Craft - printing

Craft club again this evening, and we did printing.  My friends brought a brilliant selection of things to print with including celery, corks, string, potatoes, bubble wrap. loo roll inners ...

I used various items to make the gift labels in the picture (potatoes and lego blocks) and some printed paper (potatoes, bubble wrap, corks). One of my friends printed a whole roll of wrapping paper with the most beautiful roses, using celery (like this).

Playing around with the different objects, dipping them in paint, mixing colours, finding patterns - it was another lovely relaxed, creative craft club evening.

Craft - inspiration

Although I ran this morning, I failed to take a photo.  And I haven't done anything else worthy of photographing or blogging - for various reasons it was a topsy turvy kind of day with an unintentional 5 hour lunch break from work, which meant I felt I should stay late when I finally returned and  didn't get home till after 8.30pm.  So no crafting or reading or cooking so far, and none likely to happen now as my bed feels very tempting.

Instead I thought it might be nice to show a picture I took a while ago of some tiles in the lobby of Falmouth art gallery / library.  I love taking pictures of tiles - I like the colours, patterns, textures. And I want to start experimenting with printing so I think I might use tiles as inspiration.  

Craft - potato printing

One of the many things I've been wanting to try is printing, and last night (not today - today's blog is a bit of a cheat as I've spent most of the day tidying and sorting - no time for craft or other fun!) I sat down to make a card, and ended up having a bit of a play with potato printing. Like most things it actually took minimal time - it was just the thinking about it that took a while.  I made a card and 3 different A5 prints in about half an hour, using old potatoes, a (slightly blunt) kitchen knife and acrylic paint. Next time I will use a craft knife to get neater cuts, and maybe try using multiple colours.  But I'm quite pleased with these as a first attempt - I think I like the red one best, but I'll have another go at stripes as I think it could work ok if I do it slightly differently.

The printmaking book I got from the library (Printed Pattern by Rebecca and Yvonne Drury) has a really helpful section about potato printing and lots of good ideas. I'm very inspired to give it another go soon. The thing I really like about potato printing is that the main material is as cheap as chips (sorry!) so you don't need to worry about wasting money if you make a mistake or want to try again.