Beaded Ear Rings

I can't believe it was Monday when I last posted - another week seems to have passed me by in a rush (time seems to travel even faster week by week).  I've not entirely been idle but haven't actually made a single card this week which is so unusual for me.  I have however been doing a bit of beading finishing off a couple of projects in between a bit of tidying up in the garden and other essential domestic 'stuff'.  I'm doing a beading demonstration in a couple of weeks time so have been trying to come up with a few items which I've not shown before because many of the same people visit each year and I do like to have something new to show. - also of course I have to try to use items which are available in the shop so I had to trawl around the shelves there too.  The idea for these ear rings (still have to add the ear wires) came from the latest issue of Bead magazine which arrived recently  and there are also a couple of interesting projects in the latest American magazine Bead and Button which I want to try. to  The weather today is absolutely gorgeous and really quite warm so it is a shame really to be indoors so I might get out into the garden and leave the beading until later.

Faux Leather

A couple of members of our local craft group showed the rest of us how to make a slip cover for a small notebook with an appearance similar to leather.  We used felt and tissue paper with Bondaweb - I didn't really like the colours I used at the workshop so made another piece when I came home using some black tissue paper and I do prefer this one.  This had just a basic decoration added of a few small flowers cut out from the surplus 'faux leather' after I'd measured the notebook and cut to size.  The braid along the edges was made on the sewing machine because I didn't really have anything suitable for the edging.  These would make handy small gifts or something to sell for fundraising maybe, especially if the local Pound Shop has any suitable little books available.

G is for Glimmer Mist

For my G alphatag I decided to go with Glimmer Mists (with a touch of gold)  as I couldn't think what stamps beginning with G  I might have from Chocolate Baroque which would be suitable.  The white tag was sprayed with two shades of glimmer Mist using masks to give interest.  I then stamped on a scrap of sprayed card and gold embossed two perfume bottles from CB Dressing Room set and the wrought iron effect shelf was also from the same set.  The bottles were cut out and put on with foam pads.  The flowers were made by punching shapes from some Guild papers which I've had for quite a long time (I hoard them because they are lovely).  A little gold glimmer mist was sprayed onto them and two Marianne die cut leaves were added.  It will be really interesting to see what the other participants have come up with for their three tags this month and of course three will be winging their way to me in the post shortly.

F is for Fantasy Flowers

Here is my alphatag for F using a stamp from Chocolate Baroque Fantasy Meadow set, some of which were also used on the background behind the image.  The main flower was coloured using Polychromos pencils and the ribbon was coloured using the same distress ink as used on the background.

Simply Stampin Challenge week 50

Over on the Simply Stampin challenge blog they are giving us a colour scheme which is shown here - I've had to improvise a little as I didn't have the exact colours but in the main I've used SU products.

I used SU kraft card for the base card (nearest I had to crumb cake) and the papers are from Everyday collection.  The image was stamped from the Fresh Vintage set using waterbased brush pens and cut out using Nestabilities.  A sentiment was produced on the computer and punched using SU punches, the addition of a matching ribbon and tiny flower charm and that's it.

A Spring Thank You

We are still on a Spring theme at Make My Monday but this week they would like to see either a card for Mothers day or a Thank You so I've opted for the latter and gone for Spring colours using papers from Funky Hand Craft the Year Away CD (the March collection) and I think I'm just about in time for their challenge as well where their theme is Flying High.  The stamp is from Papermania and the butterflies were cut and embossed using a Sizzlets die from Stampin Up.

E is for Enjoy

It's time to pack up and post this month's tags for the Alphatag Swap and I just remembered in time to scan/photograph them before I sealed the envelope.  This one is E for ENJOY and also for EMBOSSING which I used as a resist on black card with acrylic paint using one of the Brocade Stamps by Chocolate Baroque.  The swirl was cut from grunge board and coloured with Distress ink, then rubbed lightly with some Treasure gold.  The words were produced on the computer using My Craft Studio. There were three letters to do this month and I'll save F and G for another day.