We need to eat more tomato ketchup!

There are apparently many health benefits to eating tomato ketchup, especially for men but that is not the reason we need to eat more in our household. I'd like to think I am a bit of a health freak at times but the reason is actually a 'crafty' one. 

For the first time in a very long time I ventured out to the Embroiderers' Guild Manchester for the day. We had wonderful playtime this morning. Judith ran a workshop on Artists Trading Cards (ATCs). ATCs aren't really my thing but I had a lot of fun transforming tomato ketchup tubes into lovely little panels. I played a lot with alcoholic paints, embossing powders and a heat gun and stitched a few bits of felt and beads on some of them. I'd love to do more of the heat gun work at home. 

One of them went quite wrong initially. What I thought was fuchsia embossing powder turned out to be just some glitter and although it stuck a little to the metal as soon as it was cold it could be rubbed off quite easily. I then applied some acrylic paint as I thought that would mix well with the glitter but then I had the mad idea to sprinkle embossing powder on top thinking it would melt with the heat gun. I didn't think about the acrylic paint. The effect was not what I had wanted but nonetheless quite interesting.

We also learned about playing around with paper and Bondaweb ;

In the afternoon there was a talk by Joan Archer. A wonderful inspirational former City and Guilds tutor. She had brought along quite a number of historic textiles from around the world. We had the opportunity to touch and photograph them all. 

Some of my favourites were:

A Hungarian blouse in my favourite red, white and blue 

A leather jerkin from Eastern Europe. This wouldn't look out of place with a white T-shirt, jeans and some cool boots. It would certainly keep you warm!

A Chinese baby sling: 

At the end of the day I was given a little pack to make up a yellow square for a rainbow display. Not my favourite colour, I will have to have a long think about that one!