A Bit More Stitchery

I've been doing a bit more stitching in an effort to use up some of my fabric mountain.  These little hanging storage pouches feature on Debbie Shore's Country Kitchen project CD and actually come in three sizes.  I started with the largest of the three but completely forgot to take a photo before I gave it away.  However today I've made the medium and small ones using up some quite small scraps of fabric and equally small pieces of wadding mostly left overs from layering up quilts because of course I can't bear to throw away the offcuts, knowing they will come handy someday!

The hearts are simply raw-edge shapes stitched on with a straight stitch and I finished off both of these little pockets by making  fabric yo-yo's from the same fabric and hand stitching them on with some ribbon and a button - yes I have a button mountain as well!!  Debbie's  patterns are so easy to understand and once the pieces are cut out the pouches are quite quick to make so I will probably be making a few more for the sales table at our next quilt exhibition.  The lining fabric on the blue one is actually a good match for the main fabric but because it has gold patterns on it hasn't photographed too well.

Butterfly Challenge 59

It is time for another challenge incorporating butterflies and the theme this time is PINK AND/OR PUNCHES - you can see the details and some inspiration HERE.  I started by colouring some watercolour paper with what I call the 'kitchen towel mop-up method' which I saw described on Loll's blog HERE - such a great idea which gives a subtle effect.  I then over stamped in pink using a magazine freebie  art nouveau stamp before die cutting the two panels.  I then cut a fancy oval from another piece of the coloured paper, adding a swirl cut from a scrap of Centura Pearl card.  The butterflies were stamped in pink on the remaining scraps of the coloured background paper, they were then cut out using matching punches.  Behind all this is a piece of pink paper from a pad which I've had for some time and luckily it just fitted the bill here.

Background - Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby

Border Stamps - Art Nouveau designs free with magazine

Dies - Panels by Tonic, Oval by Sue Wilson, Swirl also Sue Wilson

Butterflies - Papillon Potpourri stamps and matching punches by Stampin' Up

Found some More Snippets!

I received this lovely bear stamp set yesterday and wanted to have a play - he was triple stamped on a snippet of white card using three different colours of ink and his bow tie was also done in a similar way as was the balloon he is holding.  Details of colours and stamps are shown below.  I had quite a few surplus die cuts left from the card I made for the Snippets Challenge a couple of weeks ago and have managed to incorporate some of them into the card for this week..  The brown layer was also a piece of 'waste' from a square frame which was die cut quite a while ago and the greeting was cut from more snippets of the turquoise card. I'm still surprised that my piles of snippets never seems to diminish despite using them whenever I can.

There is a pretty teatime/butterfly card to see and also of course the opportunity to be entered into a draw for a lovely prize if you pop over to the Playground to take a look (just follow the link above).

Stamps - Baby Bear and Balloon Celebration from Stampin' Up
Greeting - Britannia die
Die Cuts - Swirly Scribbles from Stampin' Up
Colours - So Saffron, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise SU; Rich Cocoa Memento

A Crafty Day

I've had quite a crafty day so far today starting with a great quilling workshop with Jill of Jill's Quills fame where we were shown lots of lovely ideas for quilled flowers.  I spent most of the time trying to perfect some of the more fiddly techniques such as 'folded' roses and fringed flowers using 3mm papers.  As Jill is also into Stampin' Up - See HERE - she delivered some stamps which I'd ordered from her.  It was difficult to decide which set to have a play with first but I settled on the floral set which, being triple stamped give the appearance of pen and wash.  I also made post-it note masks which I've saved in the case containing the stamps so that they can be used again if necessary.  I found some pieces of paper and card which went with the ink colours and made a quick birthday card - at least it was quick once I'd cut the masks and done the multiple stamping of the flowers!  Watch this space for something made from the second stamp set, also a multiple stamping set - I must say this technique is so much easier with the advent of photopolymer stamps .

Stamps - Penned and Painted by Stampin' Up
Colours - So Saffron, More Mustard, Certainly Celery and Wild Wasabi
Embossed border - Crafter's Companion

Feathers

This is the second card I made on Sunday, again mostly using up scraps of card.  I'm going to schedule this one just to see if the process has improved since I tried last (it was quite a while ago).

Embossing folder for background - Crafter's Companion brick wall
Feathers - Stampin' Up stamps with matching thinlits die
Text - large dictionary stamp also SU
Sentiment - also SU, stamped and heat embossed on a strip of parchment

Butterfly Challenge

Having had a spell where I've not made much in the way of cards, I've actually managed to produce two today and one of them is for the Butterfly Challenge where the theme is DIMENSION AND/OR DENIM.  I've used an embossing folder and dies which came free with a magazine recently because I thought I really should open the packet and try them.  I found a scrap of Tim Holtz paper which was a suitable colour for the background and the embossed card is also one of his - a whitewash card which has been lightly sanded to reveal the core after embossing.  The reverse of this card has also been used for the punched flowers (Stampin' Up punch).  I was going to schedule this post but as it doesn't always work for me and we are near the deadline I will post it today instead.

Snippets Playground

Another week has rushed by and my goodness it has been HOT - a bit too much so for comfort really although I imagine there are people who enjoy hot weather.  Anyway this means that it is time again to visit the Pixie Snippets Playground where the lovely Di has chosen some great picks from last week.  I'm not saying this because she was kind enough to include my card but there are others which illustrate some great techniques and ideas.  Alcohol ink seems to be back in vogue again but with some new paper which I've not yet come across and probably don't need although it always interesting to try new ideas (any excuse for a crafty shop).

This card was made a little while ago using up a stray image which was lying around together with some die cuts made from snippets of card.  I'm not sure how my pile of bits and pieces never seems to diminish even though I keep using them up!!  I'm aiming for a productive day today, hopefully using more scraps so that at least I should have something for the playground next week as well.

Image - Polkadoodles
Dies - circle from Tattered Lace, Lattice layers from Marianne
Sentiment - printed, cut out with bitty banner die from SU