Sewing is crafting too

I have been a busy bee today. I found 1 blog about sewing and altering t-shirts and all that good crafty stuff....and that led to another blog and another until I had added about 8 new sewing and altering clothing blogs to my blog reader. They all highly motivated me. So I got out the sewing machine (dusted it off, for shame) and have been going strong since this morning, with only short breaks for meals and laundry. ;)

I made 2 of these gathered clutches mostly because in my sewing/fabric stash I found a single quilt square that I must have been attempting a new style on(probably a decade ago). Cut in half it was the exact measurements for 2 clutches. Woo hoo! I just happen to know a mom who almost always says "Did you make me one?" Yes, mom I did. I am already using my clutch as a makeup bag in my purse. The finished size is 4.5x8.5 inches. The fantastic tutorial for this gathered clutch came from Noodleheads.blogspot.com 04-22-10 post. If you sew you really have to check her out, but be forewarned it is addictive!

This is my own design, maybe that's why it is so plain compared to the clutch. But I was in need of a new Ipod carrying bag and I had some scraps sitting on the table from the clutch. 1, 2, 3 and there I have it. It will be sturdy and functional, not exceptionally pretty but its cute enough.

Digging deeper into my fabric stash I found this gorgeous lightweight seersucker that was perfect for this adorable summer scarf I saw at dana-made-it.com 07-02-08 post. Her photos are much more beautiful then mine but I really love this red seersucker. I am going to enjoy this for a long time to come. I'm certain of it. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my excited rambling. I hope you get excited over a long lost love of some kind. Enjoy!

Congratulations card

This is a 4x9.25 sized card. It fits some envelopes I got at the craft store. My inspiration for the card came from aaronsbooth32.blogspot.com 05-08-10 post.

I used an old book page and the CTMH Miracle kit and D1350 Tender tags stamp set. I added a little glue and glitter to highlight the butterfly flight trail and the outer edges of the tag.

I added Pinc. candy dots and CTMH pearls for some added bling. I really like this card, I like its unique proportions. Enjoy!

Delft blue card

I love the simple elegance of this design. My inspiration came from stamptalkwithtosh.blogspot.com 05-06-10 post. The heart is a SU! stamp. I added lots of texture with a SU! edge punch and lines embossed using the scor-pal and swiss dot using an embossing folder and blue pearls. I think it adds a lot to a simple card. Enjoy!

For you cards

I was playing around with a card design inspiration from juliedavison.blogspot.com 04-10-10 post. I tried and tried but I didn't quite get the right look. Her example is much better. I love this CTMH Bella paper pack, and I had high hopes for these cards. I think the major problem is that I covered up too much of the only patterned paper on the card.

I played around with different coordinating ribbons too. The organza is my fave, mostly because it allows more of the patterned paper to peek through. I used white daisies and glimmer misted them to match the patterned paper, and layered them with a tiny white daisy and a miscellaneous brad. The lines texture on the green circle was created on my scor-pal. The dots on the yellow circle where a sizzix embossing folder.

I used a CTMH D1408 A little everything stamp for the tiny sentiment. I love Julie Davison example of textures and coordinating but varied colors. I hope you give this design idea a try, and learn from my mistake. Show more.... um, patterned paper that is. Enjoy!

Book mark with decorated book mark pocket

A mothers day tradition we have is a new book each mothers day. Not any book, only Mary Higgins Clark or Nicholas Sparks newest book.

When I give my mom a new book she always wants it signed with some sort of personalization. This time I decided to stamp the front page.

I also made a book mark to give with the book. It is a pocket and a pull out book mark. Very simple to make and a fun gift to give. The wonderful tutorial came from wizardshangout.blogspot.com her 3-24-10 post.

I used the CTMH Tickled pink paper pack and D1416 State of mind stamp set. I made the pink one for a good friend as well as the blue one for my mom. The sunshine sentiment on moms book mark is a throw back to her singing me "You are my sunshine" when I was a kid, and then I sang it to my boys. Such sweet memories.

Enjoy!

Happy Mothers Day

It's truly a Happy Mothers day. My mom survived breast cancer 7 years ago. She fought and kicked butt! She has talked a couple of times of wanting to document the battle, to put a few photos taken during that time with the thoughts and feelings. But time and life have prevented that from happening yet. Sooo....this mini album is for that purpose. It's small, its pretty, it has tags tucked inside of pocket pages so if some things she would rather keep private she can tuck them inside and only pull them out if she wants to. Her strength and her attitude helped overcome the cancer and it was the inspiration for this album.

I sprayed the flowers with glimmermist for extra shimmer.

The pocket pages, the decorative layers and the tags are all cut from the cricut. I used design studio and Plantin schoolbook cartridge to design this cut file. My original inspiration came from my old favorite followingthepapertrail.blogspot.com, but rather than cut these out manually I decided to have my trusty cricut take care of it for me.

Here is a detailed look at the tag pulled out from the pocket page. I copied following the paper trails idea to use flowers attached with brads as the tag pull. I added some small stamps as decoration. Keeping it simple so the pictures and the words can be the focus.




The overall size of the book is 6x6. The actual photo area size is about 4.5x4.5 on each side of the pocket. The tags have that same amount of space on the front and back sides, for photos or journaling.

The paper used for this mini book is CTMH Tickled Pink. My moms favorite color is blue, but every breast cancer survivor becomes very fond of pink also. This paper pack has some glitter and glam but it soft and feminine. I think it is perfect. I hope you love it Mom. I love you! Enjoy.

Mothers day sneak peek

I have been busy busy busy crafting away.....but I can't share any photos yet. My mom is my #1 fan here (and everywhere else in my life.) XOXO Love you mom! So I took some close up photos of a few details on one of the gifts. Just a teaser.

This photo doesn't really do this flower combination justice. It shimmers from pearl glimmermist. It's really pretty.

This is a new CTMH Petite perks, Dreams stamp set. I used it for small decorations that I sprinkled throughout the gift. I can't wait for you to see the whole project and the other coordinating presents. Check back tomorrow, I will post the rest of the photos. Have a happy and blessed mothers day. Enjoy!