Christmas Presents Done

I got my coasters finished with a little time to spare. I made 11 sets in total. They are all now in the hands of their intended recipient. I am so glad I got them done in time. I have been longing for my craft room lately so hopefully some crafting will come my way soon. I have a huge to do list as of right now though so it may be the new year. I will keep you posted. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Hugs

Nic

FINISHED!!!!!!!

I got Megan's dress finished and just in time for Halloween. She looked so pretty. I definitely won't leave it so late to get started next time....

Getting There Slowly

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the long absence things have been a little busy around here although not so much on the crafting side. However I have been trying to get back into the swing of things now that my craft room is a little more organised.

First up is those frustrating quilted coasters. I have managed to sew all the rectangles together into squares. but as time has been ticking by I have had to turn my energy towards my daughters Halloween costume. I have to say it is coming together really nicely. I'm getting quite excited.

I went to a quilt show which was really cool. I came away inevitably with yet more fabric. I am hoping to make aprons with them for my friends who are starting a new baking company.

Well that's it for now. No card making I'm afraid but once the dress is finished I hope to take a short break from sewing and make some Christmas cards.

Thanks for looking. See you soon.

Hugs

Nic

Work In Progress

Hello Friends

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment which is why I'm not really posting much. I haven't really had time to sit down and make cards mainly cause my craftroom is upside down and every time I sit down with an idea it goes right out of my head when I look at the mess. So my aim at the moment is to sort and tidy and most importantly declutter. Once that is done I hope to get my mojo back.

My current projects that I have lined up waiting for me are sewing projects. You remember a while back I made a set of quilted coasters? Well I got the awesome idea to make a set for everyone on my Christmas list. This is proving time consuming. While in California I managed to get my triangles all sewn together into squares. Since being back home I have managed to sew the squares into pairs so they are now rectangles.

Upon my travels around various craft stores I happened upon a sewing store that was closing down. Not only did I manage to get myself a secondhand sewing machine for $25. I also bought some of the most gorgeous fabric. I hope to make a couple of dresses or skirts for myself with it.

Then we come to my demanding daughter (not). LOL. She is my baby and she wants her Halloween costume to be made by Mommy. How could I possibly say no? So as you can see I am pretty busy here and hopefully will have some photos to show you of the finished things.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Sympathy Card

I almost forgot to show this one to you. I made it months ago but with a hectic summer I completely forgot about it.

Cardstock is blue bayou from Stampin Up. The image is from Marcella from K and Company. The sentiment has been heat embossed. With organza ribbon for embellishment.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Birthday Invitations

My Daughters birthday party was at build-a-bear this year and she chose her closest friends to share the occasion with her. I printed off the standard Invites from their website but thought it needed something more. So I looked out this cute teddy bear picnic stamp that I had gotten from a friend and made these cards for the printed invites to go inside.

I didn't get to make her a Birthday card this year as she had her heart set on one she had seen in a store. Even though when I make cards for other people she almost always asks me to make her one just like it too.

She had a fabulous time and was so excited to spend her special day with her best friends. She loves the bear she made. She took it to bed last night and it comes everywhere with her.

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Thanks for looking

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Hugs

Nic

One Of a Kind

I wanted to make a special card for my dear friend's daughter. She has Aspergers Syndrome and struggles with self confidence. I think she is beautiful and strong so I made her this card to show her how important she is to us.

First I stamped the girl first then masked her off and stamped the dragon so it looked like it was her friend (she loves dragons). I used fun flock on the girls clothes and glitter pen on the dragon. I made the green border with Martha Stewart punches. Finishing it off with dew drops and a paperclip and a ribbon.

Inside I continued the Once Upon a Time..... with a little story I made up about her and printed off of my computer onto cardstock in the same font.

I also made her a book mark for school. To help her concentrate it is all black on one side, then when she feels a little low it has words of encouragement on the other side. She had a great Birthday, she is one very special little girl.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Shadow Box

I have been working on this project foe a while now. Before I went to California I just hit a mental block and couldn't think what I could do to finish it. When I came back it was like a light bulb went off and everything just came together and looked really good.

I used the SU set Baroque Motifs for the background and my SU punches. I used the emboss resist technique, a little ribbon and I got the flower from Archivers.

Thanks for looking

Hugs
Nic

Spotlight on Lucy

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I made during our trip to California. I thought before I get back to showing you what I have been doing around here lately I would show you some of what my friend Lucy made while we were staying with her. She is a very talented seamstress.

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She made 3 sets of skirts and purses. This is just one, they were all different fabrics which she let the girls pick out themselves. She also made a skirt for me that I absolutely love.

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These are beach coats she kindly made for my kids. They are perfect for getting changed under and are made from a lovely warm waffle fabric which keeps the kids warm after they have been playing in the water.

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These are DS cases that have a pocket on each side for keeping games, headphones, etc. These are what inspired me to make my husbands DS case. She made a bunch of bags varying sizes including one for my daughter for school. She is very excited for the first day of school to be able to show off her bag. I also got a bag made by the wonderful Lucy. She made it reversible so I could use it either way. It has lots of pockets which I love. I have been using it ever since I got back.

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You can find the link to Lucy's blog in my inspiration central over there on the side of the page it's called Sew Much Fabric. You may not see these projects on there as she hasn't posted them yet. Consider this a sneak peek.

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Thanks for looking

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Hugs

Nic

Craft Catch Up - Part Four

This is the last of my California projects I have to show you. There's actually no sewing on this project. No stamping either. This time I had a try at beading. I picked up some really pretty beads at a store in Tahoe. Beading is another of Lucy's hobbies and I find myself unable to resist the pretty charms and clasps. I kept it pretty simple cause after all I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Lucy helped me plan out the pattern. I made a bracelet for myself and one for my daughter first then I had just enough beads left to make a necklace also. My thanks to my wonderful friend Lucy for showing me so many new cool things.

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Craft Catch Up - Part Three

My friend Lucy made my kids each a DS case to carry their DS in, with a little pocket on each side to hold games and stuff. She made them so quickly and they were so cute, the kids love them. I loved them too, so much so I asked her to walk me though making one for my husband. He works for Disney Interactive so obviously I just had to use the Mickey colors for my project. I was over the moon at how it turned out.

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Craft Catch Up - Part Two

While in California my friend Lucy took me to the most Awesome quilt store I think it's called Material Pleasure. I picked out some really nice fabric with a plan to make placemats and a table runner amongst other things. Lucy said she would teach me quilting while I was visiting. I was very excited about this prospect as I have been wanting to learn for a while now.

Lucy also had plans of her own to make things for the kids but that's for another entry. As you can see below I had the help of another friend while ironing my bias. Also a few step by step pictures from as I went along.

Here are the pictures of my finished quilted project. Thanks to a wonderful teacher!!!!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Craft Catch Up - Part One

I got to try a lot of cool things while in California. My wonderful friend Lucy is the most awesome thing when is comes to anything to do with a sewing machine. She kindly let me loose in her sewing room. One of the first things I noticed though was that she has no coasters anywhere to put drinks on so I decided the first thing I would make would be a set of coasters for her (in her favorite color of course). So now whenever she sits down in her sewing room with a cup of tea or glass of water she is instantly reminded of me :-D

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Get Whale Soon

The kids and I are currently enjoying a short holiday with friends in California while hubby works hard back at home. Before we left though I forgot to share this card with you all.

I made it for my cousin who is pretty ill at the moment. He suffers from M S and is in the hospital with a kidney infection. We are all sending prayers his way in the hopes he will be well enough to go home soon. xxxxx

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Kickin' It for Michelle

I read some sad news the other day, fellow blogger Michelle from http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com/ had a really nasty accident about two weeks ago, which has left her with the loss of her right eye and a long road of recovery ahead. She is on the design team for A Spoon Full of Sugar http://aspoonfullofsugarchallenge.blogspot.com/ and in an effort to cheer her up and raise awareness for what happened they are holding a card drive in her honor. They are asking that everyone please create a card in dedication to Michelle and mail it off to her and flood her mailbox with well wishes from around the world. More details and her address is on the spoon full of sugar website.

They have posted a donkey image on there too that you can download for you to use for the card. I am off on a 2 week trip to see friends in California in 2 days but just had to make a card for this before I left. I hope she likes it.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Knot-A-Quilt

My Daughter and I have been working on a knot-a-quilt that she got for Christmas. I have been encouraging her to do as much as possible as it is good practice for her to learn to tie knots. This week we finally finished it and she is very happy. we had one block missing so I made her a replacement from one of her old pyjamas that she had grown out of.

Cards for my Neice

I made a couple of cards recently for my Niece. She lives in the UK and has recently started a new job at a sanctuary for cats and rabbits. She loves animals and I think she will be awesome. She also has just bought a new car so I thought it would be nice to send her a couple of cards to celebrate. I knew i had the perfect images in my High Hopes collection. Above is her new job card and below is the card I made for her new car.

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Stampin News

I know most of you probably know this already but the new Stampin' Up catalogue is out today. I for one am very excited. They have revamped the colors bringing back some of my favorite In-Colors this time to stay. I am going to sit down with mine and start working on my wish list.

With a lot of sets retiring my Demo Jane had a stamp-a-stack class using a few of her favorites. I got to meet and make some new friends while having lots of fun doing what I love most. Here is a pic of the cards I made.

Seen as I am on the subject of Stampin' Up I thought I would show you a picture of my tree. It's from the SU Definitely Decorative line. I bought it months ago and have been putting off putting it up as it seemed such a huge task and time has not been in my favor. Well I finally grabbed some time to put this beautiful tree up on my craft room wall. My walls are textured which is not the best surface for things like this but it seems to be happy for now.

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Epic Mickey Card

It was my Husbands Birthday at the weekend and I made this card for him. He works for Disney Interactive in video games and is currently working on 'Epic Mickey'. This explains the sentiment I put on the card. I didn't have one that said that obviously so I had to get a little creative. As you can see I used traditional Mickey colors. The kids made their own cards again too. This time using a Mo Manning image from Digital Pencil Too.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic

Brother's Birthday

It was my Brother-in Law's birthday earlier this week and I made him a special card to celebrate him turning 40. He has special needs so lives with my husbands parents. We have been saving like crazy and are treating him to a Walt Disney World holiday at Christmas so I made an I O U to let him know and for him to have something to look forward too.

Cardstock is Real Red, Yo yo Yellow, Black and Basic Gray. I made the pocket by cutting my cardstock into an 'L' shape and then trimming it till it was the size I wanted. I used a ticket edge punch for the IOU and thickers for the 40. He loved it and is looking forward to meeting Mickey Mouse in person.

The kids seem to be enjoying making cards with me at the moment so I thought I would share with you their creations for their favorite Uncle. They used the free Digi from Whiff of Joy.

Thanks for looking

Hugs

Nic