Monday 30 April 2012

New work and a workshop on the 8th May

I have been away from the computer for some time as I have been creating a few new pieces.

Take a look and see what you think.

Confetti Wall Art - created with layers of small pieces of punched paper the size of confetti.


And my second project I have been making 3D flowers


These are the pieces that we are making at the workshop on the 8th of May, all of the places have been taken now. However many people have showed an interest and we could have a cake and craft night....watch this space.

Some of these pieces will be available soon in my shop lizzesbeautifulart.etsy.com
Commissions for personnel names will be available for the Confetti Wall Art.

Monday 16 April 2012

Making Birds with Polka Dot Sundays

On Saturday I went to a workshop to learn how to make a Polka Dot Sundays bird as featured on Kirstie's Handmade Britain.

This is the lady herself Jaina Minton the maker of Polka Dot Sundays and is on a mission, to make the world a more colourful place.


This is what we are heading for... a beautiful bird! - You need very strong hands make them this beautiful!


Jaina showed us how to scrunch and mould paper into balls, sounds much hard than you think. With lots of newspaper and cell-o-tape later the birds are starting to form. Mine looks cross between a bird and a turtle at the moment -burtel.





 
 Next some legs.

Slowly my little bird is taking shape.

Here are the others working hard...and yes Jaina did work us hard, there was a time limit before we got locked into the Market Place!


After making the legs we added a little beak and wings if wished, then we painted them white.


When the birds were dry then the fun began, choosing a lovely print and covering the birds. Yes I did take my time choosing the print, I did have a "Kirstie" moment but with the thought of being locked into the Market Place, my mind was quickly made up!

Here is Julia's bird being covered...


And here is Albert, my little bird :-)
Albert

I loved doing the workshop and if you ever feel like doing a half day or something crafty I can recommend Polka Dot Sundays' Workshops, Jaina was warm, interesting and very good.

 Keep up with Polka Dot Sundays and all Jaina's creations with www.polkadotsundays.com, www.Polkadotsundays.etsy.com, Twitter and Facebook



Thursday 12 April 2012

Building Raised beds

This past couple of weeks we have been finishing our raised beds in the garden and I have also decided to tidy the front up at the same time.

This is how we are doing after 10 tonne bags of soil, 5 tonnes of stones, 1sq m of manure and nine 3.6m half size sleepers.

This is what is left of the soil and stones order.


This is my front garden that we are creating a raised bed in. My wonderful husband has been doing all of the wood work and when we moved the first ring into place it was heavy!
Front garden in progress
This is how far we have got on the back of the garden. Four raised beds and all filled to the top with soil, that yes you guessed it had to be wheel-barrowed all the way through the house. My arms ache! I think hubby's arms ache even more.
Back garden raised beds in progress.
Each raised bed takes 2 tonnes of soil the first two were already part full but even at this stage these raised beds had taken 5 tonnes of soil to fill them up!

Henry Hare
More photos on the progress coming soon. Check out Lizzesbeautifulart.etsy.com for the latest listings including a Hare illustration.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

My little plants

Over the last couple of weeks my paint brush has been put down for the gardening gloves - just temporary so that we can get the garden up and running. That has not stopped my little book of ideas filling up waiting for the creative time!
From little seeds grow the first little shoots


To first leaves

To lovely large Tomato plants