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Nature gives to every season a Beauty all its own. Charles Dickens
Friday, 28 January 2011
IF Rocking Horse
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Sunday, 23 January 2011
Highland fling!
When I saw the new challenge on Rainbow Lady's blog this week I just knew I had to enter - entitled 'Highland Fling' it covers all things Scottish in honour of Burns Night next Tuesday, 25 January. And I have a lot of Scottish stamps.....
My father came from a tiny hamlet called Invergloy, almost midway between Inverness and Fort William, in the Great Glen. Sadly he left my mother just before I was born; he visited us briefly on my first birthday but that was the only time he and I met. I didn't go to Scotland until I was 21, but ever since then I have felt at home as soon as we cross the border. After my father's death we met his two brothers who still lived not far from Invergloy and it was quite uncanny seeing the family resemblence between them, my sister and me, because we all have dark brown eyes and (unfortunately!) a rather large nose! This latter I call the Curse of the MacDonalds......I am so relieved that although my children have brown eyes they escaped The Nose.
Sorry, this wasn't meant to turn into my life story but it does perhaps explain why I have all these stamps. We have been invited to friends for supper on Tuesday to 'share a haggis' with them and I had already thought it would be fun to make them a special card (they always enjoy receiving their handmade Christmas card) so here it is. I love the Selkirk Grace, which although not written by Burns is traditionally used at every Supper, and printed it from the computer because I don't have it on a stamp. The thistle was stamped in Versamark and embossed with white detail powder.
The inside bears a Gaelic sentiment which I bought so long ago I've forgotten what it says! I think it's something like 'Blessings of the festival' so is quite appropriate; it definitely isn't Happy Birthday' nor 'Merry Christmas' so that's OK. And I do love the celtic bird so tried to find a way of incorporating it, and our friends are cat lovers so will appreciate the (modern) celtic-style cat.
Finally, for the first time ever I was able to use this celtic initial F on the back in place of my usual logo stamp. Maybe we'll sign the card from 'Rabbie and Fionnaghal' in place of the rather prosaic Robin and Fiona.....
Thistle by Elusive Images, sentiment unknown, bird by Scottish Borders Rubber Stamps (now defunct), cat by Clarity Stamps, initial by The Stamp Pad (Dublin).
My father came from a tiny hamlet called Invergloy, almost midway between Inverness and Fort William, in the Great Glen. Sadly he left my mother just before I was born; he visited us briefly on my first birthday but that was the only time he and I met. I didn't go to Scotland until I was 21, but ever since then I have felt at home as soon as we cross the border. After my father's death we met his two brothers who still lived not far from Invergloy and it was quite uncanny seeing the family resemblence between them, my sister and me, because we all have dark brown eyes and (unfortunately!) a rather large nose! This latter I call the Curse of the MacDonalds......I am so relieved that although my children have brown eyes they escaped The Nose.
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Thistle by Elusive Images, sentiment unknown, bird by Scottish Borders Rubber Stamps (now defunct), cat by Clarity Stamps, initial by The Stamp Pad (Dublin).
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Neither Christmas nor stitching!
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Main image by Penny Black, sentiment by Mostly Animals
Thursday, 20 January 2011
More cardifying today
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I stitched these 3 last weekend and mounted them this morning. The first two are matted on silver mirri and the third is on gold...now...the first attempt almost saw it on dirty white because I stuck the mirri face down by mistake :(. DH can't believe I could do such a thing but I have to admit it isn't the first time, and probably not the last, either. The tree took the longest time to stitch but I think it was well worth the effort; oddly enough the sleigh, which looks very straightforward, gave me the most grief. All patterns by Pinbroidery.
Bookmark still looking for a home!
I still have a bookmark waiting to be claimed from my blog giveaway of last week. I waited a couple of days longer than I said but finally decided on another draw and the name that came out of the box was
Elizabeth
So if you would like to send me your full name and address to me via email - fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com - I will put one in the post to you, Elizabeth! Mind you, it might be quicker to hand deliver it as you are only about 50 miles away. BTW, check out the previous posts for pictures: A & E from the later post are already winging their way to Texas but there are still 6 for you to choose from.
Elizabeth
So if you would like to send me your full name and address to me via email - fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com - I will put one in the post to you, Elizabeth! Mind you, it might be quicker to hand deliver it as you are only about 50 miles away. BTW, check out the previous posts for pictures: A & E from the later post are already winging their way to Texas but there are still 6 for you to choose from.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Willow Pattern card
On one of the stitching forums I frequent, someone invented a new word which was so graphic that we all adopted it. Many of us stitch ornaments for the Christmas tree, but once stitched they are still just bits of fabric until they are mounted over card, or backed and stuffed like little pillows, with cording round the edge and a means of hanging them. We needed to differentiate between 'I have finished this ornament' meaning, 'I have finished the decorative stitching on the fabric', and 'I have finished this ornament and it's ready for the tree'. Someone identified the final finishing off process as ornamentifying and it is such a useful word! I am now proposing a derivative for the cardmakers' vocabulary: cardifying. It would be used after you have gathered together disparate embellishments, images, background papers and cardstock for a card and later finally assemble them as a complete, ready-to-send item. I realise it doesn't have quite the same impact as ornamentifying because there's usually a much shorter time scale involved (I've known ornaments be ornamentified years after they were stitched) but to prove my point, here is an example of a card which was stitched last week and cardified this morning!
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This is the front, covered in paper from a book of oriental designs published by Search Press. The tie is soft round cord from my stash, looped round and fastened with a lark's head and then knotted, with two brass charms added to the tails. It slips off the card to reveal...
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...the inside with a stitched panel and the greeting by Funstamps using Versafine ink in Majestic blue . The righthand panel then opens to reveal.....
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...the second and third panels of the Willow Pattern Story. These were so much fun to stitch, using DMC embroidery thread in shade 798. The card is for a friend celebrating a Very Special Birthday soon (but I can't say any more) and I think I'll be doing more like it just for the fun! All patterns from Form-A-Lines, which is the third site in a trio with Pinbroidery and Stitching Cards (yes, there is a reason for the separate sites but it's a long story).
This is the front, covered in paper from a book of oriental designs published by Search Press. The tie is soft round cord from my stash, looped round and fastened with a lark's head and then knotted, with two brass charms added to the tails. It slips off the card to reveal...
...the inside with a stitched panel and the greeting by Funstamps using Versafine ink in Majestic blue . The righthand panel then opens to reveal.....
...the second and third panels of the Willow Pattern Story. These were so much fun to stitch, using DMC embroidery thread in shade 798. The card is for a friend celebrating a Very Special Birthday soon (but I can't say any more) and I think I'll be doing more like it just for the fun! All patterns from Form-A-Lines, which is the third site in a trio with Pinbroidery and Stitching Cards (yes, there is a reason for the separate sites but it's a long story).
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Bookmark giveaway - winners
I put the names of all those who left a comment into a box and asked my DH to pick 3. The winners are.......
Dixie
Kathy Braun and Lucky (sorry, you'll have to share! LOL)
Anne Marie
Please send me your full name and postal address by email to fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com (taking out all spaces and using conventional symbols for the capitalised words of course) with 'Blog giveaway' in the subject heading. Let me know which bookmark you would like, from the 5 shown on 11 Jan (identify them as A-E from left to right) and the 3 on 8 Jan (F, G and H). If I haven't heard by Tuesday midnight GMT I'll draw again.
I haven't been idle over the past couple of days but the card fronts I've stitched haven't been finished into Christmas cards yet, and now I've started my sister's birthday card ready for July! I really should be making a Bon Voyage card for a friend who is off to New Zealand soon, plus several birthday cards for February, but while I'm still suffering with this cold I'm taking the line of least resistance - stitching doesn't require any decision making and since I'm feeling pretty mindless right now any decision made would certainly be the wrong one! My time will come.....
Dixie
Kathy Braun and Lucky (sorry, you'll have to share! LOL)
Anne Marie
Please send me your full name and postal address by email to fionabirchall AT ntlworld DOT com (taking out all spaces and using conventional symbols for the capitalised words of course) with 'Blog giveaway' in the subject heading. Let me know which bookmark you would like, from the 5 shown on 11 Jan (identify them as A-E from left to right) and the 3 on 8 Jan (F, G and H). If I haven't heard by Tuesday midnight GMT I'll draw again.
I haven't been idle over the past couple of days but the card fronts I've stitched haven't been finished into Christmas cards yet, and now I've started my sister's birthday card ready for July! I really should be making a Bon Voyage card for a friend who is off to New Zealand soon, plus several birthday cards for February, but while I'm still suffering with this cold I'm taking the line of least resistance - stitching doesn't require any decision making and since I'm feeling pretty mindless right now any decision made would certainly be the wrong one! My time will come.....
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Bah! Humbug! #1
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The title of this post doesn't reflect my own feelings towards Christmas: it's merely to indicate that I've managed to complete a card for this week's challenge as set by the eponymous site! The given theme was Holly, or alternatively, Fairies, but I don't do fairies so holly it is. Yet another of the patterns from Stitching Cards and I like the finished result much more than I expected from the pattern; it was very quick to stitch, too, and not too taxing for my cold-befuddled brain.
It's a pity the scan doesn't show the colours properly. All the threads have a glitter filament - the lettering and candle are red, the candlestick is copper, and the flame and aura are gold, as are the long straight stitches in the border. Still, the good thing is that the holly takes centre stage ;)
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
More stitched bookmarks
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I have a heavy cold so am staying indoors and stitching. I've made these bookmarks over the past couple of days from the Stitching Cards website but have now stopped production and gone back to making a stitched card for the Bah! Humbug! site's first Christmas challenge of the year. As usual I've left myself short of time because I forgot to check it out last Friday, but I hope to finish by Thursday lunchtime as it will have to be on show here by then.
Meanwhile, if you would like to win one of my bookmarks, read the post immediately below this one and leave me a comment there. You can see more like these in the post dated Saturday 8 January.
Monday, 10 January 2011
Belated birthday
No, not a card I've made for a birthday I forgot! Last Thursday was my blogging first birthday; I didn't post on that day so didn't bother to mention it. But I thought about it and had a quiet celebratory feeling within me. I'm pleased that I managed to set up the blog in the first place, and have learned how to tweak it over the past year - things like changing the header photo and positioning photos within the text are huge achievements for me :) I've also been thrilled at the lovely comments received and have a warm feeling towards every one of those wonderful people who takes the trouble to do so, especially the regulars. OK, I know no one is likely to make a nasty comment and bloggers work on a 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours' ethos, but I could so easily have been posting into a dark uninhabited world! My family and close friends are not regular readers here so it is the larger crafting cyberworld that has opened its doors to me, and I am both gratified and humble. I don't do brilliant work that makes everyone gasp in amazement; my artistic ability is almost non existent; I've never been asked to join anyone's design team.....I just do my own thing, and in the future my creations are likely to be very similar to those in the past, so thank you to those who are content with seeing what I do.
I'm going to have a blog Giveaway as a thank you. I'm still stitching floral bookmarks (see the post immediately under this) with great enjoyment and will send one each to three people chosen at random from those who leave a comment to this post. I'll leave it open until midnight GMT on Friday 14th, which is about midday Saturday in NZ and 4pm Friday in California (the rest of you will have to work it out for yourselves!) Check back here to see if your name has been drawn and if it has you'll need to send me your postal address. I can't promise to send a specific design/colour combination because I haven't stitched all the possibles yet, but pick a single colour from red-blue-yellow-orange-pink-purple and I'll do my best for you.
I'm going to have a blog Giveaway as a thank you. I'm still stitching floral bookmarks (see the post immediately under this) with great enjoyment and will send one each to three people chosen at random from those who leave a comment to this post. I'll leave it open until midnight GMT on Friday 14th, which is about midday Saturday in NZ and 4pm Friday in California (the rest of you will have to work it out for yourselves!) Check back here to see if your name has been drawn and if it has you'll need to send me your postal address. I can't promise to send a specific design/colour combination because I haven't stitched all the possibles yet, but pick a single colour from red-blue-yellow-orange-pink-purple and I'll do my best for you.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
More stitched cards, but not for Christmas!
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I am still working on Christmas designs but gave myself a break today by stitching 3 bookmarks. The designs came from Stitching Cards, sister site to Pinbroidery (same designer owns both), and were fun and very quick to make - about three hours each. I used DMC embroidery threads with 4 shades each of the blues and purples. They are made on a double sized piece of card which is folded in half and stuck to hide the back of the work and I think it would be nice to send them as cards and suggest the recipient sticks them together for a keepsake. However these particular bookmarks have been made as token prizes for a challenge I shall be setting in May. Each year we go to the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, for a week's holiday with a group of folk dancers. Last year for the first time I gave everyone a list of 'Things To Do' during the week, which ranged from climbing the highest mountain on the island to eating haggis, and from seeing a puffin to buying the local paper! There were far more things listed than could possibly be done in a week but the winner managed about 40 and was ceremoniously presented with the promised 'small prize' on the final evening: a miniature bottle of whisky no more than an inch tall! This year I plan to repeat the challenge and shall be making half a dozen bookmarks over the next few months for awards.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
More Christmas cards!
Monday, 3 January 2011
Christmas Past and Future
Because my daughter came to stay over Christmas, and then again on New Year's Eve, the spare bedroom had to be cleared and much of the 'stuff' found a temporary home in my craft room. This meant no possibility of cardmaking until the 'stuff' was replaced once more in the spare room, so Julian's birthday card had to be made in early December and I've been waiting impatiently for a return to creativity ever since. Some of the time I was able to use productively by developing a new storage system for my Nesties and various stencils: they're now all standing up in a box separated by labelled card dividers, which looks just like a library card catalogue such as I used when I started work in the local library in 1963 - I felt quite nostalgic! I also now have my JustRite Stampers in a wonderful collection of boxes given to me for Christmas by one of my best friends.
Finally I sorted out all my patterns and threads for stitched cards, and made a start on my Christmas cards for 2011. We receive around 120 cards and have them displayed on the two doors in the living room so looking at them over the holiday period is when I'm most inspired. It's several years since I did any stitched designs (apart from one poinsettia design last year) and I've decided to prick out as many patterns as possible while I'm in the mood, then I can stitch whenever I feel like it throughout the year. Yesterday I actually completed one card, shown here, even down to the insert sheet and my stamp on the back, and I also have another two fronts stitched but not mounted. Don't worry, this level of enthusiasm can't possibly continue!
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Sunday, 2 January 2011
Some boys never grow up!
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My son is an adrenalin freak - he once sent us a postcard from New Zealand which said 'I can think of nothing I want to do more than spend my life jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane at 13,000 feet with another fellah strapped to my back!' He had just done his first tandem parachute jump and went on to do two more. Forget bungee jumping - unless he can go and do the highest in the world, in South Africa, he's done all that he wants and they're all too tame. Having already tried skate boarding as a youngster, and then wake boarding (the same thing but on water and without wheels: that one gave him concussion and a permanently scarred head) of course he naturally gravitated in NZ to hurtling down mountains like dragons' teeth on a snow board. It's his birthday today (he's spending it snowboarding in Poland) and this stamp cried out to me for his card as soon as I saw it. Happy 37th birthday Julian!
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