QUILT BLOCK SWAP - Part 2

I set up the sewing machine and sewed around the edges of the flowers to stitch the flower shapes on to the ivory background piece for each quilt block.

I completed blocks in a similar fabric in: brown, blue and ivory. I tried to pick colors that would possibly coordinate with alot of other colors that I might be getting back in the swap.

The swap will be held at the Stampin' Up! Convention July 21-24 in beautiful Salt Lake City, UT. Stay tuned for future posts about the fun things I get back in this swap.....and then what I make with all the blocks I end up with! :-)
Jennifer

QUILT BLOCK SWAP - Part 1

Here are the steps in prepping for the quilt block swap I am doing at convention. I started with 1/2 yard of 3 different patterned fabrics. Folded each piece over so it was 8 thickness and the size to fit the my Big Flower Die. Trimmed it to make it fit the shape of the die (about 5 x 5.5).

Next, ran it through the Big Shot machine. Remember to sandwich the die & fabric between the acrylic plates.

The Big Shot cut 8 layers easily!

I cut the ivory background fabric to 8x8" squares.

A fabric glue stick was used to adhere the fabric flower to the quilt block. I'm making 10-11 blocks each of 3 different designs.

Next step it to go to the sewing machine.

You can see Angie Kennedy Juda's finished quilt at http://www.chicknscratch.com She is the one hosting this fun idea for a swap at convention. I'll end up with 30 some blocks so I can make more if I want a full quilt like Angie's 80 block quilt or I can use smaller numbers of quilt blocks for a throw, table runner etc. I'll decide that later.

Look for part 2,
Jennifer

Love that Brown Truck

I've been trying to figure out what to put in this cute little pouch since Friday. Once the UPS gal drove up and delivered these boxes I can't seem to get alot done! :-) I'm going to resort to chocolate...chocolate is always the answer, right? I'm thinking a Ghirardelli ind. wrapped chocolate will fit nicely in to this little freind pouch. Might have to taste test a few chocolates to get the right flavor for this project! LOL!



I will be delivering catalogs when I head to a class in your area, or feel free to stop by and pick up your catalog you earned or pre-ordered.
I'd better get back to unpacking catalogs. This is one of the best times of the year to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!

Happy stamping,
Jennifer

Ready to Swap!

Here are some swap bags I made for convention. For the past several years my group of convention roomies & friends from Nebraska, Colorado & Wyoming have formed a swap with 2 other demo groups from New York & Virginia. We meet at convention, sort out one each of our projects into each of the bags I have provided. Once you open the bags up and stand them up you will see the name of each swapper listed on a bag....then you know to put one item in every one's bag except your own. When everyone has had a chance to swap out their items each gal has a fabulous bag full of goodies to take home and drool over! :-) This really is a great swap...so we call it the "WOW" swap. I created these simple bags for this year's swap. Tag is the Two Tags die cut from Daffodil Delight cardstock, flower from Cherry Cobbler cardstock & Island Floral die, leaf also from that die and made from Pear Pizazz cardstock. Rhinestone brad and some disc. ribbon (cleaning out the old stamp room). After convention (July 21-24 in beautiful Salt Lake City, UT) I'll share some of the swaps I received. Now I have to make my "WOW" item for this swap.
Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Another take on Jar Lid Ornament

I love these seasonal ornaments. I hang them on an antique coat rack in my kitchen. They are so easy to make and a great way to decorate for the seasons.
Thanks to my customer Deb S. for the inspiration for this project, she made an adorable snowman ornament for our stamp class Christmas swap last December.




I've updated the project from June 16 to use at our stamp camp this month. Instead of using the soon to retire hostess set as seen in that post I used the new set: "Apple Blossoms". This is a super easy project and would be fun to make for all seasons of the year. Use a canning jar lid for the circle frame and all your fun stamped artwork gets framed inside. Also an expensive project for stamp camps, teacher gifts, tree decorating etc. :-)

Of course adding a little "BLING" to the project always helps make it look great. I used some items I had left over from the Spring Mini Catalog (Eggscellent Eggs Kit) but as soon as we can order from the FABULOUS new 2010-11 Stampin' Up! catalog we can use some new rhinestone embellishments (both diamond like and pearl). Let me know if you would like to pre-order a new catalog!

We all SCREAM for Ice Cream...

Here is another easel card (June 8th post also has an easel card). This one uses the "Sweet Scoops" set (pg. 10 Summer mini catalog) and new Designer Paper: "Greenhouse Gala" coming in the new 2010-11 SU! catalog.

Masculine cards

These masculine card were designed by my downline Joanne Randolph for our 8th annual stamp camp last weekend (in Greeley, Colorado). You had your choice of making the card as a Birthday greeting or a Father's Day card. See the Summer Mini Catalog, page 22-23, for supplies for this card.

Happy Father's Day weekend,

Jennifer

Sympathy Card

We did this card at stamp class last night. I think I'll do more Sympathy cards at future classes as it is something we always seem to need so we are always looking for new card design ideas.

The "Square Lattice" embossing folder was used for the long green piece. I think that texture is my latest favorite. You'll find it in the Summer Mini Catalog, pg. 24, #119976 $7.95. Mini Catalog runs through August 31, 2010.

Brown felt ribbon was on the Clearance Rack (on www.stampinup.com) a few months ago. You have to check that out, most items are while supplies last so they don't last long ...check frequently. Flower image was a stamp from a retired set, any stamp that fits in the large oval punch will work. The green label shape behind that oval is a die cut image from the Matchbox die. Butterflies are made from Daffodil Delight cardstock (new color in upcoming catalog!) from the butterfly embosslit.
TGIF,
Jennifer

Sneak Peek of New Colors and DSP!

This is the Big Shot favor box made out of new Designer Paper: "Newsprint" and new cardstock colors for the flower embellishment: Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz & Daffodil Delight. This is a project from stamp camp last week and stamp class tonight in Mitchell.

Stampin' Up!has a new color line, they renovated the color families with the new catalog coming out July 1. If some of your favorite colors are retiring NOW is the time to order ink refills and extra packs of paper.
Here is the upcoming chart for the new color families. There will be new inline colors in the new catalog too.

Have a great day...can't believe June is 1/2 way over!
Jennifer

Seasonal ornament

This project is similar to one we did Saturday at the 8th Annual stamp camp in Greeley, Colorado. This uses the "Wings of Friendship" hostess set for the current catalog. Later I'll post the project from the stamp camp that uses a new set from the 2010-11 Stampin' Up! Catalog!
The metal circle shape is the top of a wide mouth canning jar.




Happy stamping,
Jennifer

Pop-Up Birthday Presents

I saved this card to share today as today is my birthday...bring on the cake LOL!
This card doesn't have any candles let alone as many candles as I need on my cake this year (sigh!) but it is a fun birthday card complete with stacks of presents that pop up when you open the card. The "bling" is from the past spring mini catalog (Eggscellent Egg Kit) and there are some similar rhinestones in the new 2010-11 Stampin' Up! catalog with both single and strips of rhinestones. After July 1 we will be able to order those...Yeah!




I'm off to find some cake (tee hee!)
Have a great day, Jennifer

Butterfly Card

I love the Big Shot embosslits...they cut and emboss at the same time...just one pass through the Big Shot machine and viola!
Have a great day,
Jennifer

Bath Time & the Big Shot!

I've been seeing alot of fun things with fabric and the Big Shot and decided to try a project myself. I created this bath time towel (great for toddlers)using the scallop circle punch for the spots on the lady bug and then some of the circle die shapes layered together for the eyes. The antennas are the table setting die (all dies from Stampin' Up!)...I used the napkin ring piece and inserted a pipecleaner...top of antenna is the smaller circle scallop die.

This project is very easy. Start with a hand towel and a bath towel and set them together to create a "hood". Then the fun part starts by decorating the towels! I have more ideas for butterflies, frogs etc......just need to find some free time to try those.

I don't have any toddlers at my house so hope you can see how cute this is from these photos of it hanging on a cupboard door or draped on the back of my couch.

Enjoy, Jennifer

I know it is June but here's a cute Fall page!

Yes, the calendar does say June but I wanted to share this cute Fall scrapbook layout. This was for a recent contest entry and I can share that with you now. I used my sewing machine to sew the bark lines on the tree and I really like the way that it turned out. Just used brown thread on the Chocolate Chip cardstock and sewed randomly up and down the trunk and into each branch. Once again I used my Big Shot for the scallop circle shapes for the clumps of leaves and the alphabet titles too.

The nice thing about scrapbooking is that you can work on any page for any season any time of the year....especially when you have as much cardstock and DSP on hand like I do! LOL!

Kaleidoscope DSP: Butterfly

The Kaleidoscope DSP paper (from Stampin' Up!) has this adorable butterfly on 2 of the sheets of paper. I turned it into a 3-d embellishment by cutting and layering it and applying a layer of crystal effects. The bright colors in the DSP makes for a fun "girly" page!

'Tis the Season....for Wedding Cards!

I used my lattice die and the 2-step bird punch & heart punch to make this wedding card. It's kind of sparkly & shimmery with some of the Bridesmaid Speciality paper from Stampin' Up! (where else! LOL!). The rhinestones are from the spring mini catalog, came in the Eggscellent Kit, and due to a snow storm this spring I wasn't able to have the class that I bought those for so if you want any of those kits let me know as I have several kits to spare. Those of you coming to the stamp camp on Saturday in Greeley will use some of those rhinestones for our 3-d seasonal ornament project (I'll post that in the next few days).

I have several weddings to go to this month so will be making several more of these pretty cards. This is a super easy card...and if you know the bride's wedding colors you could personalize it with those special colors.

Wedding page

I made this fun wedding page with a photo I took at my nephew's wedding last year. I love to dabble in photography and was excited to have my nephew and his new wife ask me to do their wedding photos a year ago (Happy Anniversary Dan & Sam). This was definitely one of my favorite shots and I love b/w photos so did a little simple editing on this photo.
I used the Big Shot (of course) to make several of the embellishments on this page. I tried to keep the color scheme really simple to let the photograph stand out. The
Bridesmaid paper used on this layout is one of the retiring products from SU! so if you like the look of that vanilla colored shiny & patterned papers you can click the "shop now" button on this blog to go to my SU! website to order some for your own scrapbooking projects.

Easel Card w/ Tulips

This is an Easel Card similar to the card we will be making this weekend at our annual Stamp Camp with my downline Joanne in Greeley, Colorado. The Big Shot machine makes this project very easy. The Two-step bird punch was used (the wing shape) to make the tulips. I used lots of stampin' dimensionals and a little sponging to make those tulips petals pop up off the card front.
Enjoy,
Jennifer

Vintage style card

Here is my take on a vintage style card. I used the Vintage Vogue SU! set from the past mini catalog. Got it free as a demo attending a regional event. I love FREE stamps! :-) I also like cards like this that can double as a decoration, just stand this up on a desk, shelf, table etc. and have a friendly greeting from a dear friend.
Happy stamping,
Jennifer