Sugar Block March BOM

Morning Peeps, as it's the last friday in March, I'm sharing my Sugar Block BOM (Block of the Month) with you.

I was much happier with the pattern/instructions for this one than I was with the February block and managed to finish this one in just over an hour. 

 

I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out and seeing all the blocks made so far together, my fabric choice seems to be working out well.  I'm thinking I might quilt each block individually before stitching them together, but haven't made the final decision yet as I'm not entirely sure whether I'll join them all into one quilt top or use them some other way.

 

Do pop over to check out the blogs of my pals Linda and Karen, we are all doing the Sugar Block BOM and we've agreed to share each month's completed block on the last friday of the month, hence my post today. 

 

It's amazing how different each of our finished blocks look, despite us using the same pattern.  Just proves how the fabric selection can give the designs a whole new perspective, depending on how and where light, dark and medium shades are used. 

Blue, Cream and Gold...

This is the colour combination my pal chose when she asked me to make her a quilted table runner.  I made one for Christmas for her and she loved it so much, wanted one to have on her table all year round.

I selected some luscious Japanese fabrics and decided on a 'disappearing nine-patch' design for the table runner and I am pleased with the result.  I would have photographed it on my own table, but it's covered by my sewing machine and a couple of other projects I'm working on - oopsie !  I had to call upon my trusty 'quilt holder' to hold it up for the pic, he does a stirling job Bless him.

Here's a close up view of the patch design, it's a design I love as after the first piecing is done and then cut again,  it can look very different depending on how you piece it all together again - to me it feels a bit like 'Magic' - but then I'm still a very novice quilter, working hard on trying new techniques though.

 

Hope you enjoyed today's project.



Purpliscious Thank You !

Today's project is the Thank You card I created to send to my pal the Purple Princess.  I loved the stamp she gave me as a birthday gift recently and wanted to use it on the TY card for her.

 

My card should have arrived at it's desination by now, so this post hopefully won't spoil the surprise, I hope you liked it Matey, I'm sure you'll approve of the colours I used !



Again I used one of my favourite techniques using Distress Inks direct-to-paper, this time with a twist.  Rather than pressing the ink pad on to the base card I dragged it along a piece of card, using two different colours dragged from opposite sides and merging together at the join.  I then used the fabulous Kaiserkraft stamp Kathy gave me to overstamp the colour block using black Archival Ink. 

Finally I dragged the DI around the edge of the image layer and stamped the sentiment from a set of stamps by SU!

Both Kathy and I are great fans of the CAS style of card, so I'm hoping that as I'm so pleased with how it turned out, she will like it too.

Thanks for visiting today to check out my project.

Crowned Hares

It's Thursday again, so we have a new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Challenge Blog today.  Our theme for this week is 'Easter Parade' and Whimsy Stamps are sponsoring the prize for this challenge.

 

 

I recently bought this fabulous 'Crowned Hares' stamp by Crafty Individuals and couldn't wait to get it inky, so decided to use it to create my DT card for this week's challenge. 

 

I created the background using Distress Inks, masking the 'sun' whilst adding the other colours then stamped the hares image over the top using waterproof Archival black ink.  I then used a waterbrush to lift out the background colours from inside the stamped image, and re-coloured it using different DI colours.

 

To set the Distress Inks I spritzed the whole layer with 'Goosebumps' which sealed it and also added some interesting texture.  I love the effects you can achieve with DI's but I do find the fact that they aren't waterproof a bit of a problem sometimes.  Finally I added the image layer over a couple of pieces of coloured cardstock and attached a sentiment at the side.

 

The image layer very much stands alone without further embellishment I think, so I decided not to be tempted into adding anything else to the design.

 

I hope you've enjoyed checking out my project today, do check out the creations from the rest of the DT over on the CCT blog for great inspiration.

Gorgeous Hand Carved Stamp

A lovely crafting pal Clare gave me a fabulous gift for my recent birthday - a stamp she had carved herself, how fabulous is that !  She also created a gorgeous card for me using the stamp and I decided I wanted to honour her gift by using it on the Thank You card I made for her.

 

It is such a special gift to have a stamp hand made especially for you and which no-one else will have, thank you so much Clare, I know I will be using this so much in the future.

 

For my card I opted to use one of my favourite techniques, Distress Inks direct-to-paper and I know that Clare loves bright pink, so used Picked Raspberry DI for the design.

 

This time, rather than pressing the ink pad direct to the base card, I dragged the ink pad along a piece of cardstock, which gave me a great effect.  I then selected a section of the inked card and cropped it to use as a layer.  I inked up the lovely stamp with black Archival Ink and stamped over the DI panel, then dragged the DI around the edge to give just a very subtle coloured edge.  Finally I stamped a sentiment from a set of SU! stamps.

 

Hopefully Clare will have received my card by now, so I'm not spoiling the surprise for her, I hope she liked what I did with her stamp.  She has also been struck down by what sounds like the same virus that hit me - well we were together in Hereford for our Craftathon crafting session and both of us (and a couple of other attendees) became ill straight after.  I'm guessing we all picked up this nasty virus at some time during the weekend.  So my TY card is also sent as a bit of a 'Get Well Soon' greeting too.

 

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Steampunk Moo-Mania

Good morning Dear Bloggers, I woke up to a brilliant blue sky and sunshine this morning and although a tad chilly, it certainly makes you feel glad to be alive on such a beautiful day. 

Just a quick post from me today, welcome to my new Follower Susi from Austria.  Thanks for your lovely comment Susi and for reminding me about the Moo-Mania Challenge which has 'Steampunk' as it's theme this time.

I had a few inked backgrounds in my stash which I'd created recently when I was playing around with my inks.  A piece cut to Moo size (2.8mm x 7mm) from one of these backgrounds was perfect for today's project.

 

I created a collage of images using two sets of stamps, one by Hampton Arts - 7gypsies and the other by Clear Stamps.  All the images stamped using Tuxedo Black Momento ink.  Finally touches of Stickles on parts of the images added a bit of 'bling' and my Moo was finished and ready to enter for the Moo-Mania Challenge.

 

Thanks for dropping by to check out my project today.

Thank You Sew Much !

After my recent birthday I needed to get a few 'Thank You' cards made to say how much I appreciated the lovely gifts I received.  A few of my gifts were sewing related - gorgeous fabrics, threads and gift vouchers to spend at one of my favourite fabric shops - so decided to make a batch of sewing-themed cards for my thank you's for these particular gifts.

I used cardstock, punch, scraps of designer paper and ink all from Stampin'Up!, Nellie's Choice die, magazine freebie stamps, Copics, Picked Raspberry Distress Ink and an embossing folder to create my design.   

The rest of the TY cards I've made I'll share with you in another post. 

This week's theme over on the Pan Pastels challenge is 'A Touch of Green' and I think my cards will fit right in with that challenge as it isn't absolutely essential to use PP's on your entry. 

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you enjoyed your visit.

Spring Cleaning ?

Happy Thursday, hope it's a great one for you.  This week's challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog has an 'Anything Goes' theme - always very popular !   Our prize sponsor this week is Whiff of Joy Stamps.

For my DT card I chose a fun stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs, I've had this stamp in my stash uninked for a very long time !  I thought it was about time it came out to play.

 

 

I decided to go with a slightly different approach to my coloured image with this card, stamping it with grey ink rather than black.  As the outline is much paler in grey, it doesn't show up so prominently and after colouring with Copics it virtually disappears.  I like how this type of image looks with this technique. 

 

The background papers were magazine freebies (I always keep all of the freebies so my stash of them just keeps growing and growing as I rarely think to look through them when I'm looking for papers for a project) !  Maybe I should challenge myself to use only freebie papers for a few weeks and if I find any in my stash that I will never use, I'll give them away to a good home.

 

Other materials used were Stampin'Up! cardstock; wooden button and twine from my stash and computer generated sentiment.

 

I hope you've enjoyed your visit here today, do hop over to the CCT blog to check out the fabulous projects from the rest of the DT.

 

Over on the Craftbubble Craft Mad and Loving It Group, the monthly challenge for March has the theme 'Spring Cleaning' so I'll be entering my card for that challenge too.  

 

Thanks for dropping by and have a Great Day.

Better late than never.....

I have a quilting project to share with you today.  I enrolled on the Sugar Block BOM Club (Block of the Month) for 2013 and managed to get my January block completed within a couple of days of receiving the pattern/instructions (check here if you missed the post showing my first block). 

February's block, however, has taken me way outside my comfort zone and despite receiving the pattern/instructions on 1 February, I spent the whole month just thinking about it !  I am very new to quilting and self-taught, learning all I know from books, magazines, YouTube videos and other internet sources.  I've mastered simple piecing/patchwork techniques and created a number of finished quilts and other projects, but very few more intricately pieced patterns.   February's block was created using English Paper Piecing which I hadn't tried before. 

Here's my finished block

 

I was determined to try and master this technique, but I did find it really 'fiddly' and I'm not too happy with the finished block.  I did struggle quite a bit and in fact had to redo the centre square as my first attempt was just a mess !  You will notice from the pic that I didn't manage to get all the sections aligned exactly, despite stitching and unpicking a couple of times.  I guess I need to practice this method of block construction a lot more if I wish to create quilts with more intricate designs !  Well, it was my first time though. 

My two pals Linda and Karen and myself agreed we would all share each block on our blogs on the last friday each month.  Sadly, I didn't manage to get my February block completed in time - sorry girls.   I've been suffering from some sort of nasty virus over the past 2/3 weeks and am only just feeling a little better and able to get back to my crafting, so only finished my block yesterday.

Probably not worth waiting for, but a valuable lesson learned - it's always good to step outside one's comfort zone and try new things I think, but I can't help but hope that the blocks for the rest of the year don't have too much English Paper Piecing in their construction !

In complete contrast to February's block, I have already completed the March block - in fact I just carried straight on after finishing the February block and did the March one, which I felt was so much easier to do !  I'll be sharing that block with you on the last friday of March when both Linda and Karen will hopefully have finished theirs too and we will all be sharing our blocks on the same day.

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project.  I have a number of  'Thank You' cards to make and send out, so will be sharing those on here in the next couple of days.

Lovely soft cushion

I'm afraid that very little crafting has been happening here in Stamping Grandma's Crafty Space in the past couple of weeks.  These horrid bugs I managed to pick up have really taken their toll on me and I'm now on a course of antibiotics as I have an infection somewhere in my system which is causing me to continue with a fever.  This is my second day taking the meds and I think I can feel they are starting work as I don't feel quite so wretched as I have for almost two weeks.

So, today's project is the only thing I've managed to finish in the past few days.  A while back I shared my fleecy cushion as a Work in Progress and threatened to share pix once it was fully complete, so here it is.

I may add a few more embellishments in the coming days - if the mood takes me !  Now that I have pattern pieces which fit together well and create a square ideal for a cushion front, I may well make more as I have lots of bits of fleece left over from quilt backs in my stash.  I love how this came together in such a quirky fashion (anyone who knows me well will know how much I love 'quirky') and as it's made from fleece it's really nice to snuggle up with.

Got to get Mr Mojo fired up as I have a couple of birthday cards to finish off and post over the next 24 hours.

Thanks for dropping in to check today's project, let me know what you think of it, I love it when my Visitors leave me a comment.

Spring Fever

Happy Thursday dear Bloggers, it certainly feels like Spring is definitely on the way now the temperature has risen a tad and the days are getting longer.  I love to be out walking at this time of year and see all the new buds on trees and bushes and the pretty spring flowers pushing their way out from the soil.

So, as it's thursday it's time for a new challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog.  This week our theme is 'Spring Fever' and we have a prize sponsored by Bunny Zoe Crafts.

 

 

I make no apologies for the fact that I turned to one of my very favourite set of stamps for my DT card this week.  I do so love the Dylusions stamp set which includes these fabulous birds - perfect for a Spring/Easter card.  In fact I've used four stamps from the set on my design, the row of flowers, trio of birds and two of the flower images.

 

I stamped the row of flowers and birds onto a piece of white cardstock and coloured with my Copics before matting it on to a layer of SU! Gumball Green cardstock.  To create the background I used two pieces of SU! double sided patterned paper, cut four squares and attached them to a bottom layer of Gumball Green card, displaying each of the sides of the two papers to give me four different squares.  I stamped the flowers onto the leftover scraps of the papers and attached using PinFlair to give them some dimension.  Just a touch of Platinum Stickles in the centres for a bit of sparkle.

 

Finally, I created the Happy Easter sentiment on my computer and cut it out with one of the framelits dies in the 'Hearts a Flutter' set from SU!

 

Hope you've enjoyed dropping by to see my project today, do check out the fabulous projects from the rest of the DT - you will get so much inspiration from them and you may just feel like entering the challenge this week !

Whilst still not feeling really well yet, I do think my nasty bugs are on the way out now thank goodness so I hope to be back to crafting more again very soon and sharing my projects on here for all of my lovely Visitors.

A Miscellany.... and breaking 'Radio Silence'

Hi Bloggers, I know it's been a few days since I last posted on here but I managed to pick myself up some nasty bugs which laid me low for best part of a week.  I had a few 'Jammie' days and piled on the TLC and I think I'm coming out the other end now. 

Still need to work on getting my stamina back, but have been 'pootling' around with a few crafting bits and bobs in the past couple of days, so guess I must be recovering.  Didn't manage to complete anything but I've a few pix to share with you of projects I've started or have in preparation which I'm hoping to work on in the next couple of days. 

I spent a lovely couple of days with some online crafting pals in Hereford just before I got sick and thought I'd share some things I created during the weekend.  We were playing with inks, gesso, distress inks, masks and stamps etc - virtually anything we had with us and wanted to throw at the page to be honest !  It was really messy fun and so great to have room and time to just play without an end project in mind.

 

Between us we took along the full set of colours of Pan Pastels and all tried creating a landscape using them.  Here's my attempt (thanks to Kathy who managed to capture this great shot which is a huge improvement on the pic I took myself which was all blurry !)

 

 

As it was such a lovely sunny and breeze Spring day today, I decided to get a few pieces of my fabric stash washed, dried and ironed so they are ready to use when I decide on my next quilting project.  Don't these pieces look fabulous hanging on the line, a rainbow in my own garden !

 

 

......and here they are pressed and ready to go into my Fat Quarter storage bag - got some projects in mind but not sure which one to start first !

 

 

 

Finally, here's a sewing Work in Progress (WiP)  it's a crazy-patchwork design cushion using bits of fleece left over from quilt backings. 

It's in the very early stages and I plan to add buttons, topstitching and anything else that takes my fancy.  I'll share pix once it's completely finished.

 

Thanks for dropping by today, hope you've enjoyed checking out my latest crafty activities.