Needle Cases

 At my craft group, someone showed a needle case they'd been given and wondered if we could do something similar. I had a think, and decided to go with an Eileen Hull Bigz die.

My first attempt was ok, but there were a couple of things I decided to change.

I also used some very old Sizzix dies for the scissors, needle and thread which I cut out of rose gold Sizzix Surfacez. (What's the singular of that?) Anyway, my base here was 300gsm card, and I covered it with a scrap of cloth I've had knocking around for ages. I cut some felt remnants I had through the die too, but using folded felt on the die up to the first fold line. The result had a few issues. First, the cover is quite floppy. Not a major issue, but not what I wanted. The other thing is that, using the die to cut the felt resulted in pages that were a bit too big. They fit, but polyester felt is quite stretchy, and the result just didn't look neat enough for me. I used double-sided sticky sheets to adhere the fabric, and finished it off with some lace and elastic cord to make a closure.

My second attempt I tried something a bit different, and I'd also bought some new felt so I could choose colours to fit!

This time, I used some grey board - in fact it was the back of an old notepad. That gave a much firmer basis. For decoration, this time, I used some ribbon, and then a Tonic die from its Sew Pretty range which I decorated with metallic gold thread.

This time, I cut the felt by hand. This gave a wonkier result, but the needle case itself looks much better.

I took a bit of the offcut from the cover (grey board covered in fabric both sides) and cut it to make a loop as show. I adhered it with tacky glue. I think I need to come up with a better option (elastic maybe?) as the scissors fall out if the case is upside-down. I'll continue to give it some thought!

International Art and Soul Challenge 138

 The challenge for this fortnight was set by my team mate Maggie, and she wants projects which are Masculine.

I decided to use one of the Tonic stitching die sets I bought a while ago, but haven't used a great deal. But, once I'd done one card, I carried on until I had three - one with each set for my husband, my son, and my daughter's partner on their birthdays.

Colours were chosen for the different recipients. I cut three layers for each, stitched the top two together, then added the third, and that's about it! (The blue one has an extra square mat because the light blue didn't give enough contrast to the white card.) I've used Sulky varigated thread throughout - greys for the black/white and blue cards, and gold for the green one.

These make very easy cards - a little time-consuming - but I stitched the layers while watching TV, so it didn't seem that way.

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 113

 I'm hosting this fortnight's challenge at International Art and Soul, and I've chosen the theme, 'Use Thread or Beads'. One obvious option is something stitched, but if you don't want to do that, there are lots of ways of using thread and beads that involve other techniques - including beads as flower centres or eyes or just for decoration. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I kept things fairly simple, stitching a couple of designs from Stitching Cards. I like a lot of their designs and given my love of all things Mackintosh, it's not surprising I chose this one.

I used two different types of thread here: the flower heads use a general machine embroidery thread in a crimson shade, and for the rest I used something new to me - a Sulky no. 12 which is varigated in shades ranging from pink and blue through to lilac and grey. To complete the card, I used a Sue Wilson Mini Striplet die to cut out of the white card and placed a silver panel behind. The, I matted with red, and that was that.

This is another Stitching Cards design, but this time I've gone full rainbow! The petals and leaves use machine embroidery thread, but the pots and frames use another Sulky varigated thread - this time in a rainbow range. I used the same striplet die, but this time just mounted the top layer on to some green mirror card directly.

And, for something completely different, I made a Valentine card. (I know, that was months ago, but I tend to make my cards well in advance and then schedule my posts, and I'm typing this on 14th February.)

This card uses a different source - a book called Fold and Stitch by Christa Bushousen. It's an odd mixture of pricking, stitching and tea bag folding, but there are several heart designs. I adapted this from a three-heart design in the book. I'm kind of traditional in my Valentine cards - they've got to be anonymous, although I daresay my husband isn't fooled by the cards that turn up each year. This uses just the Sulky thread I used in the rose card above. To complete, I cut 'be mine' using a set of Tonic dies. The top layer of each uses some card I shaded using a gelli plate and distress ink. I wasn't happy with theoverall result, but I think it worked well for this. I'm just disappointed the set doesn't include punctuation as this really needs a question mark!

I'm looking forward to seeing your thread and bead creations.

International Art and Soul Challenge 98

 This challenge lasts for four weeks, taking us through the festive season, and it's an easy one - Anything Goes with a Bow! So, what are you waiting for?

I decided to have a go with my new hexagonal frame dies from Tonic. I already have a couple of sets of square/rectangular frame dies from Elizabeth Craft and I like those, but was intrigued by the different shape. I finally got something that worked well enough, but I need to find a way of reliably getting the angles between the sides more accurate.

It looks ok, but I can't line the inside with a decorated background because the angles between the sides aren't quite right. Still, I made the best of it by filling it with some flowers. Apart from some greenery which I cut using a Sue Wilson die set, the rest were cut using various dies from Susan Tierney Cockburn. The doily in the background was cut using a pink die which I think means it's Marianne, but I'm honestly not sure. Both the bucket and the doily were shaded with a variety of Distress Oxide inks, and flower details were achieved with Pan Pastel and Liquid Pearl. The silver decoration on the frame was cut using a very old Spellbinders die, and the bow using a Creative Expressions/Sue Wilson die set.

And that's it. I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 71

Our challenge for this fortnight is UK Myths and Legends. I went for something fairly generic but which definitely turns up in some British legends: a dragon!

For this I used a decoupage image from Debbie Moore. I think the CDRom came with a magazine some time ago. I've layered the image using glue gel. For the matting, I've use a Tonic die set - I think its called Celtic Circles so it seemed very appropriate. The result if rather imposing, as I needed an 8 by 8 card to accommodate it.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 225

The challenge for this fortnight is Winter Fun.

I've made another Christmas card, using a digi-stamp. I used to use those more often than not, but since I got my craft room (and my Tim Holtz platform), it's just as easy to do traditional stamping, so I've been doing a lot more. Anyway, back to this project.

The image is from Heather Ellis and was on a magazine freebie CDRom several years ago. I coloured it wiht pencils, cut and pierced the image and other layers with Tonic dies and added stitching. Nothing too complicated, and the time spent stitching the layers was very restful!

I do hope you can join us this time.

International Art and Soul Challenge 38

Our theme for this fortnight is Christmas Traditions. So, I suppose, anything you consider to be a tradition, is fine! It would be lovely if you could tell us what the tradition is, if it's not obvious!

My card is pretty obvious: Rudolph! He and his red nose are definitely a Christmas tradition to many people.

Isn't he cute? The die is called Baby Rudolph and it's from Tonic. I do wish there was a solid shape part to this die, but there isn't, so I've had to hand-cut a background to keep all the bits in place!

The paper is from Dovecraft, and the aperture and circular frame were cut using Spellbinder dies. I've got two more of this style ready to go, but I'm steeling myself. Cutting the aperture for this one proved hard work, as I attempted to cut through two layers of card and one of paper in one go. I won't be trying that again!

I do hope you can join us!

International Art and Soul Challenge 34

Our challenge this time is No Squares or Oblongs. So, we want to see circles and ovals - or anything else that isn't full of right angles!

I went for something quite simple this time.

I started by making a card blank using a Tonic die. Its a rather jagged circle, but it's definitely not square. Then, I created a couple of backgrounds using Distress Ink, water and some Sheena's Stamping card. I used my two favourite colours here - Peacock Feathers and Ripe Persimmon. There's also some Squeezed Lemonade but it doesn't seem to have made much impact on the final result. I cut a large circle from the lighter of the two backgrounds, and stamped it with some stamps from a new set I bought recently from Printable Heaven. It seems that they now sell physical crafting bits as well as downloadable images. I then stamped an arrangement of larger dandelions and cut it into a slightly smaller circle, intending to use that as the focal point of the card, but when I tried it, it just didn't work at all. So, I stamped just one dandelion head on an off-cut and cut a much smaller circle. Both circles were edged with Distress Ink. To complete the card, I stamped a sentiment in Versafine ink to ensure a good, solid black. Now I've just got to decide what to do with the larger arrangement. I really liked it; it just didn't work for this project.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 206

Our challenge theme for this fortnight is Floral Delight. If you're like me, you struggle to make something without flowers, but we'd like to see lots of them for this challenge.

One of my Christmas presents were some Tonic Kaleidoscope box dies, but I haven't had any particular reason to make a box yet, so I decided to give them a whirl and fill one with flowers!

I do love the box! I've only got the hexagon lid at present, but suspect I see the octagon one in my near future.

The paper is from my collection. I'm using less and less patterened paper as I get into making my own backgrounds, so it was good to take a look at what I've got.

The flowers used a mix of dies. Most were Sizzix Susan's Garden dies, but there's a Sarah Wilson set there, as well as, I think, Cheery Lynn and Crafter's Companion. I added shading to petals and leaves using Pan Pastels, and some flower centres using Liquid Pearls.

A close up of some of the flowers.

I do hope you can join us this time, and I look forward to seeing lots of flowers!

International Art and Soul Challenge 13

Our challenge at International Art and Soul for this fortnight is to use dies. Now, I don't know about you, but the number of projects I complete without using dies is small compared to the total, so as it stands, this wasn't much of a challenge. So, I decided to use dies in a way I don't normally, and this is what I came up with.

The image is from a rubber stamp I've had for many years, and I coloured the image with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I cut the image and mats with dies, and in the case of the mats, I added stitching after using my Tonic Sew Pretty layering dies to cut the holes. So far so normal. For the background, I used a fairly pale paper from Papermania, but I jazzed it up with some die cut flowers. The smaller flowers use a Crafter's Companion die, and the larger ones used a Sizzix stamp and die set. I coloured these flowers with Promarkers, and finished both sorts of flowers with stick dots from Craft Creations.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 159

This time, on Crafty Cardmakers, we want you to go green. So, anything you like, so long as it's green.

I chose to make a birthday card for my younger son who's a bit of a linguist.

I started in Photoshop Elements, and, having translated Happy Birthday into a number of European languages, I then arranged the text. I added a little background texture, again in Photoshop Elements, and printed the result. Then, I used  a map stamp I've had for ages, and using Distress Ink in Old Paper, I stamped over the image. I cut some card using dies from Presscut and Tonic to frame the result, and finished with an English Language greeting.

I hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers and More Challenge 145

The challenge for this fortnight at Crafty Cardmakers and More is to make something using warm, summer colours. So, not too difficult, eh?

I started with a stamped image - I've had that stamp for many years - and coloured with Promarkers. In the background, I decided to try out a new die set I've recently bought - one of the Tonic Verso range. I've got to say, I'm very impressed. Because it comes as a set of dies rather than a single, not only do you get more flexibility as to what you cut, but it cuts much more reliably than other doily-type dies I've got. Here, I just used a single die to cut a patterned ring in a square of red card. I matted that with some orange, rounded the corners, and that's about it. I love the die cut so much I didn't want to lose it in added clutter so I didn't add anything.

I hope you can join us this time.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Cards Galore Encore where anything goes,

Crafty Cardmakers and More Challenge 114

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers and More, the challenge has been set by Fiona, and she wants to see 'a floral profusion'! So, flowers, and the more the merrier.

Our sponsor this week is:

I do have a bad habit of taking things literally, and when I saw the challenge, I decided to do a card with loads of flowers. I used an image from our sponsor called Butterfly and Ladybird.

 

Because I wanted to add lots of flowers, I made an 8 by 8 card, but sized the image similarly to what I normally would for a 6 by 6. The image is coloured with Promarkers, although I've shaded the sky with Pan Pastel. The background paper is from Papermania, and I've matted the image onto a Spellbinders die cut. The lace and ribbon are from my stash. The flowers are mainly made using Susan's Garden dies, although I did use one Floral Delights die from Tonic Studios. The greenery comes from a variety of sources - there's a Spellbinder's die, a Marianne die and a couple of Leone M punches as well as some of the leaves that 'came' with the flower dies. I've tinted flowers with Promarkers and Pan Pastels and finished them off with glitter glue or liquid pearls as appropriate.

I must admit, I really do enjoy making flowers. I spent most of a lazy Sunday making that lot while I caught up on some things I had downloaded on my iPlayer. Like colouring, I find it very relaxing - at least, once I've got it all die cut/punched and I can start colouring, shaping and assembling.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's see some flowers!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Creative Card Crew where the theme is 'spring',
Oldie but a Goodie where the theme is 'April showers may bring flowers ...' (my punches are several years old).
Papertake Weekly where 'spring has sprung',
Baffie's Kreativladen where they want something 'for a woman',
Crafting for All Seasons where they want dies/punches,
Creative Moments where they want something 'girly',
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge where the theme is 'flower power',
Crafty Girls where anything goes,
Hobby Cutz where they're playing bingo (I've used flowers, stamp, die cut or ribbon, stamp, punch,
Lacy Sunshine where they want something feminine.