Stampin' Workshop

Yesterday my daughter Stephanie used my house to have a Stampin' Up! workshop. We made 10 cards for $10.00. Cute stuff....and fun. There were ten of us who stamped, gabbed and ate on yummy Chicken Enchilada Casserole, tortilla chips and salsa, veggies and dip, and strawberry shortcakes for dessert. Yummmmie!

From January through March, Stampin' Up has what they call Sale-a-bration where you earn free stamp sets for certain sales. Needless to say my family are some of Stephanie's best customers!! lol Some of the 3 sets of cards we made were using some of the free sets. This card was made using a stamp set called Bliss (that I got for free) and Pear Pizazz paper.

And 3 of these using a Hydrangea hostess set and the pear pizazz paper.

And 4 of these little 3x3" cards using free designer paper called Ice Cream Parlor and a stamp set called A Good Egg. It's cute and comes with the sayings "Happy Easter" and "You crack me up". :o)

Needless to say, I didn't sew any this weekend but that's what weeknights are for, right?

Hey, lookie!

Looking around Blogger (after having my heart attack and where did my blog go?), I found this neat new feature. (At least I think it's new. Well, it's new to me!) lol You can get an email when I add a new post. You know how I have a dry spell every now and then.....and then I might do two or three posts in a day? Well, now you don't have to keep checking in. You can get an email update. I added a link over there......

I did this for my sister actually but hey, if it makes you happy too, it's a win-win. :o)

Boy, did I get a scare!!!

When I did my post yesterday posting pictures of my cards and talking about National Quilting Day, I tried to make some edits but Blogger wouldn't let me. It also gave me trouble when trying to save my current comments. I finally decided to just leave it and posted it as is. Then tonight my sister called me and asked what happened to my blog? "What? Nothing, it's still there." "Oh no it isn't" she says. ACK!!! That was kind of scary. I know I'm not selling anything and there are only a few people who actually read this thing but still. I never really thought of it but I kind of had this feeling like this stuff would at least be here until I didn't want it here anymore. I guess
Blogger showed me!!! But I'm back for now, so "WHEW!".

Yesterday and today I worked on making five more Jared Takes a Wife blocks. Then I laid the blocks on my bed to see if I had enough. I think I do. I'll need about a 12" border all the way around so once I get the sashing on, I'll have to see if I have to go fabric shopping. Until now, all of the blocks were from stash except for the sashing. But I'm not sure what will look good until the top is done.

My sister Isabel sent me a link to Holly Holderman's site so I thought I would share it too. If you go to her site, she has a Tip page and right here, and she gives a great tip on sashing. Now, I am not a perfectionist sewer so my blocks are not always the perfect size so I don't do as she says for cutting the fabric on grain. I need the stretch so I can ease in my blocks (sometimes). Other than that, I liked the idea. For my blocks, I put thin strips of painters tape on my ruler so I could mark the sashing strips with an erasable marker.
There were four places I wanted to make my marks so this is the view of the whole section.

And though it took me a while to do it, and caused some pinning on each block, the finished result is worth it. As Isabel told me, with my star points being red, it would probably show quite a bit if the blocks weren't evenly stitched across from each other. I'll have to do the same thing with the the sashing when attaching the rows. :o(

Off to get some sleep so I can pretend to be awake at work tomorrow. It's been raining pretty hard here all day and the wind has been blowing. Maybe a tree will fall in my driveway like I saw on the news and I can stay home tomorrow. LOL Okay, probably not......

Happy National Quilting Day!

It's the 3rd Saturday in March. You can read more about it by doing a search online. One group started it with a few members and BAM!!! You know how quilters are. :o)

You won't see any quilts here just yet though. I'm off to my sewing room this morning to sew but wanted to post some pictures of cards we made on Thursday night. This is my Easter cards I made using my Big Shot for the background embossing, and the tag that the little egg is glued to. The little tag is left over from all those wedding favors (in black and yellow) we did a few months ago.

My daughter Stephanie, who just started out as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator found the design on a blog called Crafty Creations by Beth and wanted to make the little favor boxes. I wanted to make cards to mail so I changed up the design for mailing.

My buddy Neena worked on some thank you cards for people that sent gifts and flowers for her dad's funeral service. She was going to add a button but isn't this beautiful? She stamped the big design in clear and embossed it. She then used a sponge with chocolate chip ink to rub around the design and this is what she got. Mmmmm, so pretty.

Okay, off to go change my crafty hat and be a quilter today!! Have a great day, whatever craft form you choose!

Spring forward, Spring cleaning!

This post (from the pack rat) is being made while I take a break from cleaning, sorting and trying to organize. My paper crafting space is/was out of control. I don't have a very big surface for making cards and when the little table is covered with junk, papers, print outs, etc., it's even harder.

Yesterday and today were sort of stay home days. No plans really so I dug in. My sister works at a school and they had a yard sale. She grabbed me some white shelves that were new in the package for $2.00 each. Yeehaw! I moved my metal racks, which left me holes to patch but I'm sure that won't get done. I asked hubby where the paint is from this room and I got "the look" like you're kidding me right? :o) So, the holes will stay but it's okay. I've got enough going on to not even see little holes in the wall. Lots of cleaning and I found a table for making cards. Yay!!!!

I kind of messed up though because my wire baskets used to hang from the racks. When I moved them, I forgot about leaving space for the baskets to hang so now they are using my shelf I wanted for table-top stuff. Argh....I guess I should've hired an engineer for this project. LOL
I also hung up another magnet strip that I got from the Crate & Barrel outlet a few months ago. I had some miscellaneous tins that I needed another strip for so that's up too. Check!

And while I was at it, I cleaned up my ribbon basket and my paper. Gotta get back to work. For this side of the spare bedroom to look this good, I had to move a lot of junk. And guess where it is? On the other side of the room. LOL Breaks over!

My first quilt finish for 2011!

Took me long enough but I finally got a quilt finished. This is the one I worked on up in Big Bear with my girlfriends last month. So yay for me!!
The blocks are from a swap we did several years ago on Backporch Friends, a Yahoo quilt group. I was going to keep this one but my friend Nora saw it and practically drooled on it so I'm going to give it to her for her birthday in June. Now if I can just keep from misplacing it between now and then!!!

This is the label I made and stitched on last night. I love how easy it is to make quilt labels with
Printed Treasure sheets.

One down..........so many to go!!!