Polymer clay shapes

I had a lot of fun yesterday with polymer clay (like fimo). I wanted to recreate something like the clay hearts I made last year for Christmas tags with bicarb of soda. These were very brittle so I wanted something more robust and less likely to break. The clay is ideal and I got a selection pack with small amounts of 32 different colours. What I love about them is they bend together well like marbling.
Just before Christmas my family and I did a silver clay workshop creating a pendant and the way we did this was using texture mats to create a beautiful and unique piece of jewellery. This inspired me to take things a step further with the ceramic hearts.
So as well as the clay I bought a few texture mats and cutters that are used for cake decorating.
And here are the results.
Lots of very pretty shapes just waiting to be attached to gift tags!

These are a selection of the clay blocks I started with.

hearts ...

leaves ...

and paisley.

I particularly like the ones textured to look like knitting! Inspired!

The best present

I have been visiting a Primary school recently to give mindfulness lessons to 2 classes and wanted to make them a special Christmas card as a thank you. Here is what I made for them. Aside from this it has been all books, books, books recently for the 50 books in a year of being 50 project, which is rapidly coming to a conclusion at the end of the year. You can view the books here - http://50handmadebooks.blogspot.co.uk/

Leaf print cards

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because of the 50 books project I set myself. Here is the latest - leaf print cards. I was inspired by this floor tile

which I saw in Cape Town, South Africa.

And here is my version, turned into a whole host of square cards.

I had to do the print in 3 sections as I use ink pads which are a limited size. So I started with the leaf in the middle, then did 2 prints each of the lines edging and the dotty edging. I'm really happy with the results and the range of colours.

Creativity & Mindfulness - a great combination!

Two day retreats coming up.
Saturday September 19th in Helmsley Walled Garden -https://mindfullyinhwg.eventbrite.co.uk.
Sunday October 11th at SNAPArts in Wakefield -https://creativityandmindfulness.eventbrite.co.uk.

We offer a day’s retreat - 9.30am to 4.30pm -  to encourage and support your creativity through playful drawing and writing, with mindful practice as our foundation.

Mindfulness is simply being aware of our attention in the present moment, with acceptance and without judgement of what we find there.

Practising the qualities of mindfulness - patience, trust, openness - we will enable you to explore your own creativity playfully, but without looking for an end result at this stage.

Our professional guidance in drawing, poetry writing and mindfulness will be offered throughout our day together, and will include a mindful approach to eating a delightful lunch.

Our retreat is devoted to anyone who wishes to explore mindfulness as a fresh approach to creativity, which can be expanded to all areas of life.  We especially encourage those terrified and afraid of drawing or writing as mindfulness offers a gentle and non-judgemental approach to these creative aspects.  Our tuition will include a full range of craft skills and technique so that beginners and more experienced practitioners alike can enjoy the retreat.

Lauri Bower - poet and mindfulness teacher. Clare Belbin - artist.

More die cut cards

I  have been lucky enough to borrow my niece's die cutting machine again, and so I purchased a trio of new die cuts to use, spring, summer and autumn borders.
Here are the cards that have been produced so far! (more to come!)

 spring silhouette.

 summer birds. 

The paper here is photocopied fabric over-copied with text.

 summer orange.

 autumn birds.

  autumn music.

 a kaleidoscope of butterflies. 

I had to look up what a group of butterflies was called, I thought this was very appropriate!

Die cut cards

I have had LOTS of fun playing with my niece's die cutting machine, and cut out lots of beautiful shapes and panels before I, sadly, had to hand it back! Here is a selection of the first 25 cards I have made, and there will be many more on the way!
I have envelopes full of the shapes just waiting to be applied to cards, and some will be turned into books as well.

And at some point I might get to claim the table back for things other than card-making!

Feathers!

I have been busy with book-making and binding (http://50handmadebooks.blogspot.co.uk/) which is why there haven't been any posts on here recently. And then my niece got a die cutting machine (like a mangle) and some dies and I had a go, and then started to play this weekend with some of my own, including some beautiful feathers which my sister and I bought today.
Here are the results so far -

These beautiful feathers are ready to adorn books and cards, but they do look lovely in their own right.