Thursday, February 23, 2012

Not exactly what I was trying to do....

Okay, it's late Saturday evening, and I realize that I need a birthday card for a friend at church in the morning. Check the cards that I've already made - nothing there that's "right". So, quickly check a few blogs for inspiration, and I find a card! Grab some watercolour paper, some inks, a paintbrush and a bit of water. Stamp the large trees stamp from Lovely as a Tree on the watercolour paper. Smoosh the cover of the SU inkpads so they'll deposit ink onto the cover. Open the pad, wet the brush, dip the brush into the ink on the cover, and paint in the sky. So far, so good... well, mostly good (I wanted to sponge clouds, but I couldn't find my stencil). Give the "paint" a chance to dry. Clean the brush; wet it again, and repeat the smooshing technique with green ink. Start to "paint" the trees - and then it happens - the water-based ink that I used to stamp the image is starting to smudge - rats! Wait, it's not as bad as I thought - it actually looks a bit like an impressionist painting! Now, I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I think this will pass. I painted in some grass too; glued on some ribbon, put the panel on the card, add a few rhinestones, and it's done!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The First 12

I have had next to no sewing time at all lately, so I was really looking forward to the latest Friday Night Sew-In. I didn't get too much accomplished, but I did manage to make a few more Dresden plate blocks for the Scrappy Plate Club quilt-along from Bunny Tales. I had already finished 4 or 5 plates, so I now have 12! (Maybe I accomplished more than I first thought!) I'm planning to make more than the 12 called for in the quilt-along, so I'm well on the way with that. February's step is to make the center sections, so I'm behind with that step... I'm still trying to decide if I want to make the centers scrappy or all one colour - and if I go that route, what colour should I use? Black would make all the colours pop, but the quilt is going to a teen mom, and I'm not sure that I want to go that route. Decisions, decisions!
Now comes the best part - the picture:
This isn't the final layout - just wanted to give you a rough idea of what it could look like!