Goody Goody Gumdrops

Thrift Store Finds

2012-02-27T06:24:00.000-05:00

I love Sundays at my thrift store. Sundays mean that more items will be on sale than are generally on sale Mon-Sat. You can always tell what day of the week it is by the parking lot; it is so packed, people start making their own spaces.
Both my husband and I enjoy going, but he tends to be done looking after 10 minutes! So when we go together, like we did yesterday, I have to quickly dash to my favorite spots and try to pick some goodies. If I'm still looking when he's done, he'll offer to wait in the truck, but that kind of takes some of the fun of browsing away. Still and all, perhaps it's a good thing, too, as then I won't spend as much if I'm not in there longer.

Today I'm going to share what I found yesterday, and a few things I've found over the past two months, but haven't bothered to write about.

First, of course, is vintage and just plain old, modern sheets. This little stack will be going into the shop, where I'm always hopeful that it will be just what someone is looking for.

I also found some fabric yesterday. About 2 yards of this rainbow bright print by Timeless Treasures.

And, about 1/2 yard of this sweet floral print that has one of my favorite flowers, poppies!

And how about this pillowcase, that could give Michael Miller's Metro Living Circles a run for its money.

How about some dishware? I don't collect Pyrex, but I couldn't resist getting these little gems. They'll probably go into my shop someday, but for now, they're just hanging out on my shelves.

Lastly, these Mikasa Duplex plates featuring designs from Ben Seibel. I think his designs are so pretty. This print is Pink Ribbon. I was able to get 8 of little beauties. I believe they are cake plates, though I can't be sure of the terminology when it comes to dishes.

And that's all for today. Hopefully I'll have more to share next week.

WIP Sunday...On the Plus Side

2012-02-26T07:09:00.002-05:00

No new fabrics to show this week, instead I'll show a bit of what I've been trying to work on this past week.

I've had this stack of fabric for quite awhile now. It is one of the higher quality fabrics found at Joann Fabrics. I was holding onto this stack, waiting until the right pattern sparked my interest, and thought I had found it last December. Initially I was going to make Radio Way by Jaybird Quilts, as the colors were somewhat similar. Then, I was hit by the Christmas quilt bug and made Radio Way using some Christmas prints I had instead of this stack.
Wanting to try out a variety of patterns, I'm not wanting to do the same one again so soon. So, on the back burner went my little bundle.
At some point I started noticing the plus quilts being made recently, especially this one at In Color Order. And although I was planning on making a plus quilt out of vintage sheets, the thought of using this fabric crept into my subconscious, and that's what I've been doing this past week...cutting 300+ 4.5in squares.

Using the initial prints as the core, I pulled lots of other complimentary fabrics to go along with them.

Saturday I was able to get my layout decided, and even managed to sew a couple of rows.

Sunday Stash

2012-02-19T06:03:00.000-05:00

I think when I jumped onto this Sunday Stash bandwagon I didn't quite understand what the true purpose was. I figured it was just a day to show off the fabric goodies that had been acquired during the week.
Then I noticed those numbers at the bottoms of people's posts. Numbers keeping track of how much yardage total, how much used, how much acquired. Ack! The thought of measuring all of my fabric is just too daunting to think about at this time. I'd rather just post my pictures of pretty fabrics. I'll think about the numbers another day.

So here's some of what I've acquired since the last time I posted about my stash.

As I've noticed on many other blogs, these Pezzy prints are really popular. I grabbed a fat quarter bundle at a very nice price from The Intrepid Thread.

Next, a full fat quarter bundle of Daisy Cottage by Riley Blake. I purchased this bundle at Handmade Is Heartmade, again, at a super price.

FQ bundle of Fly a Kite by October Afternoon in the cream colorway. Purchased at Hawthorne Threads, another of my favorite shops.

I've got some Good Fortune by Kate Spain. I wanted many, many more of the pieces from this line, but I limited myself to my 3 most favorite. For now anyway. These were from QuiltHome. and they had a 20% off coupon at the time!

And finally, Aunt Edna is in town. Denyse Schmidit's newest line at Joann fabrics. I got yard cuts on my favorites, and half yard cuts on "ehs". I actually have a FQ bundle of the 12 prints listed in my Etsy shop if anyone is looking to have some of these prints.

More Baby Vintage Goodness

2012-02-18T20:33:00.003-05:00

I like making these baby quilts because they provide such a measure of quick gratification. Plus, I get to use a bit of all of these sheets I'm collecting.

I liked my orange and yellow quilt so much, I thought I would try to make several more in other colorways. I've plans for a blue, pink, green and perhaps an all yellow.

Today I have a purple one. This one has been the hardest one to put together simply because I have not found a lot of sheets with purple as the main color. I don't know if it is just the area where I live, or if purple sheets were not a popular item in the "olden" days.
Anyway, I finally pulled together a sufficient amount to make a 7x7 top and that is what you see below. I've got my backing all picked out, nothing too fancy, but it is another sheet, just not vintage.

Happy Mochi Yum Yum Super Zig Quilt

2012-02-16T07:07:00.000-05:00

Here's a top that I've finished made from Lecien's Happy Mochi Yum Yum fabric by Monica Solorio-Snow.

When I first saw this fabric I thought it was much too bright for me, but I suppose it grew on me because I ordered every print, but one. As it turns out, they were much brighter on my screen than in person and all is well.

One thing that disturbs me is what I am to do with all of the white space on this quilt.
I feel that that space must be filled with some sort of quilting so that it doesn't look so plain, but I have no idea what to put there. Suggestions are welcome.

The pattern was free on the Lecien website and was super easy to follow and sew. I just haven't decided on a backing fabric for this, so it languishes in my to be completed pile.

Little Apples Baby Quilt

2012-02-15T15:32:00.005-05:00

Wow, I've finally completed a quilt that I feel I've done a nice enough job on that I could sell it.

I've kept it really simple with basic squares and rectangles and only some straight line quilting. I've even used my favorite way of non-binding binding the quilt.

It measures approximately 41"x45" and is backed in a pin sized red with white polka dots fabric. I used some of the leftover print cuts to make a stripe across the back.

I'll be happily listing this in my Etsy shop, I hope it finds a home!

Next up, is this little quilt. All that remains is the the quilting, then this one will be ready for my shop, too.

It's made up of vintage sheet squares, all in oranges and yellows. I think it's my favorite quilt so far.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.

All Framed Up Top Finished

2012-02-13T07:23:00.000-05:00

I finished this sometime last month. I was able to sew it all together, but it wasn't easy. Due to the problem I have with not being able to sew a consistent 1/4in seam, these pieces were all over the place.

I'm not happy with it, and I'm unsure if I'll be turning it into a full quilt, but I felt I should still document it, so here it is.

February Block for In Color Order BOM

2012-02-12T15:02:00.004-05:00

Here's the block I've made for the In Color Order HST Block of the Month for February.

I'm continuing to use Denyse Schmidt prints for my blocks and will most likely end up having the whole quilt made up from her different lines.

Once again, despite all of my (so I thought) careful piecing, my block ended up at 12" rather than 12.5". At least I'm consistent!

I think I will eventually have to make 2 of each block, as I don't have much need for mini quilts. Throw sized would be nice.

Sunday Stash #2 2012

2012-01-15T09:05:00.004-05:00

I really, really, really need to stop looking at fabric sites. I told myself that I was going to work only from my stash now, with the exception of solids.

That was before I received the Hawthorne newsletter Friday morning...

Now I'm the proud owner of 14 new fat quarters by Patty Young. Once I saw the Lush line, I new I had to have some, especially the Running Stitch prints. I only wish I was able to get all the prints from the line. Perhaps in time.

Meanwhile, here's a look at the ones I did get. Hawthorne Threads has the line for a great price, and I ordered on Friday and had them in my hot big hands on Saturday! (granted I live in the same state :) )

In Color Order HST BOM January Block

2012-01-13T11:27:00.005-05:00

This year I'm feeling a bit more adventurous with my sewing and in celebration of that I have joined In Color Order's Block of the Month quilt a-long.

Today I've completed January's block using prints from Denyse Schmidt's Daisy Mae line. And, as another departure from my norm, I've use a slate blue fabric as my background color instead of the same old same old white that I always go for. I found almost 10 yards of the slate blue fabric at the thrift store for under $5.00! What a bargain that was, and now I'm putting it to good use.

Still struggling with my seam allowance, so my block finishes up, after trimming, at 12" instead of the 12.5" it's supposed to be. :(

WIP Wednesday 2012 #1

2012-01-11T05:02:00.008-05:00

I'm linking this post up with W.I.P Wednesdays

First up is a quilt I started just before Christmas. It uses Suzanne McNeill's 10-minute block tutorial on Youtube.
I actually wanted the quilt to look like McIntyreGirl's quilt, with the extra windows between the rows, but I couldn't figure out how she did it.

I just have 3 more blocks to sew together and add to the top and then the top is done!

This is the first project that I've started this year. It's going to be the All Framed Up quilt seen over on Moda Bake Shop.
I'm using Delighted by Riley Blake, which I won a FQ bundle of from Candice at Sunshine, Handmade back in November.

I've got the border strips done, and 5 of the 8 focus blocks done. I haven't a name for the center, so I will probably try some flower appliques or something.

Lastly, over Christmas break I found a project I started back in 2008! This is when I first started quilting, and I think this project was a bit too ambitious, so I gave up on it. It's the quilt from the front of this magazine.

I had all the pieces cut, but had only completed about 5 swirls. I think I will try to work this into one of those 15 minute daily challenges until it is done.

This week's stats:

Completed: 0
New: 1
In Progress: 5

BOM Progress:

In Color Order: Not started

Some Finishes From 2011

2012-01-09T06:19:00.000-05:00

While I had 2 weeks off from work around the Christmas/New Years Holidays I was able to finish up a few projects started earlier in the year.

The first was this quilt I started in April, I think. I had intended to have it finished for my Mom's birthday in May. I was trying stippling a quilt for the first time and it was just no going well, so I put it away and gave her a different quilt I had completed.

Well, I pulled it out again a week before Christmas and finished it up! I was able to give it to my mom for Christmas, and I think she actually likes it. :)

This quilt was inspired by, and used the heart shaped blocks tutorial from Tall Grass Prairie Studio.

And I've just realized I didn't take completion pictures of the other quilt, so that will be a post for another day.

The principal fabrics are mostly Delilah by Tanya Whelan. The backing is one of my reclaimed/thrifted bed sheets.

Sunday Stash

2012-01-08T17:57:00.006-05:00

I'm just bursting with joy at some of my new fabrics that I've decided to share them in a Sunday Stash report.

I have to admit I went a little crazy with fabric buying during the last of December and the first few days of the new year, but in my defense, I only bought fabric that was on sale, and mostly 1/4 yard cuts.

There were some really fabulous sales going on, online stores wanting to clear their stock in preparation for the new stuff. I loaded up on some of the great lines I've seen throughout the year, and here are a few of the ones I picked up.

Happy Mochi Yum Yum by Lecien with which I will make the Super Zig quilt by Monica Solorio-Snow with the free pattern at the Lecien site.

Next I have some Promenade and a Promenade Layer Cake by Riley Blake. I will be attempting to make my version of Summer in Paris, seen on the Sunshine, Paradise? blog.

I also picked up some Sanctuary by Patty Young. I'm undecided what quilt I will make with this stack.

And the last for now, Terrain by Kate Spain for Moda. I don't have specific plans for this bundle yet, but I'm sure to see lots of inspiration this year from all the quilt bloggers I follow!

Birthday Sale in my Etsy Store

2011-12-23T09:42:00.003-05:00

Now through December 31 I'm having 23% off in my Etsy, shop! I have lots of vintage sheets, pillow cases and a few Denyse Schmidt prints you can save money on!

Use code BIRTHDAY2011 for 23% savings.

Working On...

2011-12-21T08:14:00.000-05:00

I started cutting out this quilt on Sunday. I was actually looking for a pattern I had used for the other Christmas quilt I made this year when I came across this Moda All Wrapped Up aka Flurry quilt pattern, and I was smitten.

When finished this will make a cute little lap sized quilt, which hopefully I will be able to hold onto. I sold the other one to my daughter for cost because she needed a gift for her boss's gift basket.

If you're interested in this free pattern, you can find it here

Penny Black Christmas Cards

2011-12-19T10:37:00.002-05:00

It's time to show a few more of the Christmas cards I had made for my co-workers. These two cards feature images by Penny Black and were colored with my Promarkers.
The mouse and bird card uses digital papers by Carina Gardner for Jessica Sprague and Simple Joys from Nitwit Papers.
The Merry Christmas ribbon is from Michaels and the sentiment is also Penny Black.
I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Y is for Yippee at ABC Christmas Challenge Blog

These other cards feature Penny Black's caroling penguin trio and have been colored with the Promarkers.
The DP is the DCWV 2011 Christmas stack. Martha Stewart snowflake corner punch and some stickles.
I'm entering the penguins in the following challenge:
Challenge #96 Blue & White at I heart Promarkers

Happier Quilt Finished

2011-12-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

In the past few days I've managed to finish up a couple of quilts, get some cards made and rearrange the living room so there will be room for the Christmas tree.

Here is the first of the quilts I finished. This one is for my 8yr old grand niece. It is made from one charm pack of Happier by Riley Blake. The hot pink sashing is from a bed sheet, and the polka dotted backing is also a bed sheet. The binding is another Riley Blake print, Sweet Nothings. I decided to do some simple wavy line quilting on it; my compromise between straight line and practicing my free form. This little quilt measures about 47x47.

Christmas Card #2

2011-12-13T06:21:00.003-05:00

Here's another of the Christmas cards I made this past weekend. This one I CASEd from Sankari Sunshine blog. Her card is quite beautiful! I did the best I could with what I had, but it's not near as pretty.

Christmas Card Cram Weekend

2011-12-12T06:11:00.005-05:00

This weekend I had to put away all my sewing stuff and get out all of my card making things. I designated this weekend as the one to make all the Christmas & December birthday cards I would need for my co-workers. I need 14 cards total by Tuesday. The good news is I have 11 finished! I think I will be able to make my deadline.
The not so good news is, I had to do this without the use of my Cricut or my new Cameo! I only had the few punches and shapers that I purchased before I bought paper cutting machines. The blade on my Cameo is defective, so that was a no go; and I like to use the MTC software with my Cricut, but I must have updated my software at some point as it was not working with the Cricut, even though I hadn't used it since last Christmas time.
Anyway here are two of the cards. To make this a bit faster and easier I made two of each design. And, since I'm making cards, I'll enter them into a challenge or two along the way.

This is the Bugaboo stamp JJ Christmas Cheers
She looks like she's having quite a merry Christmas!
I colored with my Promarkers, without trying to blend and shade, no time for that!
The papers are SEI from a few years ago.
The green trim is from AC Moore.
The sentiment is Studio G

I'm entering this in the "Santa Baby" card challenge at Catch the Bug Challenge Blog.

W.I.P Wednesday

2011-12-07T16:42:00.005-05:00

I've been working on a small quilt for my 8yr old grandniece using up a Riley Blake Happier charm pack that I've had for awhile. I'm using a free pattern from Made-by-Rae.com called Story Time Squares.
For the life of me, and despite using a 1/4in. sewing foot, I can't seem t sew a consistent 1/4in seam so I had to add a little piece to one of my blue squares. Maybe I will try that tape on the plate trick.

I've got another go around of print squares followed by another pink border and then that will finish the top.

Christmas Quilt Finished

2011-12-05T06:09:00.005-05:00

I have finally finished my first Christmas quilt. I believe it finished up at about 52x72. I went ahead and just did some straight line quilting on it, nothing fancy at all. Now I just have to decide whether I'm keeping it, or sending it off to my sister and her family...

My Black Friday Sale

2011-11-23T12:34:00.002-05:00

No W.I.P. to share today, just some promoting for my Etsy shop Black Friday Sale.

Sunday Stash #02

2011-11-20T08:39:00.000-05:00

Daisy Mae, the new line from Denyse Schmidt, is in at Joann's and one of my locations had 15 of the 19 prints. I got some of each, but never thought to check reviews about the fabric before I purchased. Apparently this line may be pretty flawed. I checked my pieces after getting home and 1 print was defective the whole way through and a couple of others had white streaks here and there. If you're going to buy some, check it carefully first! Here are the ones I was able to get. The top print in the first stack is the one that had to go back to the store.

W.I.P Wednesday

2011-11-16T09:29:00.006-05:00

I've been working on several projects during the week; trying to divide my time fairly.

First I have started my second Christmas quilt. It has a star block and a 16 patch block. All the pieces have been cut and I'm just taking my time making the blocks.

I've also been working on this apron (Butterick)using Alexander Henry's Farmdale prints. This is my first apron and I did not realize (i.e. didn't read the pattern first!)that I was going to need tons of piping and rick rack. Luckily I had the rick rack. I found how to make some piping online, and I made some, but I didn't like how that turned out, so I'm using all rick rack. I still have to put the waistband and ties on. Here's my husband modeling it for my picture.

And here's my fist Christmas quilt. All pinned and ready to be quilted. I'm just undecided on how I want to do it. I'm a bit tempted to give FMQ another go, but I'm not 100% sure that I want to go that way.

Sunday Stash #01

2011-11-13T08:11:00.007-05:00

It's not too often that I come across items with my name on them, so when I saw this new line by Creative Thursday I had to scoop it up! This is Meet the Gang and I bought the full 21 print fat quarter bundle from The Intrepid Thread on Etsy.

My First Christmas Quilt

2011-11-08T06:43:00.000-05:00

I've had some Christmas fabric for several years now. I'm not sure what I planned to do with it since I don't recall ever wanting to make a Christmas quilt. That changed last weekend when I came across this quilt at Jaybird Quilts.
Initially I wanted to use my stack of grey and citron fabrics but my daughter talked me out of it. That's when I remembered the Christmas fabrics and so my first Christmas quilt was born. Here are the first three rows with a total of seven to complete it.

Desk Chair Makeover

2011-11-06T06:34:00.000-05:00

I picked this chair up at the thrift store for $9.00. It's a very sturdy chair, made in '81 or '91, the date was a bit blurred. Besides the fabric being unattractive it also seemed a bit skeevy so I thought a freshening up was in order. For about $20 of upholstery fabric I've made most of it look bright and cheery. I was planning on spray painting the metal parts but decided I'd already spent enough on it. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future...

New Fabrics

2011-10-31T06:21:00.000-04:00

New fabrics for my stash, which I realized the other day is bigger than I remembered it to be...

These are from Joann Fabric and actually have a pretty nice hand as several are from their premium collection.

This first batch is a very popular colorway right now, Citron and Grey. I haven't seen a quilt pattern that I'd like to use these for yet.

This next batch is a mix of Dena Designs and Heidi Grace. I'm hoping to make these into a Cathedral block quilt.

These last two stacks are from the Quilter's Showcase line, which admittedly, has been really crappy and thin fabric for the most part. They must have shaken things up in that department because these new prints are more tightly woven and attractive!

Pickle Penguin and Milton Bear Toppers

2011-10-24T09:26:00.000-04:00

I bought some new stamps a few months ago intending to get a jump on my Christmas cards. I found these adorable stamps by Milton & Co. Stamps featuring Pickle Penguin and Milton the bear and some of the new Penny Black Mimi Christmas Stamps. I was really excited and sat right down to color, and color and color, but no card making inspiration... :(

Red and White Pinwheel Quilt

2011-10-22T09:11:00.008-04:00

This is my current quilting project, a red and white pinwheel quilt for my Nephew. I have this sort of goal to make everyone in the family a quilt and this one is for him. Earlier this year I had made a blue and white pinwheel quilt that used only one print. It turned out nice enough, but since there was only one print there was no definition of the pinwheels. I really wanted to try the pinwheel again, and this seemed like a good design for a guy. I used about 12 different prints for this, and while I have a bit more definition, I'm still not completely happy, so I think I will be trying this again in the future.

I also did not mean for this to end up with the patriotic red, white and blue colors. I had intended to use some Kona Ash for parts that are blue, but my store did not have any and I was too impatient to order some.

The backing is a blue and white gingham sheet that I had from my thrifted sheet collection. I like to use whole sheets when possible simply for their simplicity.

Here's a glimpse at the completed top.

Update on the Delilah Heart Quilt

2011-10-21T09:40:00.004-04:00

Last time I posted I was working on a quilt for my Mom's birthday in May. I have made progress on that quilt, but it still isn't complete. I really ran into some snags trying to design my own blocks. Namely they didn't end up being uniformly sized. This probably would be a problem for a veteran quilter, but I'm still a newbie. Also, I tried free motion quilting for the first time with this quilt. That went so-so, and I still have a bunch more to do, but I think I prefer in the ditch quilting. So, here's what it looks like as of a few months ago when I last worked on it. Hopefully I'll be motivated to finish up before too long.

On the Road to Spring

2011-04-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

Here's a better look at my On the Road to Spring quilt. I followed the quilt along from I Have to Say... blog. I wasn't really thinking about spring when I decided to make this quilt. You may think from the colors that I was thinking about Christmas! No, I just liked the look of the greens and reds I had on hand and decided to use them. I initially wanted to throw a third color in the mix but couldn't decide on which one, so I left it alone.

The binding for this quilt is actually some wide ribbon I had on hand. I'm not sure how it will hold up to repeated washings, but so far so good. The quilt back is made from the patterned part of a thrifted king sized bed dust ruffle. I had to sew about 4 strips together to make the back and I like the way it turned out.

If you look down in the left hand corner, you'll see Miss Parker, she loves to "supervise" all my projects.

Postage Stamp Quilt

2011-04-28T19:02:00.004-04:00

I thought I would show the postage stamp quilt that I finished a week or two ago. I followed the instructions for this quilt from the quilt along at P.S. I Quilt. The fabric I used is a set of six prints from the Picnic Parade line by Jenean Morrison. The backing fabric is Topsy Turvey Dots by Legacy Studios.

This quilt took about a month for me, the longest I've spent on a quilt so far. For the first time I tried to use a quilting method other than in the ditch. I did quilt as you go, block by block, then added another layer of of whole batting before attaching the back. Since I added the second layer of batting, I also used hand tying, each center square per block to hold that batting down.

I really like the dotted backing fabric and how the dots happened to match the colors in the Picnic Parade fabric.

W.I.P Wednesday

2011-04-27T16:20:00.005-04:00

Okay, so here's my real W.I.P. Wednesday post! I've been working on a Paintbox quilt as seen on Oh! Fransson. I've just completed the top and need to decide on a backing for it as I don't wish to do the one that she did with the quilt a long.

My quilt top measures 78.5 x 98.5. I decided to make the center block 4.5in as I needed bigger blocks over all. This quilt is for my daughter, and she wanted the blocks placed randomly and that's what she got!
This was my first time with sashing and I'm quite pleased with how that went, but it is a bit time consuming.

My other W.I.P. for today is a quilt inspired by the heart shaped blocks on Tall Grass Prairie Studio.
I'm making a quilt for my Mom's birthday using mostly Delilah prints from Tanya Whelan. I've mixed in a couple of solids and some other scraps of print that I have to round out the blocks.
I'm going with a combination of the heart blocks and simple 9-patch blocks interspersed with plain white.
I've had to come up with my own layout for this one as I hadn't a quilt a long to follow, so I hope that it will all look okay once together.

Not W.I.P Wednesday

2011-04-27T10:16:00.006-04:00

This was supposed to be my first W.I.P. Wednesday post, but that will have to be delayed at bit as I woke up to find my daughter has taken my digital camera to school and I won't have it back until late afternoon. I was really excited to participate, but I suppose I can withstand the delay!

In the meantime, how about some pictures of some of the DS Quilts fabric I've managed to pick up at Joann's? Neither of the 2 Joann stores near me seemed to have the full line, unless they were already sold out by the time I found out about these fabrics, but I was very happy to snag yardage of both the dots, as I really love dots. I think I managed six prints altogether, but have only photographed these three.

Red Gingham

Pink/Red Dots

Aqua/Green Dots

Vintage Floral Sheets

2011-04-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

Our local thrift store has some competition now. We have two Savers thrift stores that are some-what new to the area. I'm not overly impressed by Savers, but the couple of times I have gone they have had a nice selection of vintage sheets. Today I'm going to show off a few. Eventually I hope to put some fat quarters or half yards up in my Etsy shop, but for now I just like to look at them. The colors have not come out quite true, they are showing up darker than they really are. I've no idea how to fix this...:(

Orange Butterfly Percale Vera Collection by Burlington

Lady Pepperell 100% Cotton

Cannon Royal Featherlite

JC Penny's Percale

And one squash print pillowcase that I've taken apart.

Long Time Gone

2011-04-23T18:58:00.004-04:00

So it's been quite some time since I have posted! Last year I was making all excited making cards and other crafts for a craft show I was participating in. I'm sorry to say that the craft fair was a big disappointment. I did make my table fee ($55) plus a bit more, but nowhere near what I put into it. I started a new job a week before the fair so I was really unable to take off weekends to do more fairs the rest of the holiday season.

I think my crafting spirit got wiped out for awhile, as I didn't do anything crafty again until late February. So far this year I've been not in a card making mood, but a quilting mood. I've completed 3 quilts since March and am at work on my 4th with plans for several more.

When I started making the quilts this spring it was my intention to use of fabric I already had in my stash without spending a bundle on more. Oh how foolish of me to think that would be possible. Of course I had to start looking at all the pretty fabrics on the 'net, plus looking at quilting blogs and seeing what others were using fueled my desire as well. Needless to say, I'm the sheepishly proud owner of lots of new fabrics and vintage sheets, which I am determined to use up! Right?

So, hopefully I'll be doing a little more posting, showing off some fabrics and sharing some shots of the quilts.

Here's a small picture of the 2nd one I made. This one actually is made out of all stash fabric. It's about 45x60 and is going off to live with my Grandniece soon.

This quilt was made following this Quilt a-long

And even more craft fair projects.

2010-11-18T11:14:00.000-05:00

I'm just about down to the wire now. It's Thursday and the craft show is on Saturday. In no way did I get to make all of the items that I was hoping to make. When I look at my pile of stuff it seems really inadequate. I shall just have to wait and see.

At this point I'm having to force myself to stop making new items so that I can put the finishing touches on the incomplete items that I already have.

So here are a couple of things I've made.
First, Snowman wrapped microwave popcorn. The free image is from Laurie Furnell . I've seen these mostly with the felt hats but I didn't have that much time.

Next I made a little something for the dogs. These are Purina Beggin' Strips, 3 per bag with Christmassy dog toppers. The images are from Trina Clark and Pollycraft Stamps.

And lastly, here are some Godiva chocolates in cute little treat holders. The holders were made on the Cricut using Make the Cut software. It's basically a long rectangle merged with the Christmas tree shape.

Bugaboo Anything Goes Challenge

2010-11-06T22:07:00.005-04:00

I just love the stamps at Bugaboo Stamps that feature Stella and Gus. They always have something funny to say.
Today I've used Stella for the Anything Goes challenge.

The image has been colored with Promarkers. I didn't make too much of an attempt at shading and whatnot. I know I should practice more, but I'm not always up to it.
The ribbon is from my stash. I liked the implication, which I think describes Stella accurately. MS border punch and faux pearls finish off the card.

Ragga Mutt's Christmas

2010-10-28T16:40:00.005-04:00

Here's a cute little pup I came across at Digi Doodle Shop when I went there in search of the pansies stamp.
When I saw the two images I immediately thought of putting them together for a Christmas card; one on the front and the other inside, and this is what I've come up with.
This puppy isn't really bad, he probably just wanted to help decorate, right??

The images have been colored with Promarkers and stickles.
I haven't done a challenge in a few months, so I'll take this opportunity to enter this card in the #31 Anything Goes challenge at Digi Doodle Shop's Challenge Blog.

More Craft Fair Goodies

2010-10-28T16:24:00.007-04:00

As promised, I'm posting pictures of more of the things I've been working on for the craft fair.

These are the Hershey's Nuggets with decorative wrapper and placed 6 pieces to a slide open box. The tutorial for the box is from the SCS forums.

Ghiradelli chocolates boxes. I don't recall where I found the box template. The boxes hold 3 mini Ghiradellis. The front stays closed with velcro.

This next box is a doughnut box from Stay At Home Mom Crafts. I've made it smaller to hold Hershey Kisses. I've been using 4oz of kisses per box. My version measures about 5in L x 1.75in W x 1 3/8in H.

I'll have more goodies to show over the next few days.

Pretty Pansies

2010-10-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

I took a break from making craft fair treats to make a few cards.
This is a boxed set that I made using the pansies digital stamp from Digi Doodle Shop.

I've colored the image in 4 different colorways plus a 5th image for the box top. I really like flower stamps, but struggle with trying to make them look realistic when coloring them. Practice, practice, practice I suppose. I think I'm fairly happy with how these turned out.

These were colored with Promarkers and a bit of colored pencil here and there.

Christmas Goodies Galore

2010-10-26T15:34:00.006-04:00

Long time, no posts!
I have been busy making stuff, just not cards. I have my first ever craft fair on November 20th and I've been busy making crafts other than cards. I initially was hoping to just sell my cards at the craft fair, but after reading some of the stories on Splitcoast Stampers I thought it would be prudent to have some other offerings.

The ideas for all of these items come from the craft fair thread on Split Coast Stampers

Reese's Stix. The tag is from Cricut Very Merry Tags. These use the 2x8in bags

Grinch Pills. The poem is found in the thread on Splitcoast Stampers, the image is from the internets. Lime green Sixlets for the "pills" from Nutsonline.com

Reindeer Poop. Topper and poem from The Cutting Cafe. Chocolate covered raisins for the "poop".

I still have more goodies that I've been making to share, but I'll space them out a bit.

Thanks for looking. If any of this looks fun to you, I urge you to give it a try; I've had a lot of fun making them.

Hero Arts Holiday Ornaments Set

2010-10-02T12:12:00.000-04:00

I saw this Hero Arts stamp used on My Cricut Scrapbooking and just fell in love with it. It was another must have for me, which happens all too frequently!

Inspired by that card, I have made my version. I have tried not to outright copy hers, but the use of gold and not coloring in the ornaments all the way are truly inspired by her card.

I've made mine into a set of 4 and have them up on my Etsy card shop.

Penny Black Gift Card Tags

2010-10-01T12:06:00.000-04:00

Here are some more Penny Black cards. These little cards measure 2.75in squared and have been punched in the corner to hold a hang string for attaching to gifts.

I've been trying to go through all of my stamps and use every one at least once. Since these images are so small, mini gift cards are what game to mind. I had a couple with mice, but they got lost somewhere on my craft table... Not so surprising considering it is always so cluttered!

If you would like to see them all, you can find them in my Etsy card shop.

Sweet Thing Mimi Cards

2010-09-30T13:46:00.005-04:00

These Penny Black Mimi stamps are so cute! I just had to have them all. Here's what I've made from the first one which is called Sweet Thing.

Two sets of 3in squared blank note cards. One pink themed, the other purple themed.
The pink set was colored with prismacolor pencils and OMS while the purple set was done with Promarkers.

Available in my Etsy card shop.

I told myself I wasn't going to do this...

2010-09-24T16:08:00.005-04:00

But it seems I can't resist! Making a few Halloween cards, that is. I don't personally have much use for them, perhaps send one to my grandniece, other than that no need for them.

However, my plans go astray when I keep seeing all the fun Halloween images out there. For example, this set that I purchased from Rick's Goodies on Etsy. He has a whole sheet of images for only $10.00, and they are so nicely done (trying to avoid the word "cute", it's becoming overused). Some of you Swap-botters may have encountered Rick1949 in swaps, if you're into digital stamps, you should check out his shop.

These two cards are from his Simply Halloween sheet and I have kept the cards simple. That's pretty much what I'm working with this week, nice and simple. Sometimes cardmaking (and other crafting, I'm sure) can become stressful because we are trying to do too much to what we are making. At least that's the way I've been feeling.

These are available in my Etsy Card Shop.

More of the Simple Life

2010-09-24T04:23:00.001-04:00

In keeping with my simple cards series I've made several from the Lili of the Valley stamps that I got in the mail a few weeks ago. I love these stamps, and really wanted almost all that they had, but I limited myself to only 7. Of the 7 I've used 6 in my simple Christmas cards. I'll show 1 or 2 here, but the rest will be in my Etsy card shop for viewing or purchasing.

It seems when I buy stamps I tend towards bears and snow people, so much so that sometimes I tell myself, "no, don't get another ________, get something different." But of course, what is most appealing is what I already know that I like!

So here's a bunch of bears and 1 rabbit.

Tag! You're it!

2010-09-13T11:28:00.001-04:00

I haven't really been in a card making mood of late. I am still feeling crafty so I didn't want to take a complete break from paper, ink and stamps. I've never given too much thought to tags. At Christmas I just slap one of those sticker like tags that I buy during the after Christmas sales for .25 or so. I've seen on some of the blogs that folks really get into tag making as well as card making. I've never understood it, but I think I have a greater appreciation for it now because that's what I've been doing for the past couple of days.

I suppose in a lot of ways making a tag can be just like making a card, only smaller. I've kept it pretty basic for the ones I have started off with. No coloring, not much in the way of embellishments, but I am pleased with them and having mostly stress-free fun while I make them.

I'm not sure how long this will last, nor what will come when this detour away from cards is over, but it sure is fun while it lasts.

If anyone is interested, they are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Hello Kitty Christmas Card

2010-09-11T12:20:00.001-04:00

Here's another card that has minimal stamping. Hello Kitty and the presents were made from the Hello Kitty Greetings Cricut cartridge. Only the sentiment has been stamped. I've used lots of stickles on the presents and as accents on the sentiment and HK's hat.

I don't think I use my Cricut enough, at least not since the advent of my obsession with stamping. I think I see more cards using my Cricut in my future.

Christmas Card Set

2010-09-10T11:42:00.005-04:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been reorganizing my craft space and now I'm just about done. No pictures to share of this process, you'll just have to take my word on it. During this time my desk has been so covered that I could not make any cards, no cards, no posts.

Today I have a set of cards that I made without stamps. No rubber, no digis, instead I have used rub-on transfers. I purchased a bunch of these last Christmastime and didn't really use them.

These will be for sale in my Etsy card store if anyone is interested.

This set features Christmas ornaments 3 colors plus one card with mixed colors. The ornaments rub-ons are from Michael's and can still be found there for sale. The sentiments came from Target and are actually about 3 years old, so I'm sure they are no longer sold.

Delivery Boy Santa

2010-08-30T16:54:00.003-04:00

I thought I should mix things up a little for a change. I'm always making square cards because they are so easy and I am lazy. The ornament shape that I used to make this card came from Lettering Delights Peppermint Holiday Expressions. The digi stamp is Delivery Boy Santa from Sassy Cheryl's. The stamp was colored with Promarkers and I shall be adding the stickles to his outfit that I see I have forgotten! The Ho Ho Ho stickers are from Jo-ann's and the snowflakes are from Cricut snowflake cartridge. The DP is DCWV and is polka dotted to fit in with the them for challenge #26 Polka Dots at Sassy Cheryl's challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Spooky Cute Halloween

2010-08-29T13:43:00.005-04:00

Karen's Doodles on Facebook is having a Halloween challenge involving the free digi that she gave away. You can request the free digi as long as you promise to make and post a Halloween card using the digi by 8/31; this is my entry.
The house, fence; tree and gravestones are all from the Lettering Delights Hallowscream Things graphic set. All the sets are on sale for $1 right now, so if you're looking to experiment, now's the time. I separated the layers for the house and gravestone in Photoshop Elements; it was quite simple. For those that want to know more about converting these files, Jin at Under a Cherry Tree has a video tutorial showing how to convert files.

The digi stamp was colored with my Promarkers, the DP are a combo of Debbie Mumm holiday stack and Provocraft; the cardstock is Recollections, ribbon from stock; and the charm is Making Memories 2009.

This card is also entered into Karen's Doodles Challege # 25 Polka Dots.
By the Cute & Girly August Animal Antics.
Bee Crafty: Anything Goes.

It's been awhile...

2010-08-25T18:53:00.003-04:00

I'd like to say thank you for the nice comments and welcome to all the folks that are following me from the Swap-bot swap. It feels so nice to have more than 3 followers! I hope you enjoy looking at my creations.

It's been awhile since I've posted any cards. The fact is that I've started quite a few. Sometimes I color some images, other times I work out the background, but for a different card than what I've colored an image for. Either way, I've not really completed any, except this one, which was a commission from my biggest supporter. That would be my sister. She is currently obsessed with fairies and now wants all kinds of fairy cards. I'm meant to make her a boy fairy birthday card for our newphew...the 6'2", turning 16 football player! We'll see how that goes. If I manage it, I will certainly post a photo.

I've also been very busy trying to de-stash all of my stickers and all of my Hello Kitty junk. I've been listing what I can on my Etsy and for the first time in a few years, Ebay. This is an ongoing process as I try to declutter my house.

Santa Birgitta

2010-08-14T18:18:00.005-04:00

Here's Santa Birgitta, a Swiss Pixie from C.C. Designs. For this card I slit two of the corners to tuck my DP into. The corner flourishes are free svgs from Heather M, the Poinsettia svgs is also a free one from Little Scraps of Heaven. The sentiment is a Recollections Sticker. Birgitta was colored with Promarkers and some stickles for her wings. The DP is DCWV and Heidi Grace.

This is entered into the following challenges:

Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club #30 Poinsettia
Anyone for Anya Christmas in August

Audrey Cooking for a Birthday

2010-08-14T15:12:00.003-04:00

With this The Stamping Boutique image I like to think that Audrey is maybe making a birthday cake or a special birthday dinner. Here, she's celebrating The Stamping Boutique's 1st Birthday!

Audrey's been colored with Promarkers. DP is DCWV, LoveU is Cricut, and the sentiment is computer made.

Bunny Cake

2010-08-12T16:07:00.003-04:00

Here's a free image given out by Tracey of The Stamping Boutique for becoming a member of her PCP group. It's going to be The Stamping Boutique's 1st Birthday so this image ties in well with the festivities that will be going on. "Festivities?" you say? That's right, there will be a birthday party going on Saturday 8/14/10. Challenges, digis, chatting and more. Here's a link to more information.

I've colored my image with Promarkers and stickles. I was trying for a lemon coconut look cause I love lemon cake! The card background is one I've had for quite a few months and never did anything with so I tried to match my colors to it. This is being entered into The Stamping Boutique's monthly challenge for August. Check it out, you can enter as many times as you like!

Love's Healing Hands

2010-08-12T14:57:00.003-04:00

Here's a super sweet image by Sassy Cheryl called Love's Healing Hands. This comes in both a boy and girl version and both are equally adorable. Challenge 24 at Sassy Cheryl's this week is a color combo of Black, White and Pink with embellishments. I've colored my image with Promarkers and left the bear to be white. The flourish is by Penny Duncan Creations and has been stickled and pearled. MS heart border punch, roses from Crafta.com, and the sentiment is computer generated and framed with an oval bookplate(on clearance for .50/6 at Joann's! go get some), heart shaped brads to hold it down. Ribbon is Offray and the DP is Recollections.

This card also fits the requirements of challenge #29 Bear & Me at Just Cute Bears so I shall enter it there as well.

Summer Zest Apple Girl

2010-08-11T17:51:00.004-04:00

The theme at Karen's Doodle's this week is Summer Zest. Cards are to feature the colors of summer; yellow, orange, lime green and a touch of blue.

I chose Apple Girl because it's one of the few not Christmas/Winter images I have that would work for this challenge. The backing papers are DCWV, MS embroidered floral punch, ribbons from Joann's, flowers from AC Moore and the sentiment from Cricut. Colored with Promarkers.

Prince Lonnie Latte

2010-08-10T14:29:00.003-04:00

Here's the other simple card I made for today. Again I've used a Stamping Boutique image, this one was a freebie. Prince Lonnie is the mate to Princess Jennifer and I think he's cooking up something special for her! He is colored with Promarkers and a bit of chalk for the background. The sentiment is one of those $1 stamps from Michael's. The papers are DCWV Summer Dream stack, which I broke down and bought since it was on clearance. A lot of the sheets will make great envelopes, so I can justify this purchase, right?? :)

This is entered into the following challenges:
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Snips, Snails & Puppy dog tails.
The Stamping Boutique Monthly - August.

Caroling Snowmen

2010-08-10T14:08:00.003-04:00

Today I have some rather simple cards as I'm trying to up my quantity a bit. I have made these A2 size as they are being added to my stack of cards to send to Operation Write Home. As soon as I reach my personal goal of 20 cards I'll be able to send my package to them.

This card features Caroling Snowmen by The Stamping Boutique. Tracey has a lot of fun images besides her Audrey line(my fav) and this is one of them. I love it when snow people have some clothes on because it gives us a little bit more to color than just having snow. I've used one of my new Sizzix Holiday embossing folders (actually did it backwards), these are designed by Basic Grey. There are quite a few nice ones, but I limited myself to four. The papers Bazzill Swiss Dots and DCWV Metallic Silver. MS Lattice arch lattice punch, Recollections snowflake brads, Michael's ribbon, Sentiment is Studio G. Colored with Promarkers.

Challenges this card is entered in:
The Stamping Boutique's Monthly - August
Die Cut Dreams #29 Snowmen

Some Day My Prince will Come...

2010-08-08T13:13:00.004-04:00

At least that's the song that goes through my head when I need to associate this card with a song for the Simon Says Stamp Sing It Baby! challenge.

The card shape is the castle from Cricut's Once Upon a Princess cartridge. I used two castles with a little rectangle to weld them for the card shape.
The bears, Kiki and Cuthbert are from Pollycraft. Their challenge right now is Fit for a Princess, so this should fit right in with that.
The dragon is from Dustin Pike. He had a fabulous sale about a month ago, 233 images for $10! This dragon was one of the 233.

The images are colored with Promarkers with a little bit of stickles. The paper is Core'dinations and Fresh Paint glitter paper.

I'm also entering this card in:
Creative Card Crew: Get Cute and Girly.
By the Cute & Girly's August challenge, which is Animals.

Love is Sweet

2010-08-07T13:19:00.004-04:00

Here's another card made with several challenges in mind. This card features a freebie from Meljen's Designs; such a sweet bear. Challenge #19 at Meljen's is Clean and Simple. Clean and simple can be so relaxing when you are overwhelmed by your embellishment choices.

The next challenge is for 7 Kids College Fund's inaugural challenge: Pink & Dots.

And finally, I Heart Promarkers #26 a sketch plus use only 3 colors.

The stamp was colored with Promarkers. The pink DP is Recollections, the green DP is a free printable from Kara Henry. MS border punch.

Shadowbox Christmas Card

2010-08-06T17:14:00.006-04:00

The other day I saw a beautiful The Nutcracker themed shadowbox card done by a member of Mo's Digital Pencil DT team and wanted to make one just like it. Since copying is a no-no, and I want to enter challenges, I had to come up with my own idea.

I've never made one of these before, but they are similar to the recessed window cards that I like, so it wasn't hard to do. You actually have much more room to work with in the shadowbox card than with the window cards. The only drawback for me is that I don't like how the top and bottom are just left open. Unfortunately if you want it to be flat for mailing you can't really cover it with a box top type of doohickey.

Anyway, on to the details. I made this with a few challenges in mind, one being Karen's Doodles #22 Anything Goes.
I've used two images by Karen's Doodles, Santa Waving and Bigsby Cookies.

The next challenge is Digital Tuesday Challenge #70, 2 Companies, 1 card.
For this you mixed more than one company's digital images. That would be the Karen's Doodles as company 1 and the fireplace and little girl on the sofa from Stitchy Bear Stamps as Company 2.
The couch is paper pieced, while everything else has been colored with Promarkers, Copic Spica Atyous and stickles.

The third challenge is at OSAAT and is a sketch OR use pink somewhere on the project. I chose to use pink for the pajamas and the pink snowflake embellie.

The last challenge is at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #70 Out of this World. I'm counting on Santa as being something "Out of this World" to qualify for this challenge.

I should mention that the tree is a rubber stamp (Rubber Hedgehog) that I stamped and scanned so that I could re-size it. I've been doing this quite a bit lately with some of my rubber stamps. The convenience of sizing digital stamps has spoiled me, so I stamp and scan some rubber stamps for the same advantage. Of course, I do not try to profit from stamps I use in this method, so I hope it's not too big of a no-no.

Bigsby's table is from Cricut French Manor cartridge, the nestie svg shape is from Penny Duncan Creations. DP is DCWV and the sentiment and snowflakes are from K&Co.

This was a lot of fun to make, and I can see myself making a few more of these in the near future.

A Simple Thank You

2010-08-04T23:56:00.002-04:00

My sister needed a Thank You card and commissioned me to make one for her. I chose to use the Mo's Digital Soaking up the Sun as this girl just looks sooo happy. It's possible that no one would ever guess my love for gingham and polka dots because I rarely use them in my cards. I truly love them, so I hoard them, using sparingly. I'm working on that, as you can see by this card.
She's been colored with Promarkers and some stickles.

Thanks for looking!

Mudzie Plays Christmas Tree

2010-08-03T17:27:00.007-04:00

It looks like Mudzie by Crissy Armstrong was trying to decorate the tree and ended up decorating himself instead! This cute image came from Squigglefly.com where there are bunches of great images to choose from.

I've colored Mudzie with Promarkers and glittered him up with some stickles. Some Christmas brads for the corners and a computer generated sentiment. Fiskars snowflake punch along the border to finish him off.

This card is entered into the following challenges:

Squigglefly Challenge #60 Use ribbon.
By the Cute and Girly Animal Antics.
Creative Inspirations #39 Anything Goes
Sparkle Creations Weekly Christmas Card Challenge#35

Karen's Doodles CDAC3 - Sketch Challenge

2010-08-02T21:33:00.003-04:00

Here's a card I created for the Crafter's Digital Arts Center sketch challenge hosted by Karen's Doodles. Karen has also provided the free digital stamp of this cute kitty to use in the challenge. I wanted to make my card tall, so all the elements are kind of cramped, but they're in there! I think when it comes to coloring animals I prefer to use my pencils; for whatever reason I just do better with them. However, I tried to color this cat with my markers and he just came out bland. Ah well, a learning experience. The papers are K&C and DCWV, and the sentiment is computer generated.

CSAYL59

2010-08-01T20:07:00.004-04:00

I have a card made with a Stampin' Up! stamp that I had been coveting for a year. I finally found one on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. The snowman and the sentiment are from the Stitched Snowman set from 1995. I've colored him with Promarkers, embossed the sentiment and embellished with buttons, mini bells stickles.
This card follows the sketch at Christmas Stamping All Year Long and is also entered into the challenge for the week.

Meljens Challenge #18 a Sketch

2010-07-31T16:51:00.004-04:00

I've taken a break from Christmas cards to make this Sweets card for Meljens Challenge #18. This was a freebie from Meljen some time ago and I'm not sure if these are cupcakes or ice creams, either way they are cute and sweet!

For this card I did not do any coloring. I decided to to paper piece all the treats and then pop them up with foam dots. The printed papers are from the same pack of $1 papers I found at Target. I've just about used these all up, yay! The glittery blue paper is DCWV and the border punched strips are Core'dinations. The sentiment, which I'm not quite happy with, is Studio G. Buttons, heart pearls and twine from stash.

Mo's Digital Pencil #42 Christmas in July

2010-07-30T21:37:00.003-04:00

I'm loving all of the Christmas themed challenges that are going on right now and this one's no exception. The latest challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil is Christmas in July and I'm hoping that my entry of Bella and Bronte skating will qualify as Christmassy. I've made this as a recessed window card featuring the pond background digi by The Stamping Boutique.

I've used some dimensional glue on the trees and snow, some stickles for the hats, skates, scarves and snow flurries, colored with Promarkers and chalk. Papers are by DCWV and the pearl border is from Jo-ann Fabrics(only .10/yd!).

Other challenges this is entered in:

Stamp Something: Christmas in July

Sassy Cheryl's Challenge #22

2010-07-29T13:13:00.004-04:00

As soon as I saw this image I knew I had to have it. I think it is just so sweet and appealing. I actually got this Sassy Cheryl digi image from Squigglefly. I think there are several on that site that may not be at the regular Sassy Cheryl's, but don't quote me on that!

The challenge this week was to make a "Thinking About You" type of card. I've been wanting to use this image, and she and the bunnies certainly look like they're thinkin' and talkin' about something, so it might as well be you!
This was a challenge for me in a second way as I decided to give zigzag stitching on a card a try. I've been seeing it pop up a lot lately, and looks fab when other people do it. I've got some more practicing to do lol!

The papers that I have used are actually some old Target $1 bin 5x7 sheets from last year. The sentiment is computer generated and the image is colored with Promarkers.

And, since my card is pretty flat, I decided to scan it in rather than take a photo. I think this has worked nicely since it looks brighter. No matter where I try to take a picture in my house, the pictures come out too dark. :(

Thanks for looking!

Pollycraft Challenge #54 Love & Marriage

2010-07-28T19:02:00.005-04:00

This cute couple, Cuthbert and Kiki is a free digital stamp from Pollycraft. The challenge this week at Pollycraft challenge blog is Love & Marriage, so this freebie fits right in! I have colored the stamp with the Promarkers and went a little crazy with my white ink pen. The gate fold card template that I cut with my Cricut is from Monica's Creative Room. There are a lot of useful svg files for free on her site. The inside sentiment is from Cricut Tie the Knot. DP is from Sandylion.

Emma Bear in her Winter Wonderland

2010-07-27T22:07:00.003-04:00

Today I have a card that I've made to fit the requirements of three challenges. The digital stamp I have used is Emma Snow Scene from Karen's Doodles. As it happens, one of the challenges is from Karen's challenge blog. The challenge is to make your card all white, except for the image, which can be colored.

The next challenge is from Winter Wonderland. For this challenge there is a sketch to follow. The sketch involved several circles. Since patterned papers were pretty much out, I had to go with some texture. I've used the Cuttlebug snowflakes and Sizzix dots folders.

The third challenge is from Christmas Stamping All Year Long. The requirement for this challenge is to include some buttons and bows. I've added a few buttons to the circle cutout and a bow in the upper left corner. I also used the same ribbon around one of the circles.

Emma was colored with Promarkers, Prisma color pencils and stickles. The sentiment was computer generated, then ruffed up a little so it would stand out a bit. The background snowflake frame svg is by Monica's Creative Room.

Sassy Cheryl #21 Cut it Out

2010-07-22T15:47:00.004-04:00

The title of this challenge keeps reminding me of the Joey character from Full House. Cut it out was one of his catch phrases, along with some scissors hand movements to go along with it.

Anyway, my card for Sassy Cheryl's Cut it Out challenge features two Sassy Cheryl digi stamps. The one on the front was a 'before' freebie awhile ago, and the one on the inside is the matching 'after' digi. I've had it in my mind for awhile to associate age with the bubble popping, I think it's kind of funny.

The flowers on the front are, believe or not, from the Dollar Tree. I purchased them sometime last year and have just been hoarding them, thinking they are too pretty to use. Well, I can't take them with me, so I might as well use them! They came in lots of flower varieties like hydrangea, sunflower, pansies, lilies and a couple more.

I've made this card the standard size that OWH likes as I'll be sending it to them for their card drive.
The papers are the same Chloe's Closet that I used in my previous post as I'm trying to do better on using scraps.

ETA 7/27/2010 This card won the challenge! Yay!

Pollycraft Flash Your Freebies pt. 2

2010-07-22T12:11:00.002-04:00

Here I have a card, sort of a masculine card I think, for part two of the challenge at Tales from Pollycraft. Paula has so generously given us a gift, and she's the one having her birthday!

The challenge is to make a birthday card using the free digi she gave us last week, and to theme it green. I hope there's enough green in my card to count. And even more wonderful is that all of those who enter get to be winners! That's right, Paula is giving every one their choice of a free single digi from her shop, just for making a card with the free image she gave us! Isn't she fantastic? A big thank you to Paula!

My card was colored with Promarkers and Bic Markers.
Papers are Chloe's Closet

Karen's Doodles #20 Sketch

2010-07-19T20:40:00.005-04:00

I'm still kicking myself for missing the deadline for challenge #19. I had another recessed window card to show, but I was a few hours too late. Oh well, I'll save it for another challenge...

This card is for Challenge #20 at Karen's US Challenge blog.
Today I've made sure I'm not going to miss out! I got to work right away on this card that features Karen's First Taste of Snow Stamp. What a fun image this is, and what a cutie the little girl is. I'm undecided on whether to add a "Let it Snow" sentiment, so it's unnamed for now!

Colored with Promarkers and backed with DCWV Christmas stack. I've stickled her coat, boots and flakes, but I don't think they show up too well in the picture. Some snowflake brads and MS snowflake punches embellish the card, with added gems and pearls. The rickrack is a glittered type, too, though again, not showing well.

ETA 7/26/2010: Yay! This card won for the challenge it was entered in, 3 free digis from Karen's Doodles.

Sassy Cheryl #20 Christmas in July

2010-07-19T14:28:00.004-04:00

Today I have a cute snowman by Sassy Cheryl serving up some probably much needed refreshment during the Christmas season.

He was colored with Promarkers and backed by papers from the DCWV 2008 Christmas stack.
This card will be entered into challenge #20 at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog.

Thanks for looking!

Cute Card Thursday #121 Get a Head Start

2010-07-16T15:53:00.002-04:00

Continuing with my Christmas card making, I've got another Tilda with Mistletoe card. This time I've tried a brown skinned girl. I'm not sure if my efforts are completely successful, but I don't think she looks too bad. She's been colored with Promarkers.

I'll be entering this card in the Cute Card Thursday Challenge #121 Get a Head Start.

The Shabby Tea Room #18 Christmas in July Challenge

2010-07-14T18:27:00.005-04:00

My last card for today is for the Shabby Tea Room Week #18 Christmas in July Challenge.

This time I've used Tilda with Mistletoe for my image, colored with Promarkers, and backed her with more of the papers from the huge 2009 DCWV Holiday stack. I've got to keep using them up to get ready for the new stack coming this winter. :P

When I first saw these Magnolia kids I didn't like them at all. I kept thinking of them as creepy moon faced children with no mouths. It's funny how things change. I guess I kept seeing them in cards and they sort of grew on me, though I still don't understand why they have no mouths...

ETA Received an Honorable Mention at The Shabby Tea Room.

Squigglefly Challenge #57 Christmas in July!

2010-07-14T18:15:00.003-04:00

My second card for a challenge is for the Squigglefly #57 Christmas in July.

I have used the same High Hopes Snowman as in my last card. I pretty much printed/stamped two of every image I'm working with this week to try and assembly line my cards. So don't be surprised to see the same image popping up multiple times.

This time using a sketch Maria from Stamping Inspirations used back in February.
This time I only glittered the snowflakes and left the snowman all plain.

DP is from last years DCWV huge Christmas/Holiday stack.

Challenge #56 Christmas Stamping All Year Long

2010-07-14T17:58:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to crank out bunches of Christmas cards so I'll have enough for my swaps later this year. Everyone so often posting a few to challenges and that's what I have today. The first of three cards I'll be posting.

This one features a High Hopes snowman stamp that I glittered up the "snow" part of him. I really like the icicle border, which I received in a die-cut swap, so don't know the origin of this item, but it, too, has been doused in glitter.

This card is for Challenge #56 at Christmas Stamping All Year Long. I've been following the blog for awhile, but this will be my first time entering a challenge. There are sooo many wonderful cards featured there. I have lots of inspiration to keep me going with my swap Christmas Cards.

Pollycraft Show Off Your Freebies!

2010-07-13T14:41:00.002-04:00

So, Paula over at Tales from Pollycraft has been quite generous with her weekly free digital stamps. This week she's asking for folks to show their new crafts that have been made using her free digis.
Here's my card that has been made with Cuthbert with Balloons. The sketch has been inspired from one I saw on Maria's Blog Stamping Inspirations.

Cuthbert Stamp by Pollycraft
Papers are by Bazzil, Recollections, and GP
Sentiment by Studio G Stamps
Colored with Promarkers

A Donkey Smile for Michelle

2010-07-10T15:38:00.002-04:00

Today I've made a card for the Kickin' it for Michelle card drive being hosted by A Spoon Full of Sugar.

Michelle, a much loved and respected blogger has lost her right eye in an unfortunate accident and the crafting/blogging community is joining together to try and send her some cheer.
Stop on over to Michelle's Blog to send well wishes to her during her recovery.

My card features the free image provided by Karen's Doodles just for this purpose. The sentiment is provided by Whimsy Stamps, designed by in concert by MelJen's Designs and Raindrop Echo Designs.

Sweet 'n Sassy Challenge #60

2010-06-15T13:33:00.003-04:00

Today I have Princess Jenn Latte from The Stamping Boutique all sick in bed. Hopefully she will be up on her feet again soon. :)
She's been colored with ProMarkers and Pebbles chalks. Some stickles to add a touch of sparkle and the sentiment is typed up in MS Word. I used my Fiskar's threading water border punch then ran my ribbon through the holes. DP and cardstock are by DCWV.
The sketch is from the Sweet 'n Sassy Challenge #60. I shall also enter this in The Stamping Boutique's month long challenge.

Christmas is in the air!

2010-06-13T21:43:00.003-04:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...And I sure am having fun working on my Christmas cards. Making homemade Christmas cards was the whole reason I got into card making in the first place. Most of my stamps and supplies are geared towards Christmas cards. It's only since I've found these card challenge blogs that I've started making other occasion cards, but Christmas ones will always be my first love!

Today's card was made with three challenges in mind. I've used the sketch and some Penny Black images for the the challenge at Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I've worked in the poinsettia paper and flower embellishment to fit in with the challenge at Winter Wonderland, and lastly I've used the floral poinsettia paper to be eligible for the Floral Delight challenge at A Spoon Full of Sugar.

I've actually used two different Penny Black stamps (Holly Day Critters and The Wonder) to give more of a carolers feeling to the card. And I've pulled out my Bosskut Poinsettia die to make my flower. I simply love that die, I think it makes such lovely poinsettias. I used it last year to make the Christmas cards for my family members; somehow I didn't take a picture of those!

I've used some gold stickles on the halos and some crystal stickles on the hem and sleeves and hats of the hedgies. All the DPs are DCWV Christmas stack, the cardstocks are Strathmore Artist Papers, Core'dinations and the Paper Company.
Colored with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. Ribbon is from Michael's.

More Cards for Operation Write Home (OWH)

2010-06-12T17:19:00.002-04:00

I took a day off from challenges to make some more cards for Operation Write Home (OWH). I had just purchased some new digi stamps from Pollycraft. I've used Cuthbert and Kiki plus a free bird digi given out in the past. My collection to send to OWH is slowly growing, hopefully I will soon have enough to send away.

I may be addicted...

2010-06-10T12:49:00.002-04:00

Addicted to these window recessed cards that is. Yes, just a couple of days after making my first I have found myself making another one. They really are quite fun. I know that one of these days I'm going to get a really good idea for a whole diorama to inside one of these windows.

The initial challenge this was designed for is the #20 Challenge: Snowflakes at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club. I glittered up some snowflake punch outs and decided to string them up. In hindsight I could have just stuck them on with a foam dot like I did the bottom ones; but I did want them to be dangly. I've also go a leftover snowflake shaped Christmas ornament as a big outside decoration.
Since I've used Snowy, a Penny Black image, I'm also entering this in the Penny Black Saturday Challenge: Swirls. And one more challenge this qualifies for is challenge #94 Dazzle Us over at Cupcake Craft Challenges.

Recipe

Image: Penny Black Stamps - Snowy
Cardstock: GP, DCWV
DP: DCWV Christmas stack 2009
MS Snowflake punch
Sizzix: Let it Snow
Santa's Workbench: Snowflake ornament
Swirl stickers: Stash
Stickles
Colored with ProMarkers
3M Transparency film

Digital Tuesday Challenge #62 Coloring with Chalk

2010-06-09T16:02:00.003-04:00

The stamp I have used was a freebie provided by the Creative Mind of Sylvie. This lovely mermaid inspired me to make a shaped clam shell card. I had some trouble trying to think of things to put on the card besides the image. My Daughter has assured me that it is not illogical for the starfish, conch shell and mini dolphins to be on top of a clam shell. o_O Sometimes I over think things... This card was made for the Digital Tuesday Coloring with Chalk challenge. The mermaid was colored with my Pebbles chalks, some shimmery, which doesn't show up in pictures.

Recipe:

Digi Stamp: Creative Mind of Sylvie - Mermaid
Cardstock: GP, Canson Effects - Morphing Mauve, Recollections
Clam Shape: Cricut and Make the Cut software
Ribbon: Offray
Pearls, doily, shells, dolphins: Stash
Colored with Pebbles chalks

Passion for Promarkers #55 Pink Birthday

2010-06-09T15:12:00.004-04:00

This week's challenge at Passion for ProMarkers is to create a Pink Birthday card. I haven't always been a fan of pink, but sometime in the past few years it has wormed its way into my heart. Where I floundered here was not having a concrete layout in mind, hence the rather boring squares on squares. The stamp I have used is a freebie from Sassy Cheryl's Stamps. She's got some very adorable stamps and this one was a blast to color.

I shall also enter this card in the challenge at The Creative Cottage

Recipe:
Digi Stamp: Sassy Cheryl's - All the Frills
Digi Sentiment: Wendy Made - Happy Birthday
Cardstock: GP, Core'dinations - VC Pink Tutu
DP: Paper Pizazz - Love/Happiness, Me & My Big Ideas - Pink Hearts
Ribbon: Stash
Flowers: Homemade
Pearls, Rhinestones: Stash
MS Border Punch
Stickles
Colored with ProMarkers

Winter Wonderland: Love at Christmas

2010-06-08T17:13:00.003-04:00

I've tried something a little different for the Winter Wonderland Love at Christmas challenge. I've made a recessed window card using the tutorial at Splitcoast Stampers. It was really quite simple, and something I should definitely do more of in the future. My biggest challenge for this card was trying to color fire and fire glow. Luckily the mice cover most of that part so you all can't see how badly that went. ;)

Recipe:

Stamp: Gillian Roberts - Mistletoe and Mice
Digi Stamp: Stitchy Bear Stamps - Christmas Warmth Fireplace
Cardstock: GP
DP: DCWV Christmas Stack 2009
Tree and Gifts: Stash from old card making kit
Sentiment: MS Word
Colored with Prismacolor Pencils and ProMarkers
3M Transparency Film
Pop dots
Brads: Recollections

Passion for ProMarkers #54 Books

2010-06-07T14:38:00.004-04:00

Today I have a card that I have colored with my new ProMarkers for the Passion for ProMarkers #54 Challenge: Books!
I love reading and I think this Studying Tilda is so adorable, she's got her glasses on and looks very engrossed in what she is reading.

Recipe:
Stamp: Magnolia Study Tilda, Versafine Onyx ink
Cardstock: DCWV, GP
DP: Carolyn Holt - Petite Pink Posies
Cricut/Cricut Mini Monograms: Scallop and regular circles
Martha Stewart: border punch, ribbons
Brads: Joann's
Stickles
Sentiment: DCWV Vellum quote stack
Roses: McMahon Five Design
Pearls: Ebay

The Sweet Shop's Sketch # 59

2010-06-06T16:34:00.003-04:00

I've got another card made for OWH that follows the challenge over at The Sweet Shop Sketch challenge #59. I've used Magnolia's Bubbling Tilda, with hearts substituted for the bubbles. This time I've paper pieced her dress with some polka dotted paper. I've tried to make her a brown skinned girl, which I had to do with my Prisma pencils as all of my markers seemed too dark, her hair and the outline of her wings are done with the ProMarkers and the sentiment is printed from MS Word.

DP: Me & My Big Ideas, Recollections
Cardstock: Recollections and GP
Ribbon: Joann's
Charm: Michael's
Heart pearls: Ebay
MS Border punch

Yay! My ProMarkers have arrived

2010-06-05T15:22:00.003-04:00

When I first started in with making cards I couldn't help but notice how all those beautiful designers kept saying "colored with Copics", and occasionally "colored with Prismacolor pencils". I had no idea what they were talking about, but I knew I would love to achieve the effects that they were getting. Of course, just having the same tools does not mean my cards will look as nice. I am still struggling to learn the coloring techniques that give those pictures such depth.

Part of the problem has been that I don't have the proper tools. I found out that Copics were markers, great! I decided I would buy a few Ciaos and see if I could instantly be transformed into the colorist of my dreams! Without doing any research on how to buy, I picked out 12 colors that I thought I would use the most. All of you out there with experience are no doubt shaking your heads. The colors I picked were all over the place, none could be used with the others to create any type of shading or graduated look. I was despondent. I set them aside and really haven't bothered with them much since. I could, of course, buy more of these markers, but for my budget they are truly cost prohibitive.

Next came the Prismacolor pencils. I bought the 48 piece set, but didn't feel I had enough colors, so I purchased the 120 piece set. I like the colored pencils. I use them with Odorless mineral spirits and stumps. Lots of colors to choose from, and since I have a shaky hand, I don't worry too much about going outside of the lines. The only thing is that I still crave the vibrant look that one gets with the markers.

So, back to the online art supply store. I heard about Letraset Tria markers and how they compared with Copics, at only a fraction of the price. I have about 21 of the Trias and I have been happy enough with them, and with how I picked them out to work together.

Recently I stumbled upon some challenge blogs where they require the use of ProMarkers. Hmm, another contender. They cards these ladies are making with the ProMarkers look just as good as the Copic cards, so I decide to check them out. Promarkers are made by Letraset, too! And, they cost even less than the Trias, I suppose because they only have 2 tips and are not refillable. They only have about 148 colors, but if I combine them with the Tria line then that should be sufficient.

So all this to say that my ProMarkers have arrived today! I only ordered 24 to try them out, and somehow only ordered 1 in the green family, (don't know what I was thinking there), but there is a good possibility I will be going back to the well before long. At only $1.49 per marker, it will be hard to resist.

If anyone is interested, I found these at Carpe Diem Store

Double Dutch and Stamp Something

2010-06-05T14:59:00.003-04:00

I've decided to keep this card simple. It's so frustrating at times. I have tons of ribbons, buttons, brads, glitters, doodads and other embellishments, but somehow they never seem to be the ones I need for the particular project I'm working on. I've tasked myself with not buying any more embellies and to try to use what I have, but as you can see on this card, I didn't use a single thing. Not even stickles. :( Oh well, maybe the next one I'll go all out, put everything but the kitchen sink on, yeah, that's the ticket!

This was done for the Double Dutch #44 Challenge, which is a sketch. And, since I've used a Bugaboo Stamp I shall enter it into their first Stamp Something challenge. The turtle is the Bugaboo stamp, while the sentiment that surrounds him comes from MMDesigns.

Recipe:

Digi stamps: Bugaboo Stamps - Happy Birthday Turtle, MMDesigns - HB Sentiment
Cardstock: DCWV, GP
DP: Paper Pizazz- Yellow Daisies, DCWV for all the others.
Spellbinders Nestabilites
Colored with: Bic Mark its, Tria alcohol markers, Sharpies

The Stamping Boutique's June Challenge

2010-06-03T17:24:00.004-04:00

Today's card was designed using the sketch over at The Sugar Bowl. It was made for the Stamping Boutique's new monthly challenge for June and to send to our troops overseas through Operation Write Home. From what I understand they are in need of lots of Miss you and Just Because cards, so I thought I would combine a challenge with some good works.

The image is part of a set that was donated by The Stamping Boutique for use in the making of cards for OWH

Recipe:

Digital Stamp: Patriotic Audrey - The Stamping Boutique
Cardstock: GP - white, Recollections - black, houndstooth - homemade
Sizzix flowers embossing folder, Sizzix
Offray: Ribbons
Darice: Eyelets
MS Word: Sentiment
Colored with Tria alcohol markers
Pop dots
Colorbox liquid chalk

Is it Daisy or....Sybil!

2010-06-02T15:14:00.002-04:00

I think I must be channeling Sybil. For those that haven't seen the movie, Sybil uses a purple crayon to do all of her drawings. I could not tear myself away from the purple with this card.

I made this card for the Birthday Best challenge over at Squiggles and Giggles challenge blog. They are celebrating their 1 year anniversary and the theme for the challenge is simply make a birthday card. They are also having a fab sale of 20% off all stamps in their shop, so go check them out!

The sketch I used to make this card is from the Catch the Bug Challenge Blog.

Recipe:

Digi Stamp: Daisy with Gift Squiggle Stamps
Sentiment: KI Memories
Cardstock: DCWV - Glitter white, Core'dinations - purple majesty, ANW Crestwood - Amethyst Jewel Metallic, GP - white
DP: Making Memories - Purple Gingham
Ribbon/Buttons: Joann's
Pearls: Ebay
Marvy Uchida flower punches
Stickles
Colorbox Heliotrope ink
Sizzix Flower embossing folder, Sizzix machine
Scalloped Oval: Penny Duncan Creations, Cricut
Martha Stewart flower punch
Colored with a combo of Tria Alcohol markers and Sharpies
Pop dots
Inkssentials white opaque pen

Beary Sweet Challenge #3

2010-06-02T13:47:00.003-04:00

So, over the past two Christmases I've received all 5 of the Harajuku Lovers perfumes, and being the pack rat that I am, I never trashed the boxes; I figured they would be good for something... Well, I think that something is going to be a set of cards with each of these cute little figures on them. The first one I cut up is "G", a mini Gwen Stefani. I shall probably do the rest in the order that she sings about them in the song, Love, Angel, Music and Baby.

For the G card, I had my heart set on houndstooth since it has been so in fashion lately. Other than that I tried to pick some funky patterns that also matched her outfit, I hope I succeeded!

I've followed the sketch (Get Sketchy with Us!) at Beary Scrap Designs where I shall also enter this card.

Recipe:
Images/text: Harajuku Lovers perfume box
Cardstock: Recollections - black, Core'dinations - Tulip, Bazzil - black dotted
DP: Me & My Big Ideas - Modern Milan, Photoshop - Houndstooth
Letter G: Colorbok Alpha Punch outs
Favorite Findings: Dragonfly
Heart - Stash
Pop dots

Father's Day Card

2010-06-01T20:21:00.003-04:00

Today I have made a card for Father's Day using the sketch at Friday Sketchers. I had just discovered this stamp on another card blog (that I forgot to bookmark!!) and just fell in love with it. Since Father's Day is coming up I this to be a great opportunity to try it out. Bear stamps are just so irresistibly cute!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

One Stitch at a Time Challenge #15 Use Something New - The digi stamp is new.
Cowgirl's Sunday Stamp Challenge #3 Recipe 1-2-3 - the 3 embellies are the ribbon, the buttons and the stickles.
Quixotic Paperie Challenge #27 Emboss it!

Recipe:

Stamp: Di's Digi Downloads - A Special Note from Bear
Card stock: DCWV, Core'dinations - VC Antigua, GP - White
DP: Printable Heaven Father's Day paper, Recollections Time Line Red
Ribbon: Stash
Stickles
Buttons - Joann's
Cuttlebug Argyle Embossing folder, Sizzix machine
Scalloped Ovals: Penny Duncan Creations, Cricut
Colored with: Zig marker, Sharpies, Bic Mark its

Bubbling Tilda

2010-05-30T14:50:00.002-04:00

This card is for the Magnolia Down Under challenge #48 Flowers.

Ah, she looks so sweet, but she gave me such a hard time! To be fair, it wasn't all her fault, part of the blame belongs to Prismacolor pencils. First, I could not get this stamp to stamp cleanly for me, not enough pressure and the details didn't show up, too much pressure and the extra ink on the edges showed up, so frustrating. Then, I was determined to color her dress with Vert Jade pencil as I thought it would go with the back round so nicely. Apparently my Vert Jade pencil has a graphite streak all the way through it. Every time I started coloring all of this dark grey showed up and made the coloring look dirty. I got one fairly nice coloring, but on an image that was unusable as a whole. So her dress is paper pieced, and her ankle is splotched with "dirt"!

I had some lovely butterflies that I had received in a paper punches swap. I put those through the Xyron and then glittered them up. I wish I had thought of that for her pop-up wing...I may redo that part.

Recipe:
Stamp: Magnolia - Bubbling Tilda
Sentiment: Michelle Perkett Studios
Cardstock: GP, Recollections
DP: DCWV - Linen Closet
Flowers: Prisma - teal, Michael's - cream
Leaves: Cricut
Butterflies: Stash
Glitter: Martha Stewart
Stickles
Colored with: Prismacolor pencils, OMS, Tria markers, Pebbles chalks
Versafine Onyx Black ink

Darling Daisy

2010-05-29T19:38:00.003-04:00

Today's card features the darling Daisy digital stamp from Squiggle Stamps.
I made this card for two challenges, the Get Krafty challenge at Squiggle Stamps and the Three's a Charm challenge at Sew Many Cards challenge Blog.

For the first challenge the task was to incorporate Kraft (or paper bags!) paper into the card design. I did not have kraft paper but I did have these awesome bags that the scrapbook store uses for purchases. They are nicely sized and have newspaper type print all over them.

The requirement for the second challenge was to use three embellishments and a charm in the card design. I hope what I've used count as embellishments. Nothing too fancy today, a rather simple, low stress card.

Recipe:
Stamp: Squiggle Stamps - Daisy w/ Flowers
Sentiment: Just Right Stamps
Card stock: Recollections, GP
DP: paper bag
Ribbon: Joann's
Charm: Michael's
Flowers: Handmade, shapes from Cricut
Border Punch: Fiskar's
Colored with: Bic Mark It and Tria Markers