Seeing Stars

Here's my latest card for the swap. The theme was "holidays", and my card is suitable for either New Year's or Independence Day.

All products Stampin' Up. Seeing Stars stamps and punch. More Mustard, Night of Navy, and Real Red ink and paper. Gold embossing powder. The "celebrate" comes from a retired birthday word set.

I've been remiss in posting my squares from the summer Fair and Square patriotic swap. Here are the squares I received from Linda.

And here is the Quaker heart I sent Linda.

I hope your September is off to a good start.

HB!

Two of the reasons why August is always so hectic. Hard to believe that they are 6 already!

A Chihuly pose at the Corning Museum of Glass (a most excellent museum for young and old alike).

Summer Swap Cards

Wow! Has it really been since April since I've posted? Yikes. Easter to Labor Day always feels like a marathon, with August being an uphill run all the way. There was lots of fun, but not a whole lot of sit down at the computer time.

Here are a couple of cards I've made. All products and images are Stampin' Up. Everything except the Moroccan tiles stamps is discontinued.

I've also been stitching. I finished a piece, but it's for a swap. I'll post when I can. I did, at least, remember to take photos before I mailed it.

I have a bunch of photos to share with you of our tour of western NY last month. It was a great vacation. They'll have to wait for another post though.

Happy Easter!

Staycation

I am having a bit of a staycation. DH and the girls went to see my MIL for spring break, and I am home alone this week. I love my family. I'll be excited to see them on Saturday. I'm enjoying my free time this week. Even though I'm only taking one day off from work, I have been using my extra time in the evenings on projects that are too difficult to tackle during the usual bustle of school, work, dinner, and laundry. I'm cleaning out closets and cupboards. I'm reorganizing shelves. I've left a mess on my dining room table all week as I sort things out. And I've been crafting.

Last night, I finished my witch. This was a fun project. It's DMC (108 + 310) on Aida, and the original pattern is here.

I don't think I've shown you this project before. It's Cathy Jean's Buttercups. I've been working on it since 2008. It's one of those projects that goes pretty quick when I'm working on it, but then I set it down and forget about it for a while. This is going to be a birth sampler for one of my girls. It's a companion to this piece. I'm using the same fabric and the indicated threads. I stitched the left side lavender on Sunday at my craft group, the one I rarely get to attend any more. It was fun to sit and stitch with my friends again.

This is my April swap card. The theme was black, white, and one bold color. I used Rose Red. The stamps are SU! Botanical Blooms.

Wishing you all a Happy Spring!

Swap Cards

This month's theme was "special occasions". I usually do sympathy cards because, sadly, I often need them. Someone chose that theme before me, so I went with "religious special events". The inside of these says, "on your special day". Whisper White paper, Gold Ink, SU! Special Blessings stamp set. The panel is popped up on foam dots. These would be 5 minute cards, except one has to wait for the gold ink to dry before moving on to the next step. The ink smudged so much, I threw half of the first set I made out. Even a few days later, the large images would still smear if touched.

My Nephews' Samplers

I can't believe I forgot to post the pictures of these framed. The pictures are horrible, but you can see the framing OK. All three use the same frame and same green mat. The undermat is light blue on two and yellow on one. The framer did a fantastic job making them all the same height, as there's about an 1 to 2 inch difference between all of the samplers. The widths are all different, but close enough that the casual observer isn't going to notice.

My sister was delighted with them, and my oldest niece started campaigning to get a matching one with bling. I don't have a picture of hers, but it's very country-kitchen sort of design (I bought the pattern in colonial Williamsburg in 1992) and done in bubble gum colors. It was my sister's style when my niece was born, but it's so much not my niece. Since her birthday is also in November, I'd either re-do the middle pattern or find something similar.