Knitting

Here is a blanket i’ve knit for my new baby grandaughter Lily. It’s a very simple pattern, just cast on 4 stitches and then increase 1 stitch at the beginning of each row until the piece is the required size. Work 1 row straight before decreasing 1 stitch at the beginning of each row until you are back to 4. Then cast off. Simples!

I started off on short needles and ended up on a circular needle with 250 stitches.

The finished blanket measures 24 inches along each side and has been done using double knitting weight yarn on size 8 (4mm) needles. The colour is a variegated pink/orange mix which sounds odd but took my fancy when I first saw it.

I’ve since realised that it’s probably because I made myself a dress in fabric which was pink with tiny orange flowers when I was a teenager (many years ago)

Sue xx

80th Birthday

It’s my MIL’s 80th birthday later this month and I actually got my stamps out to make a card. It makes a change from all the Cd images I used for my seasonal cards.

The stamps are from Joanna Sheen and I used a marker pen in Ballet Blue from Stampin’ Up instead of an inkpad. The ‘tea’ is coloured using a vanilla Promarker. The tablecloth has been embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and has a coloured lace border courtesy of Martha Stewart. The flowers and brads are Docraft and the numbers are about the only thing i’ve used my CraftRobo Lite for yet.

I particularly like the colour of the flowers on this and feel it gives a nice Spring-like feel to the card.

Sue xx

Grandparents again

On New Years Eve we became Grandparents again, this time to Lily Hope who arrived at 2:25pm and weighed in at 6lb 8oz.

The Congratulations card uses an image and background paper from Teddies Friends cd by Peerless Designs.

It has been decoupaged and layered onto silver holographic card. Paper flowers have been coloured with Versa colour ink and held together with tiny pink brads.

Close-ups now, because I have a new camera capable of taking decent photos. Thanks to Mick for my surprise Christmas pressie.

Thanks for looking and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.

Sue xx

Merry Christmas

I want to wish all my blogging buddies a very Merry Christmas, thank you for reading and leaving comments throughout the past year.

These are the cards I made for my Mum & Mum in Law this year. Images from Forever Friends cd, embossed backgrounds using Cuttlebug folders, lots of organza ribbon, seed beads and fabric flowers.

Sue xx

Christmas Bunting

Over on the Bubbly Funk forum a group of us have worked together to make and decorate pieces of bunting. The pieces I received are in the green/red/gold combination but we also made pieces in a blue/white/silver combo for those who preferred it.

As you can see each one that I made is slightly different.

I had my pieces back last week and this afternoon decided to do something with them so armed with a hole punch, yards of glittery green cord and a large needle I sorted them into order. I ended up on the kitchen floor with them before hanging them from the door to get the spacing right.

I like how they turned out. Thank you everyone who took part, each piece of the bunting is totally different. I'd love to see how the other colour combo worked out.

In close-up.

Sue xx

‘Special’ Christmas cards

Each year I try to come up with something different for the family cards I need to make. I’ve used images from Forever Friends Cd for all of them.

These first 2 are for my sons and are A4 in size. I imported the images and backing papers into MCS and manipulated them and added text. Both are layered up onto mirror card.

This is for my daughter. It’s an 8 inch square card that started off as A4 but went wrong so had to be layered up again. Another image from the same cd with added silver yarn and a Martha Stewart punched edge.

Sue xx

Frost & Ice

Here, where we are in South Wales we have been very lucky with the weather in regard to the snow that most people have had recently.

At the beginning of this week though we have had some very hard frosts. This is what our front looked like on Monday morning, it stayed so cold that the the plants were white over until yesterday. It must have warmed up enough for it all to thaw out, not that the increase was noticeable. As you can see I stayed inside to take the picture – far too cold and slippery to venture out.

It does look very pretty though.

This icicle has formed from the air outlet from the shower.

Sue xx

Bag charms

I made these 3 charms for my Grandaughters and my sister for Christmas.

The one for my sister was intended for last year, that’s when I bought the beads, just never got round to doing it.

The other 2 feature Hello Kitty which seems to be very popular right now.

The boxes are handmade too on my Hougie board. A brad and spacer has been used for the girls to enable them to get the lid off easier.

Sue xx

Kids Company

A friend from facebook put me onto this site which helps under privileged children in London. She was knitting scarves to send out to ‘wrap up a kiddie’ so as I already had my needles out decided to knit a few as well.

I’ve only managed to finish 3 so far but with this very cold weather thought I had better get them posted off to be put to use.

The blue one is in chunky yarn and the other 2 use 2 strands of double knitting yarn. I’ve done single rib on BIG needles to make them feel very soft and warm.

Sue xx

Emerald Anniversary

A friend asked me to make Anniversary cards for her Nan. I had done several cards for her own Wedding a few years ago.

I used my Forever Friends cd to make one for her young son to give to his great Grandparents.

It’s a DL sized card as I folded the A4 sheet back on itself.

This one is an image from Romantic Moments cd from MCS. The original is a single rose but I copied, flipped and rotated it. I added a simple sentiment in a fancy font.

It’s printed on pearlescent paper and mounted onto green cardstock. The hearts are a Martha Stewart punch. Small adhesive gems complete the look.

The final one is a large 8 inch square card. Again it’s an image from MCS Romantic Moments Cd. simply printed onto super smooth paper and mounted onto pearlescent paper decorated with another MS punch then onto green card.

This is a close-up of the sentiment.

It took me ages to match up the font for the insert as i’d forgotten that i’d done the front on the laptop and realised that the fonts are not the same on the pc. Why I don’t know as they both use the same edition of Windows.

Sue xx

Sad moment

My Dad passed away at the end of last year and a couple of months ago we went with Mum to order the headstone for him.

I helped her with the wording and the etched image on it is taken from the card I made for her Birthday in August. It’s a fuchsia image from the MCS Cross Stitch Cd.

It was erected last week and I have just been to see it for the first time. It was very sad seeing it in place as it made everything seem so very real and final. I’m not ashamed to say that I shed a tear or two as I looked at it.

Sue xx

New baby

An ‘old’ friend from a crafting forum and fb recently gave birth to a daughter so I made a card and knit a few things for her.

This jacket is my all time favourite to knit for babies, probably every baby I have knit for has worn it . 

The lemon hat is a new pattern for me but i’m pleased with the way it has turned out. The lilac one is another favourite with it’s heart button to match the ones on the jacket.

The card features an image and background papers from Teddies Friends by Peerless designs.

It is the first time I have tried this style of card with the cut-out inside but I love the way it has worked out.

The hanging panel is suspended on fine wire and is the same as the one on the front, it is double sided . 

Sue xxx

Dragon Hunting

In Newport, Gwent where I live there have appeared some 60 large dragons throughout the City and surrounding areas this past month. Officially called Newport Super Dragons.

Here is the link to the official website.

During August while we had Faith with us we went out and about and actually found almost 30 on the first day. Sadly I didn’t think to take a picture of her with each one.

At the weekend I took Sallie and we found a few more.

Sadly some of them have had to be removed from their original positions and placed indoors for their own safety. Can you believe that some mindless (drunken) people actually ripped one of it’s plinth and threw it in the canal.

There are always some in the Den being repaired, this is such a shame as they look so beautiful around the place and have provided much pleasure for so many people. They will be auctioned off in October for charity.

Sue xxx

Anniversary & Engagement cards

I was asked at the last minute by a friend to make an anniversary card for him to send to his wife.

He likes his cards to be romantic so this is what I came up with.

The image from MCS is printed onto super smooth card and layered up onto a gold coloured mat.

The sentiment is a gold peel-off.

The insert has the same image and a suitably romantic verse.

It was also our Anniversary last month and this is the card I made for Mick.

It is a printed from a Forever Friends cd. I printed the image onto the background paper and then onto super smooth card and decoupaged it on top.

Mum asked me to buy her an engagement card for her neighbour. BUY!!! I don’t remember the last time I actually bought a card so I set to and made her one.

This is what I came up with, again from the Forever Friends cd. Simply printed onto super smooth card and layered onto the white cardstock.

The insert has the same hearts background and smaller image printed onto it.

Sue xxx

Just because

This is a card I made for my Mum to let her know we were thinking of her on what would have been her Wedding Anniversary.

It doesn’t seem right to ignore the date, which i’m sure is still important to her, because my Dad is no longer with us. It always will be the anniversary of the date they married.

The image is a Forever Friends stamp, coloured with Promarkers and layered onto squares of a paper by K & co. The sentiment is layered onto a scrap of the same paper. The cardstock is an ivory textured one with a slight sheen.

Sue xxx