Getting ahead on my swaps again. This time it is for an Easter card in paper embroidery.

I decided to combine my own cross pattern (designed in 2003) and the flowers from a free pattern I had in my files.

I picked a patterned paper with some scrollwork and a floral on it. I pricked out the floral over the printed ones and decided to stitch them in similar colors.

This was only mildly successful as they blended in a little too well. To recover them I did an outline of the elements in metallic gold thread.

I had planned all along to work the cross in the metallic gold thread and it was pricked out in the open space on the paper.

I bordered the card with shiny gold and used a green base card that matches the stitched leaves in the floral.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

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I decided to have another go at the papercrafts bingo again, this time using the correct grid!

I actually made a bingo two ways on this by using: Diecuts, Spring and Ribbons from one column and Punches, Ribbons and Green from one row. I also used Flowers from elsewhere on the grid but it didn't line up with any other items that I used on the card.

I used the topic of 'die cuts' for this entry because I used so many of them on this project. From front to back the die cuts are: butterfly (cut from fine green diamond cardstock), scalloped oval medallion (cut from a cream cardstock with textured diamond), scalloped frame (cut from wrinkle-free distress background and layered over green floral), words (cut from golden cardstock with Tim Holtz dies and backed with a fine green dotted paper).

I wove sheer ribbon through the holes on the medallion and knotted it at the bottom. The scallop up the right side is a border punch and the butterfly has a line of green rhinestones as the body.

I added a strip of butterfly washi tape just inside the punched scallop border.

There is foam tape under the golden layer, under the medallion and raising the butterfly wings.

I gave the project a green base card.

Ddd

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So, today really IS the last baby quilt in the donation project. I finally reached the nice round number of 25 and have decided that is the best place to stop.

I used the same pattern as yesterday from Karla Alexander the author of Stack, Shuffle and Slide.

This time the fabrics were leftovers from my duffle bag and coordinating fabrics from the stash.

Again, I finished the backing, quilting and binding on this one so I could go as a completed project to the collection point on time.

Project done - What's next?

Ddd

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I must admit to a bit of a quirk when it comes to numbers I feel comfortable with. I like numbers that are 'fun' like 11:11 on the clock, 318830 that spells my name upside down, and 252 that goes with an old joke by George Carlin.

I also like getting out of bed when the clock reads on the hour and will actually watch the clock to wait for it!

I feel uncomfortable when things don't come out evenly and so, when I ended up my baby quilt top project with 23, I couldn't stop thinking about 'rounding up' to 25 as a good stopping point.

I had taken a workshop with Karla Alexander, the author of this book:

She gave us a handout with one of the easiest blocks to make with just 5 fabrics and I used that to make my two additional quilts.

Sharing today the one made from scraps left over from my mystery quilt made on the cruise last fall.

Since I was running up against the deadline for the end of the project I chose to do the whole job, right through the backing and quilting. These quilts all have a binding made by double-turning the border to the back and top stitching it.

Tomorrow will be the last (25th) quilt in the baby quilt project.

Ddd

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And as my final baby quilt top for the church project I created a 14 x 14 grid of 2.5 inch squares that were the final small scraps from all the other baby quilt tops I had made.

This collection of scraps was brighter than those I used in the last grid quilt and I enhanced that by using a bright turquoise border.

This is number 23 - and I am done!

Ddd

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And here we are with my third misguided papercraft bingo. I'm not sure yet if I will go back and try to create with the CURRENT bingo challenge, or not. For this card I used "Paper Piecing", "Patterned Paper" and "Ribbon".

For this one I chose a couple of background papers I had created a while back and combined them. The back layer, bordered by a white shimmer cardstock over a magenta base card, is an alcohol ink/metallic marble on glossy cardstock. Over this I used a diecut shape cut from a wrinkle-free Distress panel.

For the stamped image, I colored all the skin with alcohol markers and paper pieced the hair, clothing and bunny.

I used a craft knife to trim close around the image, separating it from its white background. I used a die to cut two skinny hearts from shimmer paper and used them behind the image as wings.

I used glimmer gel pen on the flowers in her hair, her eyes, the lace hem and the buttons on her boots.

I was liking this glimmer so I added it to the rim of the diecut background and on both edges of the ribbons.

I used a large silver peel-off greeting at the top of the card.

Ddd

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With still the wrong bingo challenge in hand I used the paper piecing parts I had set aside to make another card. This time I used, from the bingo grid, "Paper Piecing", "Candy Dots" and "Blue".

I chose a white cardstock with embossing on it and sponged on blue Distress Ink to show off the texture, rounded the corners and mounted it on a blue card base - also with rounded corners.

On the stamped image, I used alcohol markers to color all the skin areas and the ground and then paper pieced the hair, clothing and bunny with scrapbook papers.

I used gel pens to color in the flowers in her hair and on her apron, her eyes and the buttons on her boots.

I only had clear candy dots so used them over the flowers on the apron.

I used a craft knife to cut along the edges of the image and slid the halves of a die cut butterfly in to replace the stamped wings. These were popped up on foam tape.

I rounded the corners on the image panel and popped it up on foam tape over the background. Then I used glitter dust gel pen over the wings and the lace on her hemline.

Ddd

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I am SO-O-O-O-O lost! I set aside a papercrafting challenge to work on later and then, when I pulled it out, I pulled out an OLD one that looked similar to it instead. So I made three cards for the challenge and then can't use them for that after all!

The challenges were both papercrafting bingo where a 3 x 3 grid is filled with techniques, colors, etc and you make a card that uses three of them that appear in a line in any direction - 8 combinations are possible.

So, for the first card I chose to use "Birthday", "Yellow", and "Paper Piecing".

Quite a while back I had stamped an image on various scrapbook papers as well as on a white background. Then I put them all in an envelope to use later... hey, it's later!

On the white layer I used alcohol markers to color all the areas of skin. Then I cut all the papers and layered them onto the hair, clothing and bunny.

I used alcohol markers to color a ground for her and colored her wings with very pale yellow.

I bordered the trimmed image with bright yellow and popped it up on foam tape over sheet music I had sponged yellow and grey Distress Inks onto.

For embellishments I added rhinestones over the flowers in her hair, Liquid Pearls to the buttons on her boots and the flowers on her dress and glitter dust gel pen to her wings.

I used a large silver Dazzle sentiment at the top.

Ddd

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I had one more of the stencil impressions, this one was a 'second generation' pull so it did not have as much ink on it. I decided to trim it down and use it 'as is' rather than trying to alter it.

I used a foil 3D image in an oval and centered it on the background.

I also used a coordinating strip from the foil sheet to border the top and bottom.

There were four foil blocks in various colorings and I used one of these, raised up on foam tape, to display silver peel-off text.

I placed this on a violet base card with a border showing all around.

Ddd

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I went to a lot of trouble to create a great background and then covered it up! LOL!

When I made the December 2015 'Tag' from Tim Holtz, I used a piece of white cardstock to blot off the extra Distress Stain from the stencil after spraying it. It's been sitting on my work table waiting for inspiration and this was the day.

The stencil was this one:

The Distress Stain had been sprayed through the stencil (blue in color) and the leftover stain stayed on the surface. When the white cardstock was pressed onto it the stencil itself made the impression, not the holes in the stencil.

The next step I took, after trimming the piece to card size, was to do a letterpress technique using picked raspberry Distress ink and a Cuttlebug folder called Ornamental Iron.

The third step was to take a Distress Ink pad in Black Soot and swipe it over the top of the raised areas of the ornamental iron impression.

I really liked the way this came out. However, it was pretty bright to use it on the card with the images I had chosen so I overlaid it with vellum to mute it.

I added a 3D tea time image to the front with some ribbon across the bottom to serve as a table.

I mounted this on a violet base card and used a silver peel-off greeting sticker.

Ddd

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Next up in the series of paper embroidery cards I got done was one for a swap on Owls. I found a free pattern of an owl that I had never done up before. Just ugly enough to be cute.

I selected a patterned orange and cream background cardstock and stitched with various shades of orange and brown.

I added white gel pen to the center of the eyes as the placement on the cardstock had them coming out with two different colors.

I selected a matching leafy background for an additional layer and bordered both layers with chocolate brown.

This turned out to be a fall card even though it will be swapped out in February.

Ddd

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Seems that, between all the groups I belong to, there are several swaps or challenges every year with the theme 'roses'. But it is a topic I like so I do most every one.

I do own several patterns where the embroidery itself forms the roses. But I had a great diecut foil 3D picture and decided to use that in a frame.

I used a verigated pink thread for one series of scrolls and a burgundy for the other, matching the colors in the flowers. I did the stitching on a cardstock with extremely small chevrons in gray and white.

When I got to the steps of mounting I cut off the ends of the cardstock and turned them over to show a two-toned pink houndstooth.

The photo shows this with too much blue. The burgundy layering matches the thread in the darker scrolls.

Ddd

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I got new swap assignments for the new year so I set about selecting patterns for them, choosing cardstock to stitch on and filing them in monthly order to work on.

I got the first three done in pretty good order.

The first of these is for a swap called Winter Sports. I chose a pattern with an ice skating snowman. 

The cardstock has cute banners hanging at the top and it makes it look like he/she is on a rink.

I chose threads to go with the banner colors, using various pinks. The blades of the skates are silver metallic thread.

I added three word stickers (colored with pink marker), added tiny button brads and mounted it on cardstock with a shiny silver border showing.

Ddd

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The tops for the baby quilt project are not due until the 16th so I took scraps from the other ones I had made and cut up enough 3 1/2 inch squares to do another. The result is a 12 x 12 grid with a 2 1/2 inch border of navy blue.

This is number 22 for the project:

This will make a great quilt for a little boy.

Ddd

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Sure enough, Tim Holtz returned with a monthly tag challenge for 2016. Each month he will reprise two old tag techniques he has done in past years and combine them into one tag. I am joining in again - right on the heels of finishing my last tag of 2015!

Here are the two tags Tim combined:

And here is the tag he made for January 2016:

Here is the process I used to create my version:

- Choose a stamp for the chalkboard center of the card (I chose a birthday message)

- Select a cardstock and apply metal foil tape to the top and the bottom edges (I used card-sized rather than a tag)

- Emboss just the metal areas with an industrial look folder (I used diamond plate) 

- Use felt blending tool to apply black alcohol ink to metal areas (Tim  did his with black Distress Paint)

- Use soft cloth or paper towel to wipe away excess ink to reveal metal

- Dry with a heat tool

- On black cardstock, ink stamp with Distress Embossing ink and cover with Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder and heat with heat tool (I did not have these products so I inked my stamp and made the impression with a glue stamp pad. Then I ground some white chalk and tapped it into the glue and dried it with a heat gun)

- Scribble over the image with white chalk including background

- Use fingers to rub in chalk

- Tear top and bottom edges 

- Adhere chalk layer to metal layer using brads

- Trim sides of chalk image to fit on metal layer

- Adhere gear embellishments using brads

- Use strong adhesive to mount piece to a base card

Here is my finished card:

What a great card for a guy - all that industrial look. We're off to a good start.

Ddd

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Despite my best intentions - making all of the 12 tags of 2015 by Tim Holtz - I got so wrapped up in the holidays that I didn't get December's done last year. But I decided to go ahead and make it anyway, even though it is a month late.

Here is the original tag created by Tim:

Once again, I chose to make a showpiece instead of a tag. Here is the process I used.

- Cut a piece of grasscloth wallpaper sample into  the desired size.

- Place on paper towel

- Use Distress Stain to tint the piece

- Lay stencil over the piece and spritz with another color of Distress Stain

- Place a clean paper towel over the top and blot away extra ink

- Remove stencil and dry piece with a heat gun

- Run piece through Xyron to apply adhesive to the back

- Adhere to stiff backing and trim backing to size

- Ink edges of piece and backing

- Select various greens of kraft core cardstock and a red piece for other parts

- Diecut different greenery from each color of kraft core

- Sand surface with sanding block

- Lightly ink edges with Distress Ink

- On the base piece, trace a circle

- Gently crunch and crumple the diecut foliage

- Use glossy Accents to adhere greenery around the circle

- Create a dimensional bow from red kraft core cardstock

- Adhere bow to bottom of wreath using Glossy Accents

- Punch tiny dots from red kraft core cardstock. Adhere to wreath in twos and threes as holly berries

- Diecut greeting from red kraft core cardstock

- Sand surface with sanding block

- Cut a piece of sage green kraft core into a wide strip and ink edges with Distress

- Attach to main piece with small brads

- Adhere greeting to strip with Glossy Accents

And here is the final piece:

And, finally I am truly done with the 2015 'tags' series.

I do intend to give it a go for 2016 as well, so we'll see where that takes us.

Ddd

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This is the final quilt I pieced on the November 2015 quilting cruise. The instructor was Kimberly Einmo.

We were sent an illustration ahead of time along with the yardages we would need and cutting instructions. We cut the fabrics as specified and packaged them with coding so we would be able to quickly access the right ones for each step.

The class was taught with step by step directions and the use of a special ruler that Kimberly designed (and I bought).

The illustrated quilt design had  similar colors in solids and the center was an appliqued sunshine graphic, giving the quilt a southwestern feel. I chose similar colors but chose prints that featured fall flowers. then I created four maple leaves to applique on the center panel.

The quilt design stopped with the sunburst area but this left it too small for my taste. So I added a wide border in the background color to expand it.

The starburst areas end up looking like maple leaves, as well.

I quilted all the teal areas with vines and leaves and all of the starbursts with an echo line 3/8 inch inside them.

The finished size is about 48" square.

Ddd

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The second class I took on the quilting cruise in November (2015) was a mystery quilt with instructor Kimberly Einmo.

Before I signed up for this class I took a mystery class on Craftsy with her as the instructor to see if I liked her style. Out of that came two lovely quilts from my stash.

For this class we were sent a set of direction on how to select fabrics, how much of each to buy and cutting instructions for each one. These were then labeled and packaged so we could easily pull out the right pieces to work with at each step.

Kimberly would have us pull out the specific fabrics cut to the right sizes and stitch them according to the current 'clue'. Then those pieces would be cut, if needed, and set aside. When we had worked through all the clues we had a sizeable stack of blocks which were then laid out according to her pattern and assembled into the mystery quilt.

We had even precut our two borders and binding!

I worked through all the available 'open sew' times and got my whole top done.

I did not take batting or the backing with me so I had to wait to assemble this at home. I quilted it with diagonal lines that go through all the large blocks and the purple small blocks - about 8 inches apart. A stitch in the ditch line runs on either side of the inner blue border as well.

The finished quilt is about 61 inches square and will be set aside to gift to someone special when the occasion arises.

Ddd

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Yay and Hooray! I finished one of the three quilts I made on the quilting cruise in November.

The 11-day cruise, through Quilting Seminars At Sea, went from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas, Curacao, Aruba, Columbia, the Panama Canal, Panama and Costa Rica.

When we were in port we were free to go as we wished. Then on the days at sea we had classes from 8:30 am to 4 pm. We had pre-selected from one of 4 workshops to take from the 4 instructors who were with us.

I took 2 classes with Kimberly Einmo and one from Karen Combs and finished a quilt top in each one of them. Of course, we had 'open sew' time when we could go in to work on our projects on the machines that were provided by Janome.

The first class I took was the one with Karen so that is the quilt that I backed, quilted and bound first.

We used fabric designed by Karen that contains dark, medium and light across the fabric, providing all the shades needed to create her 3D effects. The pattern we worked on is called 'A Chip Out Of Every Block'.

We got to choose the colors we wanted to use from about 20 available. I chose to use all blues and greens to make a banner for my fireplace end wall.

By turning half the blocks upside-down they are changed from being a solid block with a corner missing to a room with a box in the corner.

I quilted with just a stitch in the ditch around the perimeter of each area of value.

I am really pleased with how this came out.

Ddd

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I ran across a video tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KChUsEJPHqk ) on making a small boxed bag like would be used for cosmetics. The process looked so easy that I jotted a few notes to myself and went right to the studio to give it a try.

As it happened, I had the same fabrics that I had used for this duffel bag (black floral exterior and teal polkadot interior):

What I did not have was more of the teal zipper but I found a raspberry one in my stash so I was off to the races.

The project takes only a 14" zipper, two exterior fabric pieces (8 x 10), two interior fabric pieces (8 x 10), two fusible interfacing (8 x 10) and two tabs (2 x 3).

It uses straight and zigzag stitches throughout and also uses a standard and a zipper foot.

Total construction took less than one hour.

Here are a couple of exterior views

And one showing the interior:

The finished size is about 3 x 5 x 7. This will go in my duffel when I use it as a carryon bag so I can corral my phone, medications and other small items.

Ddd

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