Oh yes! This gadget is one of the simplest but most effective tools I have ever owned.
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Fun with fabrics is not a thing I ever thought I would be writing about on my website! Just ask my needlework teacher from school days🥴
Although I am into many different arts and crafts, fun with fabrics has never really been a part of my arty crafty repertoire.
I’m all about paint, glue, paper, pastels, inks – anything that makes a mess really 😆.
However, that all changed when I attended a class recently to learn how to make Art Quilts – now, I am truly hooked.
But more about that in a later post when I hope to have finished a couple of Art Quilts made from my own paintings (which I have transferred to fabric).
I know lots of people wonder how they can do this, so I will be sharing with you how I have managed to print my own designs onto cotton and how you can do it too.
Until I discovered the arty possibilities of having fun with fabrics (when I took Anne’s four week course), I had always been envious of people who could sew really well, but didn’t think it was for me.
But last year, one of my YouTube viewers sent me a beautiful gift that she had sewn herself and, I did start getting a little curious about crafty possibilities with fabrics.
Leslie Gilbert is one of the 9.5 thousand subscribers over on my YouTube channel Rainbow Lane.
After she sent me these beautiful gifts, I learned that she makes all sorts of things:- mug mats, gorgeous quilts, taggy blankets and amazing fidget lap quilts for people living with dementia.
Take a look at some of Lesley’s beautiful work in the slideshow below.
I absolutely love the personalised taggy blankets; I believe these ones were orders that Lesley had completed.
And the fidget lap quilts/muffs are a brilliant idea for those living with the effects of Alzheimers/Dementia.
So when I saw the Art Quilting course that Anne Robson was teaching, I was way more open to having a go than perhaps I would have been and, I booked myself onto her course.
Although I am a very clumsy and inept seamstress – no, really I am! – I am enjoying adapting what I learned with Anne to present my art in a very different way.
It’s making me think differently about what I am creating and I’m loving it.
I won’t be sharing the actual methods we were taught for making the quilts because that is something Anne has developed in her own style and is the best person to teach it. Besides, I will be learning this art for a very long time to come!
However, I will be sharing with you the trials I have had with my sewing machine and what I am doing to overcome them.
What you see below is a very different use of what I was taught on the course – for example, you will notice there is no layering of fabrics.
I’m not quite ready to start layering at home with no tutor on hand! So I am using my own printed art work as one whole piece to begin with and I will quilt the lines I have drawn.
Cheating? Maybe. Will it be as effective? No – it will be a completely different look. And it might turn out to be terrible! I’ll show you how it turns out – even if it turns out badly – I promise!
I have already had problems with what I want to do but think I have found the answer – so I hopefully, (finger’s crossed!) I will be back here with my results in a week, month, year – whenever! But I will be back 👀 🤞
She is teaching a 3 hour workshop on February 29th near Woodbridge in Suffolk, on how to make a tote bag.
We will be supplied with the ready cut fabric in a choice of vibrant and exotic fabrics and given step-by-step tution in how to make a fully lined bag.
And as with all Anne’s classes, it will be a fun and sociable affair 😍
If you are local to Suffolk, click here for booking details.
And I would love to hear from anyone who is dabbling in the world of fabrics and making art – so if you are having fun with fabrics, drop me a comment below and tell me what you are doing – see you again soon!
If you are in Suffolk and wanting to meet friendly people while learning a new arty crafty skill – check out these classes by clicking on the links above.
You will be taken to the booking page for the class you want to explore.
Studio 1 at Wooden Roots is the domain of world renowned Master Djembe drum builder Marcus Brown.
So if learning to drum is on your bucket list alongside learning new crafts, Wooden Roots is waiting for your call! You can find a list of upcoming classes and workshops here.
Fake YouTube Emails have been circulating for a long time, warning YouTubers that their channels are about to be suspended if they do not take the action dictated by the potential hackers.
After receiving a large number of such emails over the past year or so, I have made a quick video showing what the emails look like, how you can tell they are fake and what you should do if you get one.
With the aim of increasing easy intelligibility and transparency, We are updating our Terms of service for YouTube channels that are open to making money. Please accept our new terms of service by clicking on the link below. Otherwise, the monetization feature of your YouTube channel will be disabled within 24 hours. The new terms of service apply to people with monetization enabled. Thank you for being part of the YouTube community.
This is followed by a clickable link saying ‘click for details’.
Here is another typical message:
We’ve received a complaint that your channel has lots of spam videos. Please check and edit the spam videos we have marked by clicking on the link below. Otherwise, if you don’t edit spam videos on your channel, your channel will close in 24 hours. Thank you for your patience in this process.
This also comes with a clickable link which, if clicked will surely take you down a rabbit hole from which you will not escape with your YouTube channel intact.
Us YouTubers put a huge amount of work into our channels and naturally, getting a message warning us they will be shut down within 24 hours if we don’t click the link and follow the instructions is going to cause a sense of panic.
Don’t do it. Watch my video and other videos on YouTube from other channel owners like me, who have had these emails.
I apologise for this not being a craft post but hopefully it will help someone not fall prey to all the fake YouTube emails currently doing the rounds.
Anne created the beautiful landscapes you see above and this week, I went over to Studio 2, where I will also be delivering courses, to see how everything is coming along.
Anne teaches in the same studio where I will also be teaching art and craft starting in January and I just love the space where all this creativity is taking place.
If you are based in Suffolk UK, then you too have the chance to come along to Studio 2 to dabble in some new arts and crafts with us.
Studio 2 is part of Wooden Roots, a music studio on the old American Air Force base known as Bentwaters. (More about Studio 1 on my sister website early in the New Year.)
I will be teaching workshops in making beautiful art/writing journals from scratch – more about that in my next post.
Anne has sewing in her blood. She made her first sewn item at seven years old and by her teen years, she was making her own clothes.
She later went on to design cuddly toys that were also night-dress cases in the form of dinosaurs, polar bears, lambs and koala bears.
She gradually moved on to designing gorgeous bags made from furnishing fabrics, while she was living in Spain.
She didn’t know it at the time, but her love of quilting would eventually lead her into teaching others the art of Landscape Quilting.
Anne told me that seeing enormous wall quilts hanging in an exhibition at an Arts & Crafts house in Santa Monica made her want to know more about the art.
She said: “The wall hangings really left an impression on me – I was completely inspired by them and began thinking about how I could create my own fabric art.”
She often found herself being asked to show people how to produce the quilts and eventually, she decided to begin teaching workshops.
Finding somewhere to do that wasn’t difficult because daughter Gemma, along with percussionist husband Marcus, already have a music based business where there was plenty of room for Anne to have her studio.
Marcus, Gemma and Anne all lived in California for many years and it was there that Marcus started the very successful Wooden Roots, a business specialising in making high-end Djembe drums that are sold to musicians world-wide.
Two years ago, they all returned to the UK to continue developing the business and they moved into spacious premises formerly occupied by the US Air Force.
This is the perfect place to learn something new. And as someone who is both teaching and learning at Wooden Roots, I can tell you this is the place to be if you want to explore your creative possibilities in a truly inclusive and supportive atmosphere.
I will be writing more about Marcus in the New Year and sharing my Djembe experiences with you.
I will also be reporting back on how I get on in Anne’s Landscape Quilting classes – so watch this space to see how I get on🤔. I’m sure I’ll be fine!
Although I know my way around a sewing machine and have made ‘stuff’ throughout my life, I’m not a stitchy, sewy kind of person – well I thought I wasn’t until I saw Anne’s work. Whatever happens, it will be enormous fun having a go because Anne is so passionate about her art.
This will be a compete departure from my usual creative environment which is an array of paints, inks, papers, glues and varnishes.
The boxes of beautiful fabrics that Anne has are so calming compared to my own tangle of art stuff in my home studio. It will make a change to have clean hands while I create!
Fabric, cottons, pins and sewing machines. What more could a girl (or boy!) ask for?
If you want to ensure you get a place – hop on the Wooden Roots website now to book and pay and then you will be guaranteed a place. For those who have only provisionally reserved with the office, remember, booked and paid for trumps reserved – yep, life is like that!😍
The course is over four Wednesdays from 1pm – 3pm – January 15th, 22nd, 29th and February 5th 2020.
If you fancy learning Landscape quilting – this is a brilliant opportunity to do it NOW – see you there!
I have created a pre-cut diablo paper bead strip in plain white, to make it easy for beginners to make basic diablo paper beads which they can paint and decorate in their own style.
In the picture above, you can see the diablo beads I made in my most recent film and they are painted with metallic pink and green paint with a sealer/glaze on top.
I have added some tiny gold and silver spacer beads to set off the colours.
I have made a short film showing the technique for rolling the strips. When you first see the strips, especially if you are a beginner to paper bead making, they can look a little intimidating and complicated.
But they really are not difficult to roll and the fancy paper beads they make are a lovely change from standard paper beads.
I show you very clearly in the tutorial over on YouTube how to roll the diablo strips with ease to make perfect diablo shaped paper beads.
In my Folksy shop, the postage costs are separate. I have set this shop up especially for UK customers but I do ship worldwide from here for those who want to use Folksy.
In my Etsy shop, the postage prices are included in the item price and are set for the costs to send items to the USA/Canada/Australia/New Zealand.
I therefore recommend that UK and European customers buy from my Folksy shop, above, instead of Etsy.
This is because the new Etsy postage policies are making the overall cost of items more expensive for people in the UK and Europe.
And if you have any questions, please drop me a comment on here or in the comments section on YouTube.
Have fun making your fancy paper beads!
It’s always best to try and source your supplies and tools from local craft shops, especially the small independant ones.
However, if you live in a place where there is no easily accessible craft shop, then you will find what you need in in Amazon stores.
https://www.amazon.com/shop/rainbowlane
https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/rainbowlane
You will find my Amazon Afflilate statement by clicking here.
Now you know how to make Christmas decorations out of paper – you can go and make lots of gorgeous decorations – let me know how you get on in the commnets below.
But there is a catch – when you click the link and get to that page, it will ask you for a password.
To get the password you will need to watch the YouTube tutorial showing how I made these pretty bottle cap charms.
That’s all you need to do – just watch the video to get the password – no payment, no catch!
When you have watched the video right through and made a note of the password you will need, click here to be taken to the free downloads page.
Click here to watch the video tutorial on YouTube.
For those people who can’t get to a craft store or who don’t have one nearby, I have two Amazon storefronts where people in the Amazon.com and .co.uk areas can easily get the items seen in my tutorials.
But if you can get your supplies from a local craft shop, then please do to support any independent shop owners who are struggling to compete with the internet.
These are the links to my Amazon stores:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/rainbowlane
https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/rainbowlane
And this is my Amazon Affiliate declaration.
I hope you enjoy using your bottle cap images – let me know how yours turn out.
And also let me know in the comments below if you have any special requests for more free bottle images – what colors do you like?
And not just easy – also very inexpensive to make because…Ta dah! …they are made from bread!
Warning – these decorations ARE NOT EDIBLE!
I’ll give you a brief step by step guide here so you can get the idea of how to make these cute decorations complete with holes so you can hang them up.
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Whether you are a teacher needing free Halloween printables for your class to use or a crafter wanting very simple designs depicting Halloween, these designs may be what you need.
You can either print them out or drag them onto another image in Photoshop. The backgrounds are transparent, although they show as white on here.
They will print out as white but if you drag the design onto another image in Photoshop, you will only get the black part.
You will find your free, full size free Halloween images by clicking the links under the pictures.
We will be adding more free printables soon so if you want to make sure you get access to them all, please subscribe to this blog and you will find out as soon as new designs are available to download.
I have designed these to be in intense, warm colors to match the season that September brings to the northern hemisphere.
You will be able to print the 6×4 inch sheet of designs off and cut them out with a 1 inch circular punch to make handbag dangles, bottle cap pendants, key chains or to use in scrap booking.
You can see in the pic below right what I have done with some of the designs.
I will also be giving you step by step instructions on how to use these free printable designs next time so you can make these charms too.
…And have fun with your free Halloween printables!
