My Vegetable Garden

It's only small and grown in pots and containers because of nematodes, but it is already supplying me with tomatoes and red and green peppers. The cold weather at the beginning of January set it all back a bit but now it is doing fine. Along with the lettuce, cucumbers and eggplant (aubergine) I have a selection of herbs that includes parsley, tarragon, sage, thyme, chives, dill and cilantro, everything I need for my limited cooking repertoire. Trying to grow without the use of any pesticides so I have planted nasturtiums and marigolds around the outside of the low perimeter fence which keeps the wild rabbits at bay. I will be trying some of the green methods of pest control, I hope they work well.

Carte a Jouer #12

This fortnight's challenge was to make a shaker card with a romantic feel to it. The base of the card is made of two "6 of hearts" cards and a piece of corrugated cardboard. A window is cut in one playing card and the corrugated cardboard so that the hole is in the same place and the same size. These two pieces are then stuck together. I then stamped the image on the remaining playing card and attached it to the back of the corrugated cardboard with the image showing through the hole. Sticky tape lines the inside edges of the cut out hole to prevent the tiny pearl beads (the shaker part) from disappearing into the corrugated cardboard. See the link to Carte a Jouer to the right for a better illustration of how this is done, Isa has photos http://carteajouer.blogspot.com/. I covered the top playing card and into the hole with a single layer of a pretty paper napkin using decoupage medium. The single layer napkin shows the playing card hearts slightly through from underneath. I placed a few pearl beads in the hole and stuck a piece of clear thick plastic just larger than the hole to the front of the card. I framed the lady with four die cut corners and then gold leafed the die cuts and edges of the card.

carte a Jouer #11

Firstly let me apologize for the quality of the photo, the gold ink kept on reflecting the flash. The challenge this fortnight is to use a zip to make a rosette. Funnily enough my partner had a zip fail in his jeans this week and he threw them out so I rescued the zip, ( he said that I broke it on purpose to use in the challenge). The two separate sides of the zip I then gathered with thread and closed to form the rosette and sewed beads onto the outside of the inner zip. the center is a rose that I made from silk ribbon. I made another rosette from tape with music printed on it for the base layer. The background is painted with three colours of acrylic then stamped and edged with gold ink.

A Happy Valentine's Day

This is the card that I have made for my sweetie and look what he has done for me in exchange!!!!! We went to an auction last week and saw this computer desk/armoire and he bought it for me for $25 (no-one else saw the potential) and he added all the little shelves on the doors for my stamps. What a treat this is! No more rummaging around in a drawer to find a stamp. I have all the things I use regularly to hand, a place for my computer and printer,reference books on the top shelf, inks and embossing powders on shelves, glues and pens and tools all within easy reach. The gate leg table folds down and I have a work surface, a hook on the door for my cutting mats and ribbon hangers, shelves under the table for papers, paints, score pad, paper cutter, knitting bag and a deep drawer to hold my cuttlebug and cricut.

Oh what a treat this is and how organized I am for once. I wonder how long I can keep it clear and tidy?

Wedding Favours

My daughter is getting married this year. It will be just a very small wedding only close family so I decided that I would make wedding favours for her lady guests. I have started to make some photograph booklets to store a few memories of the day. The colours of her wedding are ivory with just a splash of purple, two colours I love to work with when crafting. The little crochet wedding bag I made before she decided on her colours in the hope that it would match but the colour is wrong. No matter I will use it or sell it.

The booklet is made from envelopes cut and folded from 12 inch square cardstock. A little flimsy at first but as the layers of embellishment are added it becomes more sturdy. My daughter chose 3 readings for her ceremony and I have included them on the front page, inside a double door tag and on the back of a puffy heart tag. Pretty papers, vellum, stickers, embossed stamps, handmade paper flowers and lace finish the embellishments. I am using tags inserted into the last envelope and folded around to the front where I will put magnetic clasps.

Carte a Jouer #10

PRINCIPLE OF THE CHALLENGE:

Thème : Coeur Theme: Heart
Technique: Puffy / swollen tissue (material)
For this challenge we were to use two playing cards. The front card to have a heart cut/punched out of it and material attached loosely at the back and stuffing then sandwiched between the material and the back card. I used a piece of cream silk that I decorated with red and white lace and a charm heart before sticking to the back of the front card. I cut part of the edging of this lace to border the card and coloured it with ink. The "LOVE" embellishment was cut and embossed with my cuttlebug and trimmed down and edged with tiny pearl beads. The background of the front card is painted with gesso and then with acrylic paint. I stamped it with roses enhanced with perfect pearls.
http://carteajouer.blogspot.com/

Carte a Jouer #9

The subject for this challenge is Baby and the Shabby Chic Technique shown on Isa's blog http://carteajouer.blogspot.com/. shabby chic items are chosen for their age and signs of wear and tear or new items are distressed to achieve the appearance of an antique. At the same time, a soft, minimalistic, and feminine feel is emphasized to differentiate it from regular vintage decor; hence the "chic" in the name. I chose my paper to be pink for a girl baby, the only link to the baby subject I'm afraid. I wanted to focus on the feminine and antiqued side of the challenge.

The cardstock is embossed and attached to the playing card with decoupage medium, thin watery shades of pale pink and ivory acrylic paint are brushed lightly over the whole card. The embossed stems and flower petals are then highlighted with a dab of white acrylic paint to make them stand out more. I edged the card with ivory cord with beads and punched a heart out of the original cardstock and again brushed lightly with watery pink paint. The "ADORE" saying was stamped with pink acrylic paint and attached directly onto the heart. The heart is placed at an angle on top of the corded edge. If you click on the image you can see the detail better.

Carte a Jouer Challenge #8 - Picasso's Nude

The latest challenge on Isa's Carte a Jouer (see link to the right)is to use crumpled paper in some way that is highlighted and a nude. I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't like the nude art form so I chose a painting that I love by Picasso and I drew her in chalks and mounted her by a stream made of crumpled onion skin paper torn at an angle with the edge burnt and scrunched up to make raised areas. The water and grass I coloured with chalks in shades of blue and green paying particular attention to the raised areas of the onion skin paper. The shimmer in the water is sprinkled crushed gold glass.

Carte a Jouer # 6 and 7

I am so far behind with my crafting work that I have missed the deadlines for these two playing cards. Still I carry on and try to catch up. The challenge #6 was Christmas and melted plastic. I tried lots of time to get a melted shape that I could use on my card. Some plastic was too thick to punch with my blunt punches, I tried embossing them first and the impressions melted away when heated with the heat gun, but finally I found a piece of oval plastic that was already 3 dimensional and when heated gave the look of a bevelled glass window. I embossed the back with white powder to give the look of snow and highlighted the raised parts of the window with silver ink. Dark blue star paper stuck on the back and the window was then mounted onto corrugated paper highlighted with rub-ons to look like striped wallpaper. A band of crochet silks was wrapped around the window to frame it and a small piece of a carol stuck underneath.

Challenge #7 was snow and a method to teach. I embossed a piece of cardstock with my cuttlebug, then painted it white with acrylic paint and then a layer of blue highlight Lumiere paint. When heated with the heat gun the paint bubbled to give the look of snow falling. Stamped and embossed snowman, letters and edging were then added.

New Year, new enthusiasm

Having spent the last two months of 2010 creating nothing but Christmas cards and travelling round the country I thought it was time to get going again with my craft hobby. I made the following tag book for the group Art 'n' Soul. The only stipulation was that it be 4 tags with button/buttons on each side.

The front has "If my words had wings" saying stamped on this pretty paper then a button flower added with stems made of wire and the leaves filled with green tissue paper soaked in collage medium, I will use this technique again the result is great. The stamped butterfly clear embossed and cut out and is mounted on foam squares to give a 3 dimensional look. The edges of the tag are rubbed with metallic rub-on. the rest of the saying "they would fly to you each day" was stamped and clear heat embossed on the reverse side. The bird stamp I inked with felt pens so that I could get a red breast to the bird, and clear heat embossed. The next tag used a beautiful paper that needed little to embellish it, so I added some flower buttons threaded with corded ribbon for stems and tied together into a bouquet with contrasting ribbon. the diamond shaped paper on the next side was dry embossed and highlighted with rub-ons. A paper flower made from cut and twisted contrasting papers and clear button was added to the center. For the next side a bee on this stamp represents summer in the middle of a this snow storm of gems, rub on snow flakes and silvered buttons. The sand and sea tag has muslin net inked with aqua and shells, seaweed and starfish are trapped within it. For the next side I stamped and stencilled this pretty paper tag and mounted an ink coloured wooden tree with buttons for oranges. The back tag is stamped and heat embossed with clear powder. A frame lined with lace was added and stickers, stamps and tiny scissors coloured with silver rub-on placed around it. I fastened the tags together using a charm leash threaded with beads.