Time for a Christmas Card

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  We just returned from our trip to my brother's in Minnesota.  It was great to be with our whole family for the holiday.

This card was a few weeks in the making.  I am so out of card-making shape!

In its first phase, the wreath was stamped on a white card base, but it was so blah and boring.  I even stamped a wreath on another card and added rhinestones thinking that would dress it up a little.  But I couldn't make either one of them work, so I tossed them aside knowing something would come to me.

And it did!

Voila!  So much better!

Supplies used:
Stamps - PTI Wreath for All Seasons, Mega Mixed Messages
Paper - Pear Pizzazz, GKD PL white
Ink - Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories - Nestabilities scalloped and regular circle dies, Big shot, taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, corner rounder

Now that December is almost upon us, I must get busy making my Christmas cards for this year.  Do you have yours made yet?

K

Embossed Tree

In keeping with my promise to post more cards, here is a really quick one I came up with the other day.  As usual, it isn't exactly what I visualized, but I think I like this better than my original thought anyway.  I love it when that happens.

Very simple, but simply elegant!

My original vision had an embossed frame all the way around the tree panel.  Once I trimmed the panel down, the tree was no longer in the center.  So I just embossed one edge and echoed it on the card base.  I rather enjoy the asymmetry of it!

I used a ruler and my Versamark pen to ink the edges for embossing.  That way, you can make the stripe as wide or narrow as you would like.

If you look closely, you can notice tiny little bubble holes left in the embossing powder.  I won't be sending this card to anyone because of them, but I have never had that happen before.  I know EP can bubble if you overheat it, but mine barely got melted before it was bubbling up.  I have had this EP forever, so maybe it is just past its prime.  Have you ever had embossing powder go bad?  Do tell.

More cards to come as soon as I get them made - I've been busy playing with my new sewing machine!

K

Amy Butler Barcelona Skirt

Remember the little sneak peek I gave you of one of my sewing projects?  Well it's time for the big reveal.

I fell in love with Amy Butler's Barcelona Skirt pattern as soon as I saw it.  I really dislike paying full price for patterns, but I didn't even think twice about paying an arm and a leg for this one, and it was so worth it.

Here is the first skirt I made.

I used fabric from the Blossoming line by Kathy Davis for Free Spirit.  Don't you love the colors?  I got many compliments from strangers the first time I wore it, and since I have enough fabric to stock a small fabric store, I thought I'd make another one.

I had originally purchased this fabric (from Hobby Lobby) to make a different style skirt, but it worked well for this pattern.  I love that the layers are not finished seams and the edges fray a little.  I altered the pattern for both skirts in that I didn't line or hem them.  I left the bottom edge to fray just like the other layers.

Which one is your favorite?

K

My New Stamp Basket Runneth Over

Just because I have only stamped out of necessity during the last 5 months or so doesn't mean I haven't stopped buying stamps.  It is an addiction, I tell you!

My New Stamp Basket will hardly hold any more stamps.

And that only means one thing.

I will be posting some cards in the coming days.

Woohoo!  Karen stamps!

Hope you enjoy your weekend   ~  K

What in the world have I been doing for the past three months?

I wish I had a good answer for that, but I don't.  I have just been living the life of a busy mom whose age has caught up with her.  I can't stay up much past midnight anymore without having serious mental consequences the following day.  I was so wrong thinking I would be able to get more done once the kids went back to school.  I'm not sure where my time goes every day, but I am seriously thinking about enrolling in a time management course.  Know of any good ones?

Despite not getting my house cleaned up like I would have liked by now (crafting is much more important to my sanity), I have managed to make a few things in the last few months.  I taught myself how to knit many, many years ago, but never made anything besides scarves....knit, purl, knit purl.

Boring.

While browsing my local yarn store, I came across a book of ponchos, and decided I would make one for my next project.  I bought my yarn and started knitting away.  Within the first few days after I started my poncho, I saw two women on different occasions while I was out and about who were wearing ponchos.  I was so excited!  That shows you how far removed I am from the fashion world.  I had no idea they were in style right now.  I'm not sure what happened with the first one I made.  Even though my guage was right, it did not come out the size it was supposed to.  At least it was bigger, and I can still wear it.  It just looks like I am wrapped up in a huge blanket!  Sorry, I thought I had a picture of it, but I don't.

So I immediately went back to the yarn store and bought different yarn to make a second poncho.  This one was made with another pattern, and I learned how to increase and decrease.  I love this one even more than the first!

The yarn is alpaca wool, so it is super warm.  And super soft.  Not scratchy at all.

And I had just enough yarn left over to make a pair of fingerless mittens.

My husband asked what the point of fingerless mittens was, and I replied "So I can knit at the football games when it is cold out".  Or to cook in the cold when we are camping.  Or just to look cute!

I learned how to make a thumb with this pattern, and it was pretty easy. Until I got to the left mitten, and the directions were wrong. I didn't realize it until I was completely finished, so I had to rip it out (just down to the thumb) and figure out the right number of stitches. If you use this pattern, the correct # of stitches to knit on the thumb row of the left mitten is 23, not 29 as the pattern states.

The pattern for my poncho is out of the book Viva Poncho by Christina Stork and Leslie Barbazette.  The fingerless mitten pattern was in the book Knit at Home by Leanne Prouse.

I've also been sewing a fair bit.  Here is a sneak peak at one of my projects.

Now that I have remembered how edit my photos and post on my blog, maybe I'll be around more often!

K