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!  :-)

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!

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! :-)

Baby Shower Decorating

Hi and happy Sunday! The weather has cooled down to the low 80s here - thank goodness! I am so over 90+ degree heat. :-)

I wanted to share one of my favorite projects from the baby shower I hosted a few weekends ago. I have been stitching letters on shirts for a long time now ... and I thought it would be fun to make a garland with a set of onesies. Here's how it turned out ...
I drew some letters and cut them out of brown polka dot fabric. I had an extra one and cut out a heart shape around an owl since we had an owl theme. I strung some grosgrain ribbon up and pinned them along. It was really cute. Unfortunately, it was rainy that day and I didn't have great light for the photos!

I also added these to the Sew Lux shop. :-)

That's all for now ... off to our favorite little Mexican restaurant. Yum!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lemonade ...

Hey y'all! Hope you've enjoyed the holiday weekend! We've had great weather here and I am going to enjoy the shortened work week! :-)

Not too long ago, I mentioned that there was a new business in my future. About a month ago, my mom was forced to say goodbye to her job of 32 years. We've since decided to try and take those lemons and turn them into lemonade! So, I introduce to you ... drum roll, please ...

Sew Lux Fabric & Gifts

My mom and I have been sewing and quilting folk for quite some time. We've often discussed the dream of having a quilt shop. So, we've been busy sewing and getting our ducks in a row to start one up on the World Wide Web. So far, we've got several quilts ready to go, several on the way, and many more products in the works. We also hope to start our fabric portion of the store sometime in October. For now, we've got some finished goods ready to go. Here's a few peeks at 'em ...

Birdy Baby Quilt

Elephant Baby Quilt

Check out our new Sew Lux Etsy store! :-) I hope you won't mind my sharing here when we have new things ready in the shop :-)

Have a great week, y'all! Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Shower

Hi everyone! I survived the first week of school and have been enjoying the weekend so far. I went to a baby shower yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Of course, I had to make a card ...

I used some PTI paper and a paper doilie for the background. I have seen a lot of doilies around and had been hoarding a package of them for awhile. :-) I also stamped a stork image and colored it with some Copics and added that panel on foam tape. I spelled babe with some BG letter stickers from a recent Studio Calico kit. (Sorry for the crappy photo ... was in a hurry to get to the shower!)

I also packaged up a lot of baby goodies in a Thirty-One tote. This one is called the Organizing Utility Tote and is less than $30 even after adding an initial or monogram to it! It actually has 7 outside pockets (2 shown filled here) and holds a lot of stuff. I had their last name initial added to the bag and also had a matching insulated Small Lunch Tote with a few bottles inside tucked into the larger bag along with some cute outfits, of course! It was a hit!
There's still 2 days left to take advanatage of the August Special which is $1 embroidery on all items (normally $6 per item). Feel free to check out the catalog and shop online or email me if you have any questions!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Amuse
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Chai, Chamomile (PTI); Copic markers
Paper: White, Kraft, Green Boutique patterned paper (PTI)
Other: Doilie (Wilton); New Leaf grosgrain (PTI)

Cuteness

Hey y'all! Just stopping in today to share some totes that arrived yesterday for a few of my Thirty-One customers. I wanted to share this photo since it shows several of the embroidery styles. These are definitely some of the cutest lunch bags on the market!During the month of August, all embroidery is just $1 per item - a $5 savings over the normal $6/item charge. So each of these insulated beauties is only $15 with your name or initials! Try to beat that deal, my friends! :-) And because of the embroidery special, you are basically getting this for 25% off regular retail. Pick up one for yourself or a friend or grab a few to tuck Christmas gifts in later and forget about last minute wrapping and taping! The embroidery sale ends August 31st - a week from today.

If you have any questions, feel free to visit my Thirty-One website or drop me an email. It's so easy to order one online or you can send me your order via email. :-)

Owl Card Set

Hiya! Is the summer flying by or what?! Maybe I better not think about how I will be back in the classroom before I know it ... I still have a lot of projects I want to work on!

Speaking of projects, my BFF loves some owls and I found this paper awhile back that was too cute to pass up. I whipped up a quick set of 6 thank you notes for her complete with a stamped envelope. :-)
She loved them and I hope she enjoys sending them out as much as I enjoyed making them. Pretty easy ... lots of layers and quick to mass produce. The thin ribbon is easy to mail too - good thing since I am sure she'll be using a lot of postage in the coming months. :-)

That's all for now ... off to work on some sketch challenges. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Fox & Friends (SU!); sentiment from Baby Wishes (Amuse)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU!), Antique Linen (Ranger Distress). Simply Chartreuse (PTI)
Paper: Dark Chocolate, White (PTI); Owls All Around from Fern Collection (Adorn It)
Other: Ribbon (craft store)

Zoology Baby Quilt

Hello there and happy Friday! This time last week I was deciding to whip out a quilt before lunch with a friend (and new mom!) on Saturday. Anyone else out there procrastinate? I can procrastinate with the best of them. In fact, if I don't have a deadline its hard for me to get things done.

Anywho ... I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to go for it about 3:30 in the afternoon. I cut fabric for three of these and finished an entire one - handstitched binding and all - by about 10:00 PM. Here it is ...
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this fabric. Its stinkin' cute. And boy appropriate. Its about 32" x 34". The color is a little better in the photo below ...
I am SO glad I took a chance on that striped binding. I really love how it turned out and am so glad I can cut and press a fold straight or that would have been a BIG disaster. LOL

This photo shows the binding and backing. I used that same focal print on the back and did an all-over stippling to quilt it up. I don't pre-wash anything so when I wash it and everything shrinks a bit it has the best bubbly texture.
Finally, I also made a little burp cloth to match using some leftovers. Note: pre-wash the cloth diapers first next time. (They shrink ALOT more than the fabric.) Despite being a little imperfect in the end, I figured it was still cute enough to get spit up on.
Well there you have it! :-) Hope to make a few more of these to put up in my Etsy shop in the next couple of weeks! I will keep you posted on that!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

The Big Project Part 4

Hello again! Today's I am sharing the last of the pregnancy journal album ... the final "trimester" and welcome baby page ...

7 Months Page ... 8 Months page ...
9 Months page ... (lovin' this color combo)
And finally ... the "welcome" page ... I thought this would be a good place to include a first family photo and the basics of the wee one.And just in case you hadn't had your fill on baby projects from me this week ... I will show you another "quilt-in-a-evening" gift I made last week. So cute ... see you soon! :-)

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
7 Months Page
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride "Are We There Yet", October Afternoon Fly A Kite "Fireflies", PTI Kraft, White, American Crafts Rocky Road
Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate grosgrain; Making Memories Oliver chipboard number

8 Months Page
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride "Are We There Yet", Peebles Tree House "Sunset", PTI Kraft, White, SU! Really Rust
Accessories: PTI Ocean Tides grosgrain; Cosmo Cricket High Noon chipboard number sticker

9 Months Page
Paper: American Crafts Abode "Cherry Hill Avenue", My Mind's Eye Lush "Brown Houndstooth", PTI White, Kraft; SU! Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: PTI Simply Chartreuse grosgrain; American Crafts Nutmeg number sticker

Welcome Page
Paper: Pebbles Tree House "Sunset", My Mind's Eye Lush "Brown Houndstooth", PTI White, Kraft; American Crafts Rocky Road
Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate grosgrain; Basic Grey "Green at Heart" chipboard sticker letters, Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie rubons ("precious one")

All Pages:
PTI Faux Ribbon stamp set; Distress Antique Linen Ink; SU! Curly Label Punch; sewing machine

The Big Project: Part 3

Hi everyone! Back again today to share a few more pages from the album I created.

Here's "4 months" ...
Love that numbered paper from Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride line and all the fun colors in it.

Here's the "5 months" page ...
And here's the "6 months" page ...
I will be back tomorrow with the final three pages and then I will have some fun cards to share! See ya then!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
4 Months Page
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride "Are We There Yet", Pebbles Tree House "Sunset", PTI Kraft, White, SU! Really Rust
Accessories: PTI Simply Ocean Tides grosgrain; Cosmo Cricket High Noon chipboard number sticker

5 Months Page
Paper: October Afternoon Fly a Kite "Fireflies", My Mind's Eye Lush "Brown Houndstooth", PTI Kraft, White, Bazzill "Lagoon"
Accessories: PTI Chartreuse grosgrain; Making Memories Oliver chipboard number

6 Months Page
Paper: American Crafts Abode "Cherry Hill Avenue", My Minds Eye Lush "Brown Houndstooth", Bazzill "Lagoon", PTI White, Kraft
Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate grosgrain; American Crafts Nutmeg number sticker

All Pages:
PTI Faux Ribbon stamp set; Distress Antique Linen Ink; SU! Curly Label Punch; sewing machine

The Big Project Part 2

Happy Tuesday! Back today to share the "first trimester" of the baby story journal I made. Each page has a rectangle of patterned paper to mount a photo on and then a spot to journal a little something. It also has a little piece of white card stock sewn along an edge to record a date.

1 Month page ...
2 Months page ... I really love this color combo!3 Months page ...Back tomorrow with more! :-)

Supplies Used:
1 Month Page
Paper: Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride "Are We There Yet", Pebbles Tree House "Sunset", PTI Kraft, White, American Crafts Rocky Road
Accessories: PTI Simply Chartreuse grosgrain; American Crafts Regards chip board letter sticker

2 Months Page
Paper: October Afternoon Fly a Kite "Fireflies", My Mind's Eye Lush "Brown Houndstooth", Pebbles Tree House "Sunset" (reverse is that pretty jade!), PTI Kraft, White, Bazzill "Lagoon"
Accessories: PTI Ocean Tides grosgrain; Cosmo Cricket High Noon chipboard number sticker

3 Months Page
Paper: American Crafts Abode "Cherry Hill Avenue", American Crafts "Rocky Road", PTI White, Kraft
Accessories: PTI Dark Chocolate grosgrain; American Crafts Nutmeg number sticker

All Pages:
PTI Faux Ribbon stamp set; Distress Antique Linen Ink; SU! Curly Label Punch; sewing machine

The Big Project

Hey y'all! (That makes me feel like Paula Dean to start off with "Hey y'all! LOL) Anyway ... I am finally checking in to post some pictures of the big project I worked on a week or so ago. I was really excited about this one and while I am still excited about how it turned out, I wish I had had more forethought about what to include ... because ... well, (1) I am not pregnant and haven't had a baby yet and (2) I just haven't scrapped a lot! So while I would do it a bit different now, I am excited to share my first big mini album project with you all ... a pregnancy journal mini album for my BFF!

This is the little cover I made for the album. My BFF is preggers (not me ... my BFF! haha) and she loves her some owls right now. And she's having a boy. Have I ever mentioned that I like pink?! What's up with everyone having a boy - I don't collect boy paper and fabric! LOL Anyway ... I used some cutie owl fabric and lined it with dots and used the dots as little ties ... all a pattern off the fly.
Here's the front of the book ... I will share a couple of pages a day so I can tell you more about what I used on each page, etc. But I started with some notepad backer paper and cut them in half to make 8.5 x 5.5 sheets. I used a few different papers thoughout the book ... some of which are on the front here. I hand wrote the couple's name and the year on the front. (She's due in October.) And then on the back of the album, I stamped my "handmade by" schtuff and then added a little extra love. You can see here that I have an envelope on the back of each page to stuff little notes, prayers and extra photos in. (Note: its likely that all these pages will get mounted on a scrap page ... because as you'll see tomorrow I didn't anticipate that my self-proclaimed noncrafty friend would want to go to town journaling. That is not to say she doesn't like the album, because she loved it ... but I will start asking what my friends might want in the future instead of going for a total surprise element!) But anyway ... I thought it was a great idea in theory!
Well, I am off to bed ... you'll have to come back tomorrow to see the first couple of pages!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Notepad backer chipboard sheets (Thecraftypc.com)
Paper: Lush Brown Houndstooth (reverse side used - My Minds Eye), Fly A Kite Fireflies (reverse side (green dots) - October Afternoon), Lagoon textured (Bazzill)
Ink: Distress Antique Linen
Sticker Letters: Holly Doodle (Pink Paislee),
Ribbon: Dark Chocolate, Ocean Tides grosgrain

Quick Card Kit

Hi all! Hope the weekend is off to a great start. I wanted to share a quick and easy 3.5 x 5" card set that I made yesterday. I kept it simple and now have a gift on hand for someone. Here's the finished product, including the little box I made for the set.
Here's all eight cards in the set - 4 thank yous and 4 hellos. These went together really fast with an assembly line process. I cut all the card bases and then all the label shapes. I punched a hole in all the labels and added the brads. Then stamp and adhere. Easy!Here's a few up close and personal. :-)That's all for now. I spent most of yesterday afternoon working on a little scrapbook for a friend. I will take pictures today and share once I have presented it to her - which I can hardly wait to do! :-)

Don't forget to comment for my giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: PTI Fillable Frames #1
Ink: PTI Fresh Snow, Enchanted Evening
Paper: PTI Kraft, Enchanted Evening, Spring Rain and SU! Kiwi Kiss
Other: PTI Mat Stack 1 label die; K&Company Blue Awning flower brads, SU! Old Olive ribbon

Sew Lovely

Hi everyone! Sorry its been awhile since my last post ... last week got away from me. :-)

This is my last week at work until the next school year. Busy cleaning, calculating, and filing etc. But it has been nice to slow down a bit at work and get to know some coworkers better since this was my first year at this school. I learned that several of the women in my department enjoy sewing as much as I do and I wish I had started getting to know them better sooner! The other night I decided to break out my Sew Lovely stamp set that I finally broke down and ordered and whip up a couple quick sets of cards for two of them. Here's the packaged ensemble...
I made a little pocket with some Soft Stone paper and I just tucked the cards in the pocket. Two light pink and two hot pink in each pocket. Then I tied a fun fabric scrap around it to dress it up a bit. (I should have been sewing for real, so I didn't have a lot of time to get really crazy with the decorating. And it was late, so my pictures aren't all that super - sorry!)

Here's a picture of the cards that went in. They all had different ribbons, but the same layout and concept. These are very easy to assembly line produce. Just cut everything, stamp everything, color everything ... well, you get the idea. I think its safe to say that they liked them :-)

Well, its off to bed. See y'all back here on the blog soon. Two more days and I am free (for the most part) to craft my summer away!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Lawn Fawn - Sew Lovely
Ink: SU! Going Gray; Copics
Paper: PTI White, Smokey Shadow, Raspberry Fizz, Soft Stone; SU! Pink Pirouette
Accessories: PTI Raspberry Fizz ribbons; sewing machine; fabric scrap

Tea Time

Hi! I just wanted to stop in and share the favors I made for my sorority's mother-daughter tea yesterday. I found this cute tea cup fabric and decided to make some coasters. Here's how those turned out...I love the colors in this fabric. So fun! To package everything up, I included a coaster, a few assorted tea bags, and some chocolates in a large glassine bag. And then wrapped a piece of paper around the package followed by some ribbon and a tag. Here's a couple of them ...I really love that teal paper with the pomegranate ribbon. And here's a closer view of the tags I made. I used the Warm Happiness set for the sentiment and the tea cup and tea bag from Everyday Classics. Well that's all for now. I have a lot to do today to get ready for the week. Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
Stamps: PTI Warm Happiness, Everyday Classics
Ink: PTI Chai; SU! Bermuda Bay, Purely Pomegranate
Paper: PTI White; SU! Bermuda Bay designer paper
Other: Ribbon and twine (craft store); glassine bags (PTI)

Circus Circus!

Hey everyone! Hope your Saturday is going great. I have enjoyed a fun day with my mom and some sorority sisters and their moms. More about that in a later post. But the weather is gorgeous and I made a visit to Archivers today! :-)

I wanted to stop in and share the quilt I "whipped up" last weekend that I mentioned yesterday. Seeing as how I waited until the last minute ... 6:30 the night before the 1:30 pm shower ... I kept the pattern super simple and quick & easy to piece. Here's the finished quilt ...It's a 30 x 35" quilt ... a great size for a little one. I used some circus prints from Felicity Miller that I got from Fabritopia for an amazing deal last summer. I added some Michael Miller polka dots, which I wasn't sure about at first, but am so glad that I did. I had *just enough* for these strips and the binding. I think I had like 8" of binding to spare. A close call! Here's a closer view of the focus fabric. You can see below that I used the same blue circus fabric on the back. Super fun print. And this was one of my better binding jobs ... the corners turned out great. And fortunately the all-over-stippling was quick to do given my time crunch. :-)
And even though I was down to the wire, it was worth it since it was a hit and I hear the big brother is trying to claim it as his own! :-) I plan to make some more this summer in various fabrics and color schemes to use up some of my enormous inventory of fabrics and make a little money to buy more fabric! :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back tomorrow with more of my latest creative adventures!

Iguana Sew Some More ...

Hi - happy almost Friday! :-) Love Fridays ... especially on the first week back from Spring Break. But I am not here to chat about my crazy week at school ... I am here to share some stinkin' cute fabric! :-)

One of my buds from college likes to get Bibles engraved for her kids and nieces & nephews to celebrate the baby dedications and she always asks me to make a cover for them. This time, it was for a boy so I knew I couldn't use any of the hoards of pink fabrics in my stash. (And by the way ... enough with everyone having a BOY! Almost every pregnant friend I have is having or just recently had a boy. I guess I will have to buy more fabric! LOL)I was going to use a different fabric, but was then inspired by the iguanas on the actual Bible itself, being an Adventure Bible and all. So I decided to finally use this cutie tootie fabric. The design just kind of happened as I went along, but I was digging it ... especially in real life. I wish had gotten a better photo, but I had to give it away tonight so there wasn't much time. Hopefully the youngin' will love it as he gets older.

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

This & That

Hi and Happy Friday! Popping back in to share the notepads I made for the PTI swap on Splitcoast. I was playing around the other day with some patterned paper and decided I liked Melon Berry and Spring Rain together, so that is how this all got started. I used two different kinds of designer paper - Bitty Box and In Bloom and some leftovers from my cards. The only stamping I did was the sentiment. To jazz things up, I added some Stardust Stickles, hydrangea and buttons. I wasn't sure how I liked the flower placement, so I made them all slightly different. These photos don't quite do them justice (its dark out and I need to mail these tomorrow so no sunlight photos). Here's a closer view of some of the details.
The ribbon is just under the sentiment circle and can be completely removed, if desired. Well, I hope my fellow swappers enjoy these!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used (all PTI unless noted):
Stamps: Take Note, Blooming Button Bits
Ink: Melon Berry; SU! Chocolate Chip
Paper: Melon Berry, Spring Rain, Stampers Select White, Bitty Box - Spring Rain, In Bloom - Melon Berry
Accessories: Melon Berry twill, buttons; twine & hydrangeas from craft supply; Stardust Stickles; foam tape

Thanks a Bunch Card Kit

Hi and happy Wednesday! I am looking forward to getting to the weekend! My students are taking exams, which means my week is a little easier planning-wise. However, I did get some news about how things will be next semester that was a little disappointing, but I am going to do my best to build a bridge and get over it so to speak. :-) So, I left work and came home to play in my mess, I mean, craft room!

I needed a few thank you cards so I made this little card. So cute but simple and to the point.
I liked it so much and thought it would be an easy card to make - even for a beginner so I made a kit to try out in my Etsy shop. Here's the kit contents all together with a finished card. Maybe someone will enjoy playing with these goodies. :-)
Well, I have to run and whip up some dinner for the mister. Have a great evening y'all and thanks for stopping by! :-)

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip; Copics
Paper: PTI White, Raspberry Fizz
Accessories: PTI Raspberry Fizz button, twine