August Card Club

 August's card club was all about the new Stampin' Up set called Hot Diggity Dog and using the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

 Here's the cards we made this month..

Made using:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Soft Suede cardstock
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink
• Coastal Cabana Blendabilities
• Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities
• Label Card Thinlit
• Hardwood Stamp

 This was a simple technique to use but it makes a really cool looking little card, reminds me of the slinky dog from Toy Story.

Made using:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Early Espresso ink
• Early Espresso Marvellous Marker

Made using:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Early Espresso ink
• Window Frames Framelits
• Calypso Coral cardstock
• Brushed Gold cardstock
• Itty Bitty Accents Punch

Made using:

• Very Vanilla cardstock
• Early Espresso cardstock
• Crumb Cookie cardstock
• Coastal Cabana Blendabilities
• Daffodil Delight Blendabilities
• Modern Label Punch
• Word Window Punch
• Ovals Collection Framelits

... And of course we got our free gift for going to card club, this month was a notepad made using some of the new photopolymer stamps.

July Card Club

 So I missed July's card club, work got in the way and I left work long after card club started....so I collected all the bits I missed and made up the cards the other week during a crafty evening after a 4 mile dog walk.

Here's the cards from July's card club...

 This card used:

• Elegant Eggplant cardstock
• Elegant Eggplant ink pad
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Coastal Cabana Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment

This card used:

• Hello Darling Stamp Set
• Tag Topper punch
• Itty Bitty Accents Punch
• Hello Honey cardstock
• Hello Honey stitched satin
• Pearl Basic jewels
• Old Olive ink pad

This card used:

• Hello Darling stamp set
• Coastal Cabana Thick Bakers Twine
• Very Vintage Designer Buttons
• 2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack
•  Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Coastal Cabana Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment
• Pool Party embossing powder

This card used:

• Hello Darling stamp set
• Ovals Collection Framelits Dies
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment
• Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment
• Versamark pad
• Sketched Birthday stamp set
• Bitty Banners framelits
• Lovely Lace embossing folder
• Cherry Cobbler cardstock

At least I'll be making it to August's card club in August!

 

Sewing Machine Pin Cushion

Using my rest days to start making some of the things I've had pinned on my pinterest boards for ages... I started a rather pesky sewing project and had pins everywhere when I suddenly remembered I had pinned a tutorial for making a sewing machine pin cushion to save the hassle of pins going everywhere. The tutorial can be found here.

Now I've got this nifty little pin cushion and I'm using it I really don't know how I managed so many sewing projects without it. Certainly wouldn't have finished some of my recent projects without having my pins to hand as easily, grabbing off the desk isn't ideal when you're trying to hold a seam together and just need that one extra pin while the fabric's going through the machine.

Quick and easy to make but oh so very useful, could have stuffed it with wire wool instead of cotton wool then it would have kept my pins sharp too but oh well. Just held on by a bow tied in the ribbon so I can move it round to the back of the machine or remove it if need be.  

Chalkboard Makeover

 Sorry if you're all bored of seeing things I've made and upcycled for my newly decorated study..but here's another thing I've made...

I started off with a cheap, simple, plain wooden frame chalkboard.

  Then I painted it turquoise using the tester pot paint from the feature wall that I thought I wanted originally but changed my mind when I tested it on the wall. I found some turquoise stick on pearls during my tidy up so I decided to decorate 2 corners using 14 of the pearls. The dark blue butterflies were leftovers from a fascinator I did for a friend years ago. Most oif the things I've done for my study have had some darker blue on them so the butterflies help the chalkboard blend in with the rest of the room.

The finished chalkboard now hangs on the wall next to my desk so I chalk up reminders for myself. Love a quick, easy upcycle project...wondering what I can paint up next!

A Little Late....Christmas Bakes

 Sitting watching The Great British Bake Off and I've realised that I never shared the photos of my christmas bakes from 2013....so a fair few months behind but better late than never.

After 2012's cake decorating class I decided to be brave and go it alone. The side was done using a miniature snowflake rolling pin on the icing. Stars punched out of icing and snowballs rolled. The penguins took a fair bit of work as making icing black is not as easy as I expected it to be. I then handpainted the merry christmas sentiment using red food colouring gel. A lovely boozy cake, marzipan hidden under the icing and it lasted us for weeks.

  I then had a crack at Paul Hollywood's mince pie recipe and decided to make the lids star shaped. A little tricky to bake as each star top cooked at a different speed. An awful lot of these mince pies were made and eaten over christmas, almost every family member and friend that we saw over christmas has a few of these too.

Now to up the scale and design for 2014's christmas bakes!

Photo Frame Makeover

 In the Hobbycraft sale I found a half price frame (the same as the one pictured below) but it was a little worse for wear. It had chunks of paint missing and the acetate photo cover was scratched beyond use. I had to get the stock photo from the Hobbycraft website as I forgot to take one before I went about spraying the frame up.

 I decided the frame would be going in my newly decorated study so that was the perfect excuse to respray it blue. I chose the blue paint that I have already used on a couple of items in the study so that it blends nicely. After the paint had dried I went about scuffing the paint with a piece of white scotchbright to give the frame a bit of a shabby chic look to it. I also replaced the acetate photo cover for a new piece of acetate.

 Now all I need to do is pick a photo to put in the frame!

Baby Gift Set Orders

 It seems like everyone is having children this year, I seem to be making an awful lot of baby cards, bibs and burp cloths. Surprisingly a lot of people appear to be choosing to not find out the baby's gender either so I've been left the challenge of trying to find gender neutral baby fabrics to make bibs and burp cloths from.

 The most recent order was for 2 bib and burp cloth sets, 1 for a little girl and the other for a surprise. 

I started with the little girl set as I had some awesome pale pink cupcake fabric in my fabric stash that I've been dying to find a good use for. So for the gift set I made a burp cloth, normal style bib and a bandana bib.

 For the surprise gender baby set I used a polka dot fabric that isn't too boyish for a little girl... in fact this was the colourscheme of my bedroom when i was a little kid. Once again it's a burp cloth, normal style bib and a bandana bib.

 The burp cloths have all got one of my newly printed fabric labels sewn onto one of the front corners. I thought sewing them onto the bibs as well would have been a bit overkill as it's obvious they are a set so only one label is really required.

 These burp cloths are for another gender surprise baby order but I thought I'd use the photo of them to show the labels sewn onto them...and show off my favourite gender neutral fabric I've found, the animal train fabric is so cute, but it's also a tad pricey so I'm not using it too often.

So that's one happy customer and hopefully in the next couple of months when the babies arrive it will be happy recipients of the gift sets too.