Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Another....more than a Pin Cushion!!

I'm totally smitten with these adorable, practical, useful pin cushions! I decided to make a bigger version and also to add a bit of COLOR to my otherwise very staid, boring life. So, here we are - please put on your sun glasses as you will be needing them.....lol!







The pattern is available at Ravelry and it is called the Knit Cushion.





I decided to try out some new crochet flowers from 
Zoom Yummy. There are several flowers in the download and it is called Big Flower Party.


I have bought patterns before from Petra and I just love that she gives you the written pattern and dozens of photo instructions as well. So handy for visual learners like myself! 

Her blog is absolutely delightful! Always something interesting to read, try out, drool over and what I like the most is that everything Petra does is so COLORFUL!! 
Exactly what I need in my life lately!



Do pop over and visit Zoom Yummy and Ravelry for some colorful stimulation!


Lots of room to still add the
extra's on my desk!!


As you can see, I'll have some 'brightness' in my life every day now, and can't wait to play some more with these two patterns!!


Thanks Petra and Wanda Eichler for your inspiration!

Enjoy the rest of your week, and you can take off your sun glasses now.....lol!!

Hugz
Moz.


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Elizabeth in Autumn

Hello again!

Welcome to another post featuring my Design Team Card for Sugar Creek Hollows 70th Challenge - "Fall is in the Air"!  In this challenge we are asking that you use either the colors of Fall, or activities that reflect Fall. I chose to go with the colors as I have been dying to use this beautiful image from Indigoblu called 'Elizabeth Bennet'.


I actually started working on this card using the B-Line Flourish stamp and worked them in Distress Inks for starters. I then decided that I needed a focal point and 'Elizabeth' beckoned, so I stamped her onto water color paper using the Versafine Vintage Sepia ink and started off with Distress Inks again. I soon decided that it needed some shimmer so reached for the Twinkling H2O's and boy, did I have fun! I have not worked much with them, although I have been 'collecting' them for some time now. I'm totally smitten with them but do need to explore tutorials on how to get the best out of them. Here is a close up of the flowers where I managed to pick up some of the beautiful shimmering by tilting the card slightly, to reflect light that shows up the shimmer. I do hope you can see it.

As the card was not that dimensional, I tried to pick up on texture and at the same time add some interest to the leaves, with an assortment of Micro Beads. I really like the effect, but must mention that I misjudged the intensity of the black beads in the one flower and only really noticed it when I saw the photo's. Too harsh, but you live and learn. 

I tried to pick up on the netting depicted in the stamp background by adding some tulle between the layers on the card. Subtle but interesting I think.

The sentiment is a very old one that I return to over and over again. Nameless to me.....lol!


On the left is a close up of some small leaves I punched using the Joy punches that come with an accompanying embossing punch. Stunning punches and I totally love these leaves. I had some water colored paper I had played with and the colors were just right, so I added the leaves to the corner.

I do hope that you will take the time to visit my 'teamies' (links in the side bar) to see what beautiful creations they have all produced for this challenge and that you are inspired enough to enter you creation. Remember this runs for two weeks, so please do enter!

It seems strange for us in the southern hemisphere to be talking about Autumn (Fall), as we are into Spring/Summer, depending on how close you are to the equator. Having said that, our weather pattern has been all over the show, with parts of our country still deep in winter weather and other parts so hot, it terrifies one to think what the middle of the 'real' summer will be like.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Mexico who are experiencing such dreadful flooding, as is some of our Cape areas are, with their ongoing rain. I do hope the sun shines for you all soon to lift your spirits and warm your hearts.

Thank you for taking the time to visit and I'm wishing for you all, a fabulous week ahead with lots of creativity to keep you happy!

Till next time, 
Hugz from Moz

Sunday, September 15, 2013

....more than a Pin Cushion

A very dear friend had a birthday last week and whilst we don't exchange gifts as a rule, I was making this little number and thought it would be so nice to give it to her on her birthday! Some people are worth the extra mile and deserve a little spoiling, not only because they are really nice people, but because they make you feel special too!

Not just a pretty face...



I fell in love with this pin cushion when I stumbled upon it on my travels. It is so nifty and comes in several sizes, this being the medium size version. I am busy with the jumbo version right now, and will blog about it when it is complete. What I love about this is that you can insert all sorts of goodies that need to be 'contained' whilst you are working on your projects. It can hold your scissors, thimble, crochet hook, nail file, darning needles etc. and of course pins of all sizes! How clever it that!

......I'm more than a pin cushion!

I chose to make it up in soft pretty colors and then decided to add some felt flowers to pretty it up. It was also an experiment of sorts as I am trying to find dies that are small enough for me to die cut flowers with for future felt projects lolling around in the grey matter! Any suggestions as to what dies do work, the smaller the better, would be so appreciated. I'm really battling to source information in this area as the ladies who do this kind of work don't speak English and whilst they appear to want to help, we can't communicate! Drat!! Anyhow, digress I do, once again....    

I used the Cheery Lynne Mini Rose die to cut these flowers out with and they do work well. I cut the felt without any trouble at all and I assembled the flowers with a little pearl in the center to finish it off.
Sweet little felt flowers.

The card was one I made for a DT post and so suitable as my friend is an excellent seamstress and could really appreciate the card.  I made the envelope using my Envelope board and it worked out fantastically well. So chuffed with this board. I prettied the envelope up with a rose I made using the Susan's Gardens Rose die for the first time. It worked out so well, so now I need to get down and make lots more, this time shading the petals for more depth.

All ready for delivery!
...sew special!

Stunning rose, and my first attempt! Shows you how easy
it is when you use the right materials!
All in all, a lovely diversion making all these little bits for a very special person!

Thanks for popping in and have a great week ahead!

Hugz
Moz

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Chill time.....

Hello! 

Funny how your body and mind lets you know when it's time to chill or take a break from the normal routine! I just seem to get into the 'go slow' mode and cannot complete anything at all. Well, I've been in one of those slumps and am hoping I'm surfacing as I really have soooo much on my plate to take care of. I read somewhere this morning that Christmas is only 109 days away! I was just too tired to confirm this, so please don't take it as gospel! It does frighten me though, as the pace is now close to a trot and soon will be a jog and before long, a sprint to get everything taken care of. Are you as shaken with this news as I am??

Anyway, I digress as always! I wanted to show you a small project that I completed in my 'go slow' mode. Most times, just doing something different to the norm, gets the creative juices flowing again. When I saw this project on my 'travels' I just had to give it a go. The fact that I started it 4 times is now irrelevant as it was worth it! I was playing guessing games with wool, thickness, hook sizes, stitches and so on.....

So, here it is......


This holds my 'baby' knitting!
 It is just big enough for me to load my 'baby' knitting into and with the handles, very convenient to pick up and carry places with me. 

I also like that it is easy to wash!

This version used 4 strands of double knit acrylic yarn and a # 10 crochet hook. I had about 40 grams in total of yarn left over, so it worked out rather well.

I'm not the best crocheter, just limping along and having to check and recheck the different stitches in my reference book at the start of every project, so am rather pleased with myself the way this turned out!



Great for holding hand towels!


I did pack it with hand towels as I thought it would be great in the guest bathroom,  but in the end, my 'baby' knitting won!

It was also a thought to use a pure cotton thread in off white, but when I did the costing, it was just too expensive, so I stayed with the cheaper acrylic yarn.

So, that is out of the way now, and I am still not on top of the 'lull', but will keep going, with the hope my Mojo will be back up to steam shortly!

Thank you for listening to my ramblings.....lol!
Nice of you to pop in.

Oh YES! I am going to enter this into the Woolhogs Made It challenge for September. See the link in my sidebar.

BFN!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

My Rose Garden



A warm hello to you all! Thank you for taking time to pop in for a visit and to see what I'm up to this week for the Sugar Creek Hollow challenge!

This week our challenge is "My Rose Garden" and we have been so generously sponsored by the lovely Heather A Hudson from My Artistic Adventures.

MyArtisticAdventures smaller logo


Here is my card. I tried to create an illusion of looking out of the window, into my rose garden and hope that this has somehow transpired!

A full frontal view of the card,
 The first thing I did was cut out the window aperture and then create a wall using Modeling paste and a Studio 490 - Wendy Vecchi stencil for art, Brick Wall. I was delighted with the outcome. It was the first time I had worked with modelling paste and stencils and I know now, it will be something I will go back to without hesitation.
Once it was totally dry, I then worked some Distress Ink, Tea Dye, into the wall to define the bricks. I used a Poppystamp Die for the window and treated it with some DI's as well and adhered it to the front of the card, creating the window. 

Next I fussy cut several of the ATC's from the set I received from Heather, removing the roses and then adhered them to the back of the window with the intention of creating a rose like creeper around the outside of the window.  I had treated the edges of these cut outs with DI, to remove the white created from the cutting. It softens the look of the flowers entirely.  

A side view showing the corner frame in the bottom corner


On the reverse side of the window, I created a cover sheet, by cutting out the window again and placed this sheet over all the exposed edges, hiding them all from view so that the inside of the card is lovely and neat as well.

Because I wanted to recreate the outdoor view, I felt the background beyond the window needed to have a bit of blue for the sky as well as some garden, so I used one of the ATC's and some 'artistic licence' and 'stretched' the image so as to fill the inside of the card and that way I had my 'sky' and 'garden'. 
It worked out quite well I think.

A view from the opposite side, showing some of the
Rose Garden!
To finish off the front of the card, I 'framed' a sentiment from Magical Mini Letter Seals  by Whimsey Stamps that reads "Serenity is a magical moment of a state of true contentment".I thought it was so fitting for this challenge and my rose garden!

A close up of the 'framed' sentiment.

I die cut Joy! Cutting and Embossing Labels, Tags 6002/0142 from Joan at Country Crafts, turned it side up then stamped the sentiment onto white card, cut and mounted and embellished it with a filigree corner and some paper roses and seam binding. 

I am very happy with the way the card turned out and urge you to pop in and visit Heather at her blog and take a good look at her amazing work and of course, do visit all my teamies for inspiration - links in the side bar - then, please do enter the challenge we are running - you may win some of Heather's beautiful digi's!

In real life, my roses have been pruned some weeks ago and we are anxiously awaiting the rains to come, as they have started shooting in preparation for a stunning summer show!

Wherever you are in the world, I wish you a wonderful weekend and week ahead.
Life is far to short with all the hustle and bustle, so please do take time to stop and
 'Smell the Roses". 

Warm hugz
Moz


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

21 Candles

I spotted a similar card on Pinterest and decided to try it out.

I stayed with the white and black palette with a pop of color for this quick 21st card. Could be for either sex. It was fun to make and I think a great 'in front of the tv' project, using all the little bits of scrap paper you have. Imagine having a huge selection of these 'candles' all ready to pop onto a card. Awesome! 

So I think another 'box' of supplies will be added to the pile, next to my chair in the lounge, for those 'need to keep my hands busy' moments, doing something useful. 
I think I need to do some paper shopping, as my stash is not what it used to be......lol!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead!

Warm hugz
Moz