October 8th, 2011 -- Posted in knitty/stitchy, pics |
So after knitting my very first baby garment (an adorable hooded sweater), the next baby gift I wanted to make was a pair of knitted baby booties…
I know it seems a little backwards, having done a really difficult project and then moving to a more simple project like booties, but for me it was just about the order of the babies being born and just going ahead with what I wanted to make! I didn’t want to be limited or slowed down by a difficult pattern. If I see something cute, I want to be able to make it, and I’ll try to just learn whatever techniques I need to learn to do that. It’s just the way I’ve always been and so far I haven’t hit too many road blocks in accompishing anything I set my mind to. 
My first pair of booties turn out very well, although I found they didn’t go up as high as I would’ve liked. So I ended up modifying the “Small” size version of all future patterns to have higher sock sections. Since knitting that first pair of booties, I’ve now created a half dozen more pairs!
continue reading »
May 28th, 2011 -- Posted in scrappy / stampy |
One of these was created for my… well, I guess she might end of being my sister-in-law if all goes well? 
But for now officially she is “only” my younger brother’s girlfriend. Anyways, this was a card created for my mother to give to her for her birthday…
My mother was stopping by and mentioning she didn’t yet have a card so I was like “Um… do you want me to bring my card store to the front door!?”. Oh yeeeaah. People tend to forget I make cards! Even if it’s one of the few things I can actually do these days besides a very small amount of housekeeping and child-raising tasks…
So I’d totally been on a card roll anyways during that time and was able to create and extra couple of cards without too much extra difficulty…
As much as I cringe and complain about not having a “real” dinning room, it is really handy to be able to have a scrapbooking area where I can leave my stuff lying around without having to worry about tidying it all up and leaving things looking neat and tidy like I might feel more pressured too if we had an actual dinning set there.
I really went all out for these ones with all sorts of great papers, colours and embellishments… lots of brads, rhinestone stickers, stamped images (butterflies, flowers), punched borders, two-step stamping techniques, paper-piercing technique, little flowers, etc! My “SIL” hasn’t really seen a lot of my work, so might as well make a great first impression, right? I hear it really did wow her and got passed around the table with similar reactions as well so for me that’s the best reward for the creative work that I do. The best part of a hand-made card is just that extra punch of glitz and shine. And since you’ve already heard my “why give something store-bought when you can get (or make!) a card that carries so much more depth and warmth to it?” spiel, I’ll just remind you where my online card store is and mention that the 2nd card in this set is up for sale!
Happy Stamping! ♥
May 18th, 2011 -- Posted in scrappy / stampy |
This little batch of a half-dozen cards for Spring & Easter was a very adorable project that took quite a while to work on because of all the layers and details. I spoke with someone who was new to card-making and she admitted that was something she didn’t do often: use layering as a technique! It’s true, that’s often something that sets apart cards that are distinctive and unique and cards that (sometimes literally!) fall flat.
Although I used 3 of these cards (1 from each matching pair) as Easter cards by placing a greeting inside that was themed along the lines of Bunnies and chocolate, they could also be used as Spring cards… ok, except maybe this third one with eggs on it (super fun to create and one of the central concepts to the card design).
Key materials & techniques used: Stampin’ Up’s Cottage Wall paper pack (I have gotten *so* much millage out of this one pack!!) + paper colours discontinued by SU (Brights) + baby chick stamp hand-trimmed with inked beak (ColorBox’s orange) + paper-piecing + ribbons + buttons + rub-ons + gemstones + glitter brads + flower punched in 3 sizes (new SU/Sizzix die cut that works with my Cuttlebug! love it!) + embossed background paper… so textured and dimensional!!
So, I have mentioned that I gave out 3 of the cards… well what happened to the other 3? They are going up for sale in my card store, of course! Why go and rummage through the “same-as-a-thousand-others” cards at the drugstore when you can give someone you care about a beautiful hand-made card for the same price (and delivered right to your mailbox at that!)?
~ KStar Cards: Beautifully made by hand & heart ~
Next »
