Checkbook; First Draft // Giveaway almost given!!

I've come up with two style ideas to make checkbook covers. Tonight I tried the first. Overall it turned out ok, but I'm already changing it up a bit for my second draft. This one is made of Amy Butler fabrics and took roughly 30 minutes to cut out, fuse interfacing, and put together. It took an additional 20 minutes to battle with my machine over bobbin issues. Hopefully you can aviod the last 20 should you try to make something similar!

Outside
Open

With checks and register.

Tommorrow I'm going to try my second idea and see which one works best. I may try to make a quick tutorial if anyone's interested! It's pretty easy!
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I will be using random.org tommorrow morning around 7am to pick the winner of the Quilted List Taker I posted a few days ago. I will announce the winner on here, and email or post to their blog. If I do not hear back within 24 hours I will pick a new winner. Good Luck!

Giveaway Success and tried a new tutorial.

It's exciting at how many comments and visits to my blog I've gotten from the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway! I've found so many new fun blogs to follow from the giveaway listings. My giveaway will be open until I wake up Monday morning, so check out my giveaway post and enter if you haven't yet! =) The winner will be contacted Monday.

While registering for other's great giveaways, I came across a blog with a link to a great coffee sleeve tutorial. I whipped up a few this morning.




I think they turned out pretty cute! They took no time at all to make either. I'm thinking of a few modifications I may try in the future though.

You can check out the tutorial here http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/coffeecozy.pdf

Now I just need to go to Starbucks to try them out!

Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway Day!

Hi everybody! I'm new to craft blogging and after finding so many great blogs out there I've decided to participate in the Sew, Mama, Sew May Giveaway Day.




The giveaway officially starts tommorrow, May 27th and I will be accepting comment entries until May 31st. On June 1st I will select a winner from the comments. I will be shipping only to the USA for my first giveaway.

I really hope to get some new readers and followers of my blog as well as find more great blogs to read! I'm going to soon try my hand at making free tutorials for bags I've designed and a few other craft items I've been working on and will be sharing them on my blog. I have also linked to my new etsy shop, which will be getting more items in the near future.

For this May Giveaway Day I've decided to offer this cute Quilted List Taker!

This quilted list taker is fun and easy to make and was designed by Jennifer Casa - a tutorial is available at her etsy shop at jcasa.etsy.com.

So please feel free to leave a comment below to enter to win the quilted list taker! If you have any great blogs you maintain or love to read, share them with me in your comment. Please leave either a link to your blog or email so I can contact the winner! Good luck! =)

Want an extra entry into the drawing? Follow my blog! Click "Follow Blog" at the top of the page!

Jacksonville Senior Expo

This year I organized a booth for my company at the 13th annual City of Jacksonville Senior Expo. It kicked off today and will conclude tomorrow. I apparently very much under estimated the appeal of the "freebie". We were practically under attack all morning by people taking handfuls of our pens, jar lid openers, nail files, etc. Some of the seniors tried to walk off with the mugs holding our free pens and other supplies. Some other seniors tried to pick up and make off with our giveaway baskets. More than a handful berated us for not giving away parts of our display. I think a few of the attendees would have taken our clothes right off our body if given the chance... It was rather amusing..

I'm happy to report that with a strong multi person defensive line, we luckily at the end of day 1 still had all our permenant display items in our possession. I hope to report the same such luck after the end of tomorrow.
I'm still deciding what to make for the Sew, Mama Sew giveaway... It's been a busy week with the expo and my parents visiting from Tennessee. We're also on day 5 of a particularly nasty "nor'easter" as they're calling it on the news. Torrential rain and winds up to 50mph have made my week a little rougher. Here's hoping for clearer weather and crafty inspiration!

Inagural Blog

I'm new to the craft blogging world, but after gaining so much inspiration from all my favorite blogs out there, I've decided to try to maintain my own blog to share ideas, show off new things I've made, and get suggestions and feedback from all my fellow crafters out there...

Here's some new things I made yesterday for a "grandkids" giveaway basket my work will be raffling off at the Jacksonville Senior Expo next week. I may have gone a bit overboard with this adorable fabric I found yesterday at JoAnns. I used it for a bib, tree applique on a blanket I bought, burp cloth, washcloth, appliqued onsie with a birdie similar to ones in the fabric itself and then a stuffed birdie toy.

Today I'm going to decide what to make for the Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway Event. You can check out the info about this event here.