Yo ho Mateys! TallShips and a freebie...

Yo ho mateys! This kit be perfect for all your high seas adventures photos, Caribbean dreams layouts, or just for some ol' pirate fun. Full of texture and depth, this kit has so much more than what you can see in the preview... I just couldn't fit it all in! But find a complete list of everything here. This week it's on sale for 30% off at Digital Freebies. You can also find it in my shop at FaithSisters.

Here's the full kit...

Find just the elements right here.

The papers...


The alpha...


And a few fabulous CT LOs using the kit.
By Jenn...


by Bohunka25...

And another by her

And one by me...


Ok, and finally here's the freebie sampler. Click the image to go to the download...

Easter sewing

I got to work plenty early on these dresses... but still ended up madly sewing Friday morning before leaving to drive the four hours to my folks' house for Easter weekend. I actually had the little girlies' dresses done, but was working on finishing up Sage's. All the dresses started as Ottobre patterns (from the summer '05 issue) but morphed into twirly dresses. Afterall, even almost-eleven year olds need a good twirly dress every now and then.

Here are the original patterns, so you can kind of see the changes I made:


Sydney's went together beautifully, no problems at all...

Sabrina's, not so much. I guess that's what you get when you stay up til 1am sewing. I mixed up the measurements for the bottom two tiers. When I sewed on that middle green one, I was thinking that it was a lot fuller gathers than Sydney's had been, but it didn't register why. So after serging and topstitching it all, I had to pick it out, UGH! Still after all that work, it ended up fine.

Sage's dress gave me a few minor headaches, just because while I sew well, actually fitting dresses is a skill I'm still working on. I had to modify a few things to get the fit right. But I actually love it and so does she. The zipper went in like a breeze, and she just looks fabulous in it.
BACK:

Twirly front:


And all three girls together...

Suddenly obsessed...

...with craft blogs. It started with a visit to my midwife last month. Waiting to be called back, I picked up a copy of Mothering Magazine. An article highlighting some fabulous craft blogs caught my eye and after I was called back, but still waiting for my midwife, I swiped a sticky note from her desk and started quickly writing down blog addresses. My very cool midwife walked in at that moment and after she asked what I was doing, told me to just take the mag home... she'd trust me to bring it back. **Note to self... you forgot to return it this week, make sure you stick it in the van so you have it to return the next time**

I came home with the magazine and spent hours that night and the next pouring through craft blogs, which lead me to gorgeous etsy shops, natural parenting and creative homeschooling blogs, and back in circles to the craft blogs. It started with SouleMama, where I (think I) found Angry Chicken, which led me to the Camp Creek Blog and on and on. I bookmarked dozens of projects, emailed them to myself so I wouldn't forget, sent some I knew she'd appreciate to my mom, etc. And now I've added some to my sidebar. It's more for me, so I remember to check them out, than for anyone else. But just in case you have a crafty side, you might want to see what fun things there are. Careful though, you might end up snagged, caught, locked in this craft blog obsession!

PS, a side effect of my obsession is putting an unbelievable number of books on hold at the library. Knitting, farming, crafting, sewing, teaching children, creating with the wonder of life... you name it, I've got it on hold. All thanks to these fabulous bloggers. It's a good thing books come from all over 5 counties and are sometimes checked out by other people... so they trickle in, or I'd never be able to carry all the stacks home.

PPS, Check out the Feed Your Soul Free Art Project that I just discovered, where some great artists have put pieces of art that you are free to download, print and hang in your home. Isn't that cool???

For my sweet baby to be...

In no way related to scrapbooking, but I just want to show off the baby quilt I just finished. I started with adorable Debbie Mumm and other quilting fabrics, and a rough plan. I purposely didn't wash any of them (or the cotton batting) because I wanted it to shrink after it was quilted, giving it sort of an old-fashioned handmade look that I love. I'll show you what I mean in a minute. The piecing and quilting was all done on my machine, but the binding... miles and miles of binding...


was handmade out of the same flannel that I used for the back, and then handsewn to the quilt. And I have the holes in my fingers to prove it.

Here's the quilt finished, but not washed...


And after it's washed.


I don't know if you can really see the difference, though it's very obvious when you hold it. Here's a closeup...


I don't know, maybe it's knowing this will be my last baby that's doing it, but I'm just having such a great time creating things for this little guy. I have one sweater almost finished... just need to sew the arms on, and another one about 1/2 knit. Good thing I still have another month and a half. All this other stuff is definitely cutting into my designing. Oh well, the cycles we go through, I guess. Now if only we could agree on his name!

Playful Bits and freebie

I love magnetic poetry pieces. I've had them on my fridge off and on for more than a decade, and even have a journal with a metal cover and little magnetic pieces for when inspiration strikes. So I decided to make my own digital, slightly grungy version. But the truth is, they've been in various stages of completion for months, or maybe a year. There are so many, that I just didn't want to cut them all apart, LOL. I finally bit the bullet and did it, and here you have Poetry Bits. Over 380 of them, to be exact. There are oodles and oodles of the most common words we use, and lots of prefixes and suffixes to create even more words. You can pick them up at DigitalFreebies or FaithSisters, and they're on sale at DF for just $2.80 this week, instead of the normal (and still super reasonable price of $4).


Oh, and I have a little freebie out this week at Digital Freebies. Click the preview to go grab it...


And I had a ball playing with one of my older kits: Inquisitive, a great template from Sine, and the Poetry Bits (click for all the credits)...

trying again

This is post #2 about these kits, because I'm trying a new way of publishing to my blog. The last try obviously didn't work. This one looks like it's going to be successful, YAY!

Feeling warm and springy? Or just wishing to? As part of the Digital
Freebies club kit for march, here's my New Bloom kit. Partnered with
Simple Girl Designs, you can get both kits to scrap those beautiful
spring or girly photos, for just $5. I've also created an add-on kit,
that I think I might love more than the original, if that's possible.
And a coordinating QP album, made from both of my new kits!

Click on the preview to go to the club and see/buy both mine and
Simple Girl's kits together...

For a burst of spring, even when winter's hanging on...

We had more snow this weekend. It's been the craziest winter here!
Normally we get just a dusting at best, but we were swamped with it in
December and have gotten it so many more times than normal. But today
is sunny and makes me feel vibrant and full of life. How about you?
Feeling warm and springy? Or just wishing to? As part of the Digital
Freebies club kit for march, here's my New Bloom kit. Partnered with
Simple Girl Designs, you can get both kits to scrap those beautiful
spring or girly photos, for just $5. I've also created an add-on kit,
that I think I might love more than the original, if that's possible.
And a coordinating QP album, made from both of my new kits! (click on
the image to go to them in the store)
[url=http://digitalfreebies.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=5333][IMG]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i163/Dielledl/Scrapbooking/Dielle_NewBloom_AO_Prev.jpg[/IMG][/url]
Click on the preview to go to the club and see/buy both mine and
Simple Girl's kits together...
[url=http://digitalfreebies.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=5332][IMG]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i163/Dielledl/Scrapbooking/Dielle_NewBloom_Prev.jpg[/IMG][/url]
[url=http://digitalfreebies.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=5340][IMG]http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i163/Dielledl/Scrapbooking/Dielle_NewBloom_QP_Prev.jpg[/IMG][/url]

And a couple of beautiful pages using the kits (click to see all the credits)...
by Cherry...
[url=http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=576532][img]http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/data/500/japanteagarden.jpg[/img][/url]
by Jenn...
[url=http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=575050][img]http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/data/500/smallfourkids.jpg[/img][/url]
by Melissa...
[url=http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=583127][img]http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/data/500/newdo12.jpg[/img][/url]
and one by me...
[url=http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=580453][img]http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/data/500/My-Cuties-web.jpg[/img][/url]