A New Little Gadget and a Lovely New Challenge

I love seeing shabby chic cards with stitching on them and I graciously allowed my other half to treat me to a sweet little pink sewing machine from John Lewis. I've been looking for a while and this one ticked all the boxes.  It took a little while to get the hang of threading the cotton through and then we were away. Our lovely new challenge at OSAAT was for Anything Goes with Stitching, Faux or Real.

My card this week features me and my little pink number creating stitching around my card. When I finished it I just fell about laughing as it was awful, so crooked and I used to make clothes for my children when they were small and my seams truly were much straighter than theses.

Anyway, here's my card.

I chose this sweet image called Flower Child by Stitchy Bear and you can find it here.  It's so lovely and I printed it out on a piece of Crafters Companion watercolour paper as I wanted a much softer effect from my Promarkers.  I cut it with a Spellbinders circle die and then backed it with the smallest of the Spellbinders Grand Decorative Circles. Sadly, they don't make the big dies anymore but I live in hope of finding the ones I've missed .

The red and green papers are from a pad from Graphic 45 basic patterns and the corner die cut is from Memory Box and is a real favourite of mine.  The little 'Tranquility' tab is from the Graphic 45 'Bird Song Collection' and is perfect for my card.

Please drop by and see all the fabulous  cards my team mates have created over at the One Stitch At A Time blog here. If you love stitching real or faux please enter our challenge.  

Please drop by again and I'd love to know that you've been.

My First Try At Mixed Media

I've just spent a fab weekend with my very talented Sis-in-Law and using some gorgeous mixed media techniques on a front cover of a memories book. I'm creating this as my grandson said to me recently that he knew very little about my early childhood. So here goes.

We've used a stencils from Sweet Poppy Stamps and Creative Expressions, Tonic Studios Memories die cut (4layers) and a Memory Box corner.  We sprayed the cover with a mix of Phil Martin's Ink Spray Mist, Cosmic Shimmer mists and some American Crafts Mt Huey's colour mists.

I'm quite pleased with the outcome of my very first attempt at Mixed Media and would like to enter the following challenge:

Anything But Cute Challenge No.13 Celebrate Your Style

Hot! Hot! Hot! Well sort of!

Our new challenge theme this week is Anything Goes With Hot Colours on the One Stitch At A Time Challenge Blog.

Ive used the image Shake Your Groove Thing by Reeces Scrap Pieces, isn't she cute. I've coloured her with Promarkers and added some Heartfelt Creations Aster flowers and leaves from my favourite Memory Box die.  I managed to photo her in the garden in full sun as it was such a gorgeous day.

Please head over to the challenge blog here and see all the fab designs from my teamies.

Vintage!

Our challenge this week on the OSAAT blog is Vintage. Loving this one and please visit my teamies blogs to see their fabulous creations.

I chose the image, Window Shopping by Stitchy Bear and coloured her with Tim Holtz's Distress Markers. I wanted those vintage colours that he does so well.  I cut the word, Paris, from the paper and mounted it on a Spellbinders tag and covered it with some crackle glaze

The background paper is by Dovecraft and I found the ribbon lurking in my ribbon box, I think I picked this up in a Michaels store some time ago.