Handmade cards and other crafts, templates & tips

With the days getting colder it feels good to wear warm and comfortable items. In the last couple of weeks I finished 2 pairs of crochet slippers for me and Alex and a neck warmer to send my sister for Christmas.

My slippers
Alex's slippers

Neck warmer

This knitted neck warmer follows the same pattern as these and it's really easy to make.

First you need to knit or crochet a rectangle long enough to go around your neck and wide enough to be folded in half. I finished mine with a crochet edging.

Now for the folding, fold your rectangle in half as shown in the photo below.

 

Sew on a button large enough to go through one of the loops.

Flip it over.

Fold the sides towards the middle.

Use a loop to button up your neck warmer.

This is what it looks like when it's finished.

This is a bag made out of granny squares which in turn were made using yarn bought at the local charity shop. I chose an easy pattern from the book "200 crochet blocks for blankets, throws and afghans" by Jan Eaton.

I loved mixing and matching the different colours and I love how it turned out. The handles came from a bag also bought from the same charity shop.

 

Just a short post to show you a few cards I've been making.

The accordion card below was a special commision from a teacher at my son's school. Due to the nature of the card I made a box to put it in rather than using an envelope.

The card below was made for the Halloween challenge on one of the many Flickr groups and also for the Halloween swap on the Kool Crafts and Arts forum.

This week I've been making a few cards to replace the ones I sold and it's amazing how a little detail can go such a long way in completely changing the look of a card making it truly special and unique.

Today's post is about some of the little details you can add to your cards so they stand out.

Butterflies and dragonflies

When adding butterflies or dragonflies to your cards try drawing lines or little dots to give the impression of movement. You can also glue only the body of the butterfly/dragonfly onto the card and then lift the wings a little, this will give the impression of flapping wings making your butterfly/dragonfly more realistic.

The last card in this series is one of my new ones and you'll see that the butterfly on the bottom corner is made up of 2 punched butterfly shapes glued together in the middle. Again, this helps give the impression that the butterfly is flapping its wings.

Flowers and leaves

To create layers of flowers or foliage with different heights use foam pads. You can also make your flowers look more "real" by slightly shaping their petals. To do this you can curl or pinch them so they don't lie flat on the card.

Also when making the centres for the flowers try using circles of different sizes. Even if you use the same flower shape throughout your project you can make them look different by using larger or smaller circles.

The flower used on the first card had its petals slightly twisted or pinched. The flowers on the second card are all the same but some look slightly different just by using a smaller circle in the centre.

Mix and match

Just because you're making a card it doesn't mean you have to use only paper and cardstock. Raid your sewing box and experiment with ribbon, fabric, buttons, yarn, etc. These elements will add texture and interest to your project.

All the cards above incorporate items you can find in your sewing box such as leftover bits of ribbon, lace, rikrak, buttons and fabric.

Stitching on paper

I love stitching on cards and use it quite often. Again experiment adding a few stitches to your project to see what a difference this makes. You can use a sewing machine, do the stitching by hand or use false stitching using a fine tip pen to draw the "stitches".

I hope you find these ideas useful.

Just wanted to show you these I made a few weeks ago for Louise from Send My Card.

They are for A4 size cards and I had lots of fun choosing the papers and making the little handbags.

 

Today I want to show you a new die-cut I bought to use with the Sizzix BigShot. Actually there are 3 dies or frames in the package, they come nestled and before using them you need to separate them with a craft knife.

These dies are compatible with the Sizzix BigShot and the Cuttlebug and they come with instructions for use with both the machines above.

What I want to show you is what you can cut with them because when I looked on the Internet I couldn't find anything that would give me an idea of what the product does but it sounded interesting and that's why I bought it.

These are the nestled dies.

Here they are after being separated.

Frame and mat cut with the larger die.

Frame and mat cut with the medium die.

Frame and mat cut with the smaller die

Experiment with different combinations of dies to get different frames.

    

     

You can also overlay different sized frames to obtain a different effect, this works best if you use matching or contrasting colours.

Note: I haven't tried cutting thick cardstock with these dies as they don't seem to be as sturdy as the Originals or the Bigz dies from Sizzix but they cut paper and thin cardstock very easily.

Following my previous post on t-shirt yarn here are the 2 bags I made with this material.

You can crochet or knit with t-shirt yarn just as you would with any other type of yarn, the only difference being that this is a much thicker medium requiring the use of bigger knitting needles or crochet hooks. On both these projects I used a 12 mm crochet hook!

These bags are slightly heavier that if they had been made using more conventional materials but they are very durable and hold their shape quite well. They were also worked in the round to avoid very bulky seams.

 

T-shirt yarn is a big thing in my home country where you can find it for sale almost everywhere. It can be used to make necklaces, hats, belts, rugs, bags, etc. There are also many magazines dedicated only to crafts you can make using this type of material, I bought a few of these while on holiday and also 2 balls of t-shirt yarn to try it. I'll post pictures of what I'm making when I finish.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of the shop bought t-shirt yarn and I still have a long way to go so the only option left is to make my own. If this is something you'd like to try too just follow the instructions below.

Instructions to make t-shirt yarn

1 - Search for old t-shirts you no longer use. They can be plain or patterned, personally I prefer the plain ones.

2 - Iron them if they are too creased and lay them on a table, on the floor or use your ironing board.

3 - Cut off the bottom hem.

4 - Make a diagonal cut and then work your way round your t-shirt cutting a long, continuous strip of the fabric. Make sure it's not too narrow so it doesn't break easily.

 

5 - Stop when you reach the sleeves and finish with another diagonal cut. You should have something like below.

6 - At this stage, you have a flat strip of fabric that you need to curl to get a yarn type thing. To do that you need to grab small sections of the cut fabric and gently tug it. It will curl naturally as shown below.

7 - Make balls with your t-shirt yarn ready to knit or crochet with it.

Having a sewing machine that does a little more than straight stitching but mainly that handles thick fabrics or bulky seams well makes a lot of difference as I'm finally able to make some of the things I've been wanting to make for quite a while.

One of the items on my list was a folder to take to the PTA meetings and where I could keep my A4 notebook as well as any other documents pertaining to the meeting. Here it is below.

As you can see I kept it very simple, inside there are 2 pockets the contents of which are held in place by the 2 pieces of ribbon.

I've also been having a go at making myself some bags mainly for shopping. This is the 1st one I made and it's a little longer than I intented.

This is my 2nd bag made using a template I drew myself and lined for added strength.

The bag below is the 3rd I made and my favourite so far, I used 2 tea towels from a set of 6 I bought at the local charity shop.

Alex is 10 tomorrow and there's nothing he likes more than to get back from school and to have the house decorated for his birthday.

A year ago I made him this bunting but it's not very long and I've been wanting to make another one to put up on the opposite wall. So today we both got to work, we gathered a few fabric scraps, cut them into squares using the Sizzix Bigshot and my squares die cut, trimmed them with the pinking shears to avoid fraying and then just fed them through the sewing machine diagonally following the colour pattern Alex chose and that was it, our bunting was ready in no time at all

Here is the finished bunting and also the birthday invitations I made for Alex to give some of his friends at school.