FNSI with a difference

If you've come over from Stitchin' time welcome to my other creative hobby that caters to the closet artist in me, lol.

I've not long received a dragonfly embossing die and I just had to try it out. I felt the card fronts were too bland with just the embossing so I decided to paint the little bugs with Luminarte H2Os but the photo doesn't show the shine on the wings. I'll keep one and the other 2 will be put in with other cards as Christmas gifts.

The card below is one I made a while ago but wasn't happy with it as it needed 'something', so I added the butterfly. Sorry about the dull photos, folks.

Lol, can you tell I was 'bugged' by the last minute addition to my weekend?!

Advent Swap

Now here's some more gifts in the Advent Swap. 

In the background is the Aboriginal print shopping bag with it's little case on the foldout storage box. Shopping pad on left, emery boards on right and the scented sachet leaning on the box.

From me to Trish:
Self threading needles; embroidery floss; bag of buttons; laces and ribbons; lavender bath soap.

Thanks for looking !

FNSI

Here's what I did last night. Any comments welcome as this is my first quilt and true to form I'm 'freelancing' instead of doing it from a pattern!! Lol, I can't help myself. This was originally a fabric book but I just liked the theme for my grandson as he helps his Pop and his Dad a lot.
Caught myself out last night as I thought I had more strips cut for the sashing/borders but when I went on a search for it I discovered that I had used that red for something else and hadn't replaced it yet! Looks like I'll be at the fabric shop on Monday.
I had to trim the blocks again as the pattern isn't quite even but at least I've made a start *smile*. The finished quilt should be about 36" x 46". Is that big enough for a 3 year old boy to wrap himself in or should I add a second border and make it 40 x 50? 

Silver Friday

I like nature and these are silver things I have the pleasure of seeing on a regular basis so I thought I'd share :D.
I know it's Saturday but better late than never!

Photo update

A few snaps of things I've been doing

Hooded baby towel and matching facecloth for my new step-granddaughter.












Sneak Peek of some Christmas gifts I've made.

And a giveaway I've received from Gail, minus the sewing companion as I forgot to take a photo of everything together before UniDD claimed it amd whizzed off south again! Looovvvee buttons and laces/ribbons ...and the bookmark :).

Feathered Friends

These are my treasures today. Whether you like vibrant colour or black and white they're all lovely. Some feathered friends who like to visit us when they're hungry, have been driven off course by storms or just need a holiday from their usual haunts! Top is a cheeky Rainbow Lorikeet then left to right, top to bottom in the second set are a Royal Spoonbill, Australian Magpie, Black Necked Crane (more commonly known by it's indigenous name in Oz - which is Jabiru), Little Cormorant and a group of Straw-necked Ibis (Ibises?). In the bottom pic the only only one who doesn't swim is the Magpie.

Everything's Black and White ...

Well almost.

I've been trying out some new ideas for the cards I'm making for a local market stall in October. I'm going to make some others in different colour combinations with the black and a few Halloween cards might be a good idea as well, along with my usual styles of cards. The base card is pearlised black so the top cards are showing up greyish because of the light reflecting off them.

Nip 'n' Tuck?

Shameless recently had a facelift and though it wasn't exactly a nip 'n' tuck, more like a tuck 'n' stitch or a 'nose job', she definitely has a cuter face and doesn't look quite so sheepish about her sheepish face :).

Sheepish

Lol, I shouldn't set myself times to finish things as something else always happens. Anyway Shameless is finished but I'll have to work on her expression as it doesn't seem quite right. I think the head needs shortening or the face needs lengthening as the nose looks odd. What does everyone think?

Shameless......

the sheep should be stuffed, stitched, 'seeing' and 'smelling' before FNSI tonight as I really want to make her some smaller siblings for Lucky's huggles collection. I called her 'Shameless' as this is my first try at designing a stuffed toy and what was meant to be 'cute' turned out a bit wonky in places and about 2" longer and an inch or so higher than originally intended and a lot wider, both ways. I also discovered 4 legged stuffed toys use lots more stuffing than 2 legged ones :O!!

 
Check back around 7.30pm for more than a sneak peek :D.

Tuesday's Treasures

One of these may seem a funny thing to class as a treasure but if you are a horse person you'd know. Lol, I bred both of these at around the same time, as I fell pregnant with youngest daughter and had a little mare here who was quiet but that I couldn't ride while I was pregnant so I bred my unborn baby her own horse. She was born end of March and he was born end of August in 1999 so they've grown up together. Anyone can ride this horse but he goes best for DD and for me, as I raised him and trained him and she was his playmate. He thinks he's human and the bugger has walked into the house to knick an apple off the bench before and he's also bombproof which is essential in a kid's horse :). My two treasures often go off together to chase cows or train racehorses with Dad and in Summer they like to be in the dam!

Wedding and things

My forum friend Geniene is madly finishing a quilt for a wedding gift for one of her friends and she asked me to make her a card, probably as she's so busy quilting she doesn't have time to find a suitable one :P. I did some searching on the net and found a tri-shutter card at splitcoast stampers and thought it would be perfect. The video I originally viewed showed a simpler card so I followed that idea and as Geniene had sent me some epoxy stickers and some rub ons to decorate it with I had lots to work with! As I don't usually do wedding cards and it normally takes me ages to mentally design something new I was surprised that when I had all the makings scattered over the table some things just stood out as belonging together, so I put them aside, cleared a working space and came up with this..........

Top photo is front of card and bottom photo is opened out. Card also free stands quite well because of the design so it would be good for many special occasions, particularly if you had a photo to go in the centre block.

I'm quite chuffed with this :D!! Pity the poor light didn't show off the colours better as the base card is actually a nice burgundy colour

Tuesday Treasures

This watch belonged to my Great Grandmother, Bertha Matilda, and was given to her by her husband George but I can't recall which important occasion it was a gift for - wedding, birthday or birth of a child. It is rose gold and has had a lot of use as it has little scratches and dents on it as Bertha believed in using things not letting them sit in a drawer waiting for a special occasion to wear them. It doesn't function anymore and I haven't enquired about having it repaired yet but one day, I just may be an eccentric and wear a working wind up watch again as Great Grandma Bertha liked to be different :)!

Not much to show for a month

Ta-dah here's my completed mystery item. The  first photo is the top and second photo is the base. I've been calling it my 'Hat Head starfish' as the materials remind me of that location.

 It's a small wonder pincushion and I don't have a link but it's from the May/June 1997 issue of Quiltmaker magazine. Here are the other things I've done in 4 weeks that I should have posted earlier.

This is a needlecase made using Leanne Beasley's embroidery pattern from the Leanne's House Couch Companion. It is my first big embroidery effort and was done for a designer forum swap. I was pleased with how it turned out but I should have tried something with straighter lines for a first major project!
The quilt label below was quick to do but I had a mental blank and just couldn't think of something suitable to send my partner, Jeanette, so it arrived late. Lol, I did the template from a scrapbooking stamp I have so I guess I'll be mixing the 2 hobbies a bit in the future.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise.

Stitching and faux stitching

I've never stitched anything but buttons on cards and layouts before so to just stitch, or decorate something like it is stitched, is a new direction for me.

As the layout had to have real stitching on it I scrapped my sewing then bordered it with stitching. Seemed logical to me at the time!

This card was made with the thought of sending it to a quilting friend so the challenge sketch became a quilter's table with fat quarters stacked on one side and 'pinked', basted (faux stitching using a gel pen) pieces of fabric across the other with ribbon and 'calico' looking pieces, topped by a flower. The dimensional effect is a bit lost in this photo.

The little pockets inside were my own addition. Lol, I didn't crop that photo very well :p.

Just to top it off I won prizes with each of them on different sites :).

Fabric Scraps box arrival!

I forgot to post earlier that I received my box of fabric scraps from Cyndy yesterday and was quite delighted with it. There's some really 'sheepy' looking fabric there that will make some nice stuffed toys. Lots of dotty pieces, striped lots and some novelty and floral fabrics as well as some that I'm calling 'scrapbook' fabric because the patterns remind me of scrapbooking papers I've seen!

I'll have to take a photo tomorrow after my quilting group and put it here >>

Tuesday Treasures

I finally remembered! This little chair was made for me by my much loved Grandfather about a year before he died. He covered it with bright red vinyl. I was 3 years old when he gave it to me. The frame is curved, welded steel. My step-father recovered it for my eldest daughter when she was 4. He couldn't find a similar red colour to the original so he chose this nice maroon. It has also been used by my youngest daughter. My eldest daughter will inherit it as I know she will look after it and treasure it as it was made with love and repaired with love.

Sunrise, Sunset

I wasn't going to have 'old' layouts on here but I'm a sucker for sunrises and sunsets and I did a recent layout on a sunrise as part of a Winter 'likes' challenge so I thought it wouldn't look right without posting the sunset as well. The sunset photo was taken in Summer 2009 and the sunrise, obviously, in Winter 2010. However, no artist will ever match what nature achieves every day :).

 

Can you guess what this is....?

or at least what it's going to be. Had to do a little 'frogging' last night 'ripit, ripit....' as I mucked up a seam. First time I've done this pattern and had to read the instructions a few times and it obviously didn't sink in. I think I work better with videos as seeing it is sometimes easier than reading about it. Ha, ha, now Geniene can stop nagging me :). Off visiting today and this place was like Pitt Street yesterday there were so many phone calls and visitors.

Challenge Layouts

This is a layout I entered to do with something you are comfortable with in your life at Soul Scrappers. I'll just have to line up the journaling a bit better :P.

3 months of cards

Here's some cards I've made over the last 3 months. There would be more but I've given some to Mum as a present and sent off at least one recently that I forgot to take photos of as the days they were made were too dull to take decent photos. Oops.

Hmm, blogger's going to play silly buggers with me so just keep in mind that the photos are here in backwards order :P.  I've been trying a few new methods so left above is framing and 3D embellishments and right above is another sort of framing and the heart is stuffed with lavender so it's a different type of 3D. The heart was a failed caring heart block so I recycled it by cutting it out (leaving a 1/4" border around it), slitting the back, stuffing it, closing the slit with running stitch and then after I'd cut the heart hole in the card front I glued the heart, by the border, to the back of the heart hole (inside the card) cut in the card front and affixed another piece of cardstock over the back of this with double sided tape to cover it up and make it look tidy. Oops, the strip of lace is affixed with double sided tape to the inside front edge of the card before you put the backing cardstock over the heart. It's a bit difficult to see but the lace is light blue.

I made another of these for my Mum for Mother's Day with a different title and she loved it :).

These were an experiment in multiple stamping with one stamp design and various colours. Both titles are stamped and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. There is a 3D gel sticker on Celebrate card and a layered paper flower with rhinestone flower as centre on Happy Day card.

An earlier cutting, layering and 3D session produced these. Lol, one of them just went off to Geniene without a photo being taken and with a small addition on it for Renny's amusement...because she likes them. I'll have to see if I can obtain a photo as it's my first of that type of card and I like to keep the photos in my computer album to refer to later. I also want to try that one with fabric embellies and ribbon as I think it would look terrific.



Layout photos will be here early next week so stay tuned ;).

Monochromatic

Here is the monochromatic layout I did for a challenge. It had to be done on flowers, which could be any colours, but the background, embellishments etc had to be tones of the same colour. I already had photos of the water lilies from summer so I decided to use those and I chose the lilac as I already had a pad of amethyst (or lilac) papers I'd collected somewhere that I hadn't found a use for yet. Glad I live on a farm as there's always something to inspire me to sew or scrap :).

More Potholders

Finally remembered to photograph the one I gave Mum...she hasn't used it yet!! She said it's too good to use, now where have I heard that before :P? If Leanne hadn't specified pumpkins this would have been the replacement.

This is a crazy quilting one which is meant to depict the area I live in. Well I know it is and that's all that matters :). There's a few fabrics in this that Juliet sent me. Thanks Juliet! I'm acquiring the ability to machine embroider neatly. Both potholders are 8" square.

The last one is one I made using the tube method but I halved the sizing as I thought I could always make it bigger for my needs but it would have been difficult to downsize it. This is 7" square to keep the dimensions correct.

Stitch 'n' Scrap

Eek, I'm a slack blogger as it's been 4 weeks exactly since my last post! I still haven't taken photos of the potholders but with school hols, sickness and absolutely awful lighting because of inclement weather I didn't get around to it. Have to add it to my projects for today along with some sewing projects that need doing.
After fruitless efforts to start a scrapping blog I've decided to just use this one for both sewing and scrapping. There's also the personal and internet times that cause difficulty with blog keeping so I think less is best! Anyway as I occasionally use stitching on my papercrafts it still fits in with the blogname :P.
In keeping with it's new purpose I've posted a pic of the latest layout I've created. The main title are the initials of the school and the pic is of my eldest daughter, layout is done in school colours. Method - layered papers, chipboard flower, saying and title, button, foam mounting tape under sub title. Sorry about quality but it was taken under indoor lighting. TFL :).

Potholders.....finally :)

Here are the potholders that Monika and I made for the potholder swap. Monika made me this one, isn't it gorgeous!

and I made Leanne this one

I made my mum one for her birthday but forgot to take a photo. That will have to be for another post as I seem to be acquiring a few family orders for these so will group them together.
Have a nice weekend everyone :).

Tuffett Swap

As I'm having difficulties posting photos on a forum I'm in I thought I'd best make an effort to keep this current, even though blogging and I don't compliment each other :P. At least then I can link members to here. Also this is my first photo post and I should have posted the potholder swap before it as now they are out of order!! Oh well, I still need to take a photo of the potholder I received so you'll just have to be in suspense :)!  It is worth waiting to see though.
The floral tuffett is the one I sent to Mary and the tuffett with the cute little hexagons on it is the one Mary made me.

Little Miss Muffett was here before this multiple legged party crasher arrived :D. If you want some of these, or other cute little charms for craft at great prices, go to www.my2angels.net . Yes, I still have to figure out how to post links and this one should be on a scrapping blog I haven't started....yet :P.

Aren't these little hexagons great! I want to try making these sometime in the future. A bit bigger though as this tuffett is 4" x 4". Seems a shame to stick pins and needles in it!