One A Day

I joined a One a Day Quilt A Long with Amanda Jean. (she is one of my very favorite quilters) Basicly it's a challange to make one ninepatch quilt block each day all summer. At the end we would have enough to make a whole quilt. I am going to try to do two a day so I can make a king sized one for my bedroom.
Here are my first two: I'm also working on keeping my cutting and seams REALLY straight. I'm a bit of a sloppy quilter, so I figure this will give me lots of practice getting my corners all lined up.

Clay time

The days I let the kids do polymer clay around here are a huge event. I finished the pillows yesterday so clay day was today!
I made a handful of turquoise/black buttons. Then I realized these are Jaguar colors and so they look like sports stuff to me. Blah. The kids played and played then decided to have me make a turtle and pond.

I think the colors on the water are just fantastic.

In this photo it looks like the turtle wants to eat that rock. Oh and if you make small rocks, they look like poop. But he does have a cute little face.

Recover

My good friend Roniece found a couch she could not pass up. The problem is that the pillows were red. Now that I think of it I'm nto sure what color the body of the couch is, I'll have to go over there and look. Anyhow She doesn't love red. So she brought them over with some fabric she choose for me to recover. I talked her into the trim as well. This is my first time working with this type of fabric, and my first time recovering anything. It's one of few times I've used trim.

I still need to hand sew them closed. The original pillows machine sewed them closed and let me tell you, it's not cute. So I'll do it extra nice for her.

I'm really happy with how they look. The big ones were first. I should have made them really tight like the bottom ones. The originals were not tight, but I like the look better. It's not bothering me enough to redo them though. :)

Clean and Simple card

So I've been reading about CAS or "Clean and Simple" Cards on Splitcoast. Nothing new there, just new that I've been reading about them, so I was feeling like making one. I do love them so, but they are hard for me sometimes. If you don't have your details just right they just look blah. I don't want to make blah cards.

I think I did ok with this one:

The turtle is Tyson the Turtle from Cornish Heritage Farms. He was the Stamp of the Month ages ago and came with that awesome phrase. I colored him with copics and did the embossed border with my score pal.

I'm not done with my son Ethan's quilt. I think I should have done some easier pattern or something. It's not that it's hard just a lot of piecing and I'm sort of bored of it. Unfortunate for poor Ethan. (not that he's at any loss for blankets)

I have some new fabric. Actually all this print came to me as gifts! I won some as blog candy, then my mom's good friend (and mine too) Patricia gave me even more. So I'm thinking of doing a quilt with these. For what you ask? Well I don't know... For the fun of it? For practice? I'm going to do something where it would be nice for the corners to line up just right, for the pieces to be cut just right. I'm hoping to practice sewing a perfect 1/4 inch seam on this. When it's done I have no idea what I'll do with it. It won't really match any rooms in my home. So we shall see.

A few things.

I sell stamps pretty frequently. I joke with myself that I'm just renting them. I make a handful of projects with a set then I'm just over it. There are a few that I know I will keep, I use them over and over, but mostly I don't hold on to them when the "new" wears off. So when I sell stamps I thought it would be nice to have a nice thank you tag to throw in. So I made a whole stack. (does anyone know where to buy these? Kim gave them to me and I'm almost out) I'm working on a quilt for Ethan. For some reason it's taking for ever.

I also made a card. This flower set is one I think I'll hold on to. It's Fifth Avenue Floral by Stampin' Up!. I think it's just the prettiest flowers in this set.

Angled view to show the layering I did on the flower. I punched the holes in the blue cardstock just for fun.

In other news: I have family coming in today so I might not be blogging over the weekend. I'm sure you are devistated.

CASE of jojot

I don't know this girl jojot on Splitcoast. I was just gallery crusing the other day and found her card. THIS card of hers made me stop in my tracks. I was totally gobsmacked. It was one of the rare times when I said, "I want to make that SAME card". I often want to do an element, a technique, a sketch... this time I wanted it all.

I did use different colors:Here is my inside. This is one of my most favorite cards I've ever made. I'm not sure who makes the flower stamp. I love it though. The phrase is by Odd Bird Planet. The houndstooth background is Cornish Heritage Farms. That lush double sided ribbon is by May Arts. I got it at All That Scraps ages ago.

Random Projects

I have a few projects to share that don't really go together or with anything.

First up is a cute Halloween mini card using Eat Cake Graphics stamps. Some handmade envelopes. I love using handmade envelopes.

An easy card with Fifth Avenue Floral. I embossed with white powder then painted over with blue watercolor crayon.

Borrowed this stamp from Roniece. LOVE it.

And some Hanna Stamps cards.

In other news:

Things are good. I had something to tell you but I forgot. I've been really busy. Oh my kids craft table finally bit the dust. Does anyone LOVE their kids craft table? Where did you get it? My kids won't last long without one, crafting is a huge part of their lives.

Kim's Challange

Well I totally messed up Kim's Challange. I didn't enjoy it either. So I'm not redoing it. haha. here is my messed up card: The front side flap is supposed to fold somehow and I think there is not supposed to be any right side flap at all. ?? Anyhow I do like the stitching for a stem and the yo-yo flower. I just didn't know what to do with the part of the left panel that showed. Turns out that's the question even if you do it the way Kim told me to. So generally I don't like it. I left it blank.

Here is my inside. I actually like the inside a great deal. The little tree is inkadinkadoo and the phrase is Cornish Heritage Farms. I'm also digging the orange, cream, navy color scheme. I'm feeling a skirt coming on in those colors. I need some navy linen. Then maybe a few rows of ribbon in the orange and cream... ric-rak maybe? yeah, I feel like that's something I need to make.

In other news:

NO enabling people. You may know I have an "allowance" I use for crafty purchases. Well part of getting a dog was that I'd pay half his crap out of my "Allowance". The dog wasn't cheap. And I could not stop buying him stuff. He just looked like he needed more stuffed animals to tear up and of course he needed two kongs and five balls... You may also remember that my sewing machine AND trimmer broke and had to be replaced. So I was hurting. Not in REAL money, WE are fine, but in fun money. Well on to the cool part...

I've spent MORE money! haha. Faith does a stamping retreat and I found I just had to sign up! It's pretty close to me about an hour and a half. It's 20 projects in a day and a half! Can you believe that? AND my good friend from Stamp Shack, Teresa is coming!!! WAHOOO! I'll tell you it was SERIOUSLY tempting before, but knowing a friend would go sealed the deal. AND two of my other friends are thinking about signing up! I will just die if three friends and me go. DIE I tells you! I'm pretty close with one friend going. Anyhow Faith is beyond talented. I think I will learn a ton from her. And I've never done anything like this. A little retreat just for me! No kids! Brian was so cool, he said, for sure he could take the Friday off work. No problem. Honestly It's never occured to me to ask him to do anything like miss work for me. He's not one to miss any work.

So I'm super excited, but I'm also $370 IN THE HOLE! YIKES. It will take me a while to dig out! Stamp companies, if any of you want to send me some stuff... just kidding! Sorta. So no one put out anything I can't live without. No stampers start using stuff I don't have in super cool ways. I have tons of white cardstock, as well as most colors, I have 25 ATG refills, I have a trimmer and a nice size stack of stamps. I have a ton of fabric, although no navy linen... So I should not need to buy anything. I read people casually say, "I've not bought any stamps since October" and I wonder how they do it... I'm about to find out. But I'm going to a STamping RETREAT!!! WITH A FRIEND. AND NO KIDS!!! So it's OK. Also I HAVE A DOG!! So life is GOOD.

Red Eowyn Alice Stair Step

First of all if you are an Alice in Wonderland fan or are looking for other unique stamps you must go check out Red Eowyn. They have the classic Alice drawings, which I love. (Although Roniece pointed out the other day that she has a really big weird head, I'm gonna ignore that.)

I was lucky enough to get this set from my mom last year for my birthday so I wanted to do yet a no ther stair step card with them. A lot going on here, let me give you an angled view so you can see more.

Here it is from the other side.

And a closeup. I actually love this image most of all. Here is a little trivia about me. When I was a reckless 19 year old I got a tattoo. It's a lizard. I planned at that time to get a second tattoo. It was going to be this particular piece of art. I was going to get it rather large and on my back. (tramp stamp area) Just in black, because I really like just black tattoos. I'm far too conservative now for such a thing, but I do sorta wish I'd gotten this one first. Well except for the drug connotation with it. But I was thinking of the literature connotation.

Might not blog until Monday. I have stuff to show you but I have family comming in from out of town.

ETA: All these stamps are from Plate 5. I really want all of them, but had to get this one first. Also I just noticed free shipping in the USA, so that's fun.

Alice Stair Step

I just had to make another Stair Step card. This time I got out another of my all time favorite sets Wonderland by The Greeting Farm. I love The Greeting Farm and this is my favorite set of theirs. I am a huge Alice In Wonderland fan. Angled view. I wish I'd made the two front stairs curved like the hills in the background. Learning something on each one of these.

And a super closeup of the Alice, I'm really happy with how I colored her.

Well it's time to put away the stairs for a bit. Kim has thrown down a new challange. I'll tell you all about it soon.

Stair Step Challange

Ok I ran across a stair step card this week and immeadately thought, "Kim and I have to do this". Kim is my oft mentioned friend. You can see her blog HERE. So I challanged her to do one with me.
This first pic is justme playing with Photoshop. Ok here is my card. I used "But I need it" By Hanna Stamps. It is one of my favorite sets of all time. Here is a closeup. (AKA me playing with Photoshop more)

And another view. A lot is on foam tape. The whole thing is definately going to need extra postage, although it does fit in a normal envelope.

If you want even more inspiration from this card type check out the Splitcoast Stampers gallery of it HERE. Some of the cards in that gallery have outclassed me by MILES. Here are some of my favorites:

Nitsy73's creation

Susiespotless's creation, featuring Peanuts!!!

and jhaddad59's Chrismas card

Those are just my personal favorites, the whole gallery is amazing.

Oh and THIS is the blog post I read that started me on this whole journey.

thoughts of you trees.

I made this card with Kim Hughes' Making the Grade set by Cornish Heritage Farms. I have a thing about trees, I can't stop buying them.
For this one I stamped the line of trees twice then trimmed the strip to fit my card. I colored them with colored pencils and gamsol. Added them to the blue with the scalloped edge. Then shimmied them back off so I could add the ribbon. *wink* There is foam tape between the trees and the blue. Used the word window punch some for accents. Stamped a greeting. But it needed more, so I added glossy accents over the trees. I love glossy accents. I learned this week that Kim Hughes will not be designing for Cornish Heritage Farms anymore. :( I wish her the BEST of luck in whatever she does next, I'm a huge fan.

Why don't you help me out?

I'm in a miniquilt swap on Flickr. The theme is "Spring Flowers" I CANNOT buy fabric. NO WAY NO HOW. (Dog used up all my mad money.) So after digging in my stash I found two combos I think are worthy. Can you help me decide?

First up is this muted selection. The turquoise is not spot on... So I might leave it out? But it does add some drama, so maybe I'll put just a tidge in?

The other combo is much more bold.

Looking at the work my partner has done I think she likes muted colors more. So should I go with that? I have a few patterns in mind. The swap is really small quilts, so for me that means it has to be simple. Some folks can do complex things on a tiny scale, but not me.

I'm in another swap too, but that theme is "Anything Goes" and I am already allmost done with that one because I knew what I was going to do all along.

ETA: Nevermind, I had an idea and I'm going with it. So I've made my choice.