Tall Ships Regatta

Hi everyone

 

At the end of August Liverpool played host to the 2012 Irish Sea Tall Ships regatta (see how far behind I am on my posts!?) My mum and myself went down to the docks to have a look at the boats while we were out shopping for the day. The boats were absolutely HUGE, much bigger than I thought and they were really interestingto look at. There was even a boat that you could go on and have a look around. Heres a couple of pictures from the day.

The quality of my pictures isn't that great because I forgot my camera so had to really on my phone camera instead. I had a few 'boy' cards to make for friends and family members birthdays and the boats gave me some great ideas! Here's the card I came up with, which I reproduced a few times so I had enough for everyone.

It's a really simple card to make. I wanted the card to have an 'old' or 'vintage' feel to them, like old sepia-toned photograph or weathered and worn book. Because Stampin Up Ink is water based it's really easy to use a water brush (or just a brush dipped in water) to pull the ink from the outline into the image. You can also use the ink pad as a paint palette, by squeezing the ink pad when it's closed. When you open it up there'll be little blob of ink that yiu can paint with. I haven't got any photos but this link will show you what I mean.

You can see the water colouring a bit better on the close-up picture above. To make the background I stamped a pale beige/brown ink onto the stamp and then using a tissue I dabbed little bits away so it looked worn away when I stamped it. I also used Versamark watermark ink to stamp out anchors.

 

It was really quick and easy to make but I think it looks quite effective :)

 

Products used -

Stampin Up Stamp set in The Open Sea (I can't remember the name of the set the sentiment is from)

Stampin Up cardstock in Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Vey Vanilla & Naturals Ivory

Stampin Up Ink in Chocolate Chip & Crumb Cake

Versamark watermark ink

Twine

 

Hope you liked the card!

 

Bye for now!

Birthday Beauties

Hi everyone!

 

I've been a bit under the weather this past week, hence the gap between posts. I'm still not feeling too great but luckily I've got a few days off work.

 

Anyways enough about that. I've got some birthday stuff to show you all today. First up is the card. I made this card using an embossing folder and a brayer. It turned out so well! The camera doesn't really pick it up but I used shimmer spray on all the white cardstock.

 

 

I used the Manhattan Flower embossing folder from Sizzix on white cardstock. Afterwards I turned the card over so that the outline of the flower was DEBOSSED rather than embossed (AKA it wasn't raised up it was pushed down). Then I brayered over the top in a couple of colours and cut the flowers out. So simple! Here's a close up of the flowers.

 





I used pale pink and yellow ink on this card. Now I can't take credit for this idea at all. I was mooching on the internet when I came across a blog called Patty's Stamping Spot, she had a wonderful tutorial video with step-by-step instructions for how to emboss and brayer the flowers to get the effect above.

 

I got a bit carried away after making the card above for my Gran's birthday, I made the same card again in yellow, bright pink, dark purple, red and lilac/blue! I just love the way the roses look and couldn't resist making more (I stupidly forgot to take pictures of them before I sent them out to people though).

 

To go with the card I also made a little giftbox to hold the present.

 



I carried on the pink and white/cream theme but decided to brighten it up a little bit. The box is made using the Sizzix Candy Wrapper die. Trying to fold the ends of the candy wrapper can be a real pain until you get the hang of it. I found a great video by Kirsteen over on ILWS that shows you an easy way to fold the sides of the wrapper.

I used Rose Red card, ribbon and ink aswell as various other shades of pink ink. Here's a view of the top of the box.

Above is the little tags I made using a small heart punch and Stampin Up's Tiny Tags stamps and matching punch.

Products used (card) -
Sizzix Manhattan Flower embossing folder
Stampin Up cardstock in Whisper White & Blushing Bride
Stampin Up Ink in Blushing Bride & So Saffron
Stampin Up Whisper White organza ribbon
Stampin Up stamp set in Curly Cute
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Stick on pearls
Shimmer spray
Brayer

Products used (giftbox) -
Sizzix Candy Wrapper die
Stampin Up stamp sets in Tiny Tags & Circle Circus
Stampin Up cardstock in Very Vanilla & Rose Red
Stampin Up ink in Rose Red, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink & Regal Rose
Stampin Up Rose Red seam binding ribbon
Stampin Up Small Heart & Jewellery Tag

Bye for now!

 

All summer long...

Hi everyone!

 

Right it's taken me three months but I've FINALLY finished my patchwork quilt! It was a LOT harder than I thought it'd be but I'm so glad I made it because it looks realy good :)  I had so many problems because to be honest I didn't really know what I was doing because I've never done patchworking before and I haven't done any big sewing projects since High School GCSE Textiles!

 

Just to warn you all before I get started, this is going to be a very, very, very long post with quite a lot of photos. Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures, I took them on my phone because I'd left my camera at my Mum's house.

 

I wanted my quilt to be the same size as a regular single bed duvet (first mistake right there). I don't think I really thought it through all that much because trying to quilt a piece that big was really difficult but I'll get to that later. I decided to do my quilt all in squares because I thought that would be easier, what with it all just being straight lines and all. Anyways I wanted a nice pastel colour scheme and I found the best website selling the most gorgeous fabrics, its called Eclectic Maker. I bought one fat quarters each of Klona Cotton Solids in Pale Pink, Klona Cotton Solids in Baby Blue and Tanya Whelan Sugar Hill Scattered Roses in White and two fat quarters each of Tanya Whelan Sugar Hill Birdy in Blue, Patty Sloniger Bella Butterfly Sweet Leaves in Pink, Moda Basics Essential Dots in White Peony, Moda Basics Essential Dots in Baby Pink, Moda Basics Essential Dots in Baby Blue and Patty Young Andalucia Tiny Dots in White *. I also bought a single white flat sheet to use for my white squares, edge strips and backing. It was cheaper doing this that buying white cotton fabric and a bedsheet is hardwearing by nature so I knew it would work just as well.

 

Here's what the fabrics I oredered look like when they were delivered. Aren't they pretty? I love the way they're folded and packed in tissue paper, it makes it look so much more expensive.

 

 

This is the batting I've used, it's a twin size Heirloom cotton batting which I bought from Eclectic Maker along with the fabrics. As you can see from the pictures, it's really thin.

 

  

I wanted the spotty fabrics to be cut smaller so that I could sew 4 small squares together to make 1 square (if that makes sense?). The spotty favrics were cut into 4x4" squares, this included a 1/2" seam allowance so that the finished square would be 3x3". The rest of the fabrics were cut into 7x7" squares, again with a 1/2" seam allowance so the finished square would be 6x6". I left a 1/2" seam allowance rather than a 1/4" beacuse I haven't sewn anything like this for a very long time so I wanted to leave myself a little extra to make it a bit easier on myself.

 

I used my Fiskars pinking shears to cut the fabrics. I absolutely love these scissors! They cut so easily. They were a bit expensive but well worth it. I would definitely reccomend them to anyone looking for pinking shears. I got mine from eBay but I know Hobbycraft sell them and lots of fabric/haberdashery shops will probably have them too.

 

 

Here's what all the fabrics looked like once they were cut out.

 

 

I stitched two small squares together in contrasting spotty colours. The white with pink spots stitched to the pink with white spots, and the blue with white spots stitched to the white with blue/green spots as shown below.

 

 

I then stitched the squares together so they made a big square, with the matching fabrics opposite from each other. This was mistake number two. Because I hadnt sewn some of the pieces together exactly at 1/2" I ended up with big seams on some pieces and little seams on other pieces. Also trying to line the squares up so that the corners all met in the middle was a nightmare!

 

 

Once all the squares where stitched together I then stitched the squares together into rows. I'd already drawn up a pattern so I could easily follow which colour/patterned square was meant to go where. I forgot to take a picture of the all the rows together before I stitched them together. But here's how it looked when all the rows where seewn together.

 



 

Mistake number three was not paying close enough attention to how I pinned the squares together so some of the four-squares. So some of them are the wrong way round. You can see it on two pink/white squares and one blue/white square, around my watermark on the picture above. It's not that noticeable but because I'm a perfectionist it annoys me a little bit.

 

After this I had to sew my side panels on. They're 5" wide with a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides. Because I'm a beginner I decided to just make the side pieces longer so that they could be sewn onto the top/bottom pieces, rather than making a mitered corner which I thought would have been a bit too difficult for my level of skill.

 

 

After the side/top/bottom pieces and the back was all sewn together I then had the task of quilting the quilt. I did a line of stitching about an inch from the edge of the quilt all the way around, I also stiched down the join between the white edging and the coloured fabrics and then another row of stitching about 1/2" the side. Once I'd done all this I then stitched about 1/2" to either side of the row seams. It was an absolute nightmare! The first couple of rows on either end were ok but the closer I got to the middle the harder it became beacuse I had to roll the quilt up so that it would fit through the machine.

 

 

Mistake number 4 came with the fact that I hadn't pinned the fabric to the wadding tightly enough so that when I was quilting it I had an excess of fabric which was folding over and puckering when I was quilting. As you can see below.

 

 

It's not too bad though because I've read that when I was the quilt, the batting and fabrics will shrink a little which will cause puckering. So you probably won't even really notice my mistake by the time it's washed. If I'd have prewashed the batting and fabric before I started sewing with it, when I wash it it won't shrink. However, I didn't bother prewashing as I thought the puckering would make the quilt look older and more 'authentic' I suppose you could say.

 

 

Above is a picture of the back of the quilt so you can see the quilting lines easier. And below is a picture of my finished quilt :)

 

 

I'm so so so happy with the way it's turned out. I love the colours and the fabrics and although the batting was thin it's still really warm. It was really quite difficult to make. Anyone who thinks it's easy, trust me it's not at all! I had loads of problems and made plenty of mistakes but it turned out well in the end. I've definitely learned a lot and I think next time I make one I'll just use one size of square and possibly use a die (like Sizzix who have just brought out a quilting die range) so they're all uniform in size which should make it easier to make sure all my seams are the same size and I shouldn't have as many problems trying to get my rows lined up.

 

Anyways I hope you enjoyed my post today. Bye for now!

 

 

 

 

 

* I've linked to the webpages showing the fabrics/batting but if the site discontinue these products the links will no longer work.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Hello again everyone!

 

I've been baking again :) I found some gorgeous looking lemon meringue cakes on Pinterest and I just had to try making them! Lemon meringue is one of my favourite desserts and who doesn't like cake!? Most of the pictures I found were of big cakes but I wanted to make cupcakes instead.

 

 

I used my usual vanilla cupcake recipe but used less vanilla as I didn't want it to overpower the lemon. Once the cake were cooked, I cut a hole in the middle and scooped in some lemon curd and then popped the little piece ofcake back ontop. I didn't want the lemon curd to bubble up when I cooked the meringue.

 

 

I've never made meringue before but I found a really easy recipe in one of my mums (really old) cookbooks. I swear its more sellotape than book these days but it's got some great recipes so we've kept hold of it. I attempted to pipe the meringue ontop of my cakes but it didn't really work out all that well.

 

I think they turned out really well. And considering all 12 were gone within 2 days everyone in my house must have agreed as well!

 

Thats all for today!

 

 

 

Decorating Delights

Hi everyone

 

Where has the time gone? I've been so busy in my new job that my blog kind of went on a bit of a hiatus. I'm back now though! Yay! I'm really going to try to do at least one blog post a week but hopefully more.

 

I've FINALLY finished my quilt! It's taken all summer to do but it's finally finished and I'm soooo happy with it! I'm gonna dedicate a whole post to it soon.

 

Anyways enough about that, onto todays post. I've been decorating my room and have made a few cute little things for my room to brighten it up a little bit.

 

First up I made some bunting using scraps of pastel coloured card and paper and the Stampin Up Petite Pennant punch. Heres what it looks like hung up on my wall.

 

 

And heres a close up.

 

 

I used Stampin Up card in Prettyin Pink, Bashful Blue, Old Olive and So Saffron, and matching patterened papers. I strung them all together using some twine. I could have done with some better pins rather than the big ones I had to use, but oh well.

  

Next up we have some gerbera flowers. These are similar to the ones I made right back when I started my blog. I think the ones in that post look a lot more like daisies whereas these new ones I've made look more like actual gerberas.

 

 

I made these in exactly the same way as before (you can read the post here if you want some extra info) but added extra layers of petals and only used the biggest and smallest sized petals. I also wrapped the the skewers with green florist tape so they look a bit more realistic. I think these ones turned out better than my original ones. The vase is from Ikea (anyone who knows me will know I'd never dream of going anywhere else!) and the white sand is from Wilkinsons. It was only £1 for a bag but I needed about 4 bags because the vase is so big!

 

The last of my little decorations is another butterfly frame similar to this one I made in a previous post. It uses the identical frame and the same butterfly die.

 

 I used Stampin Up paper in Everyday Enchantments and card in Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla and decorated the butterlies and the edge of the frame with rhinestones.

 

 Above is a sideview so you can see how I used the 3D foam to make the butterflies stand up from the card.

 

So thats it for today! Heres a quick list of everything used in these projects.

 

Bunting -

Stampin Up cardstock and patterned paper in Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron & Bashful Blue

Stampin Up Petite Pennants punch

Twine (don't know who its made by)

 

Gerberas -

Stampin Up cardstock in Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise,Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Melon Mambo & Rose Red

Black card by The Paper Mill

Sizzix Flower Daisies #2 die

Circle punch (I think it's about 1")

Kebab Skewers

Florists tape

3D foam

White decorative sand from Wilkinsons

Blue vase from Ikea

 

Butterfly Frame -

Sizzix Emboslits in Beautiful Wings

Stampin Up paper in Everyday Enchantment

Stampin Up cardstock in Bashful Blue, Poppy Parade, Old Olive, Peach Parfait & Very Vanilla

Stick on rhinestones

1 1/2" Circle punch

White frame from Wilkinsons

3D foam

 

Bye for now!