Softie swap continues

Today I received my softie swap! It’s not that I was surprised that my partner is Tzik as my daughter pulled names out of a bowl to make partners and I arranged the swap, but I didn’t have a clue what she was going to make and boy did she surprise me.
It arrived by special delivery, she came over with the kids, a jar of freshly baked home made health cookies and this:

Accompanied by this fabulous card, it’s not stamped, it’s drawn by hand, well copied from somewhere but as she says one has to know how to copy properly, which is true, this one is perfectly done and embellished.

Inside the box I found not one but a pair of softies!

This gorgeous creature, my kids call Harry, all dressed up with a tie and all.

And his companion my kids call Hermione, all fancy with her pearl necklace

We decided they were going to be door keepers, Harry is watching our front door while Hermione will watch each bedroom door for a week. The kids originally suggested that I sew a few more for each bedroom door but very quickly I told them this wasn’t going to happen, so Hermione is going to travel from door to door.

On top of all this, I also received this gorgeous Amy Butler fabric which I already have plans for.

This is what I call a good day! What a way to spend one's Saturday morning and this is the cutest softie of them all, her 11 months old son and his 6 teeth.

Softie swap

I led a softie swap in one of the forums I take part in, I don't really have any real experience with making them but I thought I have enough sewing experience to try. I wanted to make an original and unique one, I didn't want to use a pattern from a book or from the Internet so I started out sketching what I wanted my finished softie to look like and it came out quite masculine looking.
I knew I wanted to use fleece for the body as I love it, it's soft and warm and compliments a softie don't you think?
The face elements are made from felt and sewn by hand, when I was finished embroidering it I noticed that my softie has a girly expression…

At that stage I accepted the fact that my HE was going to be a SHE, so I decided to dress her in overalls instead of the shirt and tie I planned at the beginning. My life story by the way, I always end up with something different then the original plan and I always find myself improvising.
Last time I made trousers I was pregnant with my eldest and that was almost 16 years ago, so I searched the Internet for patterns and changed the proportions to fit my softie; they are made from a cotton fabric with suspenders connected with buttons on both sides and as she’s a happy sort of softie she’s holding a pink felt heart.

She is 40cm' (15.5 inch) long from head to toe. Speaking of toes, she has pink "shoes".

I was so happy to send her to Hagit, a very talented woman who's art I appreciate, her work can be seen on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hagit/
I usually have no problem sending off what I make for swaps but my daughter had quite a problem parting from this one so I'm going to have to make at least one more which isn't going to be a problem as I really enjoyed this project.
Here she is:

Hagit I'm so glad you like her, hope she makes you happy and you live happily ever after (-:

Wedding greeting card

Vinny got married on Friday! In a special place by the pool surrounded by grass and trees, a beautiful bride dressed in an exquisite dress, wearing red lacquer sandals, holding a unique bouquet. The music was great, lunch was fabulous, the barman was cute and very helpful, surrounded by great friends and a lot of love.
A wedding calls for a wedding card!
The base of the card is a 21.5X14 cm’ (8.5X5.5 inch) double sided cardstock in black and white flower pattern, the one side has a black background with white flowers and the other side is opposite. The center flower is made from ribbons connected in the middle by a button and the stem is sewn with a sewing machine.

The second layer is glued with little foam squres to give it dimension. I sewed around the card using black thread on top and white thread in the bottom spool so that the black thread will show on the white background of the cardstock and the white thread will show on the black background on the other side.

The back of the card has a little envelope in which I put their wedding present.

Vinny dear, I wish you and your husband all the best!!!!!

I love IKEA continues...

Last week I used IKEA pencils for my greeting cards, this week their measuring tapes, I hope that there are no IKEA employees reading this blog… I’m not much of a collector but I’ve had these for ages and I hardly ever use them.
I inked the measuring tape with Stazon ink as they have a waxy texture and every other ink would smear, I used Basic Grey ‘Infuse’ line paper for the background and sewed the margins of the card as well as the flower stems with a sewing machine.

The top part of the card is glued with foam squares to give it some volume.

I also made a sweet bunny card to go with the pink baby booties from my previous post; the template is from "Paper Creations magazine", spring edition, that I purchased a while ago, I love this magazine. Here’s a scan of the magazine page

This is my interpretation

I also added a tail in the back

There is also a wedding card but I can't show you that one, I will next week right after the wedding!

Baby booties

Who said baby booties are only for winter? It’s freezing inside air-conditioned places during summer isn’t it? These are made from 100% organic cotton fiber, using crochet knitting needle number 2.5.

I once wrote a tutorial for knitting them, it’s still available on YNET craft forum only in Hebrew, I can translate it to English, just email me if you’re interested.

Here they are all wrapped up in a little box, it's 8.5 X 11.5cm big that's about 3.5 X 4.5 inch.

I received the tin box with a disk on key as a promotion, this is what it looked like before I embellished it with Basic Grey paper, ribbons and a congratulations rub-on.

I thought the little tin containers were so cool that I collected a few when these disks on keys were distributed, most of the people that received them were ready to throw the tin away, and wouldn’t that be a waste?

I love FUCHSIA

I put my eyes on Basic Grey’s new paper collection a while ago, it was February, the middle of winter, right before the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) convention and I saw the ‘Sultry’ line, such vibrant, fresh, summer looking colors, my favorite greens, pinks, browns, and fuchsia, my absolutely favorite color, I always feel it’s such a happy shade of pink isn’t it? There it was in the middle of winter....
So the first day of my Spring vacation I took out the Sultry pad and created these 2 new friendship greeting cards. The pencils are the ones from IKEA that I dyed with some pigment ink, I love these little pencils and measuring tape they have so I help myself to some every time I visit.
I was so overwhelmed by fuchsia that I went out and bought myself a fuchsia shirt, something that I wouldn’t normally wear as it’s so noticeable but I just couldn’t help it…

Vinny's birthday

Vinny's birthday was celebrated yesterday, it's a special birthday as in less then 3 weeks she is also getting married!
I had so many things to write and wish her for both events so I ended up making 2 cards and 2 presents.
I made her a scarf suitable for spring and autumn as it's made of cotton fabrics. I always find it to hot to use a wool scarf in these seasons but still feel the chilly air in the morning round my neck so I thought it's a perfect solution. I made a similar one in winter using cotton and fleece, both inspired by Aliner’s one .

And here it is wrapped up

And the card that went with it

And the second card

And the scrappy cubes I made for her using the couple's photographs, sorry it's all blurred but I'm not sure they want their faces on the Internet.
The cubes are made from solid wood and are 9X9cm', I purchased them at a Netanella's scrap party that was so much fun!

I now have 10 new cubes to embellish, 3 for my desk at work and 3 for each grandmother, the last one is for a test project.
If you create such a project note that gel glues are not recommended, as the wood absorbs all the moisture in them and the paper tends to separate from the cube, rather use double sided tacky tape, mod Podge or rubber adhesive.

Vinny IS GETTING MARRIED and she has a birthday and she's looking so radiant and happy and in love! I'm so excited for her...