Little Bag Workshop

This little bag is the fruits of my labours at at workshop I attended at Stitch It in Llandudno on Saturday with Elizabeth, a fellow blogger and fellow design team member on Dragon's Dream TIO Challenge, and Jean. We had a fantastic time. I had the devils own job deciding which fabrics to use but in the end, with Jean's help, I settled on the fabrics you can see in my little bag, and I thank  Jean for her help. I am more than happy with the choice.

Now I have had my sewing machine since Christmas 2004 when OH bought it as my main Christmas present. However, after reading the instructions and then having a little play I put it away in disgust as I couldn't get on with the automatic needle threader. I have wanted to get going with a bit of sewing and had recently bought my fabrics planning to start a bit of patchwork so this workshop was the perfect opportunity to get me kick started with my "new" machine. Now, I did have a little plactice but, just to be sure, I took the instruction book with me (I was the only attendee needing instructions for their machine - not instilling much confidence in the instructor). Just as well I had the book as I had to change bobbin thread almost immediately. Yikes - what a start!

However, once I had got over my sheer terror of using the machine, I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and will be attending more in the future. No major mishaps during the day unlike poor Elizabeth who stitched her base to the wrong end of the bag! Mind you, wiith Jean's help it was soon unpicked and stitched to the base. She ended up with a lovely creation in blue. Now if you had asked me what colours she would chose I could safely have opted for blue! Jean made a very sophisticated black and white bag with little red hearts, using a lovely contrast in fabrics.

The day just flew by and was a complete change to paper crafts. My bag is still destined to have some embellishments added, such as beads at the ends of the ribbons (although I may change my drawstring to cord) and something in the centre of each heart, though I haven't decided what yet. Anyway, it is complete and I am itching to make another couple at least.

Bye for now. Thanks for dropping by. And do feel free to leave a comment. I always love reading them.

Wanda xx

Dragon's Dream TIO challenge #80 - Fishes

Dragons Dream TIO challenge #80 - "Fishes"

My friend, and fellow design team member on the TIO challenge, Janet has just gone home today after spending just over a week here with me in North Wales. We had a craft-packed time, with a trip to HSNW at Port Sunlight a week last Saturday, then a Sheena Douglass Paint Fusion workshop at Port Sunlight last Saturday. In between we managed to pack in a few trips into Llandudno to the craft shops and a sugar craft shop and a trip to Abakhan for wools to indulge our new found passion for needle felting. Added to this was a little actual crafting and a meal or three out. I know I had a fabulous time and I hope she did too.

Now, however, I need to get back to the matter in hand - this weeks challenge over on Dragon's Dream TIO challenge, which is "Fishes". This weeks theme has been set my Janet.

I cut my tag out using the TH large tag die. My background is brayered using the waterfall big and juicy inkpad after the brayer had been inked then run over crumpled paper to give the illusion of ripples in the water. My stamps are from a set from Graphicus. I have stamped the fish and seaweed directly onto the tag, then stamped them again onto a seperate cheet of card. These have been coloured using promarkers, then cut out and mounted over the same images stamped on the tag.

I have added some suitably coloured strands of wool from my stash and a couple of fishy charms, also from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by, and, if you haven't already done so, why not take a look on the TIO challenge blog at all the other fabulous design team samples for a bit of inspiration, then put in an entry yourself. We would all love to see what you can come up with.

As always, your comments are gratefully received.

Bye for now.

Wanda xxx

All the Write Postage

TIO #79 - All the Write Postage

Not had much time for posting these past few days. The time has just flown by. My good friend, and fellow design team member, Janet, has come to stay for just over a week. We went to HSNW at Port Sunlight for the day on Saturday. It is always a fabulous show. My feet (and back) were exhausted by the end of the day though! A lovely meal out on Sunday, a day at Abakhan today (with lunch), then a bit of crafting. We plan a day in Llandudno, another meal out on Wednesday evening, and on Saturday we will be fusioneering with Sheena at Port Sunlight.

Anyway, enough chat. On to my tag for this weeks challenge. Zoe is hosting this week so please do pop over to the TIO challenge blog and check out the fabulous offerings by my fellow design team members.

It was great fun going through my stamp collection to find suitable stamps for this challenge. Remember ink bottles, and quill pens? No, me neither! I do, however, remember going into the Post Office and watching mail etc. being stamped by the assistant, and twice daily deliveries and collections several times a day. I still have my stamp collection from back then - somewhere! Everything in the post office seemed to be made of wood then, didn't it?

Now on to my interpretation of the theme. My stamps are by Hampton Art - Dragonfly Collage, Paper Artsy, Dimension Fourth - post mark, and Joanna Sheen grab bag - ink bottle and quill. Some of my background stamping is secondary stamping. The Air Mail and Postcard have been stamped on seperate card, cut out and mounted using 3D glue for a bit of dimension. The twine, from my stash was much paler but I smooshed it through the same DI on my messy mat and sprayed with the water mister to age it.

Thanks for stopping by. Your comments are always greatly appreciated.

Wanda xxx

TIO #78 - Texturise It!

Dragon's Dream TIO challenge #78

For my first tag I have painted a crackle effect using Eco paints in pure copper and clamshell over, with a coat of pva glue between layers. I then stamped the flora using creative expressions meadow flora and british wild flowers theme plates. In the background, over the crackle effect, I have stamped a script in one or two places using adirondack butterscotch dye ink although this is very hard to see in a picture. Next I added some copper mica powder to texture paste and used the mini cosmic swirl mask by crafters workshop to achieve the swirls down the left hand side of the tag. The piece of torn paper started life as yellow, to which I added scattered straw DI, over stamped with the script stamp, then put it through a paper rippler.

The bird is a chipboard shape I purchased recently from I know not where. I coloured it with vintage photo DI, then golden green sparkle cosmic shimmer EP. It wasn't glittery enough for my liking, so I went over it with frosted lace stickles.

The rosette is made from a TH die (the large one unfortunately as I am still waiting for the smaller one to be delivered). It is made from a scrap of green scrapbook paper over stamped with that script stamp. Finally the gem was added from my stash as were the strands.

Now on to my second tag:

Firstly, I inked the tag with spun sugar and broken china DI. This was overstamped with that script stamp (stamp camp) in a couple of areas using broken china DI. Then in a couple of other areas I inked through sequin waste using the same ink pad. I then inked up a foliage background stamp with broken china and stamped this onto the negative side of a crackle embossing folder then ran my tag through the cuttlebug. I inked the raised pattern with vintage photo DI and brushed copper mica powder over the wet ink on the raised pattern.

The bird was cut from grunge paper, using another TH die. I applied texture paste to which I had added pitch black DI, which made it a sort of grey colour. I allowed it to "go off" a little then I inked a flourish stamp with pitch black DI and pressed that gently into the paste on the bird. The feather, strands and cord with beads at the ends were added from my stash.

As I am sure you will appreciate, I had a lot of messy fun creating these two tags!

The flourish was cut from metal using a TH die. This was then coloured with alcohol inks in stream, pitch black, caramel and slate. Grunge paper was used to cut the scrollwork border using another TH die. This was coloured with broken china DI, then distress crackle in clear was added over the top. I then applied pitch black DI to age it a bit and, hopefully, make it look a bit more like aged metal.

Well, that's it for now. Do pop over to the TIO challenge blog and check out all the other design team entries, then HAVE A GO! You can have so much fun with texture. Imagine the possibilities.

Bye for now and, thanks for dropping by. I love reading all your comments.

Wanda xxx

White on White

Less Is More challenge #14 - White on White



This is the first time I have entered this challenge although I have been looking in for quite a long time.

My card is A5 white linen card. On the bottom I have added a panel of the same card that has been put through a swiss dots embossing folder. Then I have scored two lines above that. The flower, foliage and butterflies are all cut from vellum using various dies. I have edged the wings of the butterflies in irridescent ep and the petals of the flower with ice lace stickles. No sentiment as yet as I am not sure how the card will be used. That's it, short and sweet.

Thanks for dropping by.
Wanda xxx

Lady in Red

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 151 - Lady in Red

The challenge over on Rainbow Lady's challenge blog this week is another song title "The Lady in Red". Love that song!

I am trying very hard to post on my blog more frequently, not necessarily every day, but more often than I did. I just don't know where my days go, but before I know it, it is the evening again! I actually made this card this morning (see, I started out well enough today, but don't know what happened to the afternoon, I came back for lunch then got engrossed in a bit of needle felting and knitting, as you do).

Anyway, I digress. My card uses a stamp from a plate by Creative Expressions.  I stamped onto white card, coloured the flesh and hair with copics, then paper-pieced the dress, hat and shoes using paper from a christmas pack I bought years ago (I forgot to check who it was by). The image was cut out using a nestie, then a faux nestie, using the same size die for the black card backing the image. I have edged the image with black soot DI. This is mounted using 3D foam onto my backing, which uses a paper from my precious Graphicus guild paper pack (I decided I had been stroking it quite long enough and it was high time I started using it).

The border uses a MS ribbon punch, threaded with red gross grain polka dot ribbon. The same ribbon has been used for the bow.

It's just a pity I didn't make it back into my craft room this afternoon as I had intended. Never mind, tomorrow is another day!

Thanks for stopping by. As always I love to read your comments. And I promise not to accidentally delete yours this time Helen!

Wanda xxx

Travels in Europe

Rainbow Lady's Challenge 150 - Take a Town, City or Country Break

The challenge this week over on Rainbow Lady's Challenge blog is to Take a Town, City or Country Break. I love mini city breaks, so thought I would opt for this set of stamps from Crafty Individuals. I have tinted my little squares with blue stream DI, then gone around the edges with vintage photo DI. I have over stamped the images with sepia archival ink. My backing paper is from Joanna Sheen, the Da Vinci pad - I just love this pad of papers. Finally, I have tinted the edges of my 6" square base card with blue stream DI. My bp and each of the squares and the city names across the bottom are all mounted onto bronze cardstock, a very useful purchase from a craft shop in Llandudno.

I'm afraid one of the squares looks a bit squiffy. The battery on my camera had died so I had to scan the card and the silicone wasn't quite dry!

As my back is still playing up I didn't want to spend too much time bending over my craft desk, so out of necessity this is a quick card but nonetheless I rather like it. Hope you do too.

Thanks for dropping by. I love to read your comments.

Wanda xxx

T

TIO #77 - Colour my World Purple

TIO #77 "Colour My World Purple"

Well here we are again. Where do the weeks go? They just seem to fly by. Is that a sign of age? No, don't answer that!

The theme this week over at Dragon's TIO Challenge is "Colour my World Purple". The challenge is to use purple with maybe one additional colour. My design team buddy, Helen, is hosting the challenge this week. Her work is fabulous.

I decided to stick mainly to shades of purple.

I wanted to use this particular stamp plate as it is one I have had for quite a while and it hasn't seen the light of day yet. I thought it would work quite well with purple, so off I went for a session for inky, messy fun - my favourite type of crafting.

I smooshed three different shades of purple adirondack dye ink onto my craft sheet, spritzed it with a pearl mica spray, then smooshed my tag around in it until I had the background I wanted. I then gently swiped a purple inkpad across the tag diagonally to give the effect of rain. I then lightly stippled a pink dye adirondack ink pad in a couple of places just to give a bit of relief.Then I started stamping some of the small stamps from the photographic plate from Creative Expressions, mostly second stamping. I like the rain drops on the plate so that was next, slightly darker shade of purple dye ink. Then I added the splodge from the Art plate by Creative Expressions in one or two places.

Next was the two sentiments in my darkest shade of purple. Finally, I stamped the man with the umbrella set against the rain using stazon imperial purple quickly followed with clear embossing powder, just to make him stand out from the background.

Finally, I grunged the edges, swiped the imperial purple stazon around the edges, then dipped into clear EP and heated. Lastly, I added the strands from my stash. They were slightly multi-coloured so I smooshed them in the inks on the craft mat so they would tie in.

Such good fun.

If you use the link above it will take you to the TIO challenge blog and you can check out the inspiration from my fellow design team buddies, then have a go! Go on, you know you want to.

Thanks for dropping by. Your comments are greatly appreciated.
Bye for now,
Wanda xxx