Angella Dee Designs: craft

Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts

Friday, 26 July 2013

Creative Idleness.....

I have been busy doing some more intuitive painting and re-reading Flora Bowley's awesome book BRAVE INTUITIVE PAINTING. Here's my latest intuitive painting:

I am also busy trying to finish a crochet throw that I started so long ago. It is made with Vinnies Bambi yarn, a blend of cotton and bamboo with a fun hand-spun texture. Bambi yarn is available from WOOLHOGS .
I am so thrilled with the gypsy feel of this little throw:

I have been doing quite a lot of baking lately. Here's an awesome fridge tart that can be made in 10 minutes with 3 ingredients:

Ingredients:
500ml flavoured yoghurt (of your choice)
1 tin condensed milk
Biscuits for base.

Layer biscuits for the base or crush them and add margarine to make base.
Mix the yoghurt and condensed milk
Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base
Microwave on high for 4 minutes.
Leave to cool
Put in fridge and serve when cold.

It's really delicious!

Then there was this sweet little crochet bunting I made for the veranda/porch to cheer up the bleak winter landscape. (OK so it isnt that bleak - we've had a very mild winter this year so far).

And these are some crochet cuff bracelets that I made as a gift for a friend. Made with e-cotton, hand-dyed in SA:

And then I have been enjoying doing the art assignments for the e-course FACING YOUR FEARS. These are courage cards which I made using toilet rolls:

For a tutorial on how to use toilet rolls to do art click here: TUTORIAL

Well I hope you have enjoyed seeing all my WIPs (works in progress) and other creative thing-a-ma-bobs.

Wishing you all a gentle, friendly, happy weekend.
much love
Angella

KEEP CALM and THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

I'm Back! . . .

If you're wondering why I have been MIA , its because I had a freak accident and damaged my knee quite badly. It's been a rough two weeks. I am recovering well and can now hobble about without the aid of wheelchair or walker. During this time I have really missed my morning walks. In anticipation of resuming my walks , hopefully in a couple of weeks, I made a pouch-thingy-ma-bob to hold my camera and cell phone .

It is crocheted with hand-dyed eco-cotton from ONE OF A KIND YARNS. This varigated blue skein of their yarn was sent to me as a gift by a very special FaceBook friend. I crocheted the pouch with a pocket. Thus the main compartment holds my camera and the smaller pocket on the front holds my cell phone.

I then embellished the pocket with fabric and beads and sparkly braid. I also made a fringe at the bottom of the pouch with beads, a teeny tiny bottle with the word HOPE in it and a feather found in my garden.

I had great fun with this project and cant wait to start using it on my morning walks.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.
much love
Angella

"The Part of us that creates is youthful and innocent"
-Julia Cameron-

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Miss Primrose....

This week I finished this little WIP ...at last!!! It feels so great to get back to a long neglected project and finish it off. She turned out to be very vintage looking and I LOVE that about her. Her ears are a bit long for a cat but they give her character.
I was inspired by this photo that I saw online (so sorry but I cannot remember the source!)
My Inspiration:

My Interpretation:

So thats the story of Miss Primrose. Isnt she sweet?

Wishing you all a joyful, creative, successful week.
much love
Angella.

"May all your weeds be WILDFLOWERS"

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

Crochet Daisy Cushion

For ages I have wanted to make Daisy Squares in crochet.
The other day I found this really simple tutorial here.
I made a few squares just to try it. They turned out so well that I decided to make them into
this cute cushion:

Oh I do so LOVE crochet!!!

Wishing you all a very happy week.
much love
Angella.

"You are of a species bred to ENDURE. The sufferings of others do not make your own less real- but remember how those others clung to life and in the end, won through. You CAN DO IT. "
-Pam Brown (1928) -

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

Hippie Chic Crochet......

Last week I was inspired by this blog to make a stripey cushion. I bought 7 rainbow coloured balls of yarn and began....
what fun!!!
Here is my stripey rainbow cushion:

When the cushion was done I decided to make myself a tote bag too:

wishing you a fabulous, creative, colourful "rest-of-the-week".
much love
Angella.

"Value your instinct for BEAUTY. Take time to look deeply into whatever nourishes you. Create small touches of beauty WHEREVER you are."
-Stephanie Dowrick-

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

I (heart) Art

At the farmers market on Saturday I found a 50%-off stall and I bought these two wooden hearts. They were coated with white PVA paint.

There were so many possibilities for them! However, I finally decided to decorate them in a bright (Indian/Morrocan-type) style. I drew the design on freehand , then painted it with acrylic inks. I did the outlines with a silver fabric paint outliner - which has a raised finish that I like. They were exceedingly bright - so I toned them down by rubbing Walnut Ink over them and spattering with black acrylic paint. This gave them a slightly aged look. I LOVE they way they turned out!

I finished them off with a coat of clear varnish. A happy project for the week!

wishing you butterflies and flowers and smiles.....
much love
Angella

"Write it on your heart that EVERY day is the best day in the year."
-R W Emerson-

Sunday, 26 May 2013

Do they Know....?

This weekend I put some of my little paintings up for sale at the Farmer's Market. I was so nervous about it. I dont think people have any clue how much courage it takes to put your art on display. Do they realise that part of your heart and soul went into each piece? Now, the fact that none of my art sold doesnt faze me one bit. I love each and every one of them - and am quite happy to keep them with me. In fact I hate parting with my artworks. It's hard. BUT ... the fact that almost every single person just walked past and half glanced at the work without even bothering to come and take a decent look at it - THAT upset me.
I look at everything when I go to a market even if I cant afford it- because beauty and creativity fills my soul. Also - it costs me NOTHING to encourage the artist/crafter in their creative pursuits - and encouragement , let's face it, it something we all NEED. (just saying......)

wishing you all a happy , fun, courageous, creative week.

much love

Angella

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Recycling and Playing with Paint....

This week I suffered from a severe migrane which lasted 3 days and I was just generally feeling very tired and low- in hopes of cheering myself up I "forced" myself to sit in my studio and just "play" with paint ( doing anything significant was out of the question!)
I was quite surprised at how much I loved the two "just-for-fun" projects I managed to finish......

I tore these out of old Stampington magazines because the paper had such a nice texture and I was at first going to make hand-painted postcards and then changed my mind and decided to make myself an INSPIRATION BANNER instead.

I added doilies, and paper serviettes to the "flags" with Gel Medium.

I painted the backs with Gesso to strengthen the "flags".

Then I painted some bright & simple, fun designs onto the fronts of the flags with craft acrylics.

I printed out inspirational sayings and added them to my flags with Gel Medium.
I put eyelets onto each flag and threaded jute string thru them to hang them.

I decided to hang them on my shelves where I keep all my paints etc in my studio.

This banner was inspired by the one I saw here .

I also sat down with some simple designs in mind to make a set of four mixed media paintings.
I used water colour paints and oil pastels on Bockingford 190gsm watercolour paper for these: