Gift from a friend - microscope slides bound with copper tape and wire. I love these.
Stitched Angel quilt made by me in 2007 - pattern by Susan-Claire Mayfield...almost "red" work :-)
Reinforce the cover with an extra piece of thin card between the papers. Fold the pages in 1/2 and slide inside the cover. They are fixed together with brads, the fastenings of which are hidden on the back with the extra paper strip.
Next up, another wee gift box idea from the book I used for my "Apple for the Teacher" project : Simply cut 
and I just used decorative tape inside to hold it all together.
I had fun with my Xmas cards this year. Decided I wanted to make them, but then was running out of time so had to keep it simple. I like torn paper, and started by adding metallic stitched stars.
Then ran out of what was loaded on the bobbin, and tried a variegated instead, and ended up with this kind of thing....even got creative with words. 
Still aiming for a post about angels before Xmas. Talk to you soon...
I have tried a few different methods of image transfer with mixed success. Liz Kettle shares her technique for transfers with water-soluble paper and I thought it was worth a try. I've found a YouTube demonstration by Liz of this technique here with written instructions on her blog HERE. I used a sheet of Paper Solvy, and printed a lovely Klimt image on it through my printer. She says to use Matte Medium, but I just used a cheap Reeves gloss gel medium applied with a foam brush to both the fabric and the image, then burnished them together with a brayer. Lift the edge to make sure the transfer is happening.
When you are satisfied, peel all the paper off to reveal your image. 
I was thrilled with the results, and will definitely use this method again. 
On this postcard I photocopied both the quote and sun image and then transferred them to contact paper.
I really liked the project of cutting an old paperbook book to the shape of an apple. I have made this one for Sam's teacher. The edges are inked with versacolor ink pad. 
The original pattern is by Carol Fletcher and can be found in Quilting Arts Magazine #20. Have just discovered this project is now available free from Quilting Arts here (Dec 19)
this is the lining - I free-motion stitched from this side with the lovely variegated rayon ("Cradle Mountain" colourway from The Thread Studio) I had used for the satin stitched edging in the top and the metallic thread was in the bobbin, so when I turned it over it was all glittery and lovely.
Finished with handstitched sequins with a small bead on top.
Mum loved it. 
This Santa was created during a playday about 6 years ago!
These are the blogs I am currently visiting daily:
I especially like the heart ornament on the cover, and may well try to make angel wings and halos which attach to wine bottles for gifts! 
This book also contains some beautiful projects - if only i had a girl so I could make the sweet angels and pixies...
Our creative playday on Tuesday was a wonderful sharing of ideas, and lovely food, but not a stitch made! Never mind - it was awesome for 4 crafty girls to just spend some hours together - the gift of time was welcome. Thankyou Katherine, Lisa and Tracy :-) 
I borrowed the Xmas tree stamp below and I really love it. I have embossed it with Distress embossing powders, and the heavier Opals on the right.
I want to add some stitchy elements to these bases, and have other crafty ideas for xmas which I really hope to make a start on this week so thought I would share those bits of inspiration here.....they are only small so I hope to get something done soon.
Whimsical with just the right amount of scarey.
First up was a tag - I swiped a couple of distress ink pads over the baking paper, then misted the ink with water. The tag was then wiped over the mixture, dried with a heat gun, and re-swiped. You can see here the baking paper with beads of ink and the wet tag.
Click here for a video by Tim Holtz using the distress inks in this way. The resulting dry back and front are a lovely mix of colours. 
I then used the small flourish mask (from the Regal set) to decorate the tag front. 
I just used a little VersaMark ink cube for this because that was the nicest colour I had to stand out against the dark background. In Tim Holtz' YouTube of using the masks, he throws all the surrounds away. But as you can see, you can use the left-over bits as well like a stencil to get the opposite image on the back! 
Then I wanted to have a go with the borders - again I inked using the mask, 
and also the leftovers
....then I finished the journal page.
Saw this DVD - my husband and I both enjoyed it
Made another couple of cards - this is the one I remembered to photograph!
Making (slow) progress on the applique quilt - liking the checkerboard sashings
Less than $10 for these useful lovelies - 3 sweet heart stamps; I have wanted a date stamp for journalling for a while now; and the cardboard cutout borders are so cute.
I have added a badge to my sidebar for Balzer Designs Holidays Handmade week of craft coming up soon. Check more details here Maybe we can do some projects together.
We didn't have the proper sprays, so our attempts were okay but not great to start with, although watering down silk paints seemed to give a reasonable result through small atomiser bottles. Part of the problem was the paints were too runny with fine stencils. The most success came once we started using grungeboard stencils as a resist
These examples below show a lovely page in Katherine's journal which she had painted first and then sprayed through a stencil on top. The ones on the right show how I used a grungeboard cutout as a resist, and then flipped it over onto the lower page so we got the coloured opposite image.
Katherine left me with several atomisers of watered-down silk paints to try, and today I used the lot! 
Love the ones using the grungeboard swirly designs. You can see I also used an ordinary alphabet stencil, and I also had a heavy piece of cardboard with holes in it which was the remains of a board game with the pieces taken out - more stuff to keep!
I am happy with the papers I now have, and will try & create some pages inspired by Dina. The colour mixes are lovely, but I quite fancy the grungy one using just black spray too.
My next plan is to purchase some proper sprays (eg. Smooch Inks, or Glimmer Mists or the Adirondack Colour Wash sprays - the challenge is finding sources and the best price in NZ - any suggestions?) and do some more experiments....I would also like to try making my own stencils. Will share more as they happen....in the meantime, this is another cool tutorial by Dina using Ink Resist technique (written, not video this time) and this is a link to an interview with Dina which I liked once again for the pretty pic's of her work :-)
