What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #308

In the blink of an eye, it’s Wednesday again. Yesterday afternoon saw me assembling fabrics and choosing zips to match (ish) from my stash.

Two pencil cases cut and interfaced ready to sew. Still deciding on pattern placement for the other two. I need to get over my fear of zips and this seems like a good way to do it. I’ve replaced my old zipper foot and the new one is definitely better. Any poor quality sewing can only be put down to user error now!

For those readers not interested in my sewing adventures, here’s a recent make of the paper crafting variety. It’s that Sheltering Tree set again. This time I used the blossom/leaf stamp and created a background for the message. Very quick to do.

Are you sharing your work space today? I’ll be round to see you soon.

Me on Monday ~ The Ginger Edition Part 2

If you’d been here earlier you would have laughed at me, for sure. Although, if you really had been here this morning, I could have just handed you the camera and saved myself the contortions, but were would the fun be in that?

All I succeeded in doing was proving I cannot take a decent selfie, to show you my new skirt. I need longer arms or a tripod. These are the best of a bad bunch.

A close up of my favourite part. The polka dot waistband facing. Love that.

That’s Me on Monday. How about you?

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #307

The mechanic has gone to work, the lunches are packed and breakfast cleared away. The children are ready and my boy is having his 15 minute chill out before he walks to school. That gives me enough time to pin on my waistband and write this.

All thanks to my new sewing machine cabinet/table. Whenever I have a few minutes to spare I can get the next bit ready to sew. It’s working well for me. I started this skirt on Friday (if you’re an Instagram friend, you’re no doubt sick of the sight of it by now!) and I’m on the home stretch. Hoping to have it finished tomorrow.

At the back you can see the next skirt, in my six pattern plan, cut out ready to go.

I probably would have been done by now, if I hadn’t procrastinated so long over that pesky zip. Managed it on the second attempt, although I ended up turning it inside out and sewing from the zip side rather than the top. Never mind, it’s in.

That’s me for today. Time to wave off my boy and chivvy my girl. Want to see what the other deskers have been up to? You can find them all at Julia’s place.

PS. If you visited last week and were interested in what that stamped panel turned into, you can find the gift box here, along with a quick tutorial.

Me on Monday ~ The Ginger Edition

Today you’ll find me a little distracted. My girl has her Art exam. The first half of it anyway. She was a bit anxious when she left, although excited to be spending an uninterrupted five hours drawing. The best thing of all? She’s missing PE!

For her, it was a rough sketching, preliminary drawing sort of weekend.

For me, it was all about the Ginger skirt. A denim ironing, grain line measuring (why didn’t I think of using my quilting ruler before?), pattern tracing, fabric cutting…..

…..waistband assembling (loving those polka dots for the inside), seam finishing (in my favourite old school style), edge folding (the Ezy-Hem makes it so easy), zip avoiding kind of weekend.

Me on Monday? I can’t put it off any longer. Wish me luck.

Waving back to Sian on this beautiful sunny afternoon. Coffee in the garden to look forward to, once I’ve conquered that pesky zip.

Stampin’ on Saturday ~ Gift Box Tutorial

I’m back to show you my stamped panel, turned into….

…..a very simple gift box.

If you’d like to make one then you’ll need:

a piece of decorated cardstock, or patterned paper* cut to 8 1/4” x 5 1/2”

a scoring tool, scissors, glue, hole punch and a length of ribbon.

Starting with the long edge at the top score your card at 2, 4, 6 and 8”. Turn it clockwise so that the short edge is at the top and score at 2”. I’ve left my card plain and drawn the scoring lines on so that you can see them more clearly. Your card will already be decorated with stamps or you can use patterned paper instead.

Here’s the decorated version, scored and cut, ready to fold. The panels above the horizontal score line remain intact. I’ve cut along the vertical score lines below it, to make the flaps that form the base of the box and removed the 1/4” strip, leaving a tab above to join the main part of the box. Punch a small hole in the far right panel about 1/2” from the top and another to match in the second panel from the left.

Turn the piece of card over so that the blank side is facing up. Fold in the left hand panel along the first vertical score line. Put some glue on the tab and fold the right hand panel in to adhere.

Once it is firmly stuck, open out into a box shape, fold the flaps under and glue to form the base. I like to keep the tab at the back left and fold in the back flap first, followed by the two sides and lastly the front flap to give a neat finish.

Gently push the sides in with your fingers and squeeze the top of the front and back panels together. Thread a piece of ribbon or twine through the holes. Tie to hold the box closed and you’re done.

Let me know, if you have a go. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

*If you are cutting from a 12” x 12” sheet of patterned paper you could make your width 8 1/2” to give you a bigger tab for gluing. I’ve made mine 8 1/4” purely because that is the width of an A4 sheet of cardstock.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #306

Another week, another Wednesday, another work space. Yes, that’s right, I’ve decamped from the kitchen and have a desk, of sorts, in the lounge again. Yay!

It’s actually a clever cupboard to house my sewing machine, so that can live in the lounge too. It has a handy fold out work space at the back, which means it can double up for paper crafting (or any other kind) as well. I love it already.

This was me yesterday, making an extra piece of patterned card stock, ready to demonstrate a simple gift box this morning. I’m sure my class don’t need (or want!) to see me stamp a whole sheet. I’ll share the finished article on Saturday, along with a tutorial. It’s very easy to make, especially if you use ready patterned paper!

Here’s another quick make. Our “20 minute” card from the last session. It was nice to stamp something simple and pretty, after our male themed morning with the feathers and a couple of messier and fussier techniques. Those cards are in this post if you’d like to see them.

I’m off to load my car, once I’ve linked up with Julia. It’s looking like a beautiful day.

Me on Monday ~ The Easter Holiday Edition

It’s the last day of the Easter holidays here. I find that the week days and weekends tend to merge into one, during that time off from school.

It was a class prepping and teaching, haddock and chips eating (well, we had to try the new chippy, didn’t we?), prom dress fabric choosing, dress form arriving (amid squeals of delight), 21st Birthday celebrating (with a family tea party), Easter gift handing out (only a week late), Poldark catching up, grass cutting, garden tidying, pork roasting, ice cream scooping (while the sun shone), decluttering and organising (I will conquer that spare room) kind of week.

And the rest of the time? Revision, revision, revision. They’ll be glad to get back to school tomorrow, for a rest! Waving back to Sian, and the other Monday-ers, today.

One Photo & Twenty Words

Today I’m joining the lovely Abi of Creating Paper Dreams for her monthly meme. The title says it all. Find a photo and tell its story in twenty words.

The fabric. Chosen this morning, pre-washed and hanging in the sunshine. The next step? Turning it into a prom dress.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #305

No crafting in progress, for you to have a nosy at, today. It’s been in use all morning for either eating, revision or packing parcels. I’m just back from delivering my boy to a nearby village for an afternoon session of D&D with friends. A much needed break for all of them.

There are a few things on the table though. The box at the back is a parcel waiting for courier pick up. I’ve been “destashing” the stamps and ink pads I no longer use and saving the money towards a dressmaking dummy. The good news is I’ve reached my target and she is on her way as of this morning. I’m very excited.

The rest is what came in the post. A gorgeous postcard from Beverly as part of Liberate your Art, the all important Polling Cards and a second hand copy of Cross Stitch. I can’t wait to get stuck into the latter. I’ve been very much enjoying the recent TV adaptation of these books, now that it’s finally made its way onto streaming. Anyone else an Outlander fan?

Finally, the “little something” that I made for my nieces and nephews this year.

Linking up with Julia for the Wednesday desk hopping extravaganza.

Stampin’ on Saturday ~ Four Feathers

As promised, I’m back with a few cards for you. Whenever I am considering purchasing a new stamp set, I always try to think of three different ways in which I could use it, *before* I part with my cash. If I can’t, then I don’t buy. With the Four Feathers set it was easy to visualise what I would do with it and once I had it in my hands the ideas just kept coming.

Stamped simply in soft blue and green with a sentiment added. It took longer to cut the card to size than it did to stamp it. I inked up half of each feather with a different colour inkpad. Easy to do. Just a little care needed.

The line drawn feather in the set lent itself to the Triple Stamping technique. I added some speckles from Gorgeous Grunge to break up the cream background.

Lastly, my favourite, a watercolour version using all four feathers. It divided the class as some are not keen on “messy” techniques, preferring a clean crisp finish. This is much more my own style and the type of card I would usually make for the fun of the process, rather than a class project. I coloured the stamps using water based marker pens and misted lightly before stamping. Gorgeous Grunge puts in an appearance again, around the edge this time. It reminded me of speckled eggs.

There you have it, Three ways with Four Feathers. I have a feeling it won’t be the last you see of it. I’ve yet to explore the possibilities of the matching dies.

Happy Easter everyone.

Friday Smile

I went to Hobbycraft, for the very first time, last weekend. Our nearest is on an out of town retail park and not somewhere I would usually go. We were there picking up a replacement laptop for my girl. Hers has died and as she is approaching her GCSE exams, it’s really not the best timing. We weren’t that impressed with what the crafty superstore had to offer, but I spied these on a shelf and they made me smile.

Duck tape with…..erm…..ducks on.

Linking up with Annie and everyone else who is sharing a smile today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a selection of cards for you. Have a lovely long weekend.

PS Apologies to my Facebook and IG friends who will have seen this already.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #304

I seem to be in a blogging time warp, at the moment, where it’s always Wednesday. Although this was the state of my kitchen table on Tuesday afternoon.

Stacks of cardstock and kit leftovers being sorted into some semblance of order and I do mean *some*. Not an entirely successful endeavour, but there’s always another day.

The task I was in the middle of when you visited last week was completed to my satisfaction and that niggling scrap of green is now gone.

We’re on Easter holidays here and an empty kitchen table is a rare occurrence. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Linking up with Julia and the deskers today.

PS My cursor has a mind of its own this morning and it won’t let me go back and make corrections without deleting whole sentences. Very strange.