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!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 237

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers for this fortnight is to use a die or punch. Once you've done that, there are no restrictions on what you produce!

For this card, I started with a background which I created using my gelli-plate, some Distress Oxide ink and a stencil. The die cuts were cut using a die from Tonic's Sew Pretty range. I stitched them with metallic gold thread. The sentiment was stamped with a stamp from John Lockwood/Creative Expressions, and I highlighted the pretty flowers with a little glitter using Crafter's Companion glitter pens in yellow and teal. I completed the card with some sticky gems.

I do 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 48

Our challenge for this fortnight, and indeed over the Christmas and New Year period is Add Some Sparkle.

For this, I homed in on the word sparkle and got out my Crafter's Companion Sparkle pens. I used them to create a background.

I used water to shade the colours together, and when it was dry, I did some faux bleaching with a very old holly stamp.

I used that same stamp for the main image, stamping with the red and green sparkle pens, and a mounted stamp from Dovecraft. I then added the text using an unmounted rubber stamp which I suspect came as a freebie from the Rubbernecker stall at Ally Pally some years ago. I stamped that with Versafine ink as the sparkle pens didn't give a solid enough result.

I cut various mats, and die cut all four layers with some of my set of Tonic Sew Pretty squares. Then, I stitched as you can see, using a sparkly gold thread.

I often forget how a very simple focal image can be complimented by suitable embellishment, and I must say I went from being rather disappointed with the image stamping to being quite pleased with the complete card.

I hope you can join us this time, and I wish you and yours all the best for the festive season.

International Art and Soul Challenge 47

Our challenge for this fortnight at International Art and Soul is Funny Christmas. You can make anything you like, so long as it meets the theme. It doesn't matter if it's something personal about your make that is 'funny', although it'd be great if you'd share the reason if it isn't obvious!

I used a stamp I've had for quite a few years, and it always makes me smile, even if it's not laugh-out-loud funny.

The image is from Sarah Kay. And I like to imagine those little boys, who'd probably prefer to be playing football, and who've been cleaned and brushed up, trying to be very earnest, but of course, one of them has dropped his music while another has stopped singing while he watches. So, a smile rather than a laugh!

The image was stamped on watercolour paper but coloured with wax--based pencils. I've used a very old Spellbinders label die to cut the image. To frame the image, I've used one of my Tonic Sew Pretty square dies. I like hand-stitching and paper pricking as embellishments, and this way, I didn't get cramp in my hand while hand-pricking all those holes!

I do hope you can join us this time.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 192

This time, at Crafty Cardmakers, we're playing Tic-Tac-Toe. Although were I come from, that's known as xs and os. The grid allows lots of possibilities, and you can follow any horizontal, vertical or diagnonal line.

I've followed the left-hand vertical line, so my card includes gems, stitching and has a summer theme.

I started with a Tonic Sew Pretty die. Now, I really like this range, but I can't help but think that whoever designed them hadn't done much embroidery on paper (or maybe they're just really, really clever.) That's because, to me, the obvious way to start and finish your thread on the back of paper embroidery is to use sticky tape, and these gorgeous dies just don't have enoough solid area to do that. So, after cutting out the shape, I stuck the die cut to a contrasting piece of card, and then used a paper-piercer to follow the holes through both thicknesses. I stitched the holes with stitches 2, 3 or 4 holes long depending on the degree of curvature using my usual machine embroidery thread. (I don't own a sewing machine and any attempt at using one would probably end up with a visit to Accident and Emergency.) I then accented some of the swirls with stichy gems. for the background, I got out a punch I've had for a long time - in fact, I think I used it in my first ever DT card at Crafty Cardmakers in July 2010. If you're at all interested, the post is here.

Anyway, you can see I've got stitching and gems. What about summer? Well, the summer theme is the butterflies, of course!

Apart from that, all I've added is some matting. I had intended to add some flowers, but when I saw how these elements combined, I decided to leave well alone!

I hope you can join us this fortnight.