Pocket Card

I'm in a pocket card swap and this is what I came up with the evening. This was a lot of fun to make. I cut a wavy piece from the front of a 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 card front (leaving the back of the card untouched). I took the wavy piece that was just cut and flipped it upside-down and placed it at the bottom of my card. This gave me two 'pockets'. I chose to sew along the sides and bottom of my card. A red-line or double stick tape would also work for this part. I added paper to the first pocket so it would stand out a little. The pocket itself is quick and easy to make. All that's left is to decorate it.









I wanted to share how I embellished the large tag. I die cut my large tag with a Sizzix die and then I laid my patterned paper right side up on top of the tag. I turned the tag upside down (so that I would have the edge of the tag to follow) and sewed around the edges of the tag twice; leaving about a 1/4" in between stitch lines. Next, I turned the tag over and ripped away the paper, leaving only the paper between the stitched lines. Be sure to click on the images to get a closer look. Thanks for looking!

Supplies:

Brown textured cardstock
Sizzix dies for tags and large flower
Small flowers, Ellison Thin Cuts die
Patterned Paper from Rustic Chic paper pad by The Angel Company
ribbon and brads
sewing machine and brown thread
Word stamps from The Angel Company
QuicKutz word frame die

TAC Seminar

Well, the TAC seminar will begin tomorrow in KC. Back when I decided I wouldn't be going to it was because I didn't know anyone. Sounds a little silly, but it's the reason I'm giving. I've been on the Paper Wings forum for a week now and feel like I know a ton of TAC demo's and soooo wish I was going to seminar now. My DH asked if it was too late to go and I laughed and said yes. What a sweetie...he knows what a big event this is. He was ready to drive me there. The Lord willing, I will plan to go for sure next year. I can't wait to hear back from the ladies that will be attending. I'm so excited for them. There's been a constant buzz of excitement on the forum.

I'm without a camera until Saturday morning. So there won't be any new pics until then. I've been on a sewing kick here lately. I've been working on a couple of small quilts and bought some fat quarters to make a cute little handbag. I'll post pictures when I get everything finished. Thanks for reading!

The winner of my blog candy is....

Corie!! Congratulations Corie! Here is the comment that Corie left: "Wow, GREAT BLOG CANDY. You are very generous. Great blog. Congrats on the 1000 hits. I am new to all this too, love meeting newbies."


Thanks for playing everyone! I'm sure I'll be finding more reasons to give away blog candy because this was a blast. Corie, please email me with your snail mail address and I will put your goodies in the mail tomorrow. Have a great evening everyone!

Retired....

The gallery at Paper Wings is up and running and I was so excited to uplaod a card that I made last night. Before I went to the gallery though, I went to check TAC's retired list and I discovered that the set I'd used for the card is being retired. *insert sad face here* The set is called Boyz at Play and it's such a fun set. There's just something about it...I don't know. The front of the card says 'it's your day' and the inside says 'Have a ball!'. I used paper from TAC's Kaleidoscope Boyz 8x8 paper pad. TAC's papers are so awesome.

Blog Candy

A lot of people have stopped by my blog to say hi and enter my blog candy give away. Thanks so much! I've enjoyed checking out all of your blogs and making new friends in the process. I will be drawing a winner later this evening...so be watching. I have to laugh because my hubby even signed up for the give away. (His comment says "Hi. I want free stuff".) He started a blog not long after I started this one. If you're into the Christian music, online gaming or Star Wars then be sure to check out his blog. He'll be tickled to death that I put a plug in for his blog.

Attention TAC Angels!!

For all demonstrators of The Angel Company there is a new message board called Paper Wings that you have got to check out! You must register to have access for discussion on ECommerce, AngelNet, Seminar, business questions, TAC resources, and so on. If you don't register you will still have access to general discussion. Registration is free! Bugs are still being worked out, as the site is just a few days old, but it's going to be an awesome resource! Come and check out Paper Wings!!

Blog Candy!!

Wow!!! I've had a little over 1,000 hits! I think I'll celebrate by giving away some blog candy!! This will be my first time to give away goodies...this is exciting! My blog candy consists of a brand new box of 12-count Prismacolor pencils, a TAC logo ink pen, and two TAC rubberstamp sets (Creative Cling is included). I reversed the images of the stamp sets in the last two pictures so that you can read what the sets say.

If you are interested in being a part of this drawing just leave me a comment. You can just leave me a simple hello. I've been meeting so many great people. I've been checking out a lot of awesome blogs while playing Blogger Bingo over at Julee's blog. Be sure to give me your name. I will draw a name on Sunday evening and announce the winner. Sunday is my first night of VBS at church, so I don't know exactly what time I'll be posting...just be on the look out! :)

Jacob's Ladder

I learned how to make a Jacob's Ladder project by watching Tricia Morris' how-to at Crafttvweekly.com A friend asked me to post pictures of my finished project and I decided to take it a step further and post a video. This was my first attempt and it is by no means high quality. I've actually included three cliops. The first one show's Jacob's Ladder unfolding very nicely...it was my 8th attempt at recording it. The second and third clips show some attemopts that didn't go so well...you'll just have to check it out. I'm still cracking up about it.

Blogger Bingo

I've joined in on a game of Blogger Bingo over at Julee Tilman's blog, Poetic Artistry. If you'd like to join in, just click here and read. She posted a card sketch challenge to go along with the game and this is what I came up with.

My pp is from CTMH. I really like their paper. My chick image is one of TAC's Spring Fling sets- it's called Sweet Tweets. My flower embellishment came in my latest kit from Self-Addressed.com.

Those of you that check out my blog, be on the lookout for some future 'Blog Candy'. I plan to give out some goodies once I reach 1,000 hits on my hit counter. A little milestone I guess. Thanks for reading!

Charm Challenge

I participated in a challenge to use a 'charm' on a card. I've never used charms on a card before, so this was a lot of fun. I bought a pack of firefly's that are 2-sided metal beads. For my card, I started with an olive-green card base and added some paper piecing. The base for my paper piecing is a 1-1/2" by 4-1/4" strip of paper. Next, I cut three, 1-1/16" squares of teal cardstock and glued them on top of the striped paper. I used embroidery floss to hold my charm in place and I made little cross-stitches around the edges of the square that the charm is on. I wanted to add a little more stitching, so I did some running stitches under my paper piecing. I pulled out several stamp sets, but as you can see I didn't end up stamping anything at all! This was a fun challenge.

Care Package

My sister, Samantha, and three of her friends headed off for church camp today. She hinted around that she wouldn't mind if I sent her a letter or a care package. She was also so kind as to give me the camp address. :) I use to be a camper and always loved it when mom and dad would send me a letter. So, as soon as Samantha headed out the door this morning I got busy putting a package together. I knew I'd have to mail it today so that it would get to her before the week was over.

I personalized four large envelopes and stuffed them full of candy, ink pens, machanical pencils, travel sized kleenex, chapstick and even cute little Snoopy bandaids. Oh, and a pack of their favorite wintergreen mints. They go through those things like crazy!! I love to send letters and packages to people- the girls will be excited to get this. I included a couple of pictures of the envelopes.





I used patterend paper by Sassafras Lass and a rubber stamp by Purple Onion Designs.

Howdy!

I just finished making 18 of these 'Howdy' cards. I'm excited to mail them out. They are going to the kindergartners that I had this past school year. We had a school-wide talent show in May. Our class dressed as cowboys and cowgirls and we sang the song 'Bought Me a Cat'. (I've linked you to the song...we didn't sing it exactly the way this artist did, but you get the idea of the song) The kids looked so cute! I took a group picture and I'm sending each of them a copy along with this 'Howdy' card.

My stamped images are by TAC. I stamped the horseshoe onto the red cardstock with VersaMark. I colored my cowboy image with Prismacolor colored pencils. I actually worked on the cowboy element of the card while I was in Nashville. I took my cropodile with me and I was all set! I love that tool!! It's silent and very easy to use. I totally recommend getting this tool.






Happy Father's Day!



This is the card that I made for my Dad and my Father-in-law for Father's Day. I was inspired by Pam Hooten's card. I came across her blog and she does great work. Be sure to check her blog out. When I put my two patterned papers side-by-side I wasn't too sure, but I think the card turned out pretty good. I have a hard time coming up with masculine
cards, that's why I was really inspired by Pam's card.

Nashville

My parents and I just got back from Nashville. We went to visit my brother, Scott. He has lived there for about a year and this has been our first chance to vist him. We heard some great music, toured some historic places and ate a lot of great food. We toured the Parthenon and Andrew Jackson's estate. I heard some great music at a place called the Basement. At the end of our trip we traveled to Cincinnati, OH, to meet Scott's girlfriend. Cincinnati is beautiful! I would love to go back and visit. We had a great trip, but it sure is nice to be back home.


Live music everywhere!


Mom, Scott and me


Outside the Parthenon


Dad, me, Scott and Mom in Cincinnati

Rubber Stamping Meets Embroidery

This isn't a new concept, but maybe there are some that haven't considered rubber stamping on fabric and then embroidering or coloring the images. Shown in the first picture, I used TAC's stamp set called 'Swirly Gigs'. Beginning with a 4 1/2 " square of fabric, I stamped with black StazOn ink, making sure to stamp off on paper before stamping onto the fabric (this gave my more sublte lines and I didn't have to try as hard to make sure the lines were covered with thread.) I used a satin stitch and a stem stitch to embroider the design. I put sashing between the blocks and then sandwiched batting in between my top and bottom pieces of fabric and finished it up just like a quilt. It was a lot of fun to make.

Be sure to click on each picture to get a close up view.

For my cowboy wallhanging I started with a 3 inch square of fabric. I again used StazOn ink to stamp my image. I didn't stamp off on to paper this time because I wanted a bold, black image. I used Prismacolor pencils to color my stamped images. If your images are big enough, you can use crayons to color with. After you have colored with crayons, lay a piece of white typing paper on top of the finished image and press a warm, dry iron. This will take a majority of the wax away. I don't know what would happen if the colored images were washed. Since they are small wall hangings I don't plan on getting them dirty, and don't plan on washing them. :)

Thanks for looking!

Stamping Bellas

I was a part of a stamped image swap and I've challenged myself to use the six images that I received. This is the first image that I used and it comes from a line of stamps called Stamping Bellas. This stamp is called Parisbella and she can be found here. I wasn't crazy about these images when I first saw them, but they are beginning to grow on me. Here are a couple of examples of these Bella stamps used for cards- jammybella, emmybella. I used the same idea for this card as I did in my last layout. I like to recreate things on a smaller scale sometimes. Thanks for reading!

True Happiness

I made this layout for some friends of mine that are getting married this month- Bobby and Crystal. I helped with their wedding shower at church and I had asked Crystal for engagement pictures so that I could decorate with them. When I saw these pictures I had the perfect page in mind. I had taken a class at my local LSS and the layout that we made had the same design setup and used the same colors that I used in the layout shown here, but it was geared towards a kid page. It had titles and words like 'a smile to cherish', 'a face to adore' and the stamped images were flowers. As you can see, I changed the words for this page and added 'flourishes' instead of flowers.

I love flourishes! TAC is offering a new set of flourishes and I'm sure I'll be purchasing them soon!

From The Heart

I've spent all week moving and finally found some time to make a card. I've depleted my 'card stash' and need to get busy building it back up. I used a 11" by 4" piece of Bazzill cardstock for my card base. The flower and butterfly images come from TAC's hostess set 'Bloomin' Boxes' and the sentiment is from another TAC set...can't rememer the name at the moment. I used watercolor prisma pencils and a Tombow blender pen to color my images. The background of the main image has a blue wash, but didn't show up very well in this scan. I like to do little paper piecing things here and there and had a lot of fun with these butterflies.

School is out for summer and I have a month off before I have to teach summer school. I'm hoping to get some items made for my Etsy store and I would love to start posting on a regular basis, but real life must come first.