Christmas cards with embossed foil gift wrap, fiber ribbon and colour printed images

For these two cards I glued foil gift wrap (Community Christmas Dinner gift) to scrap paper and then embossed it with a poinsettia embossing folder (SU) before trimming them to size for my red cards.  On the first one, I added the green fiber ribbon to the card after adhering the background to the card.  I layered the Christmas image -Joyeux Noel - from my stash onto red and then mounted it to my card using 3D foam tape.  I tied an extra length of the ribbon to the right of the image.  On the second card, I added the green ribbon to the background before adhering to my card front and then tied on three lengths of red fiber as accents.  I mounted a similar image - Merry Christmas - from my stash to red cardstock before adhering it to my card front using 3D foam tape.   This paper does so well with being embossed!  Really nice cards!!           Therese

Christmas cards from foil gift wrap from the season

 A few more cards from the gift wrap I collected at the Community Christmas dinner!!  Thanks to my neighbour who very carefully unwrapping her gift so I could have the paper!!  For these two cards I glued the gift wrap to scrap paper and then embossed them with two different snowflake embossing folders before trimming them to fit on my red cards!!
For the first one, I coloured the JOY in light blue shimmery watercolour, distressed the edge and adhered it to the front of the card using 3D foam tape.  I die cut two leafy branches (TH- SX) from silver foil cardstock and mounted one above and the other below which very nicely yielded a wreath shape.  Love the way the paper looks embossed and the little branches looking like a wreath!!
For the second card, I coloured the JOY using a pink/red shimmery watercolour, ran the pattern tracing wheel around the edges and mounted it to my card front using 3D foam tape.  I added a little silver foil star punchie using 3D foam tape as well.  Really happy with these two!  Therese

Slow Stitching - #1 in third set of rainbow squares

Here is my first square incorporating the little cross stitched hearts I made earlier.  I positioned the little yellow heart embellishment and then stitched all the way to secure it properly to my base square.  I added strips of fabric around it and pinned them into place before starting my stitching.  Generally, I did one side before moving on to the other sides using coordinating floss.  I stitched down the edges as I went when they did not incorporate into the basic stitching.  I like how this one worked out!!           Therese

Thank you card featuring a layered punchie greeting with a length of folded seam binding

For this thank you card I started with a pink card and added the patterned scrapbook paper background.  I found a coordinating oval font greeting punchie (SU) in my stash and sponged its edges in pink.  I adhered it to a green punched oval (SU) and then to a scalloped oval punchie from vellum.  I cut a piece of deep rose seam binding and folded it in half and crossed the ends.  I added a small piece of double sided tape where they crossed to keep the two lengths together and added another piece to adhere it to the front of my card.  I added 3D foam tape to the back of my greeting and positioned it over the fold seam binding!  Pink and green is my favorite colour combination so I am inclined to really like this card and it soft background and greeting with a bit of punch with the seam binding!!          Therese

Christmas cards with gift wrap from gifts

We attended a Community Christmas dinner on Christmas day and our neighbours won a prize!!  I loved the paper so she very carefully unwrapped it so I could reuse the paper!!  It was beautiful foiled paper in this diamond pattern!!
So for this card I trimmed the gift wrap and glued it to scrap paper to give it a bit of weight and then trimmed it to size for my green card.  As foil is want to do you can see the little areas where the glue was a little heavier which I found a bit disappointing.  I hoped that they would be less visible when the glue dried but not really.  Anyway, I added a silver ribbon from top to bottom and tied the ends together on the front.  After trimming the ends, I added silver shimmer paint to the JOY on this laser printed greeting which I had in my stash.  It is a fun font to use for large greetings.  I ran my tracing wheel on all four sides before mounting it to the front of my card using 3D foam tape.

Slow Stitching - cross stitched heart accents

I have stitched up six little hearts for my next set of rainbow squares in my Slow Stitching project!!  They are all different and some have been modified from the patterns in my book!!  It has taken several days to get them done and I will now be able to get started on my third set of squares!!

Therese

Birthday day card with a fun fold and lots of candles!!!!!

 I am getting started on my 2020 family cards as some have their birthdays early in the new year!!  I made this one for my brother.  It has a LOT of candles which were created by using strips of decorative papers.  I rounded their tops a bit by hand and then glued them all across my card.  It is a Z fold card so the back is full size and the front is folded over to the right which leaves the whole length available for decorating!!  I hand cut gold foil (Christmas chocolate) for the flames of each candle and added a wick with a black sharpie!  I had embossed the top edges with this sort of starburst design which I thought look a lot like the glow of a flame.  Next time, I will try to get the flames all in the middle of a glow which will be more effective!!  I added a length of green fiber ribbon to the card using double sided tape to secure the edges to the back and a few places along the way to keep lined up from the front to the back.  I found this large greeting in my stash.  I used the corner punch on it and on the navy layer as well.  I watercoloured the greeting, layered the greeting and the navy rectangle and adhered it to only the front piece of my card which allows it to move with the front.  I added white embossed layer to the inside for my handwritten wishes for him.  It is nice to be back to making cards!!!!!!  Therese

Slow Stitching - cross stitch embellishments for my next rainbow set

I have a large book of cross stitch projects which I at one time thought I would like to make up a few projects but after trying several of the small ones I found that I did not much like how long it took to complete a project and I don't have all the colours of floss.  So, I have decided to work up a few small motifs from the book into little embellishments for my third set of rainbow squares.  There are a lot to choose from and I am considering several different hearts.  We shall see!!        Therese

Slow Stitching - #6 in the second set of rainbow squares

I played with floss colours and the direction of stitching on my little fabric strips for my background on this one as well.  My heart is hand cut from two pieces of fabric which I stitched together.  I used white floss to stitch it to my background and then ran a length of the same floss under all the stitches which gives a bit of a neat look.  I have several more sets of rainbow squares cut so I will see if I can come up with a different way of stitching them up!!     Therese

Slow Stitching - #5 - second set of rainbow squares

This is #5 - the blue one from my second set of rainbow squares in my Slow Stitching project!!
For this one I used small strips as well for the back ground and did vertical stitching on the top portion and horizontal stitching on the bottom section in a variety of colours of blue floss.  I used white floss to stitch on my hand cut heart.  Not quite as much contrast on this one but I like it!!

Therese

Wild and crazy dryer balls made of felted wool scraps, an old sock and bright jersey fabric

 Dryer balls!!!!!!!!!  I love how these turned out!!  I was less than successful getting wool to felt in hot water and the dryer as so many online tutorials indicate it can be done.  In the end, I did find one place where the lady simply stuff an old sock with other old socks until it was the size and weight she wanted to make her dryer balls SO..... I just decided to make my own version.  I have a bag full of small felted wool scraps which my daughter gifted me so I used them to create a ball wrapping it with yarn as I went to keep all the pieces together.  When it was big enough I stuffed the ball into a piece of old sock and tied off both end using cording woven through the sock and tied off.  I have made a supply of these for my dryer and because they have sock wrappers they are boring brown and black but do the job. 

I decided to gift my daughter a set of six of these dryer balls for Christmas so I decided to give them a make over before wrapping them.  I dug through my fabric stash and found this really stretchy jersey top which was too large for me and I upcycled it into covers for the dryer balls.  I cut a 5" square of the jersey, I fold it in half and stitched up the side using zig zag first and then next to it a line of straight stitching using very short stitches.  You can see the seam on the right hand side of this ball.  I turned it inside out and stuffed a dryer ball into it - amazing how much that jersey stretches!!!  Then I used a large needle and cording to make a line of running stitch on one end about where the fabric meets if you stretch it into place.  Once all they way around I tightened ed only slightly the stitching and then tucked the extra fabric inside and under the edge of the line of running stitch.  As I pulled the ends of the cording tight I kept tucking the inner fabric inside so that once the two ends were as tight as they could be you no longer can see the sock dryer ball.  I tied a square knot and then pulled the ends into the ball to hide them.  I did the same thing on the other end. Dressed up those dryer balls pretty nicely!!!!   

 I wrapped them in one of the Bento Bags I made earlier this year and they fill it perfectly!!!

It will be a happy little surprise for her for Christmas!!!         Therese

Slow Stitching - All three floral hand stitched collage bookmarks

I managed to get a shot of all three bookmarks together before they are sent on their way to their new homes!!  

Therese

Slow Stitching - #4 in my second set of rainbow squares

For this purple square I pinned my strips (its a now the theme of this set  vertically and then stitched horizontal lines of running stitch to secure them in place.  I tried to catch the edges of the fabric on each strip to prevent raveling when this square finds its final home in a quilt.  I used various combinations of thread.  I am using small pieces so sometimes I find 2 threads and some singles so in this case the one set of stitches was executed with a 2 purple and 2 green thread combination.  For another I used 2 purple and one gold thread but I see it is not obvious in my scan.  For this square I secured the ends of all my strips with stab stitches and then added stars (three overlapping stab stitches) on five of them using red thread.  This heart was also cut from a combination of fabrics which I machine stitched.  I did one row of stab stitches all the way around a bit far apart with purple floss and then went back around and added another set of stab stitches using red floss.  To finish off my square I added a red star on the inside of my heart.  I am liking those star stitches and can make them more consistently even because I have come to the realization that I should first make an X and then add a stitch across its center.    Therese

Handmade thread holders

I have been saving some ruined sign holders (election leftovers) for this purpose.  I finally got to making them up!!  Thanks to DH's extensive wood scrap bin we have some very nice mahogany bases 5" x 5" with three drilled holes on the diagonal. He routed the edges and sanded them all down very nicely.
I cut the rods I needed from the sign uprights - 1.5" for the bobbin holder, 6.5" for the spool holder and about 12" for thread holder AFTER I formed the eye at the top.  I used the vise and a hacksaw to cut the pieces and used a file to remove the burrs.  There are two because my sister is getting one for Christmas from me!

Therese

Slow Stitching - #3 in my second set of rainbow squares

Here is my red square in my second set of rainbow squares.  Again I chose some strips from my little stash of red fabrics and pinned them vertically on my square.  Instead of long rows of running stitch I decided to secure all the edges of my strips with stab stitches with red floss.  I added some star stitches (3 overlapping stab stitches) using yellow floss on the one on the right hand side and then added vertical running stitches in yellow on the red and white striped strip and then added french knots on the strip on the left hand side to finish off the background.  My heart is hand cut from a piece of fabric which I stitched together from scraps using my sewing machine.  I laid it over my background and stitched it into place using white floss.  To finish off my square, I added a star in its middle with white floss.    Therese

Slow Stitching - #2 second set of rainbow squares

This is my orange square in my second set of rainbow squares in my Slow Stitching project.  I pinned little strips of fabric from my bag of orange scraps horizontally on my square and stitched vertically using running stitch in a variety of colours.  The ends of these ones were quite a bit more uneven so I finished the longer ones off with a row of central stitching with a set of three stitches on the end.  I chose some bright blue floss to stitch on my hand cut heart which is again quite bright and contrasts with my stitched background.   I decided to echo the colours of the heart and couched two strands of yellow and green floss under the blue stitches.  I did every second stitch which gives it a bit of a different look.    Therese

Slow Stitching - #1 - second set of rainbow squares

I have been slow stitching almost daily but have been remiss in getting the blogging of them done.  I have started my second set of rainbow squares.  For my yellow one, I used small strips of yellow fabric from my stash bin, pinned then horizontally and simply stitched all the way across them vertically until I had covered the whole surface of them.  I tried to catch the edges of each strip as I went along to reduce the amount of raveling that might happen int he life of quilt I plan to incorporate them into.  It is fun to use up short pieces of thread and mix up the colours.  I used blanket stitch in a darker colour of thread to secure my hand cut heart.  I like the high contrast between the background and the heart!!    Therese

Another baby quilt - pink and bound with the backing fabric

 I managed to get another of my small (36" x 43.5") quilt tops finished into a blanket!!

I added heavy white cotton as a batting and this pink, aqua and purple plaid as a backer.  I did all the internal quilting by hand from the back following lines in the plaid which worked very well.  I used a variegated pink crochet thread.  I used the backer to bind the quilt by folding it to the front and stitching it in place with my sewing machine.  Very happy to have another one finished.  I will likely get the red one finished sometime over the Christmas holidays.    

Therese

Sympathy card featuring a sanded white core background, a strip of vellum with an embossed greeting and a glittery butterfly

For this sympathy card, I started with a piece of white core paper which I embossed and sanded very slightly.  I glued this to a layer of coordinating cardstock.  I tore a strip of vellum and embossed the greeting near the bottom edge.  I punched a hole in the background before adding the vellum strip securing the ends to the back of the layer.  I had the vellum intersect the opening just a little.  I glued my large element to the front of a large white card and added the butterfly with 3D foam tape. 

Therese

Slow Stitching - Bookmark #3

Have finished #3!!  It has been fun stitching these bookmarks and  I really like the look of these!!  They are so similar but have their own look as well.  It has been fun to collage fabric scraps with stitching!! 

Therese