Friday, February 21, 2014

Everyone should have a Mason Cash bowl.


Mason Cash. What's not to love. The company is over 200 years old....they have certainly perfected the mixing bowl. They are a perfect heavy weight, so are very stable when using them. I love mine and will no doubt use them for the rest of my life. They never wear out. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

My finished embroidered tea towel.

How cute does this tea towel look on my stove. Here are the promised pictures of the finished embroidery. As much fun as this is...I can't wait to get back in the garden. 






Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Two craft days down and one still to come....

My sister Jess is on vacation and we booked two craft days together. I thought I'd embroider something. My teacher, I mean sister, had other plans. She was going to teach me how to make a card. Off topic...this book came to the store for me today. I am a HUGE Susan Branch fan so I was thrilled. 

Jess, pouring over pads of paper. Showing me how you choose the papers. Swear to god, she must have 500 pads of paper. And then there are the loose sheets. 

While I struggled with my card, she popped this together. Really!? How cute is this. 

My card starting to...ummm...take shape?

My headless girl needed bright red mittens, 

She has a paper rolling thingy with a handle that made these amazing raised dots on the card stock. Okay that is cool. and she has a Merry Christmas paper punch. Jeez. I have been living a VERY sheltered life. 

I had six pictures to select from. I chose this one, because Jess does not have a poker face. I can see she is about to burst out laughing. Probably tripped herself up doing a bit of "fussy cutting". Oh what is fussy cutting you ask? Google it. It's exactly what you think it is. Look at my headless woman on my card. See her boots. See the heels. Cutting around that with scissors...THAT my friends is fussy cutting.

A bow shaped punch. She has at least 5,000 punches. No I'm kidding. {Or am I?}

These are cling stamps. I've rubber stamped off and on for about 30 years and had NEVER used one of these. They really are cool. You can see what you are stamping and exactly where. They don't use wood/trees, and they store really flat. Wow.
{We crafted for two days and my card is not done. I will post a picture when I finish it}

Lessons learned:

**You cannot rubber stamp onto foil paper with a cling stamp and memento ink. You had to see it to believe it. Something electrostatic seemed to happen. The black ink kind of exploded onto the clear stamp and the red foil kind of jumped off its paper and made the stamp red with black ink bursts. Sorry about the stamp Jess. Who knew?

**I  do not love fussy cutting. It's stressful.

**You know those hand crafted cards that you see. And you go "$7.95....FOR A CARD...WHAT?!" Well I wouldn't sell mine for less than $1,256.99. I figure my time and effort are worth at LEAST that much! I DID FUSSY CUTTING FOR CHRIST SAKE!!!