Patchwork Clown Doll - a work in progress

I have been wanting to make a patchwork clown doll for ages, I don’t know why, but the idea just appealed to me.  As I haven’t done very much patchwork in the past, I didn’t really know where to start!  Luckily, we have a small patchwork shop called The Button Tree, here in Wolverhampton, so I went in for some advice.  The woman told me to stick to rectangles to start off with, and to stagger the joins, so that any unevenness would be less noticeable.  I decided to use this idea to make a sort-of brick pattern, with a nod towards Bargello.  She also told me to concentrate on making up a piece of fabric first, and then cut out the clown’s clothes. At the Ali Pali show some time ago, I bought some papier mache eggs from the Decopatch stall, to use as doll heads.  I tried to find something to make hands and feet out of, as I have had no luck using polymer clay, and I thought I might have found the answer on the Friendly Plastic stall.  There were some nice little hand-shaped cutters – but no feet!  Shucks!!   Back to the drawing-board!!! Weeks later I had got together all my fabrics, old stamp-blocks for the body and metal bits to fasten them together, and I had found out where to buy dowelling for the arms and legs.  Then I looked for my eggs, so that I could decide what size of doll I was going to make, but I couldn’t find them anywhere!  And I still didn’t have any hands or feet.  By this time I was ill, and I couldn’t cope with the disappointment, so I put the whole idea aside for later. At the beginning of August I treated myself to a day out in the city centre, and wandered into the Works bookshop, where I found this for the silly price of £1.99:-


It is only 5 inches tall, from the soles of its feet to the top of its head, and it is a bit crudely made, but it was a complete solution to my problems, so I decided to buy it.  I had planned to make a sitting doll, but this little model wont sit, so I had to change my plan. Now it was time for some patchwork fun!  I cut a 1 inch wide strip of each of my six fabrics, stitched them all together, with 1/8^th inch seams as advised.  Then I pressed all the seam-allowances to one side.  This left me with a long, narrow, striped piece, which I cut into three lengths.  I stitched the pieces together the other way, keeping the order of the colours correct and pressed the allowances again.  Then I cut 1 inch strips across the stripes.  I laid the strips down beside each other, keeping the colours in the right order, then moved every second strip down by one and a half patches, to stagger the colours and joins.  Stitching the strips together was a bit nerve-wracking, as I kept being interrupted and losing my place!  As I went along, I unpicked the bottom patch of each strip that I had moved down, and stitched it on at the top of the same strip, so as to even out the top and bottom edges a bit.  When I had finished, I had a fairly flat piece with a brick pattern, which was what I was aiming at (though it was slightly irregular!), but I’d got my logic wrong, and the brick pattern was vertical!  Hey ho!  The woman in the patchwork shop had suggested that I back my piece with muslin, but I decided not to, as the piece was a lot stiffer than I had expected, and I thought it might prevent me from gathering it at the neck. In order to make a pattern for the clothes, I decided to make a voile (if I’ve got the term right!).  Using my (rather rusty) experience of dress-making and pattern-cutting, I made a rough pattern for a quarter of the main part, and cut the 4 pieces out of an old hanky.  I laid these out on the patchwork, to see how much I would have left for the sleeves, and luckily there was enough, if I only made a very small, plain hem at the wrist and ankles.  I decided to cut the sleeves in a raglan style, with the top edge incorporated into the neck gathers.  The voile worked out, when I tried it on the doll, so I cut all the parts out of patchwork and sewed them up, leaving a hemmed opening in the back seam.  I hadn’t allowed quite enough “height” at the neck, so I faced that edge with a strip of plain orange fabric, then I worked the gathers in the facing and the turnings and pulled them up.  I finished the back with a comically-oversized button and a thread loop.  To fit the clothes on the doll, I pulled out it’s “stick”, and pushed the end through a gap in the stitches of the back seam just above the crotch, then refitted the stick.

This is what the doll looks like now:-

To finish off, I had planned to add a hat, a set of juggling balls and a sort-of ruff as a collar.  However my inspiration dried up at this point, and then I ran out of time, because I was packing to go for a holiday on my boat, so I wrote the project up roughly and put everything away for later.  I didn’t have time to post it on my blog at that time, so here it is a month late!

Hopefully, my inspiration will re-emerge at some point, and I will add the finishing touches to my doll.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

On UK Stampers the theme for the August Twinchie swap is “By the Sea”, which is great, because I recently acquired a set of seaside stamps, (free with a magazine, if I remember correctly).

The stamp set includes a beach hut, a couple of deckchairs, a small boat sailing along on some waves, and a rather large seagull.  Luckily the beach hut measures just under 2 inches square, so I decided to make it my main feature and exploit the doors, by cutting them open.  Logically the doors would open to show the inside of the beach hut, but I haven’t got any stamps or images that would be suitable, so I had to use a bit of artistic licence and show a view right through the beach hut to the sand and sea behind.  Since the boat stamp fits nicely in the opening, I decided to use that as the focal point of the view.

As I’m “busy” watching the Olympics at the moment, I decided to do all my stamping (with black Memento)  in one session, then sit in front of the telly and colour everything in with Promarkers.  I stamped the beach huts, coloured them in, and very gingerly scored and cut open the doors, then coloured in the backs of the doors to match the fronts.  Luckily all three worked out first time, even though I’m rubbish with a craft knife!  I stamped the tops of the beach huts again three times, cut out the “10” signs and stuck them onto the huts, to make sure the signs were properly white.  I stamped a boat in the middle of some 3 inch squares of card, to make the backgrounds (plus some spares).  Using the door opening, I decided where I wanted the joins between the sky, sea and sand, then made some guide marks.  I used post-it masks to make clouds, like I usually do, then coloured the sky with Artic Blue and Sky Blue, forgetting just how bad Promarkers are for bleeding through paper!  That was an “aaarrrgh!” moment, but the splodgy result actually looked ok, so I’m happy!  However, it was obvious that masking would not work for the boats, so I decided to colour the sea right over them, then take out the colour with my Promarker blender pen.  I was able to take enough blue out of the flags, so that I could colour them red, but the sails ended up a rather blotchy pale blue, which didn’t look very appealing!  I got round the problem by stamping a load of extra boats in a row, sticking double-sided tape on the back, cutting out the sails and sticking them over the mess.  Sorted!  I gave up with the hulls, and just coloured them a darker blue!

It was interesting colouring the sea, as I haven’t got a suitable blue, so I experimented with lots of scribbling in different colours, until I had a mix that would do (and, no, I can’t remember which colours I used!!!!!).  I tried “shifting” some of the blue with my blender pen, with the aim of suggesting waves, but it didn’t work. (I’m wondering if the blue pigment in Promarkers is just difficult to shift, in the same way that the blue pigment in dye inks doesn’t like being bleached?).

I used Sandstone to colour the sand, then realised that I would be cutting most of it off, so I didn’t bother with any shading!

To assemble the Twinchies, I stuck the huts over the backgrounds using double-sided tape, making sure that the boats were in the middle of the doorways.  Lastly, I cut out the 2 x 2 inch squares, with the huts sitting nicely in the middle, then backed each one with another piece of card, to cover the Promarker mess.

Now for a little bit of bling!

When I saw the “Bling it on” theme for the July twinchie swap on UK Stampers, I immediately thought of the gorgeous Diamond stamp from Clarity.  I think diamonds are the ultimate in bling, though I chose sapphires for myself!

I decided to show my diamonds off by putting them on cushions, so I made tiny ones out of some dark blue fabric that I rescued from a jar of jam.  I stuffed the cushions with cotton wool, and sewed some gold braid round the edges.  The miniscule tassels, that I tried to make for the corners, just would not work out, so I had to make do with loops instead.  By the time I had finished sewing all 3 cushions, I was beginning to question my sanity…….

I inked the background cards with Mustard Seed and Barn Door distress inks, then spritzed them with water to blend the colours.  They looked really boring, so I scored a sunray pattern with my Hougie board.  They still looked boring, so I spritzed them with Heirloom Gold pearl mist.  That was a bit better, but I decided to go the whole hog and mount them on gold mirri-card as well.  Sorted!  Before I stuck the background layers together, I sewed the cushions onto the inked cards, by making small stitches in the back layer of the cushions, so that they stayed plump.

Now it was time for the diamonds!  I can’t stamp on acetate for toffee, so I tried an idea from Barbary Gray, using double-sided adhesive sheets.  Barbara peels off one backing sheet, stamps onto the adhesive, lays acetate on top, then turns it over, peels off the other backing sheet and adds blingey stuff to the adhesive, so that it shows through the acetate.  Brilliant, and it works!  Well, it does if your stamping is any good!  I got 2 images to work immediately, but the third just would not cooperate!  For some reason the stamp decided to skid over the adhesive, or miss bits, and it took 5 tries to get a useable image.  Even then, a bit of the point was missing, so I had to “patch” it by stamping that bit again – luckily just right!  By that stage, I was getting a bit desperate, so it was a relief, when I finally had 3 images I could use.  I decided to use plastic packaging instead of acetate, as it is stronger, and successfully stuck it on without any bubbles.  Phew!  Now for the glitter, but…..

I couldn’t find my one and only pot of Glamour Dust glitter anywhere!!!!

So, I had to use Mica Flakes instead.  I bought 3 pots of them in a weak moment ages ago, but hadn’t got around to trying them.  I found out that they are an absolute menace, spreading themselves everywhere, even though I was really careful and tidy!  I hate using glitter because of the mess, but this was 10 times worse!!!  The flakes kept falling off the adhesive and didn’t cover it completely, so the diamonds looked a bit disappointing.  I decided to back them with gold mirri-card, as it seemed to bring out the blinginess.  I stuck the mirri on with Pinflair glue gel, which finally tamed the flakes, and I was able to trim neatly around the edge of the plastic shapes with scissors.

Finally, I stuck the diamonds onto the cushions with Pinflair glue gel, and took some photos.  I think my Twinchies have turned out quite well, and I hope the eventual recipients will agree!

Some much easier ATCs!

On UK Stampers the theme that Vonny set for the July ATC swap was “Roses”.  This came as a blessed relief, after the problems I had with the “Royalty” theme for June!  I was winning from the start with “Roses”, as I have several suitable stamps, so I decided to make 3 quite different ATCs this time.  It proved so easy, that I finished everything in June!

For the first ATC, I stamped the top part of the Rose Flower Fairy stamp with black Memento, then coloured in the whole ATC with Promarkers.  To finish off, I inked round the edges very lightly, stuck a clear bling in the middle of the rose and painted a thin coat of Stickles onto the fairy’s wings.

For the second ATC, I brayered a background with Soothing Sunset Big’n’Juicy.  I zapped the ink with my heat tool until it was well and truly dry, and used my antistatic pad as well, before I stamped the rather arty rose silhouette with black Archival and embossed it with clear detail powder.  Then I masked the flower and stamped the word “Rose” in pink.  To finish off, I inked round the edges lightly, and stuck a pink bling in the centre of the rose.

I had a bit of messy fun with No 3!  I stamped the rose corner and the word “Rose” in black Archival, zapped it dry, sprayed the ATC with a mixture of Tumbled Glass reinker, pearl mist and water, until the card was very wet, then tipped a load of coarse sea-salt onto it.  I had to make 2, as the first one got spoilt when I rubbed the salt off it.  I was a bit more patient the second time, used coarser salt, and let it dry for longer.  Unfortunately, the salt slightly “attacked” the embossing, so the images aren’t perfect.  I finished off with 3 blue blings and ink round the edges.

I made a postcard for my note to Vonny, using the same stamps and background as for ATC 3.  For the envelopes, I went back to my usual digital setup using the free template from Craft Stamper magazine.  I wasn’t in a hurry to repeat June’s envelope fiasco!!

I had everything packed up, sealed and ready to put in the post several days ago, but luckily decided not to, until Vonny had sent out the June ATCs.  I didn’t realised that I had forgotten to take my photos!!  I was feeling a little better on Wednesday, so I unsealed the packaging, took my pics and wrote this post, then sealed everything back up again.  Phew!!!

Royalty ATCs

On UK Stampers the theme for the June ATC swap is “Royalty”.  I decided to try something digital, as I didn’t have any suitable stamps at all.  I wanted to do something based on the Lion and the Unicorn, or crown, orb and sceptre, but all the images I found on the internet were hopeless, so I was completely stuck.  Then I treated myself to a day out at Sunrise Crafts, to cheer myself up, and ……..

I found this Tim Holtz stamp!  Sorted!!!!!!

The stamp is perfectly sized for ATCs, so I only had to make a nice background for it.  I stamped it onto a rubbish ATC, cut away the areas around the crown and the lion, then used the remains as a mask.  I dabbed Mustard Seed distress ink onto the crown area and Spiced Marmalade onto the lion area.  Then I took the mask away and dabbed Barn Door over the rest of the ATC.  I spritzed with water to blend the colours, then dried with my heat tool.  Easier said than done, as my ready-cut ATCs are made of a rather weird card that tends to dry in uneven patches!!  At this stage I thought the colours looked a bit garish, so I swiped over lightly with Picket Fence distress stain and dried again.  I stamped with black Archival, then spritzed lightly and splatted with Heirloom Gold pearl mist, and finally zapped it all thoroughly with my heat tool.  So far, so good!

I wanted to add crown charms, but I couldn’t find any at Sunrise Crafts, and it was far too late to buy any on the internet.  I decided instead to diecut some grungeboard crowns, using the Tim Holtz Heart Wings die.  I tried dabbing the first one with a gold paint dabber, then immediately zapping it with my heat tool (which pops the bubbles in the paint and leaves a lovely orange-peel texture, that looks great when antiqued with black paint!).  Unfortunately, the paint hadn’t covered the edges, so the crown just looked a mess!  I tried adding some paint with a brush, but it still didn’t look right.  Time for drastic action!!  * I squeezed the dabber bottle really hard, so the paint flooded over the diecut, then I swished it around in the puddle with my pokey tool, until it was all covered, then balanced the whole mess on the pokey tool so I could zap it without it sticking to the mat.  The paint bubbled beautifully, but it filled up the holes in the shape!  Grrrrhh!!!!  I managed to squish the paint back against the shape while it was hot, but this idiot forgot that the pokey tool was also rather hot!  Ouch!!!  Then it was time to get the dried paint off my craft mat.  Thank goodness for wet wipes!  By this stage I had splashes of gold paint everywhere, and every time I moved it got worse, so I had to go and clean myself up.  Then I had to repeat from * twice more.  Groan!!!  I left everything to dry and had a well-earned (?) rest for a few hours, then came back expecting to find the paint had gone hard.  No such luck!  I could still move the bubbles about and squish them.  I had wanted to do some antiquing with black paint, but I thought it was likely that the gold paint would rub off in the process, so I decided against it.  I just hope the paint will stand up to the post and being handled!  Finally I gave each crown a slight curve with my fingers, then I stuck them on with Pinflair glue gel (fabulous stuff!!).

I like to make envelopes for my swap ATCs, using the free downloadable template from the Craft Stamper magazine and a suitable digital image.  However, this time I decided to have a play!  I had finally bought myself some Craft Glassine in the form of little envelopes, while I was at Sunrise Crafts.  I had high hopes of it, because of the lovely things I had seen on the telly and the internet, but my first effort was simply a mess!  I tried stamping in an embossing folder, then embossing the Glassine.  The ink didn’t show up properly, it wouldn’t dry and the stamping smudged.  I couldn’t think of a way of improving it, so that envelope went in the bin!  For my second attempt I just embossed the Glassine with the Victoria folder (think Royalty, think Queen, think Victoria??), then inked over the embossing with Black Soot ink.  Ooh, messy!!  I finally managed to zap the ink dry with my heat tool, but it seemed to melt the surface of the Glassine, which was a little alarming!!  How on earth do people make the lovely things I’ve seen?  I must be doing something wrong!?!  The final insult came when the diecut mirri board crown and letter “R” wouldn’t stick properly to the Glassine!  I had put them through my Xyron X, which has always worked in the past but not this time.

It was a relief to get everything packed up and sent away to Vonny!  I just hope the ATCs and envelopes survive the swap, and that the eventual recipients will like them!!

Twinchies again!

Over on UK Stampers, the theme of the Twinchie swap for June is “My Little Red Heart”.  I signed up for the swap in a rash moment, having no clear idea as to what I was going to do!  None of my ideas would gel, so I decided to put the job on the back burner and go back to experimenting.

In sorting through some old stamps that don’t get used very often, I came across a forgotten set of flat “shadow” stamps.  One of them was just over 2” square, so I thought “Aha!  Why don’t I have a go at “Kiss-Stamping”, and see if anything turns up that will make my Twinchies happen.”  So, after one or two false starts........

I inked the "shadow" stamp with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, kissed it with a floral background inked with Worn Lipstick, kissed it round the edges with the curly tail of a bird stamp inked with Peeled Paint (stamping a bit further in on two sides, to allow for trimming), kissed it with the Craft Stamper magazine freebie "Time to Celebrate" circle stamp (with the words masked out) inked with Barn Door, kissed it several times with a small "open" heart stamp inked with Barn Door, then stamped the "shadow" stamp onto white card, and cut it out at 2” square.  Then I inked the "Love" stamp with Barn Door and stamped it inside the circle.  The “Love” looked a bit lost, so I stamped it again with Barn Door onto plain white card, cut it out and stuck it on top of the first image.  Then I inked the larger "open" heart stamp (which matches the heart in the “Love” stamp), again with Barn Door, stamped it onto white card, cut it out, inked it all over with Barn Door, gave it 4 coats of clear UTEE, and stuck it onto the “Love”.  At this stage I stood back, looked at the Twinchie and thought “Wow!  That’ll do nicely!!”  Then…..

I had to clean off all the stamps, and do the whole lot twice more, trying to get all the stages in the right order!  Umm!!??!!

Success at last with "kiss" stamping!  I’ve only managed it with a brayer before, for doing reflections.  I think it may have worked this time, because the Distress Inks are more forgiving than the inks I have used in the past.  Hooray for Tim Holtz!!

Black & White Gothic Arch

Over on the Gothic Arches Challenge blog, the current theme is "Black & White".  This is my effort.

I was watching Hels (?Sheridan?) on Create & Craft the other day, and decided to buy a sample pack of Art Parts to have a play with.  Imagine my surprise yesterday, when the Wendy Vecchi "Accents for Art" stamp-set arrived instead.  I think the banner says it all, and I will not be sending the stamp-set back!!!!