Welcome


Hello, my name is Dionne and I have been crafting for a very long time. As a very young child my mother tried to teach me to knit, it was a disaster. However, it must have sparked an interest in making things and, partly to prove that I was not totally useless and partly because I really wanted to make things, I taught myself to crochet. Over the years I have developed a love of cross stitch and all types of paper craft ..... I eventually even taught myself to knit.


I am married to a very understanding man, thank goodness, because I spend all my time either crafting, thinking about crafting or talking about crafting. I am hopeless at housework and dinner is often late!


Thank you for visiting my blog.


Dionne

Sunday 25 September 2011

That's What Little Girls Are Made Of

I am quite late coming to colouring stamped images with Promarkers but I thought it was high time I found out what all the fuss is about.

For this adventure I decided to treat myself to some new stamps as well as the Promarkers.  I thought I would share with you the results of my first attempts at using them and I would like to know what you think.  (I should also welcome any suggestions on ways you think I could improve my colouring technique).


This is one of the Sugar Nellie Home Grown Manga stamps - Manga Girl # 1.  The backing paper is from the Dovecraft range and the sentiment from Kanban Crafts.


Another stamp from the Sugar Nellie Home Grown Manga stamps - Coffee Time.  The backing papers are from the Dovecraft range and Polka Doodles respectively.  The sentiments are from Kanban Crafts.  The mats are cut using my Nesties and the card on the left has three coffee beans in the corner.



This gorgeous stamp is from the Gorjuss Girls range and the backing papers are from Dovecraft.  The mats are cut using my Nesties and the card on the left has three Craftwork Candies in the corner.


The final Sugar Nellie Home Grown Manga stamp for this post, this one is called Tiny Tidler and I have used more backing papers are from Dovecraft.  The sentiment and flat backed pearls were from my stash.


I snuck this picture in, as you can see, it is not really a stamped card at all.  The butterflies are a Marrianne Creatables die, which I embellished with some flat backed gems.  If you use mirri card for the butterfly the wings can be eased up to make the butterfly look like it is in flight.

I have coloured more images but have not had time to make them into cards, so watch this space over the next few weeks for more cards.


Friday 23 September 2011

Golden Wedding Anniversary

A good friend recently asked me if I could make her a couple of cards for her parent's Golden Wedding Anniversary.

I felt that such a special occasion merited something a bit special, so I got out my gilding flakes and glitter and this is what I came up with (I made more than she asked for, so that she had a choice, but she actually tucked all of them into her handbag and took them home.)






All of these stunning images came from the Polka Doodles Love and Cherish CD.

I printed two copies of each image and cut around the heart from one of the images before gilding it.  Once the heart was glued into place on the second image I embellished the cards with an assortment of ribbon, flat backed gems and glitter.  The images were mounted onto Hunkydory mirri card.

I made one other card for her .....



I was a little more adventurous making this card.  

I used a sheet of Claritystamp double sided adhesive and the stamp is PSX Country Church/Chapel K-1912.  

Stamping the image of the church on one side of the sheet of double sided adhesive and left it to dry.  Once dry, I covered the image with a sheet of acetate.  Turning the sheet over, I carefully cut out the image of the church using my craft knife.  I removed the church section from the backing sheet (taking care to leave the paper covering the windows in place) and covered the exposed area with silver gilding flakes.  Once this was done I was able to remove the rest of the backing paper and cover the remaining area with gold gilding flakes.

I used a Nestability die to cut an aperture into the mount.

I hope her parents have a wonderful anniversary later this month.

Monday 19 September 2011

'Earthdancer'

Hello again and a big welcome to any new visitors.

It's day one of a new Crafty Boots challenge.  The theme for this challenge is 'Things with Wings'.  It was quite hard deciding how I wanted to interpret this topic, in the end I decided on a counted cross stitch angel, I hope you like her.

I find myself distracted by the beadwork and dreamcatchers net and almost miss her wings, but they are there if you look.






This is a Butternut Road pattern by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum entitled "Earthdancer".

Wednesday 7 September 2011

"Off the Page" Hand-Made Fabric Covered Box


Hello everyone.

I should like to welcome everyone who has found their way to my blog via the new Crafty Boots Challenge Blog. I am delighted to be a member of this new design team, I am sure you will agree that the other members of the team are so very talented and it is an honour for me to working with them.

All entries for this challenge, and the next challenge (which will be launched on 19th September 2011), will be combined and a winner chosen at random to receive a £10 voucher to spend at Crafty Boots.

A 'Top 3' will be chosen from every challenge and these winners will receive a badge for their blogs.

THE RULES FOR THE CHALLENGE

The challenge will be open until 12 noon (UK time) on Sunday 18 September 2011;

  • You can enter as many times as you like as long as it is a NEW project - no backlinking;
  • If you have used any products you have purchased from Crafty Boots, add CB at the end of your entry and you will have two entries into the prize draw;
  • Entry to this challenge can be combined with as many other challenges as you like;
  • Your blog post must mention that you are entering your project into this challenge and include a link to this page;
  • You should link to your blog post, rather than just your general blog address.
The theme for this first challenge is 'Anything Goes' and it gives you the opportunity to show off your strengths. I have chosen to make and decorate a floral box.





The base of the box is board. I selected a pink floral material to cover the outside of this box and I picked up the dusky pink from the roses for the material for the lining.

The material is hand stitched into place and the lid is padded with wadding.

I have decorated the lid with some gorgeous Petaloo flowers and pearl swirls from Crafty Boots, these were secured with stitches to make sure they stayed in place.

Please check out the blogs of the other DT members, I am sure they will fill you with inspiration.

Good luck.

Dionne




PS  I had quite a busy week and, as I had my needle and thread out, I decided to make more boxes.  This size is perfect for storing all of my craft CDs.  That is the great thing about making your own box, it can be any size you want.