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!