Playin' with paper!

My daughter Stephanie had a Stampin' Up! Big Shot workshop at our house today.  I think there were about 18 ladies in our little house!!  Oh, and there was ONE adorable baby.  :o)  Me and my oldest daughter Kelley got to hold little Mason for quite a while his mama was making her projects.  

We made this really cute gift bag with the Love letterpress plate (the background on the red paper) and stamped using a stamp set called Sweet Cake.  I love the combination of the red paper and the blue paper called Pool Party.

This little Valentine card was made using the same Love letter press and the cutest darned stamp set called Greeting Card Kids.

We made a little candy favor box with the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, a scallop punch and the die cut called Two Tags.  The stamp set is called P.S. I Love you.  We tucked a little package of M&M's in there and it would be just the cutest little 'goodie' to give to kids or co-workers.



The last project was using a Mason jar and cutting out a label with a metal die set called Labels Framelets and the Chalkboard vinyl.  I had three boxes of red and white butter mints left over from Christmas so we let anyone who wanted them fill their jar if they wanted to.  I had purchased some of these big Sweetarts so that's what I filled my jar with. 

Stephanie knew she would be busy with cutting out kits for the party and asked me if I could use a new line of paper to make some samples.  I used craft cardstock and vanilla for the cards themselves and the new line of paper for Sale-a-bration called Everyday Enchantment.  They are such pretty papers, it was easy to make pretty cards, even for me!  lol

Hope you had a nice weekend.  Gotta get some sewing time in this week so it's a good thing I got my paper fix this weekend.

Meant to Bee...

My friend Debbie's daughter is getting married in a few months.  Her daughter's nickname is "Bee" so that is the theme for her Bridal Shower.  It's a cute theme to go with and the color combination of black and yellow is so fun and fresh. 

Debbie had a bunch of decorations she's been gathering in mostly the colors of black and yellow so she came over tonight and we cut out some accent pieces with my Cricut and the Walk in My Garden cartridge. 

A family friend made some centerpieces so we glued a bee to a kitchen skewer and it seemed like that was all they needed.

 This pictures a little blurry but here's a closer shot of the bee in the vase.

I cut out a little wedding saying, Mr. & Mrs. from the Sweetheart cartridge. The words were cut out at 5" and I cut a shadow so it would stand out.  The beehive was cut at 7" and also cut a shadow. The little tiny bee is from the "card" option on the cartridge. I think I cut it at 1".

I hope to get back to my sewing project tomorrow night.  Juggling crafts is hard to do!  lol

A Little Quilting....a Lot of Shopping!

My sister Isabel and I went to Road to California on Thursday.  It's our big quilt show in Ontario where there are many beautiful quilts and lots and lots of vendors.  We did our part to boost the economy (lol) and had great sister time!  I posted pictures from both me and my sister's cameras.  The pictures don't do the quilts justice but hopefully you'll enjoy seeing some pretty quilts.  They are loaded on my webshots album here.

Friday night when we got home, Isabel started picking out some 30's fabrics from a charm pack she bought so she could make the little 12 Days of Christmas mini mystery from Temecula Quilt Co. like the one I was working on.  While she did that, I finished quilting my mini and I wasn't happy that I didn't add a small white border before adding the bigger border.  I said something about adding rickrack and Isabel saw three piles I had in a container on my window ledge.  The white looked best so I added it and now I'm very happy with my little quilt.

I just stitched in the ditch around the quilt and then did either an 'X' in the block or stitched around the design.  Nothing fancy for this little one.

One of the things I bought at Road was this little Kitty panel from Holly Holderman.  Oh my gosh, it's so cute, it makes me smile when I look at it.  One of the booths had a quilt hanging in their booth with just 4 kitty blocks but I'm going to make it with 7.  I got all my alternating blocks tonight (me and Isabel worked it up in EQ7) and I need to add a little fabric border around the kitties. 

I know I shouldn't have started a new project with so many UFO's but I couldn't help myself.  The floral prints are as cute as the kitties and they just wouldn't leave me alone.  :o)

Are you organizing with the New Year?

Seems like everyone is motivated to organize at the beginning of every year.  January does that to us, right?  New beginnings, clean slate, start over, yada, yada.  I haven't really gotten to organizing my craft or sewing room even though it needs it REALLY badly but I feel like I just got the Christmas decorations put away and I'm not ready to plunge into that just yet.  

I did spend last craft night doing some sorting with my buddy, Neena.  Instead of making cards, we sorted through our stash boxes.  I have been wanting to send out birthday cards to family and friends every year so this year I decided I better jot down the birthdays and pick out cards for the birthday person so they are ready to get in the mail for their 'special day'.  I still have a little time before the first birthday so hopefully, I can get this tast finished on time to get the first one sent out.  I do have to make several more cards now though.  I'm short masculine and kid cards.  Guess I better schedule some more playtime!

And since woman does not live by playing with paper alone, I got in my sewing room today and got to stay in there all day!  I was a happy camper!  I finished my little wallhanging mystery from Temecula Quilt Co.  I wish I would've used a different fabric for the border, something a little darker maybe but I didn't know if I would keep this little quilt so I kept going onto the quilting.

I got it spray basted and under the needle.  Got it started by 'stitching in the ditch' but had to quit to get ready for the work-week.  :o(

Hello January!!!

This is the picture I saw when I opened my new calendar at work.  In case you don't recognize his work, it's a Norman Rockwell.  Pop my face on that chubby little baker's body and this is the story of my life. Reading a diet book while surrounded by delicious temptations.  LOL

No resolutions for me for this new year but me and two of my sisters are doing a challenge together.  We will try to eat better, get some exercise and lose some of the "Christmas cookie" weight we gained.  I know some of you have those "good genes" and don't have to watch what you eat but some of you are like us and it's a challenge to diet.  Especially when we love to craft, sew, quilt, stamp, etc., etc......all sitting crafts.  If you're on a diet, think of us.  Misery loves company!!  :o)

One last Christmas share....I think!

I wanted to share a couple of pretty homemade cards I got for Christmas.  I have a wire tree I got at Costco several years ago.  It hangs it in the entryway which is kind of nice so you can see them all the time.

This snowman card reminds me of Wilson, the neighbor on the Tim Allen show, Home Improvement.  My pal Neena made it.  It's so cute and so detailed.  She does really nice cards, don't you think?  :o)  The snow was torn paper and the snowman was made from Stampin' Up! punches.  I love the look of white stamped on Kraft cardstock.  So cute.

This next card was from my sister, Isabel.  She's been to several of our Stampin' Up! parties and you know how misery loves company?  We have been a bad influence on her!!  :o)  She embossed the white background, used the Big Shot for the big scallop and circle that the design in son and the other elements are SU punches. 

And I "finally" got into my sewing room last night and made some little blocks.  There was a '12 Days of Christmas' mystery on www.temeculaquiltco.com and I thought it would be a nice small project to try with some charms I had in my stash.  The one on the site is being done with Civil War prints but I had more 30's charms than CW prints.  I have today's block printed but I'm still packing Christmas boxes and have to go back to work tomorrow so I might have to wait til later this week to do the other blocks.  The instructions are up on their site if you don't have anything better to do.  LOL

I guess those Christmas boxes aren't going to pack themselves....darn it!!