welcome to my first post of 2012.
My how time flies so quickly!
I have been absent due to illness and keeping busy.
This past week both my sons and I have been ill. Myself and my little one with a strange 'virus' i guess, that made us very weak and achy, glands swollen and headaches. And my eldest son has had Chicken Pox.
Which I've never had...so perhaps I get the 'illness' part of it without the spots, although today I had sprouted out a few pimply spots so, perhaps I've had it mildly, i don't know, but anyway, on with the post!!!
I have been a-making a few bits and pieces.
I'd discovered a new 'medium' i think its called!
Printing on to fabric, yes, madly running fabric through my inkjet printer!!
I never knew watching the printer slowly printy-printing away could be so exciting!!
So here's how I did it, I choose an image from The fabulous Graphics Fairy, normally, then before I hit 'print' of my desired size, I stick an A4 size sticker - I used an unbranded parcel label - to my fabric, I used just plain natural cotton, I cut the fabric to the exact size of the sticker and made sure there were no strands or threads or frays, then I loaded it into my printer as I would with normal paper and it turns out lovely!
So far I've not had any problems or mess ups, but then my printer is only a few years old and is a quite a reliable thing anyway.
When you realise what one can do the ideas seem endless!!
So far I've only made cushions and little scented hanging pillows, but I am so pleased with my little makings....
This cushion is the first one I made.
I've also been working with hessian or Burlap as some know it, and I kinda like the rustic-ness of it, but have learnt that a whole cushion for the sofa made out if it is not such a great idea as its 'itchy' according to my kids!! And hubby calls it the 'Sack' ..hmm think he's right!!
I love this one, its so cute! Its quite small, just a little decorative pillow for my step-daughter's bed, I trimmed it with pale blue velvet ribbon and a little ruffled trim I made.
This one I made as a gift for my sister, its got special meaning as she & her hubby met in Paris on a four day sight-seeing tour, where we also visited Versailles too, (i was with her too!) The image is of a vintage mapbook, I can't remember where i got it from, its not a Graphics Fairy one.
I made the cushion from a gorgeous soft pale sage linen mix fabric, a remnant i bought years ago, and added a crochet trim and a little twill ribbon with 'Remember When' typed on it.
I was really pleased that she liked it!
Then I made this one for my step-daughter, her dream destination is Rome and wants to go to the Colliseuam ,
so I found a vintage postcard image from The Graphics Fairy and printed that, i edged it with a beige crochet trim ribbon, and the left over remnant fabric of the previous cushion, and its all on plain natural cotton.
i then made some little scented draw pillows and hangers, and gave them all away as gifts to friends!
I added the mug so you can get the scale of them, they are quite diddy!
I added a few drops of mandarin essential oil to the stuffing!
all these images are available from the Graphics Fairy
I have also made a fabric cover for my organiser/diary but it went rather wrong.
I really have to learn to stop doing thing 'by eye' and not taking the time and effort to measure things exactly.
i would save myself so much frustration and disappointment!
it took over 5 hours to make this abomination!!
I made a little label with a vintage image on a postcard, I made the mistake of adding a bit of wadding to make it padded, its a mistake because the whole thing has thick wadding in it so its a bit cumbersome to handle! I ran out of cream trim, so blagged it with royal blue velvet ribbon trim and tiny buttons.
So first off when I made it, I finished it and was so pleased until I tried to put it on my book and discovered it was too small, I was so disappointed as I was so sure I had done it right!!
I was also annoyed I'd fabric glued the label slightly wonky also.
So, I stared at it for a good few minutes, had a cuppa, moaned to hubby, and we both sat and stared at it, and we both seemed to have the idea to 'just cut it and add another bit' at the same time!!
So I did, I used Hessian to make a binding. And added velvet ribbon trim and a favourite vintage image of mine.
but then it turned out too big...arggghhh!
So I've decided to just leave it, as I need it to serve as a reminder that I should do things properly!!
It doesn't look too bad from the front when its closed!!
In my never ending bid to get myself organised into a good housekeeping routine, I went over to Flylady, and copied and pasted and tweaked her lists to my own life, and digitally pasted them to some GORGEOUS digi-papers designed by my best friend, Bonnie
Then I printed them out and stuck them in my book and covered them with adhesive clear 'stuff' I can't remember what is proper name is, but it gives that laminated look!
here you can also see the bookmarks I made with vintage images printed on fabric.
But I've yet to have a week where I don't have something to put a spanner in my works, like ill kiddies, ill me, etc to actually follow my lists!!
And Also i think the fact I expect myself to just 'get' straight into the routine, rather than Flylady's suggested 'babysteps' hasn't helped!! but I don't consider my self and home to be in such a dreadful state that I need a complete overhaul and de-clutter! I just need to get going and start in the right order!
So.
There we have it.
I do have some other bits to share but I will ave that for my next post, as this one is long enough already!!
p.s I am linking this to the Graphic Fairy's Brag Monday , why not go and check out what other crafty people have done with those lovely vintage images
