Split Rail Baby Quilt

I am so happy with how this quilt turned out! I can hardly believe that I managed to make something so pretty! I bought all the fabrics at Joann's...the red fabric was the most expensive (I think it was $6.99 a yard...ouch!) I spent about $30 on fabric and my friend spent $25...and she bought enough for a twin size quilt...but I have to say I CAN tell the difference in the quality of the fabric I got. So I am happy with it...even if it cost more. And honestly, I probably have enough fabric left to make another one of these (which I need).



Here is one of the blocks close up so you can see the fabric. I still need to add the batting and the back to the quilt. I will probably just sew it and turn it inside out (like I used to when making pillows as a kid. I don't know how to add a binding yet. I do think I will attempt to do some sort of "quilting" on this myself. The lady who is teaching us recommended tying but I feel like that'd take away from the beauty/pattern of the quilt. So I plan on just sewing a rectangle within each red rectangle...and calling it good.

Anyways...what do you think?

Jane

Does you mind ever wander?

I made this card with another one of my new "toys". The stamp is from a set called Golden Oldies. It is currently available from Stampin Up for a limited time.



Technically, the saying that goes with this stamp says "I still have a full deck. I just shuffle slower." But instead I chose a different saying...and on this one the inside says "My mind not only wanders - sometimes it leaves completely."

I am the "baby" of the family. My brothers are 2 years older than me, 8 years older than me, and 10 years older than me. I enjoy tormenting them about their "old age". I figure it's just a little bit of payback for all the torment I took as the youngest child (and the only girl).

I finished my quilt top this weekend. And I am SOOOOOOO excited with how it turned out. I will get a picture of it and post it soon. Hope everyone is doing well. I gotta go get ready for work!

Jane

It's a Digi Dragon!

I found this adorable dragon over on Dustin Pike's site. He has a few free digital images. The rest he sells on etsy. I love his dragon images in particular. This guy was pretty big to start with. So I downloaded him and resized him. I almost wish I would have left him bigger just so you could see more detail...cause he's a cutie!



I think this would be a great card for a kid...for any occasion. Birthday...get well...etc. Lots of bright colors and textures. Hope you like it too!

Jane

Upsy Daisy

I had to play with my new toys! I received this stamp set and the die cut in my last Stampin' Up order. I've been drooling over the Upsy Daisy set now for quite a while but didn't want to spend the money. Especially since I have other flower sets...but I don't have many (any?) nice siloutte stamps.



Isn't it a gorgeous stamp? I'm a little disappointed in my first card. For once...the picture looks better than the card in real life. I think it would have been better with black and red instead of brown and red. Oh well...live and learn (and then get Luvs! :-)) The basic layout is this week's sketch challenge over on Splitcoast.

I have two more cards to share in the days to come (another new stamp set and a digital image). Sorry I've been slacking a bit. I'm not sure it's going to get much better in the near future. This weekend is pretty muchly booked with a bridal shower and a "quilting date"...so probably no card making.

Have a great rest of the week!

Jane

Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge

This card was inspired by a CAS sketch challenge on SCS. I think it came out pretty darn cute!



The cupcake stamp is from $1 set I bought at Michael's. The greeting is from Clear Dollar Stamps.



Here's the inside. I just pen stitched/doodled around the edges. Then I closed the card and used the circle cutout as my guide for stitching the circle around the image itself.

My dang dog (the puppy) has eaten TWO stamps within the last couple weeks. They are my $1 stamps I just bought. One I've used once and the other I haven't used at all. Argh!

Hope everyone has a GREAT Friday!

Jane

A new favorite card?

I am SO happy with how this card turned out! I used one of the precut cards that I purchased at the scrapbook expo a few weeks ago. But if you have the nestabilities you could probably make a similar card yourself.



I started by just stamping the bathtub image (Stampin' Up) near the center of the white circle. I paper pieced the towel on her head. Colored the image in with copic markers. Added a little stickles (glitter glue) to the bubbles. Once the image was finished it looked like it was just floating in the middle of the card. It needed a foundation of some sort. What better than a bath rug? So I stamped my image again on a post it note, cut out the bottom of the bathtub and put it on top of my colored image as a mask (didn't want to get pink ink on it after all that effort). Next I inked up the solid oval stamp (Amuse) in pink ink and stamped it over the feet of the tub.



Then I wanted a greeting of some sort. I picked through my greetings and didn't find anything I liked. I finally decided on just a simple one word stamp "Fabulous" (Clear Dollar Stamps). It is a polymer/acrylic stamp so I was able to curve it just a little bit on my block so it fit the curvature of the circle. Then I stamped it repeatedly - leaving a little space in between each word. The last thing was tying just a bit of ribbon at the top. This served a visual purpose as well...it hid the 'flat' portion of my circle card.

What do YOU think? I'm always amazed when I come up with a girly card that I like...because I am NOT a frilly/girly kind of gal! :-)

Jane

It's the "Digi" Easter Bunny!

Mel over at Mel Stampz offered up some free "digital images". The images themselves are pretty large (about 6 inches) so I resized mine. I also printed it a second time onto the blue paper so I could paper piece it. I'll put the directions on how I resized and hints for printing to paper piece down below.



I was able to resize just using my printer options. I clicked on the image (so it's full screen) then chose 'Print'. Then I clicked on 'Preferences', then clicked on the 'Effects' tab and down on the left there is a box that says 100% of normal size. You can choose any percentage you want. I printed mine at 50% and they are about 2 1/2 inches tall (and cute as the dickens!)

Also, a tip...if you want to paper piece but want to use scraps (instead of feeding full sheets of cardstock/paper through)...on the top sheet of paper in your printer mark one of the corners (like BL for bottom left). Then print your image. Now place your scrap on top of the printed image and adhere with a temporary adhesive. Place the sheet back in your printer tray with the BL in the bottom left corner (so you know it's going to print in the same place again). Now print it again. You can send that same base sheet through as many times as you want and you can use up some of your smaller scraps of patterned paper.

So I resized and printed my image once on cardstock and once on the light blue paper. I cut out the parachute part from the blue paper...when paper piecing you want to cut slightly inside the line. To add dimension I took my blue parachute and put it inside a cuttlebug embossing folder and embossed it after I'd cut it out. Then I layered the cut/embossed parachute onto the base stamped image. Then I colored in the rest of the image.

I got the card layout from the Clean and Simple stamping blog. I like this blog for simple layouts. A lot of time I dress them up a bit...but it's a great starting place!

My quilting get together got cancelled for today. I'm kind of bummed out but we've rescheduled it. And I made a "play date" with my former upline (I used to sell Close to My Heart) for tomorrow. So I should have plenty of new stuff to share this week!

Have a great evening.

Jane

No stamping...

I really wanted to do some stamping today...but got sidetracked. Instead I spent the afternoon/evening baking cookies. I now have a plethora of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies...but no cards to share. :-( I did spend a little time weeding through my old stamp sets and cleaning out some of the ones I no longer use. When I first started stamping my style was totally different than what it is now. So far ALL I've gone through is stamps and I already have a box of stuff to give away...and you can't even tell by looking in my stamping space...how sad is that? :-)

This Saturday I am getting together with a couple friends and we are going to make a quilt. I picked up my fabric Monday night. I'm still not sure I'm thrilled with my choices but it'll do. I'm definately going to need to find a cheaper way to quilt if I'm going to keep at this. Anyone have any tips on that? Favorite online stores? Coupons for Joann's? That sort of stuff.

Ok...I'm tuckered out. Hope everyone is doing well...and I will try to find some time to make a few cards this weekend. It's just been crazy busy lately.

Jane