A Bejewelled Bag

Just recently I bought this brilliant DVD by Gina Ferrari called Creative Free Machine Embroidery

It's packed full of information for the beginner who wants to stretch and expand their skills and there are loads of hints and tips and clear visual instructions.

Having played and practiced  I felt confident enough to try a small project, the instructions for which I downloaded from Angie Hughes' site. There are downloadable instructions for quite a few projets available and I think Angie still runs these workshops but if you're confident enough or just too far away you can dive straight in and have a go.  Personally I found the instructions pretty easy to follow but you should have some basic machine stitching experience.  I have really enjoyed doing this and although it's nowhere near perfect it's given me a chance to try some really interesting processes.

For example, cable stitch, which involves hand winding your bobbin with a thicker thread  (eg embroidery floss) and stitching with your right side facing down - ie you can't see it (!) 

and I ended up with this - see the raised gold thread that looks as though it's been couched?

The actual bag was pretty much an A4 pattern template worked on black velvet and after adding foils, applying small squares of silk with Bondaweb, a layer of organza and practicing my free machine embroidery skills including vermicelli stitch, whip stitch and couching, I ended up with this...

It was then finally cut out machine stitched into shape (can you imagine how fiddly those bottom triangles were?), a lining added, some eyelets and a tassle and hey presto!!!

Memory Box stamps

This is a tag made with one of the Memory Box stamps which also has a matching tag die.  Memory Box have built in a very nifty way of lining up their stamps and matching dies so that you get a perfect cut out every time too.  You can see the video here

The paper I've used is also from Memory Box (hooked or what! lol)

Memory Box.. again..

Just a couple more samples for you.  This one's very simple but with such a beautiful die cut you don't need much. It'll be lovely for Valentine's Day (if you do that sort of thing ...)

The word stamp I've used here is from Stempelglede.  If you enlarge the pic you should be able to see the hint of glitter.  The colours aren't great here and it shouldn't look as dull as this!.  Roll on the brighter days

In love with Memory Box

I've just recently discovered the Memory Box dies and I just love their intricacy.  I got some through the post at the beginning of the week and this week has been a perfect chance to play.  (can you see my curly hazel that the tag is hanging from?)

This is the gorgeous Vivienne (top) and Darla (base) butterflies.  Considering how intricate the dies are, they cut beautifully.

.. and this is the Cupid Heart (base) and the fab Serafina Heart (top).  Have a look at the detail below.

I can see I will be adding to my collection of these.

A birthday card..

Ok so this is not my usual style.  It was my best mate's birthday earlier this month and she's an absolutely mad, bonkers Alice Cooper fan.  If you like Alice you should go here.  Anyway, I decided I would have to make her a card to feed her obsession. lol

A week off work!

Hooray a week off to craft! So yesterday, I had a go at something I've been wanting to try for a long time.... dying fabric. I got some white cotton velvet in a sale some time back and this is the result. Plain colours to start off with -

.. and then random.  These were done in a very similar way to using spray inks.  The fabric was soaked in soda first - I think this is the fixative for the dye  (you can see I'm not very knowledgeable yet!) and then I just sprayed dissolved dye crystals all over the fabric.  It was a very wet day (lots of washing and rinsing) but I'm very pleased with my results so far.

And this morning this lovely little parcel arrived in the post as my winnings in a blog competition.

If you love stitching and you've never visited Karen Ruane's blog do go.  Thanks Karen.  Your little puffs are just beautiful!

Angie Hughes Workshop

Last weekend, I finally managed to attend one of Angie  Hughes' workshops feeling that my stitching skills were finally okay enough to have a go!  Angie has a new workshop just outside Ledbury at Trumpet Corner Art Studios and Tea Rooms (which also just happens to serve scrumtious food).

This workshop was called Tantalising Textile Tagbooks.  I decided to follow a vaguely medical theme...

The most exciting thing I learnt during the day was how to image transfers with Bondaweb. I've always found transferring images can be a bit hit and miss...

but using a combination of Bondaweb and inkjet copies, it worked every time....

I also learnt about adding foils to fabric ...

.... and was reminded about how to add your own words to binding tape using the printer.

A really enjoyable day! If you are not near Ledbury (which is a lovely part of the country and well worth a visit), Angie has started uploading instructions to her workshops on her website so that you can create the projects in your own home.

The Joys of Cell Division

The Sketchbook Challenge has started the year of 2012 with the theme of Doodling.  I meant to join in with this most of last year and waffled around and never made it.  I guess this is a pretty traditional zentangle type drawing but it was all inspired by bacteria and cells. Some of the more medical among you might even recognise some of the shapes! It struck me that bacteria and cells were made for doodling and I found this wonderful clipart resource site too...    here

Gingersnap Creations GC133

The current Chestnut Theme Challenge is "Use a Set" so here's my tag using Jo Capper-Sandon's stamps as I seem to be gathering quite a few!

2012 here we come!

It's that time of year when I start mucking round with my blog design so don't think you're in the wrong place if things look different over the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who has visited my blog and left lovely comments over the past year (and longer).  Wishing you a happy, peaceful and creative year in 2012!

Paperbag Studios - Journal Girl Stamps

Back in November, a new designer, Samantha Kira Harding was announced at Paperbag Studios and she came up with these fab journaling stamps.

Here are some ideas below on how you can use them....
The background on the one below was courtesy of an Andy Skinner video.
.

The stamps lend themselves to a casual style of journalling which I really enjoyed.

And if you use a bit of imagination you can adapt the shapes.

This one will resonate with a few people! (click to enlarge if you can't see the writing)

If you would like some more inspiration have a look here and if you decide that you just have to have the stamps you can buy them here.

Pop up gift card/money holder

As most of the kids in my family are now in their teens, the present they most appreciate is money.  I found this great clip on YouTube here.  It's a bit old but you can just about make it out! Time was running out and I had to make half a dozen so these are quite simple....

but you could add a lot more detail if you had the time and they will hold money or a gift card...

and be careful what you offer if you make a voucher!

December Calendar Challenge

I've finally managed to get some decent pics of my December challenge pages.  Going out of the house in the near dark and returning in the near dark is not conducive to photography!!   I've stuck with traditional colours...

Spot the deliberate mistake (upside down angel!)
A close up of the month's lettering...

I specifically didn't melt all the UTEE on the angel as I like the textural effect.  

Better go and fill in the missing dates now!

Stampotique Designers Challenge - non traditional Christmas

The current Stampotique DC is non-traditional Christmas so I raided my vast box of hand made backgrounds and picked a couple that matched, found some matching cotton and added embellishments with the sewing machine.  The scalloped edges at the top are an automatic stitch on my machine, stitched on card.  I then gently tore away the surrounding card and because the stitches are so close together it just came away, leaving the scallops.

November Calendar pages

Can't believe I've managed to keep up the calendar pages this long.  I'm really not a diarist but I have enjoyed making the pages. So... here's October's calendar challenge finished

Here's my Hallowe'en in close up. I forgot it was a 31 day month so did a little fold out for the 31st

I was really pleased with the grave stone.  It's actually a cuttlebug folder pressed out with shrink plastic and embossed.  Note to self:  don't expect to emboss shrink plastic and expect the pattern to remain once you heat it!!!.  So instead I embossed it again (black shrink plastic), stamped my skull in the middle in white and then swiped white ink round the edges of the stone. Then when I shrank it the outline of the embossing remained.

It's getting to that time of year when photography lighting becomes a pain and there are some lovely purple shades in this which I just couldn't manage to show but you get the drift!

Stampotique - just playing

I had a couple of spare hours to sit down at my craft table and ended up with this....

All the stamps apart from the star are Stampotique.  The star is the freebie from last month's Craftstamper by Jo Capper Sandon, so it's virtually Stampotique :).  The background is Dylusions inks.

A stitched birthday tag

I recently bought a flower stitcher foot for my machine which is one hell of a gizmo (see below)

As I was lucky enough to  be off during the last week of September (when we had all that wonderful sun), I had a chance to play.  I hadn't planned on ending up with this but it just evolved and was perfect for a forum friend's birthday.  It also gave me a good chance to get to grips with my sewing machine and I feel much more comfortable with it now.  As usual - click on it for a larger picture.

October Calendar Challenge

I've been very lucky because I chose to take this week off work and the weather has been just gorgeous. So I'm up to date with my September & October's Calendar Challenge pages.  Here's September completed.

I did like the background I made for October and it seemed a shame to cover it up ...

but here's the finished item.  It should be called "Octopoder" really(!)  October's a strangely laid out month and so that I didn't loose the weekday layout, I made 30th and 31st as a little fold out.

That Owl....

Ooh - I got a delivery of some of the new Stampotique stamps today, one of which was this gorgeous owl by Jo-Capper Sandon.  I've used him with the new Tim Holtz Autumn Gatherings leaves.  Must admit I'm feeling well out of practice at making stuff - just doesn't seem to flow at the mo!

Cupcakes

Gina, whose blog is Fan my Flame (of whom I'm a huge fan) has asked for knitted cup cakes so that she can construct a huge regency style wig... made entirely from knitted cakes.  She will donate to Breast Cancer Care and Cancer Research UK for every single cake received, the final date for arrival being 28th October.  If you want to read more click here to see the post.  She can also provide you with a pattern - of which you can see my samples below!  If you know your basic knitting stitches, you can knock these up really quickly.

Along came a spider.......

You know sometimes you see something and you think .. "I've got to make that."  So I saw this YouTube video and I had to make this fab spider.

And (silly me!) I've been all round the garden taking his picture.

Sunday Postcard Art - Autumn

I don't think I've entered the Sunday Postcard Art challenge before but seeing the theme I knew I had a stamp that I wanted to enter with.

.. and here's a close up of the little embellishment that I added.