Make Every Moment Count

Do you ever have an idea in your head for a card that you just have to make? Sometimes I feel that way and the feeling won’t go away until the card is finished. Lol it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a good card, but it’s one I just have to get out of my system.

Well that’s how I felt when I saw Cath’s Hooked on Hexagons Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. A whole jumble of thoughts rushed into my head when I saw the challenge – memories of my first attempt at patchwork (a grandmother’s flower garden table mat, with lots of wonky stitching!) when I was about 10 years old, my dear dad making some of our clothes when we were younger and a visit to a museum in the US years ago, where I spent so much time looking at every last detail of the patchwork quilts there.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Old Letter & Special Time

Some of the quilts in the museum were accompanied by a full history which had been passed down through the generations. However, some quilts had little or no information on their origins. So much time and love had been poured into each and every one of them and the unfinished ones on display really had me wondering what had happened to the people behind them. Also I was fascinated by the little snippets of information that could be gleaned from the back of some of the unfinished paper pieced quilts. Sometimes the backing papers were cut from old newspapers, letters, postcards or whatever was available to these very resourceful quilters who made the most of everything, including their time and supplies.



So I wanted to recreate something like that on my card by using paper, inks (antique linen & walnut stain), a stamp (Linda, thanks again for the Old Letter stamp) and some old floral fabrics. After cutting, inking and stamping the hexagons, I tacked fabric on them and whip stitched the hexagons together. I left the tacking and the end of the piece of thread I had used to sew the hexagons together to add to the unfinished look. The red tacking thread I’ve had for years and is one I use sparingly, as my dad used it and also the thimble in the photo. When I finished the card I realized I hadn’t a clue what sentiment I’d use on it, but as soon as I saw this Hero Arts sentiment in my supplies, I knew it was the one for this card.

Fuzzy Quilt Card

When I saw Cath's I'm Sew Excited! Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, I just had to make something! The challenge is to use sewing icons on a project. I love quilts so I wanted to incorporate something to do with quilts on my card and used this sentiment because I thought it would go with the idea of being snuggled up in a quilt.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Everyday Sayings & Sew Artsy

I had patterned paper (Tulip by Andrea Jayne) left over from some baby cards and cut these into squares and circles for the scallop edged “quilt”. The pieces were randomly put together and machine stitched with a small zigzag stitch. The base of the pin cushion was coloured with watercolour pencils. I cut the top of the pincushion out of a scrap of felt and added the Hero Arts heart gems (thanks again, Anita) to the tops of ordinary pins. The “fuzzies” letters were also cut out of felt scraps using an X-cut alphabet die.



I love Lisa Spangler’s Make-It+mail-It Challenge so I’m also submitting the card to her challenge as it will be on the way to a friend very soon.

Crazy in two ways for paper piecing!

Below is a birthday card I made for a quilting friend. I was going to put the birthday sentiment on the outside but with so much going on there as it was, I decided to put it inside instead. I’m submitting the card into the Play Date Cafe Challenge Colour Splash Week and the Moxie Fab World Paper Piecing Challenge. This month’s challenge at Hero Arts includes the theme of birthdays.


To start with I stamped the Envelope Pattern in white on red card. Then I stamped this and two pieces of white card with the sewing machine and paper pieced it – yikes those pieces were tiny but I love paper piecing anyway! On a piece of white patterned fabric I stamped the sentiment and hand stitched it with red thread. Then I just threaded up the pieced machine, added a gem and some machine stitching on the black background.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Sew Artsy, Classic Fabric Design, Large Canvas Stripes, Flourish Background, Magical Background & Envelope Pattern.

For the patterned background I white embossed pieces of black card with the Magical and Flourish Backgrounds and stamped the Classic Fabric Design and Large Canvas Stripe in black on white card. These were then cut into strips. I cut a square of white card into four triangles applied the strips, trimmed and put the square back together again. I think I can safely say this card takes the record for the most time I’ve ever spent making a card but I had great fun making it!



Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!

Crazy Quilt Card - PaperPlay Challenge

I wanted to make a card for the current PaperPlay Challenge (Something Old). As I’ve only been making cards for a little over 18 months I don’t have any very old things in my card making stash so I decided to use some old upholstery fabrics out of my fabric stash. Thanks to Lin, I’m on a bit of a quilt card kick at the moment! When I finished the quilt card in yesterday’s post, I just had to make another one!



Stamps (Hero Arts) Lace Background, Dolls

In keeping with the something old theme, I made a crazy quilt for the central panel and cut it out using a Labels 8 die. The bigger panel is also cut out in the same way from another piece of upholstery fabric. I clear embossed the Lace Background stamp (Hero Arts) on the card and embossed the sentiment in gold.



Crazy patchwork is a great way of using up odds and ends of fabric. Last year I made this little Christmas boot from scraps. On some of the fabrics I stamped various Hero Arts images in white, silver or pink ink. The colours aren't the usual Christmas colours as I entered it in a challenge in which unexpected Christmas colours had to be used.

Quilt Card

Last week I received these yummy goodies as a prize from Dawn and Paula from the Die Cut Divas Group on Flickr. If you have a machine for cutting or embossing, it's a great group to be in and there's lots of inspiration and a fun monthly challenge to be found there.



Dawn also sent me this gorgeous card along with the goodies.



Thanks again Paula and Dawn!

I’m terrible for hoarding papers but these Kaiser Craft papers are just too gorgeous to stash away. So I decided to try an idea I saw on Lin’s blog. She has been making the most wonderful quilt cards here, here and at this one here has a link to a tutorial on making these.

I used some of the papers from the paper stack, cut them into triangles and arranged them till I was happy with them. Then I ran the "quilt" through the Cuttlebug using a Labels 8 die and did some machine stitching. I embossed the sentiment in gold on another piece of paper from the stack.



Stamp (Hero Arts) Messages CL181

Some Fun With Fabrics

I used to do a bit of quilting but once I started making cards that kind of took over. But I still love to go through my fabric stash and use bits and pieces of fabric on some of my cards. These are a few cards I made recently using fabric.

For this one I stamped a piece of hand dyed fabric with the Large Flower from Hero Arts, layered with wadding and a stiff piece of fabric and machine stitched. The flower centre and background are pieces of upholstery samples.






Stamps (Hero Arts) Large Flower, Woodgrain Circle, Birthday Messages.

I had to try a tutorial I came across on making organza flowers. Various size circles are cut out of organza and the edges are curled by holding them over a flame. The organza circles are then layered to form a flower.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Branch Background, Scallop Borders, Birthday Messages, Scattered Leaves.

Since I don't get to make many quilts anymore, I thought it would be fun to make a mini quilt for this card using up little scraps of fabric. I was over the moon the other day to see that the card had been picked as one of the winners of the Moxie Fab World Fun with Fabrics challenge.



Stamps (Hero Arts) Sew Original, Birthday Messages.