I tawt I taw a puddy cat...

Collage cats.

Printed cats.

 

Stitched cats.

Cat cards galore for blupaisan as part of the June Birthday swap on Craftster. I especially like the collage cats sitting in the windowsill looking at the birds.  I always knew there was a reason why I keep scraps of paper!

Crafted Notecards Swap

I hadn't swapped for a while, and when I saw a crafted notecard swap on Craftster, I knew that would be a great stashbust.  It was a good challenge to try to create cards to match the themes given, and good fun to use some techniques I've not used in a while.  For gala_apples I made the following:  

A stitch apple.

Pizza base printed robots.

Lesbian pride card. 

Zombie collage.

Saltire (with my reflection in it!). 

And as an extra, some train ticket tags.  And for FairyHazeDesigns:

Unicorn pizza base prints.

Fabric paper textured cards (made from this tutorial).

Mushroom collage.

Silk painting, with salt added cards.

And with some extra silk, some gift tags.  I really enjoyed this swap, and have already signed up to another!

Christmas Cassettes, Trees and a Narwhal.

For some very special people I have made some very special Christmas cards.  Firstly inspired by cheesy Christmas songs, cassette tape cards.  Taking a piece of white felt, this fantastic template, and my sewing machine, I created an outline.

I then hand stitched song titles in embroidery thread and stuck on card blanks.

Whilst I had my sewing machine out I remembered that it has some pretty fancy stitches.  So, on green fabric I outlined some triangles with straight stitch, and then added some stitched tinsel garland.

I really like the star stitch, with two colours overlapping.  I didn't bother to hem the triangles, as they were then spray mounted on to cards.  And finally, for MrCrafty, a Christmas narwhal card.  After all, narwhals are pretty amazing animals, a cross between a unicorn and a whale.  Using a (very blunt!) craft knife I cut out a narwhal outline in a piece of festive holly paper.

Used some blue shiny paper to fill the space, and printed a header and footer. 

Can you see me?

Now, everybody sing...

All is full of love...

Some crochet cotton and PVA come together, based on this tutorial from Craft.

Be warned sticky crochet cotton is well, quite sticky.  I used a cocktail stick to move the thread around without getting into a big mess.

Tiny couching stitches hold it on to the card.  Perfect for a wedding acceptance rsvp card.  Maybe this will encourage me to make my Christmas cards this year?

Scandinavian inspired Craftster swap

Some time ago I signed up to this swap, as I have a bit of a crush on Scandinavia. For my big item I knitted a Fair Isle cushion. I realise that Fair Isle is actually a Scottish island, though it has a rich Norse history. And the Fair Isle style of knitting is similar to that seen in Scandinavia.
This is actually a cheat's Fair Isle, as the hearts were made with a variegated yarn.
The pattern was by Jane Burns for Simply Knitting. Full details can be found on my Ravelry project page. My next project was some felted coasters, inspired by these by adknits. I made circle shapes from crochet using some 100% wool yarn. I then put these in the washing machine and crossed my fingers. When the spin had finished, I pull the coasters out and reshaped them. You need to tug really hard to get them back to a circle shape!
Once dry, I used some merino roving and a felting needle to add spiral shapes (watch your fingers at this point, as felting needles are really rather sharp!).
I then found my old Danish textbook (Dansk for hele verden - Danish for the whole world) and scanned in some pretty line drawings. Using paint.net I cleaned up the images, added colour, and then printed on photo paper to make some unusual cards.
For a final treat, I made some cross stitch badges. Using this pixel Viking image as a starting point, I made a Viking, heart, snowflake and a star.
It was good fun creating all these items, and I am certainly braver at trying more complex Fair Isle knitting now. I'll share what fantastic goodies my swap partner sent me soon!

Merry Christmas!

Card stock, felt, buttons, and sponged snowmen. Wishing you all a very happy festive season!