Christmas Cards

Suddenly realised I'd not posted about my Christmas Card makes for this year and didn't want to do it after Christmas!

It's a bit of a cheat this year as I discovered I had a large stock of cards made in previous years that had been left over plus some I'd made to sell and never did.  I decided that I would used these up and just make some new ones this year for the special people in my life who I know really appreciate a handmade card.

I returned to my love of inchies and created some red and green needlefelt that would become my inchies.  So long since my needlefelting machine had been out so I must reacquaint myself with it properly in the new year.

I'm always amazed when I look at the base felt when I make inches and wonder at how they change into little gems of loveliness!

To each little square - just over an inch square - I added combinations of sequins, beads and stitches and then buttonhole stitched around the edges.

 

Each set of four were mounted onto backing paper together with a hand printed "Happy Christmas" and then mounted on to a card.

Really pleased and already had compliments from some lucky recipients.

One more completed project - my November Little Box of Crochet which was a lovely mandala in Christmasy colours that was a delight to make.  Lots of overlay crochet which I love.

It was designed by Amanda Williams (@yarn_house on Insta) and worked in Yarn and Colors Must Have Cotton.

A bonus was a little wooded reindeer who desperately needed a coat so some of the left over yarn was put to use.  As you can see from the photo he is already hanging on the tree!

That really is all for this year so have a great Christmas,

Collage for a change!

Just for a change I have abandoned  fabric and threads and have completed a collage, still under the theme of "Seen From Above".

A few months ago I bought a Gelli Plate so have been experimenting and watching demos on You tube!   For anyone who, like I used to, thinks that you can do mono prints on a sheet of glass so don't need to spend, let's face it, quite a lot of money on a Gelli Plate .... well you're wrong! They are superb so if you need convincing try to get on a course or see a demo in person to be convinced.

Having produced a large stack of printed papers I had to do a collage so used the isle of Portsea as my subject.   We go to Portsmouth quite a bit so it seemed appropriate.

I started by painting an A3 piece of cartridge paper with orange acrylic as the background and then used various printed paper for different areas of Portsea, leaving small spaces in between all the pieces so the orange showed through.  I used the same orange acrylic to paint the edges of a canvas frame and then collaged blue printed papers as the sea surrounding the island.

To use up the left over pieces, I made some cards!

Seen From Above - One Inch to a Mile

I just love "Inchies" and sooner or later I make some to fit with my current theme.  And Seen From Above is no exception.

I started needlefelting various fibres, fabrics and yarns to create a fabric which I then cut up into inch squares.   These were first edged with blanket stitch and then embellished with hand stitches and beads and for some I added scraps of old maps.   The Inchies were then assembled and mounted on old OS maps which in turn were mounted on board and framed.

As some of the maps I used were old enough to have a scale of one inch to a mile, I didn't have to think too hard about the title.

 

 

The left overs were then mounted on maps and used to map greetings cards.

Christmas Cards

Christmas cards all made and ready for writing on!

I used the painting bondaweb/lutradur/foil/sequin method done at the Kim Thittichai workshop in October.

  

 

 

Better get them written on and posted now!