Gilly's CJ

The next CJ I got was Gilly's Now this is the lady who taught me how to scrapbook and for her CJ she chose the rainbow and included sets of photos for each colour. We had to pick a colour, then some photos and use them on our DLO as well as a butterfly stamp. Oooo I found this difficult; in fact this was the toughest one for me and I'm not all that pleased with it.

Most of the pics were of nature so I chose these sunflowers photos and found a painting of sunflowers on the net.

There was a large picture and a small one of the sunflower so I made this one a feature on the page and the smaller one as an accent on the left page. I used the stamp on the BG, stamping it over a wash of yellow distress inks. As Gilly is a scrapbooker I wanted this LO to be about the photos so I just added a suitable quote and left it at that.

As I said, not my best but I have always said I will show all that I create, good and bad! I did warn her I wasn't pleased with it but sometimes things just don't click do they!

Elke's CJ

Elke comes from SOuth Africa and when we started this CJ she knew that she was about to move back there. So her Cj was to be about England. What did we think made England so English?

For me it has to be strawberries so I did a simple DLO.

A few words about why I feel the strawberry IS England;

and a I used this lovely freebie stamp from Craft Stamper for the strawberry. Just coloured with watercolour pencils and embossed to make it 3D.

So now Elke has moved back to SA and I hope she is able to make herself some strawberry jam to remind her of England.

Helly's CJ

I am sure that I am finally safe to show these!! Remember that mini CJ I did with friends? I just showed you what they did for me.....well I can now show you the pages I did in other people's books. First of all Helly's;

She sent around a gorgeous ammonite stamp and had already done a page about Mary Anning. I love fossils and have several that we have found on holidays. I wanted to recreate an amazing piece of rock that I saw in the Science Museum that is covered with ammonites.

So I stamped loads in all different colours, ambossed some in copper, pewter, old gold and clear over a washed out black ink.

 

Then I cut them up and used different bits to layer them up.


Finally on the facing page I wrote about the legends to do with "snakestones" over another stamped background.

I couldn't go on the day the others all exchanged so I have no idea if she liked it!!

Another Union Jack!

My "chic flick cinema buddy" Alyson had her birthday last Thursday and that was the day I went into hospital so I wasn't able to give her a pressie then. Apparently she has re-decorated her lounge and it is now a duck egg blue so I chose this fabric...

...and I decided to make her a Union Jack cushion like the red one I made a while ago. This time however I made sure I didn't buy a directional fabric! Ooooo I had to scratch my head to remember how to do this foundation piecing and I have managed two sections so far!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I have never done this before but I stumbled across this blog http://www.ashleysisk.com/ and fancied having a go at the scavenger hunt! So here are my items;

1. Whimsey....according to the dictionary that means "playfully quaint, fanciful,odd". I think my collection of hens who sit on my kitchen widow sill fit the bill perfectly! I have had them all given to me by my friends and family!
2. Create...this weekend I made my first ever sour dough bread from a starter given to me. It was soooo amazing that I am going to make lots more! Here I am creating tonights loaf!





3. Dust...easy peasy in my house! This violin sits on top of the piano, never been played, purely decorative, hence the dust!

4. Seed/Sprout...my hydrangea always looks just like dead old bits of stick until eventually there are these bright, lime green sprouts bursting out.

5. Swing/Drop...this one is from the archives. An apple at school had dropped off the tree and into the dewy, wet grass. Hope this counts!!


PS Just realised I'm not meant to post this til Sunday but as it took me aaages to work it out AND I still can't work out how to link it up it will stay here this time!

Jelly Roll Race Quilt

Burnice found a youtube video from USA where a very funny lady makes a quilt from a Jelly Roll against the clock. Apparently these are all the rage over the pond so we decided to have a bash for ourselves. I used just about 24 strips left over from my Dogwood Trail rolls. First you sew them end to end at 45 deg. Then you fold that strip in half and machine along the long edge. Then after you have cut it you repeat and repeat folding and sewing until it is the "right" size. This one is obviously skinnier than it would be if you used a whole roll but I am going to use it as a runner to go over the foot of the bed on top of the Dogwood Quilt. I'm sure if you search Jelly Roll Race in youtube the clip will come up; well worth a watch.

Eliza's Quilt top.

Just a few weeks ago I started a quilt using the Moda Dogwood Trail jelly roll. Well due to being rubbish at maths I messed up how much I needed so I had to go and buy another jelly roll to finish it off! That done I did manage to finish it this weekend. Now my next dilemma was "what is generally considered to be the size for a single bed quilt"? I couldn't find it in any of my books so I worked with the fact that a single bed is 3' wide and 6' long and the closest I could get with my 10" blocks was 40"x 70" but it looks a bit skinny to me. This pattern is called Continuous Corner Log Cabin and as it happens there is a kind of central pink medallion as I have put it together so it wouldn't have worked if I had made it 5 blocks wide! I have added a 2" border but I now think I shall add a 4" one just to finish it off!

Altered Domino Book

Now my recipient has my book I can show it to you! These are the inside pages before I assembled the book. It was a bit like doing Inchies again!

This is the domino covered in crackle glaze, before it did it's crackling thing! I used alcohol inks and then stamped and embossed the pattern and the edges in pirate gold.

So here it is in it's final glory, all tied up ready to go! I really enjoyed this and it is lovely to get back into being challenged again.

Altered Dominoes

Now I have been a good girl and finished most of my unfinished jobs I am taking part in new challenges! So first off is a Domino Book Swap. I have never altered a domino, let alone made a book from one! First hurdle was no dominoes but two lovely ladies from UKStampers sent me a few each to practice on. They look oriental to me so first I used my alcohol inks for the background. Then I stamped and embossed the fish and the edges with gold. Lastly I covered it with crackle Glossy Accents.

This one I tried something else; still alcohol inks for the BG but then I stamped chinese symbols on it before adding the image of the lady and the coin. This time I edged with a gold/red embossing powder and used UTEE to cover it all.

So after my experiments I think I prefer the glossy accents finish to the UTEE. Now I have to post my domino book to the recipient. Once she has it I will show you what I did.