An experiment with a new way to make screens

I drew this typewriter on Wednesday. After weeks of no idea of what to even draw let alone print or make it came as a huge relief to actually produce something I like and I can possibly print.

I usually make stencils to print my designs but have just discovered a new way of making reusable screens. You paint what you want to print onto a screen using Speedball Drawing Fluid and then coat the whole thing with Speedball Screen Filler. You then wash out the blue drawing fluid and bingo you have a permanent screen. I used to do a similar technique where you draw on the screen with oil pastels, coat it with gum arabic then wash out the oil pastel with white spirit.

The image did not come out perfectly. But then it wasn't going to was it? I rather like the hand drawn look to it and have plans of how to use this technique in the future. I only had a few blank bags to print on so there are only 3 available. But of course there will be more, because I can use the screen again!

Every cloud....

I made this cloud brooch last night in a moment of inspiration. Yay! I have been lacking that massively as I said in my last post but picked up one of my favourite books and as always it sparked my imagination. I made Chris an anniversary card as it's our anniversary on Friday, four years together, woah!

Then I made this brooch, and very pleased I am with it too.
I plan to make some variations on the theme too if I don't keep breaking the little stars :S

Mini Bags

Oooo these mini bags are so useful! I've done a few in this design before in different colours and they've been very popular.

They're so handy to put your lunch in or your book, or any other goodies! I use mine to pop my Persephone books in so I don't mark their lovely grey covers and I keep my graphic markers in one too as they are rather fat pens!

You can get them in my Folksy shop now.

In other news I am having a lovely Easter break but am rather frustrated by my lack of inspiration! Why is it that when I had no time to do things and I was tired from work I was desperate for more time, now i'm on holiday and I just can't seem to get the ideas going. So very annoying!!

I am eager to be creative and make things but I just cant get any ideas out. However I did make a lovely bag from some vintage fabric I had last week. Pictures to follow of that! I just HAD to make something. I am now on the hunt for some vintage 50s fabric so I can make cushions for our 40s/50s front room. No luck in the charity shops so far, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Come For Tea

For a while now i've been wanting to turn some illustrations i've done into digital prints to sell.

I spent an evening learning how to make them into digital illustrations on Adobe Illustrator and discussed it with my friends at work, the graphics and digital art and design lecturers. They preferred the original drawing not the digital version and said it is more than fine to just scan the drawing into my computer, maybe clean it up a little and then get them printed.

I was anxious that the hand drawn look would not work when printed digitally but I was assured that isn't the case and the beauty of my drawings is that they look hand drawn.

So here is the finished result! I have 5 Come For Tea digital prints for sale in my Folksy shop. And if they go well, I may do some more designs!

Goodies

I have had some wonderful finds recently in my local charity shops and at the I Make Fun Stuff Craft Market.

This bright red leather holdall was from my dear friend Wendy Ashby who had a stall at the market selling off all the things she's collected over the years! Had I been paid I would've bought so much more from her! I also bought a cut glass necklace and two teacups and a saucer which are sitting on my mantlepiece making

our front room look very much like the 1940s.

I got the beryl green teacups in a local charity shop, they were quite a find as I bought a pint jug the same from my friend Cathy's shop LoveOne a few weeks before and had been looking at this style of crockery on ebay. I popped in the charity shop one lunch time and found 11 teacups and saucers, 5 side plates and 5 bowls! All for £4! What a bargain.

And finally i got the granny blanket looking lovely on our old trunk and the rectangular dish in the above picture yesterday, more charity shop finds! I am really enjoying trawling for vintage goodies lately.

Happy days!

I Make Fun Stuff Craft Market Number Two

TAKE TWO!!!

This second market was bigger and better than the one before!! We had 10 stall holders at the first market back in November and this time we had 27!

Check out our website I Make Fun Stuff for links to the sellers Just click on the link at the top marked "friends"

And what wonderful things they had to offer our customers and other stallholders! Everyone was set up and the first customers were the

stallholders themselves popping around to look at other people's wares!

We had a great day with lots of friendly faces coming to explore and spend their money and loads of faces we didn't know coming to the market for the first time and loving it!

We've had some great feedback on our facebook page and our twitter too. Check out the facebook page for loads more photos of each of the stalls and their gorgeous products.

We also had a fab DJ, Andy Mortimer who runs the Uprock club night here in Ipswich. It really made a great difference to the atmosphere. We hope all our sellers had a successful and enjoyable day and we look forward to seeing them again and dearly hope they will come back to us again for another market.

Back to Crochet

This is the project I currently can’t put down. I have a habit of going from one project to another without finishing the first. I had a phase of knitting this time last year for several months, and then I ran out of steam leaving a nearly completed tea cosy sitting on the side waiting to be finished. I picked it up again the other day, but then I got inspired to crochet a big granny blanket to wear like a big chunky scarf. So I picked up a granny square i’d started months ago with the intention of making into a blanket of several squares (here we go again!!) and off I went. I’ve added several rows to it since in any spare moment I get. It’s looking good but is nowhere near the size I want it to be. With my claw like hand I will plough on! Though I suspect it will be too warm to wear by the time i’ve finished it. I do hope I don’t get tired of it before I finish.