I found a pack of brass stencils during a tidy up and decided to mount them on cards rather than put them in the donation pile.
My ‘use it or lose it’ campaign has reduced the boxes of bits a little and reduced the amount I spend on my crafting hobby but at this rate I am going to need decades to declutter significantly!
It is my new obsession, asking ChatGPT to redraw one of my photos in a particular style.
Pets, people and places are being printed in pop art or old master format and used to personalise greeting cards.
I am limited, as I use the free version, to four? uploads a day but this is enough to keep me going.
A much better performance by ChatGPT then when I asked it to identify items from photos.
My cross stitch ‘to do’ list is huge but I had to try this basket of flowers before any of the bigger ones because I am trying cure myself of a YouTube addiction!
My vow to stop mindless watching is to try out a crafty project if I watch a crafty video (and to cook a recipe if I watch yet another foodie video etc.).
So when the lovely Sarah Homfrey demonstrated basket weaving stitch in her May embroidery upload I had to try it.
I have a paper die that creates cross stitch panels so used that rather than load a hoop for stitching a more detailed basket on fabric.
I freestyled the pansies and fixed the finished panel on some craft foam before mounting it on a card base. I found some matching brads to embellish and tied some embroidery thread around the spine.
Rustic but at least the project is done and I can tackle some other UFOs (un finished projects).
Being a crafter makes it hard to dispose of greetings cards received so I feel obliged to remake them and hand them on. I feel if I add embellishments and effort it isn’t cheating on the home made card making ‘rules’.
This one received for the Channel Islands liberation day (ending 5 years of occupation in WWII) won’t be handed on until next May 9 th but I enjoyed remaking it now.
Card front cut apart then mounted on a card base once the white brads were put in to the bunting line. Googly eyes stuck on and dots of Nuevo drops added to the flowers and a piece of embroidery thread tied around the spine.
How to use the sea glass I collect on my daily beach walks with the dog…
Just a few little shards of sea smoothed glass have become greetings cards when combined with watercolour backgrounds, fine liner detail, heat embossed greeting and mounted on card blanks.
My obvious lack of drawing finesse is minimised by keeping these cards clean and simple, using watercolour card and leaving lots of white space.
I have had a background die on my wish list for a while so combined two ‘wants’ with this stitching die that doesn’t have to be stitched.
You have to believe the recipient will appreciate the effort that went into stitching this front but it is simple provided the card quality stands up to the stitching ie the holes don’t tear.
My no buy papercraft resolution dissolved in the face of a spellbinders sale so I had to try and use some of the supplies crowding in to my craft room.
I decided to stick with one of the past monthly kits that I ordered to work outside my comfort zone and create some multi purpose cards.
Another attempt to empty the patterned paper remnants bag…
This time I used a stamp die for the bigger stamps and my scan n cut for the smaller ones. I finally chopped up pages of butterfly, floral and birds paper and used long neglected franking stamps and some old paper distress ink to create the collage on a sheet of magazine paper.
In this case it was the chicken.
A pair of paper cut outs (calligraphy paper aplenty in my drawer) were sewn to sandwich a crème egg inside. Ready for little Easter gifts and tucked away so we don’t inadvertently nibble them.
Then a few eggs were made using up magazine papers and washi tape (will I never use it up?) again sewn shut and packed away for Easter.
The basic shapes were cut from my scan and cut to the maximum size of my papers. I can see this working with other stock shapes for single sweet treats throughout the year – hearts, cars, stockings …
Must remember to keep the sewing machine needle with my papercraft projects as the paper blunts the needle quickly.
My first efforts from the papercraft society kit I bought in the January sales. The stitching dies are just part of the kit, which was great value, so even though I don’t need it feel v happy at the early successes.
janecrafts 