Sarah Holmes Buck

This is an antique sampler that I purchased several years and I finally finished reframing it!  It's finished in the same manner as the Immigrant Sampler and I kind of used it as practice for framing that piece. 

You can see from the piece that it has a dark stain near the top and is faded, some spots more than others.  Also, the sampler isn't dated so it wasn't worth much but I liked it so added it to my collection of exactly 1 antique sampler.   :)

It's also curious that the last band is a different color, so either the personalization was added later, stitched in a different fiber or were sitting so it didn't fade as much as the rest. 

When this sampler arrived it was glued into the frame that it came in.  I removed it from the frame and carefully removed as much of the glue from the linen as I could.  I then found this teal fabric to back it on but before I did I sewed a piece of muslin to the back of the sampler to help stabilize it and to prevent the blue from showing through too much.  I think it turned out well and looks nice hanging in my living room with a bunch of other blue samplers. 

Sarah used cross stitch, eyelet stitch, rhodes crosses, cross stitch over one, rice stitch, queen stitch and satin stitch in her sampler.  I've though about charting her just to see how that would go but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I'd rather stitch or stamp!  LOL! 

Here's a close up of her frame, also purchased from Lynn's of Madison:

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends, family and blog readers (although many of you fall into one of the first two categories)!  I wish you a day filled with family, friends, good tidings, cheer, peace and happiness! 

Stocking Card

I love this card!  I designed this for a swap that I participated in with my home group of demonstrators back in September.  I know, I'm a bad blogger for waiting so long to post this, oops!  This card is made by using a 6 x 12" piece of cardstock folded in half and then running it through the Holiday Stocking die (124098).  if you place the fold just below the top of the stocking in the die then you get a card that can be folded open instead of having to write on the back.  I embossed the front of the stocking with the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing folder (120175) and added a mini jingle bell (124116) as a finishing touch.  Enjoy!

Don't forget that your last day to order items from the Holiday Mini Catalog is January 3 so don't miss out!

Broccoli Band

I know, some of you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about.  Well, I've spent some time recently stitching the bottom, inner band of Elizabeth Sheffield.  The picture on the pattern makes it looks like this band contains giant broccoli or else really little animals.  I know that they are supposed to be trees with giant animals but I've had it in my head that this is broccoli so that's what I thought about when stitching it.  Take a look:

With any luck I'll finish her around the New Year so my New Year's start can be the only thing I'm stitching on for awhile.  Oh, and I decided that Paradise Lost will be my New Year's start.  I still have the band with the people and house which will take awhile but I'm almost done with the bottom of the sampler.  I decided to wait to stitch the people for last because I think they're going to be a lot of fun!! 
Here's my overall progress on Elizabeth...

The Immigrant Sampler

Several years ago, 2005 actually I attended a Great Lakes Regional Seminar in Illinois.  It was actually co-sponsored by my chapter, Needle's Nest.  I took this great class by Lucy Lyons Willis called "The Immigrant Sampler".  I enjoyed stitching it with the dove's eye flag, hardanger band, and just the colors and the way it came together.  However, the neat part was that Lucy suggested that we do a little bit of family history research and add the initials and whatever other information we could find about ancestors who had immigrated to the US.  I didn't pick the first of my relatives to come over but rather picked a family on my father's side who arrived in 1864 on a ship named "The Stella".  Those are their initials, the year and the ship name all in the band with the ship.  I also wrote up the history that I found and put a copy on the back and another copy inside the backing paper. 

You can see by the date that I finished stitching this sampler in 2005, the same year as the class but I just finally framed it and hung it up in my living room.  It looks great there!  When I finished it in 2005 I also completed the hem stitching but the way it was designed it was to be mounted on the teal backing fabric and then mounted in a frame.  Let's just say that I'm a good procrastinator and put off stitching it to the teal fabric until a few weeks ago.  I'm somewhat sorry I did too since it looks great and was super easy!  And, as I was stitching it to the backing fabric I was able to straighten it quite a bit.  With all the open and hardanger work the sampler had somewhat wobbly borders but it's much better now!  I actually have another piece framed this same way and I did both of them in a day to get them out of the guest room where my parents were going to be staying at Thanksgiving and it was suprising at how fast and easy this was.  I guess I just needed guests in order to get it done! 

Baby Quilt

OK, so I found a photo of the baby quilt I made.  This is actually the second or third quilt that I started and the first one that I finished completely.  I just LOVE these bright colors!  This is me with my friend Kristin, the new mom to be and the recipient of this fun quilt! 

In this photo you just get a taste of the quilt but the baby is a girl so I picked bright colors with pinks but not all totally pink.  This quilt is machine pieced and quilted with a hand sewn binding. 

Here is a so-so quality photo of the back of the quilt.  It's an adorable green and pink check/gingham print.  However, the quilt was a bit larger than the fabric wide.  Because I didn't want to even attempt to piece the back together, instead I cut it about 1/3 of the way down and added a pieced strip to give me enough width that I could quilt and bind it into the finished product. 

Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler Framed

Here it is, all framed up!  This is my Mystery Sampler by Birds of a Feather, stitched by me on 35 ct WDW Tin Roof fabric.  Enjoy!

Shopping Spree!

I was home a few weeks back and went over to my favorite needlework shop in Wisconsin, Lynn's of Madison.  I ordered a frame for my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler and also picked out a few new treasures.  I need a new project like I need a hole in my head but it sure was fun to shop and add some new projects to my stash!  I love seeing these photos so I thought I'd post one here.  :) 

Finished Smalls

After finishing a few larger pieces I stitched a couple smalls.  Here are some photos to share:

The first is "Pray for Peace" by Birds of a Feather.  I started this on 9/11 as a way to remember those whos lives were tragically lost 10 years ago:

The next piece is a scissor fob by Ewe and Eye and Friends, I stitched this just because I've had it FOREVER and needed a little project to stitch:

Lastly, is a project that was handed out at a retreat at Fanci Mats and More, a local shop in the Denver area that I went to.  It was all kitted up and a very quick stitch, it is called Boo-Yah by Cherry Wood Design Studios:

 Of course, all of these projects need to be finished, I plan to make the pink piece into a scissor fob and the other two will become pincushions (in all my free time)...

Birds of a Feather Finish

Here is my Birds of a Feather Mystery Sampler completed!  I stitched this on 35 count WDW Tin Roof Linen with the called for sampler threads.  On this darker linen I did change the alphabet to Bark to match the color of the tree trunk and changed the key to match the color of the birds' beaks (Olive?).  I am really happy with how it turned out and will have a framed picture for you soon! 

Struggle?

On a recent business trip I took along a small project to stitch on the airplane.  It is a kit called "God Bless Those" and was designed by Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler.  I like to start stitching in the center of a piece and I did just that with this piece.  Well, I noticed after a couple letters what I would end up with and it made me laugh so I snapped a quick photo and am sharing it here for your enjoyment!  Maybe you have to "get" my sense of humor, but seeing this stitch up the way it did, it gave me a good laugh when I really needed it!

Here's the finished piece: 

Elizabeth Sheffield

I mentioned awhile ago that I had plans to start Elizabeth Sheffield.  Well, she's started!  I'm stitching her on 35 count WDW Straw linen with DMC floss.  This chart was created by The Scarlet Letter and had both a cotton and a silk conversion.  I am stitching all the over one in full cross stitch as charted but I think that if I had stitched in silk it would have either needed to be tent stitched or stitched on a different count of fabric.  Even with all of the over one stitching I am enjoying this stitch immensely!

I'm a bit farther along than this now but stopped to take a few photos.  I'm so ready to stitch the band with the people in it, but decided to jump down and do some words since that tends to be a bit boring.  I did however stitch in the people's shoes so I know where to begin when I get back to the people , aren't they cute? 

I have a bunch more over one to stitch, including the light blue alphabet above the verse, several more blue flowers and the plants and animals in the bottom of the center section.  However, even with all the over one, I'm really enjoying stitching it and it looks so cute to have all those teeny tiny stitches. 

In fact, when I purchased the supplies for this, one of the women working at Lynn's told me that the blue bird in the top right corner is just spectacular.  I didn't doubt that so I couldn't wait to start stitching.  Well, I started with the darkest blue to outline the bird, continued with the medium blue and it wasn't until I got to the lightest blue that I could really appreciate how wonderful this blue bird really is.  What do you think? 

New Year's Start

OK, OK, I know that it's not the new year yet.  But, I've heard of a tradition of stitchers starting a new project for the new year.  Now, I am a one project at a time kind of girl but I'm thinking of partaking in this tradition.  I'd start a new project and work on it for a bit and then go back to Elizabeth Sheffield and then finish the new start.  Boy, I don't know that's kind of stressing me out just thinking about that!  But, I want to give it a try and who knows, maybe I'll have Elizabeth done by then, she's been going quick anyway! 

These are the two options I have ready to go, one is "Paradise Lost" by Plum Street Samplers and the other is "Ann Grant" by Shakespeare's Peddler.  Both are kitted up with linens and silks and I'm leaning toward Paradise Lost since it's been next on my list for some time and keeps getting bumped out for other projects like Frances Eden and Elizabeth Sheffield.  But, I also really like Ann and am considering stitching several Ann's and doing a whole wall of Ann Samplers.  Others on that list include Ann Smith and Ann Dale. 

So, what do you think?  Before anyone gets the funny idea that I should start both let me remind you that I'm a stitchin one at a time girl and I think it would stress me out to no end to have three projects going!  But, I might be able to start the second one here after Elizabeth is done... Hmm, I'll think about that! 

My First Quilt

In a much earlier post I showed you the fabrics that I had picked out for a quilt class that I had signed up to take.  Well, here's the finished quilt!  I actually had everything done on this except for the hand stitched binding (and even that was half done) and I wanted to finish it up for Thanksgiving so one day I sat down to watch a Packer game and whip stitch the binding on.  I just love how it turned out!  The fabric is Fandango by Kate Spain (Moda) and I love these bright colors! 

This is actually the second quilt that I finished even though it was the first that I started.  The other quilt that I've completed start to finish is a baby quilt for my friends Kristin and Jon for the birth of their baby daughter.  I'll see if I can find a photo of that quilt too. 

This quilt is machine quilted and pieced and I've flipped a corner over so you can see the backing fabric.  I also think it looks fabulous in my guest room which is decorated in some of these same colors! 

Frances Eden

As promised, here is my finish of Frances Eden.  I finished her last summer and got her into her frame this fall.  Isn't she pretty?  I stitched her on 36 count Forest Haven linen by Zweigart.  For threads I did a conversion to Anchor.  This pattern is charted for either silks or DMC but I wanted the slightly softer colors of Anchor.  I love how this fabric is a pale blue/green and that with all the greens in the piece the ground fabric appears more blue.  I purchased the chart, linen and threads from Lynns of Madison, if you contact them please tell them I sent you! 

The frame is also from Lynn's shop and I love the way it looks!  Here's a close up view:

Isn't it neat?  I just love the way that a cool frame really sets off a piece!  I struggled with this piece a bit since it's a reproduction.  I wanted to keep the personalization true to the original stitcher but also wanted to include my information.  I ended up stitching my initials, JB and the year toward the bottom.  I'm currently stitching Elizabeth Sheffield and think that I'll add "Reproduction Stitched by... " at the bottom in over one lettering.  What do others of you do? 

Thankful

Wow, I'm so thankful for being able to spend a long weekend with my family, it was wonderful to spend the time together and to be here in Colorado for the holiday!  We had my parents, Grandfather and Aunt all here plus some of my neighbors joined us for dinner so all in all we had 8 adults, 1 baby, 4 dogs and 2 cats in my house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was great! 

If you've stuck with me all this time, you know that I've been working to finish a bunch of projects by the end of this year.  And, since I was expecting company I was very busy for a week or so before the holiday weekend framing projects, putting the binding on my first quilt, cleaning and organizing the guest bedrooms.  It feels great to have all of that completed and I'm happy to say that I have a few more finished stitched projects hanging on my walls now!  Photos soon! 

The card pictured here is one that I designed for a card swap earlier this fall.  It uses three stamp sets.  The words are from Thank You Kindly (111700) which is one of my favorite Thank you sets.  The frame around the sentiment is Elizabeth (117120) and the Acorn is from Gently Falling (123802) from the Holiday Mini.  I've also used Spice Cake DSP (124003), the Lace Ribbon Border Punch (122362), Crumb Cake seam binding (122332) and the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder (119277). 

The Holiday Mini Catalog is Here!

The Holiday Mini Catalog is here and it's packed with lots and lots of cool products for your holiday crafting and shopping needs!  From the new stocking punch and die to new fabrics, ribbons and of course, stamps it has everything you need for a fun fall lineup!   If you haven't received your copy yet just email me and I'll send you one! 

Stampin' Up! Convention 2011

I'm home from this year's Stampin' Up! Convention, here I am with two of my group, downline Trina in the middle and one of my uplines, Glenda on the left.  The opening night of convention we had a garden party so everyone in our group (there were 28 of us) made coordinating hats and wore them, we got a lot of compliments!  It was great to be back in Salt Lake sharing stamping with friends and getting inspired to create great things! 

This year at convention they did something different and gave each convention attendee a three ring binder with the catalog in it, it was great!  And, in true Stampin' Up! style it was a beautiful binder with coordinating tabs!  You can see photos of this cute binder below.  The first photo is of the binder cover when it's closed and then the photo below that is of the inside of the binder with the catalog inside! 

In the second photo there is a smaller notebook sitting on the binder flap, this is one of the notebooks that I made for my downline who attended convention this year.  For those who know me, I always make a notebook of some sort for my girls who come with me to convention and this year was only different because the journals that I usually use had been discontinued.  :(  So, I went with composition notebooks instead and covered them with Designer Series paper.  This year the DSP I used was Paisley Petals (122367) and then I accented it with a little Baja Breeze seam binding (122331)  and  a mini vintage tag (118763) that each person could personalize with the year, their intials, a stamp, button or whatever they wanted.  I think they turned out cute, I just wish that I had thought to take a photo of the other two designs before I gave them all away.  Oh well!  I made a bunch of them this year and it was so fun to give them away and see them get used! 

A Finish and Some New Beginnings

Now that you've met Sage you know what's been keeping me busy and away from my blog for the past few months. But, I have had a few other things happening too! I did finish my Frances Eden Sampler back in June. Just in time to take it back to Wisconsin with me to pick out a frame at Lynn's of Madison. They are so helpful there with framing and with my needlework supplies so of course I picked up some new stash! One of the things I kitted up while I was there was the new Birds of a Feather mystery sampler by With thy Needle, that's my new start pictured here. I am stitching it on 35 count Tin Roof. I don't have part three yet and the shop was out of the color Sage (which I found amusing) and that happens to be the color used in the border so I decided to start in the middle. Now that I've seen the full chart I'm excited for part 3 to arrive so I can do the rest of the tree parts but for now I have lots and lots of leaves to stitch. The called for linen is much lighter than what I chose so when I started the leaves I wasn't sure I liked the lack of contrast. However, now that I have a few of them done I like it more, reminds me of something antique. I am also going to start Elizabeth Sheffield sometime soon but I really like to stitch one thing at a time and thought the mystery sampler would go much faster!

One other thing I've been up to (besides stitching, stamping and dog stuff as if that's not enough) is that I decided to learn how to quilt. I went to my local quilt store, which is called The Quilt Store, back in December and they had a beginning quilting class going on. The next one offered in the evening wasn't until April but I decided to sign up and purchased my fabrics, pictured at left. This is the Fandango line by Moda and is really "me". I love this fabric and would pull it out to admire it from time to time. It was really fun to quilt with too! My class was great, we made an entire quilt from start to finish in the five week class. My only homework after the fact was to finish hand stitching the binding. But, do you think I've done that yet?? Nope. Oh well, it's on my to-do list and I hope to get it done soon, especially since I've made a few other quilts, more on those in a later post.

So you can see that I've been quite busy in the past few months and will show you some of my stamped goodies shortly too! Right now I'm getting ready for a visit from my Grandfather so I've been trying to catch up on some of the things on my to do list that have been lingering, like organizing the garage (which got done yesterday) and cleaning up my gear room (which is half done). In fact, I've set a goal to finish up all the half completed projects around the house by the end of the year. There aren't a lot of them, but they are all things that will take a bit of effort to complete and aren't as fun as doing new stuff which is why they're not done yet. But, things like finally finishing the framing on my Immigrant Sampler and reframing an antique sampler will give me great joy and things like organizing the gear room will bring great satisfaction. I think I've decided on a bookshelf for the gear room and our IKEA opens this week so I hope to make it down there sometime in the next month or so in order to really finish that project! Well enough rambling for today, stay cool!

Jen

Introducing Sage!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been on here posting, but I'm back!  I've had a busy few months!  First and the "thing" that has kept me the busiest is that I adopted a dog back in March.  Her name is Sage and she's a 2 year old Aussie.  She's a sweetie and I'm having a great time giving her a better life than she had with her first owners.  We started by taking obedience training at the Longmont Humane society, this was a great way for her to learn some manners and me to learn how to teach them to her and was a great bonding experience!  In fact, we will be graduating from our Advanced Obedience class today!

 

Once we were well on our way in obedience we started to take Agility classes at the Zoom Room in Longmont which has been so much fun!  We've built on the obedience foundation and have so much fun zooming through all the obstacles!  Sage is such a high energy dog that it's great to have an outlet for the physical energy and to give her mind a job to do.  It's been a great fit!  We're about halfway through Agility 2 and will start the next in the series in a few weeks.  It's a lot of fun for both Sage and I!

When I was on vacation last winter I read a book called Dogged Pursuit by Robert Rodi, it was such a hilarious read!  It is about a man who rescues a Sheltie and trains it to do agility.  I grew up with a Sheltie so it was even funnier because I totally "got" what he was talking about when it came to the dog's neurotic behavior.  Not that an Aussie is that different...  Anyway, I had met Sage before my trip and then reading this book I knew that I had to give agility a try.  When I found out that my friend Marnie was opening the Zoom Room close by I knew that it was meant to be.  Check out the book if you have time, it's hilarious!!!

That's all for now, more soon... :)

Jen

Christmas Keepsake Project

Wow, you won't want to miss this!! During the month of July, you can not only join my Stampin' Up! team for $99 and get a kit worth twice that but you will also get a kit to make this adorable Christmas keepsake box as well!! This offer is only available during July so if you have any questions about the kit or what it is like to be a demonstrator just send me an email, drop me a text, give me a call or even just post a comment. Phew, that's a lot of options!! :-)

Sweet Press Cookie Stamps

I'm not sure how well this photo will show up, but starting on October 1st you will be able to order these great Sweet Press cookie stamps! It is a set with one handle and three stamps, a Jack O'Lantern, a snowflake and a heart! These cookies were served at lunch today during the 2011 Stampin' Up! Convention!!

Frances Eden Update

Well, that cloud is done!  It actually wasn't all that bad, I think I just psyched myself out that it was going to take forever.  I did find some uninterrupted stitching time to get big sections done which helped.  I also did the outline and then just had to fill in which also made it easier.  A few good movies later and now I'm off to other motifs!

My Hometown

 

And, as promised here is a finished My Hometown!  I stitched this on 36 count Everglade linen using DMC threads.  I started this sampler during last year's Olympics and finished it during the first week of January, but still dated it 2010 since it was pretty much my project for 2010. 

As I like to do, I did some personalization to this sampler to make it mine.  The changes were minor, obviously I changed the name to where I consider home, the chart was for "Manchester" and Madison took up much less space so I just added some of the birds since there wasn't enough room for another swirl, and frankly I didn't want to do any more backstitching!  I also changed the three kitties (in front of the red schoolhouse) and the two horses up at the top to look like my present and past pets.  I considered subsituting a dog for the bird in the lower left hand corner but never decided on a design so I just left it. 

A New Start

For those of you who follow my stitching pursuits I have to apologize that I haven't posted anything in a long time!  I was working on My Hometown by Carriage House samplings and it was taking forever.  Well, toward the end of 2010 I decided that it needed to just get done!  So, I sat down and over a couple weeks finished it up.  I'll be posting pics once it's in the frame so stay tuned. 

With My Hometown done, I decided to start Frances Eden by Handwork Samplers.  I had seen this great sampler on a few blogs that I read and decided that I needed to add it to my collection.  I am stitching this on Silkweaver Forest Haven using Anchor threads. 

The upper left-hand corner went fairly quickly and then I saw that darn cloud and started having flashbacks of the cloud at the top of And They Sinned.  So, I've started the cloud and am going to finish that next.  Stay tuned for more updates on my progress! 

Sweet Pincushion

Oh my gosh, I am having so much fun with all this great fabric, my big shot and dies!  Today I got out my big shot with the Scallop Circle Die (113468).  I cut out two pieces of the button fabric from the Sweet Stitches fabric (121818) and sewed them together, leaving about a 1" gap.

Then I filled the circle with ground up walnut shells (can be found at any pet store) and sewed the gap closed to make a pincushion.  Apparently the walnut shells are better on your pins than cotton stuffing.  I nestled in a Melon Mambo designer button (122302) with a piece of Early Espresso 1/8" taffeta ribbon (119959) and sewed it on with a piece of thread.

I signed up to take a quilt class starting at the end of March and I'll need a pincushion and I'm so excited to have made my own to use during class!  Thanks for dropping by!!  

Sweet Stitches Journals

This is the journal that I ended up making for my downline after I wasn't sure that they would love what I had put together for myself.  This journal is actually the 5x5 Art Journal (108495) so it's a bit smaller than the original plan but I figured it would be good to use for photos and to take to events with them.  

This journal is covered with Sweet Stitches Designer Paper (121781).  I just love how this paper has the look and feel of fabric that you might find at a quilt or fabric store!  

I stamped the letters using the Lovely Letters Alphabet (115030) and then the images around the letters are from the Sale-A-Bration Bliss stamp set (121851) stamped in Regal Rose.  

These journals also gave me a good opportunity to try out the new Beveled Windowpanes (121881) and they are so cute!  They have a slot to thread ribbon through and I used the Victoria Crochet trim (118481) and 1/8" taffeta ribbon in Early Espresso (119959) to attach the frame to the journal.  But, I did notice that the frame slipped around a bit so I added a couple mini glue dots between the frame and the layer of cardstock as a little added insurance.  The best part is that you can hardly tell that the glue dots are there!

Thanks for stopping by!! 

Sew Sweet Journal

This is the Journal that I made for Leadership this year.  I had intended to make these for myself and my downline who went but it's a little busy so while I love it I wasn't positive that they would.  Come back tomorrow to see what I ended up making for them to use during the event.  

I usually  make these journals for Stampin' Up! events and this time I wanted a journal that could also serve as a craft journal so I wanted a very tactile 3-D look.  I ended up using the Scallop Square die (115950) to cut squares of the Sweet Stitches fabric (121818) with the Big Shot and adhered them with our Mulitpurpose glue, aka "Green Glue" (110755).  

Then I used the Buttons stamp from the Sew Sweet stamp set (121933) to create a centerpiece for the journal.  You'll also see the Sweet Stitches Designer Buttons (122302), Melon Mambo pompom trim (123322) and the Sweet Stitches Fabric Designer Brads (121880) used here.  I don't know about you but I love the way it turned out!  Thanks for stopping by!  

Stampin' Up! Rag Quilt Fabric Bag

Whoa, stop the presses, this is super cute!  This is a Rag Quilt bag given to me by one of my uplines at the recent Stampin' Up! Leadership conference.  Isn't it stinkin' cute??  Do you remember seeing this bag in the picture of my kitchen island turned sewing area?  I was so inspired that I decided to make one myself!

This bag is made with the super cute Sweet Stitches Fabric (121818), the Scallop Square Die (115950) and the Big Shot (113439).   My upline made a bunch of these bags so she used a different fabric for the lining, you could do that or you could make the inside of the bag match the outside.  It's your preference.

Oh, and one thing I was super excited about was that it matched the journal that I had created for the event.  Come back tomorrow to see that!  Thanks for stopping by!  

Build A Blossom

I love the new Build a Blossom Stamp set (121923) and the coordinating Blossom Petals Punch (121808).  I designed this card after seeing some similar designs at Leadership.  Each petal is stamped on Very Vanilla Cardstock and then punched with the punch and then I used a bone folder to curl each petal slightly to give a dimensional look.  

I tried several different ways to assemble the flower but found that the best way was to poke a hole toward the inner part of each petal and then stack them onto an Antique Brad (117273).  Then I could spread them out nicely but secure them as well.  I actually pushed the brad right through the layer of Very Vanilla cardstock that has been embossed with the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder (121809).  I love the look of this card and I made a second using a Birthday sentiment to give to a neighbor who celebrated a birthday last week.  She loved it!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Supplies:

Stamps: Build a Blossom (121923), Sincere Salutations (115068)

Inkpads:  Basic Black (101179), Old Olive (102277), Perfect Plum (101437)

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla (101650), Old Olive (100702), Perfect Plum (101889)

Accessories:  Blossom Petals Punch (121808), Antique Brads (117273), Framed Tulips Embossing Folder (121809), Decorative Label Punch (120907), Stampin' Sponges (101610), Paper Piercing Tool (116631), Mat Pack (105826). 

 

 
 
 

Flower Folds Fabric Pin Giveaway

Thanks for visiting today!  Here's the final look at the fabric pin made with the Flower Folds Big Shot die.  Isn't it cute?  

And, I'm giving this flower folds pin away to one lucky winner!  Place an online order in February and you will be entered into a drawing for this very fabric flower pin!  You'll receive one entry for any order and another for every $50 increment in orders and of course at that level you'll get Sale-A-Bration benefits too!  Good luck!  

I finished it off with a big button tied with a piece of 1/8" Taffeta ribbon (p. 191).  I then stitched the button on with a needle and thread and attached a pin back.  

Flower Folds Fabric Pin Tutorial

I finally learned how to make these adorable fabric flower pins using the Big Shot Flower Folds Fabric Pin.  They are so easy so here's a step by step tutorial of how to make them.  Before you begin you'll need a few supplies.  

Supplies:  Big Shot (113439), Extended Cutting Pads (113478), Flower Folds Die (115970), a Scrap of cardstock approximately 6x10, pins and something to finish the front (I love the big buttons in the Occasions mini 122301 or 122302 tied with a piece of 1/8" Taffeta from page 191 of the Idea Book and Catalog).  

To make the pin, cut your fabric into strips that are 6" wide.  This die has fold lines so I recommend only cutting 2 or 3 layers of fabric.  Stack an extended cutting pad, the scrap piece of cardstock, the flower folds die, fabric and then the other extended cutting pad to make your big shot sandwich.  Run the sandwich through the big shot and the result should look something like this:  

Remove the flowers and choose which flowers you would like your pin to be made of.  I typically use the three smaller sizes but love layering all four layers for headbands, bags, etc.  

Fold the flowers in half so you see four petals (don't fold so that you see any half petals).  The result will look like this:

You need four of these half flowers for each size of flower:

Start layering the flowers on top of each other:

Then add a third flower:

To add the forth flower, you will need to fold up the exposed part of the first flower, lay down the fabric for the fourth flower and then fold the fabric back down from the first flower:

Once you have this done, repeat the above steps for the other layers you want to use in your pin.  

Stack all the layers on top of each other and stitch through them with a Chenille needle and thread.  I stitched two "X's" through the layers and made sure I caught each piece of fabric so the pin will hold together.  

Then, just add the button embellishment and a pin back (or attach to whatever you want it to attach to).  Come back tomorrow to see the finished product!! 

Thanks for reading, please email me or comment if you have any questions!