Change of Activity

I've not done any stitching since I went into lock-down - couldn't get motivated somehow but I thought it was about time I changed that situation.  I'm very fond of Redwork embroidery and I knew that some time ago I had embroidered some panels with different quirky cats so I went in search of them to remind me how many I'd done and to maybe decide what to actually do with them.  There were six finished panels but three were landscape format and three portrait format  which I thought would cause a bit of a problem trying to incorporate them into a small quilt so I decided eventually that making some bags with embroidered panels on the side might be the way to go and so far I've made three.  When you see the photograph the eagle-eyed amongst might observe that the cat is actually purple and not red.  Redwork was indeed traditionally carried out using red thread - Turkey red I think originally - but I chose to make all my cats purple in a break from tradition.

Fortunately I had some purple fabric and also some lining with purple colours in it for the linings.  Having worked out a suitable size for the tote bags I cut various strips and panels to build up the front and back.  I'm aiming to make four altogether; two with a vertical cat design on each side, two with a horizontal design on each side and one each using the two left over panels one one side with a plain piece on the other.

My next job is to clear up the chaos left in the living room from my mad sewing session!!

Anniversary Heart

Just realised I've not written a post since Thursday so here is an Anniversary card which was made recently using an embossing folder which came as a free gift a few years ago and proved so popular that there are several variations available which are very similar but with varying textures in the two areas.  Also stamps available to go with this style.  I've simply die cut a heart with a sentiment and butterflies, one layer in cream and the top layer in the same pearl card as the embossed background.  The words were stamped onto some cream card and die cut to match the curve.  The tiny heart on the sentiment banner was 'waste' from the main heart motif - just felt I should use it!!

Embossing Folder - several variations available from Craft Stash
Curved banner - die also from Craft Stash also word stamps available
Heart die - from Tonic dies, another freebie.

Floral Bouquet

I watched a video recently from the talented Christina and have CASE'd one of the cards which she made - at least it is quite similar.  Like Christina I too have a few flowers and leaves left to make another card.  I brushed some colour onto a piece of white card and then stamped with a tiny 'splodge' stamp for a bit of detail.  The flowers were all stamped onto white watercolour card, coloured using Inktense pencils and a paintbrush with water. Not all of the flowers have matching dies and some had to be fussy cut with scissors but they were quite easy to do. The foliage was die cut from green card.  The bouquet was assembled and adhered using glue and foam pads when I was happy with the arrangement.  A few sparkles were added using stickles.

Flowers - Flower stamps with matching dies Card Making Magic

Playground Challenge #376

Time again to pop along to the Pixie Snippets Playground and this time I've made a scene - that phrase always makes me smile!!  I came across a set of Woodland themed dies which were given as a free gift with a magazine probably around this time last year (maybe even before that) - unused, packet unopened would you believe.  Anyway I decided to combine them with a couple of toadstool dies which I particularly wanted to use in some way.  Bought them on a whim and then couldn't think what to do with them - typical!!  Anyway apart from the base card everything else has been cut from snippets of white or coloured card.  I found a piece of blue card which fitted and started by stamping the greeting and a flight of birds using the Misti of course.  All the other pieces were die cut, coloured as necessary and shuffled around to make a pleasing scene, gluing them down when I was happy with the result..  The woodland set has quite a range of dies included and now they are out of the packet and stored away I'm sure I will be using them again soon for different scenes.

Woodland Scene die set given free with magazine last year
Birds - stamp from High Tide, Stampin' Up
Toadstool dies - from well known online source

Birthday Wit

I've used another stamp from the Birthday Wit set to make this card - these stamps are quite fun and cards made using them seem to be suitable for male or female, young or old.  The dog image was one I stamped and coloured a while ago and found amongst some of the bits on my desk.  I simply added a bit of textured colouring to a scrap of watercolour paper before stamping the little motif (also from the set), layering it up with some toning designer paper and that's it really for today.

We've lost the beautiful sunny weather and today is dull and rather wet in this part of the country.

Stamp Set - Birthday Wit by Stampin' Up
Dog - from a set of stamps by Tim Holtz, Sizzix
Texture stamp - Clarity

Two to Share

Two cards to share today with a little explanation of how they came about.  Sorting through some of my dies I kept spotting a floral one which I seem to remember came with a 'print and go' CD to produce a sheet of  decoupage images and some background papers to match in various colours.  As far as I can remember this set was used once to make one card at the time and it has lain unused for some years.

Needless to say it took me a while to unearth said CD from amongst many that I've had forever and which I imagine may or may not work with Windows 10 so I guess a little ruthless weeding out is needed sometime.  Anyway, once found I printed off a sheet of floral images and two different backgrounds all in the same colourway and in an effort to use up most of them I decided to make at least two cards.  The decoupage was duly die cut then layered up onto some die cut shapes with toning layers behind, papers cut to size and sentiments sorted out resulting in two cards which are 'the same but different'.  As the decoupage printed 6 to a sheet I still have four of those remaining and a few oddments of the two background papers to add to my every growing oddments.

Making these has nicely filled part of the morning and part of the afternoon and now I should take a look and try to decide which CD's to discard.  You've probably guessed I'm one of the world's hoarders so that's probably the most difficult task for me!!

Decoupage - Tattered Lace Charisma die with Print and Go CD
Diecut Shapes - dies from Tonic and Spellbinders
Sentiments - Stamp from Stampin' Up and download from Netty's Cards

Feathers

Sometimes I find it difficult to decide just what to make and I imagine many others feel the same but  making cards - or anything else creative - can be quite therapeutic and helps to keep the mind off the current situation even if only for a while.  I've been looking through my collection of crafty stash seeking inspiration and trying to use items which have perhaps lain undisturbed for some time and that was the case with this set of feather stamps with matching dies.  I've left the card without a sentiment for the moment because it is handy to have a few without words although there is room to add one later. I've gone for black, white and grey with a touch of red here and have used up some scraps of white card along with a strip of black and a strip of grey both of which have been embossed.  The bird is from a different set of dies.

Feathers - Four Feathers set from Stampin' Up
Bird - from another die set by SU