Not a Card!

I don't sew very often because it's too much of a hassle to get all my sewing stuff out - if I ever get a dedicated crafting space that may change! Last night I had a few uninterrupted hours to myself & decided to tackle a sewing project I'd been planning for a couple of weeks. I recently bought myself a little tablet PC with detachable keyboard, but had been unable to find a bag for it which I was happy with - most are designed for iPads & my tablet is a couple of centimetres wider. Then I saw this over at CraftPassion and knew I'd found the answer to my problem. A few hours' work later:

This fits my tablet PC perfectly as you can see here:

This next photo shows the bag with the mains adaptor in the front pocket, which is a bit of a tight fit but it works. The USB cable fits into the back pocket. If I made another bag I'd probably make the pocket slightly longer, so it comes further up the side, with perhaps elastic across the top of the pocket. 

I modified the design in a couple of ways: first, I used quite thick padding instead of interfacing to give some protection. This made the finished bag slightly bulkier & by the time I'd finished, the tablet was such a neat fit in the bag that I decided to use the simpler fastening method instead of the zip I'd planned, because that would have scratched the tablet. Luckily I found a matching button in my stash & a piece of elastic from a chocolate box ribbon which was already made into a loop. I also modified the gathers on the pocket to give a slightly neater finish which you can see here:

An experienced seamstress could have made this in a couple of hours. As a relatively inexperienced sewer I did find the instructions for the pocket a bit confusing, and this meant it took me a whole evening, but I'm so pleased with the finished result which only cost about £4!

CAS Flowers

This week's sketch over at Cas(e) this Sketch! caught my eye again this week; after 4 failed attempts to make a card based on a different challenge sketch, the simplicity of this one really appealed. As the finished card is so CAS I'm also entering it into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps, and I've just discovered that I think it will qualify to be entered at Stamping Sensations.

The flower stamps are by Little Claire, stamped in Memento Fog & coloured with Promarkers. The cardstock from Limetree Crafts makes Promarker blending so easy even I can do it! The greeting is by Woodware, and I filled the centre of the large flower with American Crafts micro beads.

Just in CASE

I often struggle to come up with inspiration for my cards but, for once, I had ideas a-plenty! This card is inspired by two challenge blogs: CAS(E) this Sketch! and CASE Study.

I started with a circles stencil which I designed then cut on my Sizzix Eclips.I tried several different colouring mediums from Promarkers sprayed with a manual airbrush to Distress Inks, until eventually I settled on sponging with Memento inks in Summer Sky & Cantaloupe.

The greeting is by Clearly Besotted.

The Sky's the Limit!

I've not had much time for cardmaking lately but I hope to rectify that over the next day or so! I made this card over a week ago but just hadn't got round to posting it. It was inspired by the challenge over at Addicted to CAS where the code word is SKY, and as I'd just bought these new stamps as a bargain from Make the Day Special it seemed like the ideal opportunity to test them out.

I stamped the tree, greeting & birds onto watercolour card, then sponged Distress Inks over the tree. I kept it simple, which is always a good idea when you're entering a Clean & Simple challenge!! The sponging is in fact more graduated than it looks in the photo, I'm not really sure what happened there.

Stamps: Unity Stamp Company "With Sympathy"

Distress Inks: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Sketch Saturday #316

This week's sketch over at Sketch Saturday was perfect for a card I wanted to make for someone who was a good friend of my late father. The image I chose will, I hope, please the recipient because it was painted by my Dad and I save these little works of art for people who I know will appreciate them, and for whom they will have special meaning.

As they are ATC-sized pictures, I keep the cards simple to make sure the image remains the focal point.

Cardstock: Limetree Crafts, Coredinations

Painting: Original watercolour copyright the estate of David Forrest

Backing paper: from stash

Stamps: Little Claire

Ink: Hero Arts