Monthly Archives: November 2010

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Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 4 – Christmas Journal

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Christmas journal

Christmas is such a special time of the year with all the activities and gatherings of family and friends. Keep the memories of your Chistmas holiday each year by journaling in a Christmas journal.

Our 4th week of the Sizzix Triple Play blog hop is the Frame and Frame back die by Eileen Hull. There are so many uses for this die, especially this time of the year for Christmas photos.  I chose to use it to create and decorate a Christmas journal.

To make the journal, you will need the following materials:

Frame and Frame Back, 3D Pro Scoreboards Die #656835 by Eileen Hull

Heavy card stock

Journal

Green fabric

Red and green acrylic paints

Adhesive – Zip Dry by Beacon

Instructions:

Cut the fabric 2″ larger than the opened journal on all sides.  Center the journal and fold the fabric edges to the inside the cover, fold the raw edge back and glue. Cut fabric pieces out along the edge of the spine.

Paint the frame pieces solid red, red stripes and red dots.

Paint a Christmas tree or other motif centered on the bottom frame.  Align the frame pieces and glue them together.  Turn the small red frame turned catercorner. Glue the completed frame centered on the journal.

Be sure to hop to the other blogs to see an assortment of outstanding and unique uses for this die.  Just click on the Sizzix button in the sidebar and hop forward to the next blog.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the hop!

Phyllis

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Beautiful Blooms and Happy Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving cactusI wish each of you a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving and hope you are able to spend it with special people in your life.  I wish each of you safe travels and a holiday filled with love, laughter and reminiscences over fond memories!

I want to share my “Thanksgiving Cactus”.  Its in full bloom and measures 32″ across.  Never mind that I bought it during Christmas 4 years ago, thinking it was a “Christmas Cactus”.  But it blooms each year at Thanksgiving and a little research confirmed that it is a Thanksgiving Cactus.  I bought this as a small plant in a 4″ pot.  It amazes me that not only has it lived,  it has thrived and grown and grown each year. Although not a traditional color, there’s definitely nothing wrong with a little pink with our turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Phyllis

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Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 3- Floral Gift Box

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Giftbox decorated with flowers and paintThis week, we used Brenda Pinnick’s Flower, Beauty Bloom Sizzix dies for our Blog Hop project. I really love flowers so I enjoyed using flowers to decorate a gift box – a great way to add a special touch to gift giving.

Gift box painted and decorated with flowers

The materials used were:

Sixxiz die #655455 by Brenda Pinnick

Card stock

Spray paint – aqua and green by Krylon

Green acrylic paint

Gift box

Brads – round and floral designs

Hole punch

Glue – Beacon Zip Dry for paper

Instructions:

I spray painted the box with green paint and all the flower pieces with aqua paint.  2 petal sections were painted a darker green to use as leaves.

After the paint dried, I punched holes in the center of the flower pieces.  2 flowers were created by assembling 3 large flower pieces for each flower and putting a round brad through holes.  I turned up the petals of the top 2 pieces. After punching holes in the box top I attached the flowers with the brads.

Flower shaped brads were ued to attach the large flat flowers to the sides of the box and glue was used to attach the small flowers.

Be sure to hop to the other blogs in the blog hop by clicking on the links in the Sizzix badge in my sidebar!  There are some amazing designs.

All I need to do now is add the gift!

Happy Crafting!

Phyllis

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The Gift of a Special Mermaid!

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When I was on a work-cation at the beach a few weeks ago with my husband who was vacationing, my talented friend Brenda Pinnick visited (see my prior blog post on one of the craft projects resulting from our craft brainstorming). After we talked crafts, bought some craft supplies and then crafted a while, Brenda asked if she could paint something on one of my walls. Of course, I said yes immediately (Brenda is a well known artist and an expert at painting murals).

Brenda selected a wall, made a quick sketch and started painting. A gorgeous mermaid emerged from her paint brush. I have always loved mermaids as they are so romantic and whimsical, so I was more than thrilled to have one on my wall, especially since it was painted by a wonderful friend.

Here’s a closeup of her face,  isn’t she beautiful!

Now, is there such a thing as a MerMAN?

Phyllis

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Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 2 – Spot of Color Twist Box

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A Spot of Color Twist BlockWhat a fun project – the twist box created with Sizzix’s die by Karen Burniston can be decorated so many ways.  I decided to create a colorful ornament that would also make a fun addition to a birthday card.

Twist Box created with Sizzix die

This was easy to make with a few embellishment items.

Materials:

Sizzix Twist Cube Die

DCWV black card stock

Large 1 1/4″ button

Assorted multi-color buttons

Rick rack

Rat tail cording – 2 pieces 14″

Beacon Paper Tac glue

Fabric – 1-1/2″ x 24″ strip

Instructions:

1. Cut and make box from black heavyweight paper.

2. Thread one piece of cording through 2 holes on the large button so that the ends of the cords are on the back side of the button. Thread the other piece of cording through the remaining 2 holes. Pull ends so that they are even and insert through hole in the top of the box by 1/2″. Glue the ends to the top inside of the box.

3. Sew a gathering stitch on one long edge of the fabric 1/4″ from edge. Cut to fringe on the opposite side edge. Do not cut through the stitches. Pull gathers to 6″ and tie off.

4. Wrap the gathered edge on the top of the box around the opening with the cords. Glue as you wrap. After the glue dries thoroughly, slide the button down the cording to sit on top of the fringe. Tie an overhand knot with the cord on top of the button.

5. Glue 2 rows of rick rack around the box, 1/2″ from the top and bottom edges. Glue buttons around box.

There are 60 designers participating in this Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop. Please check out their projects – they were all amazing last week and I know they be amazing again this week. Just click on the Sizzix blog button in the side bar to go back or forward.

Enjoy the hopping! (and check back next week).

Phyllis

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More from the International Quilt Market and fabulous quilts

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I was so overwhelmed with all I saw at Quilt Market.  I’m still sifting through all my notes. If you missed my first post about Quilt Market, please check it out for some fabulous quilts and booths.

I loved this booth, Fiber Art Furniture.  It was fun with some pretty whimsy furniture as you can see below. The chairs were especially appropriate as it was Halloween. Check out their website for more fun furniture. I guarantee it will make you smile.

Fiber Arts Furniture ChairFiber Art Furniture Chair

There were several book signings.  My talented friend Pearl Krush of Pearl Louise Designs was signing her book Quilting at the Village published by All American Crafts. Pearl, who designs fabrics and patterns, also has a fabulous Quilt shop, Thimble Cottage Quilt Village in Rapid City, SD. The book also tells a lot about her shop and I can’t wait to visit it some day.

Pearl Krush

I was walking by Amy Butler‘s booth as they announced the best booth awards.  Here is a picture of Amy in her booth just after she won first prize.  I love the greens and turquoises of her booth.

Amy Butler's booth

The Leilani Arts‘ booth was a visual treat with a beautiful display of all the silk yarns spilling from baskets. They were so lucious!

Baskets of silk yarn And here are more fabulous quilts from the exhibits.  I wish I could have seen all of the quilts exhibited there but there were just so many and I ran out of time.  The quilts looked like art and they were – quilted art.

Facade by Melissa Sobotka of Richardson, TX

Facade Quilt

Lunacy of a Starry Night by Annette Hendricks of Grayslake, IL

Lunacy on a Starry Night Quilt

Lava by Lta Ziv of  Pardes Hana, Israel

Lava Quilt

Tidepool Treasure by Betsy Abbott of Andover, MA

Tidepool Treasure Quilt

Forest Walk by Pat Durbin of Eureka, CA

Forest Walk Quilt

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of Quilt Market. I’m already looking forward to Spring Market.

Phyllis

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Quilt Market – full of spectacular colors, quilts and more

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I just returned from the International Quilt Market in Houston and am so excited about all I saw. There was so much to see and I want to share some of my favorite things as well as some of the fabulous quilts on display.

Friday night before Market began, I went to the Fabric 2.0 Meet and Great event, which was packed with people networking and just plain ol’ having a great time.  To my surprise, my name was called for the first door prize (so I now I have to stop saying I never win anything)!

Door prize - ribbons from JCaroline CreativeI won a half gallon jar of beautiful woven ribbons from JCaroline Creative and a book from Stash Books.  I am thrilled with my prize and can’t wait to use the ribbons. Thanks Caroline!!

The next morning I took a fun class on surface design using Amazing Angelina, paint sticks and foils from Embellishment Village. I made this leaf design using the Amazing Angelina and a rubber stamp. I look forward to using all of these techniques from class for new projects.

Design made with Amazing Angeling fibers.

One of the booths that captivated me was Woolylady. I have always loved hooking rugs and love the designs and wool that was in their booth as well as their colors.

Woolylady booth at the International Quilt Market

Another booth that I just adored was Handbehg Felts with so many wonderful felted items.  The colors made the booth pop and I loved the decorated dress form centerpiece made with packaging.  The skirt was made with bags of felt balls and the tubes from paper towels.  My picture doesn’t do it justice.

Handbehg felts

Handbehg Felt booth

There were several book signings with so many new books out.  I was delighted to see Kathy Davis who was signing her book Scatterjoy in the Free Spirit Fabric booth. Her new fabric line is behind us and is really gorgeous.

Kathy Davis booksigning

And here are some of the fabulous quilts from the quilt exhibits – all works of art.

Caddy and Cakes Quilt by Janet Fogg of Lake Oswego, OR.

Caddy and Cakes quilt

Circle of Life: Hibiscus Christmas by Heidi Lund of Bremerton, WA

Circle of Life: Hibiscus Christmas

Crocus by Maggie Weiss of Evanston, IL

Crocus Quilt

I love this one because I have a black cat – Look Out for Scout by Penny Sander of Arlington, MA

Black Cat Quilt

Spring is Just Around the Corner by Saradean Hallman of West Columbia, SC.

Spring is Just Around the Corner Quilt

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my pictures.  I will post more tomorrow for Part 2 with more booths and quilts. So please check back!

Phyllis

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Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop Week 1 – Peppermint Candy House

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Christmas Candy Cane House from Sizzix diePeppermint Candy Christmas House from Sizzix die

I’m delighted to be part of the Sizzix Triple Play Blog Hop featuring 60 designers. That’s 60 designs with instructions each week.

Christmas is just 7 weeks away!  Can you believe it? I chose to make a Peppermint Candy house since the season is so close.

It was really fun to make so here are the materials you need as well as the instructions.

Materials:

#656836; Sizzix Scoreboards Pro Die – House, 3D, by Eileen Hull

Sizzix 12×12 matboard, white

Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutting machine

1/4 yard red/white stripe fabric

Beacon Fabric-Tac Glue

White batting

Red acrylic paint

Paint brush

Yellow and green card stock

Assorted red and white buttons

Pencil

Instructions –

1.  Fold tabs areas of the house back and trace the outline of the house on the back side of the stripe fabric with a pencil. Cut out adding 1/4″ all the way around the house outline.

2.  Lay the fabric right side  down and glue the house to the back side of the fabric.   Cut an X in the window and door areas, cutting from corner to corner.  Fold the pieces back and glue to the back side of the house.  Fold edges around the house back and glue to the back of the house.  Cut pieces for the door and windows from the card stock and glue to the back side of the house. Fold house and glue together following instructions with the die.

3.  Fold batting in half and cut a piece of batting the width of the roof and adding 1/2″ to the depth.  Lightly glue the batting together between the layers.  Align raw edges of the batting to the back edge so that the fold is over the front edge of the roof.  Glue the batting to the roof.  Put a line of glue on the front edge of the roof and press the batting over the edge. Glue the window and door frames in place.

4.  Paint the roof and door of the small house red and paint red dots on the front. Paint the fence red. Fold house together and glue on the roof. Glue the small house to the larger house, overlapping by 1/3″. Glue buttons to house. Glue fence to attach to house.

Please click on the Sizzix badge in the sidebar to visit the other blogs in the blog hop.  You will see some fabulous houses!

Phyllis