Embroidered Gnome

      Gosh, it's been more than a month since I posted anything to my blog but I haven't been lazy, just busy.  More gnome work, of course, but I've also been pushing myself to renew old crafting skills as the hand coloring and card making crafts seem to be less and less possible.  

     It's been nearly 50 years since I did any amount of hand embroidery, though I loved it during those years when it was a regular activity.  A few weeks back, my granddaughter gave back to me a huge pile of embroidery flosses, needles, and other supplies which I had given to her when she wanted to try her hand at embroidery.  Seeing all those luscious thread colors whetted my appetite for trying it again, despite the eyesight problems.  (A large, desktop, magnifier helps tremendously!)  I ordered some white Aida cloth online, and as soon as it arrived I began practicing all the old stitches I once knew so well.  I found that I'm much slower (and more careful) with the stitches than I used to be but it's coming back.

     For those of you who don't know, Aida cloth is a stiff, woven fabric with evenly spaced threads which are a specific distance apart and that makes it so much easier when one can use the tiny "holes" between threads to keep your stitches even.  While I was working stitches on a practice piece of Aida cloth, I began to wonder if I could use Aida cloth to make clothes for gnomes, thereby being able to have lovely, even embroidery work on the clothing.  I was concerned that the stiffness might make it unsuitable for clothes but I knew of no way to find out other than to try it!  :-D

     I want to share with you the end result.  I must tell you that this particular gnome took hours and hours to complete and that the embroidery itself took me more than 6 hours to complete, simple as it looks once on the gnome.  All the white parts are the Aida cloth (both coat and top hat), but Aida cloth also comes in colors and, now that I know it works for gnome clothing, I'm going to get some of it in various colors.  Doesn't it give great visual texture?

     Here's the gnome:

     What do you think?  Of course, I love him but I'm the one who did all the work so I'm totally biased.  :-D

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

Mad Hatter Tea Party

     I finally get to share with you things I made for my granddaughter's birthday party.  She wanted a Mad Hatter Tea Party theme and we did the best we could to accommodate that theme while hand-making the invitations and decorations.  My daughter came up with most of the ideas and I applied myself to the creations.

     First, we did invitations:

Challenges:

Crafting with Friends

Dragonfly Dreams

Imagine That

     Each one was an original in that we used stitched scalloped dies to cut various papers and then combined them into odd and quirky combinations so that no two were alike.  We used simple brads to attach them to the actual "date, time, place" info and they were all hand delivered so no envelopes needed.  :-D

     Next, my daughter decided that we had to have Mad Hatter Top Hats.  Holy Cow, I had no idea what it would take to make them!  One is fabric and the other is cardstock and cardboard.

 

 

Challenges:

Brown Sugar

Corrosive Challenge

Really Reasonable Ribbon

     I found a wonderful digi stamp of a female mad hatter and we made up a matted poster which each of the guests could sign.  We're having it framed so my granddaughter can hang it on her wall.

Challenges:

Art by Miran

Color My Heart

Creative Fingers

Di's Digi Designs

Little Claire's 

      Croquet was a must, of course, so I made these and my daughter posted them on stakes at each of the "arches" through which the players had to move their ball by hitting it with a mallet.

     My daughter also had a brilliant idea of incorporating the caterpillar and we made one using round Japanese lanterns.  While we couldn't figure out how to make a hookah for him, we gave him a simple face using die cuts for the eyes and mouth and my daughter tied the lanterns to the tree branch.  Isn't he fantastic?  That's my granddaughter in the photo, dressed as the Red Queen and laughing as she discovered the caterpillar.  :-D

        Finally, we made little boxes of party favors and had them waiting at the door for guests to take as they left.  Using the same image as had been on their invitations tied the beginning and ending together.

Challenges:

Crafty Friends

     Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie