2 sketches 4 You - Laura's sketch 47

Another Mother's Day card, this one for MIL, so Jill - if you're reading this, look away now!! This is using Laura's sketch 47 from 2 Sketches 4 U

Materials used: Papermill card, Papermania Rose Garden papers, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, Kaiser rhinestone, Heidi Grace flourish stamp, Versamagic ink. Also used: white ribbon, white tulle, lace various beads and Stickles.

CPS card #157

MUM!! If you're reading this look away now!!

It's Mother's Day in the UK this weekend so I used the CPS sketch #157 to make my Mum's card. I decided to make a mostly sewn card and made my own "yo-yos" for it:

Materials used: Bazzill cardstock, Papermania Regency paper, Creative cafe sentiment rub-on.

Fabric (bought as fat quarters), hand-dyed pink lace from Ebay, white lace from stash, beaded string from a dismantled Christmas decoration, buttons from stash.

IACW - Fabric decorations

Here's my post for It's A Creative World today:

You may remember my Resolutions that I posted on New Years Eve. One of them was to use my textile inspiration kits to make some Christmas decorations and I'm pleased to say I've made a start already!

I started by tracing the shape I wanted on to silk. I then sewed on beads:

I then cut a co-ordinating piece of cotton to use on the back and sewed them together using a metallic embroidery thread leaving a small gap to put the stuffing in. (I found an old cushion and used the kapok from that). I then sewed around the remainder after adding a length of ribbon.

For my next one I again traced the shape on to silk and then used free machine stitching to randomly stitch over the design with a metallic thread. I then sewed on sequins and beads before cutting the shape out .

For this decoration I chose a piece of co-ordinating felt for the backing before following the same steps as previously described.

Both of these will work well with our Christmas theme of blue, silver and purple. Alternatively they'll make great little decorations for any time of year!

I wanted to make another and for this one changed to use a yellow-gold silk that I have and some Indian bindi embellishments. I used alcohol ink to change the colour of the metal before sewing them to the silk along with some beads. The machine embroidery was done using a variegated metallic thread and after adding a felt backing this thread was used along the edges.

I really enjoyed making these and can see myself making a few more in the future!

Recycling old jewellery - IACW

Here's my post from the It's A Creative World blog today:

Back in the 90's (and the days of being a rock chick!) I used to wear huge dangly earrings and various bracelets and bangles. I kept them all in a tin with various other bits and bobs that I didn't want to throw out. Today I found that tin again:

I decided to try and use some of the jewellery on craft items and first up I made a card and used part of an old earring as an embellishment.

I cut off the dangles from the bottom and also the actual part that goes through the ear before glueing the rest of the earring to the centre of the flower. For my next project I started with another earring and this time used a variegated perle cotton to cover it in blanket stitch: When this was finished I threaded some more perle cotton through the ring at the top and added beads to it before removing the ear-piece. I then added the earring to a textile ATC I'd made as an embellishment.

Have you got any old costume jewellery lying around that you could use? I'd love to see the results if you do.

(EDITED TO ADD) Materials used for card: Papermill card, HOTP papers, Delish Designs background stamp, Stampbord, Distress inks - black soot, mustard seed, worn lipstick and dusty concord, black Versafine ink, Crafty Individuals stamp, Prima flowers, Crafty Notions Rainbow Drops. Antique lace, beads and earring from stash.

Materials used for ATC: antique white felt, dyed silk fibres, KARS metallic thread, Anchor variegated perle cotton, old earring and beads.

Another ATC and one in progress....

Well, it's nearly the end of the month and I still haven't completed a single layout! Hopefully that will change tomorrow as I've just cleared my desk in (hopeful) readiness! I've felt a bit disillusioned with my scrapping skills recently and fallen back on the cardmaking and started needlework/textiles as the creating bug was still present. I finished another ATC yesterday:

I used some gorgeous hand-dyed evenweave, machine stitching and French knots in silk thread, perle cotton and stranded cottons. The whole piece is backed with a lovely deep satin -like fabric.

In progress at the moment is another tiny piece to be used for an ATC:

Not sure about the "tufting" at the bottom of this one and think I may have to trim it to make it less bushy! I also need to try and blend the silk fibres at the top a bit more as at the moment the top looks like an afterthought (which of course it is!!).

Been playing...

....with felt, beads and things LOL. Here's a couple of ATCs I made:

For this one I painted the canvas with three different Shimmerz paints then sewed on various beads and backstitched a border.

For this one I started with a piece of antique white felt then added various wool and silk fibres using my fabulous new Clover needle felting tool. I then added a few beads, sequins and decorative stitches before using blanket stitch around the edge.

IACW - Going with the Flow

Here's my post from It's A Creative World this week:

Recently I've found myself being drawn to some of the fantastic textile work on show on the internet particularly the work of Stef Francis which I find inspirational.

All of my previous embroidery ( saying that, I haven't done any for 10 years) has always been fairly "regimented" up until now - cross stitch was always counted, needlepoint was always preprinted or counted from a chart. I decided that I wanted to try some more textile/needlework but without a chart in site.

I started by buying a few "inspiration packs" of threads and fabrics and then sat down with them and a "book of stitches" to see what I could do.

My first item was just a test using a very fine fabric and various threads to get back "into the swing" of having a needle in my hand again!

At the moment this is only about a 3 inch square section of the fabric but my aim is to fill the entire piece (about 12 inches square) with different stitches over the coming months but keeping them in the same colour scheme to make a "sampler".

Using just one skein of a variegated perle cotton I've been working on this piece of evenweave. I started off with the centre "Byzantine stitch" and then added stitches around it. My plan for this piece is to complete a 2 inch square piece and then incorporate it into a fabric ATC.

My final piece I've worked on is this felt ATC:

I cut a piece of felt to ATC size (2.5" x 3.5") and then used gold thread in my sewing machine to attach fused Angelina fibres to the felt base. I then used random hand stitching around the edges and then attached beads and sequins by hand.

Expect to see more needlework from me in the future as I'm really enjoying myself just "going with the flow".

If you have any textile work to show or a blog/site to share be it yours or someone elses' please leave a link either here or on my own blog. I love to see the huge variety of work out there!