Sheet Music Gift Card Envelopes

Repurpose old sheet music into pretty envelopes for gift cards.

I needed to make a cute gift bag of some sort for the embroidery scissors from last week's giveaway. I came across an old sheet music book when tidying up that came in handy.

I bought book of music in a charity shop at least 30 years ago (eek) when as a teenager I was learning piano. My ridiculously optimistic teenager self thought I would be able to play anything if I practiced enough. Ha ha! The reality was I didn't practice enough and certainly never got to the point where I could play anything in this book! I had used a few sheets for card making a while ago and then forgotten all about it.  I made this simple little flat gift bag and slipped the scissors inside ready to send to the lucky winner.

The gift bag turned out pretty cute and made me think a smaller version might make a nice envelope for giving gift vouchers.   To make you own sheet music gift card envelopes you will need: Old sheet music (any old books would work nicely too) Sewing Machine with an old needle Sewing thread Hole punch Lace or ribbon Optional - stamps and ink pads
Cut 2 8cm x 13cm pieces of sheet music.

Stitch round 3 sides, leaving 1 short side open. 

If you start stitching an inch or so down the side and immediately go backwards to the top, then stitch down the side you won't have to worry about the ends undoing but at the same time you are not perforating the paper more times than necessary.

If you want to, add a design or 2 using any stamps and ink you might have. I don't have masses of stamps, mainly ones that have been free gifts on magazines.

I found bolder, thicker designs worked best. Anything too fine and detailed didn't show well on the busy background. These were my tests on scrap bits of paper.

I like how the brighter colours came out too, I thought gold would be lovely but really it was just a bit disappointing. Maybe embossing it would work ... I'll try that next time.

Next use a hold punch to make 2 holes at the open edge. You could measure, I just eyeballed it. 

Pop in your gift card then thread a length of lace or ribbon through the holes and secure with a bow. A length of about 42cm should be about right. 

I tried lace, thin ribbon (those ribbon loops you get in new clothes are idea), embroidery thread and raffia.

I'm not sure which I like best, the ones with a stamp or the ones without. 

I suggest keeping a sewing machine needle especially for sewing with paper. I used the one I had wrecked a few weeks ago when I made my cork and fabric key ring. I'm now keeping it separately especially for projects like this. Don't ruin a new one!

Handmade Monday #24

Welcome to Handmade Monday,
our weekly craft link up.

Hellooooo and welcome to another Handmade Monday. This is the place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas or find some new inspiration.
I hope everyone had a good week, I've been papercrafting with some old sheet music I'd forgotten all about and will have a few projects to share soon.

Here are the features from last week's Handmade Monday:
Don't you just love the hand quilting on this beautiful baby quilt by CJ made? Such a labour of love and such a fabulous gift. 

String art has had such a resurgence recently and I love this beautiful and colourful classroom name sign that My Busy Beehive made for her niece, a newly qualified teacher.

Congratulations, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

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We are all about sharing and caring here at Handmade Monday so when you do link up please take some time to visit some other links and leave a comment. Plus if you are able do share a few on the social media of your choice. (I know the world of tweets, likes, shares and hashtags is not for everyone so whatever you can do will be much appreciated!)
Every entry to Handmade Monday gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board. It's a group board so if you'd like to join and pin your own Handmade Monday entries (save me doing them all!) then just make sure you follow the board on pinterest and send me a message including the email you use for pinterest and I'll invite you.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

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Sharpening your craft punches

How to sharpen your craft punches.

Are you an old skool papercrafter who uses scissors craft knives and punches? I am. Paper is a fantastic medium for crafting, it's relatively inexpensive and really versatile. But over time it does blunt everything you use to cut it.  I was sharpening a few of my punches this week and thought I'd share what I do in case you are suffering from blunt punch syndrome yourself.
I going to be super English here and use all English terminology, where you live you may call this something else but the photos will help! What you need is some thick tin foil. The kind you get pies in from the supermarket, or that your takeaway curry comes in. This seems to work much better than regular kitchen foil as I found that can get caught up in the punch.

First throughly wash and dry the tin foil dish - you don't want bits of pastry or curry in your punches!
Cut the crimped edge and then smooth the foil with a bone folder or wooden lolly stick (popsicle stick - that's a translation I do know!) 
Now punch away - do a handful with each punch you want to sharpen.
You will now have sharper punches and a load of lovely shiny shapes you can use for your crafting.

Just be careful if your foil is very thick as the edges may be a little bit sharp, with the foil I used mine were fine. I tried this with a much thicker foil dish that a joint of meat had come in, one of those where you can simply bung it in the oven - no nasty roasting dish to clean afterwards. I found that was a little too thick and most of my punches wouldn't go through it at all, I'm going to use that for some embossing instead I think.  I'm planning to use these shiny shapes on cards, either just glued on as embellishments or in shaker cards - do you have any more brilliant ideas for me? 

Handmade Monday #23

Welcome to Handmade Monday,
our weekly craft link up.

Hi and welcome to another Handmade Monday, the place to share your makes, bakes and other handmade craft ideas or just find some new inspiration.

It's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK so I'm taking a weekend off, scheduling this (fingers crossed it's all ok) and visiting your links later in the week.

Don't forget, I have a pair of these beautiful embroidery scissors to give away to anyone with a UK address, there's still time to enter, details here.

I have a 10% discount code for anyone not in the UK too. They really are great, super sharp little scissors - I'm not just saying that. The only reason I'm giving them away is because I already have a pair of stork embroidery scissors that I've had for years. My mum gave them to me when I was a teenager so I am pretty sentimental about them. I don't NEED 2 pairs and I'd rather someone else made good use of these new ones.

Here are the features from last weeks Handmade Monday:
I might have mentioned before that I hate throwing things away, especially if I might be able to use them one day so I love this pretty clutch bag made from fabric scraps by Vicky Myers Creations.

I love discovering new crochet stitches and I'd not seen this Solomon's knot stitch before. Anna from Tea and a Sewing Machine shows us how. It looks great in this chunky wool from Wool and the Gang (made from waste wool from the yarn making process - how cool is that?) but I imagine it would look equally good with something finer. 

Congratulations, here is a "Yay! I was featured" button for your blog.

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Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

We are all about sharing and caring here at Handmade Monday so if you do link up please take some time to visit some other links and leave a comment. Plus it would be great if you could share a few on the social media of your choice. (I know the world of tweets, likes, shares and hashtags is not for everyone so whatever you can do is fine!)
Every entry to Handmade Monday gets pinned onto our Handmade Monday pinterest board . It's a group board so if you'd like to join and pin your own Handmade Monday entries (save me doing them all!) then just make sure you follow me on pinterest and send me a message including the email you use for pinterest and I'll invite you.

The rules for Handmade Monday are simple:

• Did you make it? Yes - hooray, we'd love to see it!
• Add the link to a specific blog post, not your main site URL.
• Link up to 3 posts each week.
• Mingle - visit some of the other links - comment - share - let's support one another and grow our craft community.

If you're not sure on anything, more information can be found here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Embroidered Sampler Bag

Give an inexpensive pre made bag a pretty traditional sampler effect.

Way back in February I visited the CHSI stitches show at the NEC near Birmingham and had a fab time seeing lots of lovely new trends and products in the craft world. One of my favourite bits of the day was the bloggers brunch where I got to meet some of my blogging friends in real life, made some new blogging friends and had a lovely workshop and goody bag from DMC. 

At the show, whilst we chatted, we all started a little embroidery on the pre made drawstring bags using some printed Magic Sheet and Coloris thread from DMC. Most people cut out letters to make a phrase or name but I stuck the whole alphabet to my bag with the idea to make a sampler style embroidery. I did share the beginnings of this project on Instagram at the time.

You just peel the backing from the Magic sheet and press it firmly to your fabric and start stitching. I used a simple backstitch with 2 strands of the Coloris thread. I dotted the i & j with french knots. Once the alphabet was completed I just rinsed it under the tap and the magic sheet turned to jelly then vanished.

Once it dried I used a washable pen to draw a wavy border.

I worked the embroidery on the border in the same way as the alphabet, 2 strands of Coloris thread with backstitch and lazy daisy stitches for the flowers and leaves.

The blue washable pen just washes out as easily as the magic sheet did. After a good ironing I was happy with the look but I was a bit disappointed that the darker pieces of the thread showed through where I had dragged them across the back between letters. It doesn't really show in the photos but in real life it was enough to annoy me! 

This is what slowed me down and made this take 2 months to finish. after leaving it on one side for a while the solution was a quick simple lining. 

I used a little bit of floral fabric from my stash. I just made a bag the same size as the drawstring bag, then wrong side out, popped it inside the embroidered bag. Then I turned the top edge under and top stitched round just under the drawstring casing.

I am happy now! A lovely new project bag to keep my next little make all together.