Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year to all.

 

 I hope that 2016 is a great year and your creativity flows.

 

 

 

While I had my sewing machine out on the kitchen table and the scraps of fabric all around me I had an idea to make an applique cushion. The idea for it came from the wonderfully talented

Tracy Easson. She creates the most wonderful paintings and I am lucky to have attended four of Tracy's workshops in the North East of England. Tracy is teaching again at the end of January and I'm really looking forward to a great big Scottish hug from her.

 

 

Thanks for visiting

 

Debbie

Sewing for pleasure with scraps

I found time to sort through my bits and bobs of fabric bag (ok bags). I find it difficult to throw away even the smallest scraps of fabric. I have admired the work of many artists who create collages with fabric so when I spotted a small plain lampshade decided it was time to have a go.  

 

 

 

It was great fun rummaging through the scraps of fabric and piecing them together to make a street. The trees and doors have tiny little buttons stitched on before attaching to the shade.

 

It looks so pretty lit up before bedtime. This is my first and I intend to make a couple more during the next year.

 

The two photos below were taken in 2014 of the Alter Cloth that I sewed for a local church. A group of children and local artist all worked on it and presented it from school to the church. I don't think I'll be doing such a large project for a while, sticking to smaller size projects for next year.

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year and thanks for visiting

Debbie

xxx

 

Rolled PaperTrees

I'm finishing my 2015 of blogging with a couple of gifts I made. I have taken inspiration from a few different pinners on Pinterest. The style has popped up in the form of tags, cards and canvas's and I'm not sure where it started but I thoroughly enjoyed making them.

 

 

They are 20cm by 30cm and for the first I used my precious papers from Graphicus, I still have a few in my stash and stroke them from time to time.

The backgrounds for each of them is old book pages and mixtures of paints applied with baby wipes rather than the uniformity of a paint brush. When the paint had dried I stamped with the circles from Decorative Edges and blue ink.

 

 

The second is made in the same way using different colours and paint. The stamp I used is the

 Open Weave with brown ink. The paint background was a little bright so I also used sequin waste with more ink.

 

 

I changed the shape of the tree and added words to it, I have called them Wishing Trees. The rolls of paper were cut to different lengths and as on each tree, added the white pen faux stitching. The stamped background uses the Floral Weave stamp. This photo shows the computer generated words I have used.

 

 

 

Another tree using green, blue and yellow paint then stamped with an enormous circles stamp that was a gift to me from a crafty buddy.

 

 

Wishing you all 'Best Wishes' for 2016

Debbie

Colourful Flowers

 

Welcome to all.

My cards today are made with lots of colour, inspired by the colourful Christmas trees I have spied in peoples homes recently.

 

 The first card is made using the Open Weave and Swirl Centre stamps. The background is made from a couple of the new distress ink colours rubbed onto the card and then water flicked on helping to blend them. The open weave stamp was added around the edges, I used Wild Plum Adirondack ink for a more subtle effect. Only two flowers were used for the card, one in the centre and the second was cut for the corners. These flowers are really detailed and I'm really impressed at how the detail is picked out when embossed with powder. I coloured the flowers with colours from the pallet used on the background, pink, oranges and yellow. 

 

 

This card came from playing with inks and water. I coloured the white card with Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Stormy Sky Distress Inks, shading them down to create an ombre effect. I lightly misted the Studded Lattice stamp with water and stamped onto the card. The water on the stamp left the pattern from the stamp on the ink background. With the Magnolia single clear stamp I first stamped it with black ink onto the card and then onto book page paper and coloured with pencils. I fussy cut out the flowers and glued onto the card. The sentiment was added and to finish I matted onto black and then added to the A5 base card.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie

New Lattice Stamps

Good morning.

 

I am excited to be sharing a card and notelet set I recently made for Lesley to take with her to The Craft Channel for the recording of the Chocolate Baroque shows.

The stamps will be on the shows that are being aired this weekend so if you'd like lots of inspiration from Lesley, check the channels schedule for the show times.

These new stamps and a couple more are exclusive from The Craft Channel until the 7th of December.

 

The open Open Weave stamp has been used for the background of this card along with splatters of different colour inks. This stamp along with the others are ideal for mixed media projects.

 

 

I really enjoy giving handmade gifts to people and this set of notelets are going as a Christmas present. The Floral Weave stamps are a lovely size for A5 cards. I used water soluble oil pastels to colour the stamp and spritzed with water before stamping onto white card. If the stamp is spritzed again you can get a second image. These were great fun to make and quick.

 

 

Many thanks for visiting

 

Debbie

One Stamp Dotty Flowerhead Card

 

Good morning,

 

I decided to make a card with lots of colour.

I used the Dotty Centre Flowerhead as a one stamp card.

 

 

After several attempts with small inkpads and brush marker pens with not a lot of success. They either dried to quickly not laying down much colour or the ink mixed more than I wanted. These stamps are large and I wanted multiple colours on each flower. I turned to my water soluble oil pastels and am delighted with the results. There are many brands of water soluble crayons.

 

 

 

 

For the background I  coloured the Flowerhead stamp with the purple pastel, next the pink then the orange. Because the flower is large you can colour it easily. When finished colouring spritz with water and stamp onto the card. I repeated stamping the flower, spritzing with the water each time. When the flowers had been stamped all over the card I used Picked Raspberry on the edges.

I used Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade and Rusty Hinge Distress inks for the tag and stamped with a Black Versafine inkpad. The sentiment is from Positive Beauty clear stamps.

I'm keeping this card on my desk for a while so I see it  before looking through the window at the dull skies.

 

Have a great day

Debbie

 

 

Daisy Flowerheads

Good morning.

After having a couple of days of dull skies and lots of fog I decided to use more sunny colours with the  Daisy Centre Flowerhead stamp.

 

For the flower I used Ebony Wow powder with Versamark ink, I find it helps when using watercolour pencils. The petals were filled in with yellow pencil and the centres of the flowers.

The daisies on the background are from Sunny Sunflowers and I thought they work well.

 



 

I took a close up photograph of the centre so it is easier to see.

 

 

 

My second card is a similar design but I made it DL size, again a similar design as the first and using warm orange pencil.

 

Many thanks for visiting

Debbie