Stamp Workshop

 

My daughter had a stamping workshop today.  We made two cards of each design.  Good thing.  My stash of cards was getting thin.

 

This card was made using Circle Thinlits, various punches and Another Great Year stamp set.  Love the color combination and paper designs.

 

 

 

Here are the two cards I made.  We used a paper stack called Fresh Prints.  You get 48 sheets in the pack of 4x6" so it's great for making cards.

This was the second card.  We used stamp sets and a punch from Sale-a-Bration.  Stamp sets, Banner Blast and See Ya Later and the punch is called Banner.
 

 

This last card was made using the cloud embossing folder for the background, Sweet Sorbet designer series paper and Summer Sun cardstock.  The stamp set is the same See Ya Later used above.

Love these designs.  They were copied from various cards on Pinterest.

Craft Space Redo

I've been so busy and have been taking pictures of projects but just haven't sat down (empty handed) to post them on my blog.  "Empty handed" because after work, I am usually holding little Emily for a while.  Gotta have priorities, right?

 

A few weeks ago, I redid my spare bedroom that is now my bedroom until my hubby comes back from Turkey.  I packed all the 'stuff' sitting around the room and piled it on the bed.  I took down the small 4' table you can see in the left of the photo and got started.

 

I got me some handy-dandy tools and put a desk together from Ikea.  (Yes, I made another "couple" of trips there!)  lol

 

I put together this end unit for one side of the desk.  I already had a drawer unit I was using under the 4' table for the other side.

I had three kitchen rails up for punches.  Yup, these are my punches.  I put up more rails and a couple of DVD racks for stamp sets.  I'm telling you, if I didn't have hobbies, I'd have million dollar purses or shoes or something else that I would spend my money on.  Maybe a mansion.  I wouldn't save it so I might as well spend it on something.  And now that I'll be retired in a few weeks, I hope I'll have more time to spend playing with these toys!

 

I keep my Stampin' Up! ribbon separate from my craft store ribbon because it matches my inks and markers.  It makes it easier to coordinate my projects.

Here is the desk put together.  It comes with a leg for the center of the table but I purchased an extra one for more support.  I drilled new holes so I could add one to the front and back.  I figured if I'm pressing down stamping, I don't want the table to give and this is working great.

 

 

This is working out really good so far.  I have room to use my Cricut or Sillouette or room for stamping, computer work, etc.  So far, two thumbs up.

 

I still have some sorting to do.  I need to sort through my ribbons, wooden stamp sets, etc., etc.  I swear, it's an unending job.  If I keep bringing it in, I guess I better get some out too!





Sale-a-Bration 2013

I had a Stampin' Up! party yesterday with family and friends.  My daughter, Stephanie, the SU demonstrator came up with these adorable cards.  This first one is from a stamp bundle called Hearts a Flutter.  It has the little framelits to cut out all the shapes after stamping them so it makes it so precise.  I love the colors. 

And we had been wanting to do some masculine cards for the men in our lives.  This is from one of the free sets you can earn if you spend $50 during Sale-a-Bration.  The set has an old phone booth, a vintage bicycle and this carousel.  We loved the tone on tone with this card.

 

Now to go organize my sewing room.  I went to Road to California quilt show Thursday and Friday with my sister.  Boy, did we do some damage!!!

Christmas Card Workshop

My daughter Stephanie had her stamping workshop today.  It was part workshop, part open house so we could get to working on our Christmas cards. 

 

 

We made eight cards using the Connie Stewart Flash Card method of cutting cardstock.  If you haven't seen this method yet, check her out by doing a search on youtube.  It's a great system to make a batch of cards but real quick.  We made two sets of 4 designs that Stephanie came up with.  It was fun to not only do cards so quick but also because everyones cards came out so different. 

 



This one is embossed with a snowflake design on the background that just adds a soft element to the card.

 

I love this little cup!  So stinkin' cute! 

 

I did a demo for this coffee card.  Just on time to tuck in a little coffee gift card for your favorite hair stylist or BFF.

 And because Kelley is trying to meet a deadline, she painted some little "people" while we all worked on our cards.  She was trying to meet the deadline for two craft shows Wednesday night and Saturday.  I think these will be gingerbread folks, snowmen and little elves.

Crafting in little bits....

I am limited to the amount of time I can sit at a time so when my daughter had her Stampin' Up! workshop at my house last Sunday, I had to take some breaks here and there but at least I was able to play and enjoy the company of friends.

We made several projects with the Big Shot.  One was this cute little framed project for a little "pretty" you could put just about anywhere.  We used decorative paper for the background, a piece of ribbon, a framelet to cut out the shape of the staying and a stamp to stamp it.  Oh, and a little dimensional flower at the bottom corner.

This "blurry" shot is of the one I did.  I liked the little tea pot.  It's still sitting on the table because nothing in my house is pink so I can't figure out where to put it.  LOL  (And in case you're wondering, nothing in my house is dark blue either!)

 

Stephanie tried to find thin flashing so we could make these garden plant sticks but the only thing she could find at the hardware store was too thick to run through the big shot.  So.....these are aluminum soda cans cut open as you can see by the picture on the far left.  Cherry Coke!  lol  Great recycling idea though, right?

This one is cute too because you can personalize it with the name of a plant, a person's name for a gift, etc.  Awfully cute to put out in the garden though!

We used embossing folders to make the designs on the cut out.  A little bling and it might even keep birdies from eating your seeds!  :o)

I did get a little sewing done (very little).  Hopefully, my road to recovery is about completed.  I go to the doctor today.  We'll see what he has to say.

Busy Card Making...

My daughter Stephanie and I went to a card workshop with another demonstrator.  This woman is at management level with Stampin' Up! and the workshop was for card ideas for hosting workshops.  Me and Stephanie signed up to make three of each of four designs and man, oh man, it was like a card making marathon!!!!  We were exhausted when we got home.  lol  They were sure pretty though.  Thank you Linda for a great card making day!

This card was made with scrap strips of paper.  I know how to make fun quilt blocks with scraps and I save my paper scraps just like I do my fabric.  Now I have a project to actually put those paper strips to good use.  This card was made using adhesive sheets and placing one long strip of paper diagonally across the middle of the card and then place strips randomly, changing directions.  I love this card.  The color, the design (reminds me of a quilt!) and the paper.  This paper pack and the stamped images are from the Sale-a-bration special going on right now.  If you wanna see, you can look here.

 

This card was made using the Sweet Shop paper and Sweet Cake stamp set (the cupcake).  They even have scented embossing powder now and we embossed the frosting with a cherry scent.  Smells as good as it looks!!  :o)  We embossed this card with the Perfect Polka Dots folder and cut out that cute shape with the Labels framelets.

This was my first time doing this type of card.  The outside looks like a regular greeting card. 

But here's the inside.  I love it.  I'm going to try and make some more of these before I forget how.  lol

For this card, we stamped Whisper White craft ink on black card stock. We colored (and not very carefully) with Watercolor crayons and then did little highlights with the UniBall Signo gel pen and embellishments.

Multiply each of these cards by three and you can see why I said it was a marathon!  It started getting late so we were just stamping and coloring and then took everything home to do the assembly and finish up.  Sheesh....these "hobbies" are getting more and more like work.  LOL  Okay, not really but you know what I mean.

Til next time.....

I Finished It!!

I finished the Dresden Plate!  I saw the cutest little doily/topper here and loved it so that's how I did mine, as a topper.  I figured since my plate was 17", to me it was too big for a block.  My sis suggested using it as a center block for a quilt and make smaller ones around it and I might do that one day but for now, I have so many other projects, I just wanted to make a sample for my daughter. 

So, I got some muslin and put right sides together and used a scrap of batting.  I sewed around the scalloped edge of the block and trimmed the fabric close to the edge so I wouldn't have to clip the curves.  I did clip in the valleys and it was pretty bulky but they flattened pretty good.  I turned it out through the hole. 

I cut a circle at 3" with my Fiskars Circle Cutter.  I hardly ever use that thing but when I need it, it works perfectly every time!  I gathered the edge of the circle and put a cardboard circle inside so I could press it for crisp edges.  I did a blind hem stitch on the edge.  I like this technique in lieu of hand stitching, especially for something like this.

For the quilting, I just stitched 1/8" from the edge of each 'blade' to hold it together. 

The back is just muslin.  Nothing exciting but I had it on hand and now my little topper/sample for my daughter is done!  Yay. 

And now it's late, again!  Off to bed I go.  At least tomorrow is Friday.  Woohoo!

Stampin' Up! Dresden Plate

I've probably mentioned on here before that my daughter Stephanie is a Stampin' Up! (SU) demonstrator so even though I shouldn't buy so much stamping stuff, I just can't help myself when the catalogs are waved under my nose all the time.  Did you fall for that?  Hmmm, I really need to work on that story.  My husband doesn't believe me either.  LOL 

SU has some dies that can be used with the Big Shot which can be used to cut out fabric as well as paper.  And with that of course, you can make quilt blocks!  They have a scallop square, smaller circles in various sizes and this new one, the Dresden Plate. 

In talking to Stephanie about the new die and some upcoming classes she wants to do, I told her I'd try to make a block with some SU fabric I bought last year (yes, they have fabric too...I'm telling you, they're killin' me!!).  I don't have an Accuquilt but the Big Shot is very similar, just a little narrower I think.  Anyway, I cut 6 layers of fabric and probably could've cut a few more layers without any trouble.  It cut like buttah!!!  They HAVE to come up with more shapes so I can have more unfinished quilts!  lol 



This is my nice 'little' 17" block!  There are two sizes of blades? on the die and I picked the bigger one.  I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking.  And now I'm not sure what to do with this block.  I did find a really cool pillow tutorial that would be cute.  And I don't do applique so I'm not sure if I'll use fusible to iron this onto a backing fabric or maybe chop off the scallops to sew a border on it?



Honestly though, I don't know what I was thinking when I tried this?  I have a quilt on the design wall waiting for borders, pot holders to make for a gift and umpteen hundred UFO's.  I wonder if I have A.D.D.?  They have medication for that, right?

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.