Simple Elegance

Crochet Sampler Afghan

2011-01-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

This last July, I finished my Crochet Sampler Afghan. I started it almost 2 years previous and just worked on it as I had time, mostly in the evenings when I was too tired to be creative in any other way. It took me a long time because I found since this was my first afghan I tended to rip things out and start again. It also took me some time to figure out the stitches, gauge, and how to put it all together!!!!

This is a Lion Brand Company Pattern and you can find it by clicking on the link above. I also used Lion Brand Yarn called Vanna's Choice, in Espresso, Dusty Green, and Burgundy! I found the yarn easy to work with and enjoyed the feel of it in my hands. Love the colours and how it turned out.

The three different stitches!!! Espresso was a single crochet going through the back loop. Burgundy was a row of double crochet, followed by a row a single crochet. The Dusty Green was one row of cluster stitch followed by one row of single crochet.

Picot Edging in Espresso!!!

The Finished Product!!!! I loved making it! I love that it looks great in our master bedroom on our bed. It is also wonderfully cozy and I reach for it on cold winter nights when I need some extra warmth.

I Have A Secret...

2010-12-29T23:40:00.001-08:00

...Or rather I should say that My Hubby has a gift that he doesn't want anyone to know about.....he can free hand cut beautiful paper snowflakes that look like lace!!! Here is a photo of one of the most recent ones he has made. I am hoping to get them framed in the next month or so.

Dolls and Messenger Bags.

2010-01-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

Good Morning,
I can't believe how time has flown since I last posted. I have been busy doing lots of different things. For Christmas I made each of my daughters a Wee Wondefuls doll from the Kit, Chole and Louise pattern. My girls loved each doll and messenger bag that I made for them. Their eyes shone like bright copper pennies, so it was definitely worth the lack of sleep it took to get them done on time for Christmas.

Meet Dolly Sally and Shaela.
The pink one is for my youngest daughter, and the orange one is for my oldest daughter. I have one in the making for my son.

I made matching messenger bags for each doll. Check my previous post for a link to the messenger bag pattern.

A close up of the design on the flap of the bag. I used my big shot and some dies from Stampin' Up! to create the appliques, then adhered them to the fabric, and did a combination of hand stitching and machine stitching to finish them off.

Here is the pink messenger bag and Dolly Sally.

Here's a close up of the pink one.

How about the rest of you, did you get a chance to make any home made gifts this year? Baking, sewing, stamping, scrapbooking, etc?
have a great day,
Marcia

2009-10-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hello,
About two weeks ago I went to another bag ladies night. We went to the Quilted Cats Studio, and had such a fun evening of sewing, yummy desserts, laughter and friendship.

This time I made a messenger bag out of some denim that I had bought probably well over 10 years ago. I also used some of the pixie bella fabric from my reversible tote and crochet roll from my previous post. I used a bigz die for my Stampin' Up! Big Shot (check out my sil's SU website to purchase all SU supplies used in this project) called butterflies to die cut the butterflies out of fabric. I then used steam-a-seam to adhere the appliques onto the flap of the bag. I also hand stitched the appliques on using a back stitch, then added some of SU's rhinestone colored brads for the body of the butterflies. I used SU's crystal effects to adhere the clear rhinestones onto the flap, we will see how sturdy that is as I use it. I just love using this bag. I love the pockets that are included in the pattern and designed/added an additional pocket to the inside for all my little goodies that I take with me when I am on the go. Other than the alterations I already mentioned, I followed the rest of the pattern to make the bag.

After I finished my messenger bag, I cut out the pieces for a wonder wallet, using left over fabric. I can't believe how many projects I have made with these 4 pieces of fabric (1/2 metre each). That is awesome how you can come up with or find different projects to use up all those scraps. This is such a cute little wallet when you want to just take a few things with you and not a big bag/purse. It was also super fast to make.

For the front of the wonder wallet I used a SU button from button bouquet, from last years cataloge, sorry it is no longer available. It was a perfect match.

Thanks for looking.
Have a great day!

On November 14th we bag ladies are attending an all day sewing/craft day. The sewing/craft day is at Cindy's church, her friend Michelle is the gal who does all the behind the scenes organizing for the craft events for their church. The cost is $15.00 which includes both lunch and dinner. If you would like more details, check out our Bag Ladies Strike Again facebook group or check out our Bag Ladies Blog. Details regarding the sewing/craft day will be posted in the next week or two, so stay tuned to the previous mentioned sites.

Bag Ladies Strike Again...

2009-08-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

A group of friends got together at Sarah's (my sil) house last night and we sewed up a storm. Cindy and Rhonda worked on making a bag from the latest Quilts and More magazine. Alexa made a messenger bag, Sarah made 3 music bags, two were reversible and one was a reversible bag with 4 patches on each side to make up the outside of the bag. I used the same pattern that Sarah used for the reversible bag. You can find the pattern for the tote I made on Cindy Lou's blog.

This is the new reversible tote that I made for my crocheting projects and a crochet roll to hold all the essentials that I need for individual projects. I used the Pixie Belle line of fabric from Fabricland and Stampin' Up!'s chocolate 5/8 grosgrain ribbon for the tie. Check out Sarah's blog if you are interested in buying any Stampin' Up! products. She has some awesome classes and clubs happening this fall.

The crochet roll tied up.

This is what the inside of the crochet roll looks like. I got the pattern for the crochet roll from the Sew Mama blog. I followed her instructions for everything except I didn't add binding to the edge I top stitched instead. For the first 5 pockets on the right side I used her measurements but for the rest of the pockets I just sized them for my tools.

Stave Lake

2009-08-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

We went boating this past sunday with a couple of other families. We went out to Stave Lake on two boats. We drove around until we found a little rocky nook to park and bbq hot dogs. We saw some wildlife on the side and also some campers who were tenting on the shores here and there. The kids had so much fun tubing while the Dad's all went wake or knee boarding. The water was so clean, and this beautiful green colour. It was also just the perfect temperature for cooling off, not too cold and not too warm. Since this was made by flooding a valley there were lots of trees poking out of the water, it was really important when going through the channel to stay within the bouys. All in all it was a really fun afternoon. Here are a couple of pics.

Me and Juliana

Shaelyn

Daddy and Shaelyn

Nathan all cuddled up with U. Steve

My Weekend

2009-07-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
So far I have only been posting about how I have been organizing my scraproom. However, this weekend was our 16th wedding anniversary. So we stayed in Friday evening and ordered out our favourite desserts from local restaurants.
On Saturday we went with our oldest daughter to the Cultus Waterslide Park compliments of our realtors Larry and Marlene Siebert. They invite all of their clients each year for a bbq at the waterslides. We had a thunder/lightning storm with a torrential downpour, however once it passed we had a fabulous time with hardly any line ups at all, and we stayed until closing.
Yesterday we went to an amazing concert in our local area to see Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Brian Doerkson. But first we went out to dinner with my hubby's brother Steve and his wife Sarah to Greek Island's Restaurant. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!! Great food, awesome concert, and wonderful company, made for a wonderful night.
What a great anniversary weekend we had together!!!! Sorry I don't have any pics this time.

This Rocks My Colour World!

2009-07-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Hello,
This is a bird's eye view of my cropper hopper heavy duty rolling cart. My paper holder has a bin that holds just tons of 12 x 12 paper in vertical file folders, I think each one right now holds about 26 folders or so. I bought these from Joanne's on-line with a friend of mine and also from my local Michael's store a few years ago. They are made by Cropper Hopper. I don't think you can buy them anymore with the bin, but you can buy them without. I have implemented this sysem with my all of my cardstock; you can do this with whatever system you use for storing your papers as well.
I have had 3 of these rolling carts for a few years now, and until a year ago I only had my 12 x 12 papers in there. I also had them organized according to Stampin' Up!'s colour families (rich regals, soft subltes etc). Last fall I put all of my 8.5 x 11 cardstock into the folders with their matching 12 x 12 counterparts. I loved that I did that because when I wanted to grab a certain colour to work with, I had all of that specific colour of paper in all of the sizes I owned, plus all of the scraps (stored in a large ziploc bag within each folder) which are great for punches, and small stamped images etc. This also makes for great and easy portability of your colours when you want to go to a crop.
In just the last few weeks I have organized my paper folders according to the colours of the rainbow, just like my markers, and pencil crayons in the previous post. I now have a much better understanding as to exactly what each colour really is. For example: until now I have always thought of sage shadow as being a shade of green, but now I really know that it is actually a shade of blue-green. I can also see which colours are really yellow-greens, peaches not pinks, yellow-golds as opposed to yellow or a shade of brown.
Now I just need one more rolling cart, then I could add in all my printed papers and non-SU papers and slip them into their spots within the rainbow. This is the order of colours in my stash: pinks into burgundies which moves into reds, then red-oranges into peach, orange, and into the yellows, this moves into dirty yellows, yellow-greens, green, blue-greens, blue, blue-purples, purples, red-purples, which takes us back to the beginning of the rainbow. After the purple family I actually have all of my nuetral coloured cardstock, from creams to beiges to browns, then whites to greys to silver and finally blacks. This is what I did, but I did it by holding the paper next to each other and then I decided exactly where each one should be, sometimes I think I could still move them around but I will leave them as they are.
This has just changed perception of colour in scraproom! It has really simplified my search for just the right colour for each project.

My Colors

2009-07-09T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
Well I said I would post some pics and here they are.

The first one is my Stampin' Up! markers. I love the case they come in. I used to have them in the order of their color families, such as soft subtles, rich regals, earth elements, and bold brights. Now I have them organized in the order of the rainbow. Starting with the pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples and a few neutrals. Love the way it looks.

Next I have all of my non-Stampin' Up! markers, pencil crayons, pens etc, also organized into some old glass jam jars that my mom gave me. Thanks Mom!!! I love these jars. It looks so clean and now it will be easier to pick just the right shade I need for all my paper crafting needs.

The third picture is how I have them set up above my desk. My hubby build me some great shelves, and the black wire basket is from IKEA. The basket is a great way to use space underneath a shelf that would otherwise be wasted. Gotta love it!!!

Ribbon Ring

2009-07-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hi,
I just ordered some cool ribbon tags for organizing all of my loose ribbon. You can check out their system at Ribbon Ring. Here's a pic from the Ribbon Ring website. I can't wait for it to come.
I have spent time this week organizing my markers/pencil crayons, cardstock and inks. I am now organizing these products by colors - all the reds together, pinks together etc. I have also put all my stamp sets into drawers to free up some space on my shelves. It looks so fabulous. It is so fun to get my room organized again, it sure doesn't take long to for it to get messy.

Photo Freedom

2009-07-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
This spring while I was recovering from surgery I had the opportunity to read a book called Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian. In her book she shares her Library of Memories system. This system takes you from scrapbooking chronologically to inspiration based scrapbooking. I highly recommend this book if you want to move your photos from envelopes/boxes and into your scrapbooks. You can find groups on facebook that share ideas for this type of scrapbooking called Big Picture Scrapbooking and also Library of Memories Fan. She also has a website called Big Picture Scrapbooking.
Marcia

Christmas Frame, Some Home Decor

2008-08-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I know it seems strange to blog Christmas items, but I was going through some of my photos and thought I would start here with posting some of my artwork. I made this quite a while ago, fall of 2006 (I think) and I love bringing it out at Christmas time each year. I'll try to remember the supplies I used to create this pretty frame.

Techniques: Kissing, Kissing Off, and Twisted Kissing
Stamps: Headline Alphabet, snow flurries, warm words
Ink: True Thyme, Cranberry Crisp, Chocolate Chip Classic Inks
Paper: Holiday Thyme
Accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware - antique brass, various SU ribbons

Please note: some of these supplies are retired. Please see my Stampin' Up! website for current stamping supplies.

Valentine's Cookies

2007-03-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I know I am late posting this, but the cookies were so pretty I just had to share. I made these cookies for my daughter's kindergarten class for her 6th birthday, which is also Valentine's Day. They were a huge hit with all the kids, and I stayed with the class for the day and we had a great time doing some special Valentine projects. For her birthday party I made giant heart cookies for the kids to decorate with orange or yellow icing, which was a request from the birthday girl.

Here's the recipe: ( got it from a friend years ago)
3/4 c. butter
1c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 c. flour (I use about 2 3/4 cups - I just play with it until I get the right consistency)

Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Mix in baking powder, salt and flour. Chill 1 hour or until firm. Lightly flour surface and roll out 1/4" thickness. Place on greased cookie sheet, I don't think I have ever greased the cookie sheet. One recipe yields 10 large hearts (not shown) or a couple dozen regular hearts (shown). Bake at 375 for 8 - 10 minutes. The recipe for the icing was from the package of Rogers Icing Sugar. It turned out great, and was easy to work with.

Enjoy,
Marcia

Blog Candy

2007-02-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,
Seems like everyone is either giving away blog candy or receiving it. Relax I am not giving any away today. I would like to let you know about someone who is. Erika is giving away an entire stamp set! Wow! You can find her blog here. Please let her know I sent you.
Thanks,
Marcia

2007-02-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hello,
This is the card I made for my mom's birthday this past December. It is called a viewmaster card. The windows say daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, special friend. I cried when I made it and she cried when she opened it.
The colours I used were blush blossom, true thyme, cranberry crisp, and very vanilla. The stamp sets I used were All About You, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Expressive Flexible Phrases, and Floral Background. I rubbed true thyme and cranberry crisp on all the edges to give a dirty vintage look to the card. My mom loved it and I loved making it for her.
Thank you Kerry for the great layout and for letting me case your card. I just changed the colours to make it more my style.
Marcia

2006-12-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
This is the card I made for a Winter Mini Swap with a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators. I also participated in the card sketch challenge (although I still need to upload to the gallery) on Splitcoaststampers. This is SC70, you can click on the card sketch challenges on the homepage.

I used my new stamp set Carte Postal, the new jumbo wheel leaves a la carte, and the french flair background stamp. I used pale plum cardstock for the body of the card; mellow moss, chocolate chip, and whisper white was used for the focal point. I also used whisper white craft ink to stamp the background stamp on the right side, and used perfect plum jumbo ink cartridge to stamp the jumbo wheel image on the left side.

Chocolate grosgrain ribbon was adhered between the two background sections to seperate and add distinction. The flower has been stamped, and punched out using the 1 1/4" circle punch, and a stampin' dimensional pops it up with flair. A hodgepodge aged copper brad finishes off the focal point while the "mon amie" inked in chocolate chip finishes off the card. Thanks for looking, enjoy.
Marcia

Slideshow

2006-11-21T11:57:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Unfortunately I am removing my slideshow from my blog. Recently when you click on the slideshow it sends you to another site, in which there are unsavory links/pics that you can go to, plus some of these unsavory links/pics can be put onto my blog. This is not the direction that I want to take my business to, nor do I wish to promote this type of thing. So for now I am removing my slideshow. Thank you for looking at my blog.

Marcia

2006-11-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

This is the other card we did at our last club night last thursday. The technique for the background is called "Poppin' Pearls". We stamped the background Print Pattern on true thyme cardstock with VersaMark Ink. Then we dipped our sponge daubers into interference gold pear ex powder and with a light touch pouced over entire stamped area, we then used a swiffer cloth to wipe away excess powder. We added a second pearl ex powder in spots randomly over top of the first powder. After using a swiffer cloth again, we then sealed with hairspray (it is important to seal the image as it will rub off if you don't - an acrylic sealer is better, but we didn't have any at the time). We then stamped our focal image on very vanilla cardstock, sponged the edged, used the color spritzer with always artichoke marker, and adhered it to the page. The ladies could either pick a ribbon or use brads to finish it off. We then stamped Peaceful Wishes in basic black classic ink on top of the background. Everyone really like the finished product when they were done. It is really shimmery in person.

2006-11-13T21:23:00.000-08:00

This is the tree fold card we did at our club night last thursday. Everyone used Stampin' Up! Designer Series Holiday Thyme paper and using some complicated folds, created a tree fold card. Thank you Kerry, my upline, for this great idea.
These are the instructions as given to me by Kerry. There are four squares of the designer series paper, and a small piece for the trunk. The sizes are 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", and 3 1/2". Using your bone folder fold the square in half into a rectangle both ways so you have what looks like 4 squares. Then fold into a triangle both ways - so it is folded in half both ways. It has now been folded in half every which way it can be folded in half. Then fold back into a rectangle - holding the paper with the fold on top, push in the sides to make a triangle. Take the two corners from the top triangle and fold them to the center fold until they meet at the crease line...then layer them on cardstock to create a tree.
Have fun!
Marcia

P.S. Thank you Kerry for the wonderful idea for this card, great instructions, and layout! Everyone enjoyed making this card. I think they are looking forward to wowing their friends and family.

Welcome to my BLOG!

2006-11-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,
I am glad you decided to stop by and see my blog. Here I will have samples of my stamping projects; cardmaking, scrapbooking, gift giving, home decor and any other creative ideas that come to mind. I hope you come to visit often and leave feeling inspired.