Made by Maz

Hi, I hope you're all well.  Hasn't the weather gone so cold!  Wow what a record number of entries we had to our last challenge over at the Craft-Room! Mervi has her work cut out choosing just three favourites, however it's now time to move onto the next theme.  This time, the very talented Debi (who does vintage so beautifully) is our hostess for the next fornight, and she has chosen the theme of:

Hi, it's time for a new challenge over at the Craft-Room, we loved seeing what you created using your Charms & Pins during the last fortnight.  For this challenge, it was Esther's turn to choose the theme (check out her fantastic creations on her blog!), and she has chosen :

A fantastic prize for one lucky person, picked at random, is up for grabs- see below for full details, and also the Craft-Room Challenge blog.

Now, this theme really stumped me, I have to say, as collage is not something I generally do (and neither are canvases for that matter!).  After much consideration (and then some more!), I opted to try a sort of napkin collage on canvas, and this is the result:

The canvas was gessoed a couple of times then painted with Docrafts Acrylic paint in Linen.  I adhered a couple of torn pieces of a print of very old official letter to the canvas then started with the napkin:  the one I used was a floral one I picked up in Ikea - it has beautiful big pinky red flowers.  I split the napkin into layers and carefully tore round the edge of a couple of the flowers.  I applied Multi Matte Medium to the back of the flowers then carefully laid them over the letter pieces on the canvas, going over them again with the MMM.  I then made a wash with Gesso and water and painted this over the canvas to fade the text and flowers a little.  On the plain unprinted layers of the napkin, I stamped all of the images (except the corset advertisement) & sentiment and adhered them in the same way as the napkin flowers.  I then added a touch of Stampendous Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel (I love this!) around the edges of the canvas and underneath the sentiment, some pale pink ric rac around the edge of the canvas with fabric glue, and some handmade ribbon roses (if you're wondering why all my handmade flowers are this style, it's because they are the only flowers I can make, lol!) on top of the embossing enamel, underneath the sentiment.

For the corset advertisement I used some SU text dp and brushed with a little gesso.  Once dry, I stamped the image and added some colour to it with Inktense pencils, then backed it with black cardstock to make it a little more rigid.  I then attached it to the canvas using sticky pads.  A metal scissor charm was added, to finish it off.

There are some fabulous napkin creations around, but I was really inspired by Joanna from Under A Creative Spell - she gets the most amazing results using napkins, so thank you Joanna!

All stamps used are by Indigo Blu:  from the "Sewing Mends the Soul" plate, & Harlequin stamp.

This fortnight, we are sponsored by:

Hi, I hope your week has started well.  Another challenge over at the Craft-Room has just been launched and I'm really excited as it was my turn to choose the theme!  I decided to go with Add/Use Some Fabric, as I'm sure you've noticed by now that I do love my lace, and enjoy stamping onto fabric now and then as well.  The usual rules apply (check out the blog for full details) and a winner will be chosen at random to win something very nice indeed from our sponsor (more details about that below!).

I decided to use fabric throughout my creation, so the sewing machine was recently hunted down, along with the instruction booklet (I do miss my ancient Singer), and the dust blown off.   Now, the only things I have made in the past are several pairs of curtains, and a roman blind which I was extremely proud of - I even put a dangly trim along the bottom and that was before my crafting days!  Sound familiar, lol?

My first question when the machine was found was "where are my pins, cottons, and various other things?", so the idea of a wall hanging quickly changed to a little sewing bag/pouch (I was warned by Dave that, whatever happened with the sewing machine, it wasn't his fault - as if I would blame him!): 

The Front

I used some artist canvas, cut two pieces the same size, and frayed them around the edges.  I didn't colour this as I wanted to keep the colour and texture as it was, but give it a bit of a vintage look.  I stamped directly onto the canvas using a stamp plate from IndigoBlu, "Sewing Mends The Soul".  I then stamped the sentiment on one of the offcuts, layered it onto some Laura Ashley fabric and attached to the front of the bag.  I added some gorgeous cream cotton lace trim across the top and about two thirds down the front.

The Back

Stamps from the same plate was used for the back, apart from the needle book one which is from a Tim Holtz set. The sentiment was done in the same way as the one on the front.  Once all the stamping was done, and the additions sewn on, I stitched twice all the way round (not very straight though, lol).

A pin holder

The needle book was stamped twice onto scraps of fabric, then layered on top of each other and attached just across the top, to use for odd pins & needles.

And here it is in action:

click to visit their store

who are offering a prize to one lucky winner, although we don't have the full details as yet so it will be a nice surprise!

I hope you have a great week, and I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what you create!

I'd like to enter my sewing bag/pouch into the following challenges:-

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything Goes (Ch 24)
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Anything Goes
Out Of A Hat Creations - Vintage Lace

Take care

Maria x

Hi, it's not only time for another challenge now over at the Craft-Room, it's also time for a few changes as well!  First of all though, I'd just like to say what fabulous and inspiring entries we had into our Colour challenge!  This week, it was the lovely Mervi's turn to choose the theme, and she chose Shabby Vintage -  please check out her blog as it's full of wonderful creations to inspire.

Before I go any further, I just need to let you know about a couple of changes. As you probably know already,  the Craft-Room Online Shop is closing very soon (now 50% off for the last couple of weeks!), therefore will no longer be sponsoring our challenges.  However, we do have some fabulous sponsors lined up for the next 12 months, thanks to our leader Zoe, with this challenge being the first of those (there are a few changes to our rules, so please check out the main blog for full details).  For this challenge, we are sponsored by:

For the image panel (I used CI-277 for the image and sentiments), I was tempted to try Paula's technique which she uses for her bags & purses (thank you Paula!), so I primed a small piece of bare canvas with gesso (tinted with acrylic) and stamped the image, again using Coffee Archival Ink.  I then coloured the image using a little ink from inktense blocks picked up with a damp brush,  and dabbed a little Frayed Burlap DI around the edge.  I matted it onto some torn and scrunched Glassine paper and fixed it through the canvas and mountboard with long fasteners:



I've stamped two of the quotes from the same plate as the image, inked the edges, and mounted onto glassine again.  The roses have been made by cutting strips of the same fabric and twisting and rolling, using a glue gun to hold in place, and also to attach. 
Please head over and check out the gorgeous creations by the rest of the DT, and I hope you will find time to join us!

I'd like to enter my Shabby Vintage creation into the following challenges:

PanPastel - Use A Stamped Image
That Craft Place - Anything Goes
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Have a great week, bye for now

Maria x