Gallery in the bathroom…

After the house renovation was complete I decided to buy a clip frame for my bathroom door. These frames are often in offices and are great because you can change the picture from the front, I want to change the picture in my bathroom regularly so this works perfectly. It’ll be like a gallery – only with one picture at a time!

This afternoon it has rained and stopped me gardening so I have been drawing, a  new baby card and then some pictures for my frame. I read somewhere that it is mostly women who like ‘words’ on walls…well I know I do.

I don’t like anything too preachy or sickly but I found this and liked it…

So, out came my pad of cartridge paper, a chisel point marker and a pink felt pen.       Firstly I wrote out the words, which I found on the internet…

and then I thought about how I could decorate it and decided to write words over it, one word BOOKS was used and then I just carried on… getting nearer and nearer the centre till there was no room left.

 

I don’t spend a lot of time in the world of reality….

Here is is in situ 

Not the greatest artwork but I like it … it’ll soon be changed! (It actually already has been!)

Thanks for reading, back soon,
love Rosie

Another box re-do

This little treasure chest style box was previously painted black with rosebuds – it was up for sale in my Etsy shop and although a few ‘liked’ it …no-one bought it so I’ve decided to revamp it.
The size is:- 13.5 cm x 9.5cm and 8cm high,

So, I was painting some of these lovely little wooden house shapes which I purchased from The Works.co.uk.

I decided to paint my box with a country scene of rolling hills and big sky… and to stick these little houses on it. The paint I used is acrylic, the houses I drew the detail on with a permanent drawing pen and then just coloured in with fine felt pens.
Four houses fitted perfectly across the front and I’ve added one other on the side.

The inside is still glittery purple.

I hope the photos show you that this is rather ‘shabby chic’, the pink of the roses  shows through the clouds a bit but that’s not unusual in real life so I haven’t fought it.

A coat of clear varnish and it’s done.
Thanks for reading,
love Rosie

 

 

Mini books….

As I seem to be doing more and more lately, this week I have been making in miniature.
The latest story in The Littleton’s Family Story (my Instagram venture) has been about a little bird house in the garden.
I decided that the little girl in the story will study a book about garden birds and so here’s what I did…
First of all I coloured a piece of card and wrote Garden Birds on the front..

then drew some tiny birds and indicated text on some more pages…

these were then sewn together

 

and presented as a giftwrapped gift to little Miss Littleton from her parents.

As the Littletons live their lives in #willowfilter which is black and white I have to think about what will show up … so the writing on the front of the book is way bigger than normal, also book covers were not always the way we see them now! Usually they seem to have been quite plainly bound with maybe gold embossed writing on the front, but I hope this one wil convey enough for the little world in which they live (I’ve managed not to actually decide on a year for their lives although I referenced The Wind in the Willows which was published in 1906 so it’s got to be around that time).

Here’s how it looked in the Littleton’s world….
‘Here’s the handyman putting up the birdhouse’

‘Little Miss Littleton sees the birdhouse’

‘She dashes in the house to tell her parents (obviously they already know and have a gift for her’

That gift was the Bird Book and the final picture shows Little Miss Littleton in situ watching out for new inhabitants of the birdhouse…’

Then lucky little Miss Littleton gets a Postcard Album from her Grandmother:-
This I used some patterned sticky fabric to cover some card, coloured some paper black with a marker ad simply stuck the pages in… Made a few postcards and that was that!

 

Here’s how it looked on Instagram …

Thanks for reading,
back soon,
love Rosie

Jewellery Box

Last weekend I decided to have a go at decorating a little jewellery box which has a clear acrylic lid.

I had previously painted it silvery grey and the inner base was painted purple. I got out a nice big new black marker … (is there anything better?)
I just started to doodle to see where it would go, starting with 4 straightish lines then adding 15 swirls, a thin silver pen was used to draw another swirl on top of the others and was dotted over with the black pen.

I carried on the black around the wooden edge on the lid ….to me the design looked like it was stitched so I then added a ‘running stitch’ around the top of the lid and around the sides and across the partitions inside.
It’s a bit different for me but I quite like it!
What do you think?

Back soon,
love, Rosie

 

My Etsy shop is now open:

A new dress….

Not for me.
I’m so busy with the Littleton Family Story that most of my crafty makes seem to be for them at the moment.

So a teeny make this week as I had to make a new dress for Baby Littleton who,  in the story,  has begun to toddle…
Here she is in her baby gown… her legs are not that long!

First of all I took off the long skirt, the bodice is a little lace ribbon and I left in place, as well as the ribbon bonnet. I just removed the little blue ribbons.

As the lower part of her original dress was decorated with lace and silk I decided to cut away the plain cotton top.

I turned in the raw edge and with a simple running stitch I sewed around the new waist.

This running stitch was then used to gather in the waist.

Then I thought, as she’s a little older she may like a bit of pink ribbon around the waist … Not that we’ll see that as I use a #willowfilter
As she is starting to toddle, she better have some little shoes… I painted these on with a gel and then stuck some felt on the soles of her feet.

Lastly I added some little pink dots around the flowers on her bonnet – just to make it look a little different.
She’s ready to toddle! But is interested in her sisters postcard album first.

Forgive me if you’re already following The Littleton’s on Instagram, or do not use Instagram or are just not interested in the lives of a family who live in a dollshouse… I’m afraid they have rather taken over my free time!

This is the address if you’re wondering what’s it all about….
https://www.instagram.com/the_littleton_family_story/

Thanks for reading,
Back soon, love Rosie

 

 

Time to sew….

We’ve had a little clock on our mantlepiece for years… now it sits on a bookshelf as we have no fireplace.
I can’t actually remember what it looked like when I first bought it, but it’s been changed many, many times over time.
The design before the last one had some delicate flowers painted by my daughter, then we started going up to London regularly and I decided to draw the London skyline.

It’s stayed like that for quite a few years.

This morning, however I realised that, shock – horror I haven’t really done anything to blog about!
So I looked around the room trying to think what I haven’t written about and my eyes fell on this little clock.

This is what I did…

Firstly, I took the clock part out and left just the wooden case.

I picked off the skyline  

and then sanded down the white paint, which is all textured for some reason, can’t remember how that happened!

I then coloured it with my gold pentel marker.
I decided to use a sewing theme and stuck a paper tape measure around the bottom and half of it around the narrow top. 

Then I remembered I had some plastic buttons which were all sewing items, so out came the button pot… some time later, there are a lot of buttons to sort through!
I found these buttons.

I cut off the button hook on the back and stuck them on with a strong glue.

This is it in situ, I quite like it, what do you think?
I’m thinking that everytime I look at the clock it will be ‘sewing time’!

Back soon,
love Rosie

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Calligraphy…

Have you noticed how as soon as we get a modern alternative we seem to, almost instantly, start looking back?

Music is a great example from vinyl to cassette to compact disc to MP3 and now back to the coolest thing is to own a record player and buy your music on vinyl…back to getting home and reading the cover whilst listening….
I was just listening to the radio and they announced that the printed word is outselling the ebooks, great news! I love books, I did buy a Kindle and it’s convenient but no where near as satisfying a read. My daughter’s friend has just had a second book published and I’m very proud to have two books on my shelf written by someone I know…not quite the same to have them on an ebook!
My husband is a keen photographer and although he has a digital camera he likes the effects that only film will give you and says that there are processing businesses being resurrected…things really do go around and around…

Hand-writing and the art of calligraphy seems to be having a resurgence in popularity (thank goodness), I’ve called this blog calligraphy but really it’s a modern version of calligraphy that I’m talking about, more flowing and less formal but beautiful none-the-less.

There are loads of artists who base all their work on the written word, a lovely friend recently gave me a work of art which had a good life philosophy most beautifully written on it in relief, the watercolour has been painted over the lettering, when the paint is dry the letters are revealed… it’s pretty special.
This link is just one artist who uses handwriting in her work and I follow her on Instagram

Last year I ran a one-off  ‘Draw a cartoon face – Lunch & Learn session’ at my workplace. It was a very small class but it was enjoyable to do and I think those who attended enjoyed it.
This year I was approached again and asked if I would do something  – luckily I had just seen a Facebook post about a friend attending a calligraphy class and almost without thinking I said I’d do one on that.

I’m not an expert by any means but have used calligraphy pens for as long as I can remember, in my first job in an Art & Craft shop I did all the signwriting for a while, even painting on the shop window! I always make my own cards including Christmas ones and it’s so much easier if you can write the greeting in a fancy kind of way, makes the card look more professional.

So to do the class I ordered some calligraphy ‘Chisel’ point felt pens and printed out sheets from the internet for them to practise on…there are loads out there. If you have a Pinterest account there are plenty for free download.
Of course there are kits and books and the pens are in stationers and art shops everywhere.
(As I advised the class – felt pens are great and easy to use but they don’t last long, I use a calligraphy pen by Rotring and I’ve had it for about 30 years – it’s never clogged! I can recommend it if you decide to take up this lovely hobby).

There were only 8 in the class which was great, the hour sped by and although ‘the holding your pen at 45 degree angle’ takes some getting used to by the end of the hour they all had produced some lovely writing.

One said that it was quite mindful, as you really need to concentrate and it is completely absorbing. Health benefits too – what more can one ask?

My basic tips are:-
* practise on a sheet of scrap paper first just to check you’ve got hold of the pen in the right way, do a line of vvvvvvvvvvv the down line is thick and the up is thin (I still do this at the start of using a calligraphy pen – only a quick vvvv and you know you’ve got it right)
* if you don’t usually do joined up handwriting then just add a little flick at the end of your letters to make them appear joined to the next
* to see the effect of the thin and thick lines you may find that writing your letters a bit larger than you usually do will be beneficial

Lastly – have a good practise and then just write with your calligraphy pen, if you’ve got the angle right you should soon get to see your writing takes on that italic style.
It really is all about practising, when you’re concentrating too hard on each letter you can also forget to spell, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spelled birthday ‘bithday’ – extremely annoying so copy or write lightly in pencil and go over it.

As a little test to see how quickly you can get this skill the class all wrote their names on a sheet of paper at the start of the class and then again at the end. There was a marked difference in even that short time.
If you haven’t tried it…you should.

Oh I know the computer can put your words into wonderful fonts but nothing beats a hand-written message.

Back soon,

Love

 

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Vanessa Bell …

I was going to name this blog as being inspired by Vanessa Bell, but I’ve actually just copied one of her patterns….
I recently went to an exhibition of Vanessa Bell’s work at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.(It’s on until June so if you are able, it’s worth a visit – great cafe too!)

For many years I (along with many others!) have been incredibly interested by the group of people collectively known as The Bloomsbury Set. I’ve added a link if you’re interested…they are a fascinating lot.

I thought I’d decorate a box with pattern instead of my usual flowers.  I was going to use her’s and then add to it, but when I looked at it this morning I decided that actually I like it as it is.

This box was already stained in grey and I like that too.

The frst thing I did was cover the lid with my
trusty silver paint marker pen.

 

 

Then before that was quite dry I drew on the purple diamonds with a Sharpie. I used two shades of purple.

With an orange marker I drew the lines… again the silver was not quite dry.

It all looked a bit pale so I left it, thinking that today I would ‘add’ something…but as I said, I reckon it looks great.
The markers have worked with the wet silver to create an interesting effect. So, that’s where I’m leaving it. I’ll varnish later.

Thanks for reading,
Back soon
love Rosie

Butterfly bunting

A couple of years ago I went quite bonkers about bunting and made absolutely loads

I was talking about this madness with a friend who said she had a new summer house and wondered if she could get bunting in different shapes, I said I’d make some butterfly shaped bunting and I got started….my machine broke and what with all the house renovations and doing loads of other crafts the bunting got put to the back of the cupboard.

Once I had my machine fixed I couldn’t find the butterfly half made bunting…. finally I did it and although I lost it again in the final part of the house renovation it has finally been given to my friend!

I’d like to do some more – I’m not sure it was the best ever bunting, the yellow thread is ‘glow in the dark’ which seemed a good idea at the time….

Since making that I have made some owl shaped bunting in a sewing class and I think I will revisit the butterfly idea again soon.

So I cut out some butterfly shapes – big little and a folded wing one, I just drew freehand but if that’s not your style there are plenty of outlines online.

I stuck the butterflys to an interfacing and then sewed them together with a ‘glow in the dark’ thread.

I then sewed some bias binding and just caught the top of the wings.

Thanks for reading, I’ve been quite brief if you want anymore information please just message me.
Back soon,
Love Rosie

Teeny Tiny Whittling…

You may or may not have picked up on the fact that my new Instagram account is taking over my life little by little… The Littleton family who reside in the dollshouse which belongs to my daughter but is still here in my home have ups and downs in their family life and one of the more recent story lines has been about music.. in particular a harp.

I used the harp as that was something my daughter already had in her dollshouse.
In my story the harpist falls on hard times and has nowhere to store her instument, the life of the musician has never been easy!

So, the Littleton’s offer to house the harp and the harpist offers free lessons in return.
But the harp is too big for the little girl and causes her some discomfort so a new musical instrument needs to be found as she is showing some talent in that direction.

Luckily Mr Littleton is quick off the mark and buys a recorder, some instructions and a handy satchel to carry it all in… and so todays blog is how I made these little items.

Once I had decided to make a recorder I had to think what I could use… luckily I found some of those sticks you can put in airfresheners.

I had some new blades for my scalpal knife and off I started to take off the bits that did not look like  a recorder… basics for carving/sculpting isn’t it?
I did a little sketch. First of all I shaped the mouth piece and then just tried to give it a little bit of shape.

I used the tip of the knife to hollow out the mouthpiece and hole at the  bottom a little, and then used a pin to make the holes for the note holes, I added a little pen to allow them to show up..

Luckily this recorder is really really tiny so artistic licence could be used… I then drew the music books on thick paper and sewed the little bag from brown felt with a little bead for the fastener. Here they are all finished …
Here’s little Miss Littleton with her new recorder…

Thanks for reading, hope you like the Littletons if you decide to read them too!
Back soon,
love Rosie

 

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Bobbin Lace…

Many years ago at a village fair my daughter had a go at bobbin lace… and was quite literally hooked.
We eventually found a teacher and for a while we had an evening activity learning the first moves in lacemaking.
We had to buy quite a lot of ‘kit’ : a pillow, special pins, card, blue sticky film and best of all loads of beautiful bobbins with glass beads attached….

This picture shows a spider pattern, which is on card and then covered with this blue film…each of those black dots will have a pin pressed through and the lace is formed around these pins.

There’s lots of twisting involved and the passing under and over of each pair of bobbins.

The bobbins are in pairs and each matching pair is different from the others, my bobbins are all plain but my daughter  had some decorated bobbins.

We didn’t get to make any bobbins ourselves as our teacher made her own and sold them to us, but making the bobbins and attaching the beads is a hobby on its own!

The pattern is pinned onto a pillow which supports the lace and allows for all those pins to be inserted.

It’s quite magical when you finish and get to remove the pins and hold the lace you’ve created.
It’s a really nice hobby … we’ve both rather let it go but I am still in the middle of making this ‘spider’ which is a frame or edge for something and I will finish it one day….

The bobbins are all held in the right place with a giant safety-pin and the tape is also used to keep it all together… you really don’t want to get those bobbins in a tangle!

I had to take our ‘lace making’ to work with me and then to meet my daughter from school so we could set off to our class…I was quite a comic figure arriving at the office with two of these giant bags!

Interested in finding out more about this fascinating craft?

Back soon with more arty craftiness,
Love Rosie

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Cat money box

I’m not a great fan of cats although there have been a couple I’ve met who even I can see are quite nice.

But, many of my friends love them and are actually quite bonkers about them if truth be known, even those friends who appear quite normal in other ways….

Anyway, I have had an invite to a friends new house and I am really looking forward to it, there will be plenty of wine and chat, a take-away (I never have take-aways so this is a real treat) and no worrying about getting home because we’re staying the night…perfect (there are two cats also residing in the house!)

So, although we’ve had strict instructions not to bring anything I thought I could decorate for this little cat shaped money box for my host and do a little blog too!

I was in my fave shop The Works when I saw this little box, for some reason I bought it, obviously intending as a gift for one of the above crazy pals…

Not much to say about what I did, I just started drawing a cat, started with the eyes and kept going! I used a permanent drawing pen. The coloured it in with colouring pencils.
I tried to keep the crayon lines in the direction the fur would go…

I used a mix of two greens and yellow for the eyes; light and dark browns and very dark grey for the fur.

I couldn’t decide what colour to paint the rest of the box and my husband suggested just leaving the wood.

I varnished the whole thing in a clear gloss varnish and that’s that.

Back soon,
love Rosie

Applique on skirt

My mantra when starting this blog was ‘never leave things as they are’. A plain black skirt is plain no more due to a bit of applique work.

Last year The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society‘s amazing art work was used by Oasis for a clothing range. The Florilegium Society do absolutely awe-inspiring work.

As I was to attend the RHS Chelsea Flower Show I decided to get a top but although it was gorgeous it didn’t work on me.
So I recently decided that it was too lovely to sit in the drawer…. I took my black skirt, some fixing paper, my (rarely used iron) and sewing machine and this is what I did….

As the background on the image is black and as I’m sewing onto a black skirt I didn’t have to be too neat or too close to the actual design.
As you can see I used a close blanket stitch on my machine and went all around the cut out. I also stitched a few lines through the whole thing…

and that’s it – here it is all finished.. I definitely prefer it to the top.

Thanks for reading, back soon,
love Rosie

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Heart box

It might be a new year but I still enjoy decorating these wooden boxes from The Works, they are well made and ready to take drawing pens, paint, paper or even fabric.

As you can see I started to draw with a permanant fine marker, I covered the top with these little four petaled flowers with the little dots around which I like to think look like stitches. I kept going until the top was covered like this…

 

Then I started to colour…
I coloured in the petals and leaves and then coloured the background with a pink colouring pencil… as you will see in the final picture I later decided to colour over this with a darker felt pen…
I then drew some larger flowers around the base of the box and coloured it all in. The main colour is a dark pink.
I lined the lid and base with white felt, and coloured in the sides of the inside.
Around the transparent heart I used a 3D paint (This paint can go on fabric too – it’s great to use)

and that’s it – all finished and will be put up for sale on my Etsy site.

Thanks for reading,

Love Rosie

Felted Dog….

I am having a ridiculously fun time with my daughters dollshouse and my new Instagram advenure, it has led me to make a wedding dress for a maid, a fancy dress for the little girl, a new gown for the lady of the house and a work jacket and apron for the handy man.

A friend looked at the story and came up with the idea of the family dog stealing the joint of meat from the kitchen … well, I have the miniature joint of meat but realised I would need a bone for that is all that will be left when the culprit is caught.

Oh and the only dog my daughter had was a porcelain one. To make the story more interesting I wanted a pose-able dog… so I am having a go at felting one.
I have all the equipment from my recent felting endeavours and found this ‘how to‘ on the internet and so here I go….

To begin you need a lump of fluff which you then stab over and over and over to matt the fibres and start to shape into whatever you’re making. I definitely need more practise but for my purposes I think Dog looks sufficiently dog-like :-

this and further blobs of fluff turned into:-

I stabbed away and joined the pieces together by added more of the wool fibres…

Then I added some eyes and some darker patches on his body…

and that was my Dog finished… here he is in situ at the Littleton’s. His arrival does cause quite a stir..

Thanks for reading.
Read and see  The Littleton’s Family Story if you want to see more (you don’t need an Instagram account to see it but you do if you want to ‘follow’ the story or add comments)

I’ll be back soon,
love Rosie

 

 

Homer the Hedgehog

Many years ago I used to have a stall at local craft fairs and I sold greetings cards which I had drawn flowers, I had them copied on to card and then I  hand painted each one individually…. well I love colouring in!
I used to sit at the stall and paint too, it was great fun.

After a while I started to expand my repertoire and started drawing woodland animals, I used these for Christmas cards and left them black and white but coloured in a stocking hanging from a tree.

I then started focusing on hedgehogs and moved away from the realistic and started dressing them, they played sports, were photographers, got married and had their offspring Christened.
From seeing all these my Mum got inspired and wrote a poem about a hedgehog.

I then wrote this poem in my best handwriting and drew a little hedgehog at the bottom and sold copies at these fairs.

I thought I might be able to get the poem published and sent off a copy with a few drawings to many publishers to no avail of course, I didn’t go so far as getting an agent and so the idea was shelved.

With the advent of photobooks I realised that I could create my own book and now my Mum has her own copy – with her name in nice big print font on the front cover. (I get a mention as the illustrator of course). She has even had people asking for a copy!

So, here for your pleasure (I hope) is the story of:-

Homer the Hedgehog
by Shirley Parker

Homer the Hedgehog small and brown

Left the country to live in town
He had heard the streets were made of gold
But, Homer found them very cold.

No grass and roots for him to chew,
He did not know, what he could do.

He missed his Mum, he missed his Dad,
Poor Homer felt so very sad.

 

He wandered through the streets alone.
Looking for a cosy home. 
The cars and buses rushing by
Made poor Homer sit and cry

He should have listened to his Dad
And not been such a silly lad,

To leave his lovely country home
And set out on his own to roam.

So after all is said and done,
A hedgehog’s place is with his Mum.
Now back in the country,
Away from the town,
Is Homer the Hedgehog, small and brown.

The End

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed that… there is a sequel, which I will share one day soon.,
love Rosie

 

 

 

Copyright Shirley Parker

The Littleton Family…

My daughters dollshouse has some little people who have no change of clothes… dressmaking at 1/12th scale is good fun, the models don’t mind if you accidentally stab them with a pin or sewing needle and …best of all…you can use felt.
These people aren’t planning on getting wet, their clothes won’t shrink in the wash… (because they won’t get washed!)
Well,  the handyman required new clothes…you see after he married the maid and started working at the Littleton’s home he needed some work clothes… his wedding outfit was a tad too snazzy to work in….
Interested?  The Littleton’s Family Story

So here’s what I did…
This is our handyman in his wedding finery:-
Once he started working he realised he needed some work clothes, I decided that he could have a brown felt short jacket and a white apron.
I measured him and then cut a basic jacket shape on a fold…

The joy of using felt is that it doesn’t fray so you don’t need to hem all the edges, just cut the shape and sew together..
I was lucky and found I had some sewing thread that was the same colour. I sewed the side seams and sleeves. I decided he could have turned up cuffs to add interest. I put my finger through the sleeve and stitched it around in a simple running stitch.

Then I got him to try the jacket on, and once it was on I stitched a couple of buttons to the front and a pocket flap and it was done.

I wrapped a bit of white felt around his neck and sewed it to a little piece on his chest.. and cuffs similarly,  he’s not planning on taking his jacket off so no-one will know his shirt isn’t real!

Now for his apron..

He’s ready for work….
and this is how he looks on Instagram:-

Thanks for reading,

Back soon,
Love Rosie

 

 

Who doesn’t love a cushion?

I love a cushion, or two or three….obviously they help to get you comfy but also they provide a quick and simple way of updating a room.

Wikipedia has this about cushions:  The cushion is a very ancient article of furniture; the inventories of the contents of palaces and great houses in the early Middle Ages constantly made mention of them. Cushions were then often of great size, covered with leather, and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller with time. Today, the cushion is considered an upholstery item.  

I’m always changing my cushion covers, at the moment most of them  are covered in my crocheted efforts.

  I brought in a little mauve with these gorgeous cushions from Marks & Spencer (I don’t think they have the same ones on sale now but these are similar) and a throw to cover the poor old sofa cover which I ruined with a steam cleaner!

But soon, the office section of the room will be relocated to the spare bedroom and I will treat the room to a cushion update!
So, whilst I had the place to myself for the weekend I got making…

I had these curtains from my old house , they were from Laura Ashley and pretty pricey (Laura Ashley don’t stock them anymore), I usually just make my own but I was very taken with these and they fitted my windows perfectly.As they fit the windows and French doors in my new home perfectly I am happy to keep them.
I managed to buy a bit of the same material from eBay and then I got some bargains in the Laura Ashley sale. The two new fabrics complement the curtain fabric well and I decided to have some fun cutting them up and sewing together.

I cut one of the ‘flowers’ out and did some hand embroidery on it…

this was then stuck on with fabric bonding and stitched all around with a blanket style stitch on the machine.

The following pictures show how made my cushion covers.. five in total.
I’m not putting them in place yet – not until the room is finished!

I’m pleased with them, the fabric is very good quality. I was lucky to have sewing thread and zips which suited. A good day for me and my sewing machine!

Thanks for reading
Back soon,
love Rosie

 

 

 

 

 

Heart a-flutter…

Another Valentine’s Day item for my Etsy shop. This time including some cute little butterflies.

I bought the wooden heart from The Works. It’s got a nice finish to the wood and is ready to decorate.
Would make a good item for a Wedding –  table number indicators  or leave with a pen nearby for guests to write  messages to the happy couple. Afterwards it could be varnished to preserve.

This isn’t varnished yet as I’m offering to write whatever (within reason!) is required, should I manage to sell it!

So, first of all I wrote ‘You make my heart flutter’… drew a cloud shape around the words and coloured the rest in blue with a felt pen.

I then drew hundreds of mini hearts in a gold pen all over the ‘cloud’.

Then I coloured the butterflies gold

and added a little glitter
to the tips of the wings and stuck them on with a strong glue.

They are buttons really and I have some left over…look out jumpers…

 

 

All done, back soon,
love Rosie

Hydrangea sketch…

After all my Christmas makes I decided to do some drawing and started with a hydrangea.  I was inspired after a lovely walk on Boxing day, I was in Derby at my mother-in-laws home. My husband and she had paperwork to do so I left them in peace and set off.

Plenty of countryside albeit with the power station in the distance, but for all the trees and fields around me, the one thing that remained in my mind was a wonderful hydrangea.
It was all brown but still beautiful.
I decided to sketch one – but coloured mine blue.

Once I had finished sketching the petals and working on keeping the shape of the whole plant head I added a few leaves and then coloured in the flower head.

 

all done…

Back soon,
love Rosie

 

Are artycrafty folk happier….

I’ve always been known for not really letting things get to me, and colleagues refer to me residing in ‘Rosie’s World’ *.
This blog was started last January as  a ‘New Years Resolution to get back into the world of arts and crafts’ and what a year it’s been, I’ve loved everything I’ve blogged about.

This morning I read a short article in Liz Earle Wellbeing Winter Magazine
” Take a break
If you needed an extra excuse to make your own Christmas cards and decorations this year, you’ll be pleased to know that indulging your creative side has been shown to have a positive effect on happiness levels, productivity and even digestion. When we’re engaged in a creative task, we temporarily forget about stress or negative thoughts. So get out the scissors, glue and glitter – and boost your wellbeing!”

I remembered that I was planning to think about that just that, and so here’s my last blog of the year.
But I’ll be back in 2017 – there’s no stopping me now.

I like to imagine life could be as an Enid Blyton novel – one with magical lands, excitement and with the baddies getting their comeuppance… how irritating I must be to my more realistic friends!
After coping through life’s ups and downs over the years,  recent life has taken its toil. I wonder if the fact that we were totally renovating our house and so I couldn’t do a lot of drawing or crafting to busy my mind, added to the fact that life had just been a bit too much.

So, time to get myself sorted out.

After starting this blog and becoming so much more creative again I am feeling more myself and recently my husband said I looked so much better and more like I used to.
He said my face had fallen before as if I was literally ‘down‘.

So, I thought I’d try to find out…. does being creative really help with your general well-being?
A long time ago I watched a friend ‘cutting out’ some paper shapes, she was completely absorbed and had a lovely soppy expression.When we remarked on this  – she said was completely absorbed and ridiculously happy.

             
Is it that doing something which occupies your eyes, brain and hands, means you have to totally concentrate on what you’re doing, thus leaving no spare capacity for worrying about anything else?

“Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Pablo Picasso.
This quote was used in a really interesting article on the mental health benefits of Art.

 

I do watch television, I love loads of programs but if I had to choose between TV and radio; I’d pick radio. I find myself listening to it all the time.
If I’m writing then I like music mostly BBC6music or BBCRadio2  but if I’m crafting then I like BBC Radio London and Radio4extra.
I love the plays, the vintage dramas and the silly comedy programs, and all the time they are on I will be making something or drawing or painting a jewellery box or something… happy times.

I rarely watch real life programs  unless they are uplifting, I like fiction (you should see my bookshelves, they are full of fictional stories and most are rather lovely…don’t come around looking for any horror here!) and I like happy endings and lots and lots of laughs along the way please see * above.

 

Well, I’ll be back next year with more of my arty crafty makes… let me know what you think if you’ve tried crafts just to make yourself feel better.
Of course the current biggest craze for all is colouring in for grown ups. You can buy books or draw your own .

All the best for the new year
love Rosie

P.S Please note all photos in this post belong to their respective linked sites.The picture at the very top of the page is from an early blog, link here.

 

 

 

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Red Red Robin….

Well, it has to be a gi-normous robin for this Christmas post doesn’t it?

If you follow my blog you’ll remember I recently started felting, if you haven’t tried it yet, you should. It is great fun.

I wanted to get another felting needle and found this kit in Hobbycraft which included 2 needles – seemed too big a bargain to miss.

This giant robin was easy to do, sadly my wings and tail were missing from the kit so I just stuck on a bit of felt  – presume the kit ones were a bit thicker.

He’s going to my mother-in-law to finish off her Christmas hamper gift.

Nothing much to show you about how he is done but he posed around the garden for a few pics…

May I take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

Back in 2017,
Love Rosie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let it snow…

I only recently started to crochet and I L O V E it!  
I’m not terribly clever at understanding patterns yet but oh the joy of YouTube.
A teacher right there with you, patiently waiting for you to catch up and never complaining when you get her to go over it a  few times to allow you to get to grips with it.

This is the clip I used, and I am now making snowflakes every evening and whilst travelling to and from work on the bus.
I got chatting to a lady on Thursday who said she used to crochet and knit in the past but had got out of the habit, by the time we parted company she said she was going to start again…

I am using a lovely red velvet ribbon to tie the snowflakes on to my gifts, and will be hanging some from longer pieces of ribbon at the windows and on my tree really soon.
The wool I am using is called Chunky Gem, it has little glittery bits in it which help to make the Snowflakes sparkle.

Here’s a few pictures of my finished snowflakes… I’m not going to show you what to do, you should watch the YouTube clip – definately a better teacher than I!

I am selling my Snowflakes in my Etsy shop.

My family like to give each other little gifts at the table on Christmas Day.
This year I have a little crafty addition to their presents, well actually more than one but can’t spoil all their surprise!

Thanks for looking,
Love Rosie

 

Felting on Christmas Gift Tags…

As you may know I recently became aware of the craft of felting, after buying a little kit at Kirstie’s Handmade Fair.

I was considering making some Christmas bunting but I have already made some of that      so I decided that these little flags would be used as gift tags.

To make them I cut out the long triangular shapes from felt with pinking shears.

These were then decorated
with various Christmassy designs,some by hand,
some using cookie cutters to get the shape.

 

Then I got some card and wrote Merry Christmas along the flag,

cut up some red velvet ribbon  and assembled by machine sewing through the felt, ribbon and card.
Here they all are….

 

Back soon,
love Rosie

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Dragonfly Drawers

Here I go again… decorating little wooden drawers from The Works.co.uk with felt-tip pens.
It’s a nice way to colour them, it stops the wood getting really wet with paint and expanding.. a great pain with drawers, as I found out when I painted a set of nice drawers previously, see the part of that blog when I try to get the drawers out after painting a design across the drawers to feel my pain!

So, I decided to draw a dragonfly on these, my reason for a dragonfly, well I could say it’s because I am lucky to have a lovely little garden pond so near my desk, or confess the truth and say that I fell in love with the whole idea of putting the image of a dragonfly on anything  because of the Gilmore Girls…

Well, confession time over, this is what I did to these little drawers…

I coloured the front in a light green felt-tip pen, then drew on the dragonfly and flower, then coloured in the dragonfly’s body and the flower stems and leaves.

After that I coloured in his wings with a white marker pen, then went over with a silver thin pen, then finally decided on the 3D liquid to give definition to his wings. I just couldn’t get them right.. but the layers have added a real sense of depth!

I ‘scribbled’ over the whole box and fronts of drawers with the thin silver pen. Then covered the whole lot in the clear glitter paint.

Coloured the drawer knobs in silver with a Pentel silver marker pen.Also went around the tops of the drawers and around the wooden front around the drawers.

I love these drawers, I have already stuck two together for a jewellery box for myself, for a  and also have done one for a friend, I’ve just bought 8 more so there are still  lots more to decorate!

And that’s them done…
Anyway, I’ll be back next week with more artycrafting.

Love Rosie

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Patchwork skirt….

Yes this is all about a patchwork skirt or three…

I really don’t know why I started to make these, it started when I was given a bag of fabric and had a bad back which prevented me from moving,which meant I could not get to work but did not stop me sewing or drawing!

I’ve always loved the idea of patchwork and have tried to do it properly but I am really too messy to obtain the precision and neatness which it often requires… so if you’re a skilled patchworker read no further!

So if you’re still reading and want to see what I did…

I measured a straight skirt I had and made a rectangle of patches which measured the same, i.e the depth from waist to knee and the length to go around the body and not be so tight you can’t move. I sewed the bits together with straight sewing stick but topped stitched with the various stiches my machine has.

The edges are hemmed, the ends joined so you have a tube, elastic popped in the top and hey presto…

Here’s the first one I made, mostly blues, with bits of ribbon and velvet ribbon added here and there, the top is a wide band of blue with top stitching to add patchy detail style:-

 

Then this one, I had a top with these lovely butterflies on it, which I loved but it didn’t love me… I looked awful in it.
So I decided to do another patchy skirt and this time add some appliqué. I’ve only just finished this skirt and it had it’s first outing this week:-

and now for my latest one… my sister recently visited an Aldi store and they had craft items for sale, she kindly asked me if I wanted anything… well what a question!
One of the items was a fat-quarter pack of Christmas fabric. I added some Christmassy ribbon which I bought in Tiger
yes…. I have a Christmas outfit prepared…

Have you stopped laughing at me? I know it’s mad but I’ll be wearing it!

Well that’s it for now.

Back soon
Love Rosie

 

 

Fairy Doors

Hi there,

I’m suggesting these doors could be used as Advent Calendars, a little gift or chocolate placed behind the door each day in the run up to the big day, after making my daughter various advent calendars over the years and struggling to find bits to fit in little pockets and drawers etc I’m thinking this would be a great idea … (might do it for myself, one of the joys of being forgetful, I may even surprise myself some days!)
as I’ve made a few I’ve decided they deserve a post.

These doors are from The Works, I love them, can you tell? I’ve painted and decorated quite a few now, with Christmas on its way I have gone ever so slightly bonkers….

First of all I painted them all in various colours, front and back and let them dry over night.

Then I started to paint, some had stones added around the door, others had holly and ivy growing around the door. Then I started to create some bits n’ bobs to stick on them…

The holly is felt with red gemstone berries, the toadstools are felt with white gemstones, painted stalks and then felt grass, the jacket is made from felt – it’s just for show!

The buttons are yellow gemstones and the candle on the little shelf is wrapped in red felt, the flame is a cotton bud painted and glittered.
The tree is of course felt, the parcel base is a wooden cut out from The Works , the tree is decorated with gemstones.

In the photos above you can see I added a bell to the holly wreath and tied it on with red ribbon, the middle image shows the glittery greenery around the door and a little ladybird (this is a notice board pin) and finally the last photo shows the whole inside of one with a paper-chain type decoration which was done with gel, little paper cards are stuck on the wall, another candle, a very decorated tree and this time a hat – complete with a bell of course!
Lots of magical glittery fairy dust everywhere!

After realising that these were totally unsuitable for children to play with I decided to just paint some doors…

They’ve all been painted with child friendly clear glitter paint so there’s still plenty of magical fairy dust.

I’m selling them from my Etsy shop.
Thanks for looking,

Back soon,
Rosie

Home-made Christmas cards….

Sorry, I know I’m terribly early but it is November now…and making your own stuff takes time, you’ve got to do it when you can.

The fact that my DIY skills on our house renovation are not needed at the moment has given me time to start planning this years cards.

I have been making my own cards for some years
and I  must admit sometimes I just can’t think of anything new to do.
I use the internet and Pinterest and books and old cards…. just about anything for ideas… this was last years..

 

 

 

Inspiration came this year after doing a couple of birthday cards for friends with significant birthdays, I chose to feature their ages and thus a plan came together for the 25 December.

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I bought the blank cards from The Works.co.uk (the square patterned ones)

and Hobbycraft (the plain cream ones).

 

The gel for the coiled spring effect… could you tell it was supposed to be a calendar??? is created using a liquid gel which stands out a little, you may be able to see this from the photo.

Do let me know what you think…

Back soon,
Love Rosie

 

Art Competition

Every year my work place holds a National Arts & Photographic competition and I usually enter a few drawings and a few photographs.
I’ve won a couple of times over the years, the competition is pretty fierce!
Well, this year it crept up on me and I realised that with all this crafting, I haven’t done so much drawing.

So Saturday afternoon was spent rummaging through my portfolio to see what I’d got that I could send off.

These are what I found, I entered them all. The category is water colour and drawing & sketching. I’ll let you know how I did at the end.

The results were:- no prizes for me.. will try again next year!

Back soon,
Love Rosie

 

Twelve Drawers….

These drawers from Ikea  sit upon my desk and hold all sorts of bits n’bobs, they are  perfect for paper clips and staples etc.,

When I first got them I painted them with a paint marker which I loved using!
I then cut some wrapping paper bunting and then using a gold thin pen
drew on some string and then fixed the bunting flags. To finish off I stuck on the little metal plates so I could write what was in each drawer.

Since starting this blog I have been using very pretty coloured papers to decorate and recently decided that these drawers were looking a tad drab.

So I have covered them in the beautiful papers my daughter gave me for my birthday, they are sold for scrapbooking, but they are so pretty it seems a shame to shut them away in a book,  I finished off the drawers with a Gold Pentel Marker 

I did the usual thing cut out the shapes and used PVA to both stick on and topaint over to give a nice finish.

, I roughly coloured in the frame with the gold pen and then used a black ‘write on anything’ pen to write my labels and here it is finished. Do let me know what you think.

Back soon,
Love Rosie

Mini fretwork box

Hi there, this week I have been mainly drawing and painting more doors for fairies to walk through but don’t worry, I’m not showing you more of those….well not today!

Last night I had a home-alone evening and set myself up with a box set to watch and a lovely box to decorate…

I really like this little box, it’s from The Works and is very well made.
I decided to paint the top silver and considered using my trusty Pentel marker but silver paint was easier.

Then I drew on some big flower shapes, the centre of the flowers is lots of small circles drawn with the same grey Sharpie pen.

I chose a salmony pink Sharpie

and shaded in the top and base of each petal.
Afterwards I went around the centre of the flower with a dark pink colour.

I coloured in the background in black and then went over the whole thing with a clear but silver glittery paint. I put some fairy lights in it and now it’s done.

Hope you like it, if you do please take a look at my new ETSY shop, where this and many other of my painted bits and bobs are for sale.

Back soon,
love Rosie

Christmas with the Fairies…

I know, I know it’s only just October and we’ve still got Halloween and Fireworks etc., but if you’re in the business of making things you need to get organised….

As I said last week, I’ve had a few days off work and it’s been glorious. I’ve seen family and friends, met the most gorgeous young man (5 months old) and seen some amazing exhibitions at the V&A and Tate Modern.
But an artycrafty soul can’t have free days and not create… so here’s what I have been up to…
I’ve been back to my favourite shop The Works and they have their great fairy doors back in stock.

I’ve had a go at a pink door , then one for my garden and finally one where I used the popular Stick Man character and now I have gone slightly crazy with paint, glitter, felt, glitter, card, glitter, pins, glitter, sticky pads, glitter oh and some glitter paint…..

I spent all of two days doing these doors, you should have seen the mess! They are for sale at my ETSY shop, although one (see below) has been donated to a cameral club’s raffle…(there’s a little camera hanging under the candle).

The doors have a variety of Christmassy decorations….one had mistletoe over the door and a little felt hat hanging beneath.

Some have a candle on a little shelf , a little Fairy coat hanging on a hook, or a felt hat, some cards stuck on the walls and a little holly garland with  berry red gemstones, or a holly wreathe .

Here’s a little gallery of the doors, hope you like them. By the way they are for sale but please note they are strictly for ornamental use – the doors do open but they are not suitable for children.
I’m going to do some more Christmas themed ones with just paint, these will also arrive at my ETSY shop soon and will be ok to play with.

Thanks for looking..
Back soon.
Love Rosie

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Baby Bunting

Hi!

Lucky me, I’m off to visit a new baby next week, perfect excuse to make some bunting as a gift!

I’ve already made some similar for a little girl Lucy and I’m revisiting the idea of using buttons to spell out the name of this little baby.

Luckily his name ‘Blake’ has 5 letters… perfect amount of little flags for a nursery.

This is how I plan the letters, the card is the size of my bunting flags and I just draw the letters on top of each other to ensure the correct amount of buttons are used.

I bought a fat quarter pack from Hobbycraft, I’ve been advised that the nursery decor is blue and white … so I am using blue and white polka dots as my main material.

Once the letters were organised and the buttons (craft stores sell these in large packs) chosen I drew each letter on the material (this could be traced) and then I ran a line of UHU glue around, stuck the buttons on and allowed to dry overnight. Once dry I stitched the buttons on.
These are going in a nursery so no chances can be taken with little buttons. I’m sure the stitching would suffice but the glue gives peace of mind.

Once the buttons are glued and sewn on, I chose a contrasting fabric back and sewed right sides together.
Turn, and get the point as good as possible then press, carefully around the buttons!

Finally take a little time to pin the flags in place on the tape or ribbon, I decided to use the same colour on the back of each one and so turned in the corners so it could be seen and therefore add some continunity to the design, I used a bright yellow ribbon. Then stitch along the ribbon or tape catching each flag between. Once done…either leave loose to tie or add a ring to enable the bunting to be hung.

If you’d like more detailed photos of what I did please click on ‘Lucy’ above, that blog had a very detailed picture explanation of what to do and it was very similiar to this one. Except this is smaller.

Nice fun little project and hopefully a good gift.

Back soon,
Love Rosie

 

Felting

Hi there!
Have you ever tried the craft of ‘Felting‘?

I can thoroughly recommend you do….it’s great fun and pretty addictive….

My daughter and I each had treated ourselves to a little kit from Hobbycraft’s Kirstie Allsop range.
Here’s what we did …I wish I’d recorded our giggles for you, it is the greatest fun – tinged with great danger, as the needles are extremely sharp!

Our little kits were to make a Blue-Tit bird (but I think they were selling an end of line at The Handmade Show as I cannot find the exact kits online – loads of others though and you don’t really need a kit as there are loads of suppliers of all you need to ‘felt’).

We opened out the dining room table, got ourselves a cuppa and settled down to make our birds.

When you first start it seems a completely mad thing to do… and you really think nothing is going to happen…

After much ‘stabbing’ through the yellow wool fibres the magic slowly started to happen the little birds tummy started to appear – all lovely and soft.

We followed the instructions and kept adding the different colours …

and finally, we had our Blue-tits…

So, now we’ve found this new hobby we’re hooked!
Orders have gone in for more wool, more shapes and we’ve both started other felting projects,
my daughter has a beautiful picture

and I’ve started on some Christmas bunting…

Back soon with more…
Love Rosie

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Bedroom Chair

Yesterday I had the best day, my daughter and I visited The Handmade Fair if you are interested in crafting it’s the place for you!
After many years of attending craft fairs both as stall holder in the 1980/90’s and as visitor I was incredibly impressed with the variety of craft stalls and the fact they mostly really were ‘handmade’ stalls. A real treat of a day out.

So, as to this weeks blog post, I was lying in bed pondering which of my ‘makes’ to write about and noticed I was looking at my slightly wacky bedroom chair…..

This chair has been in the family a long time, it was a study chair for some years then moved into the nursery, then became my daughters chair in her everso pink bedroom. It’s had stickers over it, ribbon wrapped all over (that was a surprise upcycle when my daughter was at uni) and now… she’s got her own home…. the chair is still here….I’ve got a little old school desk for a dressing table and the chair is back with me.

I decided to do some decopage on it and it stayed like that while the house was in a complete muddle. The decoupage was not a great success… some of the paper/card I’d used was too stiff and was quite scratchy.
So I decided to rub it down,  as I did so it became quite ‘shabby chic’                       and I decided I liked it. I added some gold acrylic paint on the bits where I cleared the paper… and the final touch was finding a lovely embroidered humming bird cushion cover in Matalan which I’m afraid I cut up and used to cover the seat pad.
I really enjoy ‘upcycling’ ‘changing’ just making items of furniture your own, do you?
I look around my sitting room whilst doing this and  notice all the little ‘changes’ we’ve made to so much of our home!

Thanks for reading… here’s a few more pictures of my chair, (it also appeared on my instagram).

As you can see I also hung a vintage style metal pear and stuck on some bird transfers which were left over from my chest of drawers. ..

Back soon,
Love Rosie
x

 

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Mini-drawer Tower

Hi there, I’m sure you all know by now, that I love these little sets of drawers… I’ve bought quite a few and had fun decorating them. I have two stuck together which I use on my dressing table for ear-ring storage, which works brilliantly. I’ve tried so many different ideas for keeping my quite vast ear-ring  collection and this is the best!

So after buying a set of eight more of these drawers I decided to stick some together again… this time in a tower…
So, I stuck 3 together with a strong adhesive (I used UHU) allowed that to dry overnight with weights on top.

Then I started to decorate … I decided to stay in my comfort zone and stick to flowers but used an outline gel (I got mine from Poundland but can’t find it on their web page – it’s great stuff, I have used it quite often)  to draw the flowers (after drawing the design in pencil first,  you could trace your shapes or maybe stick paper on and go over the outlines in these gel pens :-

Then the whole thing was left to dry, as you can see in the last picture above, I used a  craft knife to ‘cut’ through where I had gone over the drawers. I went over the drawer openngs intentionally, I wanted a fluid look of flowers intertwined, if I’d stopped to go over the gaps I would have lost that look.
Now to colour in…

I used felt pens again, and then a light coat of glitter paint.

and that’s them finished (I painted the inside of the drawers with gold acrylic and lined the base with felt.

Bye for now, but back soon,
love Rosie

Tree Box

A recent week off work gave me plenty of time to be creative. But we did have a couple of days out and one was to a most amazing place, if you ever visit Surrey, England it should definately be on your list of places to visit.
The place is Watts Artist Village. One of exhibits was of lino cutting. I’ve always liked the idea of this craft and though I bought the cutters years ago I’ve never actually done it.
However I was inspired by a few of the artists, Gail Brodholt and Lisa Takahashi especially stood out to me, as well as the wonderful tree images of Richard Shimell.

No prizes for guessing which of the artists designs came to mind when looking at a little blank box… (the rectangular one I used is out of stock at The Works currently but they do have a nice square one and lots of other styles)
This is what I did:-

The basic tree shape with a purple felt pen, then I added smaller branches with a pink felt pen…

Then I added some purple hills and a pink sky.
I then added some leaf motifs around the edge of the box. Then  I decided they were too fussy and went over the whole thing with gold acrylic paint!

The inside has been coloured with a purple felt pen and then I am drawing leaves on top, the effect will be quite subtle.

and that was that, it’s quite interesting to keep to a restricted palette, but of course you could do this kind of thing in anything you like, would even be good in just black.

Back soon,
love Rosie

Paint your own Tea-Towels

Hello again,

On seeing a bargain box of plain white tea-towels in Ikea, only £1 per pair a while back, I excitedly thought that’s a great bargain!
If you read my blog you’ll know I like nothing better than drawing on clothes  and napkins etc, so the chance of getting these really well made cloths made my day. It looks like they were an end of line though as they do not seem to be on the website now, sorry about that.

So here’s what I did … I used Ikea’s fabric pens and Sharpie fabric markers.
Tea-towel 1:-

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Tea-Towel 2:-

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Tea-Towel 3:-

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Tea-Towel 4:-

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Tea-towel 5:-

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and the last one….

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I did use a little colour on the teapot but with these fabric pens, I prefer to use the Sharpie pens as the nib is finer but the colours in that range are a bit to bright for my taste…and my kitchen is grey with white tiles with just one wall covered in this wallpaper, which I love! So, I’ve favoured using just the black pen, when you’re doing your own thing you really have total control!

If you don’t like to draw straight on cloth you could use a fabric marker which will disappear if/when you go wrong, or trace an image, again there are plenty of products to use, the links show you two ideas.
Do let me know if you decide to have a go too.

Back soon,
Love Rosie

 

Felt pen decorated box

Oh I know I have posted lots of blogs about decorating boxes, I love boxes and drawers and things for putting things in…I don’t think anyone can ever have too many!

Also, these boxes from The Works are really great, with nice gilt corners, hinges and fastener,  very well priced and just too good to leave in the shop…
.

So, this one has been decorated using just different types of felt pens and markers (well I did paint the inside, but you could colour that in too with felt-tip pens)

The design on the top looks quite complicated but I took photos along the way and show you how I built up the design….
This box is a really nice size, perfect for storing pens, bits n’ bobs, jewellery, money, make-up, etc., etc.,

After a little sunflower drawing on a small box earlier in the summer, I decided to again use a drawing pen to decorate this box…

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So, that’s the top design finished, now to colour in…

I used felt-tip pens (just a restricted palette of dark and light blue, light green and dark pink), including a Pentel Gold Marker and them went over  all the lid top with a green colouring pencil (not a water soluble one)

Then I started on the rest of the box, I painted the inside with gold acrylic paint.
Coloured in the bottom half of the box with the dark pink felt pen (the same as was used on the top), then coloured in the sides of the top with the gold pen.

Finally I decided to draw similar patterns on the sides with a purple pen on top of the dark pink.

I lined the base of the inside with felt.

And that, is that… another pleasant evening spent listening to the radio and drawing at my desk, perfect ending to the day in my mind.
Back soon,
love Rosie

Another Fairy Door…

The last time I posted a fairy door on this blog I was honoured to have my blog featured by The Works in their own blog, which naturally gets a few more readers than I do!

These gorgeous little doors then vanished, demand got high and they were unatttainable. Lots of other people make them, I’ve found some lovely ones on ebay, but these are well made, have good hinges and door opener and are only £2…

But, the other day, whilst browsing the Works website I saw that they were back.
So,this one is for me, I’ve varnished it and it’s going in my garden!

Here’s what I did… (I’ve just used drawing pens, felt pens, crayons and glittery paint, then varnished with an ordinary wood varnish).

Well, even fairy homes have names don’t they? and naturally a little ivy around the sign. Even though it is a wooden door, I have added a few lines and knots to make the wood look more woodland like.
I carried on drawing bits and bobs, windows and toadstalls etc…

Then I painted the door red and started on the inside…

finishing touches..

and this is it done…

ooh someone may be moving in….
Thanks for reading, back soon,

love Rosie

Painted Blouse

I just washed a favourite blouse this weekend and found that the marks down the front had not come out in the wash, despite a good squirt of a well known stain remover…. so, surely this is as good a reason as any to decorate!

I’ve called this a painted blouse, because although I used fabric markers the slight bleeding of the ink make it look more painted than drawn.

I decided to use a floral theme, I love flowers and they are easy to do too! I decided to do blue flowers, I like wearing this blouse with blue jeans.

Here’s what I did…
I’m using the Ikea fabric pens and also the Sharpie ones which are finer points, to add a little detail…

I began by drawing some flower heads and buds in the blue. Then I added some stems and leaves…

I added some yellow to the top of the leaves..

Then some yellow to the centre of the flowers (it doesn’t show yellow on top of the blue but indicates the centre of the flower…

 

I pressed the back with a warm iron and that is that!

Back soon

Love Rosie

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Poems on plates & napkins

My regular blog readers may recall a recent plate drawing experiment which went terribly wrong…

On a day out with my sister which pulled in Ikea and Hobbycraft, I purchased a new pen!

This one is especially for writing on porcelain and is lovely.
Whilst in Ikea I also saw some fabric pens, I already have some Sharpie fabric pens (but the colours are so bright, I wanted to see if I could find something more subtle, haven’t tried that here but will do so soon) and I own various fabric paints by Pebeo and Dylon, but these from Ikea were only a couple of pounds so I thought I’d try them.

Here’s what I did…
Remember those plates I painted before? Well, I’m using them again!
I bought a book from a local library sale and it has been 30p well spent!
It’s called ‘Oxfords “A Packet of Poems” Poems about food freshly picked by Jill Bennett and garnished by Paddy Mounter’.

There are some very good and funny poems that I have used many times for cards.
My mother was often reciting ‘The story of Augustus who would not have any soup‘ by Heinrich Hoffman to us as children.
So although it’s long, I wanted to put that on a plate, the other two plates I found short sayings/jokes from the internet and did a little sketch.

Once complete, I baked the plates in the oven to ‘fix’ the design.

Now for some napkins to compliment! This time I have used the black fabric pen from Ikea and the poem book for suitable foodie rhymes… The ink is ‘fixed’ on these with an iron.

Pretty silly, but dinner parties don’t have to be sensible do they?

Here’s the plates and napkins together…

Right, now whats for dinner…
Back soon, thanks for reading,
Love Rosie

 

 

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Taking a sewing class…

This week I have had a lovely break from work with a great friend in a gorgeous part of the world, Ipswich, Suffolk.

Through my friend Tracy, I have met the lovely Gillian, who is a skilled quilter and patchwork artist extraordinaire!

Now, I am the first person to admit that I am not a ‘neat’ person, and while I love patchwork and needlework I have my own ways, often cutting ‘by eye’ and rarely measuring… well that all changed on Wednesday when Tracy and I attended a sewing class held by Gillian!
Check out the website, you may like to try one too!

Tracy decided to make some bunting and I was given a few items to look through and decide what I wanted to do, I chose a pin cushion  with thread catcher attached and then afterwards had time left to do a little bunting myself – little owls!

I’m not showing how we did it – you need Gillian’s expertise for that!

But here are my efforts. I have to say that it was a really enjoyable day, we were all in deep concentration but had time for a cuppa or two and a few (quite a few!) giggles along the way.

and hung up…

and here’s my lovely pin cushion and thread catcher…. and yes, I know, the notes are upside down.. I stupidly concentrated so hard on making my square bottom to my thread catcher than I forgot to check which was the bottom!
Well, that’s a good reason to make another!

and here it is ready to use… just need to get my own sewing machine working again now!

and if you do decide to attend a class…..tell Gillian you heard about them from me!

Back soon
love Rosie

 

Mateus Rosé Bottles

Who doesn’t know the iconic shaped Mateus bottles?
They seem to appeal to everyone and have been used as lamp bases for a long time, I remember when I worked in the Art & Craft department of Turtles, barely a Saturday went by without someone coming in with a newspaper wrapped parcel…. they would unwrap their Mateus bottle and say “We’ve come up with the great idea to make a lamp out of this!”
The elderly manager got so fed up he used to hand over the lightfitting adapter and lampshade frame and say “These are all you want, pay around the corner, good-bye!” or when they were standing looking bemused at the mountain of lampshade frames, he’d shout out “The 8″ drum fits that bottle!”
I feel quite sorry for those poor people now – they thought they were being so original!

So, when my friend Caroline asked if I’d like to decorate a couple of these bottles for her to use as candle sticks in the garden, I leapt at the chance.
Of course if she likes the design and wants to keep them in house, they can easily be made in to rather attractive lamps…….

Here’s what I did.
As Caroline is a very keen and successful gardener I decided to go with a leaf design, so I got out my Pebeo Glass Paints. I kept to green, turquoise and yellow.

Firstly I painted leaf shapes, starting from the bottle of the bottle in the green paint.

These paints are touch dry very quickly so while doing the second bottle in the same design, the first was drying ready for the next colour.
If you are using different glass paint colour without the outliner, just give the colours a few minutes to dry – unless you want to blend them of course!
Then I painted one half of each leaf with a mix of the green paint with a little yellow paint.

Next step was to paint the other half in a darker green, I added a little of the turquoise paint to the green.

Lastly, with yellow, I added a few leaf veins to add a little definition to each leaf.
And, thats it!

Hope she likes them…
I’ll be back soon,
Love Rosie.

 

Guest book for Wedding

A few years ago a colleague asked if I could make a Wedding Day Guest Book for her friend’s wedding. The book she got for me to use was one filled with black blank pages. (It came from Tiger Stores and that is where I purchased this book from).

I drew on each page – just a little wine glass or champagne flute and entered the Bride & Grooms names on the front together with the date of the wedding day.
I then copied the idea for another wedding.
So, now I’ve created another, no actual wedding details for it yet so I’ve just done it for practise.

I have kept it freehand and quite simple but here’s what I have done…

Firstly I drew something on every page, yes every page!

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Just ten pages shown, I duplicated the images through the book, alternating in gold and silver pens.

I decided to use the book with white pages, that way the guests can use any pen to sign the book. If you use black pages – it does look really impressive but the gel pens can smudge.

I then planned a first page – obviously this could include personal details of the couple – their names for example! But to give the basic idea I’ve just gone for Mr & Mrs…
Then, this morning, I decided to draw a picture to stick on the front of the book:-

I then cut out around the ‘ribbon’ edge
and that was that!

Spot the deliberate (or not!) mistake? I drew the happy couple too far apart – unless I’d given the groom ridulously long arms he is not embracing his bride!
I’d draw them closer together if I did it again (which I will if this book gets given to a couple to actually use!)

Thanks for reading.

Back soon,
Rosie

When I look out (of) my window…

I’ve had the day off from work today, Wednesday 27 June,  the weather was not great so I decided to spend sometime drawing… I sat at the dining table which faces the opposite direction to my desk and looked around for inspiration…and that’s when I looked out of my window (always loved Donovan!) and noticed that there is a gap in the flowering of the plants.

My house (in South Greater London, England) is in a bit of a hollow and the front garden is higher than the house (it’s a bungalow!).
The view from the window is completely ‘garden’ there is no sky to be seen.

We only moved here a few years ago, the house needed lots of renovation but the garden has the basis of a very well designed plan.
As we’ve cut back the weeds we have discovered many walls and decorative stones, as well as an almost complete calendar of flowering plants.
There are a few wild geraniums in pretty pink at the moment but that’s it. It’s actually all green. That’s what you get with constant rain for a month!

So, that’s what I have drawn…the view through my window.

I used a watercolour paper, about A4 size. I sketched with pencil first.

Then inked in, using a drawing pen

I decided to include the items sitting on the window cill… once drawn in I used water-soluble colouring pencils and coloured it in…

and this is the end result.

I did draw the leaded lights lines on with a silver pen but it doesn’t show up.
Finished picture… through my window picture

I was inspired to do this drawing after looking a another’s blog post, featuring a lovely painting of a jar of butterscotch sweets…it made me think, you can never say you haven’t got anything to draw – just look in front you!
This has also brought to mind a recent exhibition at the Chelsea Physic Garden by the Florilegium Society, just take a look at the truely inspiring drawings of dandelions and nettles on their web page… even if you have nothing growing in your garden you can usually find a nettle or two!

Well, it’s still raining, so I think I will start something else this afternoon,

Back soon, thanks for reading,
love Rosie

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Large Fretwork Top Box

This week’s blog is about another storage box from The Works, you can see what other folk do with the lovely wooden craft supplies from the Works at their own blog and what a lovely box this is.

It’s large and has a beautiful fretwork top.
I decided that this box would be decorated simply, in just black and gold. Sometimes keeping to a limited palette is good.

Here’s what I did…
First of all I painted the inside with gold acrylic paint

I sponged the gold paint on the wooden fretwork.(I just cut up a little washing up sponge and used a small cube)

Then the outside was