In the most recent issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors there was a workshop article entitled “Faux Silkscreen” by Patricia Gaignat. It uses sticky back craft foam sheets to make stamps. I have used craft foam sheets to make stamps for a long while but I never thought of using them this way. I needed a card for hubby’s birthday so I thought I’d give it a try.

First I made a sketch of the card. Her hint to draw the focal point first and then add background elements worked well. You do have to remember to reverse your text if you are adding those as details. But if you are cutting out letters as part of the stamps, you don’t have to reverse them with her technique.

You transfer your design to the back of the sticky back foam (the paper side). Cut out the elements and then stick them to acetate or transparency sheets. I really liked how these stamps worked as you can see exactly where to align them when stamping, they are thin and flexible and work really well.

So I am trying out a landscape design with the same technique. I think I will stamp these on fabric and then add thread sketching and then sew it to a card.

Here I’ve transferred the design to the back of the craft foam. I haven’t cut this one out yet. I’ll show the results once I’ve completed a few cards. And hubby did like his birthday card.

Here’s the first barrette that I made from the drizzled felt of my last post.

I used a commercial fabric for the backing and hand stitched the barrette clasp on.

I like how this one came out so 11 more to go. I’ll be selling these at the store. Hopefully, they’ll be popular.

I have been doing a little work in my studio journal. These are shapes based on piece of bark from a ponderosa pine. I picked a bunch of these up off the ground on our small trip in June. They remind me of puzzle pieces.

Here I took one of my favorite shapes and made a pattern. I also have made some foam stamps of several shapes but forgot to take photos of those. I am planning on making several more and then will do some trial printing in my journal.

I can’t believe it is the end of August already. Football season starts next weekend. So we’ll be off to cheer on the UM Grizzlies. We have a new coach so hopefully, we’ll still have a good team and a winning season. Go Griz!

Here’s what I’ve been working on lately. It’s a piece of recycled wool skirt which I machine needle felted with various colors of wool. Then I drizzle stitched it in a the same colors of thread. I have a bit more drizzling to do and then I’ll make it into barrettes and brooches. I’ll show you the completed ones when I’m finished.

The other piece I completed is this ‘Coastline’ page for Chris. I mailed it off to her yesterday so I’ll show you the full page when she gets it.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Here is what I did most of the day on Friday. Dyed 24 rayon/silk cut velvet scarves. There are 6 of each design and since I used acid dyes, they were lighter than if the scarves were pure silk. But they came out better than I expected and they’ll all be in the shop on Monday to start selling.

Here’s more – mainly the leaf pattern. The ones above are diamond pattern.

And this last set is floral. I wish I knew how to put all the photos together to make a panoramic shot for you. That brings up the subject of my using Photoshop. I tried for nearly two hours Friday morning to layer two photos together. I just can’t seem to make it work. I read all the help instructions and tried to do what it said but no go. So if anyone knows how to do that and can explain it easily, I would love to be able to layer two photos together.

Juliette received this page so I can show you my second seashore page. I’ve always loved sandpipers when I go to the beach so that’s what this is based on. The sand is from a rusted piece of fabric, the water is hand dyed and I drew the bird with watercolor pencils and then painted with fabric medium. A bit of machine stitching and quilting to finish. The edge is done with a raffia machined cord.

Here’s closer view of the sandpiper.

And here’s the back. I am way behind my usual schedule for my August page. I usually have the page done already and I haven’t even started. The photos I was trying to layer on Friday with Photoshop were to be the basis for the page but I never got it completed. Sigh… I’ll have to do some other technique and get started soon. I don’t want to get behind. Chris, your coastline page will be started soon, I promise!

Carmen has received her July page based on castles so I can show it to you. It is based on a photo of Nunney castle that I found online. It’s an inside view of the ruins. It’s all done with machine embroidery with the techniques I learned from Carol Shinn’s book. I really liked this technique but it shrunk much more than I thought it would. Because the book pages are supposed to be a certain size, this was somewhat of a problem. I had to add an inch to the bottom after my first attempt turned out to be too short.

Here’s the back – pretty boring – just  a piece of black felt but I didn’t want to do an edge so I needed something that wouldn’t fray. The neat thing about her technique is it makes an edge to the embroidery that doesn’t have to be framed.

Here’s a close up. I really liked all the play of shadows and light in this piece and chose this castle because of the photo image that I had found. It doesn’t look exactly like the photo but it certainly has the same feel. I hope you like it Carmen!

Now for my tale of woe. I made this page for Juliette with the theme of The Seashore and sent it off to the UK on June 19th. Juliette still hasn’t received it. So I had to make another page to send her. I couldn’t duplicate this page because I don’t have any of the fabrics that I used left.

I had found the perfect seashell fabric for the base but only had two pieces of it. And the rest is made from scraps and bits I had left over from other projects.

Here’s a close up of the heart rock that I found some time ago and attached. There was a page that had been missing for two months on it’s journey from Germany to India and it finally arrived so maybe there is still hope. But I went ahead and made Juliette another page and finished it today. It is completely different.

Here’s a sneak peak of it. Now I’ve got to start on August for Chris with a theme of coastline. Hopefully, but the middle of next month, I will be able to get back into some felting again. My goals have fallen by the wayside this summer, first the back problems (which I’m still dealing with) and then loads of company. I’ve got two more weeks on the company and then I’ll get back to a more regular routine.

This was the solar dyeing experiment when it started. I forgot  to take a photo before I took it out of the jar. After I threw away the soggy, pickled mushrooms or toadstools or whatever they were, I used Synthrapol to clean the wool and then rinsed it out.

Here it is after being dyed. It’s the wool on the right. I put it up next to some undyed white wool so you could see the change in it. It is kind of a pale, creamy color tending toward yellow. It was in the jar for four weeks and I thought I would see more of a brown to orange tone but it really didn’t change all that much.

Here is another page spread I’m working on in my journal. It’s pretty blah right now – looks rather like camouflage. More will have to be done as I am not pleased with it so far.

Here’s a sketch of a future project. I want to base a felted vase on the bark of the Ponderosa Pine. Hopefully, I will have time to felt soon. I have lots of company now and won’t be able to do much until mid August.

Here are a few photos of when we hiked on our trip to Quinn’s Hot Springs for my birthday.

Here’s one of my fellow hikers taking a rest.

And here’s one of my numerous inspirational bark photos that I took on my hike. I won’t bore you will all 30 of them. I only took 30 because the batteries died in my camera!

And last but not least, here is a sneak peak of my July page for Carmen based on castles. It’s done with machine embroidery following the methods used by Carol Shinn in her Freestyle Machine Embroidery book. I was pleased with the outcome and will be doing more machine embroidered pieces this way. But you’ll have to wait to see the whole thing once it’s received by Carmen. Hope everyone is having a good summer (or winter for anyone down under) and hopefully, I’ll be able to blog again soon.