One more project down...

...Only a dozen more to go. I've got a day though, right? :D

I wish I could give you a pattern number or something easy but I never make things easy...(its some kind of dysfunction in my brain, if its easy its not worth doing :D ) . I made up the pattern because I couldn't find anything I liked. It took two yards of fabric and two pkges of seam binding if that helps. :D

Merry Christmas!

Jammies are done!

I made five pairs of PJ bottoms (bought shirts) because we traditionally open (homemade by Mom) them on Christmas Eve. I was having a hard time getting motivated until I decided to make them out of fleece instead of flannel this year. It was great! No finishing edges, the entire five pairs only took about three hours. (A big contrast to the year I made them all men's style pj's with contrasting piping and buttons-those about four or five hours a pair, and I'm a fast sewer). The word "sewer" always makes me giggle when I see it written because I always think of the place plumbing waste goes to. Right now I'm making an apron for my wonderful Mother in law. She collects them and uses them (which I love because she wears her nice clothes to cook in and always seems polished and put together while still being so down to earth and...just wonderful). I love how its turning out. I designed it so I have to stop now because I didn't gauge how much bias tape I needed very well and I ran out. Oh well DH is playing his violin in church tommorow and so I need to go to bed anyway so I can get everyone ready and out the door on time.

I'm a cover girl! (sort of)

I love the new changes at two Peas in A Bucket and geuss what? They chose my mini album as the icon for their new top ten feature! You can see the home page here: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/ and the whole album here: http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1268881 or here: http://fromthebottomofmypencilcase.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-love-this-project-i-made-it-for.html In other news I've also been asked to be the March guest designer on another of my favorite sites but I'm not sure if she wants to announce it yet. So I'll keep the name a secret for a bit longer. I'm pretty excited, now I just need to submit to some magazines and I really can call myself a proffessional scrapbooker. :D

Catching Up

I think I'm a bit behind so here are a couple. The snowman soup in mugs is what we gave to the kids' teachers this year. I drew the card in Adobe Illustrator to match the mugs. The other ones in bags are for the kids' friends. The card is another from the batch of Basic Grey ones I made a week ago. I'm so not prepared for Christmas to be coming this quickly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to post pictures of five finished PJ pants. Not likely but I can hope. :D

Day 6 Another Snowman

I'm completely addicted to these little guys now. A friend of mine collects snowmen and has a January birthday (and doesn't read blogs) so this guy will probably be for her.A little tip: when painting and altering boxes, if your lid sticks and is hard to get on and off, rub some microglaze (Judikins) on the inside edge of the lid. Its a kind of wax and it works great.

Snowman Bell Ornament

I love how this little guy turned out! I used Sculptamold over a styrofoam ball for his head. (Be sure to coat the ball with glue before you try to stick the moldeling stuff to it :D ). The bottom is a big jingle bell that I've had in my stash for a few years. His hat is a page from an old copy of Les Miserables (I reienforced with cardstock). His ruffle is one layer of wrights red metallic rick rack and one layer of drapery silk cut in a strip, pinked on the edge and gathered. He has micca flakes over his head and glitter over his hat. I'd love to know what you think.

More Cards

Well I've got to cheat a little, these were already made but I didn't want to skip today. It was busy but I'm close to having all my shopping done. I did just find out that I missed a very good friend of mine's birthday :( . She wanted everyone to forget it but I'm going to have to do something late.

Day 3: the Magic of Christmas

I spent several hours trying to come up with a craft for my sons 5th grade party. It needs to be easy and cheap enough that I could teach it to 25 10 yr olds. Hmmm...Plus it has to appeal to boys and girls. These notebooks were my first idea but were vetoed by ds as being too girlie. So we are going to do pop-up cards instead. To make them I just used the schools die cut machine to cut white paper, two chipboard covers and four pieces of patterned paper, glued the patterned paper to the chipboard, distressed the edges, punched them all with a 1/4 inch hole punch, layered and then bound them with binder rings.

Now about that magic. My kids are getting older and they are challenging Santa's existence. They are also asking for more expensive toys. I've been thinking about when I learned the "truth". Its actually kind of funny in a perverse laugh-at-the-humaness-of-your-parents kind of way. My Mom has her quirks and phases and one of them that began when I was five or six was that christmas should only be religous (I believe the words "Satan Claus" were used). We also had no tree. It was weird, I'm embarrassed ...Sooo whenever I'd go to my Dad's house at Christmas time he would work really hard to convince me that there was indeed a Santa. (They must have been really frustrated with each other). It worked, I was little and I wanted to believe. I also knew that he wasn't actually "real" but that is the fun of being a creative person. I could wholeheartedly believe in something I knew was not "real"

In anycase with my own kids I've wanted to prolong the magic, without losing the true meaning of Christmas, without forcing my kids to believe, without taking away a special and fun part of the season...Basically to find a balance. So when they say "Is Santa really real?" I say "I believe in him". And they let me pretend while they find their own version "believing" in Santa.

Day 2

Okay I know I said cards, but I'm thinking projects now because there is just too much fun stuff to do at this time of year. so these ornaments are from a project I found in the 2007 Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection Holiday Crafts Issue I did a ton of stuff for the first time with these guys: sculpting with instant papier mache, using mica flakes, copying a project almost exactly...:D I wish I could have found more "vintage" looking tinsel pipe cleaners because mine look lame and I need to find some glass glitter (or make it). I do like how they turned out and can't wait to apply the techniques I learned to my own designs.

Merry Christmas!

I'm very inspired by all the "12 days of" things I've been seeing on my favorite blogs. So I'm going to try a 12 cards of christmas myself. This cute guy is my first. He's super easy, made from Basic Grey undressed chipboard and sticker, with a wool felt scarf. Inside the card says "peace". The stamps are actually one unmounted clear stamp from Rubber Soul that I cut apart the words on. :D

I love this project! I made it for a friend of mine, her son is in Iraq and this is going to be a little reminder of home. I'm happy to give it up for that but I'm going to have to make another one because I really love it!

Happy News for Me!

Look here http://www.inqueboutique.typepad.com/ ! I'm so excited and I can hardly believe it! The other DT members are so talented and accomplished... I kept expecting Kathleen to call me back and tell it was a mistake. But no mistake, I'm on the Inque Boutique Design Team!

Two More Holiday Cards

I love kid art. So when my six year old son handed me a picture on which he had fashioned a tree out of triangles made entirely of layers of lined notebook paper ooutlined in green and yellow highlighter I was thrilled. Even more than usual because I knew I was going to scraplift his design. So here it is and he gets a design credit (thanks Luke). The other card is made by ironing wool felt over some of my Inque Boutique stamps to emboss it. Some tips here: don't use the acrylic felt-it doesn't work. Don't use polymer (clear) stamps-its not as heat resistant as rubber. Wider, chunkier designs work better. (The buttons are also stamped with IB stamps then just embossed with white embossing powder. The papers are Love Elsie, World Win, BG Figgy Pudding, Reminisce, and Scenic Route).

Hmmmm...I wonder if polyester felt would work?

Finally a free Moment!

I've had so much fun with guests and food and preparing for Christmas that I was so glad to take a minute today to do this page. all the stamps from Inque Boutique and the paper is from Fancy Pants and Basic Grey.

Online Card Class

To celebrate my new blog I've decided to post a free online class. The chipboard christmas cards class that I taught at A Stamp 4 All was well recieved but the timing wasn't great so I'd like to share it with you. If you already paid and took the class at the store, you can email me and I'll do something extra for you ;) . The card is A2 size so you'll need size the patterns accordingly. Hope you like it, please let me know what you think.

Star Card Instructions

1. Cut blue bazzil to 5 ½” x 8 ½” and fold in half to form A2 size card base.
2. Use mat pattern to cut background mat from Bo Bunny Wild Berry (red dotted paper). Ink the edges using a sponge and brown ink.
3. Using spray adhesive, Xyron Cheetah adhesive, Gel Medium or Modge Podge adhere the (small, uncut) patterned papers to the chipboard. Burnish with a bone folder to remove wrinkles and bubbles.
4. Cut out numbered pieces of star pattern. TIP: The numbers will help you reassemble the star once the pieces are cut and covered so I generally use Hermafix or another removable adhesive and leave the patterns stuck until I’m done.
5. Using removable adhesive such as Hermafix, position the star patterns on the chipboard/patterned paper, using the template as a guide the make sure that the paper designs are right side up.
6. Cut out using heavy duty scissors or a (guillotine style) paper trimmer.
7. Using a sanding block or emery board sand the edges of each piece to “seal” the paper to the chipboard and smooth out any bumps. TIP: Its easy to separate the layers of the chipboard in this step so watch the angle of your sanding tool and try to keep it about 45°.
8. Ink the edges of each piece with a sponge and brown ink.
9. Cut a rectangle 1 ¾” x ½” from the remaining green piece.
10. Stamp the small star and word “Peace” from the Rubber Soul clear Holiday Stylized stamp set with black ink on the rectangle.
11. Using the template as a guide reassemble the star pieces on the card and adhere using double stick tape. Place and adhere the rectangle in the lower right corner of the mat.

You’re done! Design and patterns by Nicole Lund ©2007

I'll love you till my fountain pen runs dry...

Okay a different one.

I've decided that I need a blog that has just my stuff to keep as my very own scrap resume/personal journal. I'll still be managing the A Stamp 4 All blog and my sisters and I wiil continue to have our Fly The Coop Blog. But this one's just for me. So to start off with a "Blast" here's a card I made the other day using Inque Boutique's Space Cadet Set. (I love this stamp company!)