Embossed Butterflies

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will no doubt have noticed that I often use the free butterfly pattern from Stitching Cards.
It was the first pattern that I ever stitched and it has remained one of my favourites.

 

For these cards I reduced the butterfly pattern to 70%.

The embossing was done by hand. I pricked and stitched the butterfly first. To do the embossing I secured the stencil to a window with sticky tape, placed the stitched panel face down over the stencil and holding it firmly in place embossed the butterflies using a medium embossing tool. I moved the topper around filling in the spaces with butterflies until I was happy with the end result.

This white on white one was used for a wedding and the pink one for a birthday.

A peel off sentiment and punched butterflies finished this layout.

Supplies:

Pattern: Stitching Cards butterfly pattern
Punch: Butterfly
Pink dotty satin ribbon and white satin ribbon
Embossing Folder: Martha Steward
Gold peel off sentiment
Pearl and clear glass beads
Flat backed gems in champagne and clear 

Happy Anniversary

For me weekends are about not having to set the alarm. I love being able to wake up when my body clock says I have had enough sleep. It's a real luxury.

If I am not able to indulge myself due to school sport or some other early morning commitment, I like nothing better than a little snooze in the afternoon. I'm off to take one as soon as I have finished this post.

Today's card is for a 4th wedding anniversary.

For this card I cut 3 identical hearts out of striped paper. These where done by hand. I secured two back to back for the stand up heart and stuck the third one onto the card stock over the half doily. I then did a single row of machine stitching down the centre of the double sided heart to secure it exactly on top of the flat one. This allowed it to be bent so that it is able to stand away from the card stock. Tape measure washi tape finished the layout.

I made the envelope and lined it with a page of an old dictionary.

Supplies:
180gsm kraft card stock
Striped paper downlaoded from Google images.
Sylko small white doily
washi tape in tape maesure
C6 Envelope: red paper, complete Crafter's Companion envelope side
                       Liner: Page from an old dictionary

Inherited things

When I started taking embroidery a bit more seriously my Mom gave me both of my Grandmother's embroidery bags. There where masses of thread in each, some of it very tangled and all very old and most without brand names or colour code numbers.
Then when my M-I-L pass on I inherited her box of threads too. This box was a lot more organized but still had some info missing.
I had so much thread that there was no need to purchase more and I started making my cards using this supply. I am coming to the end of a lot of it now, especially the greens and pinks which work so well in flower designs but what it means is that often I am unable to supply exact colour codes for the cards that I show here.

I am trying to be more systematic so that I can give accurate information where possible but sometimes that is just not going to happen.

A while ago I made a card using a new technique I had learnt called masking.
Today I have a couple of other cards I made using the same technique.

Flowers,

A flamingo

and some sunflowers.

I added some machine zigzag and a button to this one, while blue metal dots completed the first card and black flat backed gems the middle one.

Supplies:
Ink: Colorbox Chestnut Roan, Artnic in lime, aqua, apple green, sky blue, canary and silver
Thread: Charcoal (flamingo and flowers) olive green (sunflowers)
Patterns: Stitching Cards Flamingo sunflowers Free flower pattern
old Button
metal dots
flat backed gems black

Thank you

This weekend was my turn to have a break from early morning school sport and what a lucky break I caught because it rained! Not hard enough to cancel the game but just enough to ruin the hair and make it miserable out there. I did spare a thought for my colleagues while I drank a cup of coffee in my warm, dry bed.

Today I am sharing a pattern with you which is very versatile.

It's a lovely frame and the large space inside makes adding a stitched sentiment very simple. I have used this pattern over and over.

 

I gave all cards a border using a felt tipped pen.

Supplies:
Patterns: Stitching Cards Sentiment
              Frame: Basics of Embroidery on Paper by Erica Fortgens
Papers: Scraps from my stash, sorry no brand names
Threads: Frame DMC metallic antique copper. Others: no info available
Felt tipped pens: Rolfes Metallic Marker in green and pink

An experiment

Last Saturday I spent a very pleasant morning wandering around a craft market with my Mom and Sister. The market was held in the garden of an old house which has been converted into shops. They have removed the doors from each room and now you wander through the house perusing gorgeous decor merchandise and crafting goodies. There is also a courtyard which they have converted into a lovely outside eating area.
I didn't really buy much but did get to taste some very unusual beers. I'm not a beer drinker generally, wine and a good G & T are more my thing, but this was a local brewery run by ladies so I had to see if it was any good. And they where.
My sister bought a selection of 6 different brews to give to a friend for his birthday, a very different sort of gift but I'm sure it will be appreciated.
It was a lovely morning even if we did have to wait an age for our lunch to arrive, personally I think they didn't have the rye bread ordered by my sibling and had to rush off and buy some. The waitress acted very sheepishly when that was ordered!!!

Today's card was also for a birthday, this time an ex colleague.
I have seen so many lovely cards on Lime Doodle Designs  using embossing paste and I was keen to give it a try.
When I first started looking for it in the local shops no-one had heard of it. It took about 6 months before it reached our fair shores and here it's called Texture Paint.
I added a drop of red ink to the paste to make the light pink colour.

The stitching on this card somehow jarres for me. I think next time I'll stitch 1 - 4 and not 1 - 6 as the pattern suggested. I would prefer it to look a bit more on the delicate side than it does.
But as I said it was an experiment and overall I think it turned out pretty okay.
I used my Complete Crafter's Companion to emboss the lines and added some metal dots to complete.

Supplies:
Pattern from 101 Ideas for Embroidery on Paper by Erica Fortgens
Thread: Single strand of DMC in dusty pink and bright pink ( sorry thread is too old so has no numbers)
Cheap metal dots, no brand on packaging
Complete Crafter's Companion
Creative Talents Texture Paint
Envelope: Creative Park
Stencil: Free with a craft Mag

Happy Woman's Day

Saturday the 9 August was Woman's Day here in South Africa. As a society we still suffer hugely from discrimination, superstition and ignorance pertaining to woman. Celebrating a day like this puts the spotlight firmly on these issues.
On a lighter note it's also a time to........

"think about all the woman who have made an impact on our lives

and about how we, as woman, affect the people around us"

- Debby Payne

So get out there and give the important women in your life a hug.

Today I have a card for you which makes use of a technique called masking. I watched this  tutorial and then tried it out for myself. It's very easy and quiet effective I think.

I actually made this second card before the one above but felt that the black thread was too dense and heavy for this delicate pattern, especially on the wings. Hence my choice of antique copper for the dragonfly above. I have since stitched the wings in a more translucent thread and am much happier with it. I'll share that card with you some time in the future.

To attempt to lift the heaviness of the dark thread I added gold glitter to the body. I'm not sure how successful I was with that but I guess we learn by our mistakes.

Supplies:

Pattern: Form-A-Lines  Riverside delight dragonfly
Ink: Artic in apple green, lime and mint

Masking tape 1.5cm in width

Gold sequins

Stickles in gold

Page from an old dictionary

Gold felt tipped pen for edging.

Black paper for edging

Cardstock: White and yellow in 180gsm

Washi Butterfly

Today's card is for a very special lady who is working tirelessly to set up an organisation which will support people who are HIV positive.

This has been a huge undertaking for her and the continuous red tape and bureaucracy has not proved easy, however she continues to battle her way through.

Here is hoping that the year ahead sees her fulfilling her dream, and that her good times will far out weigh anything else.

I was inspired by this card. To add a bit of dimension I propped the embroidered topper onto foam squares.

Supplies:

Pattern: Stitching Cards free butterfly
Washi Tape: assorted

Small blue glass beads

Thread: Navy embroidery thread

Foam Squares: Fabscrapes

Envelope: Creative Park

Butterflies for Dianne

It's time for another Queen for the day challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers and this week it's the turn of Dianne.
This is the card which I decided to copy as a way of honouring her.

Here is my version

  and because I always do two of everything, a pink one too.

Supplies:

Pattern: Stitching cards   Free butterfly pattern

Paper: Blue Free download from Phillipmartin

           Pink from my stash, sorry other details available

Glass beads in clear or blue

Torn Paper

It's a new month so it's time for a new challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. This month's challenge is torn paper.
Here is my card inspired by Debby Hughes over at Lime Doodle Designs

The second card does not follow the challenge.
It was inspired by this gorgeous card over on Ardyth's blog Maskerade however I kept it small at 6cm x 7.5cm.

I added red and silver flat backed gems and a little liquid pearls inside my tree.

These cards were inspired by two of my favourite card makers. I love their clean and simple style. Both of their blogs are worth a visit.

Supplies:

Holly card
Pattern: Stitching Cards Meerkat Christmas
Embossing folder: Cuttlebug swirls
Die: Sizzix 8 die circle
Red baker's twine.
Small red glass beads
Green embroidery thread
Cream 200sgm Card stock

Tree Card
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities  2013 holiday trees
Flat backed gems in silver and red
Liquid Pearls in platinum