Moggi

A last post for a few days and yes, yet another quick card!

This was a last minute Anniversary request from work.

We decided a cat theme would be good and this cute little die cut is from a Lily of the Valley sheet.

I punched out a couple of circles in matching colours and layered on an A5 card which I covered in a sheet of paper from a Born to Shop pad I think which matches really nicely.

Peel off sentiment on matching layers and some sparkly card candy in the corners to finish off.

I'll be back in a few days with the Christmas rush!!

Beaded Beads!

Had a fun day out today attending one of Val's workshops.

We learnt peyote stitch and then how to turn a peyote tube into a beaded bead.

Val had some bags of lovely colour assortments for us to choose from, they were all great but I opted for the lovely shades you can see in the picture. I completed all 3 beads and will now hunt around to see if I have enough matching items to make a necklace.

Bracelet

Sorry the picture isn't the best - managed not to get to take one in daylight for the second day in a row!

This is the infamous elastic-stringed affair I had a scrap with the other night.

This was a kit I bought from Beadsisters a long time ago. It is a safety pin bracelet. Each pin has a selection of different beads threaded on. I actually did this part at least a year ago and then mislaid the elastic thread, I could easily of bought some more but kind of neglected to do that and it finally turned up last week!

The safety pins were then threaded on to the elastic 'top to tail' to the desired length. The instructions asked for a reef knot to fasten the elastic but my trusty ex-scout couldn't make that work, I tried various options that also just undid themselves straight away and then found instructions for a surgeons' knot which worked perfectly.

For the final drama in what really should all of been much less of a fuss I bought some super strength superglue. Much to Graeme's amusement I put some of this on each knot (it was much runnier than I expected) - it immediately went on my fingers which then stuck together, there wasn't even a small period of stickiness, it was just instant stuck together - apparently this was hilarious!

Anyway, fingers unstuck, knots tied and currently stable the bracelet is ready to go!

Autumn Leaves

Not quite a card today - I have been messing with a few things in between feeling rather germy but don't seem to have much of sense to show! I did try to finish a bracelet I started ages ago but am struggling to tie knots in the elastic that stay (all suggestions welcome).

So here is a picture from Stourhead at the weekend. Went out for a bit of fresh air and amazingly managed to get an hour on Saturday when we didn't have thunder, lightning, rain or hail and it was lovely (it rained when we were having a cream tea afterwards - good treatment for colds I think!).

Definitely worth a visit at the moment for the lovely colours.

Sheep

After the quilled sheep episode today's post is a rather speedier affair!

Still seem to have no time for xmas but made a small amount on Monday (in between still trying to find a work surface) to try these sheep.

This is an image printed from CraftsuPrint. The A4 sheet contains one large image and is a side stacker (or whatever similar name you know them as). The large picture is mounted on a bit of white card, then blue so that it stands out. Four more pieces are then cut out, the picture doesn't show them up entirely. Each side has another 2 'steps' of the picture with a wavy edge down the side so it gives a bit of depth and something more than just a flat picture. I think they are rather sweet!

Workshop Card

This is one of the sample cards I made to inflict on everyone at Crafty Bunch this week!

I wanted to do something we hadn't done before but something that also made a decent card. Luckily I had already dropped a couple of ideas and not run with quilling chocolates that I had been asked for (!) so ended up with this pretty candle and poinsettia card.

I tried (honestly) not to make it too traumatic. The candle, wick and poinsettia petals are all quilled shapes made with 1/4 of a strip. The holly leaves were 1/2 strip and the poinsettia centres are 1/4 strip but 1.5mm so they don't stick out too much on the card.

The leaves & berries in the corners of the card were 1/4 strips again.

I know a few people seemed a bit traumatised by the experience but hope they will try quilling again! I was very impressed that the 3 new ladies soldiered on until they had finished, even though everyones work seemed to come out in miniature this time.

Cakes!

As promised - some pictures of the quilled piece that came up against yesterday's alphabet blocks!

This fabulous piece was made by Jane Jenkins. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great in the room for photos but hopefully you get the idea - another one just to admire!

Alphabet

A couple of pics from the AGM today. These fabulous blocks were entered in the Masters Category by Leslie Davies. Everyone just stood in awe and stared at them, I think they are great.

One side of the multi-colour blocks has a capital letter. The outline of the letter has been filled with many different shapes and sizes of quilling. The other side of the block has a lower case letter with corresponding animal - these were also brilliant.

Although there were only 2 entries in this category it was very hard to choose, I will post the other one tomorrow, Leslie did get first prize for these though.

1st Birthday

Another commission today for a first birthday.

I used the little boy die cut decoupage that came with a DOCrafts goody bag a few months ago.

I mounted it on to blue card and cut round it so it stood out a little from the background.

To the card I stuck a piece of birthday paper from the stash, mainly chosen because I believe Charlie is a fan of cake! To personalise I added a '1' to the boys balloon and punched some smaller ones and added peel-off letters to spell his name.

Another quilling workshop tomorrow, I'm sure I used to have more time than this!

Flowers

A card today inspired by my recent Quilling trip.

A dutch quiller that came over for the weekend had some beautiful cards that used some laser cut background pieces. As I had one in the stash I used that for this birthday card.

The pale yellow flowers were also something we admired although I couldn't quite get the colour I wanted from them!

The petals are solid coils with domed middles which are then pinched into a petal shape.

Some leaves and stems in a lovely pale green fit snuggly in the middle oval.

I layered the card on some nice sparkly gold card I have and added some Papermania gems to all the flower centres to finish with a bit of sparkle!

Demo

Just been to a little Stampin' Up workshop (as you do!).

Saving pennies for another one in November but

it is very scary how stamps that look nothing in the catalogue become very appealing when you play with them. I just see that Jenny (I will add a link but need to finish a card before I go to bed!) has used the Ornate Flowers set that I wouldn't of looked at - very appealing and I only played with it because I asked to see what the new clear stamps looked like!

Anyway, this was a little card we did as a make and take. It used the scallop border punch, a stamping wheel, ribbon, Oval All stamp set and the lovely oval punches - a very tempting set of goodies if you are just starting out, and such lovely colour card.

Bauble

Especially for Val a xmas bauble this afternoon!

We happened to meet at our local craft establishment at a demo this morning and were made to buy the latest goody bag with a Papermania Bauble template in!

I cut a smaller bauble in card and stuck this larger one to it using paper from the Forever Friends Cosy Christmas pack.

The bauble top and strip through the middle are in a lovely sparkly gold card I have.

Holly leaves are an X-Cut punch and some little gems for berries with gold card candy in the corners.

The tree branch is from a pack of Craft Planet Canadian Pine Stems I quite fancied for the purpose!

Not amazing but fairly pleased for a first go and means I have used some new stuff!

Shakespeare

A quick pic of Anne Hathaway's Cottage near Stratford-Upon-Avon today.

I can highly recommend a visit to Stratford. This house was lovely and really interesting to see. Wouldn't like to go peak holiday season though as 5 coaches came and went while we had coffee, there were just 6 of us wandering round the house when we went in, they can have 3 bus loads in the house at once when really busy!

The house came with a lovely kitchen garden, sculpture garden and woodland walk. Then we visited Shakespeares birthplace and a couple of other buildings in the town (after lunch obviously!) - well worth a visit and at half way home from Sheffield a good excuse for another night away.

Back to some crafty posts tomorrow, although I am also hoping to find my work surface again over the weekend.