The Card Album decorated for a baby shower gift for Rock and Roll Mom to be

I have a baby shower coming up for a first time mom to be that's a bit on the rock and roll side and so I wanted to decorate The Card Album I was giving her to put all her baby shower cards in not too cute but still "baby boy" like. I went through the paper stash and found this cool black paper that was printed with the definition of baby all over it-perfect! Then onto the die cut stash and I thought the Hello Kitty tiny bunnies and the winged heart was a great combo of cute and tough.
So I simply went to town die cutting up a bunch of the cool papers. Then I just started to play around with all the shapes. Oh I should mention I inked the edges of my die cuts with silver, black and blue inks to outline them and make them pop a bit.

Here is my final The Card Album with a matching gift card that I used the same baby printed paper and die cut bunny.

I am really looking forward to this shower. I was put in charge of the memory game (30 or so items on a tray that everyone gets 2 minutes to look at, then it's taken away and then they have to write down everything that was on the tray), it was requested that it be all baby themed items so I am on a mission to gather up only baby items, not too easy of a task in a house that has never had a baby inside of it!

Sweater Surgery in the Pratt Institute Magazine and Bookmarks You can make at Maker Faire with me!

Yey! Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters is in my alumni magazine The Prattfolio!

Wooo Hooo! How cool is that!

And to celebrate that and my appearance at Maker Faire on May 30th and 31st at the San Mateo County Expo Center. I have a tutorial on how to make a bookmark out of recycled felted wool sweaters that are a perfect accessory to the cool journals that will be given away in our Craftside booth!
Grab yourself a bunch of old wool sweaters and wash them in hot and cold water, then throw them in the dryer to felt 'em up good!
Then I did a combo of free form and die cutting using my fabulous Hello Kitty Die Cutting machine and a variety of dies (that I will have with me at Make Faire so you can play too) to cut out shapes from the felted wool sweaters.

I then needle felted the elements together and added a scrap of yarn to make the bookmark/ place holder in my journal.

To read all about this cool journal that's made from recycled book paper, pop on over to this post at Craftside.

Oh and in addition to making cool bookmarks out of recycled felted wool sweaters I will be signing and giving away free copies of
Sweater Surgery: How to Make New Things with Old Sweaters

and there will be more make and takes with some of the other uber-cool Quayside Publishing Group Authors so don't forget to come by and MAKE stuff with us!

A Hoppin' cute moveable easter die cut card from fabric scraps

I have been called "The Left Coast Martha" and I am simply tickled by that nickname because I am a huge fan of the Right Coast Martha!
And I am a huge fan of her new mammoth craft book:
Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-to-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration

They aren't kidding when they say "endless inspiration" here is my post-it riddled copy of the book after just what I want to make now!

So with Easter almost here I needed to make some Easter cards and I thought her technique that she uses to stiffen fabric and then punch out shapes was a perfect place to start. She has a wonderful project for making a bouquet of flowers but I wanted elements for my card.

I followed the directions in the book and grabbed my fabric stiffener which happens to be Plaid's Stiffy and some fabric scraps.
Then onto punching out my elements. I used my Sizzix Sizllit Easter Phrase set, McGill's Egg, and the Martha Stewart Bunny to punch my elements.

I then cut the egg apart in a zig zag shape.

I attached the top of the egg with a tiny piece of wire with a bead on the end and punched a hole in the corner of the egg and paper.

I bent the wire in a spiral on the back side. This allows the egg top to open and close.

I then tied one end of a piece of button thread to the plaidbunny and the other end through a hole in the paper card behind the bottom half of the egg I had glued onto the card only around the edge so the bunny could fit into it like a pocket.


If you like this Easter card, check out another one I made here die cutting and punching out stiffened fabric.

Happy Easter!