handmade cass

It was a very proud day when I finished my first quilt! And it just happened to be a present for my girlfriend from college that is having a baby. I had to finish it on Christmas day in order to leave enough time for myself to pack up and visit her in Chicago. We had so much fun catching up on everything that's happened in the last four years.

Boy were we wrong when thought it would be quick and easy to make some jam for family and friends this Christmas!  But it was a learning experience and I think it would be a whole lot smoother the next time around.  Our day started out nice and lazy with some shopping for supplies at the local Ace Hardware - they have a small canning section.  And then we realized that our pot wasn't big enough to hold the rack that Ace carried.  No big deal we think - we'll just use tongs to get the jars in and out of the boiling water.  Bad idea!  But each jar sealed and the final product is a delicious blackberry and raspberry jam.  Merry Christmas to all the lucky recipients!

This is my favorite time of year!  The weather is getting cooler (although it was still 75 degrees  yesterday on Thanksgiving) and I'm starting to get into the Christmas spirit.  Nothing gets me ready for the holidays more than watching Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and starting a big batch of Christmas cards to send out to friends and family. I watched the movie last night as soon as we got home from Thanksgiving dinner and now I'm trying to finalize a design for our Christmas card....here are a few iterations that I've gone through.  Nothing is final yet except that I want the main colors to be pink and green (those were my wedding colors too!). These ones have letter stamps from 7 Gypsies and Papertrey Ink.  The reindeer stamp is from Memory Box and I used Copic markers and Stickles to pretty it up a bit.  The pink strip is Stardream metallic paper that I ran through the Cuttlebug with a snowflake embossing folder.

I learned a new technique for making paper flowers over on Leah Fung's website . The video was great and showed exactly how to make these beautiful little paper beauties. This was my first batch, made with antique book papers, Adirondack acrylic paint, Papertrey buttons, and a McGill punch. My plans for the next few batches include using tissue paper, old maps, distress inks, glitter....who knows what else!

I've started a new craft!  I have always been interested in sewing but never felt like I was any good at it.  Now I have all the right supplies, including a great sewing machine and lots of help from experienced seamstresses.  I dove right into a baby quilt for one of my friends that is expecting in early 2010.  The first few steps went really quickly and I ended the day with laying out the pattern so I can start sewing the full blocks next weekend!

Just getting back into the swing of things after vacation, and happy to have had some time for crafting over the last few days.  This is the absolute quickest that I have ever had framed vacation photos up - less than two weeks!  These frames have been waiting to go up on the wall so I took the opportunity to frame some of our favorites from Crater Lake and Olympic National Park. And also whipped up a quick card for my cousin's wedding using a bunch of fun supplies.  I used the Tim Holtz c rackle paint in copper on some textured packaging  that I saved for a special project, along with tons of red to match their wedding theme.  The background stamp is from Heidi Swapp and I used Versamark champagne ink.  I also have some crepe paper from the party store on there and a page from a book I just got an estate sale (distressed with Tim Holtz ink in worn lipstick).  Hope it makes it through the mail okay!

I am always so happy to get emails from my local craft stores announcing sales...who doesn't love a sale?  I took a drive to one such event yesterday during my lunch break and was excited to find lots of great things on sale and a bunch of new goodies to try. I had been eyeing the Amuse stamp set for snail mail and decided that I couldn't wait any longer (it wasn't on sale).  And picked up a bunch of great paper from Hambly, American Crafts, and Luxe to try out a themed mini album - can you guess the theme?  Then I decided it was time to try out some different brands of pigment pens and adhesive.  I got a navy blue Pigment Pro fine line pen from American Crafts and the Glue Glider Pro (which was on sale).  We'll see if they can top my long running favorites. And when I got home yesterday I was shocked to see a package from American Crafts!  I had taken a look at their latest catalog online last week and was already making a wishlist.  But they sent me a hard copy WITH ...