Well - the craft room move was successful and look what I found

Packed away in one of the boxes.  An ' Antique Pansy' card kit from Ribbon Box.  I bought it at one of the craft shows about 18months/2 years ago.  So now I am relaxing in my lovely new cool and airy craft space I decided to have a go at this.  I still have the rest of the box to sort out but I have achieved something. I have a very kind and sweet next door neighbour who has been nothing but kindness itself to me since the day I moved in here and it is her birthday next month so this will be for her.

Monday 1st Aug
Oops! Following on from the above - when I was putting the remainder of the kit away (enough for two) I realised that I hadn't actually finished the card.   So here it is - finally finally finished.

CD Sunday - Bling it up

For our theme this week of  'Bling it up' I have chosen a parchment pattern by Judith Maslen of a pendant necklace. The extra bonus of this pattern is that you could match the gem colour to the Birthday stone of the
recipient.  This is a  pattern that is suitable for a beginner as it consists of gentle embossing and a little gridwork.  I have mounted it on to linen look miri card and then used a bp from Carol Ann's Studio 'Glitz and Bitz' for the base card -  printed on linen look A4 white card.
I look forward to blog hopping again to see all your lovely cards.  Please join in our challenge and also  do visit my fellow teamies.
Our sponsored challenge next week is very exciting so please keep watching.

Fan - free download pattern from Amanda Yeh

I had a few moments of  Will I? - Won't I? show this as I marked the work after I had finished.  I caught the parchment with one of my tools and of course the sad thing is that you cannot remove a mark from parchment.
You can hide it by covering it - what we call a butterfly moment - but on here it would look so silly.  I could have made one new blade  - as a friend suggested - but it was all finished and glued. So here it is - warts and all.
The pattern is available from Amanda's site

Finished Project - Parchment Christmas tree

So here it is - all finished and sparkly.  The pattern is one by Pauline Loweth.  I have been dying to do it for some time and I thought it would be nice to have it on display in September.  It has 9 layers and a star.  They are threaded on to an 8" kebab stick with parchment  spacers between each layer.  The scalloped edges and the star are all painted with clear nail varnish and glamour dust added.  The whole uses a night light candle as the base. The one I have used is a special sparkly Christmas one I bought last year and forgot to use.

Now I have a special wedding card to make for my nephew and his bride to be so I had better think about that as my next project - unless I get side tracked.

CD Sunday - Dreams

For this weeks theme of 'Dreams' I knew immediately what I was going to create - a dreamcatcher.  I am a fairly down to earth kinda gal but the concept of a dreamcatcher  has always fascinated me and I knew I had a stitch pattern that would be just perfect.  I have added the beads and the horse charm to the design and used a bp from Joanna Sheen's Cd - American Frontier.
Here is a close-up of the design

and here is the insert with the Apache Wedding Blessing

I hope you like my card as much as I enjoyed the making of it.  If I am not doing parchment then stitch and bead work is my next best favourite.
Please visit the blogs of my fellow DT members and perhaps join us yourselves in our CD Sunday challenges.  We are all so pleased to have surpassed the 100 followers and of course  we would love to see more.

The next project

on my worktable is ??  There are 10 parts like this in various sizes and a kebab stick is involved. 

Miniature Handbag No:18

Well - last one for the show.  I did say that I thought it ought to be going out with a bang or  a whimper.  Well I decided the bang would be the thing.  But halfway through this one I began to regret it but it is done now.  I am not 100% happy with the handles and I may well change them but they are as per the pattern.  They were just fiddly and I got frustrated with them.
So here it is and it is called 'Lace'

The outside layer is one piece of the lace as you see it - two circles of pattern  joined in the centre - under the bag.  I couldn't face using my mapping pen and ink for the red outlines so I chickened out and used  my Staedtler triplus fineliner.  These are great - not as fine as is liked by parchment gurus but fine for this and I am not sitting an exam when it would be a No No. I was getting a bit desperate during the pricking out and at one stage even thought - they don't know which one I have chosen to do!!
The red lining piece is plain parchment that I have printed from a  backing paper folder on a CD.
Hope you like it -  and my next project will be ????
Thank you for all the interest and kind comments.
xx

CD Sunday - Nautical

Gosh -Sunday does seem to come round quickly.

For this weeks theme - Nautical - I used  a CD from Crafty Computer Paper -   'Card Kits and Bits'.
I have a few of  their CD's and I consider them an important part of my crafting CD collection.  If you need a very quick card that is a little different - quirky even,  then this Cd is great.
So I don't consider I have done anything particularly clever, original or inspiring this week but I hope you like the card nonetheless.
I look forward to seeing some great 'Nautical' cards from you all.

Miniature Handbag No:17

This one is a pattern I have used before but the style is a favourite of my Parchment Tutor -Marilyn Pybus. It is called the' Knitting Bag'.    It is on Marilyn's stand at the Sandown Show - in September - where all these bags will be displayed.  This one uses two pieces of parchment, one plain and one coloured. For the coloured one I have used Debbees Cd - Paper Flower Boutique.  It is a subtle backing paper of mainly yellows and soft greens.  It doesn't photograph that well but it does look delicate and pretty in the flesh.
The ribbon is already attached to the bag so that it can be hung from the Fotofall.  Sorry about that.  It is a fiddle to thread the ribbon through the glass beads I use as weights and I  didn't want to do it again.

One more to go but I haven't decided which one yet.  I think I ought to finish  with a bang and do a really complicated one - - -but then perhaps not!

Miniature Handbag No: 16

I love this one and I think it is going to be one of my favourites.  This is from Amanda Yeh's second book and the patterns in this book take some thinking about.  You can tell Amanda is a Mathematics teacher as there is so much calculation and logic in her patterns. There is an outer and an inner sheet to this pattern.  The outer layer is like a net - which is the name of the pattern - and worked in plain parchment.  Three of the petals in the blossoms are part of that layer and then other three of the six are done as extras and attached with special fixings and then a gem added..  The inner layer I have worked on coloured parchment - a pattern printed from a Carol Ann's Studio CD.
I was just going to make 12 but now I have reached 16 I might as well continue to 18 as there are 18 arms on the Fotofall to fill.

Ooh La La Challenge #84 - Tag It

Lots of excitement here these last few days as I have finally bought a Cuttlebug.  I have resisted strongly these last 6/7 years but a moment of weakness at The Art of Craft last week was my undoing.  Debs bought a file full of dies and folders with her on Friday and we had a session so that I could get used to using it and at least have a few bits to play with.  I only bought 1 folder and 1 set of dies.
This afternoon I was going through the bits we had done  and suddenly realised I had a tag to play with and Ooh La La have a 'Tag It' Challenge so here is my offering

I have used Ooh La La's crackle backing paper for the card and the tag, Kanban blue linen look mirri card behind the parchment scalloped mat I made.  The tag and flower dies and the embossing folders belong to Debs so I don't know who made them.
I enjoyed making  my first 'Cuttlebug' card and I hope you like it.

Miniature Handbag No:15

This is from Amanda's second book' Exquisite Bags' - and is called Collection Bag.  Amanda has done hers in Pergamano Orange parchment which has a coloured side and a plain side so that you get different embossing effects depending on which side you use.  In her pattern you have to reverse the top half of the pattern so that the turn overs are deep orange compared with the rest of the bag.  I haven't got any such parchment so I use a very pale spotted sheet printed from one of my CD's. Nowhere near such a dramatic effect but I like how it looks.
I sat and made this yesterday after Debs had left to go home.  It seemed so quiet without having her to chat to so I resorted to a Poirot DVD to keep me company.

Latest workshop with Judith Maslen

Debs and I,  and another friend of ours, Charmaine, went down to the woods again yesterday  to another great workshop by Judith.  Actually it wasn't strictly  the woods -  more New Forest.
As always we had two new patterns to work with.  If you read Judith's  Blog you will see that she summed us all up pretty accurately when she said we would moan about painting.  Yep - we did but we promised her we would persevere and I am glad that we did.  I wasn't 100% happy with my painting but pleased with it as a first go.  Need more practice with moving the brush in circles to prevent a hard line.  But Judith came to the rescue and we were allowed to dorso on the back to diffuse some of the hard edges.  A great tip.  This morning when we finished our cards Debs and I also added a little Faber Castell pencil shading to the front and that made it much more betterer -  as my children used to say.

So here is the morning card - Boutique 'Frilly Dance Dress'.

 Our afternoon project was a very pretty whitework design called 'Trailing Treasure' from the Fantasy Flower series.

Just a little dorso work behind the part oval, whitework embossing and a little gold writing and bobbles.  A lovely relaxing card to do and another lovely design from Judith.

The extras I have used were a Martha Stewart punch and gems from stash on the first card and a fantasy flower of my own - with added Bedazzles - from Debbees Cd    - Paper Flower Boutique on the second card

CD Sunday - Handbags

Front:

Back:

My parchment Handbag is made using a pattern in the June Parchment Magazine by Mary G. Kerr.  I have used a BP for the main body of the card from  'Shoes in Bloom' CD from Ooh La La.

Well done to Linda H for winning the draw and I hope you enjoy your prize.
As we all seem to love having as many handbags as possible (and a friend of mine - more than most) we hope to see some inspired cards.

Blossom Fan - pattern by Amanda Yeh

This wonderful pattern from Amanda Yeh's book - 'Exqisite Bags in Parchment Craft' is not for the faint hearted.  But like all Amanda's patterns,  it is grid work through and through which is my favourite part of parchment work.  It was a question of now I have started I will finish and I was up til 2.am. this morning because I just couldn't leave it.  This second book of Amanda's is challenging to say the least but I think the result is worth it.  I have mounted it on 10 x 8 ready to be framed.

Here is a close up of the ribs and bow

  I hope you like it.

(sorry Debs - I'll try and get back to some more flowers xx).

More from ' Paper Flowers Boutique'

Paper Flowers Boutique

More flowers- in parchment -  from  Debbees Cd - Paper Flowers Boutique

CD Sunday - Christmas is Calling

Difficult to get your head round it I know - but we seem to be on the count down already.  As I have been Blog hopping to visit our lovely challengees I have noticed quite a few have Christmas card counters. Your entry to our sponsored challenge will mean yet another tick on the side of - Done .
Our  generous sponsor this month is the Stamping Boutique with the winner being able to choose three images from the many on offer.  If you haven't been to see what they do then pop over to see them  where you will find   some lovely digis to choose from.
Please don't forget though to use a Cd somewhere in your design or sadly your entry, although greatly welcomed and appreciated, can not be considered for the prize.

Here is my DT card for this challenge

I have used a backing paper from  Robert Addams cd - 'Christmas Carols' printed direct to card (Robert has added some wonderful winter backing papers to his Christmas CD's) and then wrapped it with a precious piece  from a sheet of  embossed and glittered 12 x 12 vellum.  My Stamping Boutique image has been coloured with Sakura glitter pens and the sentiment and snowflakes have been coloured with peel off pens.  A sprinkling of Flower soft for snow was the finishing touch.

I too would like to welcome our guest DT member for July - Chris.  I have known Chris 'ether wise' for a little while now and I hope she enjoys her time with us and I know we will enjoy her designs.

'Paper Flowers Boutique' from Debbees Cd's

This small 5 x 5 made using   Deb's new CD was an easy one to make as the backing paper, matt , flowers and blank sentiment strip are all from the CD and come on an A5 sheet.  Just the mirri card, beads, brads and peel off greeting are from my stash. 

Here is a detail of the flower and leaves.

'Paper Flower Boutique' by Debbees Cd's

The fab new Cd in town.  Produced by Debs of Debbees CD's and it arrived here this morning with the ink still wet.  I have been lucky to see a few CD's early and make samples for them most have been great but this one is just perfect. Designed especially for the paper flower maker it will soon become a must have.  I love making parchment flowers and couldn't wait to get started.  I haven't actually been through the whole Cd yet as I got so excited with the first few papers I looked at.
Here is my first completed one.  I have copied the centre idea from some commercial silk flowers I have and used some toning stamens cut down. and stuck into the centre.

Now Debs hasn't seen this yet.  I am just about to ring her to tell her I  have made the first one and posted it here.