Slow Stitching - No. 018 - Pocket & Visible Mending

It's week 18 in the K3N Cloth Tales slow stitch challenge.

The prompt was pocket and visible mending.

Today, we take pockets for granted and in general I need at least one in every garment.  Such, was not the case for women in the 1600-1700s. Was it because they were considered to own little so they did not have to carry anything?I would think at least a hanky.

 This is why tie on pockets were created to wear under your dress. It was accessed through a slit in the skirt. These were precious. I chose blue fabric for my Mom and added a piece of Dad's blue plaid shirt. The bit of yellow is the nod to visible stitching. The tiny heart is for my Mom. Kathryn did an eyelet so I did one to try it out. The pin is there to hold my 3 things to the right in my pocket.  I created little tags from fabric and permanent markers. A fishing rod for my Dad, a seed packet for my Mom because she would be all in by now and the 50th is to remember my 50th high school graduation this year with white and green - our school colors..

Small Gifts - Oil Diffusers/Fresheners - Felt Balls Version 2

I decided to redesign these oil diffusers / fresheners.

They were longer than I thought they should be and when they are in your car air vents you would like to have less disturbing the air flow.

I tried this small one in the car and it would very well so I decided to do them all to be smaller with only one felt ball per diffuser.

I changed the attachment to the clothespin as well to have 2 stands of thread come up from a single accent on the bottom.  Then one goes through the hole in the pin one way and the other in the opposite direction.  Then a set of simple knots hidden between the ends.

Here I found a small blue shanked button for the bottom and a concave button in a similar color for the top.  Here it is clipped to the lamp behind the couch in the living room where I sit to read or watch TV.

I have redone all of the ones I made earlier.  I have tied a tag with a description.

I am using a clear plastic chocolate box where I have taped the pieces back to back.

I placed a piece of designer paper in the box so I could hide the chocolate logo still on the box.

I think the colors coordinated well with the colors of the diffusers.

Another task done!

Dog Treat Boxes

I made Peanut Butter Pumpkin dog treats for our fund raising bake sale on Thursday.

I started with Starbucks Tazo Tea Tins which I covered with this great Christmas Dog decorative paper.  Their scarves and jackets have glitter on them.  I trimmed the paper to the height of the box and used double sided tape to stick it to the box and wrapped it all the way around (about 14").  I then used washi tape in red and ivory hounds tooth to finish the top and bottom edges.  I created tags for each box by printing the details on kraft card stock and punching it out with the Stampin Up! decorative label punch.  I layered this unto a punchie of the same in red paper.  I cut it in half across the width and trimmed the points and glued them offset on the top and bottom.  I then punched another layer from the decorative paper to cover the back of the label.  I placed the dog bone treats into a bag, tied it with heavy red cord and then added the tag so it would hang outside the box lid.  The bottom picture is the treats cooling on racks. These will make a great gift to bring to a hostess who has furry friends at home.

Card - Books

I made this card for my brother-in-law's birthday.  Here's the sample on which I based my card.
I started by finding small designer paper scraps in my bucket. A great scrap buster technique. I selected them in the brown tones.  I cut them down to .75 but they needed to be trimmed some more. The sample I found indicated 5/8" which is closer to the right width.  Length 4.75" before trimming the ends.  The ends are cut with a circle punch.  Check out the link above for details.  I used my Chocolate Chip ink pad to color all the edges of the books before I glued them to a piece of scrap paper.  I tied some thick crochet cotton around the stack of books and added 2 Cuttlebug die cut tags onto which I added my greetings.  This was layered onto a piece of ivory which I used chalk to create a bit of a shadow and then adhered the stack.   I mounted these layers to a dark brown card. 

Christmas Card Challenge - Aug - Accent Tags

My blog Christmas Card Challenge this month is Accent Tags.  I had decided I wanted the tags to be the central greeting for the card.  I checked my Christmas paper 12x12 tray and found one sheet of Designer Paper I thought I could work with.  I found Kraft card stock matched the tree branches. Check. I created my own tags.  I designed them in my graphics package and added red letters on them.  Then I started wondering how I could have them fit in.  I did a bit research and found I could add a custom image to my pattern fill.  So I acquired a bit of the DP with the scanner and filled my tags with it.  I gave them dark brown borders. I added a short piece of red gross grain ribbon to the top held in place with a black brad (did not have dark brown ones). I trimmed the ends in points.  These were printed on the color printer then hand cut one at a time.  I rubbed the white cut edges with a dark brown ink pad. That made them look better. I cut a 3x5.5" strip of DP and glued it across the landscape card. I found some card stock in red to match the berries in the DP.  I placed a 1.25" strip of that over the DP.  I mounted the greeting tags to the card front mounted with 3D foam tape.  Very happy with these ones.  1 sheet of 12x12 allowed me 8 cards.