A Couple Of Fun Stories and A 3D Bird

Hi Everyone! It has been a while, again. I have been fighting some health issues and some depression the past couple of months. Of course, whenever my body is under any kind of stress I have a fibro flair, sniff sniff. I did force myself into the craft room and got a card made. It did take 3 days, lol, but I am so happy to have gotten something done.

I have some fun things to share with you first. I know it will make the post a bit long, but I hope you enjoy reading them.

I was still pretty bummed yesterday but I had to sit my grandson. On my way there, I ended up behind a truck with it's back center window open. The German Shepherd in the truck kept putting his front feet and head out of it, ha ha ha. He was having such fun enjoying the wind, excitedly sniffing and looking around. He kept being told to get back in and he listened. Just like a kid, though, getting back in only meant for the next minute or so. Out he popped again, over and over. He made me laugh so much! I wish I had a video camera. Out went the blues. Isn't funny how the smallest thing can make such a difference in someones day :o)

Also, my daughter and son-in-law have been trying to have another baby for a year now. She went to the Dr last week so that they could start running tests. Of course, the first thing they check is the guy. OH, my poor son-in-law! Not wanting to drag things along, he dropped off his...well...you know..."sample" yesterday morning. I just can't imagine the embarrassment a guy must feel doing that, OH MY, I am practically humiliated for him, lol.

Anyway, my daughter was craving oatmeal raisin cookies this past weekend, to the point that she actually made a bunch of them. The point here is that she does not even like them. On top of that she was whole 4 days late, YKWIM...so she decided to take a pregnancy test at work (she is a nurse at an immediate care facility, so she can get them free :o)

When she got home from work she handed me a plastic baggie. I looked at it and could not for the life of me imagine what that thing inside way. After laughing at me she told me what it was. It was a pregnancy test stick thing or whatever the thing-a-ma-jig is called. Yeah, I admit I am that old :o(  It was not just any test, though, it was a PINK one! Sheesh...I am so slow...I didn't even know what that meant!

You know where this is going...yup, she is pregnant! That means she was pregnant last week when she went to the Dr and when my poor son-in-law made his morning "delivery"...Poor guy!!! (I don't think I am supposed to know that part...so don't tell anyone, OK?!?)

Now, I am not supposed to tell anyone but my husband. Yet, I am sooooooo excited, how could I not tell someone! So I chose you gals :o)  Again....keep the secret until they let the world know, OK?!? {WINK}

Alright...on to my card...

I really liked this 3D bird image, though I have no idea why he is green. Have you ever seen a green bird? The image is 5 layers. Cutting the small parts, like the skinny flower stems, was not really the hard part for me.  The hard part was actually the stems as I put the image together. There is no way to adhere them with any type of dimensional since they are so skinny. I needed to "pull" them just enough that they did not sag/wrinkle or rip. Good thing I like a challenge ;o)

I used some metallic floss to stitch the flourishes and leaves. I really am my own worst enemy sometimes...the metallic thread is such a difficult thing to work with. It really does add that perfect "touch" since I really like how it shimmers (or anything that shimmers for that matter).

OK, as I have said before, I am a bit slow with some things. One of them is figuring out how to make a bow with multi loops. I tried that Bow Easy tool, which is not easy at all. They should add a "child proof" label on it since anything with those labels are not so "adult" friendly.

 

I finally figured it out though. This is the first one I made with my old, truely easy bowmaker. I adhered the green ribbon and bow over some organza ivory ribbon with metallic edges.

 

On the inside, I just paper pierced the flourishes and leaves on each side. I could not seem to get a good photo of it because the paper was so shimmery, it just reflected the light. If you click on the photo, I think you will be able to see it better. But you don't have too, lol, because if you do, it will look like the peircing is really off, with different size holes everywhere. Doesn't look like that in real life. I think I need a "less quality" camera that does not pick up so many details that the eye doesn't even notice.

Here you can see how the ivory paper shimmers. It has a pretty gold hue (I think that is what it is called) when the light hits it a certain way. The green layer is the same, which you can kind of see in the next photo on the upper right corner.

As always, I added what I think of as an "all occassion" sentiment.

Thank you so much for sticking with me and making it to the bottom of the post. lol Have a wonderful day!!!

 

{{{HUGS}}}

 

Paper Stitching Tutorial

WOW, I feel like I am on a roll, lol Not only did I have time to make this tutorial for you, but I also made my first official post on my Egg Transformer blog. There are other posts on it, but they are all copied from posts I made on this blog. The egg I just posted is the very first egg I designed myself. I'd love it if you could pop by it and let me know what you think.

I was going to make a card today, but the thought occurred to me that a tutorial would be fun. So why not one on paper stitching?!

In my last post, the card has a really pretty paper stitching pattern on it. The stitch used for this pattern is one of many. So far, of the ones I have tried, I like this one the best.

For those who have never tried this technique, I thought I would show you how simple it can be. The first time I tried it, I got very confused. I was sure I would never get the hang of it. I did, though, and I absolutely love it.

I did a lot of "talking" since I was trying to explain it to make sense. I apologize ahead of time if it is to long and boring. I underlined the main points in case you don't have time or the patience to read my rambling (wink) Also, that this is a photo tutorial instead of a video. I haven't figured out how to make videos yet. AND.....my camera was being incredibly naughty today! I was so close to putting it in time out! Luckily for the camera, I wanted to finish this tutorial first ;o) so the photos are not as good as they could be.

You can click on any of the photos if you need to see the details better.

This is the pattern I used for the last card. I copied it from a paper stitching magazine a while ago. I will add some links to the bottom of the post for sites that offer free patterns for you to try.

* To start, you will need to cut your paper the same size as the pattern. I find that light weight card stock works best.
*Adhere the card stock to the back of the pattern with removable tape, such a Dotto
*Do all the piercing at one time. You will want to make sure to keep the piercer straight (I have no idea what degree the angle would be, maybe 180?) Either way, it should be straight up and down, not held at the angle like when using a pencil. You will want to make sure you did not miss any holes by holding it up to the light before removing the paper.

***A little about the stitching pattern holes. This is the swirl from the above pattern I chose to use. You will notice right away that the "holes" are not evenly spaced. I have yet to see a pattern where they they are.

On the curve of the left swirl, you will see 2 holes farther apart than the others are. Now, you may be tempted to poke a hole in between to make the spacing more even...but don't do it! LOL It really will mess things up, believe me, I've tried it.

On the curve of the right swirl, you will see that 2 holes are closer to one another.  In this pattern it is not so bad, but in others I have done, some were really close. It makes it difficult when stitching and can cause the paper to rip between the holes. TIP: to help prevent tearing from happening, put some scotch tape on the back side of holes that are close together. You can stitch right through the tape and it gives the paper some extra strength.

When all is said and done, the odd spacing of these holes won't even matter in the finished flourish, yeah!

*You will need to know what I call the "hole count". Every pattern tells you the count for it. It will either be on the pattern itself (like this one) or written in instructions that might accompany the pattern. When it is, you will probably want to write it on the pattern itself so you will always know.

The hole count for this pattern is 1-5. That means you will start at hole #1 and end at hole #5, continuing the stitching with this 1-5 numbering.  This pattern has the hole count on the bottom center of it. Other patterns have the hole count next to the piercing patterns.

Hole #1 can be on either end of the swirl. If it matters where hole #1 is for a particular pattern, it will tell you.

*Many people use embroidery floss for stitching. When using this, you will want to separate the threads and us only one of them. There are places where you can buy special paper stitching thread in which you most likely will not have to do this (I don't know for sure since I don't have any). But embroidery thread is pretty and much less expensive

*The size needle does matter. It took me a while to find out what size to use. Actually, I never figured it out. I finally found someone I could email and ask, tee he he. Of course, after she replied, I seemed to see the needle information everywhere (rolling eyes) The most commonly used and easiest to find is the #10 embroidery needle. If the needle is to big, it makes the holes in the paper really large when you stitch through them, while on the other hand, if it is to small...it is near impossible to get the thread through it! Even one thread of the embroidery floss is to thick to pull through the eye, if you happen to even get it in the eye, ha ha ha

*After taping the end of the floss to the back, you will go UP hole 1. (The back of the pattern is the side with the big bumps.)

*Count to the 5th hole and go down. When counting to hole 5, include hole 1. I know...it's kind of obvious! BUT...this actually confused me when I first started. No directions clarified if you counted it or not. This caused me quite a bit of frustration (again rolling my eyes) therefore I figured I would tell you just in case I am not the only one who over thinks things, ha ha ha

*Come UP hole #6.

*Count back 5 (including hole 5, tee he he) ,which will bring you to hole #2  and go down. When you get further along, it will not be so easy to see which hole you need. I find, for myself, it is better to keep in the habit of counting even when just beginning.

*Continue doing the hole count stitching (1-5 here) for the whole pattern unless other wise instructed. You will always come up the hole next to the one you just came down. You will start restitching in holes but it should not make the hole larger.

If you look underneath, you will find the stitching makes a pattern. At first, before you start stitching into holes already stitched in, you will see that the stitches have a space between them (like on the left/top ones). Once you start to restitch in the holes, the blank spot fills in (like you see on the curve to the right). As you stitch in the "unprestitched" (ha ha ha, is that even a word?) holes, there will always be this space. When you go through "prestitched" (again, is that even a word?) the blank spot fills in. I know that there are probably more "technical" words I could have used, but I am a simple person, lol

This is good to know because if you keep an eye on this, you will always know when/if you have miscounted somehow. Of course, if you do miscount, you can always take out those stitches and just continue on as if it never happened.

*When you are at the end, your last stitch should be going down. Tape the floss to the back and cut off the extra. If the last stitch doesn't go down, you have miscounted somewhere.

The last stitch is not always in the very last hole as you can see with this swirl.

LINKS

Card making Inspirations a tutorial for a different type of stitch

*Stores with some free patterns for you to try:

Stitching Cards >>> Link to their free patterns HERE  (awwww...check out the adorable dog! using a SUPER EASY stitch!)
Form-A-Lines >>> Link to their free patterns HERE
Pin Broidery >>> Link to their free patterns HERE
Prick n Stitch >>>Has one free pattern HERE
Card Inspirations >>>Link to their free patterns HERE

*Free patterns:

Rose
Hearts
Wheelbarrow with flowers
HERE are 5 patterns, including a super pretty corner one
HERE you can down load the pattern in PDF format. Soem have a link to an instruction sheet, others links to a blog, while others are just the pattern with no instructions.

*For these ones, you need to click on the photo you want to look at. If you want to print it, you might have to click on the option button on the lower left:

HERE are some interesting printable patterns. There is a variety of stitching techniques among them. One really nice one I like uses a completely different "hole counting" method, but looks really easy. (very bottom, second from left)

HERE are some more interesting ones to print. Variety varies like the one above. Looks like a few fun ones here.

HERE are lots of pretty frames and borders

HERE are some really great ones. Super pretty swan half way down.

Have fun! HUGS

Using My Favorite Techiques

I have had a really hard time getting into my craft room due to baby sitting my grandson. My daughter just got a new job, so I not longer have to babysit. It is bitter sweet.

Hmmm...that is what I thought as I went to make my first project in a while. How exactly do I get back into it with the excitement I had before?

Deciding the best way was to do my favorite techniques, I pulled out my paper stitching and iris folding patterns. After a bit of trial and error, I finally found the perfect size iris fold pattern to go in a lovely stitching pattern I found in a magazine I have had for quite some time.
 

Isn't this iris fold pattern pretty! To really snazz it up I pulled out some metallic paper I have been hording. I wish I could remember where I purchased it. I am thinking that I will have to mark everything I buy with the store name so this will stop happening, lol

The metallic paper has such a lovely embossed design that really added some beautiful texture to the wings. 

Of course, I had to use some metallic floss for the stitching to match the paper. Even though the metallic floss is much more difficult to work with, the finished result is always worth it.

One problem I have always had when paper stitching is the pierced holes being quite large when I am finished. I find rubbing over them with a paper scorer works really great for remeding this.

  

I used a sentiment stamp from a Stampin' Up set called Wonderful Words. I love the font on this and am not sure I will ever tire of it.

To keep the continuity of the metallic look, I embosssed it gold.

Can you see the lovely shimmer of my favorite paper? Yum...The designer paper also has metallic outlines around the swirls. All of the designer paper I used for this card came from the lovely 6 1/2 sq." pad from Keiser Craft called Sweet Nothings.

There is a lot of texture and demension to this card. I added the pearls for a final touch. They are not as shiney as I would have liked, but the color goes quite well. I used some pale pink chalk to add a bit of shadowding around the butterfly here on the front. It did not show up in the photos, but in this one, you can tell the vanilla paper is not so vanillary. 

I used the butterfly that I cut out to make the iris fold for the inside top flap. WOW...was adding the piercing from the sewing pattern difficult. I just could not get the bottom flourished to match as well as I would have liked. After 3 tries, I just used the best one. Yeah...I agree, I am a bit anal about things like that, ha ha ha

To outline this butterfly as well as the one on the front and the anteneas, I used my Krylon gold leaf marker.

Here is the inside of the card. I used the stitching pattern as a frame, but only pierced it. I am not sure which I like better, just piercing or the sewing. It was the perfect way to dress up the rather large rectangle for a personal note.

Put all together, I am really pleased with how the card turned out. It is larger than most cards I make, being about 5 1/2 x 7". I did make sure I had an envelope to mail it in before making it. It would be a total bummer if I had a card and no envelope to go with it!!!

Now I am excited to get back to paper crafting and blogging again. Not only that...but the blog hopping I so much miss. I learn so much from other craftes. There are sooooo many wonderfully talented people out there!!!

{{{HUGS}}}

Stitched Snowflake Card

I have missed hand stitching on cards. It is so relaxing (when I don't make any mistakes, lol) When I saw this new stitching design Ignacio created for his Nicecrane Designs store, well....I just had to make it.

I used my very favorite Christmas color combo, blue and silver. At first I thought a nice Thomas Kinkade image would look nice in the center. But...when I went through my 15 or so TK stamps, I realized that I only have summer and fall images. The new owners of Cornish Heritage Farms did post that they will, in the future, be selling the TK again, YEAH!!! Here's hoping there will be some winter ones to add to my collection.

I decided a nice snowflake would look really pretty instead. I have not used this SU set in a very long time and I still think this snowflake image is soooo pretty. I used some silver micro fine glitter on it. The layer around the snowflake is actually a very shimmery silver paper, though it shows up white in the photo.

Here is a close up of the pretty stitching pattern. It really is easy to do and is perfect for beginners. Ignacio made the directions so easy to follow. After printing out the patten to 51/2 x 5 1/2" I pierced the blue card stock making very small holes since they are close together. Then I stitched using a #10 needle. I chose to use some silver thread. Since the holes are a bit on the small side, I separated the 3 strands that the strand off the spool is made out of. If you use regular embossing floss, you would want to separate the strands also. Then only used 1 of the separated strands to sew with.

All in all, it only took me about 4 hours to pierce and stitch the complete design. That includes letting my 3 pups in and out, one at a time of course. They never seem to have to go out all at the same time, sheesh.

The inside was a bit hard to photograph because of the light reflecting off the pretty shimmery silver card stock. The snowflake and sentiment are stamped with a dark blue ink which matches the blue card stock. It does show up well in real life. The sentiment says, "May the blessing of the season shine upon you" and is from SU also.

The card looked a bit naked without any embellishment, so I added some outline sticker corners. Cards just NEED to have some embellishments, lol

I, again, thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with me!

HUGS, Sandy O

Stitched Butterfly With Roses

Well, today (which is Tuesday as I write this) here in NH is another rainy day. After last week being rainy everyday :o(  I think the gardens are well watered and I am also, lol. Monday, the day I made this card, was another rainy day. I did not feel like doing anything, even play in my craft room.

But I forced myself, tee he he and this is the card I came up with.

I am not sure what I was thinking since I was just not in the mood at all, but I chose to do not only stitching, but coloring too.

I used DMC floss for the butterfly and DMC metallic floss for the antenna and flown path then added some Stampin' Up rhinestones. I chalked the background and adhered both layers with dimensionals.

This rose image is one of my all time favorites from Stampin' Up, which is long retired (So thankful for Ebay). It is called Stipple Rose. The stipple line has a few flowers including orchid, gardenia, hydrangea and a set of 8 smaller flowers. I own these 5 and am not sure if there are more, but if there are, I hope I find them some day. They are so easy to color. Especially on this Paper Temptress shimmer paper. The copic ink does not dry very fast giving you plenty of time for blending.

I finally found this Tonic Studios butterfly punch which I bought from Amazon. I have been seeing this butterfly everywhere and wanted it so badly. Since I just got it in, I simply had to use it, lol

On the inside I paper pierced the butterfly. It looks so pretty stitched or just paper pierced. I bought this pattern from Crafts U Print. They have just about everything one could want for paper crafts including digi stamps, iris folding patterns, teabag folding, paper piercing, printable 3D images, card fronts, templates and more! WOW, I love that site.

Well, I have a full day of freedom to play in my craft room and, being rainy again today I don't really feel like playing. I can't even think of what to do! Wonder what I will come up with. I think I may make some CAS cards today. They go so fast and it feels like I accomplished so much, lol

I am going to enter this card into the following challenges:
Daring Cardmakers: Song: Chasing Cars-Snow Patrol The lyrics can be found here
Terrifically Thrilling Thursday: Show us what you got: anything goes
Crafty Catz: Anything goes
Inspire Me Friday: Anything goes
Sweet Stampin': In the garden &/or sketch (must use stamp)
Dream Valley: Something old with something new
I Did It Creations: anything goes
Stamp & Fun =Creativity: Flower power
Woodware USA: Anything goes

Have a super day yourself :o)

Hugs,

Back When

There is a fun challenge this week at Flashback Friday. We are to enter our very first paper stitching that we posted. I made this card back in February 2010. It is the very first hand stitching I did and I was not happy with how it came out. The stitching was pretty good for my first time. but I was not happy after I cut out the butterfly.  It doesn't look so bad now, lol. I have since learned how to add the image without having to cut it out, lol.

I am not sure what happened to this card, lol. I am pretty sure I did not decorate the inside! If you would like to see some I made later one you can click on either "sewing on paper" or "paper stitching" from the categories in the sidebar.
Since this is an older card I am only entering it into the Flashback Friday Challenge.

Hugs,

Simple Stitched Cards

Ok, it is snowing here in NH today and it is so pretty. I am supposing that this will be the last snow this spring. I can hardly wait for my lily garden to grow once it is all melted and the warm weather hits. There are 2 things I really like about lilies. One is they are so pretty. Second, they are sooooo easy to grow! Just fertilize and weed, they just spread and grow. I am hoping that once they fill in the garden there will be no more weeding :o)

I just had to use this lily image from the Stampin' Up set Abundant Hope. Now I have at least one lily around the house, lol.

I used a basic back stitch for this card. Sew easy ;o) I got this pattern from Fred She Said. Using the Canvas Luster paper from Paper Temptress makes using copics a bit difficult since the ink does not dry fast. This makes blending very hard. I think it gave it a kind of water color look.

I used some shimmer chalk around the image, but with this paper I am pretty sure the luster would have shown through anyway.

The top corner of the inside says Wonderful Mother which is from the SU set Well scripted. The paper is so very hard to photograph with the beautiful shimmer paper.

For this card I used a backward back stitch. It did not come out as pretty as it would on straighter lines, but I still think it is OK. The rose image is from the SU set Happiness Shared (I think it is a rose, it looks like a rose from one of my rose bushes anyway) My love/hate relationship with SU does not extend to the stamps, they are so pretty and well made. The rhinestones are from SU also and are self-adhesive. These do not fall off like the pearls do, yayyyy. I am thrilled about this considering they are the prettiest ones I have found that are not Swarvoski.

Here is a close up of the stitching. The pattern is from Fred She Said. My holes end up so big. I have seen stitching with much smaller holes and have asked the people how they do it. They use a beading needle. I have no idea how they thread the floss into one of these, I can barely get the floss through the larger size 10 needles.

Can you see the beautiful luster and shimmer on this paper? Sooooo beautiful.

I again used chalk around the image and stitching which you can see better on this card than the previous one.

This is a smaller card, only 4 3/4 x 3 3/4, so I left the inside plain to leave lots of room for a hand written note.
I will enter these cards in the following challenges:
Lily:
All Sorts: special lady (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Creative Inspirations: Mom (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Drean Valley: mother's day (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Cupcake Crafts: Mom with flowers (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
My Time To Craft: Mum (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Scrapbook Sisters: Mom/special lady (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Your Next Stamp: stitching
Paper Play: Mom (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Paper Craft Journey: special lady (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Stampin' For The Weekend: Mum (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)
Delicious Doodles: Mom (the lily card says "wonderful mother' inside ion the upper left corner)

Rose:
Aly's; spring
Totally Gorjuss: spring
Scrappy Frogs: flowers and lace
Sparkles Forum: spring
Kaboodle Doodle: spring
Stamp, Scrap Central: Sparkle
Tuesday Throwdown: florals
Creative Belli: sewing
The ABC Challenge: "R" for roses
Little Miss Muffet: stitching
Charisma Cardz: bling and sparkle
Frosted Designs: bling

Have a beautiful weekend! Hugs,

Dazzling Stitched Butterflies

I love to stitch on paper. It adds such a pretty look to the project when hand sewn and machine sewing makes it look so neat.

Today, I decided to used some of my Peel-off sewing stickers, which I have had for quite some time. They make the stitching quite simple with the directions on the back. All you need to do us adhere the sticker to you paper, stitch with embroidery floss and cut out.

You can find these at Paper Wishes and Pop-ups transparent stickers. Here is the set that I used.

Since I did not want to distract from the stitching I kept the card very simple. I also used other outline stickers to further decorate the card to match the butterfly outlines. I did adhere them with demensionals to add a bit of pop to the card.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Oh-La-La: Pink, pink and more pink
Stamps R Us: For the girls
I Did It Creations: Anything goes
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday: No pattern paper
Guylou's Inimitability: Anything goes
Charisma Cardz: Spring has sprung
Paper-Crafting Journey: Anything goes
Paper Play Challenges: Add shine (these metallic peel off are surely shiney!)
The Rubber Cafe: No pattern paper

HUGS,