Stitch-along update

Ok, so my grid is done, I'm using a white cotton muslin and I used a water soluble fabric marker to draw my lines, I'm trying to decide if I need to use some stabilizer on the back to help my stitches hold their shape (hmmm). Next, I made a smaller grid on my computer so I could kind of draft out my layout. 100 squares is a lot of stitching when you look at it like this:) My goal is at least 6 blocks per week. That gives me one day a week to take off or catch up.

I hope your week started off cheerfully we are finally having some nice weather several days in a row around here. Have a great week and thanks for stopping by. I'll talk to you again soon.

Organizing and prep

Ok, so it looked like this...

I spent the weekend working on it and now it looks like this... So pretty, just looking at it makes me smile. "sigh" it's the little things you know.

I signed up to play along with a stitching project, 100 stitched squares to help me remember to count my blessings.  You could play along too if you want.  You'll find all the information about it here.  I'll be posting my progress as I go, my next step is to draw out my grid and get it stitched then... we'll see what comes after that.

I spent the weekend stamping and stitching and sewing.  I'm having a little trouble with my photo editor tonight so I hope to post more pics tomorrow.  It was a very productive weekend.  Doesn't it feel good to get things accomplished?  I hope your weekend was just what you needed it to be and you are feeling blessed, remember to write some of them down or stitch'em.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Sharing in sorrow

Another friend lost a parent this month.  Such a difficult time for her and her family.  Here is the card I made for them,  I'll give it to her when they get back. 

I hope your Sunday is joyful.  Thanks for stopping by I'll talk to you again soon.

Taking a break from stamping? Nah...

But I have been doing some stitching.  Using my stamps, of course.  I am working on a project that is mostly in the planning stages in my head and part of it deals with different techniques using stamps, you know, their not just for paper any more:) but this was my first foray back into embroidery, I use to do it quite a bit when I was in elementary and Jr. high.  I used some basic craft felt in creme and stamped my images on with staz-on in brown.  Then just started playing around with different stitches.  It was a fun way to get back into it.

 

This weekend I've got a couple of projects to work on with my sewing machine.  I better get busy, yes?  Have a terrific weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Hip to be square challenge #5

Yea, half-way through the week.  I got a chance to work on this week's Shabby Tea Room challenge.  It's all about the squares.  

I played around with a little bit of everything on this challenge, there's brayering, and embossing, some glitter and stitching (on the lace ruffle) vintage sheet music, and sponging.  Like I said a little bit of everything.  Inks (Crystal Blue and Kiwi), stamps, embossing powder, buttons, floss and all the paper except the sheet music are from Close to My Heart.  There's a lot going on but I think it works:) Have a great Thursday.  I'll talk to you again soon.

1-2-3 Challenge

There is now a blog devoted to challenges using Close to My Heart products.  It's called Heart 2 Heart Challenges.  This week the challenge was a 1-2-3, 1 stamped image (check), 2 background papers (check) and 3 embellishments (check)!  This is the card I came up with...

My 1 stamped image is the cute couch which I stamped on the lighter background paper with black ink.  My 2 background papers are, pretty obvious :) and the 3 embellishments... 1 Rub-on, 1 strand of ribbon, and 1 decorator brad.  Quick and simple.  Hope your Monday was good.  Thanks for stopping by I'll talk to you again soon.

Baby Basket

All seven new mama's got one of these baskets this year.  I finally had a chance to photograph one before I delivered it  There are lots of fun little goodies inside.  I love putting these together!

Thanks for stopping by again.  Leave a comment, I so love hearing from you:-) I'll talk to you again soon.

Partial to Purple

Yes my friends, a color challenge right up my alley.  I love all things purple and over at The Play Date Cafe blog this was our lovely color palette.

  So pretty, yes?  Well I wanted to make a quick little gift box for a friend's birthday so I used these colors.

I used Close to My Heart colors Petal and Orchid Bouquet (retired, but still one of my all time fav's).  The box is a pizza style box random stamped with birthday images.  The bottom layer of the center embellishment has

Lavender glass beads.  The top part is embossed with clear EP and colored with markers.  Finished off with a coordinating gift tag.  Here's a detail shot of the embellishment.

I also love curling ribbon, every thing's better with curly ribbon:-)  Thanks for coming by, stop in again soon.  I'll talk to you later.

Shabby Tea Room Challenge

Embrace the white, that was the challenge this week.  Seriously in "like" with white on white with just a dab of soft color.  My soft color was CTMH's Amethyst. Did some texture on the flowers with a couple different embossing folders (Cuttlebug) and clear embossed some fun flourishes for more tone on tone. The bitty bling is from CTMH as well as the cute little crochet flower.  I also added some more glitter by using liquid glass and glitter on the tops of the flower brads I'm not sure if the pictures really pick that up.  All the stamps, papers and inks are from Close to My Heart as well.

To see the other lovely works of art be sure to visit their blog The Shabby Tea Room. Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment and let me know you were here.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Old Favorite

I love our clear stamps (Close to My Heart), I went to a workshop a couple of weeks ago and the sweet person who was leading it had us use wood mounted stamps.  Don't get me wrong, I love wood mounted stamps too.  But, I have gotten so spoiled by being able to see right where I'm going to put my image.  I had to laugh at myself trying to line things up with wood mounts.  With that being said though, I pulled out one of my old faithful wood mounts for a birthday card today.  I don't know why I love this image so much but I do.  It works for all different occasions and I so enjoy coloring it.

I used grey wool ink and colored pencils.  A sweet little birthday card for a friend who likes to garden.  Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk to you again soon.

Play Date Cafe Challenge

 A quick post today.  I'm playing along with the Play Date Cafe Challenge!  Hope you're having a great week.

Colors used are CTMH Dutch Blue and Baby Blue.  Love them!!!  I'll talk to you soon!

In the pink...

Remember those felt flowers from a couple of posts ago? Well, I used a few of them on this card. I embellished the top two layers with some quick freehand embroidery stitches, french knots on the little flower and a simple running stitch on the next layer. I also stacked a couple of white buttons and attached them through all the flower layers. The card came together quickly since I had the flowers already cut and ready to go. Don't you love it when you are organized enough to use something you already had prepped? It doesn't happen all that often for me, so when it does I get a little giddy *smile*. Happy Monday! I'll talk to you again soon.

Creative scraps

Once again over at the new challenge blog The Shabby Tea Room they issued a challenge to use scraps from your scrap pile to create a card.  Well, if you remember a few posts ago I shared my worktable and under much of the mess, ah creative chaos, is a box where I keep extra die cuts, embellishments that I made but haven't found the right project for, etc.  This card was a chance to assemble something using treasures from my box.  *Spoiler Alert* Mom, don't go any farther, this is probably your birthday card:-) 

The colors remind me of her.  Anyway, sometime in the fall I began to have a compulsion to make handmade paper flowers which has now escalated into making flowers of all types, more on that at another time.  So, I made this little flower and loved it but, had to wait for just the right project.  The corner of the extra olive die cut just seemed to call for a touch of floral.  Then, I had a piece of crepe paper ruffle left over from the card yesterday so I added it to the back and touched off the edges with straw Stickles.  A scrap of olive gingham patterned paper and some sorbet card stock run through my Cuttlebug dotted embossing folder and roughed up a bit and the card just came together with a little ribbon and a cute little clothespin.  Visit The Shabby Tea Room to see all the other awesome creations.  Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk to you again soon.

Picking back up with Birthdays

I needed more birthday cards this week. I tried a new technique on this one. I'd seen these beautiful crepe paper roses on Danielle Flanders blog, I haven't quite mastered those but I thought I could use my crepe paper and make a ruffle. So I did a quick running stitch along the folded edge of a strip of plain ol' streamer crepe paper then gathered it like I would a regular fabric ruffle. I touched up the edge with a bit of pink Stickle and layered it under a strip of desert sand card stock. Doesn't it look cute peeking out from under that scalloped edge. Just like and old fashioned petticoat. Thanks for stopping by and I'll talk to you again soon.

Fun with Felt

Ok, so I got one of my subscriptions in the mail and it had the cutest felt flowers on the card so I got inspired and spent part of the evening diecutting flowers to put together. Pinks and purples are my favorite. Now I just need to make some cards. So fun! Have a great day and I'll talk to you again soon.