my lovely nest, fall edition.

I *heart* using my craft supplies to beautify my space.

A little spray-paint on pumpkins, felt leaves all sewn together, and a quick embroidery hoop - some subtle decor for the season of thanks.

The leaves were cut with an SU die.

On the embroidery hoop, the white panel was cut with PTI's half and half die.  The letters are by lawn fawn (quinn's abcs), and colored in with copics.

Do you beautify your nest for each holiday season?  How elaborate (or not) are your decorations?

bulky mail...

The MIM challenge this week is to create your own chipboard accents - so fun!  Since their steel dies can only cut the thickness of a thin piece of cardboard at a time, the trick is to glue 5-6 layers together to get a really thick accent for your project.  The top layer should be in the cardstock color of your choice and/or stamped with the coordinating image.  And voila!  A homemade chipboard accent.

I'm also entering this card into the current CAS-fridays challenge: to use at least 3 shades of a monochromatic color, and then add the color brown as well.

I've used 2 PTI sets to create this card: "postmarks", and "tag-it's #2".  I started out with a kraft base, and added a vintage cream mat on top.  The postage border was stamped onto the cream layer in SU's real red ink.  The air-mail image in the top left corner was first stamped off on a scratch paper so that it would be less vibrant.  Same goes for the wavy cancellation lines.  Beside the wavy lines, I stamped the tag-it's frame in a rose-red, to provide a frame for my chunky postage stamps.

I stamped the postage stamp frames in "vintage photo" distress ink, and the crown and lady silhouette images in a darker, burgundy ink (SU's cherry cobbler.)

The sentiment was stamped in the same brown distress ink, and stamped again over-top without re-inking.  In person, it gives the softest shadow-effect.


Thanks for looking!

Sprouting babies...

Even though our little family is complete, I still get giddy with excitement whenever a new pregnancy is announced... and when the babe-to-be is your little sister's?  We're all over-the-moon.  

Sweeter still, that this pregnancy was prayed for by so many... I spotted a few wet eyes when the announcement was made... (unlike when the hubs and I announced our first pregnancy - the reaction we got was "you're expecting what?" and "is it confirmed?" - a priceless gem from each set of parents who were just not ready to become grandparents, I think!)

To celebrate this life-changing announcement, I've made a card with lawn fawn's cuter-than-anything "plus one" set.  I mean, c'mon... it's a smiley-faced oven :)

To begin, I masked the outside of the polaroid image, and stamped a grid-pattern on the inside.  I also layered the hero arts' "life of the party dots" background stamp in there and then rubbed some antique linen over everything.  The oven and "bun" images were paper-pieced (I stamped them on patterned paper, cut them out, and glue it all together).  The only coloring I did was inside the oven and on the knobs.

The mat with all the hearts started out as a piece of white cardstock.  I stamped the same grid-pattern over the whole area, and then layered different images from "plus one" scattered all over.  If you look closely, you might be able to pick out the stork, or the mobile images!  There's a baby carriage and a rattle, too (I should be giving out points or something for whoever could spot them all, ha ha!)  I also stamped PTI's background basics: hearts over the entire mat, and layered blue and brown distress inks over-top so that it better blended with my main image.

Thanks for looking!

supplies

stamps: (lawn fawn) plus one, say cheese, (PTI) background basics: hearts, (hero arts) life of the party dots, (SU) good grid

ink: memento black, (distress inks) tumbled glass, stormy sky, antique linen, vintage photo

paper: grid lines cardstock (PTI), early espresso, crumb cake, whisper white, misc. patterned paper (all SU)

misc: jumbo brown button, brown and white twine (etsy)

a handmade Christmas, part 1.

I mentioned in Friday's post that I would be attempting to make each of my 3 kids their own black apple doll for Christmas.  And that I would be starting this weekend.  For some reason, writing it on the blog was just the kick in the pants that I needed to get started :)

This sweet, little guy is for my sweet, little guy.  For the record (and to ease my husband's conscious), if I didn't also have 2 girls who would be opening their dolls on Christmas morning, I probably wouldn't be making one for Thomas... so let's just call it a "sidekick" or "little buddy."  Ha!

So this is the first of 3 dolls, and I hope to share each of them with you as I go along... hopefully each one will be an improvement on the last.  This was my very first attempt at sewing something that isn't a square.... or rectangle...

Can you spot the PTI die I used?

So cute, right?  He has his own little elephant stuffie!  I used PTI's sweet baby die to cut out 2 elephant shapes, stuffed it and stitched it closed.  He's the perfect size to fit right in the crook of my doll's arm...

The tiny elephant is an ode to the other, larger elephant in the room.  That grey elephant has been in our family for all of Thomas' little life.  The four years of wear and tear are starting to show, but I'm hoping Thomas will love this new friend just as well.  They'll be bffs in no time!

awwww!  So now you want to make your own?  It wasn't so hard!  Here's a link to the Martha Stewart site where you'll find a tutorial and a free template:  black apple doll.

Thanks for looking!

PTI september blog hop: photo inspiration

I looked at the inspiration photo and thought rainbow :)

I used the same colors found in the stripes on the floor, but curved them... and left lots of white space all around.

Thanks for looking!

Is it okay...

if I show you another Christmas card?  It's been about a week, right?  I've shown you other stuff, right?

I've heard that *some people* don't want to think about Christmas yet.  Their prerogative.  But I can't help myself *twirlsaboutsingingattopvolumeit'sthemostwonderfultimeoftheyear*

This weekend, I'm going to start some Christmas crafting.  I want to make each of the children a "black apple doll."  I found the template on Martha Stewart's website, and it looks easy enough (famous last words, right?) The problem is that I can't really sew.  I know I've fooled you with all of the card-stitching I've been doing, but apart from sewing on cards, and making the occasional simple throw-pillow.... I just hope this isn't a case of ambition far-outweighing skill level :)  Are you planning any homemade gifts for the holidays?  Care to share?

ps.  For today's card, I used lawn fawn's "winter fox" and, with a bit of masking, layered the pine from "critters in the forest" behind it.  The embossed snowflakes are from an SU embossing folder, and I dabbed some light blue ink over the embossed parts to highlight them more...

Thanks for looking!

2 for the price of 1.

My littlest sis asked me to make a card for her hubby's 30th birthday. (Being 99.9% sure he never checks this blog, I figure I'm okay to post it a few days early, hee hee!)

So, necessity meets challenge.  Or, challenges, in this case.  I'm entering this card into the Play date cafe challenge:

and also, since Lawn fawn is sponsoring their challenge this week, why not create with LF's stamps and post another entry to the current Lawnscaping challenge:

Without further ado, here's what I came up with:

I thought the Play date colors were perfect for my masculine card!  I added grey as a neutral, and just a hint of blue in a text-y sky background.  I really wanted to let those colors stand as the focal point of my card!

Here's a closer-up view of the text background:  I stamped "enjoy the ride" (a sentiment from LF's "admit one") repeatedly using tumbled glass distress ink (which I first stamped off onto a scrap paper so that it would be very faint in the background).

The ferris wheel (from the same set), was stamped in memento black ink and colored in with copics.  My green "grass" was stamped in versamark ink with an image from "schoolhouse backdrops" and given a stitched-treatment to frame it out.

Thanks for looking!