Happy 8 Years Blogging >> with a Giveaway <<!!

Happy Sunday my bloggy friends 🙂

This coming week marks 8 years that I have been blogging… usually at least once a week or more!!!  YAY!!

Vintage Needle Threader Water Soluble Marker 2 foam applicators Snap Bag made by ME!!!

To mark this momentous occasion I am hosting a giveaway on THIS blog post of all the above goodies!!!

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY >>>>>   Just let me know what you like MOST about my posts in a comment along with your favorite post topic of the last 8 years 🙂 <<<<<

Now on with my post for this week…

I got these cool water soluble marking pens from Amazon this week after reading about them a couple weeks ago on another blog… I also read about using foam tipped applicators dipped in water to remove lines!!!!  I loved this tip so that is why I am including BOTH in my giveaway for YOU to try too !!!

I made GRAND progress in the hand quilting arena this week finishing Elliana’s name completely and rolling the quilt!

Here is my morning view today…

 And a side view…

 And a close up before I got a good start 🙂

Linking this progress to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching post 🙂  HERE  Come see what everyone else is stitching by hand today over at her place ❤

I also shared this photo last week or the week before.. I have been pondering it and even ordered some fabrics in a mini jelly roll format to add to my civil war stash to make a coordinating table runner in our kitchen colors…

To the right is 12 log cabin blocks laid out like the pattern suggests but missing the stars… needs the stars…. so I made more logs at the right size and whah lah…

Now to just add star points to the logs I added and sew it all up this week 😀

Linking the table topper designing and sewing progress to Wendy’s Peacock Party HERE 🙂

I also got lucky finding a remnant of this fabric that is about 25″ square with 1 selvage for a bag for my daughter she requested a couple weeks ago 🙂

 Lynn Hagemeier is coming out with a new book called “Kansas Troubles Prairie Life” I want to get where she features lots of cute things but it includes directions for this pillow cover…

 I will make mine pillow shams but she has a couple different patterns so I will support her work and buy the book!

Bonnie Hunter had a Quilt – Cam on facebook Saturday.. it will be on her blog today if you are interested…

 She made these cute tulip blocks and gave tips on putting them together quick and easy 🙂

A girl in one of my hand quilting groups made this table topper… I am envious and wanna give it a go when I find time…

 Isn’t it lovely??  Here is a link to the tutorial on youtube by Fons and Porter 🙂

We have sold 2 of these sewing machines this week… my honey does a great job working on them and polishing them up and getting them ready to sell.

 This one came with a box and clamp… we had another one that didn’t have all that though.. both sold fairly quick on facebook 🙂

I got the most lovely snail mail happy mail this week…

 From a hand quilting blogger 😀  I have already given the needles a test run and LOVE THEM!!!!

I caught Molly being very cute this week…

 And for the second time in a week my honey picked me flowers to keep by my computer…

 I love that!!!

Now don’t forget to leave your email address if you are a no reply blogger and your name so I can get in touch with you if you are the lucky recipient of this stash of goodies to celebrate my 8 years blogging….

And made sure to be in love with your life!!!

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Happy mail from a blogging friend!

Earlier this week I got some HAPPY MAIL!!!  From a fellow blogger who is very accomplished and is very talented too… her name is Kathy Martin and she has Card-Blanc blog!  Check out her blog here!  I found Kathy’s blog a few weeks into blogging and love her crisp clean creations… most of which are cards!!!  My fave 🙂

So I replied to one of her blogs after she gave away one of her creations and I didn’t win to see if she would offer something like that again… she offered to send me some of her extras!!!!  Wowee!!!

So what did I get????  Lots of stuff 😉  First are some cute book marks my daughter immediately took as her own to share at school…. she is 14 😉

 And her favorite is the skeleton head because it reminds her of her favorite show “Bones”!

Then she sent me a cute Halloween card she had made that I had actually commented on in her blog how much I loved her design of folding down an edge… check it out!

LOVE the spider peeking out even if this pic is fuzzy… this one isn’t!

And if you look carefully she has put some of her precious hand sewing on this project so I can be inspired to try this art of hand sewing on cards for embellishment!

Next up are some matchbooks she designed using Doodlebug papers!  They are filled with note paper for making little notes!!!  Bet my daughter will snag these but I have plans to add 1 each to the Boo hangers I made in this post or this post.

Also in this cute lot of loveliness are these cute gift bags… they are about the right size for a fun sized candy bar so I will get some and fill them up to give to best constumes!!!  We have a LOT of trick or treaters 😉

Then she even included some candy in the form of 3d stickers for me to add to my projects… check them out!!!

Finally, and my most precious thing… is a card she personally wrote in and signed!  How lucky am I??!!!!

It has a dried flower on the front of it and says “take note”.  Inside she wrote me the most personal note just for me ;D

Do you have any friends you have made in blog land???  Do you enjoy meeting new people this way??  I have found several good friends through my blog that share similar interests… and now I think I have a hero in Kathy Martin!  She ROCKS!!!!

Here’s hoping your weekend was and is crafty!

Kathi

I won some BLOG CANDY!

How many times do you do all you should do to win some blog candy yet the random number chosen once again isn’t yours… don’t give up hope!  I just won blog candy from Tamra Pope a CTMH consultant and awesome blogger and crafter…(visit her here).  She gives great tips on her website so I joined and commented on her blog and followed her as per her requests and BOOM!… she picked my name!

the NF is new follower!  I am so excited to get the blog candy I can’t stand it!

I also got some happy mail!  Check out these great dies I got from My Favorite Things!  Super fast delivery and they are American made!  Can’t wait to make a project with them!

Hope you have a blessed week and don’t forget to check out The Paper Cabana for the challenge going on this week… Fall theme anything with paper and creativity to win something fun… and starting Wednesday 9/19 we will have a new challenge for you!

Blessings!  Kathi

How to make an envelope!

Today I want to talk you through how to make an envelope.  But first I have a few things to share:)

My daughter’s artwork she made for a friend (she is only 14 and very talented) ….

She made it for a friend that loves pink and horses!

Next… I got some happy mail to create with!

I just wanted to show you how nice it came wrapped… and shipped to me 2 days after I ordered it!!!  I had planned to create with these stamps next week for my mom’s box to fill… but now I can get started early!

I ordered these from Verve Stamps during a sale they are having right now and paid less than $40.00 for the whole lot of these stamps… they have lots of inspirational and christian stamps.  Perfect for making cards for her to enjoy giving!

The next happy mail I picked up this morning from Gina my CTMH chik!  She is very smart and inventive with scrapbooking and inspires me on a regular.  I got some new stamps, a Christmas card set and some embellishments…

And the cool thing on the new Artiste stamp sets for their new cart for the Cricut that just came out is now there is a page number next to the size to cut the image… how NEATO is that!!!!

Don’t think you can make it out buy under each size number is a page number… corresponding to the book to find the image you need!  AWESOME!!!  Now to get the cart!!!

Now onto why you are here… to find out how to make an envelope… well I messed mine up and fixed it but I will share my blooper then continue with how you properly make an envelope for an odd shaped card.

My card is 5″ x 5″.  It is the circular birthday card I blogged about early in the week.  I need an envelope and have some great princess paper that I haven’t used yet and it is burning a hole in my pink paper holder!!! lol

So double the size of your card and add 2″ and cut your paper there.  For me I didn’t have to cut because it was 12″.  This is your “long” side.  Next for the short side..

Take the width of the card and add 3″.  For my card that meant cutting at 8″.  With paper cut now it is time to score and trim excess.

As you can see in my pic I got crazy with the scoring and scored in the wrong places so here is the RIGHT way to do it.

Score the long sides at 1 1/4″ in.  This takes up the 3″ you alloted total with 1/2″ for your card to comfortable fit in… then on the short sides score on each side so your card fits in the middle with 1/4″ on each side…

Once you have it scored cut away the negative corners in like I have above except I went back and had to cut them more on the long edges… the flaps that stick out should only be as big as the card plus a half inch….

See the back side of my envelope and it will all make sense…

Notice I trimmed the top edges of the flaps down so that the envelope closed nicely… I did this before I taped it closed.  Also when I added my tape I added it to the big flap and not the side flaps as I could have put too much or not enough… putting it on the big flap and folding it up allowed the flap to have a good fold and look how nicely my custom made card fit in it!  SCORE!!!

The front has a crease down the middle where I went score crazy so it will have to be embellished to look cute … I will post that here later so check back to see how the finished envelope looks 🙂

Let me know if I should do a better tutorial or if this one made sense if you make your own envelopes too!  If there is an easier way please share it but once I understood how it went together it was easy to finish and primp with!  🙂

Happy Crafting!  Kathi