And more sewing stuff

Yep - I seem to be on a blinkered 'Jack' track at the moment - all I can think about is what I will need when I start babysitting him (which I am soooo looking forward to by the way - can you tell! Whereas My poor daughter is dreading returning to work - she is only going back part-time but hates the thought of leaving Jack for even a few minutes so it is going to kill her yo leave him for a few whole days a week.)

I bought a second hand pushchair that I can keep here so I have made a nice warm cosytoes for it to keep Jack snug and toasty in the winter when we will walk to school and back twice a day with my eight year old Jake (Jacks uncle Jake LOL). I know just how cold it gets on those walks so I wanted to make sure Jack would enjoy them and not just freeze to death.

More sewing...

More sewing to get ready for when I start looking after my grandson twice a week.

Changing mat that folds up nicely to put away.

Wipeable, removeable cover for the dining chair that the booster seat will strap to.

Padded insert seat for the booster chair

and here is the little cutie - gorgeous or what!

More sewing stuff for baby grandson

These are test items made up by drafting my own patterns (which I am not very good at hence the need for rough test items).

I was with my daughter last week while shopping and she was looking at buying Jack a baby sleeping bag - I was shocked at the price (£34) so I blithely said "oh don't buy any - I can make you a few of those".
Sometimes I wish I could just keep my mouth shut LOL. Anyway I grabbed some spare materials I had kicking around and run up this one to test for size. Luckily I only need to make a few minor adjustments and look for some nice soft cotton/ velour - I have to admit though that working with two layers of fabric between some wadding is not as easy as it looks (especially if you are lazy like me and don't want to bother with pinning and tacking etc.)

The bib is another test draft - I have seen some great long sleeve bibs online similar to this but they are rather expensive so I bought some bargain waterproof nylon from ebay (£2.50 a metre) and a cheap fleece blanket from Ikea (I think it was £1) and I have enough to make about 4 of these long sleeve bibs. This one fits just about right now but I will make the a bit bigger as he is growing fast!

Been bitten.....by the sewing bug

Every now and then I get an urge to do loads and loads of sewing. This goes on for about 2 or 3 weeks then I start to hate the sight of my sewing machine and have to hide it away until the next time the urge strikes. Does that make me weird?

Anyway the bug struck about a week ago so i will post the things I have made so far over the next few days ;0)

As of November when my daughter goes back to work, I will be looking after my gorgeous grandson two days a week so I have started to prepare ........first thing on the list was a changing bag for me to carry all his stuff in.

And as you can see from the last picture, I am very lazy and didn't get the iron out once to press the seams or any part of the bag LOL.

Daring Cardmakers challenge - Banksy!

This is my entry for the Daring Cardmakers Challenge this week. The theme this week is 'Inspired by Banksy' - not an easy one at all but I wanted to have a go (plus it gave me the excuse to use one of my Texture Faded embossing folders.)

Thanks for looking.

x Karen

More challenges..... White and a bit of bling!

I would like to enter this for two challenges - Simon Says Stamp and Show where the theme is bling and the Sunday Stamper where the theme is white. I hope that is acceptable :0)

It is my take on a Smash book. I really like the smash book idea but wanted to make my own version. I have added lots of stamped and pocketed pages and there are a few (cut down to fit) clear ATC pocket pages in their too. I designed some journaling labels and some small circle and square labels which I printed out on self adhesive label sheets so they will be easy to stick in and use. The journaling labels are cut out with a spellbinder die and the circle and square stickers are cut with 1" punches.

Then when my youngest son saw my 'Stuff' Smash book he asked me if he could have it - so I had to make him his own one - Jake's Top Secret Inventions. He has already written and drawn on a few pages but I can't show those as I would have to kill you LOL.

Thanks for looking.
X Karen

Harry Potter lives at our house!

More dress up stuff. I made all this Harry Potter stuff last December for Jake as part of his Christmas present. It was worth the effort as he loves it all (especially the potion making box full of sweeties!)

The wand is made with tightly rolled cardboard, brown acrylic paint, glue gun and gold rub on paste.

The book of secrets is an Mdf box painted, stamped and embossed. The 'page' edges are gold leafed.

I made the printed badge by ironing white cotton onto freezer paper and putting it through the printer. I sealed the image by lightly covering with gloss medium. The cloak is sewn with a simple pattern I made up myself.

Thanks for looking

x Karen

This weeks SPECIAL at SCRAPZ is 25% off Innovative Stamp Creations Unmounted Stamps

Here are just a few examples of the Gorgeous Innovative Stamp Creations unmounted stamps.

And this week only (until 22/08/2011) you can get 25% off . Just enter the code ISC25 in the coupon code box at checkout.

Plus we have some Big Bronze wings new in stock today. Aren't they gorgeous?

When is a card a gift........

When it includes a flower badge than can be removed and attached to a handbag etc.

This is one of the shabby chic heat shrink flowers I made a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for looking

x Karen

More Alice....

Well maybe not Alice herself but the white rabbit anyway.

Thanks for looking

x Karen

What do you do when your husband doesn't like handmade cards...

You give him something like this.....

Thanks for looking

x Karen

Less is More.......

Would you believe I have done a card for another challenge? No, me either, I think an alien has taken over my body. Anyway this one is for the 'Less is More' challenge - using the colours of your nations flag (Union Jack of red, white and blue).

I am coming to love the 'less is more' style more and more. Clean, simple and quick! Plus I have another card to add to my card box (which is mow looking quite respectably full!)

Thanks for looking

x Karen

I've caught the challenge bug.....

Here's me hardly ever entering challenges and this is the second in 2 days. I think I may have caught the challenge bug. I love the fact that you have to follow a criteria as it gets you out of your comfort zone to try things you wouldn't normally do. Today it is The Daring Cardmakers challenge. To do a card in the Kawaii style. And before today I had never heard of Kawaii LOL. Anyway here is my card - cute owl character with sugary colours - I hope it is Kawaii enough :0)

Thanks for looking

x Karen

My little Bart

My son Jake loves dressing up. In July his school had a dress up day that had to be 'Wear something yellow'.
We didn't have any yellow clothing so I made this mask out of some yellow felt I had in my workbox. He wore it with a plain red T-shirt and blue shorts.

Thanks for looking

X Karen

Egg-citing....

I found my quickutz egg die this morning (whilst searching for something else that I still haven't found - I get distracted very easily as I stopped looking after I saw the egg die LOL).

I love the look of speckled birds eggs so wanted to recreate a card with that sort of effect - I cut the eggs out of adhesive label paper (making assembly of the card nice and quick!) then distress inked them and added speckles with a felt tip.

Thanks for looking.

x Karen

Just Gorjuss!

I don't normally do 'cute' but these Gorjuss images are irresistible. I especially like this 'Flying above it all' image.

Thanks for looking

x Karen