Happy Easter....almost

I've been busy helping with things for my youngest daughter's wedding like picking bridesmaid dresses so I'm a little absent lately from Blogland. Sometimes stuff happens in life that takes away from posting. But I'm putting on my brakes to make some treats for Easter. We are having a family picnic on Saturday, weather permitting. It was supposed to be a lovely 72 degrees and the last news report was drizzles and 62. We'll see who wins, us or Mother Nature.

I love looking at blogs and love when people share their creativity....free of charge, of course! :o) Blogs are great for finding little goodies you can make and share with your family. I found two such sites with cute little freebies I'll pass on to you in case you would like to print and share too!

First, some cute little Peep packs that I thought were perfect for a little family treat. :o) Personally, I don't like Peeps but there are plenty out there that do and heck, even if you don't, these are too cute to pass up. If you can't see the saying from my picture, the website link below has great pictures.
You can find the download on this website. I bought my Peeps at Target but didn't find any Bunny Peeps. I did find lots of colors though so that brightened up my little wire basket.
I also found these cute little toppers. I filled snack size baggies with m&m's, Starburst jelly beans and pastel Hershey Kisses. I just printed them on regular 67 pound cardstock from Office Depot and got the download on this website. And nothing fancy for assembly either. I just stapled them at the bottom.

If you use any of the downloads, I'm sure if you posted a little 'thank you' comment, the creators would appreciate it. Off to chop veggies for potato salad. Happy Easter and I hope you all are able to spend the day with friends and family......in the sunshine. :o)

Back in the sewing room!

Wow, that was a long break of no sewing but I'm back in the saddle again. :o) I've got some swap blocks due in a couple of weeks and I've got to put the sewing machine pedal to the metal!! If you get the McCall's Quilting advertisement, you might have received the free printout for a Scrappity Do Dah quilt. That's what I cut this fabric for. You can read about the swap I did on Yahoo Group, Backporch Friends, here from last September.

So, I went through my stash and picked out some fabrics that have contrast.

I got about 7 sets cut out but I have to mix them up a little more. We don't want to have any duplicates so I might keep some of my extras for a charity quilt. I've got a few more to cut out and then off to get some sewing done.

That's what I've been doing. I hope you've been doing some fun stuff too!

My cards

Here are some of my cards that I made at my sister's. My daughter Stephanie found this concept for a Stampin' Up! party where you make ten cards for $10 but to make it worth her wile (is that how that is spelled???) at parties, she had to use minimal amounts of embellishments. Isabel and I did pretty good just using contrasting paper and a minimal amount of ribbon, brads, etc. We laughed that we made so many cards and barely made a dent in our paper stash.

And while Isabel was making some of those 40 cards she made, I played with the Cricut. Since the Cricut has to be plugged in and set up, you have to have room to keep it set up. In my craft room, it isn't. Needless to say, I don't use it quite as much as I would like to. And with quilting, it gets pushed back even farther down the crafty ladder. :o) So I used a few different cartridges to make a birthday card for my boss's daughter; Accent Essentials for the background shape (in light blue and black), Nifty Fifty for the little dress and dress form and Alphalicious for the words.
The Easter cards my sister made and the card below were done with stamps from the Easter Blossoms set in the Occasions catalog. If you'd like to see the catalog, you can visit the link above for Stephanie's site. :o)

Off to go unpack all of my stuff from my trip............. No fun.

Easter card marathon

My sister was off work this week for spring break so she asked me to take a few vacation days and go to her house and play with our paper stuff and make some cards. I packed up paper, supplies, and basically the kitchen sink and drove there on Saturday. I had to stop once to get air in my tires because all the supplies causing my tires to go flat. hehe....just kidding. but it sure seemed like it!

So my sis got a record 40 cards done in the three days!! Since I had made my Easter cards before I left, I played with the Cricut while she made hers. Here is a picture of her Easter cards in front of her adorable quilt and Easter decorations.

Isabel made this card using a Tulip embossing folder for the outer edge and Easter eggs from a stamp set called Easter Blossoms.My sis is so clever. We went to Michael's and she was looking for a balloon punch so she could cut out all the little eggs. She found the perfect size in the Martha Stewart section. She stamped the egg in various colors and cut it out with the punch and only had to trim off the little balloon tail. Plus, she bought it with a 40% off coupon. Woohoo!
Here are her other two cards. Both using Stampin' Up! decorator papers and that Easter stamp set.

I'll post some more pictures of more cards in the next few days. Whew, I've got some unpacking to do and get ready for work tomorrow. :o(