HW - Batty

While I was using my Distressed Inks I decided there needed to be one with watercolor so what better way then to do a smoosh card.

I stamped the little bats and then using QK die cut the larger bats, added some sequins and stamped a sentiment.

I also wanted to share with you a card that well is kind of a fail. Why is it a fail you might ask? Well for one I wanted to use my inks to color the background and that was all said and good and thought I would then stamp this spooky image on top, what happened is somehow my ink smeared from the stamp so I just started swirling it all over which gave the whole card kind of a washed out faded look. It's different I will give you that and also not happy with the weight of the vellum but it's a done deal and just wanted to show you that not everything turns out perfectly.

HW - Got Treats

Well I don't know about you but frankly I do not know where August went, I am completely dumb founded because I feel like I lost an entire month somewhere.

I found myself with some free time and figured it was probably a good idea to start some Halloween cards because the last thing I need is to turn around and find out Halloween is here and I have zero cards prepared.

To be honest I have decided to try and not buy any more pp and try to use up what I have on hand. So this is an older Belva Blvd line, funny thing is it's the same line they used for their fabric that I bought to make my dd her HW quilt.  The cute little ghost is from Papertrey Ink.

HW - Scene It

I have been noticing a lot of cards lately that are pretty much a mini scene and really like they way they look. I decided it was my time to attempt one, not as good as what I have seen but hey it's my first time.

I used Tim Holtz Distressed Inks to create a setting sun look, die cut the grave yard from Memory Box, then stamped my Kraftin Kimmie witch, colored it with copics and yes ladies I fuss cut it..I decision I kind of having second thoughts about as I was doing it. The moon and clouds are from Papertrey Ink as well as the sentiment . 

And there you have it my first attempt at creating a scene.

Are you a Star Wars fan?

I have been prepping myself to start selling some skirts on etsy. My hope is to help supplement my income as my full time job gets weaned down to half time by spring of next year and then eventually I get laid off in July unless something turns up before then.

In the meantime, I have been fantasizing about not returning to work. I will get severance and I figure if I am budget conscious I can make that work for awhile but then what? Hopefully I will have something more concrete by then but in the meantime I want to see if I can get arts and crafts to help me stretch my severance even further.

One of the skirts I have to offer so far is this fun little Star Wars skirt. I am a sucker for Star Wars and honestly it can be hard to use some of these larger patterns but this one just struck me too much not to use it.

I hadn't planned on adding the piping but once I saw how much better it would be you know it had to go on. This was also the first time making this skirt pattern and I have grown much wiser since and made some adjustments for my needs.

There are lots of little details added, like the double top stitching for the hem line, the piping, non-roll elastic and serged seams. Hopefully someone will want it.

Are you a Star Wars fan and even more importantly did you know that Disney will be adding a new "land" to their theme parks? Very exciting news for me.

Sew Happy Kind of Weekend

What do you do when the weather is Hot, Hot, Hot? You stay inside with the a/c cranked up and sew. Well at least that's what I did this past weekend, along with hosting my youngest grandson's birthday party. Can't believe the little guy is 3. He constantly cracks me up with all his facial expressions and "Oh, Oh Ohs"

And bad grandmother that I am, I didn't take one picture. I can't believe it. So bad. Oh well.

One of the things I made this weekend for the grandbabies were "jammy" pants, superhero themed of course.

I have to say these are about the easiest things one can make. You only have to cut out 1 pattern (fabric folded in two of course) then sew each of the pant legs, then sew the two pant legs together, hem and add a waistband. I was going to add on some twill tape but got lazy and just encased the elastic waistband instead. I think all said I cranked out all four of these in about an hour. Easy peasy.

Lovely, Lovely

 Getting my thank you and birthday cards ramped up as fall and spring seem to be the most popular.

 

I think everything except that little banner is from Papertrey Ink. Oh and I did use a little stickles to give the flowers just a little bling factor.  

 

Polka Dots

I am not sure why but when I first saw this die I imagined colorful polka dots, in fact looking at this now it reminds me of those pastel sprinkle used for cake decorating.

 

The die is from Papertrey Ink, the stitched rectangle die and Happy Birthday stamp is from Simon Says Stamp and the pp is from Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine paper pad. The little epoxy hearts are from my long time stash but are from K&Company.

 



Reversible Tote Bags

Well back to sewing and this time I made some birthday gifts for my co-workers.

I am in love with this fabric from Hawthorne Threads called Fawn. As soon as I saw it I knew I needed to make something with it, but not another quilt..LOL I had a pattern for this backyard garden bag from Cloud 9 so it was a pretty easy decision that I would just use that yummy Fawn fabric for these fun looking bags.

Here is my first bag, not knowing how the whole thing was going to go together it was a bit of trial and error. I will say the heft and feel of these bags is very professional. Each panel has interfacing to give it some stiffness and because it's lined it's like double stiffness and then the fabric itself is just luxurious feeling even for cotton, which is the best thing of all you can wash these.

 

It's nice it has a bit of contrast on the sides

 

And here is the inside of the bag

 

And reversed it looks like a completely different bag.

Bag Number Two. This time I was a little smarter about those handles but I hadn't thought about the reversible bag material so it looks pretty much like Bag Number One

I really love this pattern.

 

And some of the contrast

 

And here it is reversed.

 

I have to confess the inside just isn't very interesting.

 

Bag Number Three, finally I get it and made the material inside completely different from the outside. So in hindsight I should have just used that matching contrast from inside Bag 1 on the inside of Bag 2 and vice versa so there would be contrast instead of completely matching it. But silly me thought of it as lining more so than using it as a reversible bag.

 

And the trio all ready to be wrapped and gifted. The first birthday is at the end of the month and honestly I hope the gift goes over well.

 

On The Road Again

This is my last moving card I made for my mom. I hemmed and hawed over this adorable car/trailer stamp set from Papertrey Ink and I finally caved. I am also loving these circle-scapes. I purchased their Christmas Tinsel & Tags kit last year which came with some of these and then they came out with additional scenes that can be used together so I opted to buy a few more.

I have a friend who has a trailer so I can't wait to make him a card with this stamp set.