Wedding Gifts

Once again, I have been MIA.   Does anyone else find that their weeks just fly by?  I was turning the blocks on my husband's perpetual calendar earlier tonight and realized that it is July 14.  How did that happen?  Wasn't it just July 4th?  (Big sigh.)

Back on June 23, we attended the wedding of the daughter of long-time friends and our church's music administrator (who is the worship leader for the band I sing with).  It was such a beautiful wedding!  The bride made sure her dress was modest with the addition of a short jacket, and the entire service was centered on Jesus Christ.  There were even two trumpeters, which took Phil and I back to our own wedding 28 years ago.

Do any of you remember the mystery project I was working on at the beginning of the year?  It was Nathan and Diana's wedding gift.  I am hoping that by now they have opened their gifts and will not have the surprise spoiled by seeing this post on Facebook.

I decided to stitch My Beloved by Country Cottage Needleworks, but I personalized it by using their favorite color - red - for the lettering.  I also changed some of the other colors by choosing different shades of those that were charted so that they coordinated with the red.

I also brought out the red in the frame, which wasn't easy to find.  (A huge thank you to the framing employee at Michaels!)

I also stitched a Christmas ornament.  This was the third time (I think) that I've stitched this.

I will do my best to be back soon to share some cards I've made recently.

Anniversary Card

Our former pastor and his wife recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  We were not able to attend the celebratory dinner due to another commitment on the same day, but I did make a card.  I was inspired by this card.

 

Spellbinders - Classic Hearts, Fancy Tags Two

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders - Wicker Weave, Floral Fantasy, D'vine Swirl, Textile

Pearls - Recollections

Gold embossing powder on Versamark ink

Ribbon from my stash

Happy Father's Day

This has been a card making week for me, and there are still more to come.  I can only share one card with you for now.

Spellbinders - Classic Ovals Large & Small

Spellbinders - Twisted Metal Tags & Accents

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, London Fog

Stamp - Stampin' Up! Countryside

I generated the greeting on the computer since I didn't have a Happy Father's Day stamp.

The technique is from StampTV - Wainscot Background.  

Card for a Friend

I heart Pinterest.

I have had a lot of fun looking on various websites for card ideas.  Sometimes, when I follow a link, I'll end up exploring most of a blog and pinning multiple images.  This was the case with Poppy Paperie, where I found the original idea for this card, which I made for a friend who recently had surgery.

Here is the complicated recipe:

~ Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Rectangles
~ Spellbinders Rectangles Small

~ Cuttlebug embossing folder:  Swiss Dots

~ Verve stamps (verse)
~ Stem Silhouettes by Stampin' Up!
~ Oh, So Lovely by Stampin' Up!

~ Marvy LePlume II Markers:  #11 - Lt. Green, #17 - Steel Blue, #10 - Light Blue
~ Lightening Blue ink pad by Brilliance
~ Bamboo Leaves ink pad by Memento

~ Corner Rounder
~ Buttons
~ Glue Dots
~ Fibers

I was inspired by this video:

Patriotic Stitching

While looking through my unstitched patterns, I came across the Summer 2010 Booklet by The Sampler Girl.  I had only stitched one design from this booklet, but as I was looking through it, two others caught my eye.  The first, the Primitive Patriotic Cupboard Sampler, I stitched in two days!  Probably a record for me. 

I stitched this on a piece of linen in the color "tea" using DMC threads, and finished it as a hanging pillow.  The hanger is one strand from a piece of jute twine. 

I have this hanging from our front doorknob, but moved it to take the picture because of shadows. 

Next up is the Out in the Garden door hanging from the same booklet.

90 Years Young

My mother-in-law recently celebrated her 90th birthday, which I mentioned in an earlier post.  I wanted to stitch a small gift for her, and found the perfect one in an old Leisure Arts publication (which, of course, I don't have in front of me, and is probably somewhere in the living room) called 50 Garden Minis Inspired by Scripture.

I stitched this on 28 count evenweave using DMC threads.  I didn't have some of the colors the pattern used, so I substituted close matches.

It has been a long time since I've stitched anything by Leisure Arts, and I forgot how tedious all that backstitching is!  I finished this as a flatfold and used a pretty pink and blue flat trim around the sides, which perfectly complemented the colors in the piece.

Working on a UFO

Looking through my project tote bag tonight, I decided it was time to at least make the effort to finish some UFOs.  So I pulled out Summer Iris by Blackbird Designs and worked on the flowers at the top of the design. 

I'm still having problems with my shoulder, so stitching is slow, but it felt good to pick up a needle tonight.