Deco-lightful

Art Deco is one of my favourite styles, I was doubly excited to find Charles Rennie Mackintosh style roses with this stamp set from Dimension Fourth LTD.  The sentiment is from the stamp set of the same name also from Dimension Fourth.

I stamped onto smooth white card  using black soot distress ink, coloured with promarkers and used nestability dies to cut the main image and sentiment.  The matts for the main image and border were cut from Bazzill cardstock.  I went round the edges with a Zig emboss writer and dipped into a dark purple embossing powder then heated.  I added a plain white insert with a beautiful stamped greeting from the beauty set which was also embossed in purple.

Big wool has arrived!

My extreme knitting wool arrived yesterday and I've already completed two more cushions!  This is so much faster than creating covers using machine patchwork, I can't believe how quickly they grew.  Can't wait to see them on the newly covered sofas.

On the left is my knitting bag, made using two log cabin quilt blocks

What to do next?

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of some extreme knitting wool! I have just finished a cushion cover using 4 strands on 15mm kneedles, it's a bit girly but once the rest of the wools arrive and I get the other cushions done I hope this one will just coordinate nicely. Somewhere in my fabric stash I have some silk fabric that I think will contrast nicely to the BIG knit look.

Songbird, Birthday photo album

Front and back cover of the mini album I made for Chloe's 18th.  The chipboard book was quite inexpensive from do crafts, the die cuts from a Tim Holts collection at Sizzix and the music background a Sizzix embossing folder.  The bird was cut out twice, once using manuscript paper which I glued onto chipboard before tinting and coating with glossy accents.  I added some beads onto wires to embellish the cage.

Handbag card

This clutch bag was made using KanBan cardstock and their Carnaby Street kit but absolutely anything would work here.  I also used a Sizzix Bigz die for the front flower embellishment which acts as a retainer for the bag flap plus a little co ordinating ribbon and a touch of glossy accents on the edge of the flower petals.  The card itself is hidden inside the bag.

To make the bag you need two pieces of A4 cardstock and some strong glue.  Fold and score one piece in half and then score again 1/4 inch from the first fold and again 1/4 inch on the same side of the card so you have 3 score lines in total.  Double score them on the reverse then fold them so you have a W shape on what will be the bottom of the card.  You should have one side that is wider than the other, this will be the back where you will attach the flap.

To make the flap take the second piece of card and cut a piece about 3 3/4" x 8 1/4" (the width of A4).  Score 3/4 of an inch from one long edge and fold.  Put some strong glue on the inside of the fold and attach to the back of the bag.  Use a corner punch to round the edges of the flap.  Add a strip of ribbon or similar to cover the join.  Stick the front embelishment on the opposite side to the flap with a dot of silicone glue remembering to allow for the flap to tuck underneath.   Once the glue is set turn over and stick in a co ordinating card fold up and tuck in the flap.

A scrapbook page idea.

I mentioned doing the Holy Land album earlier, well here is an idea I came up with for one of the Greek pages.  I wanted a Greek key trim on it but had nothing suitable.  The county is also famous for it's cotton so I thought about my sewing machines capabilities and voila, an embroidered Greek key border using Greek cottons.

busy year

Well, the last 12 months have been pretty busy, but I promise to update my blog more frequently from now on.

I've been busy recently completing my scrapbook/photo album of our cruise to the Holy Land last November, Cruise budddies made then are visiting at the weekend so it had to be done.