When life throws you scraps...

Sometimes I like to incorporate my love of sewing into my scrapbooking and find that the two hobbies have very similar traits. My addiction to collecting fabric is just the same as my addiction to collecting paper. Everything that I have in my sewing room; fabric, buttons, pins, lace… can be used on a layout or card. Machine stitching on a layout gives the layout added texture and dimension. You can stitch down ribbons and trims, stitch titles, stitch on embellishments and stitch borders. The one thing I love about stitching is how inexpensive it is.

Before you start sewing on your scrapbook page, you need to have the layers you are going to sew tacked together. The more you can keep adhesives out of the path of the needle, the better – so try to tack photos and papers at their centers or away from where the stitching is going to take place. For those of you who have decorative stitches on your machine you can really spice up your layout. My favorite stitches to use are “straight”, “scalloped” and “zig-zag”.

Find some favorite scraps of fabric, a few sewing notions and you can create this card in minutes.  The card base measures 6.5"x5", the pink mat is 6.25"x4.75", the green mat is 4.5"x4.5" and the small stitched fabric squares are 2"x2".  I stitched the green mat onto the pink mat and then the fabric squares are stitched onto the green mat.  The sentiment is on a 3.5"x.75" piece of striped patterned paper on top of a 1"x3.75" green mat and then another 1.5"x4.5" piece of striped patterened paper.  A few sewing notions and a stick pin through the sentiment add the extra touch!  Perfect card for a "quilting" friend!

This week I am hosting the challenge at Let's Scrap so why don't you head on over, sign up and take my challenge.  Use fabric and stitching on a layout or card. If you don’t have a sewing machine, don’t worry…. faux stitching lines with a pen look just as nice.  This is what I came up with using one of the Let's Scrap card sketches by Debby.

The sentiment on the card is a stamp from Stampin' Up.... When life throws you scraps, make a quilt!

Til next time... Enjoy!

What I Know For Sure

“What I know for sure is that what you give comes back to you. That’s not just my theory or point of view, it’s physics. Life is an energy of giving and receiving… Those that are greedy, hit a road block where they are alone. Give more than you receive and be grateful for those around you.”

Oprah Winfrey

I love reading Oprah Winfrey's “O” magazine, and I'm always impacted by the way she always ends each monthly publication with her column; “What I Know For Sure”.  It's probably the best part of the magazine and this week it has inspired me to share what I know for sure ... so here are 20 things I know for sure….


1. You are responsible for your own life.

2. Life is short. Spend time doing what you love. Since we don’t know how much time we have left, we should live each day as if it is our last…. for it just may be.

3. You can't learn less. You can only add to your knowledge.

4. In order to continue to receive you must give…. “what goes around, comes around”.

5. You can't un-do what has already happened. Whatever is done is done. It's up to you to learn from the experience.

6. It takes a long time to build a good reputation and only a short while to ruin it.

7. Nobody loves you more than your parents.

8. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.

9. Never quit something just because it is tough.

10. We can accomplish anything we want.

11. Worst case scenarios almost never happen.

12. There is never a right time to do something, just do it!

13. Take lots of photographs…. It’s all about creating the memory.

14. Don’t believe everything you read.

15. Life really does get better the older you get.

16. You don’t have to like everything that you do.

17. You will regret things that you haven’t done.

18. You have to treat people the way you want to be treated.

19. It’s ok to feel like crap every once in a while. Life isn’t always perfect.

20. Be true to yourself.

Last week's challenge at Let's Scrap was to make a card or layout using your doodling skills so here is my take....  I cut strips of white and black cardstock and after doodling on each one I pasted them together to make the card front.

Til next time... Enjoy

Altered Frame

I had this frame laying around the house and decided that I would use it to frame my print of the Eiffel Tower.  It's a large 13" x 16" wooden frame painted gold and I didn't think it did the print any justice at all being that it was a bit on the "old fashioned" side.... and not in a good way!  So I decided to change it to suit my decor.

 This was the original frame

Firstly I painted the wooden frame with acrylic paint (Espresso), then a clear coat of crackle medium and lastly a thick coat of white acrylic paint. As the white paint started to dry the crackle took effect

 

 

I wasn't happy with how white it looked so I sponge painted antique white over the entire frame

and then distressed it with Walnut Stain ink

Next step was to work on the inside mat

I didn't like the plain white mat so I used some gel medium (matte finish) and put a light coat all over the mat and then layered old book paper on top and lifted it to reveal reverse print on the matting. 

It was still looking a little stark so I distressed the print with Tim Holtz distress inks; "Brushed Corduroy"all over and "Walnut Stain" around the edges.

I painted the inside 1/4" interior strip Espresso and roughed it up a bit with a sanding block.

and here is the finished product

Til next time... Enjoy!

Happy 21st to my #7

Today is my boy's 21st birthday.... where does the time go?  Craig was supposed to travel with the University of Lethbridge Golf Team to a tournament in Seattle Washington today, but due to a serious hockey injury last Tuesday he is at home flat on his back with broken ribs (2 broken, 1 cracked).  He was praying for a miracle last night.... that his ribs would heal and he would be able to swing a club.....  But.... no such miracle came and he is stuck in Lethbridge!  Today I am making all his favorite foods and will drive down for a visit tomorrow. 
Happy Birthday to my man.... love you to the moon and back!

I have a few birthday's this month so wanted to share some cards that I have made....

Til next time... Enjoy!