On my desk

Today I have a crafting friend visiting, and I am going to show her how to make the square art card. I have one cut and stamped ready to assemble, as well as two other cards in the planning stage.
Looking forward to a great day.

The template for cutting up the background has been printed as well, I think I am organised. Hopefully I will have some finished cards to show you tomorrow.

Enjoy your day

Judy

Children’s Easter Craft

I help out st our local Op Shop during the school holidays with craft lessons
Next Tuesday I have 5-10 year olds and we will be making these cute cotton ball cards.
Aren’t they adorable

The idea for these cards came from Pinterest.

Hope the children have fun making them 

Enjoy your day

Judy

Red Carpet Market Day sewing / crafting

The next Red Carpet Market Day at the Leeton Visitors Centre is being held on Saturday 18th April. Just over a week away, and they are starting to promote the event on their Facebook page, and requested a couple of photos.    As I took a couple of little snapshots today, I thought I would share them with you.

Blue polka dot - small tea wallet

Red floral - large tea wallet

Pink birdies - card holder

Cream floral - top opening tissue cover

Key Fob

Blue polka dot - inside

Red floral - inside

Card holder inside

Card holder keyrings - a favourite seller

Flower Clip Bookmarks

I made lots of fun gifts - here is one - PMS survival kit 

I have been busy, but it was really great to be back in the craft studio.

This weekend, I am attending a paper-craft retreat in Leeton.  Everyone takes whatever they wish to work on, no set project, just the opportunity to be with like-minded craft artisans and to dedicate the time to your crafts.

I am unsure what to take, as with my card making, I am still a novice and I need to take all my supplies so I can decide what I need!  That is not going to happen, so I think I will take my cuttlebug, embossing folders and dies, and of course my stamps and ink pads, and see where that leads me.

Just to be with others will be a great learning experience for me.  Looking forward to it immensely.

Take care

Judy

Little Owls

These little owls have been made in preparation for the next Red Carpet Market Day which is scheduled for Saturday 18th April, in the middle of school holidays.

They are only about 3" tall and can be placed in any random area.  Filled with teddy bear pellets they are very malleable.  The eyes were all sewn on by hand, and let me tell you, trying to cut out tiny circles in felt is rather difficult.  I know there must be a machine available, but I do not have one (yet)

A little close-up of three of the owls

Oh, so cute

Judy

Sue's card

Here is the card that I made for my sister Sue's birthday.

I really liked the colours and the simplicity of the card with using just a few elements. 

I started out with a Kraft card base, lined that with chocolate card stock.  To this I added a aged printed piece of vintage music.  The vintage lace was a lovely find at the local op shop.  The flowers are in two parts, the back section is hand gathered tea stained lace, which when I first tried on the card was too stark, so I added a hessian / burlap centre, much better.  The Happy Birthday stamp (freebie with a Card magazine) was stamped onto fawn coloured card stock with the Momento Toffee Crunch ink pad.  A small chocolate brown chiffon ribbon completes the card.

I had a one little flower left over, so I added it to the gift wrapping on her present.  As you can see, I kept it all in theme.

Looking at the next photo, I could have done more with the outside of the envelope for the card ...  I must admit, all I did was add a little strip of music washi tape across the corner.  

I am now working on some little owls for a market, so will show you the results when finished. 

Judy

Stamping Techniques

I have not had a lot of time to "play" lately, but when I do, I have been playing with different stamping techniques for my cards.  Now I am going to show you the good, bad and ugly, but it is all a learning curve, and I must admit a lot of fun.

Painters Tape
The first one uses painters tape to get the background, just place your strip of painters tape on the stamp pad, rub lightly and then place on your card stock.  Easy but effective

Washi Tape
The next one was OK, I tried to weave the washi tape for a different effect, which is good, although I will need to ensure the lines are straight in future.  More ink was needed on the stamp to ensure a good crisp image.

Perfect Pearls Powder
This one, I used a VersaMagic ink in Eggplant and then brushed Pewter Perfect Pearls over, it does not really show up in the photo, but it gave the leaves a lovely shimmery shine

Reflection

Using just the stamps I had on hand, I tried the technique of stamping on acetate to create a water reflection.  I like how this turned out, and I would like to try it again with a better stamp.

Sanded Embossing

After embossing the card, I lightly sanded the raised surface.  This gives the card a totally different look, nice and weathered!

The last card does not come under the stamping technique umbrella, however it is just another quick and simple card I have made.

Using just a round heart die, with a stamped image, crisp and clean

I have one more card to show you, but will have to post it later tonight.  I have made this one for my sister Sue's birthday, and I will be seeing her tonight to deliver it.  Sue is my card making teacher, so the pressure was on .... but I liked how it turned out, so that is good

Have you had any time for craft, I wish I had more

Until later this evening

Judy

Pine Cone Angels

Well, I think this will be my last pine cone craft for this year, Pine Cone Angels.  They will look so cute hanging on the Christmas Tree.  I originally saw this idea on Pinterest.

Silver Angel

Gold Angel

All you need to do, is thread a chenille stick around the body for a little colour, wind another one around the head, making a loop for a hanger/halo.  Ribbon bow for wings, done! Lovely!

What next?

Judy

Pine cone Gnomes

Last Monday night we continued on with the pine cone crafts and made some really cute gnomes.

Firstly using the Better Homes & Garden site as inspiration - we made three different sized hanging gnomes.

1. Largest

2. Middle

3. Smallest

Each one different from the next.

Our next little gnome was inspired from "We Bloom Here" instructions.  Admittedly our pine cones were much larger, but the progress was the same.   This one is so sweet.

Such a simple craft with great results.  The pine cone was not flat enough to stand alone, so I glued an old bolt to the bottom, now nice and sturdy.

We still have some pine cones left, so there may be some more crafts coming in the next few weeks.

Are you Christmas crafting, what are you making?

Judy

What a Hoot!

Last night I got together with a couple of friends and we decided to make the owls that were featured in the current Better Homes & Gardens magazine.  Well sorta!  We had to bring our own twist on it, and compromise on materials, but I LOVED how they turned out.

Mine -

Lorraine -

Sue -

We used an old pine cone for the body and made a wool pom pom for the head.  Eyes and beak were cut from felt and glued on, with a small black bead for the pupil.

We broke apart another old pine cone, different colour, and used these pieces for the eyebrows and wings.  We glued the wing pieces onto another piece of felt, so that it added some dimension.

Grapevine wire was used for the feet, which you can see best in the last photo.

I was really pleased with how these all turned out, something different.

We are meeting again next week, and have more ideas for the pine cones, so that will be interesting.

My owl has taken up residence on the window pelmet, and looks great perched up high, looking down.  Could not get a photo of him up there, but take my word for it.

Until next time

Judy

Crafty Afternoon

It has been awhile, since I have posted anything on my blog, apologies.

My nieces and nephew are home for a quick visit this weekend, so of course we had to do some craft.  My craft studio is an absolute shambles, so we sat outside to make some little items.

First on the list was a beaded dragonfly, using the instructions from "I heart crafty things" - then we made some little Christmas tree ornaments.

The photos are not great, but you can see what the kids made.

Dragonfly and then a cute little Christmas tree ornament with a piece of left over chenille stick.

Two dragonflies, a couple of jingle bell reindeers, and a bottle cap reindeer.  We also tried writing our name on a piece of bark with the glue gun.  I think once painted this will look great.

Dragonfly, jingle bell reindeer, bottle cap reindeer and a stick reindeer.  All very cute.

Quick and easy fun

Until next time

Judy

Children's Weekend Craft

Another fun craft weekend with my family.  We made this little wallet and card holder keyring for her favourite Aunty Janet (I am relegated to 2nd favourite, he he) as well as a pin cushion for her own use.

Next she made this stuffed owl to sit in her bookcase .. I loved the colours she chose, she has a great eye for colour combinations.  Unfortunately it was a little smaller than she wanted, however I still think it is extremely cute.

Boy stuff next.  He had already made a list of things he wanted to make - slingshot, catapult.  He certainly takes me out of my comfort zone, but the internet is such a help to get ideas.

His dad had already helped preparing the twig required for the slingshot, so he just needed to put it together.  Elastic for the sling, with a little leather pouch to hold the missile.

Next the catapult - popsicle sticks, tape, bottlecap and rubber bands was all that was needed

As we still had a little time left, we used some coloured popsicle sticks to make some lizards.

Lastly, a quick and easy bookmark - he just glued a felt bird to the top of a popsicle stick.  It looked great and he is going to use it in his craft book ... where he puts photos of all his projects that he has made with me.  How sweet.

This is all I achieved over the weekend.  I cut out an owl and card holder keyring to sew... and that is as far as I got.  Maybe next weekend?

At least some craft was achieved in my studio, it has been quite a long dry spell

Judy

Thomas's Yabby

Last weekend, I had my nieces and nephew for a quick craft lesson, however I neglected to take photos.

My brother sent a photo of the yabby that Thomas made while he was with me - he had been fishing in the morning and wanted to make a yabby as he had caught some fresh ones.

We were both quite pleased with how it turned out.

I have been trying to update my blog for a few days, and have been having heaps of problems.  Firstly it took forever to load, and then would not allow me to upload photos, agh ... my default browser is Internet Explorer, however I also tried Firefox, but with the same results.  This morning, I "bit the bullet" and installed Google Chrome and it immediately uploaded the photo for me, Go Figure!

I will have another post later in the day, when I show the great things that the children made this weekend. That is assuming that Blogger will behave.

Till then

Judy

Easter, Anzac Day, Craft and Clearance Sale

The title says it all, a lot has been happening the last few weeks.

This Easter we celebrated the Leeton Sunrice Festival in my town - it occurs every two years and brings a lot of  festivities and fun to the town which enforces the recognition of the contribution the rice industry has to the region.

I love the street parade - and this year they had over 80 entries

A lot of vintage machinery and cars

Last Friday April 25th was Anzac Day, when we remember all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.

'ANZAC' stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

My friend Ray painted this Poppies painting, the red poppy is a symbol of war remembrance.

My new fun craft has been experimenting with the loom bands.  My niece and nephew gave me a craft lesson, rather than the other way around before Easter, and I am hooked.  What fun!

The following photos are examples of the loom items that the kids have made during the school holidays.

Lastly, I have been busy with my online store, organising a huge clearance sale.  Over the years, the online store has diversified into carrying a lot of products.  I have decided to go back to the original concept, and just stock buttons, bells and rusty products.  So, everything else is being marked down to sell.  If you are after a bargain, check out the online store (Cat 'n Cart Crafts) as I am trying to keep prices under $5.00, so there are a lot of bargains.

Until next time

Judy