Friendly Reminder ...

Just a note to remind you that I've moved to luxcrafts.blogspot.com.  Hope to see you there :)

Moving Out ...

Happy New Year, y'all! I've MOVED my blog to http://luxcrafts.blogspot.com.  I sure hope you'll visit me there and update your reader/subscriptions.  See ya there!

 

December Bee Blocks

Happy New Year's Eve y'all!  I am back today to share the rest of my December Bee Blocks with you.  I really enjoy the virtual quilting bees that I am participating in via Flickr.  I have definitely tried out some blocks that I never would have otherwise and have enjoyed the challenge and inspiration. :-)

First up, is the PBee&J swap that I am in ... I made this wonky house block for Corley. This is a block I wouldn't have tried on my own, but I am glad I did!

In this swap, we also make a signature block.  She asked for a 5" square, and I chose to make it a mini house.

I also made two more wonky-style blocks for December.  This time, they were log cabins and for the do.Good Stitches bee, which is a charity bee.  Anna, our quilter this month, asked for white, aqua/turquoise and white blocks.  I hope my colors are on target and will blend well with the others.

And the second block ...

Well, that is all for now!  :-)  Have a great New Year's Eve everyone!  See you tomorrow :)

4th Quarter Bee Blocks

Hi again!  I was so excited to start sewing for fun today ... with absolutely no letter shirt orders on the books! :-)  I am working on quilting a large quilt for a friend and I will share that soon, but I also had some time to get caught up on some bee blocks for a few swaps. 

For now, I will share the blocks I made for the 3 x 6 - 4th quarter swap.  I was in beehive 9 for this one.  Basically, you make 6 of the same block in different color ways. I chose to do a pinwheel block.

Here's one in aqua, green and white ...

Pink, orange and yellow ...

Red, aqua and white ...

This one with black, red, white, and gray ...

Gray, red and white ...

And purple, gray and white ...

I hope all my fellow stitchers love their blocks!  :-)

Back tomorrow with some more bee blocks to close out December & 2010!

Stay warm!

The snowstorm of 2010 left us with this ...

For the most part, beautiful ... minus the 3 hours of no power.  But at least it was a short period without electricity ... especially since this is perfect weather for using our new Keurig coffee maker! :-)

Hope you are all staying warm!

White Christmas!

Hi everyone!  I hope that you all had a lovely Christmas!  We had a nice day visiting with my mister's family in the morning and then heading to my parents' home in the afternoon.  We got home just before all the snow settled in ... we now have about 5 inches or so.  I will try and post a few pictures of that tomorrow.  :-) For now, I will leave you with a picture of our Christmas tree ...

Take care and talk with you soon! :-)

Paper Crafts Mag

Hi!  Can you believe Christmas is less than two weeks away?  Good grief do I have a lot of projects left to finish!  A few more shirts, a quilt, a few other projects, and more ... better get back to work!

I did want to share some news ... the PaperCrafts Jan/Feb 2011 issue is out and I have a fun shaped card in it ... you can even download my template from the PC website!  Here's the magazine you'll be looking for at the store ...

It's blisteringly cold here and we may get a little white stuff on Thursday ... which I would love, but then we'd have to make up the day next Wednesday instead of having a 2 day week.  I think I'd rather just get the school days over with!  ha!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  :-)

Scrappy Cards

Hi and happy Friday!  We have one more "handmade holiday" post this week and this one combines my love of paper AND fabric!  Yippee!

Check out my tutorial post for this card and comment tonight if you want a chance to win our samples from the week!  :-)

Hi

Hiya!  Happy *almost* Friday y'all!  It has been a long week of meetings and grading and decorating and more, so I am definitely looking forward to this weekend ... even though there's no college football that we have a stake in!  :-)

I wanted to share a card I made several weeks ago ... one that I really love.  It's the colors I think that I like so much about it and I think its just stinkin' cute.  Maybe that's why I haven't mailed it to anyone yet!  haha  This was pretty easy ... slap a tag from a tag book down, add some letter stickers and a flower, button and some felt leaves.  Cute huh?  Love that zig zag paper!

Speaking of cards ... giving some away with today's project on the Sew Lux blog.  Hope to see you over there too!  :-)

Also, if you're shopping online and NOT using ebates, you're just plain crazy!  They give you cash back on your purchases AND list the coupon codes for just about every store I've ever wanted to shop online at. 

Have a great Friday y'all!  :-)

Giveaway Alert

Just stopping in to share that we're continuing our Handmade Holiday series on the Sew Lux blog.  Today we've got a tutorial on some quick & easy coasters - perfect gift to add with some pretty mugs and some tea!  You can also win the coaster set we've shared!

I will be back tomorrow with a card for you!

Thanks for stopping by!  :-)

Cards & More

Hi everyone!  I wanted to stop in and share a set of cards I made a few weeks ago for a friend's birthday.  I used a few pieces of paper from a 6x6 Basic Grey paper pad and mixed and matched them into these 3.5 x 5.5 cards. 

 

I did decided to "rough 'em up" with some tea dye ink and I think it worked well with the paper combination.  I kept the sentiments pretty generic so she could use them for any number of occasions.  I am planning to go on a card set making blitz here in a few days to prepare some sets for Christmas gifts ... I will be sure to share them here after I've given them away. :-)

Speaking of Christmas gifts ... I have a fun, quick gift I idea for today's Handmade Holiday post on the Sew Lux blog.  Here's a sneak peek ...

Now run over to the blog and see how you can whip one up for yourself!  :-)

Thanks for stopping by!  :-)

Handmade Holiday

Happy Monday y'all!  Today kicks off our Handmade Holiday week on the Sew Lux blog.  Check out our quilted fabric ornaments and comment for a chance to win one!  :-)

 

See ya back here tomorrow with some cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

do Good Stitches November Block

Hi!  Just checking in and sharing my November do.Good.Stitches block.  Rachel hosted this month and sent us each an embroidered animal and asked us to use a specific color ... mine was butter yellow.  Hope I got the shade right!  :-)

This block took me a LOT longer to make than I thought it would.  (So did deciding on a design. Which I finally decided and just went on ahead and improv-ed it.)  I was then too scared to trim it after all that, so I will let her do that.  Hope she doesn't mind.  :-)  Here's the block ...

Here's a closer view of the block.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I hope it will look great with all the others she is putting together!  :-)

Edited to Add:  I designed this block as I went along.  I had intended to do all hexies, but wanted to use bigger hexies to do that.  The embroidery piece limited the size, so I ended up added borders instead of doing hexies for the whole block.  :-)

I am still working on getting the Sew Lux Blog ready for the "Handmade Holiday" series that will kick off this weekend ... so be on the lookout for some quick and fun projects!

See you soon!

Exciting!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to share some exciting news with you!  I have two cards featured in the Paper Crafts Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Vol. 2! 

 

I was thrilled this summer to find out that a two of my cards were accepted for publication and even more thrilled to get a copy of the magazine in the mail!  Super fun, I tell ya!  :-)  There are some great ideas in this edition for all kinds of cards ... you should definitely get a copy.  You can learn more about this issue at the Paper Crafts Connection blog.

I also wanted to share that I have a new blog for Sew Lux Fabric.  It's a work in progress ... but will be all pretty and ready to go for our Handmade Holiday series which kicks off this weekend with projects, samples, giveaways and more!  I'd love it if you followed the blog and/or added it to your Google Reader! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  :-)

Birthday Wishes

Hiya! Just stopping in to share a birthday card with you. I love pink and green and so this card is a fav! :-)I let the patterned paper do all the work on this one and just stamped the sentiment in the corner. I added a strip of coordinating green houndstooth (love this print on paper and fabric) and some ribbon. Easy peasy but still very pretty!

Hope you are having a fabulous day! :-)

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Giga Guidelines (PTI)
Paper: Sultry (Basic Grey); Hibiscus Burst card stock (PTI)
Other: grosgrain (PTI)

Sew Thankful

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday with family. :)

This year, I am thankful for many things ... including the opportunity to start a fabric business with my mom. It's something we've dreamed about for a long time and this year, we took the plunge!

Our Thanksgiving Sale: Save 10% on your entire purchase with coupon code "thankful" and free shipping on orders of $75 or more through the weekend - shop our site or Etsy store.

We've got a few new fabrics in and have several new bundles mixed up ... just in time to get started on some holiday sewing! Here's one of them ....
And here's one of our new fabrics ... I'm a girl who can't resist a good black & white polka dot fabric! Check out our other new dots, houndstooths and bundles today!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

November 31 Deals

Hi y'all! Hope you're having a great weekend. Both our football teams won today, so it was a good day here at my house! :-)

Just wanted to share the current Thirty-One customer special since there's a few days left in November to take advantage of it. For EVERY $31 you spend in November, you can get a free zipper pouch (retail $12) in one of the 5 prints shown (Peacock Paisley, Paparazzi Dot, Boho Patchwork Paisley, Onyx Medallion, or Floral Fanfare; additional $6 to monogram each item).
These bags are so great for a lot of things ... they are pretty big, too! Almost the size of a full sheet of 8/5 x 11 paper. Great for school supplies, cosmetics, craft projects in progress (I tote card sets to assemble downstairs in these as well as my hexagons that I'm stitching together), keeping larger bags and suitcases organized, etc. Great for teachers and coworkers too!

Note that the special is for every $31 you spend ... so if your order is more than $31, just add one of these to your cart - for free! If your order is $62 or more, add two for free, etc.

If you're interested in placing an order, just head over to my website where you can view the catalog and order online. Or feel free to email me for a paper copy of the catalog or to place your order! This special runs through November 30th. All orders placed by December 13th will arrive in time for Christmas. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings & Smiles Girly!

Hi again! Just sharing another stack of cards that went out to sweet, long-time friend the other day. She does in fact make me smile, she is a blessing, and she does rock! All perfect sentiments for her and for her to have on hand to send to others. Hope she likes this color scheme!Can't wait to finish sewing all these t-shirts so I can start crafting up a storm for the holidays ... not only do I have big plans ... I have a BIG stash of paper and fabric all waiting to be cut into! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sew Nice

Hi again! Just dropping in to share a cute little sewing theme card I whipped up the other day. I took a well-deserved daycation from my sewing machine on Veterans Day ... and made some cards ... about sewing! Go figure.(Note: please excuse the poor photo ... took this late at night.)
Anyway, I made four of these really quickly using an assembly-line style production. Die cut all the labels, stamped the machines, stamped the sentiments, cut the background paper, glued it all together and added some ribbon. That paper is "sew fun" and I made 2 with this color way and two with the papers flip flopped.

I am finding that I really enjoy the 3.5 x 5 cards lately ... they are just cute ... and I think my design layout looked better on this size than a larger 4.25 x 5.5 card for this one. A few of our Sew Lux customers may just get one of these in with their order ;-)

That's all for now! Thanks "sew much" for stopping by! :-)

Paper Reverie

Hiya and happy Monday, y'all! Hope your week is off to a great start. :-)

This past weekend I took some time to paper craft after a long week of sewing under some pretty serious deadlines. I decided to make a couple of quick card sets to mail off to some friends I had been thinking of lately. Here's one of the sets (excuse my Bernina in the background).
I used some paper and embellishments from the Paper Reverie collection in the Sienne colorway that I got from a recent Studio Calico kit. I added some tea stained twill and some twine along with some Fine Linen card stock and put together these four cards. Here's a closer look at one of them. I *think* these got where they are going today, so I hope my sweet friend likes them. :-)

Off to work on a few more shirts ... hope to finally be done with my orders by Thanksgiving so I can get on to creating for fun and hawking some fabric. :)

Speaking of fabric, we have all of our "custom bundles" (sets of coordinating fat quarters and half yards) for 20% off - prices are already reduced on our Sew Lux Etsy store or you can use the coupon code "welcome" on our main site.

This set is from the Tea Garden collection ... pretty, huh?!
Thanks for stopping by! :-)