Knitted Cat Bookmark and Felt Owl Egg Cosy

Hi blogging friends

A special welcome to my new Followers!  Thank you for following my blog!

As promised on my last post, I am sharing my knitted cat bookmark and felt owl egg cosy which I made for my daughter's 10th birthday (in July).  I adore knitting and find time to knit most days as I find it so calming and relaxing.  I haven't shared my knitting before on my blog as I am not really sure how to take photos of my projects but anyway, here goes:

 

The Cheshire Cat pattern is from the UK Knit Today magazine - Issue 84 - April 2013, and was designed by Tina Barrett.  The cat was knitted using DK yarn and 3.25mm (UK size 10) knitting needles.   I did my face a little differently to the instructions as I used black beads for the eyes instead of embroidering them.  The remainder of the embroidery was done using black DK yarn.   The head is stuffed with polyester fiberfill.  The legs and tail were knitted on double-pointed knitting needles which made them a tube eliminating any sewing of a seam making life easy.  Here are some more photos:

 

 

As you can see, the body is flat which lies in the book and the head, legs and tail hang out the end.   In case you are wondering what the book is that the cat is lying on:  it is Simon's Cat.  Here is a close-up pic of his sweet little face:

 

 

 And now, here is the Felt Owl Egg Cosy:

 

 

The pattern is from a book called Super-Cute Felt by Laura Howard which is published by CICO Books.  The edition I have is dated 2011 and I just checked around and it is still readily available.  I really LOVE this book - so many cute projects including Christmas and the instructions are easy to follow:  I highly recommend it if you like playing with felt like I do. 

 

I embroidered my eyes a little differently to the book and used my Big Shot and Lifestyle Nesting Circle dies to diecut the eyes - so much easier than handcutting them.  I also diecut the Chevron felt pieces using a Chevron Stripes Die-namics die by My Favorite Things.  The original pattern had embroidery in that part but I thought it would be fun to use my dies instead.  That's the great thing about dies:  they are not just limited to cardmaking!

 

Here is a pic of the back of the egg-cosy:

 

 

The heart was also diecut using a heart die from the MFT Die-namics Notched Tag (and stamp) set - and all the embroidery was done using 3 strands of embroidery floss.  The outside of the owl was sewn using sewing thread.

 Hope you like my little projects.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Jocelyn

 

 

Penny Black: A Bunch of Love Stickeroos bookmark + card

Hi blogging friends

When I went to a Craft Show late last year, I picked up some gorgeous Penny Black Stickeroos which I have had sitting in my stash and then about a month ago, I picked up a copy of the February edition of the UK mag "Quick Cards made easy" at my local newsagent and was totally inspired by Katina Killey's article on using stickers to make cards.   Katina made 10 cards using the Helz Cuppleditch Neighbourwood sticker collection of foxes, mice, owls etc. Wow - they were so gorgeous! Katina has a blog too called "Katina's Cards and Chat" which I discovered last year and I just LOVE Katina's style of cards.   But the cards Katina does for the mag are not on her blog - you will have to get the mag to see them (not that I could see anyway - correct me if I am wrong).   

I am sure that many of you have stickers sitting in your stash unused but too good to throw away just like me - so go and dig them out and have a play!   I decided to make some quick and easy bookmarks (I will just share one now and the others on another post) and then made a matching card - a fun little gift set which you could use for lots of occasions such as birthday, Mother's Day, friendship, etc.  Once I worked out how to make a bookmark (I have never made one before), it was easy peasy to make a couple in one sitting and I just changed things up a bit with each bookmark by using a different border punch and embellies.   The Penny Black stickers are really great quality stickers and I love how the sticker edges just seem to blend into the cardstock. The sticker sheet that I used has around 17 stickers which is great value for only a few dollars.

I love, love, LOVE the designer paper I used on my projects.  It is by Echo Park:  A Country Drive (6 x 6 pad) and the colours on all the pages are right up my alley.  I will have to try and get a few more pads before they become too scarce!

Bookmark:

I lightly chalked underneath the hedgie sticker with green chalk so it looked like a bit of grass/ground and added Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue to the flowers. The pink glitter butterfly on the bottom of the bookmark was punched out of pink glitter cardstock using a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch and I added some green glitter cardstock underneath.  I used a 1/4" round hole punch to punch a hole at the top then threaded through some scrap threads from balls of yarn plus some Cotton Candy and Limeade twine.  I love the texture that the funky fibres added to the bookmark.  Finished bookmark size is 165mm long x 65mm wide OR imperial 6-1/2" long x 2-9/16" wide.

Card:

I again coloured the ground underneath the sticker with a bit of green chalk and around the sky with blue chalk (not that you can see it all that well - it is subtle) and stamped on the sentiment then added a Hero Arts pearl heart.  The panel was diecut using Spellbinder Square Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug.  I added Kindyglitz to the hedgie's cheek and all the flower petals.  The pink glitter butterfly was punched using a Carl Butterfly-A punch and pink glitter cardstock - I know it looks dark in the photo but it is really a pale pink that matches the pink cardstock.

I grabbed three pieces of twine - Cotton Candy, Lollipop and Limeade and very patiently plaited them together, tied a knot at each end then tied it around the bottom panel - something a bit different to do with twine but I really like how it looks.  The bottom and main image panel are up on dimensionals.  Finished card size is 120mm or 4-3/4" square.

Challenges:

I am entering my card / bookmark in the following challenges -

Papertake Weekly Challenge - In the Garden

Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge IC334 - Rosenberry Rooms - I was struck by the gorgeous pink and green colours on THIS Duvet Cover which was why I chose the designer papers that I used.  I had forgotten how much I loved pink and green together!

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Week 201 - In the Garden

Thanks for stopping by!  And thanks especially to Katina for the inspiration!

Jocelyn


Bookmark and Card Recipe:

Stamps:  'For you' sentiment from Penny Black 'Tiny Wishes' 30-026 clear set

Ink:  Versafine Onyx black

Designer Paper:   Echo Park - A Country Drive 6" x 6" pad

Accessories:   Penny Black Stickeroos 'A Bunch of Love' #10-165, Kaisercolour green and blue chalk, Perfect Layers Tools, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, scraps of wool, Cotton Candy (pale pink) twine by The Twinery, Limeade (green/white twine) + Lollipop (dark pink/white twine) by We R Memory Keepers - Sew Easy Fancy Floss, dimensionals, Hero Arts CH173 Hearts Accent Pearls, cardstock: white, pink, green, pink glitter, green glitter

Punches: Carl CP-1 Butterfly-A, Martha Stewart Monarch butterfly, Martha Stewart Pinking Scallop edge punch