Japanese Stab Book

When I was in high school I took two fibers and weaving courses. I learned a lot of really awesome things, one of which was book making. I think my favorite kind of book binding that I learned is the Japanese stab book. There are a ton of different stitches and designs you can do and it can be used on a soft or hard cover. This book was actually really cheap to make too. I bought a notebook at Walmart on clearance and cut the front and back cover off. Then I painted each cover white so the weird design wouldn't show through. I cut the matboard covers to the right size and used modgepodge to adhere the decorative paper. I got the paper from the Indian Fall paperpack. (I also got that paper pack on clearance). The inside pages are just printer paper that I cut to the right size.

If I have enough interest I will do I step by step tutorial on how to make this book so if you want me to do one LEAVE A COMMENT. I want to post things my readers are interested in but I have no way of knowing if you don't say something. Pretty please leave me a comment.

A great place to look at handcrafted books is http://katiekennington.com/ she is really great at thinking outside the box when it comes to book designs and she uses a lot of different things to cover her books that you wouldn't...or maybe I...wouldn't think to use.

File Folder Games

This was so much fun to do. Anyone can makes these. They are really cheap to make and it is something you can do as a family. We made these for family night. I got the printable pattern FREE here http://www.filefolderheaven.com Then I just printed the pattern on cardstock and cut out the pieces. I glued the inside pages and then laminated the whole thing. I also laminated the pieces. Then you just pop on some velcrow dots onto the game and the game pieces and bam you've got a game that is fun, education and easy to take with you. We use these in dr. offices and church to keep Austin busy. I've seen kids from 1-8 play with these exact games. Oh and I also put all the pieces in an envelope that I laminated to the back of the file folder. You don't need a fancy folder like these ones either. These were on clearance at Walmart and I couldn't resist.

Purple Scrap Quilt completed

I'm sorry I haven't been posting as much lately. I have been really busy with some other projects I am working on. I just crossed three of my list today so get ready to see some awesome projects. This is the quilt I posted about earlier. I finished hand stitching the binding on. I used flannel for the backing so it would be softer. I really enjoyed working on this quilt. I got most of the fabric from my friend Marlene Seymour. The fabric was really easy to cut out because she is a quilter so it was already cut nice and straight. Thanks Marlene! She is also teaching me how to do paper-piecing so stay tuned to see the table runner I'm working on.

Even More Cake

Yup I have another cake to post pictures of. This cake was ordered for the same party as the Wow Wow Wubzy cake so Amie wanted it to have the same colors. The bottom tier is Chocolate the middle is vanilla and the top is red velvet. I made all the cake from scratch. I iced the cakes with buttercream icing. Then I made my marshmallow fondant and covered each tier. Then I stacked them and piped the embellishments with royal icing. I also made the flower arrangement on the top. I am happy with how it turned out. I think Austin and Jeff are happy I finished it because I didn't really speak to them during the 48 hours I was working on it hard core. It was worth it in my opinion and I'm hoping to get more cake orders in the future.

The cake was straight I just took a bad picture.

More Cake

I made this cake for a one-year-olds birthday. She really loves the Nick Jr. Character Wow Wow Wubzy. I used buttercream icing to frost the cake. Then I made the flowers out of fondant. I also made the Wubzy out of fondant. It was a 

really fun cake to make and Maya loved it.

Cake

This is a practice cake that I made and brought to a Relief Society activity. I think it turned out ok. There are some things I will do differently but that is ok because it was just for practice. One major thing I'll do differently is make sure it doesn't fall over in the car on the way to the event. Yes much to my horror the two tier four level cake fell over in my car. I have to admit, I cried. At least it was still yummy.

Ribbon

I've been wanting to use this ribbon I got on sale for a long time. I just never made a card that it looked nice with. I decided to make a card to go with this ribbon instead of using ribbon that went with my card. I used my 1 in circle punch to cut out the different colored circles. I stamped my sentiment and then tied the fabulous manly ribbon around the card.

Waterfall Card

This is a really neat card. When you pull the string at the bottom it shows different stamped images. It is easier to see in a video but I just took pictures so hopefully you can get the idea. If you go to Clearly Inspired blog link on the right you can see her video tutorial.

Purple Scrap Quilt

I'm working on a quilt right now. You may recognize some of the fabric because I used it on two of my cards recently. I have the top made and the bottom ready. I am using flannel for the bottom to make it extra cozy. I have it pinned and I"m getting ready to free motion quilt it. I just use my regular sewing machine with the darning foot. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

stamping embellishments

I stamped the little flower image and then used a circle punch to cut them out. I had a piece of embossed paper I used to add some texture and I added a ribbon. I also rounded some corners with another paper punch I have. The card didn't take that long to put together. I got the idea from paper craft magazine.

I found a new use for fabric scraps

I was trying to decide if I wanted to work on a quilt or make cards one evening. I couldn't choose so I decided to do both. Let me show you what I mean.

 

I cut the pieces out with scissors and then glued them onto my cardstock. 

It is a simple design but getting the pieces the right size took some time and they were tricky to work with since they were so small.

 

I added some lavender card-stock on the inside and stamped a sentiment. The next card I did is my favorite of the two. Get ready.......

 

 

I cute four strips of fabric. Since they were a little larger, 1x4 inches, I was able to use my rotary cutter. I secured them with white brads.

 

To make the flower I cut several circles by hand and then sewed them together, securing it with a button. I tried to get the fabric to pucker a little in the back to give it more dimension instead of it laying flat.

One more picture

 

Tadaaaaaa....

Blue and Brown

As you can see I used the same color scheme and some of the same paper for all of these cards and I was able to make all the cards look very different. These are the colors in my baby's nursery too. I think brown and blue look handsome together.

 

  

 

Black and White and Pink all over

 

I bought this ribbon when I was making a little girl dress in a sewing class I was taking. I used the ribbon on the hem of the bottom and the sleeves. I haven't gotten to use the dress yet because I have a little boy but I wanted to put the leftover ribbon to good use. I didn't have any paper that I thought went well with it so I just stamped on regular cardstock.The card came together pretty fast once I stamped my image.

I'm walkin on Sunshine

I love this color combination. I think it is just so refreshing. I think Winter lasts too long so this card is one that could brighten someone's day.