What a hoot!

What a Hoot! - by Abigail Lagden

I have loved the owl templates since Powertex first introduced them, so imagine my delight when I opened my design team parcel to find not just the owl, but lots of extra embellishments and shapes too in the Project Pack Owl. Here they all are:

I wanted my owl to have lots of texture and ruffles, so I also used the following bits I had lying around (very little gets thrown away in our house if it is deemed to be powertexable and I judge just about everything on a texture rating) :

• Some part-shredded cardboard packaging (courtesy of my Powertex parcel!)
• Some zig-zag corrugated cardboard which had been protective packaging around a plant pot
• Some embroidered, stretchy peach fabric which those of you who have been to one of my workshops will know I affectionately call my 'hideous fabric' - I hate all skin coloured clothing and also know this would be a nightmare to sew with.
• Some t-shirt material
• Some flat cotton yarn
• Some cotton lace with a circle design
• Some elasticated, ruffled, cotton lace

This is how my owl was created:

1.   I used the wings as templates to draw around and cut the embossed paper to size. These were coated with bronze powertex and stuck onto the mdf wings and the top surface painted over.

2.  The owl shaped mdf base was fully painted with bronze powertex

3.  The ruffled lace was used in strips for the tail and the shredded cardboard laid across this to form the branch.

4.  One of the mdf rings was wrapped with the flat cotton yarn. One of the circles from the lace was cut out and attached to the other mdf ring.

5.  The corrugated cardboard was cut to make a shape to cover the owl's belly. This was attached using powertex and painted over.

6.  The 'hideous fabric' was used to add some ruffled texture around the corrugated cardboard.

7.  T-shirt fabric was used on the face and ruffled around the two mdf rings which became its eyes.

8.  The feet, beak, button and butterflies were then positioned, and finally the gorgeous eye.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so I guess a video must be worth at least a thousand more. To prove that point (and also because it easier than stopping to take photos when 'in the zone') I have included a couple of time-lapse videos in this blog to show you my project's emergence.

This one shows the owl being 'built'.

And this video shows the colour being dry brushed onto the owl. I used different blends of burgundy, red ochre, yellow ochre, orange and white powercolor pigments, followed by some rich gold and bronze gold colortricx.

I hope you found the videos useful. You can see more of what I have been up to on my facebook page.

Take care. Until next time, Abs xx

Bring on the spring... please!

by Abigail Lagden

Well, what a week! The winter is hanging on like a stubborn mule even as we enter March.

So, I thought I would create my own spring flowers to add a bit of colour to my snow-covered garden. And as it was St David's day this week, what better than some bright yellow daffodils.

These simple little daffs are made from an egg box, some cotton fabric, some hessian and bendy plastic straws. I also strayed away from my favourite bronze Powertex and broke out the yellow ochre.

First I tore the cones out of the egg box as well as the round base parts (a torn edge looks more natural than a cut one). The middle of the round bits were torn out the make rings.

I then wrapped the straw with a light cotton fabric coated in yellow powertex and pushed the card ring and the cone onto the bent end of the straw. 

The card parts were painted with yellow powertex and left to dry. 

I cut six petal shapes from hessian for each flower. Once the stem was dry I coated these in yellow powertex and arranged them around the ring of card. These were supported with anything I could find until they dried.

Once dry, the petals were dry brushed with a mixture of yellow ochre, white powercolor pigments and rich gold colortricx. The trumpets were coloured with either yellow or orange and the stems with green.

Here's hoping the garden will soon be full of real daffodils, there are some green shoots under all that snow. But in the meantime, these will add some colour!

I couldn't resist popping them in a little Powertex'd vase too!

You can see what else I'm getting up to on my Facebook page Curiously Contrary. And don't forget to share what you have been getting up to with Powertex on the Powertex Addicts page.
Until April, stay warm and safe, Abs xx

(Don't forget, anything made for outdoors needs around 3 weeks to fully cure before it is weather resistant)

Sophie's Summer Super Hero Project - Part 2

Sophie's Summer Super Hero Project - Part 2

Well September is here already and Sophie's Super Hero has been updated.  I can't believe the summer holidays went by so quickly but Sophie and I had so much fun with this.  

There are still another 2 or 3 stages to go so we may need to drop "summer"!!

After a little holiday in Weymouth, the excitement of a new baby in the family and a party or two, we did stage 2.  For this we started with a cotton vest which Sophie rubbed Ivory Powertex into, OK i did give her a little help! 

We also worked Powertex into a length of cotton t-shirt fabric. Once it was well covered, we eased the vest over the body and then draped the fabric around the hip to make a short skirt.  (There will be another layer in stage 3.)

We then started the first of the decoration or embellished layer.  For this we needed purple Powertex.  Sophie suggested mixing blue and red Powertex together, but it wasn't quite dark enough so we also added a tiny bit of black.  

We coated some strips of lace and a leather belt which we draped onto Teleporter's hips (recycling is so much fun with Powertex!). We also worked some yellow Powertex for a second decorative strip of lace.

Next we wanted to add the green shoulder pieces and buttons.  If you can remember from Sophie's plan, Teleporter has two buttons, one of which has a secret power.

We mixed some ivory and green Powertex and worked this into some woven cotton dishcloth fabric.  We also coated two slices of wood to be the base of the buttons. There were some great embellishments on the belt which Sophie painted with yellow Powertex too.

That all took 2-hours and so we stopped there ready to have more fun with the final layer of embellishments next time.  

I'm so impressed by Sophie's concentration, I forget she is only 7-years old sometimes! The fun and laughter we have is fantastic and that includes seeing who gets the most stray Powertex on our arms, I think there was a splodge or two that she managed to get on my face too!!!

Have fun creating with Powertex and we will be back with the next stage soon!

Fi xx

I don't know about you but we are still loving the Egyptian theme here! 

I thought I would share how I  created this 30 x 30 canvas, it's still one of my favourites.

I used a Tutankhamun bust cast from one of the silicone moulds for my focal point. 

I added yellow ocher Powertex and 3D sand mixture to the canvas and pressed in a stretcher wedge and the 

Heiro Heaven stamp to give the ancient tomb brick/stone impression.

I also pressed the Wonderful Things stencil into the mixture to add another dimension.

The next layer was a torn scrap of leftover wallpaper that I held onto because I just loved the texture and some corrugated cardboard. One of our MDF Stacking flowers served very well as a sunburst and an inverted MDF heart worked as the pyramid. I couldn't resist adding the little wedges I used at the beginning to symbolise the pyramid blocks at the bottom and I felt that the addition of some small and medium sand balls just finished the piece off.

There are lots of techniques used on this canvas, if you would love to make something similar but don't feel you could get there on your own have a look at our website and find a tutor near you who is qualified to teach at all levels, that way you can be sure of the very best advice and attention.

You can find them here.TUTORS

Don't forget to sign up to our blog, we have some great design team members and they are giving away loads of tips and ideas! Tracey x