PREVIEW BOOK REVIEW ~ Fantastic Mosaics

Hello! I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. Oh my! Maybe my new year's resolution should be to do more blogging. :-)  

In any event... I'm here today to give you a little review of an upcoming knitting video ebook. What's a video ebook you ask? Well, let me tell you, it is the best thing since sliced bread as far as learning techniques go! In a nutshell, a video ebook has videos throughout the book showing you exactly how to do whatever it is you're learning about. This particular ebook teaches you how to do mosaic knitting. Do you know what mosaic knitting is? I didn't.... but I know now! Mosaic knitting is a color-knitting technique. I've pretty much avoided using more than one color when knitting, thinking it was for advanced/expert knitters. If you're like me, fear not. Mosaic knitting is easy if you learn from the best. :-)

Liat's newest book, Fantastic Mosaics is a mosaic knitting class that will teach you everything you need to know. Along with the video instructions, each section has written pattern instructions (printable versions too) as well as a photo tutorial of all the steps. I like using the photo tutorials as reminders after I learn a technique. She even has trouble-shooting sections AND a section with links to patterns that will help you practice. Brilliant! 

There's a section on learning to read mosaic charts too. I haven't looked at that section yet, so that review will be in another post. In the meantime, check out my first try at mosaic knitting. All you need to know is to knit and purl and you can make this too! (Of course I chose orange and green. It is St. Paddy's Day today!)

Not bad for my first time :-)  If you haven't checked out Liat's books yet, you need to do it now! You will love her books! From beginners to advanced knitters, her books will help you learn great knitting techniques and will also show you how to fix common mistakes. 

Thank you Liat @ KnitFreedom.com for allowing me the opportunity to preview your latest video ebook. 

Wedding Gifts

This past weekend friends of ours got married, and I like to give personalized gifts, so this is what I made for them:

My Silhouette sure got a lot of attention this past week! I used it to print the Love hearts, and to cut them into stencils to use for the glass etching...which was my first attempt! I think the glasses came out pretty darn good for my first try at glass etching! The Love heart came from Rivka's Renditions found here. Isn't it so pretty?! I used it on the glasses as well as the heart on the frame. On the opposite side of the heart on the glass, I etching the couple's initials. For that I used a font called Tangerine. Both stencils I cut out using my Silhouette. 

The lettering on the frame was also from Rivka's Renditions. It's a new font for her and it's called RR Rhapsody and can be found here. It cut out so beautifully! I typed out the letters and then welded them in Silhouette Studio. Gluing them to the frame was a little challenging since they are so delicate, but I think it was worth it!

The coasters were made using a stamp set from Stampin' Up that I don't believe is available anymore. I stamped and then colored in with Sharpies.

The card was made with Textile embossing folder from Cuttlebug and a Darice frame to make the oval opening for the sentiment. The sentiment was a clear stamp set and the inside sentiment is from SU.

GIVEAWAY!!!

Hey Everyone!

There's a great giveaway for some Silhouette fonts and shapes! I love Rivka's designs and her files cut beautifully! (Check out my train card here - I used her file for the train.)  Here's what you need to do:

And here's the link to her blog post: GIVEAWAY

Good luck!

SSD Monthly Challenge

Wow! It sure has been awhile since I blogged! Yikes! I didn't even realize I had a draft from almost a year ago! I don't know why it's still as a draft since it was scheduled to post, but I guess blogger had something else planned lol.  Anyways...here's my long ago post...

Hi All! This last challenge was to use your favorite color combo...and lately I've been loving the black/red combo, so that's what I went with. The picture didn't come out great, but the background paper is from a sparkle pack, and there are some sparkles in it, you just can't tell from the picture. The bow is from a tulle-type material I had, but it made me think of fishnet stockings so I used it for this card. I colored her with Prismacolor colored pencils and cut her and the mats using my Creative Memories cutting set - she was too large to use my nesties with. 

UPDATE to my video book review below

UPDATE!!!! 

Based on my review, well, more specifically the suggestion in my review, Liat added a chart listing which bind-offs are recommended for certain cast-ons. How awesome is that?! It's just another reason why Liat is such a great teacher for knitters like you and me. Not only is she clear and concise in her teaching and really does a lot of research to give us the best tips and tricks, she also really does consider what her customers and fans have to say. You can't say that about many other people out there! I love that Liat makes herself accessible to us. Thank you Liat for all that you do, especially for beginner knitters like me!!

So what are you waiting for?! Go check out her latest book...you won't regret it!

Review of KNITFreedom's "I Love Bind-Offs" video book

Oh my goodness! I can not tell you how excited I was when I found out Liat was coming out with another video book....this time about bind-offs! And the best part is that she allowed me an early look at it so I could review it, and let me just say, it didn't disappoint. It met my expectations and then some! (My expectations were fairly high since I really love her Cast-On book! You can check out my review here.) Hands-down this is the best way to learn bind-offs. How many bind-offs do you know? Did you know that this book shows you 45 bind-offs? Did you know there were that many?? I sure didn't! What if I told you Liat knitted over 200 bind-off swatches during her research that led to the best 45 - would you believe me? Well, she did! And the result of her hard work is something we all get to benefit from.

In her latest video book she gives you three different ways to learn & see how the bind-off is done. Each bind-off has a video, step-by-step photo instructions, and an animated demo. You can learn this new technique using whatever style of instructions your brain likes best. I love the addition of the animated video at the end because it allows you to quickly review the technique if you've forgotten a step. As always, her videos and instructions are clear and concise. The videos are close-ups so you can easily see exactly what she's doing. And don't worry, she teaches in both continental and American styles for each bind-off.  If there's a tip or trick, she shows you. If the bind-off matches with a cast-on, she'll include that info as well. 

In this book you'll learn: 

• how to choose bind-offs
• Liat's favorite bind-offs,
• new and interesting bind-offs in the bind-off challenge, and
• how to make your own bind-off samplers, plus lots of other tips and tricks.

The bind-offs are categorized and are also listed by name. Here are the categories:

1. Standard/Garter St
2. Stretchy/Ribbing
3. Decorative
4. Seaming
5. Firm (Non-Stretchy)
6. Bind-Offs for Lace
7. Bind-Offs for Seed St
8. 2-Color
9. Sloped
10. Buttonholes

One of my favorite parts of this book is the addition of icons. That's right! Icons for difficulty, speed, stretchiness and more are included so you can quickly and easily find which bind-offs would work for the type of project you are working on. If there's a matching cast-on, there's an icon for that too. 

Speaking of matching cast-ons, if I HAD to, I think an addition of a chart showing which bind-offs match which cast-ons would be helpful, to kind of have an overview of all the matches/recommendations. It could be a quick reference guide instead of scrolling through to find the bind-offs that have matching cast-ons. 

I LOVE THIS BOOK and I know you will too! So get ready to order because it'll be on sale on March 8th! (Oh, did you know that when you order the book you get a link, so you can watch it on a number of devices. Pretty cool, huh?)

Enjoy! I'm off to try the Icelandic Bind-Off. It looks like a lot of fun!

SSD Monthly Challenge

I was so excited about doing the background to this card that I forgot one of the elements of the challenge - using hearts.  OOPS!  Anyways... here's my card...  The image is Pinup Kitty and I colored her with Prismacolor colored pencils.  My hubby's birthday is Feb. 12, so I thought going with red would work for him :-)  I wrote the sentiment out by hand and fussy cut it. She was die cut using Nestabilities and a Cuttlebug machine.  For the background...are you ready for this?.... I had saved awhile back the plastic mesh-type thing that is on the top part of a box of clementines.  I thought it might make a good stencil someday...and this was the perfect card for it!  I used Stampin' Up's Stampin' Pastels chalks and rubbed it all over the 'stencil' over black paper.  I love how it came out! AND even my hubby picked up on it and commented on how much he liked the background - not a typical thing for him to do lol

SSD Progressive Challenge

Happy New Year!  Kids are finally back to school after an extended holiday break (due to snow - yippee!) and it's time to get back into the swing of things.  Today I've got my latest submission for the monthly challenge over at Sassy Studios Designs (it's on their FB page).  This month's challenge was fancy folds using Katniss, Girl On Fire!  She was so fun to color I colored two!  But I'm only showing one creation for the challenge. I wasn't really sure what I was going to make with her, but my daughter saw the first one I had colored and mentioned how she'd like her in purple, so I made this for her (shhhh...she doesn't know lol)  This was my first attempt at doing a side step card but I like how it came out.  I think I'll be making more of these in the future. The image was colored with Prismacolor colored pencils and fussy cut.  The shimmery mats are actually backs of business cards.  I don't remember where I got them, but someone gave them to me and I saved them for crafting.  I die cut the scalloped oval one using Nestabilities and the corner punch is from EK Success (Cardcreator - Interlaced Corner Punch). Katniss is popped up with pop dots. Underneath her is embossed using Cuttlebug's Organic Flourish border folder.  It's hard to see, but the ruffle in her dress is pink, so I folded a ribbon for the middle step.  The last step's mat was corner punched with Fiskars Multiple Circles. The sentiment was heat embossed in white and die cut with scalloped circle nesties.
Thanks for looking!

SSD Progressive Challenge

Hi All!  Here's my latest monthly challenge over at Sassy Studio Designs.  The challenge was to use Santa Pin-Up to create a white on white project and you can't use the traditional Christmas colors - red, green, gold or silver.  I think the white on white part was hardest for me!  In any event... the digi was colored with Prismacolor colored pencils. I chalked around the edges of all the die cuts/punches with Lavender Lace ink from SU.  I embossed the background and punched some snowflakes (I layered a small one on top of a larger one), added a tag and ribbon and there you have it!  Boy, that sounds so simple but in reality it took me forever! LOL  I hope you like it!

SSD Progressive Challenge

I can't believe I'm saying this...but I've (finally) entered a progressive challenge...for the first time ever!  (Well, this is my second project technically, but since I've actually continued to the next month I'm going to count this as beginning) :-)  In any event...the task at hand was to create a fall themed project using Sassy Studio Designs Scarecrow Sassy.  Isn't she cute?!  She was fun to color with all the fall colors.  She was colored using Prismacolor colored pencils.  The sentiment was computer generated by moi! Enjoy!