Hello from the new girl!

Regular visitors to the blog may be a little confused by my unfamiliar face and name, but hopefully as the weeks go by I'll become as familiar as Pete and Angela and the other Sizzix bloggers you know and love!

My name is Katy and I'm a quilter, author and blogger (you can find me the rest of the week at my regular home - Monkey Do), as well as a huge fan of the Sizzix big shot and dies.
If you were fortunate enough to visit the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last August, you may remember me as being on the Sizzix stand with Angela running the free classes. It was a wonderful few days, and one of the highlights of my year. So, to be asked to become one of the blogging team for Sizzix is really quite exciting. I love to make quilts, and I love to share the process and talk about quilts (possibly a little too much, if you ask my family!)

One of my favourite types of quilt to make is a scrap quilt, and my Big Shot really does get a bashing with the amount of scraps I cut throughout the year. Whenever I make a project I cut the leftovers into squares or strips or triangles for ready made pre-cut pieces, like my very own charm packs or jelly rolls. It makes them far easier to store, and I'm more likely to use them if they're all cut and ready to sew.

Of all the Sizzix dies I probably use 2 more than any others - the Bigz 2.5" square die (either the single square or the Bigz XL longer die that cuts in multiples of 9), and the Bigz XL 2.5" strip.

This weekend I turned a pile of Christmas fabrics (I realise I'm a little late for Christmas, or possibly just incredibly organised for next Christmas - you decide!)...



...into strips....



In order to make matching Christmas quilts for my friend and me (using this free pattern). I'll be sharing my progress over the coming weeks and next Monday I'll have a little project for you to try using scrap squares so get your 2.5" square Bigz die ready for that!

Over the Christmas and New Year period I whipped up the quilt below in just 3 days (for cutting and piecing the patchwork quilt top). The 2.5" strip die made it so simple to cut all of those strips (there were 216 in total from 72 different fabrics!) I also used the same Bigz XL 2.5" strip die to cut strips for the binding.




So there you have it - that's a little introduction into what I like to make and what you can expect to see from me every Monday. I hope you'll stop by regularly and if you have anything you'd like to see then please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to give it a whirl!

Until next time, have a wonderful week and happy quilting!

Katy x

Lia's Birthday party

Hello everyone!


Lately, my mom, cousin and I have been working on special gifts/invitations for Lia's first birthday and we came up with that cute bunch of creations to decorate the table and add a very girly touch to the party.

We simply used : 


A big Shot

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Candy Jars

Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Box w/Lid, Cake Slice

It was SO easy and fast to create 20 of those with the Bigz dies as you can use up to 3 pieces of paper at once!


Simply place your paper(s) on the dies, run if through the Big Shot, fold everything that needs to be folded and glue!


Then you can embellish the way you want :)


I used Kesiart papers for the invitations & gifts, a tiny bit of twine, a few stickers and wood veneer embellishments and voilà!


Easy and fast and just so gorgeous!
Enjoy!
Céline

Little Red House

In Finland we have Mother's Day 13th of May. I made this card for my grandma, because I know how much her little red house means to her. Next week she will be 90 years old and she is still able to live on her own.

This House Die is so neat. You can open the door and hide your message inside the house!

The house is cut with ScoreBoards XL Die - Gift Card Holder, House (657378) and you also need a pair of extended cutting pads with this die.

So first you need to cut your "card base" and fold it in half. I used red card stock for my card base. Then you can cut and trim different parts of the house from different materials and attach them to your house shaped card base.

I also made a little heart shaped hole to the door with a help of a Framelits Die Set - Hearts (657561). With Framelits Dies you can see what you cut. With a help of a post-it note you can keep your die locked in place during the cutting. I use this trick all the time.





You can add some really nice embellishments to your house. I decorated mine with Flowers, 'cause my grandma is crazy about flowers. Flowers are cut with Decorative Strip Die - Tattered Flower Garland (657824).


Flowers look pretty nice, don't you think? The Tattered Flower Garland Die is perfect 'cause there is so many different sized flowers and leaves. And the cat button is definitely my favorite part of the card! It looks a bit frightened and that's why I placed it on the roof. My grandma loves cats too.


And look there is a little mouse running in the bottom of the card. I bet my grandma will really really like this card. :-)