No Sew Cushion

Okay, so I can sew, but only if I have to.  I hate having to get the machine out, find the extension cable, thread the whole machine up etc.  I will try anything to get out of sewing.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I came across a tutorial for a no sew cushion, so I thought I'd try it out with SU! fabric. 

Now, the tutorial I saw was made using fleece, but so long as you use pinking shears, this method works with the SU! fabric just fine. 

The fabric I used for my main cushion is the Beau Chateau (#122336). For my method photos below I used Candy Cane Christmas fabric (#121715).

For a good sized chair cushion, like the Beau Chateau one, I used two pieces of fabric, 18" x 18".  The SU! fabric is 18" wide, so I used two different pieces.  This is good as it means you have a reversible cushion - a different pattern on each side. :O)

Once you've cut your cushion squares, cut out a piece at each corner measuring 3" x 3".

Do this on all four corners, so you end up with a cross like shape (as above).

On each side, cut up to the right angled edge to make several even strips. For my cushion I cut at every 1/2". 

It's then just a case of tying your strips together. I used a reef knot method (right over left, then left over right). Do this on three sides.  Put your 15cm cushion insert in and then finish off knotting up the fourth side and you're done!

This is my chair cushion turned over to the other side.  It was really quick to do - I did mine in about 2 hours yesterday afternoon.

Hope you like the tutorial! TFL! Joanne x

It's Here!

My very own Folksy Shop!

Hello Everybody!

Just a quick post today to let you know that I've finally got myself together and opened my own little Folksy shop, selling a few goodies that I've been making.

At the moment, there's just a few bits of jewellery featuring the bird's nests that I enjoy making, but I'll also be adding various goodies that I've made using Stampin' Up! stuff as this is my first love, as you know!

Please note that I'm more than happy to take on commissions, so if you can't see exactly what you like, just get in touch and I'll play around and make you any of the pieces to your specifications.

TFL! Joanne x

Bird's Nest Earrings

Hi Everybody!

Today I thought I'd show you some earrings I made for my lovely downline Sara for her birthday a few weeks ago. 

I wore a pair similar to these when we went to training in Leeds and she commented on how much she liked them and so I made some for her!  One of my first hobbies was jewellery making and I love to keep my hand in, and these are my latest obsession!

To go with the earrings I made a matching card using the Nature Walk stamp set and Bird Builder punch for the leaves. The flowers were made with the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack.

The actual box I put the earrings in is an origami folded one (I really must get around to doing a video of how to make those).  The "nest" on top is just thin strips of Early Espresso cardstock scrunched up and glued on top, and the little "eggs" are made from matching Pool Party DSP wound around a cocktail stick.

Lots of people have commented on how nice these earrings are. I'm hoping to get a small Etsy shop up and running soon where you should be able to buy them. So watch this space!

Cardstock: Pool Party, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery.
Stamps: Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Wishes, En Francais
Embossing folder: Square Lattice
Ribbon: Very Vanilla seam binding
Ink: Basic Black, Soft Suede, Pool Party
Punches: Bird Builder, Itty Bitty Punch Set, Large Oval, Scallop Oval
Framelits: Labels Collection
Embellies: Pearls

TFL! Joanne x

Quick and Easy Treat Card

Hello Everyone!

Well, it's that time of year when you may want to give your kids' teachers a gift for putting up with them all year! If they're anything like my boy, they have quite a few teachers and several teaching assistants too. So I've devised this small little treat box with attached card.

They're quick and easy to make and hold two Lindt Lindor chocs (I prefer these to Ferrero Rocher), so they're quite cheap to make too and make a sweet little gesture. Here's how you do it.

First, take a piece of cardstock measuring 10.5cm x 29cm.  It's basically half a sheet of A4 with a smidgeon taken off the end, as shown above.

On the short side, score at 2cm and 8.5cm (check the picture, because I seem to confuse people with my descriptions of short and long sides and where to score!)

On the long side, score at 1cm, 4cm, 7cm, 10cm, 13cm and 21cm.  On the diagram above, I've marked with dotted lines where you need to cut and shaded the areas that need to come off completely.

Basically, you should end up with your cardstock looking like this.

On the first rectangle of the actual box body, mark the centre (as shown above). This makes it easier for the next part.

Take your Modern Label Punch, turn it over and centre the mark in the middle. Then punch out. The mark is just my way of making sure I get my punched shape in the middle.  If you haven't got the Modern Label Punch, you could always use the Word Window Punch, that fits too.

Place Sticky Strip on the narrow 1cm strip right at the end.

Fold it up to the edge of the 13cm score line and stick down.

Fold in the left and right flaps at the edge of the box. Place Sticky Strip on the top edge of the bottom flap and fold the top one down over it, sealing the box.

Add your treats and then seal the other end of the box in the same way. Fold down your card flap and you're done! All that needs to be done is to decorate your box in any way you want.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. TFL! Joanne x

Christmas in July - now booking!

Hello Everybody!

It's that time of year again where I host my now traditional Christmas in July class. It's a great time to get ahead and make a few things all ready for the Christmas rush! Here's what we'll be making this time around.

First of all we will be making this origami box. I have used the Holly Berry specialty papers for this class as I feel they can be used for either Christmas or any other occasion, depending on which pattern you choose. 

Inside the box are four 3x3 Christmas cards complete with matching envelopes. This set could either be given as a gift by itself, or you could keep the cards for use by yourself and use the box to house a different gift. It's entirely up to you.

The next thing we will be making is a gorgeous little pouch, which we will fill with tags made using this month's featured stamp set, Tags Til Christmas.  Again, you could use the tags yourself and fill the pouch with other goodies to give as a gift if you prefer.

I'll also show you how to make this quick and easy gift holder using just a small piece of patterned paper. Perfect for a few sweets or small gift - you could even make 24 and have it as your Advent Calendar!

Finally, saving the best 'til last, we will make this beautiful Christmas star ornament that can be a gift all in itself - the inside can be filled with photographs to make a beautiful mini scrapbook album!

If you'd like to come along, please have a look at my website, HERE.

As ever, any questions just let me know, otherwise I hope to see you there!

TFL! Joanne x

Teacher Gifts

It's that time of year again folks! When we all start thinking about what to give our kids' teachers as a token of appreciation (or should that be badge of honour?!) for putting up with our little darlings all year! One of Harvey's trainee teachers left last week, and this is what I made her.

It's a small origami box made out of Island Indigo cardstock and the gorgeous Twitterpated paper. Inside are six 3" x 3" notelets with matching envelopes made from Twitterpated paper using our fabulous new scoreboard.

Each notelet was the same. I made them using Lucky Limeade cardstock and Twitterpated. I cut a square to one side of the DSP and filled it with a little "postage stamp" made using Perfect Postage stamp set and our matching stamp. Each one was finished with a small rhinestone.

As you can see, they all fitted neatly in to the box!

I used the scoreboard again to make the lollipop nedallion on top with more of the Twitterpated paper and finished it with one of our Antique Brads and some pleated ribbon.

I also made a quick card to match using the lovely new Tea Shoppe stamp set, the Twitterpated and pleated ribbon.

She was really thrilled with it, so I hope this gives you a bit of an idea of what you can do for teachers!

TFL! Joanne x

Nostalgia and Inspiration

If there's one thing I love, it is roses and gypsophilia. I always like to have a small vase of them somewhere in my house. They're not "on trend" in the floristry world any more, but for me they always provoke wonderful memories of my youth.

I remember, during the mid-late 80s, going to friends' weddings. In those days, the fashion was for huge bouquets of roses and gypsophilia and also huge coronets of the same flowers in their hair. I remember bridesmaids and flower girls with pomanders and hoops made from the same combination, usually in pastel shades of pink or peach. Just the sight of roses and gypsophilia takes me right back to those times, memories of lovely celebrations - the build up, the excitement and the actual day, and that's why I love them so much.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because the most recent bunch I got (pictured above) inspired me to create the following card:

It didn't start out as an easel card, and it just evolved into one.  The stamp sets I've used are Everything Eleanor (#124162 wood, #124164 clear) and Petite Pairs for the sentiment (#122495 wood, #122497 clear). The large frame was stamped onto Basic Grey cardstock (#121689) with Basic Grey ink (#109120). The flourishes were stamped with Whisper White Craft ink (#101731) and embossed with white embossing powder (#109132).

The roses were made to look shabby chic by punching out 1 3/4" circles (punch - #119850) of Pink Pirouette cardstock (#116203) and scrunching them up. I then separated them into two layers (like the faux suede technique) and cut them into spirals. They were then rolled up and glued. Separating the layers made them more pliable and easier to work with.

The teeny "gypsophilia" type flowers are made from Whisper White cardstock (#106549). For each flower I punched out two small flowers using the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (#118309), glued them together and stuck a small rhinestone (#119246) in the middle.

The other punches used on this card are 1" circle (#119868), 1 1/4" circle (#119861), Large Oval (#119855) and Scallop Oval (#119856). The corners are punched with the Scallop Trim Corner punch (#118870).

TFL! Joanne x

St Petersburg in the Snow

Hello Everybody!

Well, after my journey to India yesterday, I got to thinking more about World travels and decided to have a go at turning an Indian Temple into a Russian Orthodox Cathedral!

For this card, I started with Basic Grey base (#121689) for the sky and stamped it with Basic Grey ink (#109120) and the flourish stamp from the Everything Eleanor set (#124162 wood, #124164 clear) (you can't beat a good flourish, I say - comes in handy all the time!). I then stamped the snowflakes using the triple snowflake stamp from the Serene Snowflakes set (#115438 wood only). I stamped these in Whisper White Craft ink (#101731), added Heat and Stick powder (#100625) and then sprinkled them with Dazzling Diamonds glitter (#102023). The actual domes were made from the Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper (#122348), with the pillars made from Cajun Craze cardstock (#121683) run through the Big Shot (#113439) with the Square Lattice embossing folder (#119976) to give the impression of ornate brickwork.





I then stuck them together and sprinkled a little Dazzling Diamonds across the tops to look like snowfall.  As with the Indian Sunset card, I coloured some pearls (#119247) with permanent markers to hide the edge. I then stuck them all on at various heights to give a 3d effect using Dimensionals (#104430). The whole thing was then matted onto Whisper White cardstock (#106549) and placed on a Real Red cardstock (#106578) card base.

Hope you like it. I think this would make a really unusual Christmas card!

Now I'm off again to see where my travels take me next! TFL! Joanne x

Indian Sunset Card

One thing I love to do is play with a brayer. I take great inspiration from Michelle Zindorf, who is the most amazing brayer artist I've come across.

I took inspiration for this card whilst recently watching a documentary about India. I'm at the stage where I see potential in everything, and when I saw a beautiful sunset over a temple, I thought how I could recreate that!

I punched a circle from a Post-it Note and stuck it to some Very Vanilla cardstock. This created the mask for my sun. Starting from the top, I then brayered the whole page with So Saffron ink (#105213). I then followed this with Pumpkin Pie ink (#105216), again running it down the page but this time letting it fade out towards the bottom. Finally I used some Tangerine Tango (#111834) for the top third of the picture, and then a little Riding Hood Red (#111836) at the very top finished the sunset.

If you hadn't guessed, the domes and minaret were created using the Ornament punch (#119847) out of Basic Black cardstock (#121688). The decorative beading around the domes are SU! pearls (#119247) coloured with permanent black marker. The two birds were made using the sides of the Round Tab punch (#119864), and the photo corners, made from the Curly Label punch (#119851) out of Brushed Gold cardstock (#124917) finished the picture.

It was then matted onto Very Vanilla (#106550) and Basic Black (#121688) cardstock and set on a Riding Hood Red (#116205) card.

I know a lot of people get scared of brayering.  Hopefully soon I'm going to do a class called "Brayering for the Terrified". Watch this space!

TFL! Joanne x

Jubilee Lollies!

Hello Everybody!

Here's a quick and cheap idea for table centres if you're having a Jubilee street party or party at school.  I found these lollies called "Brit Pops" in my local Poundland and immediately thought the colours would match SU! Real Red and Pacific Point! Always thinking SU!

When I got them home I made them into flowers using our new Blossom Punch (#125603) and Brights Collection Designer Series Paper Stack (#117155). The leaves were made using the Ornament Punch (119847) and Lucky Limeade cardstock (#124388).

I then stuck them all in a small tin bucket I had which I had filled with floral Oasis. I finished it off with Organza Ribbon (#114319) tied around the pot and I made a few bows and stuck then here and there in the arrangement.

I think they look really sweet and summery and with the colour scheme I think most people would love to get one - if you can bear to take the arrangement apart!

TFL! Joanne x

Next Class - Introducing the Scoreboard!

Hello Everybody!

This month's class is really rather special! To celebrate the launch of the Summer Mini Catalogue and the arrival of our brand new Scoreboard, the mini album we will be making centres around this product!

We will be using several techniques to construct the album, it's mechanism and various elements and decoration.

As well as this, we will be using the brand new Framelits and Apothecary Art stamp set from the new catty.

The gorgeous papers used are the new Twitterpated range, which are, once again, just released and available in the Summer Mini catalogue.

All in all we will make a beautiful mini album, perfect for all your Summer photos. The price of this class will be £12.50 - BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

The new Stampin' Up! Scoreboard is available with Imperial measurements (inches) as standard and grooves every 1/8". The price is £25.95 and it comes complete with a stylus tool which, as well as scoring is perfect for making dots or shaping paper flowers.  It also comes with three markers so you always know where to score.

The great thing about this board is that you can buy add ons in the form of a metric scoreplate (£10.95) and a diagonal score plate (also £10.95).  You do not need to buy a completely new board just to get metric measurements!

But that's not the best part - if you buy the Scoreboard from me this month, you will get the mini album class absolutely FREE!  Even if you can't come to the class, you can receive instructions and a kit so you can still construct your own mini album. I can either post them to you or, if you live locally to me and would like me to come and do your own personal class in your home or community space, I'm more than happy to do so. For more details see my website HERE.

I hope you like the look of this album and, even if you can't attend the class, it gives you plenty of inspiration!

TFL! Joanne xx