Welcome Little Girl

Our friends have a new little baby girl, I haven't seen any photos yet but baby girls are ever so sweet. So I am looking forward to seeing her. And what would be a better reason for making a card ..... using a sketch from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

 

 The base for this card is Bazill Craftcard which I layered with various Echo Park patterned papers using some machine-stitching. The little baby elephant is from Pink Petticoat, the little sentiment a stamp from Woodware. As embellishments I added some charms and some paper flowers from Prima Marketing. Petra.

The Sweet Life

With sunshine all around what could be nicer than having a picnic with your friends. The picnic hamper is filled with yummy fruits, lovely cakes and refreshing ice-tea

 

Supplies:

paper: Free magazine paper, Bazill Basics, Kraftcard

stamps: Stampotique, Elzybells

some stitching, pearls

Come and join us for sweet treats and more over at Vicki's Cheerful Stamp Pad, Petra.

Let's Go for a Ride

... a balloon ride! The weather is fabulous with icecream and lazy afternoons in the sunshine (lol). No wonder that this Lady wants to travel ....

 ... going for a ride in a balloon: inky background with stamps from Impression Obsession and Kaisercraft, distress inks and acrylic paints. The Lady is Lavinia from Karftin' Kimmie, her luggage a fancy suitcase from Artemio with Lili of the Valley label! Enjoy the journey, Petra.

Black and White and a Dash of Yellow

... for Vicki's current challenge over at the Cheerful Stamp Pad.
I stamped an image (Great Impressions), a little line of dots (Penny Black) and a little sentiment (Lili of the Valley) with Jet Black archival ink on a white A6 card. But then the question was how to deal with the dash of yellow? Looking at the stamped image I  thought it would be nice to give it a bit more depth by cutting out some of the flowers, the butterfly and the dot on the watering can. So in the end the dash of yellow turned into a few yellow dots (lol)

This is a one week challenge, I hope you can join us! Petra.

Romance

a fabric heart - hand-stitched - embellished with pearls, buttons, handmade flowers, lace - the focal point an image of a couple in love

This creatin was inspired by one of the UPA reader quests but unfortunately for one reason or other I didn't make it but would like to share it with you now it is finished. There was so much pleasure in creating this piece. It is entirely hand-stitched. The base is plain cotton fabric layered with linen textured fabric. I built up the various layers by adding rows of various lace, an image from e-vint which is printed on cotton fabric. The image is framed with more fabric and adorned with two rows of little pearls. To complement the focal image I attached some vintage buttons and pearl, a double-bow made of fabric, lace and string. The flower is a combination of fabric, crochet and fabric flower and some stems

 

I deliberately kept the edges a bit rough as it seems to work well with the fabric and kept the back quite simple with Russian stitches and a little charm and pearls. The heart is lightly stuffed with filling.
Have a lovely weekend, Petra.

Vintage Tag

It was so lovely to put this little tag together for the second week of Vicki's  challenge: Tags ... it was my first crafting I've done after four days of clearing out my craft room (maybe I should rather say 'craft spaces' (lol) ) and decorating one of the bathrooms (and there is more to come - sigh). But it feels good, I found a lot of bits I thought I had lost and the new sense of tidyness makes it very enjoyable to work on new crafty projects!
the focal point for the tag is a stamped image (Prima Marketing) of a wonderful girl or even young lady adorned with beautiful flowers

 

 The image is stamped with Archival ink on patterend paper from ScrapCake and coloured with various distress inks. I used a Crafty Individual text stamp for the background and distressed the edges of the paper with ink as well. The patterened paper is layered on corrugated card from some old packaging - I removed one of the paper layers to expose the rough texture underneath and dabbed it with distress stains. 

As embellishments I chose some crochet lace, a paper flower from Prima Marketing, a little stamped label (Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations and Lili of the Valley stamps) and some pearls. 

For more fabulous inspiration, hop over to Vicki's blog and hopefully you can join as well. 

.... Now back to sorting out fabrics and wool and sewing curtains .... Petra.

Mother's Day

It is a wonderful sunny day here in the South of England, the birds are twittering and the bees are humming and looking for something sweet ..... I would like to share with you a lovely image I found in a box amongst some vintage postcards - she is so beautiful

Happy Mother's Day!Petra.

Baking Charms and Tag

The theme over at Tag Tuesday is: Baking ... something very close to my heart (lol). When I set out to create the tag, I could not really decide what to do - there is too much choice. But then I remembered Terry's fantastic Shrink Plastic tutorial over at Frillie and Funkie and thought it would be quite good fun to make some baking charms

 

I had  not played with Shrink Plastic for quite a long time and had forgotten about all the pitfalls especially when using the heat gun! For the little cupcakes I stamped the images (Hero Arts) with Archival ink on the plastic, cut them out and coloured them with Koh-i-noor pencils and then punched a hole. For the baking label I cut a shape with Nestabilities and inked the shape with distress ink (Antique Linen) using a soft brush. Then I stamped the label (Waltzing Mouse) with Versamark Magic on the plastic. Once the ink was dry, I did a spot of colouring using the colouring pencils.

I am always so amazed how much images shrink ... the label is about 3cm in height, the cupcakes about 1 cm - they are tiny. One of them I used to make a very simple tag using the baking label stamp, layering the label on Bazill card and embellishing it with some paper flower, pearl and some ribbon - have a lovely evening, Petra.

 

Linked to: Art with no Boundaries - Anything Goes

Happy Me

Today when coming home from work, two lovely surprises were waiting for me ... some sweet little stamps from Stampotique in the sweetest ever stamped envelope with some scallops on the front and little cute ghosts on the back

 

... and the beautiful art journal from Ali which I was soooo lucky to win some weeks ago, it is a real treasure ... it came with a little card having the most adorable stamped image on the front - wishing you a happy Tuesday evening, Petra.

Vintage Happy Birthday Tag

A little vintage tag for Vicki's new Cheerful Stamp Pad challenge: Tags - the interpretation is yours .... a little tag, a big tag, a tag book, ..... endless possibilities

 

I cut the tag base from Jenny Bowlin paper, stamped musical notes on the paper (Impression Obsession) and embossed it and double-machine stitched around the edges of the tag. The focal point of the tag is an adorable little bird image from the Graphics Fairy. I embellished the tag with lace, a die-cut metal border, some ribbon and a little stamped sentiment tag (Lili of the Valley).

For more marvellous vintage tag inspirations hop over to the Cheerful Stamp Pad blog. Hope you can join us, Petra.

Linked to: Vintage Page Design - Birds
and Brag Monday

Experimental Colours

Last night I played with acrylic paints ... I have to learn so much (sigh), it is quite daunting but also really good fun. From one of my experiments I made this little tag

I randomly dabbed  three different acrylic paint colours on heavy textured water colour card, cut the tag using one of the Sizzix alteration dies. I stamped on it with a Paperartsy stamp and Archival Ink (Jet Black) ... I quite like the outcome of the stamping, the black is not solid but somehow the image slots in with the background. As embellishments I chose some folded washi tape, little coloured jeweller's tags and a blck button. Enjoy your weekend, Petra.

Linked to: Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Kaleidoscope of Colour

Sewing ....

... one of my favourite pastimes ... and a wonderful subject for a little tag or two ... The first tag I made for Tag Tuesday using a paper tag as pattern to cut some leftover calico. I 'aged' the calico around the edges with some Distress ink (Vintage Photo) and machine stitched across the tag just using the stitches I have on my machine ... it is quite a basic sewing machine but I love it to bits - well, actually, 'them' because I have two of the same (lol). I printed the really sweet image from Magic Moonlight Free images and sewed it to the calico - the lady works on a very similar sewing machine my Grandma owned. My Grandma was a seamstress and I learned from her on her Singer machine the first stitches.  At last I added a few embellishments - buttons, charm and flowers - and did a teeny tiny bit of hand stitching for buttons and charm ...

 

 I made the second tag for a friend who recently moved into her new home. I cut the house and flowers by hand. The house ia build of felt and has an embossed kraft card roof. For the sewing bit I shand stitched the frames of the little windows. This was great fun to make - you might see some more of those soon (lol).

Have a lovely weekend, Petra.

Birthday Wishes

... for a wonderful friend and amazing crafter Lucy .... although I have to admit they were belated. I have to admit further that I had lots of fun to create the birthday card. This is how the card developed:

I sponged some distress ink (Sugar Spun) on a square white card, stamped (Kaisercarft) with Versamark ink a little pattern on the card, covered it with clear embossing powder, embossed it and sponged more ink to the card (distress inks Fired Brick and Victorian Velvet)

 

I plugged in the iron ... not for any clothes .... but to remove the embossing (lol). Then it was about choosing stamps (Stamper Anonymous, Paper Artsy, Waltzing Mouse, Artemio) and embellishments (Washi Tape, Stickles, lacey flowers), Petra.

Linked to: Craft-Room Challenge - Emboss It 
My Mum's Craft Shop - Embossing 
Tammy's Scrapin Corner - Anything Goes 

The Photo Response Project

with the Arthouse Co-op. The challenge was to choose one of five photographs and translate it into something visual like a story, another photograph, a painting, ..... . The only real requirements were the size (shouldn't exceed 4" x 6") and the dimension (must fold flat). When looking at the photographs I immediately felt a connection with the last one (no 5)

 

courtesy: Arthouse Co-op

and I also knew what I wanted to do with it:. Now, this was the easy part.... it looked slightly different when it came to translate the idea into action (lol). At first I added the word 'memory' in Graffiti font, then I changed the background digitally using various methods: underlaying it with crackle texture from Vintage Findings, soften the colours and lines, give it a comic book like appearance, play with contrast and brightness levels, frame it

 

Rock Candy Stickles gave the letters a slightly sparkly appearance; stamps from Artistic Outpost, from a papercraft magazine, Lily of the Valley and Lost Coast design were used to create my memory image

The final step was to tell the story ... and print it on transparency

 

The transparency acts as a little cover for the postcard

The Arthouse Co-op always offers a lot of interesting projects like these linking people from around the world. Most projects are free. If you are interested, have a look here, Petra.