Updated Again - Magnolia Stamp Index

I have been a little slack on updating my Magnolia Stamp Index but no worries - it's all done now!  I do hope everyone finds this list helpful.  Remember it's a pretty large file so you may not want to print it out. I prefer to use it on the computer.  Also, I have two other indexes for the older Magnolias. All you need to do is simply click on the link below and download.

Have a wonderful week!!

Updated Magnolia Stamp Index 2011-2012

Awesome Candy!

If you have a moment you have to check out Donna's blog at Bearly Mine Crafts. She giving away some incredible candy. You'll have to go before November 30th - that's the deadline - you won't be disappointed!!

Quilling Class - September Calendar

I just signed up for a quilling calendar class over at My Creative Classroom. If you have taken a class with them before you should! Here's a link if you're interested - MCC. They provide a wide variety of online classes that you take at your own pace. There is an instructor available in a message board always willing to help. Each lesson in the Quilling Calendar class is uploaded on Friday and the entire class is six weeks long. We complete two 6x6 calendar pages in each lesson and I just completed my first page.  September's calendar was a mix of quilling and paper punched lilies.  For my first "official" attempt it came out pretty good.

Have a great week!

Hope

Peek a Boo Card Cut File

One of the lovely ladies on the Magnolia-lious Yahoo group was so kind to create a tutorial on how to make a "Peek a Boo" card. Norma's tutorial was just terrific and you can find it HERE.  I've made a few of these cards and just love them. The real trick to creating a Peek a Boo card is to find a stamp that will fit in the windows.  Digital stamps are definitely an option since you can size them accordingly.

This card has several pieces and I thought why not create a cut file so my Cricut can do all the cutting for me. This allows me to have perfect cuts each and every time. I made one little change to Norma's tuturial and made the back page 6 x 6 1/2 inches instead of  6 x 6.  I then scored the extra 1/2 inch and used that to attached to the inside of the card.

I don't have a finished card just yet but will have one posted in the next day or so. However, I did make a test card from the cut file and exported it from Sure Cuts A Lot to save it as a SVG file. Please feel free to download and use as you'd like. Just click on the link below! There are 6 pages to the file - the Card Base (cardstock) pages each have 2 layers, one is for the actual cutting and the other indicates the score line. You can hide the score layer when cutting and then hide the cut layer when scoring if you prefer. There are two pages for the card front and inside of the card to be cut from designer paper. The last page includes three oval scallop frames to give the opening a more finished look.

I intend to change the opening shape from oval to rectangle to accommodate other size stamps. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions at all.  I hope this helps many of you to create this fabulous card a bit more easily!

Peek a Boo Cut File

ENJOY!

The Next Steven Speilberg...

Our 11 year old son, Joseph, has other hobbies besides baseball.  Our house is full of Legos. I mean we have enough to open our own Lego Store.  I find these little buggers everywhere. Joseph has begun to build his own creations and has even borrowed my camera to create Lego Movies.  Here are two of his short films...


He just created this short film today and entitled it "BURNOUT".  Checkout the smoke...

 The video below is his first attempt at Stop Motion Video. This short is called "Legos Drink & Crash"

Eat your heart out Steven Speilberg!!!

Updated Magnolia Stamp Index

Things have been busy in our house lately. It's baseball season once again and our 11 year old son is on a travel team. For those not in the know - this means each weekend you travel around the state for tournaments that can be as little as three games and as many as 5 or more.  This past weekend they played in the largest tournament in Georgia. To everyone's great pleasure the boys won their division Sunday with a score of 21 to 9.  Here's a photo of the champs... (our son is kneeling - 2nd player from right - kissing the trophy)!!

While I might not have a lot of time to craft I squeeze in as much as I can. I tend to flip flop from one craft to another. Sometimes it will be needlework others stamping and still others jewelry making. I love them all and will never devote all my time to just one.  I just started a desktop calendar which will have 6x6 stamped images. I'll post as I complete each month.  In the meantime, I realized I needed to update my index of Magnolia stamps.  Last summer I created a list of Magnolia stamps with the name of the stamp, the collection, a photo, and a checkbox to indicate whether you owned it or not. Since then several more collections have come out and I just finished updating the index. 

Please feel free to download the file for yourself. Just know that each file is well over 50 pages and if you don't see the photo at first, simply click on Print Preview and they'll pop up.

Magnolia Stamp Index 2011-2012

Magnolia Stamp Index 2009-2010

Magnolia Stamp Index 2007-2008

ENJOY!!!

Tennis Revisited

I've taken several classes at my local bead shop, The Bead Hive, which were taught by the very talented Sue Snell.  Sue calls these "Tennis Revisited".  They are simple yet very beautiful and are quick and easy to make. I used 1.5mm Japanese cube beads, 11/0 seed beads and finally 3mm bicones all on 6 lb. Fireline. The combination of colors is endless!

Lekku Neckace

This necklace was quite the challenge. I found the instructions in Rachel Nelson-Smith's Seed Bead Fusion book and fell in love right away.  I'm currently in my "beading period" which may be followed by some other craft or revert back to a previous one - who knows.  I purchased all my supplies from local bead shops and went to work. The directions were relatively easy and I found myself moving right along. There are two stages to this piece - the rope base and the embellishment.  I followed Rachel's directions and used "beading thread" - I think it was nymo. I was about 90% done when I looked down and was shocked to find the drop embellishments in the middle coming apart. I used double thread just like Rachel suggested and was dumbfounded. Since this piece is worked in a netting style there was just no way to repair it. I had to take the entire thing apart.  I think my husband was more upset than I was. I knew how many night he went to bed alone while I stayed up beading this behemoth and the thought of a repeat was a bit shocking to him.

Anyway, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess and I separated all my beads and started again. This time I used 6 lb Fireline DOUBLED for the entire piece. I figured better safe then sorry.  It came out really pretty and much chuckier than I had imaged.  I typically wear simple pieces so on Christmas Eve I wore this with a simple white blouse and black slacks. Boy did it stand out. I received many compliments and no one could believe I made it.  I even had someone place an order for two bracelets I made - thanks Nikki!!

I'm not sure I will ever make this again. It was very time consuming and used tons of beads which add up after a while.  However, it's a special "statement" piece that I will always cherish!