Happy Halloween

Emilia loves the Brady Bunch and her American Girl doll Julie so she decided to be a 70's girl this year. It was 82 degrees here today so it was great trick or treating weather tonight. Last year we about froze our butts off. I wish it was like this every year. Hope you had a good one!

Color Inspiration #28

This is my entry for Kristina's color Inspiration challenge #28 .
I was not crazy about the colors when I orginally saw them but I decided to take the challenge anyways. I started with SCS sketch 196. The butterfly stamp Butterfly Border Horizontal is from Lasting Impressions With Panache. I stamped the image on hot press watercolor paper with Versamark and then heat embossed it with fine black embossing powder. When I was done with that I did the Marker Wash technique on the butterflies from the Oct/Nov07 Technique Junkies newsletter using SU markers in the challenge colors.
I used my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder on the Rose Red and Sage Shadow pieces then finished the card off with three silver brads. Finished size is 41/4x51/2. Now that the card is finished I am starting to like the colors together better now. Thanks for the challenge Kristina!

October Papertrey Bloghop

It's time for another Papertrey Bloghop
This months challenge was to create something using pokadots. This is what I came up with.
I started by stamping polka dots from the Polka Dot Basics set onto white muffin liners with Colorbox pigment inks. When they were dry I baked Peanut Butter Cupcakes in them. When the cupcakes were cool I piped them with Chocolate Butter Cream frosting and then decorated them to match the liners.

After I was done with the cupcakes I decided to create recipe cards to go with them.

I started by stamping a segment of polka dots from the Polka Dot's Basics set again on the top of the new recipe cards Papertrey is now carrying. After that I stamped some of the words from the Recipe Box set then I wrote in the rest of the recipes. I finished the recipe cards off by adding some Spring Moss twill ribbon and attching it with staples. When I was done with that I created a double pocket card to put the recipes in.
I originally saw how these were made in the TJ newsletter last December but had never tried making them until now. I will definitely be making more of them in the future now though because I think they are a great way to share recipes. If you would like to give the cupcakes a try feel free to, just click on the pictures to make the recipes bigger.
I hope you have enjoyed with I came up with. Thanks for stopping by and have a great night.

Last GSS project and A sweater for Lily

Sorry for not posting this sooner. Time just seemed to get away from me again. Here is the last project I submitted for this months Papertrey GSS contest.
It is a kippa (yarmulke)which is is a thin, slightly-rounded skullcap traditionally worn at all times by Orthodox Jewish men, and sometimes by both men and women in Conservative and Reform communities during services and other religious rituals. You can read more about them here. I stamped the Star Of David Image with the scrolls from the Mazel Tov addition set with Versamark on the Yamulke and then embossed them with silver embossing powder.
I also wanted to share a sweater I have been knitting for my fur baby Lily. I can usually find her sitting by a heater vent when it gets cold so I am hoping this sweater will help keep her warm
.
She doesn't really like it when I put it on her but hopefully she will get use to it the more she wears it. I used the free pattern Need for Tweed Dog sweater and then knitted the flowers and sewed them on. I am not sure if I should add more flowers to the collar or not though. What do you think?
Well that's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a great night.

Exciting News and another Papertrey GSS Entry

First off I have some great news to share today. This project won The Papertrey Gueststar Stamper Contest for best use of the Mazel Tov set last night. I was so excited when I found out I won I could not stop shaking. Being a winner in this contest means so much to me because I have been trying really hard for months now to win. There were many times I thought about giving up entering but I am really glad I didn't and now know that all that hard work finally paid off. It also helps that I love Papertrey stamps and they continue to inspire me make things like this.
Now for another project I entered in this months contest. This is a Snowglobe Giftcard Holder.
I started by stamping the house from the Boards and Beams set on PTI Stampers Select White Cardstock with Black Momento Ink then I colored it in with my Copics. After that I added the fence, door and snow from the Home For The Holidays Set. I embossed the snow with white embossing powder and added lights with my Copics. When I was done with that I cut a circle from a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock with a Coluzzle then I attached a piece of acetate to the back of the opening. Next I drew the base on the circle and colored it with a black Copic. I also outlined the circle with a black Sharpie too. I embossed the saying from the Home For The Holidays set on the base with silver embossing powder then I stamped the snowflakes from the Rustic Snowflake Set on the Pure Poppy cardstock with CTMH white craft ink. After that I added some foam tape around the circle on the backside and added the beads then I attached the house piece. I finished the card off with a piece of Silver Shimmer Cardstock. Finished size is 5x5. Here is a picture of it after you shake it. Doesn't it look like it is snowing?

For the inside I cut 4 slits with a craft knife around the gift card so there would be a way to hold it in. I left the space behind the gift card blank to write a personal message so when the recipient takes the gift card off they will know who it is from. That's it, I am really happy with how this came out. Rich was really impressed with it too. That's it for now. I will be back soon with one more PTI GSS project to share.

Snowgirl Rag Scarf

The Papertrey new release is tonight. Over the next few days I will be sharing the projects I made for this months Papertrey Gueststar stamper contest. Today I am sharing the Snowgirl Rag Scarf.
I made the snowgirl panels by stamping images from the Made of Snow set and The Rustic Snowflakes set with Palette Ink and coloring them with Copic Sketch Markers.
The other printed material used is Kristmas on a string from Alexender Henry and Bijoux Swirly Buds from Heather Bailey. You can get both of those fabrics here.

This is a picture of Emilia modeling the scarf.I think it goes great with her coat and will be nice and warm on those cold winter days.
I think these scarves would also be great gifts for the holidays so I came up with an easy way to package them. The scarf fits perfectly in the clear stamp boxes that the PTI stamps come packaged in and I have a lot of them that I have saved from all the stamps I have been buying from them. I tied a piece of Sweet Blush Swiss Dots Satin Ribbon around the box and added a tag that I made with the Boxes Bags and Tags set. I plan on making more of these scarfs to sell in my Etsy shop. If you would like to buy one in the meantime let me know, I am happy to do custom orders. That's it for now I will be back tomorrow with another entry to share.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is my moms birthday. She is a very special person to me so I wanted to make her a special card and gift. This is what I came up with.
The card was inspired by this one. I loved how she created the tile border. She used stickers for her border but I used a stamp from the Papertrey Guidelines set for this one. I also used Mary Jo's Lunchtime sketch 37 again. I really like that sketch. This time I made the card 5.25x 5.25 though. The daisy is from the Papertrey Garden of Life Set. I stamped the daisy on SU Tempting Turquoise cardstock with Versarmark ink then I embossed it with white and yellow embossing powder. I used my circle Nestabilities to cut and emboss the circle. The square piece is SU Certainly Celery. The Happy Birthday To You saying is from the PTI Faux Ribbon set and was embossed with silver embossing powder on an piece of Tempting Turquoise that I cut out with my oval Nesties layering it on another oval using Certainly Celery.
My mother loves jewelery so when I saw this project Nicole Heady had on her blog I knew I wanted to make a bracelet like it for her.
I had never made jewelery before but luckily I was able to get Nicole to give me a list for the rest of the supplies and then found this video on Youtube showing me how to put it together. It turned out to be really easy to do and a lot of fun too. I will definitely be making more of these in the future.
For the box I started with a large hinged tin. and then made a piece of patterned paper the same way I did the daisy on the card. After that I cut it out to fit the top of the tin. I attached that piece and a piece of 1/4 grosgrain ribbon that I colored with a G24 Copic Sketch marker to match the certainly celery cardstock on the card. For the bottom panel I stamped the same stamp from the Guidelines set that I used on the card on PTI stampers select cardstock with Tempting Turquoise ink and then cut punched them out with a 3/4 square punch. After that I attached them to the bottom panel of the tin and trimmed them to fit. I sealed the pieces with some Modge Podge and to give them the look of real tiles. That's it. She didn't want to do anything special to celebrate the day even though I offered to make her dinner and lunch but she is on her way over to get the gift. I hope she likes it and the bracelet fits. That's it for now. I hope you have a great day. Thanks for stopping by.

Rail Fence Quilt

I saw a post last night on Michelle Woodersons blog about her taking her first quilting class. That post inspired me to write this one. I have been following Michelle's blog for awhile now and know she has been very inspired by the PTI Quilters Sampler stamp set to start quilting. In her post she asked other quilters to share their work. I have some quilting projects on my blog but I have never shared this one. I started working on this quilt when Emilia was 1. My MIL who is a very talented quilter and doll maker offered to teach my sister and I how to quilt back then. She started out teaching us how to hand piece the blocks. That turned out to be a very tedious process for both of us and because of that my sister and I both gave up after awhile. A few years later I decided I wanted to try quilting again but this time I decided to do it using a rotary cutter and machine piece it. By doing it this way I was able to piece the whole top together this time.
After I was done piecing the top together I decided I still wanted to hand quilt it. I have been working on hand quilting it on and off for years now. This summer I took a break from my knitting to devote more time to it and was actually able to make a lot of progress on it.
I am hoping that if I continue to work on it a little bit everyday it might actually get finished before Emilia is 18. Quilting is definitely not a quick process but one that I really love now. I hope this post inspires you to give quilting a try too.