making handmade cards with friends

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by Delena Rose in handmade, make it

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cards, crafts, Family Day, friends, handmade, make cards, paper crafts

What better way to spend Family Day than with friends (who are like family!) doing something fun together. I love it when E (and her brother M) comes over as we often get busy with a project and then chat the entire time. By the time we’re done with whatever we’re working on, we have finished projects and we are all caught up on each other’s busy lives… well, until the next time we see each other!

As M was out sledding, E, H and I decided to put the bird house project on hold and make cards instead. We all chose the same style (tri-fold) but then chose different colors and themes. Here is E’s custom-made birthday card for her friend:

I decided to keep it simple and stick to a ‘writer’s theme’ for my card:

H went for a more vintage look with these elegant cards:

Some of the stamps and papers were purchased from Stampin’ Up! while the others were random purchases from local craft stores.

I hope you all had a great Family Day surrounded by your own friends and families, making memories, sharing stories, ideas and laughter. 🙂

making holiday stockings from bits and pieces

20 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by Delena Rose in handmade, make it

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christmas stockings, fabric scraps, holiday crafts, make stockings, sew, stockings, Yule

Last weekend a friend and I spent a few fun days making stockings. I really wanted the final project to look nice but did not want to drive the hour to the city just to buy brand new fabric. In the spirit of ‘making do’, I pulled out my little bin of fabric scraps to see if there was anything to work with. Indeed, the scraps were bright and festive and colorful, however, many of them were very small pieces. Undaunted by the challenge, we decided to make ‘patchwork’ stockings!

I started by sketching out some designs freehand on newspaper. Here is Lucy’s design (I helped her with hers)…

Then I cut the fabric into uniform shapes and began sewing. All of the stockings are lined and very sturdy. The entire project did not cost me a cent!

Although I prefer to buy as little as possible this time of year, I can never resist hiding just a few little treats to enjoy inside holiday stockings. They are even more meaningful when you can design and sew the stockings with friends and family as you will always have the memory of those fun afternoons making something beautiful together.

a simple and elegant holiday garland

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by Delena Rose in appreciate the seasons, make it

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Christmas, Christmas craft, decorating, garlands, holidays, make a garland, paper decorations, star, Yule

Every year at just this time,

In cold and dark December,

Families gather around the world

All gather to remember.

With presetns and with parties,

With feasting and with fun

Customs and traditions

For people old and young.

~Helen Moore

It’s December and the holiday season is now upon us! To brighten up this darkest month of the year, I decided to make festive paper garlands to hang around the cabin. Instead of visiting the local craft store (always a fun outing), I decided to ‘make do’ by using materials that I already had on hand. After rooting through my paper stash I found this bright red paper with gold flecks embedded in it. I actually bought this about 12 years ago while taking an art class and never used it… until now.

I started by punching out large and small circles with my paper punches. Then I laid out a long length of red sewing thread. I applied glue stick to the back of one circle and stuck two together, making sure to sandwich the thread in between. I glued both the small and large circles on in a random pattern with about an inch and a half of space in between. I kept going until the entire length of thread was full.

Lucy kept me company while I worked…

I am going to make a bunch of these garlands as they are so cheerful and versatile. So far, I’ve hung a few outside…

… draped a few over the hearth…

… and over doorways…

I’m going to get back to work and make a few more of these as I think they will make more of an impact with three or more garlands hung together. I will add photographs of the finished project when I’m done. In the meantime, have fun decorating your own homes for the holidays!

halloween craftiness with friends

30 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Delena Rose in appreciate the seasons, make it

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card-making, cards, crafts, creative, fancy water, Halloween, Halloween crafts, Halloween ideas, make cards

Not too long ago, my good friends M and E came over for an afternoon of creative card-making. E brought some of her own supplies (including an impressive suitcase full of markers!) and I pulled out all of my own Halloween themed supplies. It didn’t take us long to come up with some ideas to start with and we were off and creating!!!

After a few hours, we took a snack break and I realized that I did not have any juice to offer my guests. Still in ‘creative-mode’, we came up with a ‘fancy water’ cocktail. We put slices of lemon, grapefruit and orange in the bottoms of each tall glass and crushed them. Then we filled the rest of the glass with ice water. I grabbed some fresh mint from the garden and M crushed it and added it to our glasses. Finally, we threw in some frozen Saskatoon berries, ice cubes and a straw. Very refreshing!

M crushing the mint…

Then we got back to crafting! Even though we each used similar stamps, inks, papers, embossing powders and other accents, each one of our cards turned out to be totally different and unique.