a Christmas PC. I love to experiment but I also hate it when I spend a lot of time on something and don't have a use for it. So, this will be a part of the Christmas card swap at SurfaceDesign. I added some silk fusion and cracked ice to the base and added the softsculpt tree. I also got these great little microbeads that look like ice when you apply them. So, I put them on the edges of the gold of the softsculpt. You can double click on any picture to see greater detail.

SoftSculpt

I got this softsculpt material from The Thread Studio a while back because I had saw how it could be used in Surface for Stitches, this is a great book to own if you don't already own it.



So, I tried it out with a stamp as you can see below. I stitched with thread the outlines on the tree. I am going to do some more things to this stamp impression and apply it to the Christmas PC swap that we have going on at SurfaceDesign.

I have the softsculpt in black and white. This was my first attempt at using it and I think I would like to try some more abstract things with it. In Gwen's book, she impresses matches and metal objects to this foam like material. It isn't difficult to stitch on and when it is hot you can impress with many objects. Check out Digital Gran...she did wonders with it.



Also, I have two of the most soft well made chenille scarfs from Sue. One will be going to my MIL for an Christmas present.

I finally finished the paper and fabric trade PC's for SurfaceDesign. I think they turned out really well and a couple of them I don't want to part with. I got the paper fairies from Holland. You then need to cut out everything with an exacto-knife. This was the most time consuming part. Then, you build upon the surface to create a 3D effect. I used some of my hand dyed silk for the background.
I hope everyone who gets one likes fairies.

Embellished Box

Here are a couple of photos of the box I finished embellishing today for our round robin. I used a Patti Culea stamp added some stitching and also put some micro beads on the top. I used pastels to color her in and also added some couched yarn to embellish the edges....now on to the next contestant!

Inspiration from Apples

I haven't had much of a chance over the last few days to do anything fiber related. But, we went apple picking and I thought I'd show you the "fruits" of our labor. The last picture is of the nice "apple taart" we made. It is much better than apple pie because it doesn't have all the syrup type sugar to it. It is mainly made of nice chunky pieces of apple and is a great dutch tradition. Oh and by the way, the little guy in the pictures is my son. He is 2 years old and just loved picking apples!
I also must say a thank you to Francoise who told me about her camera a couple of months ago. I got a similar one and it takes beautiful pictures.

Two down one to go

I've finished two of my boxes for my round robin with Terri and Sue. I think they actually turned out pretty nice. The third box I will embellish so I figured I would do both at the same time.

Blast from the Past

I really don't have too much to share. I've been feeling a little in a rut lately. I have just been messing about with some fabrics trying to come up with something I would like to do. I would love to do a small wall hanging but we shall see!

So, I figured I would show some of my favorite PC's I've done. The first one is from a painting by Franz Marc from around the 1900's. He was a part of the movement of german expressionists. I have always loved his use of color in his paintings and how the colors represent meaning. He also loved to portray animals. Marc would think of blue as masculine red and yellow feminine and joy and happiness. I believe he died in WW1 so it is sad to say where his other works may have taken him. Here is a picture of his painting and the postcard I made. I know it is okay to reproduce his work as I know some of his other paintings have been reproduced in other formats and I have seen them used on Quilt University.






Also, here are two PC's of Lake Tahoe. I just love this place, maybe one day when I'm older I'll retire there or to something similar. My aunt painted a watercolor of Lake Tahoe for me and I took a photo of this and thread painted it. The second picture is with some Skydyes. It is interesting that if you have great inspirations this can make it easier to compose a piece.