2010 Feb ATC The Coffee Ring

2010 Feb ATC The Coffee Ring
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The themes for the Feb ATC Vancouver swap at The Grind are raspberry, rings and rust. I decided to do ring. The little coffee pot stamp is from Crafty Secrets and the other stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms "Journal Me" set.

Greeting Card-Baby

Greeting Card-Baby
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here is the Saturday card project from Cherish The Thought. I started with a Cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss the background layer then rubber stamped the edging, little bird and "Special Delivery" postal cancellation. The vintage carriage is stamped on cream cardstock cut with a scalloped circle Nestabilities Die. The background layer is edged with Memento Rich Cocoa ink. The lace and a ribbon is added with double sided tape and the cream piece is glued on with foam dots. Now came the frame for the carriage, this was done with 2 Nestabillities dies, the scalloped circle and the inverted scallop circle. We first placed the inverted scallop circle on a magnetic sheet, then lined up the points of the scallop circle with the points of the inverted scallop die. This was cut with the Big Shot and I got this cute little bubble frame which was edged with the Memento ink then glued to the cream circle.

Queen of Heart Journal Page

Queen of Heart Journal Page
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Judy, one of the byhandartists members proposed a challenge to do a project on the theme of Queen of Hearts so I did a page in my journal. I used fired brick Distress Ink to colour the page, found a vintage Queen of Hearts playing card image on-line, and inked the edges with Memento rich cocoa ink. I ran the image through the Xyron and added Sugar Beads. The frame is the piece left from the Watercolour Card I did a couple of weeks ago. The words "Queen of" and "heart" are Quietfire Design stamps rubber stamped with Blazing Red StazOn ink on thick cardstock, cut and attached with double sided tape. The lace along the bottom of the page is a piece of edging I knit from red no. 10 cotton and 2.25mm needles.

Life Stores Mini Album

Here are all the pages in a slide show for the Life Stories Mini Album I posted a few days ago.
Enjoy

Valentine Greeting Card

Valentine Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This card made on Jan 23 at Cherish The Thought, used a new Cuttlebug "Bloom Dots" embossing folder, torn scrapbook paper, 2 sizes of chipboard flowers and ribbon as well as a French sentiment rubber stamped.

Life Stories Mini Album

I took my second class at Cherish The Thought on Wed. and had a wonderful private session with Jessie. It's unfortunate no one else signed up for the Wed. morning class because this is a nice little album and the Basic Grey papers I used are just gorgeous. The good thing for me is that the lovely Jessie does not cancel a class if even one person signs up. This book starts with KaiserKraft mdf Antique Tags kit and a selection of the Basic Grey papers in the Life Stories line. I started out removing the shapes from the punch out sheet and then moved on to mostly straight cutting with my paper trimmer. A few of the rectangular pieces were cut to the shape of the top of the tag. Then I started adding the little tags and word pieces, tying on sheer brown ribbon to some. There is one little rubber stamp image added to one page and all the edges are rubbed with brown ink. I tied some off white and brown sheer ribbon to the ring and will probably add more. My little album is just waiting for me to choose some photos and do some journaling. This was a great class and I love the book so much I bought another tag kit and have lots of paper to finish it. I'll need some embellishments though, because most of that sheet was used.

January ATC Swap at The Grind

I'm living up to the Queen of The Last Minute ATCs I made for the byhand swap and am rushing madly to finish ATCs for the swap at The Grind. Here is a few of the ones I've gotten finished so far.
The themes for this month is blue, books or beads.
The first set is more of the "By The Numbers Pockets" this time all blue, no orange here.

This next set I've used all 3 temes, I have a mostly blue chair with a stack of books on a embossed blue cardstock background. The blue fibres have beads on. I also used a Fiskars embossing border punch on the top edge. The words are computer generated and printed on white cardstock. These are called "Books in The Blue Room"



And the final group I've made so far is "Sing Little Blue Bird". For this I made a 3 layer cardstock template with a 2 inch circle punched out of the ATC sized template. I placed the blue cardstock in the Victoria Cuttlebug embossing folder and the template behind the cardstock and closed the folder. The sandwich I used was the A plate, 5 pieces of Cuttlebug packaging cardboard, the embossing folder and fially one B plate. This left a circle that is not embossed and I used that area to rubber stamp a little bird and music from the Crafty Secrets clear "Altered Art" small stamp set. The word sing is computer generated and printed on white cardstock. all this is layered onto a darker blue cardstock and ribbon, beads and a blue rhinestone are the embellishments.

January ATC Swap

The theme for this month's swap on byhandartists Yahoo group is blue and orange or packets. For this first set I used blue and orange with either colour for the first layer and words, then used the other colour for the main layer. I used the Cuttlebug Forever Friends embossing and die set and on the first I used paper flowers and the second has a silk flower.

This set is couragated cardboard run through the Cuttlebug with a Sizzex embossing folder and rubbed with a blue pigment inkpad. The words are a Quietfire Design stamped on orange cardstock.

This last one is my favourite, it uses blue orange and pockets. The bottom layer is blue with a rubberstamped tape measure. The next 2 layers are orange scrapbook patterned paper. The top layer is white cardstock rubberstamped with blue pigment ink and numbers from various stamp sets. The pockets have tags and mini monopaly money. The card is finished with and orange lace ribbon and blue and orange fibres. The blue plastic tag with a number is a tree tag used by tree planters.

Jan 9 Watercolour Greeting Card

Jan 9 Watercolour Greeting Card
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Today's card project at Cherish The Thought was something I've never done before and one I really wanted to do. We used watercolour markers on a Local King Rubber Stamp, sprayed water on watercolour paper and stamped. Top 2 layers are cut with Nestabilities and background layer embossed with Floral Screen Cuttlebug embossing folder.The watercolour layer and the embossed layer are edged with blue ink.

Finished - What's On My Needles

Finished - What's On My Needles
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Hooray, they are done, the spa washcloths I showed you a few days ago are off the needles, they turned out nice. They are a little smaller than I would like, but that is easily fixed by casting on more stitches at the beginning, I think 4 more stitches might do. These ones measure 7 inches down the centre panel not including the hanging loop and 5 inches on the sides. This is an enjoyable pattern to knit, I will be doing more. I used Bernat cotton, but I think the linen would be even more elegant.

Rainy Day Fun

Well it started with a light drizzle when I left yesterday and so I headed to Port Moody for some stash therapy at the Black Sheep Yarns for the yarn sale. I know, I should be reducing my stash and I am with several projects, but this lovely stuff just begged to come home with me. How could I resist such lovely colour and soft yarn as the large skein of Dream in Color Baby Lace Weight hand painted yarn, Wisterious colourway. The other 3 skeins are more soft merino hand dyed wool from Peru. This is sock or fingering weight yarn that I think is destined to become amulet bags. Lots of knitting heaven in my future.


So I left the yarn shop for my walk to Cherish The Thought in puring rain. What happened while I was fondling beautiful wool? Oh well with my umbrella I should stay fairly dry and there is the first card project of 2010 waiting for me.

This one used the "Friends Forever" Cuttlebug die and embossing folder set. This is a lovely set with several greetings, but I wish it also had thank you. The first card "kindred spirit" is the one we made for the make and take, quite simple and quick. I thought it needed something more and added the flower at home.

Then I made "friends forever" and used brown cardstock and a pre-cut scalloped card front that came with the box of envelopes I needed for my handmade cards. I sponged tea dye Distress ink on the raised part of the embossed image and vintage photo Distress Ink on the edge. I think the flower I had on hand was perfect.

Knit Spa Washcloth

Knit Spa Washcloth
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This washcloth I finished in time to give to my son for Christmas and just grabbed it back long enough for a photo before he starts using it. This one has 4 different tree images knitted in, too bad they don't show up as well with this yarn as they would have with plain colour yarn. This was knit with Bernat cotton and 4.50 mm needles. It takes a bit of concentration, but is not too difficult a pattern to knit, the next time I do this it will be with a plain colour yarn. This pattern was offered to the members of holidaymysterygiftknitalong Yahoo group in 2008 and now can be purchased from the designer at Knitwits Alley

What's On My Needles

What's On My Needles
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well lots of other projects are on various needles, I always have several things on the go so I can choose whether I want a simple or challenging project. For now I'll show you this project.
I started this work in progress a few days ago and am getting close to done. These spa washcloths are a pattern by Tina Hilton adapted from Jill Wilcott Y2Knit pattern. I am knitting 2 at a time with my treasured ebony needles. This is knit with Bernat worsted weight cotton on 5.oo mm needles. They should be done soon, as long as I can continue to avoid getting the yarns tangled.