Crafting Day

I had a few friends come and visit me last week. We had a good day together crafting despite the 6 kids who didn't want us to.

I recently purchased THIS BOOK. I LOVE this book. We decided to test out a few of the projects. The first was this candy wrapper pocket purse. We had no problem getting through all the candy (thank you Advent Calendar!). But I still have a LOT Of wrappers left and really need to make another purse to use them up, even though i would still have some left.
Here is my starburst purse. Bright colors and fun to zip. Ronin really loves it. All made with tape and staples. That's my kind of sewing!
Here is Natasha unwrapping our treats. 

Good 'ol Heath. She did really well keeping away from the treats. It could have been because I was eating them so fast she couldn't get her hands on any ; ) We also made bags from pillow covers.  Here is my bag. 

I used it as a springboard to start my Christmas gifts; Monogrammed card sets. Here is one of them... Looks a LOT like that bag. Kraft paper and Black ink. Easy Peasy!
Thanks for stopping by! And thanks to my friends for coming to visit. I loved having you. See you soon!!

k

Take-Off Tuesday #6

Happy Tuesday! This week, I picked Ronin's army jacket that I found hanging in the back of the closet this week. I have always loved this jacket, he's just so darn cute in it. 

As I watched him scurrying around in it today I was picking out the things that made me love the jacket so much. 

Some of those things I tried to incorporate into my card, as you can see:

I really love the shoulder tabs and definitely wanted one on there. Thats where the design began and then I added a pocket because I wanted a place for stars and a name. In retrospect I wish I would have done Pvt. Birthday Boy or something, but maybe that would have been weird for a kid.

I tried for the first time some sewing and let me tell you, it's not like making a quilt, no siree bob! You can see where the stitch didn't take at the corners and where I looked like I was sewing drunk, even though I wasn't. Promise!! I sponged the Kraft CS with Old Olive and Close to Cocoa ink to get it the color that dirty, camo color I wanted. 

All in all, I really dig this card and have saved the template for the next birthday boy.

See you next time and thanks for stopping by.

k

Deets:

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Houndstooth Backgrounder, Kim Hughes' "Making the Grade"for CHF (star, Boy), Papertrey Ink Birthday Basics

Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Plum Pudding, SU! Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa

Paper: PTI Kraft

Accessories: Antique Brads, Brown Button from stash, (a darn heavy) sewing machine 

Christmas Cheer

This isn't a crafty post, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite Christmas things. Here is a Nativity made from an olive tree, brought back from Israel. (My brother rocks!) I just absolutely adore it even if Mary looks like a man....

Hope your home is filled with peace and love this holiday season!

k

Take-Off Tuesday #5

This weeks Take-Off is from this magazine pic. Again, I don't remember the magazine I got it from, but I am in LOVE with this tree. I really want some of these in my house someday, but by the time that happens, I am sure I will have found another 10 things to be in love with. So instead, I made a card, which I am also in love with:I pretty much ripped off the placement and colors of the tree, but I feel I got a little creative... do you think?  I had some of this gold wire from my jewelry making days and thought it was so cute and of course in these times I feel it's important to use up what you have, so I coiled it around my finger and used it as "ribbon."

This brad was actually the first try for another Take off Tuesday creation but I felt it didn't go with the card it was intended for, but it works pretty good here. I punched a 3/8" circle of Summer Sunrise CS to accentuate it a bit.

So thats it for this week. Join me next time, cause you never know what your gonna get....

thanks for stopping by.

k

Deets:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Out on a Limb, Beautiful Blooms (sentiment), Kim Hughes Nature Silhouettes for CHF (butterflies)

Ink: SU! Pacific Blue, Pink Passion, Summer Sun, Palette Chartreuse, PTI Dark Chocolate, StazOn Jet Black
Paper: PTI Kraft, Stampers Select White, Summer Sunrise, SU! Baja Blue

Accessories: Gold Wire, Big Brad (white), Corner Rounder

Birthday Time

It's Patrick's birthday today! The big 35. It's all down hill from here right? I realized quickly that I am limited in my masculine card supplies. I dug around and found some Cosmo Cricket paper that worked well. It might be a little young, but I loved the beep*beep*beep* (like time is ticking) and the ABORT, WARNING images in the middle strip. Kind of perfect for an older birthday. I hope he likes it. Frankly, he won't even notice. Sometimes I wonder if he is tired of getting cards from me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop giving them! 

Anyway. Happy Birthday to the man of my dreams. I love you!

Deets:

Stamps: Inkadinkado Numbers

Ink: Chalk Box French Blue, SU! Basic Grey 

Paper: Cogsmo by Cosmo Cricket, PTI Stampers Select

Take-Off Tuesday #4

This weeks post comes from the Fall/Holiday Crate & Barrel Catalog. These really great embroidered towels reminded me of the white ink/chalk card I did a while back. I thought I would give it another go and make it very Thanksgiving-ish to help celebrate this week.

I started with stamping my wheat image from PTI's First Fruits set onto scrap paper and cutting it out creating a mask. I then stamped the middle image on my Dark Chocolate cardstock covered it with the mask and proceeded to stamp the wheat image twice on both sides. I pulled out my chalks for the surrounding images but left the center one white, like on the towels. I matted that image with some fall colored cardstock, SU!'s Pumpkin Pie and PTI's Summer Sunrise. I love this velvet American Craft RicRac ribbon. It helped add some depth. 

And that's it. Have a spectacular Thanksgiving holiday. I will be back next week after a week in the sun of the Carribean!!! 

Until then, I hope you find more in life that inspires you.

k

Deets:

Stamps: PTI First Fruits

Ink: SU! White Craft, PTI Dark Chocolate

Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate, Stampers Select White, Summer Sunrise, SU! Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: American Craft Ribbon, All Night Media Autumn Blending Chalks, Gold Eyelets

Do you wonder why...

I'm not crafting???

Here is my designated "craft space" in the house. I have been upgraded to the office from my original spot which was in the garage. Patrick decided it was going to be too cold in the winter to craft there. But now that I have moved, or should I say, semi-unpacked, I have also been informed that I must keep my space clean, tidy and "non-craft looking." Hmmm. I wonder how on earth I am to do that. Plus any storage devices I use must look like actual furniture which means no cardboard boxes, or bags and the usual that clutters my office space. Now, if you have been storage shopping in the last little bit, you know that there is NOTHING out there furniture wise that is cheap. So needless to say Patrick has an ultimatum. Either cheap plastic rolling storage, or work extra hours so I can buy the expensive stuff. Since he is on salary, I can guess I know what he will say. I think a trip to The Container Store is in order. I really need some containment. 

As you can see, it is a long way from perfect, but trust me when I say that this picture is an improvement. I got so overwhelmed that I thought I would blog about it for a bit. In fact I have been stepping over these boxes for two days now unable to finish up the tiding. Mostly because it requires me to put forth A LOT of brain power as to where and how I will store all of it, along with shedding some of the unwanted goods. And really, I have a hard time saying no to any craft goods, even if they have gone unused for a year. I hope to pull myself into gear and get this thing done tonight. Patrick is out of town tomorrow, so I need to get cleaned up quick and get some crafting in before he comes home. I have some early Christmas gifts that need to be finished by sunday, so come on baby! I gots to get movin'!

happy crafting everyone!

k