Candy card - being a grandma

Alex aka eisbären is having a great blogcandy with a twist. You need to either make a card following her sketch or write a joke/anecdote that will make her laugh out loud. Since I'm not good at telling jokes (can never remember them) I thought I'd make a card. Here's the sketch she made:


I've been wanting to make a card for a friend of mine that became a granny not too long ago. This sketch was perfect for the image I had in mind. I wanted to use a stamp that makes you think of children. I think my friend can be the girl and the new baby is the doll :) The baby is a girl so maybe it will show my friend how her granddaughter will play with dolls in a not too distant future.

I used some great patterned papers I just recieved from scrapaddicted. I got really disappointed with the order though since she was out of the stampscrubber pad I wanted. I made the order because of that and in the end the cost of the cardstock was the same as if I had bought it in my local store. So no luck there but I did manage to get some really cute buttonbrads that I have used on fabric for my stuffed animal clothes. You can see one of them on the flower. The flocked blue brad is also from that order. I ordered a secret decoration set and they were among there.
I like the way the word "celebrate" is in focus. It was totally by accident, lol. I like these papers with texts because it gives me a quick way of adding text and adds more interest to the card.


Stamp is from Sarah Kay. The text is written on the computer and then cut out with my oval nestie. Promarkers used to colour the image:
apple and lime
cool aqua
pastel yellow
ivory (dollface)
saffron (girlface)
carmine

I also used some of my old fashionsketching pantone pens. The pink I used is very similar to promarker's "blossom".
Around the image I used ice grey 1.

Oh and for the first time ever I used my sewing machine to sew in paper. How fun was that! But I sew from the wrong side so when the needle poked through the paper it raised it a bit. Think it looks much better than it does on the other side (not that you can see, but it's too flat) Now I just have to hope that my friend doesn't decide to look around here before the card reaches her. I'm so used to e-mails and things going so fast I can't believe it will take a week before she gets it. And that's when I have sent it! I still have it here and I'm always sooo slowpokey to send stuff off.


Today I went to my local store JP hobby since they had 25% off in the whole store. My little cousin is graduating from high-school next week and I want to make a nice card for him. Well, actually I want it to be a mindblowing card, lol. It will be a challenge since blue/yellow/white might be quite hard especially since I'm no fan of blues ;) So I looked around the shop and got myself some really nice things:
*A magnolia stamp I've been wanting since february - the cupid Tilda from the Valentine collection
*Pearl decorations
*papers for the grad. card - blues and distressed look is not really my thing, but I thought it would be great for a guy.
*matching blue flowers for the card
*maya road suitcase chipboard album - this time I HAVE to make something with it.
*tiny buttons for my sewing stuff
*rickrack ribbon for sewing aswell

What do you think of my loot?

hÄnglar sale

I've gotten a couple of request from people around the world about the hÄnglar stamps. I have a couple to sell, but I don't know what would be the best and most fair way of selling them. Previously I have sold the ones I don't want on Tradera which is a Swedish equivalent to e-bay. The only problem with this is that I didn't accept international bids because I had so many problems every time with people bidding and not paying. The thing is that I don't just want to sell them, but I want to offer them for those of you who have no way of getting them otherwise.

I think it's rather unfair to decide who to sell it to (it seems like a lottery and some just don't have luck) So I thought an auction would be better, but that way they would only go to the ones with a lot of moolah to spend :)

I have not come up with any good solution for this yet. If you have any suggestions of how to make it fair let me know. Post here or send me an e-mail.

Motivet stamps

Motivet is a stampcompany that is run by swedish Stephanie Barbary that currently lives in Canada. "Motivet" is the swedish word for "the motif". They have just released this line of stamps in april and I'm in loooove. I adore cute animals and they can't get much cuter than this, or what do you think?



Until may 31:st you have a chance of winning the seven new stamps shown above. All you need to do is put a link to their post, post the pic on your blog and write a comment on their blogpost. For exact info check out
this post.

Next sewing project

Thought I'd show you what I'm up to next. A couple of years ago (or maybe it was many years ago, can't remember, lol) I found a pic in "Crafts beautiful" that showed a beautiful quilted bag. It was a bookreview about handmade quilted bags. I found this issue the other day and wrote up the title of the book. I searched in my library and they had it! My library is the best! We even have a bunch of english craftmags.

Remember some of the great fabrics I bought together with my rotary cutter, mat and ruler? I decided to make a bag out of them for a summery bag. I needed 36 10x14cm squares and wasn't sure how to approach it. First I just cut out approximately that square and measured afterwards. It was soooo tiresome since each square took forever. I started planning instead and decided on 4 squares in 9 different fabrics. After deciding that I made it a bit easier and made a long piece that was 14cm high and started cutting at 10cm. The only problem was that I forgot I needed 4 pieces and made just 3 of each fabric. Sigh. I think I had made over half when I noticed that.

Surprisingly enough I didn't get too frustrated. I thought it was a bit annoying and I wanted to start sewing, but it wasn't too bad. Earlier I think I would've put the tools away and hidden the sewingmachine :)

Here is the result of a few hours I think it took me to cut them out.




The thing I get a bit worried about is that the edges fray a bit. I've used cottonfabric and I was wondering about the fraying, but the lady in the sewing store said it was made for quilting? I thought quiltfabrics didn't fray at all?
I tried to sew the edges exactly with the same seamallowence, but it was hard. These don't matter much because they won't be aligned the way that they need the points to be crisp. But if I want to make something with exact squares I think I might be disappointed. I really need everything to be exact. If something wouldn't align perfectly I would toss it which would not let me learn by trial and error. Hmmm, maybe this isn't a hobby for me after all, lol.
I'm having a blast though seeing how all the squares come together into one piece. I've put together the front of the bag, now I just need the back. Don't know when I will be able to finish it though since I need a lining and I haven't one in the colour I want (don't want to make a third bag with green lining, lol. I'll tell you about it some other time)

Here's how the first part looks:

New promarker blog and a spoon full of sugar b-day

EDIT: This card is only for the "a spoon full of sugar challenge blog". I will make a new one for the promarker blog since the entry for them can't be combined with any other challenges.

Do you know there is a new challenge blog for promarker lovers? I found it the other day and I'm really happy I did. There is a blog for copiclovers and I have been wanting to join in. But since I only have promarkers I couldn't :( It never occured to me to look for a promarker blog, lol.

I'm still sewing but I have a couple of half done cards on my table and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finish some of them. This one have been waiting to be finished forever. I used the promarker blog's "no theme" and I also decided to join in on a spoon full of sugar's challenge. They are celebrating their first birthday so the theme was "celebrations". I decided on a b-day card since those are the ones I use the most. While working with the card I came up with the corny "happy bird-day" that I thought was very suitable. So this is what I come up with when I don't have a sketch to follow:




I used my new hÄngel from the latest kit and my brand new nestie. I embossed the scalloped nestie with an embossingfolder from cuttlebug making sure I have at least a bird visible. I then dabbed some distress ink on the raised parts. On the pink panel I used some new birdstamps I bought recently and stamped them with distress ink. The text is computer generated, the hÄngel coloured with apple, sky blue and pastel pink. Did you notice the black brad I put in the birdhouse to make it pop?

No fat muffin

I promised to show you what I've been up to lately with my sewing. I borrowed four Tilda books in the library and have been testing some of the things in there. I must say I've been getting quite frustrated with the instructions in these books. Some of the things are explained a lot (which are quite simple) and then the rest you just have to figure out for yourself. I'm new to the whole stuffed animal-decoration thing, but I have been sewing a lot of clothes. And even though I'm not a seamstress I understand in what order some things need to be put together. I'm not sure if the person that wrote the instructions have made the items they are describing, because I can't make it add up. Yesterday for instance I was sewing a collar that was way too long for the neckline and even though I made the neck bigger it still didn't fit. I postponed this little thing for three days because I couldn't make it work. Finally I just did it my way. From now on I think I'm going to skip the instructions and do my own thing.

Ok, so I'm not sure if there is even anyone who visits anymore, but here is one of the items I made. It's a little cupcake that I'm using as a pincushion. It looks good from a distance, but the bottom and sideseam is totally "fubar-ed". The whole thing just didn't add up! Don't think I will be making more of those, at least not as described in the book. Same goes for the dress with a collar I was fighting with yesterday.



I'm hoping to put up some of these items on etsy (the ones that turn out well of course. The misfits I'm keeping for myself, lol. I would be ashamed to send it to someone, less charging for it!). It would be fun to find new homes for my items. I can't keep them all :) I have a great bag that needs a closing (is that the word?) and a very cute make up bag that needs the same. And I have a bunch of finishing touches on some other things. I hope I will have time to finish them before the weekend because my mom will be visiting and then I can't have the mess allover the floor like I have now. It's messy to be artistic, lol.

Not the best pic of the muffin. I will try to take more detailed photos tomorrow so you can see all the mishaps, lol.

New online shop

I wanted to let you know about a new online shop I have found. It's called Timbroscrapmanina and is owned by a woman named Barbara. She has a great selection of the latest "must haves" such as Sarah Kay stamps, cuttlebug items and of course a bunch of embellishments and papers. There are known brands like Tim Holtz, Basic Grey, making memories and a lot lot more. The page is in italian and you pay in euro, so it's great for us who live in europe. I haven't shopped there, but I thought I'd let you all know about it. Never hurts to have an extra place to shop :)

Now on Barbara's blog you can enter a blogcandy if you hurry (I'm not sure I'll even make it). She has a big candy to give away as a celebration to her new online shop. Good luck!

Scrapaddicted sale

I just made an order at scrapaddicted. Jane - the owner - is having a 50% sale until the 17:th at 8am EST. You get 50% off everything except:

* news
* REA (sale items)
* Easer's newest stamps
* Giftcertificates
* Monthly packages/Subscriptions

You need to pay with a creditcard to get the discount. You HAVE TO write the coupon code: 50%FEST in the checkout box to get the discoount.

I ordered a stampscrubber I've been wanting forever, but have been too cheap to buy :) I also ordered a whole bunch of plain cardstock. The shop close to me has raised their prices and I'm hoping that even with the shipping it will be cheaper to buy it from Jane. Besides, she needs our help to get rid of stuff and who am I to refuse, lol.

Here's the whole info in Swedish:

Nu är det dags för fest igen! Jag behöver nämligen er hjälp med inventering ;-)

Du får 50 % rabatt på allt utom:
* Nyheter
* REA (Vissa QuicKutzprodukter är kraftigt nedsatta redan, där tillämpas REA-priset. På övriga QuicKutzprodukter har du halva priset!)
* Easers nyaste stämplar
* Presentkort * Månadspaket/Prenumerationer!
Faktiskt frakt tillämpas - rabatter korrigeras manuellt då jag plockar ordern!

Jag gör korrigeringen på ditt kort så snart jag plockat ordern - fulla summan exkl. rabatt måste alltså finnas på ditt kort vid reservationen.

Gäller beställningar gjorda fr.o.m. 9/5 kl. 8.00 t.o.m. 17/5 kl. 8.00

(Erbjudandet gäller endast i webbutiken. Risk för slutförsäljning. Vänligen notera att leveranstiden på dina produkter kommer att bli längre än vanligt - då orderingången är mycket hög. Du kommer att kunna läsa på entresidan dagligen hur långt jag kommit i orderhögen)

GÄLLER ENDAST VID DIREKT KORTBETALNING!
OBS! Skriv 50%FEST i kupongrutan!

Vidarebefordra gärna erbjudandet till vänner du tror skulle uppskatta det.

Walldecorations

On Carolina's blogg you can win your own text to put up on a wall. The text is made out of sticky vinyl. I have birds and flowers up on my walls and would love to have a text in the bedroom. The contest closes today at 6pm EST.
If you're not lucky enough to win you can order your own text at:
www.unikdekor.se

So so sew

I apologize for not posting much this last week. I was a bit bummed for not making any of the DT I applied to. I didn't feel like making cards or joining in on the challenges. Instead I started sewing. I got a message from the library that the books I've been standing in line for are now available. Almost all of them came in at the same time, so I borrowed FOUR Tilda books and one about quilted handbags, so I have had a lot to choose from :) Normally I would be so indecisive I wouldn't do anything, but this time I just picked a project, made it and chose another, made it and so on. You will not believe how productive I've been (at least it's very productive for me)! I don't think I've ever sewn this much. I even used up all of my filling (is that the right word?)

I've been totally in my own world for the last week or so. I've been sewing every night - so fun! But today I think I caught some cold-bug so I'm off to bed. Just going to look at and pet my pretty fabrics ;) before bedtime. I promise I will show you some pics of what I've done very soon. I'm hoping to put a few items up on etsy. Maybe someone will be interested?
For now I'm leaving you with a little sneak peak :)



This is the project I started months ago. I started and finished others during these days, but hopefully I'll finish this one while I'm in the flow.