My Constant Crafting Companion

Just had to share this photo with you of Sir Edward (Teddy to his friends). He is my little 4 year old Bichon Frisee who spends his days glued to my side or chasing lizards! It's great to have company in my craft room. I bounce ideas of him and he never says they're stupid! So I take that as a "yes" and continue on my merry way.

Tyvek

Here are three examples of painted Tyvek which has then been "sandwiched" between baking parchment and ironed. The blue, green and red piece (painted with watered down acrylics) and the brown/gold piece have been ironed on both sides to create a "holey" effect, while the turquoise/blue piece (which was painted with irridescent watercolour paints) was ironed on one side only leaving a more 3D effect. You can further distress your Tyvek with a heat gun, something I have yet to try!

By the way, many thanks to those kind crafters who left complimentary comments recently.

Embedded birthday card

Sorry that the picture doesn't do this justice. This is a new technique that I discovered whilst visiting the Craft and Stitiches Exhibition at the Glasgow SECC in March. In my last hour of a 2 day visit, I stumbled in the Stitches Hall and was blown away by the enthusiasm and imagination of Kim Thittichai (http://www.nid-noi.com/). She does the most wonderful things with materials such as Tyvek and Bondaweb aka Wondaweb or Vilene). This card was made by painting Bondaweb in 3 similar colours then, when dry, it was ironed onto card. (Make sure you sandwich it all between backing parchment so that the iron doesn't stick). The backing was then removed and a small skeleton leaf, snippets of gold thread and a little gold glitter were added and again it was "sandwiched" and ironed to embed the objects into the card. Tyvek can also be painted (on both sides), left to dry then "sandwiched and ironed whereupon it will distort and distress. Little "pebbles" like Sugar Puffs will appear on the back and if they are also ironed, will turn into a lovely lacy effect (but very quickly!) I am having lots of fun experimenting with these techniques at the moment. Why don't you give it a try too?

Welcome!

Being a complete computer dinosaur, I am feeling quite pleased with myself having created my first ever blog! I hope you will bear with me while I tinker around with it (this could take some time!) Anyway just wanted to say welcome to you, my first ever visitor of whom I hope there will be many more.
A la prochaine!