All About Pinterest...

I don't have anything to post today and I blame it all on Pinterest.  If you don't already know (I think I'm a little late to the party), Pinterest is a site where you can browse and get tons of inspiration on virtually any theme or topic.  OR and this is the best part, you can catalog all your collections on a virtual bulletin board.


Here's a peek at my pages (click here to go to my pinterest pages). So far I have categories like Cards to CASE, Recipes, Photography, Books and Crafty Projects.  I know when I am blog hopping I bookmark sites like crazy.  Well, when my computer crashed a month ago I lost almost all of those links.  

So, when you are out and about on the internet and see something that catches your eye (maybe one of my cards, wink), you simply "pin it" using a handy dandy shortcut on your toolbar.  In the future when you need that info (to CASE a card perhaps), just click on it via pinterest and it will take you back to the original place where you pinned it (and you can see the supply list and how it was made).  


***Warning, if you love looking at pretty and neat things, you may lose hours of your day like I did.  But, if you need to catalog recipes or things you like, it's pretty awesome.  I'm cursing myself for having so many interests.

This site is invitation only.  If you click the link that says "request an invite", you will be waiting a very long time.  Just send me your email address and I will send you an invite.  Did I mention it's FREE?  That's the best part.


Have a great day!

PS.  If you are already a Pinterest member, let me know so we can follow each other.
PPS.  I have no affiliation with Pinterest, they have no idea who I am!

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Making a Jersey Bracelet...

*This is my second post of the day*

Okay, here's my "crafty something that's not a card" I was talking about earlier.  I have a sewing machine, but don't sew much.  However, I am in love with a sewing blog called V & Co.  Vanessa posted a video last week on how to make a bracelet using jersey fabric.  It looked so easy (and the video itself is pretty hilarious, at least to me since I've been following Vanessa for quite some time).  

Well, I didn't want to buy jersey fabric so I used a pair of my daughters yoga-style pants that had a big hole in the knee.  I cut the entire pair into strips and then sewed the strips together (Vanessa links hers together a different way, which I'll definitely try next time).  The length was about 7 yards.  I was able to make 3 bracelets.

You make the bracelets by wrapping the long strip around your fingers and sorta crocheting with your fingers.  It's really cool.  The thickness is determined by how wide you cut your fabric and what type of fabric you choose.  You can also use two fingers, three fingers, or four.  I would recommend starting off with two fingers.  That was the easiest and fastest.

Here's two of them. The one that's missing was my first one and it didn't look too good.  I need to redo it.  The one on the left I made using the three finger method and the one on the right uses two fingers.

 

And here I am sporting my new gray bracelet.  Overall I like this bracelet a lot, but it's a little bulky.  I didn't cut my strips narrow enough and I probably shouldn't have sewn the strips together.  Also, my strips weren't cut consistently.  Some were an inch and some were an inch and a half so you can see some inconsistency in the finished thickness of the bracelet.

If you have some free time, give this a try.  I'm going to show my daughter how to do it.  She loves watching me crochet so I know she'll really get a kick out of just using her fingers.  I also thought about making another bracelet, just making it a little longer to use as a headband for my daughter.  I think that would look really cute.  Can't wait to try this again and see how much better it'll turn out.


I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

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On my run today...

I thought I'd share some photos I took at the park this morning after my run.  When I say I run at the park, I run laps around the lake below.  It's pretty large.  Each lap is .7 miles and I try to run 5.  Today I was feeling pretty ambitious and tried for 7 laps (that would be 4.9 miles), but I only made it 5 laps (3.5 miles) and then I walked one last lap to snap some photos (so 4.2 miles total).  


I thought this guy was a genius.  He was wearing rubber kitchen gloves while fishing.  No touching yucky worms and bait for this guy.  There are always men scattered around the lake fishing.

Here's the bench I always want to sit/lay on, but instead I slowly run right by it.  

I should be enjoying the awesome scenery, but I'm always too busy arguing with myself in my head.   Should and stop for a potty break, no you're fine.  I think I'm going to pass out, no your doing fine, keep on pushing yourself.  Even the music coming from my headphones can't distract me from myself.  By the way, the Black Eyed Peas channel on Pandora is great to run to.  

Turtles!  They were all over the place this morning.  

Here's a trail that takes you to a nearby subdivision.  Nothing special about this, I just really like the photo.

Here's a little alcove off to the side.  Our kids love to run across the bridge.  This area is called "The Wetlands" and is very shallow.  

So, that's my morning!  I took all these pictures from my DroidX Smart Phone.  I use an app called PicPlz.  It's free and I love it.  I think it's sorta like Instagram for the iphone, how I wish I had that app.  Anyway, hope you enjoyed and I promise to have something crafty posted (not necessarily a card) in a couple hours.


Have a great day!

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Published! CARDS Magazine

Hello!  I just realized it's been quite a while since I've shared cards that I've had published.  Here are four that I've had published that I haven't previously shared.  

November 2010, CARDS Magazine 

December 2010, CARDS Magazine

February 2011, CARDS Magazine

March 2011, CARDS Magazine

There you have it!  I just noticed that the first and second card use the same exact sentiment stamp and that the last card uses that same stamp set.  How funny!  They must really like Everyday Button Bits.


Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Have a wonderful day!!!

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A {Celebrate Your Day} Card...

Hey guys!  Now, I know what you are thinking, "Wow, Dana is a real genius with a sewing machine!".  Before you leave your comments of praise, I thought I would "keep it real" as they say.  I have never sewn this much on a card before.  In fact, I'm actually really impressed with all my straight lines.

I started by stamping my kraft base with the grid from the Guidelines set.  This made sewing in a straight line so much easier (except for that one line that really went crooked, but I hid it behind the sentiment panel, yeah, genius is right).  Now, here's the part where I "keep it real".

Yeah, what a mess!  And here's how it looked after I trimmed the thread and taped down the loose ends with scotch tape.

It looks so much better, but who wants to see a card with that on the inside?  So, I took a piece of lightweight card stock and lined the inside.

Now no one will know what a mess it was!

Okay, now that the inside is finished (I'm not big on decorating the inside of cards, outside is where it's at, just sayin'), it's time to work on the outside.

I decided to stamp inside the diamond grid with versamark using one of the images from the Guidelines set.  I decided to do this after the stitching because I would be really upset with myself if I did all that work and then ruined it when my sewing machine messed up (user error) and I would have to start over.  Luckily the sewing machine worked pretty good today.

And here is a close up of the sentiment.  Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday Challenge was to use heat embossing on your card.  Gold is one of my favorites.  I just love watching the matte powder turn to a shiny metallic.

The centers of the butterflies are white acrylic accents.

I hope you enjoyed today's card and the quirky mood I'm in.  

{Celebrate Your Day}

Stamps: Guidelines, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)

Card Stock: Kraft, Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Sewing Machine & Thread, Gold Embossing Powder (SU), Edge Distresser, Foam Dimensionals, Butterflies Punch (Martha Stewart), White Acrylic Accents (Ranger)

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A {Baby Banner} Card...

Hello!  Hope you had a great weekend.  Ours was super fun.  We crammed some fun stuff in yesterday for the kid's last day of Spring Break.  We saw the movie "Hop" which was pretty cute, for kids anyway.  

Okay, so here is my card for today.  It uses this week's CPS Sketch.  I think I've only done a banner on one other card before so this was a lot of fun (click HERE to see it). For this card I used the other banner shape that came already in my Silhouette library.  I simply cut out the banner shapes using the Silhouette and then punched out some circles with a circle punch (duh, a little redundant!).  

I really love how this card turned out except I wanted the sentiment at the bottom to be darker.  By the time I noticed I had already glued down the patterned paper and had the banner attached.  I was afraid I would ruin the whole card if it didn't stamp perfectly with a darker brown.  Oh well, I think it'll do.  If you are having a hard time reading the sentiment, it says "Congrats on your new little bundle".

Well, hope everything is going your way today.  So far so good here.  It's pretty windy but it is in the high 60's.  I can't wait to plant our first garden sometime this week.  I hope you have a great day!

{Baby Banner Card}

Stamps: Fresh Alphabet, Signature Greetings (Papertrey Ink)

Card Stock: Kraft Like a Rockstar (CSS)

Patterned Paper: Gertie (My Mind's Eye)

Ink: Simply Blue-tiful, Brown Leather Satchel (CSS)

Accessories: Foam Dimensionals, Digitally Cut Banners (Silhouette), Circle Punch, Baker's Twine (Jillibean Soup), Edge Distresser

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Clear & Simple Stamps: April 2011 Release

I'm so happy to share the April release of Clear & Simple Stamps with you.  No fooling here!  This latest set is called On the Mend II, it coordinates with a previously released set On the Mend.  This set is so cute and fun, but it's not all about sewing.  It's so versatile, let me show you.

Here's a look at the full set:

And here is the card I made.  See, not strictly sewing.

I have to say that I'm in love with this card.  It started by creating a background with the ruler image.  I continued stamping the ruler image on the the kraft card stock using Versamark, for a subtle pattern.  I colored the rulers using Yellow Trio 4 Copic Markers.  If you can't tell, I've been having a lot of fun with Copics lately.

For the stitching, I simply paper pierced the perimeter of my rectangle and then stitched it with yellow/gold floss.  Each stitch goes through the hole from the back and then wraps around to the back again through the next hole.  The heart and kraft panel were adhered using foam dimensionals.  The sentiment strip is curved for a fun, waving in the wind look and is anchored by two tiny silver pearls.


Thanks so much for joining in the fun today!!!  I hope your April is off to a great start!!!

PS.  Don't forget to check out the Clear & Simple Stamps Blog to see all of the release day cards from the design team.

{Love Beyond Measure}

Stamps: On the Mend II (Clear & Simple Stamps)

Card Stock: A Blanc Check, Dare to Be a Diva Red, Kraft Like a Rockstar (CSS)

Ink: Perfect Little Black Dress (CSS), Versamark

Accessories: Copic Markers- Yellow Trio 4 (Y32, Y35, Y38), Floss, Foam Dimensionals, Paper Piercer, Heart Punch (Paper Shapers), Silver Pearls (Michaels)

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