Case the DT challenge at StampTV!

See?  I told you I still stamped!  I made these 2 quick cards for the Case the DT Challenge at StampTV!  This time, it is to CASE (Copy and Share Everything) a card/project of Carolina’s (click to see her beautiful gallery).  Since I love her clean & simple, signature bow/ribbon style, it was fun to make these cards!  I used the StampTV kit Vintage Chic, since it will only be available until the next release, which is next week…if you like it, you better get it soon!  I think it’s been my favorite to date!  I used cardstock, black & white pattern paper and the stamps from the kit.  The silk ribbon and red & white brad are not from the kit, but I used them because it added the POP of red I wanted.  Here is the card I cased of Carolina’s – which coincidentally, was a card for a paper-piecing challenge I hosted.  I changed the stamps, cardstock, ribbon and embellishments for my card.  For a case, you want to change at least 2 elements, but try to stick to the layout as much as possible so it’s recognizable as a copy.  

This next card is one I made at the same time because I messed up the placement of the flowers.  Why not turn it into a 2nd card?  I used ribbon from the kit on this one, as well as a red button for the center.  I really like both cards, what about you??  You have until this Thursday, July 28 at 8:00 central time to upload your card for this challenge and you can win a free stamp set valued up to $24.95  and you get your name in the drawing twice if you use Gina K stamps although you don’t have to to play along as usual! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

FNSI results: 1st quilt complete!!

Well here it is – my first quilt that I started end of April is finally done!  I would have had it done a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t find my walking foot to do the binding so I had to go and get another one (luckily with a 40% off coupon) but it was the wrong one, I was so disappointed when I found that out last night.  But…when I started to think more about the last time I used it, which happened to be about 3 weeks ago, I tried to recall anything out of the ordinary that may have been on the dining table at the time I quilted it and I remembered my little Longaberger basket that I was putting random things in and there it was!  I am ashamed to say how long I looked for this and the weird places.  Oh well…all is well that ends well!  So last night was the two yr anniversary of the Friday Night Sew In hosted by Heidi and Bobbi and I was really looking forward to it!!  **Edited to Add** I actually won the drawing!  I am going to get this awesome Christmas charm pack "Flurry by Kate Spain" and as Heidi put it, a 'quilting ruler gadget thingy' I am so excited!  Thanks Heidi!!
I cut, sewed and ironed the orange binding and got more than 1/2 the hand sewing of the binding on last night before I forced myself to go to bed at 1:00 a.m. and was so excited to finish, I got up after just 6 hrs of sleep, took an outdoor shower, cleaned up the kitchen, made my morning tea and finished it up this morning!  I am really happy with how it turned out and don’t think it looks that bad for being my first one!  I am almost ready to start my next one, which will be a winter rag quilt with blues, white, browns and a splash of red!  Ooh, I can’t wait!  

I decided I would venture to make my own label after reading Becca’s post about labeling your quilt this week (did you know she is continuing her quilt class on her blog?  so excited about that!) I happened to be prepared for this too, I can’t believe it!
Edited this post to add the photos of me holding the blanket off our deck.  John was not at home yesterday for me to do it which is why my first photo has it on the couch.  This is a better was to share it with you I think! 




About a month ago, John got me some iron on image transfer paper from Amazon and I put it to good use last night!  It was easy to use.  Here is what it looks like, you can use it in your printer, stamp on it, color.
I stamped a cherry blossom image (because I love them…see my blog banner) from The Journey by There She Goes stamps in rich cocoa memento ink. Then I colored the blossoms with copic markers and cut it out.

Then, it takes just about 10 seconds for a smaller image, with your iron set to the highest setting to adhere to your fabric.  I used a heavyweight cotton.  Then, I wrote the name of my quilt, my name and the date with permanent makers.  See above photo.  So fun! 

**Last weekend was our quilt shop bus trip and we had SO much fun!!  We met some really great ladies, chatted a lot, shopped a lot (all 28 ladies spent a whopping $8,000+ in 2 days at 6 quilt shops!) I am happy to say although I spent more than I thought I would, I was way under the average!  I will be sharing more of what I bought over the weeks, months as I make things with my purchases.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture from the whole trip and it was right before we left – we were celebrating Christmas in July which explains the elves hats, our bus mom Cheryl gave us.  We also got fun goodie boxes filled with ornament kits, a needle book we could sew and everything we needed to get them completed such as needles, thread, snips.  I made one ornament so far that I’ll share in a future post as this post is so incredibly long!  We just did NOT have enough time to take photos since our shopping time was pretty limited in the shops.  We tried to make the best use of our time as possible!  Stephanie is very new to sewing and I’m so glad we took this trip together, because as I told her that evening, spending time with her was the BEST part of our trip.  Our girls weekend happened to start the day before though, we met for lunch and got pedicures and manicures – it was nice!!
Here is one of the many things I purchased at the shop in Victoria – a quick apron kit.  It was just $10 although I’m pretty sure the fabric only cost about 1/2 that, but I got the pattern to make more!  I started working on this Wednesday night and finished it up last night before I found my walking foot!  I adore this fabric, I wish I had written the name down or purchased more of it. 
Here it is completed – the hand towel is a little off center, but once it’s on, I don’t think anyone will be able to tell.  Sorry about the poor photo, I didn’t look cute enough to put it on and model it for you!
Thanks for stopping by and I promise to share some cards soon-I bet some of you may be wondering if I still stamp…

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You’re So Sweet Treat

Hi there!  Here is a small treat bag I put together to give to a few ‘sweet’ people in my life!  I grabbed the little candies one morning on my way to work at the grocery store (along with my absolute favorite chewy candy Bit O’ Honey)!  I figured they would be cute because they’re watermelon gummies, to pair with the new Garden Fresh Gina K set for a sweet treat!!  I just grabbed a few 3” cello bags from my stash, put some candies inside, and topped it with this simple folded over cardstock (3” by 5” folded at 2 1/2”) and adhered it with some green staples to match!  Super quick & easy to make and fun to surprise your favorite co-worker with (like I did today!)

Thanks for stopping by – hope you are having a great week!

**I may not post until next week because I am going out of town on my quilt shop trip with my friend Stephanie with The Cotton Cupboard this weekend – I am so excited!  I still have to pack and I will be ready to start posting some of my hand sewn creations to sell here soon!  I also need to be finishing up my 1st quilt soon too, the last ‘class’ was posted today by Rebecca! 

Mix It Up Monday: Clean & Simple Sketch!

I made a little time to stamp last night – yea me!  I remember a time not long ago I would have the energy to stamp or do something craft every day of the week but it seems like a thing of the past since my office moved 50 mins away from our house!  I really miss it, but sometimes there’s not enough hours in the evening to care for my house, cook and still spend time with John and get to bed at a decent hour since I get up so early in the mornings. 

So, I will try to post more during the week, it seems I may have lost some of my readers over the past week who knows why though. Here is a card for this week’s StampTV challenge Mix It Up Monday: Gettin’ Sketchy! which is hosted by the Lovely Lee Murphy! I am totally impressed the layer queen made a clean & simple sketch so I just had to play & give her a shout out! Great job, Lee! I used the new set The Vine for my clean & simple card.

Card details
Stamps: The Vine
Cardstock: Ivory, Green Apple, Just Peachy Pure Luxury
Inks: Rich Cocoa, Pear Tart Memento
Accessories:  brown satin ribbon, copic markers, spicaatyou glitter pen

Cosmetic Cases & Anniversary Share

Here are a few little cosmetic cases I made using a tutorial by Sew Mama Sew! just using 2 fat quarters (I bought at the Cotton Cupboard, a beautiful batik), a coordinating liner and 3 zippers!  The tutorial is so fabulous since you don’t waste an inch of fabric! I made these in less than 2 hours from the start of cutting, but I know it would be about an hour and a half if I pin all 3 of them correctly and don’t have to rip 2 of them apart and start over!  LOL.  I am trying to get a bunch of variety of pouches made because a friend expressed interest in purchasing some from me for Christmas gifts, I want to have a stash of gifts to have on hand for birthdays, Christmas gifts or surprise gifts for friends and family and I have been toying with the idea of possibly selling them directly from my blog instead of maintaining an Etsy shop where I have to pay fees to list items.  I think if I just dedicate posts to them and put a link for paying via PayPal, I would just have to pay those fees and it would be less work! Let me know what you think about that venture!

Baker's 14th Anniversary 7/6/11 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Last Wednesday was our 14th Wedding Anniversary and although we had to work that day, we did go to a fine dining restaurant in Bastrop called Baxter’s on Main. It was nice & delicious food! Great service and a nice atmosphere. I attached an album below you can view all the photos. Our stop before that was to my favorite chocolate store, called Roscar’s, it was out 3rd or 4th visit, omg – this place is fabulous! ***If you are ever driving through the Bastrop area, it is a MUST for you to stop in there! They make bonbons, truffles and other items including my favorite Honey+Caramel+Nuts+Sea Salt=Bar! I bought 2 of them this time so they last me longer in between visits! One thing I love about this place is that you can taste any & every creation they have to offer and believe me, I think we are almost there! Delish! The gal in the middle photo on the right is Roma, she is a sweetheart and let me take her picture so I could share it on my blog. ***They ship chocolates too, so you don’t have to be in the are in order to indulge in the delicacies they have to offer! Let me know if you want some feedback about what truffles and bonbons I recommend if you decide to buy some – I’d be more than happy to share my opinion! 
Dinner was awesome too; we had 2 delicious appetizers: handmade chips with gorgonzola cheese & thyme and baked marinara & goat cheese with toasted bread.  Then I had one of my favorite sandwiches, a reuben and John enjoyed a warm pear & goat cheese salad.  We didn’t have any room for dessert but we had our chocolates to enjoy anyway!  Then we came home to watch a movie, ‘Just Go With It’ with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, which was a super funny great movie! 
The last 14 years have been full of lots of adventures; ups & downs, highs & lows but such is life!  But I definitely cannot imagine sharing it with anyone else because John is a wonderful person who makes me laugh and is someone I still love & adore after all these years!  I thank God for him often but not often enough!  I love you honey **he reads my blog but I didn’t say all this stuff JUST BECAUSE of that** I truly mean it! 
Thanks for stopping by – hope you have a great weekend!!
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Swipe On, Swipe Off and some sewing shares!

Here is a card I made for this week’s Mix It Up Challenge at StampTV hosted by the very talented and sweet Cat!!

This was a fun technique, definitely need to try it again, I like how the card turned out, but maybe because of the colors I chose – nothing POPS to me.  I used the new Whimsical Wishes set. You should play along with the challenges there posted every Monday and Friday – you could win FREE Gina K stamps valued up to $24.95! 

We are nearing the last week in the Quilt Class I’m taking so I thought I’d share what my quilt top looks like after I quilted it last weekend– it’s decent for my first time but I did have a little (big) mishap with the direction of my quilting, I didn’t turn it like I should have and when I did, I ended up getting a bunched up area around the middle I’m sure you can see it!  But, like I said it’s my first quilt, my LEARNING quilt – I’m SURE my 2nd one will turn out much better!  I’m already looking forward to making the next one! 

Here is the back, I chose to use blue for the color.  The binding will be a bright orange, a co-worker I showed it to yesterday said I did a good job for my 1st one!  And this is in spite of a LOT of the half square triangles not lining up very well!  I decided to stitch in the ditch for this quilt and not do any hand quilting, I will do something more complex with my future ones since this is my first one. 

I have to go – we have a meeting to attend for John’s continuing education in his field of work.  I will post again before the weekend is over, I have SO much to share, including our 14th wedding anniversary celebrations which were this past Wednesday! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Gina K Inspiration Hop Day 3: Bold and Beautiful

Today is our last day of inspiration hops – hope you have been enjoying all the wonderful creations Gina & the designer’s have had to share with us!  Last up is our One Free with Three sets, Bold and Beautiful!  That means now until the next release, when you purchase 3 stamp sets, you get this one absolutely FREE!  Its value is $19.95, can’t beat that!  But, as always, if you miss out on the one free time frame, when the next release happens it will be available for purchase, so you will never miss out on getting it!  In this set, there are 2 large images and 5 sentiments.

This is my favorite card I made for this release, one I peeked on last Thursday.  I just love the bold butterfly that you can color in all different ways!  I chose to highlight the beauty of our new pure luxury color, Blue Raspberry it is just delicious! 

• Gina K
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker (you’re here!)
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Jennie Harper
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher

Card 1 details:
Stamps: Bold and Beautiful
Cardstock: White, Lovely Lavender, Vibrant Violet pure luxury
Inks: Grape Jelly Memento, Wild Lime Vivid
Accessories: Pearls, open scallop border punch; purple ribbon; Labels 10 dies; pearls

Card 2 details:
Stamps: Bold and Beautiful
Cardstock: White, Key Lime accent, Vibrant Violet, Blue Raspberry pure luxury
Inks: Memento tuxedo black
Accessories: black brad; glitter pens

Gina K Inspiration Hop Day 2: Whimsical Wishes & Garden Fresh

So glad you’re joining us for Day 2 of inspiration hops for Gina K Designs!  Seems like there was much excitement for all the stamp sets, but what really is awesome is when an illustrator comes up with a companion set for a previously released set because it extends the versatility of them! 
Here is another one of those, Whimsical Wishes by Theresa Momber, which is a companion set to her Vogue Vases! I made a super clean & simple card that packs a punch with colorful bright inks of one of the solid circle stamps in the set.  Just look at the awesome versatility in the set!  My favorite is the very large sentiment I used on my card!

Next up is a set by Gina K called Garden Fresh, which is perfect for summer with the fruits & veggies in the set!  I decided to make a fun box to store some 3 x 3 notecards I made.  I kept the box simple to showcase the fun pattern paper Hometown Summer by Pink Paislee, with small tag – this would make a cute hostess or neighbor gift. 

Here is a photo of the box open and here is a link to the tutorial for the box I made, it is super easy! 

Here is the first set of cards made using the same papers and matching sentiments.  I paper-pieced the apple.


Here is the second set using the same items and different layouts.  These come together so quickly! 


Here is the last set, I drew in some smiley faces on the peas and paper-pieced the pears for a fun look!
Don’t forget to leave comments on all the designer’s blogs for your chance to win a free stamp set of your choice valued up to $24.95! We will randomly choose two winners so the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win.

Also, mark your calendars to check out StampTV each week Monday and Friday for the weekly challenges posted so you can win MORE free stamps!!

• Gina K
• Theresa Momber – Illustrator Whimsical Wishes
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker (you’re here!)
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy
• Melanie Muenchinger
• Michelle Woerner
• Tami Mayberry

Thanks for stopping by today! 
Card 1 details:
Stamps: Whimsical Wishes
Cardstock: White, Black Onyx pure luxury
Inks: Memento tuxedo black, grape jelly; Raspberry, Wild Lime vivid;
Accessories: pink ribbon, circle punches, foam tape

Box & 3x3 card details:
Stamps: Garden Fresh
Cardstock: Red Hot, white pure luxury; Hometown Summer pattern paper
Inks:  Memento ladybug, pear tart, cottage ivy; Vivid butterscotch
Accessories: red stitched ribbon

Gina K Inspiration Hop Day 1: The Vine & All Occasion Tags

Welcome to our 1st of 3 days of inspiration hops for our June release at Gina K Designs!   We are so grateful for all the GKD fans month after month who get so excited for all the new offerings and we get to chat with at the release parties!  You are the reason we do what we do! 

First up is The Vine by Melanie Muenchinger, a beautiful set with various shaped vines and flowers to coordinate with her Branching Out set (which I am showing on my card – the square frame is from there). I repeated one of the vines 3 times for the bottom section of the card and filled it in with purple blooms.

Next up is Tami Mayberry’s set All Occasion Tags, a set filled with 3 occasion frames that coordinate with Spellbinders Grommet Tags dies and a ton greetings that cover every occasion you may need for your card giving throughout the year! 

This makes the set so versatile because you can pair it with other stamps (I added some pink blooms from The Vine to the bubblegum pink layer that you have to look real closely to see) and different pattern papers for a very quick & nice card!

As you hop through the designer’s blogs, make sure you leave comments on each one for a chance to win a free stamp set of your choice valued up to $24.95! We will randomly choose two winners so the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win.  Gina K will announce the winners on her blog. 

Be sure to check out StampTV each week Monday and Friday we have challenges posted where you can win MORE free stamps!!

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger – Illustrator The Vine
• Tami Mayberry – Illustrator All Occasion Tags
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Theresa Momber
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• AJ Otto
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker (you’re here!)
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jennie Harper
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy

Thanks for stopping by!

Card 1 details
Stamps: The Vine, Branching Out
Cardstock: Kraft,  Lovely Lavender pure luxury
Inks: Memento Bamboo Leaves, Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Pearls; Labels 9 die; Purple ribbon

Card 2 details
Stamps: All Occasion Tags, The Vine
Cardstock: White, Bubblegum Pink, Black Onyx, Green Apple Pure luxury; Basic Grey Sweet Threads
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Angel Pink
Accessories: Black gingham ribbon; Grommet Tags dies

Free For All Friday & Exciting News!!

Happy July everyone!  Can you even believe the year is half over?!  Time is flying by!  Here is a card I made using The Vine stamp set by Melanie Muenchinger, just released on Thursday evening!   This card uses the technique Reverse Spotlighting, which is an easy & fun technique!  Here is a link to my challenge .  I hope you will play along (you have until Thu July 6) for your chance to win a free stamp set from Gina K Designs valued up to $24.95!  You don’t have to use Gina K stamps to play, but if you do you get your name entered in the drawing twice!  You must share a newly created card for this and all GKD challenges at StampTV. 

And now for my EXCITING NEWS!  I finally achieved my goal of being published in a national magazine!!  I got the news on May 9, I will never forget that day; I came home from work on a Monday and John was washing dishes (sweet), and I saw a plain white envelope and the sender was Scott Publications, I knew right away it had to be a copy of the magazine!!  I squealed and screamed with delight, scaring John from his work.  I didn’t have to say much, when he saw the magazine and I was reading the letter, we both got tears in our eyes and I said quietly, “I finally got published” because I was choked up.  He immediately congratulated me and hugged me, he knew how long and hard I had worked tirelessly at that goal! 

I sent in several original cards for the call (Country & Western using Theresa Momber’s Out West set) back in January and had no idea if they would accept any of them, having no idea how long the process takes.  I immediately called Melanie & Theresa to let them know, I was so excited!  Melanie has been an inspiration with publications, and my cheerleader all these years.  Jennie Harper, fellow GKD DT member said just a few weeks prior that she knew it was going to happen for me soon and she was right! 

I also called my sisters, DMIL and my best friends who are all so proud of me!  Here is a picture of my card on the page.  I ordered extra copies of the magazine to send to Theresa & my sisters.  It was so cute my sister Deana called me a few weeks ago to tell me she was so excited to see my name/card in the magazine!  I sent it without including a note because I wanted her to find me in there and I ran out of time to do so.  She said she wasn’t sure at first why I sent the magazine (guess she had forgotten my news), did a quick once over through it and then later went through it very carefully and finally found my card – she was so excited, sharing it with her Goddaughter and bragging, “Donna made this card, isn’t it cool – she got published in this magazine!”, it totally made my day.  My sisters are very proud of me, making up for us not having our parents here to be proud of me and it means so very much to me.  They mean so very much to me.

**Mark your calendars for Tuesday, July 5 when Gina & her design team will be back with 3 days of inspiration hops using the new stamp sets!!

Card details:
Stamps: The Vine; Bold & Beautiful (sentiment); Timeless Textures 
Cardstock: Lemon drop, Just Peachy, Crème de menthe pure luxury
Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories: white brads, circle punches