The Altered Element - Art metal reindeer decorations

Art metal is fabulous for making Christmas decorations for your tree, exquisate charms can be made quickly and with great effect.
Here I have taken some silver-coloured aluminium from The Altered Element, backed it with foam for stability (card would work too) and then die cut 2 reindeer in my Big Shot. Then they are run through again in a cuttlebug embossing folder. Using a hand punch, I fixed fancy embroidery thread to dangle them from a tree. Simple but effective.
If you wanted a more grungey look you could apply acrylic paint and wipe off again to age it but I prefer mine shiny :)
The Altered Element has a wide range of art metals suitable for this project.

The Altered Element - Artchix Angels

Sometimes the prettiest of things can be quite simple to make. These Christmas Tree Angels are made from Artchix images, backed with patterned card for stability. The skirts are made from chiffon, a running stitch is used to gather the top which is then sandwiched between the image and another piece of card. The edges of the skirts were themn dipped in Decofix, and glass glitter applied to one, mother of pearl flakes to the other. Ties were created from metallic emboidery floss. This idea would also make a great angel for the top of the tree, or even table accessories.
All the commponents for these angels are available from The Altered Element, which also has lots more goodies suitable for your arty Christmas decorations.

OBV facial pads restocked

I have just restocked the obv facial pads available in my Folksy store. These are my best selling item and always sell out.
These gorgeously cuddly and colourful facial pads are ideal for use with cleansing creams. The outers are soft organic bamboo velour (70% bamboo, 28% organic cotton and 2% polyester) and inside is a layer of organic hemp/cotton (55% hemp, 45% organic cotton). These are hand dyed with procion mx and colours will vary. You will receive a set of 4 tied with a co-ordinating ribbon. £5 plus 50p postage.

The Altered Element - Motherhood Diptych

I recently received this superb wooden diptych from The Altered Element and knew straight away that I wanted it to be decorated in a tribute to motherhood. The base was gesso'd then painted with several light layers of cream acrylic and reed Decoupaint Antik. The edges were given a light brush of old gold Decoupaint Patina. I gently dyed some vintage pages on an old 'Book of Common Prayer' in tea, these pages were from the Service for Churching (a medieval service used when mothers returned to church after giving birth) and Child Baptism. These were then carefully sewn to ripped white butter muslin (cheescloth) in a red feathered straight stitch. They were adhered to the base using collage medium, creating a slight tranparency to the fragile pages. Lastly I addded images by Artchix and some vintage buttons.

A rusty bustle skirt - Alter It Monthly entry

When I saw that September's theme at http://alteritmonthly.blogspot.com was rust I just couldn't resist having a go. You see, I've been boring my family silly for months with rust dyeing. It started when dh found a bowl of rusty nails while building our new chicken shed. Since then I have used it to dye calico, muslin, bamboo velour (going to make a lovely hoody from that) and there's some silk in there at the mo. So I thought I'd create a rusty bustle skirt for this month's entry - maybe I should call it a rustle skirt.




I used a rust dyed Sanderson curtain with rust dyed calico for the main skirt. The pocket is a rust dyed cluny lace table mat which has been sewn on in a feathered straight stitch.


I used some rust dyed vintage cluny lace for the waist decoration, machine stitched the word 'rust' then accented it with some rusty discs from the dyeing bowl.



The waist ties are made with rust coloured bias binding and have a clock face and key dangling from the ends.


I think it has quite a steampunk feel.

UKStampers mail art swap

I recently received this beautifully stamped card as part of a mail art swap on UKStampers :)


Thank you LME, it is lovely and the colours are very me.

Simple strip quilt

This quilt is a basic strip quilt using a Bar Harbor scrap bag for the strips and a pair of vintage Sanderson floral curtains with oriental bird design for sashing and backing. The batting is organic cotton and it is quilted 'in the ditch' around the strips. This quilt is destined for our bedroom once it is re-decorated.