Mother Sew Dear

That is the name of one of the Precious Moments figurines, and I always think of my mother when I see that one. As I’ve mentioned here before, she was quite the seamstress. She still has her Singer sewing machine, though she doesn’t use it now.

Multi-media art is very new to me, and though I am terribly inexperienced, I do enjoy my attempts. Recently I decided to “tackle” a canvas—sometimes there are too many elements for a tag! I had an 8x10 stretched canvas on hand and decided to make that the platform for a sewing theme project to take to Mother soon, hoping it will cheer her, in her illness.

First, I covered the canvas with gesso. I painted the edges of the frame with Making Memories Cranberry acrylic paint. Then I covered the canvas with Studio matte medium and laid an actual pattern down, scrunching it up to make wrinkles.

Then I stamped a couple of sewing theme impressions onto pattern material (using Ranger Archival Cobalt), gently tore the edges around the images, and used medium to apply them. I liked the double thickness of the pattern pieces, and so then tore strips of pattern and glued them down all over, as a collage. (Thanks to Marjie Kemper for sending me some authentic patterns to work with!) Probably the greatest challenge of the entire project was trimming the excess pattern material from the edges. I’m NOT a good cutter!

For the focal point of the canvas, I used a tag that I had made a few weeks ago, swapping out the flowers from the original tag (I was never happy with them). I added a flower from my stash, and I love the Wendy Vecchi sewing machine element. Thinking of the sewing notions Mother always had on hand, I added some measuring tape, buttons and ric-rac.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Proverbs 31, and the description of the “virtuous woman” in that reference well describes my mother. So, I pulled a portion of that reference that is relevant to sewing.

 

So, Mother, if you’re reading this, we’ll have to find a place to display this, next time I visit!

Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge – Technique #9: Time

This week’s Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge at Linda’s Studio L3 involves the use of Tim’s pocket watch and the technique he outlines on page 35 of his CofC2 book. This week’s challenge is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.

I opted not to get terribly creative with this one. I will use it in a project, maybe even a scrapbook page, but will go ahead and post the watch project itself at this point. This project begins with an empty watch case.

This is a subject that has been on my mind a lot lately—with the high school graduation of my two granddaughters and some other life happenings, I’ve just become more acutely aware of the passing of time, and of the accompanying memories.

Art Journal Page – Soar

Taking inspiration again from Andrea Walford, I created this spread for my moleskin inspiration journal.

• Masking tape in seam
• Gesso
• Tim Holtz Terminology Tissue Paper over all
• Broken China Distress Stain over all
• Paints: Claudine Hellmuth Studio Classic Teal and Sky Blue
• Dylusions Spray Fresh Lime
• Crafter’s Workshop stencil, used with stencil and with Golden Molding Paste
• Tim Holtz Stamps
• Birds, cut from cereal box, on Cricut, covered with TH tissue tape, gessoed and painted with CH Classic Teal, stamped with TH stamp, sprayed with Perfect Pearls

12 Tags of 2012 – June: Tinting Old Photo

Though I’m not totally thrilled with my finished product, I do love anything that has to do with old photos. For such projects, I will always opt to use my own pictures. Through the years, I can imagine grandchildren asking, “Who is that?” and I don’t want the answer to be, “I got that picture from the internet—I don’t have a clue.” But then, when I create a project, I almost always am thinking about who will view it in years to come (truth is, no one may ever see it, but it makes me feel better to think that way, anyway)! Besides, I have SO MANY old photos, and I love them all, so why not use them in special projects!

This particular photo is one of my favorites. The twins in the old “wagon” or “stroller” are my mother and her twin sister (now 84). Their older sister, pulling the wagon, was 12 when they were born. The 28 represents the year the picture was taken. They were born in January 1928, and I believe they are less than a year old in this picture, so I’m relatively certain on the date of the photo.

The metal number 2 symbolizes the twins (of course).

I followed many of the suggestions on Tim Holtz’s blog. I used Bundled Sage and Broken China for the main colors for the tag and trimmings.