New sketches - ornaments, octopus, some kind of flower...

My sketch book is beloved by myself and looks like that, a little bit rough and used ;)

I wanted new motifs I could use for papers or textiles... or to cut them in linoleum for printing! Going a little bit organic, ornamental, etc.

The first impressions out of my sketch book:

And the first ones traced with sandwich paper. I already write down how I like sandwich paper? Usable to almost everything and cheap! Great transparency, soft but still very durable, nearly perfect for all kinds of crafting with paper!

I already started to vectorize the digital images (the one below) with inkskape (great programm and freeware, hard to top!). The vectorized image I will colour in different themes and print on fabric. Maybe not, maybe only print them at the copy shop in larger version ^^ I'll see.

Biggest problem is the work in the details of the lines. They are all rough and uneven still. Bah.

Soap test pieces...

I cut some small soap bars (really small ^^) so I could make some sets out of them and give them away to friends of mine. So they are obliged to test them now ^^

I really love soaps done with the cold process reaction. I just could start testing my first soap batches and I can only say (although it is not very original or creative ^^) : I love them all! I hope the first round (study: phase 1 - with a small number of selected people) will have good results. And I am curious which one they will favor.

I gave away sets of "Just cream", "coffee and cream" and "pump-skin".... I just realize that I never uploaded pump-skin! Arghs! Okay, to-do for tomorrow - photos!

I made tiny stamped banderoles for the soaps and packed them in this very transparent sandwich paper (great for crafting things and makes a great gift wrap paper!), afterwards I added a little card with my tentacle at the front. Inside were the dates of creation...

Pictures on the wall

..on my growing picture wall now: the dots picture frame...

...just the dots near a "goth family" pic ^^

Picture frames - painted

I had some blank picture frames lying around and my patchwork like picture frame wall (also with paintings and mirrors) is (and will be for a long time) in its growing phase. Therefore they had to be painted. In the one with the dots there is already a foto (Lachafa will hate me for this but I have to agree with our parents, the foto is cool! ^^) but the blue on is still missing its center piece.

The blue one was done with artist's water colours and white embossing powder (and my new stamps for sure ^^).

Some look at the details so you can see the beautiful wood structure! It shines through the colours and only the white embossed pieces are standing out.

 A lot of acrylic paint combined with lacquer pens :)
I kind of like it!

Yes, there are stripes at the side!

Testing pens and co on fabric...

 ...and how good the treatments survived the washing maschine ^^
(all pictures are after the washing step!)

At first I tried to emboss my fabric. Works quite well, you can just blow off the exessive embossing powder and it will only stay where you have stamped with the clear embossing stamp pad. It does not give the 3D effect as embossing would give you on paper but the effect is still quite interesting. The melting powder goes into the fabric fibers and the colours stay a little bit glossy. The fabric itself is getting harder but not too much if you only work with small details.

And it survived the washing step (40 °C and the drying step!) perfectly!

I just combined some stuff, like embossing powder (this one has a semi-matte finish, so not at all glossy on the fabric), gloss lacquer crayon pen, in black and white. Although such a bigger flower like this will get you a really stiff fabric after embossing it all stays great on the fabric! I can imagine to use this effects for bags or something like that. For some kind of projects the stiffness will even be a benefit.

In the back there was just some leftover stampings (yes, this are only testing scraps, I used some over and over again ^^). It was not fixed by ironing so it pretty well washed out of the fabric. Only at the parts where it was covered with the white lacquer pen (around the flower) it was kind of fixed... have to keep that in mind! ^^

I just used every pen which was on my desk. Simply as that...! (as well as some embossing...)

Lacquer pens, ball pens (different kinds of), highlighter... etc...

Just the colours... mh... no point on the good side for this ^^

Stamp the fabric dead!

 

I just tested the new carved stamps how the would go on fabric and which pattern they would create... at the moment I just have one ink pad for fabric *sniff*... but it's black and very useful for testings like this. The fabric is the already often used cotton leftover (not white but natural colour) I like for first impressions. Tomorrow I will ix the colour and put them in the washing machine... just curious about how well the ink remains in the fabric!

Afterwards I need a lot more colourful fabric as well as ink pads...! I look forward for making a lot of printed fabrics and use them for patchwork and quilts :)

[Edit: I took some more pictures of the fabric scraps today, so I changed them :) ]

 

Flowery, birdy, girly... or something like that ^^

My brain energy is being drained more and more... only two rubbers left out of the eraser collection ^^

What else to say? I love the flowers but I am not really satisfied with the peacock...

I will have another try but this time with a bigger rubber plate... If you carve something like this kind of bird I am thinking about getting a lot of details into it. Maybe even better to use linoleum than rubber... (The artist shop is just so far away... bah! And the hobby stores around me... their prices are just insane and robbery...!)

Bath bombs third round!

I think I have now the perfect recipe! (Okay, to be honest, i have still some ideas to test... and I will ^^) I am using no extra oil anymore (like coco) but only the one being in the milk powder (and this has over 20%!) and in the scent (I am using mostly weleda oils because of the mixture of scent and nourishing stuff :)). Instead I added corn starch to the milkpowder and salt (and the two basics citric acid and sodium bicarbonate)... the are getting really hard now after drying! On the downside: You have to care more about the balance of moisture in the mix... just a little bit too much and you will get cracks in the bomb...

I can only show you two examples of the third round of bath bombs... the other are already out of the house being a present :)

A lot new ones... all made out of brain energy!

 This is how the rubbers were called. Some cheap one from a no name brand... and the wrapping around the erasers / rubbers said: "Brain energy!". You can image, I just loved it! I got it from my supervisor in the lab, encouragement on all life aspects! Thanks! :)

A hibiscus (or better known as hawaiii print) flower...

...just a something-flowery line...

...feathers....!

(think I will have to work a little but more on the top...)

 ...all of them together...

you can get the idea about the sizes :)

Silver bird stamp

...really a small one... ^^

(maybe around 1,5 x 1,5 cm)

...and just silver because I used the silver ink pad for testing... (also a test for my paper whether it can stand this kind of ink... some papers don't like it...)

Bath bombs...

Just wrapped... ^^

White lobster - card and envelope

I am experimenting with colours and techniques... for this card I used a silver laquer pen for the background and just the lobster stamp with white embossing power... the envelope is just the jelly fish stamps with white embossing powder... white over white.. I love it.. with the silver.. the effect is quite cool but not perfect.. i think either without background... or the background with a more covering pattern... or the lobster not in white.. (lachafa suggested)

...but I like the metallic light effect of the silver colour...! (a little bit difficult to catch with the digi)

More stamps...

...because my twin needle broke... *sniff*

I have several sewing projects at the moments... all with jersey fabric... but without these needle (No, I don't have an overlock one...) all the work stopped. Inevitably.

Therefore... more carved rubber stamps! The last leftover of the big rubber plate for a mini jelly fish... and an normal school rubber for a bigger version...

Still not what I have in mind but good practice ^^

...both jellys stamped...

...bigger jelly...

...with a black fish and lobster...

...the former rubber plate... ^^

Lobster with mini fish... stamp

...I will have to work a little bit more on the stamp... but after sleeping I think ^^

Nevertheless... here is the sweetie fish... next to cutie lobster... (Yes, I think chtullu is somewhat cute! But may depend on the fact how I adore cephalopodae!)

Lobster stamp - Homarus vulgaris (aka cthullu!)

Out of a small leftover from the big rubber plate I carved the octopus of I made another stamp... this time a lobster! My first lobster ever... lobster... do you know how funny this word sounds? In german we say "Hummer"... a little bit like homarus... but lobster... *gnihi*

Okay... I like him! Do you see the resemblance with... cthullu? And the evil eyes...? What a cutie!

PS: Yes, I am sorry. I used the red ink pad. But it was the only one I could find in my mess which overcomes my desk... I will search for my blue one.. somewhere... here... umph...

And together with the octo stamp... ^^

New bombs....! Splash!

This time two little things were changed. At first we (a friend wanted to build some bombs too) used a different sort of citric acid. For the first try I had some grained (chinese cooking stuff) as well as powdered citric acid (baking, making preserves, etc), now we just found the powdered variation (really, we went into FOUR supermarkets... one of them even a chinese one! grrrr....).

The second change was not a change in the ingredients but the process... we stirred the milk powder in the melted coconut oil before mixing everything together. The milk powder is not only for a luxury feeling... ( a milk bath! ^^) but also to emulsify the oil in the bath. The oil itself makes the skin very smooth and soft after bathing, a strange but great feeling (I am not used to oil or milk baths... to say so... not now ;) ).

We don't know if the changes were for the better or not... bombs are still drying... but I hope! Most of them already dedicated as "Mitbringsel" (bring-along-gift....).

Lisboa II warmers...

...yes, it is hot outside. 25 °C. Tomorrow even up to 27 °C... and the summer just showed it first hints ^^

But I love warmers... and I want to have more warmers... even if it will take months... (um...) months...! before I will wear them!

(Maybe... at night a little bit earlier...?)

Made out of jersey leftovers from different projects...

Perfectly matched to the Lisboa II scarf.... (I even use this jersey strings for binding and braiding my hair..!)

My cats are enjoying the sun. I think they are just little poser who wants to show off... with glittering fur in the sun! ^^

Grusel...

Bisu....

Only Dean preferred cuddling over being photographed ^^