Rachel Gornall

I went to the most FABULOUS talk last night by the contemporary textile designer Rachel Gornell. Rachel kindly showed us her gorgeous work and sketchbooks. She spoke enthusiastically about her love of colour and how she explores this through looking at how light changes the colour of a building, sky, indeed anything. Rachel works with hand-dyed textiles to create intense hues by layering and bonding  translucent fabrics. The pieces are hand-cut (HAND CUT and there are thousands of circles in some pieces) with intricate patterns and adorned with hand stitch. Often multilayered, the textile pieces incorporate cut, suspended and stitched sections to give movement, detail and depth. Rachel also shared slides of her travels and explain how the experience changed her work. I came out of the talk wanting to work, wanting to choose colours, wanting to try something new. To see Rachel's work visit the exhibition Liminal at Prism textiles, Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1 28 May- 1 June 2013. Thanks Rachel you are an inspiration!

I'm feelin' a little bit crafty...

Check out my paper designs in this months Papercrafter. They look splendiferous plus there are lots of cool projects to do too! All images copyright of Stephanie Thannhauser 2013

Remember making these as a kid?

I do. I loved making lanterns when I was little and had totally forgotten about them till I saw this in issue 61 of Papercrafter. They are very simple to make with these being even nicer as they are made with MY print designs from the magazine  - hurrah! They would look great hung outside or in.  Hop over to the lovely Papercrafter magazine to see more.

Fancy making a sweetie box?

If you do,  pop along to Homemaker here to download the paper I designed and follow the instructions to make these cute little boxes. Good for wedding favours or little gifts don't you think?

Pear shaped!

Oh my goodness what a week. Wore flip flops at the beginning of the week then back to wearing boots due to torrential rain by the end, had my phone stolen (grrrr) and had to do everything the old fashioned way (using actual real paper maps, land lines, phone boxes (when I could find one)) and our car windscreen cracked and had to be replaced (£££). At craft club we made fruit shapes out of old paperback books, such a simple activity but harmony has been restored.

Audrey

Had she lived a longer life, Audrey Hepburn would have been 84 tomorrow. One of my favourite films is Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), ah the clothes, the glamour, young George Peppard (swoon), the song Moon River, the happy ending and of course wonderful Audrey - it has EVERYTHING. The advert is the one running at the mo. for Galaxy Choccie and features a very good Audrey lookie likey. It makes me want to don a fifties dress, ride in a cabriolet and holiday in Capri. The sun is shining here though, so for now I will pretend.

Blooming Lovely

Our garden is defo waking up now after the very looooong winter here in the UK. My hubby is a gardener (Beech garden services) so our garden always looks FANTASTIC and this year he has started collecting vintage pots, tins, buckets and kitchenalia, filling them with gorgeous flowers and plants to sell at plants fairs and onto clients. I love seeing the marriage of plant and pot making both look even more fabulous.

Tra- la- la- la- la: Locked Out Of Heaven

I've had this tune as an earworm for the last couple of days, mainly because we sang it at Rock Choir on Wednesday - Bruno Mars - Locked out of Heaven (2012). It was nice to cover a more recent tune and this one is really great fun to sing plus it just makes you wanna dance.

Hi ho hi ho it's off to Surtex we go!

My FABULOUS agent Cinnamon Joe Studio have created a SUPER GORGEOUS customer pack for Surtex next month, 19th - 21st May. It was featured on Print and Pattern today - see the link here. This is my card, created especially for the pack. If you are going to the show pop along and say hi, CJS will be in Booth 312.

Playing...

Envelope and notebook

Storage tin

Seedling pots

Card

Memo Pad

Using the papers I designed for Homemaker magazine - here. To see all the papers follow the link here.