I'm Back! With a Little Sewing - My Picnic Blanket

Hello!

Long time, no blog! Well, a week anyway ;-)
I have had a few, lovely and well needed days away with the family in London (the magnum ice cream shop in Covent Garden was awesome!! check it out on my Instagram feed), a fun day at Chessington World of Adventures on the roller coasters and then a day in beautiful Brighton looking at the cool shops and cafes, finishing with dinner at the most amazing mexican restaurant La Choza, I can highly recommend the food and the service was wonderful too :-) It was just a lovely time spent together :-)

So, after that brief update I am back to blogging and have a ton of card-y things to share with you over the next few weeks, but tonight I want to share with you the picnic blanket I made a while back for this "summer". Sadly, said summer has still not really happened in the UK and we are fast running out of time :-( But, I have this nice, thick blanket- all ready for when it is dry.... one day.... :-)

So, to make this blanket I used a layer of thick blue fabric for the bottom sewing on a layer of thin, warm fleece at regular intervals and then sewing the bottom pieces to the top piece of fabric (right sides facing) before turning it the right way round (sewing it closed), and adding a stitched border.
Sounds easy right? And it is if your top and bottom fabric is the same size but my blue fabric was wider and shorter than the top so it took waaay longer than it should have! But I love it! So it was totally worth it!

The top and bottom really didn't need sewing together as there is no wadding as such, however I had these cute, felt pieces from many SU! catalogues ago and I thought they would look super cute sewn randomly over the banket top and having the dual purpose of holding the top to the bottom :-)

As a late addition I added a little pocket to the back to hold the ribbon ties in whilst it's unrolled and in use. No chance of tripping over those now!

And Zack demonstrating the blanket in the back garden for the photo shoot! Lol!

and here we are (Zoe and the hubster) on one of only two days at the beach so far ;-)
Because I added the thin fleece layer inside it's super thick and perfect for laying out on and not having any of those pesky sharp stones digging in you :-)
(sorry this pic is not great as it was from my phone)

So, there we have it!
I hope you have enjoyed tonights post? A bit of a change from me but I have really enjoyed making time to sew some this summer :-)
But, I have a ton of paper craft projects to share with you now too some using new Christmas Catalogue items!! Whoop, I love Christmas :-) If you would like a FREE copy of the new Seasonal catty please drop me a line. Remember: if you have ordered with me in the last few months I will be sending you a copy but if you chose "No Contact" when checking out I don't have your details so please message me and I'll make sure you get a copy :-)
OK, This has been a much longer post than I thought to start with as I just have so much to tell you!! So I hope you are still with me??
Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Stampin' Hugs,

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Love Is Kindness with Top Tip! and Irresistably Yours Sale-a-Bration DSP by Stampin' Up!

Good Afternoon! 

I was just about to type good morning before I realised it's w-a-y past that now!! I have been rather busy and this fine morning has just flown past in a flurry of editing photos and putting together a few tutorials for you for this weeks blog posts, including today-further down this post ;-)

So, I was playing in my craft room on Saturday evening (with Zoe) using my new stamp Love is Kindness and my Blendabilities. I have really started to enjoy playing with these pens, it did take a bit of getting used to as I'm not the best colourer, I'll admit! But with a bit of practice and a fun stamp I am getting there, take a look at today's Spring-time card.
**EDIT to add: For Wood Mount Stamps Tip please scroll down or for Clear Mount Tip please CLICK HERE**

I used some of the Sale-a-Bration Irresistibly Yours DSP for the background. This paper comes white with embossed, shiny patters ready for you to colour. I used my Brayer (shock! I hardly ever use this!) to colour this leaf paper with Pear Pizazz ink.

 Plus don't forget you could also choose a FREE pack of Blendabilities (choose from 12 selected colours) with every £45 spent during Sale-a-Bration! 

**PLEASE NOTE: During SaB if you choose Blendabilities as your free gift the codes are different!!** 

Please see THIS LEAFLET for the codes or message me and I'll send you a copy :-) 

For this image I used Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi (new colour!) and Smoky Slate plus the Colour Lifter to blend the slate on the newspaper.

I tied some Daffodil Delight Seam binding ribbon around the card front and though a little slit I made in the image panel {you can just see it here if you look carefully}. Then topped the bow  with a Sweet Dreams button tied on with some linen thread.

OK, so this is my Top Tip for this stamp. You may have noticed this image comes with a really lovely sentiment but I wanted the ability to not have this every time I stamped. So I simply cut it away! It's OK, don't panic! Usually I would simply add the sentiment to the end of the wood block like I did HERE but this one is too deep to do that so I peeled it from the original foam mount and added it to clear mount foam (all links at the end) and trimmed it to size. I then popped the (also trimmed) image sticker onto the base of the case for the sentiment to sit on.

Like the photo says, this is all about making your stamps work for you, it's OK to do this if you want to :-) I hope that this helps someone and if you have any questions please do get in touch xx


***Please go HERE to see the CLEAR MOUNT VERSION OF THIS TUTORIAL***

OK, to finish today I have a side view of today's card showing the front panel popped up and those lovely, shiny leaves ;-)

I hope you have enjoyed today's card and I'll be back tomorrow with some more craftiness!
Stampin' Hugs,

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Products Used to create this project:

Love Is Kindness Wood Stamp	Clear-Mount Cling Foam	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Wild Wasabi Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers	Stampin' Blendabilitiesâ„¢ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Daffodil Delight 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	Linen Thread
Stampin' Blendabilitiesâ„¢ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Sweet Dreams Designer Buttons	Brayer And Rubber Attachment	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilitiesâ„¢ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter
Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper

Stampin' Up's Berry Basket and Bow Punch Quick Make and Making Cards Magazine news

Hello!

I have a super quick post with a really quick and easy project to share with you today as I recently became the very happy owner of the NEW Stampin' Up! Berry Basket Die :-) This die is Big L die which means you can use it with standard cutting pads and cut through fabric, leather, multiple card layers etc, as with all the Sizzix Bigz dies. 

I have seen lots of these baskets around in ceramic or metal and used in backgrounds as props and for parties so imagine how thrilled I was to find this in the new Spring/Summer catalogue!

For this basket you need two die cut pieces but it's OK, you can layer the 2 pieces of card and cut them together - you will need one whole sheet of A4 to make this basket. 

To make this I die cut Sahara Sand card and used the All Bloom DSP stack for the bows..

 It's quite deep. We made this basket at class last week and at least one of my ladies has filled hers already - with pegs! After discussing the merits of pegs when glueing boxes and bows together ;-)

I'm going to spend the day tomorrow making a few videos to show you some of the things I want to share with you including how I assembled this basket.

 Bow Punch. Again . I hope you're not bored of it yet, I've got loads more to show you with these bows ;-)

 and lastly for this evening I wanted to share this months Making Cards magazine front with you. I'm on the front cover this month (star quality, top centre) and as a bonus this month, and the next two too, there are 32 FREE papers included. That's double the usual amount!!

OK, I'm off to get ready for work.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I'll be back tomorrow with more :-)

Stampin' Hugs,

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Products Used to create this project:

Berry Basket Bigz L Die	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Bow Builder Punch	All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	Handheld Stapler	Silver Mini Staples	Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive
Mini Glue Dots

Christmas Gift Giving using Stampin' Up! Under the Tree DSP with Cheerful Tags and Holiday Home Stamps

Hello,

Hopefully you are all done, sitting down and relaxing by now?? All I have left to do is wrap ribbon around my table presents but I'm taking a quick break to pop on here and share one more Christmas project with you.

So, these little pencil and eraser holders are small gifts I made as Christmas gifts using some of the fabulous Under the Tree DSP, I have used tons of this DSP this year! And it's just prefect for this type of  project as it's so heavy weight. 

To make these holders I cut a 12"x12" piece of paper at 2" then score at 4" but, I recommend for you to score first then cut!!! ;-)

 I used the scallop tag topper punch on each end adding some of this chevron ribbon to the top (this ribbon is in this weeks weekly deals btw ;-))

Then I sewed up each side to secure, I think that's the most sewing I've done all year ;-)

 I used more of the DSP for the front tag. I punched it out using the 2+3/8" scallop circle then stamped, adding some lovely gold sequins with the mini stapler.

 My Top Tip for using a string of sequins like this is to add a drop of Crystal Effects at the rear, so they don't unravel and all fall off! 

 I added a little eraser to each pencil which I tied Bakers Twine around and then (separately) threaded another piece of twine through to tie it to the ribbon. Yes, I know, I thought I could do it in one piece but it proved too difficult to make it sit correctly! Yes, I did question my creative genius *ahem* after making 24 of these!! Ha ha!! I also added a little glue dot to the rear to make her sit just so. OCD much?

A side view

and a few together

I did really enjoy making these (once I finished tying those little erasers to them!) and I hope all those who received one liked them too :-)

I think I have a couple more Christmas cards to show you after the big day and then I'll be onto NEW products (once I get a chance to play, of course) 

So, it's just left to wish you a very Happy Christmas with much love from me to you and yours!
Merry Christmas!!

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Products Used to create this project:

Under The Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	Cheerful Tags Photopolymer Stamp Set	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad
Natural 5/8" Chevron Ribbon	Old Olive Baker's Twine	Handheld Stapler	Silver Mini Staples	Gold Sequin Trim	Crystal Effects	Mini Glue Dots