My Crafting Corner

Scrap Rooms - OH MY!

2012-01-27T10:14:00.001-05:00

A friend shared this with me today - I could not believe all the stuff this woman had (not my friend, the woman in the video) I thought I had a lot of stuff. She has quite a few videos out on YouTube.

Civil War Blocks - JUNE

2011-09-23T17:00:00.003-04:00

Catch Me if You Can is the block I chose for June. This block is a representation of a recall to escape.

this particular block was "renamed" in 1935 by Carrie Hall. Other names for this block include Winding Blades, Devil's Puzzle and Flyfoot.

Civil War Blocks - MAY

2011-09-23T16:55:00.000-04:00

For May I chose the Underground Railroad Block. After my Triple Link Chain I decided I need to work on something a little less stressful. This was the perfect block.

Ever since the first slaves came to America they tried to escape. It was very dangerous to even attempt this. Many succeeded. Many failed. The terminology "underground railroad' came from those who organized this escape method. They spoke in code. People who helped slaves escape were often called "conductors". Safe places where escaping slaves could hide were often called "stations" (usually someone's home). The "station master" was a person in charge of the hiding place. People traveling were often called "passengers" and other times they were referred to as "baggage". Along the "railroad" certain signals and codes were give so the "passengers" knew where the "stations" were. Known signals and codes were hidden in music lyrics and stars in the sky (The North Star, The Drinking Gourd).

There is speculation that quilts were frequently used as signals for slaves to know when it was safe to approach a "station". As great as that makes for a story, the truth is NO evidence has been found to support that quilts were used in the underground railroad. One must remember and understand that many former slaves could not read or write. They were assisted in writing their stories by white sympathizers. Many diaries were written, and they are certainly a valuable source of information about the Underground Railroad. A more reliable source however would be the thousands of interviews that were done by the Federal Writers Project in 1936-1938. These interviews documented many escape routes both on and off the railroad. There is not a single mention in these documents of any quilts being used for other than bedding

If you are interested in more about civil war quilts; a great blog to follow is Barbara Brackman's CIVIL WAR QUILTS. Barbara is a fabulous quilt historian.

Civil War Blocks - APRIL

2011-09-23T16:20:00.000-04:00

Yeah, so I'm a little behind. As usually anyone who knows me, knows this is not an unusual thing when it comes to my blogging. So, I've been slowly chugging through my Civil War Blocks this year. I went home (to my parents) in May & June. I'm a couple blocks behind but hopefully in another couple of weeks I'll be caught up......or close to it. APRIL - Triple Link ChainThis block KICKED MY BUTT! I've never pulled out so many stitches over and over and over and over! I finally got it acceptable. I'm still 1/8"-1/4" short on half of one side (don't ask, I don't really know how it happened) but I finally got it close enough for me and figured that's all that matters! It's a gorgeous block but really tough. I probably should have hand stitched one part of it but well, I never do what I "should" do.

The Triple Link Chain block represents family ties. Many of the slaves were torn apart from family members. Those who came over on slave ships were sold off one by one - splitting husband and wives, parents and children. Children born into slavery were not guaranteed to stay with their parents. Many slave masters sold off children for profit. Can you imagine? I cannot. Below is the story of John Fields's family. His mother lost 12 children in one day with their plantation master died.

"There was 11 other children besides myself in my family. When I was six years old, all of us children were taken from my parents, because my master died and his estate had to be settled. We slaves were divided by this method. Three disinterested persons were chosen to come to the plantation and together they wrote the names of the different heirs on a few slips of paper. These slips were put in a hat and passed among us slaves. Each one took a slip and the name on the slip was the new owner. I happened to draw the name of a relative of my master who was a widow. I can't describe the heartbreak and horror of that separation. I was only six years old and it was the last time I ever saw my mother for longer than one night. Twelve children were taken from my mother in one day...My mother was later allowed to visit among us children for one week of each year, so she could only remain a short time at each place." (taken from: Split-Up Families - Awesome Stories)

FRIDAY MASHUP - Butterfly Inspiration

2011-04-07T20:25:00.002-04:00

Check out my photo - featured as inspiration for the FRIDAY MASHUP design team and all their following of crafters. Each week they bring a new challenge to the table!

Paper Piece Quilting

2011-03-05T20:27:00.004-05:00

This year I wanted to learn something new and I decided that would be paper piece quilting. HA! Had I known what I was in store for I might have rethought this plan. Paper piecing is not hard per say but can be a bit confusing. You have to kinda thing backwards and my brain does not do that well. I have a very good friend in the area who is being very patient with me, teaching me as gently as she can! I really appreciate that.

Paper piecing is great way to use your scraps. It's also a great way to get all your points almost perfect.

Here's my first block (it's a church):

There are a few flaws in it but nothing I can't overlook. I really struggled on this one trust me. I have a farmhouse standing by to do next.

This book by Alex Anderson was very helpful to me starting out.
Paper Piecing with Alex Anderson

Civil War Blocks - MARCH

2011-03-05T19:47:00.004-05:00

My choice of block for March is CABIN WINDOWS. This block represents the slave cabins on the plantations. When the government WPA project spoke to former slaves in the 1930's many consistencies came across in the interviews in the descriptions of clothing and housing. We all know the plantation owners lived in the great big, grand plantations. Their slaves were not given such luxuries. The slaves quarters were often built of poor construction usually built from pine, allowing the cold and rain to enter in. They really were not fit to live in but it was a roof over their heads and many times they did have a fireplace to use for heat and cooking. Depending on the plantation, depended on the size and number of families in one cabin. Many times it was one room, no more than two to two families. It was definitely cramped quarters.

I think this is my favorite so far and it's gonna be hard to beat. I just love the colors, the pattern....love it!

Doing some research I found a few photos of some slave quarters:

Slave house at Thornhill Planation, Greene County, Alabama
Slave quarters at Belmont Plantation, Colbert County, Alabama
Slave quarters at Doughoregran Manor, Howard County, Maryland

Here's a sneak peak of the fabrics for my April block.....stay tuned!

To read more about why and how I was inspired to do a Civil War quilt this year:CLICK HERE

Civil War Blocks - FEBRUARY

2011-02-02T18:12:00.007-05:00

My block this month is the COTTON BOLL block. This block represents the slave economy. Without cotton, slavery may have very well died out for all we know. Cotton and slavery were very interwoven. Many of the anti-slavery activists refused to wear cotton clothing. After the end of slavery, many of the freed slaves remained dependent on white landowners because they had no land of their own and no where to go. They stayed on the plantations and worked as sharecroppers in return for a share of the profits. Of course their share of the profits was not much. While there were many attempts to invent a successful cotton picker machine, it wasn't until 1980 that John Deer produced a 4-row cotton picker, the first in the industry. There are only 2 cotton pickers in use today.

I used 2 fabrics for this block. Here's just a small close up of them.

A sneak peak at March's block:

To read more about why and how I was inspired to do a Civil War quilt this year:CLICK HERE

Lincoln's Home - Cross Stitch

2011-01-19T16:05:00.004-05:00

It's done! I started this back in 2001 and finally finished it! It's still in the hoop. I kinda like it that way and I may leave it. I'm going to hang this in my sewing area of my craft room.

I love Abe Lincoln. Maybe I'm a little partial, being I grew up just south of Springfield, Illinois but he was one of the best US Presidents in my opinion. If you've never been to his home and are in the Springfield area sometime, you really should stop by and visit his beautiful home.

Civil War Blocks - JANUARY

2011-01-19T15:44:00.003-05:00

The block I chose this month is called "LOST SHIP". It represents the ocean voyages made too many times bringing slaves to the New World from Africa. Only about 3 of every 4 persons packed into the holds of these slave ships arrived alive.

To read more about why and how I was inspired to do a Civil War quilt this year:CLICK HERE

2011 - CIVIL WAR QUILT

2011-01-02T14:22:00.003-05:00

My top project for 2011 is a Civil War Tribute Quilt. I've been wanting to do one of these for a very long time and I've been purchasing and saving fabric just for this project. I've chosen this year to work on this project since this year is the 160th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.
I was first inspired to do a civil war quilt after reading Jennifer Chiaverini's "The Runaway Quilt".

Reading this book made me dig deeper into the quilts made during and shortly after the Civil War. I wanted to find historically accurate information about these quilts. I began to wonder if quilts were really used for "code" in-conjunction with the Underground Railroad. As I begin to dig, as much as I hate to admit it, I found the endearing tale of quilts being used as a code to help slaves escape has never been proven. There are NO first person accounts of this happening. Now, being the day dreamer, happy ending person I am I still like to sometimes think that maybe the first person account just got lost, maybe it's a secret that will never be out in the open, maybe....just maybe.....

There have been many historical fiction books written on or including the tale of quilt codes for the Underground Railroad. I love fiction probably just as much as the next person - and I love historical fiction but we have to remember as readers that authors can and do embellish their work for the sake of their stories. They have the creative right to do so but it can cause things to get a little fuzzy once in a while causing the readers to blur the lines of what is historical and what is fiction. Unfortunately in classrooms across the country as well as in several children's books, children are being taught that quilts were used as "codes" when there's just nothing to prove that it's true. Here's a quick FACT SHEET about the "quilt code".

In searching for more historically accurate information on this topic, I quickly found a woman, Barbara Brackman, who is a quilt historian. Barbara has a lot of information on her website about not just civil war quilts but all kind of quilts though out history!

If you are really interested in this controversy be sure to read Ted Pack's sermon on this topic. Ted is actually the webmaster for his church. However, he got himself caught into the middle of this controversy when simply posting a notice on the church website of a lecture on "Quilt Codes and the Underground Railroad". It really is a fun, interesting read and I actually found myself chuckling in several spots.

Because of my research I decided I would not be calling my quilt an "underground railroad" quilt. It's more of a tribute quilt. A tribute to the history of the Civil War. A tribute to those who were in slavery. A tribute to those who were lucky to be freed when the time came. A tribute to those who worked so hard to help free those who were bound in slavery. A tribute to the families who were separated; many who never saw each other ever again.

I'm using the book "Facts & Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery" by Barbara Brackman. This book has 8 projects, 20 blocks and many first person accounts of the Civil War. I will be choosing 12 different blocks - all for a different significance of the Civil War. My challenge for myself is to do 1 quilt block a month for this quilt for 12 months. Each month I will blog my finished block along with the name of the block, why I choose that block and what its significance to the Civil War is.

Here are the fabrics I have lined up for this project....aren't the beautiful! I love fabric. These fabrics were purchased at Autumn Rose Quilting, The Fat Quarter Shop and my local quilt shop.

CIVIL WAR ANTHEM by Moda

ABRAHAM'S DAUGHTER (1850-1870) by Moda

QUAKER QUILTS from Marcus Fabrics (reds) (I'm not sure about the yellow fabric but it was purchased at my LQS and is a reproduction fabric from same era)

Clean Craft Room for 2011

2010-12-26T17:30:00.014-05:00

Today I had a "snow day" (it's still snowing as I type this - it's been snowing all day, very unusual for our area of the country). So I decided to take today to and clean up my sewing and craft area and get it ready for 2011. I should have taken some "before" photos but trust me - it was a mess! I spent a good 6 hours throwing things away, going through drawers, moving things around, find a home for stuff that had been growing into high stacks of just "stuff".

Here's the full shot. I scrapbook/craft on one side and sew on the other side. Considering my space is limited, it's more than I've ever had and this works for me (for now).

I love the square storage modules. I get them at Michael's Arts & Crafts. My mother-in-law bought me a new one for my birthday. Who knew adding this one module would allow me to rearrange almost all my stuff - organizing and storing stuff away off of my table allowing me more crop/scrap room! I love this one! She also bought me a set of the pegboard that can be added onto any of the modules. I do need more pegs though, they only came with 4 (as my daughter says - lame. It would have been nice to have a few more)

We (being me and my daughter who was a huge help to me today) also organized the ribbon holder. We had several that needed to be added as well.

Following photos show my cabinet and module storage. I cannot tell you how much I love these modules! My Cricut is standing by waiting to be used more this year as well.

And lastly, a full look at the sewing side - of course usually the ironing board is sitting out - it's a tight space but doable. I'm doing my own 2011 block of the month - Civil War quilt blocks. Stay tuned as I plan on blogging monthly about the block I make. I'm so excited to have the space all cleaned up to start working on these blocks!

Field Flowers Acrylic Album

2010-08-31T17:59:00.003-04:00

My last class to blog on is the Field Flowers Acrylic Album. I took this because well, it looked fun.

We used a small 4x6 acrylic album. It had 5 very sturdy acrylic panels and can display up to as many as 9 photos when filled. It's very beginner-friendly and great for kids too!

Fabulous Flower Techniques

2010-08-30T17:30:00.003-04:00

This class was a stretch for me. I'm the kind of person who would much rather just go to the store and buy already made flowers to stick on my layout.....but I wanted to learn something new and this looked interesting plus I figured if I learned how to make some paper flowers then I could use some matching patterned paper or if I learned how to use some ribbon to make flowers I could actually finally use some of that ribbon accumulating in my craft room.

So the class info stated we'd learn learn FIVE creative ways to create fabulous handmade flowers from a variety of papers, ribbon, and fabric. Plus we'd use some buttons, rhinestones and other embellishments to create versatile flower centers. I was ready for the challenge - and a challenge it was! I will tell you right now - fabric flowers are NOT my thing ;)

We were also given opportunity to use the i-Top tool. I had never used this item before. It was really cool to see and use this tool. I'd seen it in the stores but had no clue what it was. It's a essentially a brad maker. You can make your own brads with paper that you have that of course, match your layout! The brads made could also be used for flower centers.

We received plenty of supplies for all the flowers, a two-page layout as well as additional instructions for another EIGHT additional flowers to try here at home. I can't wait to have some time to experiment and play.

This is definitely a technique that takes some practice but it's more than doable and fun. (Remember I said we made one from fabric but that's not my thing so I have nothing to show you!)

This one was very simple. We used 2 different sized punches, adhered them together and put a button for the center. Sometimes simple is just what is needed.

This one was created from 6 - 1 1/4" circle punches and then 5 of those were folded into small little "pizza" shapes. Using adhesive they were put onto the remaining circle. Popped up the little "pizza" shape just a bit and then using a glue dot added a rhinestone for the center. Didn't take too much time but may take a little practice to get just right.

This paper flower is my favorite. This one took a little more time but it was fun! I can see myself using this a lot in the future. We cut a large circle out of dictionary paper and then sprayed it with just a touch of Shimmering Mist (a liquid paint, acid free and safe to use in albums) Once that was dry (didn't take long) we just pinched the center and twisted to make a "stem" and "flower". This one takes a little practice and a bit of working with it as well but it's not hard at all. Again we added a little button to be the center of the flower.

A Little Goes A Long Way.........

2010-08-29T17:01:00.002-04:00

patterned paper that is..... a little can go along way. I am 99.5% sure this was my favorite class of the weekend. This class was taught by Vicki Shepherd. She's a wonderful teacher. In 60 minutes we finished quite a bit and I walked away with a few tips on how to use patterned paper. My problem with patterned paper is that I usually don't want to cut into it. I'm afraid I'll use it wrong, too much or not enough and I hate the thought of cover up too much of it! Basically I learned that when I buy paper that's in a "theme" or "group" sold by the same company I'm pretty safe mixing and matching it all.

Bonus we learned how to do another flower; this one made from ribbon and about a 1" circle punched from paper.

CK Sketches Workshop

2010-08-29T14:25:00.004-04:00

My first class at the Creating Keepsakes Convention was the CK Sketches Workshop. This was for 3 hours on Thursday evening. It was very face paced. I enjoyed it but I'd pass on it next time if I were picking classes again. Why you ask? It was billed as a "sketches" workshop. Sketches are a popular way for many scrappers to come up with fresh layouts for their albums. I love sketches (Page Maps is my favorite) but I feel I don't always make the most of them which is why I took this workshop. However, the workshop was designed more for the vendors and less of those like me who wanted to glean more about working with sketches. Each vendor was given a sketch and asked to make a single page layout from it. It was interesting to see how they took the original sketch and then turned it into their layout. The only disappointment was that not all vendors did not give us the original sketch so we could see the difference.

This workshop was $36 for the 3 hours plus all the supplies. I only had to pull out my paper trimmer and adhesive. I do feel I got my money's worth even if back in supplies. I know my fellow scrappers are with me when I state how much paper and supplies costs these days for this hobby. Most vendors offered a companion page to the page we made (for a small additional fee of course) I bought 1 companion page and won another as a door prize that evening. I was lucky to win one that I actually liked too.

I ended up with 12 (mostly finished) pages. I say "mostly" because as I said - it was face paced! The other thing was some of the pages weren't really my taste but I knew once I got home and worked on them I'd be able to make them more my style. Some of the embellishments weren't for me (like the fabric flowers we were to make - I quickly passed on that.) Out of the 12 pages I really love about 3 or 4 of them, the majority I'm okay with and then there are a couple that just scream "not me!" when I look at them.

So as I said before if I had the choice next time around I'd pass on this workshop. For the $36 I could take 2 cheaper classes or an additional $25 class and saved a bit of money.

Oh My! Scrapbook Heaven

2010-08-28T15:18:00.003-04:00

This weekend, as I blogged a few days ago, I attended the Creating Keepsakes Convention that was brought here to Virginia Beach, Virginia. What a time! I had never been to something like this before. Rumor has it they will be back next year - I'm anxiously watching the website looking for that confirmation! :)

Oh the goodies! I felt I got well worth more than the cost of the classes. I will blog specifically on each class that I took. I decided it'd be best to do that than one big blog because there's just so much information to pass on along to you. For now I'll tell you about a few of the extra goodies I purchased at the vendor hall.

My favorite find was MOSAIC MOMENTS by Tami Potter. I've seen this technique but this wasn't a product I wanted to invest in until I had seen it. Lucky me, they were there and once I saw the demo I was SOLD! I cannot wait to add this new look into my scrapbooks.

My next stop was THE PAPER LOFT. I've seen their advertisements and products in scrapbook magazines. They are so right down my alley. I love their colors - mostly earth tones! I purchased some Halloween and Autumn papers with our trip to Historic Salem, Mass in October.

They also had these very cool little paper albums. I took several photos and I just could not get a photo to do the album papers justice. You can check it out on their website by CLICKING HERE!

An unexpected find was at the CLEARLY CLEVER booth. They specialize in transparencies - already printed up. It's a very cool concept. I'd never seen this before so of course I had to pay the $4 for the make and take. I got a pretty good page for $4 I think. You tell me.

Here is my final page.

Here you can see the transparency that I had laid down. This is cool because you can take that beautiful printed paper and then just move the transparency around until you find where you like the words and extra designs to go and it's all one one sheet that you can adhere with just a couple of small clear glue dots.

The transparencies at the convention were $2.50 each. I bought one.

A few other goodies I picked up.....
Star Wars paper for my boys albums (when I eventually get to them) and some liquid paint and glittery flowers (which will probably most likely be used in my altered books)

Creating Keepsakes Conventions 2010

2010-08-26T10:52:00.003-04:00

I'm headed to my first ever scrapbook "convention". I've been to scrapbook retreats and a few overnight crops. I go to my local scrapbook store twice a month to get a good 3-5 hour block of scrapbooking time in for myself but I've never been to a "convention". This particular one is going to be held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia and is sponsored by Creating Keepsakes. It's only about 20 minutes or so away from my house so I'll be driving back and forth vs. staying near the center.

I'm signed up to take four (4) classes starting tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. Tonight is a CK Sketches Workshop. I love to use sketches and I'm hoping to learn to utilize them even more by taking this class. Tomorrow I'm taking Fabulous Flower Techniques where I'm suppose to learn how to make at least 5 paper flowers and bring home instructions on at least 8 more. I'll also be taking the Field Flowers Acrylic Album class tomorrow. Ever see those plain acrylic (or chipboard/cardboard) albums and have no idea what to do with them - um, yea, me too so I'm taking this class to figure that out! Well, okay actually I have made one of those but still, this class sounded like fun! Saturday will hold one class for me; A Little Goes a Long Way – Patterned Paper. Yeah, I have patterned paper out my you know what and I never seem to use it. Maybe this class will inspire and motivate me to do so.

Prices for these classes started at about $15 and went up from there. My classes averaged out to about $25 per class. I only have to take my basic supplies (scissors, trimmers, cutters, mats, adhesive, pens, etc..) everything else is suppose to be supplied.

Check back next week - hopefully I'll have some finished products as well as my thoughts on the convention for you!

I WON!!

2010-06-26T20:57:00.003-04:00

My local scrapbook store, All About Scrapbooks, held a Twilight layout contest last month and I won! There were officially 3 winners - Team Edward/Team Jacob & General Twilight were the 2 themes. The awarded both a Team Edward & Team Jacob to make 3 winners. I won some wonderful vampire themed scrapbook goodies as well as a gift card to the theater! I already have my tickets for the midnight showing of ECLIPSE but I'll be using that gift card for the second viewing for sure (I saw Twilight 4x and New Moon 3x in the theaters)
If you do not know, The Twilight Saga was written by Stephenie Meyers and you can read more about it at her site (just click on her name)!

Here are the 2 single page layouts that I turned in for the contest.

My TEAM EDWARD entry (and the winner!!!)

My GENERAL TWILIGHT entry (thought this one would win over the other but oh well, no biggie - glad I just won something!)

A couple of close ups of the General Twilight entry. I used a few photos of the trip to Forks, WA that my daughter and I took back in September of 2009. They had a big party in honor of Bella's birthday (the lead female character in the series) and it was also in honor of author Stephenie Meyers. The town loves these books (not so much the movies) and they had some "look-a-likes" for us to have our picture taken with.

The group photo taken at the park that weekend. it was a fun weekend. I'd love to go back again. Beautiful town full of the most wonderful, friendly people I think I've ever met!

My Craft Space....and Organization!

2010-06-12T21:32:00.005-04:00

I have been cleaning up and re-organizing again. Seems I have to do this frequently or it just gets too messy! I'm really big on these storage module cubes that I buy at Michael's Arts & Crafts. I never pay full price for these - while I love them, I don't think they are worth the full asking price and coupons are always available. Most of the cubes run an average of $29.99 with a few of the larger ones being around $49.99.

I kinda share a room with my daughter for my crafts. It's a finished room over the garage so it's quite large. I'm almost out of room on my side though; which is why I love these module cubes because they can stack!!!

Here's my set up:

This is the ribbon organizer. I don't use a lot of ribbon but it sure is fun to buy - especially for a $1 a spool from the sale bin!

This shows most of my workspace when crafting & scrapbooking. Sewing & quilting is done on the other side - I have 2 large tables butted up to each other. The sewing side is still a mess so I'm not going to show it.

This is one of my newest additions to my workspace. It's the tool organizer - it spins. I love it. I put all my markers and necessary, most used tools in it so they are easy to access now. It's also a bit space saver.

Another new addition. I literally just put this together yesterday. It's a little larger than the other modules but it's great place for my books & magazines. I use the drawers for my glitter, paints and glues which made more room on my shelves for me.

More of my workspace - a better photo of one of the larger modules I've purchased in the last year. Also, a close up of my shelves....see I'm a proud Twilight Addict :)

Another one of my absolute favorite organizers are these Iris Storage Cases. I also get these at Michael's. They are $8.99 but they go on sale frequently for $4.99 so wait for the sale! They stack well and I use them as project keepers. For example I'm currently working on a "Me" Album and everything I'm using - papers, photos, embellishments, pages, page protectors, etc. is in the green storage case. When I go to the local scrapbook store to crop on Friday nights, it makes it easy to pack this up to go since it's well essentially ready to go as is! I use another one for pages that are completed but I just need to sit down and put them in their proper album they belong in. They are great, inexpensive project keepers.

I've got a few other organization tips and funs to share with you but I'll hold off on that for another day.....

"Me" Album

2010-05-22T14:07:00.003-04:00

So today I've been working on my "me" album. I really don't like the sound of it, it sounds so self-centered but it's a modge-podge album of me - growing up, including photos of me as a baby (the few I have) as well photos of my family before I was born, throughout childhood, high school up until I got married. It's not a very full album. I don't have many photos of me as a baby and child. I'll spare everyone my pity story about that, especially since I know my mother is reading this (said with a smile Mom!) but being born in 1967 slides were the all the rage when I was smaller so we have very few printed photos of me. I think there's probably more (in my sisters albums but since she's most likely reading this I'll spare everyone that story too) but this is what I've got and I'll be grateful for what I do have.

Each time I work on my photos of me, I can't help but think of how many more photos I have of my children when they were growing up. My oldest was born 20 years ago this year (Yikes!) and my youngest just turned 16 - all of their childhood photos are in print - digital camera's were yet to enter the household on a common basis. Today I have so many photos of my kids in their later middle school years through high school. I get really excited knowing how many photos I will have of my future grandchildren (FAR future that is!)

So here's a few of my favorite layouts from today's work.

High School cheerleading & Homecoming weekend

1977 - at my sister's wedding. I've always loved this photo of us.

Christmas - not sure of the years here. I do remember when Santa came to my Grandma's house though. That was the year he brought me my baby bunk beds. I think I was about 5 years old.

January 1973 - me and my cousin Mary Kay. I believe the pom-poms belonged to my older cousin Kim, who was a cheerleader.

Pineapple Wall Hanging - FINISHED!

2010-04-12T12:43:00.003-04:00

The "Queen of Unfinished Projects" has a fully completed project!!! It's even hanging on the wall! Back last summer I did blog about this when I had the top of the quilt complete. You can read about that by CLICKING HERE!

But today I hung it on the wall! It needs something to go beside it; I'll figure that out later. It looks a little lonely all by itself. But here ya go - with the buttons on it and the binding complete and it's hanging - did I say that already?? :) :giggle: (sorry for the pictures; I know they aren't that great and I should have done better)

Around the World Quilt

2010-04-04T19:26:00.008-04:00

It's just the top but I did finish it today. Back in February of 2007, I was active in a Yahoogroup called Stashbuilders. I did a 6" charm swap with them called "Around the World". Each person participating was to send in 6"charms of fabric that represented where they lived (or had lived). We were in Hawaii at the time so I got to send in some wonderful aloha fabric! My plan for this quilt is to be just a nice, comfy lap quilt for the living room in the winter months.

There were 2 groups and I of course wanted to be part of both groups. Even so, I got very few duplicate fabrics.

This is the quilt top and the fabric I found to (eventually) back the quilt with:

This is the fabric I chose. I picked a fabric that had a little bit of everything from Hawaii on it. To my own quilt I added the Hawaii state college fabric because I had a little of that fabric laying around.

There was a wonderful selection of fabrics from all over the nation and several other countries. 80 6" charms total. So many fabrics I can't even being to list them all but here's a taste.

Apples from NYC; Leaning Tower fabric from Italy; Ford Mustangs from Michigan; Texas Wildflowers, southwest fabric from Arizona; moose from Maine; floral emblem from South Australia; Arkansas Razorbacks, Route 66, woodland setting from Washington, Spiderman from NYC; circus fabric is from Oklahoma (where the circus goes for the winter).

Beer Steins from Germany; Cowboys, Cactus & Horses from Texas; Music notes from Nashville TN; Elvis from Memphis TN; Ceremonial armband from Australia; Maple leafs from Canada as well as from Vermont; Harley Davidson fabric from Milwaukee WI; state flowers from Ohio,Kansas and Texas; state birds and insects from New Jersey,Ohio and California.

This was a very neat project. The fabrics were so interesting and really neat to learn from.

Album Charms

2010-03-26T14:54:00.005-04:00

Most of my scrapbook albums are from Creative Memories. They all look the same, however I have color coded them by where we live. For example, our Great Lake years are in green albums, our Hawaii years are in the plum colored albums and so on. The only thing is I've gotten so many - particularly the years we spent in Hawaii - that I don't always know which years are in which albums because they are all in the same color. Yes, I can keep them in order but sometimes they don't always get back onto the shelves in order. Well I came up with this idea of making a kind of album marker (kinda like a bookmark) so I could label my albums by place and year.

Using a metal shepherd's hook bookmark, a small frame charm and a few beads I came up with this......

I found the metal bookmarks and little small frame charms on ETSY.COM
I had the beads already :)

Fabric Stash

2010-03-22T22:40:00.004-04:00

About 2 weeks ago, I ended up at Sew-Sew Inc., a quilt shop in Salisbury MD. It was a cute, little shop. I couldn't NOT purchase a little bit of candy for my fabric stash.

Fat Quarters were buy 3 get one free so I had to cash in on that! I picked up 4 cute Christmas prints.

And being a Cardinal lover I could not pass up this fabric. I bought a yard and a half of it. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet; maybe a table runner, and matching place mats if I have enough.

March - National Craft Month

2010-02-28T14:36:00.002-05:00

Did you know that March is National Craft Month? I didn't either! Seems like there's a month for everything anymore and I'm actually excited about this one since I'm a die-hard crafter. Anyone who knows me, knows I "craft" just about anything. I've never learned to crochet or knit though.

My goal for the first part of this year is to work on the mounting stacks of unfinished projects I have in my craft room. I have everything from quilted wall hangings, to quilts themselves, to scrapbooks, to altered books and more. I'm putting a pretty good dent into them and am even keeping a list of what I'm finishing each month. Knowing now that March is National Craft Month I have an even bigger motivator to do even more crafting this month!

Here's some links to help you celebrate National Craft Month and give you some craft ideas to do with your family.

CRAFT PLACE
Family Crafts @ About.com
CRAYOLA Crafts
eHow.com

No time to craft but want to give a homemade gift?? Be sure to make Etsy.com your choice shop for gifts! ETSY.COM

HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

Heart Chipboard Album

2010-02-20T20:50:00.009-05:00

I made this for my husband for Valentine's Day. He's out to sea until later this year.

This was my first time altering a chipboard album. This particular heart chipboard album is from Maya Road.

I used papers and embellishments I already had here at home. I only had to get some photos printed up which was quick and easy through Snapfish and my local Walgreens.

Miniature Heirloom Cross Stitch Series

2010-02-09T13:59:00.005-05:00

We like to visit the plantations and mansions here in the South. This summer we drove out near Charlottesville, Virgnia to Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. Last summer we stopped at Gunston Hall, home of George Mason, located in Mason Neck, Virginia.
I think sometimes my favorite part of these visits is the gift shop. I picked up 3 of these miniature heirloom cross stitch patterns. They are not very big; only about 3x5 size and are fairly inexpensive. Well this week, after way too many months, I finally sat down and worked on them. I finished them all. They were very easy and quick to do. It felt good to cross stitch again. It's been probably since 2004 since I picked up any cross stitch. I wish now I had picked up the one at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

Thomas Jefferson and I have something in common - a love for books! His home was fascinating and he had a library dedicated to his books.

George Mason was one of the few who refused to sign the US Constitution. However, he was the author of our Bill of Rights as well as the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Gunston Hall is also the namesake of the USS Gunston Hall, the US Navy ship my husband is currently stationed aboard.

Valentines for Twi-Moms

2010-02-05T11:13:00.004-05:00

Twilight Moms is doing another Valentine Card swap this year. I'm not the best card maker but I attempt occasionally when there's a swap with my fellow Twi-Moms. We did this last year and we also did a swap in celebration of the release of New Moon
So anyway, here's my cards I did this year. I hope the Twi-Moms who receive them like them.

ALICE & JASPER - inside note that says "Alice & Jasper, a love that was meant to be"

FOREVER - front & inside

LADIES CHOICE - front and inside

My altered Twilight book

2010-02-03T19:18:00.003-05:00

So here's my final book! I love it, I really do. This project was started about a year ago. I'm thrilled with the final product! It's just beautiful and all my TwiMom's who worked in my book did a great job. I love all the spreads.

It's finished - cover and all. I'm not sure how happy I am with the cover but considering its the first one I've done I'll be content with it. The tree is to represent the Tree of Life and of course I put a little apple at the bottom of the tree. I found some inspiration while just surfing some images on Google and came up with the tree. I did that by hand. I'm not really an artist as in drawing/painting artist so I'm thrilled with my tree.

I'm currently hosting a round robin and we're working on New Moon. I just love altering books.

If you have clue what I'm talking about and are saying "huh??" Then check out my past posts (HERE) on my journey in a round robin with 13 other Twilight Moms.

Scrapbook Page Kits

2010-01-30T17:41:00.005-05:00

My sister in law gets these page kits from her local scrapbook store. She pay X amount per month to receive one a month. (I think they are about $10) In the kit she receives everything she needs for a 2 page layout with all the papers cut and ready to go; what isn't ready they have instructions for but it's very minimal work for her. Since she has already put the layout together, when she gets to her next crop all she has to do is slap the pictures in. No deciding what to do, what papers to use, what colors, etc.... Since she's been doing this for so long she has a lot of different layouts and she sometimes repeats a layout using different papers. This has worked very well for her. It's very much a time saver for her. Well I'm all about saving time so I decided to use this technique, making up my own "kit" here at home. Basically I'm scrapbooking without putting the photos, journaling, titling and major embellishments in. I decided to try this with 1 album. If it works for me I'll continue using the idea. If I have a local scrapbook store that ever does these page kits like hers does, I'm all over it!

So as I said I decided to do this for 1 album to test it out. I've been working in my Maui album. My daughter and I went on an overnight trip there in 2006. The boys were all at the Maui Boy Scout summer camp so we did meet up with them at the Maui Ocean Center but we had plenty of time to ourselves as well. It was a fun trip. I plan on taking the album with the completed layouts and the printed out photos to a crop in April. I'm hoping to finish the full album at the crop. All I'll have to do is put the photos into the layouts.

Here's some photos of what I did today....you can see the layout is there, it's just a matter of adding photos, journaling and a title and a few whatnots if I want.

Once I place photos on these layouts, I'll post and share the finished product. I'm really hoping this will be a time saver for me as well.

Poinsettia Paper Wreath

2009-12-21T12:25:00.005-05:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is doing Christmas crafts. I enjoy crafting all year long but Christmas is special. There's just something about it.

This year I used a Martha Stewart wreath kit and made a poinsettia paper wreath. It wasn't hard, but it certainly was tedious. I had to cut out individually all the petals and leaves not to mention the wrapping of the very, tiny, tiny cotton balls that became the center of the flowers. I worked on this over a course of 3 evenings while watching TV (and having a husband out to sea).

These wreath kits were originally priced at $20 last year in the craft stores. I love poinsettia's so I was keeping my eye on them but wasn't going to pay $20 for one. I came across one on sale for $5 in the fall of this year and another one for $3.99 at the beginning of December. Figured why not for that price right? I would not have spent $20 on this craft. It's not worth that.

New Moon Celebration Cards

2009-11-05T10:02:00.003-05:00

A large group of us Twilight Moms are doing a card swap in celebration of the NEW MOON movie coming to theaters this month. Here's the cards I sent out to my fellow TwiMoms.

Scrapbooking Texas!

2009-07-28T15:08:00.005-04:00

We lived in Texas for a short time, only 10 months. While we were there we were blessed to be able to do a lot - White Sands, NM and the Grand Canyon to start. When we left Texas we did what I like to call a "PCS Vacation" For you non-military folks, PCS is short for Permanent Change of Station (as in duty station). It's a time when emotions are crazy - sad for leaving friends and loved ones behind, excited for getting a change of scenery, new friends and adventures....but it's also stressful so if we can take advantage of the time as we travel we do so.

Our first stop after leaving El Paso, TX was San Antonio, Texas (I think I could live there!) We did the River Walk, The Alamo and we took advantage of the Heroes Salute program that Anheuser-Busch is currently offering. After San Antonio, we headed to Memphis TN having dinner at Hard Rock Cafe on Beale St. and going to Graceland of course!

So I finally have about 80% of this trip scrapbooked ~ I'm so excited! I thought I had more pictures on the computer than I do. I'll post more of my layouts soon.
Here's some of the layouts....

Altered Book - update #3

2009-07-28T14:52:00.006-04:00

I think this is update #3....
For those of you reading this that have no idea what I'm talking about - check out my previous posts:
ALTERED BOOKS
ALTERED BOOK UPDATE and ANOTHER ALTERED BOOK UPDATE (I know, I'm not very original when it comes to titling my blogs!)

Our Twilight Moms Altered Book round robin should have been completed by now with our TWILIGHT book but due to "life" and a few other happenings, we're running a bit behind. I have 3 more books to work in after I receive them and then I'll finally have my book returned to me! I'm so excited to finally see it and see all the creative, artistic work that's been completed in it!

So here's my past few spreads that I've done in others books.

It's Too Green

La Push Beach

Enough For Forever

Quilted Pineapple Wall Hanging

2009-07-28T14:09:00.009-04:00

So, it's not quilted yet but at least it's pieced together! I had a week of no kids in the house so I had plenty of time to myself.

I picked up this pattern, Pineapple Welcome part of a series called Hanging on a Star, and the fabric at a small quilt shop in Rochester, IL. My mom took me there when I was home visiting back in May. The pattern calls for appliquéing the word "welcome" on the checkerboard but I think I'm going to skip that. I like it the way it is.

I've got a CRICUT!!!!

2009-05-09T15:53:00.003-04:00

Now maybe I'll be a little more motivated to work on my albums! I've been needing some motivation! I'll have to save pennies now for some new font cartridges - guess what will be on the top of my birthday and Christmas lists this year???

Scrapbooking - Where Do I Start Again?

2009-04-17T13:21:00.007-04:00

I'm a seasoned scrapbooker so it's not where do I start as in I'm new to this but it's more like I've not touched my scrapbooks in so long I have no idea where to start. We've moved the last 2 summers and that has seriously put a cramp into my scrapbooking time. I did manage a crop over a year ago now back in January 2008 when I spent a couple weeks with my mom. I got 70 pages completed that weekend (go me!) But since then...I'm lucky if I've done 50 pages. I attended a crop last month at my local scrapbook store, Beach Scrapbooks. But did I get there this month? Nope. *sigh*

I needed to figure out where to start. I have albums 1/2 done, 3/4 done, completed but needs journaling - scrapbookers understand where I'm coming from.

Today I literally sat down and went through my albums and came up with a list. I'm hoping this will motivate me and now that the man is working some really late hours, I plan to use that time to get some pages done here and there....

I have my completely finished albums, my almost there - ya know the ones that are pretty much done but not quite done - need journaling or a few photos printed up to finish a layout or two...., then I have the albums in progress. These are the ones I'm trying to actively work on (but I've not done a very good job) and then there's the not even started list - yes I have a not even started list... daunting huh?
So, here's where I'm at:

Completed Albums:
Big Island Vacation (2002)
Wedding Album (1987)
Portrait Album (all family and kid portraits;finished until I have something to add)
Nascar (until the man hits another race)
#1 Travel (France, Germany and Japan vacations)
#2 Travel (2004 DC, New York City, Virginia vacation)
20th Anniversary 8x8 album
Cub Scout Album (8.5 x11 album)
Outrigger Canoe Club Album (8x8 gift to my oldest son)
#1 Navy Album (bootcamp to RTC Great Lakes years)
#1 USS Olympia Album
#1 RTC, Great Lakes years (1997-1999)
#1 Hawaii (2001)
#2 Hawaii (2002)
Christmas Card/Letter Album (added to each year with letters and cards)

Almost there:
#1 Boy Scout Album
#2 Boy Scout Album
(need to add Eagle Scout projects and Eagle Scout Court of Honor to both boys albums)
#2 USS Olympia Album (gotta get this done....)
#2 RTC GL Years (2000-2001)
Groton Years (1993-97) just a few pages left in this one
#3 Hawaii (2003)
#4 Hawaii (2004)

In Progress:
HAWAII ABC album (8x8)
My Childhood (8.5x11)
Glory Album (this is another Navy Album it holds Sr. Enlisted Academy, Sgt Major Academy and NSTPC...it'll also hold my husbands current command - this should be the last Navy album other than a retirement album....)

Not even started:
#5+ Hawaii years (2005, 2006, 2007)
Texas (2007-2008)
Virginia (2008-present)
Tyler's baby album (um, he's 18 now)
Corey's baby album (gonna be 17 in July)
Alyssa's baby album (turns 15 on Tuesday)

Antler Baskets - completed!

2009-04-09T13:54:00.004-04:00

Here are the 2 antler baskets from the Guilders Weave in January that I finally finished. Yesterday was a nice enough day to be able to go out and give them a stain.

First Antler Basket
For having ZERO experience in weaving a ribbed basket, I don't think I did too bad. I'd really like to take a ribbed class now. It would help me greatly. There are several mistakes on this basket but the best thing about deer antler baskets is that they hide the mistakes very, very well.

This has a maple stain on it. I really like the richness of a maple stain. The pictures really don't do it justice, but it's all I've got!

Random Antler
I can see me weaving a lot more of these. They are more a decorative basket than a useful basket. This has a nice oak stain on it. With the lighter colored antler, the oak shows up nicely.

Another Altered Book update

2009-04-09T09:36:00.003-04:00

If you've not kept up on my altered book posts you can catch up by CLICKING HERE. This is a project I'm currently doing with some other Twilight Moms.

These are my last two spreads; Bella's Lullabye & Vampire

Virtual Tour of My Crafting Space

2009-03-16T11:52:00.013-04:00

Yep - here it is! This is probably the most room I've had ever. I cannot wait until I can have a room all to myself...it's coming soon, I can feel it. But for now I split a very large room with my daughter. Half is her side and half is our craft side.

I love these craft modules. I get my at Michael's Arts & Crafts or AC Moore. I always use a 40% coupon or buy them when they are already on sale. They are so versitle and great for organization.

I have a great cabinet that I bought from Lowe's years ago. It's held up very well (even 3 moves). It's unfinished. I really should paint it or something but I've just not had time to do that. I has two very nice large shelves in it as well as 2 drawers.

I have a small shelf unit in a corner.

I have tons of paper. Too much. I'm trying to use what I have before buying anymore. I'm doing okay at that but I'm guilty, I do love paper and I buy it when I see something I absolutely love!

Here is the room in 3 overall views:

Camera Strap Slipcover

2009-03-09T21:18:00.003-04:00

I was gonna buy one of these but then decided I could make one myself. I love it and now I'm gonna make me several - gotta have them for each season!
I got the pattern from MADE BY PETCHY
The first one I made I didn't like but when I made the second one with a couple small sewing adjustments, I'm lovin' it!

Altered Book update

2009-03-09T20:33:00.003-04:00

I've really enjoyed altering the Twilight books! This has been a really fun project. If you'd like to see what others in the round robin are doing check out our website: Twilight Moms Altered Book Round Robin

As promised I am blogging my recent spreads.

"Twilight"

"Betting On Alice"

"Family"

Altered Books

2009-02-06T09:48:00.005-05:00

A new "craft". Just what I need right? As if I don't have enough to do. Any friends, family or frequent visitors to this blog know that I love just about any and all crafts and/or artwork.

My newest form of art has come to me in the form of altering books. I'm altering a Twilight book to be specific. This is what inspired me: Eclectic Souls Shabby Heart @ 1000 Markets.

So, what is an altered book? It's simply an art form in which existing books are reworked into works of art, often manifested in a variety of ways. Words or images from the book are usually retained as a part of the altering. Sometimes the books become an entirely new idea, not remotely retaining any of the words or images from its original status.

Here's some websites with galleries of altered books:
Altered Book Lessons
Altered Book.com
Modern Gypsy: Altered Page How To

Of course I'm not doing this alone - I have some other Twilight Moms with me and we're actually doing a Round Robin.

So, what's a round robin? We pass our books to different individuals in the group, each alters a section of their choice. They are inspired by the text or choose a theme and transform a spread (2 pages of the book together) into their own style of art! At the end of the round robin we all receive our books back, completed unless we want to add more ourselves. We also then alter the front of our book ourselves. In our case, we have 13 in our group so we'll be passing books every 2 weeks until about the end of July. I'm very excited to see what my book looks like when it's returned to me.

My plan is to once a month post the spreads that I have completed during this Traveling Twilight Saga Round Robin. It does take a while to work on these spreads. This is not a sit down, do it, it's done kind of project. I'm working with media I've not worked with since probably my high school art class. I'm a scrapbooker but this really makes me think outside the box as I can use so many things I wouldn't dare use in my scrapbooks (acrylic paints, watercolors, fibers, glue, chalks, charcoal, pencils, etc...) I know some scrappers do but I'm a very simple, clean and quick scrapper. This is definitely outside of my comfort zone! That's one reason I'm doing this.

So here is my first spread in my first altered book.

This is my sign in page - it's the inside front cover. All the participants in the round robin will sign in when they work in my book.

Some people even alter books into purses as done here at One of a Kind Altered Book Purses....I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon! Extremely fascinating - be sure to take a peak at these purses! Amazing the talent some people have.

Valentine's Day Cards - Twilight style

2009-01-27T20:33:00.004-05:00

I participated in a Valentines Day card exchange with some Twilight Moms. It was fun to be able to do these. I thought it would be nice to get something besides bills or junk in the mail. These were taken with my small camera which doesn't like to focus properly all the time anymore so if they are a tad bit blurry...sorry!

So here are my cards I made.

Dazzle:

Forever:

Lion & the Lamb

Courage

I think this is my favorite: Classic Vamp (outside and inside)

Guilders Weave 2009

2009-01-19T13:44:00.007-05:00

I started my crafting year off with the Guilders Weave 2009 hosted here in the Hampton Roads area by Tidewater Basketry Guild
In order to attend you must belong to one of six basketry guilds located here on the east coast. I'm a member of Tidewater Basketry Guild so I was able to attend. I almost didn't though. There is a deadline for registeration in September and this year they were full within a week of opening registeration! A few cancellations in November and I was able to attend. I was even able to attend the classes I had hoped for.

Last year, I aquired a box, a big box, full of deer antlers. So I've known for sometime that as soon as the opportunity arose to learn how to do deer antler baskets I was not going to miss it. This years Weavers Guild, did not disappoint me! While I realize not everyone agrees with this, using deer antlers in artwork, I did get my deer antlers from a farmer (family friend) who is an avid hunter. It's not as if the deer were raised specifically for their antlers or were poached illegally. (If you come across this and plan to leave a negative comment in regards to this - don't bother as I will not approve it and it won't be posted).

My first class on Thursday night was taught by Karen Zane. Karen has almost perfected the artwork of deer antler baskets. She has some gorgeous baskets and was a wonderful teacher. In the Frame Antler class I learned how to drill and frame my antler to get it ready to weave into a basket. I also learned how to clean my antlers up and how to polish them to give them a bit of a shine.

I finished the purpose of the class (probably because no weaving was involved LOL) and we even got a little weaving started. Antler baskets are typically ribbed baskets. I need to take a class on this. While I have the idea of it, it's just one of those techinques that I know I could learn alot of things from someone who is more experienced in weaving those style of baskets. So this is a very unfinished basket. Hopefully by April I can have it finished. I'll post when it's done. In the mean time here are some photos to show you what I did get done in class.

This is how the basket will sit when completed. The basket will be behind the antler. Every deer antler basket is unique. No two are ever alike, maybe similar but because all antlers are different, the baskets will be different and take a different shape.

Drilling and prepping the antlers was not as difficult as I expected. Simply just drill a hole into the antler. Sometimes the holes need to be angled. Once it's set, put a little hot glue into the hole and put the reed into the hole. The hot glue insures that it will stay in and not slip out as you are weaving or finished weaving.

My Friday class also involved a new technique for me. I learned how to coil pine needles to make them into a basket. The Pinecone Trinket Box taught by
Dianne Masi and Dory Maier was fun, relaxing and I certainly hope to do more (at the Marketplace on Friday night I spent all my money with Dianne and Dori for more pine needle supplies) In class we were taught the art of pine needle coiling using the wheat and fern stitch. I did not complete this basket. It's not that there wasn't time but I'm always the one in the class where it takes a while before the lightbulb goes off and I figure out what I'm doing. Now that I know what I'm doing I really am tempted to start all over but I won't, I'll finish what I started in class. Dianne and Dory are wonderful teachers. Their class was absolutely a blast. I hope to take one of their gourd classes next year.

For my Saturday class I learned how to make a Mini Antler Basket with Anne Bowers.
We learned how to weave with round reed, add ribs, shape their basket. We added some seagrass, leather, yarns and antler buttons to create a unique one of a kind basket! I did finish this basket in class. Of all my classes I've taken in the last 2-3 years or so I think this is a first for me! I'm really excited how this one turned out. I now see why Anne says they can be addictive. I can easily see myself turning out more of these. I also can understand why the smaller baskets are so expensive. Weaving small is very hard on the fingers.

My last class was on Sunday morning. I'm so glad it was the Random Weave Antler class taught again by Karen Zane. We chose an already framed antler and randomly weaved around the frame. This is seriously a random weave. There is no right or wrong after it's started. Just randomly weave until it's tight and sturdy. I like this. I don't have to think too hard or count any weaves! lol This is definitely a basket of artwork rather than a useful basket such as a market basket.
Embellishments can easily be added to these fancy pieces. I did finish mine although I have not yet added any embellishments. I want to stain it first and well the weather is just not condusive to staining baskets right now so that will have to wait. I believe I'll stain it a nice oak.

Golf Lap Quilt

2009-01-05T20:36:00.004-05:00

This year was the year of hand-made gifts for Christmas. I'll have several blogs, with pictures of several gifts so be sure to check back over the next couple of weeks. It may take me a while to get everything online!

I made this lap quilt for my husbands father for Christmas this year.

Twilight inspired crafts

2008-12-11T17:45:00.003-05:00

Yes, there is such a thing! Anyone who reads my regular blog, Random Ramblings, knows that I have a freakish addiction to TWILIGHT. Well, I'm not alone! I found some great crafters with some really neat Twilight crafts available.

SIMPLY BITTEN - is Cindy's shop. She's a fellow TwilightMom. I ordered one of her ink pens and a sticker for my car that says "got Twilight?" Don't ya just love it!

CRAFTDAFT - is a crafter from my daughters Twilight board that she hangs out on. She's got some really cute Twilight inspired pendants. Great for teenagers!

Thanksgiving Wreath

2008-12-04T20:51:00.002-05:00

I found this Martha Stewart "boxed craft" on sale at AC Moore. Thank goodness it was on sale. I would have been sorely disappointed had I spent the full $20 on this rather than the $6 I found it for! It looks much nicer on the box than after I finished it. It's okay, it's just kinda flat. Then again, it is a paper craft.

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

2008-12-04T20:42:00.003-05:00

This was my Thanksgiving centerpiece this year. I bought the Indians last year at Hobby Lobby (boy do I miss Hobby Lobby). The pumpkin & flowers I did myself. I bought the pumpkin at 80% off after Halloween at Michael's. The flowers were on sale as well. I don't think I spent more than $3.00 on them.

Pumpkin Carving 2008

2008-11-04T12:50:00.004-05:00

Is pumpkin carving a craft? If not, it should be. It sure did look like it when my kids were carving their pumpkins this year. We bought 3 pumpkins. Now mind you, the boys haven't carved for at least the last 2 years, maybe the last 3 but this year they decided to carve (I'm convienced it's because I only bought 3 pumpkins - one for DD, one for me and an extra just in case one of the boys changed their minds!) Oh well, that's fine. They did a great job. We had alot of compliments on them as parents brought their children up to the step for the treats.

"T" carved the Grim Reaper....

"C" carved a Phantom of the Opera lookin' type of thing...

DD craved a vampire pumpkin (yes, she's a Twilight fan, as am I)

Craft Weekend Countdown

2008-10-17T13:16:00.003-04:00

It's on the calendar!
November 13, 14th & 15th is the dates for my daughter and I to have our own crafting weekend! I figure if we set the time on the calendar, it'll get done!

Little Sand, A Few Shells and a Jar

2008-09-09T13:09:00.005-04:00

This is a very quick and easy "craft". I've seen these in little specialty shops out here in Virginia for sale! I'd never buy anything like this but I definitely can do it myself.

I had a mason jar and sea shells. Oh we have sea shells. My daughter use to collect them mostly by buying them, a bunch of them, for a $1.00 at the swap meet in Hawaii. We picked up a small bag of sand from the beach last week.

I added a candle to the big one. It is a small votive candle and it is in a small candle holder - here's hoping the wax does not drip on the sand. If I find that's a bad idea, I'll come back and post.

**okay the candle didn't work out well - if you use a votive candle be sure it's in a full votive candle holder. The one I used was not the same size as the candle so some wax did overflow into the sand. Good thing I have more sand! LOL **

I'm trying to "decorate" our master bathroom. I'd like to find a couple of (cheaper) artistic prints to hang in there but so far I'm coming up with nothing. I'm starting with the nautical beachy theme (not like tropical beach as we had in Hawaii but more Nantucket like I guess)

ETSY.com

2008-08-12T11:26:00.002-04:00

Have you heard about the cool place online to get some homemade, handmade gifts? This is perfect for the person who loves crafts, but doesn't like making them.

I have a friend who has opened her own ETSY store. She's very talented and has some great items for sale. So check out BIRD HAVEN Greetings & Gifts at ETSY.com She has a wide variety of handmade tags, notecards, bookmarks as well as some vintage items.

Beaded Submarine Lapel Pin

2008-08-07T12:30:00.004-04:00

This is an old 'craft'. I made this years ago with some other submarine wives, a way to pass the time while our husbands were out to sea. I had a friend recently ask if I knew how to make these and so...because of her ~ I blog for all ;-)

You'll need 1 large safety pin and 14 small-medium sized safety pins and several red, blue, black and clear (or white) small beads.

Using the small-medium pins, add beads following the instructions below.

3 red, 4 clear, 3 blue
3 red, 4 clear, 3 blue
3 red, 2 clear, 3 black, 2 blue
3 red, 1 clear, 5 black, 1 blue
3 red, 1 clear, 5 black, 1 blue
1 red, 1 black, 1 red, 5 black, 1 blue **
1 red, 8 black, 1 blue
3 red, 6 black, 1 blue
3 red, 1 clear, 5 black, 1 blue
3 red, 1 clear, 5 black, 1 blue
1 red, 2 clear 3 black, 2 blue
3 red, 3 clear, 1 black, 3 blue
3 red, 2 clear, 3 black, 2 blue
3 red, 4 clear, 3 blue

** each row should have 10 beads, except for 1 - all I can think is that maybe due to size of the beads a 10th one wouldn't fit. No clue - add an additional black if necessary to fill up space.

When these are done, add them onto the large safety pin. Now there's a little trick to this - you have to loop the beaded pins around the end of the large pin (see picture - as I'm not really sure how to explain it). It may take some trial and error to figure it out.

I need inspiration...

2008-07-23T09:59:00.003-04:00

or motivation. Someone help - INSPIRE ME, MOVE ME, MOTIVATE ME.... I want to craft but I don't know where to start!

Do you know a good craft blog? Quilt blog? Scrapbooking blog? Basket-weaving Blog? (other than mine of course )

Leave the blogsite in a comment so I can check it out!

Testing, testing...I'm trying something new

2008-07-01T09:35:00.002-04:00

You'll see over on my sidebar that I have an area now for you to subscribe to my blogs. When you put your email in, my blogs will be delivered directly to your mailbox once a day. If I don't blog, you get no email (from me anyway). It's very easy. However, I'm not sure I have it working correctly. You can put your email in and help me out. If you don't get any emails with blogs, but see a blog here let me know! I've subscribed myself to see what happens. I may have to do some changing of some codes. If that's the case, eventually you'll have to resubscribe. So bear with me while I figure this out please!

Happy Crafting!

Scrapbook Goodies!!!!!!

2008-06-30T20:30:00.003-04:00

I've not bought any scrapbooking supplies for no reason for a long time. I mean I've purposely tried not to because I have so much "stash" as it is and I've not really had much time to work on my albums this year, other than in January when I went my 32 hour crop!

So now that we are somewhat settled in Virginia I'm ready to get back to my hobbies; scrapbooking to be exact (for now anyway). So my DH and I made our way to one of the local scrapbook stores here - BEACH SCRAPBOOKS. I'm really excited.
They have Friday night crops - 14 hours for $5! The ladies all seemed really nice.

So with my adorable, loving husbands prompting I made a few purchases to get myself motivated to start scrapping again! Just some random stuff - bought some papers that will be perfect for 4th of July celebrations and I also picked up some nautical type stuff for the beaches. I found some Sea World papers and stickers to go with our Sea World visit in June. Lots of fun - now cross your fingers I actually get some scrapping done in July!

Beware of the Scrapbooker

2008-06-26T10:39:00.001-04:00

My YahooGroups Scrapbooking & Stamping

2008-05-07T12:24:00.003-04:00

I put an icon for my Yahoogroups list in my sidebar. Just click on it and you'll go to the yahoogroup site. Feel free to join if you'd like. The more the merrier! We try to motivate each other in scrapbooking for the most part. We have Cyber-Crops on occassion. We're a pretty close knit group but always open to new scrappers and stampers any time! For the most part this year though, we've been a quiet list. We can get chatty at times but it's not like you'll be bombarded with 100 emails a day from the group!
If you do join, I'd appreciate an introduction and let us know how you found us!

Old Chairs, like New

2008-04-29T09:49:00.003-04:00

We've had these 2 dining room chairs for years. This is the 2nd time I've recovered them. This time though, I gave them a face lift with some paint as well. I tried to find a 'before' picture from the last time but it seems to be misplaced on my computer somewhere. If I find it, I'll come back and edit the post to show you what it looked like before. This will be my last "crafty" project before we move in a few weeks. I'm hoping after we move to get alot of my quilting, scrapbooking and basketweaving done again!

Dear Baby Jane...A quilt Journey

2008-04-22T11:15:00.003-04:00

For all you quilters out there - I thought you might enjoy this. I found it interesting and just sorta happen to land on it while surfing Blogger.
DEAR BABY JANE BLOG

If you aren't familiar with Dear Jane quilts, check out the official website and it will give you some history.
DEAR JANE QUILTS

Children's Memory Quilt

2008-04-20T22:06:00.005-04:00

I've known for a long time that I want to someday make a memory quilt for each of my kids from some of their old baby clothes. I've been keeping not just baby clothes but also some sentimental tee-shirts over the years. The pile has gotten really big....so today I cut some of them down. I still don't know exactly how these quilts will turn out but I'll get to them one day. In the meantime I thought I'd show you some before and after picture so the piles of clothes turned to scraps for quilts.

If you don't know what a Memory Quilt from children's clothing looks like you can check out this site: MEMORY QUILT

They all are unique and different. I'll probably just make wallhangings for my kids.

BEFORE

AFTER

And while digging through their clothes I found my little pink sweater and a little outfit of mine when I was just a tiny thing.

More FREEBIES!

2008-04-08T13:02:00.003-04:00

Vintage, Martha Stewart, Baking aprons, Craft aprons....
Check out these 56 FREE Apron Patterns that you can make.
I've not looked at all of them but the ones I did check out looked pretty good.
Enjoy!

No Sew Fleece Blanket

2008-03-31T13:34:00.006-04:00

I made this for my neice who turned 16 this month!

Interested in making one? They are so easy! I had mine done in an evening.

No Sew Fleece Blanket #1 Good Instructions & Pictures

No Sew Fleece Blanket #3 PDF - save it to your computer if you want. Excellent step by step instructions/pictures. This one "knots" differently.

A few FREEBIES!

2008-03-15T22:47:00.003-04:00

Who doesn't love freebies?? I found some really cute freebie quilt patterns just surfing around the web tonight.

Easter Placemat

Let's Go Green....grocery bags

Shoo Fly Coasters

Ornament Table Runner and Placemat

Sunbonnet Sue Blocks

Baskets, baskets, baskets....

2008-02-25T20:38:00.007-05:00

These are going to the shop! I'm not overly happy with a couple of them, but hopefully someone will like them....

SPRING BASKET - great basket to collect those eggs from the Easter Egg hunt in!

St. Patty's Day Basket - Just whipped this one up. No pattern. I had a handle, needed to use it. It didn't come out quite as nice as I would have liked but again, hopefully someone will like it LOL!!! I weaved in the ribbon around the basket when it was all done.

This is my Maple Oval basket. I really liked how this one turned out. I used an 8" square hoop for this one. It was suppose to be an apple basket (and round) but it turned out oval and since I tried a new maple stain; I named it my Maple Oval basket.

I'm working on a couple others so check back soon to see more!

Winter Crop 2007

2008-01-26T18:02:00.001-05:00

What does 32 hours in a hotel get you? 52 12x12 pages and 24 7x7 pages completed is what it got me! LOL The first weekend of January, my sister, mom and I went to a weekend crop. I worked on 3 albums (Hawaii, Groton Years 93-97), completing one (20th Anniversary Album of Duke & I)
I am thrilled to say I accomplished quite a bit. I've put together a small sample in this slideshow!

A Basket for My Sister!

2008-01-23T17:24:00.002-05:00

This was my Christmas gift to my sister this year.
It's a Braided Seagrass Basket. I've weaved three of these. I love this basket. It's so useful and easy to weave. I enjoy this basket.

Red Hat Basket

2007-12-28T23:27:00.002-05:00

I made this for my husband's mother for Christmas. It has caused quite the stir and seems to be very popular. I'm glad everyone liked it. I found the ceramic tie on, on eBay. I really enjoy weaving baskets which is funny now since I hated it in the beginning LOL!!!!

Christmas Baskets

2007-12-25T21:50:00.001-05:00

I work/volunteer at a small store on the local base here in Ft. Bliss. Basically the way it works - I volunteer my time to work 4 hours a month in the store and I can sell my baskets in the store. I'm almost hoping that these didn't sell so I can have them LOL I'll know next time I go into the store if they are still there or not. These are small. They could easily be hung or put on the Christmas tree. Here's one of them. I've taken advantage of the sales already this year and have stocked up supplies for more next year!

"Scrap" Calendars

2007-12-25T21:47:00.002-05:00

I made these for the grandparents. It's an accumulation of photos from over the last 17 years since the kids were born. I used left over cardstock, stickers and embellishments. Digging through and deciding on photos to use was the hardest part for me.

Painted Clear Glass Ornaments

2007-12-07T13:02:00.001-05:00

We made a few of these this year. We've made them in the past years. They are fun to do and not overly messy.
You can find more instruction on how to do them here:
http://www.save-on-crafts.com/howtomakcero.html

Paper Loop Christmas Tree

2007-12-05T22:24:00.001-05:00