Cute Christmas Set

 

 

When my Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Jean, saw this set I'd ordered last month and the companion designer paper, she wanted me to bring it to October stamp club.  I offered to make one of our cards for club to help her out from her busy schedule and to show off this great stamp set.  It is really cute!

The layout was inspired by this months A Year in Cards at Two Peas in a Bucket.  I rearranged a few things and changed the orientation of the card. 

One project note:  Since I don't have all the new SU! color markers, I made do for Blushing Bride by coloring first in Pretty in Pink and then going over with Blush Blossum. It gave a very close match.

 

 

Ingredients:  (all Stampin' Up! except Staz-on black ink) Stamps:  Cute Christmas

Ink:  Baja Breeze, Garden Green, Real Red, Pretty in Pink

Cardstock:  Real Red, Garden Green, Whisper White

DSP:  Candy Cane Christmas

 

DSP Day - That 70's Craft

Help me out here.  There was a craft in the 70's where you cut up printed images and layered the images on top of one another putting a coat of varnish on them as you went.  You created a type of 3D picture with them.  I just can't remember what it was called.

Whatever... it was the inspiration for the card above.  I just cut out flowers from additional DSP to layer on the main DSP.  In some cases I created more than one additonal layer.  Brushing on Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up! created the gloss.   Some layers have dimensionals between them and others have glue dots depending on the amount of pop I wanted.

Just another way to use your designer paper and be retro about it, too.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Ingredients:  Stamp:  Upsy Daisy by SU!
Ink and Cardstock:  Chocolate Chip
DSP:  Sweet Pea by SU!
Brads:  Marrakesh by Basic Grey

HomeArama '10

The Charlotte HomeArama continues through October 10 off I-77 Exit 25.  I went yesterday with two friends and we had an enjoyable day touring the 5 homes.  Here are just a few of the photos I took:

If you are in the Charlotte area and interested in building, remodeling, or decorating, HomeArama is a great event.  Details are at:   http://www.homearamacharlotte.com/

Note: It takes 2 to 3 hours to do the self-paced tour. Parking is a mix of paved and 'field.'  There are no shuttles.  You can walk from parking to the houses. 

None of the homes have basements this year.  Also the window treatments were very simple - mostly drapery panels.  Although each house had a different interior designer, the design styles were simliar, very fresh, light, liveable contemporary.  The cabinets are gorgeous and the outdoor spaces inspiring.

Our favorite feature was a porch that converts from open to screened in with a touch of a button.  Ingenious!

It's a Quilt ...and a lesson

Not all scrapbooking is about the most joyous occasions.  I think it important to record what really happens even if it isn't all like you expected it to be.  One of the "Joys of Scrapbooking" is that it can be therapeutic and eye opening to write about an experience.  That is what happened when I did the pages for the quilt I made as a gift this summer.  I could have just done a one page layout with some photos of the quilt and how I rushed to complete it, but that isn't really the story, or the lesson.

The journaling reads:

When we went to Amanda’s wedding, I finally remembered to take the quilt along I’d planned to give to Dillon. My grandmother had two quilts made for me when I was in my teens. One was a large LeMoyne star in red, white and blue! What was she thinking? I always thought it would make a good ‘boys’ quilt. Since I didn’t have any children and Lenny had daughters, the quilt has been in storage all this time. Dillon loves red and these are the colors in his room so I just figured I’d give it to him. I didn’t figure he would care that much about it. I didn’t even give it to him personally, just handing it off to Stanley to pass along. Well, I seriously underestimated his enthusiasm. He loved it. That night at the hotel, he and Nai Nai built a fort with his quilt and he slept under it each night.



About a month before we left for Hilton Head, it began to nag me that I didn’t have a quilt for Nai Nai so I decided to make one. I knew it would be a rush and I already had quite a bit of window treatment work to do. Still I had been dying to work with Kaffe Fassett fabrics and I found a place to order them on-line. I spent what seemed like hours downloading photos, working out a layout and making the final selections. When the order came in, I went right to work prewashing and finalizing my layout.


With only a few weeks, the quilt had to be a simple design. I’d chosen Nai Nai’s favorite colors of hot pink, purple and a little orange. It was to be bright and cheerful, just like her. I cut and sewed steadily around my other work. I even machine quilted using the free form quilting foot. Definitely, not a work of art, the quilting did give me experience. And of course, I’d cut myself terribly short on fabric but soon, sooner than I’d expected, the 60” x 80” quilt was complete. I couldn’t wait to give it to her.


I did wait though, until about the 3rd day of our trip. This shouldn’t be rushed along with all the other new things they were seeing and doing. I’d been giving them a toy a day to play with in the condo. One morning, I told her I had a surprise for her and we would wait until everyone was together to give it to her. She made sure the family was assembled as soon as possible. I went back to the master bedroom closet and brought out the bag.


This is where I’m supposed to say how excited she was – just like Dillon had been. She was polite. She didn’t say much. She looked at the quilt, Jaime showed her some of the details and I could tell it had fallen flat. I folded it back up and it wasn’t touched again until Stanley packed it back up to take to their house. Lenny said that she would appreciate it when she was older.


Now that I think about it, her reaction was much like mine was to the red, white and blue star quilt. (I’d have loved it if my grandmother had made me a quilt herself.) Anyway, Nai Nai’s is a pretty quilt and large enough for her bed in Branson. Maybe some day it will mean something to her or maybe she will share it with someone who will love it. For now, it means something to me that I was able to make her a gift.


It wasn't until I was writing this journaling that I realized the similarity between Nai Nai's reaction to my quilt and my reaction to the one my grandmother had paid to have made for me.  Both were given out of love and both were received with only polite thanks though for different reasons.  It isn't surprising that Nai Nai was expecting a toy rather than something she hardly needed in the middle of summer.

This also reminded me of my lukewarm reaction to my Aunt Clara's Christmas gifts when I was a child.  Each year a package would arrive in the mail from the west coast. Mother would not let me open it until Christmas and I knew it would be clothes.  But each year I secretly hoped it would be a doll or some kind of toy.  Those clothes were much appreciated by my Mother and fortunately my aunt never knew that I was just a bit disappointed.  Now I know that my reaction wasn't all that important anyway.  The clothes were as much for Mother as they were for me providing something extra in those early years when there wasn't a lot of extra money.  And my aunt must have loved shopping for them.  You see, she lost her own daughter to disease and missed having a little girl to shop for.  I only regret that I never thanked her properly for her gifts.

I have noticed over the years that some things I make really go over big and others, often the ones that took the most effort, are met with just a 'thanks.'  It doesn't matter that much as long as you give out of love.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Cosmo Cricket Material Girl, My Mind's Eye for background
Quilt is cut with the Cricut from various DSP scraps

Simple Color Challenge Card

For this week's clean and simple cards and the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers, I did this card using the Trendy Trees stamp set.  I loved the clean and simple sketch.  The color challenge was to use Rose Red, Daffodil Delight and Basic Gray.   For dessert we could add any other color.  What a great dessert option as three colors is often a real challenge and this gives us a chance to use discontinued colors.  My choice was Bermuda Bay.  I did have to think a little outside the box for me on the trees and give them Gray trunks.  Ok, that isn't much outside the box, but I'm pretty literal so my trees always have brown trunks.  :-)

Hope you have a great Wednesday.  If you want to relax in front of the TV tonight, check out the Defenders at 10 Eastern on CBS.  I watched last week because I usually enjoy Jim Belushi.  The show was much better than I expected - the characters have more depth.  Definitely worth seeing again. 


Ingredients:  Stamps:  Trendy Trees by Stampin' UP!
Ink:  Rose Red, Bermuda Bay, Summer Sun (I don't have Daffodil yet.), Basic Gray
Cardstock:  Daffodil Delight and Basic Gray
DSP:  Thoroughly Modern by SU!
Button source unknown
Twine:  DMC

TIPsy Tuesday - Link to Bow Tying

Tying bows is the main thing that causes most of us crafting frustration. Here is a link to a great bow and knot tying video on Dawn McVey's blog.  I found this via Kristina Werner's blog and wanted to pass it along.  Also I've included a few things that work for me when tying knots and bows.

Video:  Dawn McVey Bow Tying Video Post

Notes on tying bows and knots: 

• Often I find I like my knots better when I turn the card upside down to tie them.  It seems the tails come out in the right place that way.  I'm right handed.
• Softer ribbons yield prettier bows.  Satins are easier than grosgrains no matter who makes them.  However, as great as Stampin' UP!'s products are, their grosgrain ribbon is very stiff and hard to tie.  Papertrey Ink's or fabric store ribbon are easier.
• Slip some glue dots inside the knot after tying to keep a bow from coming untied. 

Fiddling = Frustration.  After you are happy with a bow, stop messing with it! 

Obviously, I'm not a world class bow tier even with instruction, but believe me these are an improvement particularly using grosgrain ribbon. 

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Home for Christmas by SU!

Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown, various watercolor crayons from SU!, Zig Burgandy marker

DSP:  Always Artichoke

Ribbon:  Fabric store

a Lovely Evening

A few weeks ago we went to the most perfect wedding.  My cousin Alisha married Kris on the grounds of a historic home.  It was just beautiful.

In all the photos I made there wasn't a good close image of the bride and groom. So I did a collage and included as many photos of my family as I could.  Alisha and her father, my cousin Johnny, are in the two center photos of this collage. 

Project Notes:

• 
  
  "LOVELY" was cut with the Cricut Storybook cartridge.  I bought this cartridge for all the images and thought the font would be too frilly to use but I love it! 
• 
  
  I didn't have quite enough of the aqua and ivory background paper for the first page so I spliced in the brown paper which provided a contrasting background for the flocked chipboard letters. 
• 
  
  I didn't have the pink rose I really wanted for the right hand page so I pulled apart another pink silk flower, darkened the petals with Regal Rose craft ink and glued them together with glue dots.  The remainder of the flower is made with some wonderful Webster's Pages lace in just the right shade of brown to complement the wedding colors. 

The butterfly is from a Crate Paper collection.  There was a butterfly fluttering over all the floral arangements during the actual ceremony.  They couldn't have planned a more appropriate touch for their ceremony.

The journaling is printed on vellum and details some of the pretty touches of the wedding.  With perfect weather, beautiful grounds, interesting floral arrangments, good conversation, a happy bride and great food, no wonder eveyone kept saying it was a Lovely Evening.

Ingredients:  DSP:  Marrakech from Basic Grey, Prudence by Crate Paper

Fibers: Webster's Pages

Brad:  Stampin' Up! Anttique brads

Chipboard Letters:  Emerald Flocked Thickers by American Crafts

Rhinestones:  Kaiser Craft

DSP Day - Little Strips

Before Creative Memories went to a true 12x12 inch scrapbook size, I always had little strips of designer paper left over from cutting 1/2" off one side of the background paper. Now I get them from all kinds of projects especially when I use 6" or 8" square paper pads.  Those sizes just don't fit quite right for standard cards and there are leftovers.

I was truly down to the little strips on a few of these papers and I'm glad they found a home on this kitty card.  Adding circular cardstock for the stamped image balances all those lines.

Here's the sketch:

Thanks for visiting!

Ingredients:  Stamps:  Cats by Inkadinkado

Ink:  Amber Clay and Dark Brown Fluid Chalk ink by Colorbox

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Naturals White and Baja Breeze by SU!

DSP:   by Basic Grey; Delight by Fancy Pants

Brads:  Oriental Trading and Stampin' Up!