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!