Three Things

Three things that are making me smile this week:

Red tulips on the kitchen counter. They smell beautiful and are a lovely hint of spring on these dull, cold February days.

The growing pile of blocked and seamed rectangles (for my Garden Patch Granny Afghan) sitting on the chair in the living room.

Another crochet project that after a rough start (some serious gauge issues) is coming together quite nicely and may even be done by Easter like I had planned.

What has made you smile this week?

I'm on a Design Team!

I am so incredibly excited to announce that I have been selected to be a part of The Memory Nest Design Team.

It has always been a goal of mine to be on a scrapbooking design team and I am so happy to have been chosen to lend my creativity to The Memory Nest.

I want to thank Leslie (owner of The Memory Nest) for this wonderful opportunity.

I am excited to play with new papers and embellishments and get down to business designing some fun and pretty layouts.

Hooray!  

Card of the Week: Live, Love, Laugh

Similar to last week, this weeks card features flowers.

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: my paper stash; Cardstock: Bazzill; Sentiment Stamp: purchased at Michael's; Circle Punch: Fiskars; Circle Stamp: Gel-A-Tins; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesive, 3D Foam Squares

After layering the papers on this card, I wanted to add some sort of embellishment but quickly found that I had nothing in my stash that coordinated. To solve this problem, I simply cut one of the orange flowers out of a small scrap of the same floral paper used on the card. I then punched a circle out of the floral paper on my card, stamped and heat embossed another circle inside my punched circle, and attached my orange flower with a foam square to give it some dimension. I had created the perfect embellishment.

I often do this - cut things out of patterned paper and use them as embellishments - even when I am working on scrapbook layouts. Yes, it is a little time consuming, but it saves the pennies in that I can get a perfectly coordinated embellishment without paying any extra for it.

Is this something any of you do? It is a really handy little trick, that I highly recommend.

Pink & White Blanket (for a sweet little girl)

I made this blanket for my youngest daughter Claire.

Did you know it is very hard to photograph a blanket when it is all laid out? Balancing on a stool with a camera held above my head trying to get a decent picture....not at all a simple feat.

I purchased the yarn used for this blanket a few summers ago at a huge sale. Both colors - the white and the pink/white twist - were factory mill ends stuffed into bags and priced at a mere $3.00 per bag.

I followed this pattern which is the same one I used to make a blanket for my nephew a little over a year ago. I really do enjoy this pattern, there is something incredibly soothing about the repeating stitches back and forth across the rows.

One thing I did change a bit from the original pattern was the edging. I found a coordinating solid pink in my yarn stash and then did one row of single crochet in white, pink, and then white around the blanket. I finished off with a picot edge in solid pink. I am very happy with how the edging turned out. The solid colors really frame the blanket and the picot edging makes it look a little more fancy.

Now this blanket is in the room of this girl where is gets lots of love, giggles, and cuddles.

She is the sweetest and most adorable little girl.

One Year Blog Anniversary - A Giveaway

One year ago today I started this little blog of mine.

Happy 1st Birthday Crafty Cucumber!

I am insanely proud of my work here. Blogging has been such an incredible creative outlet for me and I can’t imagine not doing it. I really do love it, a lot more than I thought I would to be perfectly honest with you.

My goal when I started Crafty Cucumber was to carve out a little space for myself on the big old internet where I could share my craft projects, tell of my crafting adventures, and discuss my creative process. I love looking at the last years worth of posts and seeing the sheer number of projects that I have completed, the work that I have done, and what I have accomplished. It is truly satisfying to see my creativity displayed in this space. That is the thing about a craft blog – you have a running tally sheet of what you have done, daring you to complain about the list of unfinished tasks. 

Through this year of blogging, I have rediscovered my love of writing. It had been years since I really wrote anything of substance, and with this blog I have had the wonderful opportunity to do purposeful writing each week. It has been incredibly satisfying to stretch my writing muscles, and as the year has gone by I feel like I have gotten more comfortable in my writing style, more confident in making my own voice heard as I share my projects, and more willing to put things out there for the world to read.

I have also loved sharing my work. Because what fun is crafting of any sort if you keep it all to yourself - none at all.  Working away at a project, knowing that I will be photographing it and sharing it on the blog is so incredibly motivating and it is so much fun to know that like minded people, fellow crafters like myself, are going to look at it. I love the sharing part of blogging, that is for sure.

Of course, hand in hand with sharing, is my love of feedback. I am so happy when readers leave comments on my projects.  Oh dear, if you could have seen me the day I got my first comment, you would have thought I had gone right mad.  All of the feedback I have received this year has been positive and encouraging and I thank everyone who has ever commented on my posts for your kind words.  

To continue the sharing, and to thank you all for reading what this crafty girl has to say every week I would like to celebrate the first anniversary of Crafty Cucumber with a giveaway. 

What is up for grabs you ask? Well after a year of 'Card of the Week' posts I have amassed a giant collection of handmade greeting cards and I would like to offer the following five cards to one lucky reader.

Two birthday cards:

Two thank you cards:

And one blank card:

Wouldn't you love to have these handmade cards on hand? Of course you would.

There are two ways to enter. Of course, if you do both you will have two chances to win, so why not?

1. Publicly follow this blog by clicking on the "Join this Site" button on the sidebar. If you are already a follower (thank you), you are already entered.  
2. Leave me a comment on this post with your contact information so that I can get in touch with you if you are the winner.

The deadline for entries is February 28th at 12:00 pm EST . I will randomly select a winner on March 1st and announce it then.

I have truly enjoyed sharing my work, my thoughts, and my life with you over the past year. Thank you so very much for reading.

Card of the Week: Spring Flower Birthday Card

This week, while a blizzard raged outside my window, I played with this patterned paper that is just blooming with spring colors and flowers. The result of my playing was this card:

Card Base: Recollections; Patterned Paper: American Crafts; Cardstock: Bazzill; Border Punch: Fiskars; Sentiment Rub-On: Bazzill; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives

Honestly, spring can not come soon enough - which is how I feel around mid February every year. Tired of the snow and the cold, I long for the days when the world is green rather than white, when flowers are blooming in the garden, and when my feet are finally warm.

Of course I know the change in seasons is still a bit off, so until then I am putting on my sweater and an extra pair of socks, and playing with some pretty flower paper.....making cards....not a bad compromise, if you ask me.

Show Time & 60 Years

I finished up two scrapbook layouts this week, and true to my word I would like to share them with you.

This first layout is of my youngest daughter Claire watching her first movie in the theater - Finding Nemo in 3D. I saved the movie ticket stub and tucked it in the bottom left corner of this layout as a 'souvenir' of the occasion.

Patterned Paper: American Crafts; Cardstock: Bazzill; Movie Reels: purchased from the Silhouette Online Store, cut with Silhouette; Title: cut with Silhouette; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives

In July my grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. I took this photo of them holding their wedding picture at their party and I absolutely love it. I kept my layout very clean and simple to keep the focus on the picture and the journalling.

Patterned Paper: Basic Grey; Cardstock: Bazzill; Border Punch: Fiskars; Corner Rounder: EK Success; Flowers: Prima; Buttons: American Crafts, Crate Paper; Title: cut with Silhouette; Ink: Ranger Inks; Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives, Glue Dots

I have a few more pages in the works and look forward to sharing them once they are done.

Happy Scrapbooking!