wonderful way to spend a friday...

what a fantastic way to spend a friday!

i had the pleasure of liz coming over for her one-one screen printing workshop.

liz has done a couple of screen printing courses before and so had a good idea of what she was up to.

she claimed she wasn't very artistic but if you see what she produced i think like me you would disagree rather swiftly.

liz brought some sizzex paddle punches with her. I haven't seen these before and they are so cool! It would be very difficult to cut these shapes for stencil printing and liz used these in such a creative way. I just love the effect she achieved.

we spent some time talking techniques (actually we didn't stop talking for the over 3 hours liz was here) so that we could perfect her already more than basic skills.

 one advantage for liz booking a one-one session was that she had more me time (not necessarily an advantage you might say) and we were really able to work on her skills.

she also had plenty of time and could work on 3 different designs.

 whichever workshop you book on you get tote, tea towel and fabric pack to work with.

i love how the stars came out on liz's tote!

with a little bit of time left liz set to work on her 3rd design - partly hand cut, partly sizzex paddle punched. 

how cool is her tea towel? just genius!

liz really was an a* student in both attitude and aptitude and i had such fun hanging out and 'playing' with her today.

thanks liz for a wonderful time!

if you would like to come and do a fun workshop there are a couple of places remaining on my march class or like liz you could book a one-one for that little bit more me time.

next week i have my next group workshop and i can't wait!

I just love printing at home!

Sorry have I said that before?

I had a few Euro wash bags on order that needed printing up, so while I was at it and whilst my printing space is virtually outdoors, it seemed a good idea to have a play around and print a few more things.

Do you like my new World Class Shopper?!

I printed the Euro Sites onto the totes first, let them have a bask in the sunshine and minutes later they were dry and ready for my paper cut stencil "world class shopping" to be printed on.

This is officially my first 2 colour print!

Cheating a little I know as there is no alignment involved, but hey, there are 2 colours, there's no smudging and it's complete!

Screen printing in the sunshine is even more of a blast - super quick drying times so time to quickly print up Framed Flowers onto totes too.

They are dried, heat set and up in the shop now...

I think I'll be playing in the sun a bit more tomorrow too...and all week by the looks of the weather forecast here in ol' Blighty!

Today was the last day of my Screen Printing Course. Ordinarily it would be sad at the thought of a course being over, but not this one. Having completed the course I am now able to screen print whenever I want. You can not believe how much joy this is giving me (although if you've been reading my posts on screen printing over the last few weeks, you've probably got a pretty good idea).

I was a little bit nervous about this week's lesson. Remember my disasters of last week? And then everyone was telling me how much harder it is to print on fabric. Printing on fabric is obviously my main raison d'être for screen printing and if I'm having problems before I even get to the fabric stage, what chances do I have of succeeding?

Needless to say, all worries and concerns immediately evaporated as soon as I got going. Maybe it was the anticipation of disaster. Maybe it was the fact that I knew i needed full concentration today. Maybe it was the fact that some of the processes (making screen, printing technique) were becoming a bit more natural, leaving me able to concentrate on today's new aspect.

I'm not going to worry too much about what made it feel right, but enjoy the fact that it did.

I brought with a variety of fabrics to get a feel for how printing worked on the different textures. I wasn't sure I'd make a good print on linen, being causer and less smooth than cotton, but the linen I'm using at the moment is fairly close weaved, so this didn't seem to be as problematic as I'd envisaged.

The shirting worked a treat. It's very smooth and takes the ink beautifully. I'll be using these fabrics quite a bit.

The Klona cottons worked a treat too. I'm going to need to play around with colours however as even thought the pale blue took beautifully on the brown, the pink came out a little bit murky. Whereas on the white the pink was lovely and vivid.

I chose designs today that I could experiment various styles to see how they come out on the fabric. I wanted to play around with the font stamps I have, so included both of those. I also wanted to see how intricate detailing would show.

I think because I had such little expectations today, the results have thrilled me even more. I'm learning what works and what needs changing. I've booked to go in again on Monday and looking forward to playing around and experimenting some more and then, my friends, I'll start to get my mind ordered as to producing pieces that will actually be used.

This is just the beginning...

How was your Easter weekend? Great I hope.

We have just come back from the best weekend ever. We went to visit one of Matthew's brother's who lives in Bristol. The other bro and his family came over too. We get along just brilliantly. (Take a look at us girls here). I couldn't ask for better sister and brother-in-laws. Really, I couldn't.

And what's more all the cousins, ranging from my big boy Sam at almost 14, down to little Luka at almost 3, are so close and love spending time with each other. They are a great team.

And what's more (just gets better and better, hey?) they all let me indulge myself by being my willing guinea pigs in crafting activities.

I'd brought along freezer paper, fabric paints and bags for a little activity yesterday afternoon and as if they'd be prepped by the other Mum's and Dad's - "you know what Auntie Karen's like. Just humour her and play along..." - they all sat willingly to 'play'. They continued to play along, even when I made them sit and work out their design properly before letting them lose on the freezer paper and paints.

Even Anastasia, aged 4, took it in the spirit that it was meant to be taken...

The boys were surprisingly keen. Hardly surprising. They've know Mummy/Auntie Karen for long enough.

They were only supposed to do one each (at Auntie Ruth and Auntie Alex's request to do one too) but as you can see they all loved it so much that they wanted to do a second. I was so impressed with what they've produced. It was such a fantastic afternoon and a great activity to do with them all as, despite taking some effort and concentration, results were pretty rapid and immediate.

And the bags came in pretty useful for our next activity - having something to carry home the precious rocks in that they had all collected in the rock pools by the beach.

With Orla constantly around me and being my biggest source of inspiration these days, is it any wonder that my latest little girl's bag has turned out quite the way it has? I like to think of it as my Orla for Kids Bag.

It has a strap large enough for a little one (or a bigger little one) to wear over one shoulder as an across the body bag. If a certain model had been in the mood for showing how this looks, then I would have been able to illustrate the point. But let's put it this way - never rely on kids for anything.

The bag is fully lined in my favourite of the moment crisp fresh green stripy shirting fabric.

I've also inserted a zip to keep everything in it safe and secure.

This is the first of a new style of bag for me and whilst it took me a while to work out the best way to design this zipped bag with a flapped front (I'm sure there's better terminology for that), now that I have, you'll be seeing a few different versions of this. Particularly if that afore-mentioned model gets her requested designs approved and produced.

Not that she deserves it, mind.

Here's how the conversation went with Ruby this morning, after she took a look at the Drawstring Linen Laundry Bag I designed yesterday...

Ruby: "It's nice, but...(uh oh)...I'd prefer it if it had handles...like the ones on my blue bag. Just long enough to go over my shoulder...but not too long so the bag drags on the floor"

Me: "But you like it, right? You think it works?"

Ruby: "yeeeeees...I like the lining... (phew)... but I'd still prefer longer handles...

"and the front is a bit plain. I think I'd like a bird on it...

"...or maybe a flower...

"or maybe both...

"Do you think you can do that by the time I'm home from school?"

That'll teach me to ask Madam's opinion (I'm still not actually sure I did ask, however), because somehow Ruby has managed to wangle a new bag.

A holiday isn't a holiday if you haven't a new, clean, fresh bag to accompany you.

I'm now ready for my holiday.

If you don't count not having done any packing...at least I have the bag.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

It was another of those Saturday afternoons. Wet and wild outside. The boys had all gone to see 'Monsters & Aliens' (thumbs up by all) and Ruby and I were home alone.

We were up in my studio and my plans of her sitting quietly (there's always a first) while I got on with preps for the impending were scuppered after several seconds. Ruby was interested in making something. This could have gone one of 2 ways. I could fight this as long as possible, determined not to lose valuable time, but get nowhere because Ruby wouldn't let up. Or give in and enjoy a bit of quality time with Ruby and worry later about what I had to do.

Obviously we did the latter.

Ruby wanted to make a bunting. Like the one in my studio. Not a glue and stick kind of bunting. A fully fledged sew with the machine kind.

First off was choosing the fabric (please don't want my Liberty fabric. Please, please, please) With a little guidance Ruby chose some well matched fabrics and we set to work.


Ruby competently drew around the template, cut out all the triangles and began to line them up on the floor. She became quite meticulous in measuring them into place. (I SWEAR she can't ever have seen me do that. Could she?)


We then chose a nice pink gingham for the topping, after her rejecting my first 3 ideas. And I have to agree that this works far better than the (old, tired, trying to use up) fabrics that I suggested.


Onto the machine. I haven't actually braved letting Ruby loose on the machine by herself. I am a little bit frightened about that, to say the least. So her on the foot pedal, me feeding through and before we knew it, task completed and one hellava gorgeous bunting to show for our afternoon's toils.


Me. Well, no work done. But I did add a little something to the tote, just while I was hanging around.

Is it a purse? is it a cushion?...

...No, it's a tote!