Swap-bot Updates!

So as I mention before, I am utterly addicted to Swap-bot.  I recently received my swap items!  So as you know, I was recently in Sublime Stitching HAND Embroidery Swap and Embroidery in Yellow.  What I received for Sublime Stitching Swap is this...

Super cute butterflies!  The fabric is pretty cool too!  I would of never thought to use a pattern fabric like this but it looks pretty darn cool.  

For my Yellow Embroidery Swap I received this:

Superrrrrrr cute seahorse!  Omg, I love it! I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I really do like it. I might frame it or maybe I'll do a collage of swap items onto a huge board or something. 

As I also mention, I signed up for Owl ATC Swap #2 .  This swap was a lot trickier than I expected.  Man, I did not know what to do and I was gluing owls left and right.  Finally I said, F it! I'll embroidery something and glue it to a small card.  So I did and this is the end result.

 I took this owl stamp and stamped the image to some cloth.  Then I embroidered the owl.  I swear, they are the tiniest stitches I've ever done.  I even had to use a regular needle and three strands for the eyes and tummy.  I thought the owl looked like it was shrugging so I added the "whooo knows" phrase.  Then I free-hand a tree and some leaves to finish it. I really like the outcome. 

So that's the stamp, and what it looks like when its stamped on paper.  Super cute right?  I thought it turned out pretty well.  

This is the back part of it.  Pretty simple, I stamped a tree image and dated it with my name.  My swap recipient shaylafish really liked it!  She commented on my blog, gave me a 5 with a heart and then blogged about it here.  I was blushing the entire time I read her comments.  Soooo sweet!  It totally made the trouble I went through worth it! I'm really glad she liked it.  I'm still waiting on my ATC, its coming from Australia so I know I'll be waiting a while.  I also recently found out the person you are sending to isn't necessarily the one you will be receiving from.  Its all pretty random.  I'm a little bummed cause I sorta tend to stalk my recipients and then I get the wrong idea on what I'll be receiving. It guess its suppose to be a surprise!  I still liked the items that I received so its all good.  

I'm still working on my pinup swap but I did finish the Gina Matarazzo swap. Hopefully, I'll have the pin-up done by swap deadline.  I already signed up for a new swap called  Bluework Embroidery R#2.  I love the color blue so this should be fun.  I'll start it in October when I finish my Pin-up.  

That's all I have for now.  Happy crafting! 

Blog Update!!

EDIT: Ugh, I accidently deleted part of my post when i was trying to fix a picture.  Well, I think I remember most of what I put so lets try this again! 

I've recently been part of a lot of swaps on Swap-Bot.  I finished two of my swaps.  The first swap, I mention in my previous post.  It was a Sublime Stitching HAND Embroidery Swap.  My partner is Rainsembellishments and here are her  lovely blog and etsy store.   I made some sugar skulls for her since she mention in her profile that she liked them.  

Pretty eh?  I love that blue fabric!  I'll need to go buy some more from Hobby Lobby.  The next series of pictures are just going to be closeups of each skull and flowers. 

I am also part of swap that is called Embroidery in Yellow.  Now, usually I don't really care for the color yellow but I did have a lot of fun making this piece.  My partner is LisasTeaTime and her blog is here! I used the bluebird from Sublime Stitching books and then I free-styled a french knot sun.  She really liked it! 

Sorry the second photo is so blurry, my camera is on the fritz! booooo.  

I've also buy a few items from Stampin Up! They have products to make cards and scrapbooking.  Their stuff is fabulous but I usually don't have the money to spend like I would like to.  I would probably buy half the catalog if I could.  Here's a picture of my loot!

 I bought an Owl punch, 5 markers, a bird stamp set, two clear blocks and two-way glue pen.  My awesome owl punch makes the cutest freaking owls you've ever seen. Below are a few examples of the owls I can do.  

Sooooo cute right?  I also got a stamp set of little birds and bird cages.  Its that box that looks like a DVD.  here is a close-ups of the stamps.  

I also made something for my friend Maggie for her birthday but I forgot to take a picture.  Basically it was a rainbow with some clouds and her name spelled out.  She really liked it!  What I'm currently working on (when I'm not punching out and gluing together cute little owls that is! ) is another swap.  I just started on it and so far so good.  The swap is Gina Matarazzo HAND Embroidery which is creating a finished item using Gina Matarazzo's patterns that are either free or small fee.  Gina's website is also http://ginamatarazzo.com/ or http://spotcolors.wordpress.com/ .  She's seems pretty amazing!  My swap partner is jennlmsomerset.  She didn't have any website listed or else I'd add them.  

Well that is all for now.  Adieu! 

New Current project

Hello all,

I hope your weekend was great.  Mine was pretty uneventful, we had free HBO/cinemax preview so Travis and I watched a bunch of movies.  I also went shopping and picked up some supplies.  I hit up hobby lobby (which is usually dangerous for me) and bought a glue gun+glue sticks, baby stuff backgrounds for the scrapbook, some stickers for the scrapbook, paint for hoop frames, and some totes to embroider.  I decided to embroider a tote for Travis's mom with sexy librarians.  Travis's mom is a head honcho librarian in Salt Lake City so I thought it would be cute.

So far, all I've done is ironed on the pattern and started embroidering one book.  I did say I wanted to track my progress so here are the so pics of the patterned ironed on.

Sexy Librarians eh? I thought so too.  I can't wait to get started.  I'm not sure yet how I want to handle it but we'll see how it goes. That is all, I just wanted to update a little bit on what I'm working on. I've also done a few more pages in the scrapbook but I think it's gonna be a long work in progress.

Happy Crafting!

I'm addicted to...

Buying new patterns!  yikes, I just spent another $20 at Sublime Stitching buying new patterns.  In my defense, I don't have hot sexy pinups yet!  I'm so excited about new purchase!

Pretty hot eh?  Oh yeah, I'm gonna be the proud owner pretty soon.  I also bought Mitch O'Connell paterns...

Plus Under the Sea and forest friends.  I shall use them I swear!  Who wants a sexy pin-up for their next birthday or christmas?  I know I do..

Hello hello

Since I haven't worked on anything crafty today, I thought I'd post some older projects I've finished and talk about them.

This is something I worked on around Christmas time (obviously).  It was one of the first patterns and embroidery projects I worked with.  If you noticed, its limited to backstitch and french knots cause thats all I knew!   I still love the reindeer and how they came out!  So cute and cuddly.  The pattern is from Sublime Stitching and it's not in any books, you just have to buy it.

This is a project I started after I finished my Christmas themed dish towels.  This is actually a huge flour sack towel, and when I bought it, I didn't know it would cover a small table!  Again, this is mostly done in backstitch and french knots.  Its not over the top and I wasn't as confident with my skills.  All I do know, it sure looks tasty! 

Now this, I was extremely proud of when I finished.  This is the first request I've ever done.  My friend Maggie had purchased the Sublime Stitching unicorn pattern just because.  She knew she wanted to have me make something with it and boy did I.  This is a banner sold by sublime stitching.  I used I believe pattern on the sheet.  I bought fabric markers and colored it in.  I think it really really made it pop.  I was most proud of the tail. 

As you can see, I used several different colors in the tail which looks like they flowed into each other.  I thought it was genius! haha.  In this project, I used both backstitch and split stitch through out. I thought it gave it good dimensions. Needless to say, Maggie absolutely loved it!  Yay!

Now this creation is the first gift I made for someone.  I made this for my friend Leighann for her Birthday.  She loves all things spacey and nerdy and I had bought this pattern for same reasons.  This is an apron I had laying around and I thought it would be a perfect piece.  All the patterns are by Sublime Stitching since I can't draw my way out of a paper bag.  In all reality, Sublime Stitching has really awesome patterns that make it fun to embroider!  Theres a patterns for everyone and every occasion so you really can't go wrong.  I used both Space pattern and some from her books.  This was also the first time I've done a pattern on something thats not a variation of white so it was actually pretty hard!  The iron on pattern was hard to see and I had to trace it with a chalk pencil for most of it so I was really proud on how it came out regardless.  I had a few mistakes here and there and as you can see, I freehand the writing which is why its terrrible!  Here are some close up shots...

I really  this little guy!  As you can probably tell, I started with split stitch and then switch to a back stitch.  Yep, I was too lazy to take it out.  Oh well, I'm sure Leighann didn't notice until now that I've said something!

This is a closeup of the pocket.  I didn't plan ahead and didnt realize that I would have to stitch the pocket shut (sorry!!) so i only did a design on the middle pocket.  Since I don't have a sewing machine, I couldn't undo the pocket and embroider it and then stitch it back on.  I was pressed for time as it is.

Well, that is it for now.  I will post some other stuff I've finished later.  I also promise to take pictures of my future stuff with my digital camera and not my iphone. Have a good night everyone!

What chu working on Perla?

Well, the whole point of this blog was to show what I'm currently working on soooo lets get to it!

 So that is my craft table aka my disaster zone.  That's where some of the magic happens... ;)  Notice my GRE book... that my friend, is not crafty fun.  It's not any kind of fun.  I've been putting it off for a while now and I need to do it if I want to start applying to grad schools.  woo hoo... pfffbbbtttt. <---that was suppose to be a raspberry sound... anyways.. back to the crafts!

This is a scrapbook that I'm currently working on.  That beautiful baby is my nephew Anthony.  This book has been a long time coming... sorry Suzy!  I finally, finally, finally started it this week.  So far, only like 5 pages done.  I like scrapbooking but it can be so tedious and frustrating trying to arrange pictures, coming up with new themes and organizing it.  Slapping it together is the easy part... planning the page.. not so much.

 That is the embroidery project I started last week.  Its two angelfishes.  I had this blue bandanna laying around that I wanted to embroider and I got tired of it collecting dust so I decided to finally iron on a pattern. I figured the fishes would do well against this pretty blue!  I also ironed on some jellyfishes on another square.  The pattern is by Sublime Stitching and its located in the craft pad.

 ...and a close up of the fish.  I used 3 strands and simple back stitch so far.  Since the lines are so small, I thought this was best way to go.  I'll probably use a different stitch on the bigger guy.

 That's it for now, I'm gonna go cook up some dinner! :)