Friday, February 16, 2007

Quilty stuff

It has been a really long time since I've been in my sewing room. I've been so tired after work and then get sucked into the internet and before I know it bedtime is here. Well I decided this week I would get back in there.

I joined the Stashbuster Yahoo! group last week and have been inspired to work on some UFO's. I wanted to get going on a quilt I started cutting fabrics for months ago, the Cinnamon O's pattern. I bought the fabrics for the quilt in a kit from the Fat Quarter Shop, a webstore I love to go to. Kimberly, the owner, has all kinds of fat quarter bundles of Moda and other manufacturers. It's a bit dangerous for me! I decided to make the quilt a bit smaller than the pattern calls for, since I prefer not to piece my backing, and like smaller quilts because they are easier to handle when quilting.

The kit included one fat quarter from each design of each colorway. There are five colorways in the Cinnamon Stars fabric line: red, aqua, light green, tan, and brown. I needed two 3.5 inch strips from each fat quarter, then cut into 3.5 inch squares. I finally finished cutting all my 3.5 inch squares tonight. I'm exhausted! Next I have to cut the 2 inch squares from the background fabric, which I got tons of. Looks like I will have a bunch left over. My wrist hurts from rotary cutting.

Hopefully I can cut the strips I need over the next week and get to piecing, which is ultimately more fun than cutting. Its a beautiful pattern and I can't wait to finish it to see how it comes out.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

More Fluffles to Love

Sometimes I think I may have a small case of obsessive compulsive disorder. In this case, I fell in love with Fluffles the Cat stamps, and now I have about 12 of the little guy stamps. He kinda looks like my cat Dexter!


I made this card for my mom for Valentine's Day, and used the Fishy Fluffles stamp. It is so cute. The card is made with Pretty in Pink cardstock and the scrapbook paper background I downloaded from CreativeDelights.com. They have lots of high quality image files of 12x12 backgrounds for use in scrapbooking, although my printer has to clip down to 8.5x11. I thought that the rosy pink color went well with the Pretty in Pink. I almost went with Regal Rose but there was not enough contrast I believe.

I stamped the image onto Whisper White and punched it out using the Marvy Mega Circle punch, and since I have had yet to get the Giga scallop circle, I used my new Coluzzle circle template to cut out the next biggest circle out of Pretty in Pink for a mat. I think I need to get the companion circle template because I'd rather there not be so wide of a mat. Can't wait to get my scallop punches! But I have to say, I was worried about being able to use the Coluzzle, but my goodness it was easier than I thought! Pretty cool tool.

After I colored in the image with So Saffron for Fluffles, Bordering Blue for the fish, and Pretty in Pink/Regal Rose for the hearts with the SU markers, I mounted it onto the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. I tied light pink SU grosgrain ribbon around the top of the card and for something extra added a little pewter brad heart in the lower corner. I have really taken a liking to the 4.25x5.5 cards that open at the top. A bit different from what I'm used to!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

My First Card on my Blog!


I've made quite a few cards over the past few months and posted them in my gallery on Splitcoast, but this is the first card I've posted on my blog! I started this blog mostly because I've been visiting other people's blogs who post regularly on Splitcoast, and wanted one of my own. I don't know why I haven't got around to posting a card on my own blog, probably because I haven't been stamping much lately. But after seeing blogs like Stampin' Mama, Taylored Expressions, Paper Trufflez, and Prairie Paper and Ink, I've finally decided to jump in. I am NO where near as talented or creative as these ladies, but they give me the inspiration and the motivation to at least do what I can. I learn a lot from their sites.

I fell in love with Fluffles the Cat from Stampendous, after seeing him pop up on the gallery at Splitcoast. I am a true cat lover, and this little guy is ADORABLE! I went nuts and bought this stamp along with about nine others, and hope to make more cards that feature him. I like this one the best, because I also like bees.

I used Whisper White cardstock and Basic Black ink for the stamped image, and punched it out with the Marvy Super Jumbo circle punch. I could have used the larger Mega circle punch, but SOMEHOW I managed to get a smudge of ink along the edge of the design after I had gone to the trouble of coloring it in with my markers. Sigh. So I punched a smaller circle clipping some of the design. Next time I will be more careful...lol

I mounted the circle onto Lavendar Lace cardstock and trimmed around with my pinking shears (I am lousy at using them). I cannot WAIT for the scallop circles and oval punches from Marvy to be available again. I cut a piece of Lavendar Lace cardstock 4.25" by 8.5" and folded it in half to make a 4.25" card. I then cut a 4" square piece of purple plaid scrapbook paper and plopped it onto the card front. I tied a piece of purple ribbon (from the Downtown collection by American Crafts) around the top of the card front, and added a bit of adhesive to keep it in place. Finally I attached the kitty circle with Stampin' Dimensionals (I love those little pop-dots!)

So there it is, my first blog card. Simple yes, but I like it! GO FLUFFLES GO!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

New Look

I decided to update my blog today. I got tired of the green swirly so I took a cue from blogs I visit regularly and decided to make my own header. Its a work in progress, but I kinda dig it! I switched templates to the minima Blogger template which is (as its name implies) very simple and minimalistic. It took some working to figure out where to edit the HTML so that the image I created plopped in the right place, and I had to adjust table widths so that everything would show up where it should. I may change the background color since white is SO white! We will see. I also changed my profile pic. Enough modifying for now. See ya!