12 Days of Christmas

The 12 Days of Christmas has begun over at A Walk Down Memory Lane. Each day from today until December 12 you'll find some amazing deals and some inspiring holiday projects. You can check out day 1 by clicking here. 
I created the project for day 1, and it might just be one of my favorite Christmas Creations. I'll give you a little sneak peak here, but you'll have to head on over to AWDML's blog to see all the close up photos and check out the supply list.

...and don't forget to check out AWDML's blog each and every day from now until December 12 for a new project and a new deal. 

Last Day of School

On the last day of school, I always take a picture of my kids with their teacher for that year. However, I wait to scrap the photo until the beginning of the next school year when all the fun new school lines come out. I made this layout about a month and a half ago, but I kept forgetting to photograph it.

I used Authentique's Curiosity Collection. I was drawn to this collection, because the colors are a little different than the "normal" school line. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Something Old, Something That Makes me Feel Old, and Growing Old Together

Are you catching a theme here for today's post?   Do you ever have a layout that starts off really well, and then it needs something more but you just can't figure out what, so it sits...and then gets moved off to the side...and then you forget about it...and then you find it? No? Must just be me then. This layout is very old, but I finally finished it up a few weeks ago.

The layout started out with this cool corner detail and matting of the photo, but I got stuck from there. Now it's finally done. Woo hoo!

You know what makes me feel old? The fact that that baby is now this kid:

I just love Simple Stories Harvest Lane. Besides being full of gorgeous fall colors, the patterns, prints, journaling cards, and stickers that go with this line are nothing short of perfect. Perfect for what you ask? Everything! Every single fall layout or project or card you have to make.

Moving on to the last layout. This one is of my husband and me celebrating our anniversary. I love growing old with this guy.

Just in case you're wondering, the papers and embellishments are all from Echo Park's For the Record 2 Collection.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

A Felt Wreath and a Christmas Card Photo

I feel like I've been posting a lot of projects here lately, so later this week I promise to post a few layouts. I'm a bit behind of photographing them, but I have a stack. I'll also post a few of the cards we'll be making at the class I'm teaching on Saturday at my Local Scrap Store (if you're in the NW Iowa area, you can still sign up by calling A Walk Down Memory Lane at 712-476-3443). Today, though, I have 2 more projects.

First up, I just got done taking the photo for my Christmas card this year.

I created the frame by finding an 11 x 13 frame that I liked (and got on sale for $5!). Then I covered the glass with chalkboard vinyl. I got it at A Walk Down Memory Lane for $1.99/yard, so for $9 I had the frame all made. Plus, I can always use the frame for something else in the future. I decided to make the frame a little more festive by adding a felt poinsettia to it. I just pieced together some Stamp School felt I cut with this die to make it. Oh, and here's my tip of the day, if you don't have the best handwriting (which I don't) ask a friend who has beautiful handwriting to do it for you!

The other project I have today is this wreath:

I needed something to hang on my front door when it wasn't a holiday, so I jumped on the yarn wreath bandwagon.

I post this with the disclaimer that there are literally thousands of these wreaths out there in the crafty world, so if this resembles one you've seen, and I didn't credit that person, my apologies. I just started wrapping and cutting, and this is what I came up with.
I had a skein of this pretty cream yarn left over from a knitting project, so I started with that as a base. Then I pulled all of the Stamp School felt I own and held it up to my door, and went from there. I decided to go with 1 big flower instead of  lots of little ones.

I used the same leaf die that I used above to cut the leaves. I used a large scallop circle die to cut the purple part of the flower, but went back with my scissors and squared out the edges and cut the petals down almost to the center. I finished of the flower by adding a couple of Maya Road stick pins into the center of the flower.

Thanks for stopping by!

Santa's Key

I'm continuing to try to work ahead on my Christmas projects this year.

We don't have a fire place, so this year I decided to make a magic key for Santa to use. You see, when Santa picks it up it magically turns into the right shape to fit the lock on our front door.

I used some of my favorite ribbons from May Arts for this project (they can be found by the yard at A Walk Down Memory Lane's Brick & Mortar Location).

To create the red bow, I cut 4 pieces of the red ribbon about 7" long. Then I secured the ends into a loop shape with an Ultra Thin Glue Dot®. I added another Glue Dot® to the inside seam of the loop and pinched it to create a bow shape. Then I layered all 4 loops on top of each other (securing each loop to the next with a Glue Dot®) into a large bow shape.

When I completed the bow I sewed it in place on the key. I also embellished the key with stickers from Simple Stories Handmade Holiday, Echo Park This & That Christmas, a snowflake punched from Pow Glitter Paper with this punch from Martha Stewart, a Prima Crystal, and last but not least a Christmas Token from Tim Holtz.

I can't wait to show this to my boys when it gets closer to Christmas time!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team. 

Merry Christmas Banner

Are you thinking about your projects for Christmas yet? I've been starting to pick up the papers and collections that I like, and in the process needed to clear out last year's papers. I decided to finish off the last of last year's papers by making a Merry banner for my hallway (although, I hung it on my front door to take a photo of it, and it sure looks pretty there too!).

To give the banner a different shape, I cut 5 banner pieces with a Spellbinders Nestabilities Label Die from leftover Echo Park Season's Greetings paper. Then I used Pop Up Glue Dots® to attach Maya Road Snowflake Transparencies to the banner. Glue Dots® work really well for attaching clear and acrylic embellishments because they hold firmly and are almost invisible under the clear embellishment. 

I strategically placed my alphabet stickers directly over where I put my Glue Dot® to camouflage it even further. 

After I finished adding the snowflakes and  "merry" letters to my banner, I went in and embellished each piece with rhinestones, ribbon, buttons, and left over stickers from Echo Park's Season's Greetings and Crate Paper's Pepermint Collection (also left over from last year's stash).

Finally I added strips of really wide ribbon behind each banner piece with Ultra Thin Glue Dots®. I like that this ribbon treatment is a little different than the normal banner style where the ribbon comes out the sides and connects each banner piece. 

The best part is, this banner came together really quickly. Since I was working with leftovers, I couldn't over think the project, and it still turned out well. 

Thanks for stopping by!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

A Fall Frame and a Pumpkin Patch Layout

I really love this time of year; not only are there lots of great outdoor activities, but there are some fabulous fall paper lines out right now to scrap those activities! Today I have 2 projects I made using October Afternoon's Witch Hazel. Witch Hazel is technically a Halloween line, but it's really lovely for all fall things. In fact, the first project I made with it was an autumn frame.

I made this frame for A Walk Down Memory Lane, so you can find the step-by-step directions for it here.

I also made a layout of my youngest son picking out his pumpkin this year. I really love the mix of traditional Halloween images with non traditional colors and patterns. It makes for a very versatile and fresh feeling line of papers and embellishments.

Please excuse the burst of light in the photo. It was a beautiful, sunny day...and when a 4 year old decides he wants his picture taken, you take it even if the sun is right in the background!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Felt Ornament, 2 Hats, and a Layout

As the title suggests, today's post is filled with 4 random projects.

I like making ornaments from my scrappy supplies for my Christmas tree.  I thought it might be fun to make an ornament out of Stamp School felt. I used my Silhouette to cut my felt, but you could easily just print a pattern from paper and cut the felt by hand. I sewed 2 pieces of brown felt together and stuffed a little batting inside.The heart (also felt) is sewn on over where we live. These would be a fun keepsake ornament for someone who travels a lot or someone who just moved to a new state.

I've also been knitting a bit lately. I finished up a headband/neck warmer for myself and a hat for my son.

I found the pattern for my son's hat here. I forgot to get a picture of the top of the hat, but it has a square decrease pattern on top that is really professional looking and easy to make. It's knit in the round, and very easy to customize the stripes to your choosing. My son was especially excited to pick out the colors for his hat.  Both of our hats are made from a washable wool.You can find the pattern I used for my headband here.

Finally, my last picture is a layout, lest you think I abandoned paper crafting all together.

I recently took this photo out of a frame and decided to get it straight onto a scrapbook page. The paper and journaling tag are from Lily Bee's Persnickety collection. I love Lily Bee, but I always wish they'd do matching embellishments like layered stickers and fancy buttons. Alas, that is not to be, but the next best thing is that the embellishments from My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing collection go very well with Persnickety. While it's not a perfect match they did work out very well for me since I already had them on hand. Thanks for stopping by!

The Sweetest Thing

If you're looking for an absolutely beautiful collection, check out The Sweetest Thing by My Mind's Eye. There are 4 different lines within the collection, I used the more masculilne line to create the following layouts.

There are wonderful die cuts and awesome buttons in this line. 

There are some great layered stickers too.

Thanks for stopping by!

For The Record 2

 

 

We had photos taken this summer with my husband's side of the family. About the same time the sneak peeks came out for Echo Park's For The Record 2 collection.  I knew I was going to do a photo collage with For The Record 2. It's truly perfect for that. Of course, I scooped up the collection pack right away and the chipboard stickers.

...and a few close-ups

After finishing my photo collage I had plenty of paper and embellishments left over, so I created a layout too...and I still have enough left over to create more! 

Thanks for stopping by!

LEGO

My boys, especially my oldest, love LEGOS. I am continually amazed by the creativity that they spark in my my kids, so when there was a LEGO building competition at an area fair this summer, we thought it would be a fun thing to participate in. Both boys had a really good time, and (proud mama moment coming up), my oldest even won 1st place in his age division. Of course, I had to scrap the whole thing...and wouldn't you know, Creative Imaginations makes a whole line of Lego Papers and stickers.

I have to be honest, while this paper is really cool, it was a little hard to work with. I'm used to working with lots of patterned paper, and while this paper has the pattern (and even texture) of LEGO blocks, they're all solid color pieces of paper.  I do like how the 2 page  layout turned out a bit more than my 1 page layout.

My oldest is pretty shy, so I was super proud of him for being able to talk about what he was building to the judge.

Normally I avoid using the same large embellishments on similar pages, but since each of these pages will be going in my boys' own separate books, I just couldn't resist using this cool chipboard title on both pages.

 Did I mention my kid's love LEGOS? Just in case you're in any doubt, we just got done celebrating my oldest's birthday. He wanted a LEGO birthday, so I made these t-shirts for them using my Silhouette and a little Silhouette Vinyl.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Farm Boys

My in-laws live on a small farm with lots of animals. When you're a little boy, life doesn't get much better than getting dirty on the farm. Every time we set foot at their house, the first thing out of my boys' mouths is, "Can we go play on the bales?" Of course, I had to photograph and scrap this summer fun.

I ended up with 3 total layouts. 1 of my oldest, 1 of my youngest, and one of them both together. I decided to do all my journaling on the one of them both together, so I was able to get a little extra creative on the layouts that I didn't journal on. Today, I'd like to share the 2 layouts without journaling. If you'd like to see the 3rd layout, you'll be able to find it on Thursday over on the AWDML Blog.

I wanted to have a little fun with this first layout and pay homage to where we live. Those Iowa stickers from Reminisce are a whole lot of fun, and this layout was the perfect time to use them. Let me point out something that's a little outside my norm for scrapping. See that sky paper I used for the base? Not something I would usually have on hand, let alone use. You see, the back side of the Blue Sky October Afternoon Woodland Park paper is a beautiful pattern. That's the side I would normally use...but for this layout, it just seemed to work. I paired that paper with Moxxie's Farm Livin' collection, and distressed the edges.

 For the second layout, I decided to use the wood grain papers from My Mind's Eye's On the Bright Side collection.

I paired that with some stickers from Making Memories, Simple Stories, and Echo Park, plus a button from Bazzill. All in all, it's a pretty good fit for the photo, and I got to use up some leftover stickers from other projects.

Thanks for stopping by!

Making a Few Embellishments

Once in a while, I like to just stock up on some hand made embellishments. Today I thought I'd make a couple quick flowers from Glue Dots® and some May Arts ribbon.

To make the first embellishment, I paired some Jute with an XL Glue Dot®

To start, take the top piece of paper off of an XL Glue Dot®. Stick the end of your jute or twine firmly to the center of the Glue Dot®.

Next, start wrapping the jute around your center point working in a circle from the center out. Press the jute firmly to Glue Dot® as you wrap. When you're all done it should look something like this:

To give it a little more pizazz, I used a Mini Glue Dot® to adhere a button to the center of the embellishment.

For my second embellishment I used a more traditional ribbon and an XXL Glue Dot®

This ribbon from May Arts is 1.5 inches wide, but you can use any width ribbon you'd like.

This project starts the exact same way as the one above. Adhere the end of your ribbon firmly to the center of your XXL Glue Dot®

However, when working with ribbon, you'll want to twist the ribbon a bit while wrapping it around the center starting point.

Keep twisting and wrapping until you hit the end of the Glue Dot®. You can tuck your raw end under some of the other ribbon around the edge to hide it.

Once again, I added a button to the center to finish off my embellishment. You can use these embellishments right away, or you can leave them on the plastic backing and set them aside to use on a future project.

Thanks for stopping by!