We Are Groot

After I'd watched Guardians of the Galaxy I decided I needed a Baby Groot (or three) in my life.

I made these from two shades of brown polymer clay lightly marbled together (I used sculpey), with a couple of green leaves added and tiny black beads for eyes. They are stuck into the mini plant pots with a little fake moss and a blob of florist's claggy plasticine stuff (I don't know what it's really called, it's dark green and comes on a roll like a giant one of those roll up sweets). They're about 3 1/2" high.
They don't dance though...

Also this week I finally managed to finish and frame this papercut for Eloise. Probably the most intricate one I've done to date

The template is from Wild Child Designs

Cutting Again

This is getting to be an obsession! I did these three on Friday.
Well, actually I did four but the other one is a bit sweary (well OK it's a LOT sweary) so I'm not sure about posting it on my blog.

These ones are fairly small, the red ones are about 3" square

In other news David tried to throw a away a ripped pair of jeans the other day. Have I taught him nothing???? They have been rescued, and will shortly make an appearance as "something new"

Playing With Knives

I've been cutting things up again.
First to feel the wrath of my blade (yep, I've been reading WAY too many fantasy novels) was a big pile of worn out denims.
Naomi came in the other day and said "You know those jeans I gave you that were too tight, well I've lost weight and I think they'd fit now"
Too late babe, they're a handbag...

Pattern from Indygo Junction here, outer bag from old denims (including one slightly undersized pair of size 8 skinnies, thanks Naomi), lining and pockets from a vintage pillowcase, handles from U Handbag.
I love how this has come out and I can see several variations in the future.
After that I decided to slice up some paper, this is my own design, though not, of course, my own words.

I love that song. Hard to get it to show in the picture but the little diamonds (which were a swine to cut!) are infilled with silver metallic paper and the whole thing is backed with holographic blue card.

Catching up with Challenges

Hot on the heels of the June Monthly challenge I have now finished July's. This is Cardinal Heart from Kissy Cross (chart here), although I tweaked mine to make it a Robin Heart.
A bit of an experimental finish, I cut it out about 1/4" away from the stitching, glued it down onto the fabric tag, leaving the edges free, did a quick running stitch around the outside, and frayed it back a bit to the glue/running stitch.
The "tag" is a furnishing fabric swatch from that well known British store where we all buy our underwear. It's "Bowen Chenille" in red if you're interested.
I'm just wondering if it needs a little ribbon bow under the heart. What do you think?

I've been having another bit of a play with paper cutting as well. This one is from a purchased template (from Stacey Sansom - here). It didn't quite fit the frame I had so I've had to improvise a bit but I quite like it.

Showtime and Sharp Objects

I thought you might like to see some photos from the village horticultural show last Saturday. No, I didn't grow any of these fabulous veggies, but I am show secretary so that must count for something right?

As for the sharp objects, I treated myself to the beginners paper cutting kit from the lovely Paper Panda. Oh dear, I needed a new obsession hobby like I needed a hole in the head. Looks like I found one anyway.

I made these two cuts using templates from the starter kit. I even ended up with the same number of fingers as I started out with.

Yes that is a tea ring on the birdy one. The only reason the culprit is still breathing is because I don't actually know which one of them it was...

Anyway, all inspired by doing those I made one of my own.

Words by Page and Plant, cutting by Christine.

The tiny butterflies are a conscious design choice and by no means intended to disguise small mistakes in the cutting.

Off now to cut up some more stuff.