Spring into a new week

Spring has finally sprung here in not so sunny Scotland.  Have been busy on a few things this week; I’m quite enjoying working on a few things at the same time – means I can do whatever I’m in the mood for.  All are works in progress with the exception of the card.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, so I made this card for my gorgeous Mum.

I kept it simple, mainly because my family tend to like simple cards.  Papers are Invest, Season and  Steel from BasicGrey’s Infuse range.  Dies are Sizzix Designer Bookplates and Flower with Vine & Leaves.  Word is stamped on with clear letter stamps.  Edges inked with a Cat’s Eye Chalk Ink Pad in soft olive.

I’ve also been working on this bracelet to compliment the Vineyard necklace I have from Laura McCabe’s book, Creating Crystal Jewelery with Swaovski.

I’ve used Swarovski Crystallized Elements rivolis in  Siam, Swarovski pearls in almond, with Miyuki delicas and seed beads in gold, bronze and red.

Next up is an attempt at chain mail.

This is from Chained by Rebeca Mojica.  I used aluminium jump rings.  Would love to try this in silver, gold or some other nice metal, but aluminium’s cheap and I am very inexperienced when it comes to chain mail.  The only thing I’ve made before was a Byzantine bracelet.

Finally I have a polymer clay pod pendant.  I’m a bit disappointed in this one – it’s fatter than I intended and I’m not sure the surface effect has worked.  Also you can’t really see the under colour through the holes.  It’s the first time I’ve done a hollow bead though, so hopefully it wall all be part of the learning process.

I will be back with more soon.

Thanks for looking.

Lisa xoxo

It’s been a long time…

…since I made a card, and now 2 similar ones come along at once!

It’s Stu’s Dad’s birthday tomorrow and we bought him a ticket to see Ringo Starr in Glasgow (we also got his Mum one as a -very- early birthday present), so I thought it would be nice to make a card each for the tix.  Then I thought it would be nice to make the same card in a male/female version.

Here are the results:

I cut the pockets and arrows using Sizzix dies I bought recently.  The little stars (or should that be Starrs) are also made using a Sizzix washers die and the font is Sizzlits Nouveaux.  The papers are by Making Memories (Avenue Collection and Boho Chic in Olivia), although I’ve had them for so long they probably don’t make them any more!   I used Cats Eye chalk inks to ink the edges.

To keep the surprise factor, I’ve folded the tickets right side in and slotted them into the pockets.  Off to make some banana bread in lieu of a birthday cake shortly.

The dress I was so desperate for arrived on Friday and to be honest I’m really not sure about it.  I thought the skirt would be more A-line but it’s actually quite straight – will make my mind up at the weekend, but in all likelihood I’ll return it, as can’t really justify the money spent on it if I don’t wear it a lot.

I’ve actually already spent some of the returns money on these little beauties

They’re Irregular Choice and this specific pattern is exclusive to Schuh.

No beading the last couple of weeks, but planning on having my beading bum back on in the next couple of days.

Thanks for looking.

Lisa xoxo

Cute as a Bag

How cute is this little fellow?  I made him in my Cuttlebug using the Sizzix Bigz XL die I posted about a few days ago.  I had heard the Sizzix extended plates don’t fit in the Cuttlebug but that you could use 4 Cuttlebug plates and still get a pretty good result, so that’s what I opted for.  In fact, I wouldn’t have needed the extra plates for this die, as its layout allowed for the shapes to be cut from both ends.

I think the next time I do one, I’ll use paper that’s the same colour on both sides, but for some reason all the coloured paper I have at the moment was white on the other side.  It’s a bit fiddly to put together, although I reckon once I’ve done 3 or 4 it will only take a couple of minutes.  I left the embellishments pretty basic because it was just a trial, but I think the little tag is perfect for it.

It’s really dinky – a perfect size for putting jewellery in.  I’m really looking forward to doing more of these (once I get some suitable paper).  Plan to try one in card as well.

Thanks for looking.

Lisa xoxo

Oodles of Goodies

Even though I’ve not finished the project I’m working on right now, the beads for the next beady thing I want to attempt arrived during the week.  I’ve decided to try the  Ootheca Cuff in Rachel Nelson-Smith’s Seed Bead Fusion book (that’s the green one on the cover).

The pattern calls for quite a lot of Swarovski crystals, so as I’m on an economy drive and already have quite a few sparkly things, I thought I’d use larger seed beads instead, so hopefully this will work.

These are the beads I chose.  As the bracelet is reversible I’ve decided on chocolate brown with lime larger beads on one side and a lovely matt turquoise colour with teal larger beadson the other.  Both sides will have silver accents.

I also happened to pop over to the Sizzix site and thought this little bag die would make fantastic packaging for any jewellery presents I’m doing.  The other 2 dies just fell into my basket as well – though the pocket would make a nice tag holder and just liked the shape of the arrows.

I’ll try to get a little gift bag made up over the weekend and take a photo.

I will be back soon with an update on the bracelet.

Thanks for looking.

Lisa xoxo

Top 5 of 2010

Happy New Year everyone.  Hope you’ve all recovered from the Hogmanay celebrations.   I had a very quiet one this year, as hubby was a bit poorly (nothing serious though).

I pinched this idea from Hazel’s blog.  Hazel had listed her favourite 12 makes of 2010, but she is much more productive than I am, so here are my top 5 (in date order):

A cardi and beret I made for my friend’s baby

A new baby card for my friend:

Something new for me – a foray into sewing:

I spent a fair bit of time beading in the last quarter of the year and came up wit this Fruits of the Forest Bracelet…

…and just managed to squeeze in this Moonshadow Necklace as 2010 drew to a close:

Really looking forward to setting myself some new crafty goals for 2011, one of which will probably take most of the year but should be great fun….but that’s a whole other post!!

Hope 2010 was a good one for you and 2011 brings you everything you strive for.

Lisa xoxo

In the Bag

My regular readers may remember me getting the book Sew by Cath Kidston.  It came with the pieces to make the bag on the front cover.  I decided it was time to overcome my sewing machine fear, so made this (it only took a couple of hours one evening and another couple on Saturday afternoon).  The little button hoop was a bit faffy as the fabric was quite heavy to turn inside out, so I gave up and used a bit of blue microfibre suede-stuff.

It’s by no means perfect, but I don’t think the errors are too noticeable.  Really pleased with it anyway :D

I also ordered these books which came today:

Making Vintage Bags by Emma Brennan

Mexican Food Made Simple – Thomasina Miers

The Art of Polymer Clay – Creative Surface Effects – Donna Kato (I don’t think this one looks as good as the Millefiori Techniques one)

Looking forward to seeing / hearing what everyone else has been up to lately.

Thanks for looking xoxo

All wrapped up

I got this new Sizzix Create-a-Bow die and I love it so much.  Hope they make a smaller version of it soon.  The first one I did took quite a while to put together, but after that I would say it only takes about a minute to put them together – not as much of a faff as you would think.

Now to keep with the theme of wrapping, a hoodie cardi I’m in the process of knitting for my friend’s little boy

I was hoping to have this finished by now, but as you can see, it’s nowhere near being done – will do a bit each night this week though.

Thanks for looking.

It’s only Rock ‘n’ Roll

Don’t all fall off your seats, but I’ve made another card (well another 2 actually, but forgot to take a pic of one of them).  Our friend, Paul,who’s a bit of a rock star, had a birthday last week.  He’s a big Nirvana fan, so I used a bit of artistic licence with the  Nirvana smiley face, by recolouring it to match my papers.

I used papers from the DCWV Rock Star stack, with edges inked in Chestnut (or perhaps Dark Brown – can’t remember) Cat’s Eye chalk ink.

On Saturday I went with Stu and Fee to see Lee play a gig in Glasgow.  He’s the drummer with Red Scot Chili Peppers, (another rock star friend).  This was the first time I had seen them play and they were superb!!!

Actually when I think about it, almost all my friends are rock stars or wannabe rock stars/sing stars/guitar heroes, which makes for great nights when they all get together, although I have to get them drunk so they don’t remember my wonderful singing!!!!!

Rock on, dudes (and dudettes).

Quick & Easy Male Card

Considering how little I normally get done on week nights, I seem to have achieved a fair bit tonight.  Made  some choco-mint cupcakes and just waiting to frost them and also made a male birthday card.

I love big number cards, so quick and easy to do, yet somehow very effective.

Papers are from the Basic Grey Archaic 6×6 pad, beer is a Quickutz die and the number is hand cut.

Going to get wool to crochet a baby blanket on Friday – wish me luck because the only thing I’ve crocheted so far is a strip with various stitches and a couple of granny squares.

Thanks for looking.

New Addition

Finally, after what seems an eternity, I actually have some finished items to show!

My best friend had a little girl on 01 April, so I knitted this cardi and beret:

It’s from the Sirdar Ooh la la! booklet and uses Snuggly yarn.  I learned to knit when I was 6 or 7 and used to knit quite intricate baby clothes for my dollies, but haven’t done anything other than scarves for years.  Really enjoyed knitting baby stuff though, as it is quite quick to do and is small enough that it doesn’t get boring.

I also made this card for her:

The paper is Sassafrass Lass “In Stiches” collection, which I’ve had for ages.  The big tag and tag tab are Sizzix, button, small tag and font (Girls are Weird) are Sizzlets. Teddy and Flower are Fimo.

Thanks for looking.