Needle Felting

Today's offering is a far from perfect needle felted bear (standing about 4 inches tall) which is my first attempt at making a 3D figure using this method. I have made various flower corsages and they usually turn out OK but making a bear seems to be more of a challenge and I found it difficult to judge the amount of wool tops required to make each part - I'm not sure I got the proportions quite right this time. Nevertheless it was fun to do and I will definitely try again. It is something which can be done sitting comfortably in a chair with a lap tray and the main thing is to take great care not to stab fingers (or knees) with the very sharp barbed felting needles.

Hawthorn

Another card using the Hawthorn hedgehog stamp by Papermania. Background paper is by them and the spotted ribbon and flowers by Stampin Up. Greeting computer generated and mounted on SU punch with Nestabilities tag. Main image is on Nellies dies.

Workshop Bear

Well here is the photograph of my completed bear as promised - he is actually more of a brown colour than in the photo and stands about eight inches tall. I've not totally decided on a name for him yet and with the hot weather we've been having he doesn't really need the warm scarf I knitted. I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and am pleased I got him finished.

Challenge

When my friend Anne and I met up last week at our local craft shop for coffee and a crafty chat we both bought the same pack of papers and some cream lace which were new in and she said it would be an idea for us to make a card using these items with a Hobby Arts stamp which is a favourite with both of us. It will be interesting to see which papers each of us has chosen from the Hampstead collection from Papermania and just what we have done with them and the stamped image. My image was coloured with Copics and the large flower cut out and layered . All circles were cut with Nestabilities and the greeting is mounted onto a Nellies die cut; a Fiskars border punch was also used. Do pop over to Anne's blog too as she is posting her card today.

I finished making my workshop bear yesterday so will be taking a photo later to post tomorrow so watch this space.

Pansy

Well another bright and sunny day here and it still feels very warm - I'm posting reasonably early today as I wouldn't want to cause another panic LOL!! This card uses the build a pansy design stamp set from Papermania and the layers have been stamped, coloured with Copics then cut out and layered up to form the flower. Their latest one in the series is a sunflower which I'm just itching to try. Background paper was some from my stash which was given away with a magazine a while ago and I doodled round the edge. Fiskars punched strip, ribbon and a greeting using a Nellies die.

I have to stay in this morning to await redelivery of something 'too large for my letterbox' - I hope it is something crafty!!

Toadstool

I'm late posting today as I had to pop into town and try to sort out a few issues with my mobile phone but better late than never! Don't panic Anne - I'm here with today's card which uses a digi image which was a free download, coloured with Copic pens. Background paper is from My Minds Eye and the butterfly is an X cut die, I also used a cuttlebug daisies embossing folder.

I had a lovely day out yesterday but my goodness the sunshine does seem to bring out a few sights and I'm not talking scenery here!! There must be a lot of people with sore backs (and the rest) today!!

No card crafting yesterday because I went to a great bear making workshop at Bower Hinton workshops and I'm afraid I can't show you the results yet because we didn't quite manage to finish the complete bear in the time. It was a lovely mohair bear and we were encouraged to complete the head with its features because that is the most important part to give each bear a character. We were also given excellent tutorials on how to fix the cotter joints and finish off the bears when we got home. At the moment mine is named 'nearly headless Nick' (if you are not a Harry Potter fan you won't know why!!) because I still have the body and limbs to stuff and attach. He (or she) will appear on here when completed I promise.

For today here is a card made using Vintage Vogue stamps from Stampin Up and two of their new colours Rich Razzleberry and Melon Mambo. Background paper and card are from them also and I've just done a little paper pricking in the corners using an Ornare template which I have had for years and realised hadn't seen the light of day for quite a long time. Why is it that we manage to forget to use certain techniques now and again??

I'm off to the seaside later to enjoy this lovely sunshine.