Another Christmas make

Hello

In previous blogs I mentioned aprons I had made for Christmas for my son's in-law family.  I had already made an apron for my daughter-in-law for her birthday.  That's where I got the idea of making aprons for the rest of her family as they seemed to like hers very much.

Consequently I had to think of something else for her for Christmas.  Sharon from Whoopsiedaisy had just developed this make-up bag and so I thought this would be perfect for her.

I had bought the material from Create and Craft,it was one of six fat quarters.  This seemed perfect as my son and daughter-in-law got engaged at the Eiffel Tower.  The contrast material I used from leftovers from the vintage apron and the inside lining was also from one of the six fat quarters.

I also made the box from Crafters Companion A3 double sided card.

My daughter-in-law seemed delighted with the present and she recognised the significance of the Eiffel Tower.

I enjoyed making this bag and I think I shall be making a few more, thank you Sharon!

Thank you for looking

Liz x

Cuddly Bear

Hello

Here's another Whoopsiedaisy Design that the talented Sharon Gammon has designed.  

My younger son and his wife were expecting their first baby last November and I wanted to make something to welcome my seventh grandchild (!) into the world.

Sharon designed this lovely bear with his snuggle blanket as well.  As we didn't know the sex of the baby I had to go for neutral colours and I was struggling to find neutral fabric that co-ordinated in the local fabric shops when lo and behold, Debbie Shore came on Create & Craft and had this matching fat quarters set,  There are six different fat quarters all in neutral colours.  Perfect!  I decided to do teddy in patchwork too but I could have done it all in one piece of fabric. He is stuffed with toy stuffing and is lovely and squidgy!

I also used Minkie fabric for the front of the ears, his little nose which is heart shaped and the bottoms of his feet.

The blanket is quite straight forward although it took a while to work out where to put the squares!  The picture makes the blanket look a bit creased, but I promise it wasn't.  It was lovely and smooth!  I sewed the blocks together and then put a border around it. I backed the quilt in the lovely 'bobbly' Minkie, which I got from the wonderful Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, East Sussex and also brought it round to do the edges too.  I then quilted along the seams of each square, sewing right through to the backing.  Sharon is a expert at putting quilts together and she helped enormously, showing us every step of the way, with the binding and quilting which is not as easy as it looks!!

Here are the two together.  Don't they look smart?  My son and daughter-in-law were very pleased and I don't think they were being polite!  They had a little boy called Rory and the quilt and teddy sit proudly on his little crib!  Brilliant.  Thank you Sharon.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Door stops

Hello

I first saw Debbie Shore when she was demonstrating on Create and Craft.  She always made everything look so easy and she would make items in the hour, which I found very interesting!

One of the items made by Debbie Shore was a door stop in the shape of a cube, made with hessian and decorated with various ribbons.

This was one of my first efforts which I gave to my son and daughter-in-law.  As you can see its just decorated with different types of ribbons and some appliqué, anything you want.  

This was was made for my daughter and son-in-law.  Their colour scheme has green and purple in it and my son-in-law is a bit of a Goth (I think that's how you describe it) and likes skulls etc. but you can see how different it looks.

When my son and daughter-in-law were married, the people at whose premises were used were so helpful and kind that my son and daughter-in-law wanted a little present to give them to say thank you so they asked me to make an appropriate coloured door stop.  This was the end result.  Apparently they were over the moon about it, so I was glad.

To stuff the door stop I used ordinary toy stuffing and weighted it down with a rice envelope in the base.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Another birthday

Hiya

Second blog - doing well.

It was my younger son's birthday at the beginning of August.  He is a very keen DIY fan.  He has made such a lot of brilliant things - he's very clever, even if I say so myself!  As you all know birthday cards for men are very difficult and I thought and thought what I could do for his card.

As luck would have it I had bought the Cascading Card template from Paula Walters Designs in Doncaster, having seen it demonstrated on Create and Craft recently.  I made a small one and a larger one, as per the templates and this is the bigger of the two.  Flicking through my magazines and papers I came across Making Cards for Men magazine dated 2011 and would you believe it,   it had a whole page of DIY tools and screws!

I spent a long time cutting everything out but I do think it was worth it.  The photos are not brilliant I'm afraid but I think you can see the idea.  

I do like the template and I've seen examples using flowery paper with roses etc and they look absolutely stunning and so different so I shall be using it again.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Hi all
I hope you have all recovered from the New Year festivities.  Have to say mine was very quiet but good.  I saw the New Year in and then, I'm afraid went off to bed.  Can't cope with these late nights!  Anyway I've made the most of being quiet and made a few cards - sent off some thank you cards and started playing with some kits I bought last year.

This card used the Jayne Netley Mayhew CD which I absoutely love.  The variety of designs are brilliant.

This was a new stamp set called Basket of Flowers which can be seen at http://www.rubberstampcompany.com/ These are a set of 5 stamps and you just repeat stamp in different colours.  Very effective and idea for quick little thank you cards.

This one used the easel style card which Anita did.  As Anita said it is simple but different again.  The two toppers and background papers were from Redhotbed which came with a window kit I'd bought from Create adn Craft.  I thought this was quite a nice valentine's card without it being too sloppy! I don't 'do' sloppy!!

Now this one was from Kanban Patchwork Collection which I bought from QVC.  I love Kanban - the card is so good and the characters are great.  I bought some stamps with Christmas characters and am very pleased with them.   This card I've made with my grandson in mind - he's only one year old, but I thought he might like it anyway.  The card opens up and you can see into the carriage:

and there are two of the characters.  Cute isn't it?

Right I'm off for now.  I'll be back later with more chat.  Bye xx

I'm back!

Well no 1 son has gone back to Australia now!  Bit sad to see him go but I'll see him again in February so not too far away.  We had a lovely time - very hectic 5 days - but he saw everyone he wanted to, so that was good.  Consequently not done much card making but have been having a bit of a play with my new Cute Companions stamps.  Not quite got the hang of them, so nothing to show just yet.
However, I've got pictures of other cards I've done so I'll get some of them together.

This a card I did for my ex-husband's 60th birthday (don't ask!).  I put in the shrink plastic pair of slippers as a sarcastic gesture which I'm sure was lost on him, but I liked it, especially as he's older than me!  Again it is good old Cute Companions number stamps which I do like and some of the Christmas stamps too.

This is one of those hidden cards where you pull each side and get three cards in total and use a plastic bag for the mechanism.  I saw it demonstrated a while ago on Create and Craft.  This is how it looks when you get it:

and then this is what you get when you open it.  Cute isn't it? 

I've used Little Claire duck stamps and coloured with sakura glaze pens and used yellow flock for texture.  I was quite pleased with it. 

I'm off now to have a mozey around.

Back later x