A little Teaser!

Just a little teaser of what I have been working on for the last few weeks.

I've knit 48 of these!

Only 3 stitches to begin with, increasing for 20 rows then decreasing until back down to 3 stitches. Every row different and so difficult in the beginning although after the first dozen I could do them without looking at the pattern.


Now this is a lot easier but not finished as I seem to need miles of it......


Start off with 8 stitches increase until 12 and then cast off 4 and start all over again and again and again, you get the idea i'm sure.

I've started on the sewing up now so will be back with the finished thing quite soon -I hope!
Ooops almost forgot i'll need yards of ribbon as well. Mmmm pink or blue???

Dress Up 2010

I started these challenges from Margaret's blog only last month so am a little bit behind with them.

Here is the one I made for February. Inspired by the fact that Valentine's Day was not so long ago I thought a Wedding dress would be appropriate. I used the template by Gini again. The skirt is 2 layers of wide lace, the top of the bodice is edged with tiny silver seed beads stitched in place. My favourite part is the super OTT bouquet, made with a couple of ribbon flowers, flocked greenery and a decoration of pale pink seed beads.
The back has been covered in pearlescent card to hide the ends of the lace and has a net train held in place with a decoration of silver tubular beads and the same pale pink seed beads as the bouquet.

Karen, who introduced me to this challenge has used the theme of love for her dress also but as you can see from her blog taken a totally differnt angle on it.

March Madness!!!

Sallie is here for her Dad's birthday today and to take me to the Cinema last night to see Alice in Wonderland with the yummy Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.

Of course she brought Big Stitch, Little Stitch and Baby Stitch with her.

They had seen my picture of my Stitch modelling the ribbon dress and were very jealous so while we were getting ready to go out they raided my knitting and decided to dress themselves up. Big Stitch found a jumper that just about fitted him and the other 2 thought my squares for the pram blanket would be better for them instead.

Baby Stitch sneaked into my bag afterwards and managed to get in to see the film with us, he had to hide his eyes a couple of times when it got a bit too scary for him.

The others stayed at home, we had to tell them we were going shopping otherwise they would have wanted to come too. They sat in bed and played games on my laptop, they thought my mini mouse was bought especially for them.

Dress Up 2010

Browsing through Karen's blog yesterday I came across this new challenge.
Dress Up 2010 is the idea of Margaret who decided to make a dress a month for the whole of the year. Anyone taking part needs to leave a link to her blog so that everyone can see the creations.
Karen also found a super template for dresses on Gini's blog which I have used for this first one. Gini is also taking part and has a super woollen dress on her blog. As this is for January I was inspired by the card I made for my niece's 21st birthday which I made for that month.
The bodice is champagne coloured pearlescent card with a snowflake punched out and backed with pale blue pearlescent card - this 2nd layer hides all the ends of the ribbon quite neatly and securely.

Tiny star shaped self adhesive gems were added to the bottom of the bodice for a bit of bling. January is still the 'party season' after all.

Stitch insisted on modelling it but really it doesn't quite fit very well!

This dress fits in with the challenge on Bubbly Scrumptious Whispers of Colour #1 which asks for the colours lilac, blue and a splash of deep pink and cream.

Mother's Day

I've just finished making my Mother's day cards using the My Craft Studio Parchment craft 3 Cd and vellum lace panels. I printed a fan image onto pearlescent paper to make the fan on the front and found the same image in a bookmark style which I copied, flipped and stretched to make a matching insert.

The cards have been made using an A4 sized card scored and folded on th DL line to make an almost square shortfall card. This first card is in pale lime green with ice white pearlescent paper as a backer on the front and inside. This second card is in pale lilac with very pale lime green pearlescent backing paper. Both fans have been printed in pale lilac the same as the inserts.

A peel-off complements the colours and flowers with glittered brads complete the fans.

Not Football

It's Mick's birthday at the weekend and I thought I would be a bit more imaginative and not do the usual football related card for him.
This is what I came up with from the Crafter's Companions Popcorn Bear Romance cd.I used an A4 sheet of card and scored and folded it on the DL line to give a shortfall almost square card. I used the circle pyramage image, 2 co-ordinating backing papers and a matching insert as well as a piece of silver patterned paper also from Crafter's Companion.

Man Utd. v Cardiff City

I think in this case Cardiff come out on top!

I made these 2 cards using the same image and backing papers, from Peerless Designs Teddies Friends Cd. One in red for my son and one in blue for a friends son. Both with matching envelopes.

The only difference is the way in which I used the backing paper. I much prefer the way it has turned out on the blue card. The colour helps as well I think as it is so much brighter.

Either way Ashley loves his Manchester United card.

My Craft Studio samples

I was asked last week to make some samples for the Ideal World Pick of the Day.
This was for Cd's from My Craft Studio. This first card was shown during the show today.

Here are the other cards I made and sent in.

Firstly a shaker card filled with heart shaped sequins.

This image is printed onto pearleacent paper with ribbon and gems.
These images have been cut and layered to give a pyramage effect with added lace and ribbon.

This is a large gatefold card with lace down the opening.This one is far from my usual thing. I've torn both the image and the backer to give a vintage feel to the card which uses several images from the Cd layered onto one another.This again uses several images layered using the graphics programme.

Layering and a touch of lace and gems complete this one. A baby card with patterned card and a button detail added.I changed the colour on this one and made an envelope to match.

The item on tv was for a 2 Cd set, I only received one of them to make my samples with. The other one contained lots of super ideas and images for creating wedding stationery and some really beautiful samples were shown.

Baby Knitting

I've just finished a couple of baby jackets for a friend whose partner had their first baby on Christmas day.
The girls on the Bubbly Funk forum wanted to see them so here they are.

The pink one is my very favourite baby pattern and I must have knit it up in various colours well over a dozen times now, starting with my own babies.

The lilac one is a pattern I have had for many years but only just recently used, this is only the second time i've knit it. I love the picot edging on the bottom, cuffs and neckline but I hate sewing it all in place!

Mick took them to work with him this morning, I hope they fit. It won't be too much of a hardship to knit something bigger if not.

I'm having a go at a pram blanket now, knit in squares and stitched together, for another friend whose partner is expecting their first baby in April. I'm giving myself plenty of time as I want to knit other things for them as well. All white or cream this time as they don't know if it is a boy or girl.

A few florals

I bought a new Forever Friends stamp last week and have been having a play colouring it in with Promarkers.
I really enjoy colouring this little bear as he is so easy to get into some simple shading. I'm still learning with my promarker pens, but have found a combination of colours I like for these images. I've teamed him up with papers from K & Co and some fabric flowers and brads. The flowers in this first one and the papers, I think, were a gift from Lynn. I know she'll correct me if I am wrong.

This last card uses a stamp I bought way back in October but has just had it's first inking. I can't remember the make but she is coloured with Promarkers. Again it is teamed up with paper from the same Sparkly Sweet designer pad by K & Co. The bench from Magnolia I know was from Lynn as I think were the flowers with their shiny beaded centres.

Any of these cards , but particularly the last one I think is suitable for the 'Blooming Gorgeous' theme on the Cute Card Thursday challenge blog this week.

21st Birthday ribbons

For this I used the circles of pearlescent card left over from a couple of Christmas cards. Naughty me hadn't put them away!

The card is a 6 inch square in soft white.

I've put a bodice style peel-off onto cream pearlescent paper and cut it out. Onto the back of this i've stuck lots of short lenghts of organza ribbon in pastel colours and used foam pads to secure it to the pink circle.

The greeting is a peel-off as well.

Pearlescent pink pearly self adhesive dots have been used in 2 corners to take away the bareness.

A Round Tuit!

Can't believe it was early December when I last Blogged so I thought i'd better get around to it again.
I have good excuses really for not blogging.

In mid december I went into Hospital for planned surgery, however when the Consultant did her rounds I discovered i'd had a hysterectomy as well as the planned repairs 'down below'.
I was in Hospital for 5 days but really was not up to crafting or much else before our computer went on the blink.

On 27th December my Dad passed away so that really took any inclination I had for crafting and anything else right out the window as you can imagine.
Since then time has passed in a blur of travelling and arrangements but is slowly beginning to get back to something like normality. I still can't concentrate much on crafting but do have a card to get on here at some time which i've done for my niece's 21st birthday which is tomorrow.
I've made a calendar as well but that's not goint to be shown because I forgot to check the pages were in the right order before I bound it and had to prise the whole thing apart and try again. Consequently the wires are a bit squiffy so i'll keep it to myself.

More shakers

After making the shaker card for the Crafter's Companion challenge last week I decided to make a few more.

This first one is again an 8inch square card. I've used pearlescent pink card for the background and pearlescent blue card for the matting and circle on top of the acetate on the shaker element. The stars backing paper is from the Cute companions Cd.

The Christmas tree stencil, from Dreamweaver, has been embossed and then inked with Brilliance ink. The silver stars inside are from my stash and the snowflakes are from Nesties and have been cut in the same blue and pink card with the addition of a glittered silver snowflake, all held together with a pale pink brad.

The sentiment is from Lakeland.

The stars and sentiment look pink but it must just be the reflection from the pearlescent card.

These next two are A5 in size and use the same stencil embossed and coloured with Brilliance inks in purple and pink. I've used glittered snowflakes from Craftime and peel-off sentiments. On one I have used silver paper and the other pink pearlescent paper for the backer. The circles are pink pearlescent card or purple matt card. Silver trees and stars under the acetate are from my stash.

Dotty organza ribbon from Ribbon Rasis and lace complete the cards.

I bought the stencil with the idea of using it with glitter on double sided sticky sheets but haven't got round to that - maybe next year!