Wednesday 27 July 2011

Birthday Gift Set

Hello again!

Here I am, up early trying to snatch some time at the computer before the little ones wake up.   Am I getting it??? Would you believe it! They typically get up around 9am but this morning.......8.15am arrrrghh.  Fortunately though, they have decided to play with Lego for a while before breakfast which gives me a bit longer to post these pics :) 

I made this gift set for a friend of Lydia who had a birthday last month.  The gorgeous papers were given to me by my lovely friend Lynda.  The image is from DigiStamp Boutique Lucy Collection and is coloured with Copics.  I also coloured a clear button to match as well.  The sentiment is 'teenage angst' downloaded from urbanfonts.com.


A sour cream container made from matching cardstock, filled with sweets, sealed with double sided tape and crimped at each end. 


I resized the image, this time cutting it out and adding it to the carton with foam pads.


This sentiment is a Magnolia stamp from here.  After stamping on white card, I rounded the corners, punched a hole and tied the tag to the carton with some East of India twisted paper string. 


 This keyring was made with felt and fabric.  I cut the felt pieces with a nestabilities heart die and used a smaller die for the fabric piece. I glued the ribbon between the felt pieces with hot glue and hand stitched the hearts together with small running stitches.


the back

The gift bag is made with 2 sheets of white A4 size cardstock and a wide strip of matching paper added to the front and back.  The tag is cut out with this Sizzix die.  The glitter ribbon (for the handles) is from Marks & Spencer (christmas range)


 For another of Lydia's friends, I made these felt pins for a decorated cork board. Both girls' birthdays were on a Monday and Tuesday of the same week, so we had a frantic weekend getting it all ready.  Hopefully it was worth it!


I got the idea for these pins from Sarah at Paper and String.  I asked permission first and as they are not being made for re-sale it was fine :) I really want to make more for our own cork board but I have too many half finished projects to do first...I'm running out of space to store them all!


 The pins on the cork board.
I also stuck plain buttons on pins but it's hard to see in the photo.


That's it for today!

Thank you for visiting my blog and hello to my new followers :)  I'm afraid my blog updates are a bit erratic but I will try my best and not let too much time pass between posts....!
Sarah xx

Thursday 14 July 2011

Another Sewing project - Tilda Dog

Good Morning :)

This little project came about by accident!  When Dad was in hospital in May, Mum and I nipped over to Dunelm Mill for a wee look (for me it was mainly the craft section...)

I came across this Tilda book and I was hooked, the projects are just gorgeous...We went upstairs for some fabric and there was a sale on!  Unfortunately I was like a child in a sweet shop and bought a bit too much - who can resist a bargain....!

I tried making the hearts first (shown in my last post) but it's been a very long time since I've sewed properly with a sewing machine and my first attempts were a disaster! How do you hold on to tiny pieces of fabric without sewing over your finger??....

When I'd got the hang of the hearts, I tried the dog.  It was very fiddly but well worth it in the end...I love him to bits :)




Thank you for taking the time to visit today :)  I'll be back soon with more projects, one of which is a mini book for a class I'll be teaching at the end of the summer holidays.
Sarah x

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Teacher cards and Gifts - Fabric Hearts

Good Morning!

Sorry it's another overload of photos!
The cards and tags were all made with the Craft Robo/Silhouette.

I'm really pushed for time this morning - it's a public holiday here in Northern Ireland and we're making the most of the lovely weather and going on a picnic :)
I'll update this post as soon as I come home.

Hope you all have a great day wherever you are!

UPDATED
Home again after a lovely picnic and open top train ride :) I hope the good weather decides to stay for a while...

This card was made for Phoebe's Nursery teacher.  I recently downloaded Silhouette Studio for my Craft Robo and I love it!  It's much simpler to use than RoboMaster (for me anyway!) and I bought some studio files too.  This apple shape was one of them and I adjusted it to make it into a card.  It's really simple, you just cut out all the pieces in different coloured card, ink the edges, assemble them together and doodle around the edges. 



The little pencil is stamped (TPC Studio Teacher stamp set) on white card, coloured with copics and cut out. The sentiment for the name is 'Sweetie Pie' font.


This little heart is sewn using a sewing machine and embellished with a fabric flower.

I attached the flower using Bondaweb and then blanket stitched around the edges. I finished it off with a felt circle and stitched a button on the centre.

I made a box for the card and tied it with red raffia adding a little tag through the bow.  The bag is 12x12" paper wrapped around a little box at the bottom. The tabs at the top are punched with a McGill punch and I tied organza ribbon through for the handle.  The tag was made with the Craft Robo using the print and cut feature.  The designer paper is My Little Shoebox.  The scallop top of the bag is made using the Xcut scallop punch and the little piece left over from punching is glued along the bottom of the bag.

This card was given to Caleb's teacher and I love the way it turned out :)  Like the first card it was made using the Craft Robo.  The school days tag is stamped on white card (TPC Studio Teacher stamp set). I coloured the apple red and covered it with glossy accents to add a lovely shine.



The name on the front is computer generated using 'The Cool' font. The crayons and rulers are stamped on kraft card (TPC Studio Teacher stamp set), coloured and cut out.  The mini gingham ribbon is from a local fabric shop.



This heart is made the same as the first but I edged the flower on this one with running stitch and 3 buttons in the centre.

The bag is the same as the last with a few different finishing features.  I used a zig zag Martha Stewart edging punch along the top and bottom and used a different shaped tag, again made using print and cut on the Craft Robo.  The spiral roses are also cut out with the CR (in 3 sizes), rolled into shape and fixed in place with hot glue.  The flourish is cut using a Tim Holtz die. The paper for the bag is Three Bugs in a Rug 'Chloe'

For this heart I cut out a felt flower using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.  I used a running stitch around the edge and sewed a button on top of another in the centre.  The bag is made the same as the others using My Little Shoebox paper and another tag cut with the CR.  I forgot to take a picture of the matching card!
This gift was for the Nursery Classroom Assistant.  

The paper for this bag and card is Three Bugs in a Rug 'Lazy Summer'.  The card and embellishments were cut out with the CR and I popped the sentiment up with foam pads.  I added Stickles glitter glue to the edges of the flower for a little sparkle.  The sentiment is computer generated using 'Emma Sopia' font.

This tag was cut out with the CR using a free file you get when you download the Silhouette Studio software.

A few of the hearts I've made....I will be posting some more of my sewing projects soon...


Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope my future posts will not be as long winded!

Sarah xx

Monday 11 July 2011

Selection of cards

Who was I kidding when I said I'd have more time with the children off school.....lol.  It is lovely having them at home though :)

To catch up, I'm just going to post some photos and if there's anything you see in them that you'd like to know more about, just leave a comment or email me and I'll try and help.
I'm embarrassed to say the first ones are Father's Day cards...... has it really been a month ago?









Lydia made this one for her Dad - isn't it a pity she's not 'into' crafting!
It was her first time using Copics too.


 Caleb had great fun making this card

 Phoebe made this one in Nursery school



I paper pieced the rocket, cut out the window and filled it with glossy accents to look like a real window.

 The same digital image for these cards with one made landscape and the other portrait.

Another digi image for Dad's birthday and coloured with Koh-i-noor pencils.

That's all the boy cards for today, I'll be back tomorrow with teacher cards and gifts.
 I've also been doing some sewing! 

Thank you for visiting today :)
Sarah xx