Floral 2019 SAL May

Yesterday I stitched for a few hours.  Not as much progress as I had hoped.  I’m reading the pattern from my computer.  I prefer to use a paper pattern but am trying not to print as much if not really needed.  I watch Netflix on my iPad, while trying to read the pattern on my computer.  I get a bit distracted, so not as much completed.  The block for May looks like this.

I have completed half of the May block.

Here you can see January to May blocks.

Colour Swatch Cards for my Pencil Crayons (Coloured Pencils)

My first time trying this technique.  All the artist websites and blogs recommend making coloured swatches (coloured cards) for each coloured pencil, marker, paint, etc that I have in my inventory.  I will only do this with my Prismacolor pencil crayons (also known as coloured pencils).  Some of the colours don’t look exactly like the outside wooden shell colour.  I used my Creative Memories tag maker and a drawing paper.  I write on the colour number and name using that exact pencil crayon and then make a colour sample (light, medium and very dark).  It will take a few days to go through all my pencil crayons.  I have a pack of 60 Prismacolor Scholar and 132 Prismacolor Premier Soft Core plus 11 of the 18 extra colours.  It was cheaper to buy the 132 pack instead of the 150 on Amazon.ca and then I will buy the extra colours separately as I can find them in an art store close to home.  

To make it easier to find a colour, I separated all of my pencil crayons into trays from Michael’s.  I have 9 trays right now (black, white & metallic/brown/green/blue/red & pink/grey/purple/yellow & cream/orange & peach), but I could separate the colours more since some trays have more than one colour in them.

I already made enough tags for each tray.  Here are a few of the colour cards I made this morning.  I finished the black, white & metallic and brown.  Than I started on the greens colours.  Now I can see how each pencil crayon looks when I colour ... light, medium and dark.  Some of the greens look like blues, even thought the name of the colour says green (Peacock Green and Light Green).  Not sure if I will move them to the blue tray or keep them in the green one.  I’ll decide after I finish making all my colour cards. 

Not sure if I will put them all on 1 ring with cardstock colour dividers or each colour on it’s own ring.  I’ll decide when they are all done.

Anyone else colour?  Have you separated your pencil crayons into colour groups?  Have you made any colour cards?

Birthday card for my niece Katie

Yesterday, was my niece Katie’s birthday.  Here is the card I made for her.  My sister told me some things that Katie likes so I could make a personalized card.  She likes pink, unicorns, hummingbirds and outdoors.  I went with the outdoors theme, but wanted to add some pink balloons, floss for string and a ribbon to hold them.  Katie loved the card.

Inside the card on the left side is a cabin in the woods.

Inside the card on the right side are 2 deer (male and female) in the woods.

I still have 1 more card due this week for my oldest son Jaspar.

Painting more miniatures

I have spent several days over the past 2 weeks helping my oldest son Jaspar paint more of his Warhammer army.  Last week I painted the 5 men that sit on top of the 5 horses I showed you last time.  Here are the men and their horses.

Here are the men sitting on the horses.

Jaspar painted 5 men that were already glued on to their horses.  They all started out the silver, then he put a primer on them (blue like on the bases).  He did a good job painting the men and horses, but he doesn’t have the patience to make sure all the blue primer was covered up.  So I touched up all 5 of his men on horses for him.  They were much harder to paint because they were glued to the horses.

Yesterday we started painting a different army (30 Phoenix guards).  They were all primed with red paint.  Jaspar painted the gold on their armour (chain mail), feathers on the head and gloved hands.  They he passed them to me to paint their faces (flesh), and their weapons.  He then took them back to put a red wash all over them.

Tomorrow we start painting another army.

Birthday card for Sarah

Today is Sarah’s birthday.  She is my youngest son Jordyn’s girlfriend/fiancé (my future daughter-in-law).  I created hers at the same time as I made my nephew’s because they both love the Zelda video games.  I was already creating one, why not make 2.  They are slightly different.  Sarah’s card is smaller and fits in a pre-made envelope.  Glenn’s I had to cut down a large brown envelope.

Here is the front to look like a Nintendo Switch console.

The inside of the card shows the character Link and a Tri-Force (triangle).

As usual I stamped my name on the back.

Fully Finished Gallery #5

I finished stitching Just Nan’s BlueBird Tweet back in June 2015.  I finally assembled it last month.  I was surprised that it would stand up on the wire legs.

I already showed these but they were finished last month.

Floral 2019 SAL April update #3

I finally completed the April flower block.

I also started the May flower block.  I only completed the blue butterfly.

Here is what the May block should look like when it is completed.  If you are interested you can join the Floral 2019 SAL on Lesley Teare’s blog.

Painting Warhammer Miniatures

I guess I don’t have enough hobbies, I spent yesterday helping my oldest son Jaspar paint some of his Warhammer Miniatures.  Here is what I accomplished after 6 hours of painting.  I’m a perfectionist, so everytime I used one colour and it touched the other colour I had to touch up the colours.  Thank goodness I only used 4 colours to paint the horses.  He wants to paint his whole army (a few hundred figures) by the end of the month so he can battle his brother Jordyn.

He doesn’t feel like painting today, so I’m able to play in my craft room.  I will try to finish the April flower block.  Not sure what else to work on yet.

Floral 2019 SAL April update #2

I stitched a little bit on the bottom flower.  I hope to finish it tomorrow.

Floral 2019 SAL April update #1

I continued to work on the April block.  I finished one flower including the backstitching and the butterfly.  I hope to work on it again tomorrow.

Here is a reminder of what the April block looks like.

Floral 2019 SAL April block

I finally started the April block. Here is my little bit of progress.

My New Craft Room

Hi Everyone.  I’m so excited.  I finally have my own craft room.  It’s not as beautiful as some of the ones I have seen on Pinterest and on blogs, but it is mine and it didn’t cost me any extra money.  I used furniture we already had around the house.

This used to be my youngest son Jordyn’s bedroom.  He bought a house almost 2 years ago.  At first we made it into an exercise room.  But then decided to move the exercise equipment to to basement so we can exercise whenever we want to.  It was hard to exercise in this room during the daytime because our oldest son sleeps during the day (the bedrooms are right beside each other), he works nights.  Jordyn went through a stage where he loved everything Egyptian.  So we painted his bedroom like he was inside a pyramid.  We used 3 different browns.  Chocolate for the accents (doors and window trim).  Medium brown for the walls and a very light brown for the ceiling.  We then painted brown lines to simulate blocks as if it was the cracks in the pyramid walls.  Next we painted Hieroglyphics.  We put the whole alphabet on the wall so people could decipher the 3 names we spelt on the walls.  I also did 4 cross stitch pictures for the room, which I got to keep when he moved.  

The 2 shown in this photo are Lanarte kits I bought of Queen Nefertiti and King Tut.   The Heiroglyphics name on this wall under the cross stitch spells JORDYN.  The black shelf in this photo is all my cross stitch supplies.  The Drawer unit holds all my DMC floss on bobbins.  I have a chair so my husband has a place to sit when he comes in to visit (he works from home) and wants to look out the window at our backyard.

This photo shows the back of the bedroom door (chocolate brown).  I put a thin bookcase behind the bedroom door which holds all my cross stitch magazines.  Inside the closet is a filing cabinet on wheels so I can access it easily because it holds all my cross stitch books (hard and soft cover), scrapbooks, photos, etc.  I also put my ironing board up here so when I want to sew or finish a cross stitch project it will be handy.

My oldest son Jaspar still lives at home.  He is sharing part of my room to store his Warhammer miniatures (on the metal shelf on the right) and Magic Cards on the smaller shelf below the window and beside the chair.  The photo on the wall is another cross stitch.  It spells JORDYN in hieroglyphs and looks like a Cartouche.  The hieroglyphs on the wall under the cross stitch spells JASPAR.

The metal shelf on the left is my sewing, beads, card making, scrapbooking and colouring supplies.  I will eventually buy containers that I think will organize my supplies better, but this works for now.  The hieroglyphics on this wall spells CHRISTIE (our last name). 

This photo shows the hieroglyphics alphabet and several Egyptian plates we found and a cross stitch of Anubis.  His bedroom had a built in desk so I put my desk up next to it in an L shape.  I have an OTT light on the desk.  There is a paper recycling box under the desk along with a garbage can.  I bought a ball chair several years ago at Costco.  It is so comfortable to sit on, much easier on my lower back.

Thanks for visiting with me. 

Nintendo Switch Card #1

I spent yesterday making a card for my nephew Glenn’s 27th birthday.  His birthday is next weekend, but I need to get the card in the mail today so it arrives in time.  I know he still plays svideo games so I made the card look like the Nintendo Switch (console/hand held machine).  I wasn’t thinking and made the card huge, so then I had to custom make an envelope cut from a huge Manila envelope.

Here is the front of the card.  His favourite character is Link from the Zelda series.  I search the internet for graphics to use.  I found a Hyrulian language that is used in one of the games to spell out Happy Birthday.  I also placed a Tri force because it is a popular symbol in the game.

Here is the inside of the card.  I coloured the images (Link; character on the left and the Master Sword with Z for Zelda on the right).


Here is the back where I sign (stamp) my name.  I used yellow and green because they are Zelda/Link colours.

June Goals

June Stitching Goals

Start & Finish Floral April block

Start & Finish Floral May block

Start & Finish Floral June block

Finish something from my FFG pile (June 10)

Stitch something for the 2019 Small SAL (June 28)

Other Hobbies June Goals

Create 4 cards this month ... (3 need to be mailed)

Nephew Glenn’s birthday (June 8)

My future daughter-in-law Sarah’s birthday (June 14)

Neice Katie’s birthday (June 21)

My oldest son Jaspar’s birthday (June 27)

Continue organizing my new craft room

May Stitching Review

Start & Finish Blue Jay ornament (using Cardinal Tweet pattern) YES, I also got him assembled

Start & Finish Floral April block NO, didn’t even start this yet

Start & Finish Floral May block (May 15) NO, didn’t do this one because I have to do April first

Finish something from my FFG pile (May 10) YES, I framed Let’s Visit Canada

Stitch something small for the 2019 Small SAL (May 31) YES, I got the Blue Jay done 

Other Hobbies May Review

Create and mail 3 cards this month... 

Mother’s Day card for my Mother-in-law Jean (May 12). YES

My youngest son Jordyn’s birthday (May 18). YES

My sister Pamela’s birthday (May 26). YES

Gardening - plant some flowers after May 24 long weekend. YES