Fuse Shaker Tag - Teacher Gift

Teacher Appreciation Week is next week (May 4 - 8), so today I have a really fun and easy to put together idea to share. I created some Fuse shaker tags to attach to a little gift.

First, here's what's inside the boxes:

It's a little manicure set: Hand lotion, nail file, and nail polish in the school's colors (our school has 2 mascots, so I got  pair of polish for each mascot). You're kid's school probably only has one set of school colors, so you could do 2 colors plus base and top coat if you'd like.

Now on to the tag: The back side of the tag has a little thank you note with a helping hand pun.

 For the front side of the pocket, I started by slipping in a 4 x 4 card cut from Doodlebug's Back to School collection into a standard layout page protector (side note: Doodlebug's Back to School is a-stinkin'-dorable). I used the We R Memory Keepers Fuse tool to cut and seal the tag into the protector on 3 sides. Then I added a whole big handful of primary colored sequins into the tag, and used my Fuse to seal the final side of the tag. I punched a hole through one of the corners of the tag with a Crop-a-dile, and attached the tag with some bakers twine.

Just like that you have a fun tag and a cute little gift for teacher appreciation week. Do you make anything for teacher appreciation week? I'd love to see your ideas, too!

1 Sketch 2 Layouts

I'm over on the Moxxie blog today with the following sketch and 2 layouts using the sketch.

Head on over there to check it out!

On Our Way to Ireland Layout

I have to apologize, I've neglected my blog a bit. My wonderful husband and I ran off to Ireland for a week, and now that I'm back, I'm struggling to play catch up. No complaints here, though. We had a wonderful time, some beautiful weather, and I got to spend a week all by myself with my favorite guy.

I took so many photos, and now I'm slowly going through them (in between getting caught up on laundry, spending time with the kids, and cleaning the house!). I really can't wait to get started scrapping, so I decided to make a quick layout today. Here's my On Our Way to Ireland layout with a few photos we took on our (long) plane flight.

A month or so ago, a friend picked up this paper and matching stickers for me when she visited a scrapbook store out of town. Friends who share your love of patterned paper really are the best!

I decided this paper from Reminisce really was the best one to start my Ireland scrapbook with. There will be no mistaking what the photos inside are all about.

Plus, the scenery in these photos isn't so pretty, so this bright fun paper isn't competing with some pretty landscape shots.

I thought I'd share one more photo from the trip. Now you can see why I'm so excited to get through the photos and spend some time scrapping them!

Thanks for stopping by.

Science Day Mini Album

Every year when my boys have off of school for a day we have a Super Science Day. We spend all day doing science experiments and even eating science themed snack or meal. This year we had an earth and space theme. I always snap some pictures of the fun along the way. This year I scrapped my photos in a science day mini album.

My pages and embellishments are Simple Stories Say Cheese II. I really love all the colors in this collection.

To make this album simple, I made all of my pages 4x6. That way I could have some pages be full photo pages.

I bound the album with my We R Memory Keeper's Cinch. Have I mentioned how much I love that tool? It makes binding anything super easy!

I kept the embellishments simple. 

Just some journaling to tell the story of the experiments, and lots of stickers. 

Stickers are a great way to add embellishments to full page photos. 

I put the pages in the album in the order we did the experiments. It just so happens that the last one was also my favorite of the day! 

And there you have it a super simple and fun mini album (with lots of pictures!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Coloring Eggs

Easter may be over, but I thought it would be fun to a layout I just finished of my boys coloring eggs. Coloring eggs is something my kids look forward to doing every year.

I used Moxxie's Homespun Easter to scrap my photos. I like that it's a little different than traditional Easter collections. The colors in Homespun Easter are soft and muted instead of the traditional bold and bright of most Easter collections.

I added some enamel dots, cork stickers, and wood banners for embellishments. The cork and wood blend nicely with the soft, natural feeling of homespun. In contrast the enamel dots (especially the the gold glitter ones) add a pop of color.

I created my title from a mix of brown and cork Moxxie alphas. I thought the mix of alphas added a bit of whimsy. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Bird Feeders Layout

I'm over on the Moxxie blog today with a fun spring bird feeders layout.

Head over there to check it out!

Gold Layout

I've love the pops of gold we're seeing everywhere. It's been fun to mix and match the different gold papers and embellishments to create something fun. Today I have a gold layout. The only downside to gold? Its awfully tough to photograph to show its real beauty.

I know I've mentioned that I love any paper that has a heart (or hearts) on it that isn't pink, so I fell in love with this great striped paper from Simple Stories I Am with the gold heart on it.

I actually the blue dot is also from I Am. I thought blue and gold would look lovely with the black and gold dot paper from American Crafts. I added some more gold touches by doing my journaling in gold on a chalkboard label. I also created my Silly Fun title with some gold chipboard Thickers.

Do you like working with gold? Do you keep it in small amounts or use lots of it?

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Birthday Card

Happy April! It's time for Moxxie's April blog hop and the theme is wonderful, lovely spring. For my project I created a spring birthday card.

I paired Moxxie's Springtime with a box card cutting file from Silhouette. These box cards are super fun (and easy) to put together. The best part is that they fold flat so you can even mail them in a regular A2 envelope.

 The bright colors of Springtime was perfect for a bright flower garden birthday card. I added a birthday greeting from Stamp School's Birthday Icons stamp set and a few enamel dots for flower centers.

Thanks for stopping by today. Here is our line up of inspiration for the rest of the hop:

(remember to comment along the way for more chances to WIN!)

Samantha Taylor (you are here)

Jen Taylor

Leslie Mitchell

Wendi Robinson

Julie McGowan

Amy Allred

Joan Liddle

Amelia Harris

Renee Robbins

Rebecca Price

Ange Weisbeck

Moxxie

All of the ways you can enter to WIN!: 

 Comment on the Moxxie blog.
(US addresses only please)

Extra chances to win include:
  Comment- on any (or all) of the designers blogs (1 entry per comment per blog)
  Facebook- share the blog hop post or one of the challenge posts (let us know by leaving a link on the Moxxie blog)
  Pinterest- pin any (or all) of these wonderful projects (leave a link for each pin on the Moxxie blog)
  Challenge- Enter your paper-made take on our SPRING challenge using the link up on the Moxxie challenge post. 3 extra entries if you use MOXXIE
 product! Link directly to your project or project post. (If it doesn't
link directly to the page containing your project, it will be removed)

Commenting and Challenge end April 30th.
Winner announced Fri. May 1st.

This is the Day Printable

Now that it's spring, it's time to switch out my my seasonal printable frame (you can find Valentine's Day here, winter here, fall here, and Christmas here).  For spring I created a This is the Day printable.

Did I also mention that I got a new toy to play with, too!?! I picked up this laminator and a lot of different colored Therm O Web Deco foil from A Walk Down Memory Lane. Here's a picture of how the whole frame works.

I printed the Psalm 118:24 picture in black on white card stock. To get this to work with the Therm O Web it needs to be printed in toner (so printed from a laser printer or run through a toner copy machine, a regular ink jet printer won't work).

 Then, I ran the printable through my new laminator with Therm O Web's Gold Deco Foil (I'll make a video of this process soon, but it's really easy). The only small change I made was to run the foil through on the low temperature. To get a smooth, perfect transfer, I use the high temperature setting. I wanted to see what would happen if I used the lower temperature setting. What I got was an imperfect transfer that looks like cool, vintage gold leaf. The black is peaking through in places, and I love it, so I decided to use the imperfect transfer instead of the perfect one.

Want to print this out for yourself?

You can click here to download the PDF file for this printable. It fits in an 8 1/2" x 11" frame.