Scrappy Mini Gym Bag

All the posts for the past couple weeks and this next week have been future posts except the ones for Sparkle's Stamps challenges since I post those right after I make 'em ;) It's fun to see how productive I was during the summer and makes me feel so accomplished! Today I'll be taking the last of my test out tests, another 2 hours, and then if I passed them all I'll be completely done with that comp lit class for the semester. Yay! Yesterday I took the other 2 one-hour tests so I'm pretty beat but I keep telling myself it will be worth it. Anyway, about the bag - I had some decent sized scraps to work with after making my yoga bag and came up with this little mini bag for my workout clothes and tennies. This was just a couple nights before I started working on Paul's quilt. Since we're a one car family I don't have a vehicle while at the college, and with my fitness class being the last thing on my schedule I really don't want to wear my gym gear all day long so this little bag keeps my tennis shoes from marking up all my books in my backpack. It's also large enough to fit my workout clothes and I sewed a little pocket inside for my ipod and headphones. Handy eh? The best part - it even matches my yoga bag which will be great next semester if I decide to pick up the yoga class ;) Thanks for stopping by and have a terrific Tuesday!

On Her Way Chloe

Wow has it been a busy week! Classes started for me Monday and you can imagine what our place looks like right now. It is such a mess! The only usual at home things I've been able to do are getting up with C to do our morning routine, cook dinners, and then some laundry. Pretty much everything else is left to deal with itself. Thankfully Paul has been doing dish duty and the folding/putting away the laundry since all I've really been doing in that department is tossing it in the wash. Anyway, the site our college uses for online work is down for scheduled maintenance so I decided to take a break and make a card for Sparkle's weekly challenge! This week was to use a travel theme. Scooter Chloe is the only one I have that goes with the theme so I used her with the last of these darling tickets to make a fun b-day card. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and have a lovely Sunday!

Quite Contrary Paper by My Minds Eye

Quite Contrary Ticket by My Minds Eye

Scooter Chloe by Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps

Flowers by Prima

Buttons by Papertrey Ink and CTMH

Rhinestone by Kaiser

Colored with Pencils/Gamsol

Stickles

Sentiments from Faux Ribbon and Ink by Papertrey Ink

White Gel Pen

Home for the Holidays

I'm guest designing this week on Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge Blog! Head on over to see the DT's wonderful creations ;) The week #39 challenge is to use Sparkle and Bling. I used glitter cardstock for the snow and some metallic embroidery thread to tie my buttons. And what is a chimney without a little puff of smoke? I added a pretty rhinestone smoke swirl to give it that finishing touch. What fun! The rules are simple to play, just create a Christmas card and put some sparkle or bling on it. Then head on over to Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge Blog to link it up! Enjoy and have a lovely Sunday!

Eskimo Kisses Paper by Basic Grey

Glitter Cardstock by Doodlebug

Kraft and Scarlet Jewel Cardstock by Papertrey Ink

Chipboard House and Sentiment Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey

Spring Rain buttons and Scarlet Jewel Ribbon by Papertrey Ink

Rhinestones by Kaiser

Kreinik Metallic Embroidery Thread

Chalk It Up!

This was the last page I made at the crop and also the only page I didn't use any circle cut paper in. It ended up being a perfect stop since I had used up all my mojo by the time I got to this layout. These pics were taken after C and A discovered that chalk and water made super bright and fun pictures. Of course at the time C was the one who drew and A just liked to get ultra messy as you can tell from her showing off her grubby little hands! It's so weird to think that this was two years ago! Next year both the girls will be in school, crazy!

I was really in love with these Beach House Glittered Paper Flowers by American Crafts. They were great for layering with primas, adding rubons to, and just looking fun and glittery! I used them on every layout I made at the crop and I still have nearly half the package. These little babies go a long way ;)

Prima flowers, rhinestones, and glazed brads were also used on nearly every layout ;) Gotta love pretty accents! I hope you've enjoyed the pages. Thanks for popping by and have a fantastic weekend!

Such Goofs

I love it when my girls are little giggly gal pals together. They get so silly, especially A. She loves to make weird faces and they are so incredibly hilarious. C gets a kick out of her faces too and laughs hysterically when A pulls out one of her wacky expressions. I actually put these papers together back when I bought them months ago and I was so proud to put the different brands together all coordinated like ;) The floral is by Crate Paper, the green dots and bunting are by Dear Lizzy for American Crafts, and the Pink pattern is by My Minds Eye.

I've had these little Sassafras feltie birds for quite a while and have slowly been using them up. There were 4 big birds, one teensy bird and a branch. I am down to just the biggest owl and the branch now. This was the bird that I wondered if I'd ever use, and the moment I flipped through my embellies, I knew he would be perfect for this goofy page! Enjoy and thanks for visiting!

Grouch Face

All the pages I'll be posting this week are from that crop I did last weekend as well. I started pulling away from summer layouts and doing some others, like this one of A a couple years ago. I remember that shirt oh so well, another favorite. Everything was apples then - apple shirts, apple hair ties, apple dresses, apples to eat ;) A was just a little apple then! And while I do have apple paper, the cherries just went so well with her outfit and her not so sweet faces.

Here's a closeup of one of the cherries. I simply cut some out of this paper, pop dotted them, and then added some urban prairie chipboard petals as leaves to give it more dimension. Up on the top left with the cherry chipboard the mini journal reads 'not always sweet'. If you've been reading for a while you know that A can be such a little grumpy gus. It started around the time she turned two and unlike other phases that eventually faded away, A remains to this day a little grouch-poo. I love her grouchy faces though these are more 'I don't think so' faces than grumpy ones ;)

I had so much fun using up more of my urban prairie chipboard on this. Embellishing the layouts was the highlight for me at the crop. It would take me so long to get a page base together the way I liked that by the time I got to embellish I had all kinds of ideas on what I wanted to add for the finishing touches ;) Enjoy the page and have a happy Monday!

Lantern Rin Sketch Challenge

I'm loving little Lantern Rin! She is such a doll and so fun to color. The challenge this past week at Sparkle Creations is a lovely sketch designed by Mary Giles. It was a lot of fun putting this card together and I even got to cut into some old basic grey sheets I've been hoarding ;) I used the gamsol technique with pencils on everything except her hair, face, and some of the very tiny parts. After a tough week it was really nice to relax and color. We've had sick girls since last Friday. They've just about gotten over it and I'm glad to have the house smelling, sounding, and looking normal again, instead of radiating lemon Vics vapor rub with hacking, sniffling, and whining in the background and tissues littered all over the place, hehe. Anyway, enjoy the card and have a lovely weekend!

Crayon Roll for Z

There is something so cute and fun about crayon rolls. I think my favorite part is all the crayons in a nice neat little row like a little rainbow! That and they are so handy. To tell the truth I have no idea what to make for little boys other than monsters, and I made Z a monster last year. Little girls are easy - tutus, dolls, dresses, babies, purses, etc. Basically anything pretty or cute which about encompasses 90% of the fabrics out there as well. But for boys... I find it tough, especially since I don't have any myself. And since I've been wanting to try my hand at making some of these, this was the perfect excuse to create a little crayon roll.

Looking back I would have read the tutorial all the way through before starting since after I finished I saw that it said 1" is perfect for the regular sized crayons in the tips at the end. I made my pockets 3/4" since it said to measure your crayons (in case you're using bigger ones or pencils) and the tute was for a box of 16 crayons so I was altering it as I went along. When I tested my pockets after the first couple pockets were stitched they fit fine, but once I had the whole thing put together I realized there was some puckering since my pockets were smaller. The crayons still fit fine, I'll just know better next time that the roll will need to be even longer if I want the crayons to lie flat when open ;) Anyway, thanks for popping by! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Lazy Day at the Pool

Another lemonade pool page! I have loved using this paper with our summer water pictures. These were also from a couple years ago. One of these days I need to print out some new photos to scrap with ;) Of course this was my last free week before my classes start so it probably wouldn't do me much good right now. I don't know if I'll have time to craft at all while in school, though I sincerely hope I can at least make something on the weekends!

I heart my letters stickers and have really been using them up! So much so that I hardly have any left, even of the small ones, yikes!

As I was hunting through my Slice cards I realized I have one that covers each season except for summer. I really wanted a seahorse on the layout... really wanted one. So I drew one on a yellow scrap and cut it out. It came out alright and even the girls could tell it was a seahorse ;) It would have been way faster and easier if I had a die but ah well, we get really creative when we need to right? I hope you enjoy the page and have a fab Friday!

Make A Splash

I have to admit this was one of my more difficult layouts from the crop, mostly because I had four photos to use. I think my optimum photo to page ratio is 2-3. The photos took up so much room that I had a hard time deciding what to put on the layout. These pics of Audrey are actually a couple years old and I still remember how she used to call her swim suit her 'soup'. She wore that suit so often it was a trial to get it into the wash!

A peek at the title. You can see how I was lovin' flowers and bling and I ended up adding them to nearly every layout I made ;) Thanks for popping by and have a wonderful Wednesday!

My Little Mermaid

Put on your sunglasses because this page is seriously bright! This is the first layout I did at the crop. It also happens to be one of my favorites from the entire weekend! I love the colors and all the circles. In fact I ended up having so much fun with the circles that nearly all the layouts I put together incorporated circles in some way. I've been using a lot of Urban Prairie chipboard on my swim layouts, the curved flower petals look so much like splashes ;) It's so nice to find something other than spring layouts to use them on!

A close up of the title and splashes, they just couldn't have coordinated any better!


And here's a closer peek at the journaling tab and that cute mermaid silhoutte made with my Slice. It's been forever since I've been Slice card shopping and they've come out with so much new cute stuff! Up this fall is layered images now, so cool! Anyway, enjoy the page and have a great Monday!

Emboss Josh

Isn't he a cutie pie?! This weeks Sparkle's Creations Challenge is to use embossing, dry or wet, on your card. I picked dry embossing since I haven't played with my emboss cards in forever! I also embossed the sentiment circle to define it a little more. I used the Laura's #58 Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You for the layout of the card and tried something a little different with my pencils, using the white pencil for shading/blending. It actually worked pretty well. I'll have to remember that like with gamsol it tends to blend darker, which means I'll have to lighten up my coloring a bit. The vibrant colors look great with Josh in this though so I'll take this as a coloring win for me ;)

Between our internet (it took them 3 days and 3 different techs to figure out the problem which ended up not being the modem and something with the signal to our entire building) and back to school we've been pretty crazy the past week. C loves her new teacher and class, and the best part is she still gets to see all her old friends from Kindergarten during lunch and recess! She's making new friends and having a lot of fun ;) And here I was worried she would have a hard time handling full day school, hehe. Over the weekend some friends and I got in our last hurrahs before school started with a few crops and I've got some fun layouts to share with you later after I snap some photos of them ;) Anyway, enjoy the card and have a great weekend!

Favorite Embellie Chloe

The challenge this past week at Sparkle Creations was to use your favorite embellies!! It was way too hard to narrow down to a single favorite so I picked glazed brads, flowers, and rhinestones - since I've been using them on everything! Our internet has been on the fritz all weekend and completely stopped working Sunday before I finished my card so I didn't get to post this after I made it but oh well ;) So we have no phone line or internet right now. We think it's the modem but I guess we'll find out for sure later today (hopefully!) Enjoy the card and have a wonderful Monday!

Paper by Sassafras and My Minds Eye
Flower by Prima
Glazed Brad Indian Summer by Basic Grey
Rhinestones by Kaiser
Kraft Cardstock from Papertrey Ink
Scooter Chloe from Sparkle Creations Stamps

Scrappy Pillows

The inspiration for Paul's quilt came from me trying fabrics on our bedroom throw pillows. When I put the blue/aqua pattern on them he instantly lit up and told me he really liked that pattern. This coming from the guy that usually doesn't like patterns at all, just solids. But he actually got excited about a fabric and it made everything click. I suddenly had the inspiration I needed for his quilt and there was finally a fabric he actually liked! Note that I did take him to the fabric store once months and months ago and he seriously blanched when he saw all those fabric bolts, lol. And after all of 45 seconds of looking he told me to simply pick whatever, telling me he trusted whatever I picked would look great ;) Anyway, I had all these scraps from the quilt and thought instead of just doing plain single fabric pillow covers, I'd try my hand a piecing some.

This was the first one I made and I actually made it right after I finished piecing the squares for the quilt top using scraps from the quilt top fabrics. I needed a break from The Big Project and it was relaxing to work on something small and quick where I saw immediate results. If you've been reading for a while you know that I'm a single sitting crafter. I like to make things that only take me a few hours at most, something I can finish in one go. I like to think of my projects akin to a mile run or walk ;) I can do it in a little time and have instant results - the feeling good, not the losing flub unfortunately. But quilting... quilting is a whole other beast. Making even just a lap quilt is a marathon. Days and days of cutting, sewing, and pressing and the finish feeling so far away. And it's draining. It's an endurance run and I am not really an endurance seamstress. This was just the mini-project I needed to revive my desire keep going with the quilt though.

The first pillow got me through most of the quilt but close to the end I was struggling again. So after I sandwiched and pin-basted Paul's quilt together I set to work on this pillow from the left over squares and border pieces. This pillow went together so quickly! I heart quick projects. And it was so nice to have pillow covers on our bedroom throw pillows again. They have been sitting naked off to the side for months now because I needed a 'fresh look' of our bedroom and pretty much took down all our decorations and stripped our pillahs.

And for fun here are the pillows with the quilt! The quilt isn't big enough for the bed, but I think it'll look amazing folded up at the bottom. I'm thinking of making either a solid aqua or solid white coverlet for our bed. Right now our comforter is a latte and coffee colored microfiber. Yummy, but I've been wanting a bright and cheerful change ;) I hope you enjoyed the pillows. Thanks for popping by and have a lovely Sunday!

Finally A Quilt for Him

Since last Friday I have been cutting, sewing, and pressing almost non-stop for this. Paul's quilt for his birthday which is this Sunday. I finally got the inspiration I needed to make him one and I've never been more proud of any single project than this one!! Of course it wasn't a surprise, it's kind of hard to hide that your making a quilt when you sew on the dining table, hehe. But I think that made it even more special to him since he watched all the work and love I poured into making this for him. He's never fawned over any of my crafty projects but he sure was over this while I was making it. Probably because he knew it was his ;)

Here's the back of the quilt. I'm finding that I really like piecing the back too, since you don't have to have yards and yards of a single fabric, you can simply put together what you've got left! I love that the back is as pretty as the front and Paul was so cute saying "Now it won't matter which side I use!" The quilt was made with Kona White and all but the aqua damask print is from Amy Butler's Love collection. Our quilt store only has a few fabrics left on the bolt. The blue/aqua print was the one Paul and I liked the most and luckily they had the bolt of that. But the others I hunted down and got the last fat quarters they had since they didn't have any more on the bolt for those. Except the dots, I had bought a few yards earlier this year because I was sure I'd use it on a few projects ;)

This is a close up of the quilting. I did a simple straight stitch diagonally across the squares and then in the ditch of the borders. My poor little machine surprisingly didn't have any trouble with this, I think because I used the all cotton warm and soft batting instead of polyester batting. If you remember my niece's quilt earlier this year, it was my first machine quilted quilt and it was a beast. I cursed at the quilt and my machine the entire time and I'm guessing now it wasn't eithers' fault - it was the polyester batting's.

Here's how the quilting looks on the back. This totally wasn't done by skill. I simply lucked out with my quilting matching the back. And I'm so glad it did because both sides are so pretty! The finished quilt size is 65" x 65". Paul said he would like an even bigger one but I'm taking baby steps still. This is my first 'big' quilt ;)

And here's the edge on the back. I love how the front square quilting came past the backside border so that there were some pretty points before the straight around quilting. It adds so much to all the white! Anyway, that's the project that has kept me busy all week. I just finished it last night ;) I even have other quick sewing projects I did just before starting the quilt, and one during since it was for another b-day that I have yet to photograph, edit, and post because I've been so focused on this. Hopefully I'll get to that next week. Until then I hope you enjoy the quilt! Thanks for visiting and have a terrific Thursday!