Off to France

That's the postcard going off to France not me, I have been trading fabric ATC's with Angelique for a long while and we have progressed onto postcards and are going to do three in the year. I realise I have used this gipsy on many things but Angelique has had so many of my vintage lady atcs and I know that she never had the gipsy.

Hard work!

Who would think that I'd be full of aches and pains after a couple of sessions of free machine embroidery, my neck hurts , my jaw hurts as I seem to pull faces as I stitch( one of the girls on the course says she forgets to breath as she is machining) and my hands hurt from gripping the hoop - oh what Joy! but I think I see a little improvement. Lesson 2 has come thro' so I'm off to read that. Here are my samples from lesson 1.

A white weekend!

It seems that whenever we go up to my Aunt's it snows, and not just a little flutter but HEAVY snow and that's what we have had all weekend, friday we woke to 3 inches of the stuff then saturday we went over the North Yorkshire Moors to Whitby and instead of sun, sea and sand we had sun sea and slush then sunday it just snowed all day long. On the way home today we took these photo's, the first of Roseberry Topping , a lovely landmark in the Cleveland Hills and sometimes known as Yorkshire's Matterhorn, the other photo is a view of the hills rising from a strange mist, very spooky and I just couldn't resist having the last picture of snowy/frosty Cow Parsley.

Time

I have just seen that the challenge theme on Tuesday Taggers is Time so instead of doing the washing up (OH is out) I made a simple time tag as I knew I had a metal die cut watch face lurking somewhere - so here is my entry for 'Time', I'm afraid it looks a little blurred!

Crafting to go!

I'm off to see my Aunt with my craft bag packed with goodies to make while I'm there, then I'm home to start my new online machining course, I've looked at the first lesson and I think I'll get it finished by next wednesday. The card I've posted is inspired by one I saw demo'd on the TV using Distress inks and wild flower/grass rubber stamps, the little butterfly was stamped and punched using one of my new Martha Stewart punches.

Tiger Tiger!

Just a quick man card I made this morning I've not had much crafting time today and tonight I haven't felt like doing much but my sewing machine is calling and also we are off to see my Aunt this week (with a bag full of crafty things to keep me out of mischief). I coloured the copy paper with different orange and yellow distress inks then printed out the tiger head, part of the background is the same coloured paper with a crackle stamp used on it.

A Touch of the Orient and a mouse!

I have three oriental fabric postcards ready to go off to the US,these have used up the last of my Geisha fabric and I thought long and hard before using it but that's what it's for - isn't it? The Mouse is one of those digi stamps that I've coloured with watercolours and made into a birthday card, I'm trying to get as many cards as possible made as Viv will be making a flying visit two weeks today and she'll be able to take them to add to the charity box.

Lady with Attitude

An ideal little picture to use with my nesties and my NEW Martha Stewart punches - write 100 lines - I MUST STOP BUYING CRAFTY THINGS!!!!- ok. I have finished the oriental postcards - i'll put the picture up tomorrow.

'Beneath the Plum Tree'

This card was made using another of the CB asian embossing folders, on the white card is a Japanese Wakka poem and I have put the translation inside the small white card and it is :-

" I am waiting to see,
the flowers of long ago,
in my old home.
Beneath the plum tree,
has the snow melted?"

Oriental Mode

I have 4 fabric oriental postcards to make so to get me into the right frame of mind (what an excuse) I got out the oriental CB folders and made a card, the green card has a white core so is perfect for embossing and then sanding to show up ,in this case, the bamboo. I added the stamped image of Puccini's muse and am still wondering if it needs a happy birthday text or leave it as it is.

Wool Postcard

I saw that one of the february Swap Bot fabric postcard swap themes was Wool - as usual my inner voice said 'I can do that' so I have - the background is machine felted with a mixture of wool tops as are the flower and leaves I then, with great trepidation, lowered the feed dogs on my machine and added some free machine stitching (or embroidery) hopefully this will soon improve as next week I start a F M embroidery on line course - should be interesting.

A bit different.

I thought I'd have a look at some digital stamps and perhaps buy a simple one - hence this grown up looking bear off for his picnic which will be great for adding to birthday cards for children or even bear loving grown ups.The thing about digi stamps is you have to colour them so out came my long forgotten watercolour crayons and an evening of 'colouring in' yes there are more of him!! After I had purchased him when I was blog hopping I saw that the theme for Tuesday Taggers this week is bears so into the challenge he goes then into the charity card box. I won't bore you with how I had to get help from Viv to download the stamp - but I did - it really was beyond my capabilities!! so perhaps i'll stick to rubber stamps in future.

Lady in blue

I made these postcards for a three way card swap and I know they have arrived at their new homes so I can show them. The picture is a paper transfer onto fabric using gel medium and the large blue flower started its life white and I spray inked and glimmer misted it, nearly melted it with the heat gun to dry it so that's why the odd petal is wavy.

Looks good with the Birds

Just to prove the Asian folders aren't only to be used with an oriental theme.

Oriental

The word spread that there were some oriental embossing folders being released at CHA for the Cuttlebug machine and having seen them on a site I realised I needed them! but rather than wait for them to arrive in the UK I ordered an 'Asian Bundle',as they are called from the US via E bay, they arrived this week and are really lovely so I'm just starting to play. Viv had ordered them just before me and hers haven't arrived as yet so she is a slightly unhappy bunny. This card is my first made using a couple of the folders.

121 ATC swaps

Two lovely ATCs to show you today, a beautiful embroidered one from Angelique in France and an embellished and embroidered one from Muriel in Scotland - these will look good in my fabric atc collection.

So Embarrased or 'you have to laugh (I think!)'

Yes I know you have seen this birthday card before but the story is - When I opened a large brown envelope this morning and found this card my mind went - well I don't know as I had sent the card early in january to my friend's husband and here it was back again,( he didn't like it, I thought, because it's black ) there was a card with it thanking me for the 'reusable' birthday card??? I opened it and all was clear as was the insert - not a word had I written inside it. They said they had a good laugh especially as the next card he opened said 'get well soon', the explanation for that was the senders were snowed in and couldn't get to the shops so they struggled to the post box with the only card they had in the house!