Crochet Art - Marcel Wanders Design

Oh how I drooled over this the other day

image taken from: http://www.bonluxat.com/

I want a little side table like that one now....and the mind starts racing, plotting, wondering.

I am also loving this beauty

image taken from: http://blog.worldinteriordesignnetwork.com

but I think that one is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out my league for a possible attempt to try and copy it for the home :)

By the way the designer of this crochet awesomeness is Marcel Wanders and I could get lost on his website. That dude's work is totally up my alley

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Righty-o

Ok, I admit that I have been extremely lax about posting on my dear old bloggy, but as I said previously HERE in 2012 I focus on getting the priorities in life back on track.

Whilst I am not doing so good with the healthy living due to some unforeseen issues involving possible surgery during the year, on the "I am cutting down on internet time" is going swimmingly.

I have to admit that the latter is thank to the most wonderful and most understanding manufacturers ever, who agreed to release me from my contract early.

A mega THANK YOU goes out to Donna Salazar Designs and Gel-a-Tins stamps.

I tried so hard to continue with my projects until April but I have not been able to create anything since December (yup, the stuff you have been seeing on my blog for the past months is old :))) )

There is no passion left whatsoever for my old obsession and I just know the time is right to stop it altogether now. 

To be honest, it has been so rewarding not working to deadlines not having to venture into my craftroom every spare hour I had. Nowadays, Mr P and I do so much more together and I am so much more relaxed and happy.

So, I still crochet and knit and I will still share some posts here on my blog, but other than that my online time is done, and I am loving it :)

FOCUS 2012 is a go-go and I know only good will come off it.

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Donna Salazar - February DT - Pt I

Good morning all, this is Kim S. to post for Donna Salazar Designs showcasing a card made with Donna's awesome stamps, produced by Art Gone Wild

First I prepared the background by spritzing a piece of manilla paper from the new Mixed Media Stax pad with Smooch in Cashmere and Holly Berries.
Once it dried I randomly stamped the branch motif in two different colours along one corner and finished it off by embossing two branch motifs in white.

Previously I stamped the Queen Bee motif twice onto a scrap piece of the manilla paper with Mixed Media Inx, hand cut the images and added some glitter to their wings.

With the aid of adhesive foam squares, I raised the bees from the background and added the sentiment using Donna's Alphas and Jenni Bowlin stickers.

Products used

• Papers: Donna Salazar for GCD Studios - Mixed Media Paper Stax, 
• Mists: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap - Smooch Spritz in Cashmere, Holly Berries
• Inks: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap - Mixed Media Inx in Honey, Truffle
• Glitter: Donna Salazar for Clearsnap - Fairy Dust Glitter in Sugar Shimmer and Mixed Berries
• Embossing Powder: Clearsnap Inc
• Cardstock: unknown
• Dies: Donna Salazar for Spellbinders - Donna's Alphas
• Stamps: Art Gone Wild - Queen Bee, Branch

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Gel-a-Tins February DT - Pt II

Sweet Girl- Card

Hello everyone, today I have another CAS card for you and to go with the baby card for a boy from last week, here is one for a sweet baby girl

Making use of the PEACE ON EARTH stamp set I started by stamping a set a baby feet onto the cardbase.

A handcut sentiment was added on top of the feet with some pop dots for dimension and a few pearls added.

As just the stamp and sentiment looked so lost on the card, I added a layered butterfly die to create a balance.

Supplies used:

Cardstock - Papermill

Sentiment - Bella Blvd

Ink - Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx for Clearsnap

Butterfly Die - Donna Salazar for Spellbinders

Pearls - unknown

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Gel-a-Tins - February DT Pt I

Lately I have been in the mood for very Clean and Simple (CAS) cards, so for February I am going to continue with this technique. Odd thing is that sometimes I find a simplistic card can take you so much longer to finish than a layered embellished card.

Have a guess how long it took me to complete the following card?

Did you guess two hours? Yup, that's right it took me a whoopin' two hours to complete this card, crazy!

Making use of the PEACE ON EARTH stamp set I wanted to create a card to welcome a baby boy into this world.

First I hand cut a tag from plain cardstock and stamped a pair of feet on the bottom

I then added a sentiment, which comes from the FANCY DOILY set, fussy cut around the outline and adhered it to the cloud for dimension.

And there it was - a simple card which took forever to complete :)

But the outcome was so worth it, don't you think?

Supplies used:

Cardstock - Papermill

Paper - Donna Salazar for GCD Studios

Ink - Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx for Clearsnap

Pearl, Chipboard Cloud - unknown

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Gel-a-Tins DT - January Pt IV

Below post went live on the Gel-a-tins blog earlier:

At the end of January what else could we have on our minds but Love, Love Love? What with Valentine's Day being just around the corner, hearts will be plentiful in the coming weeks. But can you really make use of the CRACKLE PAINT stamps for a lovey-dovey card?

Judge for yourself:

Instructions:

Spray a piece of chipboard with some Smooch Spritz for a glitz look and stamp right onto the now coloured chipboard once the mist has dried. Sprinkle some embossing powder on top and set with a heat gun.

Now ink a chipboard button with some Mixed Media Inx in Chiffon and once dried attach this to the heart with an organza ribbon.

Add a sentiment, which comes from the FANCY DOILY set and stamp with the same colour as used for the embossing and colouring of the chipboard button.

There you go, a simplistic, love-infused card

Supplies used:

Cardstock - Bazzill

Mists - Donna Salazar Smooch Spritz for Clearsnap

Ink - Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx for Clearsnap

Embossing Powder - Donna Salazar for Clearsnap

Pearls, Ribbon - unknown

Chipboard - Crate

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Gel-a-Tins DT - January Pt III

Below post has gone live earlier on the gel-a-tins blog.

Hello everyone, this is Kim with you again sharing another layout which makes use of the wonderful CRACKLE PAINT stamp.

Instructions:

This time I wanted to achieve a kind of brick look and first stamped onto a kraft tag with Mixed Media Ink - a slow drying ink from Donna Salazar Designs, which actually stays wet long enough so you can add embossing powder!

After I set the embossing powder with a heat gun, I sprayed over the whole tag repeatedly with Smooch Spritz in red berries. Once this tried, I took a baby wipe and wiped over the surface of the tag. The embossed areas will repel the ink and the stamped image will be a crispy white, therefore giving the look of old brickwork.

Supplies used:

Cardstock - Donna Salazar Artistic Papers for GCD Studios

Mists - Donna Salazar Smooch Spritz for Clearsnap

Ink - Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx for Clearsnap

Journaling Spots - Sassafras Lass, Elle's Studio

Stickers - American Crafts, Dymo

Pearls - Want2Scrap

Other - Embroidery Floss, Blossoms

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Crochet Ole - The CAL Pt I

I am pretty excited that I have joined a year long CAL (crochet-a-long) on Ravelry.

Now it may sound quite overwhelming to commit to a project for a whopping 52 weeks but I actually LOVE this one as we only crochet one 12" square per month. At the end of the year each participant will have enough for a nice blanket, without any stress involved.

What I love most about this is that fact that I am getting rid use of all the left over yarns I cannot seem to find a purpose for. That also means that the finished Afghan will most likely to be kinda quirky as the colours range from muted to bright.

For January we have been using the Woolly's Snowflake pattern for our square and I enjoyed it so much that I made two squares. I decided that to get a decent sized Afghan, I will need more than 12 big squares - so each month will have me complete two of the same. BUT to make it more interesting I will change the colours in each square. Difficult to describe so let me show you what I mean.

Square 1:

And now the same colours only the opposite way.

Square 2:

Isn't it kind of amazing that the same colours used in a different order make the end product look so different?

Now I cannot wait to see what our February square will be.

http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/2012/01/work-in-progress-wednesday-76.html

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Gel-a-Tins DT - January DT Pt II

Below post has gone live earlier on the gel-a-tins blog

Today I would like to share a quick card with you, making use again of my current favourite stamp -  CRACKLE PAINT

Instructions:

Stamp twice directly onto the card base. After I stamped the left hand side first, I rotated the stamp by 180 degrees to ensure that the end of the crackle lines match up as best possible. I LOVE the effect this stamps gives to any background

Cut a strip of patterned paper the length of the card and a width of about 2" and run a border punch along the top and bottom edge. Adhere this to the background.

Add a sentiment, such as this one which comes from the FANCY DOILY set and adhere to the paper strip.

I also love to experiment with embossing powders and I after I sprayed two flowers with some mists, I sprinkled some random embossing powder onto the leaves.

And here is the complete card again

Supplies used:

Cardstock - Bazzill

Papers - My Minds Eye

Mists - Donna Salazar Smooch Spritz for Clearsnap

Ink - Donna Salazar Mixed Media Inx for Clearsnap

Embossing Powder - Donna Salazar for Clearsnap

Pearls - Want2Scrap

Border Punch - Martha Steward

Flowers - unknown

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Donna Salazar DT - January Pt I

Below post went live earlier on the Donna Salazar Blog.

Did you know that you can create a minibook from scratch with your favourite Donna Salazar papers and Spellbinder dies? Yup – all you need is paper, dies and embellishments.

You can also die-cut your paper in such a way that you can “bind” your minibook by sewing or stapling the spine.

First you will need to decide on the size of your minibook, I opted for a 6x6” book and first cut a sheet of  the Antiquities Theatre paper in half

Now you want to fold the sheet over like this

If you wish for you paper to remain in one piece, you will have to place it onto your chosen die ensuring that the fold does not cover the cutting edge.

If you are worried that the paper may slide a little during the cutting process, you may want to keep it in place by adding a little masking tape over paper and die.

For my book, I decided on three double pages, which I cut using the Creative Book Pages, Creative Book Pages 2 and Grand Labels One dies for which I cut a sheet of Spring in Bloom - Pretty in Purple to an initial 6 x 6 size.

I cut various shapes from a selection of Spellbinders dies and arranged them in a layered fashion on the individual pages.

Additionally I also used the Wonderful Wings dies as stencils placing them onto one of my double pages and spraying over them with various coloured mists, outlining the white spaces when I removed the dies. You can create your won patterned papers like this!

Now you want to “bind” your book and you can either do this by piercing a few holes in the spine of your collected folds and thread some twine or floss through it, or you can use a stapler, as I did:

I started my book by finishing off the cover first – adding the title cut with Donna’s Alpha out of corrugated board and heat embossed. The final touch is the gorgeous butterfly using the Wonderful Wings die and adding a little sparkle with pearls and rhinestones.

I leave you with pictures of the individual pages and hope that you enjoyed today's step by step

 Products used:

Spellbinders: 

Donna Salazar's Creative Book Pages, Donna Salazar's Creative Book Pages 2, Donna’s Alphas, Donna Salazar's Wonderful Wings, Creative Page Tabs, Grand Labels One, Classic Scalloped Circles Lg, 

GCD Studios:

Donna Salazar's Spring in Bloom - Spring Sky, In Bloom,
Donna Salazar's Antiquities - Harmony, Let's Ride, Theatre, Time for Tea
Donna Salazar's Crafty Chronicle
Want 2 Scrap:
Baby Pearls in white, Bling Strips in white/silver
Clearsnap Inc:
Donna Salazar's Smooch Spritz in Tea Party, Wood Stain, Green Olive
Top Boss Embossing Powder in White
Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan

Zutter:
Corrugated Cardboard


Other Supplies: Jenni Bowlin Alpha Stickers, Bella Blvd phrase papers

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