handmade cass

I am in LOVE with all that Hambly Screenprints has to offer (as evidenced by a very small sampling of their products that I have been hoarding). This lovely California company got some great press this week that included a behind-the-scenes slideshow of their screenprinting process.  Enjoy! And PS - the latest word on the Hambly blog is that they will be offering some great deals this Saturday, May 1st in honor of National Scrapbook Day.  So be sure to check it out this weekend.

My second official Craft Critique review is up!  This time I discussed my experiences with Clearsnap's Smooch Spritz, and you can see the whole review here . And I also learned that Stampin' Up is starting to sell Smooch Spritz, so I'll be using it in some of my club classes soon.  Can't wait to get more project ideas for it! disclosure statement

My little Franklin is always helping me whenever I'm working on the computer or a crafting project.  Tonight he wanted to be a part of an upcoming Craft Critique review.  I ended up leaving him out of the final review...but maybe it would have been better with this picture.

I would love to spend every day working on craft projects.  But I usually get to a point every few months where I avoid my craft area entirely because it has become such a mess.  I was at that point this weekend.  So I spent a couple hours today filing away new scrapbook papers, storing fabrics I got for my birthday, recycling old magazines, deciding which product catalogs I want to keep (from CHA), and making a nice big pile of stuff to give away. I also came up with a pile of craft books that I really want to read but haven't had the time.  One quilting book, one with quilting stitches I want to learn for applique, another with felt projects (lots of pincushions), two on making books, and one with some great travel scrapbook ideas.  Now I just need to find some time... I also have a new fabric obsession.  My husband's grandmother made this pillow and I just recently put it out in our living room.  Every time I see it I can't help but think of h...

Happy Easter! We had an exciting family Easter that included mini golf, BBQ, and a 7.2 earthquake just south of the border!  It had all of our hearts pounding for a quite a while afterwards.  We just went back to cooking but kept saying, "Was that another aftershock?".  Glad everyone is okay and I don't think there was any major damage in the area. Before I knew how exciting the day would turn out I had been using my new Chocolate Bunny stamp from Stampin' Up.  We used it in a class and I fell in love.  Since you can only have so many chocolate bunny cut-outs, I decided to make a tag for my husband's easter basket.  I also used a new Stampin' Up bird punch and the Papertrey Ink Vintage Touch ink to distress the bunny edges a bit.

I got the idea to make some tulle flowers after falling in love with some really expensive headbands on etsy.com that had some pink tulle flowers with pearls in the center.  I searched high and low for a tutorial on how to make them, but settled on a technique that was originally intended for cardstock flowers. First I cut out 24 tulle circles using a paper template that measures about 3" across.  This is the spool of tulle I mentioned earlier that cost less than $2 for 25 yards! Then I layered three circles at a time, folded in half, and then into thirds.  You end up with a pie slice shape and I used my Tim Holtz tiny attacher to staple these to a piece of felt.  You can see the end result (bottom view) here. From there I used some different flower dies with my Cuttlebug to see which felt flower I wanted to layer on top of the tulle.  Also looking at different button and color combination options. Once I had secured the felt flower by sewing on the butto...

My mom is the best seamstress I know.  I was shocked when she came over last week with an apron she had just finished.  I had seen it in various stages of completion (and I was there about a month ago when she picked out the fabrics at Rosie's).  BUT the surprise was the applique she had put on the pocket of the apron - a long haired dachshund just like my Franklin Wiener! She broke her wrist on the same night that she showed me the apron, so her sewing projects will be on hold for a while.  She's going to get bored really quick.  Wishing her a speedy recovery!