Handmade Beads with baby wipes

Thank you to the ladies who played along with my guessing game last night, our winner is Sarah from Vintage Figments who tried so hard to get it right, and finally did. They are indeed beads :)
I will be sending you a surprise gift Sarah, hope you had fun.
So here are my finished beads, something I have wanted to try and never got around to, like so many other things.


I kept seeing them in magazines and in books and they were either fabric or tyvek, which is a fiber you can heat. Well I couldn't find any, so I thought I will try it with my dirty baby wipes. Don't worry, I don't use them on baby bums. I use baby wipes a lot in my art room, so if they are covered in paint I let them dry out, or if they are for cleaning my hands on I rinse them out, then paint them. You can use them just like fabric rather than throwing them away.


When the beads are dry you can wrap wire and beads around them or just fibers on there own like I did here, and I left a few as they are. See how you can make something pretty with those baby wipes?
I am no chemist and it could even be dangerous or toxic so if you are going to try what I did, you have to be in a well ventilated area or wear a mask, and be very careful not to start a fire. Sounds scary I know, but it's not really.

The purple beads are done with inks. I used a baby wipe I had only used for cleaning glue and paint off my hands, then blended two shades of ink on it. I then made a few lines with Liquitex metallic copper ink.

When it is dry tear it into strips, any size you want. I used a fat knitting needle and some Golden Gloss Gel Medium to roll it , but try not to get the gel medium on the knitting needle because you will have a heck of a time getting it off after it dries.

Here they are after they are dry, that's all I did to these, although I may have speaded up the drying with my heat gun a bit.

The others I made the same way but my baby wipe was thick with paint and quite stiff, so the end result was a stiffer bead. I painted over the beads when dry with Folk Art metallic paints mixed with a touch of gel medium then used my heat gun to get some bubbles going on.
Do not heat them while they are on your knitting needle. It will melt. Mine did!
I then used a wooden dowel instead.

This photo looks shiny because of the flash , they are not too, too shiny, and you can always use Matte Gel medium if you want a different look. I am sure Modge Podge or even regular craft glue would work too, I just like my Gel medium :)

So there you have it, now what will I do with them? I have no idea yet, but it sure was fun making them. I have seen them used for jewelry and for embellishing, and I am sure I will come up with something. Let me know if you give it a try I would love to see them :)

Have a great weekend,
Lynn

Awfully Big Art Adventure ~ Felt

Wall hanging collage from wool felt ... for the weekly ABAA Challenge.

Linda and Rosie always have fun challenges, and this week was no exception. We are to make something using felt.

I was on a felt kick a couple of years ago, so yet again, I got to use up some supplies that have been sitting in a box for ages :)

I started with 100% wool felt, which I love, then I needle felted a panel for the collage. I also had a go at needle felting a rose, and I am quite pleased with it. You can see a close up of the rose below, you might want to click on the images for larger pictures. The leaves on the rose are cut from a machine felted piece I knit. That was back when I was knitting a lot.

The beautiful image I printed on fabric is from a collage sheet at
Shabby Cottage Studio, and I printed a piece of music sheet on fabric too then tea dyed it. This was fun, thanks for the challenge girls :)

Comfort Doll

My first little doll for the Comfort Doll Project :)
A 6 inch doll stuffed with some poly fill and lavendar buds which I have sent to Pat Winter for this wonderful project. These tiny dolls are sent to women's shelters worldwide as a way of letting them know they are loved and cared about. They can keep them in their pocket and when they feel lost they can stroke them and remember, they are not alone.

"Contented" some fiber art

I just fell in love with the altered image of this beautiful girl, which was created by my friend Gail and can be purchased on a collage sheet at her shop Shabby Cottage Studio. She looks so relaxed and contented to me and the colors are soft and soothing.
I felt like doing something with her in fabric so I printed her on the printer fabric, then I rememberd some wool roving I had in shades of blues and mauves, so I needle felted on a piece of felt for the background. No, I am not a needle felter but I dabble in anything and everything :)

After I was finished adding all the embellishments, vintage doily, vintage buttons and some fibers that have been sitting in the drawer for years, I decided just to hand stitch the piece onto the dark purple wool felt to make it pop out more. I think it worked.
I feel great when I get to use up some of my old stash too, I bought a ton of roving and wool felt over a year ago thinking I would like to get in to the needle felting, but it got put aside, soon after, yeahhhh, now I found a use for it :)

I didn't have any time at all to get in my studio last week because we had hardwood put in some of the rooms here, so the guys were here two days, lots of dust and cleaning up to do, I also put my back out, so I couldn't sit for long, or stand either ,and then there was the holiday weekend and my daughter was here visiting, so yesterday I decided to spend the entire day and just create whatever I felt like. "Felt"... get it? wahhhhhh bad joke.
Now I have some challenges to work on , so will be back to share those later this week. Please click on the photo and see it full size, it looks so much better. I took this picture outside this morning on a white background but it looks almost blue to me. I think I need to learn how to use my camera better :)

Hope you can find some alone time today and be creative, have a good one.
Lynn