Merry Christmas to All!

I've been busy, busy, busy....baking, candy making, and gift wrapping.  At this point, aside from a little more baking...I'm all done and just waiting for Christmas! I can hardly wait for my children to unwrap their quilts!

This Christmas is definitely a "hand-made" Christmas.  With the exceptions of a couple of books and one gift card, everything under the tree is handmade....I've been REALLY busy sewing and crafting for the last 7 months!  Sure hope everyone likes their gifts!

The photo above is just a sample of some of the goodies I made to share with friends and family.  I need for Christmas to hurry up, cause I can't seem to keep my sticky little fingers out of all this goodness! LOL!

Wishing each and every one of you that visits my blog....a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!  Hopefully, next year I'll be a little better about getting things posted in a timely manner!

As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

 

Hello.....Hello!!!

I know.....I've been gone for 4 months!!! SO much has happened, I don't even know where to begin!  In a previous post, I mentioned that I'd purchased a new sewing machine....well, I decided that I wanted to make each of my children a quilt for Christmas.  I also have two (twins) great grandsons due in December (although they'll probably make their appearance within the next 3 weeks!).  I thought a quilt would be a great baby present too!  I'm crazy...right?! LOL!

I'll be back making cards now that I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the quilting! LOL!

So let me tell you a little about each quilt....

This first quilt is 48 x 60 inches and I absolutely LOVE these fabrics!  Super simple to piece...4.5 x 21" strips.  My machine quilting is probably not the "best" but it was made with love! This quilt is for Baby boy A

This second quilt is for Baby boy B.....same premise...just different fabrics.

This lavender/pink/grey quilt is for my middle daughter (She chose the colors she wanted)...half square triangles...LOTS of them.  This is a king size quilt and it was a labor of love quilting this on the machine! (we're talking regular machine...not a long arm machine!)





























This patchwork quilt is for my oldest daughter.  I cut 5 inch squares and pieced them in strips.  The backing is a white on white print and the binding is the same fabric as the backing.  She requested a "patchwork" quilt.






























This blue and white quilt is for my youngest son.  He and his wife requested shades of blue.  This one was very time consuming to piece...but SO worth the effort.  It is also (Super) king size.   This is my king size bed it is on....and you can see that it almost touches the floor...it's the same on the other side!

This quilt is for my mother in law...more the size of a twin quilt, but will be nice to cuddle up with. I LOVE this pattern and the red, black, and grey...and the way they pop with the white striping!  Hope she'll like it too!

This quilt is for my oldest son and his wife.  It's not as big as I had wanted to make it, but I ran out of fabric and didn't get back to the store to get more.  I'm loving the colors in this one...hope they like it too!

It seems that most of my family has birthdays close to Christmas....so November and December are busy months around here. My granddaughter Helen Grace has a birthday on November 28 (which is also my daughter's birthday!) She wanted a handbag, so I used scraps from the quilt I made for her parents and made her a small quilted handbag...then I monogrammed her initial on the front of it.

My granddaughter Maggie has a birthday on November 16...and she loves purple...so this is the bag I made for her.  I found this great batting called soft and stable...and it makes the bag stand up nicely.

I'm also working on some pillows that I plan to give to each of my grandchildren.  Many of you know that my husband (their grandpa) passed away several years ago, so I thought I would take some of his old t-shirts and make each of them a pillow.  I've got 3 made so far and still have 4 to go. (Although, I have 17 grandchildren, we decided years ago that once they turned 18, we would no longer give them Christmas or birthday presents...I do still send them a card on their birthdays)

I guess that sounds bad, but the truth is, when you have 5 children, 17 grandchildren, and a several great grandchildren, it get a bit expensive to buy gifts for everyone.  And let's face it....as kids get older (18 and up) there is very little they want that I can afford! So....I'm hoping my handmade gifts will please everyone this year.

My stitching is not always "straight" and I haven't mastered free motion quilting, so I'll just let the recipients of the quilts know....the crooked stitching just adds character to the quilt!

None of the recipients of these quilts have seen their quilts...and I'm positive they never read my blog, so I think it's probably safe to reveal what's been keeping me busy!

I know I need to get back to my card making, but I've really been tied up with all this quilting!

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

 

LIM and AAA Card Challenges #336 and #337

Hello All!

It's been quite a while since I've posted...shame on me...but, in my defense, I had a massive computer crash, found out that it was not repairable, then had to order a new computer, and wait, and wait, and wait for it to finally arrive.

My son works in the IT field, and he was going to try to recover all my data...and most importantly, my photos, and move them to my new computer.  Well...that didn't work.  My old computer was really fried!  Fortunately, I have always had a backup drive attached to my computer, and was able to recapture almost all of my files. The drive only had files backed up as of 6/2017...but I definitely breathed a sigh of relief!

So, while my computer was down, I did a little sewing (made a full-sized quilt) and made just a few cards.  Much to my dismay, when I took photos of this card so that I could finally post it, I found out that the card reader on my new computer doesn't accept "compact flash" cards, which is the type of card in my big camera....so...I had to retake the photos with my small Canon and THEN upload! Whew!

So...after all that...here's my card for the LIM and AAA Card Challenges #336 & #337.

I used the gigantic butterfly stamp for SU, and stamped on a paper that has a tiny green checked background...does that count as a colored background?  I heat embossed it in black and cut around the edge of the right hand wing.  As you can see from the photo below, I allowed the butterfly to wrap around to the back of the card also. I added color over the green background with Copics.

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I thought I'd share a peek at the quilt I finished while I had the two weeks with no computer!  This is the first quilt that I machine quilted.  I've always hand quilted my quilts before...but hey, since I have the new sewing machine, I thought...why not give machine quilting a try.  I loved machine quilting and have already bought fabric for my next quilt!

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Merry Monday and a Little Scrapbooking

Thought I'd play along with Merry Monday Christmas Challenge this week which is to create a card using mistletoe.  

Here's my take on the challenge...

I cut out the mistletoe on my Cameo...including the big bow.  I printed the sentiment through the Silhouette program, then cut the stitched border with a die from SSS.  I cut the berries separately and popped some of them with foam tape. I colored the mistletoe, berries and the bow with Copic markers.  I also added a touch of wink of stella to the berries. Added it all to a red card base...and done! 

I've gotten back to my scrapbooking a little more.  I hadn't scrapped in so long that it's like learning how all over again.  I've managed to complete about 6 layouts in the last week...so I must be getting my mojo back! LOL!

Photos of my youngest daughter when she was about 12 years old. I used October Afternoon papers along with some red card stock and a stripe from my scraps. I created the title work in the Silhouette Program. The little girl carrying the cake is a stamp that I colored with Copics and fussy cut. I added some Nuvo drops for the bumps on the cake and a little Wink of Stella on the stars and her headband. The "messy hair, Don't care" tags were created in the Silhouette program and printed. The red tags were stamped and heat embossed in white. The dog and the two red tags were MFT's four legged stamp set. The presents across the strip are a die from Simon Says Stamps. After die cutting it, I colored all the little present pieces and put them back in the die. Journaling was computer generated. 

Photos of my mother holding my second daughter, Kimberly when she was just 6 days old. Word paper is from Echo Park "Our Family" collection. Red paper is some really old paper from my stash. Hearts were die cut and punched. All were coated with Wink of Stella, and some of the hearts are covered with glossy accents. The leaf branches are a MS punch just joined together end to end. I added some faux stitching and some lines around the base pieces. The arrows were cut from paper in the EP collection. Journaling is tucked behind the word mat and there is a heart pull tab at the top. Title work was generated in the Silhouette Program and cut out 4 times and layered for dimension. The "family" tag is from the EP collection. 

I just finished this layout today, and thought I'd get it posted too.  Photos of my two youngest children with their elementary school PE coach.  He was a part of their lives from kindergarten through 5th grade.  We also attended church with him and his family.  I used the plaid papers from Lawn Fawn.  The title work was cut with the Silhouette (three times and layered for dimension).  The whistle and school bus are from the Silhouette store.  I colored the orange strip and the title letters with Copic markers. The wood grain paper is from Echo Park "It's a Boy" collection.  I added some black lines and faux stitching. The yellow circle behind the title work was cut with a die then embossed with a stitched die. School bus and whistle were adhered with foam tape. Journaling is tucked behind the solid yellow mat.

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

LIM #329 - Geometrics

I hope none of you faint!  Here I am back again for the 3rd day in a row!!  I've had a productive day today.  Finished a dress for one of my granddaughters, bought groceries to prepare dinner tonight for two of my children and their families and made two cards for the Less is More Challenge!

And....I'm getting my cards posted on the same day I made them! WooHoo!!!

For this first card, I used a wood mounted stamp (that I coveted) from the wonderful Darnell of djkardkreations and leader of the NBUS challenges.  So...thank you, Darnell!  I stamped the image in versamark and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.  I colored in parts of the image with two yellow Copic markers.  The butterfly is from Hero Arts, and was also stamped and heat embossed with gold.  I fussy cut the image and added some yellow to the butterfly.  The sentiment is from SSS. I colored the side of the card and the sentiment strip with one of the Copic markers, then heat embossed the sentiment in gold.  Added a few drops of Nuvo to match, and popped the white panel with some craft foam.

Not too sure about this card.  It might not be CAS enough for the challenge.  I got this new 6 x 6 image from Concord and 9th.  I think I might need just a "little" more practice with the stamp! After my attempt at stamping, I added some Wink of Stella to the blue triangles and the orange stripe down the right side.  I wiped the blue ink on a scrap of white to make the sentiment tag.  Sentiment is from SSS and is heat embossed with white.  Added just a few Nuvo drops and popped the panel with craft foam.

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

CAS Watercolour and CAS Mix Up Card Challenges

Can you believe it!  Two days in a row!  

I finished a card yesterday that works perfectly for the CAS Watercolour Challenge and the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.  I'm really starting to enjoy doing more water coloring!

This is probably one of my best to-date water color cards!  I used a NBUS stamp set from Altenew called Garden Treasure.  I stamped the flowers and leaves in versamark and heat embossed with white.  Then I used some Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils to add bits of color to the blooms.  After coloring with the pencils, I used a Silver brush to move the color around a bit.  To get the splashed background, I simply wet my brush and flicked it over the point of the pencil.  Too cool! I trimmed the finished piece down to 4 x 5.5 inches and mounted with craft foam over a pink card base.  The sentiment is stamped in Versafine Black and is from SSS Uplifting Thoughts.  A few sequins sprinkled around and it was complete!

Also from my NBUS stack, was this marbling layer stamp from Waffle Flower.  I struggled a bit getting the pieces lined up, but I still think it turned out okay. I mounted the marbled piece over gray card stock, then added a strip across the top with foam tape.  I used foil paper to add a stripe over the dark gray strip and then die cut the oval from the shiny foil paper to add a sentiment.  I heat embossed the sentiment on the shiny foil oval...and I can tell you...It is NOT easy.  Even using an embossing buddy, that embossing powder stuck to everything!  I finally got one that looked "okay"....

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Graduation...and SO much more!

Once again, I've been missing for over a month!  I just don't know where the time goes!!!  It's not that I haven't been creating....I've just been BUSY!  I have so many creative interest, that I tend to jump from one activity to another!   I've knitted several hats and booties sets and have done quite a bit of sewing for our sewing ministry at the church...sewing blankets, burp cloths, and bibs for the mission team to take to Alaska in a few months.  I've also done a little scrapbooking in the last few weeks. In working to clean up some of my projects, I've found 2 quilts tops that were pieced by my grandmother and two that were pieced by my mother. Would love to get them quilted sometime this summer! I've made just a few cards, but didn't manage to get them photographed before I sent them off in the mail.  WHEW!  

I told my children recently...When I die and you all start cleaning out my house....I can hear you saying..."Did Mama EVER finish anything!!!"  It seems that I have a LOT of projects about half finished.  Just for the record...I have finished a lot more than I have left to finished! Is anyone else out there as bad as me?!

Anyway...let me show you what I finished this week...

My granddaughter, Katie, graduates next week, so I made this card just for her.  Above is the front of the card, and below, is the inside of the card. 

This is the first time I've made a step card like this.  I cut it out with a file from the Silhouette store. Super simple to make once you have the pattern! I made the "congrats" paper on the front side of the step in the Silhouette program.  I added a verse to the right side that I thought was perfect for a graduate. It's 1 Timothy 4:12.  Then I added the "so proud of you" ...then I cut it with the Silhouette Cameo.  I made a little pocket on the left side to slip some $$$ into...I love how this turned out!  The front of the card was stamped with a PTI sentiment and heat embossed.  The graduate is a design for the Silhouette Store.

I shared a photo on my last post of Katie's senior prom...and then finally got around to scrapping a couple of the photos I took.

The filmstrip and music across the bottom are both washi tape.  I cut the doily with the Cameo.  The flowers and leaves are from Altenew and Tim Holtz (blue flower). Journaling is tucked behind the photo mat.

This second layout has a lot of glitter paper and foil paper accents.  I cut the title work with the Cameo and layered it 3 times for dimension.  Again the blooms are from Altenew.

I've been digging through some of my old photos recently...and I have BOXES of them! I found these photos of me and my first husband (my children's father who died in an accident before our 3rd child was born)  Although the photos aren't really great, I know my children will enjoy these layouts. Made a grid layout and accented with stickers, die cuts and rub-ons.

Just finished this layout a couple of days ago.  My girls with their daddy's parents.  Simple layout...made the title letters on the Cameo, then used glossy accents to give them a little dimension. The three scalloped circles were cut with Spellbinder dies. Wooden accents are just some old stuff from my enormous stash! Journaling was computer generated and raised from the layout with some craft foam.

So...I have been busy, just not very consistent about getting photos taken and posting it! If you have any questions about any of this, just send me an email by clicking on the contact me envelope on the sidebar.


That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

The Flower Challenge and CAS Watercolour Challenge...and SO much more!

Got a couple of things to share with you today.  I've been so busy these past few weeks! Made a couple of cards today that will fit perfect with the Flower Challenge "anything goes" theme and the CAS Watercolour Challenge with a "spring" theme.

Both cards actually fit the Flower Challenge...but the second card is for the CAS Watercolour March challenge. Let's get started....

Have you ever opened your mouth and made a statement, only to realize over a week later that you really should keep your mouth shut?...Yeah, me too....thus the You Matter to Me card.  I used Altenew stamps for the blooms, and SSS You Matter sentiment.  I used two background stamps...one for the stripes on the card base (IO) and the other for the background under the flowers (PB). Added a few dots with some Nuvo and card done.

I used one of my favorite dies for this card....the Penny Black Poppy die.  The sentiment is from SSS You Matter stamp set.  The background for the flowers was a piece of water color paper that I was practicing my "smooshing" on. The poppies were also cut from watercolor paper and painted with water colors. I used a SSS stitched rectangle die to cut the background piece from the watercolor background paper that I'd "smooshed" color onto. For a little "extra" I flicked a few splatters of red and teal onto the background.

I seem to flit from one thing to another...and here's part of the reason why.

Got me a new "toy" a few weeks ago and I've been thoroughly enjoying it!  I've been really busy for the last couple of months making clothes to send on a couple of mission trips for my church.  One trip is to Haiti this month, and the other trip is to Alaska in August.  I've made almost 72 items thus far...shorts, dresses, bibs, burp cloths, blankets, knitted booties and caps, knitted dish cloths....the list goes on.  I think I made more shorts than anything...31 in all!  Anyway, this machine will do SO much more and I can't wait to learn more (embroidery and monogramming!)

In the mist of learning my new machine...I got a wild hair to make an exploding photo box of my great granddaughter for my grandson and his wife.  See...jumping from one thing to another! LOL!

I made pics of all the inside pages, but decided that would be TOO photo heavy!

Last weekend, I made a trip to visit my daughter, so I could see my granddaughter all dressed up for prom.  They do something different at their proms...they have something called "lead out" where all the couples are introduced and all the parents come to watch "lead out".  It was really a nice event. Here's a photo of my beautiful granddaughter and her date.

As I said before...BOY! have I been busy! Now I'm trying to play catch up all in one blog post!  I need to try to post a little more often!

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!

Four Challenges...

I've made a few cards this week, and thought I'd link them up to several challenges.  I even made a card or two that would fit more than one challenge!  Yay, Me!

I will be playing along with the following challenges:  CAS(E) this Sketch, Happy Little Stampers, CASology, and Merry Monday!  Whew! That's a LOT of challenges for me!

So, let's get started....

This first card is for CAS(E) this Sketch.  I used a really old "Magnolia" stamp.  When I saw this one, I just had to have it...and I probably haven't used it 2 times!  The little girl was facing the wrong way, so I scanned the stamped image into my Silhouette program and flipped her horizontally, then used the trace feature to trace her and then welded the image into a rectangle, so that I could cut out just her legs with the Cameo.Much easier to do than to explain! LOL! I cut the cloud (SSS) from the rectangle, then ink blended the blue sky before popping the cloud back in (raised with foam). The little girl is colored with Copics and the sentiment is computer generated.

This second card is for the CASology challenge with a cue word of "hero".  My youngest grandson is a HUGE fan of Batman, and even though his birthday is a ways away, I thought I'd get his card done for him.  The Batman image is from the Silhouette Store.  I created the "Bam" accent in the Silhouette program as well as the sentiment.  I printed all of this out and cut it to 4 x 5.25 inches.  I colored in some "ground" under Batman.  I also printed out another of the "Bam" stars and popped it over the one on the card.  I added a very small black border and adhered it to a white card base.

This third card is for a couple of challenges - Merry Monday and HLS - Anything Goes with Dies.  I used a Christmas tree die that I've had for a while and cut it from a card panel.  I had to add a piece of acetate behind the aperture so that I'd have something which I could used to adhere my tree back in the aperture.  I then popped that panel over a inked panel.  To make the inked background, I used the TH spritzer, and my Tombow markers and spritzed two different colors of ink on a small panel that would fit behind the tree.  I then used my WOS silver and gold pens and flicked some of the sparkly WOS onto the green.  It's difficult to see, but there's really a lot of shine behind the tree.  I cut the sentiment "merry" (SSS) from card stock and from foam, then added a bit of glitter to the bottom portion of the letters.  The "Christmas" is from DRS Designs.  The star is popped with foam tape, and painted with gold WOS. (Cut with a SSS die)

This last card is just me playing around with some water colors again.  I wanted to create a "scene", but this one fell a little short of what I was trying to do...but it's okay.  If practice really makes perfect, then I should be getting better at this, don't you think?! LOL!

That's all for me today....As always, thanks so much for stopping in.  I appreciate your visit...and I appreciate each and every comment!