This weekend I am offering a massive 25% discount off of EVERYTHING in my Etsy store!!
This includes bespoke designs! If you contact me for a quote this weekend and place an order before Monday, you will save 25% off of whatever you order!
I’ve included some pictures of designs to help inspire you, please check out my shop too!
Hopefully something there will inspire you … I’m willing to try and make anything your heart desires!
I ship internationally!
Alyssa xxx
I am offering a 10% discount on everything in my Etsy store until the 8th August 2014!
You just need to enter the code AUG14 at checkout to claim your discount!
I ship internationally and this include bespoke designs too!
So pop along to my shop here and buy something pretty!!
Alyssa xx
Silk painting is one of my absolute favourite crafts to do. It is a challenging painting medium and getting good results can be a bit hit or miss on occasion but I think that’s why I love it so much.
Silk dye is not a very forgiving material to work with, it takes great precision and accuracy to ensure that any barriers that you have created are entirely water tight and if this has not been done then your design can all leak into each other and create a big blotchy mess ruining hours or work and creativity. Yet I still love to do it!
When silk painting goes right it is one of the most vibrant and effective painting styles you can create. The products that I personally use are all iron fixed and once that has been done can be washed and worn over and over again without compromising the design or vibrancy of what I have created.
My silk painting process starts with designing my product on paper. I have various sized pads that I work with, occasionally I draw the entire design on one large sheet but more often than not, I draw out the individual components and then trace them into the design where I want them. This gives me the flexibility to change designs if I want to and also means that no two designs are exactly the same, which is a factor I really enjoy about my creations.
Once I have traced the images, I stretch them onto my frames and secure them with silk pins to maintain the resistance and secure them in place without damaging the delicate silk. I then use Pebeo Gutta water based outliner to create the barriers around the outside of the areas that I want to paint with the dye. This product comes in many different colours including a clear design which dissolves when you iron it at the end of the process. Once this has dried (I usually leave it overnight to be safe) you should check that it has gone all of the way through the silk to the other side, this will help to prevent the colours from bleeding when applied.
Applying the silk dye itself is relatively simple if the outliner has set correctly, you should be able to just load your brush with dye and then place it onto the silk and watch it spread to the barrier. Using water will allow you to play with the opacity of the dye allowing you to create a more smoky effect or more intense colour. The dyes can either be pre-mixed in colours you wish to use or you can do this on the fabric itself for a more dramatic effect. I enjoy using the Pebeo silk paints but am currently experimenting with some other brands which I will feedback about in a further post.
I will be uploading a brief picture tutorial of my silk painting from start to finish in the coming weeks, I just need to take the time to photograph the entire process from start to finish first!
I have included some pictures of some of my finished designs, what do you think?
They are mostly available to buy in my Etsy store, I also offer a bespoke design service so please do get in contact with me if you would like to order the design of your dreams!
What is your favourite craft?
Do you have a store I can visit? I always love to support other artists.
Alyssa xx
“ The Victim of the Sleeping Death can be revived only by Love’s First Kiss”
It’s no great secret that I am more a fan of the Disney Villains than the princesses, I can understand the appeal of the princesses to the masses but I’d much rather root for the bad guy and my artwork does have a tendency to reflect that.
One of my favourite designs, which incidentally is one of my most popular ones, “Sleeping Death” poison apple print. The poison apple is such an iconic villainous prop that it is instantly recognisable and either loved or hated by Disney fans dependant on what side of the fence you root for!
Silk painting allows me to create some very dramatic effects with the colours in this piece and I have made it with a variety of backgrounds for different customers. The grey smoke effect has proved the most popular and can be seen in my Etsy store at the moment on one of my smaller scarves, I love this and wear if often as a headscarf when I’m trying to tame my crazy curls!
This design proved so popular that I have branched out and made a few bags with it on too, this are brand new to the store this week so I would love to know what you think of them?
What other products would you like to see this design painted on to?
Do you own this scarf? I’d love to see how you style it!
Alyssa xx
I go through phases creatively and can often flit from project to project when I am not wholeheartedly inspired. However, since visiting Disneyland Paris for the Swing into Spring festivities in April this year I have been overflowing with creativity and loving every minute of it.
One of my favourite attractions at Disneyland Paris was the Alice in Wonderland Maze. Now, I know that this attraction isn’t for everyone and I know that it could do with some work and a lick of paint here and there, but I loved it. Alice in Wonderland has been one of my favourite books and films since I was young and I actually skipped around the maze singing ‘We’re painting the roses red’ and behaved like a giddy child which was fabulous!
The Giant Cheshire Cat face with the spinning eyes in the flowerbed is so lovely, the mad hatters chairs for photos are awesome and the view from the top of the castle was pretty incredible too.
If you have taken the time to look at my Etsy store you will see that all of the items listed at the moment are Disney themed.
The majority of these are hand painted silk designs from scarves to pillow cases and I am working on a few new bits at the moment that will be uploaded when I finish them. I am particularly proud of the Cheshire Cat silk cushion cover that I painted all by hand, it turned out way better than I expected it to and I just love the effect of the writing on the back of it as it means it can be displayed either way.
When you are a creative person, being really inspired is like having a new love, you eat, sleep and drink ideas and probably bore your friends to tears with the fact that everything that comes out of your mouth is about what you’re working on currently or what you’re planning to do next. I find myself spamming all of my social media with pictures and links I’ve found that inspire me and though I know it’s boring to most people – I can’t stop!
The reason I actually started my Etsy store is to save the money to get back to Disneyland next year. It was such an amazing experience that I am hooked and want to do it again. Sadly, having not found a millionaire boyfriend yet, I need to make the money myself. I’m hoping that people with love what I’m doing as much as I love making it and help me find my way back to my inspirational home by buying what I’ve made.
What is your inspiration?
Alyssa xx
Have you visited Etsy yet?
Are you as hooked as I am?
What is Etsy?
It is basically a marketplace for creative and imaginative minds that make the most bizarre and incredible designs and is my idea of heaven. I spend hours upon hours searching different key words and browsing through shops of wonder and have even brought myself some awesome pieces on there.
As a little introduction to those of you that may be new to Etsy, I thought that I would show you a few of my absolute favourite stores and sellers – I hope that you find this as useful as I do!!
This store sells the most amazing hand made Disney Inspired hair bows. The quality is second to none and I love the ones that I own.
It is owned by Shannon, who is super friendly and lovely and will work with you to design something if you can’t see what you’re looking for!
Can we all just take a moment to admire Courtney’s sensational talent?!
Look at the detail in those shoes ❤️
This store is currently closed due to the unsurprising high level of orders that she has, but is definitely worth following on Etsy for when she’s back!
Not only does Courtney sell shoes, she is an amazing artist too and has some beautiful prints for sale of work that she’s done.
These ears make me so happy!!
The attention to detail and creativity is just fabulous and makes me want to buy every single pair they list!
I will own the Cheshire Cat ones in the very near future!
Ok, so I probably shouldn’t shout out my own shop, but I’m going to …
I work really hard designing and creating items that I love in the hope that you guys will too.
It’s a relatively new store and as such there aren’t as many items in it yet as I’d like there to be – but bear with me, I’ll get there!!
I do offer a bespoke design service so if there is something that you want then please do get in touch and we can work together to create the item of your dreams!
I’ll revisit my love of Etsy at some point in the future as this is only the tip of the iceberg of shops I love!
What’s your favourite Etsy shop?
Alyssa xx
Hi!
My name is Alyssa and I’d like to welcome you to my little corner of the web.
I am relatively new to blogging so please bear with me, I’m sure that I’ll improve with time!
I just wanted to do an initial introduction to myself and let you know what you can expect from my blog and why you might like to follow me and find out what I’m up to.
I am passionate about many things in my life including; my amazing family and friends, handmade crafts, fat fashion, makeup, fancy dress, everything Disney and my ginger moggy Mr Wooster cat … that really is just the tip of the iceberg though, more of my passions will come out the more you read!
This blog will be my place to express myself and showcase to you things that I love or am working on at that moment in time, this could include;
Craft Projects/Tutorials
Face/Body Painting/Special FX makeup
Makeup ideas/shoots/tutorials/tips
Outfit/Shopping/Fat Fashion
Fancy Dress/Cosplay to name a few ….
I have an Etsy store where I sell a variety of different crafts. At the moment the products on there are mostly Disney inspired, they include everything from silk painted scarves and pillow cases to jewellery to hand painted bags and aprons! This is a relatively new venture and as such I am still developing everything that I want to do with it. I will be using this blog to track the journey of my store and give you insight into what you can expect to see being uploaded on to it next so stay tuned to find out more! If you’d like to take a look at my store, you can find it here.
I studied special FX, photography, face/body painting and stage makeup at college and am passionate about everything to do with makeup. I love to be creative with colours and textures and the human form is such a wonderful canvas to transform into beautiful art with paints. You will see many posts about makeup no doubt, whether that be reviewing a new product I’ve found to behind the scenes pictures on a shoot I may have been booked for – I’d especially keep an eye out around Halloween time as I LOVE everything to do with that time of year.
I am a plus sized lady and I have an unhealthy obsession with clothes and fashion. There is a strong possibility that you will see lots of wishlists, outfit of the day, shopping hauls and outfit planning posts from me on here. The plus size fashion industry has boomed in recent years and the availability of so many wonderful clothing options now is far too tempting for me to resist.
So that’s a brief little introduction to what I think you’re likely to see here … this is all subject to change though, I have a tendency to go off on a tangent often so I can’t guarantee that you won’t get some random posts too!
I hope you enjoy what I have to say.
Alyssa xx
Queen Ursula 