Quilted Stationary

Today starts a new week of voting at So You Think You're Crafty.  The theme this week is rpurposed crafts.  So head on over and vote for yours truly {or whichever you like best}.  I can't tell which is mine just know that it's awesome.  Haha! 

Last weeks theme for the competition was scraps so I dug into my scrap hoard and came up with some

Quilted Stationary!

I really love to sew on paper and fabric gives a quality and texture that even the cutest scrapbook paper paper can't.  Before sewing, I secured the fabric to the paper with a gule stick so really this can be a no sew project as well.

Quilt Block Card:  This was an extra quilt block that never got used so I stitched it to a square card.  For the envelope I attached some of the leftover fabric from the block to the inside.  It's complimentary to the card and adds a nice little surprise.

Nautical/Americana:  For these I dug into my fabric, notions and paper scrap bins as well as the recycle.  The anchor card design is made from a fabric background with a fabric anchor appliqued with gold thread.  The flag card is a combination of fabric, red ribbon, white trim and a paper star.  The "freedom" card uses a combination of fabric, trim, paper and even uses the red plastic cover that they use to cover the tray of Cuties oranges at the grocery store.

Bright & Bold Birthday: For the balloon cards I used some black and white gingham fabric and attached it to bright cards by playing around with the different fun and decorative stitches on my machine with hot pink thread.  I then cut out a stencil in vinyl and painted a neon balloon on each one.  For the bunting cards I made teeny tiny flags and attached the tops using a straight stitch and added a birthday greeting.

So there you have it.  A fun and useful way to use up those scraps you've been hoarding!

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to all my north border buddies!

Click here for my Canadian Cards post

In case you didn't know, I'm married to a Cannuck, born and raised in chilly Winnipeg, Manitoba.

He says funny things like "past-a" (pasta) and "garberator" (garbage disposal) but never "eh".  Go figure.

But he does know how to eat like a Canadian! To celebrate Johnny Boy's Canadian roots I think we'll be dining on pierogies and sausage and I may try making Nanaimo bars for the first time but if I get lazy we'll just eat Fruit & Nut bars and Smarties for desert.

Have a good one, my Canadian friends!

{Tutorial} Personalized Christmas Card Bookmarks

In January I was visiting over at So You Think You're Crafty, a super fun craft competition blog.  They are in the middle of a season so go on over an follow along.  I'm obsessed with competition so you know I love it.  Missy was kind enough to feature this tutorial - so here it is if you missed it.  Enjoy!

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If you know me at all you know that I absolutely LOVE to re-purpose things.  There is something so satisfying about turning something old into something new.  Nearly everything I do is re-purposed in some way.  It's important to me to use what I have and not be wasteful.  For tips and rules on salvaging items you can read my post HERE.

Today I wanted to show you a personalized gift that you can make using leftover Christmas cards.  I love getting Christmas cards but I hate throwing them away come January.  I really have no need to keep them, so I often like to turn them into a cute bookmark to give back to my friend.  It's a simple little thing you can give as a little birthday gift or even a "thanks for being my friend" token.  The best part is you know they like the picture.  Heck, they're the ones that picked it out!    

There are so many possibilities.  You can even use your own leftover cards or pictures to make gifts for the grandparents or rip through your old magazines.  I mean what tween doesn't want to be staring at Justin Bieber while reading that book for English class?  And yes, I'll admit the super creepy bookmark of Edward Cullen is mine.  What can I say?  I just can't read Twilight without it.

But I digress... let's get back to the Christmas cards.  These not only are great because they are personalized but they are durable, and cute.  I also like that they are large in size so you're not losing it, but not so thick that you warp your book

Want to make your own????

Supplies:

• Card or other picture
• Card stock paper
• Fabric scraps
• Ribbon scraps
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Sewing machine
• Lamination machine OR clear contact paper OR clear packing tape

Step 1:  Cut out picture from card and attach to card stock with glue stick.  Cut the entire piece to be about the size that you want your bookmark to be.

Step 2:  Laminate entire bookmark.**

I have my own lamination machine.  It was very inexpensive {around $25 from Sam's Club} and I use it for everything.  If you don't have a lamination machine and if you don't know a teacher who can hook you up, you can go to a copy store or parent teacher store.  You can also buy laminating pouches that don't require heat.  Or you can just cover the front of your picture with clear packing tape.

**This step can be skipped but I find that protecting the picture keeps smudges off the photo as well as makes it water resistant.

Step 3:  Trim off extra lamination.

Step 4:  Lightly use glue stick to adhere scraps of fabric around the picture on the front of the bookmark.  You just want a small amount of glue to hold the fabric in place long enough to keep it in place for the next step.

Step 5:  Using your sewing machine, sew around the photo to secure the fabric to the bookmark.

Step 6:  Trim up the fabric creating about a 1/4 inch boarder.

Step7:  Attach ribbon to the back of bookmark.

Step 8:  Cover the back of bookmark with another piece of fabric.

Step 9:  Sew around the entire outer edge
.

Ta-da!  

If you put two pictures together you can use ribbon to separate each picture, like I did in the photo below.

This is a super versatile project and you can really get creative and make this your own.  So grab those cards and fabric scraps and get creative!

Real Valentines Day

I know when I posted my Valentines that I said I would post the great Valentines I received from The Stationary Place Valentine Swap yesterday but I was delusional.  I watched 11 kids yesterday.  When in the world did I think I would have time to blog?  Oh well.  Today is REAL Valentines Day.

That's right, while the world is fighting the crowds and overpaying for tokens of love we are treating it just like every other day because for the Cutts family Valentines Day isn't until the 15th.  After a Valentines day several years ago where we went to 4 sold out movie theaters, watched a mother of two get arrested after an altercation with a man over the parking spot we just left at our favorite bakery and having to settle for a romantic dinner of fast food we decided it just wasn't worth the hassle and permanently changed the holiday.  Best decision ever.

So without further ado I'd like to show off the fun Valentines I got from my new pals.  

First up is the coolest piece of mail I've ever received from

Jody @ The Hobby Room

I had to snag this photo from her site because we were so excited about our Valentine that the kids and I ripped it apart and devoured the candy before I could snap a picture.  It came just like this with postage stamped on the front.  It provided us with an evening of fun, opening up each little pockets and giggling as we scarfed it all down.  Let's just say watching a baby eat Pop Rocks is hilarious.

Click on the picture or click HERE for a tutorial on how to make this cool Valentine.

I can see myself sending something like this to my nieces and nephews for their birthday.

The next Valentine I received was from

Beth @ Art and Elephants

Love the graphic print!  It's so simple and beautiful.  I also adored the little touches with the Washi tape and the Van Gogh quote.  I had never heard it before and it is so beautiful!

This next one is from

Michaela

Can we just say CUTE!!!   Valentines day isn't Valentines day without red, pink and hearts and Michaela nailed it.  I love that she used the little hearts as the steam from the cup.  She sure knows how to serve up a hot cup of LOVE!  ; )

Last but not least

Hannah @ Hannah Made

Let's just discuss this bunting for a minute shall we...  I love it!  I love bunting but never have I thought to make tiny paper bunting and put it on a card.  So clever!  The time and patience it must have taken to make tiny flags and and get that bakers twine pulled so perfectly tight.  It has me seeing hearts!

THANKS SO MUCH GIRLS!  

You're all so creative and talented and totally made my day when I received these.  Your kind words and messages were so sweet.  Hope you had a special day filled with love, love, and chocolate. 

Happy Real Valentines Day!!!

Will You Be Mine??

I'm kind of a weird crafter.  I almost never do holiday crafts.  I don't know why.  I think the holidays just sneak up on me and I never get around to it.  And to be honest I kind of get sick of seeing a million holiday themed crafts after a while.  This year though my friend Elizabeth posted about a Valentine Swap she was doing at The Stationary Place.  I saw this as a fun way to make a fun Valentine craft as well as meet some new people.  It was a blast!  I'm so glad I participated!

Tomorrow I want to show you the adorable and fun cards I received from my new pen pals.  I have yet to take pictures of their creations, but I did want to show you what I came up with before the holiday slipped by me.

I kept going over what I should make in my mind but it wasn't until the kids and I were making shrinky dinks one night did I settle on a plan.  We used an old lunch to-go box container and permanent markers to make the shrinky dinks (tutorial to come) and I attached each heart to a bit of chain.  I got the chain from a big pack of key chains they had at the Dollar Tree.

I hot glued the chain to the teal paper and then glued jumbo red rick rack over top of that.  The little love thing in the corner is a piece of scrapbook paper that I painted a swipe of teal paint on.  Once the paint dried I used a stamp to stamp the LOVE.  I then used my sewing machine to zig zag stich it onto the card. Simple but fun.

On the inside I included a little surprise.  A tiny little bookmark.  I can do a tutorial for this one too but basically I just hand stitched around a little piece of teal wool felt.  I hot glued it to a paper clip and then glued another plain heart to cover the back.  I attached the bookmark to the card by making a tiny slit in the paper so that's why you can't see the other loop of the paper clip.

Confession:  I had to make one for me too.  To put in my Hunger Games book.  Because I {heart}it so much.  Can I get a squeal for the upcoming movie release?  Eeeeeekkkk!!  I can't wait!!  

One of my darling children {read that with sarcastic disgruntled mom voice} loved the heart charms so much they took off with one of them and I have yet to have found it.  Grrrr... so I'm sad to say not all four of my cards were the same.  Sorry to whomever ends up with the random card but lace, felt and a metal brad are nice too right??

Finished off in a nice little envelope sealed with some heart tape.

Hope all my readers have a Happy Valentines Day tomorrow!

I sure do love ya'!!!

Christmas Card Bookmark Tutorial at SYTYC

Hey everyone!!!

I'm guest blogging today over at So You Think You're Crafty?

I'm a huge fan of this competition blog and am so excited to be sharing with them my 

Christmas Card Bookmark Tutorial.

So pop on over and check it out!!

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String...

I'm so happy today!!!  Through some generous trades with some very amazing people I now have a computer again!!  I can't even begin to tell you how sad it's been for me not to blog.  It's such a great hobby and release. So look forward to lots of random posts coming soon.

This past weekend we were able to attend another wedding reception for a wonderful couple, Brian and Rebecca.  I made them a gift that was different from what I've been giving and I really loved it.  I'll show it to you soon but today I wanted to show you the card I made.

I really love reusing materials so for weddings I like to cut up the bride and grooms announcement to make their card.  After all, I don't need it anymore and they picked it out so they must really love it.  Sometimes I'll use their engagement picture, or a monogram but for this one I used this awesome picture.

Rebecca has fantastic style and this darling jar was at the bottom of the announcement.  I simply cropped out the jar and sewed it to the cream colored paper.  I used a stamp to add the word LOVE.  I then glued that portion to a piece of brown card stock that matched the brown paper wrappings.  I wrote the message on the back of the card/tag, punched a hole in the corner and tied it to the package.

The whole thing took about 5 minutes to make and the bride loved it.

Can you imagine if everyone re-purposed your announcement as a card??  I would love to see all the different things that people would do with it!

Bag, Bag, What's in the Handmade Bag??

So, a few weeks ago we got to attend a wedding of an adorably wonderful couple, Drew and Rachel.

I made them a wedding gift and then realized about an hour before we were supposed to leave, that I didn't have a way to wrap it.  It was just too big and nothing says tacky like Batman Christmas paper and gift bags that say "It's a Boy!".  I was in trouble.

Solution - make your own bag.

 This bag is made from white satin that I had gotten somehow for free and had plenty of.  I created a bag with French Seams and Boxed Corners.  For the tie, I used a piece of ribbon from my stash and sewed it to a small section near the top of the bag to secure it from slipping off.  It was super easy to make and reusable.  Now they can use it to re gift at the next wedding they go to.

 Want to know what's inside???  Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow's post (no snitching if you know).



Here's a clue with the card I made -

Yeah.  I totally went there.  I was laughing about my "punny card" and my husband just shook his head at me in shame.  I know he was secretly laughing inside but was just too proud to admit it.  He he, pear....  sigh....


Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see the gift and a tutorial on how to make your own!

Oh Canada, Here's a Card for Thee...

Here's a set of cards I made a while ago as a gift.  My husband grew up in Canada so we know quite a few Canadians.  I cut out red maple leafs using a template I hand drew.  It took several takes to get it just right, the key is to fold the template paper in half and just draw one side, that way it is symmetrical.  I glued them on some cream colored cards I cut out and rounded and inked the edges.

I thought these could be fun as a Happy Canada Day greeting or just to rub your Canadian pride in.

Cute, eh?

(Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.)

Oopsie Into Oohhhh!

Sometimes people say to me,

"How can you just make stuff up?  I'd be too afraid I'd make a mistake."

The best thing about creativity is it's okay to make mistakes!  Just figure out how to make them fabulous.  The thing I like most about creating is the problem solving journey, not just the finished product.

This card is one of those mistakes.

When I was first learning to use my Cricut I wanted to cut something out of black paper.  Well, I pressed the wrong button and out popped a black wedding cake.  Black?!?  No one has a black wedding cake.  But instead of chucking the cutout, I tried to figure out what in the world to do with it.  Why let it go to waste?  Then suddenly it hit me and the antiqued cake silhouette card was born. 

There's just something about it that makes me feel like I'm looking through all of my Grandmothers old things.  The best part?  It gave me a chance to take a picture using my gorgeous wedding dress as a backdrop.  Good to know that after all these years it still has a use!