Wednesday, March 27, 2024

March Card Club - Card #3 - stamped images on book pages with ribbon and coordinating backgrounds


For our last card, I had stamped images on a rectangles of book pages.  We then embellished them with a bit of watercolour.  I added some to my edges as well.  Next, we tied on a coordinating satin ribbon with a double knot.  This element was adhered to a rectangle of coordinating cardstock which we trimmed on the bottom with punches or decorative scissors.  After adding our backgrounds to our cards we added our focal element with 3D foam tape.  It was fun to dig through my stamp collection and find stamps that fit the size I needed - some had never been stamped before.  I used black embossing powder on mine but they could easily have been stamped in any black permanent ink for the same effect.  A quick and easy card to finish off our creative evening!!  Therese



 

March Card Club - Card #2 - flowers, balloons and butterflies with banners

For our second card we had fun drawing as well.  We drew a stalk and stem for the flowers, a string for the balloons and a flight path for the butterflies (no sample of that one).  We drew a pencil line and then went over it with a fine tip Sharpie and then embossed our strip.  After adding our focal element we wrapped a length of bakers twine around and tied it off in a bow or double knots.  We adhered these to our card using 3D foam tape for dimension.  Next, we created our banners!!  Added a strip of double sided tape to the back of the strip and then placed our little strips of decorative paper onto it until we completely filled it.  Add another strip of double sided tape and adhered it to our card.  We trimmed the ends of our papers  - banner ends where we removed a triangle or flagged ends where we cut diagonal lines.  Then, added a little bit of glue to keep our banners in place!!  This a great way to use up scraps and really create interest and texture on your card.

Therese




March Card Club - Card #1 - squiggles and watercolour art piece with a coordinating background


It was so great to be back with friends making cards!!!  Our first card featured this neurographic art technique.  I had printed a central image on a 3" square or white cardstock and we added squiggly lines all around and through with fine tip Sharpie marker just going from one side to another and some all the way to the opposite side.  We then softened all the intersections with curvy lines and filled in them in.  I added a black border around mine as well.  Next, we watercoloured our line drawing using a single colour in our image and other colours all they way around.  I should have considered my background before getting started.  I had added pink areas which did not really work with my holly background paper.  I changed them to red and that was better.  After they were dry we mounted our art to a larger square and then mounted it over the background which was already glued to our coordinating card front.  I added three little circle punchies to mine but not everyone did which still worked very well.  It was fun to create art.  You can check out the tutorial I followed here (MIX576)  on Splitcoast Stampers.

  Therese 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Slow Stitching - a Christmas stocking with embroidery and a buttonhole stitch all the way around


 One of my grandson's came to me at Christmas time and asked if I could make him a Christmas stocking like his cousin's.  It had to have his name and be gingerbread in colour.  I found some brown felted wool in the stash my daughter sent my way a while back.  There was enough but I had to piece the front by adding a few inches at the top.  I decided to incorporate that joint in my design.  The original design of the stocking was my sister's about 40 years ago when she had made some for DH and I with our names and hand stitched details.  Over the course of the years between us we added three more for our children.  My daughter has kept the tradition alive and made some for her children using felted wool.  I drew the pine branch and ornament with inspiration from online.  It was hard to get any lines to stay on the wool as handling the wool removed the lines.  I eventually resorted to basting the elements I needed in white thread and then doing the embroidery over the thread.  That worked very well and the basting was easily removed afterwards.  I added a dark brown lining to the back and the front and then stitched the tops.  Next, I laid them both with right sides out and pinned the edges really well and did button hole stitch all the way around using a very heavy weight thread in dark brown.  That worked well.  It was several weeks of slow stitching to get it all done.  It was good to get it finished.  It will get dropped off when we visit next and be ready for next Christmas!!  

I will be joining the creatives at Kathy's Quilts for their Slow Sunday Stitching.  Therese

All occasion cards featuring embossed backgrounds, glittered elements and tied banners

I have been working on card kits for my class on Tuesday and these cards were made up as I was working out how to make a card design work for my class.  I started with the little glittered flower and wanted to add a banner to this card.  This card was created with this element from a rejected design.  I positioned the flower on the embossed layer and then added the stem, leaves and ground with a black fine tipped Sharpie marker. I added one of the banners I had already created by folding short strips of decorative paper over a length of bakers twine.  I secured the strips using double sided tape on the back and folding them over the twine.  I secured the end of the twine to the back of my layer using double sided tape as well.  I tied separate lengths to the banner - one on each end.  That worked well.  I had cut off the edges to get rid of the holes I had made so  I added a punched border with a clear glitter line next to it which I glued to the back of the panel.  I added this large element to a pink card front. 

These next few cards are the next iteration of my design where I used an embossed layer of white cardstock (4" x 5.25"), added a coordinating banner over the focal element.  With these I drew the details before embossing which made it easier to get nice smooth lines on the smooth surface.  I embossed the panel and then added the focal element and the banner in the same way as above - adding little bows on the sides and securing the banner ends to the back of the panel with double sided tape.  The trouble with this design was that I was having difficulty in consistently getting the banners properly secured to the twine. If it was difficult for me, it was going to be harder for the class participants so I opted for a different design.  These were fun cards and I love how light and bright they are - very spring like!!  Therese




 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Sewing - zippered pouches with Japanese cat fabric and coordinating colours

 


I made up a couple of zippered pouches while I was at it.  I used upcycled zippers and coordinating fabric.  I made the red one first and found that the end pieces were too bulky looking especially with the contrasting thread.  The other one looks neater.  Again I  put the zippers in first and then bound the edges in seam binding to finish them off neatly.  I did add a seam all the way around to help give the pouch a bit of structure.   On the red pouch you can see that there is a cat being caught up by an octopus tentacle in the upper left hand corner.  I hope there will be some people who will like this fabric as much as I do!!!  Therese

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Sewing - book marks with the fun Japanese cat fabric

I had a few scraps sitting on my cutting table and thought they would be great for making book marks.  I simply trimmed plain fabric to the same size and stitched all the way around and then a bit of an all over design inside the book mark.  I added a little ribbon/twill tape flag at the top while I was sewing the outer seam.  I raveled the cat fabric to create a bit of a fringe.  I had hoped to do the same to the back fabrics but the red and blue were so tightly woven they resisted raveling but the yellow one was similar in weave so it raveled nicely.  Therese
 

Friday, March 15, 2024

Sewing - composition book cover with a journaling book mark




I decided to try something new - I made up a cover for a composition book using two layers of fabric with a rectangle flannel in the center where the book will be!!  I am very pleased with out it worked out so I will be coming up with scrappy tops which I can layer with solid fabrics for the inside.  I stitched my flannel piece to the inside piece, layered on my top and stitched all the way around leaving an opening to turn the whole thing inside out.  After that stitched all the way around to secure the pieces and close up the opening.  I then added lines of stitching to quilt the layers to each other. I   laid my composition book in the middle of the finished cover and figured out where to fold it to make the it the right height and then folded in the both sides to create the flaps that the composition book covers tuck into.  I removed the book and pressed the cover really well so I could mark where I had to sew the flaps to keep everything together.  Four little seams and flipped it back around and my book fits in really well.  You have to leave a bit of give when you sew your seams to allow for the thickness of the fabric cover.  Sew it too close and it is too tight to easily insert the book covers.   
  
I created a journaling bookmark to go with my composition book journal. This bookmark has room for two writing instruments in its front pocket which means you will always have something to write with when you are ready to journal.  It measures just over a 1.5" wide and 7.5" long and the pocket comes up to about 5.75".  I used two layers for the back - bright yellow for the front and a plain yellow for the back.  I created the pocket using a scraps of yellow and green.  I added red binding to the top and bottom which was just what I had on my sewing table.  The elastic is foldable soft elastic and I cut it to 11" to work with the journal.  You layer your pieces and sew all the way around leaving a gap so you can turn it inside out.  Press it really well and then add stitching all the way around to secure the pieces to each other and close up the opening.  I think these are really neat and would be really handy for any journal.  

You can see below the inside and back side of my journal cover.  I am looking forward to using this technique to create some really fun and colourful journal covers in the future.  These are reusable - simply replace the filled composition book with a new one and you are good to go!!!  Therese



 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Sewing - mug rugs from leaf fabric


 I have had this fabric for a while and ran across it again recently and set it aside for mug rugs.  I trimmed four of the images, added two layers of flannel for batting and a deep purple for the backing.  Sewed them together leaving an opening so I turn them inside out.  Pressed everything neatly and then ran a line of stitching all the way around to secure the layers and close up the opening.  I added stitching on the lines in between the leaf designs to quilt them all the layers together.   Therese

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Sewing - a cute red flower embellishment for my cat bag

I thought my cat bag needed a bit of something so I went looking for inspiration on line hoping to find maybe a cute little fabric fish I could make up to add to it.  No such luck!  I did find a fabric flower that I found acceptable so I went ahead with that the other morning.  I found a tutorial at Notches Sewing on You Tube that worked very well.  

It starts off with a pentagon shape that fits in a 6" circle.  I gave it a try and was not precise enough that my measurements were not exact so I just found a petagon on line and placed it in a 6" circle in Corel Draw and printed it out.  Success!!  The sides are all 3.5"!!!  I trimmed out the pentagon and then cut two pieces of red cotton fabric using this pattern and placed them right sides together and stitched a 1/4"  seam all the way around leaving a gap of about 1.25".  I turned this shape inside out and then pressed it neatly to get a nice flat pentagon.   I then stitched all the way around about 1/8" from the edge which secured everything and closed up the opening.  What you see on the front will be the front of the flower.   Next, I followed the instructions in the video  - measured and marked the center of all the sides, measured two inch towards the middle on each point, drew a curved arch between the points next to the center of the side, through the 2" mark and the back down to the just next the center mark on the next side.  Repeat until you have five arched lines.  I used a removeable ink pen - first time - and it worked well. The lines are where the gathering happens so it may not be too serious if you draw in some light pencil lines.   Next, you sew quarter inch stitches on the arches using a 20" of double heavyweight thread (needs to be sturdy and that long) knotted on the end so it will not pull through.  You start stitching from the back (important) and follow the arches always coming to the edge with your needle to the front (important).  Once you get back to where you started you pull on your threads to gather each petal and then tie off with double knots.  The points of the pentagon create the petals.  Works really well and makes a nice sturdy flower.  You can then add it to your project, add a clip or barrette, add a brooch pin - whatever you want.   I used the threads at the back to stitch it to my cat bag!!!!  It was just what I was looking for - a very 3D fabric embellishment.  I would have preferred something more related to the cat theme but this will do purrfectly!!!!!!  Therese

 

Sewing - pet bowl mats for cats


It seemed appropriate to make some cat themed pet bowl mats this week as I had made some dog themed ones last week.  I used the Japanese cat fabric on the back and a strip on the front of this first mat.  I used the colours in the fabric - yellow, blue and red to make up a couple of strips to frame the cat fabric on the front.  I used toweling as batting and sewed the strips on QAYG to add the front to the batting and backing.  I used the backing to self bind the mat which worked really well.  

For my second mat I started with one of my cat squares which I made quite a while back and still have a good supply of.  I added strips all the way around (QAYG) until I had the height I needed for the mat. I added two more pieces to the left to make it the size I needed (12" x 17").  I cut a piece of  Japanese cat fabric for the bac, added two layers of flannel for batting and then bound the edges with a bright blue fabric.  I added stitching through out the mat to secure all the layers together.  Fun!!!  Therese