Fabric Card Tutorial

Holiday Cards made with fabric, tutorial:

My crafty chica friend Ramona, whose blog address is on the right side over there...came over to craft with me and we made fabric cards. She saw the idea at a craft show and figured out how to do it. So without further ado, she and I will share with you too...

Materials you will need:
Scissors,
Rotary cutter (optional),
Self healing cutting mat (optional),
Christmas material or any festive material you wish to use,
Heat and Bond fusible paper, (available at JoAnns)
Blank cards, (available at JoAnns)
An Iron

Step One: Cut out cute little pieces of fabric.

Step Two: Cut out the Heat and Bond fusible paper to match the back of the fabric - you want to be precise here, so that the paper doesn't stick to your iron.

Step Three: Take the fabric face up with the Heat and Bond on the bottom and stick your iron on it for TWO seconds (it doesn't take long!). IMPORTANT - In both iron steps you don't move your iron around you just hold it still.

Step Four: Peel off the back of the paper, you have now made what I like to think of as a "fabric sticker" and you are now ready to put it on a card.
Step Five: Then you iron it onto the card for about 10 seconds. Remember to hold the iron still.

Step Six: Go crazy embossing, decorating and embellishing :-)

Ramona made this one, the Snowflake in the middle is embossed.

I was having fun with some curvy fabric that I used my rotary cutter to cut out with. These are not yet finished, I plan to stamp and emboss some sayings on these as well.

Ramona made this one.

My "me time"

It has been an interesting week. I have been sick, DD has been sick and the snow has started to really fly!!!

Tonight I decided to head to the YMCA for some "me time". I wanted to do a light work out since I was down and out yesterday. So I arrive for my "me time" AND I find a FIVE YEAR OLD standing alone OUTSIDE the doors, saying "Mommy!!!" I look around and see a few people leaving but no one concerned about this little guy. He had tears in his eyes. I said to him, "Ok, buddy lets go back inside." Since the front desk is right there I took him over and told the lady I found him outside and Mom is not in sight. So we get his name, William and she looks him up on the computer and finds the pic of his Mom, so the lady was going to take William and go look for Mom and I said instead of taking him how bout I go look for her. So I studied her pic on computer screen and I went and found her. I explained that I found her son OUTSIDE (mind you it is 30 degrees and snowing here). She VERY NON CHALANTLY said "Oh, I thought he was playing right here." And then proceeds to walk to the front desk, SLOWLY. Oh boy, and mind you I have no idea where her six year old daughter was. Maybe she was playing in the right area. But she wasn't with us.

And to top that I heard a mom in Target say to her child,

Child Says: Mom this is only one dollar.
Mom: Stop reading! You might get smart by accident!!!!!!!!

Me thinking to self: WOW, WOW, WOW,

WHY ME????? :-)

Green Cleaning...

A long time ago I posted about this. I have an interest in green cleaning. I used to buy the Green Works and it is nice and works well, but when it ran out I decided to try my hand at green cleaning, so I bought a large bottle of white vinegar for just a few bucks. All you need is the white vinegar, an empty squirt bottle and water from your tap. To get started all you do is put in half water and half white vinegar a 1:1 ratio. And you have yourself an all purpose cleaner that will work on your kitchen table and counter tops. I have noticed that my counter tops look great, better than before I started using this. Plus it is saving me a ton of money on buying cleaning products. Here is a great site on using white vinegar as a cleaning agent: http://www.vinegarworkswonders.com/faqs.asp

My dear blog friends,

My dear blog friends,

It has been too long since my last post. Where does the time go? Honestly? I'll tell you my desktop computer has been dying a slow, death for the last six months or so, it has a virus or two, three or four, I don't know and yes that is with Virus protection software. Tonight I am blogging from my new laptop that I got a few months ago for my birthday. It is great. However we are still working on migrating EVERYTHING from old computer and trying to do so, in a manner that doesn't get the new laptop infected. My poor dear hubby the last thing he wanted to do tonight is work on my computer problems, but he did, I guess he loves me :-).

I do plan on celebrating my one year of serious blogging, so gear up because I am going to do a giveaway~~~~~stay tuned........

Laura

Trick or Treat weekend...

Miss A. wanted a scary face on her Jack 'O Lantern.

Miss A. as Minnie Mouse from Mickey Mouse Club House.

Crafty Note: My mom made the dress and we used some fabric that was on clearance at JoAnns. Plus I made the ears out of felt glued to a head band and my mom made the bow, I just fabric tacked it all to the head band.

Pictured here are Miss A's trick or treater friends, Word Girl and Dragon. Plus my friend was an M&M.

Minnie Mouse and Dragon, note Minnie's pink sparkly shoes!

Going,Going.....

Gone...Sold on my Etsy Shop for 6.00 plus one dollar shipping.

First Grade....

Ok I suppose I could post again.....

Here is the most interesting thing that happened to me today. I met my First Grade Teacher, at the school I was subbing at today. It has been 29 years! She looked pretty much the same to me! What's funny is she was only my first grade teacher for about 4 months because she then went out on maternity leave. I still had fond memories of her.

I have a TON to blog about. However next week I will be subbing Monday through Friday for a first grade class. So I'll try to blog more before that happens...

Fall at my house...LITERALLY

D.D. (which stands for dear daughter sometimes affectionately and other times kinda sorta sarcastically) decided that leaves should fall in our home as well, so she plucked them off of my banister garland and let them drop to the floor.

I decided to try Lisa's recipe for pumpkin bread. She has talked about it a lot on her blog and now I know why. Everyone who has tried it has loved it. We shared with A.'s preschool teacher today too.
The next picture I took this past weekend, couldn't resist! We had such great weather that A. was almost over dressed, unprecedented for this time of year.

Sign of fall in my backyard...OMG I didn't notice the rainbow in this picture until just now!!!! I have seen a rainbow in that same spot about 5 or six times now.
Another YUMMY Soup for ya....
My husband even likes it with all the healthy stuff in it I was surprised he liked it but he did!

Classic Minestrone this is from Allrecipes.com:
SUBMITTED BY: Michelle Chen "This famous Italian soup has been much imitated around the world with very different results. The homemade version is a delicious revelation and is also extremely healthy, as it has pasta, beans and fresh vegetables. Try to make the minestrone a day early and refrigerate as this improves the flavors. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley."

US
METRIC
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
4 ounces green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 1/2 quarts vegetable stock
1 pound chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid
1/4 cup elbow macaroni
salt and ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, over medium heat. Add leek, carrots, zucchini, green beans and celery. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
Stir in the stock, tomatoes and thyme. Bring to a boil, then replace the lid, and reduce heat to low; simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Stir in the cannellini beans with liquid and pasta. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until pasta is al dente. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Metal Frame Tutorial

My MOPS group is going to decorate frames as part of the Adventures in Mothering theme, the Mom's are going to make a frame for themselves. The kiddos are going to make one too however theirs will be made out of the Foamies that are readily available at any craft store you visit.

I found these magnetic metal frames at Jo Ann's in the clearance section.
Buy paint that specifically says that it is for metal, this one did, if you read the bottle you can find out all sorts of nifty info on all of the different paints and same goes for the glues too. Buy some fashion jewels that have a flat back Learn from my mistake which is that my jewels are a bit too big for my frame and I actually have to go back to Hobby Lobby and buy the size down from 7mm, my 7mm only fit in the corners.
Take out the glass or plexiglass before you begin painting. Paint the metal frame and don't worry if you see lines in the paint it will dry nice.
Glue on your rhinestone jewels, mine isn't quite finished as I have to go pick up those smaller jewels I mentioned. And you will want to use a glue for metal to adhere the jewels such as E6000.