Amy Butler in person!

Tonight we ran over to Crafty Planet (which is a local fabric/yarn shop) to meet THE Amy Butler!!

There will be a lot of people from the fabric industry in town this week and through the weekend because this years annual Quilt Market is here in Minneapolis.

When we heard that she would be here in town, we figured we better go and get a photo with her :) I brought her one of my Scrabble Tile Necklaces that I have been making that used a piece of her paper on it(and some glitter). She seemed almost humbled and grateful that I gave it to her. I also had to wear my crazy pants that I made with Alyson out of Amy's fabric. My lucky kiddo got to come with and meet her too because the hubs was working late tonight.

She was just so sweet and "normal" and I will be happy to continue to support her in the future. In fact we bought a new pattern and a couple yards of her fabric when we were there tonight!

Tomorrow night Sandi Henderson will be at Quilted Treasures in Rogers and on Saturday night Anna Marie Horner will be at Treadle Yard Goods in St Paul.

Bag Crazy

Right now I have a bag obsession for some reason! Last year at the MN State Fair we picked up a few of those lightweight re-usable bags with some crazy college logo, the same kind you can buy at the grocery store for around a buck. I keep buying more because I have so many plastic bags and I keep thinking I will bring them and use them. Most of the time I forget to bring them and just get more plastic bags that I save and intend to recycle at some point. Right now they are spilling out of my cupboard door because I have way too many.

I don't always bring those re-usable bags I intend to use because, frankly I don't always want to bring some cheesy bag to some "cool" place. haha. I want to bring a fun bag with me.

I found this AWESOME pattern over at Film in the Fridge, she has some great tutorials! You can find this one here: to-market-to-market-a-market-bag-tutorial . Please don't make these and sell them for profit, these are for your own personal use.

I have an industrial sewing machine that doesn't always work so great on lightweight fabric so don't look too close at the sewing skills. The fabric is a remnant of Michael Miller fabric on the outside and Amy Butler on the inside. The brown on the strap is something I just picked up the other day for another project I want to try(the Pillowcase dress).

I am pretty happy with how it turned out and I WILL be bringing this cool bag with me whenever I can :)

Weekend Sketch Challenge 60 by Beate

Here is a funky card I made for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #60. http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/category/weekend-sketch-challenge/

I had some, ok lots, of paper sitting in little piles on my workspace and thought these looked good together. I am always looking for non-traditional ideas for cards and thought this might work for an anniversary card for someone who enjoys the outdoors -with a little style!

I used CM Smoke card stock for the base, blue scrap, probably Joann's, Amy Butler(can't use it enough) designer paper, Pink is from Archiver's, Green strip is new Kiwi Kiss scrap made to look like a road. I cut the truck off of a stamp that was pulling a big camper by Stamp House and popped it up on dimensionals. Tent stamp is by Art Gone Wild and Happy Anniversary is Wordsworth. TFL!

Gift Cards Galore!

I made a whole bunch of gift card holders for all occasions that I will sell at my upcoming craft sale. I found this idea from Rochelle over at Impressions, here is the link http://impressionsbyrochelle.blogspot.com/search/label/Gift%20Card%20Holder

I changed it to fit my style and what would work the best for me to make lots of them! I am very happy with how they turned out and I am actually having fun making these. I cut a velcro coin in half to keep them closed and I will add a piece of sticky strip to the inside so the buyer can remove the protective paper and attach the gift card when they are ready to give. I stamped To: and From: on the back with a clear set of stamps that I had.

These were great because they used small pieces of paper, sometimes scraps and the funky stuff worked really well on these. I love the Amy Butler paper too! I have also made Post-it note holders that match some of these. I will be making lots more in the near future so stay tuned....

I think you can click on any photo to see it larger. Some of the stamps used were from the Stampin Up level one Best Yet hostess set and the Think Happy Thoughts set. TFL!

Find Joy & Fantastic

The Fantastic card I made for a friend to give away, I used paper from the 8x8 Rock Star paper pack and a Stampin Up Stamp. I just folded it in half and decorated that way.

The other one I made for my Grandma's 85th Birthday, I used some Amy Butler paper that I love, some other paper I have laying around, A Prima flower and a Stampin Up stamp.

My favorite Ink that I use all of the time is Adirondack by Ranger and the color is Espresso, it's a die ink( I think) but I use it all of the time instead of a harsh black. I really like how it looks and it drys quickly. I'm not sure if you can watercolor on it though.

More Cards !

I have been trying to create some cool new cards for fun and to list on my Etsy site.