Spring Butterfly?

I can now post this pic of the note holder I made for a present. I made two of these, in slightly different colours for crafting friends and I confess to shamelessly copying the idea from Craft Stamper magazine.(But the recipients seem not to have minded - lol)

The large butterfly was from a template I had saved on the PC (no idea where it came from- LOL). I cut it out in mountboard then used Distress inks to colour the background before stamping the butterflies and swirls.

The note holder is just secured with a small bulldog clip.

Doing these kept me busy in the early part of December and I enjoyed making them as they reminded me of Spring somehow.....

So Christmas is now over and 2010 is almost here. I recieved some fab presents from fellow crafters and I shall cherish each and every one - I know some real talented people!! We spent a quiet Christmas at home, the peace only broken by my squealing on opening an envelope from my darling husband which contained an extremely large sum of money gift voucher to be spent at Paperartsy!

Hope your festive season was all you wished for too!

Merry Christmas

Thank you to everyone who has visted my blog this year, commented on my work, encouraged me and given me inspiration.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas (and Santa brings all my crafting friends lots of lovely new stash!)

Best wishes from me for the holiday season and for 2010. Merry Christmas everybody. x

3 down................

After the rose (see post below!) I was spurred to try and create something pretty!

Here is another piece for my (hopefully) soon to be assembled fabric book. I now have three projects completed and need to do a couple more. Maureen (the mentor...lol) has kindly sent me some canvas to use as the pages for the book and am looking forward to finishing this project, not because I am fed up doing it, far from it(!), but because I have really enjoyed doing it and want to finish it!

I have again used as the backing fabric, more of the chinese silk. This time I used a pale blue piece which really is a beautiful colour and it seemed a pity to cover it but needs must.. so cover it I did, although you can see a small bit of it at the top and bottom!

I used some old cream and pale blue lace for the right hand side (the blue of which has not shown up too well in the pic), a piece of striped fabric from my stash which I frayed and some paper from the huge K and Co pad I recently bought.

The image is printed onto cotton fabric and the blue picot edging was, like all the silk, given to me by my mother in law! I put the image onto a piece of frayed muslin and hand stitched the ribbon roses and pearls.

As the theme at Created by Hand is Vintage this week, I have submitted this as my entry.

The last rose of 2009...........or the first of 2010?

In my garden I have an old pig sty - half of it is used as a storage shed for garden tools and the other half as a store for garden chairs etc. I've had no cause to go near the place over the last month because the weather has not been dry enough to do even a small amount of tidying up outside. (And anyway I'd sooner be crafting!! LOL) But over the last week I had noticed something pale coloured outside the building bending in the winds - the weather here on Friday last was freezing cold but dry so I stopped being lazy and went to take a look.............

Can you believe this rose? Does it not know its December? It didn't look this good in the middle of our so called Summer!!! Even with all the hard overnight frosts we've had since I took this pic the thing is still blooming! I was sorely tempted to cut it and pop it in a vase inside the work room but knew it would die instantly with the change in temperature so I have left it where it is and I am now checking on it every day irrespective of the weather.

It makes me smile each time I see it - and reminds me of summer days past and hopefully those to come.

Vintage Tag

I made a few tags this morning to send to some fellow crafters instead of Christmas Cards and didn't think to take pictures of all of them before I put them in the envelopes! This is an extra one I made.

I think the background paper is Graphic45 and the image is printed onto cotton fabric. The vintage lace at the top of the tag was cut from a roll that was given to me recently. I thought it looked like a star! I put a gold star brad in the centre and messed about for ages with a single bead drop which I had taken from the same piece as the beaded embellishment on the bottom. It was the fiddliest thing in the world and sorely tested my patience in trying to secure it to the centre of the lace star - but I managed it in the end - it was only afterwards I thought that I could have re strung the beads and then stitched it onto the tag.............erm......!

I attached some more lace to hang from underneath the star and used some sparkly fibres for the hanging thread.

This is my entry into Theme Thursday's challenge of 'Vintage' this week.

Egyptian Discovery

I have set the challenge on our Flickr Group - Art 'N Soul- this month. The challenge is to make a 'Circle Book'. I have made one of these before (which can be seen here) and have been wanting an excuse to do another! So my poor friends in the group were challenged to make one for our next swap!

I have used the theme of Egypt for my book as I had recently bought quite a few egyptian type stamps (they were a bargain in a sale - honest!!).

I once again have to apologise for my photography skills - not made any easier by the light or the shape of the finished project either! (Enlarging each image helps!) But if you want to see a 'step by step' account and also have the template to make one, they can be acquired on my photostream here.

Inside the book, I used some parchment type paper for the backing of each page, some vellum, a variety of the stamps, embossing some with gold onto a black background and also using some images from a variety of sources.

The front and back covers are thick gold embossed paper and some torn muslin was used for the ties which were distressed with 'Antique Linen' ink. The 'mummy' on the front is made from air dried clay using a Krafty Lady mold, then I used Mod Podge to stick the muslin on the body! The Mod Podge has given the muslin a harder feel and it is quite rough to touch now, which I am happy with - after all, if you've been stuck in the ground for thousands of years you'd expect cloth to be hardened wouldn't you???? LOL

Winter Wonderland

Another beer can! Basics are the same as the Winter Birds further down in this blog - a beer can ungrudgingly donated by the Other Half, the frame is the same Cuttlebug embossing folder. Wanting to create a 'cold' feel this time I used 'Sail Boat Blue' and 'Stream' alcohol inks with a silver mixative.

I mixed two different sets of beading along the bottom to try and represent varying shades of icicles. The snowmen image was printed onto canvas type card for texture. The greeting was in a pack of Christmas buttons and the pearly snowflake is from my stash with some fluffy snowy white fibres wrapped round it. I used the same fibres to make the hangers.

I have submitted this to Gingersnap Creation's, whose December challenge is 'Winter Wonderland' and also a very late entry into Theme Thursday's theme of 'Christmas Holiday Creations'.

More metal

Have no idea where the last week has gone..... I'd like to say I have been absent because I have been getting organised for Christmas but that is one great big fib! I have though made - a Xmas present (which I can't show you here cos it'll spoil the surprise), - another wall hanging from a beer can (which I'll post later) and - this small canvas. So I haven't been idle... just guilty of not finishing my Christmas Cards!

This was another dabble with metal (bought piece this time, not one of OH's cans!) and although I am reasonably pleased with it (and myself- LOL), there are a couple of things that need more practice. I am still struggling with getting the background completely smooth after embossing and stretching the actual design but I'm hoping that this is the case where 'practice makes perfect'!

The stamp and quote is by Elusive Images. I 'antiqued' the flower plaque by using acrylic paint, but opted to leave this (much used by me) quote bare. Both are mounted onto black card. I painted the canvas with a mixture of acrylic paints and cosmic shimmer powders. The 3 small metal 'studs' were in my stash and fortunately for me were a good colour match!