Hello Fellow Stampers ~
Well, my goodness!! LOL I let this past end of week/weekend/first of week just absolutely get away on me. I kept saying to myself - "I gotta finish up that card and get on the blog" -- but you can see it didn't happen!! LOL Sometimes life just gets in the way !! Too many things on my list, not enough hours in the day!!
But . . . I always say, better late than never; and considering the week I had with work last week, I'm amazed I kept up as well as I did overall!! This week is MUCH quieter and I'm getting back in the rhythm of my list of things to do. So please bear with me today, as I do several blog posts to get us caught with our schedule. I don't want to put everything into one; it's too overwhelming and doesn't really work.
Some of you may wonder what I do when I'm not creating paper craft. And some of you already know that I'm a quilter and sewer; and my newest obsession is embroidery. I am "in love" with my Pfaff 4.5 and all the wonderful things I can create! That being said, I thought I'd share the "big" project that I've been working on since June 2020 (my Pandemic project I call it!). It's basically what we call a "block of the month" project (although some months of this project were more than one block). And now over this past month I've been working to pull those blocks together into a completed quilt top. I have some work to do yet - including a number of outer borders; but things are finally starting to come together, and I always love it when you see the fruition of so much work!
This fun quilt is called Stitcher's Garden. It is intended to walk you through all the different stitches on your machine, the different techniques and machine feet, and kind of just walk you through a Pfaff sewing machine's capabilities. I have had so much fun just learning and using things I had not used before. You can be sewing for the more than 20 years that I have been, and still learn so much!!
This quilt is a little different than standard quilt tops, in that it comes together in "columns" rather than rows".
So you are looking at the 3 columns here. I'm almost ready to pull them together -- I still have to sash on a final block in Column 3 and Column 1 and that will require some careful measuring to make sure I put in the right size sashing to match the center column length. Once that is done, I can put sashing between each column and pull it all together. There are approximately 4 outer borders that have to be worked once the main blocks are together; I intend to set this aside until after Christmas . . . we'll see!! LOL
I have too many other large projects to tackle over the next 45 days, so we'll see how things go!!
Hope you enjoyed this little peek into my "other life." -- LOL
For now, let's catch up last week's installment of our 12 Weeks of Christmas here at DDS Studios.
I finally pulled out the Peaceful Cabin bundle last week. I've been wanting to play with this set for awhile.
I ended up spending a couple of hours just cutting out all the dies in this bundle, because they are so different, and you really have to see what each does and how they align with the stamp set.
Once I figured out how each die works, I was just like "WOW!" I LOVE this set!
You HAVE to get this if you haven't yet.
What you see here is not only the dies that cut the "wavy hills", but also how they cut around the cabin, the trees, the cute little running fox; and then additional des that add details into the trees if you don't want to stamp trees; additional details to the cabin, if you don't stamp the cabin, etc.
It's just such a fabulous set!! Kudos to whomever designed this one!!
So I decided a couple of things for this first design with this bundle.
First, I chose the fabulous silver foiled paper from the Peaceful Place Specialty Paper; and in this case the falling snowflakes pattern as my backdrop. This drove me to staying with a Black/Gray/White color theme which I just fell in love with.
It makes it feel like a night scene with a bright moon shining down on a beautiful quiet snow scene I think.
The second thing I decided was to go with the "Thank You" sentiment for this card, rather than an overt Christmas sentiment.
But, obviously, you can create whatever you would want with this design -- it is sooo versatile! I see a great masculine birthday card with this set!!
This card base is Basic Gray, cut 4-1/4" x 11", scored @ 5-1/2".
I have a layer of Basic Black in the background; and then I cut a piece of one of the new Silver Foils using the largest scallop rectangle in the Scalloped Contours Dies.
Then I laid in my piece of Designer Series Paper which measures 3-1/4" x 4-5/8".
I then played with the stamps themselves for a little bit, and decided that the right thing was 2 pieces of Basic White cardstock cut 4" x 3-1/2" so that I could stamp the trees on one; and then the cabin on the other (in Memento Tuxedo Black), and then die cut them, so I could layer the lovely scene on the front of the card.
I wrapped the Basic white layers with the Black & White Twine from the Playful Pets Trim Combo Pack before using dimensionals to pop it on the front the card.
I finished things off with some cute little fences; and lots of Wink of Stella on the roof and trees, etc.
I had considered adding some little rhinestones to the centers of the snowflakes across the background; but the card is so pretty the way it is. Who knows, maybe I'll add them later!! LOL
I love the Silver/Gray/Black tones of this card - it feels so peaceful to me!!
Well, I hope this feels inspiring to you. If you have not picked up this set yet, it's a "Must Have" in my book!!
Head over to my Online Store and snag it for your craft room. I'll be showcasing this one more I'm sure!!
We'll be back in a little bit with some important Promotional News from Stampin' Up! ~~ So Stay Tuned!!
I Love to hear from you. Leave your questions or comments below!!
Hugs, . . .