Guest Designer at Crafty Steals

I'm so excited about today's post! A while back Andreana at Crafty Steals invited me to be their guest designer this month. What fun! They sent me an amazing goodie box filled with some wonderful products, in particular, Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer collection.

As soon as I saw the papers, I thought of quilts, so I wanted to create some projects that with a quilt theme.

Celebrate Summer Card



To create the quilt blocks on the bottom of the card, I used my trusty square punch (1"). Some of the squares were cut in half diagonally once to form the larger triangles, and some cut again to create the smaller triangles. Then I put adhesive on a base piece of cardstock and carefully laid them on top to create the quilt pattern.



The top portion of the card features another of the goodies that Crafty Steals sent, a Mister Huey's spray. This color is Dark Calico, and I used a sponge with quick downward strokes to spread the mist as soon as I sprayed it to create that wood effect. The flags and pinwheel are attached to some flat toothpicks. The Summer stamp is also from the Hometown Summer collection, and the twine on the darker buttons was also sent by Crafty Steals (did I mention how fabulous that box of stuff was?!)

Who Needs Fancy Toys Layout



This is probably my favorite of the projects. I wanted to create a really bold quilt element. Since those four quilt pieces are so bold, so no big title, and I left the background very plain, just added a little faux stitching, and I left my threads hanging for some extra texture.



These photos are old ones of Ellie, from about 2 1/2 years ago, and I added a little hidden journaling behind the simple title piece.

Creating those large quilt elements is actually pretty easy. Here's a quick tutorial:

1) Cut 4" squares from four different two sided papers. Then cut them in half diagonally to create triangles. Score each of the triangles 3/4" from the long end. Then sew two triangles together along the scored line as seen below:



2) Open up the sewn triangles, they will look like this:



3) Turn one of the pieces 90 degrees and place it directly on top of the other, lining up the center squares. Use a little adhesive to take the pieces together.



4) Stitch across the center square (perpendicular to where the two triangles are joined together.




Just Because Card



Since the first two projects were definitely more vintage/traditional quilt pieces, I wanted to show a more modern take on the quilt and also showcase some of the papers that really weren't highlighted in the first to projects.

More punches for this card, the 3/4" square and 1" circle. This is really easy to do, and just takes a little (but not a lot) of precision. I'm also going to enter this card into Moxie Fab World's Gingham challenge.

I hope you enjoyed the projects, if you have some time, please head over to Crafty Steals site and take a look around. They have challenges, tutorials, and some great, great deals. I had a wonderful time guesting for them, and so appreciate the opportunity.