The Mini Artist.

Hi again :)

With Spring in the air, we have had some really lovely, warm weather during the last week. It was the perfect opportunity to take my little boy outside and let him get messy with some finger paints. The last time he gave it a try, the weather was on the chilly side and he was about five months younger (he is 17 mths old now). We put him in the shower with a canvas on the floor, squirted some paint on there and let him go.  I was interested to see what he would do, and what he would create, now that he was older.

Well, he was certainly adept at putting his hands in the paint - good start - but being a few months older (and not trapped in a shower recess), he is now a lot more curious and once he'd gotten his hands all messy, he wanted to touch everything but the cardboard. So I had to assist him a little, and fast, and then he went off with painty hands and buried a crayon in the pot plant :)

In one of my previous posts, I made a birthday card for my niece's 5th birthday. You can see that birthday card here. Along with her cat obsession, she really loves her little cousin Massimo so I decided we would make his work of art into an additional birthday present.

Here is our group effort...

I have been wanting to do more with frames and fabric, especially felt and quilting material. This frame combines both of these, with my son's artwork as the centrepiece. 

Frame by Unigift 4x6"

Quilting fabric by Fabric Palette

Felt purchased at Spotlight

Card stock by Kaisercraft (ballet)

Paint by Tim and Jess
Apologies for the reflection....

Pretty colours by little fingers. 

The Mini Artist having a swing after his 30 seconds of creativity :) 

I made his little smock out of a piece of calico - just folded it in half and cut a circle for his head to pop through. Worked a treat and no sewing!

I plan on experimenting further with frames and fabric, just for something different and to stock up my Etsy store (which is not yet up and running). 

Coming up soon, some generic cards for little guys or big boys. 

Thanks for dropping by :)

Abs

Bathtime...Fabric as Paper.

Hi again :)

Even though I am not a seamstress, a quilter, a patchwork person or sewer of any shape or form (at this point in time - you never know), I love fabric. I love the patterns, the colours and the feel. I think it stems back to when I was a little girl and spent school holidays with my Nana. She was always sewing, knitting, spinning wool, cutting up a pattern, crocheting, quilting, bias binding this and darting that. You name it, she did it.

As her only granddaughter, she would "just rustle up" a skirt, a dress (sometimes made by cutting up another dress), a basket of scrunchies or a cute top. It was her thing. It was what she was known for her whole life and she was amazing at it. When she passed away, I was lucky enough to keep her sewing machine......yeah, I know....what am I going to do with it? Well, at the moment, it's in storage but if in the future I don't learn to sew, I'll display it. She used a beautiful black Singer 201K and it's just too lovely an antique to be kept tucked away. They are renowned for being among the best sewing machines ever made and were quite expensive. If you'd like to read more about them (I did and was quite surprised), you can do so here .

A couple of times in the past, I have bought quilting fabric just because I liked it. I liked the way quite different patterns could somehow be combined through colour. I knew I probably wouldn't use it, or if I did, it wouldn't be for a long time. But recently I thought, how can I incorporate fabric into paper craft? If I treat the fabric like paper, how hard could it be?

I came across some cute rubber duckie quilting material and thought that maybe I could use it in my friend's baby album....a bath theme...something like that...

Here's what I started with...

and after adding water and bubbles...

Paper by Sugar & Spice Studio

Card stock (rain) and foam lettering (subway, powder) by American Crafts

Material by Fat Flats (Ducky Bath Yellow)

Buttons by Basic Grey

Ink by Versa Color (Baby Blue)

I bought myself a fabric roller cutter. Those things are great! I left the little loose threads as they reminded me of a fluffy towel or bathmat.

 

Instead of using paper as a mounting platform, I just used the material instead.

 

 

The little duckie on the fabric matched the little duckie on my paper quite nicely :) Quack!

 

If you would like to see another example of fabric incorporated in paper craft, visit Deb's Craft Shed here Deb has made some gorgeous silk flowers for her latest card. Her cards are just lovely :)

 

Only two more pages to go in my friend's album. I'm looking forward to giving it to her. It's been so much fun to make.

 

Thanks for stopping by :)

 

Abs