April Fool Designs Blog

2011-11-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

On the left is a beaded heart pendant made with dyed labradorite and is on an organza ribbon which can be tied to a length to suit you. And above is a howlite choker with a white jade and howlite heart pendant.

2011-10-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

A nice spooky moonstone necklace for Halloween

Red and black

2011-10-08T11:28:00.001-07:00

The necklace on the left is made with black onyx faceted rice beads and coral nuggets. I had never thought of making a quadrant from coral nuggets but it worked rather well

The Haematite bracelet on the right is either for men or women

2011-10-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

I think this necklace looks very Christmassy with the gold of the pyrite (fool's gold) and the cranberry red of the agate

2011-10-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

This is a black onyx and copper necklace which can be worn either as a lariat or a choker, sadly the photo doesn't show it off at its best.

2011-10-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

This is labradorite rounds and rondelles in a weave, unfortunately, the schiller on the beads doesn't show to well on this photograph but it varies from bright blue to gold.

2011-09-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

This is a lariat style necklace using blue striped shell, blue/grey shell and white jade.

2011-09-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

This is smokey quartz and pyrite

Handmade Gemstone Jewellery

2011-09-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

It is a long time since I was on here because I haven't been to creative for a long time but now I am making handmade gemstone jewellery which I hope to sell. Each piece is unique and no one else will have the same design.

This design is made up with black labradorite ovals, faceted antique crystal and haematite tubes. It will soon be for sale at www.aprilfooldesigns.com

Winter Exchange

2009-12-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

Here is my Winter exchange from Jenny, it is beautifully stitched and finished off. It is now hanging on the wall. There is a lovely card too but I forgot to bring it through to scan :(

Halloween exchange

2009-11-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

It was stitched by Angie and is so cute, I absolutely love it and it is so beautifully finished off. Thanks Angie

2009-07-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here is my lovely and beautifully stitched summer exchange from Michelle.

Friends

2009-05-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

I found this quote when I was looking for a friendship quote to design a cross stitch and found this one which I thought was lovely. The card used for the pink bras was able to be shaped so the bras look more realistic but the blue card was too thick.

A bit late but Happy Easter

2009-04-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely piece Hannah stitched for me in the Easter exchange. I think it is a Lizzie Kate design.

Instructions for folding purses

2009-03-29T12:24:00.001-07:00

Here are the instructions for folding the purses. Please just use them for your own use as the instruction sheets are copyright to me. I hope they will show up a decent size when you click on them

Little folded purses

2009-03-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

I was watching television the other night and someone was wearing a paper hat. When I saw them I remembered that I used to fold them, boats and handbags when I was little. In fact we used to fold really big ones and use them as clutch bags when dressing up.

That night I found some pretty paper and decided to fold some for putting on cards and these are the results. I haven't added a sentiment yet as I don't know what they are going to be.

I found this today

2009-02-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

I was clearing out my cupboard today and came upon this embroidery. I had forgotten all about it and I think I must have done it when I was still at school or just after leaving (1972 or 1973). I designed it myself and was going to make it into a shoulder bag and do vaguely remember embroidering a long strap but it is missing. There are lots of different embroidery stitches, most of which I have forgotten. The centre is a mass of French knots and beads.

I don't think it looks too bad really....

New Baby Cards

2009-02-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

These are teabag folded cards made with some sheets I have designed to compliment my teabag paper designs. I have to say that I am quite pleased with them. On these new sheets there will be 2 backgrounds and 16 teabag papers, enough to make 2 cards.

2009-02-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting

with backgrounds for my teabag tiles

and this is the first ones I came up with. The St Patrick's Day card was done for a challenge on Circle of Crafters forum and the other was just made for fun. The fold on the left card is just the simple triangular fold and the one on the right is called Heather's Matches fold which is a lot of fun to do.

Kong Hee Fat Choi

2009-01-17T02:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the Ox starts on January 26th. Here are 2 cards with the same elements, but arranged in a different way. They are both printed but look like they have been stamped.

A bit early but - Happy Easter

2009-01-10T03:26:00.000-08:00

This is one of my own drawings turned into a very simple 3d découpage. I just wish I could think of a name for him

Happy New Year

2009-01-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Here are my first couple of cards for this year. They are raised pyramid or pyramage cards made from some Japanese prints I found. The one on the left is a mother and her child and the one on the right is a woman on an old-fashioned telephone.

One last Christmas card

2008-12-21T09:59:00.001-08:00

I found this clip art Santa Claus and I just had to turn him into a 3d découpage, as he is so cheery looking. I made it a very simple card, as it didn't need any embellishment

Tiny biscornu

2008-12-20T14:57:00.001-08:00

If I ever think of doing one this small again, people have my permission to slap me, as they are so fiddly to join up.

The design is an old blackwork Christmas decoration design (not my own) I found in my charts. It was easy to stitch but the size of it makes it really awkward to join together, but I think it was worth it in the end.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a smaller button, so this one had to do. I think a smaller one would have looked better. I'm going to make it into a scissor keep.

Hanukkah cards

2008-11-24T04:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of Hanukkah cards. I had meant to stitch them but am so behind this year that I had to make them. They are pyramid cards.

My first pyramid cards.

2008-11-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

I could never see the point of them but I was a little bored yesterday and decided to try them. I used Publisher for the images and to save ink I put a white box on every image to save ink. If you do this you have to make sure the smaller images are slightly bigger than the white box so it covers it properly and no white shows. Now I am hooked. There are no sentiments yet because I can't find them.

Christmas card with new teabag fold

2008-11-15T03:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple little card with a new fold from Lucy called Andy's fold. It is a lot easier than it looks and is particularly nice with a snowflake paper. Once again I was being thrifty, the card was a freebie, the blue metallic card was a scrap and the sparkly snowflakes were lying around. The teabag paper is one of my own designs.

Quick cross stitch for Christmas

2008-11-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

I saw something in a magazine that gave me the idea for this simple cross stitch wall hanging. It should be a quick stitch for someone. It can be stitched in gold or a gold coloured floss blended with Kreinik blending filament. I wish I had the time to do it myself but I have presents to stitch and I haven't done any for about a week.

A quick and simple Christmas card

2008-10-26T04:14:00.000-07:00

Once again I am being thrifty, the credit crunch and all that. This is made with templates created from one of my drawings. The card used to make Santa is offcuts from Craft Creations and the white has a lumpy texture, the red card is just plain matte. The background gingham is card cut from a shoebox (as they say - "waste not want not"). The card is a red mirror card which was free with a stitching magazine, so all in all it was very cheap to produce

After 8 years

2008-10-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

I found this the other day and thought that it was time I finished it off, considering it has been hanging around the house, stitched but with no embellishments since 2000. I found the gold thread and then some beads, so I sat down and finished it. The little bunches of floss on her apron and in her hair were a bit of a pain but now everything is finished, they were worth the effort. All I need now is to find a nice frame for her. The chart was from the Cross Country Stitcher magazine and is not one of my designs

Being thrifty again

2008-10-12T03:16:00.001-07:00

Us Scots are a thrifty lot and hate to see things go to waste, so when I found some more old Christmas cards, I had to do something with them and here are some of the results. All I need to do now is the inserts and the sentiments and they will be ready for use.

Peace on earth

2008-10-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest design/stitching project. I was playing the other night and came up with this and decided that I had to stitch it. Unfortunately the scan doesn't show up the colour of the cloth as well as I would like it to, it looks navy blue but it is quite a bright royal blue. Also it doesn't show up the sparkly bits in the snowflakes, but I think it is OK. The letters are stitched in white and the flakes are stitched with 2 strands of white and one strand of 032 Kreinik blending filament. It is roughly 8" wide by 5 " high.

It is a quick stitch and only took me a couple of hours for about 3 nights. Easy to do while watching television. It looks a bit skewiff but I just couldn't get it to sit straight in the scanner.

Biscornus, my new obsession

2008-10-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

No doubt you are asking what a biscornu is - they are what I call "little wonky pincushions", however, the word "biscornu" is a French adjective meaning "that which has an irregular form, with projections" or "complicated and bizarre." Unfortunately you can't see the whole of it to appreciate its unusual shape because of my uselessness with a camera, however this gives you an idea what they look like. I have stitched 4 of them so far and have 3 on the go at the moment.

I have designed all of the ones I am stitching and the 2 in the photos above. They don't need to just be used as pincushions, you can add a cord and hang it as a decoration. One of the ones I am stitching at the moment is for a friend's Christmas tree.

Teabag fold cards

2008-09-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

Another of my favourite cardmaking techniques is teabag or kaleidoscope folding, which is a type of origami. You fold 8 (or less or more) papers and make them into little rosettes. This card was made using a fold I made up myself based on another fold. I designed the paper myself, as I do with all the teabag papers I use. I could never find papers that I liked in the shops so started to design them for my own use and then I started to sell them in 2005

More cardmaking

2008-09-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

Keeping with being thrifty, as in my last post, I came across some old Christmas cards, which I was going to throw out. Instead I cut them up and ended up doing 3D découpage with them. I just built the images up on top of a whole card. Doing this saved printing sentiments and inserts for the card. The end result is that they look better than the original card. Unfortunately this picture doesn't show off the 3D aspect of them.

Cardmaking

2008-09-28T14:36:00.000-07:00

As well as cross stitch designing I like to make greeting cards and yesterday I made a few. One set were made from an idea in a magazine which used old buttons to make Christmas trees. This was such a good idea because we have a button box that is full to bursting with old buttons, many of which came from granny's house and many which mum gathered over the years. The cards used were free with a magazine at one time and all the other card used has been in the house for years.

Inspiration

2008-09-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here goes, my very first post on my blog, but what am I going to say - Last night I was looking at some Christmas cards on a website and one of them prompted me to design a new Snowman cross stitch design.