A Quilt for Harry

Happy Bank Holiday Sunday folks, hope you are enjoying the long weekend.

Today I thought I'd give you a break from cards and share pix of the quilt I made recently for my eldest Grandson.

I used 'jelly roll'strips (2.5 inch wide by width of fabric) stitched together in the 'jelly roll race' style.  I just love the randomness of this style of quilt top construction, you just never know how your design will turn out until all the strips have been stitched together. 

I thought that black, grey and white was a safe colour combo for a teenager !

As the quilt top wasn't quite long or wide enough when I'd stitched all the strips together I added a thicker border at top and bottom and then a narrow border around all edges before attaching the binding. 

Adding the extra borders made it into a single bed size quilt and as Harry is already 6'6" and growing, hopefully his feet won't stick out too far at the bottom !  My trusty 'quilt holder' was forced to stand on the stairs in order to show the whole quilt.

Here's a close up shot with the quilt draped over a chair.  In this shot you can see the black fleece backing and the striped fabric I used to bind the edges of the quilt.

Finally, here's the labels I stitched to the back.  The cream one on the left is a commercially stitched one which I bought.  The one on the right was made from a small scrap of calico fabric which I personalised using my amazing Janome Horizon 8900 machine which I received from my lovely Dad last Christmas. 

In this shot you can see the decorative stitch design I used to quilt the layers together and also the blanket stitch I used to attach the binding, all done with black thread.

After finishing Harry's quilt I had enough of the black fleece left over to create another quilt, this time lap quilt size, including some pretty 4 x 4 inch fabric squares I'd had in my stash for quite a long time.  I love it when I can use up scraps to create something new.  I'll share pix of the other quilt in a later post.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today, do drop back soon as I have a few more creations to share with you.

Birthday Beach Huts

Happy Bank Holiday Saturday - for all those in the UK - I hope the sun is shining where you are today, it's a beautiful day here in my little part of Cornwall. Fingers crossed that we have some nice weather over the weekend.

Today I have a card to share with you which is very 'of the moment' for a summer holiday weekend as many lucky people will be spending time on the coasts and beaches of the UK.

Here's a list of tools and supplies I used to create my card:

C6 scallop edge base card
Beach Hut stamp from the Chocolate Baroque 'Seaside Dreams' plate
Black Versafine ink
Spectrum Aqua watercolour pens and waterbrush to colour image
Crafters' Companion Watercolour Card
SU! sentiment banner stamp and cardstock scrap for layering

This is the first time I've used my new Aqua pens to colour and I'm still learning ! 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing today's project, thanks for visiting.

Have a great weekend.

A Big Happy Birthday to the Purple Princess !

Today is the birthday of one of my great crafting pals, the Purple Princess - AKA Kathy Kirby and I'm sharing the card I made for her today.  She is away from home, but I'm hoping she took her cards away with her, if not I guess she now knows what her card looks like !

I used a SU! postage stamp punch to cut out eight squares of white cardstock.  I then applied Distress Inks over all the squares before stamping a Craft Stamper Magazine freebie stamp around the edges using Seedless Preserves DI.  I then attached the squares to a layer of white card and layered this onto a slightly larger piece of coloured card.

The sentiment was die cut using a Tattered Lace magazine freebie die and a piece of the card used for the layer under the squares.

Finally I attached a couple of silk flowers with gems applied to the centres and added a couple more gems to match near the sentiment.

I hope Kathy liked my card, well it is in her favourite colour - Purple !

Thanks for dropping by to see today's project, hope you enjoyed it.

Happy Ruby Wedding Anniversary

Today I'm wishing my awesome little brother and sister-in-law a very very happy Ruby Wedding Anniversary.   I'm very pleased to be able to share in the celebrations with them and all the family.

Here's the card I made for them

I wanted to use a different style of image for the card and I just love this Crafty Individuals 'Winning Hare' stamp which I thought was perfect for my design.

I stamped the image twice, one using SU! Raspberry Ripple ink and the other using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I then fussy cut just the hares from the black version and attached over the top of the red layer.  I added a few tiny spots of red Stickles on the hares to add a bit of bling and Plantinum Stickles around the whole outside edge of the image panel

Here's a close up shot

The background was created using SU! Raspberry Ripple and Strawberry Slush inks applied using a sponge, then a few splashes of water to create a mottled appearance.  I then stamped the tiny hearts on the background using the Raspberry Ripple ink.

Using a Tattered Lace magazine freebie border die I cut out the pretty strips at the sides from red mirror card.

For the section at the top I used the Spellbinders Arched Elegance Pocket die and cut this out of white card.  I then placed a piece of the red mirror card behind the pocket - which I actually attached upside down as I thought it looked like curtains on a stage.  I wanted the happy couple to appear to be set centre stage on the card.  I then added the number 40 diecut using numbers from a Memory Box die set and a scrap of the red mirror card.

Finally I attached red heart shaped gems down the sides and on the 'curtains' to tie in the red and hearts elements.

Here's a view of the decorated inside of the card

This beautiful sentiment is by Chapel Road Art Stamps, which I stamped in black, fussy cut out and then used the same two SU! inks used to create the backgrounds on both the front and the inside to add colour around the edges.  The sentiment panel was then attached to the inside of the card.  I left an area fairly clear of inks to allow room for the personal sentiments to been hand written.

I do hope you've enjoyed seeing today's project, think of me partying away with the family and have lots of fun !

Purple Thank You

Happy Friday dear Readers, have you a great weekend planned ?  I have an exciting weekend in prospect, spending time with all my family celebrating, it promises to be a bucket load of fun !

The project I'm sharing with you today is a very simple Thank You card which I made a while ago. 

I used a pretty stencil and glitter paste from Glitzcraft to create the design, using purple and gold glitter paste.  I then tied a length of gold edged organza ribbon around the design layer before attaching over a layer of purple cardstock.

As I said, a simple design to create a quick card and I know the purple-loving pal I was thanking really liked it - result !

Enjoy your day whatever you have planned and thanks for dropping by to check on today's project.

Birthday Birdies

Good morning folks, wishing you a wonderful day.  I've a card to share with you today, its the one I made for my youngest grandson Charlie who celebrated his 11th birthday a few weeks ago.



I thought I should offer a little explanation for my choice of design for his card.  Some time ago there was a small incident and after that for a while he was known affectionately as 'Charlie the Chicken Poker' Ha Ha 

I used stamps from the JOFY 15 stamp set to create the scene - I just love these cute birds - and words from the JOFY 11 set to create a sentiment.  Each of the leaves were stamped and coloured using Spectrum Aqua pens before fussy cutting out and attaching to the tree branches.  The birdhouse and all the birds were stamped, coloured and cut out the same way before assembling the whole scene.

I'm told that Charlie was very pleased with his card, said it was "very funny" !  Result..... Grandma strikes again ;0)

Today is my lovely sister-in-law's birthday, Happy Birthday Celia have a fabulous day.

Thanks for popping by to check today's project, hope you enjoyed it.

Time to share a sewing project I think

Happy Tuesday folks.  Today I thought that I'd share some of my sewing projects with you rather than another card. 

A few weeks ago during a get together sewing day with my lovely crafting pals, I made a fabric box/bag using a pattern and instructions from the Tilda 'Sew Pretty Homestyle' book.  I've had this lovely book for a long time and love to thumb through the pages, it always inspires me looking at such pretty things. 

Here's my first attempt

did you spot my wonky bottom ? 

I didn't quite get the measurements right when I made the boxed corners, I learned a valuable lesson though and since then I've managed to get my bottoms straight !

After the sewing day I went on to create a few more of these pretty and very useful boxes at home.

isn't this elephant fabric just the cutest thing ?

I made a slightly larger one with this fabby red and white zipper and pins fabric so it will hold some of my folded fat quarters of fabric and look cheerful in my craft room. 

 

 

doesn't it look fun with the red gingham in the bottom

 

 

I made one more box/bag which I'll share with you in another post.

 



I hope you enjoyed today's projects, thanks for visiting.



A Challenge entry ? Me ? I Must be feeling better then !

Yes, you did read the heading correctly, I've been crafting again and have an entry for this month's Lavinia Stamps challenge - how amazing is that after my loooong crafting drought ? 

The theme for their May Challenge is 'Blue or Pink or Both'.  I opted to use both colours in different shades.

Without further delay, here it is

and a close up shot showing the sparkle on the dragonfly more clearly.

 

 

I created the background using the Bleeding Art Tissue (BAT) technique again - I'm having loads of fun with this tissue (I got mine in a pack from Amazon in case any of you are wondering).  For this background I used Crafters Companion watercolour card, I prefer the way the tissue works on watercolour card as opposed to smooth card (see below for the other version which shows the different effect achieved on smooth card).  I have yet to try it on glossy card... watch this space.  Using a circle punch to cut out the BAT shapes, which works OK but dies work well too.

 

The Lavinia images were stamped over the background using black archival ink once the background was completely dry.  I then used Paper Artsy 'Snowflake' acrylic chalk paint to fill in parts of the stamped images, this covered up the BAT colours underneath and made the images 'pop'.  I used Lavinia glitter to add sparkle to the dragonfly image, it's very sparkly IRL.

 

Finally I layered the panel over a piece of pink cardstock before adding it to a 6 x 6 card.

 

 

So, on to the different effect using the BAT technique on smooth card which can be seen in this next pic

A similar layout and design as the first one but not identical.  Again I used the chalk paint on parts of the image and the glitter on the dragonfly image.

and a close up shot

I'd be very interested to hear which of the versions you like best.  I like them both but think I prefer the one on the watercolour card as the colours look more vibrant, despite using the same BAT colours on both.

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit here today, I hope you enjoyed your visit and today's projects.  Hoping you are having a wonderful Sunday and that the sun is shining on you.  I awoke this morning to see a heavy sea mist which seems to be hanging around, I was hoping the sun would burn it off before lunchtime, but that just doesn't appear to be happening.  We have a chilly wind too brrrr..... !

I'll be back with more creations soon......

Happy Birthday Lauren

It's my lovely pal Lauren's Birthday today and I'd like to send her happy wishes and hope she is being thoroughly spoiled with lots of lovely gifts and loads of CAKE ! In my book every birthday should have CAKE, Happy Birthday Lauren..... mwah mwah Daaahlink x

Hopefully Lauren will have already opened the card I sent to her so adding it on here won't spoil the surprise !

I created the background using Distress Inks brushed on with my Inkyliscious brushes, before stamping the Indigo Blu number stamp using the same DI over the top.  I applied some random spots over using a silver pearl pen.

After matting the background layer over a couple of layers of dark blue and white, I added a narrow strip of the dark blue cardstock across the centre then attached the sentiment 'focal point' in the centre. 

I must apologise but I can't recall the manufacturer of the sentiment stamp I used as this is one of the cards I made a while ago whilst I was still quite ill but wanted to get back to a little light crafting.  I'll try to find out if I can and will update this post later.  

After stamping the sentiment I inked up around the edges of the layer with the DIs, finally spraying Goosebumps over the top (which unfortunately is showing up as grey on the pic) to seal the inks and add a little texture.

That's it from me today, a simple design but it's in Lauren's favourite colour so I hope she liked it.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great day.

A Different Kind of Thank You

Hi there folks, I hope you are well and are having a wonderful day. 

I thought I'd share one of my little sewing projects with you today.  After Christmas (or any time of year) there are always Thank You cards/notes to send, but I decided to create something slightly different this year. 

I made these little lavender bags to say 'Thank You' for some of the gifts I received. Wrapped up prettily with gold tissue and tied with red ribbon they looked so nice.  Making them also used up some of the smaller pieces in my (large) fabric stash.

Here are a few of the bags

and a close up shot of a couple of them

They were very simple to construct, just squares cut from fabric and stitched together round the outside edge with right sides facing - leaving a small opening for turning.  They were then turned inside out (after clipping the corners off close to the stitching to minimise the bulk in the corners) and pressed before top stitching around the outside edges.  I filled them with dried lavender flowers and they are lovely to keep in lingerie or linen drawers to keep everything smelling sweet.  They could be refreshed with a couple of drops of Lavender oil once the natural flower scent has worn off.

I hope you enjoyed today's little project, I've a couple more sewing projects to share with you over the coming days.  Thanks for dropping by today, I really appreciate your taking time out to visit.  

It's Been a While !

Well, it's actually been a long while since my last post on here.  I'd like to thank all you lovely people who have continued to visit and check out my older posts while I've been 'away'.  Truth is I've not had very good health since last Christmas and that has taken a toll on my crafting, feeling so ill hasn't helped on the inspiration front.  Good news is that I'm at last starting to feel a little better and have been doing a little crafting in the past few days.  I have actually been doing some sewing and knitting and I'll share pix of my projects in future posts.

For today's post I selected this project to share with you

I decided on this project for a number of reasons, I created it in the last couple of days; I've used a new to me technique using Bleeding Art Tissue - inspired by the amazing work of Eileen Godwin (if you haven't seen her work or follow her Blog you really should !)  Eileen has produced a YouTube vid demonstrating a way to use the Bleeding Art Tissue. Also, for my great crafting pal Kathy who was wanting to see the BA tissue at work !

I've created a number of backgrounds using the tissue on Crafters Companion water colour card, which is a nice weight.  For this card I punched out some circle and flower shapes using SU! punches.  I loved the effect I achieved by laying the tissue pieces on the card, adding water with a brush and leaving for a few minutes.  After removing the tissue I spritzed with water to encourage some of the colours to spread - a great tip from Eileen is leave to dry naturally as using a heat gun takes away some of the vibrancy of the colours.

To turn this background into a card I added a focal point using my Glitzcraft Bird of Paradise stencil and Archival Black ink.  I then stamped the KaiserKraft 'Arty' stamp at the bottom using Adirondack Wild Plum ink and then randomly splattered the whole panel using Dylusions Ink in black and white .  Finally I matted the panel over a layer created from two colours of SU! cardstock before attaching to the base card.

Using the JOFY 11 set of stamps I created the sentiment, stamped directly onto the 6 x 6 base card with black Archival ink.

I hoped you've enjoyed today's project, it is nice to be back in the 'crafty zone' I have to say.... watch this space for more projects in the coming days.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day wherever you are and whatever you have planned for today.