Cardmaking - a leather oak leaf on an embossed tag over a collage background

Another card for a family occasion!!!  I started with a dark brown card.  I pieced a decorative paper background -  I like the spots of colour it adds.  I added a strip of brown cardstock at the top and added four pewter eyelets.  I muck one but I could not get it out with wrecking everything so I left it in.  I stitched the leather oak leaf to the embossed tag (birch trees) and then added it to the decorative paper using a letter brad  I adhered this large layer to my card front to finish off my card!!  

Therese
 

Cardmaking - embossed tree with a maple leaf punchie over a striped background

Working on cards I need for June!  It is fast approaching!!

I started with a dark brown card and cut some striped decorative paper into strips and adhered them into place.  The embossed tree is an element I had in my stash which I then created a background using scraps of cardstock.  I added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel around the edges of the image and then on the green edge of the layer.  I trimmed the green edge along the line of paper piercing. The tree needed a bit of something so I added a piece of cording which I tied on the front and then overlaid a maple leaf punchie.  That was much better.  I layered it onto the layer I had created and mounted it to my card front using 3D foam tape.  I added some white brilliance ink to the top of the tree with a stamp pad.  Adds some dimension!  

Therese
 

May Card Club - Card #3 - fun little trees made with the chevron punch over some funky word patterned paper

For our third card we assembled these fun cards!!  Wanting to use my chevron punch I had done an internet search to see what others had created.  I found these fun little trees which were trimmed from green cardstock strips (1.25" wide) which were punched repeatedly or not using the punch.  The pieces created with mixed up and reinserted into openings in trees of different colours.  The tops and bottoms were trimmed to give them their tree shape and the little trunks were fashioned from scraps of brown cardstock.  We embossed our trees to give them some texture and little more character.  We tore our background paper into two pieces and adhered them to our light colour card fronts.  Added our trees and then their trunks.  We generally added 3D foam to at least one of them for a bit of dimension.  As a final touch we added a yellow moon (1")!!  Done!  Everyone liked this interesting and different take on trees!!  It was a fun evening and fortunately a beautiful evening.  Several just walked home as they live close by!!  No cardmaking sessions this summer though we may have a creative gathering to make some handmade paper!!  Therese

 

May Card Club - Card #2 - dryer sheet flowers over handmade paper

For our second card we played with making flowers using used dryer sheets!!!!  So fun!!  I have made some of these before but on a smaller scale on these cards.  After ironing (low) them smooth I cut the dryer sheet to approximately 3" x 4" rectangles - a sheet into four pieces.  We folded them in half along the length and then then three times across the new length.  Next, we folded that sandwich in half with the fold at the bottom.  We then trimmed the top with all the single edges into a nice round shape starting at about half way up the side and finishing at about half way on the opposite side which creates the petals.  It is only one option - they could be skinny, pointy, wavy, etc. as petals on flower can be very many different shapes.    We opened up the sandwich to be flat again and gathered the width in the center and tied it off in the middle with thread.  We then coloured our flowers to coordinate with our handmade paper backgrounds.  They got very wet so I had the heat gun setup on LOW so we could dry them before we went to the next step.  It is possible to colour them flat but it is harder to estimate what they will look like!!  We added a gold brad to a coloured flower sequin and inserted the brad into a hole in the center which we had made with a push pin.  We used the push pin to make a hole in our background as well and installed the flower.  To finish off the flower we hand cut a stem and leaves from scraps of green cardstock.  Once they were glued into place we adhered this large element to our card fronts.  Therese

 

May Card Club - Card #1 - bright punchies, white seam binding over an embossed grid

It was so great to see everyone again!!!  We started our creative cardmaking session with this card which features little punched shapes - flowers, butterflies, leaves, hearts, etc.  I punched these from glossy paper which had been coloured with ink pads by tapping the pad on a piece of plastic packaging, spritzing water on the ink and the placing the piece of glossy card into the puddle.  Totally fun and unpredictable but always fabulous decorative paper for creating with!!!  I decided on a grid for the punchies so I used a plaid embossing folder and cut the white cardstock to be just the size I needed for 12 space with a border all the way around.  We added white seam binding to the middle strip of squares, added a short piece and then installed at square brad to keep everything in place.  Easier said than done but we got it done!!!  We added the shapes any where we wanted on the remaining space - generally in the remaining squares.  We did add a bit of detail to our shapes with glitter pens just to give them some character.   

I finished the top five cards with butterflies and flowers and will be adding these to my stash of cards for IWIN.  The fall will come sooner than we think and it is fun to add cards as I create others as they then all have different looks which makes it easier to suit the people who will be receiving them.  

Therese
 

Cardmaking - March Card Club kits made up - serendipity birds, butterflies and flowers over sanded backgrounds

The balance of the March Card Club kits which I found when I started prepping for May Card Club!!!  Amazing that things get put off for so long!!  I made these up this week so I could put in my current card kits along with my supplies and tools!!!

Theresse
 

Cardmaking - extra card kits from March Card Club made up - strips and long slim images

I also found these card kits in my March Card Club box which has been sitting for a couple of months!!  

It was fun to finish up these cards and I went looking for more horizontal images in my stash to replace the Easter ones I had with two of the card kits - a bouquet of flowers and some dragonflies!!  Works well for spring which has finally arrived!!! Adding these to my card stash.  

Therese
 

Cardmaking - more cards from March Card Club kits

 I am prepping card kits for my May Card Club and I found the box from March Card Club with all the leftover cards and kits!!  Life has been busy!!! 

These ones featured fun pinwheels for the background and lovely little circle images layered onto scalloped circles.  These will be added to my stash!!

Therese

Quilting - a scrappy potholder quilt using some orphan blocks and pieced pieces from my stash

I made up this potholder quilt this past week.  I cut the backers from a light green cotton sheet and hand dyed them to give them a bit of texture and interest using diluted green acrylic paint. Worked very well!!!  

A note to say that I did not do a traditional potholder quilt.  My mom assembled her squares by sewing the backers to each other and then doing the self binding to the front with each row and then doing the same for each long row and then finishing the outside edge the same way - self binding to the front.   The fronts were all made up from orphan blocks or pieced sections which I have inherited from a variety of places.  I store them in a ziploc bag so I can use them as a base for quilting squares, potholders, or any other project.  I made four different dimensions of blocks (6", 8", 10" and 12") all 10" wide with 12" backers.  It allowed for being able to offset the seams and made for a bit more of a scrappy look in the whole quilt.  I just picked through my strips to make up the area around the block/piece until I had the right length.  Once the fronts and backs were all ready I trimmed some polyester batting to the same size as the front, laid them onto the backers and added some lines of quilting to hold them all together.  After getting them all done I started piecing the vertical rows that were 10" wide into rows self binding as I went and them stitched the rows to each other and used the same technique to bind them all together.  To finish off the quilt I did the self binding all the way around!! 

Here is a close up of one of the blocks. The pieced front with the quilting lines and the binding on the piece all the way around.  

It is somewhat of a quilt as you go technique.  

Another one to go to Linus project!!

Therese

 

Sewing - hand dyed fabric for the potholder quilt backers

 I have been working on a potholder quilt in the same manner by Mom made them.  I cut the backers from a cotton sheet and they seemed to bland so I hand dyed them with green acrylic paint.  It deepened the colour some and gave it a bit of texture.  Better!!!  Therese 

Quilting - a bright quilt with slow stitched squares framed with strips log cabin style

 I have finished this fun little quilt (34" x 45") this week!! It started with a dozen little off white wonky squares which were precuts I acquired somewhere along the way and late last year I cut out a colourful little heart for each one and then added slow stitching in a variety of ways to secure them to the squares as a slow stitching activity.  Once they were finished I then added them to a substrate square (from my stash) and stitched on a variety of bright strips all around them in a sort of loose log cabin manner.  This past week I trimmed them to 8.5" square which was the smallest of them and then added royal blue sashing between them.  My daughter had brougth along some fabric when she came a few weeks ago and I thought that this green stripe would work very well for the backing.  I added a single layer of cotton between the top and the back and stitched rainbow thread all around the squares to attach all the layers to each other.  I brought the backing to the the front and bound the edge with it.  I love how it worked out.  It was fun to work on this quilt from the slow stitching to the final step of sewing down the binding.    It is headed to Linus Project!!  Therese

Slow stitching - some red fleece poppies

 The computers have been giving us a bit of grief in the last few weeks since the last windows update and with several "computer" tasks that were a no go I decided to head downstairs and keep my hands busy.  I cut out some circles from this dense red fleece to be used when I am making more card holders.  I just thought that there must be something I can do with the off cuts so I searched for what I could do with scraps of red fleece and found a tutorial on making poppies.  Seemed like something worth doing so I drew up a template and cut some petals - quite a few actually!!  After cutting out all the petals I stitched them together - five at a time using a running stitch on the bottom edge and pulling it tight then tying off the threads.  I found some black fleece and cut some small circles which I added to the centers of each flower.  They turned out better than I had expected and I will now have to find a purpose for them in one of my next projects.  Therese