Fair Time

Hello, long time no post! Life and work have gotten in the way of my crafting and scrapping! Hopefully my next post will be sooner. 

It was just county fair time here in Sonoma County. It is always a summer must for us to visit, to see the beautiful themed flower show, the animals, carnival and fair food!

I also love to check out the Adult Fine Art and Home Art Exhibits, and also the Kids exhibits. 

There are some talented people in our county. 

Almost every year I also enter items in the Home Art Exhibits. It is fun to see my creations on display and see if I won any ribbons! 

Below are a few of my entries this year. 

I entered my smashed penny bracelet, made from my smashed pennies I gather on my travels. I added some bead accents and used my handy Crop-a-dile from my scrap tools to punch a hole in each smashed penny. 

I also entered this little sewing book I made while scrapping at my friend Narda's one weekend. I covered manila file folders with sewing themed scrapbook paper and real sewing pattern tissue. I covered chipboard for the covers and put it all together with my bind-it-all.  

 

I embroidered the little heart for the cover. The photos that will go in the album are photos of my sewing projects that I have given away or were out grown! 

I also made another paper mache figure, this time a Santa with his toy bag on a paper mache book. Santa is molded from styrofoam shapes and aluminum foil, covered in paper mache medium.  

Painted and covered with mica flakes, all set for Christmas!

I entered some cards too! 

 

And of course some scrapbook pages!



My 4th Fervor page even won a blue ribbon!

I had another 2 page scrap book lay out, but the fair crew only displayed one page! I was disappointed they only displayed one side as they were attached together? The judge wrote on my entry, "where's the journaling?"  On the half of the lay out you did not see!

My son Henry entered a Lego creation, as he does every year. He always themes his creation to the Fair theme, and wins a blue ribbon every year he has entered.

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully my next blog post comes a little bit sooner that the last! 

Baby Frenzy

OK, I posted this last night and somehow I deleted it. So here goes again! 

On November 20th my friend Heather and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Jenny. She is expecting a baby girl sometime around January 1st or 2nd. All of the guests were scrappy or crafty friends of Jenny. Her Mom Janet and mom in law Pat, also came. 

Since Jenny is having a girl we could use lots of pink! Since I am the mom of three boys, I have not had much chance to use pink in my mommy years. It was a fun change of pace! 

I made this banner for a shower decoration and a gift for Jenny for baby Isabel's room. 

The garland is made from about 5" size paper hearts sewn together and stuffed with tissue to make them puffy. I added a crepe paper rosette, a scalloped circle and a glass glittered chipboard letter to spell Isabel. The small hearts at the ends are the same except I added a little resin rose.

The hearts were all tied together with silk seam binding bows. I love how it turned out. 

The bouquet below is made up of similar hearts. Each heart had a guests initial on it and we used them as favors for the shower. We attached them to skewers for the bouquet, but the guests could take them off and hang the heart or use it for an ornament. 

Heather made the cute pink cupcakes and added pretty pearls and toppers to welcome baby Isabel. 

The party table all ready for guests. 

 We served appetizers to start and a dinner after. We used no paper goods for the shower except for a few napkins. I enjoyed getting out some of my pretty dishes, serve ware and linens. 

I found this little wooden ironing board while on vacation in Oregon in September. I thought it would be fun to use as decor for the shower. I had one like this when I was small. The card below the ironing board was the invitation I sent out for the shower. The little boot vase holding the pink roses was a vase my mother in law received when my hubby was born, in 1950. And a little glittered crown is what every little girl needs. 

Our guest of honor Jenny with me and Heather. 

My shower gift to Jenny was this little doll bed and dolly. 

The little bed started out as a simple doll bed set from Ikea. Cute but very gender neutral. Since the baby will be a girl, I could not resist painting it pink and sewing new pretty pink linens. 

And sewing a baby girl doll with curly blond hair, like Jenny!

I hope Isabel enjoys her dolly & bed. 

It was so much fun to plan and co-host the shower for Jenny. I enjoyed every minute of it! 

Jenny has wanted a baby for a long time and I know she and her hubby Jim will be great parents! 

And I can't wait to meet Isabel! 

Let me know if you would like more details on the paper crafts or sewing projects!

November Daily Thankfulness

November 9th.

Today I am thankful for my scrap room and all my scrap, craft & sewing supplies. 

I love to craft all the time and having a full supply of goodies in my room means I can start a project whenever inspiration hits! And not have to run out to the store to find something. Which is hard to do at 11:00 pm at night, especially when you live out in the country. 

I will be the first to admit that my room seldom looks like this! Usually after a bout of crafting it looks like a hurricane blew through the room! 

Fabric Flowers

 I have been sewing since I was a young girl. I have always had a love for fabric. I have never been much of a quilter, but totes, bags, toys, clothes, pillows and things for my home have run under the feet of my sewing machine. 

Collecting fabric has been something I have always done too. My collection started when my older sister Lou would send me fabric scraps and remnants from her sewing projects. 

Oh the fun things I could create from all those pretty fabrics! 

Fabric collectors are just like scrappers who love their pretty paper! And I love to collect that too! 

And now you can buy the same pretty prints in fabric and paper! Both Moda brand or Stampin' Up sell fabric that coordinates with scrapbook/card making papers!

So I can also use those pretty fabrics in my scrapping and card making too. 

Below are three cards where I have used fabric to make the flower embellishments and a fourth where I have used a standard sewing staple, a zipper, for a flower too!  

The easiest flower to make is the fabric YoYo. 

Cut a circle of fabric about twice the size of the finished yoyo. Find a circle twice the size you need and trace it on the back side of your fabric. Fold over about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch along the edge. Hand sew with a knotted, doubled thread along the fold with a running stitch. Keep folding and stitching until you go all around the circle. Pull up the thread until tight and you have a small gathered circle in the middle. Make a    couple of small stitches to secure your circle. Trim your thread and you are done! Simple!

For the twisted fabric flower, you need to start with a circle of heavy duty tacky tape. A quick way to cut a circle is to use your die cutter. A link is here for Glubers, pre-made adhesive circles. There is a tutorial on the site to make these flowers. I did not follow this tutorial so check it out. I had lots of adhesive sheets, so I made my own.

Once you have your adhesive circle peel off one side of the backing and place the circle on a scrap of any used sticker backing paper. I used the empty sheet of Avery address labels. Set this aside.

Next tear a 1" strip of fabric. For a 2" flower you will need a strip of fabric 1" by 23". Tear along the crosswise grain of the fabric. "Fat quarters" (18"x23") are an easy source to buy for fabrics. 

Pinch the end of the fabric strip and center it on the circle of adhesive. Twist the fabric strip around on itself several times and slowly adhere the twisted strip to the adhesive in a spiral working from the center out until you fill up the circle. If you have extra at the end, trim off all but about 1 inch. Fold back the backing and tuck the fabric tail under the circle. 

Then you are ready to attach it to your card or scrapbook page. 

 The next flower is made from zipper. You can buy zipper ribbon now, but there is no shop in my area that sells it. I went to my local fabric and craft thrift store, The Legacy. They sell new and used zippers any size from 10 to 35 cents. And I showed up on 50% off day, so I paid 5 to 17 cents each!!

I separated my 22" zipper and used just one half, so I can make two flowers for 17 cents! 

Start with another doubled, knotted thread and needle. Fold under the end and start a running stitch. After about 3-4 inches, pull up the thread to slightly gather the zipper. Tack the circle together from the back side. 

From the back side fold and pinch and tack the zipper edge around the circle until you reach the end of the zipper. Tack a few stitches at the end of the zipper to the back of the flower to secure. 

Place a circle of heavy duty adhesive on the back of the zipper circle and you are done! The zipper coils are often painted to match the fabric, so you can spiral the zipper with the color side up or down. 

All papers used on the cards are from Stampin' Up. 

Thanks for checking out my blog, any questions?? Leave a comment. I love to hear from you!

Where does the time go??

When I lost my job in mid September, I thought "wow, I will be able to get so many things done, have so much time to craft" Ha! I seem busier than ever and not much time to craft!

Between traveling for fun and for work I have been home all of 4 days in the past three weeks. 

My house is a mess, I have not been able to craft much, except for the weekend getaway in my last post! 

I had gone to visit my sister Lou in Oregon, for a week.

I came home Sunday for 3 days and then left for my scrapping retreat on Thursday until Sunday. 

Came home from that on Sunday morning.

Emptied my suit case and filled it back up to leave early Monday to fly to Boulder.

I flew home the following Saturday and finally crashed on Sunday.

On Monday I cleaned a bit, painted my old green bookcase that I moved out to make way for my new red cabinet I bought at Ikea to house my scrapbook albums.

I painted it black to go in my scrap room to replace my old wire cubes.
And since my scrap room is a mess, this is all you will see of it for now.

Tuesday was spent cleaning as I had not been home much lately and prepared for some overnight company. My nephew in Bakersfield had come to San Francisco on Amtrak and would be riding his bike from SF to my house that afternoon. A 60 mile ride on back country roads and some scary city riding. He is braver than me! Since he was visiting I invited my next door cousins over for dinner.
A great evening with family!

On Wed I got up at 5:00 am to leave for the city (SF) for a job search program. The third trip to the city for this program. The first trip I only made it halfway as traffic on 101 was a mess! The second trip, I made it with two minutes to spare! This time there was no traffic so I had an hour wait at Starbucks. It was only 4 hours long so that left me time to walk to Union Square and have lunch with my sister Sally. She works at Britex Fabrics so I also had a chance to shop. Mostly window shop as fabric at $50 a yard and up is not fabric you buy just because it is pretty!

Thursday I had more company, as my 3 Stampin' Up friends and I got together to craft and share ideas. Since it was my turn to host, I made up two sample projects for all of us to craft.

A fun way to spend the afternoon! After it was time to go to my son's football game.

Today was a day to relax. I finished up my ATC swap that I am participating in and will mail them off to my fellow ATC swappers. Artist Trading Cards have been around awhile, but this is my first time to join a swap. I have been in other swaps (circle journals, cards and charm swaps). I am looking forward to seeing all the great artwork I will receive!
And now more football tonight. Tomorrow I hope to do nothing! Or at least just what I want to do :)

Sunday I will be heading to Tomales for their annual Flea Market. I hope to find a treasure or two! 

Free Time??

This is day four of my unplanned extended vacation.

(I don't count the weekends, I usually had Saturday and Sunday off).

I thought I would get so much done!! Who was I kidding??

I have only accomplished one item on the list in my head I had made for my time off.

On Monday, I got up at the usual time and took my son downtown to the school bus stop. We have been doing this since school started, as it was on my way to work anyway. Well, on Monday, we did the same, but instead of me rushing into the Union Hotel Cafe for my coffee and rushing out the door after a quick chat with Melanie and the early morning gang, I had the time to sit at the counter, enjoy my coffee and pastry and just relax and visit for a while.

It was so nice and my first official check off of the list that I had planned.

But since that morning I seem to have not gotten much else done. I did some cleaning, some laundry, some cooking and reading. I have gone to town two days in a row, and since we are out here in the country, that is a big time stealer. Both were planned trips, but still seem to have eaten up most of the days!!

Yesterday I go to go to our local radio station KZST and participate in their "Listener Advisory Committee". I could tell them what I thought about the station, which was almost all good, as they are "local" and really support the community. Whether they never play my least favorite song again, there is no guarantee, but I could at least put in my two cents!

Today was an appointment with my hubby and Costco! Always an expensive adventure. We did take time to stop at one of my new favorites for lunch Chloe's French Cafe

I have done a big photo print order for an upcoming scrapping retreat, and a Stampin' Up order, as the end of the quarter is near and I have to reach my quota!  (Whoo hoo!, the big brown truck just arrived).

But I did get some sewing done :)

I made some new pillows for my couch. I was time to take off the slip cover and wash it, so I decided to make the pillows I had been planning.

The pillow on the left is linen, and I ironed on this graphic I combined from two images from  The Graphics Fairy She is a great source for free digital images! I have another pillow in mind and hope
to post how easy it is!

For the red ticking pillow I used napkin I bought at Kmart, with the little red rooster embroidered on the corner. I added the stitching on the right side to balance the red stripe on the left.

The big orange flower is part of my bigger sewing project I will work on when I return from visiting mt sister in Oregon next week.  

 

The orange linen I used was really stiff so my flower did not turn out as I had hoped. But is still fun, so I will keep it! It was practice, so I may make another and post a tutorial.

Hopefully after I return from my sisters I will be much more productive and post some fun holiday items I want to make.

Thanks for looking!

Berta

An end and a new beginning....

The last two months at work have been crazy busy! And I have not had much crafting time, and I am getting grumpy about that! But there is a light at the end of my tunnel. On Sept 9th, I will no longer be employed. My company is consolidating and the area where I work is being transferred to other sites. And since I won't and can't relocate to San Jose or Boulder or New Hampshire, I am out of a job.

Though the thought of being unemployed is scary, I do have a good severance pkg. and unemployment,
so my family and I will get by for awhile.

But it will be strange not to get up and go to work everyday. I have worked almost 14 years at my present job and almost 19 at the job before. And almost 5 the job before that. I only had 4 days off between the last two jobs. I have never had time off that I did not know the day I would be returning to work.

Many people ask what me will I do?? My answer? I don't know? I hope to take a little time off and just play and craft and do what ever I want.
Then look to see what can I do? What do I want to do? And can I make it work?

I know I will not get bored. There are too many projects floating around in my head. It will seem luxurious
 to be able to craft, scrap, play with paper or fabric or paint any time I want.

I did get to play with a little fabric and paper this week.
My friend Jenny had a birthday on the 17th. I wanted to make her something and decided a scrap tote would be fun and handy. I found a beautiful aqua blue fabric and this fun dot pattern and sewed a tote that will hold a 12x12 plastic scrapping bin, plus a little more.

It has an extra long handle to slip over your shoulder. Usually if you are going to a crop, your hands are full with all your other scrap totes, so I thought a shoulder bag would be the handiest!

I also added an easy snap closure across the top to hold the contents in the bag. And a big flower just for the cuteness factor!

And no handmade gift is complete wtih out a hand made card.

Now that I am finished with Jenny's gift and it is delivered, I am ready to finish my previous sewing project I started before lots of overtime at work got in the way! A sneak peek is below.

I do not know what the future holds. It is a little bit scary, a little bit sad, as I will miss many of my co-workers. But also a little bit exciting. Something new is around the corner for me. What it is, I don't know.

I am thinking positive that it will be good!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Some Bling and a Goodbye...

Sunday was a sad day as I saw my long time hair stylist for the last time. She will be moving to Tennessee next month and will no longer to be able to cut and style my hair and keep those greys away!

 She has been cutting my hair since before her daughter was born and her daughter graduated from college this June! Almost 22 years!She has been more than just a stylist, but also a friend.
Jennifer, I wish you and Bruce well in Tennessee! And I sure hope we can visit sometime too!

I made this card and took her flowers. I wanted to take her a gift, but not one she would have to pack!

I have been working so much lately that I have not had much time to scrap or craft. I cannot wait until Sept 9th!! I was able to squeeze in a scrappy afternoon with my friend Heather on Saturday after work. It was so nice to sit and scrap and visit with Heather at her house for an afternoon.

A while back I posted this red suitcase I found at the Petaluma Antique Faire. I wanted to turn it into a jewelry crafting case.

I have been working on it off and on the past few months or so and finally finished it about a month ago. But then I wanted to try it out and do some beading and jewelry making. A few evenings this last week I hauled the case out to my living room and made some jewelry to try out the case. So far it is working out great!

I took out the mirror and fashioned a tool holder to fit inside the lid. Below are the basic steps I took to make my tool holder to go where the mirror was before. I used foam core as my base and some vintage fabric

and elastic.

I wanted the holder to be secure inside the lid so I used two kinds of adhesive. Really tacky tape and a silicone adhesive liquid. And I was careful as I placed the holder in the case to not glue any of the cute red ruffle behind the tool holder. And really strong carpet thread to keep the fabric taught on the foamcore.

And the outside needed a little glam also, so glued some braid around the case and finished the ends with some sparkly vintage red & silver buttons. Again I used more really tacky tape and fabric fusion glue. If one glue is good, two must be better!

All done and filled with my basic supplies. Just add some bead cases with my project beads and I am good to go, to bead and craft anywhere.

And I did!

I made two pairs of earrings and a little pink nest for my friend who is having a baby! She has not gotten it yet, so I guess this spoils the surprise ;-)

I also made this vintage necklace, using a resin flower from my scrapping supplies and anything else that struck my fancy.

If you have any questions about the card, case or jewelry, just post a comment and I will get back to you!

As always, thanks for visiting!