I wanted to play around with creating backgrounds on this card. I took some plain brown sheeting and sponged it with Indian Red acrylic paint. Loved the effect, as the background took on a whole new appearance with the paint. It just made it more, well, interesting.

The second step was to use some of my metallic Pebeo Setacolour shimmer paints through some sequin waste. As I was trying to build up a background, I used my darkest colours first, then proceeded to lighter colours. In this instance, I sponged copper paint through the sequin waste first, then repositioned the sequin waste and sponge gold paint through it. I really liked both the effect and the colours together so I’m thinking of making more of this fabric for other projects.

To finish the postcards I added a bit of stamping. The latin stamps are rubber stamps with Fabrico ink, while the number stamps are foam stamps used with setacolour paints. I did a bit of free motion embroidery around the numbers for some extra definition before finishing up my postcard.

I had on of those hit yourself over the head moments. As I was on a bit of a stamping kick I was looking around the studio for other stuff I could stamp with. Why did it take so long for me to clue in to use my large collection of foam stamps?

For this piece I used some leftover sunprinted fabric (done with Pebeo Soleil paints). The first step was to print the fabric using Pebeo setacolour paints with bubblewrap, then I added a bit of green by sponging the paint on with a babywipe. More setacolour was used to stamp with the ornamental foam stamp, while the alphabet was done with Fabrico (by Tsukineko ) inks and a rubber stamp. A little bit of running stitch was added for good measure.

I love how the fushia ‘stamping with found objects’ postcard turned out, so I thought I’d try it with a different colour scheme. I used the same object as the last postcard, but this time I experimented by stamping with Pebeo mica flakes using the pencil rubber. I also tried stamping with my rubber stamps. The black stamped images are done with a black fabric stamping ink called Fabrico by Tsukineko wilst the number 42 is done using Pebeo setacolour shimmer paints as a stamping medium.

I was inspired to do a bit of stamping on my postcards, so I looked around for a few objects on my desk that would make good stamps. I choose a piece of plastic canvas mesh, a rubber on the end of a pencil and a chipboard embellishment in my scrapping stash. I use Pebeo setacolour fabric paints to act as my stamping medium and had a bit of a play. I’m quite chuffed at how the postcard turned out, but I’m even more pleased about how that little chipboard embellishment piece looks with the paint on it. I decided not to clean it as I want to use it as is on a future piece. :)

I’m using this piece for my ‘abstract’ theme for the Textile Tuesday challenge

This time in red!

Love this one even more than the first.

I was feeling inspired by a piece Dianne did as a journal quilt and I knew I just had to try it myself. I dragged out the Fall 2006 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine to read the original article. And this is what became of it:

I like how it turned out. I’m thinking of making a rainbow of FME’d flower postcards. Speaking of fabric postcards, I’m in a fabric postcard swap at the moment so you’ll probably be seeing quite a few in the next few weeks. I’m going to try to take the opportunity to use the postcards to catch up on the Textile Tuesday challenge as well. We’ll see how long it lasts. I finalized all the designs for my newest RR fabric book on the commute home last night and I’m absolutely itching to get started, but I’m trying to be a good girl and finish off the postcards first. It’s a tough job.

I actually started working on this when the challenge was issued a few weeks ago, but with trying to get last minute Christmas gifts done I only just got it finished up.

The theme was memory and I started working on this while watching the movie ‘White Christmas’, so I’m sure you can figure out the connection.

The postcard is made with 100% cotton sheeting. The background is painted using Pebeo Touch paints, and then I used some stitching and beads to create the feeling of falling snow.

This was really quick, simple and fun… even if it did take me two weeks to find the time to finish the piece. I need to work on the subsequent challenges now….

After following a few links I discovered the Textile Tuesday Challenge and I was intrigued. I decided on Monday to join in on this week’s challenge as soon as it was posted. The challenge was Claude Monet. At first I was a little bit lost, thinking that this was totally out of my comfort style since I’m not much of an impressionist person. After a little bit of research I fell in love with the first painting I saw which was his Sunrise painting and then pulled out my supplies to get started.

I used 100% cotton sheeting (fairly thick stuff), standard anchor embroidery floss and Pebeo Setacolour Shimmer paints which I diluted so I could use them like watercolours. I should state for the immediate record that I’ve generally never been overly keen on watercolours as a medium. I love what other people do with them, but I’ve never liked what I’ve done with watercolours. I’ve just always loved the texture of acrylics, oils, pastels and other media.

So, I ended up working fabric paints like watercolours, which is a medium i’m not found of, and in a painting style that I’ve never really been drawn to. The result? I absolutely loved it. In fact, before the paint had even dried on the fabric I was contemplating about going through my stack of photos for other images that I could use with this technique. I’m absolutely in love. I loved it before I put stitching on the piece, and I loved it even more after. I have to say, this was an extremely successful challenge for me, and isn’t the point of a challenge to get you to think out of the box and step out of your comfort zone.

Have you stepped out of your comfort zone recently??