A little fun crochet

I have been creating some tiny finger puppets to pop in to some Operation Christmas Child boxes.  If you don't know about Operation Christmas Child, I urge you to follow the link and have a little look-see at what it's all about.

I love making something when the making is for the pure enjoyment of making it, and these  little fellows fell right in to that category.  Just a spur of the moment decision to make something little and bright and fun.

You can find a link to the pattern on Ravelry here, or the free pattern itself on Lion Brand's website here.  It is written using yarn and is designed as an egg cosy, but I completed mine using Anchor Pearl Cotton #8, which resulted in a much smaller bunny which just fits over the finger tip for a mini puppet.

Thanks for visiting

Fiona
x

Sing it out loud - with Stampotique Designers Challenge

Stampotique Designers Challenge #90 is challenging us to be inspired by a song.  It can be a song title, or some words out of a song - that sort of thing.

I was inspired by a remake of a Bob Dylan song (which I didn't know was a Bob Dylan song until I was just typing up this post!) called "If not for you".  Now, I've made a gaffe, because I didn't have the words to the song (not realising it was a Bob Dylan song) and have used the word 'hold' instead of 'have' (now that I can google search the words because now I know who wrote it...  so typical of how we often sing along to songs and make up our own words as we go :)

So here is my art journal page....

With the quote that reads "if not for you, winter would hold no spring"

hence my spring inspired page.

Oh, and I just realised that I'm obviously having trouble with my watermark.  I'm sure I changed it to 2013 - obviously I either didn't, or didn't save my changes properly.  On another note - I did locate the missing camera from our house move at the end of last year...

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Fiona
x

Stamps Used:

Stampotique: Alphabitties (by Jill Penney & Daniel Torrente)
Unity: Advent (Donna Downey); Art & Possibility (Donna Downey)
Tim Holtz: Stuff to Say; Mixed Media
Dylusions: How Does Your Garden Grow

Products Used:

Derwent Inktense Pencils
Golden Fluid Acrylics
Golden gel medium
Golden gesso
Golden light molding paste
Archival Inks
Faber castell big brush pens
sequin waste
scrap cardstock
Faber castell pitt pen (black)
Copic multiliner (black)
white Signo pen

Play Date Cafe PDCC170

Some beautiful colours for our inspiration over at The Play Date Cafe this week.  Here is the inspiration picture:

Again, the lack of a real camera is affecting the photography of my projects, but now that this card is posted away I cannot re-photograph.

I think the cotton thread has photographed worse in this picture, it is definitely a dark version of the 'stone' colour in the inspiration picture.

I have kept my design very simple (CAS?) this week - using one stamp from Unity inked in two different colours, mounting it on a piece of dark blue cardstock and framing it with a border of embroidered colonial knots.

I little more machine stitching to finish the edge without adding any more clutter.  Thanks for popping by :)

Fiona
x

Products Used:
Archival Ink - Pale Ochre, Cobalt
Anchor #8 Pearl Cotton
Unity (Ippity) - Life's Little Moments stamp set
Bo Bunny Paper - Mellow Yellow Dot

Stampotique Designers Challenge #88 - Text me :)

First of all I would like to apologise for my photos.  I know many crafty sites don't like funny edited photos or photos taken with a phone, but unfortunately when we moved just before Christmas, the camera has decided to go into hiding.  No matter where I look, I cannot find it.  I know it is here, but it is the one thing that has eluded me from the move.

Stampotique Designers Challenge is hosting a "use some text" challenge this week.  I happened to have started work on a large project, and was incorporating text into the cover, so this is my entry for this week.

One of my niece's was married in December, and as part of the wedding, guests were asked to note down some well wishes, some advice, some encouragement, anything to express their love for the bride and groom.  I am collating these into an A4 album for them, along with some fun photo booth photos taken by my son (it was an early 1900s themed wedding).

I have kept the palette very simple, using Kraft cardstock for the base, white, pumice stone and black, with hints of blue (the wedding accent colour).  You can see as part of the design of the cover I have typed up portions of the wedding vows on the right hand side, and also stamped out a few lines of the vows in pumice stone for depth and interest.

Thanks for visiting :)

Fiona
x

Products Used:

Kaisercraft Pearls
Distress Stain - Picket Fence
Distress Ink - Stormy Sky, Pumice Stone
Colorbox Pigment Ink - Frost White
RW Lasercuts embellishments
Charcoal Pencil
Copic multiliner 0.3mm
Typewriter

Stamps Used:

Paperartsy - Hotpicks - HP 1005, 1006, 1007
Paperartsy - Ink & the Dog - Words 2
Unity - Chicken Wire (by Joslyn Nielson)
Unity - Bold Butterfly (by Donna Dowey)
Tim Holtz - School Desk

Stampotique Designers Challenge # 86 - a little bit of colour

Stampotiques challenge this week is a colour challenge - red, white and pink.  I've kept my offering simple, pretty much due to time constraints as it is for valentines day tomorrow.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fiona
xx

Products Used:

Stampotique stamps: Tree, Daniel's Hearts, Alphabitties 
Derwent coloursoft pencils
DMC embroidery thread
Charcoal pencil
Black archival ink
Kaisercraft white pearl

And here is the new year....

Well hello to all my friends in cyberworld...

It has been many months since I have been on blogger.  We have been very very busy at the end of 2012, with selling our old house, and moving into a new house build right at Christmas.

I have tried on a couple of occasions to sit down and craft, and have struggled with finding time between sorting things out.

However, with birthdays coming up, the time has come to force myself to stop and take a little bit of creative time.  I am taking part in the Play Date Cafe #167 this week and here is there inspirational colour story:

My picture that I took of my card is a little darker than it was in real life.  I tried to combine something easy with some patterned paper, as well as a little distressing and and a little stamping.

Here's a close up of my dimensional dragonfly and a little bit of shadow effect on my text.

If you have taken the time to re-visit my blog after so many months away - thank you!

Fiona

xx

Play Date Cafe 155

Well I'm only just making this challenge in time.  It's Play Date Cafe PDC155 with this beautiful inspiration picture...  I must admit though, my mint colour didn't represent well in the photographs...

Life is so hectic at the moment, I thought I better take a little time out to make a card for an upcoming wedding - no guessing that the bride and grooms initials are R and N.  They are having an early 1900s themed wedding, so I thought it would be nice to go a little vintage, with a little something modern thrown in to celebrate their youth also.

Here is a closeup -

Thanks for stopping by today, hope you're all having a good one!

Fiona
x

Products Used:

Papers - Kaisercraft Seaside Collection 'Rock Pools' (reverse side); Kaisercraft Cafe Couture 'Cappuccino'; MME Bella Bella 'Bellezo'
Distress Inks - Iced Spruce, Walnut Stain
Basic Grey 'Archaic' alphabet stickers
Tim Holtz gold brads
Ribbons/trims
sewing machine & thread

Happy 3rd Anniversary Play Date Cafe!

Hello my faithful blog followers :)

I'm popping in to share a card with you today as an Alumni Guest, made in honour of the Play Date Cafe Colour Challenge's 3rd Anniversary!  Don't forget, the colours are meant for your inspiration as you see and interpret them, and all entries are welcome - papercraft, mixed media, yarn craft, and the list goes on.

From October 18 to 22 (USA dates), you can enjoy inspiration from other returning design team members, as well as their current team.  There are prizes from a variety of sponsors, and additional giveaways for becoming a follower of the challenge and for displaying their brand new badges!

Here is the inspirational photo for the colours this week if you haven't already seen them....

A bit of a challenge do you think?  Pop on over to the Play Date Cafe blog for more inspiration, check out the prizes on offer, and to get your entry in!  I hope you will join me in congratulating The Play Date Cafe and leaving a little love over on their blog - it is sure to be an exciting celebration!

Here is the birthday card I made using these colours.

I used Derwent Inktense Pencils for this project - here are the colours I used.

For those of you who haven't seen them in action, this is what they look like when you colour in with them (on white photocopy paper, and kraft cardstock).

And here is what they look like when you paint them with water - beautiful inky goodness.

Here is a closeup of how they turned out on my project.  I actually began this on kraft cardstock, and scraped gesso over it to give me a muted white background.  I added a little text stamping in chipped sapphire distress ink to break up the background.

For the inside of the card, I stamped my image and coloured them as for the front, then stamped on scraps of cardstock which I adhered (just in the centres) over the top for a more dimensional flower inside.

Thanks go to my ex-PDCC DT buddy Savannah O'Gwynn for offering some of her old stamps for sale (you can check it out here - she still has heaps on offer) - I used stamps from 3 different Unity sets to complete this project, all of which I recently purchased from Savannah.

Thanks for stopping by and reading through my waffle :)  Have a great day everyone.

Fiona
x

Products Used:

Gesso
Distress Ink - Chipped Sapphire
Derwent Inktense Pencils
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils

Stamps Used:

Unity - Confession (I luv unity)
Unity - January 2011 KOTM - To the Moon and Back
Ippity by Unity - Life's Little Moments

October calendar

And I'm back with October's calendar.  We don't do halloween, but I love halloween colours, so this month my calendar page is dedicated to halloween colours, although I couldn't bring myself to add purple, because the orange worked so well by itself I didn't want to spoil it!

This began with a kind of paint wash background.  I accented the darker areas with a little stamping and stencilling, before adding some orange paint/ink (I used a mixture) and some circles (gesso and paint and ink mix for the grey ones).

The daily squares were edged with Derwent Inktense pencils, then the colour dragged across each one.  A little more stamping with gesso and adding some shadow finished it off.

 

I am really happy with how striking and simple this page was.  This is for joining in with Kate Crane's monthly art journal challenge.

Fiona
x

Products Used:
Gesso
Derwent Coloursoft pencils
Derwent Inktense pencils
Archival Ink - black
Distress Ink - pumice stone; black soot
Acrylic Paint
Dylusions Ink Sprays - black marble, squeezed orange
The Crafters Workshop stencil - mini chevron

Stamps Used:
Darkroom Door - alphabet medley
Kaisercraft - bubble wrap
miscellaneous from Laughing Moon

Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC65

Hi there :)

I am here again for the current challenge at Stampotique Designers Challenge - it's a colour challenge - mustard, orange and navy.  The mustard was always going to be the tricky bit.

I have used distress inks to create the background.

A bit of layering.

A bit of stitching and adding elements.

And an inside to match the front.


Thanks for stopping by......

Fiona
x

Products Used:

gesso
Distress Inks - scattered straw, spiced marmalade, chipped sapphire, black soot
black archival ink
Tim Holtz 'typeset' alpha die
black pitt pen

Stamps Used:

Tim Holtz - the journey
Paper Artsy - HP 1004 & Pierrot 4
Paperbag Studios - Hole Punched & Journal Impressions
Queens Dresser Drawers - Peerless Automobile
Stampin Up - Polka dots and paisley