House Mouse Project Book Designs.

Morning.Well I am not doing bad. I have updated my blog for the third day in a row. I have plenty to share with you and I hope you will enjoy it. Today I thought I would share some of my House Mouse cards. When I was in Joanna Sheen's design team I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to have some designs published in one of her wonderful Project Books.

Some of my designs were also used in the beautiful Thomas Kinkade Christmas Project book and I will share those in a later post. The project books really are brilliant and comes along with a CD Rom that contains everything you need to put the cards together and then use to design your own cards too. 

The House Mouse Project Book Volume One has been beautifully illustrated in photographs taken by Debbie Patterson. The 48 page book contains full instructions to make all of the 23 House Mouse designs. I thoroughly enjoyed making the cards that are in the book, there is something for everyone, easier designs for new crafters and some more elaborate ones too. The CD Rom has some beautiful backing papers, toppers and decoupage to use again and again so it's a great resource to have in your stash.

I have checked and the House Mouse project book is still available at the Joanna Sheen online shop. Here are a few more of the cards I made for the book. I really hope you like them.

My First Ever Embroidery

I Just had to share this project next, I was totally blown away by the results I got. I started Crosstitching years ago, I have always loved it along with the projects that I have completed. I had always admired embroidery but always thought it would be very difficult and take a lot of concentration in order to get a good result. On Hochanda (My Favourite Craft Channel) I saw Katrina from Rowandean demonstrating some of her amazing embroidery. I have to say she made it look incredibly easy, so I watched all of the shows before making the decision to try one of the kits.

Oh my goodness, I am so glad I decided to go for it. It is one of the most relaxing and therapeutic of needlecraft's, that I have tried. The instructions are so easy to follow, a simplified design is also printed on the fabric making it so easy to stitch. Obviously you do have artistic licence and can change or add just what you like to make it your own. I got a little carried away with the French knots so one of the bushes ended up being totally knots rather than straight stitch.

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching the design, the only down side to the kit was coming to the end, although now I can enjoy the framed piece on my wall. I am now keen on trying a larger piece, three I have my eye on are: Bluebell Wood, Seagulls and Blackberries. Watch this space.

A Catch Up With Knitting

Hello again people.

Well at last I have collected enough of my crafty makes all in one place. So I will be aiming to post every day or at least every other day. In this post I wanted to share my first knitted project as I promised years ago I would. My Nan tried for years to teach me to knit, but I am afraid it was in vain, I just couldn't grasp it at all. It was only years later after watching Hayley West and buying her fabulous DVD's, that it eventually learnt to cast on and knit.I thought I would start with this project after watching Jody Long Knitting on Hochanda at the weekend.

My first project was from the Rowan Colourscape book. The patterns in the book are written very well and are easy to follow. They are fairly basic knit and purl, which is just what I needed so even I could complete the finished article. I was over the moon with the results I got and love the bright colours of the Rowan wool. I have to admit, that normally I would never wear anything that wasn't either black, grey, or blue as I normally have very plain taste, but I thought it was time for a change. 

I would never have managed or learnt to knit without the help of Hayley west or here DVD Collection so I will always be grateful to her. Thank you Hayley for the gift of Knitting.

My Art Journal Project

It's been a long time since I last updated my blog. I have to apologise but so much has been going on. There has been a lot of building going on here, so the builders have been here for nearly a year. Also I now have a suitable internet connection, so I can access the internet regularly. I am determined now to blog all of my makes so I hope you will join in and enjoy.

For a long time I have wanted to make an art journal. I found a fabulous video tutorial on youtube: (How to make a Sketchbook: Coptic Stitch) It's very detailed, clear and easy to follow. I would highly recommend watching it if you want to make your very own. 

I have added a cloth inside cover and Faux leather outside cover both front and back, also added a black cotton binding. Here is the finished Journal. I am very pleased with it. I wanted to use as many recycled materials as possible. For the covers I have used old envelope board. The signatures inside are made from various types of damaged card and paper, which determined the finished size of my journal as the sheets needed to be cut down to remove the damage. When I made up the signatures I found that the finish is much better if you keep the paper types together. You can combine as many different types as you wish as long as each individual signature is made up of the same paper or card. 

Before I made any holes or followed the stitching method on the video, I covered the inside cover with cotton fabric. This was cut about 12 Inch larger on all sides of the cover to allow an overlap and glue to the opposite side. It will be covered at the end by the Faux Leather cover. 

T

he paper for the signatures should be about 1/8 Inch smaller than the cover on 3 sides, The Top, bottom and opening edge. This will ensure that the papers fit nicely inside the cover once the book is bound and finished. Once you get to this stage I would follow the video on YouTube for the stitching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2FRKbQI2kY Make sure when stitching that the fabric faces inwards. I know this sounds simple, But I made the mistake and only realised when I got to the last signature.

Now you are ready to add the Faux Leather cover or cover of your choice. I have not included this technique as there are many excellent tutorials on youtube. Before adding the cover decide whether you want the binding to go under or over the cover. I decided to put it over the top for the end result I wanted.

To work out the binding, I measured the spine and added a line at 1.5cm and 3cm either side and obout the same either end of the book. On the outer edge of the 1.5cm segment I added a 1cm strip of heat n bond (you can use glue) and folded the edge. This gives a nice finish to the binding, I also did this for either end of the spine. Make sure to measure against your book to get the perfect fit. Hope you have fun and enjoy your journal, Now you can just have fun filling the pages.

A Little Bit Sketchy Greeting Card.

I love Sheena's Stamps and for this card I chose from the 'Little Bit Sketchy' Range from Sheena Douglas, the name of the stamp set is 'Believe'

I chose some leaf stamps from Justrite, It's the Shabby Chic Range 'Autumn Leaves'

I create the background using a background stamp, also from Justrite, called Autumn Swirls.

The dies I used for this particular card were from Tonic, The Oval Layering Dies straight and scalloped set.

To start with the background, I took a piece of white card and using a versamark inkpad stamped the Autumn Swirls background, used detail fine white embossing powder and heated. Then distress the edges with Antique Linen, building up the colour.

I chose a selection of leaves from the set and stamped them using black momento ink and coloured using a selection of copic markers. These were then cut out, shaped and put aside.

I used a selection of copics to colour the image of the church from Sheena Douglas, the lovely thing about this stamp is you can easily change the season depending on the colours you use. The atmosphere of the finished piece can also be changed dramatically by using different colouring mediums.

The coloured image was then cut using the oval die and layered onto a slightly larger mat, cut from black pearlesant cardstock from(www.annamariedesigns.co.uk/)

I layered the background on the same black cardstock, glued the topper onto the card and then arranged the leaves around part of the image to look a little like they had fallen from a tree.

I hope you like the finished result.

First Post of 2012

After meeting Joanna Sheen, I was asked to join her design team, to make card samples from some of her wonderful crafty goodies. It’s a huge compliment and a massive honour, something I value even more than winning in the competition. If thats at all possible. I will be putting adding photos of the cards as soon as I can. Here are a few of the cards from the first show, the House Mouse stamps were a joy to play with. The quality and detail of the stamps is amazing as usual.You can also see Joanna showing these and other brilliant samples HERE

National Cardmaker of the Year 2011 ~ Craft it your way!

Once again my life has taken a new direction and has been the main reason for the gap. Since my last post I found out that I won prizes in 2 categories of the National Card Maker of the Year 2011.

I can’t quite describe just how amazing it felt to find out that I had come first in Joanna Sheens Category. But then to discover I had also won a second prize for my entry into the My Craft Studio was amazing. To say I was over the moon was a massive understatement. It was like winning the lottery, not that I have ever won, but I imagine I would feel the same. For me though winning anything in this competition meant so much to me as this was for something I had created from scratch, rather than simply a stroke of luck or being the winner of a prize draw. Even as I’m writing this, I still can’t quite believe that two of my cards had been chosen to win.

There’s nothing like crafting to take your mind off of everything else that’s going on. How wonderful to be rewarded for something that’s so enjoyable. It’s been a huge boost to my confidence, I’m incredibly proud of this achievement. I’ve not been put out to pasture just yet after all.

Along with my monthly magazines, I get so much inspiration from Create & Craft and all of the talented guests. In particular Melanie, Leonie, Stephanie and all at My Craft Studio, Debbie Shore for her reintroduction to sewing. And of course the one and only Joanna Sheen for everything she brings to us crafters, I’m always eagerly waiting for her next release. It’s impossible to put into words just how much of a difference these people have made to my crafting without sounding patronising or cheesy, but I’m sure they will know what I mean.

I’m always learning new techniques, that’s what makes crafting such fun and crafters are always willing to share and help. If I had to choose my favourites, which is really difficult I would have to say Decoupage closely followed by stamping and distressing. I do love my Cricut though as I’ve mentioned before and I’ve just started scrapbooking thanks to Melanie Heaton, she has such a passion and shares such inspiration.

I hope this doesn’t sound too much like the proverbial acceptance speech, as it’s meant most sincerely. When I first decided to enter this competition in July, it was for a bit of fun as well as another way to donate my cards to charity. It was my original intention to enter a card for each category, I thought it would be easily achievable. Health certainly wasn’t on my side and in the end I was able to enter ten of the categories.  I honestly didn’t expect to hear anything at all, I’ve never entered such a big competition before. I suppose deep down I didn’t feel that my cards were good enough to win such a contest. I know it sounds like every other person that wins, but it really is true.

We’re so lucky to have such a large and varied selection of crafting supplies and tools to choose from. Like everyone, I have my favourites and believe it or not, top of my list is My Craft Studio and Joanna Sheen. My very first Purchase was a My Craft Studio Double CD Rom and shortly afterwards, I came across Joanna Sheens ‘Enchanted Christmas’. My first ever cards were from these and since then I have every release. For me being a winner in both of these categories is a dream come true.

I just know I’m going to be walking round with a constant grin on my face, I’m over the moon with excitement. I’ve not even had chance to think about the prizes, but it’s brilliant to have so much more to look forward to and thinking about all the crafting I will get from them. I have a passion for crafting, I love making cards for Friends and Family, that’s when you can really personalise them and know that they are going to be special.