Altered Canvas Calendar

Over my next few posts I think I will be catching up on 2015 as we enter into 2016.

Back in October I flew to Brisbane and spent a long weekend with the lovely ladies from the Craftmad online forum.  This is the second time I have had the chance to catch up and the fourth get-together weekend for the Craftmad group.  A lovely bunch of ladies and getting together was as easy as feeling like we had had coffee a week ago.  

We all tend to give each other a gift and Kaye the host gave us all a Canvas Calendar kit.  I rediscovered mine, waiting to be done on my desk on Christmas eve morning.  Thinking this was the perfect extra gift I had been looking for for my Mum.  Even better was the fact that both Mum's and my birthdays are in March so although Kaye had catered the kit for me with a March background I was able to make it for Mum. :-)  Mum's favourite colour is green and she loves butterflies and dragonflies…….so it was meant to be.

I really enjoyed putting all the parts of the kit together.  Kaye had been thoughtful enough to stamp up the shirt, skirt and boots on pattern paper so we could paper piece the image.  I have coloured her with my copics and gave her grey hair (like me) and is totally on trend. :-)

This is the link to Kaye's original canvas.

http://craftykayesroom.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/altered-canvas.html

We had a wonderful Christmas day with our son and his girlfriend.  His girlfriend was madly sewing up napkins on Christmas eve….I must admit I was happy to see someone her age crafting ready for Christmas. :-)  This is a photo of the beautiful meal they provided for us and how amazing the table looks simply with a few candles, napkins, bonbons and yummy food.

Have a great day.

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas from me to you.  

These were decorations we saw up in Port Douglas last year.

Our Christmas tree this year which I decorated by myself …… first time in forever as no kids home.  Scruff supervised.  All the ornaments were given to us as gifts over the years.

This is what we will all be like just after lunch. :-)

A couple of my Christmas creations that I did make back in October for our annual Craftmad get together.  The tags I used my finger prints and a couple of lines to create the images.  The tree, there is a fake tea light inside so glows and looks pretty at night.  I have more items to show you but since upgrading our computer, the computer no longer recognises my SD card so trying to find a way around this….after Christmas though.

Me, getting in the Christmas mood.

I wish you a wonderful day however you get to spend the day.  

My next quilting journey….

I have dug out all my craftmad swap blocks today and put them roughly, very roughly into quilt fronts. The first quilt will be our new one for the lounge once Christmas has past…..so I had better get started on that. The remainder are on offer to our daughter and son or spares for us. I removed the reds and oranges from the rainbow quilt and made a seperate quilt top because for some reason I had four reds that I had made myself so used them on each corner. Plus I think this sized quilt top are as big as I want to do on the sewing machine.

My Christmas Quilt

Thank you, lovely people for dropping by and leaving such kind comments….I have missed you all and just wish my day would stretch a couple more hours.  Next year may be different, as changes are afoot.  Looking at spending all my time at the school (admin) in future and letting another lady discover the joys of bookbinding.  This won't happen until February at the earliest.

Today, I would like to share a quilt that I finally completed.  Over at Craftmad during 2014 (Jan-Dec) a couple of us swapped traditional christmas coloured quilt blocks.  Beginning of November this year I bit the bullet and decided that the quilt had to made for this Christmas.  We use a quilt on the lounge to as a protector for when people are laying on there.  I had that many blocks that I decided to have a blocks on the front and the back.  Never again as the back doesn't quite line up……although it did when I pinned it and started quilting.  All finished first week December.

Each month I would make two quilt blocks, one for me to keep and know what I had done and the other was sent to my partner.  The photo above shows all the quilt blocks that I sent out over the year.

This side of the quilt are all the blocks I received throughout the year.

This photo is for Loz. :-)  I did have it in my post yesterday but deleted it at the last moment.  After Loz's request, I thought why not share my cringeworthy dress.   This is a before alterations and it is 2 sizes to big for me.

This is pinned for alterations…..I didn't get a photo of the finished product.  The section that I removed I sewed and turned into a bow and attached it to the right hip of the dress.  I also made and added shoulder pads as I thought the shoulders needed more of a lift.

Take care.  I am off to check out some of your blogs now. 

Surprise…..a rare post with flowers from the garden.

Hi everyone, it sure has been a long time between posts.  I have been to visit a couple of blogs but not as many as I would like.  So hopefully, with my month of holidays, I will find the time now to catch up on all that you have been doing.

In my time away from bogland I have done a little crafting here and there, gardening and visiting family.  Most of the time was filled with work and looking after the house and 'just plain old resting'.

Last week was very busy but very productive.  I made and finished some christmas cards for my work friends and made some small gifts.  Altered a cringe worthy dress so that I could wear it to a 40th birthday party with a 80's prom theme.  Pink polyester with a drop waist and puffy leg of mutton sleeves.  I had to cut a section from the dress so I turned that fabric into a bow to attach to the hip and made some shoulder pads so that my sleeves really stood up.  Organised ten small gifts ready for a Left and Right Christmas gift exchange game at our Museum volunteers Christmas lunch yesterday.  First time a lot of us have played this and it went down well.

Now I want to share some flowers that are out in the garden at the moment.  The Mock Orange I received in a small pot from a special friend and this is the first time it has flowered.  The smell is just amazing.  They say it flowers when it's going to rain and we had a downpour yesterday which is just what the dry gardens and lawn needed.  Humid today but plants look happier.  Blogger is not letting me add captions to the photos.  I don't know the names of other plants other than the Fire Balls which all came out in the last two days.

SIL Birthday Card

To create this double slider card I used the terrific tutorial from over at Beccy's Place.  Another card that at first looks very complicated but in the end it is fun and magical to create. I have used the beautiful Kaiser Craft papers I was given at Christmas time to create this card for my SIL's birthday.

Also used the matching Kaiser Craft butterfly stamps. The cream lacy sticker I have had in my stash a little while.  So you pull the ribbon at the top and a card comes out top and bottom. Magic!

April Craftmad Card Swap - Trifold card

I spied a card like this in my google search so had to case it. I thought the butterflies along the top edge was so pretty. I dug out any die cut butterflies I had. Great way to use up punched shapes.  The above card was for my swap partner. 

I made the trifold card for my swap and as you cut it from a piece of 12 x 12 card stock there is enough remaining to make a second card. So I made this for a friends birthday. I used metallic butterflies from Blue Edge Crafts and other punched out butterflies I have gathered in my stash.

Craftmad April Card Swap - Tri-fold card

I didn't realise I had so much catching up to do. April in August amazing!!!!!   I tried to make a male card for a change. Used Stampin Up papers and a variety of dies. Also a sticker from my stash for this Tri-Fold Card.  You should see the other members amazing creations here. 

OPEN

CLOSED.

Nephew's 17th Birthday

I made this card using a wonderful Elizabeth Crafts Accordion Star Card Cutting Dies from Blue Edge Crafts. The die cuts out the entire card front and the star embellishments. A lot of fun to put together. I have used blue foil and silver glitter paper for the paper as 17 is a special age but tried to make it look rough around the edges so it was a bit cooler for a 17yo. :-)

Sewing Machine Gift Box

It took me almost a year but I finally made this wonderful sewing machine kit up that the amazing Kaye sent me last year in October.  I was waiting for just the perfect person to give it to and that time arrived in April.  I made this sewing machine up and gave it to Betty who volunteers at the local museum and celebrated another birthday in her 80's.  Betty loves to do draw, garden and sew.

Kaye, supplied me with everything for this wonderful creation, I just had to add tape, glue and handcut some of the tags and assemble.  Such fun. 

Sympathy Cards

Beginning of May was a sad time.  In a matter of a fortnight I attended two funerals.  One a young person who decided not to be with us anymore.  So tragic for the family. 

The second was for an incredible lady who passed away due to cancer just a week and a bit shy of her 46th birthday.  She fought hard and achieved a lot in her lifetime including two beautiful sons and left a devoted husband.

To create both of these cards I used one of my new embossing folders from Blue Edge Crafts - Darice Dandelion embossing folder.  The sentiment stamp is from my JustRite stamp set.

Craftmad Quilt Block Swap - May

The last of my three blocks for which I have used the block tutorial called "U Pick" for the Craftmad Quilt Block swaps.   This block was for Mrs A who asked for shades of pink, burgundy and cream. (background colour to be any one of those.)  Just love how each of the blocks (April, May and June) have turned out so different.  

Whitsunday Day 7 - 8

Day 7 - we left Tongue bay and motored down to Whitehaven Bay.  Took the dingy over to the beach for a walk……..

.....yes, perfect weather and scenery to celebrate our anniversary.

Me, going for a stroll.

Day 7 - after our walk along the beach we went back to our boat and then motored over to Chalkies Beach and had lunch.  Most of our trip we were travelling over a depth of 40 metres of water just before getting to Chalkies there is a huge hole as it went to just over 100 metres deep then very quickly it was less than 20 metres.  Our entire trip I was in awe of the early settlers who navigated their ways through the same waters without all the fantastic gadgets we had.

Day 7 - after lunch we headed back up to Betty's beach and Hill Inlet Lookout the top end of Whitehaven Bay……low tide this time.

Day 7 - that is our boat to the right by its lonesome.

Day 7 - then we headed back up to Whitehaven bay and anchored for the night and watched the sunset.  What a way to finish our trip…..look how flat the water was.  Amazing.

Day 7 - Sunset

Day 7 - Sunset…….champagne and Neil Diamond playing.

Day 8 - Sunrise the last morning of our holiday.  Water still as flat as a tack.

Day 8 and we are heading back in to Shute Harbour, past Lindeman Island.

Day 8 and past Hamilton Island. 

Thanks for visiting and leaving such lovely comments back to crafting posts for a little while now. 

If you missed my other posts on our Whitsunday holiday you can find them here.

Phone photos

Day 1 - 4 

Day 5 - 6