Can't take it!!

The stress and strain of keeping stoomp about our secret project has gotten to the boys. They just can't take it anymore! This is the state I found them in late last night. Erm shall I be calling the A.A. then.

Only a few more days boys and then all will be revealed.

Butterflies.

I have made this for the Butterfly Project that Tee of Creations by Tee  had mentioned on her blog. The Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies  for an exhibition scheduled for Spring 2014. They have asked for  butterflies to be made in any medium but should be 2 dimensional and no bigger than 8" x 10". They have collected 9000,000 so far.

Other than the fact that I wanted to make it from material I really had no concept when I started out so it really evolved (as they do) along the way. I had a basic template which I cut out to size and then recut a slightly smaller version for the top wings (my butterfly comes out at 6" x  9"). Using a pretty piece of butterfly fabric from my stash I cut four pieces and used bondaweb to stick a front and a back together. Then decided I wanted the top wings to be lightly stuffed so had to peel the backing off to get the wadding in place (see what hapens when you don't have a plan). The beads, pearls, lace and wire for the antenna were all from my stash using up odds and ends.  The yellow lace has got to be 30yrs plus and the cream 20yrs plus!  I think this qualifies as a snippet for  Pixies Crafty Workshop.







A side ways view showing the  dimensional stuffed wings which give the overall butterfly a depth of just over 1cm. I went to town on the bling using green tube beads and gold pearls from a long ago  broken necklace.

All in all considering I didn't know where I was going with this one I'm pleased with the result. Butterfly is now winging it's way to Tee in USA for onward transportation to the museum.

Entering into the following challenges:



Handmade Harbour: Handmade Mondays.
Craft Your Passion: Things with wings.
Creative Belli: Anything but a card.
2 Sisters Challenge:. Anything goes.
Dream Valley: Things with wings.

Look wot Sis made!

Spent some time last Weekend visiting Sis. She is a prolific knitter but was between knits at the time. When she saw my fish 'n' chips baby jumper and hat on my blog below  Sis wanted to make a set too.

Having made it up using a random dye wool that knitted up in blues and greys Sis decided it looked rather  lonely on its own so out came her wool bag  and  a ' girly' version was quickly completed.

Aren't they sweet!!!! These will be winging their way to Dawn for her appeal.
Thanks Sis.

P.s. At her last count Dawn had received 256 jumpers and 285 beanies.!!

Believe.

I had seen an example of a card to make in a magazine and as it was all in pinks, flowery , butterflies and had a dreamy effect to it thought I would have a go at my own version.  So straight to the snippets folder (that is bulging at the seams) and pulled out the papers below. The stamp I had already used on a piece of paper and not used when I made my altered book for Sherry. I used my Spellbinders 'Rose creations die' but left the petals flat instead of sculpting into a rose shape. (what a diference it makes). I added stitching to the edges before matting onto pale green card stock. Butterfly die is  Spellbinders trio S3-146.

The magazine said 80mins to make. Huh! Which 80 mins would that be then. Several of my  80 mins later here is the result. I was going to add a flourish or two but think the card works perfectly as it is. What do you think? Entering into Pixies Crafty Snippets. I even left the threads hanging for you Sherry!

Also entering  the following challenges:

One stitch at a time:  Stitch it.

Fab 'N' Funky: Polka Dots.

Divas by Design: To die for.

Paper Play Challenges: Use a die.

All Sorts: Any die will do.

Been Busy.

I've been busy this week working on projects that can't be revealed just yet. The boys have been helping me with the proviso that they do not breath a word but I think they have been taking me a bit too seriously!!!!

Still its been lovely and quite for a change in the craft pod.
I missed the deadline for this weeks Snippets but my  post will be along shortly and I will be around to your blogs a.s.a.p

Basket Weave.

A quick (well maybe not) Snippets card before the gates close in the playground. A spot of weaving this week. Still using up the  reject roses so a hunt in the odds and ends found a few bits of paper that matched quite well. Saw a simple technique in a magazine for doing paper weaving using 1cm wide strips so thought I would have a go. I didn't have any green paper  the exact colour I wanted so I just coloured a piece of white card using a promarker then put lines in it using my scor-pal. Cut and coloured some rose leaves to match and adhered  onto  white card stock. Created and printed the sentiment off in Word. Entering into Pixies Crafty Workshop #24.

 



Also the following challenges:

Great Impressions: Die cuts or punches. ( Rose / Leaves made using Spellbinders Rose creation die.)

Papertake weekly  3-2-1  ( 3 printed papers, 2 leaves, 1 rose.)

Always Crafting: Summer.

Craft  your passion: Anything Goes.



Father's Day.

Not the card I started out to make. It should have been a potting shed with a cat in the window!!! I know , I know nothing like it you say.

 I started last night  to colour the image using promarkers and they bled , (not a lot but enough to show and I used the right paper in the printer too). Next  I printed off another  shed and used my water colour pencils and made a mess of it so in desperation ( as I needed to put the card  in the  post  by today) and 4 hours later made the one below. The backing paper I have used really lends itself to the little cat blocks which I did colour in using promarkers. Ribbon, card and button are from my stash. I love this stamp which is made by Inca and is called Cat Blocks. It prints a square of nine different cats in cute poses which you could leave as is but I like to cut them up into ones, two's and three's. Hubby stopped by my desk this morning and saw the discarded shed and said "Nice beach hut"!!! In the cold light of day the shed/hut is not that bad now it has dried so it will go in my reject box to see another day.

In the meanwhile I am entering this into the following challenges.

Secret Crafter: Happy Father's Day.

Simply Create Too: Happy Father's Day.

Dream Valley: For that Special Guy.

Make My Monday:  Father's Day.

Fab 'n' Funky: Father's Day.

Penny's Ppaer-crafty: I love you Dad.

C.R.A.F.T.  Challenges: Father's Day.



Just for Notes.

Another post it note holder but this time using the larger size of post it notes. The rose was left over from the samples that  I made up for the Wedding which was rejected as not the right colour. The papers are left overs from cards that I have recently made. Quick and easy to make and smarten up a post it note lying around on your desk. No doubt a certain someone will be saying me me me as these are her fav colours!!!

Again all snippets used so entering into pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/">Pixes Crafty Workshop.

Arabella.

Meet Arabella a Victorian rag doll that  I actually made many years  ago! This one was made for my Mum and I have just rescued her back. I made rather a lot of these in the 1980's. One for each of Fluff's friends on their Birthdays. Quite a few Grandma's when they saw them wanted one too! Each little girl was allowed to choose their dolls name( which I then embroidered onto the pinny) and  tell me their favourite colour to make the clothes in and hair colour.

Fluff's doll was called Anna and you can see the posting for her here.

The pattern was in a magazine of the time called "Woman's Weekly "which I still have. The name of the original maker is not mentioned which is a shame. I adapted mine with a different hat pattern and hair styles. Arabella has ringlets.

Linking up to:

Handmade Harbour: Handmade Monday.

Purr--------fect.

Two quick cards using up those odd bits of cardstock that get left over when you make a 6" square card from a 12" x 9"sheet.! I have had this  cat stamp for a while. It is an Inca stamp called Cat Blocks. I saw it on a fellow bloggers site and just had to get it. The stamp is in a block of 9 little cats which you could stamp out in one shot onto a card but I thought they look quite cute in blocks of two's and singles. These are using up all snippets from my folder which is getting fatter by the day.

Ribbons and the buttons are from my stash. The sentiments are printed out from word.

There is a tail tale to the ribbons.

 A long time ago I used to breed and show persians and whilst the prizes that you got were  not of  high monetary value  you did get  lots of rosettes for winning  1st, 2nd, 3rd  and Best of Breed etc. After a decade of showing I had accumulated a lot of them. Too many to put up on the wall (which I did do  in the dinning room) so the rest  were just collecting dust in boxes. When we redecorated the dinning room a few years ago the rest came down and as I was no longer showing I decided to put the rosettes to good use hence my rather hefty stash of 4" and 6" bits of ribbon. It took me absolutely ages to cut the rosettes up and I even found a use for the round discs in the centre. They were used up as the bases for flower brooches which I made a lot of.



The basecard for this one is actually green but is looking rather pale in the photo.

As they both made completely from snippets I am entering them in 

Pixies Crafty  Workshop.