Scrapbooking, Quilting, Sewing, and Photography

Ask and you shall make the time! I finally made time to do some more crafting which means that I have been doing a bit of everything. I'll start first with scrapbooking/photography.

So I have been asked by family to make a scrapbook of a recent family event since I took a lot of pictures during it. I agreed to do it, but then realized when I got home that I have to complete at least one of the two other albums that I'm working on. I'm getting a little backed up! Anyways, I worked on a personal page for myself though since I needed to just get the creative juices flowing again. Since I have so many pictures of her (and take more and more everyday!!) I decided to make a page about Luna! (Ok I might be bordering on crazy cat lady! If I get there feel free to reel me in!)


After I finished the page I began to get creative in other aspects as well, enter more quilting! Although I am still working on the same quilt, it is getting closer. I'm working on piecing everything together and will soon be attempting the actual quilting...that should be interesting! For now though just piecing it is enough work!


During the Super Bowl I began working on a baby sling. This is a project my sister asked me to attempt after I received my sewing machine at Christmas. A friend of hers is having a baby, when Jen saw the pattern when she went shopping with me she thought it would be a pretty awesome baby gift. I figured I'd give it a try. Amazingly it only took about a day to make, and turned out rather well. Although this one isn't the gift sling (figured I'd test run it first), I think it doesn't look half bad!


This is a picture of one with a baby in it so you get the idea of what it is. Sorry I don't have many babies lying around for me to use as models. =)


All right, that's all I have to share for now, now my mom and I are off to see a performance of Fiddler on the Roof! Should be a fun night! =)

Fourth of July Weekend and Winning Free Stuff!!!

Well it is Monday, the 5th of July...and I didn't get much sleep last night. Neighbors were setting fireworks off on and off till around 4am. I've never been a huge fan of setting off your own fireworks, and it is something that I will never do since I like the use of all 10 of my fingers, but it would be nice if my neighbors respected those of us who would like to sleep.

Anyways, my sister did spend a bit of time with me over the long weekend, and as I said she is one of my favorite people to craft with. She made several cards and an 8 1/2 x 11 page layout for a family recipe book she has been working on for a while. Here are pictures of what she created.


One of my favorite parts of when my sister comes is that she has trouble with color matching, I find this funny. This trip she happened to see the Stampin' Up catalog that my demonstrator had sent me and saw there was a color coach that tells you what colors work well together...I may have just found my Birthday present for her, lol!

Now for my contributions. I didn't get as much done as she did, I get distracted easily. I only got two cards done and one was very time consuming, but I love it and I think I will have to make more like it! I have discovered blending pens, and I am not turning back!


All right so one last note that for me is really cool! I entered a weekly contest on Adrienne Kennedy's blog where she gives away different My Sentiments Exactly products since she works there. I happened to win some rubons that are perfect for cards! Head over to her blog for great deals on MSE products every "Thrifty Thursday" and chances to win MSE products on "Freebie Friday". I love this company's stamps and have quite a few of their rubber and clear stamps! When I get the Rubz I'll be sure to share the cards that I make with them!

Now I'm off to try and get something accomplished today even though I just feel like sleeping! =)

Better Late Than Never

So I finally am updating with projects that I made about two weeks ago...I may have to either give myself deadlines too meet, or stop giving myself deadlines, lol. Anyways I have begun summer classes for my Masters degree so crafting time is going to be a treat when I am able to do it. I'm going to try and keep up but for some reason life seems to catch up with me from out of nowhere a lot of the time!

All right a few non-crafting things first...I'm not kidding when I say life has a way of catching up with me all at once. I got a new glasses and I'm still getting used to them so I've miss judged steps a few times, but the other day I miss judged a step and slipped down spraining my ankle. I don't think there is major damage, but I bandaged it up with an ice pack and thought it looked funny...kind of a club foot!


So on another non-crafting topic I harvested a huge amount of herbs from my container garden the other day, and even had a few ripe strawberries too! It really is true that things you grow yourself taste better! I froze a lot of the herbs so that I still have some "fresh" herbs to use during the winter, but I used some in dinner the other night and I'm super excited about how good it was! I'm still waiting for ripe tomatoes, close but not quite ripe yet, and green peppers, which just began to flower.


All right the crafting stuff, I know that's the point of this blog! I'm going to skip the materials list this time and just show you pictures. If you have any questions let me know and I'll let you know what I used.

This is a two page layout that I made with pictures, the invite, and program from a friends recent wedding. Although not my favorite layout ever, I was able to keep things rather elegant and simple I think. I like to try and use the wedding colors, blue and yellow in this case, in the layout.


Next come the cards. There is no rhyme or reason for some of the cards other than I wanted to try out new materials, but others, like the Thinking of You and Miss You cards, I made specifically for someone I had in mind when I made them. Again I'm a kind of decide as you go type of crafter, so I often just start making and see what comes!


Just a nice summer fun kind of card


All right this is one of those cards that I made specifically for someone. I haven't sent it yet, and I think she reads my blog so I'm not going to say who is getting it, but I thought it's just a nice simple look.


I keep long pieces of leftover ribbon and have been trying to think of what to do with them since some are too short to wrap around a card. For this I simply wrapped the ribbon around a piece of cardstock and then attached the cardstock to the card to make kind of a "3-D designer paper" look.


All right I admit it, I just wanted to try out my new Medallion stamp from Stampin' Up.


I still think that this one needs something, but I just can't put my finger on it yet. When I figure it out I'll post an updated picture then. Any suggestions?


This is one of my go to card layouts when I need a card fast and don't have one ready-made that fits the bill. I think it's elegant without a lot of work or fuss, and it can work for may occasions depending on the papers, stamps, punches, and ribbons that you use.

So there you go, the promised layout, cards, and various other things that you didn't really care about but got anyways, lol. I'll be sure not to promise to post things and then not do it again.

Oh and on a totally unrelated fun note...that 91st minute goal from Landon Donovan in the USA vs. Algeria World Cup game was nuts! I didn't think that the US had it in them, but I'm beginning to wonder if they are a force to be reckoned with this year. The team is a lot better than I thought they were! I'm still betting on Spain to win everything, but I wouldn't knock the US out any time soon...maybe quarter or semi-finals. =)