Pirate Party

My youngest turned 3 at the beginning of May. As you can see, it was a pirate party. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to find these Karen Foster pirate stickers and papers at A Walk Down Memory Lane. It made scrapping a page about the party a fast and easy thing!


Overall this is a pretty simple layout, but I think it works well. I really like the twine stitching over the corners. It makes the photos feel extra pirate-y to me.


I make the cake every year. I'm no decorator, but I like to bake, and it's fun to see what we can come up with.

We also made treasure chests that we filled with candy to give to the kids at the party (Our family's not huge, so there are only 5 including my kids). You can find the complete directions and bigger pictures of them on my blog here.


And, just a reminder that you don't always have to go with what a title sticker says. The sticker here originally said, "A pirate's LIFE for me". I used alpha stickers to change it to "A pirate's PARTY for me". Not a perfect match, but I like it anyways.

Uther

Last May we had to put our beloved basset to sleep. I missed having a dog, so not too long after, I talked my wonderful, amazing, sweet husband into letting us get a puppy (those are just a few of the compliments I used to convince him we needed another dog). We got him right after the 4th of July last year. These pictures were taken just a week or 2 after we brought him home. I kept saying, "I have to scrap a few pictures of Uther." Well, almost a year later here's my layout:

Thanks to Bella Blvd.'s Tail Waggers and Cat Naps line, I was finally inspired to document our fun, adorable, troble maker of a puppy. I also used some stickers from Bella Blvd's Sunny Happy Skies that complimented the photos.

Day 2

When Baby Saurus by Little Yellow Bicycle came into A Walk Down Memory Lane, I knew I had to have it right away. The line is the perfect combination of just the right colors with just the right patterns.

If you want to see more Baby Saurus, you can check out another layout I made here and one more here.

I've been meaning to...

I've had the idea for this layout bouncing around in my brain for months. I've been meaning to make it, but other things just keep cropping up. I think I bought those blue and white star Puffies 3 months ago, and I've been meaning to do a layout like this ever since. This layout was really easy and fun to put together. I also think it would be cute with any of the other Puffies designs (cupcakes, flowers, hearts, farm animals...etc.). You could also do the same layout out of colored paper to change it up a bit.
A quick P.S. If anyone has some good tips for photographing layouts that have a lot of white on them, please feel free to share them with me. For some reason I really struggle to photograph white layouts true to color. Thanks!

Getting Lots Done with Sketch Support

I have a lot of crafts on my "to do" list right now, so I decided to spend the week tackling a few of them. I created 3 projects from sketches from the Sketch Support blog. If you haven't checked out Sketch Support, it's worth a look. There are lots of great sketches, and lots of creative projects base off of those sketches. I've mentioned my love for the Sketches for Scrapbooking books before, and the Sketch Support blog is an extension of those books.

This first project is based off of a Sketch Support 1-page sketch.


I picked up Jubilee by The Girls' Paperie at A Walk Down Memory Lane back at the end of April. I've been dying to use it. So glad I finally made the time! Those little flag stick pins are ridiculously fun, and I'm kind of in love with the pearl brads, too. I only started scrapbooking a few years ago, so it was a lot of fun to pull photos from my wedding (almost 7 years ago) and scrap them!

The next layout is from a Sketch Support 2-page sketch:


I've played around a little with Jillibean Soup's Spotted Owl Soup, but not nearly enough, so I decided to dive into my stash for this birthday boy layout.

Last but not least are a set of mini cards from a Sketch Support add-on sketch:



More Jillibean Soup Paper here, but this time it's Blossom Soup and Pasta Fagioli. I'm most in love with the cherries on these cards. The circle cherries are made from twine that I wound and glued down on top of a 3/4" circle. The puff ball cherries were also hand made from twine.

I've got lots more to share with you over the next week...see you Monday!

Cousins

It's been way too long since I've played along with a sketch challenge from My Mind's Eye. I started my layout this afternoon, so I'm just happy I got it done in time to photograph it in the daylight. Here's the sketch:

Here's my take:
I slid the whole sketch over to the left about 4 inches, but besides that I stayed pretty true to it. I used what might just be my favorite MME line ever; Stella and Rose (in fact I love it so much that you'll be able to see an entire mini album I created from it in an upcoming Northridge Media publication!!!). That's all I've got for tonight, but I do have a stack of layouts to share with you over the next week or so, so don't be a stranger.

Pinwheels

I'm looking forward to spending time outside with my husband and boys over Memorial Day weekend. If it's warm enough, we might even break out the tent and some s'mores and go camping in the back yard. I thought it would be fun to make a little Memorial Day decor that can also be played with, because, let's face it, they're going to play with what I make whether they're supposed to or not. This is even a craft you can make with your kids, it's so fun and fast. Here's what you'll need to make your own, fully functional, pinwheels:

1 - 6" x 6" piece of paper per pinwheel (I used My Mind's Eye Breaking Free)
1 Craft Glue Dot® per pinwheel
1 wood dowel per pinwheel
1 large eyelet per pinwheel
1 large brad per pinwheel
drill with a small drill bit
scissors

Score 2 lines diagonally (corner to corner) across your paper. If you don't have a scoring tool, just fold your paper in half (to form a triangle), unfold, and fold again the other direction.

Cut along each score line towards the center of the square. Don't cut all the way to the center, stop about 1" from the center.

Place a Craft Glue Dot® in the center of your square. Fold every other corner to the center, overlapping it slightly and attaching it to the Craft Glue Dot®.

Set a large eyelet in the center of your pinwheel.

Take your wooden dowel (you can buy these at the hardware store, but chop sticks or wooden shiskabob sticks work just as well) and drill a small hole through it about 1" from the top.

Take your brad and place it through the eyelet in the center of your pinwheel and through the hole in your wooden dowel. You can leave the legs of the brad sticking straight out, or you can flatten them to the back of your stick. Now you have a pinwheel that will spin in the breeze!


I made 3 pinwheels and planted them in jar that I filled with 1/2 marbles. They'll make a pretty decoration, but the kids can easily pull them out to play with.

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