Musings of a Jersey Crafter

A mask and other cards.

2010-01-29T17:11:00.004Z

I haven't posted any new cards lately so here are a few more.

Someone asked me to make a card for them and as the backing sheet she chose was the only one that I had I did a sort of dummy run to ensure my butterflies would fit into an envelope. I won't show you the card which was ordered as it has a photo of the recipient. The square is parchment with a peeloff frame. The card is 8.25 square.

This card is another partly parchment and partly not, I used a peeloff with the parchment and am pleased with the result.

I have been making some cards for Cancer Research UK, so far just a few but will be making many more.

Finally the mask - I have in the past made it in A5 but this one is A4 in size.

A few new cards

2010-01-12T21:25:00.005Z

Having received a new Joanna Sheen CD through the post today I had to try it out so made some Thank You cards which are long overdue. I really love her CDs and am not disappointed with this new one, I think it will be very useful.

Time for Elegance

2010-01-11T09:59:00.003Z

I decided to make this card for a friend's birthday which is in February, I wanted to get it done and out of the way rather than leave it to the last moment.

The card is A4 in size, I have not put any wording or additional decoration on the outside in case she wishes to frame the card, in fact I might even send her a frame as part of her gift, by way of a hint!

I must be a sucker for punishment

2009-12-22T00:46:00.003Z

Not content with making and sending 121 cards for myself plus a number donated to charity I am still making them! After four attempts to acquire a retired Sizzix die finally one arrived so I have played with it.

Also I have been playing with parchment again, this time using a fine grid so a lot more work than the intended card which is supposed to be made on a bold grid.

Sunday was productive

2009-12-14T03:06:00.005Z

First I finished the card which I started yesterday, I am quite pleased with the result. I have no idea who will be getting it yet, possibly the next person I know to have a birthday.

I decided to cover a box of card blanks/envelopes which I am giving to a friend, the friend who is getting the blue card. I have printed 'Handcrafted by - her name' on the backs of various sizes of cards.

Back to parchment at last

2009-12-13T18:05:00.003Z

For fairly obvious reasons most of my Christmas cards were not parchment, in fact I only made a few of those this year. Now I have finished, or just about finished with making them all (I have one to do this evening and that will be number 120!) I have been able to play with parchment again. I have just finished one and am well into another one. This one is for a former neighbour who has a birthday in early January, this lady is a cardmaker but has no computer so will not see this. How do people make cards without access to a computer? I digress, this card is using a favourite pattern from Parchment Craft magazine, I have made variations of it a number of times.

Now I had better get on with that Christmas card then I can finish another parchment card which was designed by the same person who designed the card above.

Alex's 2nd birthday card

2009-12-13T15:45:00.004Z

My grandson, Alex, will be two on Christmas Day so I made this card for him. The owl is cut using a Sizzix die and the backing paper is Joanna Sheen's Hoot the Owl paper pad.

For his Christmas card I decided on a gingerbread man, again using a Sizzix die. I scanned the gingerbread man then using PSP then Word made a backing paper to match the topper.

The cat card in all its glory!

2009-12-07T01:22:00.004Z

These two photos show the concertina card, all fourteen surfaces. Seven domestic cats on one side and seven big cats on the other. There is a ribbon tie at each side to hold the whole thing together.

The cat card - part two

2009-12-07T01:19:00.001Z

The big cats.

The cat card

2009-12-07T01:14:00.002Z

Domestic cats. The single image is the cover, the other scans are two to a page. The card is A5 size.

Done and dusted!

2009-12-07T00:42:00.002Z

I think I have finished my Christmas cards for this year, I say think as it will be Sod's Law that I have forgotten someone and they will send me a card. so far I have made and sent 115 cards this year.

In the past few days I have made a couple of birthday cards as well as messing about with some scraps of parchment.

One birthday card was something of a marathon, it is a concertina card with fourteen surfaces, each has a different image. Seven of the surfaces are of domestic cats, seven are big cats. My cousin, Sandie, loves cats of all kinds so I hope she will like the card. It weighs a ton so I will be giving it to her rather than posting it.

Christmas Bling

2009-11-25T23:21:00.004Z

During the past week or so I have been playing with glitter card and paper, glittery Christmas ribbon from the garden centre, die-cut snowflakes and snowflake ornaments from the garden centre. Some of the snowflakes are fairly heavy so I have been using Pinflair glue gel for strength.

The little robin is also on ribbon, just not glittery.

May 2008

2009-11-03T22:46:00.002Z

Here are some cards from May 2008

An experiment with using a piece of purple parchment, I am not sure that would be something I will repeat.

A pretty decoupage card using a design from Crafty Nikki.

The butterfly card is a design by Christine Coleman.

Just fiddling about pricking and snipping then added a piece of Dufex decoupage.

Still ploughing through April 2008

2009-11-02T15:55:00.004Z

I am beginning to wonder if I got any sleep this month as I certainly appear to have been prolific. These are just some of the parchment cards, I was also making other cards to give myself a break.

First half of April 2008

2009-11-02T15:44:00.002Z

I appear to have done a fair amount of iris folding during this time but still managed to turn out some parchment cards during this time.

The dates for these cards are 1st, 3rd, 9th and 15th April.

Some other cards of the same era

2009-11-02T15:29:00.002Z

Looking back through my scans I see that I also went through an 'oriental' stage around the same time and here are a few non-parchment cards made in March 2008, some 'iris folding' was also a favourite at this time.

Finishing off March 2008's parchment cards

2009-11-02T15:20:00.003Z

If nothing else I was enthusiastic about parching as the number of cards produced at this time appears to reflect. I must confess that I frequently worked until 3am, in fact I still do.

The two with the coloured flowers are a Christine Coleman pattern and the colouring was done with polychromos pencils.

Decoupaged flower is in Duflex.

Dates are 22nd, 24th, 27th, 29th and 30th March.

Mid March 2008

2009-11-02T15:07:00.003Z

Moving forward, I obviously got the taste for 'pricking and snipping' and I must say that this is still my favourite part of parching. I still like that pansy card but those fuchsias leave a lot to be desired! Did I really produce those two openwork cards after less than two months, wow, I am impressing myself!

These are dated 11th, 14th, 15th and 16th March.

Early March 2008

2009-11-02T14:55:00.004Z

The scrolled ones with the butterflies was fun to do back then, again perhaps I ought to try it again now that I have some experience.

The dates of these cards were 3th, 8th, 9th and 10th March.

February 2008

2009-11-02T14:37:00.002Z

Looking back I realise that I was ambitious.

The dates for these pieces are the 7th, 10th, 12th, 23 and 26th February so the last two are after a month of parching. They are not perfect but I was new to it, and keen.

January 2008

2009-11-02T14:27:00.003Z

Still back in January 2008, the frame was my next effort and I rather stupidly stuck the decoupage onto the wrong side of the parchment, a valuable lesson. I still like the blue one, perhaps I will look out the pattern and make it again but hopefully making a better job of it.

Going back in time

2009-11-02T14:16:00.004Z

I have just been looking back at scans of some of my work and since I have shown one of my first attempts at 'normal' cardmaking I suppose I might as well go the whole hog and show my first attempt at parchment craft too, I am not proud of it (now) but I did send it to someone rather than bin it so obviously back then I was pleased with it. As I recall I made a hash of the border so cut out the centre of the piece and stuck it to a card.

Those of you who have Christine Colemans's CDs will recognise it as being one of the beginner pieces. I see from the date of the scan that this was made on 20 January 2008.

More parchment pieces

2009-11-01T17:06:00.003Z

The top card is one that I started before going to Paignton and finished after I arrived home, the second is another piece started in Paignton and finished later. The flowers and vase were done by painting with Sakura Stardust pens.

Some parchment pieces from Paignton 2009

2009-11-01T16:58:00.004Z

These three are pieces made during the parching week I went to in Paignton this October 2009, the top one is framed whereas the other two are cards.

A card made yesterday

2009-11-01T16:11:00.003Z

This card was made using Joanna Sheen's newest CD, Royal Horticultural Society Collection. It is fairly large, just over 8 inches square. The paper on the right is from Basic Grey.

I love Joanna Sheen's CDs and have quite a few which I use often.

Fast forward

2009-11-01T14:43:00.000Z

After finding out that I could view cardmaking demonstrations on Create and Craft television I discovered parchment craft and found a whole new love. After a while I purchased some DVDs by Christine Coleman and with the help of those I stepped into the world of parching. The piece shown above was done during a week-long parching week in Paignton, Devon which was run by Christine Coleman and Alison Yeates. The piece is A4 in size, I am still deciding what to put in the centre before framing the piece.

My first attempts at cardmaking

2009-11-01T14:41:00.000Z

One of the Christmas cards that I made at that time was returned to me several months later as 'undeliverable' and I kept it to show myself just how awful I was! The card was on a preprinted card blank onto which I stuck a couple of 3-D stickers. Since I have no pride I will show this dismal attempt here.

Dipping my toe into the Blogging world

2009-11-01T11:55:00.000Z

Having viewed various blogs I have decided that it is time to test the waters and start one myself.

I suppose I have 'crafted' most of my life, certainly as a fairly young child I was very much 'into' knitting and my idea of fun was to have a small skein of yarn and some needles and to knit until the yarn ran out then to unpick it and start again. I can remember asking for a couple of ounces of wool and some needles for my birthday present when I was about eight or nine years old. We were a very poor family so that would be my only present. I also liked to sew and would sew little scraps of fabric and remember being very neat in my work especially bearing in mind my age.

The first piece of knitting of any real use, unless you count the dishcloth made at school, was a hat which I made when I was just about eleven years old. I didn't have a pattern, just looked at the hats of my friends and worked out how to make one of my own. This involved decreasing in order to fit my head snugly. I wore the hat with pride. At eleven I also remember making a skirt at school and wore it on a regular basis.

As a teenager I was heavily into dressmaking, making many of my clothes. By late my teens I was making tailored suits for work, sewing was something that I really enjoyed doing. I was also still knitting, but only for other people, boyfriends and the likes. I didn't start knitting for myself until much later, then it was almost an obsession, I took my knitting everywhere and would even stand outside my daughter's school with a piece of knitting on circular needles waiting for her to come out of school.

I also enjoyed tapestry and other canvas embroidery. I gave up knitting and tapestry when I had cats, the hassle of trying to keep them off me and for them not to play with my wool was too much effort. The cats have now departed this world and I tried knitting again earlier this year but found that the stroke that I suffered in 2005 had meant that knitting was painful so I have decided to hang up my needles, or more to the point sell off all my yarns at a charity boot sale later in this month.
I entered the world of cardmaking three years ago, having watched cardmaking on QVC I decided to make some myself as I was no longer working (not of choice). My first attempts were, to put it mildly, awful but at the time I thought they were quite good.