Challenge time!!

It's lovely to be reading the feedback over at the Sarah's cards blog, everyone seems to be enjoying the new frequent posting schedule we have and the awesome projects that the DT have shared so far. My first post will be a tecchie tutorial and is due next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Meanwhile, today sees the first new challenge, set by Lou! To take part, you need to create a card or page inspired by clothing. After a rummage through my wardrobe I settled on these items:

And here's the page I created (click on it to get a closer look):

The scarf provided the cue for the soft blue colour palette, and the contrasting crocheted edging inspired me to use felt embellishments to add texture to my page and to have a go at crocheting on paper, something I'd seen on Pinterest! (see further down for a quick how-to if you wanna give crocheting on paper a go!).

The muslin panel on the blouse inspired me to play with the idea of white on white and translucency - so I spent time layering up pieces of velum to build subtle depth.  I loved how layering them up altered how visible the patterned paper was underneath.

It also inspired me to use white barely- there ghost letters to create my title:

The blouse is very feminine and has elegant little touches, such as the big bow and ruffled edges, which inspired my choice of embellishment which have a similar elegant feel:

 

Even the label inside provided some inspiration - the doodle effect heart inspired me to stamp some hearts onto note effect paper:

*side note - see them nice velvet frames and birds - pound shop bargain! Get innnnn!!!

Incidentally, my title - "I want to have adventures with you" was inspired by a piece of text/art work on pinterest....there are so many things I want to do with Mr T, and it seemed a fitting way of marking this. We plan to build our list of potential "adventures" on the back of the page. The photos are from our trip to London earlier this year.

So, as for the crocheting on paper thing. First off, you need to know how to do a (US) double crochet stitch....here's a great video tutorial which will have you happily hooking in no time at all!

I used wool for mine as I really wanted to reflect the nobbly bobbles on my scarf, but I think embroidery thread would look beautiful for a more intricate project and I'll be trying that in the future.

So, once your au fait with all that jazz, grab the paper that you wish to create a crochet edge along - cut ready to size of course - and punch evenly spaced holes along the edge. I used a Cropodile as it meant I also knew my holes would all be at the same distance from the edge as well as each other - you can just measure this with a ruler and mark with a pencil if you don't have a cropodile but are luckily enough to have time on your hands to faff about with such things!

The holes act as the previous row of stitches would on traditional crochet, use them to go in and out of. So to start, simply begin your first double crochet (DC) in the first hole.

To create the shell appearance of the edge, complete three DC's in each hole,

Then slip stitch into the next hole, as in the picture below, where you will then complete another 3 DCs

Slip stitch into the next hole, and repeat until your edge is completed! Simples!

My massive list of crafty to-do's is still on the go, but I finished the cute little bird garland and I loooove it!! It was so quick and easy, I need to make another one I think! Will get some pictures soon.

I may have mentioned before that Mr T is an I.T. thingymabob (too technical for me to begin to comprehend - apparently!), and he has built a new website....you know how they say necessity is the mother of invention? Well we love cooking, and have been collecting recipes from all over the place for a while, some stored on paper (some of which we've lost), some typed quickly on the laptop, others copied and pasted from the web, others in loved cookbooks that are getting ruined by greasy splashes in the kitchen...........so he decided to build an online "notebook" of sorts where we can keep all our recipes in one safe, easy to access location. And the good news is that you can too! It's here, at Nom-a-licious, and anyone can sign up and use it!

 Not only is it the perfect digital storage solution for keeping all your recipes in one place, hopefully, as more people join up and add their own ideas it will also become a great resource to find new inspiration for your own meals. Mr T would be chuffed to see the site grow, so get on it! It's really simple to use, particularly if you are already used to publishing blog posts, and there is a clear, step by step "how to" here if it's all new to you. So no excuses, get sharing your recipes as we could do with some new ideas for the weekend (especially if you have some tasty healthy recipes to share!!)

Go check it out  :)

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon xxx