RubyMoon Art

Week 6 of Make Do Mondays

2012-01-09T14:06:00.000-06:00

The sixth week of Make Do Mondays, making art from scraps. I actually snagged this focal point item from the floor. My daughter is quite the artist but also quite messy! It was a cheap crappy foam heart sticker. She had markered all over it and it was stuck to the carpet. I salvaged it while vacuuming. I'm very surprised I didn't toss it! I had this gold candy wrapper in my scrap box and covered the heart with it. Then used my staz on ink to stamp the sentiment and flower design. Popped it on some old book pages scraps, added some lace. Now I have this nice ATC which is available for swap or trade.

Creative Courage and Dream Big 2012...I'm signed up, are you?

2012-01-05T19:42:00.001-06:00

It's well into the new year, a time of resolutions, new beginnings and new plans. Many people are offering e-courses and workshops that start this month. I've done a couple in the past and I'm at that crossroads right now where I NEED direction, motivation, courage and education! I splurged on 2 classes/workshops and may possibly be signing up for one more. It's time to see if I can make this work, or time to give up and call it a hobby for my spare time only. The classes I chose were...
Stephanie Levy's ecourse Creative Courage and Traci Bautista's Dream Big 2012. I'm confident they were are both a good investment! I can't wait to get started! There is still time to sign yourself up and I'd love to see you in the "classrooms" :)

Thrive

2012-01-01T22:03:00.001-06:00

My first artwork with my One Little Word

One Little Word for 2012

2011-12-31T23:19:00.015-06:00

Tonight is New Year's Eve, I sit at home with the loves of my life, my children. We watched movies, had cupcakes and ice cream, played wii, made shrinky dinks. It was simple and fun. I also made a list. 40 before 40. Forty things I want to accomplish before I turn 40 (at the end of 2012). Finding 40 obtainable things was quite challenging. I'm not ready to publish my list, but parts shall surface in time. I also chose my One Little Word for 2012, the word I will focus on. THRIVE is my word.
thrive [thrahyv]

orthriv·en [thriv-uhn] Show IPA, thriv·ing.

to prosper; be fortunate or successful.

to grow or develop vigorously; flourish: The children thrived inthe country.

Words that were considered but not chosen were...

Flourish (close! but too over the top)

Succeed (too materialistic)

Success

Triumph (Too victorious)

I am facing a lot of changes in 2012, none will be easy. When I picture Thrive in my head I picture lush gardens, beauty, nature, health, green, survival. Success to me is not money and power, that's not what I am driven by. Success to me is the pursuit of contentment, happiness, and peace. The words in the above definition I am influenced by are the grow and develop vigorously. I need to hit the ground running, failing is not an option. Thrive is my new life goal.

I will be working thrive into my artwork and my daily life and plan to share that with you here. I want my art to thrive as much as my life. Live what you Love. I want my children to thrive. I want my economic situation to thrive, not in terms of acquiring goods or filling a bank account, but in terms of survival. Making ends meet.

I started a Pinterest Board to fill with inspirations if you'd like to follow along.

Happy New Year!
Linking to My Heart Art

Ink Blot Art

2011-12-29T15:55:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year. I can finally reveal my latest art endeavor... Ink blot art! Inspired by the Rorschach psychological test. As you know, I strive to make all my gifts, all year long. I got stuck when it came to my brother. He is a psychologist (or maybe a psychiatrist? I don't know, he's a shrink). I didn't know what in the world I could make that he would appreciate or at least be able to use. I started searching Etsy and saw ink blot tshirts. I thought that's the way I would go. Then I decided to try some ink blot art myself! I decided maybe he could use some original art work for his office at home or work. Here is a sample of what I came up with.

These are all 5x7 original pieces and are now listed in my Etsy Shop. I also made some in 8x10 size and will be listing those in the next few days. I had a lot of fun with this gift and I'm now addicted to creating them. I love the surprise, you just don't know what kind of image you're going to end up with. It's open to the imagination :) What do you see in these?

Make Do Mondays & a winner!

2011-12-21T14:10:00.000-06:00

First off Random.org and I generated a winner of the Sugar Scrub. It's going to Art by Wendy! Thank you for playing along and I hope you enjoy!

I got behind on my Make Do Mondays. This is where I open the scrapbox and make art from my trash. Here is this week's object of making do...

The background started out as a scrap of paper I was cleaning my brush off on. I loved the texture it produced so I kept it! This little angel button (handmade, but not by me) looked like a gnome to me. So I made her a little garden scene. This card is up for swap or trade!
I may not be back before Christmas so I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Child's Art

2011-12-18T20:53:00.000-06:00

I'm a big fan of child artists. It's the purest form of art. Unrefined, and most importantly undefined. Innocent and pure. My daughter is very much into art. She is also very entrepreneurial, a good combination! She wanted to do a craft show with me, so we came up with this idea. I bought her watercolor paper and had her paint a bunch of Christmas cards. She made about 40 of them, but I only let her take the very bestest ones. Meaning they couldn't have smudges and paint blotches all over them. They had to be her best work and not sloppy. Other than that, I don't dare criticize her work! We packaged them up with envelopes and set out to sell some cards at my last show. She sold about half a dozen or so, and some were even to people besides grandma ;) Lots of people made very positive comments about them and the idea. I like to think of it as a learning experience for her. She was very happy with the profit! :) Here are a couple of the ones we brought back home. We are using these leftovers and the ones with imperfections as our family Christmas cards this year.

There is still time to comment for a chance to win a handmade sugar scrub :)

Handmade Gifts & a giveaway!

2011-12-13T21:57:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I make most all of the Christmas gifts I give. I tried a new medium this year. I decided to make sugar scrubs! It's so easy, I'm hooked! There are a ton of recipes online if you want to give it a whirl.

Here is the recipe I concocted
2 cups pure brown sugar (no molasses)
1 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup white sugar
Essential oil to desired scent. I used sweet orange and lemon essential oils. About twice as much orange as lemon for this scent.

I mixed the sugars first. Then measured out the oil and added the essential oils to that. Then mixed together, that's it! Cheap and easy gifts you can make at the last minute! Oh yeah, and they work amazingly well. It leaves your skin feeling so soft and smooth.

What the heck! I made 28 jars of these, I'm giving one away! Leave a comment, that's all that's required, it's the season of giving :)

Where have I been?

2011-12-05T23:00:00.000-06:00

My poor neglected friends! I apologize for my absence. First I hosted Thanksgiving and preparation took up most of my time that week. Then I had a craft show this past weekend I was busy preparing for. Good news, they both went smoothly! The craft show was on Saturday, which we also managed to have our first "real" snow of the season. The roads were terrible but the traffic at the show was amazing anyway! I'm so glad people ventured out to do some shopping. I'll say it was a successful show.
After the show, I've spent today doing a massive shop update. Listing all the new items left over from the weekend.

Just a sampling of the new items :)
Tomorrow I'm going to start working on some new key fobs using vintage supplies. I'm ready for a new look :)
Speaking of new... I'm also branching out to a new creative field this holiday season. I always make most of my gifts, this year I'm gonna try something new. I'm making sugar scrubs! There are tons of recipes online already so I won't bother putting together a tutorial. But I will post pictures of mine. I ordered some jars to put the scrub in and they just arrived! Time to get busy :) I'd love to hear what you are making this year!

Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday sale in my shop!

2011-11-23T22:39:00.001-06:00

Wishing you all a very lovely Thanksgiving tomorrow! I hope everyone can think of tons to be thankful for!
If you read my blog in a reader, you may not have noticed I added a widget in my sidebar for Facebook. I've made a facebook fan page for my Etsy shop! To entice you all to come like my page I've hidden (not to hard to find) a 20% off code there! Hope on over to my page and like me :) Then head over to SewRubyMoon on Etsy and do some relaxing shopping, no crowds, I promise!

Coupon will work thru Nov 30th

Blissful ATC swap for November

2011-11-20T20:59:00.000-06:00

I'm a little late posting this, my apologies to my partner Peggy. Here is the Thankful themed ATC I received from her...

and then then one I sent her...

Just another great month in the Blissful ATC swap!
I probably won't be around much this week. I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the family this year and then the following week I have a craft fair! Busy, Busy...see you soon!

Gifts that Give

2011-11-14T22:00:00.000-06:00

There's still not much going on around here this week. I'm still trying to recover and play catch up from last weeks major cold attack. I have been "pinning" some gift ideas on Pinterest for my holiday shopping. I strive to give only handmade gifts for the holidays. I think it is so much more meaningful. Even if I don't make the gift, at least a real person put effort into the gift. My second choice for gift giving is to buy a gift that includes a charity donation of the proceeds. While pinning, I found a huge amount of artists that do just that! So I can get the both options in one gift! I spent the evening creating this treasury on Etsy highlighting some great Gifts that Give.

Please help out these generous and caring artists. Click, favorite and promote this treasury for them and the more importantly, the charities they support!

I also have this Gifts that Give Pinboard on pinterest which has many more ideas than I could fit on the treasury. It also has non-Etsy items and something for everyone on your list. Feel free to follow this board (or just follow me and I'd love to follow you back). Help me support the true meaning of giving from the heart this year <3

Winners of the Witches Tea Party giveaway!

2011-11-09T19:51:00.001-06:00

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I've been MIA from a not so fun head cold :( Anyway, I wanted to pop in here and announce the winners to the Witches Tea Party Giveaway! I said the more comments the more hats I'd be giving away, so with 28 comments I decided 5 winners would be nice odds :) These hats are hand formed (no mold was used) from paper clay, painted, glittered (1black, 4 graphite) and embellished with a hand dyed ribbon.
Here are the 5 hats going out to new homes...

I used Random.org to generate 5 numbers for me and they are 4, 11, 6, 13 & 14. Those corresponding comments are (images linked)...

And if this one isn't the craziest of odds! I just won her giveaway of the jackpot of stamps! I swear it's not fixed! It's karma in action folks, give and you will receive :) It's only logical that I send her a thank you gift anyway, it just took random.org to make that happen.

Thank you all who visited, played along and those who I added as followers, you are what makes blogging worth it :)

I'm contacting all winners tonight to gather your shipping info and as soon as I find 5 boxes they will be shipped out!

Make Do Mondays

2011-11-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

Another edition of Make do Mondays coming your way. Every week I challenge myself to make an ATC out of scraps, found objects and junk that lands in my scrap box. This ATC I called "Classy" do to the classical elements in the pattern on the black paper, the formality of a tassel and the rich color scheme. Again it's not something that I would call "my style" that's the best part of the challenge!

Jackpot!!!! Whoo Hoo!

2011-11-04T12:10:00.000-05:00

I got the greatest package in the mail this week! I won another blog giveaway! This time I won a big box of rubber stamps from Stef at Ingenious Inkling. She was cleaning out her stash, stuck them in boxes to give away on her blog. This has to be the most generous giveaway I've ever seen :) Look at how many stamps fit in that priority mail box. I could never imagine. I am so thankful for the new toys to play with! I must go get some new inks and something to organize all these :D Fun times ahead for me.
I'm sensing karma in the works here, I gave away my goblin, and won the Blog Guide book poster. I have witches hats up for giveaway now and I won the stamps...hmmm sensing a trend in giving and receiving, must remember this...
Head on over to Ingenious Inklings for some great inspiration and ideas, she's genius!

Witches Tea Party Under a Halloween Moon

2011-10-28T17:45:00.000-05:00

Hello, I'm here this weekend participating in The Witches Tea Party under a Halloween Moon, hosted by Anna of Frosted Petunia's. My post is going to be all about Witches Tea Party inspirations. I've linked as best as I can for all these photo's. I've found some fabulous ideas.

At the end, don't forget to read how you can win a party favor from me!

Let the inspirations begin...

First I went shopping for a special tea pot, something extraordinary of course. Obviously the most important accessory for a tea party.

The next important detail will be setting the scene...

I went with Garden Tea Party inspirations, witches after all, worship nature.

Next I moved on to searching for the details...

Now for the fun part, what to wear!

Since the lovely Anna took care of the invites, all we need to do is gather for the party...

enjoy our time, and hope we don't end up like this!

Thank you all for stopping by, it was a pleasure sharing my inspirations with you! I'd like to contribute a little parting gift, door prize, party favor of sorts. For all of you who leave a comment, I will put your names into my hat and draw for a cute little glittery witches hat made by me!

I will take names for a week or so, giving you all time to mingle through the guest list of blogs. It just takes a comment but of course I'll give extra credit for postings and sharings :) I will give away 1 or MORE depending on how many comments I get! The more comments=more hats given away!

Thanks again, and enjoy the tea party!

One more burst of Pumpkin love... And I won!

2011-10-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

I had the urge to create just a couple more Halloween pieces before the season is over :) I started with this orange and black cuff. I wanted a grungey, goth piece to wear for Halloween that would be a conversation starter. I layered fabrics, ribbons and used black sketch stitching to hold it all together. A button closure secures it on the wrist. I love that the colors are muted and not "in your face" orange and black.

Then I felt like making a couple little gifts for the season. I made these pumpkin pins or brooches from layered, hand dyed fabrics and free motion machine quilting. I simply sketched them as I went! I made a set of 4 and gave one to my mom and the other is on it's way to a lovely bloggy friend ;) I think it's too late to put these in my Etsy store, but if anyone is interested in purchasing one, I can hook you up! I feel pumpkins go through fall and into Thanksgiving. Maybe that's because I'm such a big fan of them?

I must have created good karma by having a giveaway! I won a giveaway, just as mine finished up! The Blog Guide Book is hosting a Pin it and Win it contest and I was their first winner! I get a copy of this poster! YAY!

It will look great in my studio, I'm excited for it to arrive :D

Make Do Mondays

2011-10-24T11:33:00.000-05:00

The third edition of Make do Mondays. This ATC was created using only the scraps in my scrap box, gathered from cleaning my studio, found objects I can't throw away, and items that just don't have a home. I called this one Black and Red. One of the fun parts of this personal challenge is using color schemes I may not otherwise use. I'm forcing myself to use what's in my box, limiting the outside supplies.

This card is up for swap or trade, leave me a comment if you are interested!

And we have a winner!

2011-10-22T12:37:00.000-05:00

The winner of the cute Goulish Goblin is comment #1 Wanda AKA Craftymule! Congratulations Wanda, I will ship this to you as soon as I get your address and find a box :) He can grace your home for the Halloween festivities!

Thank you everyone who played along!

Digital Scrapping and Fall Thankfull ATC's

2011-10-20T22:29:00.000-05:00

Since I've had issues with my photoshop program for the last 5 months, I haven't done ANY scrapping! I finally gave up, downloaded a trial version so I can scrap for at least 30 days before I have to buy it. Can I scrap a whole year worth in 30 days...hmmm? Anyway, I got three pages done today!

Digi kit credits- See Jane Smile collab by Sweet Shoppe

Digi kit credits- Great outdoors from Scrapbook Graphics

I'm working ahead on the November edition of the Blissful ATC swap. The theme is thankful. I dried some leaves from my tree in the backyard and decided I needed to use them. I made a series of 3 Thankful ATC's. I'm not sure yet which one will go to my partner, like I said, I'm ahead of the game :)

And one more day to enter the giveaway!

October Blissful ATC swap

2011-10-19T12:04:00.000-05:00

The theme for October's Blissful ATC swap was Movie Monsters. As usual, it was a challenge, but that's what makes it fun! I'm not into horror movies, I've barely seen any of them. I just didn't know what to do, until I searched monsters in the supply category on Etsy. I thought maybe I'd find a rubber stamp or something... instead I found this collage sheet. My first thought was to cut the squares out of paper to collage, then I decided to take it one step further... I printed it on fabric, cut it out, and free motion quilted it together. This is a horrible picture of it, but maybe if you click it to blow it up you can see the details. This card is on it's way to April Cole my partner for this month.
I liked it so much I decided to make one for myself. This one I got a little braver and did the black stitching around all the pictures, making it darker, creepier.

Here is the Movie Monster my partner April sent me...

She made this cute little popcorn envelope to hold the ATC, great idea to go with the movie theme :)

Inside is this great vintage inspired King Kong ATC. There are great theater references with the curtain and the studio city sign. I just love this scene she's created! Thanks April!

Don't forget to get entered for the Ghoulish Goblin Giveaway!

Make Do Mondays

2011-10-17T21:43:00.001-05:00

I've been out of town and almost missed posting this! It's still Monday for 2 more hours here :)

Here is the 2nd round of Make do Mondays, where I take items from my scrap box and turn them into an ATC. A little challenge I've put myself up to :) In this box are things picked up while cleaning my studio, sometimes a found object will find it's way into there. You know, those interesting thingies you find and don't know where they should go. This week's ATC started with an ATC blank given to me by my friend Bonnie. We did a swap a long while ago and this blank card has been sitting around forever! Time to put it to use I say!

This card is up for trade or swap, anyone interested, just leave me a comment :)

Don't forget, there's still time to enter this giveaway

Friday Fails and a Giveaway!

2011-10-13T22:07:00.001-05:00

I had a good response from my first post on Friday Fails. The day we show and tell our not so successful projects. It's good to laugh at ourselves, knowing that we did TRY and pursue an idea. Sometimes they don't all come out as planned, but the process is learning! Here we can share what we've learned or just laugh at ourselves for the fun of it :D Tomorrow we get back up and try again, or try something else!

This week's fail I'm showing you some cotton yarn I attempted to dye for Halloween use. If you refer back to the Operation Tie Dye post, I had friends spend the day tie dying with me. I added some ribbons, yarn and various fabrics to the dye baths. I wanted to use these dyed objects in some upcoming projects I envisioned. As you can see from the picture the colors are not very vibrant. Especially the black. I was quite disappointed in the black. The orange is usable in the one skein, but even it is pale in the other. I was bummed that it didn't turn out as I had planned, but ended up using these muted colors in some projects anyway. The important thing is, I learned that the dye particles adhere themselves to fibers. Therefore if you are doing a lot of dying, as we were, you need to refresh your dye bath with more dye as you go. The first few sets of shirts we dyed are nice and vibrant. They faded as we got to the bottom of they pile. This yarn was done at the very end, and didn't have enough dye particle left in the water to thoroughly color the yarns. So I lived and learned, that's what's important here! Another failed project under my belt equals more wisdom :)
And I did use the yarn to embellish the spool on this Ghoulish Goblin... Which needs a new home!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

It's been ages since I've had a giveaway on my blog! They're always so fun, I don't know why I don't do it more often! This giveaway is for this little goblin guy I made. He'll get to you just in time for Halloween!

I originally made Mr Goblin for my swap partner Jean in the Matchbox swap. I made the head and hat with paper clay (picture looks like he has a little glitter dust on his face). After he was made, I headed over to her blog to have a look and saw that she makes spool creatures too! I didn't want to give her something like she's making LOL! So you're the lucky peeps who get a chance at having this goblin spend Halloween at your house :D

You know the drill, leave a comment to enter.
I will draw a name on Friday the 21st!
Extra entries will be given for promoting the giveaway, leave comments telling me.

Thanks for playing along and good luck to all!

Kid swap!

2011-10-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

Celia from Adventures of the Striped Stockings contacted me recently to arrange a child to child ATC swap. She has a 10 year old daughter and I a 7 year old. They agreed to make Halloween ATC and tags for each other. Rayna made some, then her friends joined in, then the pesky little brother... Next thing you know we have a large envelope full to send :D Here is the art "my kids" made for Lindsay...

I made these while supervising :)

Lindsay and her friend sent these...

It's fun for the girls to swap "just like mom"! Rayna loves it when I get art packages in the mail and it's even better when they are for her!

Make Do Mondays

2011-10-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

Another new series I'd like to start blogging about here is called "Make Do Mondays" The theme will be to post about projects made with limited items at hand. I plan on making an ATC a week from scraps. I keep a shoe box sized plastic box handy to put scraps of paper, ribbon, odds and ends, pretty much anything I find when cleaning my work table and think it can still be used. For this inaugural post I made this ATC...

All the pieces were in my box, I added an inked border for some interest. I'd like to make this a participatory series. I'm thinking about offering to swap cards with someone each week? Or a giveaway drawn from the comments? What are your thoughts?

Friday Fails

2011-10-07T10:52:00.000-05:00

This is a new series I'd like to start up and I'd hope you would join along. If not on your blog, then maybe in my comments. We all have those great ideas that just go terribly wrong, don't turn out, get messed up by the dog, or you just plain give up on. I think it's time these come out of the trash bin and into the blog world, let's keep it real folks! Not everything we touch turns to art :D It happens, it's life! I like to keep my humor about it and move on to the next project. I think it would be fun to share these disasters... or experiments.
I'm starting out the series with this "great idea I found" on Pinterest.

Source: generationcedar.com via Emma on Pinterest

They look and sound easy enough to make, right? I even had a couple washers on hand (leftover from another failed project). So I gave it a try. My first problem was cutting out the center. I don't have a circle punch that size so I tried to use my exacto knife. Maybe should've changed the blade first...? I don't know, it didn't work smoothly. I moved onward and added the Diamond Glaze. I know this step pretty well because I've made hundreds of scrabble tile pendants. But after I left the scene of the "fail" I woke up to this mess in the morning....

The Diamond Glaze ran off the washer and glued them to the table. Not only do the jagged edges on the inside circle look bad, but the finish is hideous! Oh well, I may try this again, it doesn't take much investment and I know my daughter will like them :)

There you have my debut of the failed projects in the series of Friday Fails. Let's see what you've got!

Halloween Matchbox swap

2011-10-05T21:51:00.001-05:00

I believe this is the final swap posting for the month :) I was paired with Jeannie of I Craft for the Halloween Matchbox swap hosted by Vintage Dragonfly. Her package arrived today and I tried to quickly open it while eating lunch. However, I had to stop eating to take it all in! Everything is so cool! I will show you the pictures now..

This awesome Merry Fairie! by Valerie Sokol. The ribbon is as cool as the fairy :)

Festive Mr. Skeleton ( I saw these in her store and thought they were cool, just in case you want your own :)

A motley crew of skull cupcake toppers...

Here is the matchbox all vintagey altered up! Love that pumpkin image!

Some cool spooky pieces from inside. Love the Halloween bakers twine :)

A few more vintage pieces from inside the box...

Also these super fun Halloween cards!

Not a good picture of this sweet altered bag that the skulls came in. My daughter thinks she gets the bag :)

Love this piece, a altered peat pot with a black cat ensemble...

Close up of the cat... I think he may have had a hat on? I had one floating in the bottom of the box so I'll need to reglue it on. Anyway, I scored well and my studio is all decked out for Halloween!
The items I sent to her are following...

Here is the altered matchbox I made using the same foiling technique I used on this ATC.

Halloween trims and vintage Halloween sequins

An altered scrabble tile pendant

Hand dyed seam binding and cheese cloth in Halloween colors.

Some paper clay figures I decided she could finish altering or glittering...? Her choice!

Boo Bunting banner made from altered tags and seam binding

An altered wooden spoon wand.

A mini altered matchbox with a clay raven on top and it housed the scrabble tile pendant.

This was MY favorite piece, I made a hat and (yes, I made) a broom from paper clay and embellished them. It's a mini assemblege of sorts I guess. It was the first time I used paper clay and I have to say, I'm addicted! It was easy to work with dried nicely (but slowly) and was easy to paint. I will totally be doing more with it.
Anyway, this was another awesome swap and I thank my partner bunches and bunches!

Curiosities Matchbox swap

2011-09-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

I just participated in Speckled Egg's Petite Inspiration Matchbox swap- Curiosities edition. My partners were Donna of Red Apple Junction and Christine of A Work in Progress. Two very talented ladies, I was lucky to be paired with these two! Donna sent this great vintage inspired curiosities matchbox. Love the dark altered feel of the box. Lots of textures with a hint of sparkle. Filled to the brim with antique, vintage treasures. Love the paper flower on the wrapping. Very cool, I really like the crocheted doily and hat pin on the top! What can I say? I love it all!

Stuffed full of curiosities, so very generous!

She made this great ATC and stuck it in the box too, lovely festive colors!

Christine chose a different path for her curiosities theme. She sent a nature inspired package, very Alice-esque in my opinion. Let me show the pictures, then I will explain...

In the package is a photo of Brigitte Meyer and her story. She grew up on a dairy farm and loved to explore nature and made this box to store all her treasures (this is my summarized version, the whole story is quite sweet). I have to say, never have I seen a matchbox looks so fabulous! This is quite a different look, different in a creative, imaginative, good way! Covered in moss and butterflies, somewhere under there is a matchbox, can you believe it? It's there! I'll let you click the pictures for a closer look.

Trinkets and treasures inside the box...

Paper ephemera, I can't believe this all fit!

She also included this lovely muslin bag with some gifties! I love that test tube with buttons, great idea :)

Now for what I sent to these ladies in return. I'll admit, I made 4 boxes. I didn't like how the first ones came out. I got off on a tangent and I don't think they felt "curiosities" enough. So I started re-thinking and decided to go with a more Victorian Steampunk look. I used vintage fabrics and trims and some stamping and inking and came up with this.

I free motion quilted the layers all together and added some vintage buttons for embellishments. I was going for that old world look. I guess I didn't take any pictures of what was inside, you'll have to check out their blogs for that :) Just one of many great swaps this month! Thank you so very much ladies, it was my pleasure swapping with you!

Road trip to the wildlife safari

2011-09-30T11:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday was just one of those days I felt the need to escape. We just needed a change of scenery and to get out of the house. The kids were stir crazy and apparently I was too. I decided to take them to the Wildlife Safari Park. It's only about 30 minutes on the interstate from my house so it's a quick day trip for us! We were there just a year ago but enjoyed it a lot. I really like this type of zoo, the animals are living in conditions much closer to their natural habitats. They have plenty of room to roam and run free, but are still protected, fed and cared for. Here are some pictures from our trip.

As we enter the gate, we are greeted by a heard of elk. This is mating season so they were wading in mud and bugling for us. Last year we witnessed a battle, but this year they were just loud. We did have a couple cross the road right near our car, so we got a close up view! These elk have acres and acres of land to roam. If they want to take off on a sprint they can!

Next we drove thru the wetlands and saw these beautiful pelicans.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and then hiked up to see the bear and wolves. On the hike we passed the first sightings of fall foliage changing colors. Look at that blue sky! It was a perfect day to be out in nature. The bear was out sunning himself on this beautiful morning, enjoying oranges. He looked up to pose for me! We hiked on to the wolves but they had gone in for a nap or something. I guess just 30 minutes earlier all 6 were out for a stroll, but we missed them. They live in a very large fenced in canyon area. They have acres of wooded areas and also some prairie to roam, they also have a creek running thru the canyon. Which means lots of hiding places so us nosy tourist can't see them :)

We continued the hike up to a small lake and wetlands area and here is a picture I snapped of my kids. Actually getting along, hehe. The water was beautiful and dragonflies danced across the water for us. My kids really wanted to see some frogs or other aquatic life up there, but no luck. The water was crystal clear and so beautiful!

After the hike we got back in the car and continued our safari. We drove through the other side of the wetlands and saw a huge flock of geese and these crane or herons? I'm not sure what they are. I'm not even sure if they "live" here or just dropped by for a visit like the geese. Very majestic looking.

At the end of our tour we saw the herd of buffalo. They too have acres and acres to roam. A hillside with shade, a pond and lots of prairie grass area. The herd decided to cross the road right in front of our car! We waited for about 10 minutes for them all to pass safely. They started quite a traffic jam behind us :) It was pretty cool seeing them that close, the kids said they could hear them breathe. Beautiful creatures!
So that was our little Saturday day trip into the "wild" I'm glad my kids can enjoy these activities with me and not be bored :)

Halloween inspired fiber art

2011-09-26T23:03:00.002-05:00

Halloween inspired fiber art, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

While making art for my swaps, I squeezed in this little art quilt piece. 3.5x6.5 inches of hand dyed fiber layers, free motion quilted. This is some of the fabric I dyed on our tie dye day :) It's listed in my sewrubymoon etsy shop now, just in time for Halloween decorating!

Altered Tin Swap

2011-09-24T21:49:00.000-05:00

Both of us have received our tin's in the Halloween tin swap hosted by Bliss Angels. So now we can post about it! Marsha was my partner and she made this totally cool piece!

A spell book and simmering cauldron, she has her mini broom and a real glowing candle stick (in the right corner, sorry you can't see it!). All of this overlooked by the raven on top. The details are amazing, including the tiny hands in the cauldron! A very clever vignette! The back is decorated as well, unfortunately my camera took a blurry picture of it :(

I had a hard time getting my head around a theme for this project. I just didn't know where to go with it. I finally decided on a house theme and then the inspiration flowed. Here is what I made for Marsha...

Front

Inside

inside left detail

Inside right detail

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I'm not sure what happened with my camera. I made the raven and pumpkin out of paper clay. It was my first time using it and I just started making Halloween shapes and went from there. I really like the product, much easier to work with than polymer, in my opinion. The only drawback was it seemed to take forever to dry, but I might be impatient ;)
I really enjoyed the swap, Marsha was a great partner! Up next, I will share my curiosities inspiration boxes...

Operation Tie Dye!

2011-09-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

Last week a few friends and I got together and spent the day tie dying! I had suggested that we make some orange and black shirts for Halloween and then it snowballed from there! We made red and white, which turned out VERY pink. Pink and yellow, pink and white, red and black... it goes on and on. We had 5 colors set up and a TON of shirts! I also tossed in some fabrics and ribbons to play with. Here are a few of our creations...

What a fun way to spend a Thursday afternoon :)

Newly designed bag

2011-09-19T15:22:00.000-05:00

This has been in the works for months now! I kept getting distracted with swaps and other projects. But I've had the vision in my head for quite some time. I wanted to update my signature bag style, nothing drastic, just little design changes. I eliminated the knot in the strap as in this example here...

Now, I've also slimmed the design a bit. The new design is sleeker and stays closer to the hip, great for wearing across the body. The bag still has plenty of room! Here is the updated design...

Kind of hard to tell the changes from the picture so here are the dimensions- The base measures 11x4.5 inches and it's 29 inches from the top of the handle to the base of the bag. I listed it in my Etsy Shop today!

Here is the other project I've been working on. A free motion quilted hanging. I'm stumped on this one though! I don't know how I want to finish the edges? I kind of like them frayed and natural, I think it adds to the texture. But I worry that it doesn't look "finished" to someone else. So it's sitting for a while and I will ponder it...

Blissful ATC swap for September

2011-09-17T19:42:00.000-05:00

This month's theme for the Blissful ATC swap was Industrial. This one stumped me for quite awhile, I really wasn't sure where to go with it. Brainstorming brought thoughts of, factory, concrete, machinery, dirty, grungy, workers, steam, steel, smoke stacks, production, hard... you get the idea. How to incorporate that into art was the problem. I thought about what materials I had on hand around here that would work...ummm...nothing? Then I thought, what about aluminum foil, could that be made to look like steel? Or stainless steel? I played around, unhappy with my choices so I googled for ideas. I came across this artist's videos. I also watched one by a girl who was inspired by the same guy (can't find her video now). So here was the look I needed! Rough, grungy, hard and industrial! I scavenged some pieces of bits and bobs from the garage and my studio, attached them to some heavy cardstock. Mod Podged the foil and started smoothing it out. I didn't have any of the cool paints he used, so I mixed my own burnished brown and drybrushed some highlights with turquoise and bright yellow. I finish coated it with Aleene's Paper Glaze and let it dry for several days. I love how it turned out! I made these other two while I had the supplies out.

The top one is what I sent to my fabulous partner Anna of Frosted Petunias. In return, I got this super cool Captains of Industry ATC and bonus Witch Tag. The ATC is a great tribute to the men of the time. I love the locomotive and the vintage picture at the top! The witch tag is awesome, love that moon face and spiderweb. I think the witch is the prettiest witch ever :) Anna was super generous and creative and I really enjoyed the swap, as usual!

On to the next swap, I am sending my matchboxes for the Petite inspiration curiosities swap. Here is a sneak peek...

I will reveal the ones I receive soon...
Next I'm working on two more swaps and here's what's on my desk for those...

fun stuff! Until next time...

From Sundress to Prairie Skirt

2011-09-12T11:04:00.001-05:00

As the weather is turning cooler here, I've been taking stock on my children's clothing. I'm making a list of what they need for warmer clothes. Of course pants from last year are all too short and some shirts are too. I spent the weekend clearing out my daughter's closet and came upon this cute sundress that no longer fits. She and I both love the fabric but the top is too small in the shoulders. She hated to get rid of it, so I told her I'd try to make something new out of it. I came up with this skirt.

I turned it into a longer length prairie skirt, it looks so cute with her ugg boots!

Here's what I did... This dress happened to be lined so I want to keep the fabrics fastened together. I cut through the top of the dress down the side seam. Here I stuck it under my serger and sewed and cut at the same time! I sewed around the dress right at the top where the empire waistline was. I then folded down the fabric to make a casing for the elastic. Added elastic and viola! The top doesn't have much fabric left to use so it will be tossed. Transformation from too small summer sundress to super hip prairie skirt! It's so nice to get extra use out of outgrown clothing!

A wedding gift

2011-09-08T13:26:00.000-05:00

Remember when I won a bunch of graphics from Graphique? I finally did another project with my winnings. This time I made 2 wedding gifts for upcoming weddings in October. These are flour sack towels and I ironed on the Mrs. and Mr. images. I wish I had a set up for screen printing, but this will have to do for now.

While I had the supplies out, I also made grandparent ones. This Sunday, the 11th is grandparents day! I had my kids make hand prints, scanned them, then printed it out on iron on transfer paper and ironed it on. Again, would've been easier with fabric paint and screen printing, but oh well :)

Now I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather outside!

A gracious gift and a new project in the works...

2011-09-07T10:43:00.000-05:00

My dear friend was out garage saling and came across two big boxes of sewing patterns for FREE! The lady was down sizing and said they just need to go. Jenn knows I'm a seamstress and snatched them up and gave them to me! What a friend I say :) Many of the patterns are very vintage and very cool! I did take the ones from the 80's-present and sent them off to the Goodwill. But I kept all the "good ones" and the vintage ones. I actually rarely use commercial patterns. I have a huge phobia of the onion skin paper, yuck! I know it's weird! But it rips on me all the time, you can't fold it nicely, and they rarely fit! I also just can't follow the directions! I guess I have a left brain syndrome or something. I understand how things are constructed and I get so frustrated when attempting to follow pattern instructions and they do it differently than I would. When I do use patterns, it's usually just to get the basic shapes and then I toss out the directions :D So I'm not sure what I will do with these...? I had to rescue them, but I'm not sure I will use them. I love the vintage designs... hmmmm? What to do...? Does anyone out there have any interest in them?
Now that being said... I have a new project in the works for my wee little fairy muse. She has decided she wants to be "Tangled" for Halloween. Like mother like daughter, she noticed the "official" costume pattern in the store wasn't "just like Rapunzle's" dress. So she wants some changes. I then talked her into making it into a dress she can wear for more than Halloween. I'm making her this dress in lavender and designing a full length skirt that can be removable. We are also making "hair" out of fabric connected to a headband. I will have to show pictures as I get into it. Now she will have a Tangled costume, and a fancy church dress. The best part, I got the fabric, pattern and notions for under $20 at the Labor Day sale Hancocks had, whoo hoo!

What I'm working on Thursday...

2011-09-01T11:48:00.001-05:00

This was supposed to be my "What I'm working on Wednesday" post but I'm running late :) I just ordered these FW Artist inks, I found a big sale on them. I was introduced to them here this project floored me! So amazing! Anyway, I took them out and test drove them on paper and fabric yesterday. I really, really, like them! I love the fluidity of them, they cover like paint but are more like water. I painted on some wet fabric and let it bleed out, so cool! I watered them down and used them like watercolors. They mixed wonderfully. Now I wish I could afford to buy them in every color! Today I'm sketching a project to use them on, I'm so excited! Off to work...

End of Summer fun

2011-08-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

We are now back into school but the dog days of summer haven't ended yet. The girls in the hood decided it was a brilliant idea to have lemonade stands. Rayna talked her daddy into making an "official" lemonade stand for her. He and grandpa used scrap lumber they had on hand and came up with this! I made the sign using my cricut cutter.

They've been having a lot of fun and the neighbor hood has been very supportive of their venture, they've made $21! Thanks dad!

Thinking about Halloween...

2011-08-25T14:03:00.000-05:00

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday! This time of year there are a lot of Halloween swaps going on, I think I've narrowed it down to 2 swaps for me. I have to limit this, it can be addictive ya know! I will be joining the Halloween Tin Swap at Bliss Angels.

and the Matchbox swap hosted by Vintage Dragonfly.

I'm a "regular" with the swaps these ladies host and participate in so I know they will be good! There is still time to sign up for both of these swaps, so head on over and join the fun! I'd love to know what other swaps you will be joining as well, link me up!

New series of Fiber Art Bookmarks

2011-08-24T11:13:00.002-05:00

fiber art bookmarks, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

I just completed another edition of fiber art bookmarks. I chose more fall colors, but keeping them vibrant and cheerful. I've been fiber doodling! I'm so addicted, I love putting pieces together to make a little collage, lots of flowers in this series. I also played with some reds to test the waters for Christmas. Anyway, just wanted to share the fun I've been having with these. I have them listed in my etsy shop if anyone is interested. Tell me what you're working on...

Aug-Artful-bag-ATC swap

2011-08-22T17:00:00.002-05:00

Aug-Artful-bag-ATC swap, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

I wanted to pop in and share what I made for the August Artful Bag ATC swap hosted by Frosted petunias. I used some free motion machine quilting and reverse applique to make a bag to hold the ATC. I'm hoping she can remove the handle and use the bag as a coin purse or something. The ATC has a small linen bag full of flowers. I hand stamped it with the word Bliss and a butterfly and grunged it up a bit. My partner is Wendy of Bliss Angels and this was another wonderful swap!

Mass production...

2011-08-16T15:31:00.002-05:00

Fall Key Fobs, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

Mass production isn't always a bad thing :) My fabric key fobs in fall colors, now listing them in my Etsy shop

Via Flickr:
Key fobs in fall colors, coming soon to my sewrubymoon etsy shop.

Faerie mail and my latest projects

2011-08-11T21:25:00.001-05:00

I joined in again this month with Anna of Frosted Petunia's and her Artful Bag Challenge. This month's challenge was to make an ATC using the "bag" theme. My partner is Wendy of Bliss Angels, we've swapped before and I'm a regular in her Blissful ATC swap. She's a great gal and swapper! Just look at how she spoiled me! Wendy is a faerie extraordinaire, she comes up with the cutest faeries time and time again, I love it! I should've taken a closeup of the purse this faerie is holding! It's made from paper! So delicate and delightful :) And don't those flowers look 3 dimensional?

She didn't stop with the ATC... oh no! I got a gorgeous little faerie shoe! Preciously embellished funky slipper, just as I picture a faerie shoe to look like. Wendy this is so amazing, thank you!

I'm mailing my ATC to her today, so I won't post pictures just yet :)
Meanwhile, I've been working on some cute things for 7 year olds. My daughter and her BFF get together every year to have a "special day" together. We do girly things and basically just let them spend the ENTIRE day together. I always make or buy them matching outfits and they get pictures taken together. This year I made twirl skirts and matching peace sign shirts. They are both into peace signs right now, the loved the outfits!

Silly me, I should've taken this picture at the beginning of the day, when their hair was still fresh for pictures :) Oh well, they're still adorable models!
I also made this coordinating backpack for another friend. I've been making these drawstring backpacks as re-usable gift bags. I make one for each birthday party she's invited to and then put a little gifty inside. Then they can use the backpacks for carrying around necessities, ballet slippers, swim gear, DS's etc... My kids use theirs daily, I hope the other kids find them useful too.

They are pretty easy to make, I can make one in 30 mins or less and it doesn't take much fabric, this one was made with the scraps from the girls outfits.
So that's pretty much what I've been up to this week, countdown until school starts! T-4 days...yay!

Linking to

Blissful ATC swap for August

2011-08-08T22:12:00.000-05:00

After sitting out the July Blissful ATC swap, I was very ready to get back into the swing of it! The August theme was Food. My partner was Donna of Red Apple Junction. She made this gorgeous pear themed ATC.

I love the warm, vintage look she pulled together here. I love this swap! Never disappointed :)

I chose a different look, I had the urge to watercolor. I chose a cupcake and made it nice and girly, pink and purple and don't forget the cherry! I used watercolor paints and pencils and added some sparkle with collage pauge for sprinkles. I'm hoping she likes it :)

It's a watercolor kind of day...

2011-08-03T15:47:00.001-05:00

After being less than impressed with the new Copic Markers I bought.... I decided to return to watercolors. Here are two works in progress... one is a sneak peak for an ATC swap shhhh :)

What are you working on?

What's the big deal about Copic markers anyway?

2011-07-31T11:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've been hearing a lot of people raving about Copic markers. I've heard about their great blending properties and awesome colors and airbrushing look...etc. I decided to give them a shot when I got my Michaels rewards email saying they were 25% off. I jumped in my car and drove the 12 miles to Michaels, they were closed! So the next day, I loaded the kids in the car and headed there again, 12 miles away. Now shopping with my kids is NOT fun. So I went directly to the art supplies with blinders on to keep from getting distracted. The next disappointment was the color and style choice. One style (sketch) and only handful of colors in stock, bummer! But I found 4 that I could maybe work with and headed to check out. Of course I got distracted by my kids and didn't realize they did NOT ring up on sale until I'd drove the 12 miles home, grrrr! I had been clear on the dates of the special, she scanned my card, I don't know what happened but I was not driving back there a third time :(
My seven year old artist daughter was equally excited about trying them out, she even grabbed me the literature flyer by the shelf so we could read about them. She's good like that :) We sat down to doodle and color. I was like, lets try the blending! So we did, it didn't work well at all. It just seemed to be bleeding. I had printed off a couple cupcake shapes to color and like they claim, it did not smear the printer ink! YAY! My intelligent daughter suggested we read the literature about blending. Ah ha! They make a colorless blender pen! However, the store 12 miles away did not have one in stock, in fact, I'm not sure there was even a shelf space for one? They did seem to work well for stamping, but I don't do much stamping. Granted I only tried them out on plain old printer paper, but I don't "get" them. I'm certainly not excited about obtaining any more at $6-8 a pop! I do plan on trying them out on some different surfaces like metal, watercolor paper and whatever else is laying around.
Someone please convince me they're awesome! Or at least neat?
I'm off to re-read this review post, I think it was the most helpful.

I caved in...

2011-07-26T17:06:00.000-05:00

I've been avoiding it, but I finally caved in. I joined Pinterest, all I need is another online addiction! Please follow me on my journey of beautiful images!

How I spent my summer vacation

2011-07-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

I've been so slack in blogging lately, I guess I have a bit of bloggers block. I just don't know what to blog about! Sometimes at night while trying to fall asleep I write blog posts in my head, (anyone else?) then when I find time to sit down to blog I go blank! I just can't think of anything even kind of interesting...sigh. I also get very distracted and short on time during the summer vacation with my kids out of school. For some reason they require a lot of attention...LOL. But I have big plans and lots of motivation for when they return to school! Twenty-one days!
Today I will share some pictures of what has been keeping me busy...

Celebrated the Fourth

Spent a lot of time at the pool swimming and swim lessons

Celebrated a birthday

Had a family water balloon fight

Met some miniature donkeys

Went on vacation

Worked on a nice sized custom order!

Met the newest members of the zoo

Restyled my signature bag!

Sat at many very hot Tball games!

So, you can see I have been busy! I promise to try and be a better blogger :)

Baby girl subway art

2011-07-22T19:19:00.001-05:00

Baby girl subway art, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

I made this subway art for a baby congrats card I'm giving to my neighbor and their new baby girl.

I have a winner!

2011-07-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

Comment number 5 is the winner of my lavender sachet giveaway....

Gretchen is the winner!

Congratulations! I will be contacting you see which one you'd like sent your way! Thanks to everyone who played along!

I won! A new project and a Giveaway!

2011-07-06T13:58:00.000-05:00

So this is my 201st post, it's time for a a giveway! First off, I want to share with you a prize I won recently on The Blog Guidebook's 30 day's of Giveaways. I won the great prize of 50 images from the cool shop Graphique! Here's the description from their shop... "We are so happy to have you stop by. We specialize in old world graphic style digital download images that are done in high quality jpeg or png format for use on burlap, fabric, and just about anything else you can think of." I love this prize! Take a peek at their shop, they have 1200 images! It took me a couple hours to decide which ones I wanted! Totally fabulous! I can think of so many things to use these images for, but my first project was these 4 little lavender sachets.

I used linen fabric and stuffed them with lavender. They will be great to hang in closets, in your car as an air freshener, give as gifts or package tie ons. I'm super excited with how they turned out.

On to the giveaway...

To celebrate my 200th post, I am going to give away one of these sachets...maybe more :)

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment!

Additional chances can be achieved by...

Following me

Mentioning and linking the giveaway on twitter, facebook, your blog etc.

Tell me what you'd use these graphics for

Leave an additional comment for each of these you do to increase your chances.

I will pick a winner on my daughter's birthday July 17th

Good luck everyone :D

Sharing a scrapbook page

2011-07-01T13:48:00.000-05:00

I just realized this is post #200! I'd say it's time for a giveaway, I need to work on that! My July is sooooo busy, I can't keep up! Today I managed to do a scrapbook page layout for Jill, (her kit is on sale and she has a freebie on her blog). This new kit is so cute! It's part of a coordinated series at Scrapdish called Pink Lemonade, you can find Jill's kit here. Great for those girly, summer fresh pages :) Here I scrapped a picture of my daughter and her glasses.

Artful Bag Challenge

2011-06-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

I may not be done with this project but I'm running out of time. Where did June go? I can't believe it's nearly gone! Anyway... Anna over at Frosted Petunias holds a Artful Bag Challenge every month. I've been wanting to play along for some time now and never made the time. I did this month! The challenge was to take an everyday object and alter it to look like a bag. I'm using that literally "look" like a bag :) Mine is probably not all that functional, but I like how the idea turned out.

I used 2 old CD's to create my bag. I have a huge stack of outdated cd's that I just don't know what to do with. I know you're not supposed to toss them to the landfill but I haven't figured out how to recycle them, or reuse them. I took 2 of those cd's and used my cropadile punch to punch holes about 2/3rds the way around. Then I laced fabric strips through the holes and braided the handle. I had plans to dress it up a little more, but since it's almost the end of the month... I'm not sure if I will get to it in time. I will post more if I do get it dressed up!

Bloggerette Garden Party

2011-06-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

The Bloggerette Sorority is hosting a garden party, and you're invited! Grab a cuppa and tour the beautiful gardens across the land...
Here are some pretties that are blooming in my garden. I live in Lincoln, NE so we are a bit behind the southern states. Summer is officially here and the plants are loving the weather!

Peonies are my favorite

So lush and full!

Love that pink!

Another favorite but so short lived

I want to frame some poppy pictures for my living room, they match my sofa!

Wall of roses!

My iris garden

My favorite color

This rose is in my 6 year old daughter's very own flower garden

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit the other gardens on the tour!

Blissful ATC received!

2011-06-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

My lovely swap partner AJ sent me a gorgeous wedding themed ATC! I love that she styled it after her mom's veil, how special!

See more in the Blissful ATC swap pool on Flickr!

Subway art 3 ways...

2011-06-12T14:13:00.002-05:00

I'm so proud of myself for using the subway art ATC in 2 more pieces! It dawned on me only a week ahead of time that I had a wedding shower to attend for my cousin. It didn't even occur to me as I started brainstorming for my June Wedding themed ATC. I try to only give handmade gifts these days, so I took my chances and looked to Etsy for some great gifts. I found two fabulous sellers who had the most perfect gifts! The first store is PeppersAttic I picked out these pretty dish cloths.

They perfectly compliment this bride and groom dish towel from Eye Candy Embroidery.

To this I added a shadowbox framed 5x7 image of my subway art,

some Meyer's dish soap and put it all in a matching mixing bowl. Here is the complete package...

I finished it off with another print of the ATC made into a gift card.

I think it looked so bright and cheery! It worked so well because these 2 sellers I took a chance on were both very prompt and professional in getting these fabulous gifts to me! I send them a million thanks and they will stay in my favorites for future reference! It feels so nice to make some artwork that can be so useful and practical too!

Linking to

Strawberry Patch

2011-06-09T15:44:00.003-05:00

Strawberry Patch, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

I haven't done any digital scrapbooking in a LONG time. I had resigned from all the creative teams I was on except for Jill Dzines. She designs kits at my pace ;) I can keep up with her. Anyway, I really miss scrapping! Jill has a new kit out called Celebrate Summer and it has all the perfect colors and elements for scrapping those summer pages. It's available at Scrapdish and Sunshine Studio Scraps right now, and soon at My Memories.
I hope to back into scrapping on a regular basis and will be sharing those pages here.

Via Flickr:
My daughter at the strawberry patch, picking berries.

Digital kit by Jill Dzines, page mat by M Cato.

Blissfull ATC swap

2011-06-09T11:44:00.000-05:00

This month's theme for the Blissful ATC swap is Weddings. How timely, don't you think? We all have weddings to go to in June! My partner this month is the lovely AJ of Missouri Daze. She and I are practically neighbors LOL! I usually swap with people across the country, not the next state over! Anyway, as I've gotten to know her on her blog, I noticed she is also into digital art. I'm assuming she would appreciate a digital piece as much as I would. I decided instead of the whites and lace that are associated with weddings, I'd mix it up a bit. I've been very intrigued by the Subway Art craze and tried my had at it. Here are some inspirations if you are not familiar with the style.

For Father's Day

Lily Gene has a few examples here

Here is a FAMILY subway art freebie!

I printed and made this Valentine Freebie

So you get the picture...

I also googled what the most popular wedding colors are and turquoise came up. So I used that color for my ATC. And here is the finished piece!

Don't you love it when one piece of art can do multiple jobs? Stay tuned to see what else I used this design for...

Like mother like daughter

2011-06-07T10:42:00.000-05:00

My 6 year old daughter often hangs out in my studio with me. She is really the artist in the family! So creative and so free...sigh. I adore her! She loves it when I sew for her and she loves to create her own paper crafts along side me. She has started to show an interest in sewing and I think I was about her age when my grandma taught me how to run the machine. The other day she decided to make an apron. She went to my scrap pile and found some fleece fabric and started cutting and folding. Then she asked me to sew up the sides for her and add the band to the back. I explained that we need to measure her waist and see how big to make that band. She did the math and cutting. Her waist is 22 inches and her apron piece was 12 inches so her band needed to be 10 inches. I stitched the 4 seams for her but the rest of this design was all her!

She also made a handbag. Again, totally her design (I helped even out some crooked cutting) and I sewed the seams where she told me.

I'm so proud, can you tell :D I'm going to clear my schedule and teach her to sew this summer. My aunt is an avid quilter and is making a quilt design and assembling a kit for us to work on together. I think she will really enjoy it...

Fabric Key fobs

2011-06-05T19:29:00.000-05:00

I mentioned a few posts back that I made key fobs for the Sunday School teachers appreciation gifts. I didn't get those photographed, but I did make some more! I bought the hardware for 10, knowing I would want one for myself as well as the teacher gifts. They are kind of addictive to make so I guess I should order more hardware! These will be going into my shop in the next few days. Speaking of shop... I am doing a pretty big shop update this week. I've added several lavender eye masks and pin cushions, as well as the soon to be listed key fobs.

I really enjoyed making these! I started with this 5 in some of my more popular prints. They make great gifts for graduation, teacher thanks and the likes. If you'd like to purchase one before I get them listed just email me. They will be $5 and $1.50 shipping.
I considered doing a tutorial for how to make them, but once I Googled it, there are plenty out there :)
My newest invention are these bookmarks. I'm not sure how to describe them and I'm open to suggestions!

They are collage meets fabric, meets machine quilting... I just don't know, but I think I like them. I was just messing around with some scraps one day while talking on the phone, a form of doodling I guess? I came up with this technique and just ran with it. I'm not sure if they would sell if I listed them? Any ideas? They are layers of fabric with collaged like assembly, they lie flat so they won't break a book spine. I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

A little gift

2011-06-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

I realized I never got around to highlighting some little hostess gifties that were sent in with the buntings for the Spring Bunting Swap. I need to do that and shout out a sincere thank you! Here is the first special piece, a Bunting Faerie! From the Bliss Angels faerie Wendy! Isn't she charming? A gracious thank you to Wendy!

I will be back with more later!

And I'm back!

2011-06-02T14:29:00.000-05:00

Did you miss me? hehe. I missed you guy, and your blogs! My computer is finally fixed, why does it take so long? They determined it was not worth fixing, I blew out my hard drive and main board somehow. I have no idea what happened. It worked at night, went to bed, broken in the morning. So after they looked at it for a couple days I got a new one. Then had to spend DAYS setting it up. Re-installing hardware and software, restoring my files. Luckily I learned a few computer crashes ago to BACKUP! I use Carbonite to automatically back my stuff up. It took a few days but sooooo worth it! I also decided to get a new router and that took a week to get here, then I needed a wireless converter which also took time...blah blah... In the end I am back in business! I have 588 unread blogs in my Google Reader HA! Sorry, but I don't think I will make it through all of those LOL!
So it's officially summer vacation for my kiddo's. We have been going to parks and getting out as much as we can before the real heat of July kicks in. In one of my last entries, I mentioned I would share the end of the year teacher gifts with you. Well, I managed to forget to take pictures! Oooops! However, I can share with you the gifts I bought. I got this one from Etsy seller CambriRae. I very much enjoyed my shopping experience with her. She even customized the type on the page clip! The teachers loved the gift!

I also made some of the teachers fabric key fobs. I didn't take any pictures but I'm sure to make some more, it was a fast and easy gift!
Next up, I need to post about the Blissful ATC swap for May. The theme was "Let's go to the movies" and my partner was Tina. She is a bigtime movie buff. Her ATC was a timely tribute to Elizabeth Taylor. What a great way to honor her, with art! This is more than an ATC, it has pieces! I love it so much.

Inside the card is this lovely fold out folio with tributes to a sampling of Liz's movie career, along with some movie tickets. This is so original and a great addition to my collection! Tina was also very generous with her gifties! She sent me some movie snacks (which I gobbled up at the garage sale I was having the day they arrived hehe) and this gorgeous potholder! It's a bag of popcorn! Again, so original! It's still hanging in my studio, I'm not ready to use it :)

Well, that's enough catching up for now. I promise to be back soon!

Unplanned break from blogging...

2011-05-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

My computer has crashed, I will be away from the blog until it gets repaired. Then I will catch up! I am checking emails on my phone so I can be contacted :)

be back soon... I hope!

Pictures were found!

2011-05-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

I found the pictures of Carolyn's bunting!

A surprise for a blogger friend :)

2011-05-13T15:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, I started this post like 3 days ago! My life is chaos right now, ugh! I've started a different shift and position at my job and it's throwing life into a tailspin. I'm such a creature of habit and I can't get back into a routine. I have done some crafting and I've spent a lot of time working in the yard.
Thank you all for the sweet comments and emails about the Spring Bunting Swap, I'm glad you all liked the finished products. Several of you swappers included some generous gifts and supplies in your packages and they were greatly appreciated. In fact, I had this great idea. Since Carolyn's bunting was lost in the mail, I thought I'd use those supplies to make her a bunting. I felt so bad that she didn't get anything in return for her work. So I put your gifties to good use and added some of my own and made another 5 flags :) It was fun and I had so much inspiration after seeing everyone's work. I mailed it to her last Friday so she should be getting it any day now. I took pictures of it I swear! However, they have gone missing on my hard drive, or else I took pics without the card in the camera LOL. Anyway, I hope she'll share pictures when she gets it, then you can see your items put to use. I'm so glad I made the decision to make her one too, because just two days after I sent it, her's arrived! It took over a month to cross the ocean and her package was really beat up, but the bunting is in perfect condition! She told me to keep it for myself so I think I will hang it in my daughter's room, the colors are perfect.
In other news, I've been working on some teacher gifts, I will take pictures when they are finished. I also mailed off the May Blissful ATC to my partner Tina. The theme was "Let's go to the Movies" and I chose to make mine Moulin Rouge themed.

I hope she likes it, we had discussed favorite movies and I didn't end up using any of her suggestions. This one just spoke to me :) I think that about catches me up from my extended absence. Hopefully I will be back on schedule here soon!

Spring Bunting Swap is complete!

2011-04-28T23:17:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to day that the Spring Bunting Swap is complete, I sent out the buntings on Wednesday! They should be arriving at their destinations shortly :) I have to declare my first swap (as a host) a success. There was the unfortunate incident with Carolyn's buntings being lost in route, or else just floating across the big pond from UK. I feel so bad that they didn't make it. I know neither of us have any control over the postal services but it's still a bummer. Anyway, I can't dwell on the disappointment. Everyone produced beautiful work and it all looked so lovely together. I tried so hard to not send anyone their own back to them, and to give them 5 pieces from 5 different artists, I hope I did it ok! I realized as I took this picture that I have 2 pieces from the same person, which I don't mind at all but I hope that doesn't mean someone else's is goofed up...
Here is mine, don't look at my dusty fireplace ;)

I have close ups in the flickr group. So a big thank you to all the wonderful ladies who participated and made this a success! I shall be hosting again sometime :)

I received my ATC from Kimberly at Art Joy Stuff. She hosts a weekly ATC trade and this is the one she sent me! I love it! It's totally my style, thank you, I hope to trade again sometime.

So tomorrow the kids are out of school for a teacher planning day, I'm hoping to head to the zoo for the first time this season. Hoping for good weather! Have a great weekend everyone!

Spring Wand Swap

2011-04-22T14:31:00.001-05:00

As mentioned, I had the pleasure of being part of the Spring Wand Swap hosted by Wendy at Bliss Angels. My sweet partner was Joanne at Vintage Dragonfly. She was an amazing swap partner! Look what that fairy girl sent me!

It's so beautiful, I'm a lucky girl. If you can see it in the closeup, that is a frozen Charlotte with butterfly fairy wings and a gold crown. It's so delicate, feminine and magical. I can't say enough about it, the pictures don't do it justice! Thank you Joanne for a great swap!

Now that she has received her wand, I can post what I sent her...

Somewhere along the way I stumbled upon an altered spoon and thought, what a unique idea. I gave it my shot. I glued vintage buttons to the spoon and covered in glass glitter, layered with vintage lace, and crepe paper. The ribbons are tea stained vintage seam binding and a little button and bead embellishment. I was happy how it turned out and it was pretty fun seeing all the wand variations. I will be making more!
Thank you Joanne and Wendy for another great swap!

Fiber Art ATC

2011-04-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Kim over at Art Joy Stuff hosts a weekly ATC trade. I've been eying it for a few weeks now and just HAD to join this week! I still had one little scrap left from the fabric I embellished for my needle book and the cuff. I can't toss out that tiny piece! I wanted to make it into an ATC but had been stuck on where to go with it. I had been auditioning different looks and embellishments and finally just set is aside. Then I saw on Kim's blog that this week's theme was LACE perfect! I got out that scrap and had a mission! Here is what I sent off to her this morning. Thanks Kim for letting me trade with you, I hope you like it!

Steampunk ATCs

2011-04-19T23:26:00.000-05:00

The Blissfull ATC swap had Steampunk as the theme for April. This was a good challenge for me, not my usual style, but still very interesting to investigate. My swap partner was Cindy, she sent me this cutie of a sailor. A great example of the steam driven time period meets fantasy genre. I love that background and that rope embellishment is perfect! Thanks Cindy!

This is the one I sent her

I had been wanting to try metal stamping since the beginning of the year. I found a good deal on a stamp set and thought it might fit into this theme pretty good. It was a lot harder to accomplish than I thought, maybe there are "softer" washers out there? Oh well, I'll keep experimenting. Anyone have any helpful hints?

Great start Monday!

2011-04-18T23:24:00.001-05:00

My muse is singing in my ear! I'm on a roll, I don't want to stop to sleep or eat LOL! Today I came up with a great idea that I'm not ready to share yet. I made a prototype for the design and pattern and it all came together effortlessly...sigh...love it! I still have some design issues and supply issues to work out but I can say that this is an original idea, there are NONE on Etsy! I can't wait to get some made and listed.
Ok, enough secrecy :D What I can share is another project I've had on the back burner for awhile. Back when I made the needle book, I had some left over quilted fabric. I knew right away I wanted to make a fiber art cuff. They are so popular right now! It finally all came together for me today and this is how it turned out.

This will be hitting my Etsy shop soon, I think I can part with it... but it will be hard. I love how it turned out! I'm excited for tomorrow, I have a 4 hour time block set aside for studio time! What should I make... :D

A sew very productive week!

2011-04-16T19:36:00.001-05:00

I was super productive this week, I'm not sure what got into me! My kids each had a birthday party to attend this weekend. The party my son went to was for two brothers a year apart. I like to make my gifts and boys can be tricky! I made re-usable gift bags for them and then store bought a small gift to go inside. The bags are my drawstring backpack design. I put each boy's initial on the bag. The bags are a huge hit with the kids, they love carrying their treasures in them... DS, ipod, snacks. Here are the boys bags.

My daughter also wanted me to make a gift bag for her friend.

My other project was making plastic bag holders. I stumbled on some vintage flour sack towels a year or two ago. I couldn't pass them up, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them. I finally got an idea in my head and it worked out wonderfully! I made them into plastic bag holders, you know, those fabric tubes you hold all your grocery sacks in. They are the perfect size and look so good in the kitchen! The towels have a natural aged patina to them and are so gorgeous! I listed them in my Etsy shop. Here's how they turned out.

Sorry my pictures are so bad, it was a crappy weather week, too much rain and clouds.
The third project is still a surprise! I finished up my wand for the Spring Wand swap over at Bliss Angels. I'm mailing to Joanne on Monday so I can't post pictures yet. But I will say, I'm pretty excited about how it turned out! It will be hard to let it go... hehe. Luckily, I get a fabulous one in return!

Last 2 pieces

2011-04-12T09:20:00.001-05:00

Spring Bunting Swap, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

Via Flickr:
The final 2 pieces for the Spring Bunting swap. I used vintage embroidered pillowcases that were ripped and/or stained. I used free motion machine quilting to quilt them and trimmed with vintage trims.

I couldn't get a great picture of the quilting so you'll have to use your imagination :)

Where did the time go?

2011-04-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

I guess I haven't had much to say lately huh? LOL! I've started receiving the packages of buntings from the Spring Bunting swap. I'm trying very hard not to open them until they all get here! Yikes! I don't think I'm gonna make it :) The pictures I'm seeing on the Flickr group are fabulous! I ordered 30 yards of some pretty velvet ribbon to use for stringing the buntings together. I picked out these great spring colors. I'm so loving the combination :)

In other news... I joined Wendy's Spring Wand Swap! Who doesn't need a magic fairy wand? I'm super excited about this swap.

I've made some wands before but they were more for little princesses. These should be much more grown up, don't ya think hehe :)

I went on a search for some inspiration and I couldn't stop looking! There are some great ideas out there. How I will decide what ONE wand to make I don't know. My favorite is #2, I love the fibers!

1. Vintage Wallpaper Fairy Wand I, 2. My Magic Wands :0), 3. Talia's Magic Wand!, 4. Emergency Wand stash, 5. wand swap 3, 6. Mermaid/Fairy Wand

My swap partner is Joanne at Vintage Dragonfly. She just hosted the Spring Tag Book swap I participated in, so we'll have some more fun in this swap! Wendy was super creative and gave all swappers a fairy name, so awesome! I'm Gossamer Corndancer and I'm swapping with Bindweed Rainbowfilter. How cute are we? Good times to come!

Spring Bunting swap sneak peek

2011-03-31T13:12:00.001-05:00

I'm posting a little teaser for the Spring Bunting swap. Here are 3 out of my 5 flags for the bunting. Others are posting teasers too, so hop on over and take a peek! This list of participants is on this post and we have added another member (Patty) to the list.

The other 2 I'm going to do some free motion quilting on fabric, I believe...still working on the plans.
Over spring break, the kids and I worked on a spring project inspired by a fellow blogger. Sew Many Ways had posted about making a bird nesting materials holder. Hang it in a tree to help the birds find the things they use to build nests. Here is our slightly different version. It was cheaper and easier to just buy a suet feeder than to buy and make the pouch she made. We gathered our stuff from around my craft room and added some dead plant leaves as well. Here is our finished piece!

It's fun to watch the birds poking around choosing their items :)

Swap Check in!

2011-03-28T14:27:00.001-05:00

It's official! I have our list of Spring Bunting swap participants and it looks like it will be an amazing group! If you are not on this list but wanted to join, let me know asap! I'm hoping I haven't missed anyone!

So go ahead and mingle around and get to know one another! You all have such lovely blogs and do such great work. I'm very excited to see the outcome!

Needle Book project

2011-03-24T23:28:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I have been working on a needle book. I personally have WAY too many needles but I do need a nice place to store them. I started admiring the work of others on Etsy and flickr and became obsessed with making my own version. Since I've also been dabbling in free motion machine quilting, I decided that was the medium to pursue. This 5x7 creation is what I ended up with! I've been very excited about the whole project and I'm even happier with the outcome. I see more projects like this in my future...

Made with muslin, wool felt, vintage lace pieces, vintage seam binding.

Time to check in

2011-03-23T21:43:00.000-05:00

Gosh, where does the time go? We are on spring break here this week and my kiddo's have been sick :( You'd think I'd have time to do the things I'd like to do at home, since we can't be out running around having fun. But I'm having problems getting things accomplished. I have been working on a project that I'm super excited about. I'm making a needle book, for my sewing needles. I've been adoring them around Etsy. I've been practicing and studying free motion machine quilting and that's the medium I'm using to make my book. I will post pictures soon, it's almost done :)
I received my way cool ATC from the March Blissful ATC Swap. My partner was Angela and I LOVE what she did, the texture is so amazing. She used an image transfer technique that I must try! She was kind enough to send me the process in a note with the ATC.

And of course this month has been a favorite since I LOVE dragonflies :) Everyone's work looks awesome in the Flickr group, have a look.
Lastly, I want to confirm those that have signed up for the Spring Bunting Swap. I have sent emails to all that I have signed up so far. If you have not heard from me, please let me know! You may have gone to spam or lost in cyber space. I'm taking sign ups for a few more days...

Spoiler Alert! Blissful ATC swap March

2011-03-17T23:36:00.002-05:00

Blissful ATC swap March, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

Happy St Patty's Day!

2011-03-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

I'm still here! I got side tracked concentrating on a craft show for last weekend. It's done! It was ok, not the best and not the worse... My art for the week has been tie dye! I wanted to make my kids something different for St Patrick's day. I came up with green tie dye tshirts. I ended up making one for me, the man and a couple friends from work. It was pretty fun and really interesting to research :) I'm also working on my March ATC for the Blissful ATC swap. Need to take pix and mail it tomorrow so I'll be back soon!

Spring Bunting swap

2011-03-08T23:22:00.001-06:00

Hello there! I'm still around, just been busy getting ready for a major craft show this weekend...ugh! Anyway, I wanted to stop in here and make this big announcement :D

I've decided it's time for me to host a swap. I've been so lucky to take part in such great swaps over the years, it's time I give back and do the "hard part"... host a swap. I was on the treadmill today and came up with a great idea! At least I hope you agree it's a great idea LOL! I made this bunting/banner for Valentines Day that says CUPID. I used vintage flocked wallpaper, ric rac, crepe paper and some glittered chip board letters. I'm super into buntings right now and I thought it would be fun to do a swap with them!

Here's how it will work. Each participant will make 5 triangles, send them to me, I will mix them up, arrange them all into buntings and then send them back to you. Your pieces will be mixed with the other pieces and we'd all end up with a bunting that includes artwork from around the globe! Looking at the time line I'd like to have these back to you in time for May Day (May 1). Create with spring in mind, just think spring colors, themes, bright, cheerful. I will take sign ups until 3/25 (or until full), mail the completed pieces to me on 4/11 (I want them here by the 15th) I will assemble and return to you by May 1st.

To sign up, send an email to amypytlik@yahoo.com. Include your name, address, blog/shop address and any info you'd like to include about yourself.
Make 5 flags, alter or embellish them as you wish, be creative, (please don't just cut out a piece of scrapbook paper or fabric and call it good) add your touch to each one, make it you!
Anything goes for your theme, any medium... paper, fabric, altered, digital, painting, drawing, collage, mixed media, sewing, crochet, knit...I will email you a pattern to use so they are all approximately the same size.
You can make 5 of the same or 5 completely different flags, your choice.
Please sign and put your contact information on the back of each piece! Everyone likes to know where their art came from :)
Join this flickr group to post pictures of your finished pieces or join just to watch what everyone is doing, even if you're not participating.
On April 11th mail your pieces to me, include a return address label and return shipping payment, $6 US, $7 Canada & $9 int'l by paypal.
Post this on your blog to spread the word and invite your friends to join in.

I cannot tell you how much I love swaps! They help me in so many ways, not only do I get great art and get to meet new friends, they also help me creatively. They give me a theme or direction, a deadline, a challenge, the chance to experiment with new ideas or mediums. Swaps are always what I turn to when I'm in a rut, I really rely on them. That's why I think it's my turn to host a swap and pay back all I have received so far. I hope at least 4 of you will join me :)
And last but not least... I'll leave you with some inspiration I found on flickr, great stuff!

Thinking Spring Tag Book swap...spoiler alert!

2011-02-28T13:40:00.001-06:00

I've been busy making spring themed tags for the "Thinking Spring Tag Book Swap" being hosted by Joanne at Vintage Dragonfly. When I think of spring I think of all my flowers coming back to life. I'm an avid gardener and winter tends to get me down. I can't wait for spring and see everything back in technicolor! I love the green grass and new plants popping through the muddy ground. Then the beauty that follows the warmer weather...flowers! The icing on the cake! So I chose to make my 10 tags represent the flowers of the spring. I used some different techniques (different to me anyway). I taught myself how to make flowers with ric rac and ribbons, the fabric yo-yo's and organza flowers I've made before. I started with water color paper and chose a springy colored painted background. I found it a tad dull, so I used Collage Pauge with sparkles to seal them and brighten up the colors. Then I went to work forming my flowers. In the end I still felt it needed something... I tend to "need" a visual boarder around my work (ATC's, collage, scrapbook pages, tags...) I didn't think glitter was quite right, nor inking. I finally decided on a stitched boarder! It really pulled it all together.

I'm so excited to see what everyone else came up with! A big thank you goes out to Joanne for hosting, making the covers and assembling the books. I know that's a lot of work, but it's going to cure spring fever for me :D

How to do a Rolled Hem on Sewing Machine

2011-02-23T13:26:00.000-06:00

I love YouTube! Look what I learned today! My life just got easier, I'm off to practice :)

ATC swap with Misty and her daughter

2011-02-15T16:36:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, we had some LOVE mail! My daughter and I were paired up with Misty and her daughter. We got this lovely package in the mail, right on Valentines Day, what a treat! Along with our ATC cards, we also received this cute cute valentine card. It's a pop up, how creative! My daughter loves it and claims it for her room.

This is the cute butterfly ATC that Rubes made for my daughter. They were a quite a good pair! Rubes sent a letter to Jade and told her about herself and they have lots in common :) Including butterfly love...

And here is the great ATC I got from mom Misty! I'm so into bunting/banners right now, how appropriate! I love it. The delicate inking and stitching, really makes this piece special!

As an additional bonus... they gifted these extra heart punches! How cool, they will help jump start many more projects for us :) Can't wait to play! Thanks girls, we love it all!

And...we're back!

2011-02-14T13:37:00.000-06:00

Whew, what a month it's been. Back to back illnesses, yuck! But we're all back to health and happiness. Just in time for the February Blissful ATC swap, and this month with a bonus... the kids joined in :) Wendy organized a kid to kid swap, brilliant idea! My daughter had a blast making ATC's with me. It also helped pass the time when she was feeling icky and filled up a couple snow days too. We made a bunch of ATC's and these are the ones we chose to send off to our partners. I will keep it a secret of who is getting which ATC. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten them mailed yet, so we'll keep that part a surprise :)

There they are! We got a package in the mail today from one of our partners and I'm waiting for her to get home from school to open it. I will post pictures tomorrow! Until then, have a Happy Valentines Day, full of chocolate :D

Valentine's Teacher Gifts

2011-01-29T11:26:00.001-06:00

Thought I'd share a little "how to" on what I made for the kids teachers. I didn't do anything for Christmas because our school encourages us to "give" to the food bank back pack program for kids instead of the teachers. I think that's so awesome! But I want to remember the teachers in some small way so why not Valentines? I made these decorated clothes pin clips.

Here's my simple little how to in case you don't know how easy it is to dress these up. First you find some scrapbook paper, clothes pins, exacto knife, Mod Podge, ink pad, sanding sponge, strong glue, buttons and optional button magnets.
The first step is to spread Mod Podge on the back side of the paper. Then you cover your clothes pin with a coat and lay them on top of the coated paper. Once dry, take your exacto knife and cut around the clothes pins. Then sand the edges, ink the edges and make sure it dries at least overnight or it will smudge. Put on a top coat of Mod Podge and let dry. Next I added the button magnets to the back. Then topped off with a button embellishment. I made the card I attached them to in Photoshop, but you could hand make one as well.

Teachers can use these all over their classrooms or at home. I use them as chip clips too, therefore skipping the magnet.

What are you making for Valentine's?

Thinking Spring Tag Book swap!

2011-01-26T13:28:00.000-06:00

I'm a follower of the beautiful blog Vintage Dragonfly, and not just because it has the word dragonfly in it ;) If you don't know, I am obsessed with dragaonflies and have them tattoo'd in various places of my body... but anyway. Joanne has a wonderful since of style and art and she's hosting a swap! I haven't done a swap for awhile and it's always such a great way to get inspired. I'm ready for spring myself and looking forward to getting started on my tags! Looks like there's still time to sign up, so head on over there and get your name in! Let's make spring get here a little faster :D

January Blissful ATC swap

2011-01-24T16:19:00.001-06:00

Hello friends! Just stopping in here today to show off the gorgeous ATC I got all the way from Canada. Marlene made this beauty for the Jan Blissful ATC swap. The snow texture on this is so beautiful! Amazing! And guess what? She doesn't have a blog! We need to convince her to give it a try :)

Besides being so talented, she's also very generous! She sent me not just this ATC but TWO others!

It was a great swap :D

Now here's a little glimpse of some new items going into my shop, my newest obsession! Fabric flowers. These beauties have been on my to do list for quite some time now, finally getting to them. I'm so sad I waited this long! I've made a few dozen of them and have more colors to add to the collection.

So that's what I've been up to this week, tell me what you've made!

With Love ATC

2011-01-20T14:23:00.001-06:00

With Love ATC, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

Just stopping in to show what I've been up to. I've been experimenting some more with free motion machine quilting. This is the favorite piece I've made. I may use it for the swap...or just make some more :)

Hooded Bath towel tutorial!

2011-01-11T14:37:00.000-06:00

Hello and welcome to my first tutorial on this blog! I've been talking and talking about it and now it's time to get this thing published! We are going to learn to make a hooded bath towel, my version. I'm kind of picky about my hooded towels, I don't like a floppy hood. I've made these for my own kids as babies and they are still using the same ones 5-6 years late. This more fitted hood makes it more versatile. It fits newborns and older kids. My version is slightly different from other tutorials on the subject. So here is my take...

What you need:

1 hand towel

2 bath towels

Ruler or straight edge

Scissors or Rotary cutter and mat

sewing machine

This will make TWO finished towels and the option to toss in a bonus piece, which makes a very generous shower gift!

We are going to start with the hand towel. Fold the edges into a triangle as shown below. Over lapping the selvage edge of the towel for future seam allowance. This will tell you where you are going to make your cut.

Once they are folded, place your ruler about 1 inch lower than the towel edges, this will allow for seam allowance.

Cut following the ruler.

Next we are going to repeat that process for the other edge of the towel. Move to the left edge and fold them into a triangle as shown below.

Again, line the ruler up parallel to the edge and allow a 1 inch seam allowance.

Cut, following the ruler. Don't throw out the middle piece, we can make a burp cloth out of it! (more to come)

Take the piece we just cut, open up the folds so it lays flat. Making sure to have the right sides of the fabric facing up. We want to refold it, this time putting the raw edges together into the triangle shape. Leaving the selvage edge of the towel alone.

Should look like this.

Move to the sewing machine, we are going to stitch that triangle shut following the pinned edge.

Refold so the pins are on the right side and ready to stitch.

Stitch from end to end.

Then refold into the triangle shape, next we are going to take care of those raw edges so they don't fray and ravel away. Stitch them down to the single layer of the towel. You will barely see a top stitching on the right side of the hood when complete, but it will keep those edges intact.

.
Here is where you stitch

About half way in the seam allowance. Go as close as you can to the "point" of the hood, you won't make it all the way in but close enough.

When you've done both sides, it will look like this. Turn right side out.

It's time to embellish! For this one I just chose an ivory eyelet to sew along the edge, simple enough to pin in place and stitch. You can get pretty creative here but I'll leave that for another tutorial, ruffles, lace, ribbons, fabric strips...you name it, embellish it!

Next move to the bath towel. Fold in half, matching the short edges to find your center point

and mark it with a pin.

Unfold the towel, wrong side up.

Take your embellished hood and line up the center seam with the pin marked center on the bath towel.

Overlap the seam allowance and pin in place.

The final step is to just stitch the hood to the towel. I usually double stitch it, following close to the the selvage edge of the hand towel and then close to the edge of the bath towel. So the 2 seams are about 1/2 and inch apart and parallel to each other. See next picture

Click to enlarge.

Now you're finished. Repeat steps for the second towel and present as the best baby gift ever!

Since waste make haste... We don't want to toss out that center piece we cut from the hand towel. You can straight stitch or serge the edges and use as a cleaning rag, or make it cuter and use as a burp cloth. I like to reuse everything, so I'm using the back side of a Tshirt that was damaged on the front. I've cut it so it lays flat.

Take the center leftover piece and lay on top of the tshirt. Cut the Tshirt to the same size as the leftover piece as shown in the pictures.

Now this is my last picture because the rest were "corrupt" what ever that means, but I think you can figure the rest out. Here you have options. If you have a serger, just stitch all four edges together and call it good. If you don't, then you can straight stitch around three edges and leave one open to turn the pieces right side out. Then stitch the 4th side shut. Follow with a top stitching around the perimeter for a finished piece.

Thank you for following along! I hope you found this helpful, I'd answer questions and try to clarify anything if you need help. I'm glad I finally took the time to share my version of the hooded towel with you. I've used so many tutorials on blogs and feel it's time to give back. I used to sell some tutorials on ebay back in the day. I may get those out and repost them here to share as well :)

Two Treasuries to share

2011-01-10T12:58:00.000-06:00

I have the privlege being selected for two treasuries! They are so pretty I just had to share :)
My altered snowman is featured in this Snow Day treasury by Fine and Funky Jewelry. Good timing as it is a snow day here!

The second one is this super cute Red Gingham treasury, so classic, I love it! This one was creatively put together by Lynchgirl and features by gingham tomato pin cushion!

As always, it's such an honor to have your pieces selected by fellow Etsians, thank you!

Happy Birthday dear Carolyn!

2011-01-06T23:04:00.000-06:00

My dear friend Carolyn is having a birthday today! We don't need to know what number she's on, it's so unimportant! The details we do need to know are as follows... She's having a cyber beach party and I was invited! Yay me! Carolyn throws the BEST parties! You see I know this because we've been blog friends from way back when we just started blogging. She's quite the blogger and crafter, she's also celebrating her 500th post! So stop on over there and give her some praise.

The invitation states that I am to show my dream outfit, date and what I virtually gift to her...how fun. I LOVE cyber window shopping! So here we go.. (all images linked to the items and of course I shopped on ETSY!)

My outfit is this gorgeous skirt...

(I really WANT/NEED this skirt)

worn over this amazing swim suit...

with these hand made sandals...That's my simple outfit

Her gift is this cool "C" basket stuffed with Magpie items :)

This cute Tshirt

paired with this cute necklace

The creative type like Carolyn always needs a journal on hand to jot important ideas, sketches and of course day dreams...

I'm also including the beautiful Magpie print for her wall. I hope she likes my gifts :)

I was also supposed to include my dream date, well this mama needs a break and I headed to the beach party flying solo! No one to entertain but myself, I get to mingle and relax the entire time :) I think I'll find a nice quiet hammock to crash on after the party...

But until then, I'm off to mingle and enjoy myself. Lovely party Carolyn, wishing you the happiest of birthdays!

White Wonderland

2011-01-06T16:35:00.001-06:00

White Wonderland, originally uploaded by amypytlik.

I got my ATC done early this month! I was really struggling with ideas too. I didn't know where to take this month's theme. I ended up being inspired by the supplies. I searched through my stash looking for white and then it hit me! I had this ivory velvet ribbon that I scalloped the edges and then decided to print Wonderland on it, it only took 3 tries to get it to work LOL! I got the paper from a previous swap partner and I sprayed some glimmer mist on the paper flowers to add some shimmer. Viola! I love how it turned out and I hope my partner Marlene (no blog) does too. Happy winter everyone!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T21:53:00.001-06:00

Hello! I'm back from the Holidays and full of creative energy! It feels good. I didn't share my last handmade Christmas gift. I just found the photos, I had mentioned I was going to make lavender eye masks/pillows. Here are the 5 I made for my yoga teacher co-workers.

and how I wrapped them in hand stamped wrapping paper :)

I used up the rest of my flax seeds and I'm listing some in my shop. They are really fun to make since they smell soooooo good! I'm really enjoying the one I made for myself too ;) It's great to nuke it for about 15-20 seconds then just relax.... ahhhhh.
I'm working on the tutorial for the hooded bath towel now, as I promised in the new year. I have some tutorial ideas floating around in my head I just need to get them onto the blog! I also have spring cleaning fever, that never happens! I feel the urge to purge and clean out my creative nook and the house actually. Must be the winter blahs I suffer from, we need to get some snow so it actually feels like winter and not just dreary cold.
So I'm not really one for resolutions so I don't have a post about that. I make lists all the time about stuff I want to accomplish/work toward it's an ongoing process, not something that I can start and stop at the years beginning. It is a good time to reflect about the past year and be thankful for all that has happened or didn't happen (however you want to look at it :) I've made a bunch of wonderful, new blog friends, and I really appreciate the "old" pals that still stop by even after my year long blogging sabbatical. THAT's amazing, and truly appreciated. I'm hoping for even more friendships to form in 2011. Now I'm off to visit you guys!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T13:50:00.001-06:00

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Peace and Harmony in the New Year!

Awesome mail day!

2010-12-20T23:23:00.000-06:00

I love getting art in the mail! Today I got my gorgeous ATC from Simply Debbie. It's so blingy! I love it. A vintage angel card with glitter accents and then she added a button border and more glitter, so awesome! Since she is such a thoughtful swap partner, she sent these awesome "scraps" and packaged it all in a lovely Christmas card (that I forgot to photograph). The tree and snowflake paper are flocked, how cool is that! Thanks Debbie!

As a total surprise... Sherry from Createology sent this lovely Christmas tag! The blogging world is so generous and thoughtful. It really made my day, thank you! Now the question is, do I keep it for me? Or tie it to a gift...? That's a tough one, but I'll probably keep it :D

So how are those last minute gifts coming along? Is it a handmade holiday for you this year? I made as much of my gifts as I can. My kids of course want the toys they see on tv ;) But they also got handmade items. I found out about a grab bag gift exchange this weekend I wasn't expecting. Just as I thought I was completely done shopping, creating AND wrapping LOL! But never fear, I whipped together a couple items with stuff I already had on hand! I really impressed myself with this one, the last thing I wanted to do was head back to the stores. Even if it was the craft or fabric store! Anyway, I made a couple fleece cowls/neckwarmers for other people this year and thought that would do well in a gift exchange. I used an ivory colored fleece so it was gender neutral. Sorry I don't have any pictures...yet. I need a model! The other item I made was a cute "heirloom" tomato pin cushion. My aunt is a quilter and I'm sure she'll want this! I got so sick of my plain old red and green mass manufactured tomato looking pin cushion! I figured out how to make a new one. I then went crazy as I tend to do, and made 5 more. I thought this gingham print was a cutie and I wrapped it up. The other 4 shall hit my shop here soon too...

That about wraps up tonight's post, finally, I know, I know...
I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas as I probably won't be back on here until the new year! Take time to enjoy the moments :)

December Angel for the Blissful ATC swap

2010-12-15T23:30:00.000-06:00

It snuck up on me, it's the 15th, time to send my ATC to this month's swap partner. Luckily I had mine done, just needed glued to the background card. I just mailed it off tonight. I have been curious to try my hand at free motion machine quilting. There is quite a fuss going around blogland and honestly I was first introduced to this art in college (mid 90's). I was really inspired by these projects at Crescendoh. I think I'm addicted now! I have more ideas going through my head than I have time for. The theme this month was Angels, my interpretation was to tie it into Christmas. I roughly drew and Angel on my fabric and then went to town with my machine. I really need to get the correct presser foot attachment. I don't have one so I just completely removed mine and it left my fingers very vulnerable to getting stitched! Luckily no blood was shed, but I don't want to press my luck! It doesn't show up real well in this picture, but I used some iridescent fabric to patch in the wings, and then glued on the "hope" tag. Finished it off with a little tea staining.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to try my hand at making a camera strap slip cover for my DSLR. I used this tutorial as my inspiration, but of course I can't follow directions to the tee! I had to make some changes, I don't know why I do that? Anyway it worked out great! The first one I did, I decided I didn't like the color combination I used. I had a solid, accent color as the liner and it showed too much on the stitched edge. I made the blue one for me, and the pink one for my step mom for Christmas.

The little things I changed were to make mine narrower. My strap is only 1.5" wide, I was worried that a 2" cover would slip around and I wanted mine to fit tight. Then I also didn't like that the seam was only on one edge, it looked off balance to me. So I added a top stitching to the folded edge to make it more symmetrical. I used the same fabric for both the outside and the lining. Nothing too major, a great project!
I've really enjoyed getting these great ideas from other people's tutorials. My first goal of the new year is to write some of my own, we all have great tips and it's so nice to share!

The best smelling package in the mail!

2010-12-12T23:14:00.000-06:00

The best smelling package arrived on my door step this week! As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to try my hand at making lavender eye masks. I ordered some dried lavender buds and they arrived! The package smelled so beautiful even before I opened it. I bought a pound of them, not knowing how much I needed. A pound of these beauties is A LOT! I don't mind though, extra will certainly be fun to play with and smells yummy :) It's been fragrancing my little nook, and in fact, then entire basement. I have the masks sewn and now I'm anxiously awaiting my flax seeds to finish the project, pictures will follow...
In the mean time... I did get a chance to make the camera sleeve I also mentioned. I used a pattern I saw in Sew it All magazine. It was a really easy to follow pattern and fit the camera perfectly!

I got my play room back!

2010-12-08T14:06:00.000-06:00

Bet you didn't even know I lost it LOL! The place I play, I like to call my creative nook. It is in no means a studio, space, loft or even a room. There is no camera angle or fancy wording that could even make you envision that it is. I create in a VERY SMALL space. A corner of our basement is sectioned off to hide my creativeness (mess). The space is 6 feet wide by 8 feet long AND I share it with my darling daughter, who is the real artist by the way. We both have a 2x4 foot table on one side of the nook and shelves everywhere! LOL! I took this picture from about 3 feet outside the nook so it actually looks bigger than it is.

Anyway, months ago we painted the rest of the basement and left the nook for when I wasn't pushing a deadline... so it sat and sat and sat. Finally, craft show season came to an end and I needed to clean out the space anyway, so I made my hubby get in there and get it painted. I was out of it for about a week, and had serious withdrawls! I bought that big white shelf a the far end to help hold "some" stuff and now I don't know how I fit without it? I also realized I have never changed the lightbulbs down here since we built the house 10 years ago! I invested in 4 new bulbs as well and hope that gives me some new light, as you can guess, that tiny window does not help :) So project is over and I'm moved back in and this is the cleanest it will ever be again!
I have so many ideas itching inside me too! Nothing to do for a week but sit and think what I "could" be doing. I want to try my hand at a camera strap cover like this one. If it turns out I want to give my step mom one for Christmas. I also want to make a headband like this one. I also teach yoga and sometimes barrettes get smashed into my scalp. I think I need to switch to a fabric head band LOL! So I'm giving that a try. For my fellow yoga teachers I want to make lavender and flax seed eye pillows. Haven't searched tutorials for that one yet, I think I can figure that one out ;) I also want to make a camera sleeve for my aunt. My siblings and I went in together to update her camera. It's so cute and tiny! I think it needs a sleeve for protection and just to make it cute. So I have a lot to do before Christmas!
I also need to get started on my December Blissful ATC swap, my partner is Simply Debbie and I have ideas rolling around my mind for that as well. The theme this month is appropriately, angels.
My Etsy shops have been doing great! My glitter snowflake has made TWO recent treasuries, how cool is that?

Deep Freeze by Knotoriginal

Just a Tiny Snowflake by Digital CS

I'm so honored, they are both so pretty and inspiring! Well, I will be back when I make some progress!

Catch up!

2010-12-03T14:40:00.000-06:00

I've been MIA again! I actually wrote out a really long and nice post 10 days ago and then blogger wouldn't let me add pictures and I gave up :( But I'm here to give it another try, I miss my few readers! :) I hosted Thanksgiving at my house this year so I spent a fair amount of time prepping for that. It turned out to be a very nice day, despite a few minor glitches... I didn't realize I own exactly 9 forks! I had a set of 24 but some seem to have moved out of the house! I invited 24 people over and as we got ready to eat (buffet style) there were no forks! Aaaack! I scrounged up a few plastic ones and made the smaller kids use the toddler sized ones and we made it through, but what a time to realized this! Duh! I promise to be better prepared next time :) The other glitch was that my dad had a heart glitch. He won't let me call it a heart attack because technically there was no damage by it and therefore not technically a heart attack. But he and my stepmom canceled their reservations for dinner with us and went to the ER. He had a stint put in on Friday and was back at work on Monday! All is well, happy ending!
I have been keeping busy with my previously mentioned Year in Review books for the grandparents. I've been digi scrapping my fingers off! It's been alot of fun to look back at the year and relive those memories, but every year I promise myself I will keep up and not wait to the last minute to put the books together :D This year was no different and to top it off, Shutterfly moved their "Sale" deadline up a week. Usually you have until the 1st week in Dec to order with their good sale prices but this year they made it the end of Nov. However, I pursued and made it just in the nick of time. Here is my book below

SPOILER ALERT!!!! NO SNOOPING MOM!

Click here to view this photo book larger

I also "decorated" the house for Christmas, I use the term decorated loosely. I'm such a bah humbug about it, I really don't enjoy the process at all. You'd assume with my crafty inklings that I would enjoy it, but not at all. I hate the dreaded "getting the huge boxes out of my tiny storage room" process. I don't care to dust around the added clutter, and really don't like the added clutter around my house. I am not one to wind boughs of evergreen around my staircase and poinsettias in every room. I really just put up a small tree (a white feather one this year) and embellish my mantle. The weather turned so cold so fast that we only got one set of lights on the outside of the house this year too! But I like to make a small effort for the kids to enjoy and get them in the spirit. I really enjoy seeing everyone else in bloglands grand efforts of decorating! I envy your spirit and motivation! The tours are nice inspiring as I cruise the internet :) I will be visiting everyone soon, my google reader has 353 unread blog posts! YIKES, sooner or later I'll get around to everyone. If you leave me a comment here, I'll hit yours next ;)

Until next time...