Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop: Week Four: Inspiration Frame

Happy Thanksgiving!  Can you believe I'm working today?  The Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop happens no matter what!  I'm thankful for the fact that I can schedule posts ahead of time on Blogger!

This week, we were challenged to work with Eileen Hull's Sizzix ScoreBoards Pro Die-Frame & Frame Back With Stand.  What a fun die.  Who doesn't want to have easy access to frames?  Photos, artwork, anything goes and you won't need to go to the store and buy a frame.  Not to mention you can design it to match every room or occassion.

I decided to create a little, framed inspiration board for my studio.  Little girls, retro images (my image was from a 1950s sewing book), and bright colors (like the fantastic blue & pink paper from Anna Griffin) inspire me right now and I know I'm going to love having this in my sewing studio. 

Speaking of inspiration, I had to share this with you.  My five year old daughter got her hands on some of the flower die pieces I had leftover from last week's blog hop.  She thought the flower petal dies looked like angels, so she got out her crayons and got to work.  I think we might have a future designer on our hands.  She really is an inspiration to me, and now I'm thinking of creating some angels myself.  I'm so thankful for her.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday today.  First feast on turkey, then come back and feast on creativity of our blog hop.

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Fabric Cake

I was so excited when I made this cake last month!  I've always found it really difficult to sew curves, especially when I'm sewing a 3D object.  But I took a really deep breath and decided I would I just take my time and not cry when it didn't come out and I sewed a fabric cake. 

I love it so much, I can barely part with it.  We won't even talk about how much the model featured here loves it.  But I do want to make some extra cash this holiday season, so it's up in my Etsy shop.  It has great details and will make some lucky girl's next tea party a success.  I mean the teddy bears will be talking about it for ages.  So it's the perfect gift for that very special girl on your list.  It will be something she can hand down to her future children.  It's a keepsake she will treasure.  I'm guessing her mom might get a little excited too.  I mean, I would.

And don't worry about the model.  She's probably going to get one.  I heard through the grapevine that Santa is planning on leaving one under the tree on Christmas morning.

Triple Play Blog Hop: Week Three: Flower Tote

I have a confession to make.  I love tote bags.  I would surely perish without them.  Seriously, if someone asked me my secret for being such an organized mom, the answer has to be tote bags.  We have a dance class tote, we have a soccer tote, we have a library tote.  All totes live either in the closet or hanging on a hook by our back door.  When it's time to go to the library, we just grab the library tote.  My daughter knows she always keeps her library books in the tote, that way they don't get lost.  The library tote also has a pocket for our library cards.  The dance class tote always has tap shoes in it.  Get the idea?

Do you know what else I love?  Fabric flowers.  I make them, I buy them , I wear them, I pin them to just about anything that needs a little flair.  So I was very excited when I found out this week's Sizzix die was Brenda Pinnick's Sizzix Originals Die-Large Flower, Beauty Bloom.  Then it got even better!  Brenda provided us with some of the die cut shapes cut-out of her Couluer Vie by Brenda Pinnick fabric for Henry Glass & Co.

Although I do sew tote bags from scratch, I find that I prefer to embellish the totes I already have. Using Brenda's die as well as some additional flowers cut from my personal fabric stash using the Sizzix by Originals Die-Large Flower Layers #3, a doily and a new button, I was able to transform a 10 year old, plain tote I had laying around:

Into a modern, floral, girly tote that just might be our new library bag!

I really love how it came out!  I think flower dies are one of the best investments you can make as they have so many uses.  Paper crafting, sewing, making hair clips, pins, headbands, the list goes on.  For more ideas for Brenda's flower die, please continue visiting the other designers on the blog hop.  If the past two weeks are any indication, you won't be disappointed!

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A five minute vacation

If you read my newsletter yesterday, you know that my birthday is coming up.  You also know that every year I treat my birthday as my personal new year.  I spend a little time journaling about the past year and try to make adjustments that will help my next year be even better than the year before.

One of the things that I tried to do this past year was make more time for myself.  Having a young child threw me for a major loop and I have been a pretty cranky person since she was born. And five years is a long time to be cranky. So last year, I decided I needed to work on being a better person.  After a lot of thinking, I realized that I was pretty angry.  Angry and tired.  And most of it stemmed from the fact that I felt like I had absolutely no time for myself.  That I spent my days sacrificing for others.  The ridiculous part of it was that no one was asking me to make those sacrifices.  I have a great husband.  He helps out all the time and he would never expect me to give up my life to wait on him.  But, when the laundry needs to get done and dinner needs to be cooked, something has to give.  And it was always me and my time.  And I was ticked off about it.  Not mad at anyone else. I was mad at myself. 

So I vowed to carve time out for myself every single day.  Sometimes that means that everything doesn't get done, but my family doesn't care because when I take care of myself, I'm a much nicer person to live with. 
Now, I know you have heard this a million times.  Every woman's magazine out there tells us how important it is to take time for ourselves and, if you are like me, I flip past the article thinking, "Yeah right, like that's possible." (Frankly those articles made me mad.  I felt they were unrealistic.) But truer words have never been said.  We have to put ourselves first or we (and everyone else) are going to live one miserable life.  I found self-care doesn't have to mean a few hours at the spa either.  One of the biggest pick me ups I practice is to listen to one or two upbeat songs when I walk to pick my daughter up to school.  I'm alone on the way to school and I live in Southern California so the sun is usually shining.  I put on Frank Sinatra's I've Got the World on String, and by the time I arrive at my daughter's school, I'm practically skipping down the sidewalk and have a huge grin on my face.

As we all face the holidays, I recommend you take the time to take care of yourself too.  I promise you are going to get a lot more done and your family will be a whole lot happier if you do.  Let me know how you take mini-vacations in the comments today.

Here's your first few minutes of vacation to get you started:

Are you an "unknown artist"?

My latest montly newsletter just went out.  This month, I talk about one of the biggest mistakes I see artists and crafters make when they are selling products.  Are you guilty of it?  To find out and to sign-up for my monthly newsletter (it's free!) click here.

Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop, Week Two: Gift Cards with a Twist

I don't know about you but, as much as I like getting gift cards, I kind of miss the whole gift presentation thing.  I love getting a big package all wrapped-up and pretty.  With the popularity of gift cards, you see less gifts and more envelopes.  While I completely understand the ease of gift cards for the giver, as the receiver, they sometimes leave me wanting.  But, who says that you have to give gift cards in a envelope or a flat gift box?  Why not create a cube and add some over-the-top-embellishments?  I used Karen Burniston's Sizzix Bigz XL BIGkick/Big Shot Die-Twist Cube 3-D Pop-Up to create a cube. (I used some DCWV 29-Color Cardstock Stack - 12" to give the cube some body.) Then decorated the cube with Die Cuts With A View 12 x 12 Paper Stacks - Christmas Paper Stack and made sure to create a small pocket on one side to slip a gift card in. Then I topped it with some holiday sprays I had crammed in a drawer from last Christmas.

Now this is a gift card presentation that would make anyone happy! You could even fill ALL the sides with  different gift cards if you wanted to be known as the best gift giver ever.  I think these would be really cute as placecard holders on a holiday table too. 

Don't forget!  This is my weekly Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop post.  Tune in every Thursday to see what I am doing with the die of the week, then click on the bottom below to go forward and backwards and see what 60 other talented designers are doing with the same die!

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Material Connection Disclosure: 
1. I have a material connection to Sizzix.  I received sample die cuts for the purpose of doing this blog hop. 
2. I am an Amazon Associate.  If you click on the product links above, and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission from Amazon.

Holiday Boutique in the OC

My holiday boutique season officially begins this Saturday!  I fell behind on getting inventory ready when I hurt my back, but I'm much better now and think I have a great selection of items to offer.  I thought I would give you a sneak peek so you could see why it's been so quiet on the blog lately.  I've been busy making:

Pillows

Fabric Flowers for Pins and Headbands

Slumber Party Totes

And, I don't have photos yet, but I'm also making crayon caddies and am re-releasing my katyface(TM) line of greeting cards. 

If you are local, the boutique is at:

Timeless Treasures
30505 Avenida de las Flores
Rancho Santa Margarita

The boutique is being hosted by the Fiskateers and you know that anything Fiskars is part of is always great! The first 25 customers get goodie bags and they have some great stuff in them!  And, if you tell me you read my blog, I'll give you 25% off any on item.  (Which could be a big savings on something like a Slumber Party Tote Bag or a Pillow!)

If you aren't local, don't fret!  Anything that doesn't sell on Saturday will go into my Etsy shop in time for a Black Friday (aka my birthday aka November 26!) Sale!

Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 1: Home Sweet Home Embroidery Sampler in 3D!

It's another blog hop and I'm so happy to get another chance to play with Sizzix's dies!  This week I was asked to create a project using Sizzix Scoreboards Pro Die - House, 3D, by Eileen Hull.  I also used Sizzix 12x12 matboard, white and of course, you need a Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutting machine

There were a million ideas swirling in my head for this project, but I finally decided to use felt to cover the mat board and create a 3D embroidery sampler!  My inspiration was those old Home Sweet Home samplers women used to practice their embroidery stitches on.  Instead, I did some embroidery stitches on the felt I cut out in the 3D shape of a house.  Get it?  It's a Home Sweet Home sampler, because I stitched on an actual house!  I also used some buttons (Courtesy of Blumenthal Lansing) and scraps of fabric, lace and beads.  This a great a project to use up all those little odds and ends.

Now, there a sixty talented designers who also created projects using the 3D house die.  Yes!  Sixty!  You get to spend the entire day getting inspired.  You can see the full list of designers on Sizzix's blog or just head over to the button in my sidebar and on the right and press the back and forward button to move through the list (isn't that a cool way to navigate the hop?)

Material Connection Disclosure: By the way, I received some product from Sizzix and Blumental Lansing to do this project, just so you know!

Creative Living Episode Airs Tomorrow

You may remember the adventure I went on earlier this year to tape a few crafty episodes of Creative Living with Sheryl Borden.  Well, one of the shows that features my segment is airing tomorrow (November 3).  To find out if you PBS station carries the show, go here.

Or, if you are like me and can't watch it locally, I've got my segment on YouTube.  Here it is!

Embroidery Bee

It's that time again!  Last month's Embroidery Bee was a big success, so I'm hosting another meeting this month.  It's on November 18 and I hope you will be able to join us.

This month, I will teach a few new stitches and show everyone my technique for using stencils to create unique embroidery designs and patterns.  To get all the information and to sign-up, please click here.

I hope to see you there!