Nearly There !!!

Hi Blogfriends thought I had better let you know I am still here.
We have had workmen in and the crafting space has been a little bit covered by stuff that is normally in the kitchen and bathroom.

I know it is crazy to do both spaces at the same but it will be worth it when we have finished.
We are up to the painting stage now so nearly finished which is good as we are going skiing next week.

This is the space where I normally do my crafting but as you can see it is surrounded by dust sheets.

At least Maisie has found a use for them.
She reminds me a bit of the 'Princess and the Pea'.

 

I can still feel the Pea you know!

 

That's much better thank you!

 

Back soon.

Angela x

Lavinia Stamps Faries on Fabric.

Hi Blogging friends, just a little something extra, had a small piece of the printed fabric left over from something else and thought it would nice to use it on a tag, so here it is.

 

First I placed wadding at the back of the fabric, machined the leaf veins and enhanced this with hand stitching using gold thread.

I machined on the black flower trim before trimming away excess wadding, glueing the fabric to the tag and edging it with crackle glaze.

When the glaze was dry, I went around the edge with a gold gilding pen.

 I have included this closeup as it shows the crackle glaze better.

 

I love the Lavinia Mushroom stamps (Zen Tall Mushrooms) and the idea of combining them with the downloads so decided to stamp them onto a sheet of acetate, (Stazon ink is best for this).

I have used this as an overlay for the tag.

 

I just had to make their eyes stand out so added brads.

 

Finished this off by joining the fabric section and the acetate with a black cord.

 

This is a fairly quick way to use the downloads as there is a lot less hand sewing.

 Hoping Tracey likes this.

             Back soon,
              Angela x

Lavinia Stamps Fairies on Fabric.

Hi Blogbuddies finished this at last, not that I haven't enjoyed making it more a matter of knowing when to stop lol!
These downloadable designs are so inspiring, you can quilt on them, add hand or machine embroidery, embellish with beads, buttons and sequins etc., use them in patchwork, alter the colours with an art program or just leave them as they are.
I felt a bit guilty at first embellishing them as the designs are so gorgeous on their own.
None the less here is the finished project and I hope you like it.

I make no apologies for this being a rather long posting, this was a fairly lengthy project but I hope you think it is worth it.

These are the downloads (Lavinia Stamps) as they are when printed and the printing media.

 

I began by tacking the coloured organza on the back and applying machine stitching around sections of the design and cutting away some of the printed fabric to reveal the colours below.

 

 Next I inserted wadding into the face section by opening the back slightly and then started the embroidery and embellishments.

 

 This shows the early stages of the surface embellishment.

 
Now for the border.

Used cotton calico for the background and sprayed it using Deka Silk dye. I will not apologise for the messy jars, you can see they are well used.
I like to use a diffuser for spraying as it gives a better finish but other methods will work too.
Allow this to dry and iron to ensure the dye is set.
I don't really worry too much about the fastness of the dye as this type of product will not be washed.
I also cut out a paper arch which will be used later.

 

Next I used Distress Inks and Big and Juicy to stamp a sunburst stamp (Lavinia Stamps) over the sprayed fabric.

For the following process I used polyester fabrics (net and organza) as they melt easily.

 

On the sample piece below you can see that I have layered these up using the calico as the backing, as this will not melt, the net and organza can be layered in whatever order you wish.

 

 

Machine stitch using whatever design you prefer. I made a curved grid pattern.

 

Then comes the exciting bit or scary depending on how you look at it.

It is a good idea to work in a well ventilated room for this, just to be on the safe side.

Be brave and start the heat gun, the fabric will start to melt very quickly so keep an eye on what is happening.

I use the scissors to stop the fabric moving about rather than burn your fingers.

And there you have it, fabulous texture!!!
You can melt this as much or as little as you wish, I wanted to be able to see the stamped detail beneath.

 

When this has cooled you can pull it back into shape which will separate even more of the fabrics, don't worry.

When the fabric is back into shape and flat this is the effect you can expect to see.

 

Next, I sprayed some lace, whatever you have is great.

These are the inks I used.

 

 

Gather the lace and tack everything together in the centre of the fabric in an arch shape.

I used the paper arch template as a guide.

When that is complete, cut away the centre leaving a small seam allowance. You will need to cut little notches into the seam allowance to help it turn over.

 

Once you have turned the calico inside, tack the edge and machine it to keep it in place.

 I then used Treasure Silver and rubbed this over the fabric but you could add other stitch work to this if wished.

 

Ensure that the lace is at the front ready for the next stage.

 

And now for the final stages.

I caught the lace down with small french knots and then lined the back with calico and edge stitched it to keep it nice and flat.

If you want a more ridged finish to the hanging you can insert thin board inside before completing the lining.

I don't tend to press the finished work as it can flatten it but that's up to you.

I have sewn a brass ring onto the back so that it can be hung on the wall.

 

 

And here is a closeup of the finished design.

 

 

I do hope you like it and that it will inspire you to visit Lavinia Stamps and maybe invest in the downloads.

Although I have used these on fabric they can be printed onto anything that will go into your printer.

What about acetate, now there's an idea for a future project.

 

Bye for now, wishing you lots of creative moments,

Angela x

 

 

 

The Adventures of BP MIni Me

Hi BP here again,
Happy New Year to you all.
As Christmas and all that stuff is over I was getting the feeling that it was time for me to go walkabout again and look what I have found.
Not seen these before.

Now then Brassy girl, what do you know?
She says they are wise monkeys, they wont stay very wise if they keep their mouth, eyes or ears covered up will they?

 

Back again soon,

BP Mini Me x

Masterboard Monday

Hi Blogdarlings  now that Christmas is over it's time to concentrate on the next project.
For this masterboard I have made two slightly different designs, one with a silver background and one with red.
The silver background was sprayed onto the paper using Cosmic Shimmer Mist and the red one by rubbing the ink pad on the craft sheet and then pulling the paper over it.

 

I then used the other ink pads to stamp the images which were a spring, text and texture stamps.

These stamps were by Creative Expressions.

 

I intend using these background stamps for the Challenge over at SanDee and amelie's Steampunk Challenges, so back soon with some ideas.

 

Angela x

Ali-Craft DT Project

Hi Bloggies, it's my turn again to post you an offering over at Ali-Craft blog.
Ali has sent me these Dylusions Stamps by Dyan Reaveley, it's the Mini Couture set which is available from Ali-Craft.

 

I decided to make a three page tag book.

To start this I used the Tag Pad by Julie Nutting and sprayed the tags with Crafty Notions inks.

These are not colours I tend to use very much but felt we needed something to brighten things up a little at this time of the year.

 

I also needed some other colours of card so used distress inks by rubbing the inkpad onto a craft sheet, spritzing it with water and

dabbing and dragging the card over it.

 

These inks are also available from Ali-Craft.

Don't you just love the range that is now available!

 

When the tags were dry, I stamped the chosen designs onto the cards as shown below and also onto masking paper.

 

To add more colour and texture to the background I used Tim Holtz's stencils and distress inks, there are a range of these available from Ali-Craft.

 

I stamped several of the images onto the sprayed papers which would later be cut out.

 

I continued to decorate the tags with stencils and stamps.

 

Next I cut out the shapes which I had stamped onto the sprayed card and using a paper mask, I stamped patterns onto sections of the skirts and the man's shirt to give more interest to the design.

These pattern stamps work really well with this technique as the Mini Couture are outline stamps.

The background stamps were also Dylusions.

I used Doodle Parts and Basic Backgrounds.

 

This photograph gives a clear view of the technique but if you need any further information please leave me a comment and I will get back to you.

 

This shows the effect you get when the masks are removed.

I also added a bow to the skirt.

 

I added a border to the edge of the tags again using the Dylusions stamps.

 

I felt at this stage that it was still missing something so rubbed some pink and purple distress ink around the edge and added some hand written text.

To complete the tag book I mounted it onto yellow card and added ribbon, stickles glue and 3D glaze on parts of the clothing.

I think it's really noticeable how the glaze brings out the colour.

 

 

 I hope you like the finished Tags.

I would very much appreciate any comments.

 

Big Crafty Hugs,

Angela x

Birthday Card

Hi Bloggers, we have a special birthday coming up for a member of the family.
It will be a 1st birthday celebration so had to make a card.

It's not very often that I make pretty cards so it made a nice change.

 

This close-up shows the embossed detail clearly.

I finished her shirt off with a little stickles glue, think you can just about see the glitter.

Very girly. I think?

Lots of pink lol!

 

Hope you like it.

Back soon.

Big Crafty Hugs,

 

Angela x

Steampunk Aeroplane?

Hi Bloglovers  don't want to bore you with my ski trip but just had to show you this.
Anyone who loves Steampunk will appreciate this.
It is hanging from the roof in Chambery airport and I just had to photograph it.
People are so busy they don't even seem to notice it!
It's not strictly speaking Steampunk but with a little bit of effort I bet we could make it into something beautiful lol!
What do you think?

 

Is this gorgeous or what!!!

 

Back soon,

Angela x

 

Masterboard Monday

Hi Blogbuddies, this is a page from my envelope journal which I made as part of a swap with my dear friend Gloria.
There are 12 pages altogether as we did one a month over a year.
This one is based on time so I thought a good project for January.

 

I used a brown envelope for this and the inner page is from a vellum Masterboard which I used several times throughout the making of this journal.

 

The clock was by Docrafts and the cog stamps by Stampendous.

 

The background on the front was a Tim Holtz embossing folder and the clock face, a Tim Holtz die, using thin cork sheet.

The sentiment stamp inside the envelope was also by Tim Holtz.

 

This was a great project to do, the journal looks very impressive and because we were doing a swap we ended up with two.

I know it takes more time but I always like to make a copy for myself when I can.

 

 

Back again soon.

Crafty Hugs Angela x