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

Just Powertex, No Strings Attached!

Just Powertex, No Strings Attached (Just a little lace) - by Abigail Lagden

Hello and welcome to May!! I can't believe how fast the year is passing, but it means it is time for another blog - Yay!

As always, the team at Powertex UK have put together another fantastic set of project packs, with a fabulous mdf base shape to work on and some really gorgeous embellishments. Here is the Guitar project pack that I used for this project - I just love the heart starbursts and the paper flowers give so much dimension to the project. 

First, I played with a rough layout for my project. This helps me gain an overall picture of how I'm going to construct my project, even if it changes as I start working. I decided to keep this project quite simple so the only extra thing I added were some pieces of cotton lace I had in my stash.

I wanted to use the hatched pattern embossed paper as an overall base texture for the body of the guitar, so I used the mdf shape as a template to draw around before carefully cutting the shape out.

I then attached the two pieces of mdf together using the rectangular piece of mdf on the back. The back of all three pieces were painted with bronze Powertex and then fixed together whilst wet. The whole of the back of the project was also painted over to produce a neat finish. This only takes a few minutes to dry to the point where you can turn it back over and start creating (a hairdryer can help speed up the process if you are impatient like me!).

Now for the fun part...

The wallpaper I cut out earlier was added first using bronze Powertex as a glue on the back. Then the front was also painted over.

The small mdf plaques were attached to the neck of the guitar to provide some extra depth before I added some lace over the top of them along the neck.

Two pieces of different cotton lace were added across the body of the guitar. When adding lace that I want to meet the edges of a project I always use a piece that is a little bit longer than needed and trim is once it is on the project. This is because a lot of cotton lace tends to shrink a little when you coat it with Powertex, so if you cut it to the exact size first then it often ends up too short.

The embellishments were then all added by coating with Powertex and pressing into position. Once done, the project was left to dry overnight.

Once dry, I used different blends of ultramarine blue, turquoise, green, lilac and white powercolor pigments using a dry brushing technique. And finally a quick brush using rich gold colortricx to give it a lift and a shimmer.

Hope you like it...

You can follow more of what I get up to with my Powertex creations and workshops on my facebook page.

Until next time, Abs x