Wow, what an eventful year....

Hi everyone,

What an eventful year!!! I have now finished my studies and my graduation is scheduled for early August. Another fabulous event to scrapbook!!! We have also found our dream home and will be moving in August so will be in just before the baby is born. August is looking to be a huge month for me, and we also have antenatal classes and all the last minute preparations for the newest family member to make.

I am busy scrapbooking some great cruise photos and should have photo's to post soon.

All the best and big hugs

Jen

Tomorrow is my last exam!!!

Can't wait till tomorrow is over then I have plenty of crafting time before the baby is born!!! Can't wait to play with some of my lovely new Cricut Carts and spellbinder dies. I also have a few new DCWV paper packs to play with!!!! Please join me as I start working with these and making gorgeous things.

Big hugs

Jen

Only 3 weeks left

Thanks for your patience... I have 3 weeks left of this semester, then have nearly 3 months off before my little girl is born!!! Busy 3 weeks left, with assignments and exams looming, so keeping me from crafting at present, but have a backlog of projects to complete as soon as they are done, so can't wait to share some of these with you. I have a couple of new Cricut Carts, which I can't wait to test and share and some new Spellbinder Dies too!!!

Some of the projects are two wedding albums for the cousins who have both recently got married, two cruise albums for my parents and my aunt and uncle who cruised around the South Pacific... Think gorgeous golden sands, attolls and coral reefs. Can't wait to scrap their pictures, as well as creating a baby book for when my little one is born. I have a list of things that I want to include in this book and am more than happy to share this with you.

I also want to make a bulk lot of thank you cards in advance (for all my wonderful friends and family who have already showered me with baby gifts).

I have a few things I need to make for baby before she comes along such as soft furnishings and linens, as well as a funky nappy bag.

Wow, it is going to be a busy few months....

All the best and thanks so much for stopping by.

Jen

Exciting news

Hi everyone,

I am sorry I have not been posting for a while. I have been trying to cope with morning sickness. My exciting news is that I am expecting my first baby. We had the anatomy scan and we are expecting a little girl. Can't wait to meet her.

I am now 20 weeks and finally starting to have more energy and not throwing up everywhere, hopefully this allows me to get on with all my wonderful crafty projects.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and if you celebrate Easter that you had a wonderful break with your families and friends.

Take care and big hugs

Jen

Some more samples using the cuttlebug

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well. It has been a hectic few weeks for me and finally have a break and time to catch up with my blog.

I would like to pause for a moment and remember the individuals affected by the tragic earthquake here in Christchurch New Zealand that has shaken everyone. Fortunately it did not injure or harm any of my friends and aquantences in the garden city. Sending you all lots of love and thinking of you in this really difficult and traumatic time.

When rembembering the individuals affected by the events, one cannot help but think about the other events in the world affecting people right now. My thoughts also go out to those living with unrest and fear for their lives.

At work we run therapy groups and to begin we ask each person how they are and they have to finish off with one thing they are grateful for. The thing I am grateful for today is my family and the support and love I receive from them.

Anyway, on to craft... I have been making a few more samples and will be demoing the cuttlebug this week, so here are some of the projects the attendees will be creating.

This card uses the Cuttlebug Cut and Emboss folders, the card is DCWV and some ribbon and bling to finish it off. I made two samples of each as I did not have the same cardstock for each project for everyone to have the same.

This card uses the Craft Concepts Cupcake embossing folder. I added ribbon and bling. All cards use DCWV cardstock mat stacks and glitter cardstock as well as premade cards and envelopes.

This set of cards uses the Craft Concepts Sycamore Tree and is a neutral card that can be used for sympathy cards, congrats, male birthday etc. I have a pile of sentiments cut out and ready to adhere on the night.

The final project uses the Spellbinder Donna Salazar Carnation Dies and one of the labels (oops, can't remember which one. I love these new flowers, they are gorgeous.

Sorry the photos weren't better quality. I had already put them in cellophane bags for the demo when I thought about taking pictures.
Have a wonderful week and hope you find something to be truly grateful for.

All the best, Big hugs Jen

Quilt FINISHED!!!!

I finally finished the queen size bed quilt and deleivered it to its happy owners yesterday evening. I have some shots of the quilt which I will be sharing very soon. The lucky new owner will only be getting it next week, so don't want to spoil his surprise till then.

Big hugs

Jen

PS been a busy girl cut out cupcake holders from Cindy Loo for the wedding that was on Friday Evening and made a wedding comments book. I will post some pictures when I download them.

Have a great day!!!

Queen Size Bed Quilt

The quilt is going well and I have nearly completed all the quilting. I have had some intricate patterns to quilt and am nearly done. Another couple of days and all done.

The weather however, is not working that well. It is sweltering weather again and having a quilt on my lap has been really hot. I have been sitting there with my swimming togs on to try and survive the heat.

Hope you are all having a wonderful time.

Jen

It never rains, but it pours...

Hi everyone, hope you all had a wonderful and restful break. I have had some rest and relaxation and now the projects start. I have some awesome projects coming up.

Firstly, a lucky 21 year old will receive a quilt designed and inspired by his parents and quilted by me. I have just had the pieced quilt top delivered and it is stunning. I am about to pin it all together and start putting the design for the quilting together to begin.

Will have to wait till after the birthday before I can share the project with you, so watch this space.

The album I did a while ago for the engaged couple was a hit and the wedding is coming up fast. I will be making cupcake holders (from Cindy Loo Cricut Cartridge) for the tables as each guest is getting a cupcake. The groom is my cousin and his brother has also bitten the bullet and has asked his girlfreind to marry him, so another wedding coming up really soon. I have also given them the gift of an engagement album, but need the photos and colour scheme to create it for them.

For the weddings I would love to give each happy couple a 'visitor's' book for all the guests to sign and say something meaningful to them.

If you have any ideas, please share them with me as I would love to hear from you.

Big hugs
Jen

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas...

I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends and had a memorable and loving Christmas. I was a really lucky girl and got Paper Lace Cricut Cartridge and some other great craft items. I will post some projects soon.

Big hugs

Jen

Christmas Greetings

Hi everyone,

Thanks for being a wonderful community and for inspiring me and stretching my creative muscle. I hope that I have been able to give a small fraction back to you with my blog and some of the projects I have shared.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and festive season and love, happiness and lots of crafting time.

Big hugs

Jen

Mosaics

I am so glad I managed to find my camera, here are the long awaited pictures of my mosaics. Thanks so much Angie for all your help with them. I found out that I am allergic to the dust created when making mosaic images. I created the design and chose the colours and went to begin the project and it was a nightmare as the dust caused me to sneeze, splutter and choke!!! However, despite my issues with it, they turned out really well. It is quite large (approx 12" by 24" in size) and is going to be hung at the front door, just waiting for the other half to mount it.

This one is a pukeko which is a New Zealand Native Bird.

A challenge I have just completed - Takeout Coffee hand protector sleeve

Takeout coffee protectors

Materials needed:

Template (I used one from Starbucks)

Felt

Fabric (preferably light coloured)

Elastic

Lumiere Metallic Paint

Stazon

Stamps

Alcohol inks

Thread (and machine)

Beads (optional)

Kindy Glitz (optional)

Step 1:

Cut 1 piece of fabric (I used unbleached calico)

Cut 1 piece of felt (I used white felt)

Step 2:

Paint lumiere paint as desired to give some definition to the fabric. I chose to paint the border of my fabric and patches to enable me to stamp onto it. Allow to dry.

Step 3:

Stamp desired images using Stazon. I used Stazon Black, but this would also be effective in reds, greens for Christmas colours. Heat set with an iron.

Step 4:

Drop alcohol ink to give colour to your design. I used bottle and terracotta. I heat set this with the iron

Step 5:

Pin the felt and the decorated fabric together. I machine stitched this together and used metallic gold thread to give a little shine.

I then trimmed the edges neatly and changed my thread to machine embroidery green thread. I added detail to the holly leaves.



Step 6:

I then stitched a cluster of red beads in different sizes and styles to the area which was the holly berries.

Step 7:

I added gold kindy glitz to the odd berries and as a ‘shadow’ to the holly leaves.

Step 8:

I then stitched two pieces of elastic to the insides of the fabric and my hot drink protector is now complete.

You can also add alcohol ink at this stage.

Stitch the fabric piece to the felt and embellish as you desire. I added some machine stitching, beads and kindy glitz.

Enjoy!!!

P.S sorry I did not have a sample of a coffee cup, but hopefully the glass gives you a good idea of how it works.

More cuttlebug card designs

And some more... More masculine cards

Hope you enjoy these, thanks Luanne for your help with these ones!!! I love the colour and designs for this.

And yet another...

More Snowflakes!!!! I love the snowflake embossing folders in the cuttlebug embossing pack. It is so versatile and I love how the folders are now larger too!!! I added some gems, some thickers and what simple yet effective cards.

And another...

Hope you are not bored of my cuttlebug designs yet, as I have a few more to go...

This is a quick and easy card using the snow flurry embossing folder and some gorgeous snowflake paper and adding a create a flake spellbinder cut snowflake. Add a few gems and a sparkly card.

And another...

These three cards all used the cut and emboss cuttlebug folder. Don't you love how versatile this product is and how you can have 3 completely different cards using the same folder.

Another cuttlebug card

Don't you love this folder. I think the floral vine is just stunning. Part of the promotion that was taking place was the quilling kits for the cuttlebug, so there are a few flowers in my desings. I still have quite a few cards to load, so happy looking.

Another cuttlebug card

Once again using the cuttlebug, I cut some flowers using the quilling kits and embossed one of my mats with the blossom folder from the asian bundle. I added some pearls and some thickers for the 50.

Thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful day.

Cuttlebug Projects

Hi everyone,

I was really fortunate to demonstrate the cuttlebug and make some samples and show customers how the fabulous machine works on Saturday.

I will be posting a few of the projects that I came up with.

Hope you enjoy!!!

This card was made using the fabulous cuttlebug quilling flowers. The small flowers were made by cutting the centre quilling piece in half and then only using the small petals.I embossed the background using the large snowflake embossing folder. I cut out some holly leaves from a sheet of American Crafts cardstock. All the paper was either American Crafts or Provocraft Cricut cardstock.

Hope you like it!