A large card with a beautiful maple leaf on handmade paper and some ribbon and brads

This is another card I found in my stash of cards to be refurbished.  Again, it is one my sister made years ago which featured a large pressed leaf mounted to handmade paper.  Unfortunately, the leaf had missing pieces due to its travels so I managed to remove it and so dug in my stash of pressed leaves and found this one that worked well with the green and the handmade paper.  I wanted to add some ribbon below the leaf but that hid the end of the stem so I decided to cut the stem and rearrange the bottom down a bit.  I used white glue to position both pieces to the handmade paper.  When the glue was dry I added the maroon and gold ribbon which I had layered and mounted it over the bottom section of the leaf covering up the gap in the stem.  I added three little square brads which I coloured to coordinate with a maroom sharpie marker.  I glued the ends of the ribbon to the back of the green layer and then adhered this large element to the front of a large maroon card.  I was happy to be able to give this card another go around!!  Therese

A fabric needle book case as a gift

 My Mom is having a milestone birthday this year and we are celebrating as a family.  Not sure she has ever had any sort of birthday celebration so I am so grateful to my sister for suggesting it and getting it started!!!  I wanted to make her something special that would be just for her.  She is a long time sewer and quilt maker so I thought it would be appropriate to have my gift connected to these activities.  After a bit of time I was inspired to make her a needle book.  Not sure she has one but I do know that she has a little metal box in which she stores her hand stitching supplies which she often took with her when they traveled and went camping.  She certainly in the last few years has embroidered panels for quilts with little scenes especially for baby quilts.  It keeps her hands busy when Dad is watching TV.   So I went looking for inspiration online and there are a LOT of images and tutorials.  I was tempted to make several of them but eventually came to the realization that I had to make a needle book that my Mom would appreciate rather than one that was most appealing to me.  So I decided it had to have a quilted cover and it would be best to be rectangle in shape.  Blue is her favorite colour so I choose four fabrics that coordinated and cut strips that when combined would give me a 5" x 8" rectangle.  I wanted to include some hand stitching so I cut a strip from plain fabric and embroidered some flowers in pinks to echo the bit of pink in two of the fabrics.  I went back to the notes I had made when I embroidered these felted wool coasters.   I drew in a few basic lines, stitched the stems in green and then added the flowers which are all french knots in three different colours of pink embroidery thread.  Love how they worked out!!!!!  I stitched the panel to the area of my rectangle which would in the end be the front of my needle book.  I cut a piece of batting and then a piece of cotton for the inside.  I chose a subtle white and gray with a few pink flowers to again echo the pink from the front.  I added an elastic loop then stitched around the edge leaving an opening so I could turn it inside out. Once I had it turned I pressed it really well.  I hand stitched the opening closed and then added hand stitching to the rectangle to better incorporate the three layers and to give a bit of texture to the front.  Finally, I machine stitched all the way around the edge to finish it off nicely.  I cut two pieces of batting to create pages inside my needle book and stitched on ribbon to add a decorative feature and to help give a bit of order to the needles as they are added.  I stitched the pages to the cover down the center using my sewing machine.   I created a heart shaped button for my needle case using shrink plastic and embossed it with a rubber texture mat while it was hot to give some texture.  I hand stitched to the front of my book and the elastic loop will now keep all the pages nice and neat.  

I am looking forward to giving it to her and I hope it will always be a reminder of a special day and how much I love her and how much I appreciate how much of an inspiration she has been for my life.  It sometimes takes years to really appreciate how another's life has been an inspiration for your own!!!!  I am grateful my mother is still here with us so I can tell her in person!!!!  Therese

A birthday card for my Mom (85) featuring a blue tag, an embossed collage background and a beautiful silk flower

My Mom will be 85 at the end of the month and we will be celebrating with her!!!!!  Blue is her favorite colour so I always like to include it when I am making a card for her.  I started with a large blue envelope and made a blue card to fit.  Next, I worked on a blue and white collage background. I dug through my scrap paper bucket and found a variety of white and blue pieces - a bit of watercolour trimmed from a decorative paper piece, some glittery gift wrap, tissue paper, etc.  I dug out a piece of scrap paper and glued on my white and blue scraps which included a few pieces of sheet music.  Once it was dry I embossed it with a large embossing folder which I had to do in three different runs to get it all done.  I stitched on two lengths of while lace and then adhered a length of white seam binding over the stitching tucking the ends to the back and adhering them with double sided tape.  I found this tag in my stash which coordinated so I added a small ribbon at the top and adhered it over my lace.  I found the greeting in my stash, trimmed it to size, distressed its edges and glued it to my tag.  A trip to my silk flower stash yielded these blue and white silk flowers which I layered and secured with a white button brad.  I added it to my collage background before adhering this large element to my blue card front.  I am very happy with how it turned out!!  My Mom is an amazing woman who has lived her life within certain confines but did it with grace.  This is a perfect card for her!!  She has been a seamstress and quilter most of her life hence the stitching and button brad!!             Therese