September Top 5 Art & Craft Supplies

It's been an eventful month! The 30 Day Photography Challenge that I've been focusing on has been completed and I still managed to find the time for a little bit of art and craft. Here's what caught my eye this September:

'2286 Traditional Stencil Designs' by H. Roessing

Such a fabulous book for anyone interested in graphics or interior design. This book features vintage decorative stencil designs which can provide a useful resource of repetitive images and designs for all sorts of creative pursuits.

 I bought it to help me design interesting borders, stamps, fabric prints etc. for personal use, but you can use the designs commerically too, i think. I cant remember the exact restrictions, so please check yourself, but i think you can use the designs in new pieces of work/services or products but you cant sell the designs themselves on, so its one of those handy 'go to' books for artists and designers which has a flexible copyright licence. It's also a fascinating catalogue of American interior history and taste.

The cover is pretty darn ugly... so i thought i'd show you that last. Available from Amazon from £3.50 used! Bargain!

 

Magazine reference

  

My favourite source for image reference. Obviously copyright law applies here so tread carefully if you use the images as direct sources of inspiration or reference, but tearing and collecting interesting images from magazines for inspiration and drawing practice is one of my geeky obsessions. Need a pose? Colour combo? Pattern? Hair style? Texture? Concept? Landscape? Font? Silhouette? Magazines of all kinds can cater.

I personally get one tried and tested fashion mag (Look Magazine), one home mag (Your Home Magazine) and then salvage the rest from newspaper supplements, junk mail, catalogues, supermarket magazines, brochures etc. If you're exceptionally stingy, like me, you can also source scrapbook backgrounds from them. That's my little tip for the week. Not to mention the collage and decoupage possibilities. And you're recycling. Bonus points!

Golden Silk-Screen Fabric Gel

This stuff has allowed me to turn acrylic paint into fabric paint. What's not to like?! It has opened up a whole new world of creativity! Simply mix the medium 50/50 with your acrylic and apply. I painted some babygros with mine but I've got ideas for all kinds of textile art now: cushions, clothing, shoes, tapestries, napkins, curtains...

The tub isn't huge but acrylic paints are perfectly usable as fabric paint in their own right, it's just that this medium makes them dry softer and cope with washing better so you could potentially use a smaller amount on things that won't need regular washing. I used the smallest amount though for my creations and unless you're going industrial with your fabric printing this will last an average Creative a long long time. Available from Artifolk from £10.16 for 286ml (don't confuse it for the Silk Screen Medium which is different)

Thrifted fabric from charity shops

I cant be the only person who does this... surely? Charity shops are havens for bargain fabric finds, you just have to look. My tip is to literally ransack the clothing rails for anything you can salvage. I personally choose the plus sized garments as you get more fabric.

These two pretty prints are from large floaty maxi dresses and contain a good amount of usable cloth and both came to under £5 total. I avoid anything with too much construction where the fabric has been cut up already, like shirts or trousers and i don't look at anything with sequin or tiny bead embellishment as that will all fall off when you cut it up. Pretty buckles, buttons, zips etc. are all worth looking out for and don't forget knits- interesting wools can be salvaged from just unravelling them.

 

iPhone apps

I've been using my iPhone a lot recently to manage my blog so I thought it was only right to talk about the apps I've used.

First of all my favourites iPhone apps of the moment are for mobile access to Bloglovin and Pinterest.
Bloglovin (free) is great for following blogs- something i never found the facility to conveniently do until i found this. It opened up a whole new world of creative networking and i read my feed daily on my phone.

Pinterest (free) is a image/idea collecting resource, very much like a digital pinboard, where you can store all those interesting images you find and share with others. Ive found endless inspiration from this community AND it seems relatively safe from slease/violence unlike other image sharing websites which is very appealing. It is however invite only but if you'd like to join please ask me and i'd be happy to add you.

I create and upload the occasional blog post from my BlogPress (£1.99) app which is okay but it lacks a lot of advanced function control compared to desktop versions but it's worth getting if you have a lot of blogs over various platforms and like to blog on the go. Its also handy for uploading iPhone photos straight to your blog which is what i used it for.

FX PhotoStudio (99p) is just brilliant for tweaking iPhone photos or adding a whole collection of filters and special effects. It's very extensive and I'd happily use this over all the other photo software out there now. Its just too fun. I recommend this over all the others i've tried including the popular Adobe app and for 99p its a bargain!