Easter Bunny Card

I made three of these cards - two are for our Compassion International girls and the other is for my niece.




I am also sending our Compassion girls some sticker books - one is Easter related and the other is a collection of farm animals.  I'm also enclosing a letter to them with an explanation of how Easter falls during the Spring here and that bunnies and eggs have come to symbolize the new birth of Spring.  Then I am going to tie that in with our new birth through Jesus' suffering at Easter.  I've really struggled with how to explain these concepts but hopefully this will dispel some of what I am sure will be some confusion on their parts.  I first thought about creating cards for them with crosses on them but I just couldn't resist this adorable bunny.  I have to justify my Cricut cartridge purchases somehow!


Supplies:
Cricut Create a Critter 2 - Bunny cut at 3.5" out of Core'dinations card stock and mounted on an Action Wobble
Pattern Paper - DCWV Year Round Stack
Solid Cardstock - Core'dinations
Punch - Fiskars Daisy Punch
Ribbon - American Crafts Amy Tangerine Collection
Ink - Momento Dew Drop Bamboo Leaves
Sentiment Stamp - Hobby Lobby Easter Collection
Adhesives - ATG, Zig 2 Way, and glue dots

This is a standard A2 sized card and I cut each layer 1/4" smaller than the one underneath.  For the piece that I punched and threaded ribbon through, I cut that one at 3.5" x 3".

China Girl Dress - Simplicity 2464

My niece is having a birthday in a couple weeks so I made her this cute outfit and matching purse.

I've had the fabric for years (got it from Joann) and my original use for it didn't materialize - long story there!  So...it has just languished in my pile.  I figured it would be great for a little girl so when I dug out this adorable Daisy Kingdom pattern from my dusty stash of patterns-I've-purchased-because-they-were-only-a-$1-and-I-might-be-able-to-someday-use-them (I probably have about a kajillion of those in my stash) I just knew it was a match made in heaven!  I love the Daisy Kingdom patterns because they are so unique and they usually have a little something extra to coordinate with the outfit - this time it's a purse.

If I use this pattern again I think I will create a facing instead of using bias tape to bind the neck edges.  It was a bear and I just think a facing would hold up better to washing and wearing.  The little purse is probably my favorite part.  My husband picked out the button and it looks like jade but is really plastic.

Lover's Knot Quilt

Wow!  Something actually sewing related has been completed!  This one has actually taken so very long that I should probably give it 10 posts all to itself!  I gave the unquilted quilt top to my (then) boyfriend (now husband) for Christmas in 2010.  I had pieced the quilt top with plenty of time to get to a quilter and have it done for Christmas but then he and I had been at a quilt show and he was gushing about how much better he liked the hand quilted items.  I knew right then and there that sending it off to be longarmed would not be the way to go.  It has taken me over 3 years of picking it up and putting it down to get it done.  One of my written down goals for this year - I've found that writing them down makes them much more apt to happen - was to finish this quilt.  I'm actually quite shocked I got it done so soon.

I used the Eleanor Burns Lover's Knot pattern and all my fabric is from the higher end line of quilting fabrics from Joann.  Unfortunately I don't have any of the selvage ends hanging around so I can't list the exact fabric names.  I used Warm & Natural batting which was wonderful to quilt through.  I used Americana Quilting Thread in natural for the hand quilting and the binding stitches.  I went through quite a few hand quilting needles and in the process found my favorite needles - Fons and Porter size 20.  I started out the hand quilting process using a huge wooden hoop but purchased a PVC frame when I started the medallions on the edges.  I can't recommend that PVC frame enough!  It made it so much easier to adjust the fabric as I went along.  I prefer to do my hand quilting on fabric that is a bit on the loose side.

This is the largest hand quilting project I've ever done and while I won't say never on doing another one, I do think it will be quite a while before I attempt another king size!  This quilt measures 91" x 102" finished.  Yikes!!

Things I would have done differently:  used a darker light so I didn't have that stark white staring at me in the design, used a print of some sort for the backing rather than white, and purchased the PVC frame much sooner than I did.

Anyhero and Thank You File Folder Cards

I've been following this awesome person on YouTube for quite a while now.  She recently did this really cool technique using the envelope punch board.  I adapted her design for some Anyhero and some Thank You cards I wanted to make to put in my shipment to Operation Write Home.  I will put the link to Schell's tutorial at the bottom of this post but will also note below what I did differently.

I cut my card bases out of the Sam's white card stock.  I cut them at 5.5" x 7.5 " rather than leaving them at 8.5" like Shell did and then trim them later - it works either way.  I used patterned papers from the Proud to Serve collection from The Paper Studio and my solid colors are all Core'dinations card stock.  The stamp set I used is the Fiskars Mini Thank You set for the sentiment and a little $1 set from Stampabilities for the air mail image.  I used several different inks to match my papers - Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans and then Momento Dew Drop in Rhubarb Stalk and London Fog.

It does take a little bit longer to make these cards than regular ones since you have a bit of cutting to do and then you need to make an insertable card for someone to write their message.  But I think the uniqueness of the cards makes it all worth it!

Thank you Schell for putting up some awesome tutorials!

Schell's original tutorial:  http://youtu.be/J-105JsjmDg