Colours of Autumn

 Wow I can't believe it is now September, where did the summer go?

We had many plans for the Summer, but it all seems to have chaotically passed us by. Now we are counting down to my daughter moving to University. My craft space is full of her stuff and I don't know if I am coming or going.

Anyway on to the September colour challenge. It is my choice this month. The choices were made in December 2024 so that we can be organised. So of course I was rushing last minute as ever! I had thought about it well in advance and thought I had a plan, but it didn't work when I tried it, so I had to think up a plan B, then a plan C! So much for trying to be organised.

This is the image I gave everyone to take inspiration from.

The first issue was actually finding enough shades of orange. I have drawers and drawers of card, but never seem to have what I need for a project and for some reason there is not a lot of orange card around. There will probably be more now we are going into Autumn and people are making things for Autumn and Halloween. Orange is my favourite colour and it does work well for craft things.

The next issue was that I thought it would work better to display array of colours if I made a framed item rather than a card which is restricted by size.

This is what I came up with

    

The top photo is in the frame and bottom one out of frame as it photographs better.

The background is made up of 1 inch wide strips of card, overlapping to form a triangle, then the four triangles are spliced together.  It took a little bit of working out how to manage the areas where the edges meet and then the centre.  It is a bit like some of the techniques I have used in quilting.  The letters are cut in black on my Gemini die cutter.

I am currently having issues with my website and blog so have reverted to Blogger until I can get sorted.

 

Music Maker

POSTED ON 26TH MAY 2024 BY JANESHAW

The Sunday song and rhyme challenge for May 26th is based on a rhyme called Music Makers, from his book A Children’s Treasury of Milligan.

Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was well know for his crazy comedy and nonsense rhymes. Ironically he also suffered from severe depression.

For this rhyme I decided I would focus on one of the instruments mentioned and settled on guitar as I had a stitched card pattern that I could use, so went with the line my Brother plays guitar.

The pattern used is from Stitching cards, a beaded pattern, which I love making. The beads are tiny and get dropped all over, I’ll be finding them for weeks. The background paper is printed from my library of papers. The wording is drawn on the Cricut Joy Extra using LD Music font.

I do like to be beside the seaside

 The Tuesday Colour challenge for June is based on this image

The image reminded me of these beach huts at Scarborough in North Yorkshire

Straight away I knew I had some stitching thread with those colours combined. I have a stitched pattern I have used before and considered using, it has a palm tree and a deckchair and I thought I could do the deckchair in the stripes, but then I saw a beach hut pattern at Form-a-lines stitched in the colours, perfect for this challenge.

I stitched the image with Trimits Jester metallic embroidery thread, the mounted on pink card (my last sheet), with yellow and blue backing. I couldn’t decide whether to add wording, like life’s a beach or I do like to be beside the seaside, but decided to leave it blank as wording would be easy to add if required.

Looking forward to the next challenge, it’s an interesting one.

Where the Fairies are

 The Sunday song and rhyme challenge for June 9th is based on the rhyme Where are the Fairies,

Written in the early 20th century by Cicely Mary Barker, who was unable to attend school due to epilepsy. She wrote the rhymes and did the illustrations. Fairies were popular at this time, due to Queen Mary having a known interest in Fairy art.

I chose the final lines “Where there are flowers, There fairies are”. Using and image drown with my Cricut Joy Extra. Mounted on floral green backing paper and then mounted on square card.

This and other similar designs are available to buy from me.

Winner Takes it All

 The song I have chosen for Sunday Song and Rhyme challenge for 12 to 25th May is Winner Takes It All by Abba. The song was released in 1980.

I don’t wanna talk
About things we’ve gone through
Though it’s hurting me
Now it’s history

I’ve played all my cards
And that’s what you’ve done too
Nothing more to say
No more ace to play

The winner takes it all
The loser’s standing small
Beside the victory
That’s her destiny

I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense
Building me a fence

Building me a home
Thinking I’d be strong there
But I was a fool
Playing by the rules

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear

The winner takes it all (takes it all)
The loser has to fall (has to fall)
It’s simple and it’s plain (it’s so plain)
Why should I complain? (Why complain?)

But tell me, does she kiss
Like I used to kiss you?
Does it feel the same
When she calls your name?

Somewhere deep inside
You must know I miss you
But what can I say?
Rules must be obeyed

The judges will decide (will decide)
The likes of me abide (me abide)
Spectators of the show (of the show)
Always staying low (staying low)

The game is on again (on again)
A lover or a friend (or a friend)
A big thing or a small (big or small)
The winner takes it all (takes it all)

I don’t wanna talk
If it makes you feel sad
And I understand
You’ve come to shake my hand

I apologize
If it makes you feel bad
Seeing me so tense
No self-confidence
But you see

The winner takes it all
The winner takes it all

So the winner takes it all
And the loser has to fall
Throw the dice, cold as ice
Way down here, someone dear
Takes it all, has to fall
And it’s plain, why complain?

It is one of my favourite Abba songs, but also one of the saddest. It is thought that the song was based on the real-life breakup between ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog.

I have written about the song before in a blog about Chronic illness and relating the words to losing your health and lifestyle rather than a love one, see www.craftyjanes.co.uk/2017/07/26/winner-takes-it-all/.

It isn’t easy to represent a song in a card, but I chose to be inspired by the references to gambling and game play. In particular the lines “I’ve played all my cards,” “No more ace to play,” “The gods may throw a dice” and “The game is on again.”

I used an image of playing cards, dice and gambling chips from Cricut, drawn and cut on my Cricut Joy Extra, layered with gold card (gold winner) and backing paper designed by Dot Creative Clipart.

It will be interesting to see how other interpret this song, I had other ideas, but am pleased with how this one has turned out.

Just as I have finished the blog Winner Takes it All played on the radio!!

Seeing stripes

 The challenge for Outlawz May Tuesday Colour is black and white and one other colour and add stripes.

Well what says black and white with stripes more than a zebra? Maybe not very imaginative?

I created my card with the zebra pattern from Stitching Cards Wild Animal pack, I have had the patterns for a while and not used the zebra before. I love the cheeky image and it reminds me of donkey from the Shrek movie. It could easily be made without the stripes and be a donkey.

The background is Adorable Scorable creatures great and small, an unusual collection of animals and I have been waiting for an opportunity to use some of them. The yellow gives me the extra colour required for the challenge.

It has been a fun card to make and I haven't made a stitched card for a while.

Bunny Hops

 The latest Sunday Song and Rhyme challenge is based on the poem All the world's alive again by Jennifer Gunner

It is a pretty spring poem and I chose to focus on two of the lines; A rabbit hops it gentle step and White blossoms are in bloom.

Using a Sweet Dixie rabbit die with white flowers mounted on green vellum and then on a printed background of white blossom designed by Old Market. The wording Hoppy Birthday was created with my Cricut Joy using a Cricut font called blossom. Finally finished with googly eyes and a pompom tail.

This challenge runs form 28th April until 11th May. Spring runs from 20th March to 20th June, though those of us in the UK have no seen much evidence of it yet!