Missing Again!!

I'm afraid I've been missing from my blog for a while and was reminded of this by a friend who has been on holiday for a couple of weeks.  She was a little concerned that there had been no blog activity and said they were relieved to see my house lights on when they returned the other evening - really good to think that I'm actually missed when I don't blog.  The main reason is that I've been concentrating on sewing some bags of various designs for a 'bag tombola' fund-raising project which will be part of our group quilt exhibition in September.  Sadly I handed some in last Thursday without remembering to take any pictures but I do have photos now of three, two of which I've made today.  Someone at the group had been given some sample pieces of very expensive furnishing fabric and when I said that some of them would be good to make bags of course I was given a piece and I'm sure they are expecting to see what I've done with it next week!  I had acquired some of this cat print furnishing fabric and decided that the striped piece would go with that, along with some black handles and lining.  Many of the bags I'm making are using up various charity shop finds along with bits and pieces from my stash.  I'm really enjoying my stitching sessions but unfortunately it has meant that I've not spent as much time at the computer as I normally do - can't be in two places at once!!

I hope you are all enjoying some nice bright sunshine and seeing the spring flowers appearing.

Houses at Make My Monday

Nothing for a week and then two in one day!!  This card is for the Make My Monday challenge where they are asking for houses/buildings so I took the opportunity of using up some more of my scraps and making a 'new home card' into the bargain.  The image is from Polkadoodles Sugar Plum Daisy CD, printed twice with the floral roof and front door cut out and layered for dimension.

Fabric Snippets

I've been using up some more of my fabric snippets this week so hopefully the lovely Di won't mind if I enter this project into her Pixie Snippets challenge.  I had embroidered the panel and decided that I should use it straight away before it joined my 'works in progress' and disappeared into a drawer.  I managed to find some oddments of leftover fabrics which were good colours to go with it (and each other) to make this little bag suitable for maybe carrying along a small sewing project to a class or group meeting.  The bag has a handy drawstring top which should stop items falling out - quite a clever idea I thought and it was simple to construct.  I have also been making cards, some at a Stampin' Up day over the weekend and at home where I've been making a commissioned wedding card with matching gift card - can't really put this on the blog because it has personal details on the front and someone might recognise the names and date.

Two Challenges Covered

I've actually managed to make a card to cover two challenges at once this week.  One is for the re-homed Make My Monday blog where they are asking for pretty and girly (fairies are pretty aren't they?) and the other is for Pixie Snippets because I've used up snippets of card which were lying around.  The background was what is left of an A4 sheet of Prima paper and everything else is cut from bits and pieces of card.  Dragonflies were produced using a free stamp/die set which took my fancy on a magazine and they have been painted with Wink of Stella which I'm not sure shows up here but it sine for real.

Background - Prima Garden paper
Corner - Spellbinder die
Dragonflies - free die/stamp set from magazine
Sentiment - stamped, punched and layered on  die cuts using Sue Wilson dies

Snippets Challenge

Well that week has gone by so quickly and it seems to be time for the Pixie snippets challenge again - do take a look at the clever Santa card shown on there this week - he is fun.  I trawled through my snippets boxes again this week to find pieces of suitable size for using this cameo die which has been sitting around unused for a few weeks since I decided it was one I 'needed'.  Background paper is a fairly large snippet from a piece of Prima paper (love their designs) and the cameo border was cut from scraps of brown and kraft card with cream for the oval.   Sentiment was stamped and put onto a couple of punched shapes which in turn are on a die cut layer.

Cameo die - Tonic set
Background - Prima designs paper
Fancy shape - Sue Wilson dies
Sentiment - stamped and punched using Stampin' Up punches

Make My Monday Challenge

Over at Make My Monday they are asking for us to use our two favourite colours which up to a point could be difficult because I have so many 'favourites' especially when used together as a combination.  I am often drawn to autumnal colours so have made this card using a great tiger stamp by Sheena Douglass and of course it is basically orange and brown.  Background was made using a distress embossing folder on kraft card, inked with a darker brown and gilded with gold wax.  The image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured using Inktense pencils - a couple of leaves from the same stamp set were stamped, heat embossed and gilded.

Background - Crafter's Companion embossing folder
Image and leaves - Stamp set from Sheena Douglass
Sentiment - computer generated
Image - coloured using Inktense pencils

Pixie Snippets Week 164

I started entering the Pixie Snippets challenge originally in an effort to use up some of my huge mountain of scraps and bits and pieces but I often seem to make even more in the process - this week being a prime example.  I usually start by seeing what miscellaneous die cuts,  punched shapes, scraps etc are actually still on my desk, then go to the scrap boxes to find matching pieces of card and paper before trying various combinations and layouts.  I particularly wanted to use the Sue Wilson border die set and I had the cream fancy oval shape already cut so I set about cutting more shapes to layer and a selection of flowers and leaves but when it came to assembling everything I found that these (the flowers) didn't 'work' so you see that is just how I've now ended up with a little pile of snippets which are at the moment surplus to requirements,  Details of what I actually used are under the image as usual.  The border die is interesting in that it actually has two separate outer cutting edges which means it can be used either way up on the edge of a piece of card or cut out completely as I've done here.

Background - cream pearlescent card embossed using Sue Wilson pinpoint folder
Oval die cuts - Spellbinders
Sentiment - stamped and punched from cream card
Border - Sue Wilson Gemini set - Carina
Bow - Sue Wilson Itty Bitty bow die set