Am writer

It's official! I'm now a pubished writer!  A feature I wrote for Knit Today went on sale last Thursday, and to say I'm a little excited is an understatement.  It's always been a bit of an ambition of mine to get something published so I'm ecstatic to have acheived this.  I know only a feature and not a best-selling novel, but it's so exciting to see your name in print!  It's certainly motivated me to write more.

If you're interested in reading it, it's in issue 66 and on page 28. 

Neglect

Wow, it's been awhile.  Things have been pretty hectic between having to move and the nuisance that is full-time work.  I have several projects I want to blog about, but my desktop has decided to have a hissy fit and won't let me into my user area. So, once that is sorted I will be able to upload some images and actually blog, instead of authoring a dead blog.  I'm a ghost writer in the most literal sense, I guess.

And yes, I have shamelessly copied and pasted this post into both my blogs.  You'd think after months of neglect I could think of something original  to write in both really. You'd think.

Father's day and Christening cards

Below is the card I made for a friend's son's Christening. I used the material from the card kit I had for the 'best wishes' card in the previous post, and I think it came out ok. I find Christening cards quite awkward to do, as I am not religious and think it would be a bit hypocritical to be all 'may God be with you' etc. if you don't really believe the sentiment.

I have found the material in this card kit difficult to work with. I think it's because of the busy background of the card designs.

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My Dad is into metal detecting, so I decided to create a card influenced by this. It does look a little odd, but I was trying to break away from the 'stick square here, then add caption there' format I have fallen into (see card above!).

For the base, I stained a card with antiquing stain. Next I dampened a section of cross stitch aida and dripped the same antiquing stain over it to give it an aged appearance. Once dried, I pick at the threads so it had a more worn look.
The embellishments are a couple of coins I had kept from France which I then set into some melted wax, and attached to the aida. I stuck some synthetic mossy material along the edge to give the impression of hidden treasure and finished the card off with some lettering tiles. I also personalised the envelope, as I wasn't convinced the metal detecting theme came across too well!

Cards, bookmarks, and wine.

Here are the cards I said I would blog about a month ago (ahem...)

The first is an anniversary card. It was from one of those build-it-yourself card kits I wanted to try out. It came out ok, but I object a little to the limitations imposed by a kit!

The next card was also from a kit, but I lost the chart so had to wing it a bit. I'm not a huge fan of the design, but as this was for my sister who loves both roses and tea, it seemed an ideal birthday card!

Finally, a cross stitch bookmark I made to accompany my sister's birthday present (a book, funnily enough). Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, the border of the bookmark resulted in some last minute chart adjustments as the working area was too narrow for the chart design. I also cut it a little too short hence why the design looks a little bunched at the ends. For the backing, I used the liner of an old jacket I have, which is a velvet-like material. It's called horse skin, but it isn't actually from the hide of an equine!
I like the design on this one, I just wished I'd measured twice and cut once! I blame the wine in the background. Evil vino, leading my crafts astray...

The ugly cake

I tried out a new cake recipe a couple of weeks ago that was reticent about coming out of the cake tin. When it finally did, it did not prove to be the most aesthetic of bakery products. I put some vanilla buttercream between the layers but it still looked pretty damn ugly - even claiming the 'homemade' look was deliberate couldn't really excuse this travesty!

As I had some chocolate couveture that was nearing its date, I melted this over the top. Unfortunately this didn't help matters:

Not wanting to admit defeat, I melted some white chocolate I had and made some cool swirly patterns. I actually think it turned out ok! Looks aside, the cake was very tasty!
Next time I use this recipe though I think I will try and get some proper cocoa powder, and not use hot chocolate powder; the slight anaemic look doesn't help matters!

Birthday card

Below is the birthday card I made for my niece's 5th birthday. I hadn't realised how little children orientated craft stuff I had until I came to make this one. Or pink things. The number 5 on the card was originally blue, but I dabbed it with a pink ink pad and went over it with pink glitter-glue to make it more feminine. The wording was meant to be a purple rub-on, but typically it didn't transfer properly so I went over it with a souffle pen. I don't know why I keep bothering with rub-ons; in my experience they just don't work!

I will be posting a couple more cards soon, just waiting for the recipients to receive them first!

Mother's day cards

A little late, but here are the Mother's day cards I made last month for my mother and mother-in-law:

For the first one I wanted to steer away from the usual aperture opening used for cross stitch cards, so I used torn paper as a border. I also contrasted the bright yellow of the sunflower with a light blue theme, which I think gave the card a much softer feel.

The above polar bear design was initially a bit of a headache as I realised I was missing some thread colour from the kit a bit late. The bear is actually supposed to be beige. Fortunately, my mother-in-law likes polar bears, so it worked out well! I'm a little disappointed with the ribbon border as it is barely staying on (see top left corner), but I made the best with the adhesive I had to hand.