Some more recent paper creations

This is a birthday card I made for a friend. For her present, I gave her eight cards, two of each: masculine birthday, feminine birthday, hello, and congrats. It was a lot of fun making them. Too bad I forgot to include envelopes in the present, but I did finally get them to her.



This page I whipped out in minutes. It was one of those don't-think-just-create pages. It's not stellar, but it was fun to make.

Been Busy Scrappin

My images aren't that great, but I still thought I'd share. I had a lot of fun making these pages.

Before and After

My crafting area went on a diet. I cleaned out a lot of stuff. What I have learned is that I need TO STOP BUYING STUFF. Since my son was born two and a half years ago, I have only sewn a few things. Still, I have not stopped buying patterns and fabric. I need to make before I buy. Anyway, I'm proud of the work I did, and I now have a space that inspires me to create. (I have no idea why this text is underlined, and I can't figure out how to make it go away. Blogger can be frustrating at times.)

Some Stats:

• Gone: 2 1/2 garbage bags full of trash
  
• Gone: 2 shopping bags full of patterns
  
• Gone: 3 shopping bags of fabric and clothing items I had been saving for repurposing
  
• Purchased: 2 cloth baskets
• Purchased: 2 vases
• Created: 1 altered clipboard as decoration
  
• To be purchased: 12X12 vertical paper holders

Altered Clipboard

This is the before picture. I got this from a colleague who left the profession. It was all tagged up and whatnot. I wanted some artwork to hang in my crafting area. I didn't want to buy anything, so I brought this home and altered it:
I first painted it green. Then I scrapbooked a piece of paper to fit. I didn't even glue the paper down, just clipped it to the clipboard. This is the first altered item I've ever done and found it very fun. The journaling is a Thich Nhat Hahn quote:

If we are not peaceful,
if we are not feeling well in our skin,
we cannot demonstrate real peace,
and we cannot raise our children well either.

The Current Project

Right now, my current crafting project is to clean out my crafting space. I have been working on it little by little. Here are a couple "before" shots.




Looks cluttered and messy, doesn't it?


Some stats so far:

• Gone: 2 garbage bags full of trash
  
• Gone: 2 shopping bags full of patterns
  
• Ready to be gone: 3 shopping bags of fabric and clothing items I saved for repurposing
  
• Purchased: 2 cloth baskets
• To be purchased: 12X12 vertical paper holders

I'm looking forward to posting the "after" pictures.

Brown and Blue

I made some cards recently. I've mostly been working on cleaning out and organizing my crafting area. Once I'm done, I'll post before and after pictures. Meanwhile, I am not working on my large projects, just some cards here and there. Love summer, but I do wish I didn't save all these projects for summer when there isn't enough time to do them all.

I played with stitching this time. I liked the effect, but the light on light colors is very subtle. Next time, I'll stitch with contrasting thread.





July will be a low-impact month for me, which means I should do more scrapping and sewing, less shopping. I should probably load up on adhesives, however, as they're the one thing I tend to run out on.

Reengergized (Let's Hope It Lasts)

I haven't sewn in a loooong while. Yesterday, after listening to Material Mama's podcast, cleaning all the scrapbooking stuff off my sewing work space, and going to Joann's, I was feeling inspired. I prefer Butterick's patterns, and behold! they were on sale. Here's what I bought:

Although I've made shopping bags by using a plastic store bag as a pattern, I thought I'd try a couple of these out.

I liked this pattern (above) because it looks like a pretty versatile dress pattern - one that can be worn to work or hanging around town during the summer.

I love the lines on this dress and have the perfect fabric for it already. I only hope it looks good on me with all these extra pounds I'm carrying around these days.

Butterick pants fit me the best. I actually bought this pattern just for the pants, but think the sleeveless top and skirt might be good choices for some of the fabric my mom bought me a couple years ago.

Although I have a ridiculous amount of patterns in my stash, I needed new patterns, as I've gone up a size, which has taken me from one pattern size block to another. (One great thing about McCall's is that they have more variation in their groupings: 8-10-12, 10-12-14, 12-14-16.)

My plan is to first finish a UFO I started last summer. It's a skirt with maroon pinstripe fabric my mom bought me. I lost interest because it didn't fit and isn't terribly flattering, but I'm thinking that once it's done, hem and all, it will look flattering with the proper blouse.

Happy creating to all.