Embroidering stamped images

Hello! I had an ah-ha moment the other day while browsing Pinterest. I was looking at all kinds of beautiful embroidery designed by an Australian lady - Leanne Beasley. You can find her on her blog here. She has designed many beautiful embroidery patterns and also produces a magazine Vignette, which is all about stitching. Unfortunately, the cost of shipping one or several of her patterns is pretty cost prohibitive here in the U.S. So I got to thinking, what do I have that I can use for patterns for hand embroidery? I'm not an artist, so I can't just sit down and draw them. So the first thing that came into my head was my Papertrey stamps of course. I started going through my stamps and it occurred to me that the Hills series would translate well into stitcheries. So I stamped out the Spring Hills scene and scanned it into my computer to enlarge it. The size I settled on was having the outer rectangle 5 1/4" x 2 1/2". So I printed the enlarged scene out and traced it onto my linen fabric with a disappearing blue pen that washes out with cold water. I used DMC floss - mostly 2 strands - for most of the stitchery. The majority of the scene is done in a backstitch, with the leaves on trees done with one strand in a lazy daisy stitch. The sheep's wool is done in French knots. I am pleased with how it turned out and plan to do all the Hills series and them put them in a pretty quilt.

 

 

I think the next series I would like to do is the Papertrey Year of Flowers. I would like to embroider each flower and stitch them into a quilted wallhanging. I only have 4 of the YOF sets though, so I may have to depend on the generosity of stamping friends to send me stamped images of the rest. The sets I own are: Violets, Sweet Peas, Roses and Marigolds. If you have some of the remaining sets,  would you be able to mail me a stamped image on white cardstock? If you could stamp it in black, that would be great so it will be easy to trace. Thanks so much for your help! I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

Hello! I am participating in Papertrey's April Blog Hop Challenge today. Nicole challenged us to create a TILTED design on a card. You can read more about the challenge over on Nicole's blog here.

I received my April Papertrey order a couple days ago and decided to use 7th Inning Stretch for my card. I stamped the bat repeatedly on an angle on the background with Versamark Ink.

Then I pulled out every circle punch I own and stamped the baseball stitching stamp on them to create increasingly smaller baseballs. Except for the largest ball which was 1 3/4", I just stamped one side of the stitching at a time so I could space them correctly on the smaller balls. I think the balls really come alive once you swipe the edges with the tea dye duo - I used Chamomile on mine. I popped a few of the balls up with foam to give some dimension. I wanted to convey hitting the ball out of the park. The bat was cut out of some cherry veneer and wrapped with 1/8" silk ribbon at the handle. The sentiment is also from 7th Inning Stretch. I have a 10 year old grandson who will be getting this card for his birthday. Hope you enjoy the blog hop - I'm anxious to see what others come up with! Thanks for any comments you leave - they are appreciated! Have a great blog hop day!

Yard Birds Sewing case and scissor fob

Hello! I have been working on a fun sewing case for a silent auction my quilt guild is having in June. We are supposed to make something that is chicken related, as the theme of the luncheon is "Hen Party".  I made a couple chicken tea towels first - you can see them in this post here. Then I found a pattern for a sewing case that is all about chickens in a Primitive Quilts magazine I subscribe to. The pattern is Yard Birds on pages 80-84 of the Fall 2012 issue. This turned out so cute, I'm afraid I'll have to make another one for the auction - there's no way I'm giving this one away!

Here is a picture of the outside of the case, when it's all folded up. The rooster, hen and chicks are cut from felted wool that I had in my stash. They are whipstitched down onto the white wool background, and then detailing is added with embroidery.

It measures about 10 1/2" wide by 5" high. Here is a picture of the inside of the case. It's my favorite part! I just love the egg pincushion and the little needle book (red with feather stitching). Both sides are zippered pockets for putting your floss or other items in. The little black pocket is for pens or scissors. I have a pair of scissors in it in the picture. You can see my scrissor fob  (blue) in the picture and a close up of it below.

Finally, I wanted to share this crazy, beautiful scissor fob I made. I bought the supplies and pattern for this several years ago, and it's been sitting unfinished for quite awhile. Once I actually started reading the pattern and instructions for making it, I realized that it is made up of thousands of tiny little french knots - using 1 strand of floss!!! That's why it's been sitting unfinished. Well, one of the challenges in our guild this year is to finish unfinished projects (UFO's). So I pulled this out and forced myself to finish it. There are supposed to be 1100 knots per inch - not sure mine is that intricate, but I am pleased with the results. Hope you like it - thanks for sticking with me through all these long explanations!

Chicken Tea Towels

Hello! I have been hand embroidering a couple tea towels for a silent auction my quilt guild is having in June. The theme of the luncheon is "Hen Party", and we are supposed to make something for the auction related to chickens. It can be a chicken pattern, use chicken fabric, or whatever - just as long as it has to do with chickens. I found a pattern for these two tea towels at a quilt show I went to recently. They were pretty easy to whip up - I do alot of embroidery while watching TV in the evenings with my husband. So here they are - enjoy!

Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheels

Hello again! I am trying to get caught up posting some quilting projects I have completed to my blog. This little quilt was made using a pattern and template by Primitive Gatherings. The pattern is "Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheels". I have made a table runner using a similar template as this one, but much bigger. The template for this little miniature quilt is only 1 1/2" square. The blocks in the quilt are 1". The finished quilt is 12" square. It was a challenge to say the least! The hardest thing was holding the little bitty template and cutting around it with my rotary cutter - without cutting of any fingers! But I was determined, and here it is. Hope you enjoy it! I put a felt tip marker beside it to give you an idea of the size. :)

Emma's Quilt

Hello! I have been working on a baby quilt for a dear friend of mine that is going to have a baby girl in early May. I made a quilt for her daughter Jesse when she was born also - that's been 6-7 years now. Jesse's quilt had Holly Hobby type girls embroidered on it with the days of the week. I thought I would do something similar for her little sister Emma's quilt. I embroidered 12 different designs from a Martha Pullen Embroidery CD titled "Antique Bonnet Babies". I have an embroidery machine that I used for these blocks. They are all little girls in pairs, if not threes, doing all kinds of little girl things.  I used a line of Moda fabric called "Kissing Booth" for all the prints in the quilt. I didn't use any particular pattern for this quilt - it just kind of evolved as I went along. The quilt is backed with soft baby flannel. Here are some pictures of the quilt. The embroideries are a little hard to see in the main picture - you can see them better in the closeups.The finished quilt is about 45" square. All it is waiting for now is for little Emma to be born so I can make the label for the back. :)

Thanks for looking at this quilt! I hope her mama Tara likes it!

Zoo Mini-book

Hello! I went with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters to a small local zoo last week. I wanted to put some of the pictures in a little mini album for the girls to look at so they can remember the day. Actually, one of the girls is 18 months, and the other is only 2 months - don't think the little one will have any memories of it. I designed the word book in my Silhouette software that came with my Silhouette Cameo machine. I recently took a class on the Designer Edition of this software, taught by Keri Bradford online. It was an excellent class and taught me alot about what all this software can do. Not only did I design the cutting files to cut out the "ZOO" pages, but I designed the layout of the pages - which really helped to know how big to print the pictures and what all would fit on each page. Here is a screen shot of the layouts in Silhouette Studio.

 I cut each of the "ZOO" pages out of thin chipboard with the Cameo. I had the pictures printed to the size I needed at Costco. I did a print and cut for several of the titles with the Cameo. I added little captions to most of the pictures with little MFT file tabs and in my own handwriting. The "Adventure" and "Fun" stamps are from a My Favorite Things Stamp set "Document it - Hello My Name Is". I punched 3 holes on the left of each page and used some zebra print ribbon (can't believe I actually found a use for it!) to tie the pages together. Here are some photos of the album. It's only three pages long, but front and back of each. But that should be enough for the attention span of a 18 month old. :)

Here is the whole booklet. The front cover  (Z page front) is me and my granddaughter looking at a zebra while we were on a hayride around the property. The "Memories" mat was cut with my Silhouette.

This next page is the back of the "Z" page. It has a picture  of three sheep waiting to be fed by anyone that passes by. They really knew when you had food in your hand! I cut the little "Remember" mat with my Silhouette.

 

This next page is the front of the first "O" page. It has pictures of my daughter and granddaughter, and a cow with HUGE horns. It wasn't a normal cow - I forget the actual name of it. 

 The next page is the back of the first "O" page. It has pictures of two camels on our hayride and my granddaughter feeding some of the sheep in the barn.

The front of the last "O" page has pictures of my granddaughter and her daddy, an ostrich and a picture of my new baby granddaughter. We had to keep her pretty covered up because it was a hot sunny day.

And the back cover - the back of the last "O" page - has pictures of my daughter's family, me and my granddaughter and a colorful parrot. Again, the "Love You" mat was cut with my Silhouette.

I really enjoyed making this book for them! I always hate giving them away though! It was a fun day!
Hope you enjoyed it - have you made any mini-albums?

Papertrey Make-It-Monday #111 - Watercoloring Embossed Images

Hello! I am participating in Papertrey's Make-it-Monday #111 this week. Heather Nichols demonstrated how to emboss an image and then watercolor over it in a video on Nicole Heady's blog here. I decided to give this technique a try. I don't pull out my Friendship Jar series stamps often enough, but with the warm weather this week, opening up the buds on the trees and flowers, I thought I'd pull out the hydrangea image and give it a whirl.

I used a bunch of Ranger Distress inks for the watercoloring - Antique Linen & Wild Honey for the background, Faded Jeans and Broken China for the flowers, and Crushed Olive and Simply Chartreuse (PTI) for the leaves. I first embossed the jar and flowers with Versamark ink and White Filagree Embossing powder, then applied the background with an aqua brush and the brown/yellow inks. Then I worked on the blue flowers with the blue and green inks. I over-stamped an Impression Obsession background script over the entire image and went back and softened it with the aqua brush. I mounted the watercolor paper/image to a Blueberry Sky striped patterned paper, then an Enchanted Evening paper, then to a white cardstock base (which I inked the edges with Chai Ink). I tied the bow with some dyed seam binding, then added a small "Happy Summer" sentiment on a Tiny Tag.

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Playing with my stamps!

Hello! I've had fun this past week playing with my stamps and making random cards. I've also had some time to play with my Silhouette Cameo and my new sketch pens. I thought I'd share some of the fruit of my labor with you.

This card uses Papertrey Embroidered Blooms and BB: Postmarks as well as one of the Fillable Frames dies. Inks used were Winter Wisteria, Royal Velvet (seems like I use a lot of that combination lately), Kraft and Versafine Black Onyx (my go to black). Cardstock is PTI Rustic Cream and Winter Wisteria. After making this card, I made another one using Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides inks.

 This card uses a W9 set called Ever After. It was stamped with PTI Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet and Spring Moss Inks, ties with some hand dyed seam binding, and mounted on Berry Sorbet cardstock by PTI.

 This card uses the Friends Till the End stamp set by PTI, varieous copic markers, and some stickles, as well as Memento black ink.

 These cards were a fun experimentation with Papertrey's Damask Designs. I got this set from a friend recently, and this is the first time I've had time to try it out. After stamping the various backgrounds in Ocean Tides ink by PTI, I impressed them with the Damask Designs impression plate. Unfortunately, you really can't see the impression in this photo, but it is a nice subtle touch IRL.

 This card was sketched by my Silhouette Cameo using a red Silhouette sketch pen. It is a Silhouette design I purchased from the Silhouette Online store  called 'flower" by Rivka Wilkins. I colored it in with a light pink copic marker. I need to find more of these sketch designs - I love to watch the pen sketch it out!

 This scrapbook layout was the result of an online Silhouette class I took from Keri Bradford on the Jessica Sprague website here. The name of the class is "Silhouette: Oh the Places You Will Go!" I highly recommend Keri's classes on the Silhouette if you own one - I learned alot more about the possibilities of my machine with this class and the Designer Edition 1 class.

 This card was made using a Hero Arts clear stamp set Poppies. I stamped it with Memento black ink and  colored it with Copic markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mini Blooms set.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post! I think I'm up-to-date now. Have a great week!