Sheri the Sheep Toilet roll cover

So I've got the crochet bug, so rewarding relaxing watching TV at night creating something - even if my husband can't believe I was making this. More modern than the old fashion doll on a roll that I had in my parents bathroom when I was younger.

I purchased a book I found in Hobbycraft - Toilet roll covers by Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer.

I then purchased two balls on wool following guidance in the book on length of yarn required, all the covers are created using double knitting wool.

The  pattern was remarkable quite easy to follow bearing in mind I'm new to crochet , it was created in two parts the base cover and then the added decoration of the fluffy wool.  The pattern was a combination of double crochet, half trebles and trebles.

After crocheting a nose section and ears and fixing them were indicated, the sheep was nearly complete. As I was unable to to purchase any shank eyes I created some eyes using felt to finish off.

Now positioned quite nicely in my cloakroom. Now to decide which cover to create next, there are 30 knitted and crocheted projects in the book so lots of options to choose from.  

Time to Tee off on Your Retirement Trevor

Time to make another card using my new House Mouse Golf stamp. Similar to one I created earlier this month , this time  as a retirement card for a Director where I work. 

I created the background wording border using Craft Artist and Serif software and printed out on to smooth white card. I then stamped the mouse image on a separate piece of card and coloured in using Promarker pens.

As I wasn't posting the card on this occasion , I raided my husbands golf accessories and found two packets of unopened tee's which had colours in that were a perfect match.  Using some thin craft string I  tied the Tees to the coloured image , and secured the tees with a small amount of double sided tape. 

The printed image was cut down and matted on to black and red card stock and fixed to the base card. The main coloured image was matted in a similar way and fixed to the card using 1mm 3d foam pads to finish.

Thank you to My Maths Tutor

Time to create a card for my sons tutor as he has his last tutor session.

As they concentrated on improving his maths skills and confidence , the theme of the card was easy to decide.

Using an acrylic stamp set from Woodware craft collection - school tots, I stamped the main boy image onto white card stock. I coloured the image in using Promarker pens . I created a background card using small stamps from the same collection, and coloured to match the main image. 

The background was cut and matted onto both red and black card stock and fixed to the base card. 

The main image was matted onto red card which was then matted onto a black tag. A strip of both and black and red ribbon was attached to the top of the tag and fixed to the card using 1mm 3d foam pads.

Finally using a Sizzix Sizzlets die, I cut 3 pencils out in both brown , red silver and pink card stock and layered them up accordingly, these were fixed to the finished card. 

Moving House Card

Time for a New Home card, for a young couple who have finally got their move date secured. I decided on a design from Joanna Sheen's House Mouse decoupage sheets.

Taking the decoupage sheet  I cut out the separate pieces and assembled using 1mm 3d foam pads, this image was matted onto both yellow and pink cardstock. 

A matching background paper was printed and matted to match the main image and fixed to the base card. 

A personalised message was printed and matted on cardstock and fixed tot the main card using 1mm 3d foam pads. 

60th Birthday card for a bowler

A late blog update here...

I received a card request for a Dads birthday card for a keen bowler. The main figure was cut from Cricut Everyday Doll cartridge and I decided to try and make glasses using some wire as the request was for a balding man with white heair which i drew o with a white fine line pen, I think the glasses were fairly successful.

The bowls themselves where created using the Cricut Gypsy device, by changing the shape of two circles and overlapping them . The coloured spots on the bowls were separate sections cut out and attached with glue. The dotted circles round each bowl was created using a fine line white marker pen.

I hope the gentleman in question had  a lovely 60th birthday.

Happy 50th Piano Birthday Card Order

A request received from a lady who had found a card made previously on the internet by me, a musical card for a ladies 50th Birthday.

The request was for a piano based card. Using the Cricut machine and 'Quarter Note' cartridge I cut the piano section in black card then white card for the keys section. The background of the piano was cut using red card stock. The scroll music piece was created using the Cricut Gypsy machine welding circles and rectangles to create the shape. This was cut twice and then hand cut from paper where I drew by hand the music paper and notes. I arced the pieces and glued using silicon glue to retain the curved shape.

The personalised message was printed onto ivory card stock and matted onto red and black card stock. Musical notes were cut from the Sizzix musical notes thin dies from red and black card stock.  The piano shape was matted onto ivory card stock on a decorative rectangle cut from a Spellbinders die. The message and piano topper were matted onto backing paper (scroll music) and fixed to the base card.

Happy Birthday to a keen Golfer

I had been trying to find this House Mouse image for years on a stamp or CD, by chance I found it for sale on a UK on line site so bought it without hesitation and it didn't take me long to use it.

A card was needed for a close friend of ours, who is mad about golf and is always out on the golf courses.

I created the background wording border using Craft Artist and serif software and printed out on to smooth white card. I then stamped the image centrally on the card and using Promarker pens coloured the image in, I decided on bright colours for the tees.

I then cut our some tees using a shape on Cricut everyday Doll cartridge and positioned these on the base of the card, fixing with 1mm 3d foam pads. The printed image was cut down and matted on to blue card stock and fixed to the base card.

Lets hope Paul finds the card funny and has a wonderful birthday.

Mother Day Bowling Mum card

Another belated blog update relating to a card request from a friend for her Mum for Mothers Day.

The request was for a female bowler who likes the colour lilac.

Using a La Pashe digi stamp image from the best of 2012 CD I imported the black and white image using Craft Artist and Serif software. Using my template for a 6" x 6" card border I changed the wording to Happy Mother's Day round all four sides. I imported the main image and re sized accordingly.

Once printed out, the image was coloured in using Promarker pens. The printed section was then cut down and mounted onto lilac backing card and fixed to the base card using double sided tape.

Hopefully Andrea liked her card order and more importantly her mum day.

A card for my Mum - Happy Mothers Day

Another delayed blog update.

Mothers day card required for my mum. Being a keen knitter in the past I decided on a design from Joanna Sheen's House Mouse decoupage sheets.

Taking the decoupage sheet  I cut out the separate pieces and assembled using 1mm 3d foam pads. 

Using my smallest knitting needles, I knitted several rows using DMC embroidery thread, and slid these onto a cocktail stick. The points of the cocktail sticks were snipped to make blunt ends for safety. At one end of each cocktail stick a narrow strip of paper was wound round and secured with PVA glue. Once dry the ends were coloured in using Promarker pen -sandstone, to match the cocktail stick.

A Happy Mothers Day message was created and printed using Serif Software, the section printed was cut down to a square and matted onto pink card stock and fixed to the base card. The knitted embellishment was fixed using silicon glue. 

Racing car card

Bit behind on my blog updates, so here is the first of many.....

My youngest son had been invited to a party in March so I need to make a card for the lucky Birthday Boy.

The party was a racing car simulator , so I decided to make the card with racing cars in mind. 

The racing character was cut from Cricut Everyday Cartridge.

The racing car was taken from Cricut Decals Cartridge and sections cut out a few times to layer up and add dimension. 

The background wording was created using Serif software , the background was printed out and the character and car fixed using both double sided tape and 1mm 3d foam pads.

Both the birthday boy and his guests all had a wonderful time.