A Handmade Gift Card Holder

If you have a lot of gift cards you're giving this Christmas and want to add a handmade touch, I have just the answer for you:  Handmade Gift Card Holders!  I found the tutorial on the Splitcoaststampers website, but I must admit that although the instructions and video were easy to follow, my finished product never turned out to be the right measurements.  I wonder if it was because I didn't have the specific scoring tool she used in the video, or if because I'm just an idiot.  :)  I did manage to finally get the holder the right size by scoring and cutting it smaller.  

 The gift card holder is made with double sided designer paper and is tied shut with a ribbon.  There are two slits on the inside:  one for a gift card and the other for a little note card.

For the outside of the card I stamped a Christmas sentiment then punched it out using a scalloped die.  It was then adhered to a round green die cut (the circles were both cut with Spellbinder's Nestabilities Circle dies).  The white sparkly circle was adhered to the holder first.  Then I added the gold ribbon and popped the green circle and sentiment up on dimensionals just like she shows in the video on the Splitcoaststampers website.

 To make the note card, I just stamped a Christmas sentiment and stickers on a small piece of yardstick then adhered it to a slightly larger metallic gold card stock piece.  I added gold Stickles to the ornaments.

Everything fit nice and neat inside.  I love the way it turned out, even though I really struggled getting the sizing right.  If you give this project a try, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  I did leave a note on the Splitcoaststampers website explaining I had trouble with this project.  I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Handmade Card For The Amazing Man In Your Life

 If any of my fellow paper crafting bloggers are still following me I have a surprise for you:  I MADE A CARD!  I know, shocking right?  Believe it or not, I do still craft.  But my issue is I can never post what I crafted until after the holiday or event because I don't want my loved ones to see them.  Then, I don't post them on my blog because I think "Why would anyone want to see this now that the holiday is over?".  So, they never get posted.  I did however "save" this year's Easter's cards in my files to show next year....BEFORE Easter.

The card I have to show you today I made for my husband for Father's Day.  However, because it's really just a masculine card I felt I could post this on my blog after the holiday was long over.

I made this masculine card for my AMAZING husband.  The sentiment is from an old MFT stamp set, but you could easily print this sentiment out on your printer too.  I then cut rectangles with Spellbinder's Dies and the stars were cut with Cuttlebug Dies.  I chose a masculine plaid paper for the background.

For the inside, I added another MFT sentiment from the same set, and more stars.  The "Happy Father's Day" sentiment was a separate old stamp from my collection.  I think I picked it up in the dollar bins at my local craft store.

For Mother's Day our church offered to take free family portraits of all the moms and their families.  Unfortunately my children couldn't be with me that day, but we thought "Why not get our picture as a couple taken?"  It was a wonderful treat to finally get a nice photograph of just the two of us.  Most of the time either I'm taking his picture or he's taking mine.  I love the way it turned out too!  It's so rare when we both look good at the same time!

I wore the same dress I wore in Savannah and he picked a dark polo to coordinate with me.  We got lucky and the background went very well with what we chose to wear.  I had no idea what the background would be before the photo shoot.

I received the prints just in time for Father's Day so I printed one out and framed it in a masculine frame for his desk.  What better gift to give the man who has everything and doesn't want anything.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Pinwheel Baby Quilt

 Over twenty years ago my husband's paternal grandmother passed away.  The family was going through her possessions to divide up among various family members.  One of the items they discovered was a box of old quilt pieces;  some cut into triangles, a couple embroidered hearts, fabric scraps, and one pinwheel block.  My mother-in-law (knowing that I sewed) asked me if I wanted them.  I thought the pastel, vintage-looking material was cute, so I said "yes" and I put them in a box hoping someday I would have time to finish "Grandma's Quilt".

Fast forward twenty + years later and those quilt pieces were still sitting in a box.  When I found out my daughter was pregnant with a little girl, I decided it was finally time to finish "Grandma's Quilt".

This is what was in the box:  small scraps of fabric, and pre-cut triangles.

There was only one finished block and this was it.  By looking at it, I knew she was trying to make a pinwheel quilt.

But I also found two embroidered heart panels.  Hmm, what to do, what to do.  I had no idea what Grandma's original plan was as I only had pieces of fabric and one finished block.  There were no quilt patterns in the box.  So I came up with my own design.

The original quilt block was extremely crooked, so I had to cut it down a lot.  Then I made a quilt block using the other fabric scraps in the box, plus some of my own white fabric from my stash.

I then made the rest of the pinwheel blocks using the pre-cut triangle pieces.

 A pinwheel quilt is one of the easiest quilts to make.  Although I was vaguely familiar with how to make one, I just googled "How to Make a Pinwheel Quilt" on the Internet to refresh my memory.  There are loads of great videos out there.  If I can make one, you can too!

It was a coincidence that the colors of Grandma's Quilt pieces just happened to be the colors my daughter chose for her baby's layette:  pink and teal.   Or was it a coincidence?  Sometimes I think these things happen for a reason and are not coincidences.

After all the blocks were made, I laid them out in a pattern I liked.  I did make a mistake that I would correct if I had to make the quilt all over again:  I would have turned the bottom of the top heart block out so it was facing in the opposite direction.  Unfortunately I didn't recognize my mistake till the whole quilt was done.

Once I decided on my layout, I just started sewing the rows together.

This is what the quilt looked like after all the pieces were sewing together before it was quilted.

Using an old piece of pink polka dotted fabric from my stash (sorry, I forgot to photograph the back of the quilt and I already gave it to my daughter) and some quilt batting (also from my stash), I then began quilting the three pieces together.  I did the "Stitch In A Ditch" technique to keep it simple.

I then cut my own bias tape and finished off the edges.  Because I was lazy and I didn't want to hand sew the bias tape on, I added a pretty lace trim from my stash to the edge  of the quilt.

Here are a few close ups of the lace on the edge of the quilt.

This quilt cost me nothing to make since I used items I already owned.  I love that this quilt has so much history to it and that two grandmothers had a part in making this quilt.  So much love and history has gone into it.  

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

How To Make a Succulent Planter

You would have to be living under a rock not to notice that succulents are everywhere in both indoor and outdoor home decor today.  I was just on Facebook and noticed a friend even made a succulent wedding cake.  Well as a long time gardener I have known the advantages of growing succulents in my garden.  They are a virtually indestructible plant if given plenty of sun and dry soil.  But I wanted to try and see if I could bring some of these interesting little plants inside my home as well.  Because I have a cat I have to be careful on the type of plants I bring inside my home as well as the placement of them.  That little stinker gets into everything, and if my plants are not hanging from the ceiling, he will get into them and will chew, dig, and throw dirt everywhere; soo I decided to use faux succulents instead.

The hardest part of deciding to go with faux succulents is finding realistic ones.  When I was in Illinois my daughter and I visited some very high end furniture stores and they had the most amazing faux (and real) succulents I have ever seen.  But they were also very pricey, so I decided to try and make my own.  I had to search several different stores before I found some nice ones at Michaels.  But they still weren't as realistic as the pricey ones I saw in the high end designer stores.  Nevertheless, this is what I came up with:

Now first a disclaimer.  This is probably not the right way to make a succulent pot, but this is what I did because I wanted to use items I already had around the house so I would have to buy as little as possible for my project.

I've owned this gigantic bottle of Elmers Glue for about 10 years now, and it is still in perfect condition.  I also owned the pot and green styrofoam;  so the only thing I had to buy was three little succulents and some gravel.  I got everything at Michaels for 50% off.

I started by filling my pot with green styrofoam pieces.  Then I just filled the little pot with glue.  Yep, that's right, I just filled my pot with glue.  I did this because of my cat.  I knew if everything wasn't glued down, including the gravel, it would end up all over the floor.  But honestly, even without a cat, I would have glued it all down.  Small children or accidents would also cause the pot to spill and I was worried about the mess of the gravel.

I chose this fine grey gravel from Michaels.  They also have other types of fillers like small pebbles, bark, etc.

It took hardly any gravel at all to complete my project.  I only used about an eighth of the container.

After I stuck my largest succulent into the styrofoam, I filled my container with gravel.

I then added some more glue to the base of my next succulent and stuck that in the styrofoam.

My final succulent came attached to a small round piece of moss, so I just dipped the bottom in glue and placed it right on top of the gravel.  I did press down a bit and worked it deeper into the gravel.

Then I had to set the pot on top of a narrow bowl because the glue was dripping out the bottom of the pot (even though I had a piece of foam over the hole).  I left it like this overnight and by the next morning half the container was full of glue.

The gravel sunk a bit overnight and left a couple of small holes on the surface, so I just added a few droplets of glue inside those holes and sprinkled in more gravel.

This is the completed project.

               Breakdown of Costs:

Large Succulent originally $5.99 50% off:                       $2.99
Air Succulent originally $.99 50% off:                             $  .49
Succulent in Moss originally $1.99 50% off:                   $   .99
Decorative Filler originally $5.99 50% off:                     $3.00
Glue, already owned:                                                        Free
Pot, already owned:                                                          Free
Styrofoam pieces, already owned:                                   Free
                                                                                         ______
Total Cost:                                                                        $7.47
                                                                                       
                                                                     

And if my simple project hasn't inspired you to try to create your own succulent planter, here are some other pretty ones I saw on Pinterest!

I LOVE these tea cup planters.  They used multi-colored little stones as their fillers.

Image Credit

This candle centerpiece succulent planter is gorgeous!  Wouldn't this be lovely for a wedding reception?  They used a dark fine gravel for their filler.

Image Credit

And finally a simple white bowl is used for this larger succulent planter.  White stones was the filler used in this pot.

Image Credit

So what about you?  Do you like the succulent trend or would you rather have a vase of flowers?  I'd love to hear from you!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Fall Birthday Card For An Old Friend

 One of my dearest and oldest friends had a birthday in October and this is the card I made for her.  I thought the Crafty Secrets "Seasons of Friendship" stamp was the perfect image to use because of her fall birthday and the images celebrate friendship.

These images are a challenge to color because they are so tiny and so detailed.  It's very difficult not to have the Copic Markers bleed a bit when the images are so small.  I think next time I use this set I will try pencils.

I colored the females dress in purple because that is my friend's favorite color.  And when I gave her the card, she noticed the purple dress right away too!

I stamped the sentiment from the set separately, and hand cut it out.  I put "Golden Rod" Stickles on all the leaves in the image and on her dress.  I also added some corner brads for more embellishment.

The fall paper is from DCWV "The Pumpkin Patch" and "Indian Summer".

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

My Baby Turns 25 And This Is The Birthday Card I Made For Him

 Yesterday was my youngest child's 25th birthday.  Yikes, where does time go?

We already celebrated Jordan's birthday back in July when he was home visiting with Ashley and Jason.  This is the card I made him:

Jordan is a huge animal lover with cats and birds being his favorite.  I couldn't decide if I should use a cat or a bird image on his card, and I finally just settled on this little guy because he was so cute.

The image is retired Stampin Up! "Pun Fun".  I used the same sketch that I did on Jason's birthday card HERE.

I stamped the image on a separate piece of white card stock, colored it, cut it out, and put it up on dimensionals.  Sequins were glued on for embellishment.  I rounded the corners of the yellow panel with a corner rounder.  The banner under the feet of the bird was cut with a MFT die.

And here is a picture of the birthday bird with his card.

And for his birthday I bought him a new pair of Vans.  They are the only shoes he will wear.  He plays drums, and he says he can only drum in Vans.  He wears them all the time.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Ashley and Jason's Anniversary Card

My daughter and her husband celebrated their sixth anniversary a little while ago and this was the card that I made for them.

I cased Michelle's card HERE, and just changed paper and dies with what I had on hand.

The image is from the "Home Sweet Home" set.  I cut all the shapes with Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  I put Stickles on all the flower centers.  The bow was made with floss and I added a Prima Flower in the center.

The sentiment was stamped on a tag cut with a Martha Stewart punch.  I used dimensionals to raise the image up from the card base.  Brads were used to adhere the die cut to the flower designer paper.  The designer paper is old, from my stash, so I don't remember the name.  Sorry.

And here are a few pictures taken of our lovebirds from our last camping trip.

I'm very, very behind on my travel posts due to all the computer issues I've had this past month.  I'm still not done blogging about our May road trip...there's weeks left of posts to do on that adventure.  And when I finally finish that travel series, I can then move on to our camping trip we took in July.

In the meantime, here are a few highlights of Ashley and Jason on that trip!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!
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