Valentine's card

Recently I downloaded a digistamp from Digital Pencil Too and thought she would be ideal for a Valentine's card for my DH. Also, just by chance you understand.............. my heart nesties have also just arrived - so what's a girl to do but play!!! lol

I printed the image twice onto inkjet card and coloured both with copics. I cut out one of the images and decoupaged it onto of the main image. Using my heart nesties I cut out two pieces of red felt and it cut like an absolute dream. I added some lace around the edge and stitched it together. I left a small gap so I could fill the heart with wadding and then completed the sewing. The heart was then placed on top of the heart in the image. I found some paper roses that matched and cut off the corner of a polybag diagonally which looked like the cellophane you get real flowers wrapped in; added a piece of ribbon and attached that to the heart. The sentiment was computer generated and both that and the main image were layered on black and silver mirri. The backing paper was from my stash (Elusive Images I think) with a piece of red card and some ribbon placed across the middle. A silver peel off finished the card. As the card is pretty dimensional I will now have to make a box for it as there's no way it will fit in an envelope! Hope he likes it.

From tiny acorns...............

Having already had a go at making my own fabric I was itching to have another try at it.

This photo shows the basic goodies you need - black felt and some bits and pieces of fabric from sheers to cottons.



Then with the aid of some free machine embroidery you end up with a piece of fabric that looks something like this.



I took the fabric and cut out four pieces to make my bag. Each piece had to be zigzagged around the edges and then sewn together with each of the pieces making a point at the bottom of the bag. Next I made two holes in each side to take the cord - I used a plain paper punch and set in eyelets using my Crop-a-Dile. I attached a tassel and some beads to the bottom of the bag. Unfortunately I didn't have a tassel that matched the bag and then hit upon the idea of using my Promarkers to colour it - it was pale blue to start with and it's now purple. I think it worked a treat and because the Promarkers are alcohol based it dried immediately. Out of the left over fabric I cut out three flowers which I sewed together and then attached to the bag and sewed a bead to the centre of each flower.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bah Humbug!!!

Today I thought I'd join in the Bah Humbug 2nd challenge.

They have asked you to use any of your Christmas craft goodies to make either a Christmas card or a project.

I was given the Stampin Up Scandinavian Season stamp set and thought it was a great opportunity to try it out. I have used the lovely tree and stamped and white embossed onto green SU card. I picked out some elements in the tree with a few small gems although I'm not sure how well they show up in the photo. I made a simple easel card by cutting an A4 piece of card in half vertically and then scored it in half and then one half in half again. I matted the Christmas tree onto a piece of white cardstock and mounted that onto the easel card. I added some fine peel off corners and stamped the sentiment (Papermania) and used my oval and scalloped oval SU punches to make the "stop" for the easel card. Finally to finish the card I tied a piece of white ribbon in a bow and glued it on to the top.

Thanks for looking.

Unusual shaped card...........

My sister Val sent Tony and I a very unusual shaped card for our anniversary in October. It's been sitting on my desk waiting to be looked at more closely but what with Christmas etc I just haven't had the time.

Today I decided to investigate the card a little more closely and I must admit the first thing Val said to me was "I bet you'll take it apart to see how I made it"............... well, you're right!

I'm really not sure what to call it - perhaps an envelope card? If anyone out there knows the proper name I would love to know.

You need a 12x12" piece of double sided card which is cut out (using my sister's as a template......) and then it's folded diagonally with more folds going in horizontally. When you have glued the card together the right side is folded over first, then the left side and the top flap is tucked inside the opening in the top of the left piece. All that's needed then is some stamping (Hero Arts Real Dill) and matting and layering. The sentiment inside is from Circa Stamps and one I use a lot and I finished off with some white peel off flowers.

Thanks for looking.

"R" is for...............

Thought I'd join in the Craftwork Cards challenge where they are spelling out their name in challenges.

This one is "R" is for ribbon. I had bought a goody bag from Craftwork Cards sometime last year and it was languishing on my shelves so I decided to get it out and dust it down.............. riffling through all the goodies I found the pink and brown swirly paper so decided to cut it diagonally and place a piece of their polka dot pink and white ribbon along the cut side of the paper and tied a knot in the centre. The card flowers have been shaped and some candy added to the centres. The butterflies were also shaped and the chocolate sentiments matted onto pink and chocolate cardstock. Then what goes with chocolate???? Well some glitter of course....... l0l. I added some pink cosmic twinkles.

Thanks for looking.

Playing with my SU stamps

Having received lots of lovely Stampin Up stamp sets for Christmas I am now getting around to having a play with them.

This card uses their medallion stamp (huge......) to make a piece of background card using Almost Amethyst and Lavender Lace stamp pads and then overprinted with a French Text stamp in Purple Staz-On. The main card is made out of a dark purple cardstock from my stash. The background card is matted onto a pale mauve card. A piece of the dark purple has been clear embossed using the flower stamp from a Touch of Nature and a piece of purple ribbon has been tied around it. The focal image had been made up using the fern stamp from the same set stamped in Almost Amethyst with the flower stamped a few times in Lavender Lace and then in the purple Staz-On. Before I inked up with the Staz-on I inked the flower stamp with VersaMark which then allowed me to clear emboss it - it also makes cleaning the stamp so much easier. A few touches of glitter and Diamond Glaze in the centre of the flowers and this was again matted onto the pale mauve card.

Thanks for looking.

Bleaching Technique

Must be on a roll today!!!! I keep returning to the Stampin Up Touch of Nature set for some reason and used the flower as the main image on this card.

I made a 5" square card blank with SU card, took the flower image and clear embossed it around the left hand side and bottom of the card. I had cut out some masks from post-it notes so some of the flowers could look like they were behind some of the others.

I then took some clear bleach and a fine paintbrush and painted over the flowers to take out the colour. When this had dried I searched out my Pearl-Ex powders and mixed with a little water and painted the flowers which really seems to make them "pop". The sentiment is from another Stampin Up range which has been die cut and matted using my nesties. Finishing touch were three pearls coloured copper with my Krylon leafing pen.

Crafts Too embossing folder

I've just recently bought a new embossing folder by Crafts Too. It's brilliant in the fact that you can emboss the front of an A6 card without getting any borders that happens all too frequently with the Cuttlebug folders.

I've just made a quick card using the Crafts Too embossing folder which I highlighted with a cat's eye chalk inkpad. Then I stamped and decoupaged a flower from my SU Touch of Nature set. The sentiment is a Hero Arts stamp.

As I said, a very quick and easy card but I wanted to show you the effects you can get. I bought my folder ( and much, much more........) from Liz who I can highly recommend - please see the link on the sidebar of my blog for details.

Thanks for looking.

Nellies dies and SU stamps

Afraid I've not done much crafting in the last week as I've been laid low with a chest infection. The other day our great postie Dave delivered my long awaited Nellies dies so I was itching to have a play with them.

I also haven't had a chance to try out any of my new Stampin Up sets that I received at Christmas so this was an ideal time to try them both together.

I covered an A5 card with a piece of Graphicus paper, cut a strip of SU green card and used my SU wheel to create a flourish border which I then clear embossed. This was matted onto a piece of white card which had been punched with a Martha Steward lattice window border punch. I then tied a piece of cream ribbon around the centre of this and placed it in the centre of the card. I cut out two Nellies frames and used the flourish from the SU Baroque Motifs set as a background using Mellow Moss ink. I then stamped the bird from the Touch of Nature set in Old Olive once onto each of the frames and then twice onto white card for each frame. These were coloured with copics, the first layer I decoupaged the whole image and the second layer only the bird. I then stamped the phrase from the Touch of Nature set and matted onto green card. The finishing touch was three pearls at the top right corner.

Thanks for looking.

Twisted Panel Bag

Thought I'd show you the finished bag. We managed to get out yesterday to go to Yeovil which enabled me to go to Denners where I could get some more cord which I needed to finish off the bag. The roads were okay because they had been gritted but the pavements in Yeovil were like a skating rink - something I can testify to as I went flying - luckily not much damage done apart from my pride!!!! lol Boy, do you feel a fool..............

Anyway, I managed to get a better match of cord for the bag and then I made two "puffy" hearts from one of the fabrics which I attached to each end of the cord.

Thanks for looking and keep warm everyone.

Another bag

I just had to have a go at making this Twisted Panel Bag after I saw it on the Talking Threads Christmas Special DVD.

This bag doesn't take much fabric to make - you need 36 strips of fabric; 12 of three different fabrics - two that match/co-ordinate and one that's a bit "glitzy" which is the one in the middle. You actually catch down a pleat of two plain pieces of fabric over the glitzy one all along one side and then turn the piece around and do the same on the other side. This makes your twist in the fabric. I need to get some matching cord as I only had some gold which doesn't really go but wanted to see it all together. Sorry if the photo quality isn't very good but my batteries just died on me and I need to put some more in.

Thanks for looking.

Evening bag

I have just managed to finish off my project that I started in my free machine embroidery class before Christmas.

I made the fabric completely from scratch on a base of black felt, then adding leaf shapes in various fabrics with a sheer over the top and then free machine embroidery over the top of that. The fabric was lined, pattern cut out and then each raw edge had to be zigzagged over three times (different lengths and widths of stitch) before sewing together. The actual shape of the bag is really nice but it was difficult to get a photograph that showed it off to it's best. The bag comes to a point at the bottom and looks somewhat medieval. Holes were made in each section for the cord to go through and from the left over fabric leaves were cut out to attach to the sides of the bag and then had beads sewn on to them.

I really enjoyed doing this project especially as the complete thing was made from virtually nothing.

Thanks for looking.