Another pair of Fairy Slippers finished. With these slippers I added some silk ribbon flowers and hand stitched metallic French knots along with the beads, sequins, pearls and cotton embroidery threads. These little shoes are fun and quick to make. Another pair is in progress and I'll post them when done.

Fairy Slippers

Some time ago I reading Stitch magazine I came across a pattern by Annette Emms for making fairy slippers. They enchanted me and I've been wanting to make a pair ever since. This month my friend Heather who lives in Australia and I have chosen this pattern as our monthly challenge.

The slippers are about 3" long and made of dupioni silk with a felt backing and machine embroidered. I've embellished this pair with cotton embroidery, beads and pearls and metallic threads. I'll be posting later more slippers that I've made which I have used silk ribbon embroidery to embellish.

The hard part of all this stitching is choosing which pair to send off to Australia.

Ta-Da!

After 5 weeks of The Art of Digital Design class I have my logo designed and my kit ready to go. The kit is made up of 10 papers all designed by me and 38 elements. I feel quite an accomplishment thinking back to one year ago when I did not know how to open Photoshop. The Art of Digital Design class focus is toward the person who wants to become a professional digital designer - which is not me. I did enjoyed learning how to develop a design starting with an idea, then colour, materials, style and sources to produce a end product. What I enjoyed the most was developing the technical skills to do this, to be able make the elements and create the assorted papers in the kit. I 'm looking forward to continue to improve my skills in using Photoshop and learning how to use Photoshop Illustrator. But that's for another day.

Spring Folly

I named this layout Spring Folly in hope that Spring will arrive soon here in Southern Ontario. Snow is finally gone and there are snowdrops in my front garden and even a Robin or two.

All of the papers and elements used in the layout were made by me for the design class. I've quite amazed myself that I could do it. A small disclaimer the stitches and staples are not mine.

One more week and the design class will be finished. I have a complete kit ready to assemble and even a logo to go with it.

I have a confession to make

I have a confession to make besides being a tape junkie I'm I book junkie as well.

My latest purchase is Threads The basics & beyond. This book is primarily for machine stitching. It covers the basics for quilting, free motion embroidery and using thread to "paint" with. Lots of information is given about using different threads to create different looks and textures. There are small projects to try out using the different methods as well as informative tips.

This tip I found quite useful "Cross Wound and Stacked Spools": A closer look at your threads will reveal stacked threads are wound around spools in a

parallel fashion while cross wound threads criss-cross each other in overlapping X's around the spool. Stacked spools unwind best from a vertical, upright position, while cross wound spools perform best on a horizontal spool pin, secured with a spool cap. If your thread misbehaves, try changing it's position. Now did you know that, I didn't?

I am several weeks into the on-line design workshop and love the learning about both design and Photoshop. Each day I keep being amazed on what I can do in the program. Not only am I learning new skills but I'm also being given links to design resources on the net to use. By the end of the class I should have a complete kit finished. And if I like I can complete a certification exam. Most of the other students are hoping to become web designers. Me, I'm just enjoying the process. I surprised my self by being able to design this paper pack. My kit theme is Spring. I'm now working of the elements to go with the kit and have this set of brads ready.

My first attempt at making a repeating pattern.

I'll continue posting as I add more to my digital kit.