Five from one

 As promised I used the sheet of Kanban toppers that I bought at the Exeter show to make 5 cards using my own stash to stretch them.

For the first card I used a sheet of background paper, adding the topper skull strip across the bottom of the card.  I added some black stickles dots as fake gems and cut two butterflies from a masterboard of papercloth I made ages ago and have been slowly using (nearly all gone so I hope to find some time to make another batch as its a really useful item to have in your stash, though it does take a while to make because of the drying time of the glue before you attack it with the sewing machine).

 For card No 2 I used some more of the same background paper and used my scallop scissors (remember them?  I forgot I bought a pair all those years ago when they were popular, I found them during my clear up and remembered how lovely they are to use).  I added some leftover black card from my scrap box (and scalloped this also) and matted and layered the topper with black card, adding some more black stickle 'gems'.

Card No 3 was really quick, I used the large topper and placed it in the middle of the card.  I added a sentiment topper with some foam tape (from the hardware store-much cheaper) for dimension and doodled barbed wire around the edges of the card.

Card No 4 was just as quick and since I was pleased with the previous card I used the same techniques to produce this one.

 Finally Card No 5 was the last of the backing paper and some more off cut black card.  I edged the topper this time with the wedge end of a black promarker (this really is the quickest way to add a coloured border to a topper or card, but you do need a steady hand and not faff as if you falter and stop the colour will bleed).  I then added some more black stickle 'gems'.

There you go, five cards in one session from one topper.  I don't often use toppers (though I do seem to have a lot in my stash to use!) but often you have to really think outside of the box to make them a little different and that's no bad thing.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

PaperCloth bookmark and no new stash in sight!

Hello peeps, I have finally finished my first paper and cloth project, its only a small bookmark but I was quite pleased with how it came out.

I thought I would do some steps to explain how I made it, but for full details on how to create some amazing projects then I recommend the book "Stitch Alchemy" by Kelli Perkins (mentioned in a previous post) as its SO inspiring.  

So grab and coffee and kick back for a couple of minutes if your interested in how to make one. 

 First I laid out some ironed cotton fabric onto freezer paper (the freezer paper protects the table).  I then mixed PVA with water (about 50/50) and soaked the fabric with it adding torn vintage book pages, tissue paper and pattern tissue paper.  I kept adding the PVA/water until it was all soaked through.

 I added some colour with mica powders and sprayed a little water over to help fix the mica.

 I then left it to dry overnight.

 I then added fabric dye sprays and some water to help the colour flow.  I am sure you could use paper spray ink, but I wasn't sure whether the colour would transfer to other surfaces and I knew that the fabric dye was permanent once heat set so I played it safe.

 I then added some more colour and texture with stamps

Here is the finished sheet.  I then decided to free machine embroidery all over the sheet to add some additional colour and texture.  Now, this was a BIG mistake as I was going to make a patchwork bookmark so when I cut the sheet up the embroidery started to come apart, so I had to unpick it all!  That's an hour of my life I won't be getting back!

I then cut the sheet up into random pieces and sewed them together with a zig zag stitch on the machine to create a long thin piece.  I then backed it with grey felt and machine stitched all around the edges several times.  I finished it off by punching a hole in the bottom, adding an eyelet and some fancy fibres.

 

Voila, a new and unique bookmark using only old stash, but with a new technique.

So there you have it, a nice colourful fabric and paper bookmark using my current stash!  Its so easy to buy new stash (I know, I am terrible with it!!  Missing the NEC this year so I am having withdrawal symptoms but I have SO much stash I really need to concentrate on using up what I already have!!).

Happy crafting

Kyla