Washi Tape Handmade Cards

Let me share with you one of my new found "craft" loves . . . . . Washi Tape

I know it has been around for ages, but I'm a little slow catching on with this trend.  I bought a small collection of tapes at the recent craft fair I attended and have been having a little fun creating handmade cards with Washi Tape.

 

The colour combinations look great together

I couldn't believe how quickly a pretty card could be made, all with just strips of tape and a sticker or two.  I really like the texture of the washi tape as well.

This card is made using the same tapes as the first one, just in a different order.  The shading is done with a regular stamping ink and a paintbrush.

I have definitely had some fun trying out my new washi tapes . . . and I know I am quite eager to add to my collection of colours and patterns.  I already have a bit of an obsession with ribbons, so this is a bit of a dangerous find for me, these are just a new form of ribbon for me to use!!!

 

Please let me know if you know of a good place to buy washi tape, somewhere that has a good variety of colours and patterns and has reasonable prices.  I would be very grateful.

Craft Show Quilt Display

As promised, I will share with you some of the amazing quilts which were on display at the craft and quilt show which I recently attended.  There were so many wonderful quilts, lots of different styles and categories and colours.

I always have loved Baltimore style quilts, have never actually attempted to make one, but definitely do admire all the work in them.

This one was really pretty, it caught my eye with all the gorgeous flowers and blue birds.

The work in this quilt was amazing!

This quilt was voted best at the show and it was outstanding - the hours that must have gone into it, the stitching and even the colour choices of the fabrics made it a real work of art. The photo does not do it justice in the least. I could picture this on a beautiful antique bed, it has that old world vintage charm about it. I must admit I stood there admiring this one for quite a long time.

Something a little more modern in style - I am very partial to hearts, so really liked this one. I could picture it on my oldest daughter's bed.

Doesn't this look spectacular!

And then there is the red & white section of the quilt show

There were literally rows and rows of quilts, all made in red and white.  It looked quite spectacular to see so many all together like that.

The last quilt I just had to take a photo of, especially for the cat lovers in my family and extended family!

It was a great showcase of quilts, hundreds of them, displaying the quality workmanship of so many talented quilters.  What a wonderful day - admiring so many beautiful quilts, craft shopping and demonstrations and workshops - it would have been great to spread it out over a couple of days!!

Quilt & Craft Show

Well I did get to go along to the Quilt and Craft Show and had a lovely day there with my oldest daughter and my mother-in-law.   There were so many great products on display and some really informative workshops to sit in on and learn new crafting tips.  We did enjoy one hands-on workshop where we made a card using techniques which involved distress inks and water brushes.  You can see that my card looks a bit like it had a little too much water . . . but I don't mind . . . next time I will know what to do better.

I am always on the look-out for new stamps when I go to the craft shows.  It is the once place, other than online shopping, where you can find a bit more variety.  Here are the stamps I came home with.

I was so pleased with all of them and can't wait to try them out!

I picked up a few pretty stickers.  I tend to stamp designs in preference to using stickers when I'm making cards, but every now and again I get lazy when I need to make a card quickly for someone, so these are great to have on hand for times like that.

When I did the card making workshop, which didn't cost me anything I forgot to add, they also gave me this cute set of rub-ons as a gift, along with a $20 gift voucher to use when ordering from their catalogue.  Don't you just love that?!!! 

My other great find for the day was Washi Tape.  I have wanted to try this out for so long but had never seen it in pretty colours which inspired me, until now.  It was so hard to choose only a few rolls, there were so many more that I loved!  I wish our local scrapbooking store would stock it, but then again, perhaps it is better that they don't have it because I know I would want to add to my collection and bring in a few more colours.

I ended up choosing my favourite colours, I always tend to gravitate to these colours in my papercrafts especially.

 

This was the first time I think I can ever remember going to a craft show and not coming home with some fabric.  It almost felt strange not to have any.  I did find one new lot of fabrics which I totally fell in love with but they were so expensive and I didn't feel I could justify spending so much money on fabric when it would only go home to sit in my stash for now.  I buy all my quilting fabrics online and from overseas, so with such a broad range of fabrics to choose from by doing that, I certainly don't miss out on keeping my fabric supplies built up.

 

I have a lot of photos of the beautiful quilts on display at the show, but I will save those for another post.  All up, it was a really fun day!!

Handmade Parisian Wall Canvas - Eiffel Tower Theme

What a week!  It's one of those kinds of weeks where you feel like you have a month's full of activities but it all takes place in the space of a single week.  Do you ever have those?   It's all been good though. 

We have had a birthday celebration in our family and one of my latest craft projects, which I have been keeping hidden away, can now be revealed.

My attempt at some canvas wall art, all with a Parisian theme

They are all similar, so they co-ordinate, but lots of different details.  The Eiffel Tower is much loved by the recipent and so it is a prominent feature in them all.

The backgrounds are made using scrapbooking card stock, cut up and arranged in a collage effect.

The flowers were all neutral and I coloured them to match using my copic pens.  I've also coloured the wording pieces I had to stick on with the copic pens.

The stickers were made from vinyl and everything has been coated with a product which is much the same as mod podge, so it seals it all and gives it a protective covering which makes it easier to wipe over and remove dust.

 

I loved the pearl "bling" which I used in a champagne colour and also black - they added the perfect finishing touch to the completed canvas.

 

The sides of the canvases have been covered in a co-ordinating coloured braid which finishes them off nicely.

 

These took me awhile to make, but they were so much fun to do and because I knew exactly the style, colours, etc that would be appreciated by the person I was making it for, it really made things easy.

 

I found a big box which also had an Eiffel Tower theme, so the perfect way to package up the gift. 

 

For me, the greatest joy was to see the big smile on the face of the recipient when they were opened!!

Paisley Hand Stamped Cards

I've had a few photos from our card making session during the school holidays which I have finally had a chance to download today to be able to share with you.  We usually make sure we have a big card making day at least once during each of the school holidays because we all enjoy it so much.  With all our other commitments and responsibilities we don't always get a chance to do it during the school term, so it is really nice to enjoy a fun, relaxing and crafty day together with the children and other family or friends.

 

I really seem to gravitate towards paisley designs, I have no idea why, so when I discovered this stamp set awhile ago, it had to join my growing collection of stamps!!  I was quite eager to try out, so basically used just this set of stamps on the day. 

I figured I wouldn't really use the wording of the stamps, but I loved the actual designs. For these cards I used the same two larger paisley stamps and just varied the looks of the cards.

I enjoyed using all the soft pastels in this one

Variations of one of my favourite colour combinations in greens and pinks

Anything done in shades of aqua always looks so good. 

 

I was sad when I accidentally smudged the liquid pearls I had used as a textured highlight.  Oh well, it is still nice and before I go to use it I know I can fix it up and just go over the liquid pearls again in that spot.

Lastly, this card was made using another stamp set which I have written about before here.  It was my final card for the day.  I do regret not mounting it like I would normally do, it gives a better end product.

This week we are off to the annual craft and quilt fair - which is always the best fair to go to during the year.  I'm looking forward to seeing lots of amazing quilts, learning lots of new techniques from workshops, discovering new craft ideas and seeing what new craft products are on the market . . . . and no doubt a little bit of shopping will be happening too.  I can't wait!!


 

Riley Blake Dots Fabrics Giveaway

One of the online places I love to shop for fabrics, Whimsical Fabrics, have another great giveaway on offer.  This giveaway is for a must-have collection of Riley Blake Dots Fabrics - perfect for building your fabric stash with a variety of colours

Best of all, this giveaway is for a Bundle of Fat 1/4's - how great would that be to win?!!

So follow this link to Whimsical Fabrics to find out all the details on how to enter.  While you are there be sure to check out all the other great fabrics they have for sale too.

Crochet Ripple Blanket

Crochet is still a very newly learned skill for me and I am enjoying it immensely!  If you have been reading my blog, you may remember my first crochet project which I shared with you here.  Well as I continued on with my crochet I noticed that I was making errors somewhere because my blanket was starting to grow on the sides and getting smaller in the centre.  Being a beginner I really wasn't sure where I was going wrong exactly, but I did figure it out eventually.  So I put that whole piece aside and considered it my practice run to learn on.

 

Time to start a new Ripple Blanket, but this time I would remember to count my stitches. 

 

What a huge difference counting my stitches has made!!!

This new Ripple Blanket came with a change of colours too.  I decided to crochet it in one of my favourite colour combinations - pink and green. 

I am really pleased with how it is looking so far.  It was fun trying to find so many different variations of pink.  I have just used the one green though because I couldn't find another shade of green that went well with it, still trying to keep to that fresh lime green look.

 

So there you go, that is what has been keeping my busy lately.  I actually look forward to the time I spend waiting for my children at the school pick-up time because I take along my crochet and get a few more rows done each day.  Some in the evenings too if I can.  Slowly it is growing and the best part is that it has increased my love and appreciation for crochet.

 

Next I want to learn to crochet flowers.  I know there are lots of online tutorials to teach yourself.  If you know of one that is particularly good, I would love it if you could let me know!

 

Baking - One Cup Cookies

It was our last weekend at home before school starts again and one of the things we enjoy doing in our house, aside from craft, is baking.  There is nothing quite like home baked treats to eat.  The things you buy in the stores don't even begin to compare.

 

So with my trusty helper (my youngest daughter) we tried out a new recipe which looked nice and easy.  This recipe comes courtesy of retromummy ~ it is her One Cup Cookie Recipe.  Retromummy shares lots of yummy recipes on her blog, so if you haven't ever visited her, be sure to stop by and take a look.

The recipe is very simple - Just 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of oats, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of desiccated coconut and about 175g of melted butter. Combine all of the ingredients, roll into little balls, flatten on a baking tray and bake in a nice hot oven until golden. Cool on the tray and enjoy!

As you can see, our cookies certainly didn't look perfect (we deliberately made them small), but what they lacked in appearance, they certainly made up for in taste.  They didn't last very long.  We made up heaps by the way, this is only a small sampling from the first batch of cookies we baked.

I was also busy doing other types of baking and craft preparations over the weekend - a nice new batch of homemade Playdough, ready for Playgroup this week.  I've also been colouring lots of rice ready to use in the children's craft activities - we now have all the colours of the rainbow in rice!! 

 

I hope you had the opportunity to enjoy a bit of creativity, and perhaps even some home baking, in your weekend too!!

Whimsical Designs - Chevron Fabric Giveaway

I have a few favourite online shops where I like to buy my quilting fabrics and one of them is Whimsical Designs.  They stock a gorgeous selection of fabrics and usually have a lot of the latest Riley Blake fabrics in particular, which I have really come to love over the last 12 months.   

Whimsical Designs not only stocks a great selection of fabrics, they also have a large variety of patterns, especially for children's clothing.  I love that they show samples of the patterns made up using the fabrics that they sell, it really sparks the imagination and helps you to see that quilting fabrics can be used for so much more than just making quilts.

My reason for sharing about Whimsical Designs is that they are currently running a fantastic giveaway for a collection of Chevron fabrics - something we could all find a use for in our sewing projects I'm sure!

So if you would like to be in the running for a chance to win this great pack of fabrics, click on the link which will take you to the Whimsical Fabrics Blog and follow the instructions from there.  It is very easy to join in the fun and if you are looking for a great place to buy your fabrics, I do highly recommend Whimsical Fabrics for their great quality fabrics, competitive prices and they ship overseas.