Wednesday, May 30, 2012

It all started with Strawberry Patch...

Hello! Ever since I saw, bought and received the Papertrey Strawberry Patch and SP Sentiments stamp sets, I've had this idea floating around in my head of making up baskets of strawberry goodies for my neighbors. You've got to justify purchasing the stamps, right? So first thing I did was to go pick strawberries at our local strawberry picking farm. You know when you get out there in the strawberry patch with your containers and you have NO IDEA how many pounds of strawberries you've picked? Well, turns out, I picked alot! Those strawberries plus ALOT of sugar and sure jell, yielded 48 jars of strawberry jam. Then I got the brilliant idea to bake fresh bread to put in the baskets. I'm on the bread baking team at church. We bake bread (crescent rolls) to put in the guest's welcome bag at church. Well, after 24 cups of flour, TONS of butter, some yeast, some water (did I say TONS of butter?), that yielded 13 dozen rolls!

Oh, and I forgot to tell you that a few weeks ago I decided to make a nice bread cloth to go in the baskets too. I have an embroidery machine and decided to try my hand at digitizing the large bunch of strawberries from the Strawberry Patch stamp set. I stamped the design, scanned it in my computer, then fed it into my embroidery software, and digitized the design. I embroidered 9 of these onto linen bread cloths. Then, I purchased red and white material from Joann's and make coordinating cloths. (I know, I'm an over-achiever!) Here's how the ensemble turned out.

The embroidery of the strawberry patch bunch of strawberries on the linen cloth.
The individual basket of goodies.
The freshly baked bread and label (Matt Stack 1, Everyday Treats).
The strawberry jam and label - Matt Stack 2, Friendship Jar, Strawberry Patch.
 

Several of the baskets for my neighbors.
 Glad that's all done. I delivered them today and all were very grateful. And I have LOTS of jam and rolls stocked up for guests and hostesses for the future. Yeah Strawberry Patch!!!!

Friday, May 4, 2012

2012 Mother's Day cards

Hello! I have two daughters. One is the mom of our first Granddaughter, whom we affectionately call "The Princess" - she's 8 months old. This first card is for her mom - this will be her first Mother's Day. I had to piece the sentiment on the front from several different sets and do some selective inking to come up with what I wanted. I also photographed the inside - I loved how the sentiment from Inside/Out Birthday fit so well with Mother's Day too!

Sorry for the awful photos - it's after midnight and the lighting stinks! I used PTI sets Little Princess, Delightful Dahlia, Inside/Out Birthday, Happy Day (Mother), and the "to the" and "of the" were from All About You.

My other daughter is expecting a baby boy in September. I figured she deserves a Mother-to-be card for Mother's Day. She is very excited about having a little boy. I just love the PTI set Hanging Out, so I put little boy clothes on the line. I guess I need to start collecting the Boy Basics line of stamps next!
The inside says "Happy Mother's Day" from the Happy Day set. The sentiment on the front is from Night Night Moon. Thanks for looking!