Bazzill organization-and a card from the scraps

For years now I've had way more Bazzill card stock than I need and the worst part is, I never use it. This is mainly because it was all crammed into a filing cabinet and impossible to flip through, and I had no idea what colors were in there. Someone on Split Coast Stampers came up with the idea to pull the swatches from her Bazzill swatch book for the colors she owned. It sounded great so I decided I'd do the same. Well it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

First I had to separate my stash by color (which was loosely done already). Then I had to pick through all of the swatches and find the ones that matched the paper I owned. Oh man, this was a job. I had stacks of paper everywhere. Even within single color groups I had a dozen or more varieties of that color. And some colors did not have corresponding swatches, for some reason, so I made them from the paper. And to make it more fun, with some colors it was very difficult to determine just what color family it should go with. Is it orange or red? Or brown? Is that one blue or green? Blue or purple? Purple or red?

So I just made some decisions that may or may not be right but they'll have to be good enough. I sorted them in rainbow order and from light to dark within each color family. So here is my new and improved Bazzill storage (I thought I had before pics but I don't-but trust me. It was a mess)


and here are my two new swatch rings. Hopefully they'll help me to use it up.


and the good news is that this stack here? It's all the swatches I DON'T own colors of. It's bigger than the ones I do own so that made me feel a tiny bit better.


So when I was all done, I had a stack of scraps that I did NOT feel like putting back in with the full size sheets. So I challenged myself to make a card with some of them, and I'll keep them on my desk to remind myself to get them used up first before using anything else. I also just got the super-cute new owl punch from Stampin' Up so I decided to use that too. Here's my card:

Paper is all from Bazzill
branch is from the SU Bird on a Branch punch
SU owl punch
SU scallop edge punch
SU 3-flower punch (for the wings)
Martha Stewart edge punches (for the top and the fence)
Computer printed sentiment-the font is called Sweet Pea

Quick and easy table runner

I used this tutorial (shift click to open in a new window) to make this quick and easy Halloween table runner. Fabric is by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake fabrics. I used the leftovers to make the binding-even though I hate making scrappy bindings, I love the look and you can't argue with the economics! Plus it always matches.




ps-I'll probably post later about my adventures organizing my bazzill paper stash. It's shameful, really. And I'll post a card as well.

First mug rug

A mug rug is basically an oversized coaster. I guess it's so that you can put your mug on it but still see the design. So I made this mug rug but I still need tons of practice on my binding. I've spent all day watching binding videos so maybe they'll help me-time will tell. I decided to use the buttonhole stitch on the applique but I think with the busy prints, it was a bit too much maybe. Anyway I'm sending this to my sister even though it's not perfect-so hopefully she doesn't see it here. I don't think she reads my blog anyway. I'm planning to make one for each of my sisters (surprise ruined-but no plans yet what design). This one is made with 30s fabric from my stash.

the back-I made a little tag for my name

What's been happening around here

I'm working on a couple of projects but I don't have anything to post yet. Probably tomorrow. But here's what has been keeping everyone busy. Steve, of course, is super busy picking corn. Since his dad isn't able to help anymore he has to do it all-all of the picking and the hauling. In the evenings and on weekends his brother helps him a bunch. I've been semi busy taking him lunches and helping him move equipment around from one field to another, not to mention hauling the kids to all of their activities. The kids are busy with lessons plus swimming, dance, speech and karate. I can hardly wait until harvest is over!

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