Physical, not digital, crafting

So, it's been a while (again!) but I have been pretty busy. I have spent just about every waking moment I've had free for the last six weeks on my first crafty love, cross stitching. More specifically, Jane Greenoff's Diamond Jubilee Souvenir Chart Cross Stitch Kit. A set of four charts designed specifically to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee:

It has been a long time since I have attempted any cross stitch, let alone anything so intricate and complex. The last major project I did would be almost a decade ago, before I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and subsequently lost a lot of my fine grip. Those chart though, I fell in love! Even better, I knew my grandma would fall in love with them too, so the finished items would make a great gift for her.

Initially, I'd aimed to have two charts - the coach and crown - completed for her birthday in August, but soon realised that was a pipe dream! There was too much detail in the coach to stitch at any speed even if I'd been physically able to do it. Saying that, I was surprised how well I coped with the project; lots of sitting still and intricate work should not be good for me. I did get the coach finished in time (just) and I'm really pleased with the outcome

Anyone else who has the pattern may notice some really huge mistakes, then again, anyone who has never seen the chart before will be none the wiser, so I'm not going to point them out.










 I had adapted my technique considerably from the way I used to stitch, and it seems to have really helped me, so I thought I'd share some tips.

• Do not use an embroidery hoop! This is the worst thing I can use while I'm stitching for two reasons: firstly, they are a pain in the bum to take on and off and tighten by hand, and secondly, they encourage me to hold my work with one hand and my needle with the other so all the fine grip is taken by the same hand. 
• Instead, I use what's best described as a makeshift tapestry frame. Take 2 strips of cardboard (cereal box weight is ideal) and use clothes pegs to attach them to the sides of your work. This works especially well if you have extra fabric at the top of your work - roll it up and attach the top ends of the cardboard to the roll. The whole construction sits nicely on a lap tray Using this, I can have one hand underneath my work and one hand above, sharing the strain evenly
• Use shorter lengths of thread. I don't have to struggle with separating strands, or keep pulling loads of thread through the work, which would strain my wrists and elbows, and I don't end up with tangles and knots that I have to cut out, wasting thread, so that's a fab tip even if you don't have dexterity issues.
• That last tip does mean you end up starting new threads a lot, so instead of knotting my thread when I start or anchoring it behind the next few stitches, I take one strand of thread out of the floss, half it, then thread my needle, so there's a loop at the end of the length of thread. Make the first stitch carefully, making sure the needle goes through the loop at the back of the thread. This uses a lot less thread than anchoring or knotting, and personally I think it looks neater. To finish threads I do still anchor behind my previous stitches, mainly to make sure I don't end up trying to manipulate a short piece of thread.

I think that's pretty much it, all my tips for wrist friendly stitching. Actually no, there's one more. Don't do what I did and start with quite a big project. Start with a small kit, get used to the methods and then progress!

I really hope something here helps someone back into an abandoned craft, or just inspires people to give it a go - Happy Stitching!

'

I'm such a ditz!

OK, so my last fortnight has largely consisted of transferring a MCS CD into a CAP digikit. In between a lot of importing and cutting, I found time to create a new card on CAP. Just as well, really - my brother had to RSVP for a colleague's wedding reception. I would of course post the finished result except I didn't take a photo before it was sent. I do have the CAP export though!

So, first effort

I thought ... very classy, unique, pretty good. Apparently not. Good Lord I hate designing for family!











Amendment 1 ... monochrome and classy font!

It was this point my sensible side kicked in - you don't put RSVP on the response - RSVP is a request for a response! D'oh!











So, different centre decoration

Looks too much like a funeral card *rolleyes*

Perfect! (Finally)

How did I do it?

The final design is a 5x7 tent fold card, with no background picture added. Instead, I added an embellishment from "April Morning" that started life like this:

All I then did was change it in the effects tab. For the effect on the card I used the "Metallic -> Exotic Metal 1" effect. I put the flourish in the top right, copied and pasted, then rotated 180 degrees and put in the bottom left.

The matt for the centre embellishment is just one of the quick shapes built in to the program. 

The centre embellishment itself is slightly more complex. It started as this flourish from the free "Sparkle Sky" Digikit

Apologies to those of a sensitive disposition for the green background, it just shows up the detail of the embellishment really well!

Instead of using this as it is, I used the eraser tool to take out some of the extra sparkle - the yellow sparkles outside of the main flourish. I put on the same effect as the earlier flourish, then copied, pasted and flipped it horizontally - then aligned it where I wanted and grouped the two together. I copy and pasted the group, then flipped vertically 

and grouped again. Always group items you have specially aligned - there is nothing more frustrating than moving one bit at a time and never getting it lined up quite right again!

And there you have it, one finished card!

New Digikits!

I was very restrained, and I didn't go for the Create and Craft Pick of the Day sets. I say restrained, but really, my thought was - why do I need 5 discs of butterfly images?
Anyhoo, I bought the set from Peppermint Creative instead. They landed with a flump on my doorstep today, and I'm so thrilled with my choice. I can see these getting some serious use. To start I played with the kits on the same layout, so I could compare the styles.

Top left: April Morning
Top Right: Kindergarten Crafts
Bottom Left: Tropical Popsicle
Bottom Right: Wild Hearts

There is not one kit I don't like in the set, and I can already seem me using them for different people/events I really do love the kindergarten crafts, although it's geared up to be for school days, it makes a lovely masculine card (an effect the flower embellishments don't really detract from). There are elements in (I think) all the samples that I've recoloured just to tone in with the background and embellishments.

A brilliant set of kits, and a long time to spend crafting for me!

A familiar favourite, remastered

I'm suffering a bit at the moment - a bit of a carpal tunnel issue is making it tough to craft, so Craft Artist is taking a beating instead!
You might remember this card from earlier in the year

I wanted to get some practice and confidence in Craft Artist, so I thought I'd try to recreate it ... and here it is!

OK, so this is just an export from Craft Artist, but you get the idea. I don't think it's too bad a comparison. The carnation topper was still saved on the computer, so I used cutout studio to separate the layers, and reconstructed it. Each layer has the "Bevel and Emboss" filter applied to it to make it appear 3D.
The silver behind the carnation is a metallic effect "Dull Silver", but altered to look flat. In filter effects -> 3D effects, I changed the depth to 0 (All the silver is done this way, except for the frame, where I left the depth set to its standard amount) The filigree background is taken from an embellishment from the "Father's Day 2011" (free from Daisytrail), and the frame is from "Sparkle Sky" (also free from Daisytrail)

Sorry for the MIA!

Yeah, I disappeared for a bit - sorry about that. I had a bit of a computer malfunction (for techie types, my graphics card died, so I had to resurrect my brother's old computer by taking out the additional graphics card to improve airflow and stop it collapsing from heat exhaustion every time I booted up)

After the computer issues, I decided to buy new software ... yeah, I know, potentially mad idea. But you can't blame me - C+C had a £20 software programme available for postage only! I am now a dedicated ( and slightly obsessed) Craft Artist Professional user. Hopefully I will be uploading some of my creations soon, but I'm still gorging on the fantastic-ness that is the programme and marvelling at all the new things I'm finding to do.

If I don't put up projects, hopefully I'll be able to do some tutorials, and upload the digikits I've been making out of my old photos

Experimentation with Mica Powders

I've been spending money again! I have seen mica powders demonstrated a few times on C+C - the lovely Sheena Douglass (http://www.sheena.tv/) and Ali Reeve (http://clevercrafter.blogspot.co.uk/) do some fab demos, and give loads of inspiration. Finally, I decided to take the plunge, and give them a go.

Then, they sat in my crafty stash ... for about a month! Despite all the TV I'd seen, they still made me nervous. Yup, I know, I'm a wimp. I did pluck up the courage to give them a go. On a piece of stamping that hadn't gone quite right. I know that mica can be tricky to work with, so I didn't want to try it on a piece I was planning for a card.

I mixed the micas with a little water, so I could use them as a paint on the embossed image. And you know what? It went really well.

And I couldn't have been more disappointed, lol. It's hard to see in this picture, but the text was ghosted from slipping when I stamped the image. I couldn't use this as a topper on a card.

So it sat on my desk for about 3 days ... mocking me. It narked me more and more every time I saw it - this lovely image that I couldn't use - grr! In the end,  I took some scissors to it, and chopped out the flowers, or at least as much of them as I could salvage. My dexterity isn't great, and I'm left handed, so I usually avoid cutting anything out unless I have to. I did manage to get two nice looking corner images out of it, which I used for these

 The images are a little blurred, I apologise. Think I need the camera cleaning a little. Anyway, both cards are finished with a sentiment heat embossed on white vellum in the aperture. The landscape card is decorated using more mica'd flowers (painted in the same way as the original image) and a couple of the leaves I salvaged from the frenzied scissor attack! The portrait image had a butterfly added. I made this by mixing some mica powder with some PVA, and painting this mixture onto the back of a piece of acetate. I let that dry overnight, then put a black peel off on the front of the acetate sheet, and cut round it (wielding scissors twice in one project? I must be ill!). As I type, the butterfly is desperate to make its escape from the front of the card ... I shall have to investigate better sticky stuff!

It seems I've managed to swipe victory from the jaws of defeat on this one. And I know it won't be the last time the mica powders see the light of day ... I'm even considering getting some in different colours!

Last Christmas card (for now, at least!)

So, this is the last Christmas post for at least a little while. It is my favourite though!

The topper is a few stages. First, I dry embossed some vellum with a stencil I've had for ages (yup, I've been doing more stash diving). Then I used the stencil to cut out some green mirri card to match the tree shapes, and stuck it onto a piece of black card. After that, I lined up the vellum and base card so the trees were in the right place - possibly the hardest part of the whole card. After the vellum was wrapped around, I stuck it onto some green mirri card, and onto a dark green backing card.

The sentiment caused me a nightmare - I wanted it to match the topper, but I don't have anything I can emboss a Christmas message through. I tried everything, from the sublime to the ridiculous of trying to burnish over a stamped image. In the end I settled for stamping in green on vellum, and heat embossing! Sometimes the easiest ideas, huh?

The envelope is another Ultimate Pro creation, this time with a liner to compliment the design.