Pixie Cottage & Cute Card Thursday Challenges

This card is for the Pixie Cottage Challenge and the Cute Card Thursday Challenge. Pixie Cottage has a sketch challenge and Cute Card Thursday's was to make a card for someone special. This is for a dear friend who is going through cancer treatment. Hopefully she won't check my blog tonight. LOL! This is also my first EVER easel card! I cut out some of the floral motifs on one of the dp pages to make the flower.

Stamp: SU And everything nice
Ink: Memento Black
Markers: Copics
Paper: White, turquoise, purple, green; dp is K & Co. that was a gift from my special friend who is getting this card!
Other stuff: Scor-tape, cb embossing folder, Martha Stewart Punch (I think daisy), Nesties Labels something (sorry!), embellishments from my drawer of fun stuff!

Thanks for stopping by!

Clearly Inspired and Creative Card Crew Challenges

More cards at last! Woo-hoo! This card is for the Clearly Inspired Challenge: Flowers and the Creative Card Crew Challenge, a sketch. I used the Spellbinders pendant Fleur de Lis, which means Flower of Lily, so I did double flowers. LOL! Yes, I had to look it up to remember what Fleur de Lis meant.

Details:
Stamp: Clear Dollar Stamps June Flower of the Month Rose
Paper: SU dp, yellow, green & white non SU paper
Ink: Memento black, antique paper distress ink
markers: copics
other stuff: Spellbinders Fleur de Lis pendant; Nestabilities labels something that I can't remember, buttons & bows from a stash I got at Michael's, stick on pearls, double stick tape

Thanks for stopping by!

The Leona Geocaching Bag!

Phew, I think my brain just worked too hard! LOL! My dork sister Leona asked if I could make a geocaching bag for her. Some of you asked what a geocache bag was. Okay, EMILY asked! LOL! It's a bag used for geocaching. Clear as mud, right? Apparently, according to THIS site, geocaching is a "high tech treasure hunt" game. People hide small objects or sometimes just a page to sign, I THINK, and you use a GPS to navigate your way to the hidden geocache. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me yet, but several of the dorks started doing it with their kids & are having a great time with this. If you're new to my blog, the "dorks" are a group of women who enjoy rubber stamping and papercrafts and happen to be a little quirky or do silly things and admit it! LOL!

Leona wanted several different compartments for different items. This was the biggest challenge: figuring out how in the world to put in compartments. I figured it out, as you can see. Then, sewing the dividers down at the bottom was the next quandry. I ended up hand whipstitching these to the base of the bag. Next, I had to figure out how to put the inside & outside together. Typically, the inside of a bag is empty, so I just put the right sides of the fabric together, sew, and turn it right side out (flip your shirt inside out to see the stitching, then turn it the right way & this might make sense---but don't take your shirt off to do this unless you are alone. Just sayin'.). I also realized when I was working on how to put them together that the flap/lid had to go on somewhere before I put the parts together. I figured that out & sewed on the flap, only to discover I'd put it on backwards, with the striped side OUT! oops! Thank goodness for seam rippers. I finally figured the whole thing out & managed to put it all together today.




One thing I might change would be the top. I think a zippered top would be better on such a large bag. I'll let Leona try this out & see what she thinks. Leona got the "prototype" price but after making this, I am going to figure out what I will charge for custom bags like this. Also, I'm considering making the compartment section removable. In the meantime I have orders for a costume and another bag, so I'll leave this one until I get another request, I think.

Let me know what you think of this type of bag! I love your comments!

Midnight Madness BBQ: My recipe

Have you discovered the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge? I love it! I'd love it more if I could stamp every week, but I still love reading what's going on with Priscilla & her dt. Last week she through a dance party that took us from Ginger Rogers up to modern day. I'm pretty sure the Cupid Shuffle is easier than the Charleston! LOL!

This is a family favorite that I love to take to any potluck meals. BTW, do you call them potlucks? On our Dork Sister thread we've discussed that in some places they are called pitch-ins or carry-ins. I'd never heard those terms. I grew up calling them covered dish dinners. Growing up Methodist meant whenever there was a 5th Sunday, we had a covered dish dinner. When I grew up I learned that most people in these parts call them pot-luck meals.

In either case, you've all won a prize on MY blog because you get my mom's Chocolate Sheet Cake. Okay, so everyone's mom probably has a version of this, but MY MOM'S is the best! LOL! I've even made it gluten free and it's still pretty doggone tasty! Enjoy! And maybe I'll have some cards before the week is over.

Mammaw's Chocolate Sheet Cake
Sift: 2 c. sugar, 2 c. flour, 1 t. baking soda and 2 t. cinnamon in a large bowl

Put 1/4# margarine (1 stick), 1/2 c. shortening, 4 T cocoa and 1 c. water into a pan. Melt margarine and cocoa. Bring to a rapid boil over low to medium heat (not high, it will burn), stirring frequently. This will take a while. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix.

Add: 1/2 c. buttermilk (OR mix 1 T. lemon juice plus milk to make 1/2 c., let this sit for awhile or put in microwave for 20 seconds to sour), 2 beaten eggs and 1 t. vanilla

Grease a cookie sheet (jelly roll pan, one with edges) 11"x16". Pour in batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile make frosting:
Fudge Icing:
Over low heat bring to a boil:
1/4# margarine (1 stick)
4 T cocoa
6 T. milk (1/3 c.)

Add: 1 box (1#; 3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar, 1 t. vanilla and 1/2 c. nuts (optional). For a variety at Christmas you can omit nuts & sprinkle icing with crushed candy canes)

Mix well. Pour on cake while still warm. Most cakes say to wait til cake cools to ice, but this one is different.

Midnight Madness & Clearly Delightful/Doodle Pantry Challenge!

At long last I got to actually make a CARD today! I colored the image while I was in Houston last week with my dear friend Kathy who had a mastectomy. I'll be blogging about the "While you were sleeping" or recovering tour that her girls along with another friend's girls & mine went on in Houston. For today, I was delighted to make a real card! This is for 2 challenges: Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge and Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.

The Clearly Delightful Challenge is to use Blue & Green in the main image. I chose Laurie's Gummy Worms from her Doodle Pantry. This is a free image, which makes it even more fun for a frugal gal like me (though I've also bought plenty of images & stamps she's designed b/c I LOVE Laurie's work!).

The Midnight Madness Sketch this week is this:
If you click on the link you'll see that Priscilla threw a dance party last week! With all that moving around I built up the energy to get cracking on making a card! LOL!

Here are the details:
Stamps: Digi-stamp Gummy Worms from Doodle Pantry, Clear Dollar Stamps Christian Critters (also designed by Laurie Wilson)
Ink: memento black, distress broken china
markers: copics
paper: purple, pink, blue, white, dp is Paper Studio, all paper is probably from Hobby Lobby! LOL!
other stuff: Nesties Fleur De Lis pendant (cut and pasted to make border), gems, prima flower, Hobby Lobby paper clip

Thanks for dropping by!

What's Chef Mama Crafting?

Hi! I'm busy with life. As most of you know my dear friend Kathy will be having a mastectomy next Monday, so my heart & mind are consumed with thoughts of her. My girls & I are also going to Houston hoping to be able to keep Kathy's girls' minds off their mom with some activities. This week is "standardized testing" week here, so it's been up early every day and no regular homeschool. With that & next week in Houston, let's just say that May 17th will bring a rude awakening to these girls! LOL!

Anyway, I've been doing bits & pieces of crafting. I am hoping to get some Mom's day cards made for our moms at least. I have put some bags on my Loribelle Bags Blog, but think I put them all here, too. I have 2 more getting close to done, but also have some orders now, so those may take a back seat.

My first order was for a geocaching bag. Here it is:
Cute, huh? What? Not so cute? Oh, maybe you need to see the REST of it.
There, now, isn't that better? LOL! I actually just cut this out today. It is a from scratch bag with different compartments so I have done some calculating to make sure I cut this just right. What you see in the first picture is the "main frame" of the purse. That box is inside out right now, but will be the outside of the bag. The stripe will be used for the inside of the flap and one of the separators inside. The paisley will be used some inside, but the solid light blue will be the main lining and more of the separators. One of our dear "Dork Sisters," Joyce, has started the geocaching bug with several of the dorks. This bag, if I understand correctly, will hold a gps, cell phone, flashlight, "gives and takes" (no clue here!), books & papers, and bug spray! I'm going to make the strap adjustable so if one of the kids wants to carry it the strap should adjust to fit.

Now THIS pile is the "rest of the story" in bagland.
Yes more of that green & pink print! If you can see the bit of batik, I'm making another ruffled bag with that. The print will actually be a purse. That purple liquid is an amazing spray I bought at Hancock Fabric that you use instead of spray starch. It works just as well but leaves no residue. I love it!

Yes, everyone has 2 pairs of sewing scissors on the table at a time! Well, maybe not. The big orange ones are my pinking shears. That's the zigzag scissors for you non-sewers. You might see something near & dear to all of your hearts on this table, though. STAMPS! You just can't go too far in this house without running into some stamps. I do love to make a good impression. Bwahahahahaha!

Hopefully I'll be able to make some good impressions for our moms before Saturday when we are going to see them!

Thanks for dropping in!

Look at this JACKPOT of Blogaversary Candy!

Look what Priscilla & friends are giving away at the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge! If you go to THIS LINK you can see the entire list in detail. WOW! Hop on over & try out the sketch while you're there!

New Bag & New Look!

If you want to read a funny story about what kids do in Texas when it's hot & there's no pool, or if you want to see what I made that I can eat & is WOW so good, you can check out my family blog HERE.

Here's a picture of my latest bag. You can read all about it in THIS post.

Now for the new look! All of the bags I've made so far have used a standard "grid" design. By that I mean, I sewed a bunch of lines going one direction (on the diagonal), then I criss-crossed those with diagonal lines going the opposite direction. I've seen something called "Free Motion Quilting" and have been reading about it for months now. I even bought the special foot for this a couple of months ago. However, it wasn't until recently that I ventured to actually try this. I started on scraps, but got brave enough to try it on a bag that I had cut out but had yet to quilt.

You may need to click on the images to see the details, but in this type of quilting, you move the bag around on the sewing machine whichever way you want to stitching to go. You have to lower the little "feed dogs" (those metal bars that pull the fabric through the foot as you sew). My old machine didn't have this feature, so I was so happy to get a machine last fall that was able to do this! By doing this, it's almost like you're "drawing" with your needle, but instead of the needle moving, as a pen would, you move the fabric to create the designs. I did what I have learned is called a "meandering" stitch. It works for me. I meander all the time. I thought it would look pretty with this bold print. I will tell you that I have the thread color memorized (it's Coats 1840 if you wondered!) and am still working on more PINK bags, so I may need a refill of that thread!

I also decided to buy some actual quilting thread and used that on this bag. The all cotton thread has a feel that is almost silky. It's not at all what I expected, but I love how it feels. It's a fun change and it opens up a new area of quilting for me. There are about a gazillion different "free motion" stitches you can do, so I have a feeling I'll be "trying" this method for a LONG time!

Thanks for stopping by!