More About the Inkberry Holly…

I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find any green stems with berries, but I’ve just discovered, via some web research, that only the male plants stay green all winter, while the female plants do not. Although the berries are poisonous to humans, they are enjoyed by birds. I’ve also learned that the inkberry holly can be used as a foundation plant, as a substitute for boxwood – and can stand heavy pruning. It’s a versatile plant, indeed.

Nature Journal Sketch: Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra)

Just wanted to paint something green today and dream of spring… This is a stem of an evergreen shrub that grows all over the yard. The leaves have a notch on the top edge (which I now notice I have exaggerated just a bit!).

A Jacket to Match...

I made this jacket for Ellowyne to match her hat, adapting a pattern that I had originally purchased for my Gene dolls. The embellisher imbues the felt with the look of (doll-scaled) boiled wool. I can definitely see Santa outfit applications.

The model is the same Ellowyne doll as in the previous post but she’s wearing her auburn wig. She came with three wigs and looks completely different in each one. I am thoroughly enchanted with her…

A Funky Hat…

One of my Christmas gifts was a beautiful Ellowyne Wilde doll designed by Robert Tonner. Since she arrived only wearing her skivvies, I thought I’d better start sewing for her. I made this hat yesterday from a cute pattern I purchased on EBAY. Using a paper punch, I punched out circles of brightly colored felt and randomly placed them on plain black felt. Then I used the embellisher machine from both sides to completely enmesh them into the background. The hat doesn’t call for a lining but since the felt was thin, I decided to line it and blanket stitch the edges. Now I need to make her an outfit to go with the hat!

A Felted and Embroidered ATC…

Although I’m not participating in the TIF challenge this year, I must say I fell in love with this month’s color palette. So, I gathered up a few scraps from my stash and made this little ATC.

Painting on Collaged Papers...

This is a little painting I’ve been working on the past few days. It’s from Kelly Rae Roberts' “Patch it Together” project in the November/December issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I had wanted to try this collage technique since I first saw it - before the holidays. And I may play with it some more…

The Morning After...

Hmmm, this morning I noticed that I lost a serif on the letter “y” of the word “happy” in the previous post. (And all I had to drink last night was sparkling cider!) If I delete the post, it will never really go away – it will forever reside in the bloggy mists of Bloglines. (Why is there no delete function in Bloglines?) So, the only thing to do is just publish a new post with the correct version of the cut… I'm much happier now...

Happy New Year!

Well, I just had another birthday (Christmas Eve) and I love this quote from journalist Mary Schmich, “Like many women my age, I’m twenty-eight years old.” Hehe! DH surprised me completely with a gadget called the Klic-N-Kut Element. I had never even heard of it, but it is a personal die cutter. While I’ve never done scrapbooking, I can definitely see uses for a die cutter in altered art and collage work. Best of all, I can create my own images in any graphics program and import them into the machine. It will cut fabric, felt, foam, cardstock, vinyl, chipboard, etc., and will emboss metal. Here is an example of text I created in Corel and then imported to the Klic-N-Kut. It was cut from a metallic finished cardstock. This is definitely a fun little toy...