I can hardly believe it’s been more than two months since I wrote my last post. The last quarter of 2014 was very busy as far as being creative was concerned. I was fortunate to attend some inspiring workshops and talks and took part in a couple of new challenges, everything was going great. Mid November the bubble burst when my Mum suffered a stroke. Priorities changed, naturally, but after a couple of months I am happy to report that Mum is getting back to her old self and I am back in my workroom. In fact I may be in here for a few days solid as I appear to have broken my toe after accidentally kicking the door frame yesterday! Is there ever going to be a better excuse for sitting and sewing?

Anyway, this is the ideal opportunity to catch up on my on-line journal so here are a few photos of my recent attempt to paint, stamp and embroider onto fabric. I bought the Angie Hughes DVD sometime last Summer and loved the effects she created by painting, stamping and embroidering onto velvet. Angie works on 100% cotton velvet and uses bleach to discharge some of the colour – the results are fabulous! I decided to experiment with some white polyester velvet which I had in my stash before considering buying the more expensive cotton variety.

I used Inktense Blocks (finely grated and added to water in a spritzer bottle) as a spray paint for the background. The stamping was done using VersaCraft multipurpose pigment ink as recommended by Craft Test Dummies, many thanks for the tip! I bought the dragonfly stamp but made the flower stamps using a pack of funky foam shapes (from Poundland) glued to small wooden blocks.