Slow Stitching - No. 005 - Hidden Histories - Untold Stories / English Paper Piecing

I am following Kathryn at K3NClothTales who is having a slow stitch challenge this year.

The prompt for week 5 was: Hidden Histories - Untold Stories with English Paper Piecing as the technique.

To be honest the prompt was not speaking to me at all.  I had nothing to write on my piece of paper. 

I did not want to get behind.

So today, I chose a poem called Quiet Moment which is always what my slow stitching is to me.

I cut my hexagon template with my Spellbinder Nestabilities #2. It measures 1 3/8 inches across.  I cut my cardboard then traced it onto some paste paper I made years ago.  I cut my paper pieces and my pieces of fabric.

I then basted the fabric onto the paste paper pieces with the words showing on the back. With my stitches I made sure to secure my folded corners.  Once all 7 were basted I started to sew them together. Can you see my mistake?  The floral one was supposed to be in the center but it was already stitched when I it so I just moved on.  Again, my scraps are in the blue tones.  I used embroidery thread to stitched the sides together but in some early cases my stitching is too tight. I should have left some slack to allow the pieces to fold out edge to edge.  I have never done this before so who knew!

I am happy with this piece and it will join the others in their plastic bag until the end of the year.

Cards - 4x4 Photos - Thanks

A few more thank you cards.

This Don Juan Cricut "thanks" die cut is perfect for my 4x4 inch photo cards made with recycling my calendar images.

A wonderful Black Capped Chickadee perched on a branch on navy card stock.  The greeting was cut from white pearl card stock and adhered with double sided tape.

A rain soaked pink rose at the park for this card on a magenta card base.  The greeting is diecut with the Cricut in white pearl card stock.

 

 

 

This owl is one of my paper piecing creations.  I designed 12 owls for my calendar in 2016. 

I mounted it to a navy card base. 

A Don Juan Cricut die cut as the greeting.  Adhered with Quick Dry adhesive.

Really like these.

Kitty Cards - Exchange

I have been working on creating some art for one of my photo calendars for 2019.  I had decided on a cat face. I have spent days on this project.  I have drawn many faces but I have not achieved the results I wanted - CUTE!.  I have incorporated a couple of the paper pieced art in my card exchange for March so that the effort spent produced some results.  I want to thank my sisters who have provided endless feedback on this art project.                           What do you think of the face? 

These are large cards A7 (5x7) cards because the original art work was based on a 6x6 background.

The kitty is paper pieced where the face is printed on designer paper then cut out by hand.  The ears are printed on the same paper and cut out then a triangle of black is added for depth.

I tried a couple of collar options.  On the left, is the bling collar with a jingle bell.  These again repeat the black from the face and ears.  I adhere the bling with Zots.  The jingle bell is a Martha Stewart punch.  I attached it with a piece of thread.   On the right, I created a bow tie with 2 triangles of black with a .75 inch circle in the middle.  I added a blue button in the middle with Zots.

The greeting was printed on the same designer paper as the cat face then I ripped the top and bottom edge.

These are off to my card exchange partners today.

Art Framed - Warm Owl

I framed one of my paper pieced owls which I created for the 2017 calendar.

I had to trim the art work a bit to keep the ratio of the shiny pale gold frame.  I found a piece of dark brown card stock onto which I mounted the art.  I then selected a piece of warm buttery yellow art paper to create the back ground layer. 
Mounting the art piece with googly eyes created a spacing issue inside the frame.  After trying several things with no success, I added 4 punched suns in the four corners of the brown square.  These were mounted with 3D foam tape in the same thickness as the eyes. 

The piece was then inserted into the frame as usual.  It seems to work quite well. 

The owl calendar has been popular this year so I hope the framed owl will also be popular.  It would work in several areas of decorating as well as a focal point in a space for one who just loved it!

Owl Art Photo Calendar

I've been working of my 4x6 photo calendars for the fall craft sale season.  A few years ago I had a cute Blue Bird calendar with art work designed by my sister.  This year I wanted a cute one so I designed and created this owl.  I drew all the pieces. I then printed the body on the back of the designer paper and cut it out by hand.  I then printed the wings on card stock or coordinating designer paper ensuring they were mirror images and cut those by hand.  I designed the branch digitally.  For each owl I colored the branch appropriately and printed it on the 6x6 inch background paper.  I cut the beak and feet from coordinating card stock. The eyes are .75 and .5 circle punches. I assembled the paper pieced owl and applied the googly eyes.  Once all 12 were assembled I photographed them to add them to my calendar template.  Only a few have nods to the celebration in the month.  January has a frosty type back ground, February is Valentine designer paper, October has pumpkin coloring and finally Christmas designer paper for December.
You can find it for sale on my Calendar page.

Share Your Cup #207

I headed out to the Wetlands after a visit to a gallery for my aunt's show.  It was at sunset which gives all things a wonderful glow.  There were very few birds in the water because it was way passed feeding time.  No pelicans, but everything is green and lush.

I worked on art work for an art calendar which will be for sale later this year.  I designed the owl myself using a couple patterns from the internet.  I then printed the pieces onto the back of designer paper and/or card stock and cut the pieces by hand.  The eyes are .75 inch and .5 inch circles. Small triangles for the beak and the feet. I designed the branch then printed it on a 6x6 of background paper which only had texture and no pattern.  I paper pieced the owl then adhered him to the background ensuring he sat on the branch.  I added googly eyes.
I made 12 of these for my art calendar.

I received the bouquet of flowers from a friend at church.  She prepares one every week for the sanctuary and I was the lucky girl to take it home this week.  Thanks Cheryl.





 


 

This is a shot from the tea photo shoot I did at my sister's house a few weeks ago.  The calendar is nearly ready to go and this one did not make the calendar so I am sharing it here.  This is a married bone china tea set.  I brought my tea cup and my sister the tea pot. The tea cup pattern is Serendipity by Royal Worcester.  The teapot is Mantles Knightsbridge. I will have to get the pattern.

I found a frame recently to show how my Alphabet Photography works while I am at craft sales this fall.  Very happy with this and it will provide a visual for the buying public.  

You can check here for the details for purchasing letters.

Share Your Cup #207 hosted by Carol at Art & Sand.

Stack of Teacups

I started with the designer paper from Creative Imaginations which is watercolor with calligraphy words on it.  The variations in color provides lots of card color options. I chose a light warm green. It's light and summery. I cut the piece of DP to leave a small border.  I used the Memory Box Tea Cup Stack.  I cut the first layer in a soft aqua glossy card stock.  Then I cut it again from a deep blue green card stock.  This time making sure I did not lose any of the confetti pieces so that I could put them back in the holes of the first one.  I put scotch tape on the back of the aqua one and then just placed the pieces back in. Once all done, I trimmed the extra tape away from the outside edges with scissors.  I color printed my sentiment on white card stock then trimmed it to 2 x 5.25 inches.  I punched slots in the top and bottom with the Stampin Up punch.  I ran a caramel seam binding through the slot to the inside of the card and back through the slots in the top.  Tied a knot and trimmed the ends.
Submitting to the following:
Come and Get It Challenges - Paper Piecing.
Coffee Loving Cardmakers - Summer Blog Hop.

Christmas Card Challenge - May - Snowman - Paper Piecing - Tag

Here's my card for the Christmas Card Challenge for May which is Snowman, Paper Piecing and Tag.  

I chose the Tim Holtz Assembly Snowman Bigz die which made the paper piecing very easy.  I selected the background designer paper first.  It's American Crafts - Campy Trails.  I got a real winter feel from this paper so thought it went well with the snowman.  As a background to the tag I placed a piece of cream pearl card stock, cut to leave a large border all the way around. I decided to use the Jumbo Crescent Tag from Sizzix and cut it from the designer paper.  The paper has a warm white in it so I chose a warm white card stock to cut my snowman. The band on the hat is the same cream pearl card stock. Brown for his arms, a deep red for his scarf and orange for his carrot nose. I drew the eyes in with a black marker. I was tempted to put something on his belly but resisted.   I used quick dry glue from Scotch to assemble the pieces of my snowman.  I glued him to the large tag.  I added a soft seam binding in a complimentary color.  The tag was adhered to the card front with 3D foam tape.

Have you started your Christmas Card stash?  Today may be a good day.  I hope this card provides some inspiration for you to start or continue.  Leave me a comment if you have started!

Christmas Card Challenge - October - Paper Piecing

The challenge for October is paper piecing.  I considered punch art which would work, other options are Squares, Banners, Flags, Quilting DP, Trees, Pinwheel and I'm sure you will come up with an idea for your cards.
I chose a star for my paper piecing element.
Star: I chose this star which is an original Sizzix die. I selected complementary colored Designer Papers. I cut all 5 layers of Designer paper at the same time. I would suggest labeling the back of each point with a number 1-5 on all 5 stars to help with the putting back together process in a few minutes. I held all together with a couple of bull clips then I worked out where the centre of the star was, then I cut out to each V with an exacto knife.  I punched 5 large circle (1.75") to glue the stars back together on.  Now place your five circle out and take the 5 points from the first layer and placed them in their 1 to 5 order.  Place the next star on the five circles keeping your numbers in order.  Continue till all 5 stars are now on the 5 circles.  Glue the centers of the star onto the circle. 
Background:  I made a stamp pad with a paper towel moistened with a bit of water and household bleach.  I chose medium to dark blue card stock and cut it down to leave a small border.  I used the Stampin Up Itty Bitty Background stamp and stamped the cardstock with bleach.  This lightens the card stock.  I then stamped the same piece with a dark navy ink pad to provide some depth to my night sky. This was glued to an ivory card.
Greeting: I cut the greeting with the Sizzix sizzlet alphabet - Bounce from ivory card stock.  This was glued down with instant dry adhesive in a bottle with a pointed tip.
Button: I added a ivory button to the centre to which I tied some navy fiber.

Card - Train

This card is for a little boy soon turning 3. I used a QuicKutz die. It has all the pieces on a 4" square die so I was able to cut each piece from a different color paper. I used the cool tool glue applicator to get just a bit of glue where I needed. The 3 is cut with the Cuttlebug Red Tag Alphabet dies. The blue sky piece of paper I crunched then flatten and rubbed an inkpad on the high points to create an interesting sky. I ripped a piece of DP paper to create the grass below the train.
I'm submitting this card to the CST Challenge #17 which needed punched or die-cuts.