My new friend

It's time for my mid month design team inspiration for STAMPlorations and before I show you my card I would like to introduce my new friend brought for me by Santa aka my Mum and Dad for Christmas.

Meet my Brother!

My old machine was bought for me for Christmas when I was 11 so it had a lot of use. I used it to make clothes when I was younger, my bridesmaids' dresses, fancy dress for Daisy and most recently for card making. The problem with it was the weight. I could barely lift it and it meant that I rarely got it out. My new Brother machine is perfect for me. Nothing fancy but perfectly usable for occasional sewing and for my cards and so much lighter...no more needing a crane to move it!

I decided to christen my new friend when I made this 2nd design team inspiration card for STAMPlorations. To join in with the challenge you can go with the theme or ditch the theme and go with the sketch.
This is the theme

and the awesome sketch.

You are also most welcome to combine them both. All the details are here.

I went with the sketch again and this is what I got up to.
I used the Christmas tree 1 stencil

a sentiment from the
fond expressions 2

and the fab birds from the
trendy birds 2 stamp set.

I used the stencil on its side so that it looked more like arrows (it's an awesome Christmas tree usually)

 Out came my "Brother" and I stitched between the stencilling to make the sketch background. I also stitched around the edges.

 I inked up some card and stitched around that edge too.

I then used my Trendy bird set to finish off my card.

 Here it is

 This has gone down to Dotty's tearooms in Carshalton where my cards are sold.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Simon says stamp Wednesday add a sentiment
Let's Craft and Create 1/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday birds of a feather
Fussy and fancy 3/3 distress it I have used distress oxides and also distressed the edges of the focal.
Fashionable stamping 2/3 anything goes
Noor UK anything goes
Crafty Catz 1/3 anything goes

All the details can be found via this link, it would be lovely to see you joining us!

Enjoy the weekend, we have a very exciting one ahead as it is my Hb's birthday tomorrow and all our big and small babies are coming over to celebrate on Sunday.
I also have scheduled a post for Sunday as it is time for my 2nd dose of inspiration for the January County View Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind comments you take the time to leave me.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Found....in the loft

I don't know about you but sometimes I find things that get put in the loft seem to "vanish". Our loft is not too cluttered and over the years my Hb and I have tended to get stuff out and throw it away or freecycle it rather than put more up there. When my Hb was putting away the Christmas decs this year he made a discovery......

Yes my very old sewing machine, bought for me when I was 12 and making clothes at school in my needlework lessons. In those days I made lots of my own clothes, skirts, trousers....it was a way of being ahead in the fashion league when I had little money.

I made my own bridesmaids dresses for our wedding, I made the moses basket covers for my daughter (nearly 30 years ago), curtains...and so it went on...until life got far too busy. We  thought that we got rid of the machine many years ago, it is ridiculously heavy. However it had been put out of sight in the loft and I have now decided to hang on to it while it is working.

Last week whilst having lunch with my DD and Daisy my daughter mentioned that it is World Book Day soon at Daisy's nursery and the children have been invited to dress up as a book character. Daisy immediately wanted to be the Witch from Room on the Broom (thank goodness she didn't choose Stick Man...LOL). We had a look in the shops for witch outfits but as it is months away from Halloween witch outfits are thin on the ground. The fancy dress ones for children were huge. My daughter then thought that she could buy some black fabric and cut some holes to thread in some ribbon to make a cape. As we chose the ribbon and material I remembered the sewing machine and offered to make the cape for Daisy. Now my daughter is a girl who is pretty challenged when it comes to needlework ;0) My darling girl buys stick in name tapes and iron on letters rather than sew anything. Handicrafts are not quite her thing, I think it has skipped a generation to my Daisy.

Saturday was such a dismal day I decided that I would see what I could put together. It was tricky as I  had to roughly guess the size.

I was delighted to find that the machine still worked and even the light switched on.
I found some very old but unused needles in the bottom and put a new one it.

Also there was my trusty needle threader..no longer used for speed but for the fact my eyes can't see the hole any more!
The light was awful so please excuse the poor photos.

I remembered my very first lessons at secondary school when we made a skirt...so I gathered up an edge with 2 rows of stitches.

I also made a collar which I stitched on. I laughed to myself as I could hear our old needlework teacher, Miss Thompson  preaching to us "Pin, tack then stitch girls". I could never be bothered with tacking and whenever I was out of school just stitched over the pins. There is a lovely sound when you whizz along using a machine, and like riding a bike and playing the piano you never forget how to do it!
I spent a few hours fiddling around and came up with this...the black makes it very hard to photograph...the ribbon ties at the stand up collar.

I need to see how it fits on Daisy and I hope to be able to attach the cloak clasp too

I really hope it fits and she can use it...fingers crossed. My daughter is going to cover a piece of dowel with tape and add a star for a wand and try to find a little witch's hat on Ebay.

My card today was inspired by the black of the cape...but with some flowers like my sweet Daisy. I used my Camellia stamp from Rubber dance again.

It's quite CAS for me and the background was made with my Visible image Bronte verse stamp

 I coloured the stamp with distress inks and added some punched butterflies and a die cut sentiment

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground  1/3  #216  I used a snippet of card for my butterflies and die cut

Noor UK  love
The Artistic stamper  love 
Deep Ocean  hearts

Stamping Sensations 3/3 anything goes

Country View make your own background

Creative Inspirations 3/3 hugs and kisses 

Crafting for all seasons  2/3 love is in the air
Penny Black and More 2/3 anything goes with a stamp and a die
Simon says stamp Wednesday One layer
Cute Card Thursday 1/3 sweet Valentine's
Ribbon Girl 1/3 any image card challenge
Where the HeArt is 1/3 love

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Saturday was a wash out but Sunday was sunny if very chilly.We managed a lovely long walk before our M&S Valentine dine in for 2 meal which was yummy.

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x