I never said I was an artist…

…but I’ll have a bash at some freehand stuff when the need arises. The need just did, when one of my favourite customers phoned to ask me for a blue bird in flight on the corner of a pillow case for her granddaughter. For tomorrow. Yikes. I don’t have a screen with the right kind of bird to use, so it had to be a quick work-around.

Print picture of bird. Cut out shape. Add bits of paper here and there where you don’t want the ink to go through, including the background, stick it all together with tape, have a practice run on a piece of waste fabric (actually, is there ever such a thing?) and give it a go! You get this:

Then you play around with some different shades of blue and a teeny weeny #1 paintbrush…

Okay, it’s true that this resembles no bird in the real world, but I think it’s fair to say that it most definitely is a bird, and it’s blue, and it’s on the wing.

Right, back to sewing. The October Made in the Cape artisan market opens again on Thursday, so I need to have everything ready by Wednesday night. I never learn, and I always panic…

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origami – me? orumad?

I truly admire origami and those who do it (origamiers? origamants? orifices?), all that tiny fiddling and folding of exquisite handmade paper with long cool fingers, the flawless creases and the simplicity of perfection and the perfection of simplicity…nope, not for me. Give me a sack of buttons, an empty coke bottle and a glue gun any day.

Except until now. I have just been nominated by the Crafty Pioneer, clearly a woman of discernment and high blogging standards, for the Liebster Award. I’m very honoured, thank you very much indeed. I am a follower of this blog but a relatively new one, so once I’d read that I’VE BEEN NOMINATED I went through a couple of Crafty’s posts again – where I spotted the nicest paper flowers I’ve ever seen. (You know where this is heading, right?) Before I knew it, I had burrowed in boxes for paper and was busily measuring out 4-inch squares… and look:

My flower!!! I know that the petals don’t match, and I didn’t have any florist’s wire to stick them onto (I substituted a chop stick, which felt appropriate) but I am still mighty pleased with myself.

Here is the flowers tutorial. I love it. I’m already trying to work out when I can fit in a trip to the Deckle Edge for more paper because, as you all know, I really needed another crafty hobby! hahahaha hahahaha

To be continued…