150 years

This year the church that I attend is 150 years old. We had a special tea yesterday morning to kick off our celebrations. I was involved in the kitchen. It was a really lovely morning with the hall looking spectacular and so much food donated. The problem came when it was time to do the washing up. Tea and cake for 300 people makes a lot of dishes, believe me. We where all exhausted by the time we finished!!!

Besides butterflies the next image that I stitch the most frequently are flowers.

Here is a soft and feminine flower card.

I rounded two corners for a little interest and used double sided foam to give some dimension to the top panel.

I loved the clean and simple elegance of this card by Laurie over at Soapbox creations and used it as my inspiration.

Supplies:

Corner Punch

Foam tape  

Pattern: 101ideas for embroidery on paper by Erica Fortgens

Thread: green and pink (make and numbers unknown)   

Valentines day part 3

It was while making this card that I came up with the idea for today's heart card. Once again it's appropriate for valentines, a wedding or anniversary card.

I particularly like the combination of copper and white.

I distressed the edges, added copper peel off and to finish enamel dots and flat backed gems.

And now for my next card

My inspiration

Source: Resqbabrie at Splitcoast Stampers

I layered the stitched panel onto black paper and added some decorative tape in black to the base. The flat backed gems compliment the colours used for the hearts.

Supplies:

Card 1

Pattern: New Designs, New Projects for Embroidery on Paper by Erica Fortgens

Peel off in copper

Copper enamel dots

Champagne flat backed gems

Thread: DMC Blanche

Card 2

Just for you Tape Sticker Size 12 5/18cm

Pattern:  Stitching Cards border 1 valentine hearts 
Thread: Red and yellow (no make or number available)

             Green DMC 704

             Blue DMC 809

Flat backed gems in green, red and blue

Butterflies, butterflies and more butterflies.....

As you know I am very fond of stitching butterflies, in fact in the computer folder where I store the things that catch my eye and inspire me, the section entitled butterflies is second only to my Christmas section!!!

So here today is another butterfly card, well two versions of the same card.

I prefer the pink one. It was the second one I stitched.

The sentiment is computer generated prior to stitching and I used artist pastel pencils to colour the smaller butterflies. I then smudged the pencil with an ear bud.

I rounded the corners of the top two layers with a corner punch.

I was inspired by this card.

Supplies:

Pattern: small butterflies: 101 ideas for embroidery on paper by Erica Fortgens

             big butterfly: ( reduced to 70%)   Stitching Cards. Free butterfly 
Thread: Yellow, blue and pink (no make or name available)

Pink and blue flat backed gems

Cardstock: 200gsm in blue, kraft and salmon pink

clear and blue glass beads

Corner punch

Derwent pastel pencils yellow: zinc yellow (light) deep cadmium (dark)

                                    blue: Spectrum blue

                                    pink: Terracotta

Valentine's Day Part 2

Another card which can be used for Valentine's Day or a wedding or anniversary I suppose.

I used a corner punch and scrap of ribbon to complete.

My inspiration

Source: K Dunbrook

Supplies:

Pattern "New Designs, NewProjects for embroidery on Paper" by Erica Fortgens

Corner Punch

Ribbon Scrap

Thread: DMC in black and red

Happy Birthday Mom

It was my Mom's birthday yesterday and this is the card I made for her.

It was very hot on the day so we had a picnic under the trees in my sister's garden, with home made mango ice cream and lemon and basil cocktails. We even spent some time in the swimming pool. A lovely lazy time spent with family.

Happy Birthday Mom

My inspiration came from this lovely card  by Maureen Merritt

Supplies:

Pattern: Large Flowers "Easy Embroidery on paper" by Jokke de Vette

             Small flowers Pinbroidery. free flower corners
Thread: Coral, apricot and green (sorry no numbers or makes available)

Gold peel off stripes

Liquid Pearls in gold pearl

Valentines Day part 1

I have slowly been chipping away at the huge number of mails which have accumulated in my inbox while I was away. I was gone for five weeks and my access was not regular hence the exhorbitatnt number there. I know I could simply have deleted the whole lot and started afresh but by doing that I was sure to miss out on some lovely examples of fellow bloggers work and I simply wasn’t prepared to take that chance. Anyway I am now down to mails that have today's date on them, so the end is in sight.

What I have noticed is that valentines cards are starting to pop up all over the place so I guess I should start sharing some of my own. 

My inspiration

Source: Anna Wight

Supplies:

Pattern: Stitching Cards border-1--valentine-hearts
Thread: DMC in baby pink

Baker's Twine in red

Paper: Pink and white strip from Google images, black 80gsm

Pink flat backed gem

White Flowers

As you know I recently spent some time overseas. When in Australian the couple who hosted me really pulled out all the stops and so this is the card I made to thank them for their right royal spoiling of yours truly.

I took my inspiration from this image. 

Source: Unknown

A similar card made using the same pattern and just a slightly different variation of card stock colours.

 I used artist pastels to shade the inside of the leaves in green and smudged them with an earbud.

The inspiration

Source: hskelly

On both cards I have used machine stitching to secure the kraft panel to the coloured card stock.

Here are a couple of other cards using this lovely pattern.

Supplies:

Pattern: Easy Embroidery on Paper by Joke de Vette

Card stock: Kraft, red and sea green in 160gsms 

Thread: DMC in Blanc, Scraps of olive green, sea green and red

Flat backed gems in champagne and red for centre of flowers