Marilyn's Book

I decided that on my latest trip home to England, I'd make my cousin Marilyn a book.  She crafts as well as sews.  She is a seamstress extraordinaire.  I showed it first to her mother, and her reaction was what I had hoped, and knew that her daughter would have a similar reaction. Below is the book.

The Box

Back Page

Page 15 A creative mess is better than tidy idleness

Page 14 Behind every sewer is a huge pile of fabric

Page 13 There is no such thing as screw-ups in sewing. There's only design opportunities.

Page 12 Sewing and crafts fill my days.... not to mention the living room, bedroom and closet

Page 11 Dull women have neat sewing rooms

Page 10

Page 9 Never let a sewing machine know you are in a hurry

Page 8 Sewing forever, housework whenever

Page 7

Page 6 Memories are stitched with love

Page 5 Love is the thread that binds us

Page 4

Page 3 Just as cute as a button

Page 2 Friendships are sewn one stitch at a time

Front Page

 

Woo Hoo!

I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago, about the 4 blogs that I own.  I have a general life one, a dating one, a card one, and a scrapbook one.  I also used to have another one where I sold cards that I made, but I deleted that one a while ago.  I was saying that it sometimes becomes crazy trying to keep them up, only to not post in months on one or the others.

So imagine my joy just a few minutes ago, when I googled, "How do I merge my blogs?" and it came up with a simple answer!

So now my general and dating ones are merged and my card and scrapbook ones are merged also. Now if you are interested in my general life stuff, you also get to read about my dating life! (Well you would if there was one!)  And now my craft stuff is altogether, as it should be.

So go ahead, check out my blogs.

Flashback Friday

I am adding this card here, to participate in a Flashback Friday challenge. The challenge is to post the first wedding card you made.  Well I have made a few, but I think this is the first one that I photographed.  I didn't post it here at the time as it is for my secret pal, who I have been sending cards to for the past few months.  If she sees it now, she will know it is me!

Anyway, this card was made in November 2010.  I used the "Stretch You Imagination" Cricut Cartridge.

 

There is another one that I made in 2009, but I only have this picture of it, and it is a copy of the original wedding card, but sent as an anniversary card.

My first class ever!

Today I tried out a class at Bizzy B.  It was Glazed Metal Effects by Jenn Starr.  The day started out well with getting my choice of colour on the canvas, but then I had to emboss so much tin that my hands and shoulders hurt!!
After a very long time I finished and began inking up a storm.  Unfortunately I felt as though I had no idea what I was doing, but in the end it all turned out.  No one finished the project, so I didn't feel too bad.  Later, at home in the evening, I decided to see if I could get one canvas done.  I didn't like the colours I chose on my metal, so I used some alcohol inks and they turned out wonderful.
Here are the finished products, however, the blue one feels unfinished, so hopefully I will figure that out soon.
Enjoy.

 This one is Jenn Starr's creations.

 This is my first one, it says Dream.

The blue on says Live and Love.

The blue one feels a little disconnected somehow.
Let me know what you think.

Sadness

I have sent a few sympathy cards recently, starting with my newly found distant cousin.  She contacted me saying she thought we were related, and I eventually met her on one of my trips home.  There was a message on Chris's Facebook page one day saying she had died.  I was shocked!  I later heard it was very sudden and unexpected, but she passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Then last weekend I found out again, through Facebook that my friend's brother David had died suddenly.  It was a tragic death that has left his family heart broken.

I made this card for David from an idea I saw on Kristina Werner's blog. I will be seeing my friend tomorrow, we will cry some tears I am sure.

Paper Bag Baby Album

I have made lots of these albums in the past year.  Lots of babies being born.  So I thought I'd try to take photos of the process.

I begin with taking 8 paper bags and cutting them down and adhering them together.

Then I usually ink the edges of each page.

 

Then I choose the papers that I will use in the book.  This time the recipient doesn't know if it is a girl or a boy, which makes it a little more difficult for me.  This is the first time I haven't used "baby" papers.

I adhere these papers to the pages.

 

I cut out two pieces of card that is firm enough for the front and back cover.  I cover both sides of the front and the back.

Here I have only covered one side.  Next I decide what colour cardstock I will use as mats for the photos and journaling.  I also pull out lots of embellishments. I start to put the pages together.

The inside of the front cover

On the next page a tiny pocket with a tag

There is a pocket between these 2 pages that hold 2 large tags

In the tiny pocket I cut a window to see the tag within

This is the inside of the back page

Here you can see that within each paper bag there are large tags to add more photos

The final step is to attach the front and back cover with a coordinating piece of paper

The completed album.  Well except to the front cover title and embellishments.  That will be done over the weekend.

First post for 2011

I can't believe that it's been months since I had something to share!  I have been making cards and sharing ideas with friends, but not a whole heck of a lot!

I discovered Custom Crops through Robyn's site, My Pink Stamper, and they have had some amazing deals lately, and with the Canadian Dollar doing so well, I don't mind ordering from the USA.  So I have ordered a few Cricut cartridges from them while they had their sale on.  My latest one is From My Kitchen.  I have always loved the images, but it has never been on sale before.  Guess how much?  $23.  Yes that is all.  Here in Canada you would be looking at least $70.  So I have been cutting away this weekend in preparation from a project at school.

We have a snack program that supplies kids with 2 food groups each morning, veggies and crackers, salsa and nachos, yogurt and fruit, muffins and milk, etc.  We have a kitchen  that also provides a hot lunch for $3.  The kids are sent home each month with a snack envelope in hopes that parents will donate about $5 per child.  We are a small inner city school of less than 200 kids.  We have been averaging about 10 - 15 kids bringing donations.  The snack program is in jeopardy, so we need to encourage parents to scrape together a few dollars to help out.  So my idea is to have a poster in the front hall, where the parents come in, and show them photos of the foods that are served for snack, and some info on the cost of such snacks and the benefit of a healthy start to the day.

These are the cuts I have made so far, and I will be adding some veggies and words.

If you know of any company or individual who might be able to make a donation to help keep our snack program up and running please leave me a comment on how I can contact them.

Thanks for looking!

Out of Commision.....sort of

I had surgery last month to repair a torn rotator cuff.  The recovery is long ans painful with pain meds and lots of physiotherapy.

I really wanted to get my holiday cards made for the kids and staff at school, but as I am not allowed any resistance on my arm, that means I can't even fold a piece of card stock in half!  So instead I put my Cricut to use and made tags instead.

 I know they will understand why they will not be getting the usual fancy gifts this year.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I am recovering from surgery that repaired my torn rotator cuff.  I am taking some time off to help with the recovery.  I thought I could catch up on cards, albums and scrapbook pages, but alas, no.  I had more pain than I had anticipated, so although I have managed a few easy card ideas, I will not be able to do all that I wanted.

My friend Kietha shared an idea for a mini album, it was so lovely, and I had an idea immediately, so I had to give it a go.  It was pretty easy to put together, and I didn't use as many embellishments as I usually do.  So here is Thomas through the years at Christmas...

 

I did manage to make tags for the kids and staff at school instead of cards.  These were pretty easy, as I just used my Cricut machine to do all the cutting so I only had to assemble them.

 The cute reindeer with the red nose are for the kids, and the other reindeer are for the staff.

I wanted to add something different to my Holiday Decorating this year, so I put mt Cricut to use and came up with this idea.

I have a JOY one as well, but I am in the process of redoing the embellishments as I really didn't like the way they looked.

Now I am working on my annual newsletter that I send out to family and friends all over the world.  My challenge is to edit it more so that it goes from 6 pages without photos to 4 pages with them!