Scraps of My Life

December Daily & 30 Days of Lists

As I've done in previous years, I combined my December Daily with 30 Days of Lists. I've found that it makes it easier and quicker to have them both in the same binder. That way I can write down my list for the day and also print my daily picture and write a quick journaling card and the day is done. This year I used a 6"x8" Project Life binder, pocket pages, Hello December Project Life cards, and Christmas paper all from Stampin' Up. Here's the cover and a few of my favorite pages.

I made a few Christmas presents this year, but forgot to take pictures of them.  I did, however, finally make a tree skirt and our new kitty Leonard really seemed to like it.

The pattern is Kaleidoscope Tree Skirt from the book A Merry Christmas with Kim Schaefer.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up the studio, so now it's all nice and neat and ready for a new year of projects. Some of the planned projects are:

• gray, black, and red quilt for my husband
• shades of blue quilt for my nephew's high school graduation gift
• an improv challenge quilt for the South Sound Modern Quilt Guild
• quilt guild quilt-along from Patchwork City by Elizabeth Hartman
• finish the blue and yellow quilts for the guest room
• purses from the Bag of the Month Club
• One Little Word with Ali Edwards
• Project Life for 2016

What projects are you starting in 2016?

 

Where Bloggers Create - A Studio Tour

Welcome to my studio. I'm so happy you stopped by today. This is my third year participating in the "Where Bloggers Create" blog hop sponsored by Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage. I really enjoy sharing my studio and having the opportunity to get a glimpse into the studios of other crafty bloggers.

On the right as you enter my studio is my scrapbooking area.

All my scrapbooking supplies are stored in the blue bins in the bookcase, in the organizers on my desk, and hanging from the rod under the window. Under the desk is a six drawer Ikea file cabinet where I store paper, embellishments, and Project Life pocket pages.

Some of my mini books are displayed on top of the Ikea bookcase along with my blue vintage typewriter.

Shelves over my laptop hold more paper, embellishments, and my printer. My Silhoutte Cameo sits on the counter next to the my laptop, making it easy to quickly find and cut a design while scrapbooking. The upper cupboard hides all my acrylic paints and other crafting supplies, while the bottom cupboard has pullout wire bins full of quilt batting and interfacing.

Now we're moving into the sewing areas of the studio. I have room for three people to sew along the long counter. I usually have my three machines set up, but can move them quickly to make room when friends come over to sew. I spend a lot of time at the Babylock machine and love the convenience of the portable ironing board. It's really handy when piecing blocks to have the iron so close at hand instead of jumping up constantly to use the big ironing board.

This cute little Singer Featherweight is a new addition since last year's studio tour. I haven't used it very much, but think it's adorable and plan to take it to sew days with my quilt guild. On the pegboard shelves above are old candle jars full of ribbons sorted by color. 

This corner holds my serger and that all important machine - the Kuerig coffee maker. 

Along the back wall is my Handi Quilter Avante and a bookcase full of quilting and scrapbooking magazines. The quilt on the wall is made out of 15 years' worth of Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show tee shirts. 

The ironing table is another new studio addition that my husband built for me recently. You can read a little more about the building process here.

My cutting table is a dining table I inherited from my Grandma Zangl. Growing up, we used to visit my grandparents at their house on Moose Lake outside of Antigo, Wisconsin, and many summer evenings were spent putting together puzzles or playing cards at this table. We added blocks to the legs to raise it to counter height and it makes a wonderful cutting table. There's also room underneath on both sides for wire storage drawers which are full of fabric.

My design wall is surrounded by two Ikea storage towers that hold craft books and an Ikea shelf where I display my childhood dolls and toys.  Who remembers Chrissy and Velvet dolls with hair that grows?

This table is where I spend time looking at craft books, planning projets, and usually visiting with my sister. 

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world. I hope you enjoyed yourself and be sure to check out more studios here.

Project Life Update and a Fabric Journey

As you can see, there isn't a Project Life update today.  I've decided that three months of weekly PL posts was enough.  Don't get me wrong, I love this project and will continue to chronicle our daily life, but I was starting to feel that the weekly layout posts were getting a little boring.

As I embraced the whole concept of PL and didn't feel the need to add a lot of embellishments, I didn't have much to write about for the weekly blog post. As I continue to work on my PL, I'll post occasional layouts that I feel show something unusual or if I try out a new technique.

So today I have a story of some quilt fabric that after several years and several reconfigurations finally made it into a quilt. Back in 2007 I bought half-yard cuts of a fabric collection to make a quilt for my nephew. Then I couldn't decide on a pattern and other projects took precedence, so I put the fabric away. I pulled it out a few years later and came up with this layout which I just didn't like but couldn't quite figure out why.

Although the fabrics were all from the same collection I just couldn't get them to look good together. Back in the drawer they went for a while until I pulled them out again and tried these blocks. By now the pieces I had to use were getting smaller as I continued cutting and piecing.  Again, didn't like it and put it away.

Recently I was planning a baby quilt for a coworker and thought of these fabrics again, but this time I realized what was missing - a solid background fabric. Finally after many years this fabric made it's final journey into a quilt! I love how it turned out and I'm relieved to finally have found a way to use all these fabrics and get them out of my stash. You can read about the start of this quilt here.

And I did finally make my nephew a quilt.

So there you have it.  A fabric journey with a happy ending. Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon to see what new projects I'm working on.

Project Life - Week 10

This week I made two cards, kept up with "30 Days of Lists," started two pillows for my sofa, rearranged my studio, and spent Saturday afternoon working on a mini book and visiting with my good friend Kathy.

We also had our flowering cherry trees and cedar tree trimmed and my husband mowed the lawn for the first time this year.  We had beautiful weather here over the weekend and I am so looking forward to Spring.

I just used the Seafoam kit this week, with a little bit of washi tape, a "This Week" card from simplebrighton.com, and a "this" stamp from Elise Blaha.

These pages seemed to go together really quickly this week and I think they're my favorites so far.

Project Life - Week 8

This week started out with a visit with my best friend Judy.  We have been friends since we were five years old and I came home one day to find Judy and her brothers and sisters playing on my swingset. Her family had just moved in to the house behind us. Over the years we have not always lived in the same city, but we have never lost touch with one another.  We got together this week to celebrate the fact that Judy is now a grandmother to an adorable little boy.

This page has a black and white 3x4 picture of us and a picture of Judy's grandson on the quilt I made for him. I added a stamped and punched tag to the outside of the page protector with foam dots. The stamp and punch are from Stampin' Up.  I made a 3x4 card from patterned paper and added a card that says "The world is full of beautiful things like you" both from the Lucille collection from BasicGrey attached with washi tape.  I journaled about our visit on a "This is the Story" card from the Seafoam kit.  I also attached a strip of patterned paper to the journaling card just to add a bit of color.

The other page has two cards also made from the Lucille collection patterned paper and a cute retro TV journaling card from Nisa Fiin at jessicasprague.com.  The "THIS" stamp is from elisejoy.com.

Thanks for stopping by and check back later in the week for a one year blog anniversary giveaway!

Project Life - Week 7

The main events of this week were Valentine's Day and our anniversary trip to Seabrook, WA.  We loaded up the dogs and headed to the beach Thursday after work. We arrived at the adorable beach house that was ours for the weekend. After getting settled in we took the dogs for a walk around the little town of Seabrook then back to the house to relax.  And that's about all we did all weekend; walk the dogs around town and on the beach and relax at home.  We had a Harry Potter movie marathon and watched all eight movies.  We ate pizza and popcorn and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Sunday came too fast and before we knew it, it was time to head home.

My first page includes the Valentine's card I made for my husband on the Silhouette (design by Kolette Hall) and pictures of my flowers and the stuffed animals we bought for our dogs.  They love new toys.  I added a strip of patterned paper and word stickers to both pictures.

The second page is all pictures of our time at the beach. I wrote my journaling on a 4x6 card then cut it in half to fit in two 3x4 spaces. I added a strip of patterned paper and a word sticker in the label space. The starfish is punched from a postcard and adhered to the outside of the page protector. On the picture of me and my husband, I added a die cut "remember" word frame from Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals.

So I'm seven weeks into this project and I still look forward to making my pages on Sunday.  How's your Project Life coming along?

 

Project Life - Week 5

Well, I made it through the month of January, taking pictures and recording our everyday life for my Project Life album.  I must admit I found it challenging to find something of interest every day to photograph and some days I didn't take any pictures. It was starting to stress me out a bit until I realized I didn't have to take a picture a day. I could just sit down on Sunday and look at what pictures I did happen to take, pick out those I liked and then just journal about our week.  Which in the case of this week, wasn't a whole lot since my husband and I were both sick with colds and didn't do much of anything for a few days.

I finally finished my cover page and I'm happy with the way it turned out.  I cut out the "2013" and "Memories" on the Silhouette and attached them to 4x6 cards.  I covered a chipboard "f" (for our last name) with patterned paper and hand cut the initial, then attached it to a 3x4 card.  On the "Life Recorded" card, I added a strip of patterned paper then listed our family names and ages.  I also included pictures of all us.

I kept it pretty simple this week, just adding a "Happy" die cut, a little bit of washi tape, and a punched label to a few pictures 

On this page, I cut out "For the Record" from one of the 3x4 cards and backed it with a yellow piece of cardstock.  The cute "This Week" journaling card is a freebie from simplebrighton.com.  I printed it out and hand cut around the wavy line.  The colors are a good match for the Seafoam kit colors and I'll probably use the card again in future weeks.  I also printed out a quote from Elise Blaha and attached it to a 4x6 card I made from patterned paper, then embellished it with a patterned paper circle and a large red brad.

So that's it for this week.  How's your Project Life coming along?

 

Project Life - Week 4

This week my Seafoam binder came in the mail and I used the package label as one of the 3x4 cards.  I punched the exclamation sign out of a journaling card and attached it to a larger patterned paper circle, then attached it to the binder picture.

My birthday was on Saturday so I used a 4x6 journaling card and listed what we did on that day, using blue brads as bullets.  I stamped "Happy Birthday" and made a tab that I attached to the top of the journaling card.  I slipped our tickets from the Home Show into a pocket with a 3x4 card behind them.

We also went out to dinner and the restaurant had my very favorite dessert - creme brulee.  I used my "For the Love of" stamp from Elise Blaha, punched it out with a tag punch from Stampin Up, and attached it to the outside of the page protector.  I also made a 3x4 card out of some of the packaging from my new Fossil purse and attached the purse tag to the outside. 

I'm working on my cover page and will post that next Monday.

Don't forget to read and comment on the "Grow Your Blog" party post from January 19th.  There's still four days to be entered in the drawing for the tablerunner. Thanks for visiting and good luck!

Project Life - Week 3

First of all, a big thank you to all those who visited my blog during the Grow Your Blog party.  I really appreciate all the nice comments and hope you will come back again.  If this is your first time here, don't forget to read and comment on the January 19 post to be entered in the giveaway.  I'm working my way through the list of blogs and have found some great new blogs to follow also.

Now on to Project Life - my Seafoam Project Life kit came in the mail this week, so yay!  I also ordered a package of the coordinating paper and it's so pretty.  Now the only thing that's still on order is the binder and then I think I'm set for a while.

I've noticed as I've been working on my pages that I like a little bit of variety though, so I've been using these 6" x 6" pads - On the Bright Side by My Mind's Eye and The Good Life by Fancy Pants Design.  The colors in both of these collections complement the Seafoam colors really well.

This week I used a button and some twine on one of the journaling cards and I also made a card from patterned paper and decorated it with some blue and white washi tape.  I punched a circle out of orange corraguted cardboard (saved from some packaging) and attached a metal rimmed tag that I stamped a flower on.  I then attached this little embellishment to the outside of the page protector.

How's your Project Life coming along? 

Grow Your Blog Party

Welcome to my blog and the Grow Your Blog party hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full.

My name is Donna and I have been blogging for almost a year. I started my blog to share all the stuff I like to make; quilts and purses and different papercrafts, such as scrapbooks, mini books, and cards.

My day job involves a lot of sitting at a computer in an office cubicle four days a week, so I really cherish the creative time I get to spend in my studio.  Usually weekends are spent with my husband, but on Monday morning I head out to the studio with my dogs and my cup of coffee to start my creative day.

I usually get my Project Life blog post done then work on my current quilt or scrapbook project.  I'm also taking several online classes on Craftsy and JessicaSprague.com and I'll take a break from quilting or scrapbooking and watch a lesson or two.  

Here's the baby quilt I'm working on right now.  The original pattern had a total of 16 blocks, but I decided to make it a little smaller.  

I went ahead and made all 16 blocks and then used four of them to piece the back. Now it's ready to load on the quilt machine and get quilting.

Here are a few of the purses I've made.

And some minibooks and cards.

And my helper, Zoey, the studio kitty.

And a giveaway! 

As a thank you for visiting my blog I'll be drawing from the comments and giving away this tablerunner.  You don't need to have a blog of your own to win; just leave a comment.  I'll draw the winner on February 1st and post the winner on the blog, so be sure to check back.  Thanks again and make sure you check out all the other creative blogs at the Grow Your Blog party.