My New Art Space!

I am such a lucky girl! A few months ago we had a new Summerhouse put up in our garden! I have about a third of it to draw and paint in! (Have promised it will not spill out into the rest of the summerhouse). I found this cupboard in a lovely little shop called The Vintage Locket in Rushden, it was shoved at the back of the shop looking very sorry but it was just what I needed! The lovely owner said she would paint it for me (the same as the sideboard I had just brought!) 

The inside needs more work from me but most of the things I wanted in there fitted perfectly!

This is the other side of the room with my tiny table (I mostly hold my paper/book/canvas when I work so I just needed a small space for paints water etc) in the drawers there are pens, in the suitcase is my ready to go art things (although I haven't had the confidence to actually go anywhere and draw yet)! 

I am just waiting for some electricity to be installed so I can have Internet out there so I can art away while watching my friends on Ustream! 

Loving Tim's Big Butterfly!

I am having fun with Tim's big butterfly and dragonfly dies! These are coloured with metallic guilding wax!

I'll tell you what to write!

Love this picture! I am sure they were plotting something between them! Lol

Prismacolor pencil crayons

My outline drawing

Putting in the highlights

Adding some colour

A few weeks ago Dede (inkwell) showed us step by step how to use Prismacolors to do this picture of one of our fellow u stream friends little daughter. Dede provided an outline that we could print off but of course I didn't have the right paper or any ink at the time so a couple of days after when my paper came I attempted to draw my own (was quite pleased with the outcome but her eyes are a little big) so armed with all my Prismas and 3 lessons later this is what I achieved!

Lots more practice needed!

My Autumn Table Display

Instead of making orange pumpkins I made cream ones thinking that my table decoration could stay there well after Halloween, infact it may stay until I put my Christmas decs up!

The pumpkins were made from a piece of new material I found at the car boot. Just a rectangle 2 1/2 times as long as it is high for eg: 7ins high X 17 1/2ins long (makes the smaller pumpkin) the bigger one measured 9ins X 22 1/2. So any size can be made.

Then with right sides together sew along the short edge, use a running stitch to gather up one of the ends, turn inside out and stuff (quite firmly) then gather up the other end, pull as tight as you can! To make the ridges attach thread to the top wrap around the pumpkin twice and pull as tight as you want and secure well, repeat twice more spacing out so you have 6 sections on your pumpkin, attach leaves and stalks.

I put my decoration on a table mat just so it would be easier to move it from the table without disturbing it too much!

These are a fun little thing to make they really don't take long to make (I made 5 in a couple of hours) and great to make with the kids!

A quick sketch

My Fur Baby was 1 on Saturday!

I cannot believe Bella is a year old already, (although she came to us in November)! She is the cutest, most loyal friend anyone could wish for! 

Bella's favourite spot!

Bella's New favourite spot to sit is on the window sill watching everyone go by!

She obviously feels at home there, she slept for 2 hours! Bless her!

This little lady has kept me busy!

I can't believe how much Bella has grown! This is her Christmas morning after she opened her pressies! She loves her new 'big girl' bed, (she hardly fits into the first one now!)

Meet Bella!

This is Bella, our new puppy, she is adorable!

Birthdays come with lots of paper and packaging!

Birthdays come with lovely gifts, (I was a very spoilt girl!) and lots of paper and packaging!

Armed with lots of corigated card, boxes, backing card, tissue and wrapping paper, I decided to use some of it (it will all get used eventually!) 

Backing card and corigated came as packaging from this, Kath Kidston set.

This is what I made from it!

Backing paper, Aquatone paint pencils, bird, fussy cut from old book!

And another one using more of the same things.

And a Winter card!

I like to make these while sitting in front of the tv as they don't need tons of things to make them!

Thanks for looking!

Halloween!

My Halloween tray.

I painted an MDF tray black, put paper on the inside bottom from Graphic 45, made a fabric pumpkin and decorated it with anything Halloweeny I had, added crocs from M&S and waited for the kids to arrive!

A close up of my pumpkin, I made this from a circle of cotton fabric which I sprayed orange after, added a plaster twig (made from my own mold), a leaf and a skull stick pin!

A fun project to make! 

Thanks for looking!

A little visitor!

I was feeding the fish this morning and I heard a beautiful song coming from the bottom of my garden, it was so loud, I could hear it above all other noises and just had to investigate because I knew who it was! As I reached my secret garden I looked up and saw our little Robin at the top of the tree! It sang for a good 5 minutes unfortunately I didn't have my iPad with me or I would have videoed his beautiful song. I wasn't going to disturb him by going back to fetch it then so I waited until the song ended then went and got bird food and iPad, then waited until he came back, which he did within seconds of my return!

It is just ashame that you can't get a close up on an iPad but never mind!

Ornamental gourds!

Some ornamental gourds from the allotment! I am going to dry them and decorate them hopefully! This was the first time we had tried to grow these so it was a lovely suprise to see so many and lots of different ones too!

And some smaller ones!

Car Boot Sunday!

Today I went to the car boot sale, I found some cool things!

This humongous doily (:-)) is the biggest one I have ever seen! 15ft x 12ft I am guessing it is a bed spread (or someone had a really big table! Lol)

This cute egg house!

Lots of necklaces, bracelets to take apart, flowers, bottles and the tray.

Some bells,

A round wooden box and

Some lace! 

Not bad for 11/2 hours of exercise!

Thanks for popping by!

Relaxing!

This what I do to relax in front of the TV or while watching Ustream! 

The backgrounds are made with Aqua tone and a water brush, the birds are from a car boot brought book which I fussy cut out. I like to add pen doodles, words and dots too! 

Most of my crafting things are upstairs in my studio but I have my pencils, crayons, watercolours, aqua tones, pens and a selection of books/paper by the side of my sofa so they are always at hand for when I can't get upstairs!

Here is just a few of them!

Thanks for looking!

A Folder

Yesterday I made some card using some unloved paper (you know the ones we all have and think why did I get that?) I randomly ripped it up and glued it to a piece of card. (Silly me forgot to take a photo) When dryed I stamped using black archival ink some birds, foliage and swirls again randomly over the paper. 

I used the full sheet to make the folder. I scored a 1inch channel to make the spine. The ribbon is attached by making a slit either side of the spine and threading some seam binding through.

The inside has 2 pockets (which extend so I can get lots in). 

This the end veiw it shows how the pockets extend to hold lots.

I used a bulldog clip to which I added all sorts of things to, (a domino, which says 'Fill each day with Art', a metal butterfly, a pearl, a metal bead, a glass bead and an MDF block covered in washi tape with a molded bird on it).

A close up of the bulldog clip charm.

Thanks for taking a look!

Secret Garden Canvas

This is how the Secret Garden canvas started out, a few scraps of lace, die cuts and book paper adhered to the canvas with Matt Medium. The darker die cuts I painted gesso over to tone them down.

Then I put some texture paste through a couple of stencils for added texture.

Added lots of leaves, (fabric and clay) flowers (fabric, paper), moulds, berries, pine cones, acrylic pieces with a hot glue gun. Then sprayed brown ink in and around the flowers and leaves. I also randomly dabbed gesso over some of the leaves and berries for a more even colour tone.

I hope this close up shows how textured the canvas is!

Another close up

Here is the finished canvas! 

Thanks for stopping by!

My Dar Teddy

I made a Dar teddy! Have a look at Dar's teddy on her blog Artedar's Attic.

My teddy is made from recycled linen which I stamped with Tim Holtz stamps with black archival ink. I hand sewed all the pieces and stuffed with toy stuffing, added a bow and some button eyes (one is only loosely on) and a lace patch. It was easy to make, the hardest thing for me was sewing the arms, legs and patch on so that they looked like they had been pulled off and sewed back after being loved for so many years! A lovely little project to make!

Thanks for looking

Lulabelles Place has a Little Shabby Chic shop

I have opened a little shop over on Etsy! There is only a few things in there at the moment ( took me a whirl to get my head around it all!) but I will be adding more very soon! If you want to take a look click on the pictures on the left hand side of my blog and hopefully you will be transported there!

Everything that I sell is a 'found' treasure so I won't have great quantities of anything so buy while I have them!

Everything will come wrapped in usable wrappings either tissue, clothing pattern tissue, a doily or book paper and as far as possible recycled  packaging.

Hope you like what is on there so far! Keep looking I have lots to add (more chandelier lustres, doilies, tart tins, flowers, foil tape, brown parcel tape, plasterboard tape, to name but a few)!

If there is anything you are particularly interested in please let me know!

Thanks for looking! 

Bye for now!