My Winning Artisan Entry - Day 8

 

 You just came from Cathy's blog! WOOHOO! Day 8 Project! I knew I wanted to do a wreath. I love wreaths and have several for my front door depending on what season it is. This is one I would leave out when there was not a special holiday. I took gray felt and cut it 68 pieces on the Tasteful Trim die cut and my Big Shot. Then hot glued them to my styro wreath form.

Then started to build lots of flowers with Core'ditions cardstock, regular cardstock, Crepe paper and the Pop'n kit from the Spring catalog. I used die cuts and punches to create them. The "S" was printed off MDS and used as a template on a piece of chipboard with the DSP on top. I used the Simply Scrappin Kit from the last catalog. I love the colors in it. Pool Party, Primrose Petals, More Mustard and Basic Gray.  Hello, lovely combo!

Add vintage faceted button, a butterfly punch, the Oh Hello stamp on a label from the Simply Scrappin Kit and wah-la ...done!

  Now continue to hop along to Connie's blog! Wonder what she is posting today?

Let's go check it out!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope this inspired you today!

 Cindy 

    

A Starz/Paws Meeting

Every other month, my sideline Monika hosts a demonstrator's team meeting for us ladies.  This happened in January after leadership convention so we could see and hear all the latest in Stampin Up!  There was so much!  Here are the make and takes that we created that night.  My favorite was the name tag.  It showed the Two Tags die cut as well as a sampler of the new fabrics in the Mini Occasions Catalog and the fabric designer brads.  Hope I remember to wear this to our meetings from now on! 

Fran from Alabama showed us a cool trick with the edge punches on a card.  We got to use the new Petal Cone die cut and Pom Pom trim. Also the new spinner stamp set and embellishments which are cute in person.  Jenn showed us these super simple candy holders using the tag punches.  You can put a nugget or Hershey kiss in the middle of them.  I will be making these for Valentine's day.

These are such great nights! Sharing stories and ideas. They make me happy!

Have a magical day!

Cindy

VBS Project Linus Rag Quilt

During Vacation Bible School last week, I was in charge of crafts and the mission project.  I found this idea of Project Linus (see link here for more info: PROJECT LINUS WEBSITE ) on a Group Forum Board and right away knew that the SU Big Shot Scallop Square would work perfectly for the huge task.  I also used Angie Juda's instructions that I followed to make my rag purse. I just altered and applied them to make the blanket. We asked the kids and parents on Monday to bring in fabric, old clothes, jeans, etc tru the week. This blanket measures 36" x 36" with 12 by 12 rows of squares.  The first day was a lot of cool colors in the large donation box. I ran by Walmart and got the yellow remnant fabric for 70 cents to add something different. Then I cut the fabric into scallop squares on my Big Shot.  All 288 of them!

Wednesday night, Linda and Lois brought their sewing machines and met me at church to assemble the rag quilt blanket. We ran a x stitch on each square and then started to sew them together in rows.  Finally as we got closer to the finish product, it was really exciting.  It took us 3 hours to finish.  I went home and washed it that night and it is so soft! When I showed the kids and parents on Thursday, they were AMAZED!  It was so neat to see them try and find the fabric or jeans they donated on the blanket. We got so much fabric donated that we have enough to make 3-4 more blankets.  I plan to pre-cut them and then we will get together with a bunch of ladies and arrange and sew them all. You can see those come September once finished before we send them to our local Project Linus Chapter!

Have a magical day!

Cindy

Made for Allison

While I was at Weekend at Wendy's, we all got to make a rag square scallop purse. My daughter Allison had mentioned to me that she wanted a bag like mine.  See this post:  My first rag purse

So I went to Walmart and picked up some fun fabric just for her. I made her a smaller version for just her size.  Now you can see on the picture that my sewing is not my strong point but I got it done in 2 hours!  I also added a pocket on the side to hold her "pretend cell phone".  I just added another sewed X complete square to the side bottom square and sewed it together on the same stitch line. Gotta go back and add that to mine!

The handles are done in ribbon instead of fabric like mine. (thanks to Wendy)  I used the 5/8" black grosgrain ribbon but that was just not wide enough.  So Wendy had some retired black organza ribbon and we sewed them together to make the handles.  I like how it buckles to give that rag feeling to the handle. Then we added the bow in the organza ribbon with a cute white flower button. Allison was still up when I got home that night cause she HAD to see HER finished rag purse!  She loved it and has been using it to carry things to church, Nana's, and dance lessons.

These were so easy to make that I plan on making some for my fall craft shows.  I hope I can buy the rest of the organza ribbon from Wendy!

Have a magical day!

Cindy

GO GREEN! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Go Green!  Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

We made these cute circle St. Patrick's day pins at Wendy's.  You use the circle die cut with the Big Shot and green fabric of all designs.  Then you place four of the circle together with a piece of green tulle and stitch a X in the center.  Then stitch the clear button to the middle.  I stitched a pin clasp on the back with the thread.  Just the perfect amount of green to wear today!  That is if you do not like green unlike me!  I LOVE GREEN! 
I made some more of these pins with the fabric to match my rag purse.  Show you them later!  They turned out so sweet!
May luck be with you today!
Have a magical GREEN day!
Cindy

What happen to Valentine's Day?

My valentine's are a blurr this year.  Came and went so fast! Well, I just noticed that I have NOT taken one picture of the Valentine things I did make.  It is because I made them all Wedneday night and then passed them out Thursday.  I did make these cute baskets from my friend Monika and you can see her version here: hugs-kisses-holder  I also made them in a larger size of 7.5 x 7.5.  They are super easy to make and I will make more of these with an Easter theme in the next month.  Click on the Valentine's Day label on the right to see last year's creations for Valentine's Day.  I recreated some of those too.

Over the weekend I had one goal...make a rag quilt purse.  I have seen many of these on blogs and Stampin Connection.  You use the Big Shot and the scallop square die cut to cut the fabric.  I followed Angie Juda's video shown here:  rag-quilt-purse-video  She shows three videos on how to make the purse completely.  I have not sewn since 7th grade when I had to make an apron in home ec! (I still have it too!)  I went to Walmart and bought the Pixie sewing machine which works well for sewing on paper.  This might have been easier using my mom's sewing machine but I wanted to challenge myself.  It worked ok.  My mom showed me how to use the sewing machine and some tips which was a big help.  I started it on Saturday and finished on Sunday.  It took me a total of 4 hours for my first one.  I hope the next ones will go faster.

I bought the fabric at JoAnn's, a quarter of a yard each.  Fleece batting at Walmart because I forgot it at JoAnn's.  Doh!  The buttons are from Stampin Up Playground buttons.  I used a blue flower on top of a larger red one.  I love how it turned out!  Picking the fabric was really hard so I tried to stay simple.  Allison is modeling MY purse. I am thinking of making a larger version for Allison as an over the night travel bag. Megan wants one too.

We got 2.5" of snow on Friday!  That was so much fun and we got to make a real large snowman this time. We watched the Opening of the Olympic Winter Games on Friday night!  Vancouver Canada did a great job!  I love watching the Olympics!  As for Valentine's weekend, we did fancy dinners of filet and cheese fondue then crab legs and fish at HOME!  We have some surprises in the works for the girls this week as they are off school for Winter Break.
Have a magical day!
Cindy