August already!

Can you believe that it's August tomorrow?

As you know I am following along with Valerie Sjodin's Plan With Me.  My pages are ready for August.

I love the washi tape I bought.

I may add some stencilling later in the month.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Venice. And why not?

As I mentioned in this blogpost, I was inspired to use Amanda's method and make something that was more me.

You know I work on Venice inspired pieces all the time and I had lots of leftover bits of printed fabric from previous work.  The added bonus was that they all had Bondaweb or Mistyfuse ironed on the back.

I laid some of the pieces randomly on the backing fabric which is a fine calico.

Then I ironed them onto the backing fabric.

I started stitching.  With the seascape I started at one end and kept going to the other end, but this time I stitched in more random places.

I'm not quite sure what stitches I shall use.  I might need to look some up in a book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Circles

This month's theme for the photographic group was circles.   Yet another month has passed with me not going out much so my contribution yet again came from the archives.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Seascape collage zigzag

After Tuesday's post about Amanda Hislop's workshop I thought I would use some of the leftover papers to do collages in a zigzag sketchbook.

I started by randomly placing bits of paper.  I had also found some previously painted bondaweb backing paper which looks like water.

It occurred to me that I didn't want to do a full sketchbook so I cut it in half.

The sketchbook comes in a box

I cut the box up to make the end covers for each half of the sketchbook. I attached the covers with doublesided tape.

Then I started glueing down papers using matt gel medium.

The three photos edited together.

When I've done more pages I shall go back and make marks into the collages.  They look a bit flat at the moment.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Seascape Collage

Last week I spent a gentle couple of days at Littleheath Barn Studio on a workshop taught by Amanda Hislop, author of Stitched Textiles: Seascapes.

As you know I love to cut up or tear up my work.  So I was in my element - the first thing to do was tear up teabag paper, lens tissue and fabric to about A6 size.  Then we printed on them with acrylic paint and Amanda's handmade printing blocks.

And then!  When the paint was dry we tore up those pieces to be much smaller pieces.  Oh joy!

We used a gluestick to put these small pieces onto a backing.

We started 'tacking' the pieces down with small stitches that weren't going to be removed.

On day two we started on the main stitching using a mix of stitches like running stitch, herringbone stitch, fly stitch and feather stitch.

I didn't like the stitching I did in the middle of the photo above, so when I got home I unpicked it. (see below)

Some close-ups of my stitching.

I decided the piece was too long and removed nearly a third of it. 

I peeled off the large piece on the left and continued to stitch what was left.

And here it is in close-up.

I've got lots of ideas for what I could do next especially in a zizag sketchbook and maybe on fabric too.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Cake!

I was talking to someone recently about baking.  I am well known for my dislike of all things cooking related.  However I mentioned that I did once make a fancy birthday cake!

 
As you can see it was a cake for an 18th birthday.

This was 17 years ago.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

More photos for inspiration

This time buildings - or at least parts of them

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice