CASEing the card on the cover of the new Catty

You've probably seen the cover of the new Stampin' Up! catty.  If not, scroll down the blog page a little ways and look on the right sidebar.  There it is!  Click on it to open the pdf file and get a closer look.  Or, if you have good eyesight, just look at the card with the striped Top Note die on the front.  What a fun card, don't you think?!  Well, all of the idea in and on the IDEA BOOK & catalog are there for you (& me) to use for IDEAS and INSPIRATION.  So, I CASE'd the card.  What does that mean, you might ask?  Copy And Share Everything!  So here I am, copying it and now sharing my version with you!

As you can tell, it's a baby card.  I used papers from a retired kit.  Can't recall the name at the moment.  On the base of the giraffe layer is a new die shape--Scallop Rectangle.  It's a Clearlit Die.  I also used the Big Shot to add the texture to the So Saffron layer with a Texturz Plate.  I love those things! 

Aside from the inspiration from the card on the front of the catty, I actually pulled the colors I used from the knitted baby gift I also made.  I guess I got lucky that I had a kit in my stash that included pretty much all the colors that worked perfectly with the hat and booties.  See what I mean:

So, page through the catalog, look around your house, keep your eyes peeled while you're out in the world... inspiration is all around us!

Happy Stampin!
Brenda

Baby Boy Blue Knit Hat & Coordinating Card

It's been awhile since I've shared a knitted project with you. So I'll show you a super quick knitted hat that I made for a friend who just had her 7th child. It's a simple 2x2 rib pattern--if you knit, you know what that means. Of course, I couldn't just give her the hat without a coordinating handmade card now could I?!

While I was at it, I thought, Hey! This card is turning out super cute! Why don't I make another one for a sample? So, I DID! I changed the second one up a bit... can you see the differences?

These cards were just as quick and easy to make as the hat. Here's a list of all the punches I used: 1 1/4" & scallop squares, the modern label, word window and scallop edge. I dusted off my Nursery Necessities stamp set to use the cute elephant & saying. There are little dots around the edge of the elephant image--kind of like stitching. After stamping him in Bashful Blue, I used the fine tip on the black stampin' write journaler (marker) to highlight that stitching.

I love the 4 square card layout. It's great for highlighting pretty papers or using up scraps. Here's another version of this layout:

We made this card at my last class. I actually CASE'd it from another demo's card idea, but changed it up by adding the little Jewelry Tag hanging from the ribbon. It's hard to see, but it says {love} on the tag.

If you ever get stumped when sitting down to make a card, consider using this basic layout. If you don't have square or heart punches, consider using flowers, stars or circles...

Happy Stampin!

Brenda

More Knit Projects: Cruiseware

Happy Monday! I hope y'all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! My family and I enjoyed some "mandatory family fun" moments... if you have teenagers, I think you know that that means. If you don't, it means that we made our boys break away from the computer/video games to do some fun stuff--going to the pool, a movie, playing cards, etc. For some reason, they weren't interested in my idea of stamping patriotic bookmarks. So I did that on my own:

Yes, this was one of my New Catty Kick-off Party projects. I had some leftovers, so I made them up and gave them away to my hubby's boss and the ladies at the library.

Anyway... just as fireworks were going off around the country, so was our AC blower motor! How convenient in the 100+ temps, on a holiday evening! We live in military base housing, so we were able to get a maintenance guy to come out that night and at least bring us a portable AC unit to hold us over until they can order a part. I think this is God's way of making us really appreciate a trip we have coming up. We are setting sail on an Alaskan Cruise in a few days. We'll be leaving Texas tomorrow.

As you know, I knit, and when my hubby shared his exciting idea about this trip-of-a-lifetime, in the back of my head I thought "Hey, what can I knit for the trip?!" It's a good thing that we planned this trip several months out... because I decided to knit a shawl and a sweater (I must keep warm!). Well, here are my hand knit cruiseware creations:

Pattern: Mr. Greenjeans


Pattern: Rectangle Shawl

We'll be gone for almost 2 weeks. I have aspirations of writing several blog posts and scheduling them to be published throughout the next 13 days. However, I have yet to pack and have a to do list A MILE LONG... so, if you don't hear from me, don't worry. I'll have lots to share when I get back!

Happy Stampin!... and Cruisin!

Mission "Emboss"ible Projects

Here are a couple of projects we made at the Mission "Emboss"ible classes I held last week.

The chipboard heart was embossed several times. First it was inked with Rose Red craft ink, sprinkled with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and heat set. Then Versamark Ink was applied and it was embossed with clear embossing powder (at least twice), to create a smooth look. A tip for heat embossing small items, attach it temporarily to a scrap piece of cardboard to use as a handle to keep your hands at a safe distance from the heat tool.

Here's a closer look:

The rose from the Fifth Avenue Floral set was stamped onto Shimmery White card stock using Basic Black craft ink and embossed with clear powder. The technique for adding the color is called Reinker Spread and was demoed at a Stampin' Up! regional seminar by Connie Ingram. It involves 3 colors of reinkers, an aqua painter, and spray bottle of water. You really need to see this one in person to appreciate how shimmery and gorgeous the colors are!

You may have also noticed that I used the Manhattan Flower Textured Impressions Die on the Kiwi Kiss background.

MY SCRAPBOOKING GOAL UPDATE: I don't want to make excuses for not having a layout to share with you from this last week... but... things came up. My sweet hubby's birthday is today and I spent several days making him a hat (while he wasn't looking). After seeing this hat and recalling that we live in Texas, you may wonder "What the...?"

Well, he's been watching Out of the Wild: Alaska on The Discovery Channel and he was inspired! LOL! Actually, we are also going on a trip to Alaska this summer and he felt he just HAD to have a flap hat! So I dug through my yarn stash and knit him one! I certainly hope the temps aren't cold enough for him to really need it while we're there. Although, I think it brings out the blue in his eyes. Love ya, Hon! :)

Back to my excuses... err, I mean non-excuses for not having a layout to share with you... I was also busy making 4 dry erase message boards for my son's Sunday School teachers:

AND, my calendar was also full of social events, a vet appointment and classes. I did "scrapbook" in the technical sense of the word when I prepped for a class that I have coming up on Monday--making a paper sack mini album. Unfortunately, I can't share a picture of that project since it will be a gift (in the near future) for a special someone who reads my blog. :)

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I promise, I will be Happy Scrappin' in the coming week... I hope you will be too!

My Easter Sweater

I hope y'all had a wonderful Easter. We had a quiet day at home after dressing up and going to church in the morning. I thought I'd share the sweater tank top that I knit for myself... and finished in time to wear on Easter. The pattern is called Soleil.

When searching for the yarn to make this sweater, I wasn't planning on getting this color. I was thinking a color close to Tempting Turquoise or Taken with Teal would look nice to coordinate with the skirt. It was a good thing I brought the skirt along while yarn shopping, because this shade of Cameo Coral turned out to be the perfect match! Who knew that yarn companies use Stampin' Up! colors too?! :)

This is the second sweater I've knit. It was relatively easy, since it was mostly knit. I did alter the pattern a little bit. I added length to it so that the lace at the bottom was lower than my waistline (showing my belly button in church is frowned upon). To prevent the armholes and neckline edges from rolling, I had to do a backwards crochet stitch. This was a new thing for me. Thanks to my Stitch & Bitch friends for the suggestion--it really did the trick!

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On the stampin' front, I am currently working on designing the projects for my upcoming Just Cards Class on Tuesday, April 21. If you're interested in coming to the class, let me know! My contact info is on my Stampin' Up! Website.

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Happy Stampin... and Knittin!

Moe Monster Knits for a Baby Girl...

Are you wondering what in the world the title means? No, it's not a typo! Well, I have been knitting more baby stuff... the adorable hat pattern is called Moe and you may recognize the monster baby booties.

I had already made the hat and booties when I went shopping for the dress... isn't it perfect?! This sweet little ensemble was for a woman in my husband's office who just had a baby girl--Chloe.

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Here's a close-up of the card:

Stamp Sets: Forest Friends, Nursery Necessities, Frames with a Flourish

Accessories: Organza Ribbon, Eyelet Border punch, Stampin' Up! Backgrounds 1Texturz Plate

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Happy Stampin!

Sale-A-Bration Countdown... and cute baby card & knit hat!

Don't miss out on earning FREE STUFF with the Sale-A-Bration promotion. This awesome sale only happens once a year and it ends in just a few days--Tuesday, March 31!

Here is a card I made using the Delicate Dots Designer Paper and Ribbon Bundle, which are both products you can only get for FREE during Sale-A-Bration:

You may have guessed, I knit the sweet little hat too. This was a gift for my friends' new baby, Haden. He is such a cutie!

If you'd like to place an order or you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me. My contact info is on my Stampin' Up! website. Of course, you can also place your order online through my website.

Happy Stampin!

Another Knit Project...

To make up for the slightly disturbing knit project I posted the other day, I thought I'd share my latest knit project, in all it's furry cuteness splendor:

This is a new pattern for me called Knit Monster Baby Booties. I'm so glad I found it! They took me less than 3 hours to knit up last night while watching tv and I used up scraps from my yarn stash. The pattern says to add french knots to the front for the claws, but I think these are too adorable as they are with the pink fur.

Now, when I find some green furry yarn to make more of these booties, you better believe I'll be adding those claws!

By the way, I made these booties for my former church's crisis pregnancy center. Instead of showing the women who find themselves in an unfortunately situation nasty videos, the kind volunteers at Mary's Haven give them a pair of booties to help them realize that they are carrying a living human being inside of them that will one day (hopefully) be born and fill these booties. This is a very small way for me to give back... you see, I was put up for adoption as a baby. I am so thankful that my birth mom loved me enough to let me be born and gave me a chance at life.

Ornament Exchange & Gift Bag

I sure hope my friends at Stitch & Gab aren't reading my blog today. If you are and you don't want to see my ornament for our exchange, stop reading right now! :)
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I couldn't wait any longer to share the ornament and gift bag I made for our ornament swap that's coming up next week, so here here it is:

Here's a close-up of the tag:

The ornament is knit and felted. I used a pattern for a man's boot sock as a guide for the shaping of the sock--I cut the stitches from the pattern in half and got the perfect size for an ornament.

The gift bag is a Bag-A-Lope, where you tranform an envelope into a bag. If you are interested in learning how to do this technique, I have a class scheduled on Thursday, Dec. 11, called Packages & Tags where this will be one of the techniques I'll be teaching. Contact me to sign up!

Well, I can't promise this will be the last of my holiday gift postings. I've always had a difficult time with surprises... yes, I'll admit, I used to search the house for Santa's stash as a child. I've even been known to blurt out someone else's surprise (sorry, Sis!). It's not that I don't like surprises... I actually LOVE them! I just have a REALLY hard time knowing something really cool is coming and either not knowing everything about it or not sharing it with someone! I will try to keep my gift postings to projects I have made for my loved ones who I don't think check my blog. :)

Happy Stampin!

I SAVED THE RED SCARF--by killing it!

With help from my Stitch & Bitch friends, Patty, Teri & Juanita, I fixed the Red Scarf!

When we met last night and I showed them the scarf, they gave me the great news that I hadn't actually melted the scarf after all... I just "killed it"! That's the technical term for: flattened it within an inch of it's life. My knitting friends suggested that I finish the job and kill the rest of the scarf. So I did:

Believe it or not, the flattened scarf has a very nice drape now. Juanita even suggested that it sort of feels like cashmere! Can you believe it, I made a faux cashmere scarf out of cheap acrylic yarn?! The edges still roll a little bit, but not nearly as badly as they did before... I killed it. :)

Well, now that the scarf is done and I'm extremely happy with it, I will be sending it off to The Red Scarf Project. By the way, if you're interested in contributing your own red scarf (or a cash donation) to the cause, you have more time. The deadline has been extended to December 15, 2008. Check out their website for more details.

Red Scarf Finished!

I'm happy to announce that the Red Scarf is done!

From the picture, you may not be able to tell that I actually ruined part of it while steam blocking it. The pattern of the scarf really made the edges roll quite a bit. It rolled so much that it was basically a big tube when I got done knitting it--therefore it HAD to be steam blocked. Well, since I used acrylic yarn, it was important to be very careful during this step or the acrylic would melt... and... well, I guess I wasn't careful enough!

Even from the close-up picture, it's hard to tell, but the left side is totally flat. You can see the the edges on the right side still roll quite a bit. I did block that side too, but I was more careful to not completely melt it flat.

I'm not sure what to do with the scarf now. As it is, I wouldn't feel comfortable giving it away as a gift--let alone donating it to The Red Scarf Project. I will need to enlist some help from my knitting friends to see what they suggest. I may have to go ahead and melt... errr, I mean seriously steam block the right side, just to make the whole thing the same and just hope the kid that receives it doesn't know what it was supposed to look like. sigh...

On the Stampin' front... I have finished my swap cards for the SCS Demo dinner that's on Friday and I have started working on some general swap cards. I also made another dry erase picture frame to give away as a door prize at the dinner--for this one I used Bella Rose DSP, Flower Fusion Too flowers & rhinestone brads. I will post pictures of all of these projects after the big event--probably sometime this weekend.

Meet Sheldon!

This must be kept a secret, but I want to share my latest completed creation with you... SHELDON!

He is a knitted turtle that I made for my youngest son, Nicholas' birthday that is coming up on the 17th. Ever since Aunt Ruth gave Nicholas her own knitted version of Sheldon this past summer, Nicholas has felt that I should make him one too... along with interchangeable shells, of course. You see, Sheldon is unique in that his shell was made separately from his body so it can come off.

Perhaps one day I will make "my" Sheldon shells for all the seasons and other occasions, but for now, he has sort of a camo shell. As you can see, he sort of blends in with the grass when he's outside. After all the work I put in to making him, I sure hope Nicholas doesn't let him get loose in the grass and.... gasp! God forbid, he get lost!

**RED SCARF UPDATE** While I'm talking knitting, I might as well tell you how the red scarf is going. I have about 24" done so far. That's over 1/3 of the way done! Now that I'm done with Sheldon, I can devote more time to the scarf. I am getting close to using up the first of two skeins of yarn... so I know I'm getting close to being half done!

For my stampin friends, don't worry, I'm still stampin!

• I made my mom a birthday card and mailed it off yesterday.
• I'm working on making an altered journal for my niece's birthday. (shhh, don't tell her!)
• I am also working on my swap cards for Regionals.
• AND, in honor of World Card Making Day (which was officially last Saturday), I have a card class tomorrow!

I will be sure to share pictures of some of my stampin projects soon.

Happy Stampin & Knittin!

The Red Scarf Project

As with many crafty people, I am not monogamous to just one craft. At any one moment, I probably have half a dozen various craft projects in progress. Believe it or not, many of those projects are knitting related. Right now, on my various sized knitting needles, I have a pair of socks, stuffed toy turtle, lace scarf and (most recently started) a RED SCARF. I plan to donate my red scarf to the Red Scarf Project. As soon as I heard about this project via an email I received on Friday, I ran out to find the perfect color red yarn (limited by the selection at Hobby Lobby) and cast on for this 60" long scarf.

One of the reasons I love knitting, is because it is so portable and can be done almost anywhere. Last night, my family and I went to a jazz festival at a park in downtown San Antonio and... yup, you probably guessed it... I brought my red scarf to work on! Before the sun went down, I was able to get about 6" of this cable patterned scarf knitted. I still have a ways to go... but I feel confident that I will finish it in time for the October 31 deadline. I will be sure to take a picture of it before I send it off, so I can show you all.

With all this talk about knitting, you might be wondering about my workshop preparations (or not), but don't fear! I have finally decided on the two projects we'll be doing (I think). As of right now, we'll be making a card and Halloween bag topper. You'll have to wait until Wednesday for me to post a picture of what we make... I don't want to give away the surprise to any of my guests that are coming to the workshop (who may be reading this)... and it's also possible that I may change my mind--again. ;)

Happy Stampin... and Knittin!