12 Days of Christmas..Day 6

Welcome to Day 6 of Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas blogging extravaganza. We are back today with another fun post. Thank you for joining and I hope your holiday plans are coming along nicely. We got all the decorations on the tree last night so it is sparkly and beautiful in our living room.
Todays countdown theme is clever uses for BUTTONS. I think I'm safe to say that a good portion of us crafters love buttons of all kinds. I was excited to work on today's project and was inspired by a couple of new items.

First up is this stash of new fabrics I got a while back. A local quilt shop was having a big sale and I got lots of goodies. In fact, I should go back for more goodies.
This book was a real find for me. I spied it in a box of old books at an auction recently. I was pretty certain no one would find it as special as I was but you just never know at an auction. I got the whole stack of books that this one was in for a $1 or so.
It's got pages and pages of directions and splendid little illustrations of patterns and models. Totally heartwarming to me. I'll have to show you more photos another time. I love this section of the book that tells how to become more familiar with pattern envelopes.
Some of my favorite buttons lately are the white variety, especially the molded lacy looking buttons. Oh they are sweet.
And not to mention the gallons of other buttons I have in jars all over the place. I think that hoarding thing is coming into play again.
And the button cards. Simply cute as a button and they have the best graphics on them. Love. I can't bear to use these so they sit all pretty in a little basket.
So after I got out all my buttons and fabric and was totally inspired, I went to work selecting some patterned papers that would coordinate with a few chosen fabrics. I like these three patterns below. Kind of Christmas-y colors but could be for every day occasions too.
Then I chose some buttons. I knew that I could only part with a few of my vintage buttons in the lovely lacy pattern so I chose some Papertrey Vintage Buttons to coordinate.
Using a Medium Blue Parcel Tag, I cut a snippet of my fabric with pinking shears and sewed it onto my tag. I chose the buttons I wanted to use to create a fun twist on a button card. Tags are perfect for creating button cards. I also selected some Wrinkle Ribbon and vintage green lace to match.
When creating button cards I like my buttons to look like they would as if sewn to a shirt. No ends of string showing. So I use a long piece of regular sewing thread and needle to sew on the buttons. By using a long strand that you double and tie at the end, you can zig zag around the tag and not have to tie off each button. Story: This photo reminds me of when my Grandma Wheat taught me how to embroider. She would quickly inspect the front but then turn to the back of my work and check for neatness. It was equally important to her.
So after completing my button card, I went to work on my card front. I cut strips of patterned paper into different widths and adhered them to my card front. I also stamped some cute pattern piece images from Crafty Secrets on the card front.
Next, it was all about assembling my card elements.
I added a stamped Tiny Tag from my Etsy shop (sold out right now) and a Dainty Doily under the completed button card.
So pretty and dainty. Lots of elements that bring together a perfect sewing themed card.
I used some of the leftover patterned paper and Dainty Doilies to line the inside of the card and the interior of the card envelope. The inside sentiment reads *Cut from a pattern I love.* Perfect little sentiment for a friendly card.
Hope you enjoy my creation today. Be sure to check Melissa's blog for her wonderful take on buttons.

And back in my Etsy shop today: Long Sleeves, Short Sleeves, Notebook Slicks and Bookmark Slicks. I'm loving the uses you're coming up with using my packaging goodies. Enjoy!

DaNg, forgot my recipe again. Melissa and I think alike a lot. I have a fun recipe that I'm dying to try from Our Best Bites. It's so cute in the little jars and I'm craving peppermint this holiday season. It's called Peppermint Fudge Cupcakes. Enjoy!

RECIPE HERE

Pink Apron

Since I've been on this sewing themed kick lately, I just had to pull out one of Karen Lockhart's aprons to work with. This image is called Vintage Apron. I love paper piecing Karen's apron designs, it's like playing with paper dolls again. I stamped the apron image onto some Fancy Pants patterned paper and colored the trims a little with a pink Copic marker. For the background I scrunched up a piece of old sewing pattern. A pretty ribbon and tied pink buttons just add to the feminine sewing theme. For the inside of my card, I used some Crafty Secrets stamps for the sentiment and stitching line.
With all the crafty crazy going on, it's fun to reach for other types of crafting supplies....like the sewing themed stamps, old sewing patterns, my sewing machine, vintage buttons, etc. Oh how I love to dig through my goodies. Hope you're having a fabulous day!

Happy Fall Ya'll

Hi everyone, it's officially Fall and I love this time of year. It seems to not last long though around here. Our summer has extended itself all of a sudden and next thing you know it will be freezing! Such is the life of a Kansan though!


I have some Fall cards to share with you today. My first are made from Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty Scarecrow. I just *love* scarecrows. They have such happy faces. It's been ages since I've seen a real scarecrow though, maybe I need to revive that tradition in our garden. Plus I love the Wizard of Oz so I think it would be fitting to have a scarecrow in Kansas, don't ya think?
Images were colored with Copic markers. The Sketch tips really work great getting into those tiny detailed areas of Karen's stamps. I cut and embossed the image and also layered them onto square Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies. That extra detail adds just the right amount of texture to make the images pop off the page. I tied my images up with Papertrey Satin Chocolate Ribbon and then adhered them to my card fronts. Patterned paper is by Cosmo Cricket, they have some of my most favorite collections of papers.
And here's some Halloween cards I made using the Crafty Secrets Journaling and Images Booklets. They make for easy peasy cards for sure! I added all kinds of little tags and labels from Making Memories, and some sticker sequins too. Background papers on both cards are from Webster's Pages. I love that these Fall looking papers lend more of a Fall theme rather than being bright and bold Halloween colors.

Hope you all have a stellar day! It's nice and *crisp* here this morning, I can see that my flip flop attire will be coming to an end soon.

Bitty Blessings Animals.. Crafty Secrets

Today I have a baby card I made with an image from the Crafty Secrets Childhood Journal and Image Booklet. You can easily make many variations of cards just by choosing different images. They're already colored and ready to use! I chose this darling image of little baby stuffed animals having a birthday celebration. I simply matted it on yellow cardstock and then on a Labels 1 diecut from Spellbinders. The card base is cut from Papertrey Sweet Blush cardstock and has a layer of Crafty Secrets patterned paper that resembles chenille fabric, like a baby blanket. For the sentiment I used *Bitty Blessing* from Papertrey's Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set and another tag die from Spellbinders. I airbrushed the tag while the paper was still in the die template for a soft look. The tag is tied on with Papertrey Lemon Tart satin ribbon. I finished off the card with two pink flowers that are adorned with stitched buttons.

I just love the softness of this sweet card. It will be perfect for a sweet little someone's first birthday.