Yet another apron

Hello

Here are pictures of my third and last apron I made for Christmas presents.

This time I bought the material.  My daughter-in-law said that her sister loved 'vintage' style and I didn't have any appropriate material.  I bought the material from a shop in Horam, East Sussex (I'm afraid I don't know the name, we just call it the 'fabric shop in Horam').  

I used the same pattern from Sharon at Whoopsiedaisy but used one of the alternative options, using the heart shapes.  I added the frill around the heart bib as I wanted to make it more 'vintage'!!

She seemed tickled pink with the apron.  I do hope she like it!

I must say I probably won't be making any more aprons in the near future!!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

little boxes for men

Hello

I'll bet everything is back to normal now.  Holidays and family gatherings over and just a memory.  Preparation takes so long and it is all over so quickly.

You may remember I showed you some aprons I made as sort of 'hostess' gifts for having me over the Christmas period.  Well I couldn't very well leave out the men, now could I?  But what to do?  Luckily Sara from Crafters Companion had brought out her Ulti-box DVD which showed some very clever boxes and containers.  So here is what I decided to make for the men of the family.

Although it looks very effective and difficult it was surprisingly simple and not too fiddly either!

As you can see this is made up by making six small triangular boxes, which open at one side to put little things in.  Sara's video is very helpful and she gives you the measurements and every process with great detail. 

I used Crafters Companion A3 double sided card from the Christmas range.  The card is strong and ideal for crafting and the double sided detail makes life so much easier!   You do not have to put in the acetate feature in three of the boxes but as I planned to fill them with homemade peppermint creams and truffles, I wanted the sweets to be seen.

Once I had made the six boxes to my satisfaction, they were placed on a thin strip of card, alternating the acetate boxes with the closed boxes and glued down.  Then a long ribbon was attached along the full length of the boxes, with enough left over to make a bow.

Once you have filled the boxes with whatever you have decided to put in, you can roll the boxes up, using the ribbon.  When the boxes are in a circle, tie the ribbon firmly at the top and there is your unusual present.

I actually used the other Christmas set of A3 double sided card which is much richer in colour and more suitable for men, but I only took a picture of one of them.  The other two I forgot to photograph!!  

The blue one was my practice roll but I made three different boxes in three different sets of card.  They did look very effective and the men seemed very pleased and impressed.  Success!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

More Christmas cards!

 Hello

Here are a couple of Christmas cards I made using Crafter's Companion Create-a-Card dies.  I must say I find them so easy to use and they produce a very impressive card which cannot fail to impress.

This card uses the Christmas fireplace.  I cut and embossed the card using Centura pearl card then backed it with red card for the fire and gold for the fireplace from my stash.  It was a bit fiddly cutting out the different colours of card but I think it was quite effective.

This card also uses a Create-a-Card die but this time it was using Santa's sleigh with the reindeers flying over the roof-tops.  I used light and dark blue Bazzil card-stock and then highlighted the stars, trees and roof tops using Diamond Stickles.  Again I think the die makes the card look quite impressive.  Hopefully the recipients  were impressed also.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Cards for the grandchildren

Hi

I like to make individual cards for my grandchildren, so I looked through my stamps to see what I had.

I loved this one - I made one for each of my two younger grandsons  The stamp is from the Humphrey's Corner '1st Christmas' stamp set.  

This one uses the SWALK 'Winter Cheer' and I thought this was rather cute and sent to my Oz grand-daughter.

This one uses Humphrey's Corner 'Meeting Santa' stamp.  This seemed quite adorable and I sent it to my younger grand son in Oz.

I think this one was a freebie Humphrey's Corner stamp as there is no title for it.  It is cute though.

And this one is called 'Hello Snow Friend'.  I used some free backing papers and also some which were in my stash.

I hope the grandchildren liked them.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Another apron

Hello

As promised in my blog after Christmas here is the second apron I made at Sharon's Whoopsiedaisy.

This time I used some Christmas material I bought from Dunhelm store last year.  It seemed perfect for the design.  I already had the burgundy material for the pockets and straps.

Again I used Crafters Companion A3 double sided card for the box.  This was for my son's mother-in-law.  She seemed absolutely delighted with it.  I hope she really was!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Some Christmas cards

 Hello

Because of the number of Christmas cards I needed to make, I decided to cheat and make several using the same stamp.  I coloured them differently to make a bit of a difference.

The stamp I used was the Christmas robin from Woodware and the greetings stamp is one I bought in Australia.

I coloured them in using my Promarker pens. 

I used matching matts behind the card and greetings.

I also used the Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens.  I had just bought them and I must admit I do like the sparkle they give.  More subtle than real glitter.

The card I used is the Crafters Companion Centura Pearl.

Its surprising how different they look using different colours, isn't it?  It certainly made my life easier.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Beatrix Potter bunting

Hello

Thought I'd show you the latest present I made for my youngest grandson, Rory.

I bought the Beatrix Potter material at the Malvern Quilt show this Autumn and saw the material in pink, made up into a small cushion with piping round it.  So I bought a metre, planning on making the cushion for him.  I took it to Sharon at Whoopsiedaisy Designs for her to help me with the piping.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the cushion, which came out very well!!  I'll try and get one when I next see Rory.

However I had rather a lot of material left over and Sharon suggested I make some bunting and put Rory's name on it. As luck would have it, there were just enough letters left for me to cut out his name and some Beatrix Potter characters as well.

We decided to make the bunting in a semi curved flag - it gave more room to include the pictures.  I backed the bunting with pale blue flannelette and used pale blue cotton to make the string to hold the flags together.  

I made two flags on each end and put the initials in the middle.  

This flag mirrors the Peter Rabbit character Rory has painted on his nursery wall.

Because the two 'r's in Rory's name did not have any characters I could use as I have with the 'o' and the 'y' I backstitched by hand around the letter 'r'.  Then I machined the square onto the blue flannelette using a ziz-zag stitch.

I do love Jeremy Fisher so was very pleased to be able to include him  into the bunting.

I used the same Peter Rabbit character at the beginning and the end of the bunting as luckily there were two left in the material. 

I was very pleased with the result and everyone who saw it thought it was lovely too.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

Christmas presents I have made

Hello

First of all may I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.  Let's hope 2016 is a good one for us all.

Now that Christmas is over, one wonders what all the fuss was about.  How come it takes weeks in preparation and everything is over and done within one day?  At least I hope it was all worth while and you all had a brilliant time.

Every year my son's in-laws very kindly invite me over to spend Christmas with them all.  Although we do not give presents I feel I should make something as a thank you for their kindness. 

This year I decided to make aprons for the ladies, my son's mother-in-law, her mother and my daughter-in-law's sister.  You may remember I go to sewing classes with Whoopsiedaisy Designs on a Monday morning and Sharon had a super pattern for aprons.  Sharon has helped me with making them all and I was very pleased with them.

This is the first apron I made.  I already had the material and it seemed perfect for an older lady!  Lovely little teapots and cups and the pockets just matched up very well.

I also made the boxes to put the aprons in from Crafters Companion A3 card.

I think she was very pleased with it!  I hope so.

I'll post the other aprons in future blogs.

May I wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.  I wonder what 2016 will bring us all.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x