Sneak peek of a quilt in progress

I am working on a quilt at the moment. Done the patchwork and applique plus quilting – binding to do. Next I am adding 3D fabric flowers. It’s going to take me a while but I’ll share when it’s finished.

I have used recycled cotton sheets for the patchwork. I added a new fat quarter for cutting the applique. I have had my first play with my Accuquilt cutter and dies. I used 4.5 inch squares, 2.5 and 1.5 inch strip dies for the border. The applique was cut using the Heather Feather dies. So much quicker to cut than with scissors – had the applique all cut in minutes. The lettering was cut on my Brother ScanNCut (built in font) electronic cutting machine.

I quilted using free machining. Some of it freeform and some using quilting rulers (from Alys Stitchy Fingers). It’s my first play with the rulers and they are fab for more controlled/accurate patterns. I also added some decorative machine stitching too.

I used another recycled polycotton sheet for the backing and will be making the flowers from recycled sheets and pillow cases too. Even the wadding is recycled from curtain interlining (I prewashed it to check suitability – some interlinings are too ‘fibrous’ and would shrink unpredictably plus shed fibres etc.).

I love to create something new from recycled stash.

Butterfly Screen Card created for Chocolate Baroque

Good evening. This was another of my show samples for the butterflies stamps recently featured on Hochanda from Chocolate Baroque.

 

Materials:

• Just Butterflies and Patchwork Butterfly stamp sets
• Plain card (black, blue, white)
• Tattered Lace ScanNCut shaped cards USB 1
• Brother ScanNCut electronic cutting machine
• Sparkle pens (blue, gold, clear)
• Versafine Inkpad (Onyx Black)
• Fine tipped pen (black)
• Pencils (white, black)
• Circle template for drawing the moon
• Spellbinders Blossom die set
• Glitter glue (Stickles Icicle, and blue)

 

How it was done:

1. I cut the main card blank in black card (A4 sheet) and trimmed out the trellis from the central panel.
2. The background panel was cut in blue card. The swirls were stamped on the left and right hand sides of the panel. The rest of the scene was hand drawn in using the fine tipped pen and pencils. I used a circle die as a template for the moon.
3. The butterfly was stamped onto the background and coloured with the sparkle pens. The background panel was then glued to the card blank.
4. The blossom and branches were cut from blue and white card and the blossom coloured with sparkle pen.
5. The butterflies were stamped onto blue card, coloured with sparkle pens and pencil, then cut out.
6. The cut out elements were then glued to the card. Thin foam pads were used for added dimension.
7. I finished with dots of glitter glue for added sparkle.

Tribute to lovely Molly

 

Sadly we had to say goodbye to this lovely lady a couple of weeks ago – she was 17 years old and had remained happy and fairly healthy right up until her last night.

She was actually my neighbour’s cat but had simply moved in – sharing my bed for the last 2 years. My bed is so empty without her. As soon as I was ready to settle down she would come up and under the top cover with her little head peeping out and her whiskers tickling my face while we went off to sleep – tee hee.

The only good pic I had of her was looking over the top of my notebook while I was trying to type up a beading tutorial. I took the photo into Serif Craft Artist and set her into a garden peeping over the top of a garden wall. She was a mischievous little character so this setting fits her perfectly.

I used craft Artist to draw the arched frame. Printed it separately and used my Brother ScanNCut to cut it out. I glued several layers of card together for strength.

The decorative elements were created with the Flowering Dogwood stamps and dies from Heartfelt Creations.

To protect it and make it longer lasting I used Crafters Companion Spray and Shine on the photo and frame, and Spray & Sparkle on the floral embellishments.

Now I have a lovely tribute to her sitting on my desk.

Lace Edged Parchment Card created with Tattered Lace Best of 2016 Brother ScanNCut USB

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is created by embossing on parchment. I have then done a little hand embossing to add some whitework ‘shading’, and some colour with alcohol pens. I love this new feature of the ScanNCut.

This one is another fairly simple make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016
• 1.5mm embossing tool, embossing tool holder and mat
• Butterfly Garden strip embossing folder (Tattered Lace)
• Hand embossing tool approx. 3mm and parchment embossing mat
• A5 card blank, parchment and card (purple)
• Alcohol markers (light green, brown and pink)
• Pergamano sticky ink
• Extra fine glitter (white/clear) and PVA pearls (Vintage Plum)

How to make it:

1. Load the Lace Edged Rectangle 2 design. Delete all but the outer frame and resize to approx. 6.38 inches high. Load the bow from the All Tied Up set. Cut from purple card. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 5.5).
2. Load the Lace Edged Rectangle 2 frame again, group all the elements together and resize to fit inside your cut purple mat (approx. 6.34 inches high).
3. Next load the Cherry Blossom design. Resize, flip and rotate it to fit inside the Lace Edged design. Using one of the built in machine fonts write the sentiment. Finally group everything together and mirror flip it ready for embossing. You need to do this a designs are always embossed on the back of the parchment.
4. Load the parchment and emboss the design using the 1.5mm ball tool. Again settings will vary depending on the brand of parchment that you use. I used a pressure of -4 and speed 1. If desired emboss again on a higher pressure (-2) to get whiter results (do not unload the mat until fully finished). Note: I rubbed over the parchment with a used tumble dryer sheet before embossing – it helps the tool to glide better.
5. Hand emboss on the back of the design to add ‘whitework’ shading. Add some colour with alcohol pens. It could be cut out using pricking tools and traditional Parchment techniques. I used scissors to cut around the outer embossed line.
6. Note: I find it tricky to cut the parchment on the machine after embossing as it doesn’t stick down well or lay flat on the cutting mat. Probably it would be best to cut out the parchment first, then place on the embossing mat and scan in the mat to work out where to place the embossing design. Not tried this but you would need to leave a bit of extra room around the edge so that the tool doesn’t directly hit or get caught on the embossing mat or edge of the parchment. I need to experiment a bit.
7. Cut the small plain butterfly from parchment (Essential Butterflies) and emboss the texture with the embossing folder. Colour lightly on the back.
8. Glue the parchment to the backing mat using tiny dots of glue behind the flower centres (where it will not show through). Glue to the card front and stick on the bow. I added some little vellum ‘waste’ cut flowers to hide a couple of small tears in my parchment. Glue down the butterfly body leaving the wings free for shaping.
9. Finally finish with glitter (using Pergamano sticky ink) and PVA pearls. Note: sticky ink is not as wet as PVA glue which can cause curling of the parchment.

Pearl Doily Clock created with Tattered Lace best of 2016 Brother ScanNCut USB

 

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is not a working clock as it was created as a sample – but it could easily be adapted, real clock fixings are readily available to make it into a working piece. I may make another in different colours to fit my décor with an MDF backing. Spray varnish would also protect it and make it into a more durable piece of home furnishing.

This one is another fairly simple make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016
• Standard pen holder and black pen
• 12 X 12 card and paper: pale pink polka dot paper, cream card, dark grey card and 4 sheets of grey board (recycled from 12 X 12 paper pad back covers)
• Versamark inkpad and clear heat embossing powder
• Glitter pen (gold), alcohol marker (black and light grey)
• Cosmic Shimmer glitter glue (Autumn Twinkles) and PVA pearls (Black)
• Gilding Wax (gold)
• Brad to hold the hands

How to make it:

 

1. Load the Precious Time numbers and clock hands and cut 4 sets from cream card. I created a file to cut all in one go from a sheet of 12 X 12 card. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 5.5).
2. Glue the elements together to make thick ‘chipboard’ components. Use a fast grab wet glue spreading the glue thoroughly so that all layers are well stuck down. Leave to dry.
3. Colour the numbers and clock hands with black alcohol marker. Coat with Versamrk ink and heat emboss with the clear powder. Lightly rub over with a little gilding wax to give a slight aged effect.
4. Glue together the 4 greyboard sheets and leave to dry. This makes a good strong back for the clock.
5. Load the Pearl Doily design, centre on the mat and cut from grey card. Keep the central doily for another project.
6. Load the smaller Doily designs, centre on the mat. Draw the designs onto the pink paper using a black pen and the standard pen holder.
7. Glue the drawn background mat and frame to the base backing. Leave to dry.
8. Hand colour the image with gold glitter pen and grey alcohol marker. Note: the machine does now have a colouring fill function. The way that I have coloured my clock would be a bit tricky to programme into the design as I have coloured negative spaces and just outlined some of the shapes.
9. Punch a hole into the centre of the clock (I used a long reach Cop-A-Dile) and fix the hands with a brad. In a rush for the post, could I locate my brads? No! I ended up using a jeans button with prong fixing as it was all I could find before rushing my samples to the post office – tee hee.
10. Glue down the numbers.
11. Finally finish with glitter glue and PVA pearls, plus a little gilding wax.

Meadow Sweet Card created with the Tattered Lace Best of 2016 Brother ScanNCut USB

 

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is another fairly simple make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016
• 8 X 8 inch white card blank, cream and white card, floral background paper (Victoria Nelson – Village Fete)
• Tattered Lace 8 X 8 Rose Garden and Calligraphy Script strip embossing folders
• Glitter glue (clear) and PVA pearls (Cosmic Shimmer)
• Large ball tool and embossing mat to shape flowers
• Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet)

How to make it:

1. Load the Meadow Sweet background mat design and cut from floral paper. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 4.5).
2. Enlarge the mat by approx. half an inch and cut again from cream card (my card needed blade depth 5.5).
3. Edge the mats with Distress ink and glue together, offsetting the cream base mat to create a ‘drop shadow’ effect.
4. Emboss the card front with the Rose embossing folder and a strip of cream card with the script. Lightly apply Distress ink to bring out the texture. Glue the strip in place, then the panel mat using 3D foam pads for added depth.
5. Next load the Meadow Sweet floral frame and sentiment and cut from white card. Lightly shape the flowers with an embossing tool and pull up some of the petal details. I used a thicker stamping card so it would hold its shape (increasing blade depth to 6.5).
6. Finally glue the floral frame and sentiment to the card front and finish with glitter glue and PVA pearls.

Rose Garden Gift Bag created with the Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut Best of 2016 USB

 

 

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

I created this floral gift bag large enough for a presenting a hat & scarf set or jumper etc. I hope that you like it.

This one is another fairly simple make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016
• 3 X A4 sheets pink card, 2 X A3 sheets blue pearlescent card, 2 strips white scrap card approx. 2.5cm wide (A3 length)
• Tattered Lace 8 X 8 Rose Garden embossing folder
• Glitter glue and marker pen (pink)
• Large ball tool and embossing mat to shape flower
• Recycled handle (removed from card packaging box), small piece hook and loop tape (Velcro) for closure

How to make it:

Load the Rose Garden Panel design and cut twice from pink card at approx. A4 sheet size. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 5.5).

Glue the two panels together along the long edge, then glue to an A3 sheet of blue pearlescent card. The join will be along the bottom of the finished bag.

Load the teardrop from the machine basic shapes and resize to approx. 6.5 inches high. Copy and cut 2 from blue pearl card. I increased my blade depth to 6.5 to cut this thicker coated card. I have shown the shapes on the ScanNCut canvas screen so that you can see them – but I actually created it on the machine. Trim off approx. 4cm from the teardrop tips to create the bag sides. You could create the fully finished shape in ScanNCut canvas if you want to save it for future projects. I was working in a hurry to finish my samples to post for the show so just quickly cut with a craft knife while designing.

Next create gluing tabs for adding the sides. Score the white scrap card strips down the centre and glue one side (i.e. half the strip) to the back edge of the bag sides. Snip horizontally along the strip overhanging edge enabling the bag to curve around into shape. Sorry that I don’t have a picture to show of this but I was designing and making this an hour before I needed to rush to the post office! Tee hee.

Curve the bag into shape and start gluing the tabs to the teardrop base – working gradually up each side. You need a fairly quick grabbing wet glue for this. It is a bit fiddly, just ease it around the side panel as you glue a few tabs at a time. Trim away the tabs that extend up and beyond the bag sides.

Next load the bag top from the machine basic shapes and resize to approx. 8 inches high. Cut from pearl card. Again I have shown a picture of the shape on ScanNCut canvas so that you can see it. I simply loaded it from the machine basic shapes.

Use the rose embossing folder to emboss the rose texture. Use the pink marker to edge the shape. Faux stitching may look nice too but I ran out of time to do this. Score a section in the centre wide enough to add the handle and fold into shape. Mark the position of the slots to insert the handle and cut with a craft knife. Attach the handle and glue the back panel to the bag. Add some Velcro strips to make a closure.

Load the Floral Layers Rose design. You will need 4 sets of each of the petal elements to make up the rose. Cut from the other sheet of pink card. Using an embossing mat and ball tool give some shape to the petals and make up the flower, layering larger petals to the outside, reducing size towards the middle, finishing with a folded up bud shape in the centre.

Finally glue the rose to the bag front, finish with glitter glue for sparkle.

Goldwork Lace Rose Card created with the Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut Best of 2016 USB

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is another easy make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016, Floral Layers CD-ROM (Tattered Lace)
• Floral papers (from a Tattered Lace magazine)
• 8 X 8 inch white card blank, A4 sheet light gold holographic card (Create & Craft), A4 sheet smooth white printing paper
• PVA pearls (Cosmic Shimmer, gold) and glitter glue (clear)Large b
• all tool and embossing mat to shape flower

How to make it:

1. Trim the patterned paper to fit the card front leaving a small border. Glue down.
2. Load the Goldwork Lace Floral design from the USB and cut from gold card. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 6). Glue to the card front with 3D glue or foam pads for added depth.
3. From the CD-ROM print the sheet to create the yellow rose. This is a really easy to use CD-ROM – just Click, Print and Go. Scan the printed sheet into the ScanNCut. Use a low tack mat for paper (or a well used mat with less stick).
4. Overlay and resize the Floral Layers Rose file elements over the scanned image. This is fairly easy as the bleed area around the printed images gives an allowance – so you don’t need to be super accurate. There will be four sets of petal elements printed on the sheet. Work on one set first and when happy with the placement and sizing of the cutting files, group them together and save the file. You will then not have to repeat the procedure if you want to cut out more sheets in the future. Then simply overlay 3 more sets of cutting file over the remaining images. Cut out (I used cut speed 5, pressure 0, standard blade depth 3).
5. Using an embossing mat and ball tool give some shape to the petals and make up the flower, layering larger petals to the outside, reducing size towards the middle, finishing with a folded up bud shape in the centre.
6. Finally glue on the rose, add PVA pearls, and finish with glitter glue for sparkle.

Love Birds card created on the Brother ScaNCut for Tattered Lace

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is a really easy make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

I mounted it onto an embossed background but it would look lovely placed onto a printed background scene too.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016
• Sentiment stamp (Victoria Nelson – Village Fete collection – Summer Kite set)
• 8 X 8 inch white card blank, A4 sheet black card and ready made chipboard sentiment tag
• Inkpads: Stazon (black), Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet)
• Tattered Lace 8 X 8 inch embossing folder – Chains
• Organza ribbon (pink), PVA pearls (Cosmic Shimmer, black)
• Glitter glue (Cosmic Shimmer, Autumn Twinkles)
• Fine tipped marker and chisel tipped alcohol maker (black)

How to make it:

1. Emboss the card front and apply and blend Distress ink to the raised pattern, outside edges inward, using a sponge or cutNDry foam.
2. Load the Love Birds design from the USB and cut from black card. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 5).
3. Snip off the bird house. Lightly shape the birds and glue the branch to the card front. Use 3D glue gel in some areas for depth. Glue on the bird house in the new position.
4. Stamp the sentiment onto the tag. Using the fine tipped pen add faux stitching to the tag and card front. Use the chisel tip marker to edge the tag and card front too. This frames the design.
5. Finally attach the ribbon and bow, glue on the tag with 3D glue or foam pads, add PVA pearls, and finish with glitter glue on the birds and branches.

New Tattered Lace cutting files coming for the Brother ScanNCut on Create & Craft TV

There is another Tattered Lace USB coming out tomorrow (Friday 16th Dec) for the Brother ScanNCut. It is a lovely collection of cutting files (FCM format). Here are my samples for the Create and Craft TV shows.

Due to computer issues I have not yet managed to write up instructions for you – but will do asap x

Card using Goldwork Lace and Floral Layers Rose FCM files.

Embossed parchment card using Lace Edged Rectangle, floral and butterfly FCM files.

Card using Love Birds FCM files.

Card sing Meadow Sweet FCM files.

Clock using roman numerals and Pearl Doily FCM files.

Large gift bag using Rose Garden Panel and Floral Layers Rose FCM files.