GRRR!! Monster, Monster!!

Hurrah! My monster bag has been featured today on Cuteable! Thank you Lynsey!

I designed and made this bag for a project which appeared recently in the December issue of the online Making Gifts magazine.  I was inspired by the 'spoils bag' (pictured below) from the videogame "Legend of Zelda - the Wind Waker" because the bag looks as if it is ACTUALLY a monster, not just a picture of a monster on it... I think it's because how the the front flap on the spoils bag is drawn, it really is a mouth, and I wanted to create something like that.

If you decide to have a go at making my monster bag from Making Gifts magazine, I would love to see your creations, so please get in touch!

Have a great Friday everyone!

Best wishes

Joey x

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas!

Angel, originally uploaded by Joey's Dream Garden (formerly Joey 7).

Hello!

I've had a lot of fun today! Sheffield has had a massive load of snow, so I was very happy to arrive at work to be told that I could go straight home again! Hurrah! Me and Mathew had a walk through Sheffield city centre to see the snowy spectacle and take loads of pictures (which you can see on my Flickr page here if you want!  The Very Very Snowy Day Set)

Anyway, I had to go into work today because I had to take in this little angel decoration I'd made yesterday!  One of my work friends has made a Christmas tree-shaped advent calendar for the building. On each day a door is opened to reveal a photo with a Christmassy/wintry theme, submitted by different members of staff (four of the photos are mine).

Of course, every Christmas tree needs something to go at the top, so my colleague asked me to make a little angel.  I roughly sketched the design, then re-drew it a bit neater and more symmetrical.  I used carbon paper to transfer the design onto foamboard.  I made the halo and each of the wings separately, then painted the angel with acrylic and gouache (poster) paints. Foamboard is quite difficult to cut around the intricate shapes; I used a Fiskars craft knife with a new blade, and made short cuts to round off the angel's curly hair. The halo is made from an oval of gold crepe paper stuck onto foamboard and the wings are glittery wrapping paper with a curly design painted on. I then glued the halo and the wings to the back of the angel to give a three-dimensional effect.

I'm quite pleased with my little angel, but I don't know if it's a boy or a girl. What do you think?

If it's snowy where you are too, stay warm tomorrow!

best wishes

Joey x

Old McJoey Had a Farm, ee-i, ee-i, o - progress

Farm animal brooches so far... nearly all the features embroidered on

Good morning!

Yesterday was wetter than a fish's wet bits, the rain poured and then poured some more. Which was actually sort of good in a way as it kept me imprisoned in my little stitching sweat shop (actually freezing until we splashed out and put the fire on in the evening! trying to be good to the environment and our gas bills) and made good progress on the lil' critters.

Embroidering the features has to be my favourite part of making brooches and stuff, because it feels like I'm giving them their character.  That's just made me think, you sometimes see dolls and characters in illustration without a nose, occasionally without a mouth, but I don't think I've ever seen something without eyes.  Interesting.  I think somehow that would make the doll very very disturbing.

Maybe something like this?



Travel by Leaf Number 1 by Eva Funderburgh
http://www.etsy.com/shop/EvaFunderburgh



They're wonderful, aren't they? I love all of Eva Funderburgh's ceramic sculptures, she has such a compelling and imaginative menagerie of beasts that look a bit like a familiar animals, but so other-worldly that they are quite unsettling in a very satisfying way.

Have a creative and warm day everyone!

Joey xx



Oink Baa, Double Cluck, Double Cluck

Farm Animals Brooches - in progress

Hi there!

I hope you've had good bonfire night and/or Diwali if you've been celebrating!

If you're a connosieur of children's telly, you'll recognise that the title to this post is a little homage to the animated show, "Hannah's Helpline", as on the theme song they sing, "Moo baa, double quack, double quack" as that's the 'number' to phone Hannah's helpline for emotional, financial or legal support. For animals. Have a look! It's very cute.


I've been making some 'farm animal' brooches for my stall at the Craft Candy craft fair on 27 November; you can see at the top the progress I've made so far.  These brooches use the same patterns as the finger puppets I made for Making Gifts Magazine.

The finger puppets I made for Making Gifts magazine

You can make your own if you follow this link to get the FREE pattern! Finger Puppet Farm (you will first need to register (for free) here: http://www.emagmaker.co.uk/user/register
Any brooches which I don't sell at the fair will be in my Etsy shop quicker than you can dial "oink, baa, double cluck, double cluck'!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Joey xx

The Secret is Out!

the embroidery design on my bag in Quilt Scene 2010

Hi!

You may remember that I mentioned a little secret at the end of my last blog post. Well I'm pleased that I can now reveal it to you!  My orange embroidered stripey bag is being published in a US magazine called Quilt Scene 2010. It's an annual publication to celebrate the International Quilt Festival held in Houston, Texas every year.  The publishers, Interweave, are a brilliant crafts publishers of numerous books and magazines, including the fantastic Cloth Paper Scissors and Quilting Arts, both of which are packed with unusual projects, features on artists and crafters and new techniques for you to try out.

Anyway, Quilt Scene 2010 is now available for you to pre-order. If you click on this link: Quilt Scene 2010 you will be able to read the table of contents (my bag project is on page 56!) and it's very tempting! Selvage edge pincushions, a birch quilt, pumpkin table runner and loads more!

If you happen to buy Quilt Scene 2010, please let me know what you think to it, I'd love to find out!

Best wishes

Joey x

A different, but similar bag

Pretty Dresses



Special Dresses!

 My friend Claire has just asked me, "Why don't you blog about the stuff you're making?" Well, the reason (or excuse) is that I'm very disorganised! I think I keep up quite a good pretence most of the time that this isn't the case, but if you saw inside our home, you'd realise that it's all just a front.
Anyway, I'll try to turn over a new leaf RIGHT NOW, and show & tell you what I've been up to over the past couple of weeks.


work in progress... a lot of blank faces!

 I have a little stash of very lovely fabrics that I never seem to get around to using, and I've had in my mind for a while that I'd make some little bunny and kitty brooches with them all wearing little dresses in these lovely fabrics.  I wanted to make something different and special for the Craft Candy Christmas craft fair on 27 November (which is only six weeks away - ARRGHHH! I'M NOT PREPARED! I will be though, I will be...) at which I will be having a stall, so if you're in the South Yorkshire area you must come along to get a bit of Christmas shopping in, Craft Candy fairs are always brilliant displays of beautiful handmade arts and crafts.

I've made a collection of nine (one has already flown the nest though... She's not pictured here), each with a different dress fabric, which is also on the backs (of course! Otherwise it would be rude for a prim little bunny or kitty to have a bare behind).

the back of one of the brooches, showing back of 'dress' and the brooch pin

I've embroidered the collars on by hand (it isn't lace) with cast-on buttonhole stitch (although the pink bunny in the strawberry print dress has a green woven picot collar, because it looks a bit like the calyx on a strawberry).


cast-on buttonhole collars

woven picot collar

 The next thing I'll be working on will be a bag or two along the same lines as my embroidered concentric circles bags (orange one pictured below)... more news about them soon! Oh and a little secret...

The orange 'concentric circles' bag

Have a good Monday everyone!

Best wishes

Joey x

Blog Action Day: Precious Water

Hi! I thought it would be a good idea to break my 'blog-fast' by joining in with the annual 'Blog Action Day', where thousands of folks all over the world blog about one particular topic to raise awareness. This year it's about WATER.  Very mundane, you may think. If you live in a country where water is plentiful, you may take water for granted. Well let's not!
Here's a little video to watch:

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Here's some startling water facts from water.org:

• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.
• Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
• More than 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas.
• Diarrheoa is more prevalent in the developing world due, in large part, to the lack of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as poorer overall health and nutritional status.
• 1.4 million children die as a result of diarrhea each year.

Find more water facts, and how you can help, on blogactionday.change.org

To celebrate water, I've created an Etsy treasury with water as the theme... click on the picture below to take a closer look at these lovely handmade and vintage items!

Have a great Friday!
Best wishes,
Joey xx