Stamps and Stitches

My Memories Suite Giveaway!

2012-05-16T04:08:00.000-04:00

This is a sponsored giveaway by My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software.

I've recently had the opportunity to try out this amazing program and I love it so far! Even though I am primarily a paper scrapper, I've been moving to some digital because of the ease of storage. Now that I've tried this, I can add ease of creating a page. It was so nice to "audition" different embellishments and papers and to be able to resize my pictures as I went. With both of these pages I did a lot of resizing after I had almost finished the page, so if I had been doing them with paper, I would have had to just settle for the sizes I had or reprint. This was a lot better. Even if I wanted to do a paper page, the My Memories Suite would be great to preplan my layout before committing it to paper and scissors and glue.

Here are the two pages I've made so far. The first uses all items that are included in the software. The second uses some digital papers and elements I already owned (all by Crystal Wilkerson). I love that I have so many options.
Now you can win your own copy of this great digital scrapbooking software! To enter, just do one or more of the following:

entry 1: go to the My Memories website and under "themes", take a look at what they have to offer, and leave a comment telling me your favorite item.

entry 2: join the My Memories mailing list by signing up at their website or their blog. Leave a comment telling me you signed up.

entry 3: go to the My Memories facebook page and click on "like". Leave another comment telling me you liked them.

entry 4: follow My Memories on Twitter. Then leave another comment telling me you are following them on twitter.

and that's it! I will use random.org to choose a name in a week. Please be sure to provide a way for me to get in touch with you if your email isn't in your profile.

If you just can't wait and you'd like to buy the software, just go to My Memories and use code STMMMS43379 to get $10 off the price of the My Memories Suite V3 PLUS $10 off in the My Memories store!.

The baby quilt is done! Plus a fishy toy

2012-05-10T03:38:00.003-04:00

I finished the quilt for my daughter's speech therapist. We gave it to her today, and she loved it! It even inspired her to try quilting. She doesn't sew but she has a sewing machine and wants to learn to use it. So Samantha will have a different speech therapist next year, since her current one will be taking a year off to stay home with her baby. Sammy's a little sad about that. But on to the quilt. The pictures were a little tough to get-it was windy outside and I was determined to get outside pictures since the light is so much better.

the front (side note-I LOVED doing the bias binding and rounded corners):
the pieced back:
closeup of the label (I blurred out our last name). My daughter wrote out the label and then sewed some of it:
And here's a little sleepy fish toy I made at the last minute-I found the pattern on the moda bake shop HERE. I did a few things differently. I opted to use a blue/green color palette instead of making it as colorful as the tutorial shows. I omitted the ribbons since I wasn't sure if the ribbon I have would survive multiple washings. I used a snap (the kind used on baby clothes-very secure) instead of the velcro, and I machine sewed the opening shut. I wasn't sure my hand stitching would be secure enough. I used some packaging from a scrapbook album for the cellophane and I bought a set of washable wrist rattles and cut the rattle out of one of them to use inside the fish's body. I put it through the wash and a hot dryer before giving it to make sure it would survive both.
And here they are, all wrapped up and ready to give:

The fabric is Scoot from Riley Blake.

Cards & Things Sketch Challenge #119

2012-05-09T19:34:00.000-04:00

I made this for the Cards & Things Sketch Challenge. I got the idea for the rest of it on the way home from dropping my kids off at the library. I'm trying to do more challenges, so if anyone knows of any other favorite challenge blogs, please feel free to leave a comment with a link. I started off using Make-the-Cut. I used the Mahalo set from Lettering Delights to make the coconut drink. When I make a shape to go on a card, I make a card-sized rectangle in Make-the-Cut first and then I can resize the shape to the right size for the card front. Then I just delete the rectangle or turn off that layer when I cut. For the letters I used a font called Grilled Cheese. I added the letters to the mat, then I used the bezier warp thing to make them curve the way I wanted them. This was done mostly through trial and error since I don't really know how all the controls on the bezier warp thing works. I added some tiny rectangles to some letters and used boolean join so that I wouldn't have to deal with putting the center parts on separately, but I made a couple of them too small and had to deal with it anyway. Once I got the word all done and sized, I found that the lines on the virtual mat in Make-the-Cut don't match up with the lines on my silhouette mat. So I exported the svg and opened it up in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition to do the cutting-it was a little easier to make sure the text was in the right spot for my card front. Before I cut, I did a test sketch on some white paper to make sure I had it in the right spot. The card stock is all from Stampin' Up and Bazzill. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen to make a little shiny spot on the cherry. The bottom border was done with a Martha Stewart border punch. I made the blue card base about an inch short on the front, then I added the orange card stock (after punching the border) so that it could be seen through the cut-out letters and on the bottom. I could have sworn I had it centered when I punched it but maybe that punch doesn't center as easily as my other ones do. Or maybe I just messed up.

Baby Boy Quilt Progress

2012-05-05T01:22:00.000-04:00

I decided to play with instagram a little and this pic is kind of blurry but that's ok. It's artsy. Yep, that's it. Artsy. So I have this much done on the baby boy quilt. I channel quilted it with lines about 2" apart and the only thing left is to cut and apply the binding and the label. I'm going to round the corners (hence the plate sitting there) and use bias binding. My daughter will write out the label and I'll print it onto photo fabric and we'll sew it on the back and it'll be ready. Her last session with her speech therapist (the quilt is for her baby, due in August) is May 16th but things happen so the goal is to get it to her on the 9th.

Resist Emboss Technique Challenge

2012-05-02T19:49:00.000-04:00

I made this card in response to the technique challenge at Patty's Stampin' Spot. I don't do cards like this often and to be honest, I'm not so sure how much I like this one, but here it is anyway. I used the Stampin' Up Upsy Daisy set and stamped it with black pigment ink and clear embossed. Then I sponged ink on it (Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Cool Caribbean). The sentiment is from the same set, stamped and inked with Not Quite Navy ink and punched with a tag punch. The patterned paper is from a couple of Stampin' Up mini paper packs. The sun is punched from Summer Sun card stock. The sun was my son's idea-I wasn't happy with the card and he thought maybe it needed a sun. It does look better with the sun.

Zebra wallet...from a bandanna!

2012-04-27T02:33:00.000-04:00

My daughter bought a pink and zebra print purse and wanted a wallet to match. I went through my stash and surprise, surprise, I did not have any zebra print fabric. I think I have every other print but that one. Then I remembered-a few months ago I bought a zebra print bandanna for my oldest daughter and she never even touched it. Perfect! I took the bandanna and a solid pink fat quarter, added some craft fuse interfacing, a snap instead of velcro, a zipper and a pattern, and ended up with this (shown here with the purse):

The pattern is called the Whimsy Wallet from This & That Patterns and I'll admit-it was just ok to make. I don't know if I would make it again or maybe I'd do a few things differently. Here is another picture that shows the wallet more close-up (those are my flowerpots in the background-the red one with the white dots looks like a giant mug and I LOVE it. I got it from Joann's.):

And the inside with the gift card pockets (she has no credit cards, of course) and the zipper pocket.
She is thrilled with it.

More progress on that baby quilt

2012-04-23T00:55:00.001-04:00

Here is the baby quilt update with the sashing and borders on. I took this with my phone so the quality is so-so. It also looks kind of funky because you can see through it and it makes it look like this is the wrong side, but I swear-it isn't.

Baby boy quilt in progress

2012-04-22T02:35:00.002-04:00

I found out recently that my daughter's speech therapist is expecting so I decided it would be a good opportunity to make something. So I found out she's having a boy, searched my stash, and wouldn't you know-everything I own is girly. Well almost everything. In the interest of saving time (her last speech session before her ST quits for the year is mid-May) I got a Riley Blake stacker (like a Moda layer cake) and some yardage, found a couple of moda bake shop tutorials I liked, which I will link at the end of this post, and modified them to fit what I wanted. So here it is so far-I laid it out on the floor to figure out how to arrange the blocks and took a picture with my phone. This is before adding sashing and borders and before rotating some blocks. I accidentally put 3 blocks with the same print in the top row. UGH. Oh well, too late since I noticed it after sewing that row together. and those tutorials (shift-click to open them in a new window)
Building Blocks Baby Quilt
Boxed In Quilt

I will post more pics as I get more done. I have the top all sewed. Just need to sandwich it and quilt it. The two things that are the biggest pain for me.

Another new family member

2012-03-31T03:48:00.003-04:00

Seems like I'm posting more about life than crafts lately. I have made something, but I've been lazy about getting pictures taken. I'll try to get that done in the next day or so. But in the meantime, meet "One Last Te Time" aka Hank. He's a 4 year old quarter horse gelding that we bought for Jenny to ride for lessons. He's technically "our" horse but Jenny is the one that will be riding and caring for him the most. He'll be boarded at her riding instructor's barn. She is in love.

Meet Phineas

2012-02-17T04:05:00.005-05:00

This is Phineas. Someone threw him away (dumped him in front of our house) but we are letting him stay, with free room and board, for as long as he wants to. He's about 4 months old and so affectionate, but still pretty skittish.

He's had his first vet visit and shots and an appointment to be neutered. He has a heated house to sleep in and the best food we can find (blue buffalo). He is so cute. I don't get how people can just dump their animals like this.

I'm visiting...

2012-02-07T03:23:00.003-05:00

Today I'm really excited to be a guest blogger at my friend Jin's blog: Under a Cherry Tree! Please head over there and take a look at the project I made with the Silhouette SD and Make-the-Cut.

While you're there, be sure to look at some of Jin's projects. She does some amazing and magical things with her cutting machine.

Boxy Stars # 2

2012-01-19T02:47:00.004-05:00

I made a different boxy stars quilt a while back-it's still just a top and not quilted yet. So my friend Melissa asked me to make her one too. In exchange she sent me some cool crocheted things (see her etsy store link at the end of this post). So anyway it took me forEVER to get this done. I guess it was just a bad year for me and sewing because I didn't get much of anything done in my sewing room. But I finally did finish it and thankfully she was very patient with me and once she finally got it, she loved it. So here are the pics, complete with a model:

And a closeup of the label:

The print fabric is all from the Moda Bliss line and the brown is Chocolate Kona Cotton. I tried doing a bias binding this time and it was unbelievable how much easier it was to miter the corners. I've done bias binding on stockings and other curvy projects before but it never occurred to me to use it on straight sided quilts. I brushed up on my bias binding knowledge at Jaybird Quilts. I used my Big Shot Pro with my Go dies to cut all of the strips (and this quilt is made of all strips and blocks 2.5" wide) so other than cross-cuts, I didn't do much hand cutting at all. Nice.

The pattern for this quilt block is HERE.

And as promised: Melissa's Etsy Shop

Sprocket Pillow

2012-01-14T03:23:00.002-05:00

On the 23rd of December I suddenly decided to make my mother-in-law a pillow. I think mostly I was just in the mood for a quick easy project since I'd been working on a bigger one for so long (which is also done and will be posted in a few days after the recipient receives it). So I found this tutorial and it literally took me a few hours to get this done. I worked on it for a couple of hours on the night of the 23rd and a couple of hours on the afternoon of the 24th and it was so easy. The hardest part was finding my bag of poly fil.

Click here for the tutorial (shift click to open in a new window)

I used 30's fabrics from my stash and a big giant button from Stampin' Up.

2011 Christmas Cards

2012-01-02T03:17:00.005-05:00

Yep it's been a while. So anyway, these are the cards I made for Christmas this year.

This first one I made with a freebie file from the Silhouette store. I used my new favorite embossing folder, which is the stars & swirls from Sizzix. The baker's twine is Martha Stewart brand, the white card stock is Neenah and the red card stock and green patterned paper are both from Stampin' Up.

The next one was made with a file from Lettering Delights and cut out with the Silhouette SD. The embossing folder is from the evil Provo Craft. White card stock is Neenah and the rest of the card stock and the patterned paper is from Stampin' Up.

This is almost all from Stampin' Up. The off white card stock is Bazzill, the border punch is Martha Stewart and the baker's twine is Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I cased this card from Wrestlermomx2 on Split Coast Stampers. Thanks Wrestlermomx2!

This is a card I made to hold a gift card for my nephew. I used a tutorial from Jennifer McGuire. White card stock is Paper Trey Ink and colored card stock and stamp from Stampin' Up. I'm not sure about the patterned paper. The inside card stock is Bazzill. The image is stamped with memento ink and colored with copic markers. The inside scallop is from a Stampin' Up punch and the outside shapes were cut with nestabilities.

pin-up girl

2011-08-23T04:45:00.003-04:00

My dad is currently in the hospital and his birthday is this Saturday. I made this card and am hoping it cheers him up.

digital image: ginger beer from blue butterfly stamps
markers: copic
cardstock: stampin' up (blue and red) and paper trey ink (white)
patterned paper: stampin' up
border punch: ek success
greeting punch: stampin' up
greeting: close to my heart
brown ink: stampin' up
round clip: unknown
glitter: stickles
sewing machine

Quick and easy headband tutorial

2011-08-06T02:04:00.006-04:00

This is the easiest headband ever, both to make and to use. No ties to worry about and they are comfy. I needed to make one for my daughter to use for dance so I thought I'd take pictures of the process and share how I did it. There are tutorials all over the web for making these so they might differ from what I do. I made this for my 14 year old daughter who has pretty much an adult size head and she doesn't like tight headbands. You can adjust the length of the elastic for smaller heads or for a snugger fit. The diameter of it is 21" unstretched. Measure your head or your child's head and adjust accordingly.

You will need some fabric (you can make 2 headbands from a fat quarter) and some 3/4" wide elastic (no more than 8.5" is needed).

All seam allowances are 1/4".

First cut 2 pieces of fabric:
One will be 6" wide by 14.5" long - the headband part
The other will be 2.5" wide by 11.5" long - the stretchy part

Fold each piece with right sides together so the long ends match up and sew along the long edge. You'll end up with this:

Next you'll need to turn both of them right side out. The big one is easy-you can do that with just your hands. The small one is a little trickier. One way is to put a safety pin on one end like so:

and then push the safety pin through the tube, pulling it right side out.

I'm lazier so I prefer to use this method-a hemostat. I bought this at flea market for a dollar and it's worth 10 times that much. Maybe 20.

Just push the hemostat skinny end through the tube, catch the end of the tube in the pinchers like so:

And carefully pull it through to turn it right side out:

Use your fingers to adjust the tubes so the seam is in the center of one side like this, and press flat with an iron. I press the seam to one side. I can't even imagine trying to press it open, especially on the skinny tube.

Cut a piece of 3/4" elastic. I use a measurement of 7" finished so I add 1/2" for both seam allowances plus an extra inch for holding onto. So I cut it 8.5". Then I mark the elastic 1/2" away from each end (the reason is clear in the next step). Put a safety pin in one end to thread it through the tube.

Thread it through the skinny tube. When you get to the point where the marked line on the opposite end from the safety pin is lined up with the end where you started threading, stop and pin it. Make sure the line matches up with the raw edge like this and put a pin in to hold it:

Finish threading the elastic through. Pull it so that the other line matches up with the other raw edge like so, and pin it:

Sew along each end, just inside the raw edge. I sew about 1/8" in. You don't have to be exact here-mainly we're just sewing to secure it for now.

Take this piece and put it in the center of the bigger tube, with right (non seamed) sides together like this:

Then you'll fold the edges over. Here is the first one-folded over and pinned. Normally I don't pin until both edges are folded over but I wanted to make sure it was easy to understand:

And the 2nd edge. This will enclose the stretchy part inside the headband part:

Stitch across the end with a 1/4" seam allowance. This is THICK. You're sewing through elastic plus eight layers of fabric. I use a longer seam length. I also use a bigger needle (I use a 14 but a 16 would be good too) and stitch across like so:

I sew over it three times. Once forward, once in reverse, and again forward. It looks like this after it's sewn.

Do the same on the other end. It's a little trickier because you have more headband length than you do stretchy length but it's not hard. Remember to sew over the seam a few times.

At this point you can trim off that extra elastic that's hanging out. Turn the ends right side out (just pull the stretchy and headband parts in opposite directions) and you're done!

And flattened out:

I'll try to get a picture of it on a head and post it.

Drawing winner!

2011-06-10T02:28:00.002-04:00

I am so sorry-I forgot to do this drawing on the 7th. So it's a few days late-oops! So anyway, without further delay, the winner is...

KathyB!! Congratulations Kathy! I will contact you to be sure which email you want your gc sent to. thanks to everyone for visiting and commenting!

MTC Blog Hop-MY TURN!

2011-05-22T23:00:00.011-04:00

It's finally my turn for the Make-the-Cut Blog Hop. If you've gotten lost, just click the blog hop button on the right to find the main page with the list of all the participating blogs. Also be sure to read to the end of this post for the blog candy info! As many know, MTC does not work with the cricut anymore. But fear not! It works with plenty of other cutters, including the Black Cat Cougar, Black Cat Lynx, Bosskut Gazelle, Silhouette, Craft Robo, US cutter MH/Laser point series, ECraft, Pazzle, KNK, and any cutter using an HPGL printing support feature.

So on to my projects. I have the Silhouette SD and although it's not yet a native plotter in Make-the-Cut, it is possible to cut with it through the print menu. It works perfectly and I wanted to focus on using both a graphic and an svg file.

My first project is this summer card. I made it for my daughter to give her speech therapist since she only goes to speech therapy during the regular public school year. So it'll be a nice 'Have a Great Summer' type card. I used the pixel trace function in MTC to trace some images from the Sunshine Fun graphic set. I had to trace some of the images more than once, but usually only twice, to get all of the shapes I needed. (For tutorials see the end of this post-I will post links to them.) Patterned papers are from KI Memories and Stampin' Up. Cardstock from Bazzill and Stampin' Up.

For my next project I wanted to use an svg set. So I imported some shapes from the Doug's Outer Space svg set and cut them out for this cute boyish spaceman card. Using svg files in MTC is so easy and I love that Lettering Delights has so many to choose from. Cardstock is all from Bazzill, Neenah and Stampin' Up. I also wanted to mention that despite popular belief, the Silhouette SD does cut heavier cardstock without any problems whatsoever. I used Stampin' Up, Bazzill and Neenah paper on both of my projects and did not do any multi-cuts. All of the cuts came out perfect and clean, even in the corners and on the smallest shapes. Both cards here are 4.25 x 5.5 so you can just imagine how tiny some of these cutouts are!

And now for the blog candy. I'm offering a $10 gift certificate to Lettering Delights!! To enter, just leave a comment-that's it! If you want to follow my blog I'd be grateful but it's not necessary to be eligible for the gc. I will draw a name a week after the hop ends. And be sure to check the main hop page every day to see whose blog to visit next!!

Here are the tutorials I promised:
How to use pixel trace in mtc
How to import svg files in mtc

Toy Box card

2011-04-28T03:43:00.000-04:00

Since I've been neglecting my stamps, I decided to just open one of my stamp drawers, grab out a set, and make a card with it. Here's what I came up with.

stamps: Toy Box from Stampin' Up
cardstock: Stampin' Up
patterned paper: Die Cuts with a View (I think it's the recycle stack or something)
markers: Copic (used to color them and also I used it to [crudely] add color outlines to the rectangles).
buttons: I *think* they're from Oriental Trading and I used thin cuts of paper to make the 'thread'.

Easter Egg Boxes

2011-04-25T00:53:00.007-04:00

I used my Silhouette and a neat Silhouette cut file to make these egg boxes. I added a bit too, and I'll explain that below the pics.

After putting the first box together I decided I wanted something extra instead of just the cut outs of the egg. So I added some glitter-here's how I did it. First, while the egg box was still on the mat (in Studio) I created an oval that was just a bit bigger than the egg portion of the box. I dragged the box off the mat and cut out the oval using some scrap cardstock for a template. Then I took some packing tape and stuck it to the shiny side of freezer paper just to have it on something solid while I cut it out. I used the template to draw the oval shape on the tape and cut it out with scissors. I removed the freezer paper backing and stuck the tape over the backside of the box so the sticky side faced front through the openings of the egg shape. I covered the sticky side with glitter (Art Institute and Doodlebug brand). Then I used the silhouette to cut the oval from paper that matched the color of the glitter and glued that to the back to make the colors pop more. In real life it looks much more sparkly-it's hard to catch that with a camera. I stole borrowed some Easter grass from my kids' baskets and we settled the eggs into their little nests. Then we were off to give them to Grandma and Grandpa (along with some decorated cookies). Paper is all from Stampin' Up.

2011-04-24T02:40:00.001-04:00

My current project

2011-04-15T03:46:00.003-04:00

I apologize for not posting much lately. I am working on this quilt and it's slow going-it's not like a card that I can turn out in one night (but there are people who can make a whole quilt in one day. I am not one of those people). It's for my friend Melissa and it will be (when it's done) a boxy stars quilt made with Moda Bliss fabric. I can't wait to see this come together some more-it's an amazing line and a great pattern.

So cheer me on because I have a hard time keeping up with my sewing.

Last of the freebies!

2011-04-14T02:33:00.003-04:00

Here are the last two freebies-they gave away ELEVEN!! Thanks Lettering Delights!!

this one is available at the Lettering Delights facebook page.

This one consists of a bundle and a bonus freebie!! Click on the graphic for the bundle and the link below it for the extra freebie from their facebook page:

Click HERE for the 4 x 6 prints bonus

A couple more freebies...

2011-04-13T23:11:00.004-04:00

A couple more freebies-click on the graphic:
this one is available at the Lettering Delights facebook page.

This one is at Lettering Delights:

Lettering Delights freebies!

2011-04-13T20:26:00.006-04:00

Lettering Delights is celebrating 10,000 fans on facebook so they're giving away lots of freebies! I'll post the ones that are up so far. Maybe there will be more so check back! Just click on the picture to go to the set at Lettering Delights. These freebies will be available until Thursday the 14th at midnight.

this next one has to be downloaded at the lettering delights facebook page:

the next one is at the facebook page again:

another facebook download: