Wise Men Christmas Card

Hello!  Here's a little something I've been working on for a few evenings this week.  It took me a while to get the composition the way I wanted it (still not 100% sure - suggestions welcomed), but I have settled on this.  I started by feeling like brayering some chalk ink (all Colorbox Fluid Chalk except where noted), so I selected a range of cream/ivories (Alabaster and Bisque), greens (Dark Moss, Warm Green, Deep Green) and reds (Tomato Sauce - Memories, Maroon).  I brayered on the colours, starting with creams, then greens and reds last.  Then I heat set with my iron and stamped the magi collage ("to follow the star" by Penny Black) and embossed it in black.

***insert 24 hours of hemming and hawing and consulting and experimenting here ***

Next, I stamped the damask patchily (on purpose, and is that even a word?) in Champagne Encore ink on black paper and cut out the ornament shape using a Spellbinders die.  I edged the inside of the frame with gold leaf pen and stuck the stamped image to the back.  This all got mounted on a lovely muted champagne gold mat, and mounted on a red card base.  It's fairly thin and flat and good for mailing (is that the card equivalent of "nice personality"???).  I might try adding some dots of liquid pearls.  Sometimes they finish off a design.

In non-stamping news, my youngest daughter, age 6, lost her second tooth tonight.  I have really been enjoying hearing her new windy sibilants and get no end of a charge out of asking her to say "swimsuit".  Fortunately, she is very obliging.

In quilting news, I have pretty much gotten the hang of my Stepping Stones pattern and am now well past needing to pick out every seam.  On the last block, I only had to pick out two of ten, and one of those was just because I hadn't had my coffee yet and was experimenting with whether I can quilt before breakfast.  (I'm trying to find my best time of day for quilting.  So far it's not looking like before breakfast, after work before dinner, after dinner, or later in the evening.  That leaves during the day time when I am supposed to be at work.  I think I would have a hard time explaining what my sewing machine was doing at work.  I am already known for bringing Tombows and Copics and colouring at lunch time, I don't think I need to add quilting to the list. That said, I was eyeing up one of the board room tables as being ideal for pinning the sandwich together.  That table has to be at least six feet across and at least twice that long.  It's massive.)

Well, back to the brayering - I plan to make a number of these for the craft show in early November.  I know that's months and months and months away.  Here we are in summer and that's practically Christmas, but when I look at the calendar in terms of actual days, it's frighteningly close

Thanks for stopping by!

Anniversary Card

I realized today that if I was going to make a card for my husband for our anniversary, now is the moment.  (It's our 16th anniversary tomorrow.)  Luckily he is out shopping for a tent tonight (I sure hope that #16 is not the year for Rip-Stop Nylon gifts....) so I have the house to myself to do some stamping without him watching over me, commenting on which stamps I should choose, what paper to select, choice of Copics and embellishments, etc.  (It's very hard to inflect typing with irony - I hope you were able to pick it up!)

I made this card in double-quick time (I have class samples to invent and quilt blocks to wrestle), using a heart-flower stamp (Inkadinkado) and sentiment (Flourishes).  The stamp is coloured direct-to-rubber with Distress Markers,  I also spritzed some gold smooch through a Crafter's Workshop Template and doodled around the flower.  I stamped it on a gorgeous Fabriano Medioevalis notecard.  Scrumptious.  These are hard to part with, but since it's him, I guess I will.

He's home now, I'd better feign innocence!  Too late!  He came downstairs and I was floundering trying to minimize the blog screen, then the next screen was the enormous scanned in card, which I had to cover with my hands and part of my shoulder.  I am clearly not cut out for subterfuge and deception!  I guess this is not such a bad thing in the big scheme of things.  He had a good shopping trip (I sure hope that #16 is not the year for Enormous Backpacks...).

Back to duel with the sewing machine!  I am working on my batik quilt and it is the gorgeousness of the fabric and pattern that is keeping me going.  I am determined to defeat complete this quilt.  My near-term goal is to reduce the ratio of seams-sewn to seams-ripped-out to under 1:2.

Thanks for stopping by!

Great Vacation and a Quilted Table Runner

Hello!  Sorry to be away so long, but we were on vacation.  We went out to Alberta to visit my family for a few weeks.  It was lovely.  Great weather, lots to do, lots of time to relax.  I brought a few card kits with me to make up some stock for the craft show in November, and I got 36 cards done for that.  I'll try to scan those in and post them soon.

I also got hooked on quilting!  My mother's quilt guild had a show while we were there and it really inspired me.  I have always loved the quilts my mother makes, but my hatred of sewing has always deterred me from trying quilting.  It turns out that quilting is much more like making cards and scrapbook layouts than sewing.  Who knew!  I bought a table runner kit and my mother taught me to make that and I also picked up a quilt kit to work on as time permits.  Here's a picture of the table runner.  It uses the Divided by 3 pattern by Mountainpeek Creations.  It's on the ironing board, which is the small green floral print.  This runner is shades of brown, olive, soft blue and gold.  What fun!  (DH is a bit dismayed, he seems to be worried that I will get carried away.  You see my line about stamping has been that "at least I don't quilt".  Now I will have to have another expensive hobby that I don't do instead.  I think I will  not take up collecting antique tractors.  I do love antique tractors and my dad offered me his two.  So that is a legitimate hobby that I am not doing.  Think of the space and expense that would take!  I don't think hubby would want a back yard full of old tractors (though I can't see why not).  Still, to legitimate further my interest in this hobby, I should, I should build a tractor shed in the back yard, for restoring the engines, with lots of large tables and good lighting.  Then, while I am not restoring engines (because I am diligently not collecting tractors yet), I could use the tables for quilting.  The parts loft could be converted to a fabric storage loft, and the engine fluid nook could be converted to a kitchenette.  I'm sure hubby would be resourceful enough to install an intercom system so I could be notified when dinner is ready.  A bridge too far?  Maybe....)

Today I popped out to drop off my sewing machine for a tune-up and to get  a cutting mat and rotary cutter.  I will be all set to work on the two projects I have next in the queue, Stepping Stones by Judy Niemeyer, and another one that uses fat quarters that my mother had in her sharing pile.  What's really next is to clean up a portion of my stamp table to make room for the cutting mat and sewing machine.  We'll have to do a bit of rejigging of things in the basement.  My craft room is set up for stamping, not sewing, but it will have to do double-duty now, so I will need to do some editing and re-arranging.  However, right at this moment, I need to give the children lunch then take them out to get school supplies (fingers crossed that the school supply list from the end of school in June is where I think it is....I know I put it in a safe place.....somewhere......).  After that, do some unpacking and tidying then I can get back to the craft space with a clear conscience!