Bling, Beads and Butterflies

It seems ages since I did any beading or jewellery making so when I saw this challenge it got me going.  It would have been easy to make a flower or use one of my Snippets but why take the easy way out when you can torment yourself with tiny beads?  So I made some butterflies using mainly size 11 beads and added them to this card:

 The stamp is from Hero Arts; the DP is Butterfly Garden from Wild Rose Studios and although the colours, yellow and purple, arent ones I'd normally use together, I think they are ok here.
This card fits the following challenges:
Ladybug Crafts Ink  "Make your own Embellishments"
http://flutterbywednesdays.blogspot.com/2011/06/flutter-by-wednesday-157.html
http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/2011/05/tuesday-throwdown-51.html
http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.com/2011/05/party-time-tuesdays-ptt18-anything-goes.html


Now for the Bling!  A friend is going to a wedding  on Friday and she asked me to make a necklace to match her dress which is mainly green with white and black.  So this is what I turned out plus a pair of matching earrings.  I'm still working on her card for the bride and groom.....will post it later on in the week if I remember to take a photo.

Thanks for looking.
Geraldine x

Clean and Simple Butterfly card

After all the fuss and fibres of the Vintage Sewing room album pages (previous post) I decided to make a Clean and Simple card to get back to basics:

All it took was a little bit of stamping, a tiny bit of bling and 2 of my Vintage Butterflies, available from here.  Entering this in the following Challenges:
Flutterby Wednesday No 156
Simply Less is more "Things with Wings".
Allsorts No 105 "Things with Wings"
Relax and imagine you can flutter like a butterfly!
Geraldine x

Pages for Vintage/Retro Sewing Room Mini-Album

Warning! There are going to be a lot of photos in this post!
Recently I took part in a mini-album page swap on the Scrapbeach.
The theme was Vintage/Retro sewing room and we had to use primary colours, 2 pins and a female image on our  6" by 6" pages.  The pages didn't have to be identical.  I decided to take the theme a bit further by making the 1st side of my page represent "Getting ready to sew" and the 2nd side represents the "Final Creation". Nothing like making things complicated! Here goes..


1st page....

The tailors dummy is one of my snippets and her head is made out of small buttons sewn on to a denim circle.  I added a sewing machine charm to the zipper pull.

The zip was white but I coloured it with a Pro marker.  The thimble advert comes from a 1949 newspaper we found when renovating our house.  The embroidered flowers are sewn over thread offcuts.   I have draped some elasticated gingham ribbon around the dummy.

There is a little surprise for the recipient hidden in the fabric pocket!

Close-up of the two pins:

The 2nd page:  Another advert from the 1949 newspaper that Dad put between the floorboards and the linoleum.  I made a blue frame for a photo and hung the dress (a snippet) on a wire hanger from the frame.

More details:

A little calendar style flap with my details underneath.  The flower centres are made from snap fasteners and the blue trims on both pages are Doodlebug designs.  I put a lot of detail (probably too much!!) on to my pages trying to get across the "sewing room"  feeling.  No crochet, no pearls, no gems etc   I was trying to get away from the ruffly pretty-pretty style of mini-album.  Now I'm looking forward to seeing the pages from my fellow swappers and assembling the finished mini-album.

Geraldine x

By the Cute and Girly May challenge - REMINDER

Well, we are halfway through May so you still have 2 weeks left to enter the By the Cute and Girly Anything Goes challenge but 1 entry only per crafter this month as the challenge is so easy!  So why not pop over to the challenge blog, check out the great prizes on offer and enter your creation.
My second batch of makes for this month are some storage containers.  Storage!  Every crafters nightmare.  We are constantly looking for the perfect storage solution and sometimes you need something a bit softer and handmade looking than the shop bought storage...

I found the pattern for these storage containers HERE and made them up in Cath Kidson cotton fabric, then made and added the crochet trims but any cotton lace would work.  They are so easy to make...already I can see them made up in Christmassy fabrics.  They are completely reversible and washable.   Nothing like a bit of stitching to make you feel like a Domestic Goddess!
Happy stitching
Geraldine x

Confirmation card

Just one card today: a Confirmation card for Liam's niece who likes sewing and making clothes.  Tried not to make the card too holy!

The crochet frame and the embroidered cross are my own Snippets. 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/73467990/crochet-frames-cream-x-4-3-circular-and
http://www.etsy.com/listing/57526783/crosses-x-3
 The card is from Kanban and the trim from Doodlebug designs.
This card is suitable for the Shabby Tea Room "Ruffles" challenge
Hope everyone has recovered from the Blogger hiccups and the Eurovision!
Geraldine x

Recent cards

Another card made with the Marianne Lady die.  Ribbon from Wildorchidcrafts, charm from broken up jewellery.  Usual nesties and MS punches.   I am entering this card in the
Craftyourpassion challenge No 56 Anything Goes

Birthday card made using Websters pages Garden Gala paper, Stamp from Inkadinkadoo, Wildorchidcrafts flowers and doiley from local €2 shop.  Charms are from my stash. 
I coloured the doiley with chalk inks.  I would like to enter this card into the Make it Monday linky party No 35 and the Paperplaychallenge Show us your style
That's all for today, folks.
Geraldine x

Anything Goes at By the Cute and Girly challenge

This month on By the Cute and Girly is totally theme free so you can do/make what you like!  Anything Goes but only 1 entry per person is allowed seeing as it is open season and we are expecting lots of entries.  So get your crafting hats on folks.  As well as prizes there are 2 or 3 guest DT spots on offer...

My 1st makes are fairly normal.  I had these Marianne Lady dies for ages, hadn't done anything with them and hadn't seen many cards using them so here goes

Along with the dies both cards use Websters Pages Garden Gala paper with ribbon and flowers from my stash.  The mirror charm was part of a Penneys bag charm and the crochet frame is by myself.  Hope to have these crochet frames in my Etsy shop soon!

Ger x