Creative Baby Steps

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

I am taking lots of creative baby steps. I have begun making paper fabric and now on to tinkering with things that can embellish that paper fabric, journals, CQ blocks, etc. Here is a picture of Crayola Model Magic which I purchased at Hobby Lobby. This stuff is great! It is non-toxic and such fun to play with. You can use clay molds, rubber stamps, or do free-hand shaping. Then you just lay it out to dry. It kind of feels like mushy fun foam.
I had a lot of fun creating these lightweight little motifs with molds and rubber stamps I had on hand. You need a little bit of powder on your stamp or mold to help the model magic release, then just lay out flat to dry. Once dry....you can paint, pearl-x, emboss, stain these little guys, whatever strikes your fancy...you can use scissors on them, punch holes in them to add beads or jump rings to add them to other projects. This is going to be a lot of fun and I will keep you posted with my progress. This is information that I gained from Beryl Taylor's book I told you about and a good online friend who has used it as well.
Remember me telling you about Christopher Nejman? Well his favorite base fabric is cotton duck. It is almost canvas like; a fairly heavy weight cotton. He has many projects where he begins with painting the cotton base fabric before starting to add embellishment with felting (Babylock Embellisher). It is hard to tell in this photo, but I have fairly muted colors of blue, green, beige, and have added a wash of gold metallic lumiere paint for a little shimmer. Once dry, I will begin to play with adding some ribbons and other interesting fibers. These kinds of things are nice to do so that you can go onto something else while they are drying or curing.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today, but three of my sewing buddies and I went on a small road trip (about 50-60 miles away - yes, everything is spread out in Texas - it is true!) Barbara, Linda, Jan and I went to catch the closing sale of a neighboring quilt/beading shop.
I was pretty good. Below is a photo of my stash for the day. I didn't go too overboard. The black and white feather fabric, the fabric with writing and the music fabric I think will work well once a fun color wash is added depending on the project at hand. I found two of those wonderful purse handle kits that I like (40% off!) and a small assortment of beads which were 60% off. When we arrived at the shop (just a few short minutes after it opened), we noticed we were not the only ones with this wonderful idea. OMG, it was mayhem! Standing room only. These, what we refer to as "sane quilters" had piles of fabric bolts waiting in long lines at only two cutting tables. Well, we perused the place, picked up a couple of simple items and decided to sashay (a southern lady always sashays) off to get some lunch and try again. We had better luck after lunch (which was at a restaurant about 30 miles away). We then stopped at another bead shop on the way home for some additional fun, ran through Sonic to wet our whistles and came on home as the sun was setting beautifully in the west. Another fantastic day with friends. It is just the best kind of fun!
One more tidbit before I go and get some rest after this fun, but exhausting day :-) Check out this link: Simply charming Vickie Adams Brown emailed this link she found on creating charms. Uh,oh, another project on the horizon! And, will I need even more supplies? But...it is only January 2nd, and my word for the New Year is SIMPLIFY. OMG, see how easy it is to be led astray?