Halloween Costume

Happy Halloween!!,  This year my son decided that he wanted to be a puppy for Halloween.  At first I was reluctant about the idea as he wanted me to sew the costume.  One of my friends however, told me a story about a guy friend of hers now in his 30's who still has the costume his mom sewed for him when he was a kid, and how he treasures it.  Okay, guilt set in and I sewed the costume (although another co-worker told me about her son also wanting to be a puppy and when she sewed his Dalmatian suit he looked like a cow).   I had to go to Fabricland for the fabric as all of the quilt stores in the greater Edmonton area were out of  chocolate brown Minkee fabric.  I also got the pattern at Farbicland and for reference of anyone who might want to make one of these and does not want to spend hours searching through all the pattern catalogues, this one is Butterick 6695.  We now have another happy puppy wondering around the house.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...


Kathy

Christmas Card

This is the last card that we made for the Stamp A Stack.  For this card we stamped with the Bright Hopes set.  The tree was stamped with Versa Mark and then covered in Cherry Cobbler embossing powder and heated with the heat tool.  The tree decorations are popped from the silver glitter paper and a rhinestone attached (with glue dot) on top.  The inside of this card is also stamped with greeting and snowflake from the stamp set.  Top drawer production again!!  The card stock is early espresso and cherry cobbler.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Card

This is the second snowman card that we made at the the Stamp A Stack.  The stamp set again is Snow Much Fun. Colors used on this card are basic black, baja breeze, poppy parade and Designer series paper poppy parade, and pear pizazz on the other side of the poppy parade Designer Series Paper.  A 1/4" black gros grain ribbon ties it all together!  Love this card!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Card

This is the second of the cards that we made for the Stamp a Stack.  This card uses early espresso and pink pirouette card stock. Usually I HATE pink, and yet on here, I love it.  The pink pirouette was embossed with the Northern Flurry embossing folder, but if you look carefully you will also note that I was not paying attention (happens frequently) and embossed one with the Snow Burst embossing folder.  Both look neat.  The snowman is from the Snow Much Fun stamp set, and this set is snow much fun to play with.  The snowman is colored with Stampin Write markers and adhered to another piece of pink pirouette and then placed on a Scallop Square.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Card

This is the first card of the Stamp a Stack.  This card uses old olive, early espresso, and very vanilla card stock.  The tree and snowflake image are from the Bright Hopes stamp set.  The old olive card stock background was stamped in old olive ink with the snowflake stamp.  The tree was also stamped with old olive ink on very vanilla card stock, sponged edges with old olive and then adhered to old olive and early espresso card stock.  Dimensional foam dots were placed behind this piece to elevate it off of the Snow Burst embossed old olive piece across the bottom.  The banner was stamped with Merry Christmas also from the Bright Hopes stamp set and then folded and cut to look like a banner.  This card is what I classify as `Top Drawer`.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp a Stack

These are the cards that my friends Alyssa and Brandy and I made for Christmas.  My friend Karina designed these cards and was so kind as to even cut the paper for us!  Karina, you rock (with papers and scissors)!!  We made 4 of each of these designs and the take home bags that were posted yesterday contained a stamp set, envelopes and package of rhinestones so that you could make more of these if they want at home.  It was a great evening with friends.  I will post close ups of each of these over the next few days.  Thanks again to Karina for her designs and Alyssa and Brandy for spending the evening stamping with me.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp A Stack Take Home Bag

I made these quick bags to take home supplies from the Stamp A Stack I held at my home this weekend for a couple of friends.  Each bag has all the supplies to make 16 cards (that my friend Karina designed), paper, ribbon, rhinestones, and each person also has a stamp set of their choice to take home, and make more!  I will post the cards tomorrow.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Cracked Glass Santa

I made this card as I recently saw a video on how to do this Cracked Glass technique and I had lots of the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel sitting around from a previous project.  I used the Jolliest Time of the Year stamp set, and colored with the Stampin' Write Markers.  Inked over the whole piece with Versa Mark Pad and covered with the Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel.  Heated with the heat gun until the enamel melted, waited for it to dry and repeated the procedure 2 more times, after the last time, I put the card stock in the freezer while I emptied out the clothes dryer and folded some clothes.  When I took it out I simply bent the card stock and the enamel CRACKED!  It was amazing.  I used sticky strip to attach to the card stock as Santa was kind of heavy with the enamel (or maybe it's all his cookies).  Used the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp at the bottom as not a lot of room left for a greeting.  That's it!!!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Stamp of the Month Club

Have I mentioned how much I love Stamp of the Month Club?  If not, I LOVE it!  This program is offered by my friend Karina and each month in the mail you receive a stamp set and 3 ready made cards for giving or inspiration on how to use the stamp set!  The stamp set this month is entitled The Sounding Joy.  Now, off to make some break this set in and make some cards.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Mystery Christmas Quilt Clue #1

This is clue number one of the fabric which was posted on yesterday.  So pretty.  I received clue # 2 in the mail today, so got sewing last night to make sure I was not behind on my clues.  The colors look so warm and rich against the Red Eye.  Love it.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Mystery Christmas Quilt

If you have read this blog or perused with any attention at all you will know I LOVE fabric and quilting.  You can then only image my glee when I got home the other night and a package of fabric was in my mailbox!!!!  My favorite quilt shop is The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  Now, it's not just because they're from Saskatchewan that I love them, but because they always have the most amazing kits, and fabrics, and quilts that you simply must take home with you (like puppies at the shelter).  For the last couple of years I have participated in their Mystery Quilt for Christmas program.  In mid October you receive the package of fabric and the first set of instructions, then every week in the mail you get more instructions until all 6 clues have been completed.  At that time, the quilt will be a moderate size, and then you have the option of purchasing a completion package to make into a lap or bed quilt.  It is so much fun because looking at this fabric right now, I have no idea what it will look like in a few weeks.  I will post last years completed quilt on here soon.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Christmas Mini Album

I found these little mini albums this summer during my roaming of craft stores (not sure which one though).  When I saw the Designer Series Paper Frostwood Lodge and the Winter Wishes Stitched Felt I immediately knew what I would use it for.  The early Espresso quilted satin ribbon holds the album together.  I used the package of DSP, very vanilla, garden green, and cherry cobbler card stock.  The back cover has garden green card stock embossed with the Snow Burst embossing folder.  The front image is from the Christmas Lodge stamp set and the snow flake inside is from the Bright Hopes stamp set.  I used the label punch to make small frames that could be used for journal entries.  This project is fairly quick and easy to make, and all it needs now is some photos and mementos.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Halloween Pillowcase

Last year I became involved with the One Million Pillowcase Challenge.  Locally, these pillowcases have been donated to the Stollery Children's Hospital, and other charities as well.  I have donated mine of course to Stollery as I worked there for several years and still have "soft" spot for the facility and what they do there.  Of course, my son has also been a benefactor of this challenge as I now sew him pillowcases to match quilts, coordinate with holidays and celebrations etc.  I bought this fabric a while ago - was the in the stash (fabric - not cookie), and decided today was time to make it up.  I love the kittens on this fabric and the costumes and expressions on their faces.  They are so cute, I almost want to snuggle one (sneeze, wheeze, scratch.....).  Check out the link for the Million Pillowcases as they have wonderful patterns for making pillowcases and trust me, you will never sleep on another commercially prepared pillowcase again.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

What is it /Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Although I do not speak French (having gone through high school in Saskatchewan with my French teacher's first language being Ukrainian), sometimes there is no better way to pose the question other than:
"Qu'est-ce que c'est"?  This is a kit that I purchased for my son's friend Matthew's 7th birthday.  Usually I do not go to this extent for his friend's birthday parties, but my son and Matthew have known each other since they were a couple of month's old, and so that's kind of special.  I ordered this kit from Quilting by the Bay in Florida.  Despite our yearly winter vacation to Florida I have still never made it to this quilt shop, however, they are kind enough to ship to Canada at a very reasonable rate.  This kit is entitled 3D Outer Space Quillow.  Now you know what it is!!  The glasses come with the fabric as the fabric is 3D.  The 3D effect is only seen through the glasses they send with the kit (not the ones we all "forget" to leave at the movie theatre).  I did modify the pattern as the pattern is for sewing the layers together and then flipping outwards and sewing the end shut, but that to me is not a quilt, so I machine quilted then put the binding on.  The pattern also calls for an applique space ship that I did not put on the pillow portion as it looked too juvenile for a 7 year old.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

October Quilt Calendar

I finally finished the October Quilt block today.  Better late than never!  These blocks are part of a series of monthly calendar quilt blocks designed by Nancy Halvorsen.  I subscribed to this block of the month program through one of my favorite quilt shops in Edmonton; Sew Divine and each month I get the fabric and buttons to complete these 12" quilt blocks, all I have to do is finish them (red eye quilting).  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Halloween Countdown Calendar

I like to make these fun count down boxes for my son for all kinds of holidays and celebrations.  His prior countdown to Halloween calendar met with some water and got odd shaped.  So, I made a new one.  I get these boxes at Scrapbook Memories & More in Sherwood Park.  LOVE that store, if you have not been, you should go.  I still had pieces of the Designer Series Paper Frightful Sight left over, and used it to cover the box as well as all four sides of the individual boxes.  Then I let my son decorate the box with left over Halloween stickers we had in the house.  Now, the countdown is on.   Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Barn Card

As a child growing up on the farm in Saskatchewan, my favorite toy was the Fisher Price Barn.  My brother and I would spend hours playing with this toy and to the dismay of our mother, we one day found out that the bottom of the chicken fit perfectly between the door and the valve that caused the barn to moo every time we opened the door.  The gift bag I purchased a few years ago when I saw it (a must have purchase) and the door on the left moos when opened!!  As you can see, I cannot part with it.  
When I saw the Stampin Up stripes embossing folder this toy is immediately what I thought of.  Then I saw the Barnyard Buddies stamp set and thought EVEN BETTER.  Then, in the Christmas Mini there is the Peekaboo Frames and I thought PERFECT!!  Now I can make the most awesome barn card!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Halloween Pillow

I found this fabric panel in my stash (fabric - not cookie) the other day and decided now was the time to make this.  I simply cut out the panel leaving a 1/2" border for sewing, reinforce sewed the openings, and then allowed my son to stuff the pillow with the polyester stuffing as I could not locate a pillow form that came in odd rectangle sizes.  He thought it was great fun stuffing the pillow and spent a better part of the afternoon putting in the stuffing and the dog, and resting his head on it to see if it was cozy enough.  When it had reached his threshold of cozy I sewed it shut and TA DAH we have a Halloween Pillow.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Halloween Card

This Halloween card my son and I made for his grade 2 class to go along with the little treat bags I will do up later in the week.  The card base is basic black, then I used the pumpkin, stem, and branch from the Jack of All trades stamp set and embossed with left over Tangerine Tango and Wild Wasabi embossing powder from this summer's mini catalogue.  Still have lots left (sigh).....  The bottom paper is from the Frightful Sight Designer Series paper that I got in September with the buy 3 packs get a 4th for free (this was the free one).  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Thanksgiving Table Topper

This table topper is made from a pattern called Twister and from a company called Designs to Share with You.  The pattern requires the use of 4 fat quarters so is great for those little bundles of fat quarters that always "seem" to come home with you (like puppies at the shelter).  This bundle I adopted while in the Montana, and the cutter of the fat quarters was very exact in how much was in a fat quarter, and since this pattern is a Canadian design, I had to be very exact in my cutting to get the points correct on this.  Still worked out okay though.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...


Kathy

Christmas Gift Tag Clutch

At our monthly Stampin Up meeting we recently made gift tag holders.  While I enjoyed the project I thought this could be made even better.  So when I got home (2200 hours) I set about making my version!  I started with 2 of the treat sized lock bags and measured each of them (important as they are not all the same size I found out and not all rectangle in shape - some were more parallelogram in construction).  Then I added 1/8 " on either side.  Once you have this measurement cut your 8 1/2" by 11" cardstock so that the width this measurement wide, the length is for the other bag and the overlap.  Score the paper at the height of bag plus the 1/8 measurement, score again 1/4" further for the seam.  Measure second bag and 1/8"  and score again, and again 1/4" further for the top seam.  I rounded the corners on the overlap piece to make look prettier.  The bags are secured with sticky strip and a piece of Designer Series paper slipped in side.  Tags were cut at 2" by 3 1/2" label punch Designer Series Paper attached and Cherry Cobbler seam binding used for ribbon.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  I hope you are all "stuffed" with turkey or about to be.  For the table I sewed a quick table runner, it is backed in the gold print from the edges.  The place mats are made from a fat quarter, the centers are 1/4 of a fat quarter and then some left overs from the table runner to make the corners and the gold edges are left overs from the table runner as well.  The place mats are quilted quickly using stitch in the ditch technique.  A very quick easy project that I think looks perfectly festive for the day.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Fall Scrapbook Page

I had lots of die cut leaves left over from yesterday's project, and did not want to waste them.  What to do???  Make a fall scrapbook page!  I had 2 pieces of brown  12 x 12 card stock sitting around waiting to be used along with another sheet of lighter brown from which I made the tree.  I drew the tree outline on the right hand side of the paper and then ripped along that line to make rough edge for the tree.  Used my chocolate chip marker to draw the lines on the tree and the left over paper made the photo frames.  The leaves were dropped on the page from the bag they were in, and slightly rearranged.  The title is cut at 1 1/4" from my Cricut Speaking of Fall cartridge.  Now I will take my son to the river valley this weekend and the page will be complete.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

The Maple Leaf Forever

I have entitled this card The Maple Leaf Forever, because I love the maple leaf!  I love the song, and so while putting the leaves on these cards I of course made sure a maple leaf appeared on each one, and as I adhered them I sang the song, and had a history lesson with my son!
I do not often purchase die cuts as I love my Cricut, however in this case I did buy the Stampin Up Leaves #2 die just because of the maple leaf it contained.  All the points looked right and made me so patriotic to have it.  This card is made with Early Espresso card stock, the border is designer series paper pumpkin pie from the Brights collection, and the leaves are made using real read, old olive, daffodil delight and pumpkin pie all sponged with a bit of chocolate chip ink to "dry" them up like real leaves.  Some were embossed with the perfect polka dots folder, some with the square lattice folder, and some left plain.  The buttons are a left over from the spring mini catalogue.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

New House

I love my Cricut machine!  I recently got the Sweet Tooth Boxes Cartridge.  In it is this pattern for a house box.  My friend Alyssa just bought a new house, and got a new job.  So, to say congratulations, I made her this box in which I will put poppy seed muffins (I just baked).  The house was cut at 10", and then assembled by me until I almost tossed the whole project only to realize I was assembling it wrong!!  OOOOPPs.  Went together very easily once I did it correctly.  For the windows I used the clear window sheets from Stampin Up and adhered with glue dots.  Since Alyssa has a dog I added a dog sticker, bowl, and ball to the yard of the house to make it look like home.  The house is red with black trim, because I think they are the best houses to have!  Congratulations Alyssa!  Hope this inspires your  own creativity...


Kathy

Paper Piecing

I used paper piecing technique to make these place-mats.  The fabric I used if of a Christmas festive nature so I will be gifting these to my grandmother for Christmas.  Hope she likes them.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...


Kathy

Meet Sock Monkey

Meet Sock Monkey.  My son was born in the year of the Monkey and so every time that I find something with a monkey on it (that's adorable) I get it for him (within reason).  He has several sock monkeys in various colors and productions, however, alas, not a homemade one.  So to fix that problem, I learned how to make sock monkeys!!  This monkey was so much fun to make, and now I have come up with a BRILLIANT plan.  I am going to take my son's first pair of wool socks from when he was 3 and sew them into a mini sock monkey and put it away in safe keeping until someday when he has his own little person : )  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Kaleidoscope Quilt

This is my favorite quilt to show off.  It is entitled Twilight Kaleidoscope and created by designer Marilyn Foreman.   I did this quilt as a class at Lori's Country Cottage.  From the day of the class until I received this quilt back from long arm quilting and put the binding on was 48 weeks.  It is queen sized with mitered corners so that the lilacs just continue in a perfect row along the bottom of the quilt and when put on the long arm frame only one corner was out less than 1/8".  I am so proud of this quilt and it still makes me smile to know I made it!  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy 

Soap

And Monday is soap making day.  I noticed my son was getting low on soap last night, so today I made up a new batch.  Since my son was born I have been very careful about using products on his skin that contain weird chemicals.  I purchase soap blocks non colored, non scented at Earth's Aromatique in Edmonton, and then when he runs out of soap I simply melt a batch, color it and very lightly fragrance with lavender oil.  The left overs go into another mould (not mold) to be used for hand soap.  Today I made building blocks.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Candy Blossoms Quilt

I bought this quilt as a kit package last summer at Sew Divine.  Although I HATE pink there was something intriguing about this quilt (maybe it was the word candy in the title).  The pattern is called Candy Blossoms and was designed by The Pattern Basket out of Ontario.   I machine quilted this myself and used a pink floral flannel (more pink UGGGHH), and wool batting.  It is such a cozy quilt and although pink - I love it.  Glad I tried something new.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Entrelac Scarf

Knitting is still one of my favorite hobbies (tied with quilting).  I love anything that has to do with fiber.  I learned how to knit from my grandma's sister in law when I was 8 and still love it.  River City Yarns in Edmonton is my favorite yarn shop.  They carry an amazing variety of yarns and the staff have so much expertise and are always willing to help and answer any questions.  This scarf is called the Entrelac Scarf and the very well written free pattern is available at frecklesandpurls.com.  The pattern uses 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden and this yarn is so fun to work with.  Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy