All Occasion Cards - little embossed gifts with flagged ribbon for texture layered on coordinating backgrounds

 I found this kits from my May Card Club on my desk and made them up!!  They feature little gold embossed gifts (Hampton Arts) which I watercoloured, paper pierced with my pattern tracing wheel and then layered with coordinating cardstock.  I distressed the edges of the first one.  I added the little ribbon flags and mounted my focal element to my card front already embellished with coordinating decorative paper using 3D foam tape.  Therese

All Occasion Cards - flower and butterfly stickers on waxed backgrounds

These cards all feature flower and butterfly stickers which I bought locally.  The colourful square (3.5") waxed backgrounds I made a while back by melting wax crayons onto white textured wall paper.  Totally cool!!!  I watercoloured the stickers to coordinate with the backgrounds and then created cards around them.  The first one has an embossed front with torn decorative paper layered over it.  I added two little pieces of ribbon to the square before adding it with 3D foam tape.  The second one has a coordinating layer with a border punched edge.  I added a layer to the waxed square with a wavy edge on the bottom and some paper piercing above it.  

The third one has a turquoise background with a shimmery purple ribbon and I layered the waxed square with green cardstock.  The fourth one has a multicoloured cardstock layer on the back of the square, a shimmery purple ribbon and a pink polka dot background.  

Therese

 

All Occasion cards - torn background, watercoloured images - a cute bird & a tulip

 I am making all occasion cards for my stash!!!  These two feature digital images from MelonHeadz Illustrating.   I love her images and often print several at a time.  These came from my little box of extra images.  I watercoloured the images and then ran my pattern tracing wheel on all four sides. I layered them with cardstock and added a shiny layer to the bird between the image and the cardstock.   I added green oraganza ribbon to the little birdie one as there was enough space for it.  I trimmed the backgrounds shy of the four inches and tore them vertically before adhering them to the coordinating cards.  

Therese

Slow Stitching - one of a kind vest at the Ujaama Grandmas sale

 I bought this heavyweight vest at the "One of Kind Weareable Art" Ujamaa Grandmas sale last weekend.  This organization supports grandmothers in African who are raising their grandchildren because their children died of AIDS.  They are sponsored through the Stephen Lewis Foundation.  They had a wonderful selection of very unique garments and good amount of people interested in making purchases.  I love the colours and the hand stitching in French and English referring to the blue planet, blue skies and blue sea.  It has an inside pocket large enough for a phone and keys!!  I found two buttons in my daughter's button stash that remind me of sky and clouds and are the kinds of buttons we used to have when were were kids.  I will use them to create a unique tie in the front to keep the two sides together which will work well when the weather is a bit cooler.  

I am pondering creating a yellow brooch which will reference the yellow sun, the yellow canola and grain fields and the yellow fall leaves.  It will need a bit of green which would represent the tree lines which intersect the fields.  It is what I love most about living on the prairies and really says "HOME" to me.  Therese

Slow Stitching - last two apples

I have finally finished slow stitching the apples I started a while back.  I love how they look and am anxious to get them into a quilt though as of yet I do not have a plan of how that will happen or picked the fabric to put between them.  For the most part I had my stitching reflect the design in the fabric as to not provide too much distraction from the apples.  Stitching the stems in brown went well and I see that I have three leaves going in one direction and three in the other!!  A happy accident!!  

Therese

 

Slow Stitching - a little sewing kit in a case

This idea came to me a while back and after a bit of internet research I found that it is not a new idea!  Turning eye glass cases into sewing kits is such a good idea.  This small kit is best suited to small projects like I have been doing - 6" square or so.  It is easy to fold up the project and include the skeins of thread you are going to need.  The two buttons hold a rare earth magnet so there is always a safe place to put your needle. It includes a needle threader as well.   There is a wool layer on the bottom which easily keeps your pins and needles in place.  The little leather sheath covers a regular sized single edged razor blade and the little hole in the fold allows you to cut your thread safely in a jiffy!! All you need in a very portable and enclosed space!!  Perfect!!  Therese

Slow Stitching - little butterflies coloured with Inktense colours.

I worked on this project a few weeks ago and am just getting it blogged.  My daughter decided to experiment with Inktense pencils for adding colour to her embroidery designs.  After she ordered them we played with them for a bit at the lake while we were camping and again a bit more than past weekend while visiting for her birthday!!  

I had found this video by Helen Godden where she was using Inktense pencils on sized muslin fabric with very good success - no bleeding of the colour into the fabric.  Wanting to use fabric already in my stash I decided to see if I could replicate her results with homemade sizing.  I used a tablespoon of cornstarch to 3 cups of water which is a recipe I found on line.  I applied it to my fabric with a brush and let it air dry before ironing it smooth.  I did several pieces while I was at it.  

It ironed out very nicely and I used a gray Micon 01 marker (.25mm) to trace my butterflies (clipart laser printed on paper) onto my little strip of cotton fabric.  I had originally thought I should buy the lightest colour of gray marker (Michaels) but at the last minute changed my mind.  I should have kept to my first choice as this one was a bit dark.  In the end, I was able to add colour to the butterflies and with some care not have the colour run.  You can see below that the blue (#2) and the last one had the colour run a bit so the amount of starch/sizing was not enough to prevent the running of the inks.  I will keep at it and see if there is any level that will work.  After they were dry I used two strands of embroidery floss to stitch all the way around the butterflies and was able to cover the dark gray line with thread.  In the following photo only the red one at the top has been stitched but the last one has them all finished.  The ink becomes permanent on fabric after drying and/or being heat set.   Not sure where this little piece will end up but I expect there will be a few more experiments as time goes on.    Therese

Large sympathy card featuring a large red poppy, lace, ribbon and a layered greeting

This large card features a large poppy (Calico Collage) which I just love!!  It is coloure printed trimmed with a white edge and mounted onto a gray decorative paper.  I created a soft green card and added the soft background to it after adding a length of lace and a black ribbon.  I mounted the poppy using 3D foam tape and then added the layered greeting - printed greeting, large oval (SU) and a black scalloped oval (SU) - with it as well.  

Therese
 

Large all occasion cards with collage backgrounds, embossed vellum and little candles

 These cards are off to my Card exchange partners for the month of September!  They are large cards with collage backgrounds created right on the front of my cards - yellow and light aqua!!  I just used scraps from my stash and cut what I needed to make the collage happen.  Good scrap buster!! I don't usually create the background right on the card but it worked really well.  I watercoloured the candles to coordinate.  They are handmade paper focal elements which I made a quite a while back.  I used white bond paper scraps for the handmade paper base and added the images -  stamped on white tissue paper with black permanent ink -  before I couched the sheet which embeds the images perfectly and they do not show once the paper is dry.  I added white eyelets in the corners and then mounted these layers onto a light aqua scrap which I embossed (CB), scored a line using my Scoring tool, trimmed across the bottom with scallop decorative scissors and then used a push pin to pierce each scallop.  I found the three strips of paper in my scraps - two blues and a yellow.  I taped them to each other and then trimmed them into four, flagged one end and then mounted them on the back of the candle focal element.  Next, I embossed two strips of vellum (SU) and mounted them to the back of my large element and then mounted each of these to my card fronts!!!  Love how they turned out!!

Therese

Large all occasion card featuring a collage background, a bit of lace and a layered butterfly

I made this card for a specific person and love the way it turned out.  She will appreciate it!!

The background has several layers - old card base, serendipity collage in blues, a piece of deli paper adhered with white a glue over that then a few pieces of a white doily collaged over that and the whole thing left to dry.  I added paper piercing to it with my pattern tracing wheel and then the length of beautiful lace before adhering it to my large blue card.  The butterf ly (SU) I found in my stash and layered it with a piece of hand decorrated paper and then a soft green cardstock with a distressed edge which I touched lightly with a bit of blue watercolour to help it coordinate.  I added this focal element to my card front using 3D foam tape.  

Therese

 

Plastic bookmarks - paper clip die cuts

I was looking for a way to make some cool bookmarks and after a failed attempt at making a hand stitched one I went looking for other ideas.  I eventually settled on making some from some plastic I have on hand in a great turquoise colour (Ikea lamp) and a paper clip die (SX).  They work really well and simply clip on a page and are stiff enough to hold themselves in place.  They will never wear out or become rough looking so will last a long time.  

A wonderful solution that took only a few minutes and look and work great!!  I can see that this die could be used for making bookmarks with some fun and funky plastic such as covers of notebooks, binder or report covers, etc.  

Therese

 

A large card featuing an embossed dragonfly on handmade paper, paper pierced vellum and a hand decorated background

This is my last card using the large pieces of hand decorated backgrounds I made a while back which feature sanding and wax resist.   I trimmed the vellum with silver hearts, added some paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel and then laid it over my background and folded the ends over and secured them with tape.  I mounted this to my large gray card.  I trimmed a scrap of purple cardstock, flagged both ends.added several lines of paper piercing and then two eyelets.  I mounted this over my vellum and then mounted my dragonfly image over it using 3D foam tape.  The dragonfly image is silver embossed onto white tissue paper and encorporated into handmade paper during the process of making the paper.  It is a fun technique and gives the look of them being all one piece.  This one comes from my stash as I have not made handmade paper lately.  Therese

 

Large card featuring a collage background, a colourful tag with a heart and greeting

Another card for special occasion in my family!!  I started with a red card and added several scraps of the sanded and wax resist backgrounds I made a while back.  I die cut a large red tag and added  scrap of blue inkjet printed background which I spritzed with some water to give it a bit of a mottled effect.  I trimmed it to the size of my tag minus a bit of a margin all the way around.  I found the heart in my stash (Digital Graphic Cafe) already fuzzy cut so I just watercoloured it and added it to the tag using 3D foam tape.  I layered a stamped tag (SU) with scraps of die cut labels and then added paper piercing with my pattern tracing wheel.  
 

Large card featuring a tulip photo, hand decorated background and white ribbon

I started with a large gray card and added the background which I made a while back.  I used a black strip from my scraps and added a piece of white gros grain ribbon to it.  I added the piece leftover the tulip image (Sylvia).  I punched the left hand edge with my punch and threaded the ribbon through securing the ends on the back using double sided tape.  I layered on a coordinating piece of purple cardstock and then used 3D foam tape to adhere it to my card front.  I love using my sister's photos in my cards!!  This one was trimmed from a calendar page which is always part of my Christmas gift every year.    Therese
 

Large card featuring hearts and roses, hand decorate background and a seam binding bow -

I started with a large green card and added four rectangles of hand decorated paper (sanding and wax resist) which I made a while back.  The hearts and roses (Clipartix) were laser printed, trimmed out and then had some lines of paper piercing added with a pattern tracing wheel.  I layered on a soft flocked pink paper and then added a black border to the bottom.  The border's edge was cut with scallop decorative scissors and was embossed with a line using my score tool.  I mounted this large focal element to my card using 3D foam tape and added a pink seam binding bow using a glue dot to finish off my card.  

Therese

 

Large card featuring a cute flower, hand decorated background, a layered strip and flagged seam binding

 Still working through the stack of decorated papers I made a while back.  For this card I started with a dark green card and added the background which had been stamped with flowers, leaves and script.  I created a layered strip using orange scraps and added it to my card front.  The cute flower (Clipartlibrary) was watercoloured to coordinate and then had some paper piercing added using a pattern tracing wheel.  I layered it with a brown layer and added a folded piece of green seam binding using a gold staple.  I mounted the flower to my card using 3D foam tape.  It was fun to use scraps of decorated paper to embellish my card!!  Therese

Large card featuring handmade background paper and a fun little flowers and a bit of lace

This large card features a cute floral image which I printed last week from Clipartix.com.  After trimming the background from the large sheet I stamped it with flowers (pink) and stems (green) (SU).  I added double sided tape to a the back of a black strip and added a strip of white lace to each side.  I mounted this to my background paper and secured the ends of the lace to the back using double sided tape.  I glued my background to my card front and then after adding dots to the border of the image using a fine tipped Sharpie I added it to my card using 3D foam tape.  Therese

 

Slow Stitching - visible mending

DH is working on a landscape project in the back yard and in the process we had to use these forearm forklifts to move the blocks which form the two steps of the project.  The block edges were quite sharp in some places and so they made several cuts in the fabric of the forklifts.  I did visible mending to get them back to rights for the next time these come in handy.  Several hours of slow stitching!!!  

I am joining Kathy at Kathy Quilts for her Sunday Slow Stitching.  Always lots of fun projects to check out on Sunday on her site. 

 Therese

 

Slow Stitching - red apples

I have been working on these for the last two months off and on and managed to finish off the fourth one today!!  I really like how they look!!!  I have two more to finish and then they will be ready to be added to a project - bags or a quilt!!

I am joining Kathy at Kathy Quilts for her Sunday Slow Stitching.  Always lots of fun projects to check out on Sunday on her site. 

I stitched a gray strip of cotton to a piece printed white for each of these.  I drew a pattern by hand and cut it out.  I cut six of them from different red fabrics from my scraps.  I have slow stitched them with running/stab stitches in various colours of red for the first three.  The last on the right/bottom was stitched in yellow along the gold printing on the fabric which gives it a cool look.  I drew the stems in and then stitched them.  I made them all a bit different as I was experimenting with using several different kinds of stitching to fill them in.  The leaves were hand cut and stitched into place next to the stems.  Therese

 

Packaged fire starters

Here is what they looked like all packaged and ready to go!!

Therese