Felt Christmas Cards and Brooches

In September, I posted here about the Christmas trees I had printed ready for stitching and making into Christmas cards. Unfortunately they are still in the same state they were then but thinking positively I could say that I've already made a start on next year's cards!

I did manage to make a few cards this year though, using some leftover handmade felt.

I couched some gold thread to add some Christmas sparkle....not that it looks very gold or sparkly in the photograph.

I added some extra stitching onto a couple of the pieces but I'm not sure it enhanced them very much, if at all.

The felt for the cards was leftover from these brooches that I made on a Clare Bullock workshop that was run by my branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. 

I think this one would benefit from some stitching on the petals to add some interest, particularly on the green petal.

I could easily get into felt making and felt is so nice to stitch into but I do try to focus on my fabric dyeing and stitching and not get distracted by all the other interesting media and techniques that tempt me. The nice thing about this workshop was that the brooches were all made in the workshop and only needed beads adding at home....and of course there was the added bonus of having leftover felt to use on Christmas cards.

Printing Christmas Trees

The Hue group are exhibiting at the Knitting and Stitch Show this year and I have been working on three pieces for the exhibition. Finally, finally, I have finished all the stitching! One piece has been stretched and I hope to collect the other two pieces after stretching this week. 

So having finished the stitching, it was nice to have a relaxing day block printing with Jamie Maldon from Coloricious at the local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. I have done a fair bit of printing but I haven't really used block printing in my work and to be honest, I haven't had much success when I have tried it previously.

Jamie's Christmas blocks had just arrived and so we learnt the printing techniques by printing on an apron. I look quite proud of mine don't I? Jamie's simple instructions and tips were very useful and I'm definitely more likely to include block printing in my work now. 

I'm rather fond of Christmas Trees but as there were so many blocks to choose from and as I'm a little indecisive, I printed a number of them side by side to make choosing easier.

Printing Christmas trees on fabric gives lots of opportunities to embellish with stitching and beading (think tinsel and baubles) and I took a shine to this tree - lots of room for things to dangle from these branches. This one was printed on upholstery fabric but I should have used more ink.

This one was printed on some green fabric and looks a little...well green...but I think that the addition of beading could bring it to life.

But this was my favourite one and most closely resembles my usual work. I used the tree block to print a background pattern in light blue and silver paint and then overprinted the tree. This was the block I wanted to come home with.

But whilst I was waiting to pay, I noticed another tree block that I had completely missed and I couldn't resist this one either.

So now I'm the proud owner of two Christmas Tree blocks but I haven't used the block on the right yet and I am looking forward to printing with it. Before I do use it though, I need to work out how I'm going to package my work for the Knitting and Stitch show. When I decided to include 3D elements on my work, I didn't think about how difficult it would be to ensure that it travelled between venues unscathed. I'll think about it next time!

'Stamped' Christmas cards

I really enjoyed the Thomas Heatherwick exhibition at the V&A and I marvelled at the ingenious ideas he came up with. But there was one idea that I thought I could probably recreate and that was his Christmas cards made from stamps.

Like the card above, Thomas had made his from new stamps  and although it was OK I preferred the card I later made from last year's stamps  - even with curly and missing corners.

I only had enough stamps to make one card but I scanned the card....

 

....and printed it out in different sizes.

These were created after most of my cards have been posted but I have given some of them out to friends I have seen.  This could be a way to make use of your Christmas stamps and it's certainly a simple enough to do with children too.

 

Angels and Cakes

On Saturday, I enjoyed a Christmas Tea at the North Herts & Beds branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. The event was very well attended and we enjoyed a very entertaining, inspiring and informative talk by Lynda Monk and if that wasn't enough we were treated to a lovely tea prepared by the committee members.

 

After the talk, Lynda very generously let us try out her technique of printing with Xpandaprint through a thermofax screen. Being in the Christmas mood, I chose an angel design and printed it onto lutradur before blasting it with a heat gun to make her dress look a little more Lacy.

 

 

I used the excess paste on the screen to print onto paper and then painted over it and rubbed the raised bits with Treasure Gold.

 

 

This technique could be used to make some lovely Christmas cards but it's all a bit late for this year. I had plans for some stitched felt cards this year it just didn't happen.  

 

At the tea I also collected this lovely miniature Christmas cake, which I had ordered from Gina.

 

More than 20 years ago I went on a cake decorating course and this is the first year since then that I have not made my own Christmas cake. Partly due to lack of time but also because my Dad always tucked into it and would take a good chunk of it home. Without his help eating it, was it worth making it? So having decided not to make one, I have now succumbed and bought one, albeit smaller than I would normally make.

 

 

Gina always presents her work so beautifully too and as we ate it over the weekend (Tut tut, before Christmas) I can tell you it tasted very good too.  

 

 I'll be interested to see how the bought cake compares to home made ones. It's difficult to know what to wish for, how will I feel if after all these years of slaving over my cakes, the bought ones are better? I suspect I will go back to making one next year, perhaps just smaller than I used to make.

Christmas Tags

I really enjoy Christmas and the build up to it but from the 28th December I'm usually itching to get the Christmas decorations down. I do leave them up until 1st January and usually take them down whilst watching, well more listening, to the New Year's Day concert on the television.

This year I was particularly looking forward to taking the decorations down as I was inspired by Gina's post to make Christmas tags out of old Christmas cards. I am now a proud owner of a tag punch and enjoyed making tags earlier today.The more tags I was able to make from a single card the happier I was. I now have more tags than I could possibly need in a year, let's hope I remember I have them in 11 months time.

I wish you all a happy, healthy and creative new year.

Christmas cards in Waiting

Earlier in the year I posted about the Soft Circuit day course that I went on.  I got excited when I read that they were going to run a short workshop to make 3 electronic Christmas cards but my excitement was short lived when I realised that I couldn't go! Fortunately they sell the cards in a kit form and now they have arrived, let's hope that I can follow the instructions and get the cards to light up.

 

  

 

If you would like what the finished card should look like, have a look at the Technology will save us website.

 

Going back to less technologically advanced thumb printed cards, you may remember that I had planned to make robin and reindeer cards with my nephew . However, he had different ideas and he decided to make table name plates for everyone, which were lovely. Here's mine:

 

 

Apparently I am laughing so much that I am crying. I rather like it but it's made me think that I must do something with my hair!

Fun printed Christmas Cards

I am planning to print some Christmas cards with my nephew later this week but I just couldn't wait to try the technique out. So here are my sample cards printed by me and with me! Thumb printed reindeer and robins....

The robins need a bit of refinement but I particularly like the fact that their eyes are not quite in line. I thought that maybe I could do some collaborative cards with my nephew, with my thumb prints being the adult robins/reindeer and his could be the babies.....it could work well.

Printed and stitched Christmas Cards

Each year I like to make a few of my Christmas cards and the number I make depends on how much time I have and how long they take to make. This year I have made some very simple and quick cards. This card was printed using a thermofax screen I bought from here at the Knitting and Stitch Show. I covered up the berries, so they didn't print which allowed me to add them later using a high tech skewer dipped in red ink.

 

But I couldn't go without stitching any cards and when I saw the Kutch Christmas Card in Stitch Magazine I thought I would have a go at making it. I really enjoy hand stitching but this made me realise that I don't enjoy it quite so much when every stitch stitch is dictated by a pattern, I find it more enjoyable to stitch more freely. After a number of attempts at this card I just had to give up, it wasn't turning out how it thought it should and the time I was spending on it didn't justify the result. Perhaps I needed to read the instructions more carefully?

 

So I needed a plan B and I found this Pattern on the internet, which is intended to be stitched onto card rather than fabric. I liked the simplicity of the card and it was something I could achieve in the time I had.

 

 

The background fabric was left over from the cushions I made recently. I have been using a number of leftover or discarded pieces of fabric recently and I find that very satisfying. I always knew I right to keep all my 'rejects' and left overs!

 

I reduced the pattern to 80% of it's original size but this taught me a lesson. Instead of reducing the image to a size that pleases me, I will reduce it to a size that fits comfortably inside a readily available aperture card. Actually it's got to be easier not to use aperture cards at all, as I find it difficult to get the fabric taut inside the aperture. As I was stitching these cards an idea suddenly came to me for next year's cards - I just have to try to remember it! Mmm...

 

But this year's card making is probably not over yet as I hope to make some fun cards with my nephew when I see him in December. I've been collecting a few bits and pieces for these cards and I am really looking forward to it. I hope he's as enthusiastic as me because if not ,it'll blow my cover and I'll have to confess it was me that wanted to make them all along!

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I started this post yesterday and it seems that blogger and/or me had a wobble and so I apologise to anyone who saw an unfinished post. Now onto my Christmas cards....