Daisy the Dollar Store Challenge

The picture above left is my new dolly Daisy. I made her for the Craftster Dollar Store Challenge. You could spend $10 at a dollar store on supplies to make something fabulous. Violet was made with the items above. However, I did not use the white monkey anklets (gave them to BFF's daughter) and used a bag of cotton balls not in the picture for the stuffing. I must admit I LOVE her!! I have always wanted to make a Waldorf doll, and although I used nothing within the realm of traditional supplies (Dollar Tree just doesn't have them! LOL) she turned out pretty darn perfect.

I still plan to make her some shoes and have a flower for her hair. I plan to take more pictures of her tomorrow and then will post her in the contest. If you are a friend of Craftster check out the entries at http://www.craftster.org/ they will post from April 1-5 and vote for Daisy, if ya like her! Keep your fingers crossed for me! :-D xoxo

Ode to Monet

This is my latest chunky page for the Craftster swap. I was really struggling when I started, with no inspiration, but then I thought about Monet and things just all came together. I used a Monet quote which was, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." I am pleased with the final chunky and think this is one of my favorites! It is on it's way to my swap partner in Scotland. Bon Voyage!

Sorry Silpada...

I saw this bead and sterling Silpada bracelet at a vendor show a few weeks ago and fell in love. Unfortunately, it was $65 which just isn't happening right now. :-D So, I headed to my local bead shop for some sterling beads and they had a GREAT selection. I also bought a couple glass beads and the rest were found in my stash. Viola, a custom bead and sterling bracelet. Sorry Silpada, but I think I like mine better. Woo hoo!

Earrings galore!

I finished my earrings for the Craftster swap. The deets: Make 10 pairs of earrings for your swap partner. Very easy, and fun I went through all my beads and supplies before I started just to get an idea of what was possible. And as usual I found things I had completely forgotten about. First pic is the whole lot. Second is my fave, made with some vintage lemon and leaf beds I received in another swap. And last but NOT least, a little satin jewlery box I emmbellished with... shocker... YOYOs!

Fabric ATC's Finished!

I finished all my ATCs last night and mailed them today. So that is a biggie off my "to do" list. Yay for me! My fave is the Panda bear, his arms move, love him. The green eyelash yarn is supposed to symbolize bamboo, I know it's a stretch :-D But I thought it was brilliant at the time. For the 3rd one pictured, my partner loves Steampunk, which I hate to sound so lame, but I didn't really know what that was. So after a little "research", thanks Wikipedia etc., that is what I came up with. I added a note in the envelope, an apology if I didn't hit the mark, but I did sincerely attempt and I hope she likes it.

Up next for me is prepping for my son's 7th birthday and party, Fun! Then completing the Dollar Store challenge on Craftster which I am SOOOOO excited about. I have the cutest thing planned. An earring swap and still more chunky pages.

On a sad note, my Scrappy Gal tote did not win or place in the Amy Butler Sew Inspiring Contest. Boo for me, but I will carry it with pride! LOL The winners were fab, or as Christian would say, "Fierce." But I did want that sewing machine.....XOXO

Pin Cushion Swap

Yay!! My pincushion for the Craftster swap is done, and I love it :-D. It is a miniature picnic basket and I made the pincushion on the lid. Really very simple, added a yoyo flower with button center, (What a shock) and then lined the inside with felt. I made some shrinky pins, which I LOVE!!! I will definitely make more of these. I stamped the images with Stazon, colored with pencils and then punched the images out with my 1 inch circle punch. Stuck the pins in and baked. Too cute. I also put few extras in her basket, a tape measure, 3 mini spools of thread, some needles, and buttons. I hope she likes.....

Scrappy Gals Challenges cont.

So, for the next challenge, everyone was randomly given an embellishment. I received a bag full of white, clear and pearlized buttons. They ranged in size from big to little. I contemplated doing a scrapbook layout but in the end I decided on several little projects instead.

I made a Hello Kitty clipboard with this adorable paper and stickers I found at Mike's. Then I made yoyo flowers and put them on a little polkadot suitcase I found. I filled the suitcase with little yoyo flower brooches and everyone in the group got to choose one. Then will all the leftovers I made an earring and necklace set. the earrings look really awesome on. It was a fun challenge, and I was amazed how far that bag of buttons went!

Scrappy Gals Challenges

I had my Scrappy Gals meeting Thurs. night and we had to share all our challenge creations. It was a lot of fun, and great to see all the items. My first challenge was to do a two page layout with my partner's least favorite colors, which were turquoise, orange and gray. So, I decided on an Easter egg theme, with the title Spring Bling. I also gave my partner a glittery egg decorating kit. Her girls will be happy. :-D

I'll post the other challenge in the am, Goodnight xoxox

Good Luck!

You know I always need good luck so it's fitting that this is the St. Pat's card I made for this year. My husband always says I'd have no luck if it wasn't for my bad luck. :-) Oh well....

I used only things purchased at Micheal's, in fact that Good Luck stamp is from their dollar bin! I am trying to be hired as an instructor at Michael's and anything I teach has to use items from Michael's so that was my challenge to myself.

This style card is called a windshield wiper card, because when you pull it, whatever you put on the inside swings up kind of like a wiper blade. So, I added a shamrock inside and then made it sparkly.

If you'd like directions for how to make it you can check out this:

http://stampspaperscissors.typepad.com/stamps_paper_scissors/2007/02/wiper_card_inst.html

Super easy and cute!

I've finished all my challenges for my scrappy gal club so I'll post those tomorrow when I can take photos in the sunlight.

Make me a Journal

These are pictures of the journal I made for the Make me a Journal Swap on Craftster. My partner wanted something with an Asian theme and loves the colors blue and green. The other cool thing is that my partner lives in Australia!! The journal itself is spiral bound 8 1/2 x 11 (or as the call it in Australia an A4 :-D ) and has nice heavy blank pages inside. I also made dividers and tabs on 3 pages in the journal and stamped a pretty dragonfly throughout on random pages. I really like it and hope she does too! She should get it in 10 days according to the post office.

The Scrappy Gal Tote

This tote was a test...A while ago (don't remember exactly) I decided to enter a bag in the Amy Butler Sew Inspiring Contest. So I bid on fabrics from Ebay and while waiting for them to arrive I made my design for a scrapbooking tote. I am in a couple of scrapping clubs etc and wanted a tote that could handle all my supplies. So once the fabrics were here I got busy. This was an intensive design, the 10 exterior pockets are all lined and pleated so they are expandable. After the exterior was done, I told my friend that this bag "kicked my booty!" I got all the other pieces ready and then took a break from it. A LOOONNNGGG break.

Well, last night at dinner I remembered the deadline for the contest was midnight last night! ACK! I locked myself in the sewing room and finished the bag by 10:00 pm. I came out to press it and decided to make a yo-yo and button flower to put on the front of it. I sat down on the couch to make the yo-yos and watch Numb3rs. Next thing I realized it was 12:30 AM! I had fallen asleep!!!! Totally defeated I turned off the computer and tv to head for bed. But then I remembered, Amy Butler doesn't live on the East Coast like I do. I checked on Flickr and the deadline was midnight but PST not EST!! YAY!!! So I hustled to finish and photograph and post on Flickr. I was the last entry.

There are 396 entries I think and MANY are really awesome, so my chances are pretty slim. But, at least I have a great tote I will put to good use and I have a funny story. Heck, I'm the girl that fell asleep during the SAT's, my Mom had to remind me about that....Goodnight xoxo

Fabric ATC's

I have 2 of my six fabric ATC's completed. I have never made these before and they are really fun!! It's nice to do embroidery etc. on a small scale, only 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. So the one on the left is for someone who loves science fiction. I got the idea of "2 Mars 4 summer vacation" from my son. Mars is his favorite planet (besides Earth) and he imagines going there. The one on the right is for someone who was open to any design, so I made her a yo-yo bouquet.

For the construction I made 2 "cards" out of fabric, the back is a light color so I could put my info on it. Then I used craft fuse on both pieces. I did my design on the front, info on back. I put a little dab of fabric glue in the middle when I sandwiched them together and then satin stitched around the edges. With the craft fuse, glue and stitching they are pretty stiff and will hold there shape well I think.