MerryMade Crafts etc ...

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. ...

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.  

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.

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...

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 an...

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!

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.