All occasion card featuring a paper pieced decorative paper background, embossed vellum, a stitched strip and a fussy cut bird

 For this card, I created a pieced background using a variety of coordinating paper scraps.  A log cabin look on the left hand side and several strips added to the right to make it the correct size for my dark brown card.  I embossed (CB) a torn piece of vellum and secured all my elements by stitching down a strip of brown over the top of them.  I adhered this to my card and then watercoloured my bird (CLKER) to coordinate.  Not the right colouring for a chickadee but that it the way art goes sometimes!!  Therese

Anniversary card featuring embossed handmade paper, vellum, mesh and a serendipity heart

 Another anniversary card featuring all of my own handmade papers!!!  I embossed the small sheet of green (SU).  I laid two purples next to each other and added a strip of yellow which I stitched on which created by background.  I tucked the heart vellum under the edge of the yellow strip and over the green piece.  I added a rectangle of embossed mesh and then a gold embossed serendipity heart.  I stitched down the center which secured all the elements to each other.  I added another line of stitching to secure the end of the vellum layer.  I added faux stitching with my pattern tracing wheel on all four edges before adhering this large layer to my green card.    Therese

All occasion card featuring a hand decorated background, embossed vellum, stitching and a fussy cut bird

 A fun birthday card for a special person!!!  I started with a piece of blue scrap book paper and added a layer of stamped leaves in a light green colour of ink.  I watercoloured over them with blue and green to make a muted background.  While it was drying I tore and embossed a piece of vellum using a leafy branch embossing folder (CB).  I laid it over the background and added a strip of tan cardstock.  I used a decorative stitch on my sewing machine and stitched all of the pieces together using blue thread.  I mounted this large element to a tan card.  The bird (Supercoloring) was sized and laser printed and then fussy cut.  I watercoloured it to coordinate with my card!!! It was mounted to my card using 3D foam tape.  I printed several birds so will be using them on future cards.  Therese

Anniversary card featuring handmade paper, embossed vellum and mesh and a stitch serendipity heart

I have been working on getting cards ready for the special occasions of my family members.  

I made this one for an anniversary!!  I layered embossed vellum over commercial handmade paper and added a yellow ribbon tied with one knot to hold them together.  I layered the serendipity heart over a piece of mesh which was embossed with gold and silver embossing powder and then onto a piece of my own handmade paper.  I stitched through all the layers down the center of the heart and then adhered this large element to my terracotta card front.  Very happy with this sketch and will use it again!!  

Therese
 

All occasion card featuring handmade paper, stitching and watercoloured daisies

A card for a friend who is celebrating her birthday soon.  I started with an almond card.  I trimmed brown handmade paper and added a small sheet of marigold handmade paper and then the daisy image (my doodle).  I stitched around the flowers with my sewing machine in yellow thread and then added faux stitching to the other layers using my pattern tracing wheel.  I watercoloured the daisies to coordinate!!  

Therese
 

Sewing - finished my bright blend quilt with a red broadcloth backing

I have finally finished this bright quilt (47"' x 63") which I made up with the scraps of blend fabric that were donated to GLA.  I added a batting and then a red broadcloth (cotton poly blend) backing.  I wanted to be better at quilting a pattern so I decided to do squares on the pinwheels.  I pinned everything very carefully and then started in on the squares.  I should have done all the middle first and then moved to the sides.  Needless to say, that with all the pushing and shoving that is required to sew a square in each pin wheel the results were not stellar.  I started by unstitching half of them because there were large puckers in the quilt top.  After taking that much out I decided to remove all the stitching and starting all over.  Best decision!  I stitched down the middle and then added two more lines of vertical stitching on each side which nicely secured my layers.  Next, I trimmed my batting and backing and stitched the backing to self bind the edge of the quilt.  After I had it all finished I decided to stitch up the squares I orginally had stitched which worked much better now with all the layers nicely stitched together.  I had added halves to the edges and decided not to do those so I had to scrub off the pencil marks so it was washed again!!  The pencil marks came out!!!  I am happy with the final result but it was the loss of a full days work but a valuable lesson learned.  That is how life goes!!  Learning is sometimes time consuming!!!  Therese

 

Sewing - a small quilt with the last of the jungle fabric

I have made up a little quilt (36" x 38") with the last bit of Jungle fabric and some of the cotton fabrics which arrived with the last donation from Edmonton.  You can see that there is a rainbow of colours. I dyed the yellow and the orange to finish up the colours of the rainbow.  Really happy with how well that turned out.  I found a green cotton in my stash to go with it and so added it to the top and bottom of the Jungle fabric scraps.   I also had enough for the backing.   I am a novice quilter and after taking a photo the stripes do somewhat overwhelm the jungle fabric.  If it proves to be unacceptable for the merchandise table I will pass it on to the Linus project.  Therese