February Card Workshop

Okay, here are the photos from the card workshop and all our pretty cards. Neena says she just copies from all the creative peeps out there but she still manages to find the great ones for us to play. Here's her set up on the good ol' dining room table.

This was card #1. They turned out so pretty. There were four of us doing the workshop, Neena's sister came over with her 8 year old daughter Summer, me and Latoya, a friend of Neena's. I think it's quite a testimonial to the 'product' and demonstrator because I don't think you can really tell which cards the adults made and which ones Summer made.

And here are some of the Valentine's cards we made.

And the most adorable doggone little milk carton candy holders. I should've taken a picture with the carton out of the holder but I forgot. Take my word for it, they're C-U-T-E!!! :o)

So last night I sat down to address all of my cards and I was a couple short. I made this one with leftovers from the other cardmaking days. I've been reorganizing my 'paper room' and it must be paying off because everything was within an arms reach and made putting this card together very quick and easy!

Little Dresses

I've seen little dresses created into quilts on blogs like Holly's blog and even have a few patterns like Darcy's Dresses and one for mini aprons. Well, I got to thinking the other day that I wanted to do a swap for the online group I do so I started playing in EQ6. The more I started designing, the more this was looking like a dress from the 50's or something Lucy Ricardo would wear. So I called the swap "I Love Lucy" and printed up a pattern to sew up and see how it looked. This was my result.

As I was stitching it up, I was getting excited. It was coming out so cute. Yay!! Then I thought about laying on some embellishments like buttons. So I did that. And then I pictured a little corsage so I traced a circle on scrap fabric from the bottom of a spool and made a yoyo corsage. How's that?

And just so you get some perspective of how nimble my gigantor fingers had to get, here is a flower head pin next to the yoyo corsage. :o)

We'll do the dresses in 30's prints so they should come out pretty cute. They're not due until May 1st so I'll probably go back to this project after I do a few ufo's. I've decided the thing I do the best is juggle.....projects, that is!

I went to my friend Neena's house today to make cards. I'll post the adorable projects we made tomorrow.

Pending Delivery....

Last night I printed up a label for Neena's table runner and got it tacked down. I wasn't going to add a label since it's a runner but thought since it's not for me, I should add one. I just used Word and found a nice background and added a text box. It wasn't perfect but works with the vines on the backing fabric. I'll give it to Neena tonight and then it can decorate her dining room table.

I also played on EQ6 on Tuesday night and created a block that I'm thinking about using for a swap with my online gals. I wasn't sure how it would look so I printed up a pattern and stitched up last night and it stitched up perfect so now to decide on some guidelines!!

My first 2010 finish!

I'm sure I said it before but this was a kit my friend Neena bought and (again) I'm not quite sure how she got me to make it for her because she owns two sewing machines and all the paraphernalia! But it's done and I'll give it to her tomorrow night at TNT (Thursday Night Therapy). :o)
This is the beautiful backing fabric. Pretty stuff, huh?

And I just had to share this cutie-patootie with you. My co-worker Becca gave me this ADORABLE little cut out from a local craft store for my birthday. Isn't it cute? The cherry and the sign both have some glittery chunky stuff on them that make them sparkle so pretty.

For now, they're sitting on my little hutch by the back door. I think I'll try to clean a little clutter in the kitchen and find a special place for it on the counter.

Last night I worked on my BOM stitchery a little bit. I am SO far behind. Wait til I get a hold of Peggy and Robin for talking me into that! LOL I'm working on November and I saw in my checking account and February was just debited. Yikes......

Look what I found!

It's the top to my cutting table! hehe It's sad, isn't it? But I have a tendency to bury it under fabric, papers, half started projects.....you name it. So, I was pretty happy to see it. So happy in fact, that I trimmed the table runner I was working on, sewed on the binding and popped it in the washer tonight. I was hoping for a January UFO finish but that didn't happen. Guess I'll have to work extra hard this month.


And.....I moved my paper supplies into the spare room quite some time ago but hadn't moved my little racks with all my punches and ribbon. I did that on Sunday afternoon. I "think" this was the last of the paper crafts to be moved out of the sewing room. Now, I've asked my hubby to cut me a piece of particle board for that bit of wall above my cutting table for my notions.

Now to go see what my next project will be. It's either the big baseball quilt, aka, "The Quilt for Sasquatch" or the yellow and white kaleidoscope quilt. One has to be done on the longarm and one I can do myself on the Juki. I think that Sasquatch quilt can wait a little longer. :o)

Happy Birthday to me! :o)

I had a follow up eye exam this morning and when I got to work, this is what I found....

Roses, balloons and this yummy HUGE cupcake!

Our coworker is out today so my boss said she was just waiting and waiting for me to get here to see my goodies. I felt so special when I walked in. She did good. OH....and she gave me a card with a hundred dollar gift card to Joann's in it. Woohoo! I have coupons stacked up and now I can go buy replacement blades for my rotary cutter and a new Cricut cartridge and some pretty decorative paper and some new notions and some cute flannel and.....okay, I guess you get the picture.

And speaking of pictures, on the way back to the office from the eye exam, I had to stop and take a picture of our California sky. Can you see the snow-covered mountains in the background? Let me get a little closer....

I love living here. Even will all the crackpots...refering to last nights episode of American Idol taped in Hollywood. Man, there are some crazy people in this world, aren't there? Anyway, I love it here after a good rain. We get green hills, the mountains are covered with snow and usually, we get some blue skies. Sometimes they have that beautiful tan "haze" but today it was fairly clear.

Last night, after my girls went home, I sat and worked on this table runner for my friend Neena. This is a kit she bought and I'm still not quite sure how I got to making it for her (because she does sew!) but here I am. I had a stencil and used my Juki to quilt it. I tried to use my Pfaff but the tention wasn't cooperating. I decided I didn't want to fight with that all night so I pulled out "old reliable" Juki and it worked perfectly. The "machine" worked perfectly, but the quilter has a little to be desired. Oh well, that's why I'm practicing.

I did a little loop-de-loop on the borders and will trim it, put the borders on and tack it down. I'm so close, I can feel it!

My girls are coming over tonight to make some cards. They asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I know they don't have much money and I really don't "need" anything. Stephanie suggested coming over to "play" and I told her that would be a GREAT gift! We might just make repeats of the cards I did with Neena but if there's anything new, you know I'll share it! :o)

Seeing Red....and Pink!

These are some of the cards me and my friends made when we got together last Sunday. This first card was made with an individual stamp called Like-o-meter I got from Stampin' Up! For the base of the thermometer, we used SU Epoxy brads. We thought they added a nice touch to the base of the thermometer. The little dangling hearts I got at the craft show for $1.00 for small baggie of about six. They were the perfect touch to this simple card for our hubbies. Mine is on the left, then Sherrie's, then Neena's.

This is one of the other cards we made. Neena only had peanut M&M's and they are a little too big for these little heart cups so we could only get 4 in there. I won't tell you how many we ate. They obviously were just the right size for our mouths!!!! lol

This next one is similar to the cards shown above but I waited to make these at home and AFTER my trip to Target to get smaller M&M's. Neena said they look really cute with the teeny ones. I bet they look cute with cinnamon red hots too!

This is the last card we made at Neena's but it took a little "homework" too. The glittery cardstock we used for the background is a new paper from SU. It's so pretty and it's double sided so you hate to cover up the side you're not using but what are you gonna do? :o) The little heart that we used was white. I wanted to use vanilla so it sort of matched. I used my Cricut machine and the Doodle Charm cartridge to cut out a new heart and pink scallop behind it. SU has a scallop cutter but you need to use it with the Big Shot or Sizzex. I knew I had a scalloped heart on one of my cartidges so I set up my machine and BAM! I got-ir-done! Sherrie and I also found little "jewels" at the craft show for 99 cents a page. We used them on our cards as a little embellishment. Can you even see the small rhinestones on this card? I think I'll give this one to my mom.

And last, I did this one last night. I used a piece of cardstock from a pack of paper I got at Tall Mouse. One of those big packs with single sided paper!! Go Tall Mouse for knowing you only need one side at a time. DUH! lol And the little hanger is one of the brads I bought at the craft show. They are so darn cute and I knew I had a onsie stamp in my sets. The first one I found was about 1/2" and way too small and then I found this one. It's perfect. This will go with the nursing cover I made.

Okay, I'm on a roll. I think I'll do a few more cards with the candy cups because you know, Valentine's Day will be here before you know it. And I know several people who don't have a sweetie pie so I'm going to send them a little love in the mail.