What I am Working on for Thursday Sept 1, 2011

Well I just could not stand it! I had to get spooky yesterday so I designed this little wall decor for the Halloween holidays. Plus it gives me a chance to keep up on my cartooning.

So the design is original, I thought it up of course and I used acrylic paints for the scene and on the wood I sanded it, drilled some holes for the twine then I used my oil pastels on the wood and did some rubbing the oils into the grain of wood. I have to mention it was a dream of someday getting syndicated with my cartooning but I have not been able to get local newspapers here on the coast interested in me, in Montana the owner of the paper there really liked my political cartoons on local government issues. So I came up with this idea, I am hoping people will like it.

Secondly I have another small whacked out quilt going, as you can see all the pieces are cut out and I am laying out the scene I want. The story is is a simple one with all the black, gray, and browns, it is fall time nearing winter and the sheep are laying about trying to keep warm from the cool fall weather. I am using cotton quilting fabrics, but for the sheep I am using an off white fake fur.

18x20 Whacked out Appliqued Wall Hanging Quilt, Oregon Black Bears on the Hunt for Blackberries

This is the finished whacked out quilt I had so much fun creating it! The story is about two Oregon black bear clubs trying to find black berries and its looks as there is none! In the trees I have added a bald eagle and a squirrel just to give the quilt that added touch and yes they are watching the cubs search for black berries. I have backed the quilt with quilting batting and a dark brown cotton/rayon fabric. I did the blanket stitch on most of the quilt with a few more decorative stitches added. The quilt is here http://www.etsy.com/listing/80815571/18x20-whacked-out-appliqued-wall-hanging

Now for some more big news!

I have closed my Art fire store for It's Just Frankly Kute Productions and moved it to Etsy! so you will find it here http://www.etsy.com/shop/pamelastocker1?ref=si_shop

I have several reasons for leaving Art Fire but I would like to just keep that personal, I hope you all will find your way over to the new location. Right I am working on adding all the items so there may not seem much there right now but soon I will have everything uploaded and added, I will mention one reason; it was more convenient to have both stores in one place. So now It's Just Frankly Kute Productions will not get neglected anymore by me.

What I am Working on for Saturday, Black Berry Bear Wall hanging Quilt

Well I am busy again! this time I wanted to get started on whacking out a new wall quilt.

This is what I have done so far...

I have cut a square of Onsburg and I am adding all my pieces, such as the light blue sky which is cotton quilting fabric and the trees, bears are all quilting fabrics accept for the foreground which is an upholstery fabric.

The plants and trees are made by me just cutting on the fabric and the desired shape and look I wanted, now the bears I did design a small pattern for and then transferred onto fabric for cutting.

I have added and placed everything where I want it to be and to keep it in place I have used a glue stick and rubbed it on the backs of each piece of whacked out fabric, later I will take some thread and run it through it placed piece to further keep in place while I am sewing this quilt out on my sewing machine. I will back the quilt with quilting batting and I am thinking about cutting up a pair of old jeans and making squares around the outside of the quilt and I will cut some of my bamboo and make a hanger for the quilt. So now I am headed back to the sewing machine to see what other kinds of crafting ideas I can come up with for later.

Sharing some Yummy Recipes for Dinner Tonight

Today thought I would share some yummy recipes with you for a great dinner, cool drink and some delight cookies.

First is the Turkey Cabbage Rolls

you will need a large cabbage for this, 1 pound of ground turkey, instant cooked rice, white onion, egg, tomato sauce, garlic salt and parsley.

Peel the cabbage leafs off carefully to get one large leaf and you will need6-8 leafs, now boil these in large pot of water and about a 1 teaspoon of salt until leafs are just slightly tender.

While you are boiling the leafs you will want to make the instant rice, so in another pot boil and cook 1 cup of instant rice.

Once the rice is cooked. Remove and add chopped onion, egg, turkey meat, parsley, and 1/2 cup of tomato sauce. Place one leaf into well greased baking dish and spoon the meat mixture in center and roll the leaf, repeat again until you have used all the mixture and leafs,now use the rest of your tomato sauce and pour over top of cabbages, be use to use a large can of tomato sauce so that you have plenty. Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees. I did not have to use toothpicks because I stuffed them full and rolled them so that the opening was to the bottom of the baking dish.

This is a watermelon slushy and is it good on a hot day!

You will need a blender, ice, sugar, and watermelon.

First crush the ice in the blender, now scoop out seedless water melon chunks, about 1 cup of seedless water melon and 1 1/2 cups of ice. Add 1/2 of sugar or 2 tablespoons of honey and blend!

This is just so yummy and cooling!

Now onto the cookies, would you believe these lasted less than a day in my house!

you will need 2 bags of sugar cookie mix, 1 1/2 cups of chocolate rice cereal, 2 eggs, 1 cup of butter melted and 3 cookie and cream candy bars crushed.

What I did first was to melt my butter, and just take a butter knife and crush the candy bars in their packages made things easier. So add the sugar cookie mix to a large bowl, the egg and butter, then the cereal and candy mix well. The dough should stick together and form large balls, if not then melt a little more butter and add gradually. I made large cookies about 2 to 2 1/2 inch balls I placed onto a well greased cookie sheet and baked at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

These are all simple, easy prep recipes and lots of fun to make!

Oh My, Working with Oil Pastels and Acrylic Paints, on Different Kinds of Fabrics

I have been having a blast with my oil pastels, I have created two new witches and used the oil pastels for the facial features. In the picture below I have used Onsburg in the photo above its muslin. In using the Onsburg; I have first stained the fabric with instant coffee and used a blow dyer then worked the oil pastels into the fabric. I also used some acrylic paints for the eye brows and lashes. The top picture is just oil pastels blend for a very soft look to this witch.

In this photo I have cut off the legs of some grey fabric and I am making a primitive mouse that will have a pumpkin and have stain the fabric with instant coffee but I also have used a walnut spay to make the mouse even more grubby and rubbed a tiny bit of cinnamon into the fabric, so this mouse is getting a workout!

I am also using oil pastels to create the eyes and nose and some black acrylic paint for the lashes. I have finished the dolls above and I am now working on the mouse. You can see the complete dolls here http://www.etsy.com/shop/49pamela?ref=si_shop I have also blogged about one of the dolls at It's Just Krazy Kute Productions

It has been fun working and designing my newest creations, and I love the effect oil pastels can create on fabric.

Part 2 The Making of a 10 Inch Grubby Rag Cloth Doll

Howdy! to everyone, I am back with the second half of making this 10 inch cloth doll.

In the the picture above you can see more how well the staining set in after I blew dried it the second time around. Now I am adding the hair and how you want to do this is cut a about a 3 inch wide piece of cardboard and wrap the yarn around about 6-8 times depending on how thick you want the hair to be, don't wrap tightly, you want the yarn somewhat loose so that you can pull it off the carboard. Once you have taken it off the cardboard cut a small piece of yarn and tie, knot the yarn in the center of you looped yarn. Next cut open the loops or just leave if you want the hair to have loops; In this doll I cut the loops open to give the doll more of a shaggy look.

Use heavy quilting thread to attach the yarn (hair) to the head of the doll. I usually knot my thread and begin on on side the head, working to the other side. I start the needle and thread first into the head then bring the needle and thread through my knot in the yarn and pull tight enough so that the yarn is firmly on the head of the doll and continue working through. I may just do a blog on sewing yarn or hair to doll and show more clearly on my technique of how I do it. I am looking at this seeing I don't have pictures showing what is going on.

Once you have sewn the hair (yarn) on then paint the facial features on with acrylic paints. I took a very small paint brush (for very fine detail) for the nose, eyes and cheeks. The cheeks are done by dry brushing the acrylic paint on, then I dipped a tooth pick in red to add some tiny freckles to her face.

In this photo which would not fall into order; I have sewn the two small squares together,making the pantaloons and now I am adding and gathering them on the doll. I will have to also blog a more detailed blog on how I make pantaloons. But I think you will have an idea of what I am doing here. (hope this made sense)

(This part should have been before gathering the pantaloons, but my blog but for some reason it would not let the me put the photos in the correct order.)You now want to cut a 12 inch long and 6 inch wide strip of Homespun fabric, cut on the fold; cut two 8 inch long and 4 inch wide strips of Homespun fabric on the fold. The 12 inch strip will be the dress and the 8 inches pieces will be the pantaloons. In the photo I have been rubbing in the cinnamon into each of the pieces. In the picture below I have gather the strip of fabric and placed over the top of the doll and cut two slits to slide the arms of the doll through. You can see the end result in the very top photo, I ended up cutting one more small strip of fabric and adding it to the hair as a little tie up and gave her more personality. This is a fun doll that one can come up with many different ways to create her, this is only one example that I have done. Later on I will have a blog on an easy way to make pantaloons and how I make the hair for my dolls, I have enjoyed sharing this and I hope you all have fun reading and getting creative with me.

The First Step in Making a 10 inch Grubby Rag Cloth doll

Yesterday, Sunday August 14, 2011 I was busy creating a little 10 inch Grubby rag cloth doll and thought I would share how I created it.

So first I began with one of my cloth doll patterns, a 10 inch doll and then I cut the doll out of muslin.

I then sewed up the doll on my sewing machine and created some stain. The fabric soaked about 30 minutes, then was put onto a cookie sheet and baked at 200 degrees. After baking and the fabric was completely dry I filled the doll with fiber fill and added the legs. I began to re-stain the doll by using a small sponge brush and applying more staining on the doll; this second time I did not bake the doll but instead used a blow dryer to get darker and a more grubby stain.

You can see in the photo how the staining and the use of the blow dryer is making this little doll very grubby. Below is another photo of the doll dry.

I think she is turning out well and this point I will be adding the facial features and her hair and clothing that will be simple. In the second part of The First Step in Making a 10 inch Grubby Rag Cloth Doll; I will show the hair, facial features and the outfit I create for this doll and how or what I do to stain the outfit. I just wanted to share the first steps and next Monday August 22 I will let see that part so I hope you all will come back and see how this cute grubby doll turns out.