Altar Lace

JMJ

These were designed using Sand Castle Designs software (I couldn’t have done it without it!), which gives a “preview” of the finished pieces.

The design was inspired by a filet crochet piece that is no longer online (too bad–it was beautiful!).

The two smaller pieces are meant to hang from niches holding figures of the Blessed Virgin & St. Joseph, respectively. They are 18″ by 5″, crocheted with size 50 thread & a size 11 hook, using triple crochet, chain 3 filet (instead of the usual double crochet, chain 2, so each square is 4 stitches instead of the usual 3), which makes the design stand out more.

These first two were crocheted starting from the short side, left to right.

The large piece is meant to drape from the front of the altar. It’s 54″x 10″, with the same size thread & hook & filet type as the other two. For a chart large enough to use, double click on the image & then click the magnifying glass. The second chart makes it easier to count the filled blocks. I’m using both for my own work.


I hope you’re inspired to pick up your crochet hook & join me in beautifying the house of God!

Miniature Landscape Box Card

JMJ

Here’s what happened when my dream materialized,
of a miniature garden meeting a box card:

Swans

Lift the lid…

Dogs

(my photos of the inside didn’t turn out, but they’re similar to the…)

Sheep

Teddy Bears

I can’t get enough of these! One of these days I need to make one for myself so I can just look at it :)! Pictures just don’t capture the magic of them…and that little teddy bear on the swing is too cute! (not that he wanted to stay there–he wanted to jump off & play somewhere else! ;).

The boxes are as large as I can make them from 8 1/2″x 11″ coverstock (final 3D size is roughly 2 1/2″ on all sides–slightly taller than wide).

Lids are cut,  folded & glued (the white rectangles are the tabs that hold them together).

Most of the pieces were cut using a Silhouette Portrait.

The grass is a photo of our lawn.

The water is a photo of the sky, made “watery” with “Glossy Accents”.

The bridge is made by curling a strip of chipboard & gluing tiny twigs of mock orange over it. The railings are cut from chipboard & glued on.

The bench is quilled from strips of coverstock.

The first couple of trees were made using this tutorial, and later ones were made in a similar way, but using branched mock orange twigs taped together with brown floral tape, still gluing on snippets of twine to fill out the “branches” before adding the “leaves” (it was quicker & less messy). Instead of painted sawdust (which I don’t have), I used crumbled dried leaves (mint or parsley, depending which I had in greater quantity). They will fade more over time than the painted sawdust.

The swing is a tiny rectangle of chipboard threaded onto crochet thread–which kept twisting on me! I finally dropped the thread in boiling water & let it dry before using it, which seemed to help relax it. The thread is then glued to the branches of the tree (which requires some patience).

The flowers are mostly punched & shaped with a stylus on a mouse pad. The ones inside are glued around clumps of more dried leaf crumble around tiny stones, both for decoration & to give the sides a little more weight so they fall when the card is opened (the sides still need a little coaxing to go flat).

The teddy bears are cut flat & pasted back to back (so they’re brown on both sides) & shaped to fit the setting.

Swans are folded so the triangle is underneath, holding the “tails” apart. Heads & necks are glued together.

Dogs & sheep are folded & glued at the tabs (the long strip wraps around to form the underbelly). This template also includes a sitting dog, which I don’t have in the photos.

The ends of the bows are folded (rounded, not creased folds) to overlap in the center, where they are glued. The piece sticking out at the center is then folded around (over) the ends & glued.

To sign the cards, I either wrote on the inside of the top before gluing it together or wrote on a little square of paper that I then glued into the top.

If you make something like these, I’d love to see it!