Hillarys Blinds Country Craft Competition.

Picture heavy Post.

Hillarys Blinds have been running a Cut , Stich and Blog competition on their web site. The closing date is today so I'm just in by the skin of my teeth as they say!
I saw this competition mentioned on a couple of blogs but couldn't find the page on their site anywhere but  then my friend Sherry posted her competition makes with the links so I was able to find out all the details.
First thing to do was to send off for my free sample of material which there was a choice of 4 to choose from. By now though I had nearly run out of time to order so just got in in time.

I fell in love straight away with the beautiful Bird Parade from the selection.

 

I then spent a week mulling over what to make and at the very last minute changed my mind

as first decision  I decided was too easy. Well what's the fun in that and when have I ever taken the easy route!!

So first job was to nip down to the local charity shop for a picture frame.

I removed the old picture and glass and then sanded the frame down  to get a good key.

 

Next I needed to cut  the  material.

I hadn't realised till I spread  it out on the floor that the birds were in different poses.

Had a heart in mouth moment as I needed at least two birds to be exactly the same.

Fortunately two were. Phew!

I nearly left the frame as it was but decided to stick with painting it.

I used 2 tester pots in 'Blue Babe' and 'Teal Tension'

rubbing down between colours to achieve a distressed look and in some parts back to the original.

I steamed and ironed the fabric and attached to the cardboard insert  from the original picture.

 

Next I went off to my stash of beads and trims and selected just a few!

Next came the fun part building up the  fabric picture with embellishments.

Not too many as I wanted the original design of the fabric to still show through.

Here is the reason I needed  at least 2 birds o be the same.

I wanted the body of the bird to be in 3D and very slightly padded.

I cut just the body out and backed with an odd tree/branch piece.

I found some embroidery thread in a teal & turquoise which matched perfectly and stitched by hand.

Stuffed to give a nicely rounded shape.

Beaded detail of the tail.

I found some beautiful pearl shell shape beads that fitted the feather shape perfectly.

 

The finished picture.

I added a few beads to the flowers in the tree  for a balanced effect and then on  a whim

I added the dangly pearl heart bead.

 

Off to link up with Pixies Crafty Workshop #118 as I have used up loads of snippets from my stash.

 

Finally off to send link to Hillarys Blinds before I miss the deadline.

 

 

 

 

Six More for The Pot.

Six very quick Cas Christmas cards

to add to the pot making a healthy 8 more to my total.

 

Silver card blanks form stash.

Digi papers by Bearly Mine 'Winter Swirls'

which make up these really super fast cards fronts.

 

 

Ribbon and gems from stash

Sentiments Anita's Glitterations.

 

Sentiments Anita's Message tags.

Ready made tag base and glitter card from stash.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Creative Craft World #3 Beat the rush.

Rudolph Day # Two or more Christmas cards.

Sweet Stampin Christmas #15 It's cold outside.

Rhedd and Rosie's #29 Trees and wood.

 



 

 



Cute Christmas.

This is my first Christmas card make joining in over at the Christmas  Card  Club. I had seen several of my blogging friends making cards and a couple of weeks ago I expressed an interest and low and behold I was invited to join this merry band of  bloggers who are busy beavering away to make cards in  a timely fashion for you know what that creeps stealthily up behind us ready to give us a quick nip/kick  if we are not alert and  ready!!
The theme for this weeks show is Cute Christmas.

Now  that posed quite a challenge for me cos  cute to my mind is very much  in the eye of the beholder. One man's fancy etc...........etc. 
 Anyone who knows me I don't do 'Cute'  (no stamps or dies fitting that description in my stash )so this meant resorting to a pile of old Christmas card fronts saved to re salvage into  new cards.
I found 3 pictures which I thought would work and set to finding papers to go with them.
This card is actually the first picture I picked to use but the second card made!!
How come? Well I played around with different DP. and card stock but nothing worked so went onto the second card which fell together very quickly using the very same colour way I had originally picked out for card no1.
Having made the card I kept looking back at the one I had discarded which I had dumped onto  (also discarded ) DP. and suddenly it clicked the two went together.

So here is my cute Christmas Card.

Taken at a slight angle to avoid the glare from the Acetate.

Yep!  You heard right,I resorted to my love hate relationship with  the stuff to make this CAS card.

Image from old (at least 15yrs) Christmas card in stash.

Brads in stash along with Anita's Glitterations adhesive sentiment.

D.P. 'Humprey's Corner'  Christmas Collection also from stash.

Glamour dust applied to front of acetate using Glossy accents.

Sentiment was also applied to the front of acetate before attaching to card using the brads.

 

Inside of card using up a sentiment cut from another old Christmas card

and remaining D.P.

Card blank was a silver one from stash which matched the silver card stock also used.

And I know your going to ask about the other one so here it is.

To my mind more fun than cute.

D.P. is from Crafters Companion 2012 Christmas collection freebie.

Everything else from stash.

Card front is also a very old salvaged one.

 

 Inside using up the remaining strip of D.P.

Left blank for a sentiment to be added at a later date.

 

If you have gotten to end of this narrative  and still with me then

Well done!!

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #118. Use up your snippets. (old salvaged card fronts).
Fab 'n' Funky #209 Christmas.
Crimbo Crackers  #61 Anything goes.
Charisma Cardz #7 CAS.
Completely Christmas #5 Anything goes.
Frosted Designs # Clearly transparent.
My Time to Craft  #241 Beary nice.
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper. Anything goes.( Paper must cover entire front of card.)
Crafty Hazelnuts Extra. Anything Christmas.

Spring is in the Air

I made this card for a recent swap I did in February. My partner Jan has received this now along with a tag and a goodie bag of yellow items.

Card is 8" x8" card blank with kraft Card cut slightly smaller and added to front.

Yellow dp. is I think Raspberry Road free from a magazine.

Topper is by Kanban Regency Butterflies.

Roses made using Spellbinders Rose creations die. S5-050.

Lace, ribbon, leaf, gems and yellow card from my stash.

Sentiment generated using Britannia word dies.

Close up of the topper and handmade roses that had gold glitter added.

Close up of the butterfly which is Cheery Lynn Designs DL 113AB

Inside of card which has  Xcut Rectangle Parenthis  die  matted onto more of the dp.

Butterfly is Memory Box Pippi & Isabella dies.

I have show cased this on My Butterfly Challenge  #4 here.

Entering into the following challenges:

Brown Sugar Sugar  #86 Anything goes. 

Sister Act Act #48 Anything Goes. 

Really Reasonable Ribbons Reasonable Ribbons #91 Spring and ribbon or trim. 

Electric  Ellapu #  Flowers and Butterflies.

Electric Ellapu#  Wings.

Scribble and Scrap and Scrap  #14 Anything goes.

Artistic Inspirations Inspirations # 84 Anything goes.

Love to Create to Create # 108  Bingo (sparkle, yellow, flowers).

The Crazy Challenge Crazy Challenge  # 167 Flower power.

The Paper Nest Dolls Paper Nest Dolls # 6 Anything goes.





Water Colour Flowers.

This is my drawing/painting from last weeks water colour class.

Just drawn from a picture in a book so not original.

When I got it home I couldn't resist adding some shrink plastic butterflies.

I like making these and there will never be two the same as the alcohol inks react differently each time on the shrink plastic  and heat gun. 

The tutor is letting me do birds next time which I also like doing.

Everyone else has to do landscapes!

I'm pleased with this result and love the colours.

Just realised that I used snippets of shrink plastic to make the butterflies so off to link up

Pixie's Crafty Workshop. Crafty Snippets. #117.  Use your snippets. 

Lunch in the Garden.

In between the periodic showers today  we  have managed to have lunch in the garden sitting at the table down the end . We had butternut squash /aubergine pate on biscuits with a prosecco or two!

We then decided that the Azalea  bush in the front garden needed staking up after the hail storms of yesterday so it was very much a case of you hold it whilst I bash it!!!

This is the bush  after we had  staked it up. p.s. We are still talking.

 



I had cleared the little stream out last week of all the fallen leaves and debris and found a total of 15 newts in there so after carefully putting the mud back into the bottom  along with the newts the water has now balanced out to crystal clear and the newts are happily sun bathing on the pile of  stones at the  end.  (not shown in this photo before Jules blows it up.) Please note that I very carefully stood  behind the statute of David to take this  snap!

 

As there are snippets of flowers (snapped off in the wind)  in the pot am entering into:

 

Pixie's Crafty Workshop. #117. Use up your snippets.

 



Water Colouring.

I have been to two of the water colouring classes now  and my dread of having to do a still life on lesson one turned out to be a reality. The tutor could see I wasn't happy with an apple and a banana  so gave me an old metal railway sign which was advertising a wine with a picture of a grape vine with grapes hanging on it.
We finished our still life in the second lesson so here is my first efforts at water colour painting.  When I got it home I couldn't resist adding a butterfly to it. Well it would have been rude not to!!

Not exactly a master piece  but it's a start. I'm more at home with oils and there is a different technique  to using water colours. Next lesson we are painting flowers which is much more in my comfort zone so watch  this space as they say. 

Dancing with the Butterflies.

Kraoba Guiness (aka Wimpy)

5/05/1999 - 14/03/2014

 

 



Letter Rack.

Having sorted out the pots for my marker pens I decided to turn my attention to the piles of paper on my desk that really needed some kind of storage so I took one discarded cat food box and set to and made a letter rack. 

 

I cut the box down to the required size

then  used packaging tape to strengthen the side panels.

 

Mod Podge and a few sheets of  torn up kitchen roll

soon had the box covered and left to dry.

 

I gave the dry box 2 coats of Tester pot paint 'Powder Purple'

I covered the inside panels and front panel with

Raspberry Rd 'Antebellum No 16'  digi paper.

Butterfly was in my stash sent to me by a blogging friend.

Wording generated on PC and printed off.

Faux stitching pricked out round edge.

A mauve colouring pencil used to draw the faux thread.

Papers now sit nice and tidy on my desk.

I have show cased this for my Butterfly Challenge.

#3 A Stitch in Time.

 Challenge runs for 2 weeks and I would love to see you over there.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Kabooodle Doodles #214 Anything but square.

My Craft Creations # Anything goes.

The Cheerful Stamp Pad #81 Anything goes.

The Paper Nest Dolls #5 Anything goes.

Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.

Hiding  In My Craft Room #140 Super Scraps.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #115 Use up your snippets. (butterfly, mod podge, tester pot.)

Penny's Paper Crafty #168 Anything goes.

Going Green.

Made to showcase my Butterfly challenge#3. Butterfly + Stitching on your project. I would love to see you there so just follow the link to find out all the details.  The challenge runs for 2 weeks.
I have made a green tag with faux stitching on the butterfly image.

Tag was 1 0f 3 different shapes  purchased at the NEC last November.

Backing papers from stash along with pearl, ribbon  and old lace .

Wording is a freebie from here.

Flower is Spellbinders Delicate Asters. HCD 726

Butterfly image  was a freebie from a magazine.

 

Close up showing the Faux stitching which is part of the image.

 

Entering into the following challenges:

Crafty Ribbons #79 Anything goes with ribbon.

Sister Act #47 Anything goes.

Stampin with The Dragon # Lets go green.

Really Reasonable Ribbons #90 Green & ribbon theme.

Open Minded Crafting #5 Use something green.

Crafty Boots # Green.

Deep Ocean Challenge #73 Lace and pearls.

Pixie's Crafty Workshop #115 Use up your snippets.

Little Claires #42 Monotone.

Love To Create #106 Anything goes.

Mum with Love.

This is the card I have made for my mum for Mothers  Day.
Mum taught me how to knit and crochet from an early age. with me being left handed it was easier for Mum (who is right handed)to sit me opposite her when showing me how to knit as I just mirrored everything she did with her right hand which was exactly opposite to my left hand. When it came to crochet I couldn't see close enough the stiches mum was making so I had to learn to do it right handed!  It still feels very unnatural to me to hold a crochet hook in my right hand but I can crochet after a fashion.
I saw this crochet  card design  by Melanie Brooke in Papercraft magazine  and thought that Mum would appreciate the picot edging that she so carefully taught me. I have adapted the original design  with an extra layer of stitched card and adding the butterfly, ribbon and lace.

Plain pink A4 card folded and cut  for card base.

Design paper from stash attached to odds of cardboard and then die cut.

Xcut  oval die cut

Ribbon , gems and lace offcuts in stash.

Dark green crochet thread from stash.

Word created using Britannia word Alphabet.

Butterfly by Cheery Lyn Designs 'DL 113AB'

 

 

Inside of card decorated using 

Spellbinders 'Romantic Rectangles'

Butterfly on pink card is Tonic' Butterfly Blooms'

Butterfly on cream card is Cheery Lynn Designs DL 113AB

 

Entering into the following challenges:

C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #249 Mothers' day.

In The Pink #39 Mothers' day .

Challenges and Candies #29 Flowers.

Pixies Crafty Workshop #115 Use  up your snippets.

Seema Crafts #  Something for Mum.

Lexi's Creations #111 Mothers day.

Squigglefly Challenge #10 The Earth Laughs in flowers.

Tuesday Throwdown #186 Stitching.

4 Krafty Girlz Challenges #13 Anything goes.

Jo's Scrapshack #40 Anything goes.

Gardening time.

I'm late showing you what JJ is up to this month. She has been doing a spot of gardening in her shinny new pink wellies and designer gloves!

Image by Bugaboo 'JJ gardening'

Coloured using Promarkers.

Glossy accents used on flowers, welliies and gloves. 

Base plates Spellbinders 'Romantic rectangles.

Month cut from small pocket calendar.

Image cut and layered up in 3D.

Entering into the following challenges:
Artistic Inspirations #81 Anything goes.
Crafting From The Heart #8 Anything goes use dies/punches.
Through The Craft Room Door # Anything goes.
Paper Take Weekly#  Anything goes.
Paper Pretties #300 Lots of layers.
Crafting  By Designs # Anything goes. 
Little Miss Muffet #80 Anything goes. 
One Stitch At A Time # 202 Anything goes. 
Pixie's Crafty Workshop # 114  Use your snippets.  (Yes Miss! )
Cards Galore #4 Use a stamp or digi on your project. 

The Doc's Pancakes.

The Doc informed me that under no circumstances was he missing his Pancakes  on Shrove Tuesdays this year.
We duly picked a packet of ready made ones up from the supermarket last week me having first ascertained that they met the rule of thumb (being if you can't microwave it, dishwasher it, tumble dry it or dry clean it we don't have it). They did as the packet said microwave for 20 seconds so in the trolley they went.
The Doc had carefully marked his diary (or I should say bible as he goes nowhere without it) and the calendar up with pancake day in bold letters . Pancake packet was carefully moved down from the top shelf in the fridge to the bottom shelf for easy access and then we went and had cheese cake for our sweet. The irony was that the Doc even moved the said pancakes out of the way to get his beer out for dinner! I was no help as I thought yesterday was Monday!

The weather has been fine for two days (what's up with it) so we sat in the garden and had pancakes for our lunch today instead.

Of out in a minute to the first Water Colouring class. Do hope they don't start us off with a still life. Can't draw apples for toffee. 

Hugs Mrs A.

Trinket Box.

It's time again for the midway reminder for the Craft My Life Feb/Mar Challenge.
The sponsors for the current challenge are:

 

The theme is as usual Anything Goes...........but No cards. We would be delighted to see you

so please come on over and join in the fun.

 

I have chosen to work with Indigo Blu Mega Flakes and have created a small Trinket Box from cardboard and design papers.  The Design is by Kim Costello and was featured in the

September 2011 issue of Craft Stamper.

 



For my box I used  the template provided in the magazine and created the shape from DP.

DP by Melissa Francis  'Classic Elegance.

I strengthened the inside of the box with Cardboard covered to match outside.

Rose created using Spellbinders Rose Creations die

Butterfly die by spellbinders cut from Kraft card gilded  with Mega flakes.

Leaves die cut from Kraft card.

Small flowers, ruched ribbon , lace and pearls from  my stash.

 



Entering into the following challenges:
Rhedd and Rosies #27 Anything but a card.
It's All About The Vintage and Beauty #64 Use lace.
Simply Create Too #56 Shop in your stash.
Jelly Park Friends # Things with wings.
Crafty Catz #220 Anything  goes.
Challenges 4 Everybody #39 Anything goes.
613 Avenue  Create #61 Anything goes/use your stash.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop #114 Use up your snippets.( Lace and ruched ribbon  oddments)
That Craft Place # Anything  goes.
Scribble and Scrap #13 Anything goes.
Natalie and Amy's challenge #18 Flowers.
Just For Fun # Anything goes.