Flights of Fancy Journal

(raylee).

Rocket no more

just thought I'd let you know of the demise of the rocket we made in May...
many hours of fun were to be had...
Miss nearly2 would drag it around....
and climb on it...and in it...
and then Miss 5 would join her...

squashy...but fun...apparently...
it even survived a redecoration attempt by some extra little visitors...
for a while...
RIP Rocket....thanks for the memories....

"Flights of Fancy Journal"

Sometimes the simplest things are all we need.......after a hectic few days all i needed was some quiet time with paper & glue.....

.......so created a double page collage in my "flights of fancy journal". each page in the journal has some kind of wings.
these two pages have lots of birds, some butterflies & dragonflies, also a "bird of paradise flower", a feathered fairy, a lamp & cushions with feathers,......& a "bonsai tree"....... **all torn from magazines.... just one of those paper stacks i have**. (raylee).

Sparkles

another peek at what I'm playing with...
not good photos again...
will get around to working on that soon...

I was lucky to receive a 'tree of life' as a gift a few years ago...
a bonsei type tree in a little rectangular pot...
growing over a rock....
it lasted a while but I somehow managed to let it die...

I kept the basic structure in the hope that I could remake it into something interesting...
have been thinking recently of all the bits hiding in my jewellery box...
other gifts that normally dont see the light...
found a bit of wire that I had to liberate from its plastic insulation...
some sparkly bits from a wedding table decoration....



what I wanted was a tree shape....
with dangly bits as the leaves....
its still a work in progress...
but you get the idea....

trying to get the dangles hanging straight...
manipulating the wire into a tree shape...
arranging the sparkles to a more...
pleasing arrangement...
something else to work on....

Bib Doll

I'm a little bit excited...sorry to bump Raylee's lovely bag but...
I was up before the birds this morning...
had the leftover bibs on my mind....so I started cutting...

then the shapes started to go together...
I wasn't sure whether to make a dolls blanket or move onto something bigger...
then she started to take shape...

so I found the stuffing and had a go at putting her together...
no pattern...just me and the scissors...which is not normally how I do stuff...

and then she was here...in an hour or so from whoa to go...I amazed myself....
she's a bit rough as usual...and the photos aren't good as usual...
but I am pleased with how she worked out...
just need someone to test her out now...

"Horse Shoes" Bag

Machine stitched from hand block printed cotton previously curtain lining, cotton crochet doily, & cut cotton & linen embroidered doilies, pieces of printed leftovers, & some floral & plain linen. the pink shoes are brocade.the bag is fully lined with new fabric. it has a long strap for over the shoulder which can be placed inside the bag when not in use, & two handles for carrying by hand, if preferred. these bags are machine washable & may be tumble dried. (raylee).

Horse Shoe Bag Underway......

Do you get an idea of what you want to make but don't seem to have all the right bits?.....this happens to me every now & then......i have learnt to be patient.......wait & the right bits appear......on her last visit, simonne brought me some of her bits she had no use for......i found some embroidered "horse shoes", just the right thing for this new bag! I am making it for someone who loves horses..... so have combined the two different kinds of shoes keeping to the "shoes bag theme". (raylee).

Texture

Birds nest.... Glass door...

Timber stacks...

Rusty metal.....

Bark & moss.....

.......photos from my ever growing "stack". i like to touch things to really "feel" their textures. my decision to use certain materials sometimes depends on how they "feel". i also like to experiment with things that don't always go together just to see how it turns out. (raylee).

Biscuit Cutter Kitchen Hanger

I have had a love for corrugated iron for a very long time .......so couldn't resist taking a photo in the morning sunshine of the "kitchen hanger" i started last saturday (see previous post). i added a rusty piece of chain as a hanger, some cup hooks on the lower edge for hanging tea towels or potholders.

These potholders were used by my great grandmother. she hand stitched them from some of her old "cretonne" kitchen curtains. a lot of the cooking was done over an open fire in her kitchen. there was no electricity or running water. the water was carted by hand in kerosene tins from the river. (raylee).

Biscuit Cutters

Saturday morning i spent de -cluttering some kitchen drawers, you know the ones that end up with lots of odds & ends filling them. a few years ago i emptied my "third drawer" for ever, but pesky little things that don't have a real home found other drawers to live in..... so the time has come .......find a purpose or be gone!......i found some old biscuit cutters that i bought last year at "Yandina Markets".......decided the time had come to use them creatively.....

......so saturday afternoon i began to combine them with a few other "hangers on". the sides of an old wooden box, knobs from old cupboards, rusty wire, a doily that must have had a lot of use....it is so soft & thin & some new metal letters. more to come.......(raylee).

Happy Hibiscus

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens: but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." - Helen Keller. (raylee).

Blue Still Life

Is blue the world's most favourite colour? (raylee).

Lilacs

" I think it pisses God off if you walk past the colour purple in a field somewhere and dont notice it." - Alice Walker, " The Colour Purple".

Fabric Dyeing / Paper Flowers

This is the second lot of cotton fabric dyed with the stamens from some lilies. i gathered these as the flowers were wilting, so the stamens were a brown colour. previously i used the stamens when they were fresher & yellow (posted 26/10/2011). i used the same process, wet the fabric, wrapped the stamens in it & placed rubber bands around it. i left it to dry for a few days, unwrapped it......this photo shows how it looked at this stage before washing...... .......after washing, the yellow in the right hand corner. the colour lost a fair amount of its intensity in some places, but remained strong in other areas.

So.......what to use it for ?......as there was only a small amount i covered some bits of styrofoam with pieces of the fabric to make the centres for some paper flowers. torn book pages, paper doilies & crinkled brown paper became the petals. rusty wire for the stems.......pushed through the styrofoam & twisted at the end.....

A glue stick & some masking tape to hold the paper together.

I wanted to create a flower to compliment this metal vase that i found at a garage sale earlier in the year. also i am trying to use things that i have collected over the years, ......if i have kept them for a reasonable amount of time i must like them ......so they are coming out to be used. maybe not always in the way they were intended to be used , but given a new lease of life. like the books that never get read......i found myself reading little bits & pieces of these pages .....after i had torn them.

The flowers are a little bit different........just the way i like them. (raylee).