A Little About Me....

This blog post first appeared over at Diana Rambles a couple of weeks ago.  I thought I would post it on my blog too in case some of you would like to know a little bit more about me. 

I am a wife and mother and I homeschool my 2 little girls.  I have often turned to 'creating' when there has been downtime in my life.  Even before I had children I needed an outlet from the stresses of the day.  In 2003 I opened a home-based business called...you guessed it...Gina's Craft Corner!  I started selling my handmade pressed flower gifts to friends and family.  Most of them were framed pictures or greeting cards like the ones pictured below. 

I then got into pressed flower jewelry.  This was a lot of fun!  I taught myself a lot about making jewelry and I really enjoyed the process of creating my own bracelets and necklaces, but it is a pretty expensive hobby.  I think I just got burned out, so I took another couple years off from creating.  Here are some of my pressed flower jewelry creations.

Then, SEWING entered into my life 1 year ago.  Hooray!!  Last fall my daughter needed to dress up as a character from her favorite book.  She decided she wanted to be Laura Ingalls.  So, I decided she really needed a bonnet to pull it off.  Of course, it had to be completed by the next day!  Luckily, my mother had given me a sewing machine a couple of years before for such an occasion.  I thought she was crazy for giving me a brand new sewing machine that I would never EVER need.  What a waste of money!  It literally sat in my garage never opened for about 4 years!  Over the years I've learned that my Mom is generally right about most things.  (We can probably say that about most mom's, can't we??!)

So here is a picture of my very first attempt at sewing ever!  I must say that as a little girl my mom did teach me how to thread a needle and load the bobbin.  I had also sewn a few straight lines, but I had never actually made anything!  It was pretty amazing how it all came back to me as soon as I sat down in front of the machine. 

You can just imagine my excitement when I whipped this out in an afternoon!  I amazed myself AND my daughters!  See that look on my daughter's face?  That's why I sew.  She was so happy and so proud of her new hat because her mommy made it!

After that I knew I could make anything.  I thought I would just learn how to make a few quilts so I'd have something for them to hand down from generation to generation.  So I started with a couple of quilts for their baby dolls...

I thought my sewing adventure would stop there or at least slow down, but it did not.  Soon after making this rag quilt I tried my first skirt and my first bag. I'd love for you to check those out!

In May of this year I decided to start my blog to follow my sewing journey and also to help others see that if I can learn to sew, anyone can!

Here are some of my most popular projects.  You will notice that I have found a love for bags, especially of the blue jean variety! :)

Blue Jean Backpack

Casual Friday Bag

Blue Jean iPad Sleeve

Blue Jean Rosette Bracelets

Vintage Pillowcase Dress

Doodled Butterfly Pillow

Appliqued Crossover Bag

Upcycled Upholstery Clutch

Design Your Own Fabric

Patriotic Clutch from Fused Plastic

If you want to see more of my blog I'd love for you to drop on over to Gina's Craft Corner and say hi!  If you do, please leave me a comment so I can visit you back! :)

Blessings,
~Gina


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