Natasha's Vintage Blanket

Work in progress

I am really excited to be sharing my latest creation which is another crocheted blanket.  I have been working on this blanket for the last three months and have enjoyed designing this one using vintage colour tones.  It feels lovely and weighty so great for those cold winter evenings!

The pattern is the granny stitch done in stripes of colours.  I followed guidance from Lucy at Attic 24 to ensure I got off to a good start and had no wobbly rows.    

The starting chain has to be a multiply of 3 plus 2 for turning.

The first row was is was done using the double crochet stitch.  Then it was a case of crocheting clusters of trebles across the row (missing 2 stitches on the first row) and then working in the chain spaces from then on.

I buy my yarn from Deramores.  I have used Stylecraft Special DK in the following colours:

• Grey x 4
• Pale Rose x1
• Raspberry x1 
• Mocha x1 
• Parchment x 2
• and a soft pink that I don't have the details of.

I have made this quite large so it will cover a single bed or simply make a decent size throw.

I used 4mm size hook

Starting chain 182 

178 rows

Baby Pink and Baby Blue Cards

Today's mid week cards are made using Kanban card toppers called Baby Pink Baby Blue.  The topper sheet has 6 square images in both pink and blue suitable for new born baby cards.

I created three different styles of cards for these cards and made use of some of my dies to carry the theme through.

The first two are centre stepper cards made using a stepper card die.  The clothing was cut from dies I had from Crafter's Companion.

Then I used some Dovecraft matching card and envelopes for the bases of my background for these next two cards.  The Stork die is a tattered lace die.  

And then finally for the last pair of toppers I turned to my lace edge A5 cards.  I dusted the edges with a little bit of colour before adding my topper and sentiment.

Heartfelt Sympathy

Every card maker needs to have a few "with sympathy" cards in their card collection and you could do no better than these lovely toppers in muted lilac, pink and cream by Kanban.  The topper sheet is called Heartfelt Sympathy if you fancy having a go yourself.

I used a couple of my Marianne Dies when making up these cards.  These are one of my favourite die makers as the scale is good.  So often dies are made with the big card in mind but with postage costs, the smaller card is more favoured by me.

I also used 6x6 single sided oyster pearl cards and envelopes from the company Pink Frog Crafts and Cards which just gives the cards the elegance they deserve.

Enjoy xxx

Healing Remedies

I find that "Thinking of you" cards are often asked of me at work so I have completed some "healing remedies" from the Kanban Well Wishes & Celebrations collection.

I had some lovely papers to use with these toppers and although the paperkit also came with some bandaid toppers, I didn't really have anywhere to put them on the outside of the card so I have put them in the insert.

I used 7x5 cards for these toppers and were able to make them very quickly.

I hope you like them xxx

You did It!

Today's mid week special are cards made from Kanban toppers "You did it!" collection.  These images are in monochrome.  As they are celebration cards I have married some of the toppers up with my Diesire edgeable dies.

I  think this first one is my favourite as I like the stars being used as a cut out revealing the background paper from the inside of the card.  I lay the stars down on my craft mat to line them up then stuck tape across them so that I knew I had them in alignment before I positioned them on the card to cut out.






















This next one I printed the wording onto 120 gsm paper which is lovely and smooth and quite a thick enough weight for using for this purpose.

These are my Diesire edgeable dies.  I just cut them and didn't emboss afterwards just in case it was tricky to get the die off afterwards.  Again, I used some stars to add interest to the card.

For the last card I made this a 7x5 card as I needed the height of the card for the edgeable star.  A small red bow was all this card required to finish it off.

I am really pleased with how the edgeables turned out on these cards and work really well for celebration cards.

Sorry you're leaving

Again, the colour theme is mustard yellow and blue as this is still part of the Kanban Well wishes & Celebration collection of cards and goes with the toppers.

I used the Spellbinders Label 42 die for one of the toppers which I cut out using Foundation cardstock.  This is really the best cardstock you can use for cutting out with your dies.

Enjoy xxx

Mini Albums

I am posting a mid week special today based on mini albums that I have created using my Cameo Silhouette as an implement for designing and cutting them out.  But first, let's start at the beginning and explain how this came about.  

I had been looking into the world of mini albums as I offered to make one for a friend to give to his wife as a 40th wedding anniversary gift.  The idea being that he could fill it with treasured memories of their journey through life together.  

I had made one once before and had thought I would do the same design but realised I hadn't a clue how I had made it.  A little help was needed so I started looking through different pinned mini albums on Pinterest.  I realised there are so many different ways to make albums that I could be amused for months trying these all out!

Below was my first creation, made last year some time.  It has pockets and tags and a photo fitted between a folded piece of cardstock which makes a nice frame for the image.

 My search lead me to this design that was blogged about on Kirsten's website.  I particularly liked the fact that she had a very clear instructions and a great diagram to follow.

The design looked simple enough as it was made from one piece of A4 card but I thought, what if I wanted to make more than one, shouldn't I try and make this design in my Cameo Silhouette?  So this is where I began drawing out the design using my Cameo Silhouette software.  My first version needed a slight moderation to the design but after a tweak here and there, I was happy with it.  It is a very cute size but only large enough for passport photos.  However, since I took the time to create it in the Cameo Silhouette, I now can replicate it a wee bit quicker when I want to make up another!

I then wanted to try another design and came across this blog by Miss Fancy Pants.  I think this design was more like the one I had originally created.  Again though it would have made a similar size album so I got to thinking about how I could make my album slightly bigger.

I took the concept of Miss Fancy Pant's album and designed mine to have slightly larger pages.  I started with a sheet of cardstock measuring 12"x12" and cut it down to exactly 30cm square.  This gave me the possibility of dividing it up into 12 panels instead of 16 by dividing the 30cm by 3 giving me 10cm by 7.5 cm panels.  I marked out where my vertical folds needed to be then I folded the sheet in half and then into quarters so I had 4 panels to concertina fold.  

Next I needed two horizontal cuts.  On the first horizontal line I cut across the first 3 panels only, leaving the 4th panel intact.  Then I worked on the second horizontal line, this time from right to left.  Again, only cutting as far as the end of the 3rd panel leaving the 4th panel intact. Then came the concertina folds to create the book.    I have since created this design in my software which didn't take very long at all.

I followed Miss Fancy Pant's idea on making the cover.  I used some mountboard and cut this just over half a centimeter larger than the concertina card on all 4 sides. 

Next I covered the mountboard with cardstock.  There is a trick to successfully covering the board as some folds simply don't work well but I found a way that left my corners nice and square.  First I cut my cardstock an inch large then the mountboard to give a generous overhang.  Then I stuck the mountboard in the centre of the cardstock.  When dried, I creased the card around all four sides of the board.  Then folded the bottom edge over followed by the one to its left or right.  I made a pencilled cutting mark at the point where the card crosses over each other and drew a diagonal line down to the bottom point of the corner of the mountboard.  This became my cutting line that is visible on the outside.  I cut away the excess then folded it back for a second whilst I marked where to cut away the excess on the inside that isn't visible.  Trimming this off got rid of the bulk and made a nice neat corner when glued down.  Repeat this by turning your work around and starting again on the bottom piece and the remaining side panel.  

I then positioned some ribbon on the insides of the two panels.  There is no need to adhere this past the point that the album will be stuck down.  Doing so makes it looks unsightly as I have learned!  Red liner tape is very strong and is a good choice of glue for this bit of the project.  When deciding on the length of your ribbon ensure you leave plenty of ribbon to tie the bow on your album. 

Now I was ready to glue the album cover and pages together.  The warning here is you need to ensure you leave enough room for these panels to not obstruct each other when the album is opened out flat.  Do one side first.  I used Collall glue as it forgiving and so you can ensure you have everything nicely lined up before the glue goes off.    I put my album directly in the centre of the cover and waited for it to dry.  Then I turned my attention to the other panel and glued this in place.  

After this all that was left is decorating the inside of the album and sticking in printed photos.  


I have decorated my book using papers from Heartfelt creations.  I just so happened to have some paper that had panels that worked with the album.

Well Done, you passed

These cards were very quick to make up as I decided to keep them simple.  I particularly liked the mustard yellow and blue papers that came with this collection from the Well Wishes & Celebrations Kanban Cardkit.

Again, I made these 6x6 as it is easy to store them in boxes with lids.

With Thanks

These Vintage Bird toppers are absolutely beautiful from the Kanban Well Wishes & Celebrations card collection.  They have enough detail to demand they sat on an almost simple and plain background so as not to detract from their beauty.  

They are quite large toppers and I am no fan of making A5 cards because they are harder to store so I opted to use my 7x5 cardstock.

Next job was sourcing the background papers.  Something almost plan but with some detail was my thought.  I have the Kanban pretty in lace collection and found the colour papers were a perfect match for using with these toppers.

I used this Spellbinders die to mount the toppers onto.  It is one of my favourite dies as it seems to work with a lot of toppers although I did have to slightly trim the edge of the topper so that it was a perfect fit.  I have a Pebeo wide tip silver marker and I used this to go around the edge of topper to give it a better look.

Here are my finished cards.

New Home

With these beautiful pastel shades and very modern looking toppers it was important to me that I kept the look fresh and summery.  

I searched through my collection of dies trying to find ones that were the right size to mount the toppers onto and the best match I had was this lovely Spellbinders die called Labels 42. 

I am really found of this die despite the fact the card won't release easily from the die after I have embossed it!  I think we all have some dies like this in our collection don't we?  It might have saved me some time if I could have found my easy release paper I have for these issues but my craft room is so overstuffed with products that I have no chance of finding it!  

Having adhered the toppers on to the background mounts (label 42 die cuts) my next job was to decide what size card I was going to make and what I was going to mount the toppers onto.  As I said before, I was after a fresh modern feel to my cards so I looked through my stash of cards and envelopes and came across these some polka dot cards.  A sense of joy swept over me as I knew these were going to look and feel modern when I had made them up.

These are the results, hope you enjoy xxx