crafting this and that

Hello!  This year I thought I would try sewing up some Easter baskets.  I was planning to buy some cute Easter fabric but then thought I should just use the material I have.  I did buy some cute fabric for the liner since I used up all my other pink material I usually use for the liners in bags.  I also added names for personalization. Here is the first one I made.  I started out with 9 x 12 inch pieces of fabric so these turned out to be good sized baskets with lots of space for goodies.  Now I have to go search for some goodies to add!  I think for this material, the name does get kind of lost with the busy Hello Kitty background. Here is the second one I made.  The name stands out a lot better. These baskets are pretty wide too, about 5 inches. I'm working on another Easter goodie for a little boy.  Hopefully I can pull it off!  Might be a little tricky for a beginner sewer like me. Thanks so much for stopping by! ...

Hi everyone!  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  I can imagine it will be getting a bit crazy from here on out.  I still have a few things to get on my list and then it's wrapping everything that will take a bit of time. Today I have the rest of my monthly planners that I finished up to share. These are large planners that I made pretty with some washi paper.  So usually I would try to make them all different by using different washi papers but it is so much easier just to make them all the same!  Plus I really like this pink washi paper.  I added Hello Kitty made from a Sizzix die and the year made from PTI numbers die. This is the back.  The front piece overlaps to the back if you can see it. Here is a different one I made since I ran out of the pretty pink washi paper.  I like this one too.  This is a sample of the inside pages.  They all have vinyl covers too. The past couple days I've been doing som...

Hi everyone!  It is so humid here that I get all sweaty just washing the dishes!  I hope that counts as some kind of exercise. I've switched gears back to paper crafting and put my sewing on the side for a bit.  I wanted to make something fun and it was inspired by some sticker shopping.  I bought these cute stickers and instead of just mailing them to my friend's daughter, I thought it'd be cute to make a sticker book too.  Plus I had this idea of using clear contact paper on the pages so the stickers would be removable.  I bought the roll of contact paper for the Pokemon wrappers that I had sewed up.  Such an economical roll of contact paper!  I think I can still make a lot of projects. Here is the cover of the book.  I used my Sizzix Hello Kitty die for the cover.  I had this one sheet of HK paper for a while too so finally I was able to use it.  I covered this page with contact paper as well just to kind of protect it a bi...

Hi everyone!  Yay!  Sister Stamps previews will be starting soon!  Did you see how cute the stamps are for the June release?  I'll be back later to share my Sister Stamps creations. Today, I have some cards to share that I made for the teachers.  These are all very simple since I made about 12.  Then I realized that I usually don't make special school themed cards.  Most of the time I give the cards I've been making through out the year.  Otherwise my stash of cards is just out of control. See, simple right?  I used MFT's apple die and cut the apples with some red felt.  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. A couple of other Thank you cards with different sentiments, also from Lawn Fawn.  I really liked how the felt apple turned out. Then I made some washi paper apples for the Japanese language teachers.  I made 5 of these.  These apples turned out so pretty! And more sewing!  These are longer than the ...

Hello!  Happy Monday!  Can't believe there are only 2 more months of school left and it'll be summer soon.  This year is really flying by and my kids are growing so fast!  Wish everything could slow down a bit.  In between some DT projects, I've been trying to make some Hello Kitty boxes. This is the first box I made using La-La Land's Trinket Box Kit .  I love these little boxes and it does take some time to put everything together but so worth it in the end.  This Hello Kitty is from an older Sizzix die and it's all pieced together with some crushed velvet cardstock.  Sorry if the photo seems a bit bright.  All that gold cardstock seems to throw the color off. Here is a different angle to show the layering of Hello Kitty's heart and arm. This is the inside.  I used some washi paper I purchased online from Hanko Designs .  These are so pretty! Here's another box using a different Hello Kitty die but same idea. T...

Hello!  I am trying to stock up on more 2015 calendars!  I dug out my old Sizzix Hello Kitty dies and made a few calendars plus some other goodies that I'll share another day. These calendars measure 4.25 x 5.5 inches.  I used some pretty washi paper that I recently ordered and the calendars are the tear off kind from Taylored Expressions. This is the back and I added the easel diecut for easy standing. Here is a close up of Hello Kitty.  Her face and bow were cut from crushed velvet cardstock.  Her nose is gold and her eyes and whiskers are black.  It does take some time to cut and glue all the tiny pieces on.  Here are a couple more using different washi paper. Hope you are not too tired of seeing calendars!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hello!  The latest Sister Stamps are out!  There is a list of stores that sell them on the Sister Stamps blog sidebar. Typically, the DT doesn't create anything for release day but because we had a break and I was kind of crazy feeling, I made some calendars.  So you're thinking, oh boy, more calendars but these are different, people.  Remember when I said, or wrote, that I should start making 2015 calendars?  Well, I did!  I bet a whole bunch of you thought I wouldn't but I made five 2015 calendars!  Three of them use the new Sister Stamps girls and the other two have the ever popular and loveable Hello Kitty. This is the first one I made using a calendar I found on the internet and features Misaki.  It measures 5.5 by 8.5 inches and is on heavy chipboard.  It is pretty sturdy and should last the whole year.  There is some ribbon on the back to hang up somewhere. Then I realized, hey I should make my own 2015 calenda...

Hi!  Anybody else scrambling to get Xmas gifts done?  Geez, I feel so rushed this year.  I think I procrastinated too much with blog hopping and Lego and not to mention some late nights fighting with my youngest.  This is the last week of school before Xmas break!  Where did the time go??  Anyway, I came across some cute Hello Kitty calendars on Jenny's (Sister Stamps) blog HERE .  I love that they were simple to put together cause I wanted to give some calendars out to the teachers but didn't want to make it too complicated since I was short on time.  And I had Sunghee's 2012 calendar template too which is pretty easy to use and so economical.  Yup, I pretty much stuck with the same design except my calendars are a bit taller.  I used PTI's coaster board and wrapped it with some washi paper.  I haven't used my Hello Kitty sizzlits in a while so at least I got some use of it.  Then just added a small magnetic strip on the ...

I actually have another card!  I was debating about posting it, but I figure since I actually spent time making it, I might as well, otherwise who knows when I'll get a chance to make anything again.  Plus it took me so long to die cut the Hello Kitty.  So again, I found a sketch, this time at Card Positioning Systems #213 . I wanted to use my Sizzlit Hello Kitty that Eva got me probably from a year or 2 ago, along with the Easter eggs.  I actually used this die cut last year, but my son used it for his own crafts, then before I knew it Easter had passed. So I mainly got to work first on die cutting Hello Kitty and giving her a hot pink bunny suit. And then I pasted her suit on and realized I had forgotten to color her whiskers!  So I penned it in and it looked messy...so I had to cut everything again!  The second time I used a tip I read on someone's blog a while ago, and sorry, but I forgot who it was.  I think it was someone from ...

Here's a pretty simple birthday card, actually I guess all my cards are pretty simple, because after putting together the Hello Kitty, I was exhausted! The Hello Kitty is from a Sizzix die, paper pieced using PTI plum pudding cardstock and patterned paper from one of the paper pad collections. I tried paper piecing the whiskers on this one, it was a little easier since the Hello Kitty is rather large. She is supposed to be holding a "happy birthday" flower. I used a swirly border die for the stem. The sentiment is a Stampin Up stamp, plum pudding ink on sweet blush cardstock, don't know why I picked that color. And I don't know why the bitty dot paper looks like a slightly different color than the plum pudding cardstock, but they seem to match better in person. The background is lavendar moon cardstock cut from a Nestability label.