Using leftovers.

You might get a kick out of some of my left overs. Now that we are retired from traveling doing craft and doll shows (BUT STILL IN BUSINESS ON OUR WEBSITE) I found all sorts of samples I no longer need. So I decided to turn them into a left overs bed-spread thingee. That funky afghan is made all out of yarn. There are a number of started but not finished things there is, a knit sleeve, sox, sweater back, back of a jacket, scarf, tote bag...to mention a few. The rest of the project is done with left over yarns mostly done in FREE-FORM CROCHET....and odds and ends of felted pieces. Have some more left over yarn so will add a little more border on the piece. This is for my bed.... really warm and fun funky-ness. Will take it to the old ladies home when it is time for me to go there. No one will steal my blanket. TWAS so fun to do and use up all those left overs.

hugs, barb keeling

barbkeeling@aol.com

www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2

Redye Faded doll.

One of the first cloth doll class I ever took was taught by Lynn Butcher from Austraila. She came to our doll club, IOLCC in San Diego , CA area. It was a fun elf-ee doll. My poor doll has been in my sunporch for years and very faded, so I decided to give it a face lift. With very little effort turned the doll all new by painted its clothes with my Colorant dye, redid her face with new "makeup" and some new hair. It is totally all new.

This is the old doll ready for a redo.

You can see the inworks painting, then the doll all done sitting in the chair. Sorry these photos are "backwards" on the page. Never can remember how to do the right lineup when adding a group of photos. Anyway you can see what a very little bit of my colorant did to redo this cute doll. Some new hair a make up adds to the NEW DO.

hugs barbkeeling http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

Steampunk-ness and Zentangles

Fun to mix a couple of fun processes to make up a project. This is a Wall/Door Decor Doll.

The dolls blouse is made of a plain piece of white fabric that I painted with my White Shimmer Paint. Let it dry then use a copic black multiliner .7 plus copic markers in red and black and a gold fine liner also from copic. Anyway did my Doll Doodling on the fabric (zentangles) to create the pattern, cut it out and put it on the doll. Added her under collars. The Gold and Silver is Shimmer paint which turns the fabric into a leather look. Do'dads and what'nots are added for embellishment. Part of them are painted pasta. Again all done with the Shimmer paint. The goggles are kids swim goggles out of rubber, used the copper Shimmer paint and they came out awesome too.

Check out my website for the Shimmer Paint and other nifty goodies.

www.keelingskrafts.com/catalog2

Zentangle

I always love new stuff and the word ZENTANGLE came up a month ago on one of the doll lists. Can't say as I had heard of that word before. I found a local class which I took and enjoyed. Can see some fun patterns that can be done for dolls using the sort of "orgainized doodling". The zentangle-ers don't like the word "doodling" to be included on the same page as any 'tangle-ing....but no less it is a form of doodling art. I have done a couple of "off the wall" just fer fun projects in my sketch book. They have no purpose other than just "give it a try-ness". So here are a couple of my tangle-ing done with a creative spark of "just do it". Fun. Now to work on a fer-real project. The hat on the one face is part of a Steampunk doll I am doing. Wanted to see what THAT would look like. This is all on paper, next adventure on cloth. hugs, barb

Punch Embroidery What is it.

Punch embroidery is an fast embellishment process done with easy to use tools. Here is a sample of some of the things that can be done with the EasyPunch Embroidery electric/battery machine and the Plush Punch hand punch tool. Both use regular type sewing threads. However no sewing skill is needed to do this. Check my website for more info on the punch embroidery tools. Also check back here I will be doing more video and will show how easy it is to use these tools.