Elegant Ladies

The theme this week for Make My Monday is ELEGANT LADIES and I've used an Art Deco image to make my card. The image is from a Card Creations CD, as is the backing paper and the border.  The embossed panel was made with a Papermania embossing folder and the sentiment is a Papermania stamp.

Rosebud Bag

I've been stitching this morning making a bag using a Clover template - these are excellent templates with very clear and concise instructions for six different bags of similar style.  One of the members of our craft group had very kindly brought along some pieces of what I imagine are samples of up-market furnishing fabrics to share and this one with the 3-d embroidered rosebuds appealed to me.  I also had a plainer piece of linen type fabric for the lining and handles.  This piece had rows of vintage ruched ribbon which of course I removed and saved to be used on a card or three!!  Because the fabrics were quite heavy I could only make a fairly plain style of bag but I will enjoy using it and I'm sure it will be a useful addition to my collection of bags - love them - and they do all get used at some time depending on how much shopping I need to carry.  Sorry it isn't the best of photographs but I'm sure you get the idea.

Caldera Bracelet

I have long admired the geometric beadwork designed by Jean Power and this design is in a book which she published last year.  This pattern was available to people who pre-ordered her book as a download and a selection of beads was offered in a range of colours chosen by her.  I added about three more colours from my stash and used them randomly with the black being a constant throughout the design.  It feels as if I've been working on this forever and I  dread to think just how many tiny beads were stitched in one at a time but at last it is finished.  I don't really have any way of displaying it nicely but hopefully you will be able to see roughly what it looks like from this photograph.  I worked on this mainly at a weekly craft group meeting and usually managed about one and a half triangles each week, sometimes a bit more if I didn't chat too much and of course I have done some of it at home, particularly the finishing off and joining as concentration was required to ensure that the bead colours matched up on the join.  There is no fastening as it slips over the hand and that was another hurdle to overcome, making sure it would go on without too much difficulty yet not be too loose in wear - hopefully I've got it just right.  I did enjoy making this but won't be making another one in a hurry.  I'm beading a couple more pens next - birthdays and Christmas coming up and I think a couple of family members would like one as a gift.

Ladybug

When I saw some of these ladybirds on a friend's blog I thought this would be a die which would get good use so it had to be added to my growing collection.  I have a feeling someone will soon need to start an organisation called 'Crafters Anonymous'  as it seems so easy to become an addict - harmless though I'd say and brings so much pleasure to so many people it can't be bad, can it?.  I used this cute image cut out with Nestabilities dies and coloured with Copic pens.  Background was a handy piece of paper which was in my stash and I just added some die cut grass using a Marianne die.  Sentiment was produced on the computer and popped onto a Cuttlebug die cut.  A handy card to keep in the box for maybe a child's birthday.

Photo Inspiration

As there were five Mondays in September the people at House of Cards have come up with a photograph for inspiration and we can use any style of cardmaking.  Here is the photograph -

I've picked up on the autumnal colours for my card and also the leaves.  An image from Oh La La Cascade of Colour has been printed onto watercolour paper - this was after a couple of false starts until my printer finally decided it would carry the paper through!!  A matching piece of paper was printed for the background, then a layer of embossed card using a Couture Creations EF with leaves (Core-d-nations card, sanded to bring out the design).  Finally I cut a selection of leaves using a tim Holtz strip die and arranged them with a greeting. Lots of ideas on the challenge blog if you want to have a go - just follow the link.

Make My Monday

The challenge this week at Make My Monday is to make a vintage style card using CREAM AND SEPIA with either BLUE OR PINK.  I decided to go for this image of Wellington as I reckon he is definitely a vintage bear and in the right colours too. The floral embossed panel was some Tim Holtz whitewash card which was put through a Sheena floral folder and sanded to bring out the blue.  A punched strip using a Tonic border punch was added along with some cream lace and the sentiment printed and popped onto a couple of toning tags.  Of course I couldn't resist using a few of the 'waste' flowers from the punched strip - never throw anything away!!

Male Room Challenge

For The Male Room challenge this time the theme is ANIMAL, AVIAN OR AQUARIAN and we have to choose just one of these to make our cards.  It so happens that I came across this image while I was sorting through boxes of bits and pieces and it fits the animal theme.  At the time (ages ago), I'd printed a whole sheet of images from a Jane Netley Mayhew CD from Joanna Sheen and of course had only used one of them, storing the remainder away for future use. Backing paper is also from the CD or at least I think it must be and because the image is quite large there wasn't much more needed to complete the card apart from a piece of embossed kraft card and a simple greeting.  There are some great examples on the challenge blog from their design team if you take a look by following the link.