Textile Birthday Card and WOYWW

October is a busy month for birthday celebrations and this week it's my sister's birthday, so here is the card and gift bag I made for her.

I picked up some lovely tweed fabric squares from a charity shop a few weeks ago and decided they would go very well with the beautiful rusty orange coloured silk velvet.

I embossed the velvet with a leaf stamp, covered a couple of buttons with the same velvet, die cut some copper sheet and added some hand embroidery and beading.

I made the origami envelope but needed paper nearly A1 in width to get it to the correct size (6"x6") - it's open so the card just slips in, which is fine when it's not going through the post!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

April's Forgotten Stash

My monthly quest to use or move along stash that I've forgotten about is still going strong and for April I've chosen three little leaf stamps by Impress.  I have many leaf stamps but they are all quite realistic and I use them a lot.  However, these are more stylised - when I first saw them they really appealed to me, but I'm afraid I just put them away and forgot about them! 

I decided to emboss them onto my very favourite fabric of the moment - this vivid green velvet!  For anyone interested in embossing velvet I have some instructions on an old blog post here.    

I must admit I'm rather taken with the stamps and am now thinking of other ways to use them, so perhaps they'll stay with me for a little while longer!  The samples will probably end up in my Spring sketch book, or I might make cards with them as they are just about small enough.

   

I'm linking up with Julia over at What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday.

Winter Garden and Embossing on Velvet

I am continuing my Winter Garden theme and decided to dig out the iron and do some embossing on velvet.  I embossed some twig stamps and some old vintage crochet onto the velvet and used some handmade paper as a base.  I embroidered over the velvet and paper with machine embroidery and added vintage lace and beads. 

You can see the embossing in more detail here - the top left photo shows embossing with the crochet mat and the top right photo shows embossing with the rubber stamp - still with a little left over brown ink on it from the last time it was used!!

For anyone interested in embossing on velvet I have a couple of old blog posts here and here of more velvet embossing I've done, with a link to instructions - it's very easy and definitely the best fun you'll ever have with an iron!

I'm linking up with WOYWW this week and hope you'll pop over and see what other people have on their desks!

A CELEBRATION OF AUTUMN

Everything is feeling so Autumny!  There is a wonderful array of coloured berries around and quite a few of the trees are beginning to change colour - I love it!

This handsome fellow in these lovely Autumn colours was strutting around a farm we visited recently - I fell in love with that gorgeous golden brown colouring with a dash of bright red!  I am linking up to Colour Me Weekly and Mosaic Monday.

Still on the Autumn theme, for Tag Tuesday last week I decided to make some tags using embossed velvet.  I know I've mentioned it in the past but I LOVE embossing velvet - it's the only time I enjoy using an iron! There is some info on it here. 

One of the velvet tags all ready to go - I was quite pleased with how well it matched the gift bag and wrapping paper.

TAG TUESDAY AND EMBOSSING ON VELVET

This week's theme for Tag Tuesday is Books. 

I love books, I have a house full of them and I'm an avid reader, but it was so hard choosing how to represent this week's challenge.

Eventually I decided on two books but with one theme.  The first book being 'The Samurai's Garden by one of my favourite author's Gail Tsukiyama, and the second being 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden.  

These tags represent The Samurai's garden.  I embossed a blossom image on velvet and covered a tag with it.  I sewed beads on a smaller tag, in a swirly pattern and added embossed velvet, also in a swirly pattern, to represent the raking of sand and fine gravel in a Japanese garden. I attached this smaller tag to the larger one with a ribbon.  On a separate tag I transferred Japanese text to it and then cut out part shapes of blossom and branches, and folded them back slightly.  I edged the petals in silver and sewed beads into the centre of the flowers. 

These tags represent 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and I used two beautiful Japanese stamps I had in my stash.  I transferred Japanese text to each tag and attached the stamps.  The purple 'bamboo' is cut out of card, marked with ink along the stalks and threaded through a coin made of embossed velvet.  The green 'bamboo' stalks are thin strips cut from paint sample cards, and they are threaded through a brass charm.

I had so much fun embossing on velvet - when I just want to 'play' in my studio I often settle down to embossing velvet for different projects.

I promise you it's the MOST fun you will ever have with an iron!

Here are some brief instructions from threads magazine.  More detailed information can be found at
 http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/4977/lush-embossed-velvet

(Check it out first as some velvet and stamps aren't suitable) 

See - it's easy!