Joy

Hello again.  This is the last of my completed cards.  I think I better get hopping, I just bought gift cards for my kids' teachers but I don't know if I can make enough holiday cards to go along with the gift cards.  Anyhow, here's another Farm Fresh Challenge, Friday Spy Day card.

It was technically a tag in the sample, but I used it like a sketch, loosely.  Instead of buttons, I used letters.  I couldn't think of any other holiday phrase that might fit.  Again, tried the Copics for the face, pencils for the rest.  Same pink patterned paper I used before (We R Memory Keepers).  Punched all the purple things with Doodlebug glitter paper.  Same snowflake punch, it's the only snowflake I have so I'm probably going to be using it over and over again. And the dark purple cardstock is from Papertrey ink.
Bye!

blood, sweat and tears

Hello!  My post title sounds a little gross but that is what it took for me to finish my latest sewing project.  Okay, maybe it was mostly just sweat cause it is so hot and humid again here but there were some frustrating sewing moments.  Just wanted to throw my hands up in the air and then bang my head on the sewing table and maybe just silently say some choice words but I am so happy that I'm done. 

Here is my youngest one holding all three fabric Trick or Treat bags.  I love the print on here.  Both the black and green liner fabrics are from Riley Blake Doodlebug.  The gingham fabric on the bottom of the bags was from Walmart.  I am so happy I found the gingham fabric.  I was looking for just plain black or orange or some other Halloween-y color but couldn't find any so thought I'd try the gingham and it adds so much fun to the bags.

I found this tutorial HERE and used the measurements as my starting point for the bags.  I also knew I wanted to try personalizing these bags.  I cut the letters out using thin felt from Walmart and my PTI alphabet dies.  I used the Ultra Hold Heat n Bond adhesive to stick the letters on the bag.  I didn't want to sew over the letters so I hope the adhesive really is ultra hold strong!

All the bags have a wide square bottom and I ironed on a backing on the fabrics for added support.

All the handles are a bit different because I was using up all the scraps of fabric.  Even with the headaches that came with sewing these bags, I love them.  Hmmm, sounds a lot like children.  I plan to give them to my kids' teachers' children for Halloween.  Hope they like it!

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Happy Birthday card continued...

Thanks for posting the birthday card...and all the crooked letters! I was trying to place the "birthday" the way they had it on the sticker sheet and then the spacing got messed up and it started slanting downward. And not so easy to stick die cut letters or letter stickers on nicely either, I think I'm cock-eyed. I took some photos of the card before it was even finished since it took forever to get my son to sign it, but then I was thinking it looked kind of messed up to post. I guess I should have shown Eva how the card unfolds, but it was hastily shoved into an envelope, which by the way I made with the Martha Stewart scoreboard since I hadn't heard of it until Eva told me about it, and then when Michael's had a 50% off coupon, I figured that was a pretty good deal. But we didn't even address the envelope or seal it...I'm such a bad card giver. Although I was pretty happy I even finished it in time since it took me a couple days to decorate it. And by the last page, the best I could do was letter stickers.

Anyhow, it's called a "neverending" card and I saw it here. So I went to the youtube link here, which shows how to make the card and how it keeps folding/unfolding. Except they gave the measurements in metric units, so I just picked 6 inches by 6 inches with 1.5 inches for the score lines.

So the 3rd and 4th pages look like this if you flip the 2 and the birthday cake up/down, then open the green panels horizontally...

I mostly used Doodlebug products that I've been hoarding...the patterned paper, matching sticker sheet and a glitter letter set. Plus a birthday stamp set for the "happy" word background.

I am so bad about actually getting crafting stuff done, takes me forever just to make 1 thing...hopefully I can make something soon with "I love Stamps" Anya, thanks Eva!

Cupcake Anya

I finally made a card! After I don't know how long. I fell off the crafting wagon for a bit. This blog is supposed to help keep me motivated to actually use all the stuff I buy. Maybe it's helping me a little where I am at least thinking about it more often. Unfortunately, I don't always feel like I have the time or energy. But Eva is keeping me inspired, my crafting idol!

So anyhow, this week, I did the Saturday Sketch from Club Anya, again. I picked Cupcake Anya for my free digi from a previous week, so I figure I better try and use her before I forget I even have it on my computer.

The whole card seems a bit bright, but I wanted to match the colors on the glittery Doodlebug stickers (border trim, flowers, and label). And then I got a little out of control picking so many different colors and ended up not even using the stickers that contained any orange! First time I used my PTI New Leaf cardstock, I'm kind of actually liking that bright green. It's embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. I stamped on the cardstock sticker with PTI Mega Mixed Messages. I used the Memento black ink, which afterward I realized might have been a bad choice because it didn't dry very quickly and smudged a little because the cardstock sticker had a bit of a shiny slick surface. I colored again with Prismacolor pencils. Then I realized I kind of forgot how to color hair! I messed up where I wanted the hair to be light so I just colored the whole thing in.

This is just a sidenote photo of the tooth fairy box from Eva, with my son's 2 bottom teeth in there! He actually went to the dentist to get them out because his permanent teeth were coming in behind his baby teeth. Which was freaking me out, but the dentist actually didn't get too excited. So we tried for almost 3 weeks, except my son seemed to have a low threshold for pain. It didn't seem like we could wiggle it very hard and it didn't seem to be getting a whole lot looser. Although now I realize the teeth were kind of stuck down in there since part of the root wasn't totally dissolved at the front.

Anyhow, sorry if you didn't want to see any gross pictures of teeth. Have a good night!

Birthday card

So here's a birthday card I made for Farm Fresh Challenge Friday Spyday #15.

I used Fancy Anya, (thanks, Eva, I think you gave me this a long time ago...finally getting around to using it...).  The patterned heart/flower paper is from Doodlebug that I got from a local scrapbook store.  The rest is Paper Trey Ink.  Die cut and stamped the tickets, again from Papertrey Ink.  Embossed it with white embossing powder...it got a little messy.  I had inked the edges of the white cardstock with spun sugar distress ink, but I guess it's hard to see in the photo.  The heart is a My Favorite Things die with a Sizzlit #5.

Short post.  Gotta go clean the house now.  Bye!

Bunny Thanks!

I'm still very slowly working on making thank you cards. I made another card similar to the last one without the twine or tag since the bunny stamp was bigger than I expected. This is a bunny stamp from Stampavie. It's kind of a dark brown because the first brown pencil had a yellowish color to it once I started blending with baby oil, so I layered a 2nd darker brown pencil over it. I used PTI cardstock and patterned paper. The tiny "thanks" stamp is from a Doodlebug set of frames/tags. It's a bit small, but I couldn't find anything else to fit within the heart.
I distressed the edges of the patterned paper and circle. I thought it looked kind of fabric-like with the tattered edges so I drew in some stitches. I'm not brave enough to try sewing on paper. Plus do the paper fibers somehow clog the machine? I wonder if my sewing machine still even works. I have taken it to a sewing store twice over the last 10 years to get it tuned up. It was really frozen about 10 years ago. But they cleaned it and oiled it and the guy said it was supposedly good as new. I think it was somewhat easily fixable because it's pretty basic and not one of those fancy electronic ones. Anyhow, I used a white poster paint Sharpie for the white stitches. It's a lot more opaque than the white gel pen I have. Hopefully it won't dry out too quickly. It's like those metallic pens I used to have in elementary school where the ink flows out of the depressible nib.
Well, off to try to make more cards between laundry and feeding the kids.