Revamped T-Shirts

Two of  my favourite plain t-shirts had cooking oil stains on them - they still looked good otherwise.  So I decided to revamp them with some fabric paint and stencils & stamps.  I am very happy with the results.....

 The finished articles......

 And just for fun here's one of me today , wearing the purple one.....

Wishing you all a happy healthy sunny weekend!
much love
Angella

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to DANCE in the rain....."

Inspiration Recycled...

A very quick little recycling project for the first week of 2013.  I used a lite wooden box which my mom received as a Christmas gift with toiletries in it, a page from a magazine and a flower that I crocheted.

 Using the box (already painted white) as a frame I cut the piece of  the magazine page that I wanted to use - to fit into the base of the box.

 Then glued it down firmly   with double sided tape.

 I tore out a word from the same magazine page and glued it onto the back ground page, then I glued on my fabulous layered 3D crochet flower (which I am sooooo proud of!) :o)

I have hung the frame in my bedroom . I put it up nice and firmly with double-sided mirror tape - you know how that sticks!!!  and guess what?  It is sooooooo skew - and I cannot remove it without removing  the paint and probably some plaster from the wall - eeeeeek!  Now I have to stick up two other items next to it and purposely make them skew to make it look like a "style"  :o)   
O well .... New Year - New "Style"    COMMENTS PLEASE.......

Wishing you all the greatest year ever in 2013!

A Beautiful Blog...

For some great eye-candy and inspiration visit Olavas Blog

Another fab site is Gipsybazar

What am I doing this weekend?

We are in the middle of a bad heatwave and its rather difficult to do anything in this weather, however, today I plan to get started on my Life Organiser Journal.  I received Jennifer Louden's book - The Life Organiser - for Christmas and its AWESOME!  So I purchased a new journal yesterday and plan to do the prompts and exercises in the book once  a week (as they are given in weekly segments).  I will keep you updated on this project.  Today we also need to tidy out the garage to make a space for my son's car.  My Gardener is here today and will help us with this- thank goodness.  (The lawn mowing will just have to wait till next weekend!)  I also have to go into town for my mom sometime this morning.  I will rest in the afternoon (the norm for me) and then cook supper (spagetti bolognaise tonight) , wash dishes and hopefully catch up on some reading!

"Small steps eventually add up to many small Victories."

I (heart) crochet....

More crochet goodies......

 I had such fun figuring out how to make these without a pattern and I am quite happy with my end result. I want to make them into a garland (will post pics of  the finished item soon- watch this space!) :o)

 This is a crochet hook baggie . I glued on the felt cat needle-holder.

fun , fun,  fun .......

"We don't see things the way they are.  We see things the way WE are."
-Talmund-

More Christmas Goodies

Here are some more Crochet and Knitted goodies that I made for Christmas.
This is a crochet flower necklace that I made for a friend for Christmas:

This a gorgeous little Christmas bauble tree decoration.  Visit Attic 24 for the tutorial to learn how to make these:

These are three knitted Christmas tree decorations which I just knitted out of my head ie: made up as I went along:

"Let us decide on the route that we wish to take to pass our life, and attempt to sow that route with flowers"
-Mde du Chatelet-

Colourful Journal Cover

Hello again :o)
Here's the pics of  my fun and funky recycled journal with its bright hand painted cover:

The beads are, of course, totally a Jennibellie thing! :o)

 My cover was inspired by the work of the talented Dianna over at 365 Days of Art. This is her art journal page that inspired me:

Go and visit her blog.  Its great fun!

"A Creative Life is grounded on many many small steps and very very few large leaps."
-Cameron-

Hand-made Christmas Gifts

Hi Everyone

I'm back online!!!  What a relief!
As promised here are pics of some of  the handmade goodies I made this year as Christmas gifts for family and friends.....

 

Little pouches to put gift vouchers in made from Nikkim 100% cotton yarn from Woolhogs.

These little baggies can be used for tissues, tampons, lipsticks etc by the receiver afterwards.

 The purple bag below is made from a textured yarn from Woolhogs called Bambi (a blend of 30% bamboo and 70% cotton)

These are packs of 4 cards and 4 envelopes.  They are decorated with prints of my original artworks:

These are facecloths - yes facecloths (not doilies) and they work like a charm!  I made myself one to try it out.   They are made with Nikkim 100% cotton yarn from - you geussed it- WOOLHOGS.

 I bought Nivea soap which comes in a box and wrapped it with patterned scrapbooking paper and stamped the word "SOAP" on it with my alphabet stamps.

These are a great recycling project:  pencil tins from empty food cans .  Crochet was done with Serina 100% bamboo yarn from Woolhogs.

And these are my Christmas cards and gift tags made using prints of my original artwork:

And in my next post I want to show you pics of the cover of my recycled journal that I told you about in a previous post not so long ago.  I am sooooo thrilled with how this Journal cover turned out.... WATCH THIS SPACE......

I (heart) Crafts

A symbol I have always loved is the heart .  One can just never have too many hearts!!!
Here are a few examples of  heart crafts that I have created:

 

The fabric for this calico heart was stamped with rubber stamps using Cocoa Bean Brilliance Ink

 

These hearts were made with printed fabric and I stamped the  words on using Stazon ink

 

I made this wreath with Grapevine branches from my yard and cut the hearts from MDF wood.

 

Another calico heart decorated with rubber stamps and ribbon roses + pearls.

 

 

A heart black board I made from 3mm MDF wood and added a little MDF bird and rubber stamp decorations.

 

 

A rag wreath made by creating a heart shape from wire and then tying little scraps of fabric onto the wire

"Wherever you go ... go with ALL your heart"

 Have a happy creative week!!

Junk Mail to Jazzy Journal

Here's a cute and quick recycling project TUTORIAL for you today:

You'll need a piece of Junk Mail which is printed on  nice firm paper like this one:

 

Cut it in half:

 

Then in half again:

  

Open the pages out and Gesso them on both sides:

 

I decorated my dry gesso-ed pages with Acrylic inks but you can use acrylic paint or craft paint or whatever you prefer- do this on both sides:

 When both sides are dry you can add stencils, stamps and others techniques to decorate your pages:

 

on both sides of course:

 

Then fold your dry decorated pages in half and pack them together in a pleasing sequence:

 

Here's where I cheated a bit. I couldnt find any recycled cardboard firm enough for my cover so I used a bought sheet 12x12 and cut it to size, just a few mm bigger than my pages:

 

So you will have your pack of folded pages and your folded cover:

 

Put them all together. Open them up in the middle and make 3 holes with a sharp object in the middle at the spine of your journal:

 

Sew the spine with a strong nylon thread:

 

Tie the thread off at the outside of the spine:

 

So your book will look like this:

 

Tie little bits of fibres, wool, ribbon etc onto the stitches on the outside of the spine- which disguises the stitches and also looks really cute! :

 

                                                          so this is what it will look like:

 

Then the really fun part- decorate your cover.  I used fabric and little bits of  lace & sewed it on with my sewing machine:

I finished this whole project in a morning.  There you have a journal ready for drawing, painting and writing in. Or to give as a very special hand-made gift.
For a chance to win this beautiful little journal leave a comment below.
Comments will close on Tuesday Oct 30th 2012.
The winners name will be posted on Wednesday Oct 31st 2012.
Overseas readers welcome to participate!