Foiled background

Here is a random selection of cards I’ve made recently, most don’t need a great deal of explanation but I’ve added a few words which you’ll see when you click a photo. If there is anything you’d like clarification on then please don’t hesitate to contact me.

This first one uses the Michael Strong Cloisonné Fan stamped on acetate. A layer of heavily textured purple paper with a flash of silver across it – at  jaunty angles (to hide the fact that I can’t always stick things on straight!) – and a couple of jewelled brads makes for one very heavy card! I do love the finished result though, guess it’ll need hand-delivering to someone special.

The Foil Background

Fans

New Home

Sympathy

Close up

Grand Calibur

Full Card

Grand Calibur

Die Cuts Galore

15 Challenge

Fan & Corner

Mother's Day

Sketch Challenge

25th Anniversary Card

I haven’t blogged for ages – I do apologise. I had hand-surgery in June of this year and my crafting and my typing both suffered as a result. I am now almost back to normal, just need to keep exercising to increase the strength and mobility and it’ll be as good as new. I did get some cards made before I went into hospital but didn’t get around to blogging them. Here’s one I made earlier

In May of this year my eldest sister and her husband celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary so it was the perfect opportunity to go a little over the top with a card. They are very fond of cats, always have a couple, sometimes four, and they’re nearly always ginger!

I haven’t done a lot of embroidery lately so I wound up the machine and dug out this cute image of two cats – changed the colours of the original so that they reflected their penchant for ginger cats and stitched it on a neutral colour of felt. Although felt is very stable I used a couple of layers of stabiliser as well just to make sure it didn’t distort. I love the way their tails make a heart

Basic embroidered design

Trimming to size

My machine will stitch a long basting stitch around the design area before stitching which helps keep it stable and also shows you where the design will be sewn (should you be putting it on a garment). I used these stitches as a guide for cutting, measuring equally all round and then cutting out with a craft knife. I love the Fiskars Fingertip Knife – find it very easy to use and control.

Measuring

Trimming

Neat and ready to go

Shaping the card

I uncovered this lovely silver cardstock in my stash so folded it into a tall gate-fold card base. Using my Fiskars Shape Cutter I cut out the heart shape on the front, half on each ‘gate’ and again on the slightly smaller piece of card I’d chosen for the liner.

Shape Cutter

It almost matches!

Faffing

I wanted to mount the embroidery onto some patterned paper and flowers seemed a good choice (they are avid gardeners) but the pretty paper I found was a bit garish so I toned it down by layering some pale-blue vellum over the top. I adhered the felt onto this and then anchored it down with a ribbon border and some brads, and them some hearts into which I glued a couple of gems.

Papers

Embroidery attached

Lots of hearts

Front of Card

Oooh, time to play! Eyelets inserted using my trusty crop-o-dile; lilac ribbon to lace the front together over a piece of acetate which was cut slightly larger than the size of the card so that it would ‘bow’; peel-offs all round just to add a bit of colour; a cupid topper from my stash and then a few elements cut from a metallic tray using Spellbinders Dies.

I had to make a box to post it of course. I used some darkish card and sprayed with gold Glimmer Mist over a mask and then added a couple of flowers I made. I never really trust glue on corners so, being a ‘belt & braces’ type of girl, I used some silver studs on all sides.

Faffing!

Tag on the back for greeting

It needed a box

Flower

Flowers

We have quite a few parties and unofficial meetings at our house and some visitors like to drink wine! Not me, of course, anyone who knows me will confirm that I never touch a drop!!!

One of the problems I find is that people tend to put a glass down somewhere and then can’t remember which one is theirs. So, I made a bunch of coasters which slip onto the bottom of each glass and every one is slightly different – if only people could remember which colour/gem they are it would be a great idea!

The Coasters

Now I take no credit for coming up with this idea, there are many of them available around the world – but I did design these myself to be stitched completely in the embroidery hoop with no extra sewing steps needed.

I used some black fleece fabric and the edging is all done with a variegated pink thread. The flower design is a different colour on each coaster and – when I ran out of obviously differing colours – I added some large stick-on gems.

The coasters also serve as…well, coasters! Guests can put a glass down on any surface without worrying about leaving rings etc.. very useful really even if they still don’t remember which is their drink.

Glasses

Close-up

All unique

3 of many

Same three

How to store them

This was the next issue, how do I keep them in the glasses cupboard neatly? Have you seen those dispensers they have for cups in cafeterias? That’s the sort of thing I wanted but on a much smaller scale, of course.

I wandered round the workshop looking for inspiration and found it in the guise of left-over drainpipe from the plumbing work we’ve just had done. There were a few pieces about 9″ long and a perfect diameter for the coasters so I grabbed one, got out my hot knife and cut a wide slit down the length of the pipe. It wasn’t easy and it’s not as neat as I would like but, as it’s hand-crafted, I decided it would be OK.

I also found a sweetie tin (travel sweets) which was a good size for the pipe to fit around and then dug out some braid, my alcohol inks and good-old crop-o-dile.

Pipe and Tin

Supplies

Decorating

I didn’t take any photos during the making of this but if you’ve used alcohol inks at all you’ll know to put them on the applicator with some blending solution and just dabble all over the item in question. That’s what I did, both inside and out and also on the braid to take away the contrast and on the brass paper fasteners (brads). I punched holes around the top of the tin, marked where the pipe sat on top of that and punched the holes to correspond and used the brads to hold it all together. The braid is just stuck on to hide the rough edges along the front and inside to hide the brads.

I know that the top of the pipe seems to fold in on itself, I guess that’s because the tin is just slightly too big and is stretching the bottom outwards. Never mind, it works and it looks quite nice sitting in my cupboard amongst the wine glasses…..which I never use myself, honest!

Back and brads

Braided

Inside

In use

Easy access

Sloping!

Christmas Angel

For the Women’s Institute section of our local agricultural show, we had to make a Christmas Decoration one year. I had recently done a stumpwork class so thought I’d incorporate that into this angel. She hasn’t got the prettiest face in the world but she’s all mine so I’ve got to love her!

I designed her myself and just played around with a variety of embroidery stitches, used some flat gold braid for her hair which I frayed at the front so that it looks like mine does when I’ve been out on my bike! There are sequins on her sleeves, long bugle beads for her halo and small seed beads stitched into every other square on her dress. More beads, heart-shaped and leaf-shaped were stitched (all by hand!) around the hem of her dress and the whole thing was backed in red felt and outlined with gold cord.

I’ve got to admit that she lives in my china cupboard – I can’t bear to put her in a box after Christmas.

Centre panel

Braid hair

Sweet Face?

Back view

Hair-do needed

Wing detail

Angel

Embroidered bag

Maybe this should be under embroidery rather than sewing? Oh well, it’s a bit of both I guess.

One of the mailing lists I subscribe to had a digitising competition a few years ago and this was my entry – didn’t win anything this time but had a lot of fun doing it.

Digitising, by the way, is the term used when converting an image – bitmap, jpeg. etc. into stitches. It’s a complicated process which takes a lot of learning and differs with each sewing machine’s software. I have a Husqvarna Designer1 and the software for that and, although I haven’t done any for quite a while, I find quite easy to use to make my own designs. Years of practise! I actually do quite a lot of my own digitising for clothing my husband and I wear on our motorbike. We have a Honda GoldWing and I’ve stitched many a motorbike onto polo shirts for us.

So, back to the bag. I saw a Lulu Guiness bag in a sunday supplement and it was gorgeous and really, really expensive but I thought I could perhaps use the idea. I sketched the outline, divided it like a fan and then added various stitches into each panel. It is stitched onto black velvet dress fabric which had raised gold motifs on it, and on one side it’s done in variegated pink thread, on the other it’s beige. I made a hanging loop to go around my wrist and lined it with a pretty fabric. I do use it quite a lot as it’s light and yet quite roomy.

Inside of bag

Beige side

Close up of lily

The embroidery on the back of this sweatshirt jacket was a free design from Singer some years ago. Very stitch intensive it needed lots of stabilising on the stretchy fabric. You are supposed to always stitch-out a test design before putting it onto the intended final garment but, at almost 33,000 stitches, that’s a lot of thread to use up plus, you end up with a sample lying around with no obvious use! So, I went for it and, luckily, it turned out beautifully. That’s the benefit of professionally digitised designs – they’re usually so well done that they’re ‘almost’ foolproof. As long as you use the correct stabiliser for the fabric etc. then it should be no problem.

I have had some lovely designs from Embroidery Library in the US too, there’ll be a post about my latest project with their stuff later.

Sweatshirt

I get to wear this jacket for about 1 month a year! It does get a lot of comments from strangers, always nice ones, thankfully.

It is made from a plain sweatshirt, christmas fabric was ironed onto the front centre using fusible interfacing and then I followed the pattern roughly up the centre cutting it open. A lot of satin stitching later, round all the edges and it was finished. Of course, it doesn’t fasten at all but it does look cute!

The back has an embroidered lily, not really Christmassy but in the right colours, see photo. Details of the embroidery can be found in the Embroidery section of this blog.

In the background you can just see a Noel Wallhanging – I made this years ago when I lived in Southern California from a kit I purchased there. It’s full of sequins which reflect the xmas tree lights and looks lovely. Every year I think I’ll put it somewhere else (I do try not to be too predictable) but it really needs the lights winking off it to look good.

Close up of lily