Sunshine, Foliage and Little Beasties

Hello!

As promised, I’m back with some fabric cards. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I can make to put in a card to encourage….a mini care package. In my last post I mentioned watercolor bookmarks with a pack of tea. I think I may elaborate on that and make some fabric bookmarks too. I’ve been looking for ideas and trying to come up with my own patterns. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to show you what I’ve come up with. Meanwhile, here’s todays fabric cards. 

The first one is a bit different from my usual. I hope to improve on it. I’ve embellished it with metallic thread and a saying. Then I’ve attached it to a bought aperture card. It’s a bit more plain than what I usually do, but I still like it. The sentiment reads “You Were Born to Shine”

The next three are my square aperture cards. I made a few different patterns up to try. I’m always conflicted about putting quotes on any of my cards because it limits what they can be used for. 

A sheep in the valley amidst a flower field in the sunshine.  “Shine Brightly”

An owl on a branch “Wise at Heart”

Hearts hanging from a cloud “With love”

I’m going to see what I can come up with for a fabric bookmark. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Blessings,

Carmen

Stamperia Leftovers Cards

Hello all!

Today I have some Stamperia cards, watercolor bookmarks (in progress) and a little idea. 

A while back I bought a bunch of Stamperia pads and they didn’t disappoint. In fact, the cards I’m about to show you were made from mostly bits and pieces that were left over. I usually make larger cards, but these are smaller cards, which are nice to give too. 

I cut out the little teacups, the birds, the heart and the love sign and applied them with foam tape.

This one was super simple. It’s just two flat layers with a popped up flower.

This one was embellished with a metal music note clip. I did have to use two different background papers for the background. Super easy though! This is what I love about these papers. They’re incredibly easy to work with; the cards seem to make themselves.

I also made some watercolor bookmarks. I’ve already given some away, so these are ones I’m still working on. Once I’ve done the initial painting, I go back and add details, usually with golds and iridescent colors. In fact, I want to share a couple of really nice paints below. First the bookmarks. 

You can see the gold splatters on the center bookmark. I’ll be adding writing and some shimmer to the other two before they’re completed. 

The reason I am making these bookmarks is because they make such a great addition to cards. I add a packet of fancy tea and a cute little saying, and it’s a little bit of a gift. 

This is the front of the bookmark, and the back of the bookmark is behind the tea in its package below.

Note also the writing on the sticker that seals it. 

“You time! A book, a sip of tea and solitude!”

You see, everyone seems to be stressed and depressed these days. People are worn out, feeling helpless and hopeless because of the things happening in the world. On top of that are the every day issues that come up in their personal lives, plus unusual sicknesses and outside pressures and it’s all just too much. I feel it too. 

I believe the best way to fight these feelings is to come together in unity.  Do what we can to encourage, lift people up and let them know someone out there still cares. It’s a small gesture, I know, but it’s a start. A handmade (or store bought) card with a bookmark and tea. Or maybe hot chocolate. Whatever. 

Just something to tell them you care, and to take time for themselves to relax, heal and get rejuvenated. So that’s my little idea. Super easy to do but thoughtful.

So about the shimmery paints. When I was going through my rock painting phase a while back (so short I never shared it), I was introduced to a couple of acrylics that are just lovely. A picture is probably best. Sorry about the yellow background…it’s watercolor paper. Anyway, if you want a little shimmer, these are awesome! I used the dragonfly glaze on the dragonfly bookmark above.

I have a fabric card ready, but I’ll wait until the next post. Hope you enjoyed these. Have a great week! 

Blessings,

Carmen

Matted Watercolor Art and Textile Art

Making cards is something I love to do, but I felt as if a new approach was in order. I made up a watercolor and ink painting and mounted it inside this 8x10” Matt. This is a closed Matt ready for framing. It is a bright white, but photos are hard to get right sometimes.

It’s already sealed in a crystal clear bag, I had forgotten to take a photo before doing so, but that’s ok. This one is watercolor with doodling. 

There were also black matts available, and I had made up some textile art to fit. This is also in an 8x10” matt, also sealed in a bag. 

This one was a bit of work. I use heat n bond ultra for the cat, then embroider the background. The saying is made the same way I make my labels (post prior to this one). The pussy willows are made of quilt batting and glued in place. The stars and whiskers are made with metallic thread. 

Well, that’s this weeks post for me. What have you been working on? 

I’ve been working on baby boy cards and some small pouches recently, including wet bags. I’ll take pictures and show you those soon. 

Have a good weekend!

Blessings,

Carmen

Wet Bags and Easy Handmade Labels.

Hi there,

The other day I totally scored! I happened to find a 24 hour auction for my area that was selling a ‘plastic coated’ fabric. About 5-7 meters of it in 7 different colors. It’s called PUL fabric (polyurethane laminate) and it’s kind of expensive normally. I can only find it for about $25 CAD per yard online, or in small packages at our Fabricland store. I’m so happy I got it at such a good price. (I actually scored again in Vancouver when I got some upholstery material from Dressew’s clearance department for $4 a metre. It was a good week and I’ll be showing you what I make with those soon.)

This fabric is waterproof, wipes clean and can be used for food. So it makes great sandwich or treat bags. It’s amazing for a wet bathing suit or towel, if you want to keep everything else you have with you, dry. It’s also great for in your diaper bag for soiled baby clothes or for used diapers, until you can dispose of it responsibly.  

I made three sizes of “wet bags” as they’re called. 

Here they are all folded and pretty. 

I decided to make up some labels (I’ll explain how I did that below), but first had to pick my husbands brain for a name, because that is so not my forte. He came up with “Baggins” as one suggestion. It reminded me of Bilbo Baggins on his adventures. So I went with “Baggins Bags.” I specifically wanted to identify them as handmade in Kamloops, then added the name and my blog address. 

This one is a large. It’s for one of my older grandkids and can hold a wet bathing suit and towel.

The bottom two are sandwich/treat bags

The top one is for in a diaper bag.

Bottom line is you can use these for whatever you want. This fabric can be found in more “grown up” designs but this worked just fine for me. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for deals down the road, but for now I have lots more to sew up.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LABELS

The labels are super easy to make. I’ve seen several tutorials but ultimately I did my own thing, and I think it’s the easiest way to make them. 

You’ll need:

White cotton or muslin, about a medium weave.

Heat n Bond Ultrahold

Windows office

Iron

1. I went into windows office and added a table. Then just typed in the info and copied it into the whole table. Here’s my paper copy to see what it looked like.  Normally I would get rid of the grid lines, but I got ahead of myself and forgot, so I just trimmed them to size with my cutter and scissors on the fabric copy.

2. Cut  a piece of heat n bond ultrahold to the size of the printer paper. 

3. Iron your piece of white fabric, then place the heat n bond onto one side and iron it in place.

4. Cut the fabric to the size of the heat n bond. 

5. Place your label fabric into your printer. 

(With my printer I have to make sure that the label fabric will catch, so I just roll it a bit on the bottom)

6. Hit print and then let it dry a minute. 

7. Place a clean paper on top of the printed side and press it lightly with a warm to hot iron to set the ink. I also iron the back side.

That’s it! Now you can cut your labels to size.

I cut the labels into two sizes even though the print is the same on both. 

These are strong enough that you can just iron them on and they’ll stay even in the wash and won’t fray. However, I like the look of the sewing around the edge, so I do both on mine. 

To use, just peel off the back and you’re good to go. 

Alright then, I think we’re done here. Thank you for stopping by. I hope this post has been helpful in some way. 

Easter Blessings! 

Carmen

Cat and Mouse Fabric Cards

As you are probably aware by now, I love to try all kinds of crafts, especially when it comes to anything paper or sewing related to mention a couple of things. One of my biggest flaws is that though I have a blog, Instagram and Pinterest —- I often forget to make a post. 

I’m not so bad with Instagram, not too great with the blog, but Pinterest? Now that’s a sad story. So I went and posted a few more cards on Pinterest tonight. As I was doing that I came across a bunch of fabric cards I hadn’t posted on the blog yet. So I’ll share those tonight. 

I’m truly enjoying the sewing process. These cards are more expensive to make because they take a bit longer to make, but the square window cards and envelopes are purchased and are a bit pricey. I like the final product enough to keep making them anyway. 

These are the little mice I made. 

These are similar to the dragonflies in that they’re quilted, appliqued, embroidered and embellished. 

I also did some cats. 

After these were done I made some larger ones to put in an enclosed matt. These are sneak peeks as they’re not quite done yet.

I think I’ll stop there. 

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Blessings,

Carmen