Simple Knit Baby Blanket

I have never knit a baby blanket before! I know it's a little crazy sounding, but it's true.  So, you can understand why I was pretty excited to finish this Simple Knit Baby Blanket last night. 

Simple is an understatement. Knit on size 10 needles with self striping yarn, the blanket is easy and lovely to make.  You can find the pattern from Lion Brand here.  This is a great pattern to knit while your mind is a bit occupied elsewhere, you only have to count the first 3 - 5 stitches, and from there it's a straight knit to the end of the row.  Instead of knitting across, this pattern cast on at one corner and bind off at the opposite one (you knit a diamond instead of a square). 

Now, my new niece of nephew just needs to get here so I can give this gift away!

Using Pebbles Mini Envelopes for Journaling Pockets

I've had an idea for a layout in my head for a long time.  When I got Pebbles From Me to You collection I knew it was time to use the Mini Envelopes for Journaling Pockets and put the layout in my head down on paper.

There are things that I say to my kids more often than others.  In the midst of saying "Don't pick your nose!" one day I thought, boy some day that's all my kids will remember I've said.  As I really thought about it though, I realized there are things (slightly more important than "don't pick your nose") that I say a lot, and I hope they'll remember.

I picked 6 of the things I say the the most and put them as a title on little pieces of card stock. I used the rest of the space to explain why I say those things so often, or what I hope they'll learn from those words. I mounted 6 mini envelopes on my layout, and tucked the top flap of the envelope inside the envelope, so they act more as a pocket then a seal-able envelope.

 Originally, I was going to do this layout without a photo, but I just happened to have a new headshot, and decided to use that on the layout as well.
Truth be told, I like some layouts much more than I like others. I really love this layout, I think it has less to do with the layout itself and more to do with how much of my heart I put into it.  So often I scrap my boys or my husband and my boys, and it was really fun (and a little hard) to do a page where I took center stage.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Autumn Banner from Journaling Cards

I put out the autumn decorations today...and I finally finished an Autumn Banner from Journaling Cards.  I say finally, because I've had the paper and stickers since last fall...for shame!  After almost a year, here it is.

I really love the journaling cards that Simple Stories makes for all of their collections. When I saw the ones from Harvest Lane, I thought I could turn them into a banner pretty quickly. 

A few stickers and embellishments from the collection and some foam adhesive were all I needed to dress up the journaling cards.  

Now it's hanging on my wall just in time for fall! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Simple Stories Say Cheese 2 Page Layout

Yesterday I blogged over at AWDML, and posted a 1 page layout using Simple Stories Say Cheese collection. If you're not familiar with Say Cheese, it is a paper line made to scrap your amazing Disney trip. Here's the catch though, I love Disney, but won't be getting there any time in the very near future. I also LOVE this collection. The colors and patterns are amazing!   So, what's a girl to do? Well, I decided to use it anyways to scrap my son's 7th birthday party. 

 

 I had to stay away from a few of the really Disney-centric stickers (like the one that says, "it all started with a mouse"), but ones like "Fun" and "the line starts here" worked perfectly with my party theme. 

  

The moral of the story? Even if you don't have any Disney photos to scrap, don't rule out Say Cheese, it's  a really fun collection for scrapping other things, too!

Silhouette Tutorial for Working With Files Larger Than 12" x 12"

Sometimes I create projects much larger than my Silhouette cutting machine will actually cut. For example,  today on the Pebbles Inc Blog I have this projects (and all the details so you can make it yourself!).

The frame measures 16" x 20", when the Silhouette will cut only up to a width of 12" if you have the Cameo and 8 1/2" if you have one of the older models.  Today I thought I d show the process I go through when working with files larger than 12" x 12". 


When you open up your Silhouette cutting program on your computer, it will look something like this:

I like to open the file I want to work with, and then use the paper size buttons on the far right hand side to adjust the paper size to the full size of my project.  As you can see below, my numbers read 20.000 and 16.000

As you can see, my paper is much larger than then cutting mat area, and I even get a little yellow warning triangle (in the upper right hand corner) telling me my paper is way too big! That's okay, right now I just want to size my entire image to see how it will look on my finished project.  I'm only using 1 cutting file for this project, but you can mix and match as many files as you want, lay them out, and size them at this time.

When I have everything sized the way I want it, I copy the image and paste in a new one. It'll look something like this:

Hopefully, you won't need the copy, but I make it and slide it way off to the side, just in case I cut, rotate, or size something in a way that can't be undone.

Now it's time to size your paper back to a cutting size.  For me for this project, I worked with a 12" x 8 1/2" mat.

For this project, I broke my cuts up into 7 different papers, one for each continent.  For each cut, I only need to place the section that I need cut onto the cutable 8 1/2" x 11" area.  In the screen shot above, I'm going to cut out South America. I could cut right now the way my paper is laid out and just discard the pieces I don't need.  Or...

...you can use the cut tool (the button that looks like a butter knife on the left hand side of the screen) to sever the lines and cut only the part you need.

You will repeat this process until you have all your pieces cut out.  They you can lay them out on your finished project, knowing they're sized perfectly for your large canvas.

Don't forget to head on over to the Pebbles Blog to see how you can take your newly cut pieces and turn them into a World Travel Map.

Hand Packaged Homemade Lotion Bars

Today I have a bit of a 2 part post for you. I made some lotion bars and then made some pretty wrappers for them to give as gifts, so I'm going to talk about the whole process from start to finish of making the Hand Packaged Homemade Lotion Bars.

First off, there are lots of great recipes out there on the internet for homemade lotion bars.  I searched, and decided that the basic formula breaks down something like this:

1 part solid fat
1 part liquid/cream fat
1 part beeswax

In mine, for solid fat I used a mix of vegetable shortening and cocoa butter, for liquid fat I used a mix of coconut oil and shea butter.  I want to try these with olive oil some time too, but this time I chose coconut oil for its antibacterial properties.  You'll figure out how much you need by figuring out how much liquid by volume your mold holds.  Basically, I poured water into my mold, measured how much water it was, and divided it by 3.  That number is how much of each part you need (for example if you mold holds 3 cups of water, you'll need 1 cup solid fat, 1 cup liquid fat, and 1 cup beeswax). 
Melt everything together and pour into a mold. 
Let it all cool and pop out your bars.
It's so simple, and you'll end up with lotion bars that work amazingly well! I have very dry, sensitive skin and I am in love with these.

This past Monday a new friend of mine had a birthday, so I decided to wrap one up and give it to her for as a small gift.
These need to be put in a tin or wrapped in something like wax paper.  I chose to wrap the bar in wax paper and then make a patterned paper band from 2 strips of Pebbles From Me to You paper.  I added a few matching stickers from the same collection and was done. It was that easy to wrap! 

I'm thinking these will make great teacher gifts at some point this year, too!
Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapping Boys with Fancy Pants Little Sport

Today I have a layout using Fancy Pant's Little Sport collection. Don't let the name fool you, this collection isn't only good for scrapping sports, it's a great general masculine themed line.  There are a few sports themed papers, but most of the papers are just beautiful, rich plaids and stripes.

Instead of using the stickers and embellishments from the collection, I used some journaling tags (Doo Dads) from October Afternoon and some AC Thickers for the title.

Thanks for stopping by!

Giveaway Winner and Decorated Jam Jar

First of all, I have to say thank you so much for your lovely, funny, and kind comments. I loved reading each and every one of them!  Now, on to the winner of my giveaway Monday.  I used Random.com and came up with:

Marry-Ann V! Congratulations Marry-Ann! Please e-mail me at potaylor@hotmail.com with your full name and mailing address so we can get your prize sent out to you.

I also have a project today.  I like to make homemade jam.  It's pretty tasty and doubles as a nice thank you, welcome new neighbors, or hostess gift.  I decided to dress a jar and use a library pocket as a thank you tag for the jar.  I chose Pebbles From Me to You collection.  I used a phrase accent sticker and some pleated washi tape to dress up the front of the pocket and added a matching sticker to the inside card. I'll add a personal thank you note on this card before I give the jam.

I mirrored the washi on the lid of the jar and slipped in a pretty piece of matching paper. Instead of tying the library pocket to the jar, I decided to use a Basics clothespin to clip it onto the twine.

Finally I added a sicker from the Phrase and Accent Stickers on the back side of the jar as a label.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Happy Campers Layouts

I really had a lot of fun playing around with Happy Campers from We R Memory Keepers. It's another one of those collections that's great for scrapping photos from camping or a weekend at the lake. 

For this layout, I took the chipboard photo corners, and used them as an arrow shaped element instead. 

After I finished my 2 page layout, I had a few paper scraps left over and lots of great chipboard that I didn't want to go to waste, so I did this 1 page layout.  

See that teeny tiny dot that the arrow is pointing at? That's my husband canoeing!  Normally I like to take photos where you can actually see the people in it, but in this case, I love how the photo gives you an idea of how far away he was. 

Thanks for stopping by today! If you haven't already, don't forget to check out this post by Friday to be entered to win some fabulous Pebbles Inc goodies!

Pebbles Blog Hop - Basics Lunchbox Cards

Welcome to your next stop along the Pebbles Back to Basics Blog Hop (if you started here, you can find a list of all the stops on the hop at the end of this post).  Today I have a GIVEAWAY and a Basics project to share with you.

 My kids have gone back to school, and this year I have 2 of them who eat lunch at school.  I thought it would be fun to make some little cards to slip in their lunchboxes to let them know I'm thinking about them.  I have 2 different styles of cards since I have one kiddo who can read, and one who's just beginning to learn. 

 All of my cards measure 3" x 4".  The cards for my beginner reader are simple messages spelled out with Thickers and paper shapes.  Since my kiddos are boys, I also had to make sure there wasn't a hint of pink, purple, or anything "girly" here. Instead of ribbons and bling, I used border punches, washi tape, and foam adhesive to add dimension. 

For my reader, I upped the fun factor with joke cards.  

 Don't let the lift the flap fool you, these are super easy to put together. 

Just score the question piece about 1/8" - 1/4" from the top.  Place the adhesive on the back side of the small scored area, and attach it to your lunchbox card over the answer piece.   

 You can even add a little extra note to the back of your cards if you like. 

 To be honest, I've already sent these to school with my kids, and they LOVED them, and since they're so easy I know I'll be putting together another batch soon. 

The Giveaway:
Thanks for checking out my project today! I've also got a giveaway generously furnished by Pebbles!  Up for grabs is a selection of Pebbles Basics paper (like the stuff I used to create my cards), 2 sets of Thickers, Clothespins, Chips Tags and washi tape (colors may vary)!

To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment about anything. Tell me your favorite (kid friendly) joke, introduce yourself, tell me if you've ever made lunchbox cards...anything you'd like, just make sure to leave  a comment!  The giveaway will be open until 11:59 pm central time on Friday, September 6, so be sure to come back Saturday to see if you're the winner (and to check out another fun Pebbles project).

Here's a little eye candy and links to all the other stops so you can keep on hopping and have chances to win giveaways on the other designers' blogs (and don't forget to comment on Pebbles blog for a chance at the grand prize!):

Amanda Coleman - Paper Gift Bag | Becky Williams - Cutest Little Minnie Scrapbook Layout Candace Zentner - Celebrate You Card | Emily Spahn - My Guy Scrapbook Layout Eva Pizarro - Fresh Market Scrapbook Layout | Holly Gagnon - Time for Tea Juliana Michaels - Gift of Love Scrabook Layout | Kathy Martin - Carolina Scrapbool Layout Kim Jeffress - Happy Birthday! Card | Kim Kesti - You Make Me Smile Scrapbook Layout Laurel Seabrook - Teacher Gift | Marjan Pel - Birthday Scrapbook Layout Nina Yang - Paper Gift Box | Patricia Kumfer - Pebbles Basics Cards Renee Zwirek - Hello Happiness Scrapbook Layout | Samantha Taylor - Lunch Box Cards Suzanna Lee - Make a Wish Scrapbook Layout | Tiffany Hood - Baby Gift Wendy Antenucci - Celebrate Together Scrapbook Layout | Wendy Sue Anderson - Paper Gift Bags

Pebbles Basics Marine Chevron

Pebbles Basics Black Mini Dot

Pebbles Basics Powder Dot

Pebbles Basics Apricot Dot

Pebbles Basics Ash Cevron

Basics Foam Thickers Aqua

Basics Foam Thickers Black

Basics Washi Tape: Ash, Rouge, Honeycomb

American Crafts White Card Stock

American Crafts Primaries Card Stock

American Crafts Tropicals Card Stock

American Crafts 03 Black Precision Pen 

American Crafts Knock Outs Border Punch

American Crafts This to That Foam Adhesive

EK Success Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Silhouette Cameo