Kitties and Tea

My sons went to Shop Rats excellent STEM oriented summer camp this past summer and while they were there having fun, I took my daughter into Mason, MI to look around.  Mason is a cute little town with all of the things that make me happy to see.  They have a nice coffee shop/book store, a quilt shop called Yards of Fabric, and antiques mall and artists coop and many other cute shops downtown.  Sadly, there had been a fire and so several other shops were closed during repairs.  All in all it was a town I recommend kicking around in.
Anyway, while there, my daughter picked out some kitty cat fabric (Window Tails by SPX fabrics).  It is nice to see we are diverging from PINK these days.  She wanted a dress, so this is what I came up with.  We are living in a hot climate now, so I went sleeveless.  It is easier and I didn't really have enough fabric to add them anyway.  I used one of her woven shirts to model the top of the dress on and then angled down from the waist to give it a slight A line skirt.  I finished the sleeves with bias tape since I did not have enough material to make it from the kitty fabric.  I also added the ruched insert and bow to provide a little variation for the eye.
And now for tea.  It is that time of year for Spoonflower's Tea Towel Calendar competition.  I chose to draw a modern day version of the Greek Goddess Hestia.  She was the goddess of the hearth and kitchen and one of her symbols is the kettle.  Seemed like a great fit for a tea towel.  Please consider voting.
Lastly, the new site, Sprout Patterns is having a sale today through Friday 12pm EDT.  This site prints patterns directly on the Spoonflower fabric of your choice.  The sale is for a $1 lined zippered pouch pattern.  WORLDWIDE shipping $1.  Limit three. 

Small Things: Plants and Microorganisms

Haven't had a lot of time for crafts recently but ATCs are just the kind of art one can do with a small amount of time.  (If you haven't heard about them here is a little info.)  The guideline for this swap was to have a cut-out and an add on item.  I really enjoyed learning more about foraging while in the US this last year so I thought that would be a great theme for this card.  I used a page from my old, worn copy of Peterson's A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America that had fallen out for the middle ground.  The trillium is a pen and watercolor pencil drawing displayed in the cutout of the text.  I added more forgeable plants on top in the form trim, drawing and beads.

Forage ATC

I also had some excitement in that I won the ATC giveaway from Bridget.  This was her Additive/Subtractive Book Page card from a 1953 yearbook about Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.  Nicely done!

And on to other small things, this week, on Spoonflower, is a Microorganism design contest.  My younger son was excited about this theme and asked to help design my entry.  He did all of the drawing and I am responsible for the color of this small scale ditsy design.  Please consider voting.

Old School Vibrant Microorganisms

 

Free shipping!

Ready for the holidays? I know, it's not even Halloween yet but for crafters, we have to get an early start if we want to make something in time.  To help you out, Spoonflower is offering FREE shipping WORLDWIDE for 24 hours Monday, October 12th at 9am EDT to Tuesday, October 13th, 2015.  My shop is at your service for patterned fabric, wallpaper and paper.  Here are a few patterns from my African Inspired II collection.


African Weave Hexagon Drop Tropical Large



African Mod Barbells Allover Pinks

 

Peacock Deco Diamonds Large



 

 

2nd Fairy, Michigan & Christmas Cookies Already?



Swap Fairy from Jill Webb, pattern by Susan Barmore

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dollstreet Dreamers had a fairy swap.  To accommodate everyone's busy schedule, the deadline got pushed back a couple of times.  I was very happy to get my fairy  from Jill Webb in the mailbox right before I left.  (Really, it came the last day I had mail service!)  I had to pack her in the suitcase and just got around to photographing her. 



My fairy, original design by Penney Hughes

I really enjoyed my brief time in Michigan.  I loved the seasons, the woods behind my house and all the wildlife wandering through.  I loved the chance to work with the Lansing Maker's Network folks and I learned a lot.  The people of Michigan were friendly and welcoming.  I enjoyed many special beverages that I had never seen before, like Faygo (Rock 'n Rye!), Vernors, Meads like B Nektar's Zombie Killer, various local hard ciders and the spirits of American Fifth.  I hope to return to Michigan when it is time to hang up the towel with overseas life.  When I do, I want to explore the art scene more and look deeper at the work of artists like Jane Reiter, Kelly Boyle, and ceramic artists Doug DeLind and his daughter Jody DeLind.

Christmas Cookies?  I know, not even Halloween yet but Christmas crafting starts now, so I have created a Christmas themed design for this week's Spoonflower contest, Pop Art Cookies.  I hope you will consider voting.

One Last Thing! and another free swatch

Beginning to sand the table

The last few weeks have been super busy with the move to Ghana, but if you know me, I always have a project brewing, even in the midst of everything else. 
In between all of my other tasks, I had been working on a side table refurbish project for a few months.  This project began with an old table given to me by a friend many years ago.  It had a lot of water stains on the top, a loose leg and was generally bedraggled.  I began by sanding it down using a power sander at the Lansing Maker Network woodshop. 
Once the table was smooth, I applied Minwax wood finish in Red Mahogany, and coated it with a couple of coats of polyurethane. 
Now for the hard part.  I wanted to decorate the top of the table with a lace pattern.  I considered three techniques to achieve the lace design.  I considered taking some (expensive) lace and dipping it in paint and trying to carefully lay it on the top of the table to create a kind of stamp.  Ultimately, I decided that would create a unholy mess as well as ruin a perfectly beautiful piece of lace.  Next, I tried to convert my African Lace design to a raster file so I could create a stencil on vinyl cutter at the Lansing Maker Network.  Intricate lace designs do not transfer well to raster files.  This would be a good technique for a reverse stencil if you wanted to paint it or to leave as is with a layer of polyurethane over it as long as your design uses simplified geometrically based shapes.

The tools for the job

I was down to my last technique.  In college, I learned how create a print from a photocopy. I had to go the copy store and get an extra large copy of my lace. Now for the image transfer.  Wet the paper first to create a resist to the oil based printing ink which will adhere the photocopy toner.  Next spread out the oil based ink on a palette with a brayer (it is the roller shown in the photo).  Roll out the ink and spread evenly across the print. In my situation, I found that I was out of oil based ink and ended up using the oil paint seen below.  This is what happens when you are finishing a project in the 11th hour.
The print worked fine.  The only problem was the ink was largely transparent and did not show well against the wood.  My solution was to dust the paint with fine white glitter.  The glitter did indeed stick to the ink but stuck to the table surface as well.  I could not just wipe it off without smearing the print.  A can of compressed air solved that problem well.  Tip:  hold can of air 10-12 inches away from the table to avoid blowing the glitter off the print.
Lastly, seal the print with spray polyurethane.
And one last thing---get a free swatch of Spoonflower's new fabric, Poly Crepe de Chine until 12pm EST 9/4/15.  Get yours now!

The finished project in the wild!

Ghana and Butterflies

Last year I came up with a design collection (seen in this previous post), inspired by my time in Africa.  I had never been to Ghana, but had learned about it and had researched it's birds, plants and butterflies.  It was a country that intrigued me.  Now, it looks like my family may be moving to Ghana. In the midst of getting our household ready, I added to the Ghana Fantastic Floral collection for Spoonflower's new contest, Butterfly Coordinates.  The idea of the contest is to create four coordinating patterns that fit onto one yard.

Please consider voting.

Boho Owls and Free Shipping

I inherited these owls along with other effects following my grandmothers death a few years ago. I like owls so have kept them but I knew I wanted to do something with them.  Then, the other day I was walking around a craft/home décor store and saw some very colorful owls.  I knew then what I wanted to do with my owls.  I cleaned the owls up a little and then painted them with metallic and flat acrylic paints.  I am pretty pleased with my whimsical boho styled owls.

In other news, Spoonflower is having free WORLD WIDE shipping today.  So, now is the perfect time to check out the shop and the new fabrics available for your projects.