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.

Kid Story Board Game.

For years I have written kids stories, mostly done for our Great Granddaughter who is now nearly six. The stories began when she was born. We did a doll for her we called Mrs. GilleyWilley, who is a magical Nanny. We added an Olivia Ann Doll (our great grans name) and a talking Teddy Bear named BB Bear. That was the start of Mrs. GilleyWilley Adventures. I wrote the magical adventures and Doug did the illustrations. We are having a blast.

I decided the stories needed a "Game" kids could play. Soooo dreamed up a really simple board game, including cutout paper dolls of the story characters. I love the illustrations Doug did for the three characters. We have done a bunch of different creative things in our long years, but doing a board game had never been tried. One is never to old to try something new. I thought up the game concept and Doug did the board & illustrations. It was a fun new creative experience for us both. It will be a Christmas gift for our Great Granddaughter and Granddaughter.

Both Olivia Ann and Mrs. GilleyWilley are cloth doll patterns on our website. I will add the Board Game too.

hugs, Barb Keeling barbkeeling@aol.com

Opps DOOR DECOR DOLLS

Having a little trouble publishing these Door Decor Dolls. Here is one of them. The actual post is the next post. Be sure and scroll down.

Punch Embroidery Doll Shading

This Doll Face is competely covered in tiny hand done punch embroidery stitches. I used our Plush Punch Hand Punch needle and a sewing type of thread. The body project is embellished with the same process only done in Free-form punch embroidery style and beading.

Punch Embroidery has been around for a "zillion years". There is a long and interesting history that goes with the punch embroidery process. We have promoted it since the 1970's. We were part of a group of "crafter" who found it again and began designing patterns and promoting the tools and supplies. This rediscovered process was 'new again then, so many people had not heard of it or had any idea how it was done. Several new and some old tools surfaced. We developed our own version of this easy to use hand punch and began doing designs for magazine publication. We got to be known as the Punch Embroidery King and Queen. In due time a battery and electric punch embroidery hand held machine was developed. This added speed to the whole process up making projects even faster to do. We have sold that EASY PUNCH Embroidery Machine for nearly 25 years.

For years we have said we "should" do a doll face and the shading using punch embroidery which we just did. It was designed for a project I will teach at our Doll Club. But it is so smashing I wanted you to see it too. As always my husband Doug did the face design and the shading area, maped out for me to follow. I used our hand punch the Plush Punch and some thread that is the weight more or less of buttonhole twist. I did the punch embroidery, which took a couple of evenings. Sew the doll head, cut it out, stuffed it as usual. There it is, part of our class. I also did a body. First dyed the fabric, then followed the pattern that came out of the dye process and added punch embroidery stitches and free form punch embroidery stitching and added beads, button and what 'knots as additional embellishment. All this will be part of our fun class.

Can't wait til we are teaching. This is going to be SOOOO MUCH FUN. Check out our websites to purchase the Plush Punch Hand Punch or check Dougs site for the EasyPunch Embroidery machine. If you are thinking about Punch Needles, it a best to have both the hand tool and the battery/electric. They have different looks.

A new book was written last year on Punch Embroidery. It is written by Marinda Stewart and called PUNCHNEEDLE The Complete Guide. We have two projects in the book. Check pages 132 and 170.

Barb Keeling

http://www.keelingskrafts.com/

Pin Cushion Dolls

Here are a couple of "Pin Cushion Dolls" I designed to be a fun, but simple class. The flower body doll, is a recycled piece that use to be a pillow top. It is done all in regular sewing thread, using the EASY PUNCH embroidery machine we have sold for some 30 years. That hand held punch needle runs on batteries and is electric, so a projet that big would not take long to complete. Punch embroidery just doesn't wear out, but the pillow it had been on did. It was a sample we used in our booths when we traveled as vendors. Glad I saved it to recyle on such a darling project.

The other is a hand dyed piece of fabric, done in free form embroidery using all sorts of stuff...beads, bangles and what nots. Then I took a hand punch needle and did random punch needle stitch trails of embellishment. I also used it to create ramdom "french knot" look all around. Only with the hand punch needle it took only a few minutes to create that many funky stitches.

I have called these "Pin Cushion Dolls". Sometimes people like to have a "purpose" to what they do. The project is about 15" tall, so a nice size to work with.

I will have these up on my site (shortly) as patterns. So check back now and again.

hugs, barbkeeling