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Darned Dragonfllies

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It’s time for my Design Team post and recently, I’ve been experimenting with using my stamps with free-motion embroidery, thanks to a “Travelling Book” scheme in my monthly textile group, which you can read about here . The fabric is the liner from an old wash basket and I used the Wildflower stencil as inspiration for the background grasses, which I drew with brush tip markers. Next, I added a few flowers and dots to make the wild flower meadow. Using black Archival Ink, I stamped the dragonflies from Brighter Days directly onto the fabric. I then set to work embroidering the dragonflies using free-motion embroidery and raw-edge appliqué.   The feed-dogs were lowered on my machine and I put the fabric into an embroidery hoop so that it was drum tight - this stops the thread getting tangled up underneath.   I placed a piece of rainbow organza fabric over the dragonfly wings and first stitched around the edge of the wing and then wiggled around to make the veins. ...
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Fun Felting

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A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Katherine, invited me around to her house for a ‘Crafternoon’.   Well, it was actually all day rather than just an afternoon but a ‘Cray’ doesn’t sound quite right!   It was one of those scorching sunny days we’ve had lately with a temperature of 30˚ but we were able to craft outdoors in the shade of a yew tree, which was handy as wet felting is quite messy. Katharine had set up our work stations which consisted of an old towel with a bamboo mat on top onto which we laid out a thin layer of white roving wool.   Another layer was added perpendicular to the first.   Then came the creative bit – making my scene, and I decided to try for a sunset over the sea. A third layer was placed in the same direction as the first and a final fourth layer of wool was added perpendicular to that before the wet bit began. Next, I covered my scene with a piece of mesh and wet it all over with hot soapy water.   Then, using my hands flat on the...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Scrummy Summer

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I have a pile of Distress Spray Stained backgrounds on my desk ready for creating with.   Leafing through them, this one looked like a scrummy summer cocktail so it was the perfect base for this week’s Visible Image DT post. The Grunge Birthday Words stamp is in my Top 10 of VI stamps as it’s so versatile.   I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed in white to keep the summery feel.   I decided not to repeat the stamping across the whole panel – sometimes less is more! Next, I stamped and clear heat-embossed the cupcake from Birthday Glow and coloured with alcohol markers. After fussy cutting the focal image, I felt the cupcake needed more sparkle so added some Nuvo Drops and Stickles to the icing and flame. I always make my background bigger than the finished size so I used the offcuts to create the sentiment strip.   This and the cake were attached to the background with foam tape.   The background was mounted on black and then onto a square white ...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Cool Covers

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Recently, I attended a workshop to make a book cover, which was run by one of the ladies from my textile group.   It was a really fun workshop and I learned loads. To begin, we painted Bondaweb with water and then acrylic paints.   As we were on a time constraint, we dried the pieces from the underside with a hairdryer, which was a very messy process.   For future makes, I would paint them and leave to air dry – a perfect project for this hot weather! After placing the Bondaweb paint-side-down onto black acrylic felt, it was covered with baking paper and then melted onto the felt with a hot iron. Once cooled, the Bondaweb backing was carefully removed, revealing the paint pattern on the felt. The next step was great fun and involved scattering threads and sequins all over the painted felt.   This was then covered with organza, covered with the baking paper and heated with the iron on a medium heat, to melt the adhesive onto the organza, sandwiching the thread...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Friends & Ice-Cream

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Continuing my recent theme using Anita Jeram’s illustrations, this week’s cards are made using Colorado Craft Company “Ice Cream Day” which feature two of my favourite things; cats and ice-cream.   To begin, I stamped and clear heat embossed the images so that I could colour with alcohol markers and not worry about the ink running. I used a selection of markers to colour the cats simply and added some Stickles to give the ice-cream some sparkle. One of the panels was quite small so I used the small ice-cream cone stamp to add some details to the card blank. Finally, I matted the card using Neapolitan ice cream colours.   I had to add a some rhinestones onto this one as I managed to get finger prints in a few places. This card is more CAS and the smaller images are perfect for making cute 5” square cards.
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Location: Fareham, UK
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Daisy Dreams

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It’s been a hectic and emotional time for me lately with my father in hospital for three and a half weeks, leaving little time or energy for crafting.   I’ve been playing catch-up so I needed a quick make for this week’s Design Team post.   I love to spend hours creating a card but sometimes I just don’t have that luxury and today is one of those times.   Fortunately, Visible Image stamps and stencils are perfectly adaptable to all kinds of crafting. To begin, I cut a panel and silver heat-embossed the flower and text from Daisy Days . I received some acrylic inks for Christmas and haven’t had a chance to try them out so decided to use these to colour the panel rather than my usual metallic watercolours.   A little goes a long way with the dark coloured ink! The sentiment is the grunge style one from Birthday Wishes , also silver heat embossed. The panel was matted onto teal card and then onto a 5” x 7” card blank and finished with rhinestones for a bit ...
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Location: Fareham, UK
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