It's a Creative World

BUSY LITTLE BEE

Hello, Eleanor here.

I happened across Tiny Owl's Magic Attic one day, and simply had to purchase a knitting pattern for her Beekeeper's Quilt.

The manner of working is so simple, but I could not have worked it out for myself, and I've learnt a couple of interesting and useful method tips too. Here's Tiny Owl's finished quilt:

Isn't it the most delightful double-sided honey of a quilt?

OK, now I admit my own progress is slow, see below, but it is such a restful occupation I can see me enjoying every day/week/month/year of production. Tiny Owl says hers took a year, and depends on how large you want to make it. Here are my first few puffs; I'm not convinced about the striped one, but I'll try a few more in different variegated patterns (from leftover sock wool) before committing to only plain ones.

I'm now looking out for odd balls of soft 4 ply in charity shops and bootsales. I found a couple yesterday for just 30p each!

I hope next time you see my hexipuffs, there will be as many as this:

Thanks Tiny Owl!

Have a look at her other patterns, they are unique and delightful, very clear and well illustrated.

Eleanor

x

Mobius Wrap

Time for some pretty maths:

The mobius strip or band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. You can make one with a strip of paper, giving it a half twist and joining the ends together to form a loop.

(image from Wikipedia) 

 Some time ago, back in April 2009 to be precise, there was a lovely pattern in a magazine called Sew Hip, for a cotton wrap, by Tracy Cushing. I loved it then, and I love it now. Yes, only 2 and a half years later, I have made this wrap, from a gorgeous Moda jelly roll called OZ.

A jelly roll is simply 2.5 inch strips across the width (usually about 44 inches) of every fabric in a range by a certain designer, in this case, Sanae, from Japan, and I bought my jelly roll from Patchkits .

This is a sort of step by step, with far too many photos, but I hope it makes sense. (And if you really don't want to see the step by step, scroll to the bottom of the post and you will see me and my Mobius Wrap completed. I love it. )

First of all, unroll your jelly roll and put the strips in a pleasing order. Or not, after all, they all look beautiful, so you could just swirl them around and take whichever comes to hand each time. For a medium size I used 30 strips, if small, it takes 28, if large, then 35. (There are 40 in the roll)

Trim off the selvedges:

Next, cut each strip in half to make 2 pieces, 2.5 x 22 in.

Lay your first two pieces wrong sides together, (the pattern on the pieces will keep changing, but the principle won't, it's just that I took hundreds of photos, and chose the best one for each step):

Next take 2 more strips and make a sandwich, with the above in the middle. Order of pieces is right side up, wrong side up, right side up, wrong side up (a close look at the following should make it clear):

Smooth these together, like so:

and stitch along the long edge, with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, as I have done in this picture, (even though the fabric has changed):

Next lay out one of another pair of strips:

and place your just stitched pair on top, see the order is always the same, right side up, wrong side up, right side up:

and add your second of the pair on top, wrong side up:

Pin:

and then stitch:

Continue to repeat the process with each new pair of strips until you have one pair left.

It's a good idea to backstitch at the beginning and end of each line of stitching, but if, like mine, your sewing machine doesn't like to backstitch at the end of the line, and bunches up the fabric annoyingly, you can always do this...

When you get to the end of the line of stitching:

swivel the fabric around like this:

all the way, and stitch back the way you came for 6 or so stitches before releasing and cutting your thread:

So, when you have your final pair of strips left, add them, and then press one long edge in by 1/4 inch:

Now lay your entire piece out somewhere, and admire them, taking a photo because they look so beautiful (and before the cat snuggles down on them):

Now stand at the long edge, take the left hand edge (the one you have pressed) in your left hand, and bring it to meet the right hand edge, giving it one twist:

lay it down:

Bring the short edges together:

Drop down the pressed edge, away from the other 3:

And stitch once more along the long edge. Here you can see that A is where you have stitched, and B is your last loose edge, with the pressed 1/4 inch. What you now have is a tube, with a twist in it, and a gap to close:

Bring that pressed edge up to cover the last raw edge, and pin in place:

Now handstitch using your favourite invisible method, like a ladder stitch.

Now you can topstitch all the way around the long edge, and there IS only one edge, that's the interesting mathematical phenomena of a mobius strip, so keeping stitching, all the way, one inch in from the edge until you get back to where you started. Add another line, a 1/4 inch in from that, and you have a double topstitch.

 

Your last job (phew), it's taken longer to write this than it did to make the wrap, lol, is to snip those raw edges to make a lovely fluffly ruffly edge:

Then wash (or just pop through your machine on a rinse and spin cycle) and tumble dry to free up the edges, and get rid of any lint:

Wear your wrap with a smile because the colours make you feel happy:

Bye for now,

Eleanor

x

 

Christmas Quilt...

Hi, Mandy here again. 

Last year I made two lap quilts to give to my neices as a special surprise Christmas present.  I posted about them in detail here and here on It's a Creative World.  I used Moda Basic Grey fabric called 'Fruitcake'.  Happily, once I'd finished those two quilts I had some leftover jellyroll strips and a few odd Layer Cake 10" by 10" squares, and quite a bit of plain red fabric.  I remember that time was running out and it was nearly Christmas but I stupidly optimistically decided to make our family a lap quilt too for Christmassy snuggles on the settee.  I did get as far as the final stage, the binding strips around the edge and ran out of time (and to be honest I was all quilted out by then).  Here's a photo of ds last year helping me baste the quilt sandwich before it's quilted...

 

The pattern in the centre is from the site Quiltville which I have consulted time and time again.  The pattern is called Streak of Sunshine and is really good fun to make because you use jellyroll strips, then sew them into a 'tube' and cut strips from the tube.  It's really fast but looks effective and is very easy when you read the tutorial (honest!).

I'm a self-taught quilter and find this site to be full of helpful tuts on patchwork and quilting.  I'll soon be consulting this tut on how to bind your quilt to get it finished in good time for Christmas this year.  I photographed it this morning so you can see the pretty Basic Grey fabric better (just ignore the creases because it's spent the last year in a bag!)

Quilting is very satisfying.  I've heard and read online many quilting nightmares (and have had a few of those myself... see this post from 2008  when I was making my first quilt... try not to laugh!) But I'd encourage anyone who has always wanted to make a quilt to buy a jellyroll and try this pattern.  A quilting ruler and rotary cutter although not essential makes life much easier and is worth the investment.  Saying that, I made my first quilt with kitchen scissors and a 30cm plastic ruler see the evidence on this very early quilting post.  Anyway, don't forget to link to us here at IACW if you do get brave and make a quilt... we always like to see what folks make.

See you in December,

Mandy.

 

 

Patchwork Paper

Patchwork pages are very popular at the moment in paper crafts so I had to have a go at a page myself and they are great for using up your scraps and odd strips of paper.  I tried a herringbone pattern for my page, as they are easy shapes to fit together with out worrying about them all fitting together perfectly.

I started off by making a template - cut a 1.5" strip of paper, then fold the corner down until it meets the otherside of the paper, making a triangle and forming the point, cut the triangle off.  Then measure down 1.5" from both points and draw a line between them, and cut the paper.  This should give you a nice parallelogram (sounds like school).  Then you can cut some 1.5" strips out of your nice papers and use the shape as a template.  Not always being a perfect measurer myself, I found that you can overlap the shapes a bit as the main thing for this page is that the points look straight, and also if you ruffle the edges of your paper shapes it can hide a multitude of measuring sins.  I do this by taking the edge of scissors and scraping them along the edge of the paper or using an emery board or light sand paper, then I crumple and fold them a bit too.  To make my page look a little more patchworky I machine stitched around each of the shapes, and then arranged and stuck them down on the page.  I added a place for journalling behind the photo on one side, and then a white picket fence I had lurking in my stash on the opposite side.  I mounted the photo on some red check paper, and some green K and Co paper which I edged with scallop scissors, then a little bit of bakers twine too.  The rosette flowers are American crafts as are the thickers, the papers are a mixture of cosmo cricket, october afternoon and my little shoebox as I found these small shapes great for using up scraps of paper.  Here are some more shots of the page.

I hope that has inspired you to have a go at using some scraps and making your own paper quilt.

Katherine

Something for everyone August 31st

Hiya Claireliz here, well Summer is coming to an end & Autumn is on it's way, so I felt it was time for one more bright layout & a bit of bunting...

 

I'd had this bright tea fabric for a while now & hadn't found a use for it until my crafty friend Jo ordered a pot of tea at a friends wedding & said "aren't you going to take a picture?" - that is why she's my best friend! The bunting is Maya Road chipboard bunting & is hung on bakers twine.

C xx

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Hi from Caz!

I love bunting, have I mentioned that before? The sun comes out and so does the bunting. It's strung around the garden for all to see and brings me such joy :)

Roll on winter and the sun goes to bed and so does the bunting. That is a very sad time. SO I decided to make some for the kitchen, where I get to enjoy it all the time. And it's Crochet too!

 
 
Can you see the bunting outside too!

 

The pattern is from the Nikki Trench, Cute & Easy Crochet book and was also shared in the summer in Country Homes and Interiors.

I loved this pattern so much that I had to make a string to hang up outside the shed too.

 

 

For anyone who thinks crochet is difficult, this book is for you. The patterns are well written and the illustrations are fab! Value for money too as there are loads of projects to choose from.

Mmmmm maybe I need a special Christmas set now too!!

Thanks for visiting, and haPPy dAy!
Caz
xx

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Hi Dolly here

I guess I am and always will be a paper scrapper first and foremost. I could never give up my glue and paper and tactile pleasure. But I do love digital scrapping and there is a really good cross over with hybrid scrapping. Apart from the obvious of printing photos and journaling on the computer, I love printing digital elements to use on pages and thought I would share a few examples.

There are loads and loads of things for free out there that you can use. This page uses some free journaling spots and embellishments that MaryAnne  from UKS designed for a crop held by Shimelle. Check out her blog HERE - not only loads of inspiration but also freebies available.

  

UKS offers freebies each month which are great for hybrid work. They print beautifully and are really good to use on your paper pages.

Sometimes you wants something to finish off a page and you don’t have it. One tip I use over and over is I google free clip art images, print them off and colour them to match the page, as I did with this tea set.

 

 

I wanted a bingo card for a layout to scraplift a page by Shimelle and didn’t have one with the right words for the page – easy …. Create it yourself on the computer and print it out.

 

And hybrid is great for cards too. I use a lot of Dawn Inskip’s kits and they are fab for cards. Print out the images, cut them out, layer them and they make wonderful cards. Here are a couple using Dawn's kits

 

 

 
 

and here are some using papers, stitching, tags, images ... you name it ... from Nitwits

 
 
 
And the beauty of hybrid - you never use up your stash - you always have it to use over and over and over.

Now that can't be bad!

Have fun x

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Here's Jayne!

 

I have just seen this site { DELIA CREATES } & thought I would share it with you. I have not made one of these but I plan to.

I am really into Recycling items & I hope you let me know how you get on if you try one of these bags. There are Step by Step Instructions & photos to help you, if you scroll down on the links page a little.

 I apologise if this project isn't as easy as it looks. You will have to tell me lol !

Jayne :)

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Hi GlitteryKatie here!

After doing some stamping the other day I decided I wanted a different look from from my usual Copic pens so I decided to have a play with my Distress Inks and waterbrush.

I filled my waterbrush with water and brushed it across the distress ink pad to load the brush with colour. I always test the colour first on a scrap of paper to see how deep the colour was- if I wanted it softer I would squeeze a bit more water through the waterbrush to dilute the colour.

I then filled in my stamped image.

Here's a Stampotique image:

 and the finished card:

 

and here on a Bombshell Butterfly:

Happy Crafting!

GlitteryKatie Xxx

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Let's go fly a kite, a card for the 'useful' box.

The grass is a wide strip of cotton broderie anglaise, recycled from a girl's dress and the kites are Unity stamps cut out and popped up on foam pads, with fibre streamer tails.

I hope you do 'enjoy your day'.

Eleanor

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Hi Debbie here with an altered thimble house.

I never thought I would be able to find things small enough to go in the little squares but with a bit of photo printing, button making, ear-rings, and lace I have altered this from a plain dark brown wooden box to this:

This is the before picture, but it looks much better covered with grey acrylic paint and a little pearl mist.

While I was decluttering a few weeks ago, I found some exercise books from years ago. I glued in all the inspirational pictures, a bit like a paper and version pinterest book. I found these pictures and realised I had used them for inspiration to make a quilt cover.

These are the actual images glued in my book (think it may have been a well known catalogue).

And this is the bed cover I made.

Its not exactly the same but I used lots of lovely Laura Ashley squares given to me by my mum, I dont think I quilted it properly either, but I still like it after 20 years.

Debbie x

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 The Creative girls are taking some time off to re-charge their crafty batteries, but feel free to browse the archives and revisit some older projects. Bye for now,

IACW team.

Baby Patchwork Ribbon Blankie

Hi, this is Mandy here...

When I last saw my baby nephew, I got chatting to my sister-in-law about making him a Ribbon Blankie (or Taggie Blanket).  Here's what I made ...

 

It's about 11" across.  I do want to credit 'Melissa Sews' blog as I read her excellent tutorial.  My Ribbon Blankie has a patchwork top, very simply made with 2" strips of brightly coloured fabric (photographed on my blue spotty ironing board)...

 

I trimmed the patchwork to a 9" square, then rummaged through my ribbon stash for a variety of ribbons (different colours, textures, patterns and widths) which I cut into 4" lengths...

 

 I folded the ribbons and pinned them onto contrasting colours on the patchwork, spacing them out...

 

I used my machine to sew around the edge twice...

 

I deliberately had the ribbons hang over the edge so I could make sure they were sewn really, really firmly, so even if the ribbon frays it won't come loose (baby safety)...

 

I cut a piece of blue fleece, just 0.25" bigger than the patchwork top.  Then I made a sandwich with the fleece and patchwork top, right-sides together, ribbons on the inside.  It's important to leave a 4" gap so the blankie can be turned around the right way.  Again I sewed around twice.

 

Once the rightway out, I pinned around the blankie, ready to sew one last time...

 

Machine sewn all around, and hand sewn across the gap...


 

The back is soft fleece...

 

I'll be posting this little Ribbon Blankie off to my sister-in-law, brother and their happy, gorgeous baby...

 

Thanks for looking!

Mandy

Using a 'Layer Cake' to make a Lap Quilt...

Hi, this is Mandy,

I posted in January about a lap quilt I made my niece using a 'Jelly Roll' of fabric strips.  Well, I thought I'd share about the lap quilt I made my other niece, this time using a 'Layer Cake' of fabric.

Here's my dd holding up the finished lap quilt...

 

The pattern is free from Quiltville and is called 'Scrappy Mountain Majesties' . 

So, what is a 'Layer Cake'?  It's a cute name for a pile of 10" x 10" squares of fabric... 

 

The number you get depends on the manufacturer and mine was 40 co-ordinated squares in the Basic Grey fabric 'Fruitcake' by Moda. There are other cute piles out there like 'Charm Packs' which is a pile of 5" squares.  So, please refer to the original link if you want to make the quilt yourself, but here's what I did.  Firstly I separated the 10" squares into 'dark' and 'light', then pinned them (right-side together) into pairs with a light square on top of a dark square.  I drew a feint line down the diagonal of the light square of each pinned pair....

 

Then, stitch down either side of the line being careful to keep a 0.25" distance from the line...

 

 Then iron the squares and cut up the line so you get 2 triangles...

 

Open out the triangles into squares and press the seam to the dark side.  Lay the squares on top of each other as shown...

 

Being careful not to move the squares, cut four strips (do the centre cut first and work outwards)...

 

Re-arrange the strips and stitch them together again to get these panels...

 

Six panels sewn together makes the patchwork piece below (needs a border still)...

 

Here's the patchwork with the border...

 
 

Basting the lap quilt comes next.  Lay the backing fabric right side down onto the floor, slowly lower the filling (batting/wadding) and the quilt top last...

 

I hold all the layers together with a tag tool but some folks use safety pins or large tacking stitches.  My youngest ds likes to help with this stage...

 

Now it's time to quilt the layers together... 

 

Once quilted, trim the layers and bind.  I used red fabric to bind this lap quilt.  It helps to position a table (or ironing board) next to the sewing table...

 

This quilt came together fairly quickly because the fabric was already in 10" squares as a Layer Cake.  It was a really fun pattern to make and I'd recommend it. 

 

Happy quilting!

Mandy.

 

Lap Quilt

 
 Hi, this is Mandy with my first post of 2011, about a quilt I made before Christmas. 

It's a lap quilt & was a special Christmas present for my niece (held up below by my dd)...

 

It's made with a Moda Jelly Roll of fabric called 'Fruitcake' by Basic Grey.  I got mine online (posted from the UK) here.  A Jelly Roll is a pre-cut roll of about 40 strips 2.5" wide...

 

I searched online for Jelly Roll Patterns and came up with this pattern here   (scroll down to Jelly Roll 2.5" strips) to find 'Breaking Waves' pdf Pattern put together by the Cozy Quilt site.  I  downloaded the free pdf pattern, printed it out and found the instructions VERY clear with good diagrams. 

Aswell as the Jelly Roll, I bought the cotton padding which is sometimes called 'wadding' or 'batting' i.e. the filling for the quilt.  I used 100% natural cotton which is more expensive and tricky to use than stuff with a polyester mix, but because it was a present I decided on that. I didn't even buy the border fabric or the backing fabric until the patchwork top was finished, so I could measure it and see what colour would look best.

The first step was sorting and laying out the strips.  Please check the free pdf pattern   for the detailed explanation about the colours of the strips if you intend to make this quilt. 

 

Then I sewed the strips into groups of 3 as the pattern explained, then pressed the seams.  It is WELL WORTH THE TIME TAKEN TO IRON THE SEAMS for the stressy frustration you'll save yourself later on.  Trust me, I KNOW :)      The clever part of this pattern comes next.  You lay a 3-strip piece on top of another 3-strip piece as directed and sew down both edges to make a TUBE!!

 

After ironing the tube you cut right-angled triangles, cutting through both layers of the tube...

 

...all the way along the tube...

 

Then when you open up the triangle it makes a square with light and dark fabric pieces...

 

 These need to be pressed and put into a pile with the darks and lights lying the same way...

 

Then lay out the squares until you're happy with the design...

 

I sewed the squares together and added a 2.5" red fabric border all the way around the patchwork top.  The photo below shows the diagonal join I used on the border.  Once stitched it was folded back and ironed.

 

When the patchwork top is completed it's time to 'baste' the quilt.  I laid the green backing fabric right side down onto the carpet, then slowly and carefully laid the wadding (filling) onto the backing fabric without creasing either of them.  This is a two person job. Then the patchwork top is added, right side up.  I gently smoothed out the top, but NOT pulling it, just smooothing from the centre outwards.  My ds likes to help with the basting because I use a Microstitch basting gun tool to hold all the layers together.  Some people use safety pins or big tacking stitches but the tag tool works for us.

 

I always baste on the thick rug in my lounge.  At the end I just pull the quilt up and pick off any odd bits of rug stuck to the back of the quilt.  Don't trim the excess wadding or backing fabric until after the quilting.

I chose to 'stitch-in-the-ditch' on this quilt, see this You Tube clip by Serena Smith.   I just use my normal sewing machine foot.  Under my right hand you can see the quilt is rolled up to help it pass through the sewing machine.  I use cheap rubbery gardening gloves from the poundshop as my quilting gloves.  Once I got used to them I found them essential for quilting as they grip really well.  I have done some free motion quilting on another quilt in the past, in a 'bubbles' pattern like this You Tube clip by Pat Sloan.  It really needed the grippy gloves! 

 

After the quilting was finished, I trimmed the quilt and added a dark blue binding all the way around.  One of my favourite quilting sites is Quiltville.  I consulted the advice here for their quilt binding tutorial.  It was really helpful.  I learned how to prepare the binding and do the corners...

 

On the photo below you can see that the blue binding has been started about 6" or so down from the corner...

 

 I learnt (from the Quiltville tutorial) how to finish the binding and join it together neatly...

 

 

 

 

All that was left to do was finish the binding, turn it and hand stitch around the binding on the back of the quilt.  I made a square of fabric dedication to my niece and dated it, sewing it onto the back of the quilt with a little heart shaped button.  My niece and sister-in-law were especially delighted on Christmas day.

 

I made a different quilt for my other niece, mainly using a 'Layer cake' of BG Fruitcake fabric and with what was left over have nearly finished a lap quilt for our family too. 

Time for a break from quilting and some crochet I think,

Mandy

 

SIMPLE THINGS SEPTEMBER - JOY

Hiya Claireliz here with my take on this months Simple Things Project - Joy. Joy to me means Happiness, all the good stuff that makes you smile & to quote Aristotle ...

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human exsistence"

So I knew I was adding another list to this mini book of mine, a list of things that make me happy...

 

Such as Kisses, cuddles, hot chocolate etc. I have finally decided (8 months into this project) that pockets on these pages is the way to go so I can add in any little bits of journaling or ephemera or anything else really. I have also continued to use the dictionary definitions. My little album is looking very chunky now & I have to say I'm really rather pleased with it.

So what brings you Joy? Its still not too late to join in with us if you wish & we would love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by & see you soon

Claireliz

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Hi all, Michelle here with my little bit of JOY!

This word immediately made me think of the joy I felt when I swam with the Dolphins in Mexico (oh yes my beloved Mexico again!) In fact I didn’t just swim with them but me and hubby became trainers for the day and got to spend 7 glorious hours with these beautiful, amazing and joyous creatures in a most beautiful eco park and lagoon. I have used one of my favourite pictures from the day and it just sums up the joyous feeling I had and will never forget. I wanted the photo to pop out of my project to echo the elation I felt and found the perfect way to do this with a push me pull me card.

 
 

They really are so simple to make, and when you discover the secret ingredient you’ll say ‘no way’ just like me (well maybe you will LOL) Cut a piece of card 29.5cm x 14cm then score it 3 times at 9.5cm which will leave a 1cm tab at one end. Also cut 2 more bits of card 13.5cm x 8.5cm for the push me pull me bits.

 
I then made my own word confetti using all the words I think describe Joy and that joyous feeling by changing the font and size and colour in a word document, one in a dark blue and one in a light blue From the dark blue word paper I cut the word Joy and chalked some colour over the letters, I haven’t chalked in ages, isn’t it funny how you forget techniques and then suddenly they pop up in your brain!

 
I also made my decor trim from the same paper using my Purple Cows freestyle mouse and decorative blade, creating a panel for the front of the card and decorating my push me pull me tabs.

 
Now for the secret ingredient! A strip of polythene (I used an old bag that held some stash) 30cm x 3cm wrapped around the end panel of the large strip (the end without the extra tab bit) yes I know it’s that simple! That’s the mechanism!!

 
Stick the push me pull me tabs on either end of the plastic, one on top, one behind

 
Fold the card up, glue the tab down, add a little ribbon to the end of the pull me piece and decorate the front! Done!!

I found the making of this project as JOYous as the memory I was recording, so simple but so effective and now every time I pull that tab I re live the feelings and thoughts of a very special day full to the top with absolute, pure JOY. What’s your most JOYful memory? I’m sure you’ll feel inspired to create something after this post from all the talented creative girls, why not share your project with us? we’re a nosey bunch :) Enjoy the rest of your visit to this JOYous blog and until soon Happy Crafting

Love

MJM x

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 Hi everyone - Dolly here with my floral page for joy.

I am loving sticking to flowers for this album, especially when words like joy tie in so well.

One of the things that brings me immense joy, all the time, is a love of nature.

Looking at a beautiful view, a simple flower, a tiny bird, the ocean near my home or the stream at the end of our garden always fills me with joy. The beauty of creation gladens me always. So it was a great word to do.

 

For this page I used a lovely kit by Susan's designs at PickleberryPop  as it blended so well with the photo I wanted to use.

The picture was a near perfect rose that ! took two weeks ago on a visit to Mottisfont Abbey which houses the National Collection of old English roses.

 
The beautiful downy look to the petals, the way the blush deepens towards the centre, just a beautiful rose

I used lots of layers and lots of blending on the page to give a soft and hopefully unified feel to the page.

 

The birds and the waves were by Tiramisu designs

 
and here is my completed joyous page which does fill me with joy as it recalls a special day, things I love and the beauty of the world around me which I try never to take for granted.

 
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Hi, Mandy here with another page for my SIMPLE THINGS fabric book.

This month I went with a Bible quote... "The JOY of the Lord is my strength". 

I used some of my favourite 'Kaffe Fassett' fabric which I'd been saving for something special (I only have one fat quarter in this design). 

 

As you can see it's a very busy background so I kept it simple with just the words.  I began by ironing some bright limey-yellow fabric onto some iron-on interfacing to stiffen it, then I drew around some large letters backwards onto the interfacing side...

 

I laid out the word JOY onto an 8" by 8" fabric page and decided on the placement.  For the smaller words I ironed some brightly coloured bias-binding that I had in my stash in half lengthways, and stamped the words with brown STAZON ink. 

 

At this point I thought the word JOY needed something extra so I stamped over the letters with a swirly stamp...

 

It took a while to sew the large letters because of all the turns, then I sewed the small words on with two lines of stitching.

 

The page is quilted.  I am wondering if I should have used the fabric the other way around, with the limey-yellow fabric as the background and the busy fabric for the letters J-O-Y but I quite like how colourful the page turned out. 

Does anyone else think "Where has 2010 gone?"  I can't believe the next page is October!

Bye,

Mandy

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Hi Debbie here with my page for this month.

I found a quote by Mother Theresa which I really loved and started by covering my paper with some acrylic paint dabbers.

I then stamped three flowers and filled in the petals with cosmic shimmer paints.

I used white water soluble crayons to lighten parts of the page.

I glued some sequins in each corner with pva glue, and went around the petals of the flower and the page with a fine marker.

As I have really started to enjoy art journalling I decided to handwrite the quote rather than print or use cut out letters/stickers. I stamped a few images with versamark and went over with perfect pearls.

I am glad I tried using my own handwriting and think I need to practice more with the layout and sizes of my words.

Debbie x

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Hello Eleanor here, with another 8 inch embroidered quilt square.

In my life I gain a huge amount of joy from music; I love classical music especially, and particularly love to play Haydn, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven on the piano, and I also love to sing, anything from classical arias to show songs, jazz to country, and sacred, as well as silly ditties.

Here's my cotton square, the words and keys are all embroidered with a single strand of embroidery silk, the black keys are felt. The flourishes are stamped to frame to whole square.

I really must start work on putting all my squares together, any advice appreciated, since I have never done this before...

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 Hi from Caz, with not only September's, but also July and August's pages. I have had horrid broadband issues which have meant my pages couldn't be added in time for the last two months' posts.

So to recap July - Achievement.

 

Not only did I record an achievement but I also managed to fulfil a goal for Project 2010.....using my watercolour pencils!

And that INSPIRED (Augusts word is Inspiration) me to use them again.

 

Please excuse the rubbish scan! The colours have gone a bit pear shaped :(

I keep telling myself I can draw, in the hope that I keep practising and one day I will really be able to draw ;)

And September - JOY.

Now this page does worry me a little! I said Joy to myself a few times and then got down to doing my page. When I was scanning it I wondered what on earth this page had to do with JOY.......

 

Evidently my JOY is chocolate! Oh well :D

Caz
xx

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Next month our word is MEMORY, and I'm sure there are many scrappers out there with something to show us for this one. Do get in touch!

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SIMPLE THINGS AUGUST - INSPIRATION

This month we have been looking at the wide variety of sources of inspiration. As a team we inspire each other very much, and hope that we give our readers something to think about too. If you make anything as a result of inspiration found here, all the better. Don't forget to let us know!

Hi all Michelle here with my offering for inspiration

 
As some of you may know I have a passion for Mexico, no, really? I hear some of you shout LOL! When I am out there I get very snap happy with my camera and have literally hundreds of photos and a lot of them end up being pictures of sunsets, glorious moons over the sea, jungle settings and of course the sea but I just can't stop taking them as they inspire me at that moment and I always think it's the most beautiful picture ever! So for this project I wanted to collate some of these inspirational pictures and get them off my computer!!

 
I kept thinking of those view finders we had as kids, you know the ones that you put a disc of tiny slides in and clicked round to see pretty pictures and my version of that took the form of a little box with a fold out concertina to hold all my little pictures (with room to add more :))

 
The box was one of the many little gift boxes that I cannot throw away 'just in case' and I covered the top with 3 different colours of cosmic shimmer ultra thick embossing powders. I actually covered the lid top with some glue stick, lumpy in places to get that real distressed look with my embossing and I embossed the first layer with ordinary clear embossing powder to give the ultra thick crystals something to cling onto.

 
Once I'd built up my layers I stamped into the embossing with an invoke art stamp which I had covered in black ink.

 
The wings and crown are grungeboard shapes and again I used the glue stick trick to create distressed embossing, really making it lumpy in places!

 
And I embossed them with ordinary silver embossing powder from Cosmic shimmers, look at that aged affect!

 
I added the embellishments with some silicon glue and simply cut strips of a 12 x 12 to size making them into a concertina, joining them together to get the length I wanted and then added my photos, adhering the strip to the bottom of the box inside.

I love my little box of inspiration and think it may have inspired me to emboss some more little boxes, they would make great gifts wouldn't they!! Love M x

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Hi Debbie with my take on the word inspiration.

I wanted my page to be a collage of different techniques that I could use as a reminder.

I used acrylic gel medium to transfer a vintage photo onto a piece of canvas that had already been covered with a layer of gesso and stamped on. I covered the top with a layer of pva glue and the heat gun has given the wrinkled look!

 

I embossed a piece of clear laminate and then used black stazon to highlight the text. The butterflies were stamped with versamark onto black card and then I used perfect pearls so they would show up.

This part was created using alcohol inks on the reverse and then stamping with stazon on the front.

 

I used a dark piece of acetate (previously coloured using the floor polish/caught in crystal method) and stamped on it with white acrylic paint.

 

I used a stamp that I made of my Great Grandparents wedding and then distressed the top with green acrylic paint.

The final finishing touches were a couple of old stamps and bus tickets, and some utee embellishments I have made by making my own moulds.

Would love to see your interpretation of the word inspire.

Debbie x

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Our reader Cal, at Clearing the Brambles, continues to join our Simple Things journey, working on her loo-roll book. She said "Here is my Achievement tag. It's slightly wonky on purpose as I am journaling that to me achievement is not about perfection but about loving what you are doing!"

We love what she is doing, for sure, and here is her take on the word grace:

Thanks for joining in Cal.

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Hiya Claireliz here with my take on Inspiration

 I tend to take inspiration from things all around me in my everyday life & I'm often heard wandering round the house saying "oooh there's an idea"

I wanted to be able to put some of the things that inspire me onto my pizza box page so I made a pocket to put flyers & other bits in...

The bird is cut using a Tim Holtz Alterations Die, my Sizzix & some Grungeboard, inked & stamped with tiny script writing, I have also used the dictionary definition of Inspiration.

Whilst attaching the Thickers I was using as the title I realised I had no more a's even though I'm sure I checked properly first so I quickly had to re-think, so changed the title to inspired :D

Thanks for stopping by to check out our Simple Things project & hope to see you next month

Claireliz

xx

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Dolly here with another flower page.

I was looking forward to this word as nature and flowers are something that really do inspire me to want to be creative.

I am loving using flower photos to support each word this year, but this one truly does 'fit'.

Nothing inspires me quite as much as nature. It makes me want to get out the camera, get out the paints, get out the paper and just create something.

I decided to try something different for this one and see if I could adapt a template to make the page.

The gorgeous template is by Dawn Inskip and is available at her Pickleberrypop Store HERE. It is such fun working with templates and I actually altered this one very little. Dawn's templates are very rich and lush - not like any others around actually.

The template is 12 x 12 format but it is really easy to change in a photo editing program like Adobe.

The flower with the bees was taken on a trip to Hampton Court a few years ago and I just love the photo and have been dying to use it in this album.

Once again I used a definition for the word as well.

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Eleanor here, still working on a large quilt.

I find a great deal of inspiration from books, and this latest square was no exception.

I got this book from my local library, and it has now gone onto my wanted books list, as it is one of those I simply have to own.

 

I love the background on this particular page (I love the owls too, but they are another project for another day):

 

This is my background, inspired by the owl page:

 

And here is a butterfly, chosen for the inspiration they give me, because of their fascinating metamorphosis. Mine changed from a pile of coloured organza scraps, some embroidery floss and a length of mohair:

   

into a butterfly.

Finally, this page in the book,

"Embroidered Flora and Fauna"

by Lesley Turpin-Delport and Nikki Delport-Wepener,

is another wonderful source of inspiration, and one I shall definitely be turning to in the future.

 

such wonderful little details, and so many beautiful techniques.

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Hi, this is Mandy.

Nothing gives me a bigger dose of INSPIRATION than the thought of trying new crafty techniques.  Recently I've been all inspired by the fab canvas projects I keep seeing all over the web.  So, what better than trying out new techniques on canvas for a page about 'inspiration'?  Here's my canvas page for my fabric book.  It's called 'Inspiration grows''...

I began by stamping some Paper Artsy flower stamps onto a piece of canvas, with brown STAZON ink...

Next I made a leaf-shaped mask out of white paper and stamped a text stamp through the mask to get a stamped leaf...

I cut some thin canvas stems and stamped them with a swirly stamp.

Next I coloured my leaves and stems with 3 shades of green 'Pebeo' fabric paints, blending with my finger.

I used pink, orange & bronze paint to colour the flowers and cut everything out.  I quickened up the drying process with my heat gun... 
 

I wanted the edges of the flowers and leaves to curl up off the canvas page so I only sewed the centres of the flowers and leaves, using yellow thread in my sewing machine...

here's a close-up...

Hope you're feeling inspired!

Bye,

Mandy.

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Well, I was beginning to worry that I had lost my steam for this project, seeing as in the last three months I've finished one late, started another and skipped out another altogether. However, I love my journal and I love the mix of creative styles at It's a Creative World, so I really wanted to stay involved.

 

My project is a tall skinny journal with collaged and painted pages, that I am using as an art journal for the project. I have many sorts of sketchbook/art journals at home, ranging from the brain dump books I carry around, filled with jottings and sketches and things glued in randomly; to books filled with experiments on techniques; to more planned and studied artworks contained in a book. This one falls in the middle, I'm trying to keep it very loose and spontaneous, and I've made it a rule that I add very free journalling, just stream of consciousness based on the word of the month. I used crayons this month both water soluble and non-soluble because I find crayons hugely inspiring!

Thanks for looking!

Kel x

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We hope you have been inspired by what inspires us. If you make anything as a result, please let us know, we'd love to show it next month, when our new word will be