Blog Candy and Amulet Bags

Well I seem to get a flurry of stuff done, then it takes me awhile to get something more finished. I finally assembled "Blue Waters" bead knit amulet bag and I had started another little bag and it is also finished. So here they are. You can see the work in progress Of "Blue Waters" here. I finished this amulet bag off with a 3 strand chain and added little beaded tassels on each side.

For the new amulet bag, I didn't take photos until it was finished. I used up a bunch of assorted sizes and colours of beads left over from other projects, I love doing that. I again used a 3 strand beaded chain but this time I made a beaded pendant on the point of the flap.

Now to the blog candy. My visit counter is fast approaching the 3000 mark so I think a celebration is in order. Between now and reaching the 3000 mark (I may go over that a little since my injured foot keeps me off the computer sometimes) anyone who leaves a comment on this post telling me why they would like to win their choice of either one of the amulet bags will be entered in a random draw. For an extra entry become a follower of my blog or let me know if you already are a follower.
Remember you will have your choice of one of the amulet bags pictured in this post, I want you to be happy with your prize.

Altered Board Book Butterfly Page

Altered Board Book Butterfly Page
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

For this page I used one of my own painted backgrounds scanned it and printed my quote. I then rubber stamped the butterflies and flourish stamps. The edges are sanded and rubbed with distress ink.

Altered Board Book Art Page

Altered Board Book Art Page
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This spread is digital collage using scrapbook background paper, a photo of me and my altered heads, which I made translucent to five the impression of thoughts. I took a photo of my "Spirit Dreams" canvas and added it with brads. The hand and "Art" stamps are from Quietfire Design.

Altered Board Book

My first altered board book. The front and back cover is scanned fabric samples printed on copy paper and glued on the cover with matt medium.

I used various digital scrapbook papers to make the background and pocket. The images are from Instant Memories Family Ready-To-Use Scrapbook Pages book and disk. The quote on vellum is from Quietfire Design.

This shows the tag out of the pocket with another Quietfire Design rubber stamp quote.

Knit Bead Amulet Bag "Blue Waters"

Knit Bead Amulet Bag
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I showed you the first bit, now the knitting is done now on with sewing it into a bag and adding the strap.

52 Quilts Journal Week 15

52 Quilts Journal Week 15
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The background is a fabric sample and the pendant is a piece from a metal steamer. This was painted with bright bronze and espresso metal paint. I glued the flat round bead on and then wrapped it with specialty yarn and maple coloured cotton. The fringe at the bottom has some odds and ends of black and white beads knotted on.

Bead Knit Amulet Bag "Blue Waters"

Bead Knit Amulet Bag
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This work in progress is another of my bead knit amulet bags. This is a pre-mixed aquamarine size 10/0 seed beads and a denim colour cotton thread knit on 1.25mm needles.

52 Quilts Journal Week 14

52 Quilts Journal Week 14
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Another of my endless fabric samples, love this one, and glass leaf charms. I did a bit of machine stitching with rayon thread following the outline of some of the squares in the print.

52 Quilts Journal Week 13

52 Quilts Journal Week 13
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

More fabric sample, rubber stamping on coffee stained cotton scrap, jewelry findings and odd beads, some from my art friend Beth. Check out those legs, should have given her a bit more of a high stepping kick. I did a random meandering line of straight stitch to give the feel of motion and stitched the stamped fabric with rayon thread.

52 Quilts Journal Week 12

52 Quilts Journal Week 12
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Well the weeks are just flying by. What can I say? It's not a good plan to start a project like this when you're about to move and it's taken me awhile to get back into the project on a regular bases, but now I am really into it. This page was not even on my radar until this morning. I've had the idea to use old family photos at some point in the project and since the Created Byhand Tuesday Challenge is to create art with the theme of pets, so the time was right. This one is chenille fabric sample, the photo is an old black and white of my brother, edited to sepia and stitched with brown rayon machine embroidery thread. The photo is printed on regular copy paper and brushed with matt medium and allowed to dry before stitching. The quote and date are stamped on coffee stained cotton fabric. Oh this photos was taken in an orchard and that is a real honest-to-goodness wooden apple box that the boy and dog are siting on.

52 Quilts Journal Week 11

52 Quilts Journal Week 11
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The background on this page is Silk Jacquard fabric sample. The center square is a small sample and the middle layer is off white cotton, again from my stash of fabric samples. I used bits of silk flower left over from other projects, some are cut apart and then all are stitched in place with odd bits of beads.

Exploring Waves

Exploring Waves
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

It's taking me awhile to finish this bag, not so much knitting while it was so hot, but I'm moving along again. I'm probably about 85% done now. I can't wait to get this one finished, then start on Exploring Swirls bag.

Sewn Illusion Journal Page 4

Sewn Illusion Journal 4
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Page 4 of the Sewn Illusions Journal is scraps from the week 10 quilt, another small fabric sample and some strips of tea dyed cotton which was rubber stamped with funky flowers background stamp and "Spirit" with EK Success Retro ABC stamp set. There is a little strip of paper stitched on to this one as well.

52 Quilts Journal Week 10

52 Quilts Journal Week 10
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I used a small velvet sample for the center of this quilt and sewed other fabric samples around Log Cabin style. The cross in the middle is another found object that I discovered several months ago while walking on the sidewalk along the Lougheed Highway in Port Coquitlam.

Bicycle In Motion

My son is working on a web page for a college class and wanted me to take some photos for him to use. We picked this nice treed spot and I took my first shots using the sport setting for subject in motion on my camera. I'm pleased with the results of him riding past as I took the photo and he found some to use for the web page too. This is my favourite.

August Card Project 1

August Card Project 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Cherish The Thought first Sat. card project for Aug. uses 3 embossing folders, flowers and Nestablilities. The grey cardstock is grey Core Color and is sanded after embossing. The bird and vine is embossed on foil tag cut with the Nestabilities.

52 Quilts Journal Week 9

52 Quilts Journal Week 9
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

The background is cotton fabric sample, the coloured stuff with the heart cut out is a baby wipe I used to clean up previous projects, the Asian fabric behind the heart cut-out is from a fat quarter I bought in Armstrong when I visited my sister.I decided to fringe the fore edge of the page this time. Now you know that heart cut from the baby wipe just can't be wasted, so it will be seen in a future project.

Sewn Illusions Journal Page 3

Sewn Illusions Journal Page 3
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

For this page I used a green background from a bulk supplies store. It looks similar to dryer sheet but coloured. I stitched various scraps of fabric to the background then attached a leftover sample of the dragonfly paper-cloth. This was glued to the album page with sepia Decoupage Finish. I rubber stamped some clear stamp images with black and purple dye inks.

52 Weeks Quilt Journal Week 8

52 Weeks Quilt Journal Week 8
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This page is more of the cloth-paper. The pear is a digitally altered copy of my pear photo and the border is scans of my dragonfly ATC edited to form the border. All these papers were glued to acrylic felt with matt medium and brushed with 2 more coats of matt medium. I outlined stitched the pear with rayon thread, used a decorative stitch around the pear block. The border is random stitched with black thread and the outer edge is zig-zag stitched with black thread.

52 Weeks Quilt Journal Week 7

52 Weeks Quilt Journal Week 7
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This page is a fabric sample background. The heart is torn watercolour paper brushed with Royal Coat sepia Decoupage Finish and torn rubber stamped papers applied then brushed over the top with more of the sepia decoupage finish.The lace ribbon and paper heart were stitched on the background and then the edge was machine stitched around.

Paper-Cloth ATC 1

Paper-Cloth ATC 1
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I'm experimenting with paper-cloth and for this ATC I scanned and printed the dragonfly ATC on regular printer paper. I coated acrylic felt with matt medium and applied the paper image, then coated the image with 2 coats of matt medium. This was cut to size and machine stitched around the edge.

July ATC Memories In Texture

I placed a piece of plastic mesh vegetable bag and glued string on to cereal box cardboard cut to ATC size. I then wrapped heavy duty aluminium foil over the top and gently rubbed over the surface to emboss the textures. The extra foil was wrapped to the back of the card. next I sponged FW acrylic ink over the foil and heat set. I brushed diluted Diamond Glaze and allowed it to dry. I added a glass leaf bead and a metal tag embossed with "memories" using a silver brad to hold it in place.

The back is watercolour paper, misted with water and the FW acrylic inks dropped on and moved around a bit to blend. This was also heat set. This is a little more like I expected with the dragonfly backgrounds, but I'm liking both now.

July ATC Dragonfly

July ATC Dragonfly
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Some ATCs I made just playing with supplies I have on hand. I used shiny cardstock that was pre-cut to ATC size and made a background with FW acrylic ink in Purple lake and olive green and Pearlescent liquid acrylic in birdwing copper. This didn't turn out quite the way I expected, but I carried on and rubber stamped with the dragonfly and Hematite ep along with a light sprinkle of some mixed embossing powders. Then I cut the ATC down to 2 in x 3 in so I could layer it over 2 other pieces of cardstock.

Tea Themed ATC for July

Tea Themed ATC for July
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here's a few more tea themed ATCs I got ready in time for Sunday's swap at the Grind. All the mini tags are from the Quickutz Squeeze die cutting machine. We had a great, lively swap with 2 new swappers in attendance.

Exploring Waves Bag

Exploring Waves Bag
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I've been progressing along on this bag and am now about 50% done. I'm still loving the gentle shading of the yarn.

July ATC Swap at The Grind

July ATC Swap at The Grind
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Here is another batch of the butterfly digital background, this time with a goddess theme. Most of the rubberstamps are from Quietfire Design.

July ATC Swap at The Grind

July ATC Swap at The Grind
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Digital image background and rubber stamps from Quietfire Design. I rotated and cropped the digital images I was using to practise layers in Photoshop Elements. I tried out different embossing powders and added bling embellishments.

ATC July Butterflies

ATC July Butterflies
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I used white cardstock and stamped the Quietfire Design stamp then used cosmetic sponges to apply Distress Inks. The butterflies are stamped with purple dye based ink and the cardstock was trimmed 2.25in x3.25in and mounted onto a 2.5in x 3.5in dark blue cardstock.

July ATC Dragonfly in Black and White

Here are some more ATCs I made today. These ones are paper napkin applique backgrounds with dragonfly rubber stamped on white cardstock and cut out. The words are cut from a stamping of the "Love where you're at" rubber stamp from Quietfire Design There is a small white or black rhinestone on each for a little bling.

ATC July 09 Lavender Tea 2

ATC July 09 Lavender Tea 2
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

Rubber stamping, Cuttlebug embossing, lettering done with Misty Plum Zig Writter.

Lavender Tea ATC

I've taken a break from knitting for awhile today and worked on some ATCs. I still have some tea themed paper napkins from doing the pages for the Tea Fat Book, so I did some ATCs. I cut my cardstock to 3.5in x 5in and folded it to 2.5in x 3.5in and cut the top corners to resemble a tea bag shape. I used matt medium to glue a piece of the paper napkin to the front side of the ATC. I used my Moxie font for the Quick Kutz squeeze die cut machine and glued the work "tea" on the front. On the back I rubbed some purple ink over the cardstock then stamped a gauze background stamp with Tea Dye Distressed Ink. I wrote the title with a purple Pilot gel ink pen. I used double stick tape to close the bottom and side to form a pocket.
The front of the little Tea "Bag" tag that goes into the packet was made from a 2in x 2.5in piece of Core Color cardstock, corners cut and stamped with the gauze stamp and Tea Dye Distress Ink the run through the Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used matt medium to glue a paper napkin lavender image on. The back of the tag is white cardstock stamped with the gauze stamp and tea cup stamp.

My First Felt Bead

My First Felt Bead
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I finally did it!!! I made a wet felt bead. I went to the Farmers Market on Sunday and after checking out all the fruits and vegetables that were available and buying a nice supply I checked some of the other booths. What a great discovery of a lady at one of the booths with colourful pieces of wool roving. She allowed me to choose a couple of colours and showed me how to make a wet felt bead. I came home with this treasure which I may embellish with some seed beads and turn it into a necklace, I haven't decided for sure yet. If I do I'll post the results.

Blog Award

I was given an award by Linda C it's my first so thanks Linda.
Part of the award is to list 10 things about me and pass the award to 7 other blogs, so here goes.

1. I love lilac trees, but didn't realize how much until I got them back after more then 17 years without lilacs.
   
2. I try to use every scrap I have, bits of knitting yarn, paper, fabric and anything I can find.
   
3. I enjoy knitting and reading outside as long as there is shade for me to sit in and I love listening to the birds sing.
   
4. I enjoy making journals with my Zutter Bind-It-All and hope to try other bookbinding techniques.
   
5. I wish I had more flowers in my own yard, right now I have to borrow gardens for photography.
   
6. I enjoy making ATCs and swapping online and at a monthly in person swap.
   
7. I love collecting buttons and creating with them.
   
8. My favourite colours are purple and green.
9. I love knitting lace, and bead knitting, knitting to felt especially journal wraps and my next favourite is knitting texture.
10. I enjoy exploring new art and techniques.

For the blogs I am giving the awards to I have chosen most from blogs of people who entered my last blog candy award and I had intended to visit, so now I have taken the time to do just that.

1. Karen doesn't always post photos, but she writes so well about her knitting and family, I've even gotten delightful emails from her.
2. Beth posts lovely art and techniques and stories about her family and adventures at the farmers market. Always a nice read.
3. Jane's blog is another knitting blog that offers some beautiful finished objects to read about and see.
4. artlover has several blogs and you may want to check them out, but the one I've awarded the award to has some great techniques to try.
5. vintagekathleen is doing an amazing job and service to other knitters by charting some really lovely lace knitting patterns from an old book. She and the patterns are a treasure.
6. Karen shares great stories about spinning, quilting, knitting and family adventures.
7. Janet post the most beautiful digital art, mixed media, recycled art and quilts.
   
   Thanks to all for giving me wonderful places to visit and to Linda for the award and the chance to do this.
   
   
   
   

Exploring Waves Bag

Exploring Waves Bag
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

This is the first bit of knitting I started June 29 on the Exploring Waves Bag. I am using Araucania yarn on 3.00mm needles and size 6/0 silver lined matt amethyst seed beeds.
I’m enjoying knitting this project. The yarn is easy to knit, the pattern has just enough pattern to be interesting without being complicated and I love the gentle shading of the yarn.

Digital Photos

I am still very much stumbling around with Photo Shop Elements but I took time to play with layers over the last couple of days. I started with this photo and added a scan of one of my encaustic wax backgrounds and came up with this.


Then I tried this photo and used scans of painted backgrounds to create these photos.

Great Weekend

Last weekend was pretty great, I started Sat morning with a little weeding, not my favourite activity, but it makes the yard look better. When I came in I decided to search in boxes for a piece of denim fabric I had, didn't find the denim, but opened another box and found to my great delight the shuttle for my knitting machine. It went missing during our move and I probably would have used the knitting machine last year to make the felted journal wraps instead of hand knitting 13 of these in such a short time. Oh well, I'm sure everyone who received the journals appreciate them being hand knit instead of by machine. Sat afternoon I went to Cherish The Thought scrapbooking store in Port Moody for the demo of the Quick Kutz Squeeze die cut machine and make and take. We made these cute cards using the dress die and an embossing folder and an alpha die set.

Then I decided I liked the Moxie alphabet and used it to put a title on my Sewn Illusion journal. I liked the cover the way it was, so didn't do much to it besides the die cut letters and I borrowed the ribbon and sewing bobbin idea from Penelope that she used for the Tea Book.