End of Year Post

Wow! I can't believe it's the last day of 2012! And I've been a very bad blogger the past month and a half. Sorry about that. I promise to do better in 2013. The holidays were busy around here - cookies to bake with the grandchildren, gingerbread houses to make, presents to buy and wrap, and hugs given all around. What a blessed time we had on Christmas Day with all three of our children and spouses, and all three grandchildren! One more granddaughter to be born in late January/early February. We are very excited about that!

One of the presents I received for Christmas was a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine.
I have been eying them for a while, trying to decide if it was something I needed. I decided to take the plunge and have been trying to learn the software and the machine this past week. A LOT TO LEARN! And I consider myself pretty computer savvy. I think the main thing is that I am so overwhelmed by the possibilities this machine presents. One of the reasons I wanted it was to cut vinyl wall art for my home. I've been reading alot about that and am just about ready to cut out "Give Thanks with a grateful heart" for my dining room. I have cut out a few 3D cards I purchased from the Silhouette Online Store that were designed by Samantha Walker. AMAZING is all I can say! This opens cardmaking to a whole new level.
Here are some pictures of a few I cut out yesterday. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to use these for yet, other than the heart card for my husband for Valentines Day.

 front of card

 inside of card (also used Papertrey Beautiful Blessings Holiday stamp set)

 shot from above so you can see the dimension

 inside of card

 inside of card from the side

 inside of the card

 from the side

Isn't the detail on them amazing? This is definitely going to be fun. Now all I need to do is to play around with the software and take a couple online classes to get the most out of this machine. The possibilities are endless!

Thimbleberries Pumpkin Quilt

Hello! I have another quilt to share with you today. I've been on a roll lately, trying to finish up "UFO's" as we call them in the quilting world - Unfinished Objects. We all have a ton of them, and I've set my mind on finishing some of mine. This particular quilt top had been done for probably 10 years - just sitting around waiting to be quilted. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, so it just sat. This is a pattern from Thimbleberries, although I don't know the name of it. But anyway, I finally pulled it out, added batting and a backing and went to town quilting it free motion. I figured even if I messed it up, it wouldn't be too big a loss, since I wasn't crazy about it anyway. But it ended up that I kind of like it, so it will go on one of our walls, or draped over a chair during the fall.

Starting on my Christmas tags...

Hello! I've been working on making my tags for Christmas presents lately and thought I would share with you what I've done so far. I started out by die cutting a bunch of tags from PTI kraft cardstock using the Tag Sale dies from Papertrey. Then I pulled out all my Christmas stamp sets from Papertrey and WaltzingMouse and just started making tags. These are all mostly pretty one dimensional. My next set of tags will have some more dimension - more die cuts, felt, etc. But here is the batch I've finished so far.

 This one uses WMS "Nutcracker Sweet".

 This one uses PTI "Love Live Here Holiday"

 This one uses WMS "Big Blooms Poinsettia"

 This one uses PTI "Love Lives Here Holiday"

 This one uses PTI "Wreath for all Seasons"

 And these use PTI "Winter Snow Globe"

 

Thanks for looking!

Little Houses Block of the Month Quilt finished!

Hello! Thanks for stopping by my blog. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been busy making things for our quilt guild Christmas luncheon, using some of my papercrafts, and spending time with the grandchildren. I wanted to share a quilt with you that I recently completed. I purchased a set of Block of the Month patterns from Bareroots about two years ago. This is a set of little houses, one for each month, showing the house through each season. There are twelve patterns (for the 12 months of the year). The patterns are stitched, mostly using a back stitch, and then put together into this quilt. I like to be working on something in the evening while I am sitting in front of the TV with my husband. That way, I feel like the time is at least productive in some way. :)

I set my mind to make these blocks this year, starting in January. Between all the time watching the Olympics and the debates this year, I was able to finish these up early. I used a jelly roll (2 1/2" wide strips cut the length of the fabric, using a particular fabric line) from Moda as the setting for the blocks and the border around the outside.

 Here is the finished quilt.

Here are close-ups of the individual blocks. Notice the way the tree, the yard, and the house change for each month. And the stitched border around each block reflects the month theme also!

January

 February

 March

 April

 May

June

July

August

September

October

November

And my favorite (although it was alot of work!) December











Thanks for sticking with me through all these pictures. You just can't do it justice from afar.

Halloween cards for my grandchildren

Hello! Happy Halloween out there! We haven't celebrated Halloween in quite a few years, but with 3 grandchildren now, we are beginning to celebrate this holiday again -  not the ghoulishly part of it, but the cutesy part of it. And the yummy candy part of it. :) Here are the cards I sent my two littlest grandchildren this week.

The first one is a stamp from Stamps by Judith. You can put the ghost over several different "feet", depending on who you are sending it to. The spider, sentiment and bats in the background are from PTI Spooky Sweets. This one goes out to my grandson Will, who is almost 3 months old - his first Halloween! I think he is going to be a pumpkin tonight.

 This one uses a Pure Innocence image from My Favorite Things - "Owl Costume". I colored it with copics and cut her out and mounted her on a spiral notebook diecut from PTI. The stars along the right side are from a star border diecut from PTI also. The little tiny stars are from the center of the border stars. This one goes out to my granddaughter Chloe, who is a little over 1 year old. She will be a strawberry tonight. :)

Thanks for looking - have a happy and safe Halloween!

Stamp sets for sale - WMS and PTI

Hello! I recently purchased a lot of stamp sets from a friend, and am offering up the duplicates for sale. All sets are in DVD cases with very little (if any) wear. Staining, if any, is noted by the set.

All prices include shipping in U.S. Will ship International with shipping quote.
I will accept Paypal or Papertrey Gift Certificates as payment. You can contact me at tspolk602@yahoo.com or by pm on the Papertrey message board - my Papertrey id is bsktcse. Thanks for looking!

WaltzingMouse Stamps
$20 sets

Picnic Patterns - slight staining on 2 stamps
Join Us
Frame It
Say It With Style - staining on several stamps
Dainty Doilies - large
Very Vintage Labels 4
Big Blooms Poinsettias
$12 set 
Dainty Doilies 2 - small

Papertrey Ink Stamps
$20 sets
Beautiful Butterflies
Holiday Photo Finishers - slight staining on one stamp
2010 Anniversary Set - Botanical Silhouettes - not available on Papertrey site - limited edition
Love Lives Here
Happy Hydrangea
Quilters Sampler - staining on 2 stamps
Everyday Button Bits - slight staining on 2
$12 set
Quilters Sampler Sentiments - slight staining on 3


Other
C. Hellmuth Houses - $10
Shady Tree Floral Occasions - $10

The following stamps are rubber stamps with cling mount

Stampin Up - all in original DVD case - $12 each
Growing Green - brand new
Every Moment - brand new
Awash With Flowers 1 of 2 - brand new
Awash With Flowers 2 of 2
Fabulous Florets

Unity in DVD case - $8 each
What's Shakin?
Forever Friends

Other - in DVD cases
Stacey Stamper - Zinnias - $10
Artful Stamper - Coneflower $6
Penny Black - Hearts all Over $10
Penny Black - In the Air - $10

Frankenstorm's a coming!

Well, doesn't it figure! I have a quilt retreat to go to this Monday - Thursday in Chambersburg PA. And of course, the East coast is supposed to get blasted by an unusual hurricane they have dubbed "Frankenstorm" during that time. So, like any good retreater, we are packing extra snacks, flashlights, and warm clothing and heading up to PA a day early. My hope is that the Christian retreat center we are going to will not lose electricity - that means no food and no power for sewing machines - a BAD combination for a bunch of hungry quilters!
So as the saying goes "When you are given scraps, make a quilt!", I decided to make little snacks for everyone at the retreat and make a party of it. I remembered that one of the stamp sets I got from my friend Joan had a Frankenstein in it - very cute I might add! So I went to work. I made little tags with the Papertrey Lmitless Layers dies, stamped with the Paper Smooches Frankenstein and colored with copics. I added little flags to the tags saying "Happy Frankenstorm", and googly eyes to Frank. I attached these to little paper bags filled with chocolate covered peanut clusters. I was going to label them "bat droppings", but just ran out of time. Here's a picture of the individual bag, and then the basket full of 34 of them! They are soooo cute!

As I write this, it occurs to me that someone may think I am making light of the storm and not taking it seriously.  Actually, I have thought a good bit about not even going to the retreat and hunkering down at home. After much thought though, I have decided to go and leave my fate to God - He's in control. So I'll let you know how it turns out next week - Susan :)

 Supplies used: PTI Limitless Layers 1 3/4" dies, Paper Smooches Halloweenies and Alphadot alphabet, copic markers, washi tape from Target, and treat bags from Michaels.

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge

Hello! I am participating in the Papertrey October Blog Hop this month. The challenge this month was to use a non-traditional color combo for a Christmas card. Nicole Heady gave several color combos on her blog here to choose from. I took a little liberty with the color combo I chose, and substituted a couple of the colors. Here's the combo I started with:


I substituted the blues for Ocean Tides, and the new leaf for limeade ice (Papertrey's newest color). Here's what I came up with for my card:

I used the Silent Night stamp set, the Seeing Stars  dies and border die, and limeade ice, simply chartreuse and vintage cream felt. Cardstock used was PTI white, ocean tides and limeade ice. I had forgotten how beautifully detailed the flourish is in that set!
Thank for looking! Have fun checking out all the other fun color combos on the hop!

World Card Making Day 2012

Hello! I was fortunate enough to be able to sit and make cards most of today for World Cardmaking Day (can you believe there's a day for that?). Yep, the nationally recognized day is October 6th this year. So I decided to challenge myself to use non-Papertrey stamp sets today. 99.9% of my stamping supplies and sets are from Papertrey. A good friend of mine, Joan B., has lent me her stamp sets while she is in the process of moving, and I decided to try some of them out today. Most of the sets I used are from a company called "Flourishes". They make beautifully detailed clear stamps. My favorites are their floral and wreath sets.

The first few sets of cards I made are very monochromatic - they remind me of something that would be in a Pottery Barn catalog if they sold cards - nature themed, kind of trendy.

 Stamp set: Flourishes "Ferns & Fiddles", sentiment from Stampin Up, Cardstock: PTI

 This set has two of each of the above cards in it. Stamp set: Flourishes "Sunflowers", sentiment from PTI "Mega Mixed Messages", snippet of washi tape in right corner from Michaels. I decided to keep these monocromatic - ink used was Vintage Sepia from Versafine.

 These next four cards are a set and use the stamp set from Flourishes "Wreaths for All Seasons". The sentiments are also from that set, stamped on Tiny Tag die cuts from Papertrey. These first four cards were left monochromatic.

These next four cards use the same wreath set, but I colored the wreaths with watercolor pencils.

These two cards are from a Flourishes set called "Wild for Watermelon". They were fun to color. I used Copics G96, G94, YG13 for the watermelon rind, YG95, YG93, and YG91 for the leaves, and R22 and R20 for the flesh. The watermelons are stamped on Matt Stack 4&5 from PTI and the card base is the new Limeade ice from PTI.

These two cards are from Flourishes stamp sets  "Poppy Patch" and "Zinnias". Copics used for Poppy: R59, R29, R24, G99, T1, Colorless blender, and for Zinnias: T1, BG96, G94, YG13, R14, R24, R32, R35, Y35, YR24, Y15.

I felt like a got alot accomplished today! Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this loooong post!
And a very special THANKS to Joan B!!!!