15 January, 2013

My girl; she's like a rainbow

 Just before Christmas, Ella and I found some cheap white sneakers.  For years she's been wanting to decorate her own sneakers, but once she had them she was a bit tentative about how to go about it; whether to paint or use sharpies.
 After a lot of internet research, where she saw plenty of "sharpied" sneakers, she went for it.
 Our concern with using sharpies (permanent marker) was that I knew from experience that it bleeds on canvas.  I had offered to gesso them with gel medium, but she just wanted to try it out.
 She found that by using a thin black sharpie first, it helped to minimize the bleeding.  All the images relate to her and things in her life.
 She even spent hours colouring one side of the laces.  When she was done, we let them dry for a day and then I put a layer of polyurethane varnish over the top to seal them a bit from all the rain we get here.  Even doing that smudged the colours a bit, so I really don't know how they will hold up to getting wet.
 She had to let that dry for a few days too, so today was the first day that she was wearing them to school.
 She is very pleased with them, and may even start a new trend at school...
 And while I'm sharing...   This little guy was a gift Ella and I got for Christmas in kit form from Aunty Chelsea.  Now I will be honest and say that I've tried needle felting before and while I love the finished products, it's not my favourite craft.
 However, this was such a great little kit (from ansnagbreac.etsy.com),  and I worked really hard to do it justice.
 Ella loves the little fox and is really inspired to needlefelt.  We have this great little shop here called Daiso which is a Japanese $2 shop and it has some great craft stuff including needlefelt kits and coloured fleece.  So I got some for Ella and her first project is....a dinosaur.  He is coming along slowly, mainly because Ella has learned the hard way that it is painful (frequent stabbing of fingers) and tediously slow-  and she broke 3 needles.  But there you have it Chels, the finished fox.  He lives on Ella's bedside table, although sometimes he gets taken out in her bag.
 And something a bit different I've been working on:
Some bags with embroidered front pockets.  I need to get some adjustable strap buckles before I put straps on them. They all have 2 pockets front and back (although only the front one is embroidered) and  2 pockets inside.  Doing the pockets is a good way to use up little scraps of canvas (I hate wasting fabric!).  I needed a break from the pillows for a few days.  

6 comments:

  1. Loved the shoes, but rather intrigued that you didn't use acrylic paint...one thing I have learnt over the last (heavens only) less than three years(really) is that acrylic paints don't wash out of t shirts has intrigued me why hand painted t shirts are not everywhere.
    Loved the fox, but would like to know what design is being used for the dinosaur.
    Am frustrated that I still haven't found any use or anybody that wants to use the bags and bags of really classy furniture leather off cuts I haven bee collecting for the last eight months...any ideas?
    love
    Dad

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  2. doesn't not don't my apologies

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  3. Samhain says hello to Mr Felty Fox. And I love those shoes - especially the Tardis and the watch and chain. Hope all went all right in the rain...
    XXXX

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  4. I left a comment but my stoopid internet didnt send it. I loooove the fox, he is adorable. Thanks for showing us xx AND Ella, you are amazing. I too loved the tardis!

    Also to you Dad... Steve, Bethan made the most beautiful book at a friends birthday party all stitched together and the cover was made from leather. It is the best. How big are the pieces? Big enough to be book covers? I would love some!!

    xxChels

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  5. Message to Chelsea...they vary in size but some would cover books... it was originally my plan to join them all together to sew them together create largish somewhat random leather sheets to use for whatever...but I got distracted making glass boxes and now this year for honours I have a plan involving making hopefully around 400-500 glass boxes so really won't get round to doing anything with the leather... if I do a trip to Tassie (still a possibility) I will bring some of the bigger bits down pour vous, but I suspect you could go to any upholsterer and ask them to save up their leather offcuts....thanks Snork for a lend of your blog.
    love
    Dad (of course)

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  6. What a creative household! I think you will start a trend Ella and should run a workshop for all your friends with mum's help. I hope those gorgeous sneakers survive the rain. I looked at them and though - I want a pair!

    Glad you're having a good creative time,

    love Nan (mum)

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