Pages

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

DCBD # 174

Welcome back to another Diva Challenge Wednesday.  Again, I am sorry about my venting yesterday, thanks for coming back today!  I got a little bit of real sleep last night and things look better for today.  Today's challenge is a nice springy color challenge.dcbd#174 The colors look nice together but it is one that I had a hard time using.    Here is what I finally came up with.

dcbd#174

It is a 4 1/4 inch square card.   I made the circles by first punching out a circle with the 3/4 inch circle punch, then I punched a 1 inch circle over the hole in the cardstock to create the ring and then I did that one more time with the 1 1/4 inch circle punch.  I just kind of randomly threw them down on the paper and glued them where they fell.  For the whale I stamped him/her 3 times, once on whisper white, once on pink passion and once on tempting turquoise.  

 

Don’t forget to head over to the Diva Coffee Break Designs Blog to check out the samples that the other divas have made and to play along with us!

Stamps:  Pun Fun

Ink:  Basic Black

Paper:  Whisper White, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Textured Dusty Durango

Accessories:  1 1/4 inch black striped grosgrain ribbon

Tools:  3/4 inch, 1 inch and 1 1/4 inch circle punches

Pin It Now!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Seriously

This is not my day.  First off it is rainy, cold and windy where is the beautiful spring weather?  Second, I have two kids home sick today, the kids have been passing around this 48 hour stomach bug.  Why is it that the older kids cannot make it into the bathroom before throwing up when the 3 year old and 17 month old can?  Twice today we have lost power because of the wind and rain I am guessing.  Fourth I went to go work on the project for today’s post and found my sewing machine broken yet again and after several hours I am still not sure how to fix it.  (This was partly my fault, I was working on it when the power went out the first time and forgot to put the cover on the sewing machine so it was out there tempting the little girls.)  I forget what number we are on but I went to school to pick up the kid that was not sick and the car died in the school driveway.  No one would stop and help me with a jump.  I know how to jump a car all they had to do was open their hood and I would do the rest, it was not even raining at this moment.  Luckily the principal pulled his car around and helped me get mine started.  Then when we pull into the driveway at home I got the two little girls out of their seats and notice that my oldest is not getting out of the car.  She is just sitting there, I keep asking her to get out but she just sits there are stares at me until she proceeds to throw up all over the car.   Really?!?  I brought plastic bags and clean empty trash cans that she had if she needed, plus we were home in plenty of time for her to run to the bathroom, or the grass or even the driveway, but in the car?  I know that there are plenty of people that have lots worse to deal with in life but this just is not my day.  Since Sat I have only had a combined total of 4.5 hours of sleep in the last 3 nights, and I am not in college anymore and I am not handling it all too well.  And to top it all off I am having a major allergy attack.  I am usually safe from allergies when it rains but not today.  So enough with the whining on my part and on to today’s post, thanks for listening to my vent.

After making the baby blocks I knew the next thing I wanted to make was a bean bag.  My kids love playing with them but our last set bit the dust a few months ago.  I also made a tic-tac-toe mat to play with the bean bags on.  I guess what I made was a cross between tic-tac-toe and toss across, maybe I should call it tic-tac-toss.  The bean bag is simply two of the scallop circles sewn together, leaving a small opening so that you can stuff it with dried beans, and then stitching the opening closed.bean bag

The game board is a large piece of flannel that I sewed on some brocade blue wide grosgrain ribbon.tictactossThe healthy kids are begging to play with the game but I only have one bean bag finished and that would be a pretty lame game of tic tac toe.  I don't know how I am going to figure out how to fix the sewing machine this time to finish the game.   This is what I found when I came back to my sewing machine.  broken sewing machine  

I am not sure how the culprit got the piece out of the machine, but it is a part of the thread loading mechanism.  I really do not have the funds to get this fixed so I am going to have to figure out how to do it on my own, but I have no idea how it went and there are not diagrams of this part of the machine in the instruction manual or on the brother website.  Anyone know how to fix it?

Pin It Now!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Baby Blocks

          Right now I have a lot of friends and family members expecting babies, most of them are girls but there are a few boys thrown in the mix.  The other day I was moving my scrap fabric basket and spilled it.  A few extra pieces from my last rag purse fell out on the ground next to a soft baby block that my daughter left out.  I was instantly inspired.  I had everything I needed it was surprisingly easy to do.   I found the scraps I wanted to use and started running them through the big shot almost immediately.  I have several different ones cut and ready to be sewn together so here are the first two that I have done!

  GIRL blocks

4blocksAs you can see I made two different versions, one with the scalloped edges showing and one with straight edges.  I just stuffed these with fiberfill.  I contemplated going to the fabric store and getting some of the thick foam stuff but I had some baby rattles that I decided to stick in so I just went with the fiberfill.  The foam would produce a stiffer more square shaped block.  Each block uses only 6 of the scallop square dies cuts.  To create a set of 4 blocks I used about a 5 inch strip of 3 different fabrics.  (2 scallops in each fabric design)  This is really the perfect project to use up scraps!

Directions for a scalloped edge block:

scalloped

 

1. Lay out 5 of the squares to form a “T” to figure out your placement of each fabric design.

layout of squares

 

2. Sew the pieces together along the square in the center with wrong sides of fabric together.  (I made about a 1/4 inch seam which was just below each scallop.)  scalloped t

 

3.  Fold the flaps up and sew the sides (again with wrong side of the fabric together).scalloped box

 

4.  Sew the 6th remaining scalloped square along the top of the block.  Make sure that you do not sew it all the way shut so that you stuff it.  Fill it with fiberfill or foam to the desired firmness. scalloped openening

 

5.  Sew the opening closed.  (I had to hand stitch it closed because it was too thick to fit in my machine.)  And viola, your block is done!scalloped

 

Directions for straight edged block:

straight

 

1. Lay out 5 of the squares to form a “T” to figure out your placement of each fabric design.layout of squares

 

2. Sew the pieces together along the square in the center with right sides of fabric together.  (If you make your seam about 1/4 inch it should just incorporate the whole scallop so there are not any little holes when you flip it right side out.)  straight t

 

3.  Fold the flaps up and sew the sides (again with right side of the fabric together).straight box

 

4.  Sew the 6th remaining scalloped square along the top of the block.  (I forgot to take a picture of this step, sorry.) Make sure that you do not sew it all the way shut.  

5.  Right now your block should be inside out, turn it right side out through the hole that you left open.  Fill it with fiberfill or foam to the desired firmness. straight opening

6.  Hand stitch the opening closed and your block is ready for some fun.straight

 

Aren’t these fun!  As you can see I took it one step further with the butterfly block set.  I used the Stampin’ Up! exclusive Beautiful Butterfly Bigz Die and sewed/appliquéd butterflies on to the green panels for some added fun.   Now I need to buy the alphabet and number dies so that I can make some large dice for the kids to play with,  make ABC block for them to spell, oh there are so many possibilities.   My have already had fun playing with these ones before I had to confiscate them since these ones are a gift.  Now go find some fabric and get creating!  I have one more simple big shot fabric project to show you tomorrow, that is just as fun and even simpler!  Oh this is so much fun!

Tools:  Big Shot, Stampin’ Up! Scallop Square bigz clear die,   Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die

Pin It Now!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sneak Peak

I am uploading and editing the pictures for my post tomorrow and thought I would show you a little teaser of what it coming…..

teaser

…….what could it be?  Check back tomorrow afternoon to find out!

Tools:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterfly Die

Pin It Now!

Diva Coffee Break Designs Challenge #173

 

Well it is not Wednesday, but never fear it is not too late to play along with this weeks Diva Challenge.  I got my days all screwed up this past week and never got my card posted even thought it was done.  This week was a fun sketch. 

This is the perfect sketch to show off some of my favorite, soon to be retiring designer series paper, the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack.  I love this set of paper and have seriously considered ordering some more and stocking up before it retires.  I still have a full pack plus about 1/8 of a pack left, but I know that Stampin’ Up! just has to provide us with a great alternative in the next catalog so I am trying hard to hold off.  dcbd#173

I used Taken With Teal on this card.  This is one of the colors that I will definitely miss with the upcoming color renovation.  I use it a lot more than tempting turquoise, but as sad as I am to see it go I am even more excited to see and use the new colors!

I have some good news, I figured out the problem with my sewing machine!  Someone, I have my guesses as to which child it is even though they are not confessing, had pushed a crasin in the gears in the opening where you insert a bobbin.  It made a big mess of the inside of my machine but I was able to get it clean and working again!  So I was able to finish my big shot project and will have it ready to show tomorrow!

Don’t forget to head over to the Diva Coffee Break Designs Blog to check out the samples that the other divas have made and to play along with us!

Stamps:  Vintage Vogue

Ink:  Taken with Teal

Paper:  So Saffron, Taken With Teal, Pumpkin Pie,  Whisper White and Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack

Accessories:  Linen Thread

Tools:  Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Embosslit, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inch square punches

Pin It Now!

Friday, April 23, 2010

A Good Excuse!

I actually have a good excuse for the lack of blogging.  We were out of town.  I was off having fun and relaxing.  (Ignore the super white legs, I do not tan, just burn and still turn out white afterwards.)h1My hubby has been working super hard and earned us a trip to Hawaii from work.  It was a fabulous week with all expenses paid at a wonderful resort on the big island.  (well most expenses paid there were a few meal that we had to take care of but that was no biggie.)

Here are a few more pictures from the trip. 

h4  

h3

h2

I will resume regular crafty blogging on Monday.  I have a few more cards to show and a 3-d project that I have been working on, if I could just get my sewing machine working so I can finish it.

Pin It Now!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Friend to Friend Butterflies

Sorry, one more quickie post, hopefully I can have some more time next week.  This card I cased from someone to use at my last class because I knew they would just love it.  I wrote down who I copied it from and will let you know asap.friendtof

Pin It Now!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Sage Thoughts Away

Sorry this is going to be a super quickie post, not much time here.  This card is one that we made at my last class and it uses some of the soon to be retired colors, sage shadow, handsome hunter and pale plum.

 vintagetaway

Pin It Now!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Diva Coffee Break Designs #172

 

This weeks challenge for the Divas was a color challenge.  The colors are Cameo Coral, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip.  I think that is is a pretty combination but I wanted to create something for spring and everything I was doing came out fallish looking.  dcbd#172

This was my best attempt at spring.  This is the new flowers awash stamp set that you can earn for free this month!  (Contact me for details if you are interested)  I love the ease of this stamp set to create a care free watercolor image.

Don’t forget to head over to the Diva Coffee Break Designs Blog to check out the samples that the other divas have made and to play along with us!

Stamps:  Flowers Awash, Well Scripted

Ink:  So Saffron, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip

Paper:  So Saffron, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White

Accessories:  Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon

Pin It Now!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Daisies!

I love Daisies and was immediately drawn to the Flower for All seasons stamp set because of it.  This is a pretty simple card but is really fun at the same time.  brocade frog The main image is stamped on shimmery white cardstock.  It is my favorite medium for water coloring images.

 

Stamps:  Flower for All Seasons

Ink:  Summer sun, old olive, bashful blue, brocade blue, basic brown

Paper: Shimmery White, Crushed Curry, Brocade Blue, Whisper white

Accessories:  Crushed curry polka dot ribbon, stampin dimensionals

Tools:  Big Shot, SU! perfect details and backgounds texturz plates. clear scallop square die

Pin It Now!

Monday, April 12, 2010

March CCS Swap

 

I participate in a monthly swap with a group of demonstrators and this month’s theme was to use something we had never used before.  For me it was the extreme skateboard stamp.  The first time I sat down to use it was preparing for the swap, it should look familiar because I have posted the first draft to the blog already.  I changed it a little bit and am really happy with the results. 

ccsmarch The main two colors on this card are retiring soon but of course I did not know that at the time.  Not only did I use an uninked stamp set for this card I also tried two new techniques, rubber bands on a brayer and the baby wipe ink pad.

Stamps:  Extreme Skateboard

Ink:  Green Galore and Brilliant Blue

Paper:  Whisper white, basic gray, brilliant blue and green galore. 

Accessories:  Bold Brights Brads

Tools:  Big Shot and SU!  perfect details texturz plate, brayer, baby wipe and reinkers, crop a dile

Pin It Now!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Congratulations

This is a super easy congrats card that I made for a friend who is expecting.  I know it is not your traditional congrats on being pregnant card, but after making a bunch of baby cards for a friend I was just not up to a baby card. 

congrats

This is still a nice and pretty, feminine card.  I love the papers in the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack.  There are so many papers that are so different with lots of different textured type patterns and stuff and they all coordinate.    I hope to see more of these offered in the future.  I know, it uses the Scallop Trim Border punch that was available as a free reward from SAB, but I am really going to have a hard time putting that one down.  Plus if you missed your opportunity to get it for free, Stampin’ Up! has let us know that it will be available for purchase in the new catalog in July. 

Stamps:  Well Scripted

Ink:  Rose Red

Paper:  Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Stack, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

Accessories:  Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, Dimensionals

Tools:  Scallop Trim Border and Corner Punches

Pin It Now!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Colors, colors, colors

Colors are everywhere.  Stampin’ Up! has just announced that they are doing a color renovation in the new catalog coming in July.  There are some big changes in store and it is very exciting.    There will no longer be “color families”, there are many colors retiring, those that are staying are being mixed up into new “color collections”,  10  of the most popular in colors will be returning (or staying as 3 of them are this years current colors), there are going to be 5 new colors added to the core line, each year we will get 5 new in colors and they will stay around for 2 years…  When I first heard this I was worried but after actually seeing what Stampin’ Up! is doing I am so excited.  Like most people out there I will be losing some of my favorite colors, so I will definitely find a way to stock up on some of these, and I really like most of the in colors that are coming back, but of course they are not bringing back my all time favorite color Kiwi Kiss, but that is about all that I have to really complain about, they even brought back my 2nd all time favorite color, Wild Wasabi.  When I compare the new color collections with the current color families,  I can really see how great this change is going to be.
Ok on with the sad new first.  Here are all of the colors that will be retiring on June 31st.  If you love them, then now is the time to stock up.  I there are a few colors that sound like there will be  a rush to order, so don’t wait until the last minute to ensure that you get yours! 
 FondFarewellcolors
Now the happy and exciting part is this is what the new color collections will look like in July:
newcolorcollections
Although at first glance the current color selection doesn't look bad, but look at how awesome these look!Pin It Now!