Princess Bubbles Creates

I belong to the Fibre Arts and mixed media ning as you can see on the sidebar.  They run monthly challenges.  In April I won the random draw and received a lovely package of goodies and a book.  That was just too fun.  I love getting packages in the mail - it's like Christmas. The journal page above is my entry for this month's challenge which is 'for the birds'.  The feathers have a really cool iridescent color to them which you can't see in the picture.  :(

All creation sings!  Truly, nature does make my heart sing.  It restores my soul as does making art.

Pictured above is beige silk. This is the same silk that I painted with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils.  I love that the Inktense pencils don't change the hand of silk.  Also, the shine of the silk still comes through. The sample above is dupioni silk that was colored with Derwent watercolor crayons.  The color moved really well on the silk.  It actually works better than on paper.

This butterfly was a gift to me today.  The last week or so has had me wondering if anything good was ever going to happen in my life again.  So when I noticed the sun shining on my deck this afternoon I thought it was time to treat myself to some rest and fresh air.  I noticed three butterflies in my neighbor's lilacs and had to get my camera.  Is this a great shot or what.  I cheered right up.  Nature does that for me.

I want all the colors.  I simply HAVE to have them.  I could never be happy with just the box of 8 crayons!  Well, never is too harsh a word.  If I were stuck on a deserted island some where and only had the box of eight crayons I guess I would be happy with them.  It would be better than nothing.  In reality I live in incredible abundance compared to most of the world and I can almost always get what I want.  To that end I had a good mail day as I received my most recent indulgence. Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils are absolutely scrumptious!  They come in seventy two wonderful colors.  I purchased the largest set I could find last year and then immediately regretted not waiting to find the largest set available.  I should have known better.  I have been purchasing the rest of the colors one by one and now I have the full set.  I have experimented with using them on silk and really like the results.  I will have to...

This book I made in a workshop.  It's an interesting book.  It was a bit complicated to make.  I don't think I'll make another one as it was just a little too fiddly.  I don't generally like to make anything twice anyway. 

I really like this piece.  I made silk paper and then did some needle felting to it.  I added some embroidery and beading.  I attached it all to some silk charmeuse.   The top photo is a close up of the beading but really you shouldn't view this piece too close.  I wish the photos did it better justice.