Bigshot quilt

I had my first go at quilting just recently and I finally finished the quilt so I thought I would post it here. It's not the most traditional of Stampin' Up! projects but I have used a couple of SU! products to show you some of the versatility in your stamping stuff that you already have lying around at home.

This is a little cot sized quilt that I made using the Scallop Square Bigz Die & my bigshot to cut all the squares.
If you're a quilter you've probably already spotted the main difference between my quilt and a normal rag quilt, however I'm not a quilter and I just started happily stitching along before I thought to check out any tutorials etc, so I didn't know that when you quilt a rag quilt you should quilt the backing, batting & front piece together all before you start assembly rather than assembling the front first then quilting the backing & batting together to the front at the end.
It wasn't until I took it to my friend (who is a quilter) and said "What do I do now?" that she told me all the things wrong I'd done (she was rather too helpful with that part lol!). But with a little creativity (mostly on her part) we were able to work around my mistake and find a way to make it work. Had I done it properly it would have just been a case of stitching around the border to keep the edge pieces together & the quilt would have been finished by that stage, but oh well, we live & learn right?

I attached a border around the edges, then cut the batting & back to size. I pinned it all together & stitched these little borders around the outside (I'm sure there is some technical quilting term but I'm happy with borders). Since there wasn't traditional quilting over the middle of the quilt to hold the pieces together I did have to add a few little hand stitches in amongst the ruffled edges to hold the 3 pieces together and make sure that it could be gentle machine washed.

To finish it off nicely I folded some Marina Mist Striped Grosgrain in half to make a sweet little border around the edge of the quilt. The extra wide grosgrain is soft enough that it was easy to handle and the edge of the quilt is still nice and flexible. I originally added this to hide yet another mistake I had made but I'm really glad it worked, I think the Marina Mist looks really good next to that baby blue flannelette.
I wish you could feel this quilt, it is all sof flannelette & so so soft! I didn't want to give it away at the baby shower, I wanted to cuddle up to it in my own bed instead!
I enjoyed making this quilt so much that I'm going to have another go at a rag quilt & this time I am going to make it properly, I will be in Bathurst today so I'm so excited to go to spotlight and pick out some fabric for Charlotte's quilt!!! It will be the first time in years that I will be making a beeline for the material section rather than the scrapbooking/crafts area!
Too bad SU! don't have their beautiful range of fabric available in Australia, I could be ordering right now from the comfort of my couch :) Speaking of ordering, if anyone needs anything I will be placing an order for myself  next week so if there's anything you want while you can still earn Sale-a-Bration freebies drop me a line and I might be able to save you a little on postage by combining your order with mine

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Bigshot: Scallop Square Clear Bigz Die
Accessories: Marina Mist 1 1/4" Grosgrain

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Blog Award

Even though I haven't blogged consistently in forever, 2 of my beautiful blogging friends awarded me this little lovely blog award!
Kathy awarded it to me as an encouragement to keep blogging and Louise (can't wait to catch up with you at Convention!!!!!!) awarded it to me for being inspirational.

As a condition of being nominated I have to pass the love onto 5 bloggers. I'm going to cheat and just nominate 5 rather than 5 per award given to me :)
I have chosen 5 of my favourite bloggers, you know the ones that when you open your google reader and see there is a new post you have to read it before you read any of the others? So here they are in no particular order:

• Naomi - Naomi is a real life friend as well as a blogging friend and she isn't a stamping blogger (despite the blog name inkcrush) but if you love to read you'll love her blog, Nomes has a passion for reading (and goes through books like noone else) and she has never given me or recommended to me a book that I haven't liked yet.
• Karen - As well as being a sweet person that I "met" on SCS Karen is one of the most dedicated stampers I know, some days I think she must enter every stamping challenge on the web! I hope one day I can catch up with Karen in real life!
• Allison - Allison is another lovely person I "met" online, I can't remember how I stumbled across her blog but I'm so glad I did! I now consider her a friend and I was so excited to get a Christmas card from her last year, all the way from CANADA! Apart from having great taste in Girl's names (she has a Charlotte too!) she is a dedicated blogger with a new post (or 3) most days. If you like sketch challenges make sure you check out her blog, she has a linky program thingie set up that you can enter any sketch challenges that you find so there is a great consolidated list of sketches any time you feel that your mojo is waning.
• Leonie - Leonie is one of my twitter/facebook buddies as well as a brilliant stamper. She even organised accomodation for my downline & I at convention even though we weren't part of her team and there's nothing in it for her (except of course Leanne's & my company!), for that I am very grateful and I can't wait to spend some more time with her in person!
• Robyn - Robyn is another challenge enterer, and she makes some beautiful cards & I have a couple of favourited at the moment to copy later on down the track! I'm lucky enough to have "met" Robyn through my upline Lisa and hopefully we can catch up in person when I'm in her neck of the woods for SU! convention.

The list could go on and on and on so hopefully I haven't made anyone feel left out, but make sure you swing by the girls I nominated and check out their work!

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Card Buffet #2

This is the other card I designed for the card buffet on Monday morning's craft day, I thought since it was on Valentines day that i would include a Valentines Day card for anyone who had forgotten, but at the same time make it a card that would suit any romantic occasion.
It's an unusual card for me and I love it, but considering my lack of mojo I'm assuming it's one of those "see it one day, forget the next but it sticks in your head just enough to make you think it's a new idea" kind of situations, so if you think I've stolen your design let me know and I'll give you credit lol!

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Stamps: Love Defined
Ink: Pear Pizazz, Cake Crumb, Blushing Bride, Poppy Parade
Cardstock: Pear Pizazz, Cake Crumb, Blushing Bride, Poppy Parade, Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Trim Corner, Mini Library Clip


Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Card Buffet

I'm having a craft morning today to celebrate the kids being back at school or preschool for the year this morning and the intention is for everyone to bring along their own project to work on, but if they don't have something in mind I've made up some card packs for a "card buffet" basically the girls can buy the card pack they want and make the project using the instructions included.
This is the first card I designed, I kept it fairly simple so that it could be easily made with just the instructions and while I will be around to answer any questions I won't have to demo the whole card for them. I'm hoping to do a few of these mornings this year, and I'll just add a couple of card designs to the buffet each time so there's a few to pick & choose from like a true buffet.
Because my mojo is still on Christmas vacation it is almost a direct case of this card by Jodie Oliver (but don't go and look because you'll see how much better her version is lol), I've just changed up the colour scheme and ribbon.

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Stamps: Party This Way
Ink: Basic Grey, Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush
Cardstock: Lap of Luxury DSP, Basic Grey, Pretty in Pink, Concord Crush
Accessories: Victoria Lace Crochet Trim


Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Tanja & Adam

I was honoured to be able to make wedding invitations for a friend from work and her fiance, I love the design we came up with together! (Ignore the smudgey marks, I had to edit out the personal details for privacy reasons.) Simple but elegant and I think it suits what they are aiming for in their big day. The photo doesn't do justice to the shimmer white cardstock, it's beautiful and especially in case of wedding cards it justifies the little extra you pay for it.

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Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Ink: Concord Crush
Cardstock: Shimmer White, Concord Crush, (non SU! silver paper from an invitation design store)

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Tropical Party Birthday

After Christmas I desperately needed to kick my mojo back into gear so this was my attempt to get back in the groove. I'm happy with the card but as it took me about 4 days to get it to a point where I was happy (and then I smeared the sentiment! argh) I think I'm not quite there yet.
I used the new Tropical Party Stamp set & Island Oasis DSP as well as Well Scripted, all in the Summer Mini and I love how bright & cheery it looks!
I stole the layout from this sketch over at Sketches by Tamara.

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Stamps: Island Oasis, Well Scripted
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Old Olive
Cardstock: Island Oasis DSP, So Saffron, Shimmer White
Accessories: Mini Glue Dots (millions!) Dimensionals

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould

Stampin' Up announces how they will help the victims of recent flooding

The following announcement was made on the SU! website today:

As flood waters continue to inundate Australia in what has been described as the worst flooding in 37 years, we express our deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones and homes and to those whose lives have been changed forever. We, like so many of you, feel a compelling need to lend support to all those who have been affected.

Stampin' Up! demonstrators have a long history of making a difference in the lives of others--especially when disaster strikes and the need is greatest. Nearly two years ago, we watched another tragedy unfold in Australia. Our hearts were touched as demonstrators, customers and friends joined together in support of the Bushfire Appeal. We've done it before and we can certainly do it again!

Please join with us by supporting the Australia Flood Appeal--a cause in which Stampin' Up! will donate $2 AUD of the retail value of sales from any stamp set (with a retail value of $30 or more) sold in Australia and New Zealand from 15 January through 15 February to the State Emergency Services in Queensland.

In addition to SU!'s generous offer, since I would hate to profit from other people's misfortune, so I will also be donating any Instant Income commission from Stampin' Up! sales for the duration of the Stampin' Up! appeal.

Sorry about being away for so long, it was one of my goals to be more up to date this year with my blog, but every thing that could has gone wrong when it comes to my stamping time lately, I have a card in progress sitting on my desk just waiting for the finishing touches wanna see what stopped me from finishing it up? (warning it is not for the faint of heart...) http://yfrog.com/h78r5wj

Images © Stampin' Up!, Designs © Zarna Gould