Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now.

Super Awesome Contest Thing

My hubby is having this amazing giveaway in August,

and I'm excited to share it with you as well!

Here are the goodies being raffled:

A handmade canvas frame (courtesy of yours truly).

Here's an example of what it will look like with a 5x7 photo.

I have also made five greeting cards. 

Each of them highlight fun, typewriter-themed ephemera.

Why stop at paper? 

Here is a one-of-a-kind embroidery piece that I made using various fabrics and buttons.

This hoop adorned the wall of my office before Mike saw it and asked me to donate it to his cause.

He is also giving away a copy of his short-story anthology, although you don't have to wait for the contest to have a copy for yourself.  You can check it out here, too.

Go visit Mike's blog here to learn more and enter to win.  Good luck, friends!!!

xoxo

Genevieve

Sales Material

One of my favorite things about being a sales manager at Red Lion is that I can stretch my creativity when it comes to client gifts.

I am in the process of signing a contract with a quilting convention and am giving them a site tour Monday morning.

Now, I don't quilt myself, but I do love fabric!  I decided to make this embroidery hoop fiber art for my client.  I'm putting it in the room, along with cookies and a welcome card for check-in tomorrow.

I used some fun fabric that I found at JoAnn.  I attached some Steam-A-Seam to the red fabric and then hand-cut the pattern from the Red Lion logo that I printed on to paper. 

I taped the paper to the back of my red fabric, put it against the window and traced it with a black marker. Then, I cut it by hand.

After that, I ironed the pieces to the white fabric. The Steam-A-Seam bonded them together so I didn't have to stitch it at all. Super easy!

I can't WAIT to hear about how it goes over tomorrow - wish me luck!!

xoxo

Genevieve

Bella Stitchery

Springtime

A breath of fresh air throughout the city and children coming outside to play after school each day - must be Spring!

I wanted to celebrate the season with some fun, happy cards.  Springtime means color, new life and joy.  I made this cute ducky card for my sister using some adorable paper from October Afternoon.

I love this paper!  The houndstooth pattern is the backside of the duck print.  I used some Thickers to spell out "Spring"and then topped it off with some Vintage ribbon and flowers.

Then I thought, why stop there?  Any cheerful pattern will make a fun Spring greeting!

I used the same card layout design to make this polka dot piece.  I really enjoy working with monotones, so I used the teal blue for the top of the card, along with the lettering.

This one is available at my Bella Stitchery ArtFire shop and is fully embellished inside as well.

Hope you enjoy the season and take time to enjoy the delights of handmade!

xoxo

Genevieve

Meat Tornado

"The less I know about other people’s affairs, the happier I am. I’m not interested in caring about people. I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes."

-Ron Swanson

Mike and I love our Thursday night line-up, not the least of which is Parks & Recreation.  My hubby's favorite character is Ron Swanson and I wanted to do something a little...different...with this year's Valentine for him.

I made this unique greeting using one of Ron Swanson's famous lines from the show, "You had me at meat tornado." and then embellished the card with lots of shiny German glass glitter.

I cut out a heart, popped it with some foam underneath and embellished it with more glitter. 

Love it.

Mike said it's probably the best card I have ever made him.  Boom.  Done.

Soup for the (Crafting) Soul

I saw the Homemade 6 Bean Soup line from Jillibean Soup this week and just had to have it!

I dug up some pictures I had of me crafting away from a few years ago.  Scrapbooking is such a huge part of my life and I wanted to have fun with the handmade, crafty feel of this paper line.

I had lots of fun with this one and was able to layer tons of embellishments

(which always makes me feel justified in my scrapbook spending. 

See honey, I do need all of these things!)

I used some great K and Co die-cuts that have been in my 'random stuff' drawer for years,

 along with LOTS of glittery cardstock flowers.

Here's a quick look at the Jillian Bean Soup collection, too.  It's super cute!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting!

xoxo

Genevieve

Free Shipping Weekend!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday weekend!

I'm planning on making lots more holiday cards (Halloween and Christmas are my favorite themes to work with!) and am looking to make more room in my shop.

Now through Tuesday night, receive FREE SHIPPING (U.S. and Canada) when you purchase at least 5 cards!

Stock up and let me send them to you on my dime!
(I'll refund you the shipping charges after checkout.)

You are welcome to shop at any of my card shops for the sale:

Etsy: http://www.gspeegle.etsy.com/
My Website: http://www.gensscrapbookkitchen.com/
ArtFire: http://www.artfire.com/users/BellaStitchery
eWillow: http://ewillow.com/storefront.php?id=93

Happy shopping and thank you SO much for supporting handmade!

XOXO
Genevieve

Special FREE SHIPPING Destash Sale This Week!

Special destash sale:

FREE SHIPPING (U.S. and Canada!) on all orders over $10!!

***Sale good through Wednesday, July 14.  Orders must be made from my ArtFire shop.***

http://www.artfire.com/users/BellaStitchery

Free shipping code: FREESHIPPING

Thanks so much, and happy shopping!

MEGA Re-Opening Sale at ArtFire ~~ My Biggest Sale EVER!!!

As a craft lover turned entrepreneur, I'm all about supporting the small businesses.  I have sold on dozens of websites over the last couple years and am so excited about ArtFire.  I'm delighted to be able to offer you my Bella Stitchery and Gen's Scrapbook Kitchen on ONE ArtFire site for your convenience.

The url is listed as Bella Stitchery (http://www.artfire.com/users/BellaStitchery), and I've spent the last 8 days getting all my patterns up to date, as well as adding all my handmade goodies.

In honor of my new store there, I'm holding my BIGGEST SALE EVER this week:

25% off EVERYTHING in my ArtFire shop!

Patterns, cards, frames ~ you name it!

The prices listed now are retail, so please enter discount code: GRANDREOPENING25

for the sale price.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions.  Thanks so much, and happy shopping!

The Joy of Upcycling

As a scrapper, I like to find paper and trinkets that I can use on other crafts.  My eyes dart around hawk-like when my family is opening Christmas gifts ~ careful not to miss a fabulous, re-usable bow or tag.  I also scour the catalogs and advertisements that I get in the mail.  Maybe I can cut this or punch that...

I do love shopping for the newest scrapbook goodies, but nothing quite beats the feeling of being able to incorporate a "find" into one of my crafts.  It's taking "scrap"-booking back to the roots of the art itself!

I was so excited with this card!  The background paper and the main collage image were upcycled from the new My Mind's Eye catalog!  I had just received it in the mail last week and noticed how nice the cover pages of the magazine were!  Why throw it away?!  I also saw that the collage of die-cuts advertised made a perfect embellishment!  Together, with a little ribbon, glitter, buttons and other embellishments, I made a very cute and inexpensive card!