Linen & Lace

Some more stitchery from me and variations on a theme, as I have made similar versions before. Simple soft quilted purses made from linen.

Featuring my favourite vintage lady, Lily Elsie. The images are from the graphics fairy and Imagenes vintage gratis and were used in GIMP to make the digital image, then printed on cotton. I have been using gimp more recently as I want to incorporate more digital images in my sewing.

I'll be back at the end of the week with a new Fashionable Stamping Challenge and my first post for the Stampsmith.

Take care and have a lovely day. It's a very soggy one here as it has been raining continuously for the past three days. Oh the joys of an English summer.

Happy Crafting xx

All zipped Up

I never travel light and that includes jewellery, and I always like to take a few special pieces with me when we go on holiday. I had a rather lurid plastic wallet as my jewellery storage for holidays, so I decided to make a quilted one using the left over patchwork from the bag I blogged a while ago. The photographs for some reason seem to have difficulty with the colours. The second photo is the truer colour match.

It has six different pockets to house my jewellery, so plenty of room for my favourite bits and bobs.   Two of which are below. I'm a silver girl and have never really liked gold! The only gold I own are my rings, but I do have quite a few. The silver and amethyst necklace is the first necklace my husband bought me when I was eighteen from The Great Frog in Carnaby Street London and is still my favourite piece. It's very scary to think how long ago that was!!! He recently made me a set of 5 single bangles which I wear most days and are another favourite.

Hope you are all having a good week, I've been doing quite a bit of sewing so the next few projects will be of the fabric kind I'm afraid.

Thank you for all your lovely comments and Have a great crafty day. xx

Alter it ~ Fashionable Stamping Challenges

A very happy and so far sunny Sunday to you all, it's time again for the latest FSC challenge which is Alter it, chosen by the lovely Joanna. It would be great if you could pop over to the FSC blog and see the gorgeous projects made by the other Stampettes.  Our generous sponsor is Leo from Flonzcraft and the winner of the random draw gets to spend $20 dollars in his stamping store. We had an overwhelming response to our last challenge, it will certainly be a challenge choosing our top three.

For my design project I chose to alter a little wooden box that has been in my stash for a while. It got the shabby french treatment, using the gorgeous stampendous stamp as the central image, and lots of distress inks and inktense pencils. Then a touch of diluted gesso to shabby it up a bit. I added a small brass draw pull to finish.

Hoping you all have a lovely Sunday & Happy Crafting xx

My Other Passion

No not dancing as I have two left feet and as a child I was left traumatised by weekly ballroom dancing classes, which I hated as I was appallingly awful at following the steps and I thankfully gave up after a term. I still remember having to dance to 'Billy don't be a hero' and the Smurf song LOL! Showing my age now!!

Painting, mainly oils and soft pastels, this one is painted in oils, oils are a such a forgiving medium as they take a while to dry which means you can rectify all your mistakes, I think I prefer oils to pastels as the dust from the pastels is so messy and countless times I have accidently squashed the pastel sticks in my carpet. People have always been my favourite subject, I find landscapes difficult so nearly all my work is figurative. I've never dated my paintings so I can't remember when I painted this but it was a few years ago LOL, doesn't time fly when your a crafter!

Excuse the marks on the paintings, they are reflections from the glass when I photographed them.

Saying that I have painted a few animals, this timber wolf was painted in soft pastels and was one of the first pieces I sold, not that I've sold many! But animal fur is rather tedious to paint so I rarely paint animals now as find the older I get the less patience I have.

Anyhow I still have a few more paintings to bore you with at another stage.

Take care and happy Crafting & I'll be back on Sunday with the latest challenge from FSC xx

Dreaming of Summer

Imagining the warm sunny days of summer ......... yeah right!! Freezing and wet, and I can't believe it's been snowing today in some parts of the country! The only thing for it is some comfort crafting in the warm! A little nautical plaque using one of the latest Crafty Individual stamps CI - 384 and one of their masks. I painted some corrugated card with emulsion paint and added some small shells from our holiday last year.

I've just spotted that Tim Holtz is bringing out a fabric range, hope we get it over in the UK as I can think of loads of things to make with it. Of course I don't need any more fabric, but that won't stop me. I've only been sewing for about a 18 months and I already have built up a rather large fabric hoard!

Have a great day & Happy Crafting xx

A Tragic Life

I'm trying to be a better blogger, I seem to be forever crafting, but neglectful of blogging the end result. Sewing as you might know is my latest passion, but I do hop between crafts, mainly altered art, and to a lesser extent painting which I do feel the need to start again, but like most of my crafting, I am very slow and some of my painting and portraits take ages and then I can lose interest and they remain unfinished. I will blog some of my past paintings soon, as at the moment I'm only blogging about once a week.

Back to the project in hand. I love the alluring images of Lily Elsie the rather tragic Edwardian Actress, there is something so magical about her and I can't wait till I can get my hands on the new Oxford Impression stamps that feature her. I enjoy crazy patchwork as you never know what the finished result will look like and you can use scrap pieces of fabric. This is another of the quilted notebooks that has space for an A5 notebook, pen that fits down the spine and numerous little pockets for your bits and bobs

Have a great Sunday and I hope you manage to squeeze in a spot of crafting. XX

Tic Tac Toe ~ The Stampsmith Challenge

The lovely Alison (AKA Butterfly) has chosen the current Stampsmith Challenge theme which is Tic Tac Toe. After nor managing to join the last challenge I thought I would get in early this month with my project. I was also delighted to be asked to be a guest designer for the Stampsmith for the the next few months which I'm so looking forward to as they are one of my favourite stamp ranges, just love all the vintage style photo stamps! 

I chose to make a small clasp purse from wool felt for my God daughter Hannah's birthday, and I used the beautiful Rosie stamp on TAP with coffee archival ink. The flower is also wool felt and cut using a sizzix die and then machine and hand embellished, with a metal button at the centre. I chose the diagonal line of pink, stitches and metal. 

Hoping that the sun is going to come out and play like last weekend as it was glorious wasn't.

Thank you for all your lovely comments I so enjoy reading them all. 

Take care and Happy Crafting xxx

Anything Goes at FSC

Anything Goes this fortnight at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, the last two weeks have really whizzed by and finally some lovely much needed sun!

I always love the anything goes challenges as you can really have fun. The only rules are, we do need to see stamping on your project and please no digis, other than that you can really let your imagination run wild. Our generous sponsor Leo at Flonzcrafts is offering the lucky winner of the random draw $20 to spend in his store. Please do pop over to FSC HQ to see all the amazing projects  designed by my fellow stampettes.

I chose to make a small arched plaque from plywood, I have a little gypsy blood in my veins as my Great Grandfather was a gypsy, little was known about him as my Nan was fostered out at a very early age and sadly had little contact with her parents.

I used lace and lashings of gesso to create the background, and washes of inktense pencils to add depth and shadows. The stamp is Gypsy journey by Curious By design who are sadly no longer trading. The arch and hinge die are both Tim holtz.

I am entering this for

Anything Goes ~ Our creative Corner

Have a fabulous and sunny bank holiday weekend and Happy Crafting xx