Crocheted Bunny

Hi there everyone.  I have been very busy for the last week or so but on things other than cards.  My husband and I are involved with helping to raise funds for a small local hospital.  The money we raise buys a few of those extra things which make make being in hospital a little bit more pleasant than it might otherwise be, and this coming Saturday we have a fete which is an annual event.  I started the bunny a while ago so thought it would be a good idea to finish it so it could be sold on one of the stalls, or else go into the raffle which is most probably what will happen.  One of the ladies had a bolt of fabric going begging so I have made eight table cloths for our refreshment tables too.


                                                                               
I haven't done a great deal of crochet before but these amigurumi toys are actually not too difficult to make.  This is a freebie pattern which came from a site called Ravelry and the designer Sharon Ojala has a You Tube video for most of the things she makes and now and again I have played it to clarify when things have gone a bit astray.  I'm not sure that the eyes are big enough and I think plain black ones would have been better, also I used double knitting wool but I think the wool she has used is a bit thicker quality double knitting and made the whole thing come out a bit bigger and more closely crocheted, but overall I am quite pleased with the finished result.

Hopefully now these projects are finished normal services will be resumed on the cardmaking front.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Pat  x

Red and Gold Embroidered Anniversary

Hi all.  It has just occurred to me looking at the date that I have just passed the two year mark on my blog.  I can't believe it as it seems like no time at all since I started and I would just like to say how many wonderfully creative people I have met through their blogs and how much I love being part of this crafting community.

I have another anniversary card for you today.  The summer months are the busiest so not many more before the end of the year, just three I think, then none until April although I may find one or two to blog that haven't been aired.  Anyway, this is it.

I was prompted by Mrs A and her  Butterfly Challenge which has the theme of a butterfly of course but the letter Y for yarn, though it seems this can be interpreted more loosely as a thread of some sort so I have chosen embroidery thread, specifically a gold sparkly thread as you can see I have used it on the background and on the two red hearts.

I started with the background which was embossed with the Kimmy-Luvs folder from Cuttlebug which sadly is not available any more but does come out quite often for an anniversary card.  I used a piece of a blank card which I managed to ruin with atrociously bad stamping but was ideal for this.  I decided where I would place my embroidery threads and I just pushed them through the card with the needle itself.  There are four elongated 'v's' but they give the appearance of the thread being pulled together behind each of the hearts. To make the threads stand out I used the full thickness, all six threads and stuck on the reverse of the card with double sided tape. 

I cut the hearts using my Nellie Snellen heart dies using snippets of red card, and then I had originally thought I would leave the hearts as is but decided to go for the embroidery in a bigger way so took my needle and thread and just went for it.  I put the holes in mainly as I went along and pierced with the needle, but with hindsight should have used a pokey tool and made them a bit more regularly spaced.  I decided to make a pattern up and so looking at the heart I thought that top to bottom one way would look quite nice and then the same in the other direction but weaved in and out.  On one heart the threads go nearer to the edge than the other but it took me quite a time to do it so was not too keen on redoing any of it, but I think the finished result was maybe not as neat as it might have been but acceptable.  Here I only used two threads thickness and anchored them at the back again with double sided tape.

I then cut a bigger heart from the Nellie Snellen set of dies and as I love the script used the sentiment from the Verve set Poppy Birthday which is one of those all purpose sentiments, and I embossed it using Versamark and WOW Gold EP.  I used another snippet of the white card and stamped and cut out the butterfly which was part of a magazine freebie set.  This was also embossed with the Versamark and Gold EP.

Lastly it was matted on to a snippet of gold mirri card and mounted on to a cream square card.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Pat  x

I would also like to enter the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use a Stamp.
Cuttlebug Mania - Anything Goes.
Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 194 where we use our leftover snippets/ pieces of paper and card etc.
Stamping Sensations - Sew Special.

Stylised Poppy Birthday

Hi everyone.  I needed a birthday card this week and so decided to combine this with NBUS Challenge No. 5 which our friend Darnell of DJKardkreations is running, where we use anything in our stash which we haven't used before.  There are a lot of prizes on offer from really well known sponsors as well as some donated by her personally, so 'thank you' Darnell.  I used green and gold to tie in with the colour challenge which I am just in time to enter over at Less is More.

I was lucky enough to win a gift token over at Verve Stamps and I bought some stamps and dies and these are my NBUS items.

The central sentiment plate is a Spellbinder die set Labels Thirty Three which has been used before and I cut two different sizes using snippets of gold mirri and white card, and layered them up and stamped the sentiment from the NBUS sets of stamps from Verve called Poppy Birthday.  I then used the Build a Poppy die set to cut the three base pieces of the flower from snippets of gold mirri card and then using the stamps in two different sizes I stamped on more snippets of white card using Versamark and WOW Gold EP and then cut the flowers with the dies and layered these up too.  I finished the flowers with little pearls in the centres.

I finished by cutting leaves in two different sizes from snippets of green card using another Verve set of dies called Sprightly Sprigs which co-ordinates with some other stamp sets which I don't have, but I consider this is a leaf shape which can be cut from plain card as seen here without the matching stamps.

The gold dots are actually the waste pieces from the poppy stamp co-ordinating die set.  I think the idea is that you use the holes made by the projections on the dies to help line the die when using the negative piece left from cutting the die as a template, and in order to line up the die when cutting out the stamped images you use the template over the stamped image and then fix the die into the negative space and this then keeps the die in place whilst cutting the image out.

Thank you for stopping by here today.

Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenges:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - Week 193 where we use up our snippets.  The whole card was made from snippets.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Stamp and Punch/Die Cut.                          
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use a Stamp and Blog Hop.

Tag and Envelope Birthday Wishes

Hi there everybody.  I have been mulling over what I might do for three of the clean and simple challenges this week and eventually came up with this.

It combines Addicted to CAS has asked for blue, Casology which has given the word 'write', and Less is More is a lucky dip week using Sprays/Mists.  I have a mask from That Special Touch  called Splats which I used in the background combined with a spray which I made up using watercolour paint, and then when dry blended distress inks through the mask using Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers and Faded Jeans.  I was a bit fussy about exactly where I wanted the splats so just cherry picked which bits I used from the stencil, and used a piece of Clarity stencil card to do it on.  

I managed to find a free template for the small envelope and tag and after downloading these and cutting them out I transferred them to some snippets of good quality white paper and after sticking the envelope together I inked that and the tag with a little of the distress ink left on the blending foam to take the whiteness off and then stamped the sentiment on the tag using Memento Nautical Blue ink.  I finished the tag with a bit of blue baker's twine.

Lastly before I finish I have a new follower called Gail whose Blog you will find here.  She is on the HLS Design Team and does some fabulous work and I'm sure she would appreciate your visiting her.

Thank you for dropping by and I do so appreciate your interest.

Pat  x

I am also entering the following challenge:

Pixie's Crafty Workshop - where we use up our snippets.  I used snippets of paper for the envelope and tag.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Trio of Colours.  I used three colours of blue distress ink.