Father's Day Card 2011

This is one of my first cards this year, made for my Dad this past Father's Day.  I never realized how faded my ink was getting!  The background paper is from a paper book I have, the white paper is photo paper (I believe), and the stamps and ink are mine.

Nice and simple inside, with the same materials as the front.

As you can see, I made a fake cover with the cardstock, it's actually another leftover wedding invite!  Hope you all have a great weekend!!  I'm off to clean the house and maybe knit if I finish in time... :)  JEM

New Goodies!

Man, I feel like it's my birthday or something - so many new fun things!  I recently picked up this edger punch and corner punch after my experience using my MILs.  All these crafting supplies are ridiculously expensive, but I only buy them on sale.  Both of these were 50% off (yae for coupons!), and I love the fact that the edger punch has a guide so you know where you did the last punch.  Unfortunately, I have no one to make a card for right now - le sigh - so they are sitting waiting to make their debut!

This is pretty neat - Spoonflower sent me this fabric for free during their (I'm pretty sure it's annual) 24-hour swatch giveaway back in August.  I don't quilt or anything, but I thought it might be fun to include fabric on a card??  Plus, I just love owls.

I just bought this baby today.  This is a pretty intense crafting tool kit.  I bought it on sale of course (40% off)!  I received A LOT of brads from my mom and also a friend, and after pricing the items I would need individually, this was a good deal.  You can tell by looking at the kit that you would have a lot of these items around the house, but do you really want to have to go to your tool box, bathroom, and school supply stuff to put it all together when it's in one convenient location?  Well, I don't :)

Anyway, I'll give you a quick breakdown of what's in this kit:
1.  Paper Piercer/Stylus: 2-in-1 tip, one end is a paper piercer, and one end is a stylus.  Pretty self-explanatory.
2.  Tweezers: For picking up small or hard to grab objects.
3.  3"x3" Cutting Mat: This will protect surfaces when cutting, hole punching, setting eyelets, and other things like that!
4.  Craft Knife: Yep.
5.  Craft Glue: Apparently glue is ideal for scrapbooking and paper crafting.  Who knew?  ;)
6.  Hammer: For when you get frustrated...  Or for hole punching, etc.
7.  Emery Board: Use for distressing paper, cards, etc.  Just the thought of doing this gives me the shivers!!
8.  6" Metal Ruler: This ruler has a straight metal edge (no way!) that makes for easy cuts with the craft knife.
9.  Setting Base: Metal base with magnetic interchangeable tips.
10.  Tips: hole punches and setting tips in 1/16", 1/8", and 3/16" sizes for setting eyelets, snaps and MORE...
11.  Plus also, scissors.

Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting.  I noticed in the last post that I used the word "spice" multiple times, and now I just did it with "anyway".  Is that okay or is it just annoying?  Bye for now!  ~ JEM

Nicole's Birthday Card

We has the internets again!!  YAE!  We haven't had internet service for well over a week, and man it's true - you don't know what you've got til it's gone!  Aaaanyway, here's my latest card: I love it!  My favorite thing about this card is the corner punch, courtesy of MIL.  It's so simple, yet it does so much!  The main body of the card is still from my wedding invites, the red paper and blue ink from my mom's stash,  the gold paper recycled from my friend's wedding invite, the white paper from a friend's stash, and the stamps are mine.  The cutco scissors gracing three of these pictures - also mine ;)

Once again spicing up the inside of the card is the corner punch.  I put red paper behind each so they would really stand out.  The source of the materials on the front of the card are the same throughout.  I think I  need to get more creative with some of the messages though - it was hard to come up with something!

I think my favorite part of this panel is the candle stamp.  I'd never used it before and thought it would spice up the inside, and I think it balances everything out.

I used a special gold gem from my friend's wedding invite to match the colors of the rest of the card.  What do you guys think?  Love, JEM

SnapPea Hat

Hello!  I am a really cool fuzzy green hat!  I am going to be worn by S.  JEM finished knitting me in her new condo!  She has a STARS band-aid on her finger because she cut it on a sharp knife.  Ow!

This hat actually has a really cool story.  Back in 2009, my friend S knitted a cowl for me out of the same yarn as this hat.  In return, I was to knit her something.  Well, 2 years later I have completed the task - and it's a good thing I didn't do this 2 years ago because my knitting skills weren't this advanced yet.

The story gets even better though!  With 5 rows left to go in the hat, I ran out of yarn.  And this is not just any yarn that you can get at your local Michaels or Zellers!  I got this Mirasol Sulka yarn on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC.  Plus it is hand dyed so the dye lots are never the same.  How in the world was I going to find the same kind of yarn that I purchased 2 years ago?  Enter www.ravelry.com. On a whim, I decided to see if anyone out there in the great wide web would have the yarn.  And someone did!  This wonderful lady from Ohio shipped out the remaining yarn I needed, and in return I swapped some of this same yarn, only in a different color.  THANK YOU!!

So I finished the hat last night, and have only to mail it out to its owner.  I really hope she likes it!  I do - I want to make one for myself now!!  But this time I will make sure I have enough yarn... o_0  JEM

Autumn Leaves

Now, I know it's a pretty hot day out today, but every time I turn on my computer, I see this image from our trip to Vancouver last November.  Such beautiful colors!  I would love to make a print of this sometime...  I'm excited for the coming colors of fall!

G's Phlames Phoodie

So G saw my previous post for myPhoodie and decided that she wanted one in Calgary Flames colors.  After some conversing, this is what we came up with.

I think it's super cute!  The colors are pretty much a perfect match...  Funny story though: I ended up knitting this in downtown Edmonton while my husband wrote an exam!  I tried not to be too conspicuous, but I definitely felt as though I had a death wish!

G will receive it this weekend - I hope she likes it!

myPhoodie

Today I finished myPhoodie!  It's a cute little hoodie that fits my iPod inside perfectly.  The pattern is one I found on ravelry.com (an amazing knit/crochet community!)

For years I've been keeping my iPod in a sock that lost its mate.  If you want to hear a great song by a Canadian, check out "The Ballad of the Orphan Sock" by Bryce Kulak.  It makes me tear up every time.

Anyway, I chose to make this hoodie look rather varsity simply because I ran out of purple yarn.  I think it looks pretty cute anyway.  At first I hated the project because the yarn split constantly, but it was from my stash and I was just trying to use it up!

Looks pretty awesome from the back too!

What do you guys think?