Bling Your Thing Challenge Winner and Prizes

I apologize for the wait but several folks had computer problems and I wanted to be sure I had the opportunity to list everyone who wanted to contribute a prize to the Bling Your Thing Challenge. 

From Shelly Stokes from Cedar Canyon Textiles

A very cool way to Bling Your Things with  2 mini Paintstiks, a set of Celebrate Stencils, a Rubbing Plate, a suede square and a Brush.  I'm sure many of you already know Shelly Stokes from Cedar Canyon Textiles, but have you seen some the amazing projects she has been working on lately?  Her blog is full of really fun ways to Bling almost anything!  Shelly even has a new book out, Rubbing Plate Roundup....check it out....I have and it is excellent! 

THANK YOU SHELLY!!!

 From Nadine Ruggles of Dream Weaver Quilts  

  

 Nadine is going to send one very lucky winner a copy of her book, Inchie Quilts and.......

InchieSee & InchieDo Viewer Tool and Ruler Set too.  How cool is that?  I'm so excited for who ever wins because making Inchies is so much fun and a wonderful way to "Bling Something"!!  The Tool and Ruler Set is just what you need to make planning and cutting Inchies easy!  Use the double-sided InchieSee Viewer Tool with the Inchie-sized window to preview light or dark fabrics for Inchies or to fussy cut motifs.  The InchieDo Ruler has very thin lines, open intersections and fussy cut centering marks to make it easy to keep your Inchies on the "straight and square."  Great for Inchies, Twinchies, ATC's and other small scale patchwork and embellishments. Easy to use! Complete instructions and tips included!

By the way, Nadine has an excellent blog as well....you can check it out ...Dream Weaver's Quilts Blog

THANK YOU  NADINE!!!

From I Have A Notion

The IHAN contribution to the Prizes are some of my favorite Bling Things and a book to help the winner explore more ways to explore making Bling, Enchanted Adornments by Cynthia Thornton.  There are two spools of Wonderfil Dazzle Thread, two packages of Bead Gravy, Beading Thread by Nifty Notions, Rhinestones by Guterman, some Frieze Thread and a few peacock feathers too.  Just some fun things I thought someone would enjoy.

From Dave Riba of Kandi Corp :

Kandi's Professional Touch Rhinestone Applicator and some Crystals too!!!  You all know how much I like my Professional Touch Rhinestone Applicator....now a very lucky IHAN blog reader will have the opportunity to enjoy one too.  The one that will be shipped to the winner will be red and black...not purple...but it is the same exact wonderful and fun applicator :)

Kandi Corp has free Projects on their website, you can click here to see all the fun things you can do with a Professional Touch Rhinestone Applicator.     Beware, it is addictive and I don't want anyone to say I didn't warn you :)

THANK YOU DAVE!!!

NOW ON TO THE ENTRANTS AND WINNERS

I want to thank all of you who participated and sent photos of your Bling Your Thing projects....

THANK YOU:  Mary, Gene, Karin, Diane, Jean F., Colby, Mary Grace, Lisa, Beth, Jackie, Allie, Sandra, Janet, Jean O., and Bern.  

 As you can see, I typed up every one's names and put each name into a hat (quit laughing...it's not my hat...it belongs to one of my coworkers :)

 Then I drew out one name and paired it with a prize so there would be a total of 4 opportunities to win.  Y'all know me....got to spread the fun stuff all around.

 And  the winners are :

Congratulations Allie, you have won the Professional Touch Rhinestone Applicator and Crystals from Kandi Corp.


Congratulations Beth, you have won Inchie Quilts  and InchieSee & InchieDo Viewer Tool and Ruler Set from Dream Weaver Quilts.


Congratulations Colby, you have won the Paintstiks Kit with stencils, a rubbing plate, a brush and suede from Cedar Canyon Textiles.

Congratulations Mary Grace,  you have won the IHAN gift assortment.

Now all you have to do to claim your prize is to send an e-mail to IHaveANotion@yahoo.com with your full name, address and phone number.

I also want to thank all of you who stopped by and left comments.  I hope everyone had some fun and was inspired to take a risk and "Bling Something"!!  :)

Very Happy Smiles,
Kelly

Bling Your Thing Entries Post III

I've received so many e-mails asking to see my "Bling Your Thing" challenge piece that I thought I'd post mine today and all the rest tomorrow.  You know I documented the process right?  That's what bloggers do :)

Entry # 9 - Kelly Jackson- that's me :)

I wanted to use something I already so I pulled out a gift I received from Nadine Ruggles during her Schoolhouse lecture at Quilt Market.  She had given the attendees a little packet of fabric, beads and instructions to make an Inchie. 

I enjoyed her presentation so much and I've always wanted to make an Inchie....but I have not taken the time to make one until I came up with the "Bling Your Thing" challenge.  Nadine's book, Inchie Quilts is the perfect way to start doing some embellishing if you have not given yourself permission to play previously.

This is the fabric Nadine supplied in the kit.

Beads that were included in the kit.

All I could think to do was to put the beads on the dots and then add some of the longer beads.  It was so boring and I knew it needed something else.  So I ran down and searched through my embellishments and found a package with these three little polymer turtles.  They are not beads and don't have holes to stitch through.

 

The minute I put the spotted turtle on the piece I knew it was the right thing to do.  So I got a sharp needle and poked the needle and thread through this little fella and stitched him in place.  While looking at the turtles the bright green one really appealed to me.  But when he was sitting on the piece something wasn't right.  That's when I got the idea to add some more bling.

I plugged in my Kandi Corp Professional Touch Crystal Applicator .  Lucky for me I had a package of Green 3mm Eye Kandi (that's what Kandi Corp calls their Crystals) and I started to randomly add "bling."

I started with one crystal to see how it would look....I liked it so I just kept adding until it felt right to stop.

 

I used a piece of thin batting behind the base fabric that I embellished.  As you can see above, the embellishments held nicely and all my knots and excess beading thread was on the back.   On the right is a piece of Floriani Stitch N Shape Double Sided Fusible that I had fused to a piece of plain fabric.

I gently pressed the embellished top to the layer of Floriani Stitch N Shape.

Next I did a stay stitch around the entire design and trimmed away the excess so I could see where the stitching would fall when I did the final stitching.

I used Floriani Embroidery Thread because I love the sheen and this is what it looked like.  As much as I tried to ship those little white threads around the edges, I couldn't snip close enough. 

Fabrico Fabric Marker to the rescue!!!

Here is the finished piece.  I used the Fabrico Marker here and there to cover the white threads and give it a two tone appearance.  (you can always use fabric markers to cover things on your regular quilts too...fyi)

My little slice of "turtledom" measures 2" x 2 1/2" and is by far the smallest thing I've ever stitched.  I love how it turned out and have been thinking about what to do with it.  Perhaps I'll make one 1/2 the size and embroider my name on it, then attach them with little hoops and use it as a name tag for my Machine Embroidery Guild meetings.  Who knows?  However....I did manage to "Bling Some-Thing" and I was quite surprised by how much fun I had.

Serendipity Happens
I was preparing to publish this post when I was interrupted by the sound of the mail truck.  I hopped up and grabbed my packages and met Loren, my mail carrier.  To my great surprise there was a small box addressed to me.  It wasn't ticking so I opened it :)

Sue Spurlock who was the inspiration for the "Bling Your Thing" challenge had sent me this beautiful doll.  Her note reads, "Kelly, Your description of yourself inspired this." 

 

You may recall some of Sue's work is in the book, Creative Quilting with Beads.   The book review is HERE.

I had goose bumps...I'm in love with "Flies by Seat of Pants."  THANK YOU SUE!!!! I think you pegged me dead center! 

Gigantic Smiles,
Kelly