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

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

Hello again

I can't believe how quickly the time has gone and that I have totally missed posting since 6 December!  I seem to have been rushing all over the place.

I don't know about you all but I found it very difficult to get into the Christmas spirit - it came on so quickly and the weather was so mild it was hard to believe that Christmas was coming!  I did manage to get all my Christmas cards finally posted but I cheated on many of the presents - I either gave money or made a lot of the presents - I don't like shopping at the best of times and the thought of facing all those crowds really puts me off.

I hope you all had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas and that the New Year will be a good one for you all.

I promise I shall be blogging more frequently in the New Year.

Best wishes

Liz x

and yet another birthday card!

Hello

Hopefully this will be the last birthday card I have to make for a while!  I must get on making my Christmas cards!!

This card is for my grandson, Archie who was 4 a few days ago.

I made a 8" x 8" card using Centura Pearl card and downloaded some paper and decoupage from CC Scruffy Little Kitten CD.  I thought the Little Monster little boy was completely appropriate for a 4 year old!  

I matted and layered a small piece of design paper onto paler blue card stock to match the little monster and popped it on one side of the card.   I then cut out the decoupage pieces and pieced them together with silicone glue and laid them onto the flat picture.  

I matted and layered the decoupage onto purple, pale blue and then purple card stock before placing it on top of the card.  I used the two sentiments from the Little Monster stamp set and embossed them in silver embossing powder and attached them as shown.

Finally I used the remaining paper I had printed off from the CD to make an insert.  I stamped the sentiment onto a plain piece of paper and attached it to the insert.

Thank you for looking.

Liz x

More birthday cards!

Hello

I seem to suddenly have a lot of birthday cards to make and I really want to get on with my Christmas cards!  I haven't made any for myself yet and I need to make at least 25!  Help!

Right so these are all the same but are for different people (obviously!).  One is for a 50th birthday, one is for a 60th birthday and one is for my daughter-in-law's birthday.  They won't be comparing so I thought it would be easier to do the same design.  

I love an all white card and needed something quick. I saw this project on Sara Davies' blog on Crafters Companion so decided to use her ideas!  I'm sure she won't mind.

I used the Signature Collection Floral Delights Scalloped Border die, Sheena Douglass' embossing folder, flower die which I am afraid I can't remember who made it and used a freebie sentiment stamp.

  

You start off embossing the card using Centura Card, and attach to a 6" x 6" card.  Then cut out the Scalloped Border Die and use silicone glue to raise it above the base card.

Then using the flower dies, I cut one set in Centura card and one in pink paper, which I found in my stash.  I slightly shaped the flowers and off-set the two florets so there were gaps.  I attached them together using ordinary glue and glued them to the card as shown.

I cut a small tag and added the sentiment, curled it slightly and using silicone glue raised the tag slightly.

Job done.  Thank you Sara!

Thank you for looking.

Liz x