Merry

ETA: I have had a few questions about my banners, so if you have sent me an email or left a comment, I have decided to do a Q & A soon. Stay posted!

As promised, here is the banner I have been working on for my daughter's bedroom. After I got done with my Get Well card on Saturday, I knew that I wanted to use that paper combo on another project and what better way than with a holiday project. I had so much fun making this and it looks so cute in my daughter's bedroom. Actually, this is my favorite banner I have ever made. I added a lot of details which added to the fun. I am tempted to pull off the letters when Christmas is over and add a new word and leave it up all year long. Hmmmm.....

All of the papers are from K & Company (The Bailey Collection) with the exception of the text paper at the top of each panel and the circles under the r and the y which is from Tweety Jill Publications. I didn't want to add my "standard" buttons where each panel joins, so I added a festive touch by adding some silver jingle bells tied with a bow. I simply used a glue gun to stick them on, rather than threadintg them through each panel.

Originally, I only had the banner saying the word Merry, but once I measured it with the shelf that it would be hanging from, I realized that it really should have two more panels. I solved this dilema by cutting two more panels and used Vintage images from Crafty Secrets for embellishment. The snowman got a little something extra by adding the pearl buttons to the tummy.




The angel is from Crafty Secrets as well and I added a few rhinestone gems to the corners and a retired "Snow Flurry" from Stampin' Up! Of course all of the edges recieved a generous sprinkling of Rose Quartz glitter from Martha Stewart. I had quite a time cleaning up after this project...everything had pink glitter stuck to it, including my DH last night! I don't know how that happened. Maybe while we smooched under the mistletoe? LOL!


The finishing touch was some crepe paper ruffles added to the top of each panel. I simply baste stitched strips and gathered each piece to 3 1/2 inches and then adhered it with sticky strip. I almost didn't add it, but I am glad I took the extra time to put it on. My daughter was really concerned when she came home from school and said that I had covered up two letters with the pictures. I had to explain to her that there weren't any letters on those panels. She seems pleased with it as well as her small pink tinsel tree with pink lights. Her Barbies have been ringing in the Holiday's around the pink glow! LOL! Thanks for fluttering by!

Believe

Christmas has made it's way into our home, finally. We usually put up the tree and deck the halls the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we are a few days behind. The kids had loads of fun decorating the tree last night with Dad, while I sat and watched/directed. I told them that while they were at school the rest of the decorations would be in place.

I made this banner last week while the kids and my DH were watching "UP". I love that my craft space is connected with the family room, so I feel connected with the family, even when I am in the "crafting zone". I used some retired SU! paper from last year and mixed it with some new Making Memories chipboard letters. These are the same ones that I used on my "Spooky" banner. I love how versatile they are. I added some snowflakes, lace and buttons for extra detail.

I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that my daughter needed a Christmas banner in her bedroom as well, so I will share that when it is done. I am almost finished; I realized that it needed to be a bit longer to stretch the length of her shelf, so I have some addititons to make. I coordinated it to match her pink/green/ yellow bedroom and I am thrilled with how it is turning out.

I am almost finished with one of my sewing projects as well. I will post it on my "Thimbles and Thread" blog and post a link here as well. Thanks for fluttering by and Happy December!

Tea Pot Get Well Wishes *SFYTT*

'Tis the Season to get sick, hence a get well card. Since I am on the mend, I thought that it might be prudent to get a few get well cards in my stash. I chose to use one of my favorite stamp sets from Papertrey Ink, Tea For Two. While I am not a tea drinker myself, it has a lot of possibilties and I have used it quite a bit. I thought the images worked perfectly for today's sketch, which I love, by the way. I don't know how Jen does it every week.

ETA: I had a comment asking me how I would get such a bulky card into an envelope. Here is my solution for this particular card; I would put it into a 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch paper envelope, or slide it into a clear envelope. This is a card that I wouldn't even attempt to have mailed, though. This is one that I would tuck into a basket of get-well aids, like soup, kleenex, cough drops, etc. A good way of having bulky cards mailed, however, is to have them hand-canceled at the post office so they don't have to slide through their scanner.

I started out by creating a 5 by 5 card base using Vintage Cream cardstock. Each piece of pattern paper is also matted onto cardstock and then I sewed along the edges. I had to limit my sewing, since I changed thread for a sewing project (I will share it with you when I am done) that usually ends up using a whole spool of thread and I didn't want to run out. The pattern paper is from a K & Co. slab (the Bailey Collection) that I picked up at Hobby Lobby a while back. I have been so good not to use it on every card and I think I have resisted for some time. I thought it was time to dust it off. I actually really like this combo for Christmas, so you may see some Christmas creations coming up using it.

The tea pot was stamped onto the pattern paper and then trimmed out and popped with foam squares. I also added a few buttons under the sentiment for some added detail. I didn't leave them naked this time and threaded them with a bit of Rustic Twine. I am in love with this Holiday Mix of buttons. I have actually just left them on my desk, since they make an appearance onto every project, Christmas or not.

Of course I had to add an accordion medallion for the embellishment, spruced up with some glitter and tea image. I try and resist, but I just love making them. Also, I have had quite a few emails regarding the accordion flowers and how they don't seem to stick together using glue dots. I have had some pop up myself, so I now use hot glue, which was suggested to me by Susan Liles, one of my SFYTT sisters (see link below) It has made a world of difference, so thank you Susan for the tip!!!!!

I finished the card off by adding a simple satin bow and called it done. I had a lot of fun making this card. I actually have had quite a craft-productive last few days. I have started a sewing project, finished 4 matchbook sliders and made a new Holiday banner that I will be sharing soon. That is more than I have done in a long time!!

You won't want to miss the other SFYTT designers.
Jen Del Muro and Amy
Amy Rohl
Susan Liles and Amy Sheffer ,Leigh O' Brien!!!!!

Thanks for fluttering by!!!

Christmas Matchbox

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Unfortunately, I came down with the stomach flu Wednesday morning, so I stayed home while my family celebrated Thanksgiving. They all had a wonderful time, so I am happy. I would rather be sick than have one of them be sick. I just hung out all day and finished up some holiday projects.

It is nice to have little boxes and containers all ready to go and fill with goodies and gifts. I decided to make some little matchbox sliders to fill with candy, gift cards, or whatever. You never know when you are going to need to put together a quick gift, especially for Christmas. I have had this SU! Christmas paper since last year and thought I would put it to good use and make quite a few of these little boxes.

One of things I like about a matchbox slider, is that no one needs to un-tie the bows, etc. You can just leave it all alone and slide open the box to find the goodies. I always have people tell me that they hate to open the things I give them because they don't want to un-tie the bow and ruin it. This is the perfect solution. I will add some basket filler to the bottom of each one before it gets filled with anything else. I didn't have any on hand for the photograph. Once they are all done, I will photograph the whole lot and post it. If you would like instructions on how to make a similar box, not the same size, I put together a tutorial a while back that you can see here. Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. I will be back tomorrow with one of Jen's new SFYTT!

Warmest Greetings... *SFYTT*

....of the Season! Yes...it is another Christmas card! I am excited that my pile is growing slowly but surely! I was rumaging around in my retired stamp sets and came across my beloved "Winter is Calling" set from SU! I love this set and will never part with it. I have used it every year since I got it. The large panel on today's sketch made this image the perfect fit. I did cheat a bit, not on purpose, but I accidentally stamped the image too close to the bottom of the cardstock, colored it and then realized that I needed to have a panel go across the bottom, hence the popped focal image.
I colored the image with a combo of Copic and Prismacolor markers. I really need to buy a few more colors so that I can blend better, but I think it turned out okay. Of course I had to add a little liquid applique to the coat trim and hats. I really liked how the glitter stuck to the puffed applique for a frosty, vintage feel.

I punched the snowflakes using my Martha Stewart punch, added some adhesive pearls and popped them up with foam squares. I added a few other little details for interest and called it good. I am actually supposed to be at my Church's "Super Saturday" craft activity in 6 minutes, so I better dash!

You won't want to miss the other SFYTT designers.
Jen Del Muro and Amy
Amy Rohl
Susan Liles and Amy Sheffer ,Leigh O' Brien!!!!!

Thanks for fluttering by!

from me to you

I have been wanting to use Everyday Button Bits for almost every project I make, but so far it has only been used on one project. I decided that it was time to get some of the other images inky. I chose to use the stem image so that I could use quite a few buttons.

I am in love with the recently released Holiday Mix Vintage Buttons, so I decided to use those for all of the "flowers" on my focal panel. I really like the mix of colors. The polka dots from the leaf images were the inspiration for my embossing and background stamping, which I used PolkaDotBasics for. I almost used polka dotted ribbon, but restrained myself. I used Fresh Snow Satin Ribbon to tie the sentiment tag onto the card. I had fun using some of my Nestabilities Dies for the circle image and the sentiment label.

I also added a panel of Friends 'til the End pattern paper to break up all of the polka dots. The finishing touch was a couple of rows of zig-zag stitching.

I don't know where this card is headed, but I had fun simply stamping for fun! I rarely do that these days. I have a long list of Holiday projects that I would like to get done as well as a long list of baby projects as well. I haven't posted anything since last year to my other blog devoted to sewing, but I will be posting every project I get done in the near future. I will leave links here for those who are interested.

I unearthed all of my son's newborn baby clothes from the garage and all of those memories came flooding back. I was so excited to show him all of his precious, tiny clothes, but he could care less. Emma thought it was fun, but her and I were the only ones!
Thanks for fluttering by!

Believe *SFYTT*

It is Saturday and you know what that means; a new SFYTT! I decided to create another Christmas card to add to the stack; which isn't a stack since there is only the one from last week! LOL! Oh well...you have to start somewhere, right? I still had some of the papers from my "Thankful" banner out on my desk, so I decided to use the ones that looked Christmas-y.

I layered the paper and then did some zig-zag sewing around the edge. I then set out to work on my focal piece, using the Believe stamp set from Papertrey Ink . I stamped Father Christmas twice, cutting out only the head and beard from the second image. I wanted to give him quite a bit of detail and dimension. I also cut out the wreath and added it using foam squares. Before I mounted him onto the rectangle, I stamped it using Background Basics TextStyle and Fancy Flourishes. The sprigs of holly at the top and bottom were cut and mounted using foam squares as well. I added a touch of shine to the berries using Crystal Effects by SU! The final touch was a bit of Liquid Applique to the fur of his hat and coat. Once all that was done, I added it to the card using foam squares.

I had so much fun making all of those accordion medallions for my banner, I thought this card was aching for one as well. I really love how the red looks with the touch of gold glitter on the edges. I knew I wanted to add a jingle bell to my design and almost regretted adding the gold glitter because I thought I only had silver jingle bells, but as luck would have it, I found a lone gold jingle bell in my box. Yay! I guess I will be heading out to the craft store to purchase an assortment of gold jingle bells! LOL!

I added the "Believe" sentiment and a tarnished gold button for some added detail. I almost called it done, but at the last minute I added the vintage lace to the edge. I like the feel that it gives the card. It is hard to see in teh photo since it is so light, but I promise it is there.This is another one that will have to be tucked in with a gift, rather than mailed. I had a lot of fun with this design and I hope that you will all have a chance to play along.

You won't want to miss the other SFYTT designers.
Jen Del Muro and Amy
Amy Rohl
Susan Liles and Amy Sheffer (Amy will be playing this week, but her creation will be done a little later this afternoon, so stay tuned) ,Leigh O' Brien!!!!!

Thanks for fluttering by!