A Day Well Spent

I've just got back from a lovely day out attending a Stampin' Up Extravaganza day with the lovely Jenny Moors (Stamping Moments) where we made a good selection of Christmas items in attractive shades of blue and silver.  We made three different sized gift boxes, the largest with an accompanying gift pocket card, a medium sized one with an acetate sleeve - probably about the size to hold a box of after dinner mints, and the small square one contained the three little cards.  As always this was a really enjoyable day and I even managed to actually complete all the projects and of course met up with like-minded friends - I'd say a good day was had by all.

Spooky

Being October the theme this month for the Chocolate Baroque Quintile swap is SPOOKY.  I'm a bit short on Hallowween stamps etc but I did have this one from them.  It was stamped onto heavy watercolour paper and a mask cut for the moon before colouring the background with Distress ink, some of which was lifted off with splashes of water.  Using a reverse mask I then brushed some colour over the moon.  I've tried all along to make two different tiles for this challenge but I'm afraid this time around the two are very similar with just the water splashes being in different positions!

More Jewellery

Last week when visiting a local gallery to see a quilting exhibition I was tempted into their craft section and just had to treat myself to a silver scarf 'ring' with a gorgeous dangly owl on it.  This of course got me thinking that I could make some of these if I could obtain the basic finding (scarf bail) easily.  I discovered they aren't quite as easy to source, particularly in this country as far as I can tell, which in turn made me think that I could maybe design a beaded scarf bail  and this is the result of my first experiment using Delica beads.  The dangly part is an adaptation of a design seen in the latest issue of the Beadworkers' Guild Journal which I spotted after I'd started making the bail part using an idea from a book on Geometric beading.  I picked up a couple of light scarves in the local charity shop and that's it - my first beaded scarf ornament.  With all this beading I've not produced any cards recently so it is back into the craft room to dig out my stash and play with inks because I have a couple of Halloween quintiles to make.

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.