Bits of this n that

Hello!

It's raining here today and so to pass the time, I had a little rummage around my recent photos to come up with a post.

Some alley-way art by school children in Lakes Entrance, Victoria, which we thought was lovely and imaginative. They'd have had a lot of fun painting it too:

Some birds in our backyard...
Here's a freshly bathed baby bird - not sure what breed - who really enjoyed getting wet:

more alley-way art:

The Bronzewing Pigeons hold this pose while sun-baking... I'm thinking it's to help photographers to see the full gloriousness of their colours ;D)

and more art looking down the other side of the alley-way:

This baby Blackbird also enjoyed a bath.  We love how the Blackbirds thoroughly enjoy a soak and then a hearty scrub (!), flicking water here and there and then come back for a second turn at it...

that youngster certainly learnt well!

and, finally, the rain... so nice after the heat:

Thanks for joining me today... all the best, Sue xx

Needle Felting 'Painting' ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

I'm a bit late-ish, but here's my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday. 

At our Monday painting group, one of the ladies,  very kindly taught us how to needle felt.  She'd been telling us for a few years now, just how easy it was... and she was right. 
This is my first piece:

"Old Bush Woman" 

A closeup of the little nesting bird in her hair.  The feather is one I'd saved, it's from the head plumage of a Gang-Gang Cockatoo:

For anyone who doesn't know about flat needle felting,  a special barbed felting needle is used to stab into small pieces of wool which causes it to interlock into the felt.  A backing sponge is used so that the needle has somewhere to go.  Every so often, the felt is lifted free of the sponge.  Simple as that! 
Here's a shot of when I was making my old bush woman:

I'll include some links at the end of this post, of some tutorials I also found helpful.  There are many other types of felting that can be done too.

Here's some more pieces that I've made recently:

"Lollipop Flowers"

Being able to randomly place the wool and needle it in place really appeals to me.  It's just like painting... only with wool!
A closeup of the previous photo:

I made my own hangers from wire that hubby had bought for me.  It's nice and pliable to use:

... so I played around and came up with a few hanger designs, then painted them with gold acrylic paint.  It was purely an experiment, I wasn't sure whether the paint would dry properly on the wire but it did. 
Here they are drying on a sheet of plastic, no sticking either:

I'd recently made a gift of this for a dear one... choosing the hanger:

Here's how it turned out:

"Daisies with Hearts of Gold"

because I'm not all that keen on stitching, I popped some gold acrylic paint on the felted wool... that worked too!

Thanks very much for visiting, and if you love art of any kind, you're welcome to join in or just have a browse through all the exciting work shared on Eva and Kristin's PPF blogspot.  Just click on the button below:

Here's some links regarding needle felting, I hope you give it a go... it's fun:
kaystir.blogspot - Flat Needle Felting Tutorial
tamsyng - How to needle felt a bird brooch