crafty mcgee

echidna power!

Echidnas - like hedgehogs, but better, 'cause they have a funny nose! Like many goofy animals, they're Australian.

This fabric is just a test print of the stuff I'll have up in the shop. I managed to lose 9 yards of Kona cotton. It's somewhere around here, but I spent a day looking for it to no avail. Must be the leprechauns, because my house just isn't that big. The print above is on bleached muslin, which looks OK, but isn't the sturdiest fabric in the world for quilting and such.

I've got one more new fabric design to finish, and then I'll start into production for the shop. I also have another idea, but need to do some tests before I show it off.

Politics has been keeping me busy (or busier than usual, I guess). I didn't make it to the next delegate level, but given the fact that there were only 23 people chosen out of about 218 that wanted to speak for Obama, I can't say I'm surprised or particularly unhappy that I didn't get picked. Public speaking is not one of my strengths, and he'll be well represented by others. There's still plenty to do nevertheless.

I got a couple of solid working days in my garden, too, until - get this - it started to SNOW this weekend. Rassin' frassin' climate change...

Which is all just my roundabout way of saying thanks for stickin' around, there's more to come - and if it's not too timely, it's just because there are more things to do and ideas in my head than waking hours in the day. See ya soon!

the most wonderful day of the year

that's right, Pangolin Day is here again! Though I only received the usual number of comments for that post (I'm sorry to say I forgot about it last year), I received a whole bunch of emails from folks who'd seen my pangolin stuffie saying that pangolins were their favorite animal. Who knew? I guess that's why they have their own day .

I used non-gocco fabric inks for the first time on this print. (The gocco fabric ink color choices are extremely limited.) The Versatex (on the pangolins) worked fine, but the Pebeo ink on the leaves was too runny. I will print a better batch to sell in my etsy shop when I open in January - yes, you heard it here first!

Have a swell day, everyone. Reflect on the greatness of pangolins, and if you're in southeast Asia, perhaps you can take a neighborhood pangolin out for a nice meal.

my little forest

- with monkeys, of course. Here are the ornaments I made for this year's swaps (both Amy's and Cake & Pie's). I think I caught most of the critters in this picture. In addition to the monkey's, there are squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, owls and several other birds. They're gocco'd & embroidered, and are suitable for standing or hanging. Here's a shot of what the set-up pieces looked like:

I'm really happy with them. There's a close-up  on flicket. Since I made so many, there are two left over that are not spoken for. Let me know if you'd like to trade. Geez, you guys are speedy! I do have some unsewn blanks, so it is not out of the realm of possibility that I could stitch up a few more.

Flying Squirrel Jamboree!

After last week's little adventure, it was a real treat to have a project turn out exactly the way I planned. Here's the fabric I printed up for Bethany's fat quarter swap. The base is gocco printed, and the colored dots are from a sacrificed sponge brush. I've always found it a little tricky to print fabric with the gocco - the fabric tends to stick, and you have to put consistent pressure on the stamp printer to get the image even. But then I had a real light bulb over the head moment -

my knitting blocking board! I lay down a couple layers of newspaper, pin the fabric down, and stamp away! The board is made of fabric, so it has just enough give that the image always comes out even. Another plus, it's 48" wide, so it's simple to print an entire yard of fabric lengthwise. To finish the width, I just slide out the top layer of newspaper and move the fabric. It's the perfect printing surface. I love it when I find multiple uses for things. I've always felt a tad guilty for buying that board, since I only use it a few times a year. This will no longer be the case!

And because the gocco is so great, I was able to clean off the screen and print up some more colorful cards. The fabric ink doesn't come in so many colors, and I really wanted the graphic element of the circle in the fabric design. So far, the only other fabric I've seen for this swap is Mimi's (you need to scroll down a bit), but if hers is any indication, some great stuff is on the way!

dia de los experimentos

I joined a Dia de los Muertos postcard swap, and wanted to do something a little (OK, a lot, I guess) different. I had this idea to print on some kind of open weave fabric to get a rough, see through effect. I nixed burlap (too heavy), and came up with the idea of using natural color cheesecloth. Here's a picture of it on top of muslin, which I used as a backing surface, and also printed some straight on in case I had to come up with a Plan B.

Of course, I used my gocco, but I had no idea if it would actually work. Then, I needed to print a slightly strange, but bright and Mexican-y picture for the cards. It was time for the printer to get into the experiment act. I printed on pink construction paper (too bright), card stock (too dark), and finally

 
yellow construction paper, which was just right. I stitched all the pieces together with some brightly colored koigu, and this is what I came up with. Roll your mouse over the picture to see how the detail pops out on the skeletons in lower light:

Kinda otherworldly....muy bueno!

secret identity

I got all of the printing done that I wanted to do this week. The piece on the bottom is some fabric I hand stamped for Moki's swap. I'm happy with the design, but the thin vinyl that I used had drastically unpredictable ink retention properties. As you can tell, some of it came out fine, and other spots faded away to nothing, all with the same ink application to the stamp itself. I like this technique, but I'll try to find something a bit more porous to use in the future.

The other items are some labels for my knitted items, and my fall calling cards that I use for swaps and such, both done with my trusty gocco. (This is the standby ribbon. The ribbon I bought special never showed up.) I thought this would be an appropriate post to talk about my "logo". It's been on my banner the last few times, it was on my spring/summer cards, and I use it for my Flickr badge. It's part of this image:

It comes from an old children's book compilation that I bought in England many years ago. Unfortunately, even though the artist's initials are on the drawing, their name is not listed anywhere that I can find. Too bad, because I'd love to give them credit. I use this picture because it reminds me of me when I was a kid.

the real post for today

Here's the final version - both sides - of the card for Moki's recipe card swap. A total of 6 carvings! As you can see, I was definitely challenged by the carved text, but at least its legible.  I had originally intended to run the cards through my printer after they were stamped, but that way seemed fraught with peril on many levels. So, I thought I'd give my gocco a shot at it, knowing full well that I may have sacrificed one of my precious screens to try to print the tiny type. But it worked like a charm! Skinny 8-point type as clear as can be. The gocco is invincible! I'm really looking forward to receiving my ten, I'll post them when I get them.

Black & White & Pink All Over

Thanks to Back-tack, too, it was a month of black and white and... This time, the third color was pink. Here are the things I made for the June Coloriffic Swap-o-rama:

Oddly enough, partner for this one is also named Robyn. Her favorite season is summer, so I made a set of gocco'd beach girl stationery. My son thinks the black envelopes with the pink printing are weird, but I like them!

The flower image was on Robyn's favorites page, so I contacted the photographer - who has a very nice blog - and she graciously gave her permission to let me use it. Thanks, Posy! I sprayed an old Almond Roca tin with enamel, painted the top with tiny little paintbrush dots, and added the flowers. Here's the final thing, also vintage-inspired:

A little emboidered letter. I was going to make a small pillow, but decided to leave it to Robyn to choose what to do with it. If you're curious, you can see all of the items I sent here.

Whiplash Week 6: Colour

Or Color, as we spell it here in the US. I just hadn't been too inspired by the previous topics, but color is endlessly inspiring to me, so I thought I'd join in for the final week. Before I talk about it, here's the required link:

Color is such a wide open topic that I was having trouble narrowing down my ideas until I thought of color as a verb, which led to coloring, which made me think of coloring books. So here's my interpretation of the perfect coloring book page (or at least what it would have been when I was eight). I added the embroidery to make it look a little like those yarn cards, and also because I wasn't quite sure if printmaking alone would qualify. (Psst, judges.....I also "whipped up" the magnet just for this picture).

Here's what the non-colored card looks like. I gocco'd it, so if you'd like a limited edition Ponies & Ballerinas Coloring Card of your very own, email your snail mail address to craftymcgee_@_mac_dot_com, and I'll send one off to you! At least, until they are all gone. If you make something with it, send me a picture - If I get enough replies, I'll make a Flickr gallery.

giraffe note

My swapee for this month's yellow and orange Coloriffic Swap-o-rama likes giraffes - along with many other fine animals, which will show up in a few days. So I gocco'ed these little notes last night. The image on the envelope is a hand-carved stamp. I made a whole bunch of the notes, so if anyone is interested in a swap for some of them, send me an email.

Regular readers should be aware that I am currently undertaking the very difficult task (for me) of changing my regular work day habits to squeeze out some more crafting time - the weekends just aren't long enough! So if my posts are sporadic for a little while, bear with me!