Calgon......tote me away........

IF YOU ARE HERE TODAY (or any day for all that matters ;)   )....MAKE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN - I HAVE POSTED TWO POSTS TODAY.

Well, I sure am not a pioneer when it comes to making a purse out of the scallop square die and the big shot....but I did finally get around to making one.  I didn't really look up any direcctions on what to do...I just plugged through it from seeing so many online in the past.  Wanna see mine?

Excuse my hand holding it up.....I guess I should have taken the picture before washing it so it wouldbe stiffer....but I gotta tell you - I think these purses are less than adorable before washing to shabby up a bit.  I did, however, do more sewing on my square than I have seen in the past.  I also don't recall the edges being finished off quite like this of the ones I have seen:

Maybe I did...I don't know....but I don't remember it.  I had to add some pockets to the sides:

I will use these pockets for a cell phone, gum, keys, etc when I use this baby as a purse AND when I use it as a stamping supply organizer at stamping classes and clubs the side pockets will hold adhesives, bone folder, snips....who know....but I am sure it will be packed with stuff!

I was going to make some pockets for the inside....but honestly I have plans to make an organizer insert to tote around stamping supplies when I order more fabric.  I have been doing so many things with this fabric line, I am pretty much out of it....sad, sad day when you have a project to execute and you are out of fabric.....  I gotta place an order, soon!  You will see that organizer insert, I promise....as soon as I get one made.

And.....with scraps, I had to make a cute little flower pin.  I didn't wash it yet though.....I don't know what I was thinking.  lol!    Wanna see???

The solid layers are cut from wool felt .  teh dies I used to make this flower are: Island Flroal, and Blossom Party.  Look at the layered goodness of this cutie:

I sewed it all together and added a Big Designer Button from the Deck teh Halls button collection.  I gotta show you the back so you can see how I tacked the "leaf" layer down.

I didn't want the leaves to be three equal petals....so I tacked one off to the side.  Now I will have to sew the pin back on it and atatch it to my purse or shirt or something that needs some lovin'!

Well....leave me some love with your thoughts on these two projects.  I won't bite, honest - well - unless you don't leave me some lovin'!  lol!!

It's too early to think up something clever!

LOL!!!

Yesterday when I photographed and edited the picture for today's post, I was singing a song in my head with the "fabric" substituted for the actual lyric....but it is early and I didn't write it down.  lol!  My sarcasm just comes to me, I guess I can't preplan it.  Would that make me a "stand up sarcastic blog poster????"  Probably not, even stand up comediens preplan, huh?  Oh well.....we will move on anyway.

I have been playing around with our new fabric line......oh how yummy it is!  I can't seem to get enough of the Deck the Halls collection.  How awesome would it be if it would expand with more coordinating fabrice that didn't leave us with the Holiday mini?????  Seriously - how awesome would that be???  I know, right???

Well, I have two fabric projects to share with you today.  A french style memo board and a little piece of wall art for the Holidays.

We will start with the memo board.

This was my sample board for a stamp camp I held a couple of weeks ago.  We made a glass jar with decor elements on it fro Halloween.  It was super cute and wayyyyy  super easy.  And then, we all made a memo board using Designer Fabric.  I took a bunch of the fabric to the camp and let everyone pick their own to make everyone's memo board personal.  We had a great time at the camp - the memo boards the girls did were awesome!  I have to say though when I asked my hubby for his staple gun for a Stampin' Up! class.....he did look at me like "are you serious.....a staple gun for stamping?"  And I think the girls that were at the camp got the same reaction from their hubbies.  ( I had them bring a staple gun if they had one to help with time )

Oh sorry.....I got really off track, huh?  And to think.....I haven't even had my diet Coke or Coke Zero yet this morning.  Maybe lack of caffiene makes me meander through my thoughts......or maybe caffeine makes it worse?  Hmmmmm.......  There I go again!

Anyway - my memo board was made with the Cherry Cobbler fabric from Deck the Halls.  I told you a while back that Cherry Cobbler was my favorite red we have .....didn't you remember?  So - when Stampin' Up! gave us a fabric that was cherry cobbler and very vanilla - it was meant to be. 

The ribbon pattern was made with the new Cherry Cobbler 1/2 " Seam Binding.  I gotta say - I {luv} this stuff!  It is so smooth and flexible and soft.....do you get the picture?  lol!  Where the binding intersected, to accent the quilted look of the memo board, I placed antique brads.  I gathered the seam binding through the prongs and put them throught the entire board to pull the fabric down a bit.  Wanna see?

You like?  I do!

Oh boy.....and I said there were two projects to share today.  The second one is a wall hanging I made for the Holidays coming up.  I gotta say.....I think this is really cute.  Boy, I am full of myself this morning, uh?  lol!  Without further delay......here it is:

I told you it was adorable....WHAT?....You didn't believe me?  After all this time, you still don't trust me?  That hurts.  Really hurts......

The background is just an ordinary piece of muslin that I sandwiched with another piece of muslin with quilt batting - bamboo quilt batting - ever hear of it?  Made me feel really "green" since I was using it on a tree project.  lol!  I then machine quilted it at an angle.  It isn't perfect...please don't measure down to the 1/16th of an inch.....I didn't care that it wasn't perfect, to be honest, it is to look "shabby - country - cute"  That is a professional decorating term, right?  lol!!

The tree pieces were cut with my pennant die (the smaller pennant) and big shot.  Do you give yor big shot massages weekly?  You should - it make sit more relaxed to pump out great projects like this :)  Each "pennant" is three layers - a piece of muslin and then a piece of wool felt and topped off with a piece of fabric from Deck the Halls.  I adhered the tree down onto the background and then added a trunk.

The tree trunk is simply a piece of wool felt cut with the new Scallop Squares Duo Bigz Die in the Holiday Mini.  I stitched it right to the background piece very haphazardly with two colors of thread to kind of simulate tree bark.....how did I do?

After I had the tree, tree trunk and background all sewn together - I snipped all of the scallops and throught that baby in the washer and dried it in high heat to get the normal shrinkage you get with 100% cotton fabric in high heat.  Oh and the adorable fraying too!!  I was looking for that!

No tree is complete without decorationg, right?  Right....that is what I thought, so I adorned my tree with Deck the Halls Big Designer Buttons.  I tied bow with the 1/8th inch very vanill tafftea ribbon through the buttons before adhering them to the tree.  See??

And a tree topper......I must admit, I wanted to use the star die with some mustardy colored felt....but my felt color that I had just didn't mesh well with my tree....so I pulled out soem very vanilla taffeta ribbon and made a bow that I then acented with more 1/8th inch very vanilla taffeta and another big button.  Take a look at that:

You like?  I was very please with this tree. 

What were your inital reactions to the projects in this post?  Leave me a comment below and let me know!  I do have two more things to share with you that I made out of more fabric...but that will have to wait until later today.  Oh yeah - you will get two posts today....after all - you deserve it, I have been so sporadic posting lately.  I am really sorry for that!

toodles :)

Are you now???

Yeah....that is the response of my hubby when we were on our way home from our daughter's swimming lesson last night.  Here is how it went down.....

me:  i am going to stamp while you give L (my daughter) a bath

hubby:  oh really?

me:  yep

hubby:  you are going to stamp while i give the bath??

me: yeah - i AM going to stamp.  i haven't in a while, a long while, so tonight i AM going to and you ARE giving L a bath

hubby:  are you know?

me: yes

hubby: if i knew that i would have eaten dinner.....(he was [probably thingink - you know that drive through crap you jsut bought for L)

me: {{what???}} (that is what i was thinking....here is what i actually said.... ) this isn't a discussion....i am telling you what i am going to do.  end of debate.  i am stamping. tonight.

hubby: silence with a bit of snickering.....


So that is how it went down.....oh yeah....I held my ground.  LOL!!  The discussion wasn't nearly as stern as it sound all typed out, but that is how it went.  Maybe i will try that again tonight.  lol!!  Meanwhile our house is in utter disarray from our increasingly hectic schedules.....but i WAS going to stamp.  darn it....I was stampin'!

But anyway....I had a rough idea of this week's mojo monday sketch in my head all week.  So I went from there for today's card.  I spent most of my time last night working on something I am submitting to Stampin' Up! for a demonstrator contest - which I probably won't have a snowball's chance in fire of winning - but I had an idea in my head for a contest titled "Christmas" and wanted to do it.  "Christmas" sure is a broad category....but I still wanted to do it.

Oh - you want to see what I made that I actually could show???  Oh - sorry.  Here it is:

it's cute, right?  My mojo maybe isn't up to par right now....but I can run a 5 year old around to practices and lessons like nobody's business.....yeah that is right - you heard me....I can do it.  lol!

I {luv} the new glimer brads that are in the Holiday Mini!!!  **yummo**
And did you notice the dazzling diamond snow???  You know that is a bitter cold night when the snow sparkles!  So - enough of the 88 degree days already!!!

Well, I better run.....off to my next task.  balancing the checkbook.....yipee!!!  you did read that with a bit of sarcasm in your head voice, right??  because it was there.....read it again...there is sarcasm.

Happy Stampin'!

Oh.....how time just slips away!!

Is everyone else out there feel like they live in fast forward???  I seriously need a date book for my date book!!  LOL!!!  BUT - I did stamp something that I can share yesterday.  YAY!!!!  It felt soooo good to pull stuff out for fun!  Well....it was in a mad rush....but it was still fun!  heheheheeeee!!!!

I saw a sketch somewhere on someone's blog sometime ago......and for some reason it stuck with me.  Aren't you proud??  I didn't have to sketch it down or add it to my favorites or go looking for it somewhere....it was just there when I sat down to stamp - so that is what I started with.  Wanna see what I came up with???

Do ya???


I can't hear you.............







Ok....that is better!  Here it is:

I absolutely love the Apple Blossom Level 2 Hostess set in the Idea Book and Catalog.  I was immediately drawn to it......but sadly, this is the first time I actually pulled it out...and I have had it since July..... :(
But....all is well now - it has been inked and I still am lovin' it!!

I made this for my daughter's kindergarten teacher.  I will need to send her a note at some point and I plan on using this card to do it.  Last year, my baby was in a private preschool and I made cards for the teacher when I sent her tuition checks in and she really loved getting them - so I am hoping her kindergarten teacher will like the cards also.

The base is cherry cobler - LOVE this red!!!  I mean I {{LOVE}} this red........really love it!  I stamped the apple image in the bottom corner and added the sentiment "just a note" over it....over the 4u on the apple actually.  Get it???  Just a note 4 u????  I need to get more sleep, huh?

The center panels are very vanilla stamped with images in Apple Blossom in marina mist, cherry cobbler, always artichoke and sahara sand.  The sahara sand is the open dot stamp in the set - I'm not sure it shows up here.....  Then I matted each of those panels with basic black.  The horizontal panel is marina mist and basic black that I accented with black brads.  The torn panlel is sahara sand.  I wrinkled the card stock, crumpled it, flattened it, wrinkled some more, rolled it in a ball, and then just when the card stock thought it had a minute's rest - I pulled it apart to expose the paper fibers inside of the card stock!!  Oh yeah, I showed it who was boss!!  uh huh....I can really dominate a piece of card stock.....can you?  lol!!!

So, back to reality....I wanted to inside to be a light color so I could write in it....so here it is:

sweet, huh?

WHAT?????  I didn't hear you?



Oh - you have a question???


What is it?


Are you kidding me????  Where did I come up with this color scheme????
Do you people ever listen to me?????  I got it straight out of the idea book and catalog!  Now go get your book!!

turn to page 179.   do it.

do you see the Simply Scrappin kit - Christmas Cheer?  Oh yes I did.....got the color right there and threw in sahara sand for the halibut!

The next time you are stumped on a color scheme.  start with you card base color...what do you want to use for your base???  Pull out your idea book and catalog.....and LOOK.  :)  Stampin' Up! does all of the work for us....all we have to do is execute our ideas.

Talk about work...I better run and get there :)
Happy Stampin' y'all!!  (lol!!)

I haven't forgotten......

About You!!!

My little one started kindergarten this week.  And when she gets home, she is wanting me.  Even if it is just to sit with her while she plays.  Yesterday she asked me if we could do something together as soon as she got off the bus.  I said well.......what would you like to do?  (never agree to anything with her until you are sure of the expectations...lol!  I wouldn't want to agree to working on head stands!  lol!!!)  She looked up at me, sweet as could be, and said.....can we just sit down and have a little drink together??  Really????  It means something to her that I actually sit with her and have a drink??  So, I had to agree to those terms :)  So - I made us some lemonade to drink.....and those who really know me know that giving her lemonade is a real treat!  I am a strictly milk and water for her mommy.......chocolate milk on special occassions only.....  lol!

I spent the beginning of the week cutting and sorting and packaging up the ribbon shares - thank you very much if you ordered one!!!   This is my first experience with school....so there are lots of new things in our schedule that weren't there before.  I will get back in the swing of life soon - I pinky swear!!!