Minted has 15% off on Holiday Cards

Minted has amazing holiday cards, including one I made HERE and some gift tags I made HERE.

Ending today they are offering 15% off + free shipping on orders over $100. An awesome price if you ask me, and the paper they print on is so extremely nice and pretty feeling. 

Also, in other minted news, it looks like former model Christy Turlington (remember her back in the 90's?) chose one of my art prints as one of her favorites for children . . . see Up and Away below. I think the Eat Sleep Play one below is pretty adorable too.

Lastly, today's free download will be coming soon!

More free Valentine's printables!

The lovely people at mooo.com.au let me know about some adorable printables they have on their site for free download. So, for those of you preparing for Valentine's Day over the weekend, here are some more really cute options!

Click HERE to go to their free PDF download. You can either sign up for an account with them, or just click "no thanks" and get the free download.

And, if you feel like it, you can also browse the great children's items that they sell. Yikes, I love it.

Lotta Jansdotter

I have been a fan of Lotta Jansdotter's designs for quite some time, but I didn't know she had a line of fabric untill a couple weeks ago.

I was at the Corn Wagon Quilt Co. with my daughter and told her she could pick out any fabric she wanted for a shirt I wanted to make her. Out of thousands to choose from, she chose this. I didn't know it was by Lotta Jansdotter until I got home and ironed it after washing. It was a great find.

Here is the shirt I made out of the fabric that only kind of fits Alex, which I tried to pattern off a shirt I saw on Jcrew.com. The sleeves are too wide and I'm having sewing machine issues. I bought a Singer Brilliance last year to replace my $20 and 20 year old thrift store sewing machine...and I think I had more luck with my old one. I have such thread tension problems it is driving me up the wall and I'm going to have to call Singer and see if I have a defect. All my online searches only temporarily fixed my problem. So sad. But once I get that fixed, I can make the sleeves thinner and maybe do a little puckering on them.

It took all the brain power I have to figure out how to sew some of these elements, but I enjoy it. I learned a few things too, which I always do when I try to sew something (with or without a pattern). My favorite parts are the buttons, those are always my favorite parts. My least favorite part is how the left side looks shorter than the right. I don't think it is (although the shirt is slightly crooked in the picture), but the bottom part under the seam with the puckering (very technical term I know) is shorter on the left side so now the whole shirt looks shorter. Live and learn! At least you can't tell when she is wearing it (which she won't do for more than just trying it on until I "make the sleeves not so fat").

I love this fabric, I'm going to go buy some more Lotta Jansdotter and make something else. Maybe just frame some...that takes no sewing at all!

Art from Alex

Since I haven't been doing too much art of my own lately, here is something my daughter Alex painted a few months ago. However, next week will be the beginning of a 6 day free printable download frenzy with my friend Muffin, so I'll have to get back to designing soon.

Paper and accessories

I found a great website (via howaboutorange) with the cutest stationery accessories. So many things on this website would make great gifts for people I know. And, even if you don't want to spend money, it is still nice to see and dream about having it! The site is www.cutetape.com.

Thumbprint art

I love this gift that my daughter received from a friend for her birthday a couple months ago. Make art with your thumbprints and stickers! It is awesome.

It comes with some ideas,

and some stickers.

Alex made a card recently, she loves this card set.

Here are a couple of the cards that come in the set.

This is Alex's finished card.
Chronicle Books distributes these, and The Small Object makes them. You really should visit both these websites, they have awesome products to look at (and to buy).