A commission - a repeat of Miniature Handbag No: 11

A friend of mine has made a Ruby Wedding card  at one of my monthly classes for her daughter and SIL.
The backing paper used - printed direct to the card - is from a Carol Ann's Studio CD and the heart design came from Stitching Cards

My friend wants to give them a voucher as a present and we discussed the best way to present this and it was decided that I would make her one of the basket versions of the handbag in which to put the voucher.  So we chose my No: 11 and I used the same backing paper as the card but printed direct to parchment with a darker plain piece in the same colour range for the lining.  She chose two of my glass heart beads (from Anita's beads)  for the toggle which I made myself.

  and here is the toggle- there is a story with this about me sticking my fingers together with super glue - but I am OK now.

Miniature Handbag No:14

Remember this?

Well - now 3600 + snips later (in parchment terms that is a snip with parchment scissors between a pair of pricked holes)  we have this:

From the side and the back:

The fastening is a pretty glass bead from my collection.  At the Sandown Show I am a frequent visitor to Anitas's Bead - for just one more string.
In Amanda's pattern for this bag she shows a couple of pleats front and back fixed with tiny jump rings but as I haven't got any I just did it my way.  And this will be the only one I make of this design.  It did take patience and I think the only reason it is finished is that my keyboard died yesterday and with no way of communication on the internet I just had to get on and do other things.  Shows what a time waster this computer can be.

CD Sunday - Mixed Bouquet

This has been made using a photograph I took of a beautiful bouquet  that was bought for me last year by Pamela (of Pamela's Pages). I did the borders in my Photo Manipulation Programme and made the background using the Toolbox CD. The two silver dragonflies are ones that I bought at a Bead Show earlier this year.
Here is one of the original photographs.  It was a truly beautiful bouquet.

Our team have made some fab cards to inspire you  and I look forward to lots of Blog hopping to see your inspiration.

Jewelled Butterfly with border

Back in May I made a parchment butterfly using the beautiful butterfly stamp I had bought from Carolines.  I have now found a suitable border to use to make  a card to show off the butterfly.  I found the border in a new book I purchased entitled 'Flower Garden'  by Hiskia Wittenaar.  Hiskia had a painting of a Camelia in the centre of hers but as I don't do much flower painting I used my butterfly.  The little flowers are made using the same parchment paper that I used for the butterfly.  I love the different colour graduations  you get in the mottled design.  I backed it all with plain white card so that the colouring remains delicate.  I hope you like it.

Second ATC using pattern by Amanda Yeh

The same pattern by Amanda Yeh  as the previous ATC posting, just slightly different colouring for the 'ribbon' and a different centre.  The butterfly comes from  a pattern in one of the Pergamano Books but I can't remember which one.  The pen work is done with pearl ink and the colouring from the back using Faber Castell polychromos pencils.  For the ATC itself I have used bronze Kanban Linen Mirri card which doesn't seem to be available any more.

Miniature Handbag No:13

My new Amanda Yeh pattern book arrived from Taiwan on Monday and of course I had to start playing straight away.  This is the first handbag in the book and by golly it is quite a toughy.  As I hadn't got any red parchment as such I coloured my own but in some places the embossing from the back has shown through white to the front but it isn't really a problem.  I added more gems than the pattern called for but I had them so I used them.  Do you like the Sunflower?  I treated myself to a bouquet of them from Sainsbury's on Saturday to make the place look cheerful for Debs visit.

Now this is the pattern for the next handbag.  I thought the last one a mite tricky so heaven knows if I manage to do this one without a few ****'s.  I thought it might be of interest to show the pattern pricked out and some of the work done.  It is called the Honeycomb Bag.  If you look very closely you will see a few errors but these will be corrected as I go along. It is possible to 'mend' some areas as long as the problem isn't too serious.  There are a few embossed dots missed and a couple of places where the embossing tool has made a hole but these can be patched from behind and will be almost invisible on the finished piece,

CD Sunday - Tassel Time

This is all from Joanna Sheen's CD - Elegant Fans.  Even the punched flowers were made using the backing paper printed on parchment.  The tassel was bought at a craft fair from WS Designs a long time ago and I need to get some more at the next fair I attend. They are fine and delicate and just perfect for fans.

I am sure we are going to see some great ideas for the use of tassels and I look forward to visiting your Blogs

ATC - pattern by Amanda Yeh

The pattern for this ATC is a freebie on Amanda's website.  It has one of my favourite borders and I have used it several times on cards around pre printed and drawn and coloured images.  The pattern can be enlarged very easily.  The threaded ribbon is also parchment and somehow always looks nicer that material ribbon.  I think it looks pleasing and delicate.

 This was made this evening whilst finally sitting down  for a rest   after preparing for my guest tomorrow.  Debs (Debbees CD's) is coming to stay and on Sunday we are off down to the big Parchment Exhibition  in Bristol.  We are so looking forward to it.  Apparently there will be in the region of 60 exhibitors.  Parchment overload I think will be the order of the day. And before all that Debs and I will manage a few hours of crafting together - and perhaps a glass or two! .  Always a joy.

Smaller Miniature handbag

I have ordered Amanda Yeh's second book of handbag patterns from Taiwan and whilst waiting for it to arrive I have been downloading some more of her free patterns on her site.  This little semi circular handbag was amongst them and I made it very quickly.  Amanda says it is designed for beginners and that is so.  But it is even smaller than the others I made.  It was hard to get it to stay on my little card easel so that I could photo it.  This would be an ideal one to have a go at if you wanted to try  a 3d object in parchment.  Amanda suggests rainbow parchment for the outer bag but I used parchment printed from one of my Carol Ann's Studio CD's.   I hardly ever use anything else for printing on parchment.
You'll find the pattern on her site - in my sidebar.  Once there if you want to download you need to register with your email address but that has never been a problem.

Just had a thought.  These are just about big enough to take one sweetie or a sugared almond - great for wedding place settings.

CD Sunday - If the Shoe Fits

 For this challenge I have used Carol Ann's Studio 'Glitz and Bitz' CD.  I used some toppers to make decoupaged ATC's to which I added some bling.  I made them on William and Kates Wedding Day  so they are called - If the Shoe Fits - Wedding Shoes.

Congratulations Hazel L on being our June Sponsored winner.  I loved your mouse with the big feet.  I hope you enjoy your prize and we see some of your creations using them.

As Jenny said on our Blog it is exciting see new entrants to our challenges, and we hope  you keep  coming back. If you are reading this and haven't entered one of our challenges before - please do.  There is nothing complicated about them - a theme and the use of a CD somewhere. That's all there is to it -  and once a month a prize from a sponsor to be won.

Miniature Handbags - Display

Already to go.  Back in the box for now until needed.

Miniature Handbag No: 12

I had said I wanted to do the round dozen of these handbags for display and had managed eleven  when lo and behold in my July Parchment Magazine (delivered yesterday) there is a new pattern by Amanda Yeh.  So I have made it. It wasn't particularly difficult - just time consuming and a little fiddly.

Having finished the handbags for the show my next project is a largish Christmas Tree table decoration - pattern by Pauline Loweth.
I had better get on with it.

CD Sunday - Digi Day

I printed this Digi image - from our Sponsor this month -  Stitchy Bear Stamps straight to  to parchment and then coloured and embossed from the back. I used blendable pencils - Faber Castell Polychromos. The border pattern I used  was from 'Say it with Flowers and Lace' CD by Florence Holmes. The backing paper is rainbow card.
I printed the border pattern  from the Cd on to an A4 piece of copier paper .  The border appears on the righthand side of the landscape orientation of the paper.  I then measure how far in from the far lefthand edge the border finishes and the same from the top, right and bottom edges.  E.g. Lefthand edge 175mm,  35mm each top, right and bottom.  I put these measurements into my printer and then using parchment paper print the digi image to 'fill the page'.  As I have already reduced the printable area and placed it where I  want it then the border will fit perfectly around the image.  The border is already on the piece of copier paper ready for me to trace and emboss on the parchment.  I use this simple technique to place all printed images to parchment so that I can size and place  them where I want them.  If you have a complicated grid pattern it is always sensible to make a template and then do the measuring for the printer.

I am a mite late this week posting my DT card and in visiting our challengees as I have been away.  Good luck in the draw to everyone.