Saturday 27 October 2012

Craft Barn Calendar Challenge # 4 - Doodles

The theme for the Craft Barn Callendar Challenge #4 is 'Doodles' and this filled me with horror!! I doodle when I'm on the phone etc. but not really at any other time. I only have some border dylusion stamps and I felt they wouldn't do so I decided to see what I could create by just playing around.

I sprayed some dylusion ink onto card in various colours and dried it. Some random stamping was added using distress ink. Next some large drops of water were allowed to drop on the ink and were then dried. From this point on, I used a white gel pen and my trusty sewing machine to doodle away and create my calendar page. Do I like it? At first, no. Now I've played with it, photographed it and just lived with it, I think it's grown on me so I decided not to redo it, which was the original plan!

Here's my calendar page - get your sunglasses on people before you view:


The colours are bright and bold and I'm pleased that some areas show a little more yellow than others.


I started by drawing a flower around each water drop mark. They are roughly the same shape but are in a variety of sizes.


Next I bleached out some of the colour from each flower using a waterbrush. A second run with the white gel pen was then needed to make it stand out.
Most of the flowers were then given a 'stem' using an embroidery stitch on my machine. I thought about using various colours of thread but stuck to white in the end to link in with the gel pen.
The little flowers in the centres were punched from some of the background card which had been randomly stamped in white ink. Their edges were inked  and the flowers were given some shape and then attached in the centre of each drawn flower.


My dear husband had sent for a little bag of watch parts for me so I used some of those as the flower centres. They are very tiny but really quite amazing, I can't believe how anyone can put a watch together with such small pieces! The calendar was inked with distress and some Tim tissue tape was applied to the top to hide the stitch holes. It was then machined into position. The edge of the calendar was also machined to define the edge a little more. Have to say it's great to use my machine in my craft work as well as in the more traditional way for sewing fabrics.

I hope you like my page. I know it won't be to everyone's taste but I'm pleased with the outcome,
particularly when I didn't like the theme at all!! Thanks for your support and for visiting me today.

32 comments:

  1. Stunning colours and oh wow I LOVE your stitching!!! A gorgeous page,love the watch parts too!!! Love trace x
    Hope youbare feeling better xx

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  2. A wonderful page, love the bright colors, the stitching and the sewing.

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  3. Tee hee, I love this Julia, my favourite colours at the moment. What a fab way to let your page evolve, it has worked beautifully. Lol, I would be lost without a white gel pen!!
    Huge hugs x x x x

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  4. Love the sewing machine stitch - brill. BJ

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  5. How can you not like this!! it gorgeous - the bold colours and the wow stitching and those flowers are just fab ,getting the feeling that I like it? you can see the effort that has gone into this to make it just that little bit special x

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  6. You should be more than pleased with this! It is gorgeous! I love all the detail too! Bravo!

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  7. Lovely rich colour, love the doodle flowers and sewn stems.

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  8. Wow - Julia, I love your doodling! So clever to start with water drops that were there in your inky background and then bleach it out further within each flower. It looks just great, and I'm in awe of your stitched stems! Gorgeous sunshine colours too... Have a lovely Sunday!
    Alison x

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  9. Love the colours and the stitching, a really neat idea :)
    Von ♥

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  10. What's not to like, Julia! I love your stitched stems.

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  11. Love this. But I'm the same with doodling, something I do without thought, but when required to think about it.. arrghhhhhhh! But you've done a great job with this.

    Enjoy your weekend

    Cassidy xx

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  12. The stitched stems Julia are so fabulous (quite in awe of your sewing talent) and with the addition of the doodling it brings those flowers to life against your fabulously inky background.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  13. Love your bleach, doodled, stitched flowers! The watch parts are perfect! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

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  14. Julia your page is brilliant - not just with colour, which is total sunshine but also with your clever bleaching, stitching and doodling.
    I am enjoying your calendar journey!

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  15. it is very pretty and interesting.

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  16. Oh wow !!!! For me, your card is perfect Julia, ans so rich of meticulous details I really love !! Your flowers are wonderful, stitching them like that is a great idea ! and your background also is beautiful... Love it ! Coco xx

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  17. And you don't like doodling!!!! I think your card turned out just perfect! Great colours and very cute flowers!

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  18. gorgeous calendar !!! colors , doodles and background are wonderful
    Good sunday to you

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  19. Fabulous colours and techniques, well done! Bleach gives such wonderful effects, and stitching too, brilliant.

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  20. Fabulous doodling Julia and I love the bright, cheery colours and the stitched stems. A super calendar page. xx

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  21. Fab doodling, love the stitching, great colours, in fact a wonderful inspiration for April

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  22. You were right to keep the page, it's beautiful ! I love the details of the flowers (and watch parts)and the sewing.

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  23. Fabulous calender page bright and zingy love it all

    MaggieH

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  24. GORGEOUS Julia...great work!

    greetings, Alie :-)

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  25. Really really great Julia your doodling.

    Greetings Janny

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  26. Now usually orange and yellow are my least fav colours, but adding the white in a sort of faux batique (not sure about the spelling!!) style makes this work so well. Gosh I hope April is as bright and cheery as this when we get there:) Hugs, Buttons x

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  27. I love where you went with the doodling! The flowers look fantastic and the stitched stems are awesome!!

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  28. WOW it's amazing what you did with the flowers. Love the White penwork and your stiching is a genius touch. WtG

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  29. Great page, I love the colours on this.

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  30. Wow !! lovely and bright, you did a great job on this.
    Thanks for playing with us.
    Izzy

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  31. Hi Julia, just catching up - life seems to be getting in the way of things lately!
    Love this calendar page - the stitched stems look fabulous, and the watch parts for the flower centers is a brilliant idea.
    Avril xx

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Juliax