Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 25th November - Rainbow Houses and Felty Books

Good Morning All!  A contribution to Julia's WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), at her Julia-Dunnit Blog.  I try to join in as often as I can and I really enjoy seeing what everyone else is up to - especially at this time of year, when desks start to look quite exciting!

So, first of all... I Finished the Bunting:

Here are the little houses, on two strings.  Not quite on my desk, but several of you did ask to see the finished buntings.  I won't bore you with more photos, but if you really want to see more, there is a little photo album on my Facebook page, which you are more than welcome to view - see it here!  

And on my desk?

This green felt journal was finished over the weekend.  It's made of lovely soft wool felt, lined with a holly-sprinkled cotton fabric, with golden highlights.  I embroidered the cover with red, green and gold, to make it extra pretty, then bound it with black linen thread and added a fine red satin ribbon tie.

Inside, you can see the fabric lining.  The pages are made with hand made Indian cotton-rag paper. The edges have their natural deckle, from the moulds in which each sheet is made.  

It's really nice paper, with a texture from the fine mesh that each sheet lies on as it is made in the frame. The cotton paper pulp is lifted out of the vat with a frame, over which a mesh is stretched.  It is shaken to form a layer - or sheet - and most of the water drained off.  Then it is tipped out to dry in the sunshine! 

Anyway, paper-making lesson over... I also made this, which I finished today:

A soft blue felt journal, with white and gold embroidery.  Decorated with a white felt snowflake.  I added a gold organza ribbon tie, which is nice and shimmery.  It is bound in longstitch, with ivory linen.  

The journal is lined with this fab snowman printed cotton fabric, with golden highlights.  Very Seasonal! 

The book is my favourite cream laid "Character" paper, with nice hand-cut edges.  This is such lovely paper - crisp and really good to write on. 

Thank you for coming to see what I've been doing.  I also have a photo album and some leather journal covers on the go... but I forgot to photograph them!  I'll post about them soon, so feel free to come back later in the week and see what else is going on.

Why not pop back to Julia's Blog and have a look at what else is happening this week?

Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 11th November 2015 - Little Houses in a Row!

Hello all and welcome to LizzieMade blog on a windy Wednesday!

This is a contribution to Julia Dunnit's WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday) weekly challenge, which I try to join in with whenever I can.

This morning my desk is home to a continuation of last week's project: 

Set One of the little houses for two strings of House Bunting.  Here they are, all cut, coloured and with holes punched, ready to be strung together.  

A few close-up views, in case you want to see.  I used coloured pencils in the end, to draw the roof, windows and doors and all the details for each house. 

I'm waiting for approval from my customer, then I will start the second set - which will have doors on the right hand side.  I have asked if she wants all the "left doors" on one string and the "right doors" on the other, but she hasn't said yet!  Hopefully she will be pleased with these and I'll get on with the next batch later on.  

I hope you enjoyed looking at my project in progress.  Do come back next time - I'll try to put a photo of the finished bunting strings.  

Meanwhile, why not take a trip over to Julia's blog, to see what everyone else is up to today? 

Thanks for visiting!  

Wednesday Worktable - Wednesday 4th November - Midori Style and Bunting!

Hello Deskers!  This is an infrequent contribution to WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday), over at Julia's Stamping Ground. Each Wednesday, Julia invites fellow crafters and bloggers to show a photo or two of their worktables, and explain what they've been doing.

I don't seem to get much time for working in my studio.  It's just been mad, this last few months (actually, make that years!).  Anyway, "stuff" does happen... sometimes.  So, just to prove it, here are a couple of photos to show something I have just finished (but it's an ongoing project!) and also what I'm currently working on:

Just completed and to be added to my online shop as soon as... 

 

A Leather Notebook Cover, with matching Pen Case 

Inspired by the popular Midori notebooks with covers and a pencil-case I made for my son's birthday last year. The nice thing about them is that I can make any size or shape and in any colour of leather that I can get!  

So, those are just completed and ready for better photos and to be offered for sale.  

Currently this is what's on my desk: 

Experiments and planning for a Commission.  

A lady who runs a student housing agency, found this post on my blog, where I showed a little string of mini bunting.  She has asked me to make her two long strings of House Bunting, to hang in her office.  These houses are 6" tall, so they're considerably larger than the mini bunting I made before. We've just agreed on what she wants and I'm about to start making the "real" bunting.  They will each be six feet long when completed.  It's great fun!

Thank you for reading.  I hope you've enjoyed visiting today.  Feel free to browse my blog, but once you're finished, do go back to Julia's Stamping Ground, to see what everyone else is doing today.

Paper Hearts Bunting Tutorial

Hello Blog Friends,

I was playing with paper today and thought you might like to join me.  I have made a string of paper hearts - a kind of bunting. 

It's cheerful and fun; I might save it for the Christmas Tree in December - or I may just use it to decorate the studio.
Anyway, below is a photo tutorial, in case you would like to have a go yourselves. 

Paper Hearts

I was playing with some little coloured paper strips, that I had left over from a bookbinding project.   They're about 7mm (.25") wide.  You could use Quilling Strips, if you have some lying about, which you haven't got a use for!

For each heart, I used two paper strips - one coloured and one in cream paper.  The "inside" strip was about 14.5cm long (about 5.5") and the cream "outside" strip was about 17cm (6.75").   It doesn't matter too much if the lengths vary - you can experiment and use whatever suits you. 

Fold all paper strips in half. 

Apply glue to each end of the coloured strip - on the outside.   Line up the outside of the coloured strip, with the inside end of the cream strip and press together to stick.  Do this with the other end also. 

You will have a sort of "double V" shape, like these.

Now apply glue to the Outside end of the cream strip.  Turn over the ends of the strips and press the cream strips together, as in the picture (you can see that it's already starting to look a bit like a heart)

Spread a little glue along the V-shapes at the centre of each strip (ie, the bottom point of the heart).  Press the coloured and cream strips together, lining up the centre creases.

Now, gently push the centre downwards, to make the double heart shape - as in the photo (you can do this with two hands - I needed one to take the photo!).  Then gently pinch the bottom point together, to stick.

Behold! The finished two-strip paper heart!

 

* * *

You can stop just here, if you want.  One cute paper heart, which you could use to decorate a card or scrapbook page, prop up against your pencil pot, post to a friend....

 

Or you could make lots of them, ready for a string of Heart Bunting...

  

...or just pretty patterns.

You don't have to do the final step either - you can leave the heart open, as I did with the blue one in the photo. 

Or you can use three strips of paper, to make a triple heart, like the orange one here, on the right.

Three different hearts, made with the same paper strips.

 

You could use the hearts by themselves, by adding a hanging strip - made from paper, thread or even ribbon (I know the orange ribbon isn't attached - but it gives you the idea...)

The paper strips don't have to be plain - it's a good way to use up scraps of patterned paper too.

Neither do they have to be small - use strips that are thicker and longer, to get big chunky hearts, for Christmas Tree decorations, party decor etc.

Attach a hanging loop by putting glue on the ends of the strip/ thread/ ribbon, pushing it between the top parts of the heart, then pressing together to secure.

 

Nor does the law say that you must only use paper for your hearts.  These are made from ribbons.  The heart in the top two photos is made from 1cm satin and grosgrain patterned ribbons.  I used both glue and a couple of small stitches to fix it together, with a stitched-in cotton loop for hanging.

 

The pink heart is made from 3mm (v. narrow) satin ribbon, in three shades of pink.  Again, I used glue and stitching to fix it together.  I made the hanging loop from pink cotton embroidery floss, with a matching little tassel stitched onto the bottom point.  You could even attach a jump-ring and make this into a necklace!

 

* * *

 

Making the Bunting String

Decide on an order for your coloured hearts - of course, there is no reason why you should make them all different colours - you could use the same colour(s) for every heart if you wish, to match a colour scheme. 

Red and white would look rather "Skandi" and a bit Christmassy.  Green would also be good for Christmas, or maybe you'd like pink for a little girl's bedroom, or yellow to brighten up a dull corner...  How about Black and Orange, to make a string of spooky hearts, for Halloween?

 

Use a punching mat, offcut of corrugated cardboard, old cereal carton etc and push a needle or awl through the outside paper strip, as shown.  You need two holes per side, positioned so that the thread will go through fairly close to the top of the heart, without interfering with the coloured "inside" strip.

Push the needle through all the holes, then draw the thread through.

Use a small spot of glue, to prevent the hearts sliding along the thread and bunching up.

 

 

 

Thread lots of hearts together, then hang them up! 

 

* * *

 

There you are, a Paper Heart Bunting String - so easy to make, but so pretty!  I'd love to know if you have a go at this project - leave me a message and/or a link to a photo of your own work.