Only a Quilt Today

I haven't been on in a while to post any cards since I'm waiting to see if any of the ones I made before I headed south will qualify for a couple of challenges.   There are a couple of "Anything Goes" this week but I want to wait until after the Friday challenges to see how many I can enter.  In the meantime, I thought I'd show one of my quilts.

I made this one for my son for Christmas a year ago.  I made him a blue log cabin quilt a long time ago, when I first started quilting, and he loved it to shreds - literally .  I even redid part of it since I still had some of the fabric, but it wasn't going to last much longer so I thought it was time for a new one.  Since he is a Michigan State graduate and a big fan, I decided to do this new one in green and white.  I think there are 10 or 12 different green fabrics and almost as many whites and off-whites. 

The inspiration for the pattern came from a quilt I saw at a quilt show in Robertsdale, Alabama in 2009.  They have a wonderful quilt show at the Robertsdale United Methodist Church every other year and I love going.  I can't wait for the next one in 2013.

I do not do the quilting on them, only the piecing.  I have a wonderful long-arm quilter who does all my quilts and I've never been disappointed in the designs she produces.  Here is a close-up of the quilting.

I hope you enjoyed a glance into my other world of Bits and Pieces, this time in fabric. 

New Valentine

The challenge at My Sheri Crafts this week is "Use something new."  It can be ANYTHING - paper, technique, tool, whatever.  That shouldn't be hard for most of us since we always seem to be buying something new to craft with.

This may not look like anything is new but.....The paper is new.  I bought it recently at JoAnn's just to make some valentines.  And I used a new punch on the bottom.  It's from EKSuccess and is a flowing wave with little holes punched along it.  It fits in well with the paper although in the picture it looks like part of the paper.  Believe me that row of white dots along the bottom is actually punched out.  The heart is a textured paper and cut from Doodlecharms.  I printed the sentiment on the white cardstock before adding the background paper.  S I M P L E.  Now I just have to decide which of my grandchildren will get this one.

My Craft Room, part two

While I'm not part of the hop, they are having a "Show Me Your Scraproom" blog hop at Sweet Bird Memories this weekend and so I decided to show more of my craft room.  A few days ago I showed some of my tool storage.  Today it's the rest of the room, sort of.

This is part of my paper storage area.  The drawers in the rolling carts hold  projects, stickers, heat gun and cutting tools, crimper, hot glue gun, and other things that aren't used on a regular basis.  The long white drawers hold (front the top down)   punches, ribbon and Cricut cartridges and manuals.  The square drawer holds some finished cards and A2 envelopes.  This is on the right side of my work space.

On the left, on the side wall, is my computer, printer and a storage unit that holds my scoreboard, trimmer, cutting mats and small paper pads on the shelves, and tape and stapler in the cubby.  Below you can see another storage square with more paper and my Xyron on top.

This is where I store the "major" tools of the trade.  This is a table that fits under my work space.  I can pull it out when I want to sew or work on larger scrap projects.  My husband put a shelf under the table to hold (from left to right) my baby bug, embossing plates and wipes (my jukebox is behind them) my Cuttlebug, serger and sewing machine.  The table is pulled out enough for my Expression to sit on top.

This is the back wall.  We made this cabinet out of old windows and a lot of my quilting material is stashed here.  On top are magazine holders and a stacking file that holds printer paper, photo paper, labels and white cardstock.  Below the magnetic board is another plastic rolling cart with quarter and half cut paper, extra blades and printer ink, and large envelopes. 

There is a small bookcase behind the door that holds my scrapbooks and the closet is filled with other craft and sewing stuff.  There are a few changes I want/need to make in my room and I hope those will happen this spring.  I may end up posting more pictures then.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check out the blog hop for other craft rooms.  Just be prepared to be envious.  I sure was.

Technicolor Prayer Shawl

I have been part of a prayer shawl group for several years.  Six or seven membesr of my church get together once a month to knit/crochet and bless finished shawls.  We also knit at home to fulfill the number of shawls needed.  Recently, a member of our congregation donated a large amount of yarn to the church.  Members of the group picked out what they wanted to use and I decided I wanted to use up the odds and ends.

This is only a small portion of the yarn balls and partial skeins I took.  And this is what came from it.  The shawl is about 20" wide and 60" long with fringe.  You can get a lot of knitting done while traveling in a car or watching football playoffs. lol

These prayer shawls are prayed over and given to members and friends of the church who are going through difficult times.  They are a form of comfort and a sharing of God's love and our prayers.  We even started a tradition of giving white prayer shawls to members of the church who are getting married.  They are given as part of their wedding ceremony.  Do you belong to a prayer shawl group?

Be Yourself

I know that those of you who follow my blog do so to find inspiration in scrapbooking, cardmaking and other crafty things.  Today I'm writing about something entirely different because I'm sitting here thinking about what some childlren go through in life.

My granddaughter turned 13 yesterday, which is probably what got me to thinking in the first place.  She is a darling girl who has been a ballet dancer since the age of 4.  Tall and slim, she has a way about her that is graceful and  sort of sophisticated.  She has that artistic bent that follows through in her clothing choices.  She has long blond hair but sometimes wears a short black wig.  She will wear a tutu outside of dance class over leggings, mismatched socks (which someone has turned into an industry) and skirts as tops.  You get the idea.  She is unique in a tasteful way.

Her parents, both artistic themselves, have allowed her to be herself, while keeping her age appropriate.  My son, her father, was a fine arts major in college and wore his hair down the middle of his back, sort of like Clay Matthews of the Green Bay Packers.  I'm sure no one picks on Clay because of his hair, and if anyone picked on Eric he wouldn't care, or so he says.   But they are men, big strong men.  

This uniqueness, artistic flair, whatever you want to call it,  has caused my granddaughter a lot of  misery because of the bullying by kids in her school.  Yes, she could conform and maybe it would stop but then where is "she" in that?  She is strong but at 13, how strong can you be?  I say all this only to make you aware of what is happening to our children today.  It's not only the mentally and physically handicapped, or the "nerds" or the gays that are being bullied, but anyone who tries to follow their heart and mind and be who God made them to be.

My prayer for today, and everyday,  is for open mindedness, tolerance and love for all God's children.

Polka dot Valentine

Yay!  A challenge I can enter this week.  I made an assortment of valentines to send out while spending 2 months on the gulf.  It will be hit or miss whether any of them will work for a challenge and today is a hit.  Celebrate the Occasion has issued an "Any Occasion - but must use polka dots" challenge.  I just hope it doesn't have to have a sentiment on the front because mine doesn't but it is a valentine card - it say's so inside.  lol

The pink polka dot paper came from a stack of dots from PTI and is mounted on a white card base with the bottom corners chomped.  I cut the scalloped heart and white shadow from Doodlecharms.  The lacy strip is from a MS punch, backed with a lavendar cardstock scrap.  The pink heart was dry embossed with a heart CB folder.  I used my tiny paper punch to punch holds in 7 of the scallops and then added lavendar stones in the holes.  I didn't like it with just the white showing through.  It needed something and that something was a little bling.

Our dulcimer group met for practice yesterday and it was really a workout.  I don't have a group back home to play with so this is so much fun.  I have two new songs to learn by next Monday.  I'd better get practicing.

My Craft Room

I've enjoyed looking at other people's craftrooms, and envying a lot of them.   My room is very small, only 8' by 10' and includes not only my papercrafting but also my sewing and computer.  I've had to be very organized and limit my supplies, but I'm happy with the way it works for me - most of the time.  I do have a few things that need to change but that will have to wait until I'm back home.  I thought I would show you the way I have organized my room in several posts. 

First is my tool organization, not including punches and Cricut cartridges.

I bought these wrapped wire picnic caddies a long time ago at JoAnn's on clearance.  I have 7 hanging on the wall above my work space.  On the right you can see my few stamps, misters, etc.  Next to that are my markers. I recently found the little cardboard baskets  in the Target $1 bin and clipped them on the front.  The ones you can see in this picture hold notes and templates on the right and bling in the other.  (I told you I had limited supplies.)

These caddies are set up to hold 1) decorative scissors, corner chomper, rulers, paper punches and a video box with brads and a few other things. The basket in front holds glue dots and dimensionals.  2) Cricut manuals, a jar of tools (the jar keeps awls and screwdrivers from sticking throught the bottom of the basket) and a few other items.  The one above has masking tape, reinforcements and some other office supplies.  There is another one above that with other markers and different kinds of glue.

Here is a close-up  of the basket in the middle.

You can see how the basket is divided into 3 sections in front and 1 long one in back.  One side holds my scissors (again in a jar) and the left has craft knife, utility knife and what I use to take things off my Cricut mat - an old ceramic tool.  In the middle is my glue.  Somehow the glue sticks, 2 sizes of Zig sticks and my liquid glue all fit just perfectly in the little section.  In the back are my scor tapes, repositionable tape and my big tape runner.  I use this bin the most and I love that all of these things are within easy reach when I'm working.

I undertand this wouldn't work for those of you who have a large amount of tools and supplies, but to keep things close or organize small amounts, I think this is a good system.  Works for me! : )

Oh, no! Snow!

Wouldn't you just know it?!  The day before we are to leave for the sunny south, a winter storm blows in.  We still may be able to get away but the going will be slow.  Hopefully the forecast for flurries is just that - flurries.  No more heavy downfall until we're safely ensconced on the Gulf coast, please.

Today's card was a fun one.

The ice cream cone was cut from Simply Charmed.  The cone is kraft cardstock and is scored and inked to look like a sugar cone.  The ice cream is from a scrap of yellow cardstock, dry embossed with Divine Swirls and  inked with Dried Marigold Distress Ink .  It is popped up with foam.   I needed a sentiment on the front so I stamped the happy birthday and then cut the drip free hand.  The background paper is from a Cricut celebration stack, which is mounted on kraft paper on a white base.

I'm entering this card at My Craft Spot (Something Delicious) and Celebrate the Occasion  (Child's Birthday). 

Silver Hearts

I cleaned up my craft room last night.  It's usually pretty organized but I've been doing  non-stop Valentine cardmaking and so all of my heart, red and pink paper was everywhere.  One of the valentines I made is for the Card Patterns and Paper Players challenge blogs.  Here is the Card Patterns sketch.

The Paper Players theme is "All You Need is Love",  which brings you to my card.

The printed paper was from my stash, left over from last Valentine's day.  I chopped the corners and mounted it on pink cardstock.  The hearts are cut in silver from a DCWV metallic 4 x 6 pad using Doodlecharms and dry embossed with Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder.

Looks like winter's coming in.  I guess we didn't leave for the south in time.  Hopefully we'll be able to get out and have safe travel on Saturday. 

Birthday Time

It's not often than any cards I make fit the guidelines for more than one challenge.  I probably could make them fit better but as the day of the challenge is here, I tend to go ahead and make a card for it rather than wait and see what the rest of the week brings.  Since I have been rather busy making valentines, I was behind in checking out the challenges.  It was my good fortune because today's card fits three different challenges: Birthday Sundaes (new birthday card, must use something new on it), Fantabulous Cricut (Man Time - make a manly project) and Die Cutting Divas (Use blue, silver and white).  Die Cuttin Divas is a new challenge for me.  Several of the ones I used to do have shut down and I've been looking for more.

(Edited) Glenda at Glenda's Cards left me a comment that my card qualifies for the challenge at My Sheri Crafts so I am adding it there.  Thanks, Glenda.)

The clock cut is from Going Places.  This is my new thing.  I've had the cart for a while but when I went to use it I found I hadn't even take the seal off.  I cut the face from silver paper from the DCWV textures and finishes stack.  The background paper is also from that stack.  I mounted it on white cardstock and printed the saying on white.  I roughed up the edges of the background and sentiment papers to give it that "masculine" look and inked around the sentiment with Chipped Sapphire distress stain.  A couple of silver brads and a little bling in the center and it's done.

I think I have time for one more challenge (made just for that one) before I have to get packed up for our snowbird flight south.  I haven't check today's challenges, so maybe I can do a couple.  : )  After that, I can only hope that some of my valelntines qualify for a couple of challenges.  Even so, I plan to keep a record of the sketches and ideas so I can use them when I get back.

Owl Sketch

I have a whole library of digital images that I got from pcCrafter years ago.  While looking for something else, I ran across this owl picture.  I printed it up, not knowing quite what I'd do with it until the Sweet Sunday sketch came along.  It was a perfect fit.

Isn't he just the cutest?  The background paper is from Lost and Found by My Mind's Eye, the basket weave from a DCWV picture stack and the polka dot from who know's where.  I have a lot of the "who knows where" paper.  I've picked up pieces in a variety of stores and they are not always labeled on the paper.

Sometimes when I am finished with a card I see things I might change if I were to do it again.  The polka dot behind the image for example.  It blends in too much with the horizontal piece but I didn't want to use the blue as the vertical strip.  Ooops, as I previewed this I realized I should have put the polka dot behind the basketweave.  That probably would make a big difference.  If I can take it apart, I will.  I could have used a darker blue circle but it's done now and it's not bad, just not great.  And I haven't decided what sentiment will go inside.  Get well maybe?  He looks like he needs a good rest.

Let's Do Morning

For some reason I usually post in the evening.  It may be because I've been crafting in the afternoon and just get a project done.  It may be because I have something cooking on the stove and need to be there to watch it.  (Yes, I have my laptop on the kitchen table.)  I love reading other blogs with my breakfast, so I'm going to try to post sometime in the morning.  Or at least set the post to publish in the morning.

I love the Freshly Made challenges.  They are so simple to do but still challenge your creativity.  Today's sketch is

I didn't do a square card.  I don't like putting them in larger envelopes and mailing a square one is more money.  You do know the postage rate is going up the end of January, right?

I also did something a little different for me.  I'm not much of a stamper.  With such an investment in other crafting tools, I didn't want to add a bunch of stamps to the mix.  I did purchase this heart stamp a while ago, intending to make my own background paper with it.  I had forgotten about it until I ran across it looking for something else.  I decided to use this as my threesome on the front of the card.  All the papers are from my stash, most left over from last Valentine's Day.

I've been busy creating other valentines and am having fun coming up with different ideas using last year's scraps, with a couple of new papers thrown in.  I usually duplicate some of the same valentines to send to my grandchildren but this year they'll all get something different.

Peppermint Wishes

We've have an extremely mild winter so far (knock on wood) but even so there's nothing like a warm mug of hot chocolate to relax with in any weather.  That brings me to the theme of the challenge this week on Fantabulous Cricut.  They have asked for   "a cup, or chocolate, or the color brown".  I made just such a card for my mother to give my daughter-in-law for Christmas but never took a picture of it.  Now I've recreated it with a twist - a peppermint twist.

The mug and candy cane are from Christmas Cheer and the printed paper from a stack I'm loving called Lost and Found by My Mind's Eye.  The mug is from a texture and finish stack by DCWV.  It looks to me like an earthernware mug, which is why I used it.  On the earlier card, it represented the kiln that my mother gave to my DIL.  There is no kiln cut on any of my carts (or probably on any cart, lol) so I made a mug that looked like one that had been thrown and then glazed and fired.  The candy cane is from scraps and the whole image is popped up on foam.  This isn't a very good picture although it does let you see the shadows made by the pop-up.

I'm trying to get my Valentines made before we leave this Friday.  I just hope some of them will qualify for a challenge or two.  If not, I'll post them anyway, along with other bits and pieces of my life beyond cards.

Texture Makes a Difference

Here's the card I was working on yesterday.  It is made following this week's sketch at Mojo Monday.

All the paper is from a stack called B-day Bash by Imaginisce except for the plain blue. 

The card is 5 1/8" by 7" and is for my granddaughter's 13th birthday.  If you count the candles, there are 13 of them and the alphabet dots are her initials.  At first the blue piece was plain but as you can see in the finished card, I ended up embossing it with Swiss Dots.

 

On the left is a close up of the area on the finished card, and on the right is what it looked like before the embossing.  A world of difference, don't  you think?

Now if someone could tell me how to put the pictures in line, I'd appreciate it.   I wanted to see them side by side for comparison and this is as close as I could get them.  I originally wrote between them but that didn't show up in the blog preview.  I guess I still have a lot to learn about posting and design.

Score!

I've been working most of the day on a couple of cards but things just didn't seem to come together.  I was almost finished with one for my granddaughter when I realized she will be 13 and wanted to do a special card for her special birthday.  Not that the one I started wouldn't be special but it didn't mention being a teen and I thought she'd like the recognition.  So I have three in the works but none finished.

I didn't want to go another day without a picture post, so I'm posting a layout I made last year of my grandson's soccer game.  The game was in 2010 but this is the first layout I made after getting my Cricut.  

I do all my layouts on 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock so they fit in sleeves in regular binder notebooks.  For this double page lo I used Sportsmania for the soccer ball in the corner and Plantin Schoolbook for the title and number 17.  I'm not sure what I used for the word "score".  I print my journaling on the computer after I figure out where all my pictures are going to go.  I am way behind in my scrapbooking and I need to get back to it after I get my next batch of cards done.

No Crafting Again

Another day has gone by and I haven't had a chance to do any cardmaking or scrapbooking.  I did go through my cards to see what I need to make for the first couple of months since I will be away from my Cricut until mid-March.  Hopefully that work will start tomorrow.

My parents left for Florida this morning, so I took some time to help get them organized and into my sister's car for the drive to the airport.  Thankfully she was flying with them. ( I just got a call and everything went smoothly.)  After that, there was a luncheon and meeting at the church, followed by undecorating which took quite a while.  Why do decorations seem to take longer to take down than put up?  When that work was finished, we went to my parents house to empty the refrigerator and shut off the water, two things that didn't get done before they left.

Guess what I've been doing tonight?  Reading through my blog list.  Except for the ones that come through email, I haven't read any for almost a month.  I don't know how those of you who have a large number of blogs you follow get through them all.  I saw a lot of good creations and am anxious to get back to work. 

Cheater Card

I'm trying to stick to my pledge to post everyday.  I'm busy getting my folks ready to go to Florida for the winter so I have not had much time to make cards.

When I first began cardmaking, I bought some of the cards sets that were already printed on the front.  When I need a quick card, these come in handy.  Case in point:

How easy is this?  I picked two pieces of cardstock  that matched the printed card and cut strips of varying widths.  I printed the sentiment over 3 times on a piece of white cardstock and put them all together.  I also print the inside on my computer.  If you have a stash of paper, you can get this card done in 5 minutes.

Today is my youngest granddaughter's 9th birthday.  If I hadn't already posted the card I sent her, I would have posted it today.   Happy Birthday, Kjerstin!

A New Chair

One of the Christmas gifts I asked for, and got, was a new chair for my craft/sewing room.  I had one from a yard sale that was WAY too big and took up too much room in my little 8' x 10' space.  Here it is.

It's one of those tractor seat chairs.  My husband didn't think it would be very comfortable because it's not padded but I love it.  It makes me sit up straight and it can move across the room like a shot to get to my paper or anything else that's on the right side of the room.  Maybe I can make cards and layouts faster?

Happyy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog.  I guess I could have posted other things when I didn't have any cards or layouts done but I just sort of gave up.  I'm making myself a promise to do better this coming new year.  I'd like to say I'll post EVERY day but that may not happen so I'll just say I'll post as much as I can. 

We leave in two weeks for 2 months in Gulf Shores, Alabama and (insert sigh) I can't take any of my cardmaking things with me.  I do need to get a LOT of cards made ahead for all the birthdays during that time and, of course, Valentines.  That should give me plenty to post about.  And if not that, I will be making a quilt or two (I can fit in a sewing machine and a little fabric, but not a ton of paper and my Cricut).

I hope you all have a great new year and find inpsiration in the many blogs that are available for your enjoyment.