Nancy Wethington

A Two-fer . . .

Recently finished stitching this 

Delivering Autumn pattern by Country Spirits/Homespun Elegance

It's an old pattern from 2001 but it's Fall and Halloween and well . . .

Once it was finished, I was showing my friend Stacey and was talking to her about

putting this into a tray.

Stacey gave me this one that she had ~ an antique (or close to it).

It was perfect!

Fast forward to yesterday and another finish,

this one a Spring pattern by Brenda Gervais.

It's called Easter Peep Parade.

Another perfect match for my new-to-me tray:

I got this all set up to use the tray this weekend

and was taking a photo when I noticed . . .

I forgot the bunny tail!

Ugh.

Undo this tray and begin again.

 

A few weeks ago . . .

I dug up some old cross stitching I did. Some of these are from 1990! 

This one is a 3-part photo of a very long bell pull.

 

It's probably been about 20 years since I've dipped my hand into counted cross stitch.  Then, I thought my stitching was pretty good, even stitches, counted well (ha), even tension, back of the project looked neat etc.

Fast forward to now and I've started cross stitching again. Armed with older eyes and a 5X magnifier, I'm a bit disappointed in my stitching. The stitches don't look as even as they could, even though I think my tension is OK. I think it's that I can't always see the lines correctly.

What's good about stitching today? There are tons of helpful cross stitch groups on Facebook.

Then: Pinterest and Facebook didn't exist. Companies rarely had blogs that gave out information.

Now: We have all that at our fingertips, a way to send photos to each other and free advice.

Yesterday, I read an article that said cross stitching/embroidery is on the upswing again and has surpassed all other crafting sales.

Hmmm. Not ready to give up my paper but love that I can combine the two.

 

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WOYWW . . .

Mini Album Makers Challenge Blog . . .

Hi Everyone! Back this month with a new project for Mini Album Makers Challenge Blog. 

This is from one of Eilleen Hull's Sizzix dies and it is called Passport. And wow is it ever easy to put together.  The die includes the covers, binding and inside pages.

Here's what I did with mine:

After die-cutting the binding and covers in chipboard, I stained the binding with Vintage Photo stain. Using a paintbrush helped me soak some stain into the grooves.  

I wanted the binding to look like leather, so I used Ground Espresso and dabbed some onto the dried Vintage Photo.

These are the inside pages. They are already scored and hole punched (the die does that for you!). I inked the edges, chose some decorative paper and cut it slightly smaller than the original pages. This would give me a bit of an edge all around.

I chose my decorative papers and cut them 3-1/8" X 4 5/8" and wallpapered the original pages.

To bind the inside pages, I use waxed linen thread. In fact, I use this thread for all my tied bindings. It's super strong and doesn't stretch at all - perfect for binding pages. Normally I would tie the binding in the center of each signature. This time I decided to tie the binding on the outside so I can hang charms.  So . . . 

Take a long piece of waxed linen thread and one section of the inside pages.  Thread one end of the waxed linen thread through the top hole and one end through the bottom hole.

Now do the same with the first set of holes in the binding i.e., one end of the thread in the top hole and one end of thread in the bottom hole.

Tie the ends together on the outside of the book binding, making sure the thread is taut.

Continue with the other 2 signatures . . .

until your booklet looks like this:

Now it's time to add the covers. Add adhesive to the inner side of the binding.

Adhere the covers to the inside binding.

How easy was that! Here's a couple of my pages:

A few decorative additions to the cover and my Eilleen Hull Passport book is complete.

Hop on over to the Mini Album Makers challenge blog to see what my teamies have put together this month.

In the meantime, start on your own mini album and enter it for a chance to win a fabulous prize from this month's sponsor, Lindy's Stamp Gang.

Website - https://www.lindysgang.com/

Blog - https://lindysgang.blog/

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/lindysgang/

 

Thanks for visiting today!

 

Nancy Wethington

Design Team Member

Mini Album Makers Challenge Blog

Snowman Love . . .

Combining Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts and stitching on a mini-book with the help of laser cuts and a snow family.  See more of the inside on the

Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog.