On the 9th & 10th day of Christmas...

We received lovely gifts from Liisa and Heidi!

Day 9 belonged to Liisa... and she gifted us with a lovely paper dancing lady! The colors of the doll are rich and vibrant, as though she's dressed for a holiday party! Isn't she gorgeous?

Day 10 was Heidi's day, and she also chose to go with the song day "theme" and gave us a beaded leaping lord to decorate our tree! Because of the dimensional properties of this little lord, I couldn't get a decent scan of him, so perhaps if I can get the camera working again, I'll take a photo and update this blog post. This beaded ornament is truly lovely - beautiful!!!

BIG thank yous to both Liisa and Heidi for participating in this swap... I just love these gifts!

~Anne

On the 7th & 8th Day of Christmas...

Hello Everyone!

For the 7th day of our 12 day swap, we received a gift from Sherri! She packed her gift in an adorable little take-out style box. Inside the box was an awesome little book and a cool magnet!

Here's the book... I love the colors!

and the magnet! It was immediately stationed on my fridge!

On the 8th day, we received a gift package from Laura! And what an amazing package it was! She painted recycled tyvek envelopes and then decorated them with a cool vintage image...

I just love it when the packaging itself is a gift! Don't you?

Inside these cool envelopes was a bounty of FUN! Some cool postcards, fibers, sequin waste, and beads... plus... we got a fun cactus cowboy doll for a car antenna. I think I might have to host an altered cactus cowboy swap! haha! Also... we got a stash of colorful fabrics......

This has been such a fun swap. Today, we opened the last of our packages... so, I'll be back tomorrow to share more pictures of the goodies we received!

~Anne

On the 5th & 6th days of Christmas...

Day five belonged to Candice! And Candice treated us all to these nifty little ATC booklets! I just love these! Let's face it, when you swap ATCs you can never have too many ways to display them, it gets downright addictive swapping them that before you know it, your collection outgrows your albums! Not only is this little book a great gift... but an inspirational one! I love it!

The scan doesn't begin to reveal just how COOL these little booklets are. The flap opens up to reveal an accordion style booklet that have been corner punched to accomodate 10 ATCs. I just love this!

Day six belonged to Nancy... and Nancy gave us gorgeous art doll ornaments! Hopefully my camera will get to working soon, so that I can post pictures of them... I just love this little doll's hair! What a great addition to my holiday tree -- as one who grew up surrounded by boring Christmas trees... I am now committed to having trees with all unique and unusual ornaments! And... this one definitely fits in! A lovely, unique little lady!


Thanks Candice and Nancy, for such wonderful gifts! I love these little treasures!

On the 3rd & 4th Day of Christmas...

I'm really behind on these posts... and I'm sorry to the artists involved as well as those of you who follow my blog, but the last few days have been very hectic.

Day 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas swap belonged to Tanya! And she certainly delivered with her gift! Each of us received a lovely candle with the sparkle of glitter sprinkled on the top (I haven't burned the candle yet, but I bet it's really neat when the flicker of the flame reflects off the glitter!) and a box of matches! Tanya altered the matchboxes in a christmas theme... and kept the matches inside so that we can burn the candle! What a perfectly complete gift! I just love it.

I will post a picture of the candle and the matches just as soon as I get the camera working again! This one just doesn't work with the scanner!

Day 4 of the swap brought us a gift from Betsey! and all I can say is WOW! She gave us this amazing little metal ornament for our holiday tree!

It's simply adorable! Love it!

Thank you to both Tanya and Betsey for participating in this swap!

And just a tidbit... I have added a link to my now open CafePress store! Right now, I only have one image available on stuff in there... but, hey, it's a work in progress... if there are any pieces that I've created that you might like to purchase on a cafe press product, be sure to drop me a line and let me know... and I'll do what I can to get it up in cafe press!

Thanks for reading along. Tomorrow (I hope!) I will have days 5 & 6 posted!

~Anne

On The First (and the second) Day of Christmas...

In one of my yahoo groups, I'm hosting a 12 days of Christmas Swap. We started opening our gifts on Monday, the 17th... so the gifts will actually continue through Christmas. But, it's been fun so far!

On the first day, we opened our gift from Teresa... a really cool Jacob's Ladder!

This shows only a portion of the six paneled ladder, but is a good representation of how lovely each panel is!

I really love this... it reminds me of some of the fun toys my grandfather used to make out in his woodshop... and it's already supplied me and my two daughters with hours of enjoyment! Thank you Teresa!

Our Second day's gift came from Debbie, who made something that was nice as well as practical! A tissue pouch!



Even though the fabric is seasonal, THIS is going to be in my purse year round! I love it! Thank you Debbie!

So... those are the first 2 days of Christmas Gifts. Today marks our half-way point of our gift opening... so I do have 4 more gifts that I could show you... but I think I'll save the fun... and share 2 more gifts with you tomorrow!

Thank you to alll the lovely artists who participated in this swap... I can't remember a time when I've had as much fun!

~Anne

Back Online!

Wow... what a week! Last week, we finally took the computer in to the Geek Squad and we had our hard drive replaced (it was about to fail). When we got the computer back, and I loaded the OS, we found out that the network drivers were not included! So, while we did have a computer, we had no internet... so basically, we had an expensive deck of cards sitting on the desk!

*sigh* So, began the adventure of trying to get myself back online, which was quite a challenge for me, as I'm not the most computer literate person around. I think I finally exhausted the folks at Comcast, who finally sent someone out to help me... free of charge.

What I've learned from this adventure: 1) Just because you've purchased the service plan from Best Buy, does not mean that you'll get the service you think you will... this plan covers only the labor and the hardware, but not the software. 2) Create a back up disk often, and most importantly, you should have a back up disk of all necessary drivers! 3) Being persistant (if not just a bit frustrated) with Comcast might very well lead them to do things for you that they would otherwise not do (or charge you to do). 4) The freebie virus protection provided by Comcast is not all it should be. Do yourself a favor and invest in a reliable virus protection with frequent updating and keep your subscription up to date. This is probably the most important lesson I've learned.

So... now that I'm back online, I have some art to share with you...

This is one of a series of 4 "Pear" ATCs that I made for a recent Freestyle ATC swap on my yahoo group. I was really happy with how these turned out, each just a little bit different...

Also... my listings at etsy are doing quite well, be sure to visit my store to see my latest additions. Right now, I have several Teapot Cozies (I didn't make these, but they are hand-made by a friend of mine!), and a couple of domino ornaments!

~Anne

For Sale: Domino Ornaments!

Well, I had a few left-over domino ornaments after the artisan fair, so I've listed some of them at my etsy store. I will be adding a few more over the next few days as I find some spare time.

The most difficult part for me is the photography, because I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination. Even with someone who KNOWS what they're doing with a camera... photographing dominos is no easy task... first, they're so small... and the images on them are even smaller! And because the dominos have a nice, glossy, glass-like finish on them, they reflect the light from the flash and it distorts the image even more. So, when you combine that with the fact that I am not much of a photographer... well, you get DISASTER! ha!

Anyways, visit my etsy store and judge for yourself... please let me know if you have any ideas on how to capture better images!

~Anne

Another UHU Review!

Hello Everyone:

As some of you may remember, I reviewed UHU's Creativ Fabric Glue some time ago. Well, I was given the opportunity to try another of their products last month...

This is UHU's Creativ Metal, Glass & Jewelry Glue. As you can see, it's a two part resin type adhesive. What I like about this particular formulation as opposed to say, another resin adhesive, is that the formula is a bit thicker for both the hardener and the resin. It makes it a lot easier to "eyeball" the measurements. Just squeeze a small amount of both tubes into the mixing pan (also included), side by side and then mix well.

I used this glue to help create my domino ornaments (as seen in my last blog entry and below). You'll have to forgive me, some of the images and details are difficult to discern, because we're dealing with dominos here, so everything is in a tiny size... not to mention the fact that I'm not the best photographer around!

I used the UHU Creativ Metal, Glass & Jewelry glue to adhere the tiny Australian Crystals, buttons, and spiral embellishments onto my Domino ornaments that I showcased at the Artisan Fair this past Saturday. I made about 75 ornaments total, and came home with about 30 remaining, so that's not too shabby!

One of the particular challenges that my domino embellishing presented is that you're applying the gems and embellishments to a shiny, smooth surface without much tooth... so it's important to select a very strong glue that will stay stuck to these types of surfaces.

The UHU Creativ Metal, Glass & Jewelry Glue is up to that challenge, as the embellishments seemed to become "one" with the ornament... as if they were molded together! These embellishments are NOT coming off without some significant effort to pry them off!

Another notable difference between UHU's Creativ Metal, Glass & Jewelry Glue and other 2 part resins, is that with many of the 2 part resin adhesives out there, you need to allow a couple of minutes for the resin to partially set before you adhere. With the UHU, there's no waiting time, it sets up right away, so that you can keep on arting! However, there is a downside to this benefit, because the quick drying time also means a quick drying time for the portion sitting on the mixing tray waiting to be used... so the unused portion would dry out before I was finished adhering all the embellishments... I strongly recommend having all of your embellishments ready to glue before mixing your glue to minimize waste!

Overall, I strongly recommend the UHU Creativ Metal, Glass & Jewelry Glue. A little bit of the glue goes a long way and after adhering embellishments to 75 dominos, I still have about three-fourths of the tubes left... so I have lots more left over for more charm making!

Thank you UHU, for allowing me to review your awesome product! To learn more about UHU, please visit Maria's UHU Project Blog. And thanks to everyone for reading along!

~Anne

Domino Ornaments

These are some of the domino ornaments I've made for the upcoming artisan fair. I have been working on these just about every spare minute... Right now, I have about 50 finished, and I hope to have another 20 all cured and ready to roll by Saturday!

The pears are hand painted, the stars with swirls are stamped with a handpainted background.

The 'sepia' toned one is tea stained and then stamped with the swirl background, and accented with vintage text and a transferred image, and then embellished with a rhinestone & a vintage wooden button.

The snowflake design starts with a handpainted background, and then I stamp the images onto tissue paper and decoupage the images onto the domino, and embellish with rhinestones.

They've been a lot of fun! I hope that they sell!

~Anne

We Survived!

We made it back home about an hour ago from our Black Friday Shopping... it wasn't as rough on our pocketbooks as previous years, but, the crowds seem to be growing and growing!

We got most of the things on our list (and then some) -- but there were a couple of things we had planned on getting that were sold out too. Ah well, that's the risk you take when you leave the bulk of your holiday shopping to Black Friday, I suppose.

Anyways, some good did come out of it all (besides the bargain on the Guitar Hero III):

1) I am reminded this time every year just WHY I blend my own tea and prefer it over the chai lattes available from starbucks. Sure, I don't have a milk steamer (yet) and so I add a splash of unheated/unfrothed half and half to my chai instead. And... I don't even brew my chai the same way (they use a concentrated blend that is a tea steeped in milk rather than in boiling water -- I prefer the boiling water method)... but, even without the fancy steeping method and steamed, frothy milk, my chais are still better!

2) I am reminded this time every year just why I don't like the malls much anymore, and why I prefer to do most of my shopping online.

Anyways... how about some art? This isn't new... exactly... although it is from a currently ongoing deco round robin...

This is the cover from my Garden Tea Party deco. I am waiting on it to come home -- I can't wait to see what the others did! Here is the first page of my inside spread...

and here's page 2...

So, that's all for now... coming soon... some pictures of the ornaments I've made for the upcoming artisan's fair!

~Anne

It's Black Friday...

And it's 5:05 am currently... yep, I'm up to commence the "tradition" my hubby and I seemed to have started a few years ago... waking up at hours meant only for sleeping to head out into the cold cruel retail world and shop for gifts. When you think about it, it's really quite ridiculous to continue with this ritual. We have succumbed to the commercialization. Sad. Very very sad.

But, hey, what can I do? I can't "make" a Guitar Hero III bundle set (which is on sale at Target for 85 bucks today), I can't "make" my little pony playsets. :( And these are the treasures that top the lists of my daughters this year. Yes, and the maxi glide hair straightening system, which is purchased online... yay! No crazy lines! Although... I really find the name of the hair system offensive... "maxi glide" -- sounds like some sort of feminine hygene product, not a hair straightening system. Right?

OK... I'm off to shop. Wish me luck!

~Anne

Circus Fatbook Pages

Well, as I promised earlier, I wanted to upload a pic or two of my circus fatbook pages that were mailed off to the hostess yesterday.

When I was "brainstorming" for this page, I wanted something more Pierrot clown-ish as a charm "dangly" but, I'm really pleased with these little silver plated plastic elephants instead... they give such a cool, vintage feel to the whole page. I found them at Vintage Treasures by Judy. (NOTE: after visiting just now at her ebay store, I noticed that she's closed her store for the holidays... be sure to catch her when she reopens her store in 2008! She has amazing deals!)

I can't wait to see the completed book!

Well, that IS all for today...

~Anne

I Am Purple...

Good Morning Everyone ... it's 7:23 am! UGH! Yeah, I know, it's early, but, I have to get my daughter ready and out the door for school... this is her last day for school this week, she'll have Wednesday - Friday off for the holiday.

As I was browsing through my emails this morning while waiting for my daughter to finish her breakfast, one in particular caught my eye... it was about an online quiz where it determines the color that best represents you... Here are my results:

What color is your soul painted? Purple Your soul is painted the color purple, which embodies the characteristics of sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, mystery, enlightenment, arrogance, gaudiness, mourning, confusion, pride, delicacy, power, meditation, religion, and ambition. Purple falls under the element of Earth, and was once a European symbol of royalty; today it symbolizes the divine. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

Let's hope that worked!

Anyways, I thought it was interesting since purple is my favorite color. What that means, exactly... I dunno... it's like art, and subject to interpretation.

So, that's all this morning... I'll probably have more later today as I have a picture of the fatbook pages I mailed off yesterday.

~Anne

An additional review of UHU's fabric glue

For those of you who read my blog, you know that I did a review of UHU's Creativ Fabric Glue back in July. I wanted to post another brief review of the product, because I used it again, this time in a somewhat unconventional way, and was very pleased with the results.


This time, I used the glue to adhere handmade paper to the back of needlefelted fabric. I wasn't sure how well it would work, because of the woolen, loose, fibery properties of needlefelted wool fabric.





It worked great!

Some months ago, I hosted a felted ATC swap on my Yahoo Group ... and I wasn't sure exactly how I was going to adhere the information that we ATC artists generally include on the back side of the ATCs. At first, I figured I'd try some standard craft glue, but, I worried that it would cause the paper to warp or buckle, and I didn't want to finish the ATCs like that. So I decided to give the UHU Fabric Glue a try, and it worked amazingly well!

Not a buckle or warp anywhere, and in looking at the back side of the ATCs up close and in person, you can't really see (or feel) any tell-tale signs of how the paper was adhered to the felted fabric. I was very pleased indeed!

So... now all we need to do is convince UHU to start selling this stuff in the states!

~Anne

Decos, Tea & ATCs...

Hello Everyone!

Well, I'm long overdue on this deco spread, I just had so many things going on at once that I shut down from being overwhelmed (an unfortunate symptom of the anxiety thing), and so I just couldn't pull myself out of the "ickies" long enough to work on anything.

However, things have lightened up some, and I'm feeling productive once again. This past weekend, I finished my spread on Julie's Elements deco... this was a very challenging deco for me, we could choose 1 of the elements, but couldn't repeat an element already chosen... since "wood" was one of the remaining ones, and I had just received some "wood" scrapbook paper, I felt inspired enough to select the wood spread... of course, I could have left the "wood" page for Gail, who has some particularly interesting fabric that could have been used on the spread... but, err... ... well, nevermind...

As you can see, the scan cut off the far right side of the spread, and while I did scan the other side of the spread separately, for some reason, it didn't show up in my scan folder when I went to load them here, so, you'll just have to be content with what you see here. :) I hand sketched the trees in the background against the wood paper.... and the dimensional tree in front, as well as the little fence... are actual wood that I found at the craft store. This was a fun deco... and I hope that Julie likes.

Now... on to some ATCs that I recently worked on... These are 3 in my Autumn Batik Series.

Lately, I've also been working on some tea blends... most notably, I've been working on a "Winter Wonderland" blend, that I hope to have finished in time for Ridgefield's craft bizaar the first weekend of December... I'm working on something that will have a bit of a warm, spicy flavor with orange and cranberry notes. I'm also working on a "Fresh Cookies" blend, with flavors that will remind you of gramma's house after she's baked some warm, yummy cookies!

I guess I should have added this information on my tea journal, huh? LOL Maybe I'll head over there in a bit.

~Anne

Skelly Stuffy

I've been so out of it... not feeling entirely creative... I've made a few things in the past few weeks...... a one page swapper 'zine, a witch in a jar (which broke -- apparently the witch was actually a squib, because she didn't reparo her environment when it shattered!), and Mr. Skelly Stuffy.... who is modeling below...

He came about pretty organically. I actually started out with a drawn out pattern on cardstock, but, my first Skelly... um.... well, let's just say, it's back to the graveyard with him. So, I decided to toss the pattern and just create...

He's completely hand stitched (no machine), and... my lack of sewing skills is more apparent in some areas than others... but overall, I'm pretty pleased with him and he's got his own sort of charm. I sent him off to a new home, to live with my secret art pal!

But... a bonus! My oldest daughter actually asked me to make one for her! That made me feel good.

OK, well, that's all for now. :) Thanks for reading along.

I Love Soap!

I love soap. Not just any ordinary soap that you can purchase at your local supermarket or discount store, but, home-made, hand-crafted-with-love soap! Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen is my soap boutique of choice... and if you've ever tried Rebecca's soaps, you'd know why!


I recently purchased a bar of her Lettuce Gardener's Soap because let's face it, those of us who play in gel medium and paint... get goopy hands. The description of the Lettuce Gardener's Soap reads thus:

...lettuce gardener's soap smells like a blend of Sweet Floral, water, and
ozone. It contains poppy seeds, fine ground pumice and apricot kernel meal to
help remove grit and garden dirt from your hands. It's thick, creamy lather
helps remove soil as well, while the addition of shea and cocoa butters keep
hands soft and hydrated. Also works great as a mechanic's soap.

Those last two lines sold me on this soap. I remember my grandfather used to use Lava soap after working on the car, and it reminded me a lot of sandpaper. After working on my art, I need a soap that works like sandpaper, but doesn't leave my hands feeling like they've just been sanded!

Rebecca's Lettuce Gardener's Soap does exactly as it promises, it sloughs away the glues, goops, paints and glop off of my hands, and yet, my hands don't feel dry and brittle after I use the soap. And the fragrance is quite pleasant indeed!


You can see all the texture -- the poppy seeds, the pumice, and the apricot kernel -- to this soap... that texture is what helps slough away all that stuff that gets built up on my hands after a typical night of art-ing! So, for all you artists and crafters out there, I highly recommend trying this soap.


And... yes, after washing my hands as many times as I do (gotta wash 'em in between each layer of goop!) I do feel like I need some lotion... and I just love Rebecca's Blackberry Sage Honey and Goatmilk Lotion. I am going to order some of this the next time I place an order with Rebecca. In my last order, she sent me a sample of it, and I am really blown away at how nice it is! The fragrance I was already familiar with, as I've used her Blackberry Sage soap in the past, but, I hadn't yet tried any of her lotions. But after trying her small sample... I'm hooked! It not only smells nice, but feels so silky smooth!


~Anne

Mad Tea Party

Yesterday, I sent off my Mad Tea Party fatbook pages to the hostess.

The scan doesn't quite do the colors of this page justice... the yellows seems to have washed out the green colors, making them appear more yellow-y too. Some of the greens are more teal. But, I'm quite happy with the way the pages turned out, even if some of the layers turned out to be a bit more subtle than I would have liked.

The quote on the page: "Take some more tea the March Hare said to Alice very earnestly" comes from the Mad Tea Party chapter from Alice in Wonderland. And of course, the "drink me" concept also comes from the book. I didn't want to use images from the book (or from the disney adaptation) because it all seemed a bit too expected.

I am finishing up a teensy-tiny 'zine that I've created for one of my yahoo groups, I need to get that in the mail too. I am quite relieved, however, that I'm not yet late with it! (I'm so much like the white rabbit from the aforementioned tale... always always late!)

Thanks for reading along!

~Anne

Graffiti Fat Book

I am so way behind on posting this... haha! The story of my life, right?

I have really enjoyed doing fatbooks lately. One of the more recent fatbook pages I've created was for a Traci Bautista-inspired Graffiti book.

First off... let me explain how I create fatbooks... I start with a "canvas" (I usually use a cut to size piece of cereal box that I've primed with gesso) that's 8 x 4. By measuring out my base to 8 x 4, it allows me to create a backside on my page as well as the front. There are some fatbook artists that do not work the back of the page at all, and the stark white back stands out in the book -- and not in a good way! So, I try to keep a sort of continuity with both sides of the page.

Here's my 8 x 4 page

This scan doesn't show the full effect of my page, because I finished each page with some soft gel medium for texture, and then a sprinkling of ultrafine glitter for some much needed sparkle.

Then, I added some random stitching with some handspun, handpainted wool yarn that I purchased from Crystal, and then I added some fun furry fiber.

I really loved the finished texture of this page. And the finished product... the book I got back... ohhhhh... it was fabulous! I was so thrilled with it!

~Anne

Decos!

Wow, it feels so good to be deco-ing again! I've really missed it!

These deco pages are for Laura's "Quotes" deco...

And this is my page for Teresa's Beatles' deco...


This is my interpretation of "The Long and Winding Road" by the beatles. Here's the view when the tag is "opened"......

It's kind of hard to see what it says ... it's the lyrics of the song, written in a spiral... winding. I really liked this photo, it reminds me of the long, winding road that leads to my town. I hope Teresa likes this deco...

~Anne

Needlefelting fun

Hi Everyone! Yes, I know I'm late late late with this tutorial... but I just managed to find my USB cable for my camera! Sorry about the delay!

OK... so here we go...

This is a needlefelting tutorial, and here is the basic supplies you'll need:

*unspun, cleaned & dyed wool fibers
*dense foam padding (I purchased my foam padding here)

*felting needles (I use sizes 38 & 40)

*a piece of wool felt (I used a piece of scrap felt -- but NOT the craft store felt you can purchase for 20 cents a square!)

NOTE: you can use alternative background felts, such as a bit of accidentally felted wool sweater, or you can knit or crochet wool yarn into squares and wet felt those... you can even needle felt your background felt - but be aware that this can be a very time consuming process. Since this tutorial is for felted ATCs... I thought it would be best to use a pre-felted background rather than start from scratch.

1. I started with a piece of pre-felted wool felt (I believe it's a wool blend of some sort, I am not sure, the lovely lady who sold me my dense foam pad to felt upon at Colonial Fiber Arts sent me some scrap felt from her stash.) I cut it to 2.5" x 3.5". The piece may spread a bit when you felt it, but usually, it's a very small amount of spreading (like about 1/4 of an inch or less).

2. Pull out your wool fibers into small tufts, and lay them out in one direction for the first layer, following up the first layer with a second layer of tufts in the opposite direction. (example, the layer shown is vertical, the next layer of tufts would be placed horizontally) I generally overlap the area that I intend to felt, as this will ensure that I will cover the area and not have bald spots. Here, I'm using a merino wool that has a varigated pattern in yellows, oranges and reds. It's one of my favorites because the hues are so vivid.

3. using the needle, begin stabbing the fibers well in to the background felt. The needle has little spurs on it that grasp onto the wool fibers and entangle them with the other wool fibers to make a dense fabric. The more you stab, the more dense your fabric will become. Here, I am using a gauge 38 needle (my personal favorite). Thicker gauge needles tend to be more difficult to punch through the denser fabrics.

Continue to stab, stab, stab your fibers until they've acheived the desired density.

4. I usually fold the excess fibers (over the edge) over onto the areas I've already felted to have a clean edge. You can also cut away the fibers if you prefer. Or, you can leave them for a unique and fuzzy look. I generally continue to felt until the piece looks less like loose fibers and more like a piece of dense fabric.

5. At this point, I usually run my fingertips over the surface of the felt to help smooth out the needle punched holes that cover the surface. You don't have to do this step, of course, that's all up to you and your muse! Note: This just minimizes the appearance of the holes, doesn't always eliminate them completely!

6. While I run my hand over the surface, I also check for thinner areas, and add additional tufts of wool fibers as needed to create a consistent surface, and continue to stab, stab, stab (I love the stabbing... it's VERY theraputic!) until the desired thickness, consistency, and look is acheived.

7. Create your design as desired. Below are two ATCs that I've made using this same background...

I created these design by tacking on additional bits of wool using a thinner gauge felting needle (40 gauge). I will add some additional embellishments such as beads or buttons later.

Here's another felted ATC that I made using a different background. This one required a bit more planning, because I wanted the background to be a non-varigated, two-toned background.

I used the varigated red/yellow/orange wool that I used previously for the pear, along with a small amount of white to bring out some highlight.

So there it is, my tutorial... I hope you found it helpful! You are welcome to email me with any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them if I can!

~Anne