New Blog Link

Here's the new blog: Embellished Simplicity Renewed

Changes

Hello everyone!  It's been a long time since I last posted and a lot has changed in my life since then. I got remarried in 2014 and have a craft room again.  I have gotten back into crafting in a big way. Blogger won't let me change my account information, so I'm going to have to create a new blog. I will link it here once I get it set up. :)  I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, and blessed year.

Failure

Love this. Leslie Knope said this on Parks & Recreation--I found the whole quote on the internet and made this little thing to pin to Pinterest since I couldn't find it on there already. Not to say it definitely isn't on there. :)

Friendship Bracelets

Gracie came in yesterday with her Rapunzel Polly Pocket and wanted me to show her how to braid--I went through it a few times and then she came in several times yesterday and today and showed me the beautiful braids she had put in Rapunzel's hair. I told her about friendship bracelets and told her she could make a few with some colored floss that I have in my craft closet, so we picked out some colors and she went to town. She did the braids on them all on her own and I just tied them on her and cut off the ends, then she made one more and interspersed random knots and straight places and got a plastic "reader" charm out of her toys that she got in school last year. :) I think they look so cute and bring back memories for me, as I loved making these when I was a kid. One of these days I will look up instructions for the knotted kind with more than three strands and show her how to make those. :)

Blush Baby Quilt

I made this little baby quilt after my friend Shannon had her second baby, a girl. :) I finished it a few weeks ago, but just gave it to her this morning, so it's safe to post on my blog now. I took a Blush charm pack from Basic Grey by Moda and separated out the browns and reds and then purchased yardage for the borders and binding. I quilted it minimally because I was running into puckering issues, but washing it concealed all manner of sins. :) Thanks for looking and any comments!

Thank You Collage

This was the other card I made at the scrapbooking day a few weeks ago. I had all of these little elements in my scrap baggie; I just had to put it all together. :) The rhinestone was even stuck onto the flower and the leaf punch was already stamped with the texture stamp. I even had the card base ready from another idea that didn't work out, with the blue punched strip already adhered! :) The only thing I did was stamp the sentiment in black ink and stamped the "thank you" circle stamp in blue ink on blue cardstock and punched it out. Everything else I just trimmed to size as needed and stuck it all together. That scrap baggie sure does come in handy! :) Thanks so much for looking and for any comments.

Baby Girl Card in Five Minutes Flat

I made this card a couple of weeks ago at a scrapbooking day at a local church. I designed this card around the purple flowers, because I have had them for years and they kept falling off of the plastic sheet that they came on and driving me crazy. :) I had the green dotted scrap in my scrap baggie and I distressed the edges with my scissors, used a ruler and a thin black marker to draw the border, and adhered the stickers. I used a stamp for the sentiment and then went back over it with the same black pen so that it would match. I hand drew the heart. :) I included it in the bag with the quilt for my friends (you can sort of see the quilt behind it.) Thanks for looking and for any comments!