Craft Club Exhibition 2015 (part one)

Hello........ I'm a member of a local craft club locally, which meets every couple of weeks, so it's good to go along to when I'm well enough. Each year we have a exhibition in the towns library, which is running at the moment. 

So about a year ago we picked the themes for this exhibition, which are 'The Owl and the Pussycat', Fantasia, Egypt and Masks'  What's good is that we are able to work at our own speed from home, which is great with my limited energy levels. 

 So today I thought I'd do a round up post of all my exhibition makes.

The Owl and the Pussycat:

For the owl and the Pussycat I made a couple of Bunny Mummy's cute little owls, 

you can find the pattern here

I also made this felt owl cushion,  you can read more about it 'here'

Egypt :

 As for Egypt well I procrastinated for a long while on this, I bought the beads back in the Summer but, kept putting off making the necklace as I'd never tried beading before and thought it was going to be really tricky.  That's one of the good things about having set themes you end up trying crafts that otherwise you might never have tried, you can read more about the making of the necklace here

Fantasia:

For Fantasia after watching the movie, amidst last summer's mandala madness I painted this Fantasia inspired Mandala with added glitter and beads.  You can read a bit more 'here'

Then I finished off a very old WIP to make my Waltz of the Flowers granny bunting.

I also made a Fantasia version of my seasonal wreaths which you can read about  here

 Masks:

Last but not least, came a spot of mask decorating, finished in the nick of time the morning of the exhibition, you can read about the making of the mask 'here' . For this theme we were each given a plain cardboard mask to decorate any way we wanted.

So that's a years worth of Craft Club makes, to tell you the truth it's a bit of a relief to have them all finished and be able to concentrated on some other makes for a while, I'll share some photo's from the exhibition another day, so this post doesn't end way up too long.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Five on Friday

Hello .... This week I've been loving all the crocuses blooming in the garden, I really love to see the ones growing in the lawn.

I've been making yarny plans

for a few new additions to my Springtime wreath.

I've also spent way to much time trying to figure out how to crochet a bluebell, this is attempt number four.  I want to add some to my wreath, fingers crossed I'll figure it out, who knew crocheting a bluebell would be so tricky.

This morning I've been flicking through the pages of the Comic Relief craft magazine, while cheering  Dermot O'Leary on with his dancing ( he dancing for 24 hours, for the charity, for those outside the UK), It's such a good cause anyone else 'doing something funny for money' today?

I'm also waiting for the last of the Christmas bulbs to flower, not long now.....

I hope you had a good week too, joining in with Amy's Five on Friday 
you can find about a bit more about Comic Relief over on Amy's blog as she had dedicated her five on friday post to it today.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

The Mask....

Hello.........  I'm a member of craft club locally and every year so far we have had a exhibition. This year for one of the themes we were each given a cardboard mask to decorated.

I decided I really wanted to use flowers on my mask in some way and started to play around with some ideas, I ordered some lovely mulberry flowers and set to work.

First up I gave the mask a couple of coats of acrylic paint, and then started cutting and gluing the flowers onto the mask.

I attached them with glue dots removing the stamens from some of them and adding little sparkly gems.

To form a mask over the eyes.

I then decorated the sides with sequin leaves, gems and a larger mulberry flower. (I'm a little bit in love with these paper flower)

Next up came the tricky bit, I really wanted to make a fascinator type structure to add to the top of the mask, the only problem was 'I hadn't got the first clue how !!! ' So after much head scratching I came up with a plan.

Using some florist wire, glitter butterflies, beads and paper flowers, how hard could it be ? well it turned out  to be quite tricky.  Why do I have these ideas and make life so hard for myself.

So I started wiring it all together

Threading on some beads, which I held in place with PVA glue.

Adding a few sequins and gems as I went. The whole thing was a bit unstable to say the least and precariously wired together and them clipped with a large pink butterfly.

The next problem was how to attach it to the mask I tried super glue but it just keep sliding off and collapsing, leaving a very stress Clare when the glue melted the paint on the mask, which thankfully after repainting I was able to hide by the pink butterfly.

 

In the end a friend had the bright idea of wiring it to the back of the mask and then gluing it in place with some extra strong glue she uses for making glass fused jewellery and yay in worked.

Ta-Dah

Fascinator attached, I had originally thought the mask would have been finished at this point but on hanging it I decided that the glitter lips were a little too pale.

So I bravely took the decision on the morning of the exhibition to re do them using a bright pink glitter glue, they are not good as I'd have liked them to be but I think they work so much better than the paler colour.

Ta-Dah

My completed mask.

 Here it is up on the wall in the local library, with some of the other masks, I'm loving all the glitter and sparkle and how they all turned out.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

I'll post a little more about the rest of exhibition another day xx

28 Drawings later

Hello...........I took part in a drawing challenge throughout February over on Facebook, the project was called '28 drawings later' the aim being to produce a piece of art each day.  It turned out to be a great way of seeing some amazing art, there are some seriously talented artists out there.

So much so the organisers have arranged a exhibition to be held (in the real world) in Scotland on the 21st March, with each artist sending in 5 pieces of work, if they want to with a view to maybe selling some of the art,  exciting stuff.

I've decided not to take part in the exhibition so instead today I thought I'd share a post with all 28 of my drawings together.   

 Happy Crafting

Clare x

Patchwork February

Hello... I hope you are all having a lovely weekend? As always I'm running a little late but here's February's mosaics, I've been trying to get around to writing this post all week.

There was lots of yarny goodness going on in Feb, Art too and trying to get things finished in time for the Craft exhibition, (more on that another day.)

Out in the garden the flowers were waking up, it's so lovely to see the Spring bulbs.

I also finished my first ever blanket, the Cosy Baby, quite a achievement for me as I have several ongoing blankets that some how never quite get finished. 

So for March it will be back to the Seaside Pebble Cosy blanket to try and get it finished. I also want to make a few additions to my Springtime Wreath before the equinox.   It a bit of a relief that the Craft Exhibition is finally all up, as it will give me a chance to focus on other things for a while.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

28 Drawings later (week 4)

Hello......... So I made it to the end of the 28 Day Drawing Challenge, yippee

Day 22: Is a colour pencil Primrose.

With a little help from chief crafting assistant Merlin, he just loves to get involved.

Day 23: I attempted to sketch my mandolin.

Day 24: Is another blast from the past, one I made earlier, as I had a very long and busy day, six hours there and back for a hospital appointment.

Day 25: Today I wanted to sketch a Hyacinth in remembrance of my Great Uncle, with yesterdays long hospital trip I wasn't well enough to attend his funeral today.  So instead I remembered him by drawing this, he loved Hyacinths

Day 26: Is another one I made earlier, a water colour and ink, I'm still struggling with the post exertional malaise from Tuesdays appointment. Payback is just no fun,

Day 27: The last few days of this project I've just run out of steam the payback from my hospital appointment on top of a ongoing relapse was just to much so today I shared this drawing from last year.  Seeing as we saw the London skyline, including the Shard on  the way to the Hospital Tuesday.

Day 28:  (finally) for day 28 I had hoped to share a new picture but alas it was not to be, in the end I shared this water colour of our Horse Chestnut in bloom.

So I kind of made it to the end of the challenge.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx