Vintage Water Goddess

Hello!
I'm back today with a piece I have just finished for my Mum's Birthday.

Stamps make PERFECT templates for a whole host of craft with fabric,one of which is mixed media embroidery.

For this piece,I used the inimitable Smeared Ink Elementals 'Water Goddess' stamp (Currently in the sale-wahoo!)

After choosing your fabric (mine is a very-hard-to-photograph-without those-annoying-lines-piece of vintage silk,bought back from the Middle East when we lived there),ink up your chosen stamp (remember-simple lines are better!) and brayer the fabric onto the inked stamp. 
Place your fabric in an embroidery hoop. I was always going to leave mine in the hoop as it was my Grandmothers,so therefore has sentimental value,but you may want to paint the hoop,or make sure you use one nice enough to leave attached! 

Next select your threads. I chose to do this piece with as much texture as I could,so chose as many different blue embroidery floss as I could find,plus bits of thin ribbon,some netting and beads. 

I used a split stitch for the majority of this,simply because it creates a nice solid textured line,splitting off two strands from the palest blue floss to outline her face. And a simple running stitch with metallic blue floss for the frame box.

Her hair was just plain fun! Just go to town on bits like this. I used random thread,ribbon and the netting and interspersed it with seed beads

Aaah,yes, the back. The utterly terrifying spaghetti junction of loose threads!

 To finish this piece,I cut the excess base fabric very closely to the hoop and drew around the hoop onto a piece of thick felt and cut it out. Using a strong quick glue suitable for fabric (I used Glossy Accents),glue the trimmed fabric to the hoop,so it wont pull through and escape,then add a little more to the wooden hoop and fix the felt pad on,like the lid of a pie. If you want to hang your piece up,add a bit of ribbon,lace or trim in between the felt and the hoop. 

It is a lovely thing to pootle along with in the evenings,adding more and more and watching it grow into a piece you feel is finished.

I hope you have enjoyed that rather long winded tute! Now go see which stamps would make for nice needle work ;-)