Blessings

Here is another Thank You note I did using the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl collection.  I sent this one to a customer.  You can find this collection at http://artfuldelight.com/

I didn't add any extra distressing this time figuring this one was busy enough.  The sentiment is from the paper collection.  I love it!  Wish I had a stamp of it.  Perfect for a "material girl" like me.

Ingredients:  Material Girl Crafting Kit by Cosmo Cricket
Cardstock: Lemon Tart, Scarlett Jewel by Papertrey Ink
Ribbon:  Basic Grey
Buttons:  Fabric store

Done!

Last stitch, last thread snipped and a few days ahead!  I won't say it is my most detailed quilt.  It is bright, soft and full of Nai Nai's favorite colors. 

I did get to play a little with my free hand quilting foot.  Clearly this needs practice but it is fun to do.

All the fabrics on the front are from Kaffe Fassett.  Finished size is 60" x 84".

Spring Solitude Challenges

Often when I'm wanting to do the color and/or sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers, I browse my stamp sets to see what jumps out at me.  This week it was the Spring Solitude set - a hostesss set from a couple of years back with a matching wheel.  I figured that little birdie would look cute in the small circle from the sketch.  I flipped the sketch so the birdie would face into the card.

I've unmounted the wheel from this set so it is very easy to use.  See this post if you want to unmount wheels --  Tipsy Tuesday Wheels to Unmounted Stamps

I resisted the urge to use dimensionals on some of these elements.  With no buttons or ribbon, this one is easy to mail.  In fact, this card needs to go in the mail to a family friend recovering from knee replacement surgery.  Such a painful process and I hope she will soon be home enjoying her independent life.

The flowers are colored with blender pens dipped in Baja and Razzleberry ink as well as a So Saffron crayon.  The "wheeled" image is embossed with Versamark on So Saffron cardstock.
Thanks for stopping by!

Ingredients:  Stamps: Spring Solitude by Stampin' Up!; Mailbox greetings by Papertrey Ink
Ink:  Versamark, Rich Razzleberry, Baja Breeze, So Saffron watercolor crayon
Cardstock:  So Saffron, Baja Breeze
DSP:  Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin' Kit by SU!

TIPsy Tuesday - Distressed or Naked?

So many designer papers have vintage patterns these days.  In addition to lots of small prints, this year all kinds of papers are showing up with old dress patterns, fashion and dress pattern ads, measuring tape and other sewing notions on them.  Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl collection is one of these.  I was fortunate enough to win this collection from http://www.artfuldelight.com/ as blog candy!  (Check out her blog and website.  She has some new blog candy and great prices on her paper collections:  www.artfuldelight.blogspot.com/ )

Yet despite all the vintage prints, many of these papers have a minimum of distressed edges.  I think this is a good thing.  You can always add your own distressing.  For me, if I'm looking for paper for scrapbook pages, I like the heavy distressed look - like Basic Grey papers have.  If I'm making cards, I'd rather have very little disressing.  The paper will be cut up in small pieces and I don't want one edge heavily aged and other edges bare.  Also if you are making multiples of a card, it is much easier to cut the paper if the finish is consistent.

My favorite distressing inks are:
Ranger's Antique Linen (very light), Old Paper, Vintage Photo
Distressing inks are dye inks.

Stampin' Up!'s Classic inks are also dye inks.  They dry fast and can be applied lightly.
Good distressing colors from SU! are:
River Rock, Soft Suede, and Sahara Sand

All of these colors give papers an older appearance which is terrific for the many vintage style designs on the market now.

For the card here, I used Ranger Antique Linen and Vintage Photo to sponge on some color to the edges after cutting my paper strips from the Material Girl collection and one October Afternoon piece.

So much about paper comes down to preference.  Fortunately, there are so many wonderful paper companies we can have it all.  Thanks for visiting today!

Gorgeous Day for a Hike

It's been a gorgeous weekend here after so many days of 90+ degree weather.  It was also a gorgeous day when we took these photos on two recent hikes off the parkway near Linville, NC. 

Project Notes:

• I had these photos developed at Walmart.  For the photos of us, I had full 4x6 shots developed and I also did some with 2 photos per 4x6 sheet so I could choose from the smaller or larger ones depending on how the layouts went.
• I use PowerPoint to type up my titles and journaling.  First these were printed on the green background paper to get the spacing right.  I was going to cover up most of this paper anyway so it was good scrap printing paper.
• The cloud DSP is the bottom part of the tucan paper from Stampin' Up!'s Sweet Pea paper pad.  I just turned the paper upside down for printing.

I hope we will have time for a hike at our local park again soon.  Just found out that Riverbend park we love going to will be closed three days per week due to budget cuts.  My business has been better this year; I hope things turn around soon.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Sweet Pea by Stampin' Up!
Chipboard frame by SU!
Ink:  Brocade Blue for disrtressing.
Leather:  Walmart
Chipboard letters:  Basic Grey undressed

Happy 4th!

Happy Independence Day!  Here's a card I did to put in the next Operation Write Home box.  It's been awhile since I made Any Hero cards.  These are notes, thank yous for our service men and women to let them know how much their sacrifice is appreciated.

Project Note:

• The stars were cut with the Cricut using SCAL software.  I created the file myself by just adding one of the built-in images for a star over and over again. I sized some differently, put some stars inside others to get the cut-out ones, and pushed them close together then welded the whole thing.  Most of it cut out as one shape and I was suprised and how quickly it cut.
• I glued all this down with spray adhesive (3M Photomount, I think) - a tip from over at Two Peas.

Soon it will be time to get our cheeseburgers ready along with some locally grown corn-on-the-cob.  Enjoy your celebrations!

Ingredients:  Cardstock:  Real Red by SU!
DSP:  Night of Navy by SU!
Ribbon:  Navy from craft store; Red and white from SU!

Our State Bird

The other thing I got when Walmart was revamping their craft area was a set of bird stamps from Martha Stewart.  I stamped several of these cardinals days ago and have slowly - very slowly - gotten around to watercoloring the cardinals and magnolias.  I know cardinals are the state bird for many states including ours.  Our state flower is the dogwood.  Wonder who has the magnolia to go with the cardinal?  Sounds like a Jeopardy question - ah, Answer.

Anyway, we blew a transformer early this morning so with the power off and little else I could do, I finally put these cards together.   (Thanks to the wonderful folks at Duke Energy.   They restored our power while we were off doing an installation.)  I kept the card design simple focusing on the red bird.  I decided to break out the Close to Cocoa cardstock.  I love that color of ink, even ordering a reinker was soon as SU announced they were dropping it.  But the Close to Cocoa paper is often untouched.  It's a little rosy for me.  Soon I'll be collecting new colors so time to get some of the older stuff out the door.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend! 

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Birds by Martha Stewart Crafts; All Holidays by SU! for the greeting
Ink:  Staz-on jet black; various watercolor markers - mainly real red, bravo burgandy, close to cocoa, very vanilla
DSP:  Real Red by SU!
Cardstock:  Close to Cocoa, Basic Black
Ribbon:  fabric dept.

Progress and Frustration

On Tuesday, I introduced my friend Jeanie, a SU Demo and an amazingly talented crafter, to Mary Jo's fabric store in Gastonia, NC.  Mary Jo's is THE place to go for whatever type of fabric you are wanting.  They have particularly good selections of special occasion and quilting fabrics.  We went to another supplier in Gastonia to pick up some essential components of fabric shades I am making for a customer - items that would have cost me a fortune in oversize freight charges on UPS.  But since we were in Gastonia, no point in passing up an opportunity to go fabric shopping, right?

The only thing I needed was the backing fabric for Nai Nai's quilt and selected a tiny white polka dot on a purple background.  Purple is her favorite color.  Jean bought some really cute tulle and sparkly sheer to make a fairy princess outfit for her grand-daughter.

While waiting on some trim to come in for my next job, I was able to get the back pieced and the quilt sandwiched.  This morning I did the final basting so I feel like I'm making good progress towards getting this done in just a few more days.

The frustration hit when I went to machine quilt.  First I had accidentally disconnected the IDT on my Pfaff - it is the built in even feed foot. I love my Pfaff sewing machine.  It is without hesitation the single best purchase I've ever made.  I use it for everything now!  I soon figured out what was wrong but not before I had to rip about a half width's stitches.  Then I tried what I'd envisioned for the quilting.  That didn't work well either, but not because of the machine.  More seam ripping - ugh!  I'm not sure what was wrong but knew that I'd better go to a backup plan fast.  My husband had arrived on the scene to help me with my real work. 

So I've done some quilting in the ditch to get almost sufficient quilting for the top.  I still want to experiment with some other types of machine quilting.  Doing a project in a hurry sure means lots of compromises.