Better Late than Never

Have you noticed how crafting eventually has an impact on your life in all sorts of ways.  For instance, I have started to select my wall calendar by how well I can up-cycle them into birthday cards.  

Back in January I did this to last year's calendar but I have so much to post at the moment and I am only now getting around to sharing some of these cards with you.  I have to say that, as a lover of the Art Nouveau and Art Decco styles, I really enjoyed these images on the calendar and now I get to enjoy them all over again as cards.  

I have utilised every bit of the calendar - even the sneaky peek pics from the back of the calendar, which show you what is inside.  The following three cards will give you a sneaky peek of what the rest of the cards are going to look like ......

The backing papers are all from the Crafter's Companion Vintage Butterflies pad.  The pearlescent card is also from Crafter's Companion, the gold metallic card is from my stash, as are the sentiments.

I hope you have enjoyed this little glimpse into the future - te he!

I'll be back soon with the other cards I made from this calendar.

Dionne

Round Neck Baby Cardigan

I was recently asked by my sister to make some baby cardigans for one of her friends who is about to become a grandmother.  My sister was not sure when she would see her friend next, so I made the cardigans in size two - just to be on the safe side.

The pattern I used for the first cardigan was Stylecraft number 4001 and I made it in white King Cole Cherished DK, which is one of my favourite yarns.

I'll share the other cardigan in a few days time, so be sure to check it out.

Dionne

Tick Tock, Tick Tock!

You may remember my recent post with the skeleton clock die? At the time I said that I had another idea for a layout.  Well, here it is .....

I have collected a lot of cog dies over the years, so I cut out a few, as well as the skeleton clock of course, and I put them together creating hight and extra texture to the card.  I even added a 'jewel' at the centre of the hands.  I mounted it all on some glitter board.  I wish you could see the sparkle on the board and the layers I managed to create with a little Pin Flare glue.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, I really appreciate it.

Dionne

Silver Sparkles

More winter woolies to share with you today.

I have put together an ensemble using this Double Knit wool from Lovecrafts.  However, you may remember that I recently accidentally threw out all of the ball bands I had been keeping so that I could tell you about the yarn when I got around to blogging these new cardigans.  Well, I think this one is the sparkle silver from the King Cole Glitz range.  Despite having a metallic looking thread running through the yarn these are very soft and ideal for children.

This pattern is adapted from one of my ebay purchases and does not have a makers name or number.

I had quite a bit of the yarn left over after I had finished the cardigan so decided to make a matching beret, mittens and scarf.

The first beret I made came up far too large for my young niece, so I made a second, smaller, one.

I also made her a matching hat, using a Snuggly pattern as a guide.  These odd little hats have proved very popular and now all the kids want one.  Who would have thought!

Have a good day.

Dionne

Birthday Bears

Have you ever sat down to make a card, knew exactly what you planned to do, and then made an entirely different card?  Well that is what happened to me the other day.

I started playing around with some dies I had recently purchased when I spotted these two bears.  I cut them out of some brown glitter card, which unfortunately obliterated all of their embossed features.  Undeterred I added some small black flat backed pearls for the eyes and noses.

I cut and layered several different colours of Crafter's Companion pearlescent card and a birthday sentiment from metallic gold card.

I hope you like my spontaneous creation!

Dionne

Ah, So Soft!

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you may recall the Easter Bunny I posted last week.  I made the bunny using some yarn left over from a cardigan I made for my great niece - I thought she would enjoy having a matching bunny.

The yarn is Rico Baby Dream DK, from LoveCrafts, it is so, so soft.  The pattern is one of my Stylecraft ones - number 4909.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Dionne

Time for a Birthday

Today I would like to share with you some more of the new metal dies I have recently acquired from Amazon.  They were an extremely good price but there was no makers name on the packaging.  

I was in a bit of a hurry on the day I put this card together but as I worked away it occurred to me that there was probably more I could do with this die.  I am now really eager to have another go at the skeleton clock die.

Oh, by the way, I am sure that in reality the colour of the 'Happy Birthday' looked much better against the red card.

Have a great day.

Dionne

The Easter Bunny

Well, OK maybe not the Easter Bunny, but it is my Easter Bunny (well, it was until it went to it's forever home on Saturday).

The colour changing yarn I used to make this rabbit is amazingly soft and makes a very cuddly toy.  Unfortunately, it does not hold a shape terribly well and therefore the face is not quite as sharp as it should be ..... did I mention that it is very soft and cuddly!

I recently cleaned out my knitting bag and got rid of all of the detritus at the bottom, unfortunately this included all of the ball bands (I knew there was a reason I was keeping them), so I am afraid I cannot tell you the brand.  The pattern is from Knitables.  

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Dionne

PS  I am a big fan of the Knitable Teddies, here are the links to some of the others I have made:

Fairy Elephant

Super Giraffe

Thank you Bears

Red Cat

Supergirl Giraffe

Happy Easter

I had intended to post these cards yesterday but it turned out to be one of 'those' days and it just did not happen.  Nonetheless, here they are today, my 2023 Easter cards.

I may have mentioned to one or two of you that recently I have been collecting metal dies from Amazon, unfortunately they do not have a maker's name on them.

I have had the backing papers quite some time but I believe they were from Kanban Craft's and the gold and silver mirri board and the glitter card are all from my stash.

In the UK the sending of greeting cards at Easter is not very common but this year I received a record number of cards, so I thought I would share them with you and thank those who sent them.  I was thrilled to receive them, thank you.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your Easter break.

Dionne