Off on the High Seas

This will be my last post for two weeks because we are off on another cruise on Monday to Fiji-Vanuatu and Noumea.
I am so looking forward to this holiday and if it is only half as good as last years I will be very happy.
This is the ship we will be sailing on -I stole (borrowed) the photo off their web site Princess Cruises.
So all I have to do now is finish packing our cases and finalise a few other things and then I'm off.

See you all when I get back.

Christmas is coming

I know it is a bit early but there is a reason that I am showing these.
The Christmas bird is a swap from Penny in South Australia and it is already hanging on our Christmas tree.
I can't show you what I sent to Penny yet because she hasn't received it yet.
Yes you heard correctly our Christmas tree is up already.
In ten days time we are heading off on another cruise--for fourteen days--to Fiji-Noumea and Vanuato--so I have had to put the tree up now because it will be too late when we get back.
I will show you how "Annorexia" looks in all her finery in a couple of days.





And these are samples of the Christmas cards that I have made to mail out this week.
I have two different shapes for the baubles.
I used stamps to get the shapes--I stamped them onto white card stock using different coloured ink pads and then cut them out.
Next I attached them to the card using double mount tape and also added gold strips to resemble the string that they hang from.
I further embellished them with stars and greeting messages.
I think they look great.

But wait there's more

I have made some more cotton reel tassels----some red and green ones for Christmas...............

Some pastel ones with a pearl trim..................

Some that are blue................................

All clumped together.

Altogether so far I have made about ten and I think I will stop now --well until I need more that is.

Something New

Today I have been playing with old wooden Vintage cotton reels--I have a few of them that have been given to me over a period of time.
I decided to make some small tassels which would be gorgeous hanging off a chest of drawers or even as a decoration on a Christmas tree.
I have used vintage ribbon and braid to wrap around the reel and I then added a small commercial tassel from the bottom and some hand made cord that I made myself.
I also added a vintage Mother of Pearl button on the top of the reel and passed the cord through it and then tied a knot above the button.
I will show you some more later when I have made the cords for them.

Tags

Today is Paper Arts day at the Guild and since our last meeting four weeks ago I have been making tags that I have covered with paper serviettes.
The idea behind this is that we each were to cover some tags using a technique that we had learned during this years meetings.
Even though I had done this technique a long time ago I still decided to do it on my tags because I love the look that can be created by using paper serviettes.
The reason we are making these tags is that we want to give one to each of the Guild members who attend this years Christmas party to show them what can be achieved in our group--hoping that some of them may take the plunge and come and join us.
This is just a few of the twenty five that I made --but you can get the idea of how effective this technique is.

Now I am off to see Ebony perform in her end of the year concert then I will drop into Paper Arts after that.

Different colours

At last I am away from pink and white--- these are made from one piece of fabric and it has 1 and 1/4 inch stripes-the yellow stripe has white spots and the white stripe has yellow spots.
I folded the fabric for the toggles so that only the white showed on one and the yellow on the other.
With the button I folded it so that the yellow is in the centre and the white on either side.
I found it very difficult to stitch on this fabric due to the make up of the very tight weave.
I have another toggle rolled and ready to stitch which has half yellow and half white on it but the thought of having to use a small set of pliers to pull the needle through the fabric again has put me off for the moment.
I don't really need another one do I?



If you would like to see some of the buttons that the other ladies in the group have made follow this link. --you will be amazed at what they have come up with.

Buttons 11 and 12

These are officially the last two buttons from the class with Karen but I am making more of some of them so you can expect to see the trend continue for a while.
The first one is called a Half and Half button for obvious reasons because there are two different fabrics on it.
I have joined the seam with Cross stitches and then added some French Knots

The second one is a Ball button or sometimes called a Knob button.

I think it looks like an arthritic Sea Urchin but you can't see all the bumpy bits because of the way I photographed it.

I will make a better one later.

I am sorry that this class is now finished because it has been a great learning experience for me as well as having been a student with some very talented people.

Thanks Karen and all the class --you were all great.