just what i {squeeze} in

More peg doll AND mixed media fun...

2012-01-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

When I fell in love with peg dolls earlier this year, I immediately started planning the little families I would paint for all the little girls in our family. We do a cousins' gift exchange on both sides of our family, so I was really happy that my kids drew the names of two of our nieces, thereby giving me an excuse to do it sooner rather than later. Here they are! (You'll have to excuse the poor lighting -- I had to hurry to take these late at night because I was trying to pack them to ship in the hopes they'd get there in time for Christmas. Ah, procrastination...)

And this one is my favorite -- in our siblings' exchange I drew my sister Ange, who is at that just-starting-out-crossroads-what-do-I-do-next-with-my-life stage. I wanted to make a cool mixed media canvas with a She Art girl on it for her, but she is a live-out-loud 3D kind of girl, so I thought it would be fun to make a peg doll to coordinate with the canvas instead.

I cut a bunch of thin strips of paper (from Basic Grey) and mod-podged them on for her dress, then painted the cardi and scarf over the top. (I also gave her a ruffly yellow scarf just like this.) I also used a "Just Be YOU" stamp from Unity at the bottom.

Here's a close-up of the Dr. Seuss quote I used, which I did with a combination of paint, marker, scraps of the same Basic Grey pp, and bookpaper. I love how it turned out!

I am having so much fun painting peg dolls that I think I will be listing custom dolls in my etsy shop soon. Always a fun new adventure!

A fun announcement and a stack of cute cards...

2012-01-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Hello, friends! Today I am very excited to announce that I have been invited to join the design team over at Apron Strings Designs, a kit club that offers various scrapbooking and cardmaking kits chock full of fun and current goodies. (The current part makes a big difference to me -- I've been a part of kit clubs before where it seemed like everything was last year's scrapbook trends.) I'm the "All-Year Cheer" card kit designer, and I'm really excited to be able to stretch my card-making muscles and see what I can create.

These cards were created with the January card kit, and you can see more layouts and cards created from this month's kits over at the Apron Strings blog! (Click on any picture to enlarge.)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you'll check in again too see more fun from Apron Strings Designs!

Project Life 2012

2012-01-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

My goodness, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted anything. It was a delightful month, though, and I hope all your holidays were as lovely and family-fun-filled as ours were. Anyway, if you've been hanging out with me here for a while now, you might remember my enthusiasm last January about starting Project Life. And I did really well until the early spring. Then I got behind. Then I got caught up. Then at the end of May I put it down and didn't look at it again until the last week of December. Oops. But I was dead set and determined to finish what I'd started, so over the last couple days of December I worked hard and finished my album. It wasn't a picture a day, and there is definitely a lot of detail in the beginning of the year than in the last half, but I was thrilled to have it completed. That's me, late at night on January 1st, hugging my finally-finished album.

What did I learn? That I really do love to document all the everyday details of our family, but that the traditional way would not work for me. I still took pictures almost every day, but then it would take me forever to get them printed. I don't like to print pictures at home, so by the time I'd get to Costco to pick them up, I'd have a hard time remember the dates of all the different pictures, so it required a lot of backtracking to figure things out. But I believe that it is totally worth the effort, and I love the Project Life products. So this year, I'm going 100% digital! I downloaded the Clementine kit from www.jessicasprague.com and set up a few different templates for myself in my graphics software (I use CorelDraw). This way I'll be able to drag and drop the photos and all the other goodies right in and all the date and such will be right there. I can type in as much journaling as I want and easily tweak things for various layouts. I just finished my cover page and my first week, and I have to tell you I am super excited! I think this is going to be the ideal solution for me. Here is my cover page, which I made by using one of the papers and then layering a bunch of the other elements over it.

This is my first week:

Okay, it's actually not quite a week -- we're still missing Saturday, but we had a huge event that day that I'm going to dedicate a whole 2-page spread to. At any rate, I am loving this!

Any other Project Life-ers out there? What is your approach? What do you think the chances are that I'll be able to keep up this year?!

Phineas and Ferb Birthday Party!

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

We just got finished with a birthday party for my two boys, and it was so fun I had to share right away. My boys' birthdays are both in December, just 9 days apart.* Sam and Josh (along with the rest of the family) are huge Phineas and Ferb fans, so it didn't take much prompting on my part for them to love the idea of a P&F-themed party. (Yes, I did prompt them. I love Phineas and Ferb and I'm not ashamed to admit it.)

We started out with this invitation, which I designed on the computer using Phineas and Ferb clipart I found on Disney's Family website. We left the name blank so we could just get a bunch printed as 4x6s at Walmart, then the boys wrote their friends' names on each one before delivering them.

I had three big ideas for this party, which came out with...hmmm...varying degrees of success. :)

1. Dr. Doofenshmirtz pinata. Dr. D. is the bumbling bad guy of the show (for you unlucky few who aren't familiar with the P&F world), whose evil schemes inevitably backfire. Who better to be the pinata? We even labeled the stick "The Whackinator."

As I searched Pinterest for DIY pinata ideas, this paper bag pinata tutorial stood out -- didn't seem like it could be much cheaper or easier than making a pinata out of a paper grocery bag! The best tip on that tutorial was to cut the crepe paper while it's on the roll so you can just glue it on already fringed and awesome. If anyone would like a step-by-step tutorial for this from me, I did take pictures so I can post one if you want it. Basically you just fill the bag with candy, fold the top down and seal really well with tape, then hot glue miles of fringed crepe paper to the back. On this one I started with the black in the center, then added the white for the lab coat.

Once I had the body done, I pieced the head, arms, and legs together from cardstock. I may or may not have broken out the "Learn to Draw Phineas and Ferb" book I had gotten for Sam for his birthday a little early so that I could figure it out. Very helpful! The head and arms were hot glued on and held in place with bamboo skewers in the back. For about 3 seconds I wondered if I should cover the skewers somehow, and then my sane person voice turned on and reminded me that a herd of children were just going to whack the thing to death in about 5 minutes anyway...

We got through almost all the kids twice before we ripped a big enough hole for the candy to start coming out. That grocery bag was a lot tougher than I thought! I had also reinforced the corners and bottom of the bag with packing tape (just a little) so it wouldn't break too early, but I definitely won't do that in the future.

2. Invention activity. This was hands-down the best part of the party. When we first started planning, we talked about how P&F invent and build amazing things every day, so we decided that's what we should do, too. We saved up all our cans and jars and cartons and lids over the past few months, then spread them out on the kitchen table with craft sticks, pipe cleaners, glitter glue, googly eyes, and other random crafty bits -- along with a LOT of glue and tape -- and told the kids to go wild and invent or build anything they wanted. I wasn't sure how much they'd be into it, but it was a huge hit! The kids were super creative -- we had robots and rockets and elevators and a cannon thing and tons of other stuff. So fun.

3. Perry the Platypus cake. This was the toughie for me. I have always wanted to decorate a cake with fondant, so when my lovely friend Janelle pointed me to this really awesome tutorial from Dabbled for creating a Perry the Platypus-shaped cake, I was so there. But, as I posted on FB Friday night:

Today I learned two things:

1 -- Objects on the Internet may be more difficult than they appear.
2 -- Cake decorating will not be my avenue to fame and fortune.
This took a long time and my marshmallow fondant was SO not the right texture or consistency, and heaven knows it's not the right color. I was about ready to throw in the towel, but once he was all done, all three of my kids were so excited and loved it so much that none of that even mattered. And that's why kids are awesome. Also my hubby was very supportive through the whole thing, even when I was nigh unto tears after kneading that stupid fondant for an hour... :) The boys helped me decorate the base cake with M&Ms and we had so much fun doing it together.

I am pretty proud of the tail...

So, to sum up, the tutorial is really awesome and you should definitely check it out if you're interested in making a Perry cake. Hers actually looks like Perry instead of Perry's fugly forest green cousin... I will probably try fondant again some day, too. Can't let the fondant win! :oD

Thanks for stopping by!

*For anyone contemplating getting pregnant, I really recommend not having babies in December. It's stinks when they're brand new and it's cold/flu/RSV season, and it's kind of a bummer your whole life. I know this not only because both my boys are in December, but also my mom, two of my sisters, and my brother. One of my sisters is even ON Christmas. Everybody forgets your birthday because of Christmas busy-ness, you can't party outside, and there are always Christmas decorations in the background of your birthday pics...

Peg Doll Nativity

2011-12-06T08:18:00.001-08:00

Ever since I painted my first peg doll family I have been pretty much in love with these cute little wooden people. I've painted several more and even taught a little class on how to do it! A couple of months ago I saw this peg doll nativity on Pinterest, and I was so inspired I knew I had to make my own! This nativity might just be my favorite peg doll project of all.

I decided that I'd have each figure carrying something symbolic. Mary has a heart because she gave the gift of God's love to the world. Joseph has a lantern because he was the protector and guide for baby Jesus.

The angel has the star, of course. I added the other colors to give her a more folk art feel to coordinate with the wise men.

Here we have the shepherd with his crook and a little drummer boy. And I just love these little sheepies.

Probably my favorite part, though, is the three wise men and their camels! When I was at Hobby Lobby looking for the flat-bottomed knobs for the sheep and donkey, I found these flat-bottomed egg shapes (which I think are for some kind of Japanese wooden doll) and I immediately thought my wise men were going to have to have camels. I definitely spent the longest of all trying to figure out how to do their robes and treasures and those darn camel faces.

A project like this might seem a little intimidating, but these little dolls are so fun, and you can really make them as simple or as detailed as you like. I started by doodling how I wanted each doll to look in my ever-present doodling notebook. I googled things like "nativity" and "three wise men" and "camel face" to get some inspiration for the colors and designs of the different dolls and took inspiration from many different nativity sets and paintings. It was so much fun that I am hoping to list some in my etsy shop next Christmas!

P.S. I bought my peg dolls at www.CraftParts.com. All the "adult" dolls are about 3 1/2" tall. I found the stable at Target in the dollar section for $2.50. So perfect!

Family Rules Sign... Inspired by a gazillion Pinterest finds.

2011-11-14T13:40:00.001-08:00

I have an awkward space in my front entry. The entryway itself extends to the ceiling of the second floor, but there's a coat closet next to the front door that does not, creating a big flat white space that is too high to conveniently access, so it's mostly been a catch-all for dust and socks and bouncy balls. I put a couple things up there, but it's never really felt like a purposeful space.

So lately when I've been seeing scads of wooden signs with fun quotes or family rules on them, that seemed like a fantastic solution for that space.

Inspiration found here, here, here, and here. These are just a few of the things I pinned, but if you search "wood sign" or "family rules sign," you'll find a LOT of other inspiration as well.

So I started looking out for some old pallets or character-filled old wood. But then I heard that it is actually dangerous to use wood pallets in your home -- they are basically filled with all kinds of bacteria and chemicals and who knows what else. Click here for a good article from "Cheap Like Me" about the dangers.

Boo to that. I don't like the look of old wood enough to lose sleep at night over whether my DIY project is going to give my family cancer. So my plans kind of hit a wall until I saw this pin about using vinegar and steel wool to age new wood. What?! I didn't really understand how it worked from that blog post, so I did a little more googling and found this post from {Show & Tell}.

Well, after I found that I could not stop thinking about this project until I did it, even though I had approximately a gazillion other things that really needed to be done first. I did it in bits and pieces over a couple of weeks, but really it only took a couple hours of actual work and I LOVE the result! I took pictures along the way so I could share a tutorial with you.

First, buy cheap fence pickets from your local lumber source. I picked up these 3 1/2"(ish)x6' cedar pickets at Home Depot for about $1.37 each, and I used 6 for this sign. I used my circular saw to cut off the "dog ear" picket part, then cut each picket in half.

To prepare the vinegar wash, I got an old glass jar out of my cupboard and cut up a piece of steel wool into the jar. I then filled the jar with vinegar and let it sit for 24 hours. The vinegar will start to disintegrate the steel wool (I used 0000 grade steel wool, which worked great. Since you're trying to break it up, I'd imagine the finer the steel wool the better). I shook it every once in a while, mostly because I'm not good at just sitting and waiting.

After the 24 hours, I just used a cheap-o paintbrush to dip in the vinegar solution and brush it over the wood. And just like magic, the wood immediately began to "age." When you get to this point, experiment a little with the strength of your solution. When I first brushed it on, it turned almost black. I added a little water to my solution until it turned just the right grey-brown. (I experimented on one of the pieces that I was going to use for the back of the board.) You can see in this pic the difference between the straight solution on the left and the slightly watered-down version on the right.

I treated all the wood -- it seriously took me less than 5 minutes to brush the solution onto all the pieces after I figured out the right solution -- and let it dry thoroughly.

New wood on the left and vinegar/steel wool treated wood on the right.

I then let my kids (since this was a collaborative project) decide how to lay them out, then we flipped them over and use two of the boards to put them all together from behind. My original plan was to use screws to attach them securely, but I decided that since it wasn't going to hang and there really wasn't going to be a lot of stress on the bonds, I would just use Liquid Nails adhesive glue to put it together. Once we got it on, we stacked paint cans on the boards to keep them firmly in place while the adhesive set. (Actually, first Sam and I stood on it, but we eventually got bored...)

This might actually show the difference between the treated and untreated wood better than the other picture, because you can see where all the splashes have changed the back just in spots.

I used yellow paint to freehand the branches on, then lightly sanded the whole sign.

Bright yellow tree -- not quite what I envisioned.

Everything sanded -- much better.

My family and I collaborated on what our family rules should be. "Have fun along the way" is our family motto -- all about loving and appreciating and being grateful for where you are in life instead of waiting for something to come along and make you happy -- and the rest were things the kids or I thought up. In the end they wanted more than I wanted to put on! There are several ways that you could put your letters on the wood, but I laid it all out on the computer, then used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot software to cut a stencil out of vinyl. It took 4 12x14 sheets of vinyl to get the whole sign.

With the vinyl adhered, I just used a cheap brush and some leftover white paint (from my kitchen cabinets) and kind of half-brushed, half-stippled it on. I wanted a really worn finish, so that technique worked really well. At the bottom I hand-painted the "always."

I let the paint get mostly dry, then removed the vinyl and voila! A real (and really meaningful) statement piece of art for my entry that cost less than $20 beginning to end.

You can see it as you whether you are coming into the house or leaving, and it fills the space quite nicely. The finished product is nearly 3' square. I'm still working on exactly how to style the area around it, but for now the little yellow birdie in my vintage canning jar is making it a happy space.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking up to these fantastic parties!

Quick Vintage Birthday Card

2011-11-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

I love when I get to make cards or gifts for my sister-in-law Caitlyn -- she's crafty, too, and our styles are really similar. So it's no surprise that when her birthday rolled around this year I had no trouble finding inspiration for her card. This came together so quickly and is definitely one of my favorite cards I've made recently.

I first cut a 4x4 square of book-y paper from 7Gypsies and stamped 3 flowers onto it. I used pearlescent chalk from Pebbles, Inc. to color all around the image, then used a Viva Pearl Decor pen to dot the centers. I mounted that to a kraft cardstock base and added the stamped sentiment (Studio G). I added the lace trim (Fancy Pants) and velvet trim (Stampin Up) to the bottom and I was done! I adhered the trims with Scor-Tape.

Isn't it funny how some cards or projects you agonize over and spend forever on and then you're still not sold on the result and other ones just come together perfectly, quickly, and you love them?

Dashboard confessional...

2011-10-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been so on-the-run that I haven't had time to properly photograph my cards before getting them to the people I made them for, but when I downloaded the pics from my iPhone I noticed a new pattern emerging -- pictures of cards that I took at the last second in my car before the event I was going to. The pictures aren't that great, but the cards are so dang cute I still wanted to share them. :)

This first one is a "Congratulations on your retirement" card I made for my great-aunt LaWana. This one was so last-minute that it was a good thing it was a two-hour drive to the family reunion so that pearl drops had a chance to dry!

For this one I created the rosette with the Tim Holtz rosette die, then added a punched butterfly and flowers (EK Success) and a stamped sentiment (SU) over a strip of scallop border punch (SU). The pearl drops are from a Viva Pearl Decor pen. I also embossed the butterfly with my Cuttlebug.

The second is a "Welcome Home" card for my Uncle Terry and Aunt Gae, who just returned from an 18-month LDS mission to New Zealand. I took this one in the driveway of their house before heading into the welcome home party. Then I forgot to ever give it to them. Now that I think of it, it might still be on the passenger seat of my hubby's car. Oops... I better get on that.

For this one I cut a window card by setting it up with a shape from Gyspy Wanderings on my Gypsy. Then I cut lots of blue and green scallops (Plantin Schoolbook) to create the sky and grass. The cute little house is from Zooballoo and HOME is from Country Life.

Hope life is going to slow down just a touch after next week and I'll be back with a new project. I have one in the works right now that I am SO excited about! Thanks for stopping by today!

Cute Halloween Treats

2011-10-21T13:36:00.001-07:00

Watch out, these are "poooooky," as my 3-year-old described them! I'm no food blogger, but I just had to share the cute treats we enjoyed at the very fun Halloween party my sister-in-law Esther threw last weekend.

1. Esther asked me to make these Monster Fingers from Family Fun. The instructions made them seem complicated and time-consuming, but they really weren't too bad. And look how dang cool they are!

2. My kids' favorite was Esther's Witches' Brooms -- just a pretzel rod wrapped in a fringed-up fruit roll-up. This was the treat my 5-year-old could NOT stop talking about.

3. Chad, my brother-in-law, made these spooky apple mouths with snaggly almond teeth. Just cut a wedge of apple, cut a "mouth" out of the skin side, and poke slivered almonds in.

4. For the main course, Mummy Dogs! Hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough with mustard eyes.

5. My favorite part was the Monster Eyeballs I made with my boys! I got the idea from Pinterest. (I think the original post was on eighteen25, but it's one of those orphan repins that doesn't link to anywhere. Make sure you are pinning from the actual post, so you and others can find it again! Update: I found it here.) It's just Oreo cookies dipped in almond bark (that white candy coating), and then you add a gummy Lifesaver and a chocolate chip to the middle. I put them in the freezer to set up, and when they were all done I took a little food coloring pen to make the squiggly lines. They were adorable to look at and surprisingly delicious!

There you have it -- my contribution to Halloween this year. :)

80th Birthday Celebration

2011-10-19T10:11:00.003-07:00

My dear Grandpa Tarbet just turned 80, and we (his wife, kids, and grandkids) decided to throw him a fantastic huge party to celebrate! My grandma and I coordinated everything, my awesome uncle served up some excellent food, and pretty much everyone pitched in to help. It turned out wonderfully -- family traveled from all over the country to be there, and people from every part of my grandpa's life came to honor him. He was so happy.

And now I'm so happy to share all the fun details of the party with you!

As I started to plan the decor for this party, I knew that I wanted it to be great to look at but also truly meaningful. My grandpa was a technical writer, and writing and words have been important to him throughout his life. But without doubt, the very most important thing to him is his family (he has over 100 descendants so far!), and I wanted to incorporate that as well, and I thought that pictures of Grandpa and the people he loves throughout his life would be a really meaningful way to do that. "Words+Pictures" became my theme.

I started setting the mood with this invitation, which I designed using Echo Park's "For the Record" digital kit and had printed at Costco as described here.

The basis for the "Words" part was book paper. I found a nice thick textbook from the 60s at DI (our local thrift store) -- it was perfect because the paper was aged nicely and it was pretty much solid text, and I also didn't feel like I was destroying a great literary work. For the pictures, I gathered pictures from my Grandpa himself and from several family members (whoever I could beg or coerce into digging through their mounds of old pictures). My Grandma and I spent hours scanning in all the photos my Grandpa has saved throughout the years, and we ended up with hundreds of great photos to use. I had them printed and used them in many different ways through the party decor. I also used that same Echo Park "For the Record" collection (this time the real paper version) to create continuity throughout. Let me take you through the party the way we had the guests go through!

Sign-in Table
I had a vision for this in my mind of how so often when you go to the home of an older person, they have a huge collections of family photos from throughout the years collected in a huge hodge-podge. I collected frames from DI, yard sales, and my own house. I left most of them as I found them because I wanted an eclectic, collected-over-the-years feel, but I did spray paint some black that were weird colors. I printed everything a 4x6, so thephotos in the 5x7 frames were matted with the Echo Park paper. (I also grabbed some accessories from my house to make it homier and also to give me more levels for the frames, as in the little suitcase on the left).

I also used the "For the Record" paper to create pages for a sign-in album. I wanted to keep this simple, so I made all the pages the same (just varying the pp used). I cut 2" strips of patterned paper, backed it with a strip of black scalloped paper, and then added a stamped "Birthday Wishes" sentiment in the center. (Scallop punch and stamp -- Stampin' Up, label shape -- Cricut "Once Upon a Princess" cartridge)

Once people had signed in, they came into the living room, where my grandpa and grandma were holding court, as it were. :) They had lots of opportunity to visit with people without having to move around too much, since my grandpa doesn't like to be on his feet too long.

From the living they went through the dining room, which we turned into a spot for a photo shoot with a backdrop we rented for $10 from a local camera store. My brother Dan (a really awesome photographer) was stationed there, taking pictures of all the guests as they came through. We wanted to make sure that Grandpa had pictures of all his guests and that we didn't miss anyone. The pictures turned out awesome!

Just one of hundreds of photos showin' the love. This one is my brother and two of my cousins with my Aunt Penny. Yes, weirdness does run in our family. Weirdness and love. :)

Once the guests had their pictures taken they moved into the kitchen/family room area, where we were serving dinner.

Centerpieces:
I wanted the centerpieces to be real conversation starters, so I really tried to combine the "words+pictures" theme here. I started by mod-podging book paper onto glass jars (empty Adams peanut butter jars that I had been hoarding forever), then potting a small mum in each one. I cut chalkboard labels (2 for each jar) and planned to write interesting facts about Grandpa's life but quickly realized that regular chalk or my chalk marker wouldn't write nearly small enough to fit more than a few words on. But guess what! I used my white Gelly-Roll pen and it worked like a charm -- it even erased with damp cloth, just like a chalk marker. Cool.

For the picture part, I bought these 99 cent 2-sided frames from IKEA. They only come in white, so I spray painted them all black. I also added a small tag label for each picture hung on twine. The picture and vase went onto a little tray from the dollar store along with some little candles, just to make it cosy.

I also punched lots of additional circles from my leftover "For the Record" paper to sprinkle like big confetti on the tables. The pictures on the tables were leftovers from our other photo projects that we still wanted to let people enjoy.

Photo wall:
This was the toughest part of the decor for me, because it didn't turn out at all like I envisioned. I started by cutting hundreds of circles of book paper and then sewing them into long strands of garland. Those did turn out just perfect -- the way they turned and twisted added a ton of dimension to the display. What I didn't take into consideration was that the pictures would twist and turn the same way. But the basic idea was this: I sprayed little silver binder clips with Oil Rubbed Broze spray paint, which made them look all vintage-y and cool, and we clipped up the pictures in long strands. This created the other aggravation -- those pictures would NOT stay straight clipped up that way. I think it would have worked better if we had maybe hung wider strips of ribbon and glued the pictures to it so they wouldn't have twisted so easily. Or maybe glued the pictures back to back so you could still see a picture either way it turned. As it was, we didn't have time to try either solution. I nearly threw in the towel on this display, but my aunts kept putting it all up and I'm glad they did -- it may not have matched my vision, but people still really enjoyed it and spent a lot of time looking at all the pictures.

The best part was that my Grandpa really loved all the pictures. He spent quite a bit of time walking around all the tables and the wall, looking at everything. He kept exclaiming "I haven't seen this picture in years!" or "I've NEVER seen this picture!" It made my heart happy.

One last stop:
After the guests had visited and gotten their picture taken and been stuffed with delicious barbeque and delighted by the fun program we put together, we sent them on their merry way. But not without one last treat! My grandma had the idea to set out some of Grandpa's favorite treats as a kind of little party favor, so I set up this table where people had to pass it to go out the door. Don't apothecary jars make everything so much prettier? I also added some of the frames I hadn't been able to fit on the sign-in table.

Whew! That was such a fun party. I really love how (almost) everything turned out so beautiful, but even more than that I loved making my Grandpa feel so special. I loved getting to work so closely with my Grandma on all the planning and execution. I loved seeing so much of my family and getting to work together and spend time with them. That is what makes all the hard work for an event like this worth every second!

I'm linking up to these fantastic parties!

Watch this space...

2011-09-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been posting much, and I probably won't be for a bit, but fun things are coming! My dear Grandpa Tarbet is turning 80 at the end of this month, and we are putting on a great big bash for him. I'm up to my elbows in centerpieces and guestbook and all sorts of decor and working like crazy, but I won't be able to post it all until after the party! So check back after the 30th -- I hope you'll dig what I'm coming up with as much as I am! And just as a little sneak peek, here is the invitation:

I used the digital version of Echo Park's "For the Record" collection to create this, then we had them printed at Costco. That is a great way to do custom invitations, by the way -- nice big 6" x 7 1/2" cards are only $14.99 for 50, including envelopes! I create it digitally or traditionally (but just one), then use the blank card template to upload my own design. Quick, easy, and very inexpensive for such fancy invitations!

Product Review -- Easy Canvas Prints

2011-09-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

I am a total sucker for gallery-wrapped canvas prints -- they just look so professional and highlight pictures so well. So when Brendan from Easy Canvas Prints asked me if I'd like to review their pictures on canvas, I didn't have to think twice. I checked out their website and was impressed with the variety of sizes -- you can order one of their "most popular" sizes or pretty much any combination of dimensions you can cream up -- and other options, like color treatments and retouching. They also have a cool visualizer that shows you what the size of print you're looking at would really look like up on the wall. Of course, being the cheap-o that I am, price is a major factor in where I shop for anything. I am happy to say that Easy Canvas Prints pricing is extremely competitive, even with some of the sale prices I've seen on other sites. Even better -- if you become a fan of Easy Canvas Prints on Facebook, you can get 50% off AND free shipping. I hate to pay for shipping, so that's a big plus for me.

I have to say, I was impressed by the service team as much as the print itself! After I uploaded my file to their website, there was some problem with it. They let me know right away and worked with me to make sure that my canvas looked exactly the way I wanted it -- even though it was over the Labor Day weekend! I don't think the people I was working with even knew I was reviewing the product; they are just awesome like that.

Shortly thereafter, my canvas arrived, and I am genuinely impressed with it! The color is what strikes me the most -- some wrapped canvases are a little muted, but the colors in this one are very true to life. The texture is beautiful as well, and the detail is crisp and clear. In fact, as many times as I've looked at this photo, I had never noticed that Sam is wearing a wristband until I looked at this canvas print! So glad THAT made it into our family photos...

Conclusion: I will definitely be looking to Easy Canvas Prints again when I'm ready to print more pictures on canvas. Check them out, and let them know I said hello! :)

P.S. Many thanks to FotoFly in Draper, Utah for taking this adorable photo of my kids. Seriously, people -- if you need great family photos but don't want to spend a gazillion dollars, that is the place to go!

Peg Doll Family

2011-08-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

I'll be the first to admit I have craft ADD -- when I see something new that I love, I have to try it out, even though I'm in the middle of 15 other kinds of projects. This happened to me recently when I stumbled across GooseGrease on etsy. I fell in love with their adorable custom peg doll families. Then I noticed they had a separate shop (GooseGreaseUndone) where you can buy the unfinished dolls, mixing and matching a wide variety of sizes to match your own family. Yes, please! I ordered 5 little dolls for my family right away, and I've finally had a chance to finish painting them! Here is our little family:

I painted them with acrylic craft paint and did a lot of the details with waterproof markers, then finished them with a coat of matte Mod Podge. I learned a lot doing these and would definitely do some things differently next time (like waiting for the paint or mod podge on the heads to dry completely before picking them up -- I had to redo a few things because I was so impatient).

I let the boys tell me what they wanted on their shirts. Sam, lover of all things learning and super excited about the approaching start of the school year, requested an A+. I also gave him "distressed" jeans, because he had just told me he thought those were cool.

Joshy wanted a silly face on his.

Eliza got a cute pink princess-y dress in front...

And a super-hero cape in the back, because that how she rolls...

I mod-podge book paper on for my dress, then painted on the yellow cardigan and turquoise flower.

Dan has recently developed an affinity for plaid shirts, so that's what he got.

So there you have it! This was such a fun little project. Now the dolls live on the cabinet in our entryway, cheerily greeting everyone who comes over.

I'm not the only one who loves them, either. Eliza plays with them pretty much every day -- I'm always finding them in different configurations, as though they are in the middle of a conversation or on some adventure together.

How to paint a tree mural...

2011-08-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, that title may be a little misleading. I think this post isn't so much as a "how-to" as you "you can do this!" I want to tell you about the process of painting this life-size tree in Eliza's room, from "yeah, I think I can do that" to "oh my gosh this is a disaster" to "YES! I'M THE COOLEST EVER!!!"

Let me just start by saying: You can do this. Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it. I've been a paper-crafter for a long time and I consider myself to be pretty darn crafty, but only lately have I begun to discover that I can be artistic as well. The key is giving yourself permission to not be 100% perfect, but to enjoy the process and believe in yourself. I recently stumbled across this quote and I LOVE it:

Too often we talk ourselves out of trying something new because we don't believe we can do it right! Why?! Are we afraid the craft/art/life police are going to come and take us away?!

So, with that big and overdramatic introduction, I'm going to give you instructions if you want to paint a tree exactly the way I did:

1. Paint the room with your base color. Make sure you have a little leftover for "editing" later.

2. Start sketching out tree shapes. If you're like me, most of them will look pretty fugly. Go to Pinterest and start looking for trees and tree art to get an idea of the shape you want to create. (Man, who knew there were so many cool tree tattoos out there?) Eventually, after a bunch of tries, you'll figure out the shape you want, and you'll begin to feel like an artistic genius. I really wish I had kept the bazillion sticky notes I sketched trees on so I could show you. Most of them looked more like scary Halloween trees than a pretty girly whimsical tree.

A few of my inspiration photos, found via Pinterest. Seriously, it's awesome.

3. Take a pencil and sketch the basic shape of the tree on your wall.

4. Using an art brush (my fave was a rectangular brush about 1" wide), paint in the outline of the tree. Add branches. Fill in all the outlines. Let dry. (Hey, look, you can see my sticky note with my tree sketches on the wall!)

5. Start painting on your leaves. I recommend going from left to right so you don't drag your hand through wet paint. Also, I decided before I started that I was going to do tear-drop shaped leaves in groups of three at the end of each branch and twig. That worked for me because it that consistent element kept the tree from being too wild and crazy.

6. Half-way through, step back and think "This does not look like my sketch. This tree looks really barren."

7. Take a picture with your phone, upload it to the computer, and do a little virtual editing to see what changes you need to make. I went into PhotoShop elements and painted on a few more branches and more leaves and already felt happier. I also doodled the little birdies I wanted to cut out of vinyl and put on.

8. Start making changes. Step back and think "Oh my gosh, this is a disaster. This is an ugly tree! If this tree were growing in my yard I would chop it down!" Freak out.

9. Take a deep breath. Maybe it just needs to be pruned instead of chopped down.

10. Repeat step 7. This time in PhotoShop, I made the trunk skinnier and the tree taller so that it had a more rounded shape (instead of looking like some weird step pyramid). I also decided to do the bird and cage instead of the thing I doodled before.

11. Keep tweaking until you step back and think: "YES! I'M THE COOLEST EVER!!!"

The point is, don't give up, and don't freak out. Your process won't be the same as mine -- but that's probably for the best. If you were really cool and found a tree shape that you loved, you could use a projector to put it up on your wall, trace the projection, and paint in those lines. And that would be awesome! But I don't have a project and I didn't find a tree shape that I loved, so I just winged it. And I did think I was going to hate it forever there in the middle, but by the end I was able to come up with something that I really loved.

It's not really about the tree -- it's about taking chances in the things you love to do! Go out on a limb, branch out, leaf your fears behind! (Okay, no more puns...)

Create an awesome life!

P.S. I cut the bird and bird cage out of vinyl, from artwork I designed myself. I do sell those shapes as cut files in my etsy shop if you're interested. I am not currently taking any actual vinyl orders -- too much life going on right now!

Disneyland apparel -- freezer paper style!

2011-08-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

I love going to Disneyland with the kids, and half the fun for me is all the anticipation and planning -- and that includes fun clothes to wear! The first time we went with all the kids, we had t-shirts printed and I made cute girly polka dot skirts for Eliza and my nieces. We went again back in June with my hubby's parents, and this time I wanted to let the kids get in on the fun. Freezer paper stencils seemed the way to go! (If you haven't jumped on the freezer paper stencil bandwagon, what are you waiting for?! Go check out this great tutorial. Seriously.)

You can't see me in this pic, but I'm the one behind the camera trying to let go of my crafting perfectionism... I let the boys pick out (admittedly with some "guidance" from me) the designs they wanted to paint on their shirts, then cut the designs from freezer paper with my Cricut (these were simple shapes from the Mickey Font cartridge). I then let them pick out whatever paint color they wanted. Would I have chosen the iridescent green Josh went with? Probably not. But it made him really, really happy. He also loved squeezing the paint onto the shirt and brushing it on with the sponge brush. Bless their hearts, they really tried to keep the paint in the design, and there was only minimal green and red splotching elsewhere on the shirts. (Sam's was especially noticeable since the splotches looked like blood...) Here's the finished product at the happiest place on Earth:

Eliza didn't get as much creative license -- I said, "Do you want a pretty princess shirt?" and she said "Oh yes yes yes!" Then I put together this little design from the "Once Upon a Princess" cartridge and created the stencil. As you can see in the above pic, I did let her wield a paint brush. She was surprisingly good at it! After the paint was dry on hers, I used my iRock to bling it up with some gems. Here she is -- guess where?!

Freezer paper stencils are just plain awesome -- make personalized shirts for any kid, any occasion, any style preference, whatever. Cheap and fun!

P.S. Freezer paper stenciling is cool for grown-ups, too. Sometime soon I'll show you the cool shirts we did for our Dirty Dash team. :)

Family Art Collage Wall

2011-08-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Today I want to show you my latest project, which solved two big problems at once. One: what to do with mountains of kids' artwork. Two: What to do with the very tall wall on the staircase landing in our entryway. My kiddos love love love to create, so I always have a stack that needs showing off. So I wanted to create a special place where we could display it. I needed something that would be easy to rotate. But when the boys and I worked on special pieces to contribute to our church art show, I knew those needed a permanent home. Thus the idea for the collage wall was born.

I blogged about my mixed media piece here.

My mother-in-law made me this cute clipboard...

I may or may not have had to replace one of the clips and the word "artist" because my little "helpers" decided to disassemble it before I could put it up...

And that got me thinking about other ways I could display the kids' art by just clipping it up, but I wanted something that would really give their artwork some presence and show that we are proud to display it in our home. Then (hooray!) I found these two enormous empty frames at a yard sale for $2 each. They were a really gross maroon color, but a few coats of spray paint later they look fantastic. My awesome friend Kelli contributed some chicken wire, which I attached to the back of the frame with a staple gun.

I let the kids decorate plain mini clothespins for attaching the artwork.

The kids really loved picking out their favorite pieces for our first display. They did most of the cool projects they picked in the art classes they took this spring with my friend April Staker. If you are at all local, I totally recommend her classes for kids -- the boys learned so much and grew to love creating so much more!

This is really an ideal solution for displaying lots of sizes and types of artwork. They can either put in several small pieces, as shown above, or one really big piece. They love to color on those big paper rolls from IKEA, so we have a lot of those. As an extra bonus, hanging up those big pieces makes it really easy to take a good picture of it, so we can save the picture and eventually lose all the giant pieces of paper. :)

Oh, and here's a funny story. I cut this vinyl saying out and put it up, but it just didn't seem right somehow. It took me two days to realize that that wasn't what I meant to put up at all! I meant to do "Home is where the he{art} is" but somewhere between my brain and setting it up on the computer it got switched to this. What do you think? Lucky mistake, or should I switch it?

Hanging this collage in the stairwell worked out perfectly because I can hang things both higher and lower than I really could on a normal wall because you start out either below or above the whole thing anyway. I have lots of room to expand, especially above, as we create more special pieces that we want to keep up more permanently.

Thanks for stopping by!

Winner! Plus my new obsession -- Pinterest!

2011-08-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm very pleased to announce a winner for last week's "Growing in Unity" party! Our randomly chosen winner is Carol, who said:

Carol, I'll be emailing you soon with your prize info!

And now, on to my favorite new thing -- Pinterest!

Have you heard of it yet? Chances are you have, and either you're already an addict (like I am), or you're wondering what it's all about.

If you're like me, you love to cruise around different blogs and online stores and whatnot, gathering inspiration and just enjoying the eye candy. And you bookmark things you don't want to forget, projects you want to try, etc. -- but then you forget all about those things once they're tucked away in your bookmark folder.

Well, Pinterest is pure awesome for visual people like us. It's like a virtual pin board, so you can keep track of all the awesome things you see online -- crafts, recipes, home decor, books to read, vacations you'd like to take, anything you like. That way you can SEE everything you've bookmarked, instead of just bookmarking it in your browser and then forgetting it. You can set up categories however you like, so it's always easy to see at a glance whatever you're trying to find. This is what my own board looks like right this second:

As you can see, I'm just getting started in some categories, and in others I'm already going hog wild. :)

It's also a fun social sharing thing, because you can follow other people whose taste you like, and others can follow you. I have been having so much fun finding new people to follow and getting TONS of inspiration. If you want to check out what I've been pinning, you can take a look here. Lots of the best bloggers are becoming Pinterest junkies (like Shelley from House of Smiths -- LOVE everything she pins!), and you never know who else you might find that you love. My sister-in-law's mom, for instance, is one of the most prolific pinners every, and I get a ton of inspiration from her. Oh, and one nice thing is that you don't have to follow every category a person creates. I have a friend who is a teacher and pins a lot of classroom ideas -- I don't really need those, so I don't follow that board, but I do love the other stuff she pins. It's great that it's not an all-or-nothing follower thing.

Let me know if you want an invite and I'll send you one! (I think the invite thing is kind of a gimmick, because I've never heard of anyone NOT getting invited if they click "request an invite," but it does usually take a few days. If someone invites you, I think you can join up immediately.)

So come play with me! (And the gazillion other people having fun there.) This isn't any kind of a sponsored post -- I'm just so in love with it that I can't help sharing the fun!

"Here for you" -- Unity Stamps

2011-07-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we've come to the end of my week-long Unity Stamps party! I hope you've enjoyed the projects you've seen, and that you're inspired to get stampin' yourself! I am not a fancy-pants stamper by any means, but these Unity Stamps make me feel like a pro!

My last card is a really sweet, not too fussy or serious way to tell someone you are there for them. I just love that yo-yo image, and the baker's twine seemed like the perfect way to bring it to life. I also added a touch of color with Prisma watercolor pencils and little bit of Stickles glitter.

Thanks for coming by! I really enjoyed playing with my Unity Stamps this week, and I'm excited to be able to give away a set to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment on any of this week's posts, and I'll pick a random winner this weekend. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you!

"You are out of this world!" with Unity Stamps

2011-07-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

It's Day 4 of my Growing with Unity fun with Unity Stamps! Today I'm sharing a thank you card I made with this adorable little stamp set. This is another set that is just so versatile! Depending on how you colored it and what papers you paired it with, you could make this for a man or woman, adult or child. I think it would also be a great congratulations-on-you-achievement card. This particular one was for my sister, who kindly took charge of my kiddos so I could go to Cub Scout Day Camp. :) This included packing them all to swim lessons and doing the Mommy-and-Me class with Eliza, so she truly is out of this world!

Materials: Stamps by Unity Stamp Company, Papers by Basic Grey, Die Cuts by Cricut (George cartridge), colored with Prisma watercolor pencils, Glitter -- Stickles in Fruit Punch

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment to be entered to win some awesome Unity Stamps of your own at the end of the week!

"Make every day the best day!" -- Mixed Media Canvas for Growing in Unity

2011-07-27T03:10:00.000-07:00

Hello again, friends! Today is my favorite project in this week's "Growing in Unity" series with Unity Stamps. I created this 4x6 mixed media canvas to really showcase this great quote from the "It's All Worth It" kit by Melody Ross, and used other stamps from the set to create added depth and texture. I made the tree by rolling and crinkling strips of kraft paper.

Materials: Unity Stamps, We R rub-ons, Scenic Route and Sassafrass Lass scraps

Here are a few more details from the canvas:

A little "you + me" carving in the tree

I'm not sure how well you can tell in the picture, but I used the pretty floral corner stamp first in brown. Then I stamped just one of the big flowers with red paint, and went back in with a black pen to accent it when it was dry. Such a nice pop of color!

This little birdie is a Stampin Up punch, distressed with acrylic inks.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win some Unity stamps of your own!

"Look on the Bright Side" - a simple, versatile card

2011-07-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

For my second day of "Growing in Unity" posts, I thought I'd share the very first card I ever made with Unity Stamps. I fell in love with this cute little lamp as well as the sentiment that went with it -- a little bit vintage, but with a clean modern feel. As soon as I bought them (at a crop at Archivers), I had to rip open the package and make a simple card with the scraps I had on hand. One of the great things about these stamps is that they lend themselves really well to a simple style that would work for men or women -- nice to have this kind of thing on hand!

Materials -- Stamps by Unity Stamp Company, paper by Scribble Scrabble, scallop border punch by Stampin Up.

Thanks for stopping by -- make sure you leave a comment to be entered to win a sweet Unity Stamp set at the end of the week!

Queen Bee with Unity Stamps!

2011-07-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, y'all! I'm just tickled to be the "Growing in Unity" girl over on the Unity Stamp Company blog this week. Make sure you leave a comment on this post, because I'll be giving away a fantastic Unity set to a random commenter at the end of the week!

I also wanted to show you a birthday card I made with the "It's All Worth It" set by Melody Ross.

My fabulous sister's birthday was this month, and I wanted to create a card that showed she is the queen bee!

Materials: Unity Stamps, 7Gypsies paper, Clearsnap chalk ink, tiny "4You" stamp from Stampin Up, Jewels set with the iRock tool by Imaginisce, body colored with shimmer chalks from Pebbles, Inc.

Inside it said "Happy Bee-Day!" Get it? I know, I'm hilariously clever...

I love that these images have so much personality, but they're still so versatile. On Wednesday I'll be showing you another special project that uses stamps from the same set in a totally different way.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be posting new projects featuring Unity Stamps each day this week. Unity Stamps are AMAZING -- you get incredible image quality, thanks to the deep-etched rubber, but most are available with cling mount so you can use any acrylic block to stamp with. And the ART! Oh, they have such beautiful, really meaningful art, much of it co-branded with the most popular scrapbook paper lines. If you're a fan of the cool vintage look, these are the stamps for you!

I'll be giving away a great Unity Stamp set at the end of the week to one lucky commenter, so leave a comment for a chance to win!

The World's Ugliest Dresser

2011-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

When Eliza was officially potty trained enough that I felt confident getting rid of the changing table, I went in search of an awesome dresser to make over. Now, I have a serious love affair with yard sales, and I envisioned finding the perfect vintage dresser, something with great lines or fun details that just needed sprucing up. But I was striking out in a major way, in spite of the insane multitude of yard sales that sunny Saturday morning.

Then I pulled up to a yard sale and saw this:

Cue horror movie music now...

I thought, 'That has got to be the world's ugliest dresser.' I had to check it out. It was a rock solid dresser in very nice condition, but man was it ugly! No details, no pretty girly lines, just laminate, not anything that I had envisioned. But the owner did say he'd let me have it for $10. I told him I'd pass and went along my merry way. Further searching yielded no results, however, and I could not get the Ugly Dresser off my mind. It was like a challenge, calling out for me to try to turn it into something beautiful. Plus I'm really cheap, and the thought of getting such a nice quality (you know, for laminate) piece for so cheap, which I then wouldn't feel too bad if I totally ruined, was just too enticing to resist.

So I brought it home and started mulling over ways to make it awesome. I had a few different ideas, but nothing really clicked until I thought "STRIPES!" (It was actually surprising that wasn't my first idea, since I have a major obsession with stripes right now.) A few coats of paint and some hardware later, here is the new dresser!

This project took a little time, but was not complicated. Here is how I did it:

1. Clean all surfaces really well. Give them a light sanding (just to rough up the laminate surface a little bit). Wipe down to remove dust from sanding.

2. Apply a coat of Zinsser 1-2-3 Bullseye Primer. *This is the key for painting laminate furniture!* This primer is made specifically to coat slick surfaces like laminate and give the paint something to hold on to. It is seriously awesome stuff. An important thing to remember, though, is to not overload your brush or roller -- the primer is really thick and sticky but dries fast, so if you get globs of it on your piece it will be hard to smooth them out. Let dry for a minimum of 1 hour.

Don't mind that little nightstand -- I just decided to paint that as long as I had my supplies out.

3. Paint base color. Mine is Behr Bleached Linen, because I had nearly an entire can leftover from doing my kitchen.

4. This is the only tricky part. Decide how many stripes you want, and divide the width of your drawer by that many. I wanted 13 stripes (7 pink, 6 white). Try not to bang your head on the driveway in frustration as you try to figure out how to equally divide 31 1/8" by 13. Well, that's not difficult -- the answer is 2.394230. But they don't make a mark for that on most rulers. I probably marked and remarked the stripes on the first drawer 10 times trying to get it worked out. I finally figured out that if I made the two pink outside stripes 1/8" wider, the rest could all be the same. Unfortunately, unless you're some kind of crazy math-or-measuring genius, it's probably a matter of trial and error. Once I finally did figure it out, it was very simple and fast to do the rest of the drawers (it took me the better part of an hour to figure it out, but only about 15 minutes to mark and tape). I used a pencil to mark where the stripes should be at the top and bottom of each drawer, then rolled painter's tape for each stripe.

5. Put all drawers back into the dresser to see if they actually line up. Do a little happy dance when they do. Then be glad it's 6 in the morning and none of your neighbors are out to see you. Wonder if it's so cute with the green stripes that maybe you should just leave it that way...

Just a note -- when I went to paint the stripes, I ended up putting another piece of tape in between each set so that the white stripes were completely covered. It saved my sanity because I didn't have to worry about pink paint getting onto the white stripes.

6. Using your base coat paint, paint over the edges of the tape. This will seal the edges of your tape, making sure that you won't get any bleed when you do your stripe color.

7. Paint your stripes!

8. Remove tape. Do a HUGE happy dance (complete with fist pump and "Whoohoo!") when you see how awesome your stripes look. Then realize that it is now the afternoon and several neighbors are out in their yards, but hey -- they already knew you were weird.

9. Add hardware. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it was very simple. I made myself a cardstock template the exact size of the pink stripe, then found the center of it by folding it in half both ways (super scientific, I know). I laid that template on the pink stripe, then drilled a hole through the center. Repeat for all drawers, then screw in hardware. Easy peasy.

Voila! The World's Ugliest Dresser turned super fabulous on the cheap. My cost for this was:
Dresser: $10
Paint and brush: $10 (Thanks to a Groupon for Kwal paint), with TONS of paint leftover for other projects.
Hardware: $12 (I got these at Hobby Lobby -- they have knobs 50% off very frequently)

So don't pass up a good deal just because it looks ugly -- a little creativity and elbow grease can transform anything!

To see the rest of the room, check out this post.

I'll be linking up to these great parties!

Eliza's Big Girl Room

2011-07-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Goodbye, sweet baby nursery...

This summer keeps getting busier and busier, but for some reason I have recently been overcome by an unquenchable desire to re-do Eliza's room. Do any of you suffer from the same problem -- no matter how much is on the to-do list, if you get an idea in your head you can't let it go until it's done?

I've actually been wanting to do something cute and girly since she was born and I've done bits and pieces of it over the past couple of years, but something about getting her potty training and her approaching 3rd birthday made it imperative to give her the room she ~~never knew she~~ always wanted... (Click to enlarge pictures.)

Hello, big girl room!

It began with that banner over the window, which I made for her first birthday party using the Girl Friday collection from Cosmo Cricket. I knew that would be my color inspiration for the whole room -- turquoise and pink with little hints of green. I completely splurged (for me) on the bedding, and had such buyer's remorse after about it after that I was determined to do the rest of her room on as small a budget as possible. I'm going to show you the whole room today, and then over the next couple of posts I'll show you the blow by blow of a few of my favorite elements.

I think the most eye catching element is the tree mural:

I wanted something to break up and lighten up all that turquoise. My first thought was big wide vertical stripes, because I'm kinda obsessed with stripes at the moment. But since I had already done stripes on the dresser (and didn't want the room to look like a circus tent), I opted for a large-as-life tree. I wanted something graphic but still organic -- what do you think? I'll post details on my tree-painting saga in another post.

My favorite little bit about the tree is this little "carving" I put in:

And also the pretty pink bird cage and birdie (which you may recognize from my blog header -- yeah, it's pretty much my favorite graphic I've ever created. And it's available in my etsy shop if you're interested!)

The other big eye-catcher in the room is this dresser:

Which I bought at a yard sale for $10 when it was officially The World's Ugliest Dresser. A little paint and voila -- fabulousness! I will be doing a complete tutorial with pictures for this one in my very next post. You have to come back just to see how ugly this puppy started out. The round mirror was another ugly yard sale find, made much happier with a few coats of white spray paint. The cute pink flowery thing on top is a felt flower ball, for which you can check out a great tutorial here.

Other happy details:

Some friends of ours kindly gave us the pretty girly bed, which was in good shape except for the brass knobs, which were pretty beat up. I painted them with the same pink from the dress re-do. My husband thought I was insane, but I LOVE the little bit of whimsy they add:

And every girl needs some big puffy flowers over her bed, right?

And here's a close-up of the banner, which I blogged about in greater detail here:

Eliza may not have ever told me she wanted a new room, but she love love loves it. Her favorite part is the birdie on the wall, and she really loves the hanging poof balls. Plus, there is plenty of room for dancing:

And jumping on the bed:

A big girl room for a suddenly so big girl! (If you know any way to stop her getting big so fast, please let me know!)

A few notes: The color on the wall is Behr Eucalyptus Leaf, mixed at 3/4 strength by the nice man at Kwal. If you'd like to get a better look at the cute little table and chairs, I blogged about them here.

Notecard Gift Set -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Have you ever met a crafting product that just made your heart happy? I did this month. It's called Scor-Tape. It's not pretty, the way most things that I fall in love with in the papercrafting world are, but it is just about the most useful stuff I have ever used. It comes in several widths -- what I used is 1/4" -- and it is a seriously strong adhesive that sticks to anything. Plus it comes on an enormous roll for a ridiculously reasonable price. I LOVE IT!!! (Okay, I'm sorry for shouting. I just get really excited when I'm in love...)

So I thought for my project to highlight it, I would tackle two of the adhesive-using projects that have given me the biggest fits over the years -- boxes and accordion flowers. With both, I have tried several other adhesives with mixed (mostly aggravating) results. I had taken to hot gluing, which worked pretty well, but was a little messy and bumpy and then there's all that waiting for the glue gun to heat up... At any rate, this Scor-Tape is my new best friend. Both the box and the accordion flower came together beautiful and feel as solid as a rock. I also used the Scor-Tape to adhere the lace and it worked beautifully.

I'm also still in love with the Viva Decor Pearl Pens I highlighted earlier in the month, so I used the Gold and Cream colors to highlight details on the box and on the stamped image on the accordion flower. I also used them to created that big pearl in the center of the flower. The tip of the pen is so fine that you can create accents from teeny-tiny to huge and bling-y. Love that!

To go inside the box, I created 6 very simple notecards with coordinating paper from the same Basic Grey line that I used for the box. To create this I cut regular 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 cards, then added a 1 3/4"x5 1/2" strip of patterned paper and another strip punched with a Martha Stewarts border punch. But just to add a little touch of special, I accentuated the border punch strip by adding a line of pearl drops with the Cream Viva Decor Pen. Just right!

As for the accordion flower, I had promised the lovely Ann that I would do a tutorial highlighting especially how to use the adhesive, and I really tried, but the video was out of focus and it crashed my computer when I tried to put it together. So I came up with a list of instructions and tips to help.

1. I used the Tim Holtz accordion flower die to create the one pictured above, but you can create your own by cutting a strip of paper (I like about 1 1/2"x12") and scoring it every 1/4" or so. Then fold it like an accordion.

2. Take your accordion strip and bend it so that the first and last flat surfaces of the accordion overlap. Apply Scor-Tape to the last flat surface and adhere the two together.

3. Punch or cut a small circle (about 1") to be the base of your flower. Apply two strips of Scor-Tape to it in a "+" shape.

4. Press the center down so that the side you want to be the bottom is facing up. This will save you a lot of grief, because you'll be able to just grab your pre-adhesived base circle and attach it rather than trying to lift your flower and get it to the base.

5. Press your base firmly into the center of the accordion flower. Decorate the center as desired.

And just a note -- if you are using the Tim Holtz die, it doesn't really score the fold lines -- it perforates them. Which is all fine and good, because it folds really easily, but it also tears if you're not careful with it. (I've had the same problem with made-from-scratch versions where I was a little too eager with the scoring tool.) If that happens, don't panic. Just lay your accordion strip out flat and lay the two pieces together as if they hadn't ripped, then secure with a small piece of scotch tape. No one will be able to tell. :)

Thanks again for stopping by!

Materials used: Adhesive -- Scor-Tape; Pearl Accents -- Viva Decor Pearl Pens; Patterned Paper -- Basic Grey; Border Punch -- Martha Stewart; Stamps and Scallop Circle Punch -- Stampin Up; Distressing -- Colorbox Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan; Lace -- Fancy Pants; Magnetic snap to keep box closed -- Basic Grey

What I've been squeezing in...

2011-06-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, y'all! I know my posts have been few and far between lately. I've been working away on some fun projects that are not quite done yet, and mostly I've been trying to get our house organized.

Organization is SO not my strong point. In fact, it's probably my weakest point. So I am very proud of what I've accomplished so far and I wanted to show you my food storage closet:

All organized by type of food, and it even has labels. Labels, people! I'm so proud of myself. I wish I had taken a before picture, but just imagine this closet with spaghetti sauce behind the paper towels and so many bags of fishy crackers on the floor that you couldn't even get in. Oh, and also with flimsy shelves that were so overloaded they were seriously in danger of collapsing at any second. My awesome hubby came up with these great braces and I'm no longer in fear of my life going in there. He's actually the one who has inspired me to get to work on the house -- he's already checked off nearly everything on his summer to-do list!

I have also been working on our garage, where I have a terrible habit of opening the door from the mud room and just throwing stuff in. Somehow it did not magically disappear, but waited patiently, gathering cat hair, until I came to clean it out. There are labels out there, too. Go me! I do feel very accomplished, but man, it's seriously cutting into my craft time!

Now I'm putting all the organization on hold and getting ready for our vacation to California! Dan's grandpa's 80th b-day, Disneyland, the beach -- it's going to be awesome. I'll have several great things to show you after we get back!

Fancy T-shirt with Viva Decor Pearl Pens -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-06-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, goodness -- I think I have found my new favorite craft goody! This month ScrapbookPal.com sent me a selection of their new Viva Decor Pearl Pens, and my mind was immediately going like crazy with ideas for how I can use them. These work on a great selection of materials, including being machine washable on fabric. How cool is that?! So my first project just had to be embellishing a plain t-shirt that I bought from the thrift store for $2. It's my favorite color, but it was so plain and blah before.

For the base design, I combined some different swirls and flourishes from Cindy Loo and cut them to create freezer paper stencils. If you haven't tried this yet, DO IT! It's so fun and easy, and it works great. There are a bajillion tutorials online for how to do it, but you can check out a great one from "CleverSomeday" right here. After I painted on the swirls, I cut a small swallow shape from Heritage and painted that on with the Viva Decor Pearl paint. It took several coats to make it semi-opaque, but it has a gorgeous pearly finish.

After that base paint was dry (helped along by my blow dryer because patience is just not one of my talents), I went to work with the Pearl Pens. I used Ice White and Silver for this project. I just created little pearl dots along the edges of the painted flourishes with the Ice White, and then with the silver I created additional flourishes. It turned out SO cool, and now my $2 has some seriously fab personality!

Thanks for stopping by! Tune in later this month when I showcase these pens again, along with my other new favorite thing -- Scor-Tape!

Father's Day -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-05-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

(Click to enlarge)

Can you believe I didn't take a single picture of my hubby and kids on Father's Day last year? So this year, thanks to the Cricut Father's Day cartridge from ScrapbookPal.com, I am getting a jump on things early! This layout has a space for a nice big 5x7 picture.

I love how the "Best Dad Ever" shape from the Father's Day cartridge looks when mounted onto an accordion medallion (I made mine with the awesome new accordion die from Tim Holtz) -- it turns it into something really special! I used Scor-Tape to adhere the paper for the accordion -- man, that stuff is awesome! I'll be using it for more projects next month. The other product I'm featuring this month is the Cat's Eye chalk ink from Colorbox, which is one of my all-time favorite tools. I use it for adding a nice soft distressing touch to the edges of so many projects. On this layout I used Dark Brown for all the distressing (definitely one of my go-to colors), and Warm Red to stamp the "Completely LOVED" seal on the tag. I love the nice soft finish these inks create, and the shape makes them perfect for getting into nooks and crannies.

I painted the tag with Liquitex acrylic ink in raw umber to give it a really old finish, but you could achieve a similar effect with the Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I used the Country Life cartridge for the title -- love this font!

Other materials: Patterned papers and stickers -- Cosmo Cricket; Stamp -- Autumn Leaves

May Flowers

2011-05-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

My sweet hubby gave me a pretty bunch of tulips for Mother's Day. He knows me so well -- tulips are my fave! I decided to try something different than my usual plunk-in-a-vase arrangement this time around, and stole my favorite vintage canning jars from the tops of my cupboards. I grouped them on a pretty tray with some nice spring-y moss and it just makes a lovely centerpiece for our table. I like it so much I might have to keep flowers in them all the time!

Which means, of course, that I'll have to be on the lookout for more pretty vintage canning jars. Darn...

"She gave her whole heart..." Mixed Media Canvas

2011-05-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

(Click to enlarge)

I created this 8x10 canvas for my awesome, incomparable mom for Mother's Day. The "she" figure looks like her, and I couldn't think of any more fitting phrase for my mom that "she gave her whole heart to her family." My mom has given and sacrificed so much over the years and continues to do so. Every element I used here symbolizes in some way what my mom means to me. I think that's what I love most about doing mixed media -- it gives you an opportunity for so many layers of meaning.

I also have to admit that this was my second try at this canvas! I started a different background and it turned into a hot mess. I wanted to use old pictures from our childhood in the background and printed them off in black and white from our inkjet printer, but as soon as the mod podge hit them they turned all bubbly and turquoise and gross. So I'm going to have to figure that one out some day...

In the mean time, here are a few close-ups:

I think this heart might be my favorite part. I covered it with a gazillion layers of UTEE, then put it in the freezer, then cracked it.

I finally found a place to use my cool wax clock seal from 7Gypsies! I've had this for YEARS but hadn't found a way to use it until now.

If you're interested in trying out this mixed media art, you should really check out the She Art Workshop by Christy Tomlinson. It's amazing!

Materials for this canvas:
Background -- vintage sewing pattern, illustration from the book "The Art of Homemaking," a book from the 50s I snagged from our local thrift store. It is full of the awesomest illustrations like this.
Patterned paper -- from my scrap drawer, so I don't know who made it. Sorry! Oh, wait -- I think it was Creative Imaginations
Stamps -- 7Gypsies, Hero Arts, Stampin' Up, Studio G
Punches -- Fiskars (butterfly, used as a mask), Martha Stewart (border punch)
Rub-ons -- American Crafts

Man Card (don't peek, honey!) -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-05-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

So my hubby and I have a running "discussion" about handmade cards for guys. He asserts that it just isn't worth it to make fancy cards for guys because it just isn't their style and they're never going to fully appreciate all the hard work you put into it. When I received the new Father's Day seasonal cartridge from ScrapbookPal.com and saw this "Man Card" image, I knew that was just what I needed to make a card for my man for this year's Father's Day.

To make this card:

1. Cut base of card by cutting 8 1/2x11 cardstock in half the long way, so your card will open on the bottom. Round the two bottom corners.
2. Cut non-froofy patterned paper block to 3 3/4x5 1/4. Round the bottom two corners, then adhere to card base.
3. Write your "no_____" strips onto cardstock (you can substitute in your own go-to girly things) and draw a black outline. Don't make it perfect. Then cut out each strip and mount to card.
4. Write "THIS IS A" on a strip of black cardstock with a white GellyRoll pen, then mount to card. I thought the screw-top brads were a nice manly touch. :)
5. Cut the "Man Card" image and the oval bottom layer, adhere together, then adhere to card with 3D foam.

6. For the inside, cut the "foam finger" image with its layer, then adhere together. I used a base circle of the same patterned paper from the front of the card to help it stand out better. Write the rest of your sentiment with the white GellyRoll pen.

Anyone else here on the endless quest for cool handmade masculine cards? What are your go-to solutions?

Thanks for stopping by!

An Apple for the Teacher :)

2011-05-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

It's Teacher Appreciation Week! (Never mind that I thought it was last week and was killing myself to get projects done in time...) My two boys are blessed with really wonderful teachers this year, so I was very happy to show them a little love. When I was getting ready to make these cards, I intended to completely rip off this lovely Mother's Day card made by my fabulous friend Amy. But as I pulled the design from A Child's Year up on my Gypsy, I noticed this cute apple cut-out card and my wheels went spinning in an entirely different direction!

To create this card, I first cut out the basic card shape. I embossed the front of the card with my Cuttlebug and the Swiss Dots folder. Then I went back on my Gypsy and hid the outer card contour so I could just cut the apple shape, which I did in red. I also cut 3 circles (sized to fit the apple) out of book paper. I created the little apple by layering the book-paper circles onto the center of the apple and then sewing them into place. I think I saw the technique on a local show last year and I love the effect -- you fold out the pages after you've sewn them, and it adds a ton of dimension. I inked the edges of the circles to add depth as well. I also added little snips of green felt as leaves for my apple.

I cut a piece of patterned paper to fit the inside of the card and adhered it, then cut a piece of white cardstock for the center so I'd have a place to write the sentiment. I used a notebook-edge border punch for the top edge of that piece. Then, to make sure the apple was aligned just right, I closed the card and fit the apple into its space like a puzzle piece. I added the sentiment "wonderful teacher" on little paper strips, then finished off the card with a little baker's twine (I just love that stuff!) and a little thank you tag.

Oh, and as a present, I am giving them this free printable from eighteen25 in a spray-painted red frame just like they show here:

Sam's teacher got hers last week and she really, really loves it!

Thanks for stopping by!

I Am a Mother!

2011-05-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

KSL (our local tv station for you non-local people) is doing a really cool thing called "Motherhood Matters," with the goal of elevating motherhood. There is a 10-day challenge, and there are also lots of cool giveaways and free printables and such. For instance, I can't wait to download and print this beauty:

And it's not just about the stereotypical "mom" role, either -- I believe all women have a mother heart and have the capacity to influence the world around them with that love. So check it out!

You can read more about the whole thing by clicking here.

The Future is as Bright as Your Faith -- Mixed Media Canvas

2011-04-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hello again! Today I wanted to share my newest mixed media project, a 12x12 canvas of my own family! I had this vision in my brain as soon as I heard this quote from the leader of my church, Thomas S. Monson: "The future is as bright as your faith." In fact, one of the main reasons I decided to take Christy Tomlinson's SheArt Workshop was so that I could learn the techniques to bring my vision to life. And here it is!

I added a lot of layers and stamps and craziness to this canvas, and by the time I was finished (at 2:30 a.m. the night before our church art show) I was not sure if I loved it or if I had ruined it. You know how that feels when you've just been looking at something too long? Yeah. I actually wasn't going to put black elements on at all, but when I meant to stamp with WHITE staz-on in the sky in the upper right, it turned out the stamp still had all sorts of BLACK ink on it, so suddenly I had a chunk of black words right in the middle of my nice bright sky. Oops. After that I just figured I had to roll with it.

As I said above, I created this to show in our church art show, which I was on the committee to help organize. Here's what I wrote on my little info card for the show:

"I love this quote from our prophet. The future’s uncertainty can seem scary sometimes, but our faith in Jesus Christ and His love makes it possible for us to move forward with our families in joy and gratitude and hope!"

One amazing thing that happened -- a man who works as a consultant for an art publishing company came to the art show with his daughter (who lives in our stake) and loved it so much that he wants to show it to a buyer at a huge church bookstore chain to possibly sell prints of it! Holy cow. I can't imagine it would actually happen (because it is pretty rough and also because I used products from about 14 companies, so I think there are probably some copyright issues) but it was awfully flattering!

Speaking of which, here are the companies whose products I used. I really raided my scraps drawers for the paper, and there are pieces here from Cosmo Cricket, DCWV, Sassafrass Lass, Scenic Route, Crate Paper, Making Memories, Chatterbox, Bo Bunny, Imaginisce, Daisy D's and Scrapworks. The stamps are from Stampin Up, 7Gypsies, Hero Arts, My Mind's Eye, Sassafrass Lass, and Fancy Pants. Oh, and I also painted on one of my embossing folders from my Cuttlebug to get one texture!

Who's in the mood to play I Spy? :) I've never been great at mixing things from different companies and styles, so I really had fun just gathering everything I had and throwing it all together. Other than that, this is just made with acrylic paints and a whole lotta Mod Podge.

Flower Power Blog Hop -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-04-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another fun and inspiring Blog Hop with the ScrapbookPal.com Design Team! Our theme this time around is Flower Power, and we've teamed up to bring you a whole bouquet of beautiful ideas. If this is your first stop, make sure you head back to the ScrapbookPal blog so you can visit all the designers and find out how to win a Cricut cartridge of your choice! ScrapbookPal.com has a fantastic selection of tools for paper-crafters, and they are adding new things all the time. They have great customer service, and shipping is always free on orders over $25 -- raise your hand if you HATE paying for shipping like I do! Yay for free shipping!

Today I thought I'd show you a fun technique that creates a really show-stopping flower. The best part about it is that it uses a basic scalloped circle, which you can find on a whole bunch of different cartridges! I used Mini-Monograms, but you can use a scalloped circle or even a flower shape from anywhere.

This flower is made from tissue paper! It's a great project to do with a mat that is on it's last legs, because you want one that is as un-sticky as possible (so that you'll be able to get the tissue paper off again). Cut yourself a 12x12ish square of tissue paper and adhere it to your mat. Then cut as many scalloped circles as you can fit on the page (either using the "auto-fill" feature on your Expression or setting it up that way on your Gypsy).

Now, the tissue paper will not cut super cleanly. Don't stress out -- the flower shapes will punch out just fine once it's done cutting, and the feathery edges just add to the full-ness of the flower. Once you're done cutting, layer all the circles together, not quite on center. Punch a hole in the center and insert a brad.

Now comes the fun part! Use Glimmer Mist to add some extra color and glitz to your flower. Your first spray will only get the top layer and few edges, so let that dry for a minute and then scrunch the flower up a little bit. Spray just a little, until you get the desired effect. You'll get all sorts of different tints over the surface of the flower. Let it dry, then fluff it up til it looks fabulous. Now it's ready to be the star of your next card or scrapbook page!

Other elements: Label shape -- Storybook; "Miss You" -- Cindy Loo; Chalk Ink -- Cat's Eye chalk ink in Creamy Brown; Brad -- American Crafts, Lace -- Fancy Pants; Patterned Paper -- My Mind's Eye

Now, off to the rest of the Blog Hop with you!

ScrapbookPal Blog (http://scrapbookpal.blogspot.com/)
Amy Crockett (http://www.scrappingmommy.com/)
Tomi Ann Hill (http://tomiannie.blogspot.com/) <-- You are here!
Cheryl Walker (http://sweeetdesignsbycheryl.blogspot.com/) <-- This is your next stop!
Leah Cornelius(http://paperblossoms.blogspot.com/)
Jamie Cripps (http://jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/)
Crystal Butler (http://crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/)
Tammy White (http://theeventqueen.blogspot.com/)
ScrapbookPal Blog (http://www.scrapbookpal.blogspot.com/)

Happy hopping!

Faith -- a scrapbook layout for ScrapbookPal

2011-04-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I'm back with a very fun layout, compliments of ScrapbookPal.com. This month we design team gals are featuring the very cute stamps from Pink by Design, and today I am excited to share this scrapbook page I created with the Faith sentiment collection. It's easy to look at a sentiment stamp collection and only see possibilities for cards, so I was glad I had the challenge of using them for a scrapbook page.

Click to enlarge

In thinking about how I could use a whole bunch of the stamps on a layout, I loved the idea that faith grows over time, especially as we remember all the things these stamps say. The tree background is patterned paper from Scenic Route, and I stamped the sentiments onto green paper and then cut around then to create the leaves. I used a green marker to add some accents that would help tie them in with the patterned paper. I bent each leaf a little to give it some texture, then adhered them to the tree. I used 3D foam for some of them to add to the dimension. I cut a few more leaves from the same green polka dot paper I used for the bottom border strip. The title "faith" is cut from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge using the Shadow function to make it nice and chunky. (See below for a closer-up look at the different sentiments.)

So take a look at your sentiment stamp sets -- or better yet, pick up some new adorable sets from ScrapbookPal -- and see what unexpected things you can do with them! ScrapbookPal has a lot of great new products right now, and shipping is always free on orders over $25! Thanks for stopping by!

Materials: Patterned Paper -- Scenic Route (Tree, brown polka dot, stripe), KI Memories (green polka dot).

Another SheArt girl -- this one has a wild side!

2011-04-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to my second SheArt girl! I wanted to try something completely different from my first girl, so I thought I'd experiment with creating animal prints. I used book paper as the base and added strips of black paper to make zebra stripes. I also painted patches of gold and painted on markings for leopard print. I tried to create a giraffe print with modeling paste, but that was a total disaster and I scraped it off (twice). :) These girls are so fun to make -- I am loving just letting my creativity run wild (pun totally intended).

I found a chipboard binder in my "big bin of stuff to be altered" and I think it will be perfect to hold all my mixed media experiments while I take this class. I can't wait to fill it up and see all the ideas in my head come to life! The book is from Maya Road, I think. That patterned paper and stamps used above are from Fancy Pants. I also used my iRock to set the little rhinestones on her hairpiece and bracelet (which are made from scraps of fake leather vinyl and did not play well with the iRock -- live and learn!). I think my favorite part of this girl is the tulle peeking out from the bottom of her skirt and at her neckline. So fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

time to spread her wings... in honor of Carissa

2011-04-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

If you've been around my blog for a long time, you may remember me posting about my sweet sister Carissa, who had Down's Syndrome and who was such a big part of our lives (you can read about her here and on my other blog and on Single Dad Laughing, my brother's blog). Yesterday marked the third anniversary of her passing, a day we celebrate in her honor as "You're My Favorite" Day, because that's what she always told everyone.

I wanted to make a special little gift for my parents, and since I just started the amazing SheArt Workshop by Christy Tomlinson, I knew I wanted to try my hand at a mixed media art piece. This is seriously outside my comfort zone, a lot more artistic than crafty, but I loved the style and I decided to give it a go. I'm so glad I did, because it's tapping into a whole new part of my creative spirit that I LOVE. I'm only one week into the class and I can't get enough.

We always called Carissa "Sunshine Sissa," and I wanted the piece to reflect that. I created a dark blue background, and then made her figure all bright and sunny, with the bright sun shining down on her. I gave her wings (a butterfly punch cut in half) and chose the phrase "it was time for her to spread her wings" to communicate what we all feel about her passing -- that it was her time to go, and that she has been freed from the limitations of this life. I gave her a little pearl necklace in tribute to the pearl necklace from my dad that she was buried with. A long time ago, he got a beautiful pearl necklace to give to each of his daughters on her wedding day, so it was a special thing for Carissa to have hers on the day she returned to Heavenly Father. It was one of those little things that I didn't think anyone else would notice, but my dad noticed it first thing! That was so special to me. He also noticed the sunshine, and my sister noticed the music in the background, which was another special thing because Carissa loved music so much. I love every little detail in this piece, and every moment I spent creating it.

I have to say, though, that this new creative outlet might not be good for my health -- I've gotten next to no sleep the past couple of nights because I've been too busy thinking up all the fabulous mixed media projects I want to create!

Thanks for stopping by!

Materials: 4x6 art canvas; Patterned paper -- Scribble Scrabble (dots in the background), Cosmo Cricket (dress); Accent stamps, rub-ons, and chipboard negative for yellow flourish -- Fancy Pants

Fun with new goodies...

2011-04-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

While wandering the craft store the other day, completely NOT looking at stamps or paper because I have enough of both to last me until the end of days, I was mysteriously pulled as though by tractor beam over to a rack with pretty much the cutest stamps I had ever seen -- the "Fine and Dandy" set from My Mind's Eye. A cute little pennant banner, birdie, and perfect "thanks" sentiment were enough to make me surreptitiously stash it in my cart (in case the "you already have too many stamps" police were lurking nearby), along with some adorable coordinating paper. Ah, new goodies! Nothing like it to get your creative juices flowing!

Oh, except a fun sketch that seems made to use with the new goodies! That's how I felt when I saw this sketch from CPS this week.

So, just under the wire, here is my fun little thank you card.

Thanks for stopping by!

With Sympathy -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-04-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

I've said before that sympathy cards are tough ones for me, usually because I'm so emotionally connected to the person I'm making it for. I want to keep the card fairly simple so that the sentiment can be the star, but I also try to add a few special touches to make sure the receiver knows they are special and loved. I probably put way more thought into the design than the receivers will ever notice, but when all you can do for someone who is suffering is send them your love in a card, you want to put your whole self into it, right?

One thing that helps me when I'm making a sympathy card is having just the right sentiment, so I was really excited to receive the Sympathy sentiment collection by Pink by Design, courtesy of ScrapbookPal.com. Stamps are a new category, and they've already got an impressive selection! These sentiment sets have a ton of different sentiments, and I was very impressed with how well they stamp. (Some acrylic stamps leave a lot to be desired, but are nice and crisp and feel sturdy.)

I have two cards to share with you today, both using the Sympathy sentiment collection.

I added the sentiment on this first card to a vintage tag, then used a rolled flower to accent it. (More about those in a later post.) I used these great Liquid Pearl Accents in Bisque to create a center for the flower, and then to add accents to the edge of the patterned paper and to the flowers in the paper. That was the perfect "special touch" for this card. I am a big fan of Liquid Pearls -- they are so easy to use, and they add such a nice pearly touch to projects.

Other Materials: Patterned Paper -- Daisy D's; Cat's Eye Chalk Ink in Dark Brown; Green cardstock -- DCWV

For the sentiment on this card, I stamped it onto a small strip of coordinating patterned paper. But cutting a triangular notch out of the end and using my fingers to bend the paper into a wave shape, I easily created a pretty little banner to really accent the sentiment. I cut a flower from the Home Decor cartridge and used the Liquid Pearls to accent that, as well. I also added a pretty sheer ribbon, which I attached by sewing it with a single stitch at regular intervals. Then I covered each stitch with a dab of Liquid Pearl -- so pretty!

Other Materials: Patterned Paper -- SEI; Cat's Eye Chalk Ink in Charcoal; Cardstock for flower -- DCWV

Last but not least!

2011-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

And now, without further ado, the last two projects I have to show you from my weekend scrap-a-thon!

This is a quick card I made for a dear friend who has been going through some hard times. All the paper and elements are from Crate Paper, and I hand-cut the hills. The scallop border at the bottom is my handy-dandy SU punch and the umbrella came from the Cricut Create a Critter cartridge.

And now, the layout I was most excited to complete! If you've been around my blog for a while, you might remember that 3 years ago my sweet sister Carissa, who had Down's Syndrome, passed away rather unexpectedly. I was pregnant with Eliza at the time, and we gave her the middle name Carissa when she was born. I have always felt a special connection between the two of them. Well, we used to call Carissa "Sunshine Sissa." And now that Eliza is finally starting to talk, she calls herself Sissa. In fact, she's very proud of it and introduces herself to everyone (whether it's strangers at the store or her daddy when he walks in the door at night) by running up to them and announcing: "I Sissa!" It's just a sweet little thing that I want to remember forever. And isn't that what scrapbooking is all about? After I thoguht I had finished the layout, I decided I really wanted to reinforce that connection, so I added a tiny picture of Carissa and a little butterfly looking down from above. Perfect.

The papers here are from Imaginisce and the printed and canvas butterflies are from Making Memories. The little pink butterfly at the top (by the pic of Carissa) is an EK Success punch. The letters in "Sissa" are from the Cricut Lyrical Letters cartridge.

Thanks for hanging out with me over the past few days as I shared all these fun pages! Now I am all sorts of in the zone, and I'm sure I'll have more pages to show you soon! Have a great weekend!

Aliens and High Heels...

2011-03-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, I lied. I realized I have 4 projects left to show you from last weekend, so I'm going to do two today and two tomorrow. I know, you're dying of suspense, right?!

This first one is Josh, my hilarious middle child. That boy has an imagination that spans the universe. Last summer he informed us that he was actually an alien visitor from another world, and soon nearly everything out of his mouth began with: "Well, on MY planet..." He is still adding to the list. I wrote down a whole bunch of things from when he first started saying it, but it disappeared. Lucky for me, we were staying with my husband's parents at the time and my awesome MIL had also written them down. Always good to have a backup, people!

I used the Cricut Zooballoo cartridge for the title, George for the star, and Everyday Paper Dolls for the little alien and ship. I'm 99% sure this paper is from Crate Paper.

The second layout for today features my little cutie Eliza. She is as girly as they come, so my SIL hit it right on the head when she brought her a little pair of high-heeled dress up shoes on a recent visit. Her immediate love for them and talent for walking in them just had to be documented!

This paper is from Imaginisce. I used American Crafts rub-ons for "baby's" and the pink foam stickers for "new." The white felt letters in "shoes" are from KaiserCraft. I didn't have any purple Tiny Type letters (and you know how I love those), so I made my own for the remaining words in the title. The flowers are from Doodlebug. I cut that scallop square in the background with the Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge.

Okay, so tomorrow will really be the last day of my little posting spree. See you then!

More scrapbooking fun!

2011-03-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Hello again! I'm excited to show you a few more scrapbook pages from my weekend getaway. These first two feature my sweetheart oldest kid Sam.

Seriously, don't you just love that smile?! Oh, these pictures just warm my heart. The yellow paper is from Cosmo Cricket and the floral is from Basic Grey. The letters are from the Cricut Jubilee cartridge and the floral accent is from the Gyspy Wanderings cartridge, and of course there are more Tiny Type letters for "this smile." The ivory string is actually candlewick yarn that I found at the thrift store quite a while ago.

This one makes me happy, too. I took these photos on his first day of school because I've decided to be a rebel and skip those cheesy school pictures altogether. These capture his personality so much better! The stripey paper here is from We R Memory Keepers, but I'm not sure who makes all those cute little accents. I got them in my goodie bag at the expo and I can't find the package now. If I find them, I'll update this. The title letters are cut from the Cricut Stamped cartridge.

One last layout for today! This one is our family hiking to Timpanogos Cave on Labor Day last year. I used a Becky Higgins sketch and the title is from the Cricut Jubilee cartridge. I hand cut the mountain range and the green "vegetation" lines and created the sun with a circle punch and some paper strips. I haven't been doing a lot of "event" scrapping lately, so it was fun get into that mode again. This is the kind of layout that I print out copies and put in the family scrapbook for my parents as well.

(Click to enlarge)

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by, and check in again tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of my scrapbooking marathon! :)

On a roll with scrapbooking!

2011-03-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

Twice a year, thanks to my fabulous husband, I get to get out of the house for two days of shopping, relaxation, and most importantly SCRAPBOOKING my some of my best scrapbooking friends. This past weekend I met up with them at the ScrapbookUSA Expo all day Friday, and then Saturday we set up camp at our local Archivers. I had such a great time! I have not done a whole lot of scrapping over the past few months -- mostly cards and other projects -- but the fire has definitely be reignited! I finished a whole stack of layouts, but I'll just share a couple of them with you today so as not to totally overwhelm. (I love them all, though, so look for several posts over the next couple of days.)

Here is layout #1:

I loved this lined from One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (which is a fave at our house) and thought it made the perfect title for these funny face pics of my kids. The PP, journaling card, ribbon, and trim came from a Fancy Pants kit I bought at the last Expo but hadn't even cracked open yet, so I thought I'd better use it before I could justify buying more goodies... (I know you ladies hear that!) The letters from "funny things" are from the Cricut Lyrical Letters cartridge, and the "everywhere" is made from Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers. I just punched and inked circles for the border at the top and to make the title pop, and cut stars from the ribbon to accent that top border.


(Click to view larger)

I really love how this one turned out. My sister took my kids to a local pizza/arcade place called Pirate Island, and it turned into a marathon of waiting for food and being ignored by servers and such, but they still had fun and she taught them some really good lessons. When I was planning this layout I was going to make it all pirate-y and such, but about 3 a.m. the night before the Expo I was lying awake thinking about how that really wouldn't capture the meaning of the experience (I know, I'm a nerd). I remembered this kit that I bought from Memory Works at the Expo about 4 years ago (anyone noticing a theme?) that had these cute little clock overlays and I was really hoping it would work. (You know, instead of being one of those ideas that sound perfect when you're half-asleep but are completely ridiculous once you're fully conscious.) Not only did the clocks work, but the colors of the kit and all the little elements were perfect. Yes! Oh, and I'm not sure if you can tell from the scan, but I also sprayed the area where the two sets of pictures meet (like under the top of the journaling up to under "Life") with "Old Lace" glimmer mist, just to give it a little somethin'.

For this one, I believe all the elements are from a company called "GenX," but I'm not sure. It's a really old kit... Oh, and there are more Tiny Type letters from Cosmo Cricket in red. Those are just the coolest ever.

Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to share more with you over the next couple of days!

Two unrelated cards...

2011-03-24T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hey, all! I have a couple of cute cards to show you today. This first one was for soon-to-be mom friend's baby shower, and I enjoyed using the New Arrival cartridge for the first time in a long time! Such cute shapes on that one. I also used stamps and a punch from Stampin' Up for the little tag. The paper is from Imaginisce.

The second card requires some explanation. It was for my dear friend Ramona (who, by the way, is an extremely talented digi-scrap kit designer and owner of Brownie Scraps). Ramona is a hero to me -- she has 6 smart, funny, talented kids, one of whom has special needs. She recently wrote an article called "Welcome to Switzerland" about how having a special needs child changed her life, and the challenges that come from it. The article really touched me -- I recommend it for anyone, whether you have a special needs child or not, because we all have experiences that send our lives in directions we never expected. Well, then Ramona and her family have just had a string of unbelievable bad luck lately -- everything from a car accident to an awful flooded basement, with lots in between. I wanted to make her a card to let her know that she was in my prayers and how much I admire her, that also reflected her writings and life philosophy. Here's what I came up with:

I freehand cut a couple of tall snow-capped mountains, then crinkled them slightly and inked the bumps to make it more mountain-y. I drew a little hiker on her way to the top and added a Swiss flag at the top to tie it in to her article. For the sentiment, I added a quotation from the leader of our church. In case you can't read it, it says: "My dear sisters, do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the accomplishment of your tasks will be no miracle, but YOU will be the miracle." It's one of my favorite thoughts, because I truly believe that God can help us do things that seem impossible to us.

Hmmm... I guess these cards aren't completely unrelated after all. They both have a sky-ish paper background, which I have to admit is a go-to for me. I actually stockpile papers I think will make a good sky backgroun -- I have at least 5 sheets of each of these. Are there any particular crafting supplies that you stockpile?

These Boys...

2011-03-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, there's nothing like a couple of pictures you really love to get you in the mood to scrapbook again! I snapped these shots of my boys over the past couple of weeks, and they just captured the boy's personalities so well I kept coming back to them again and again.

I thought it would be fun to try a new take on the style of the fabulous font on the Cindy Loo cartridge from ScrapbookPal.com. I have to admit, I wanted this cartridge specifically for the font! I first fell in love with this style of font when we checked out this book from the library:

Image from Amazon.com

I love the whimsical vintage feel of it, and I tried to recreate it as my title in this layout. Here's how to do it:

1. First used the Cricut pens to draw out the solid layer in white and the overlay layer in orange, then cut it out -- this is a super simple way to get a nice outline to the layers.
2. Adhere the two layers together, offsetting the orange layer slightly down and to the right to give it a 3-D effect.
3. With a fine-tipped pen, add detail to the white layer as shown.

The font on its own is very feminine, but I think adding touches like this and combining it with a cool doodle-y paper give it a delightful boyish charm.

Thanks for stopping by!

Materials: Patterned paper, ribbon, trim -- Fancy Pants; Acrylic heart and star -- Heidi Swapp; Die cuts -- Zooballoo ("these") and Cindy Loo ("BOYS"); Buttons and acrylic arrow -- unknown

A little way to help...

2011-03-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

We have all been saddened by the horrific scenes in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami and the ongoing problems from them, and I know I have been touched by the many, many ways in which people are reaching out to help.

The amazing Cheri from I am Momma, Hear Me Roar has come up with her own brilliant plan to motivate us all to donate by sharing a really beautiful pattern for a new bag for anyone who makes a humanitarian donation of at least $8. You can read all the details here.

I know that there is so little that I can do in the face of so much suffering, but I also truly believe that even my little contribution will alleviate the suffering of at least one person in some way.

"If ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me." -- Matthew 25:40 (emphasis added)

If you subscribe via email...

2011-03-08T20:57:00.000-08:00

I've just switched my email subscriptions from Feedblitz to Feedburner, which my rockstar blogger brother assures me will make all our lives easier. :) If you'd like to receive updates when I post through your email, would you please take a moment to sign up (or re-sign up) using the link on the left? Thanks so much!

Pretty cards for Spring! -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-03-06T23:56:00.000-08:00

Raise your hand if you're ready for Spring! Can I get a hallelujah?! I am sooooo done with winter and I'm ready for some sunshine and flowers! But it's still gray and yucky around here, so I decided to create a little springtime of my own with the Cindy Loo cartridge and TomBow watercolor markers from ScrapbookPal.com. :)

I decided to make two different cards with similar cuts, one whimsical and bright and one a little more sophisticated, just to show the great flexibility of the artwork on this cartridge.

First, the cute, whimsical card:

For this card, I cut the shape at 5" and mounted it on the left-hand side of the card, trimming off the excess. Then I mounted what I had trimmed off on the right-hand side. I used my turquoise and pink Tombow markers to accent the little birdie part of the cut, using the blender pen to pull some of the turquoise in from the edge to create some shading. I added some little pink punched flowers and added pearls to the centers. I also added a sentiment using the markers and Stampin Up stamps and punches, adhering ribbon to the back to "hang" the sentiment flower.

Now, for a more sophisticated twist on the same idea...

I cut at 5" and mounted it on a grey card base, then added the "thank you," which is one of the phrases on the font layer. I also added a few rolled spiral flowers and a cute little butterfly. I just love this grey, white, and mustard yellow color combo right now! Such a great sunny pop of color, don't you think?

I do hope spring is on its way, but until the sun is here to stay, cheer yourself up with some pretty flowery cards! :)

Granola Goodness

2011-03-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

I really really love things that are crunchy (just ask anyone who's been in the same room with me and a bowl of goldfish crackers). Add sweet and nutty and slightly salty to the mix, and I am in heaven. My sweet friend Shanda invited me over to her house for a remedial bread-making lesson and also let me try her homemade granola, and I could feel the swellings of a new obsession taking shape. As soon as I could gather the ingredients, I made a batch of my own, and my life has never been the same. I could eat this three meals a day plus on top of ice cream for dessert. Not that I've done that...

It's a good thing it's chock full of good-for-you, because otherwise I could never justify the crazy amount of it I've eaten over the past two weeks.

Here is my version of her recipe -- I added a few things that I really love:

Granola

¾ c. pure maple syrup
½ c. coconut oil
¼ c. honey
2 T. molasses
2 t. vanilla extract
2 t. cinnamon
½ t. salt

8 c. rolled oats
1 c. sliced almonds
1 c. shredded coconut (unsweetened, but if you only have sweetened on hand it turns out fine)
1 ½ c. seeds – I mix sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and sesame seeds
½ c. chopped dates

Preheat oven to 300º F. Line cookies sheets with foil (I use three cookies sheets to get enough surface area).

Mix wet ingredients in large bowl. Add dry ingredients and toss until evenly combined. Spread on cookie sheets to ¼” – ½” thick. Bake 45 min. total, flipping granola every 15 minutes until golden brown. Do not allow to overbrown.

Try not to eat it all before the kids get home from school…

My happy kitchen :)

2011-03-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I posted here about some makeovers I had been doing around the house in an effort to get it spiffied up to sell. I showed you how I transformed our kitchen from this:

Snoozeville, right? To this:

SO much better! I love how bright and happy it turned out. I promised then that I would do another post about the decorations above my cabinets, so I when I saw the kitchen linky party over at Love Stitched I thought now would be a good time to actually do it!

I tried a bunch of different things before I did all this. I had live plants up there for a long time -- what a mess! I tried some pretty grapevine stuff... well, it was pretty in my head. Then nothing (as in the first pic) for a long time because I just couldn't figure out what to do. Then at last, I was inspired!

First, some closer-up pics...

Starting from the left, here is what you'll see. The plates are definitely the big-impact pieces in my kitchen. I wanted to add plates as bright pops of color, but I did NOT want to pay the $8 and up for the plates in great colors with fun details that I had been finding. I found these plates at DI (our local thrift store) for 50 cents - $1 each and spray painted them! I added paper from the Cosmo Cricket "Early Bird" line -- the colors (red, yellow, and turquoise) were perfect for the vision I had in mind. (Keep scrolling down for a tutorial.) I've also been working on my old glass jar collection every time I go to DI, and I filled a few with fake fruit and another with styrofoam balls that I covered in strips of the same patterned paper as the plates. And see that funky pitcher way over on the right? My brother brought me that guy as a present from Hungary! Even though he really doesn't match the style of everything else, he's a permanent fixture in my kitchen!

Oh, and I really love this sign above my pantry. It's from Adorn-It.

This lineup is a mixture of thrifting (canisters), deal shopping ("Blessed" sign for $2.50 at the Scrapbook Expo), As-Is (white enamel pitcher from IKEA for $2), hand-me-downs (that little red baking powder container came from my grandma's house), and one "splurge" -- the awesome turquoise strainer came from a little consignment shop and was a whopping $20. Don't laugh -- that's the limit of my budget for one piece and I felt totally luxuriant buying it. :)

Oh, see those glass tiles above? Those are cheap little frames from IKEA. They used to be on our living room walls, but I just cut paper to fit and hung them above the stove for a very cheap backspash-ish idea. I cut the birds out of red vinyl and adhered them to the glass. I left room for a vinyl phrase in between the rows, but I still haven't hit on quite the right words.

Mostly more plates here, but I also wanted to show you the cool cauldron. That was a wedding gift from Dan's aunt. It is really heavy iron. At Halloween, of course, it takes center stage in the decor, but right now it's the home of the red rooster I bought at TJ Maxx because I have a weakness for polka dots...

**Just a note -- after I took these pictures, I was freaking out a little bit about how white the cabinets were. But I didn't want to go all crazy with glazing or anything because I wanted to keep it clean. I took some 60 grit sandpaper and did just a little distressing on all the edges, which helped a little, then I went over everything with a coat of rub-on poly. Magic! Just adding that extra layer really toned down the brightness and it looks just like I envisioned now. Here's a picture -- I couldn't replicate the lighting conditions, so hopefully you can at least get an idea:

Thanks for hanging in there! Now, a brief tutorial about spray-painting plates so you can create your own custom awesomeness!

1. Go to the thrift store and dig through stacks of plates. Don't worry what color they currently are, or what hideous patterns they might be sporting. You are looking for shape and texture. I found some with really cute scalloped detailing or pretty flowers or fruit shapes around the borders.
2. Clean the plates really, really well.
3. When they're dry, give them a coat of spray primer. Repeat as necessary to cover aforementioned hideous patterns:

In this picture, all but those awesome sunflower plates are already primered up. Those babies took several coats to cover.

4. When the primer is completely dry, spray paint away! As always, quick, light coats are the way to go. But you might be impatient like me and prefer to blast them in heavy coats, in which case you will get some dripping and such, but you won't care because they're going up on top of your cabinets and no one is going to look that close... oops...

5. Add paper to centers if desired. At this point you could mod-podge over the whole thing to give it a more finished/cohesive look, but I wanted to be able to easily re-paint and change out the paper if I decide to do something different in the kitchen.

So there you have it! All these little touches make my kitchen happy, and that makes me happy every time I see it. :oD Thanks for looking!

And no, it's not really that clean 99.9999% of the time...

"Wish Big" Birthday Ensemble

2011-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

My baby sister just turned 21, and I'm so excited to show you the card and present I made for her. I think this is my favorite card I've made to date! I actually finished it a few weeks ago and I've just been enjoying looking at it on my shelf ever since... I love the colors and the happy energy of it -- it totally matches my sister's personality.

I used kraft paper (surprise, surprise) as the base and embossed it with my Cuttlebug. I cut a 4 1/2" wide scalloped circle and layered it with a plain circle and the "happy birthday" paper strip along the bottom. The cake is made by cutting rectangles in various sizes with scallop borders cut to size (I set all that up in my Gypsy), then rounding the top corners and stacking, using foam adhesive to make it 3d. I added a paper medallion -- don't you think the stripey paper makes it SO fun?! The "wish BIG" stamp is from Stampin Up, and I added a touch of color with watercolor pencils.

For the banner at the top, I just used my hot glue gun to attach this mini-pompom trim. I had a tiny strip of this yellow-with-black-dots paper leftover (it was the back side to one of the other papers), so I turned that into an extra layer for the banner just by snipping pieces off and then snipping tiny triangles out of each one.

I took an extra minute to add some of the same trim to the gift bag, plus I found a strip of a very similar paper (from a totally different paper line and manufacturer) in my scrap drawer, so I turned that into a little fringe. So cute!

Materials: Patterned Paper -- Scribble Scrabble; Stamp -- Stampin' Up; Embossing -- Provo Craft Cuttlebug "Happy Birthday" folder; Die Cuts -- Cricut "George" (rectangles), "Plantin Schoolbook" (scalloped border on cake), and Mini-Monograms (scalloped circle, plain circle) cartridges.

Now on to the present. I saw a tutorial on how to make an infinity scarf out of an old t-shirt on our local lifestyle show Studio 5 and knew that was just Ange's style. It was very easy and quick to make. It actually took longer to make that flower clip than it did to make the scarf! I put the flower on a clip instead of sewing it on to make both pieces more versatile. It was also very inexpensive, since I just used t-shirts from my "I like these colors but not these shirts" stash. Isn't my sister gorgeous?!

Happy birthday, frister!

A different take... (Two mini-albums!)

2011-02-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

I have two fun projects to share with today using the Cricut Spring Cards cartridge, courtesy of ScrapbookPal.com! I had a lot of fun making Valentine's cards and goodies with the cartridge, but I couldn't wait to use it for the great frame and envelope shapes! I had two ideas for projects, so I decided I'd better just do them both. :)

My first project was a mini-album made with envelopes. I have a growing stack of little notes from my wonderful hubby and I've never been sure what to do with them. An envelope album is the perfect solution! I cut 6 envelopes, using my Gypsy to make them as large as possible on a 12x12 page. Each envelope is about 5 1/2" wide and 7" long, which makes it perfect for small notes, cards, and 4x6 pictures.

I used my glue gun to put the envelopes together so they'd be nice and sturdy. I used Basic Grey magnetic snaps to create closures for each envelope. I added my favorite picture of the two of us to the front envelope along with some rolled roses and a label from the Home Decor cartridge. For "love notes," I used my white GellyRoll pen -- I'm really impressed with how this is holding up over time! I punched holes in the corners of the envelopes and used binder rings to bind them together.

The pleated border along the left-hand edge is my favorite touch. I simply cut a 1" wide strip of paper, then punched a scalloped border. I pleated it all higgledy-piggedly, then inked all the edges to make them stand out. A strip of velvet ribbon was a perfect finishing touch.

This kind of thing is a great project for that collection of paper that you've been hanging on to for years because you're not willing to part with it. I've had these papers in my stash forever but I loved it too much to turn it into cards to give away. Random readers may think I'm crazy, but I know you papercrafters know exactly what I mean and could immediately point to the same thing in your own stash!

Materials: Die Cuts -- Cricut Spring Cards and Home Decor cartridges; Patterned Paper -- Crate Paper "Prudence" collection; Large rhinestone brad -- Karen Foster Designs; Small rhinestones -- Imaginisce iRock; Velvet Ribbon -- We R Memory Keepers

My second project is a gift for my Dad's birthday! I thought the card background shapes on the Spring Cards cartridge would also work great as photo frames, so I made a cute little flip album of my dad and all his grandkids to take to the office. I started with this simple standing frame from IKEA, then sized the shapes on my Gypsy to the maximum width for the frame. In retrospect, I wish I had stretched them a little taller as well.

I cut a few pages worth of frames (enough for the pictures I had and some blank ones to add more pictures in the future) and inked all the edges. I trimmed the pictures to fit and then just slipped them into the slots already cut into the shape. I also cut out and decorated a frame for the cover of the album, using my white UniBall Signo pen for the detail on the heart and the letters in "little." I punched holes in all the pages and used binder rings to attach them to the frame. I used hemp twine and a few other bits and bobs to decorate the frame to match the album.

Materials: Die Cuts -- Cricut Spring Cards, Lyrical Letters ("bapa's buddies"), and George (heart) cartridges; Frame -- IKEA; Binder rings -- 7 Gypsies; Patterned paper -- Chatterbox; Acrylic letter and chipboard heart -- Heidi Swapp; Ric-rac -- Fancy Pants

Quick and Easy (but fabulous!) Valentines -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-02-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's a new month and a new set of projects for ScrapbookPal.com! This month they sent me the Cricut Spring Holiday Cards cartridge and the awesome white Signo Uni-Ball Impact Gel Pen. Now, I would never have given this little seasonal cartridge a second look -- I normally gravitate to the cartridges that have a little more "meat" to them -- but it has some adorable artwork! Even more exciting to me, it has great frames, boxes, and envelopes. Just look at these:

Pictures from www.cricut.com

Aren't those great? I can't wait to make more fun things with them. For this little Valentine's candy box, I just used my Gypsy and selected both the box and the front that I wanted. I enlarged the box to as big as would fit on a 12x12 page. Because I had them both selected, it automatically sized the little card for the front just right. I also cut a plain white cardstock piece to go behind the "You are Foxy" card so that it would stand out a little better.

The whole thing took me about 5 minutes, tops. The box came together in a snap (I used hot glue to keep it together) and then I just slipped the front card right into those pre-cut slits. I'm envisioning super cute class valentines, just cut in a smaller size and then filled with some little treat.

But of course I couldn't just leave it so plain-Jane. I mean, it was really cute, but the fabulous white pen from ScrapbookPal.com was feeling left out. So I used it to doodle all over that front card, giving it more fun and personality. I also outlined just a few of the hearts on the box, just to tie them in with the doodling on the card. That added just a couple of minutes to the project, but I love the difference it makes!

Chances are you're already well acquainted with the Signo Uni-Ball Impact Gel Pen, but if you aren't, let me tell you -- it is quite possibly the best white pen on planet Earth. (I'm willing to allow that aliens with more advance technology may have come up with something better, but I also may or may not have a theory that that is where mine keep disappearing too...) It writes so smoothly and has such a nice bright white color. One word of warning with these, though -- you definitely want to store them laying sideways (rather than vertically) because the tips will get clogged if you don't. And then you'll want to cry. ScrapbookPal.com has a great price on these right now, too, so it's a good time to stock up!

So give this one a second look -- there is a lot more to it than just its seasonal use. You'll be seeing a lot of projects using these labels, boxes and frames from me in the future!

Other materials -- patterned paper by Imaginisce

Thanks to you...

2011-02-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick little post to let you know that I won the t-shirt design contest! Many thanks to those who took the time to vote -- I really appreciate you! Here's the design that won (and I was totally glad because this is my fave!):

Can't wait to see this on everyone's t-shirts at the Expo!

Thanks again!

Saying goodbye to scraps...

2011-01-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

I have these little drawers that I keep my scraps in, all color-coded and handy. I love diving into them and finding just the right little bits for a card or layout. But after my last few crafting forays, I had to admit to myself that the time had come to clean them out, mostly because I literally could not close them anymore. Well, I still had some room in the purple drawer and the yellow drawer, but blue and green? Forget it.

I don't know why it was so hard for me to say goodbye to all those old scraps! Most of it was paper that is totally outdated, or that I had already made several projects from and I wasn't likely to go back to again. But going through them was seriously a trip down memory lane, remembering all the fun layouts and mini-albums and cards I'm made over the past few years. I felt almost disloyal throwing them out! I have a problem, I know...

So am I alone in this? Does anyone else out there hang on to scraps of pretty paper because they're emotionally attached to them? It's okay if you don't, I already know I'm a little weird...

A little help, pretty please?

2011-01-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

***If you are here for the ScrapbookPal.com Blog Hop, please scroll down...***

Oh, I'm so excited! The ScrapbookUSA Expo is coming up in March, and it is a sacred weekend to me. This time around they had a t-shirt design contest, and TWO of my designs made the finals! They decided to put it to a vote on Facebook, so I am here shamelessly begging for your help! If you are on Facebook and you have an extra moment, please become a fan of ScrapbookUSA Expo, then scroll down to their pictures on the left-hand side. Mine are the first two of the four designs. Here is what they look like:

And here is number 2:

I actually submitted 6 different designs for the contest (hey, I was on a roll, okay?), and I thought you might like to see the others as well.

If you like any of these, I'm going to be putting them in my Zazzle shop on t-shirts (minus the ScrapbookUSA info, of course).

Once again, thank you SO much for your help! I can't even tell you how excited I am to have made the finals and possibly get to see my designs on everyone's t-shirts at the expo! I do most of my graphic design work for clients via email and I don't very often get to see my designs off the computer screen, so this would be super cool! :) And if you're in the Utah area, you should join us for the Expo! We have a group that gets together at the Expo all day Friday, and then Saturday we go to Archivers to scrapbook our little hearts out. It's so much fun, and we're always looking for new friends to join the group!

Hope you're having a wonderful day -- don't forget to check out the Valentine's Blog Hop I posted earlier today!

ScrapbookPal.com's Valentine's Blog Hop!

2011-01-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another fun blog hop with the ScrapbookPal.com Design Team! This is the first stop on the hop, so you're in the right place!

I just love Valentine's Day -- a chance to get out of the doldrums of winter with all sorts of love and warmth and fun -- so I'm very excited to share these adorable felt pillows with you. I love the warmth of felt, and being able to cut it with the Cricut makes it possible to get very fancy with very little time and effort!

Without doubt, the most popular and most searched-for posts on my blog have had to do with cutting felt with the Cricut. Can you cut felt with the Cricut, you ask? You most certainly can! I thought I would take the opportunity with the blog hop to get all my best tips and tricks on cutting felt with the Cricut into one post -- and if you're participating in the blog hop you'll even have the chance to win your own choice of Cricut cartridge! (See details on that below.)

For these pillow covers, I first created envelope-style covers to fit cushions I already had on hand. (That way after the holiday I can just tuck the covers away and not have to find storage space for more pillows than I already have. You can find many tutorials for this technique online -- I'm no seamstress, but I'll include my basic instructions at the end of this post.) Then I used my Cricut to cut the letters from the Country Life (LOVE), Opposites Attract (i), and Printing Press (u) cartridges, and hearts from Create-a-Critter. Thanks to the iron-on stabilizer (see tips below) I was able to iron them right on to the pillow covers.

I added some fun embroidery just to give it a little more personality and tie the colors in the two pillows together.*

I also cut a scallop border to use as a template to cut the edge of the red pillow. Plantin Schoolbook has a great one. I just cut it to the height I wanted, then traced the scallops onto the back side of the felt with a pencil and cut along the lines.

Tips and Tricks for Cutting Felt with the Cricut
1. Only use wool felt. The cheap polyester stuff from the craft aisle that comes in sheets, or the stuff you buy on the bolt won't work. Wool felt is actually a blend of wool and rayon, and it is much stiffer and nicer than the polyester stuff. The best source I've found for wool felt is www.woolfeltcentral.com. They have over 70 colors, and the price is the best I've found. I've also bought wool felt locally at a quilt shop. Do not wash your felt before cutting -- it changes the texture. This application is for things that aren't going to get a lot of wear and tear, because wool felt doesn't machine wash very well. So you wouldn't want to cut felt pieces for a baby onesie unless you just love handwashing in cold water so so much. And you happen to know that the baby in question will never spit up or have a blow-out... and let us know how that works out for ya... :)

2. Use a stabilizer, just as you would to cut out other fabrics. I use Heat-n-Bond Ultra Hold. But please, for the love of all that is holy, peel the backing paper away before you load it onto your cutting mat. That backing paper sticks to the mat terribly and isn't needed during cutting. You'll save your mats and your sanity if you just take it off beforehand! (This works for other fabrics as well.) Seriously -- I have spent half an hour trying to scrape little scraps of backing paper off my mat.

3. Load the felt onto the mat adhesive-side down. That smooth surface created by the stabilizer (without the backing) adheres really well to the mat surface, and you won't get nearly as much fuzz on your mat.

4. I cut mine at blade depth 6, speed and pressure at max. You may need to adjust for your machine. Check your blade housing frequently to remove the felt-fluff buildup. You may need to use the multi-cut function to get a finished cut. I've found that if I use the deep-cut housing I can do it in one pass, but I usually need two if I'm using the regular housing.

5. Make sure you run a lint roller over your mat after cutting so get any remaining fibers off.

6. If you are ironing your felt pieces on to another fabric piece, make sure your iron heat isn't too high. It will adversely affect your felt. It doesn't work super well to adhere felt to felt, so you might need a little fabric glue to tack down any rogue edges that won't stay down.

Now, on to the goodies! We all know that ScrapbookPal.com is THE place for good deals and fast and FREE shipping on orders over $25. Seriously, you can't beat that! And with this weekend's blog hop you can also win a cartridge of your choice from any that ScrapbookPal.com has in stock! All you need to do is visit the blog of each member of the Design Team, then finish up at the ScrapbookPal Blog, become a follower, and leave a comment that you've completed the hop. Good stuff! If this is your first stop, make sure you go back to the beginning and check out all the adorable V-day projects.

TomiAnn <--- You are here! Now get hopping!
Tammy
Amy
Cheryl
Jamie
Crystal
Leah
ScrapbookPal

Thanks for stopping by, and happy hopping!

*If you'd like to try this style of embroidery, I highly recommend Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching book.

Envelope Pillow Ideas
For these cute pillow covers, I first measured the pillows I was going to use as inserts, then cut squares of felt big enough to create the fronts and backs. I added 1" to the measurement for the back square so that I could create an easy envelope covering, as shown here:

4. Sew the two sides together. Usually you'll want to do this with right sides together. Because I was using felt and I wanted a different effect, I sewed them wrong sides together.

Hopefully that makes sense -- like I said, I'm not a seamstress at all and I was kinda making this up as I went along. This technique worked well with felt especially because it doesn't fray.

Let Your Light Shine -- ScrapbookPal.com

2011-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

My second project for ScrapbookPal.com this month is this cute little mini-notebook. The Country Life cartridge has so much fun artwork that you might totally overlook! (And guess what -- it's on sale for $29.99 at ScrapbookPal right now!) I fell in love with this vintage-y lantern and the phrase to go with it, and I thought it would also be the perfect way to showcase these neat Distress Stickles in Picket Fence. I used them to give the "glass" part of the lantern that perfect vintage glass look, and it's gorgeous in real life.

Little notebooks like this make great gifts and are quick and easy to make! Here are some instructions for how I put it together.

1. Cut chipboard for covers. I like to make my mini-notebooks 4.25"x5.5", so that I can cut regular letter-size papers into quarters for the filler pages.
2. Cut filler pages to match covers.
3. Decorate cover as desired.
4. Bind notebook. I used a Bind-it-all, but you could also use a Cinch, jump rings, or even take it to a copy shop and have them bind it for you. (Seriously, though -- if you like the idea of making your own books, a Bind-it-all is a GREAT investment.)
5. Add a few ribbons to the top. I wouldn't go too crazy with these, though, because too many will make your book less functional.
6. Brighten someone's day with a cute little gift! Or tuck it in your purse for yourself -- I'm not judging... (I still haven't decided the destiny of this little cutie. I originally intended it for a gift, but I just love it so darn much!)

Materials: PP -- Cosmo Cricket "Happy Together" collection; Ribbon -- Stampin' Up, Offray; Die Cuts -- Cricut Country Life cartridge; Distressing -- Colorbox Chalk Ink in "Chestnut Roan"; Binding -- Bind-it-all; Distress Stickles -- Ranger Inks

Long Distance Baby Shower

2011-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

My cousin Dallas' wife Lynda is expecting a cute little boy pretty much any moment, and I volunteered to put together a baby shower for her so we could get together with all of our family here in Utah. Somehow I had completely forgotten the fact that she and Dallas moved to Texas several months ago... oops. So we had to get creative, and we ended up having our baby shower via Facebook and Skype! Here's the virtual invitation I created to go with the Facebook event invites:

Digi-kit: "Silly Boy -- Cuddlebug" by www.shabbyprincess.com

It actually worked out really well -- much better than I anticipated, in fact! We all either had our presents shipped directly from her registry (or wherever) to her apartment and then she opened them while we watched, or brought presents to the party and opened them and showed them to her. We just chatted away via Skype as though we were all in the same room and had a grand old time.

In preparing for the party, I wanted to make sure Lynda still felt properly baby-showered, so I thought we needed some decorations! But because I'm not a fan of spending a lot of time on "disposable" decorations, I wanted to make sure they'd be able to use them after the shower to decorate the nursery, so I checked out her crib bedding for a theme and colors. First I made this banner with the baby's name:

Cricut cartridges used: Celebration (pennants), Zooballoo (animals and vines), Lyrical Letters (font), and George (circles)

... and added some fun lengths of circle streamers. They are SO easy to make and look so darn cute. Just punch (or cut with your Cricut or whatever) a bazillion of whatever shape you want to use, then run them through your sewing machine one after another. I think these are going to be a staple of party decor for me in the future!

I also used my leftover tree bases from this project to create a cute centerpiece.

Because these decorations were take-apart-able and foldable, I was able to fit them all into a priority mail box with our baby presents and get them to the new mommy-and-daddy-to-be in time for the party!

So don't let distance keep you from celebrating the people you love and their big events! With today's technology, we're never too far apart!

Flashback Friday -- Glitter? Gulp!

2011-01-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

My lovely and talented friend Amy is the guest designer over at Flashback Friday today, so I thought I'd play along! It's always a half fun/half cringe experience for me to go back and look at my early projects, and this one was no exception. The challenge was to find your first project using glitter. Glitter and I have a love-hate relationship -- it can often add just the right touch and make a project pop, but I struggle sometimes to use it to its best advantage. My first glitter card was a total craft fail. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's never seen the light of day until now...

How appropriate that it's a Valentine's card, since that's our next holiday! This file was saved in my archives as "glitter crazy."

And just to redeem myself, I had to share my first successful use of glitter -- this big glittery snowflake card. LOVE this one!

Hey, if you head over to Flashback Friday and play along, there is a really cute stamp set up for grabs. Happy Friday!

TIME -- My prayer for 2011

2011-01-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

If you've ever sat next to me in class, in a meeting, or most definitely at church, you know I'm a doodler. Big time. As in, I can't listen to what a presenter is saying if my hand isn't sketching something out. I never leave home without my notebook and a mechanical pencil. Usually it's word art, whatever I'm thinking about or what is going on at the time. Last Sunday my two little ones stayed home sick from church, which allowed me to -- gasp! -- actually sit and listen and ponder during the service. I know, who does that? Not mothers of 2-year-olds. Anyway, I was thinking about time and how we never know what moment might be our last. This is what I doodled while I was thinking, and I like it so much I thought I would share this little part of myself with you. This is how I want to live my life. Let's all make the most of the time God gives to us!

Have a happy day!

How to make sure bloggers can reply to your questions!

2011-01-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

The awesome Shelly over at House of Smiths just posted instructions on how to make it so that your favorite bloggers can reply to all your comments (instead of the no-reply address popping up when they try). Check it out! I would really love to be able to respond directly to the questions you ask me instead of just leaving a comment and hoping you think to stop by and see it. :)

The instructions are found here, but I guarantee if you peek at Shelley's other amazing posts you'll be sucked in just like I was!

A little bit country...

2011-01-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

A new year and a new project for ScrapbookPal.com! I was really excited when they sent me the Country Life cartridge to work with this month, because the whole cartridge totally makes me think of my mom. She is a country girl at heart, but she's also very cool and not old-lady-ish, which I think is a good description of the artwork on this cartridge. Hmmm... that may not make sense to anyone but me, but just go with me here...

At any rate, my first priority project with this cartridge was a birthday card for my mom. She recently took up knitting and has a real talent for it! So this knitting needles and yarn image was just perfect for her card (I even came up with some very silly knitting humor for the inside of the card). I used the banner feature to add a festive "MOM" banner. The font and banner features are the high points of this cartridge for me -- they'll be versatile for a lot of different projects.

ScrapbookPal also sent me Distress Stickles to use this month. Now, when I first heard of Distress Stickles, I thought, 'What on earth is the point of distress glitter? Aren't glitter and distressing pretty much complete opposites?' Then I got some in my package for the month, so I googled "What is the point of distress stickles?" And, surprisingly, came up with some pretty good answers! I like how Tim Holtz describes them as meant to look like vintage glass -- very cool. I also really liked this review. I decided to use my Distress Stickles to make my knitting needles and the MOM in the banner look like some kind of vintage fancy glass. It really added just the right amount of glitz and sparkle to this country card. I think I'm officially converted -- good thing ScrapbookPal has all the colors at good prices!

Materials: PP -- Chatterbox (I know, so old. This has been in my stash forever!); Die cuts -- Cricut Country Life and Mini-Monograms (scalloped and regular circles) cartridges; Distress Stickles -- Ranger Inks; Distress Inks -- Dark Brown chalk ink by Colorbox.

Project Life 2011 -- My Approach

2011-01-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

I did it! I ordered my 2011 Project Life kit by Becky Higgins. I've heard a lot about it, but I've never taken the plunge because I knew there was no way I could follow through with taking a picture every day for a year. But after watching the video at the link above, I was really impressed by how flexible the kit is meant to be. You can do a picture a day, or a few a week, or month, or whatever. It comes with all sorts of goodies, and it's really beautiful. And I DO want to document my family's life, and more than just the few layouts I actually get completed each year. So I am going to do it! I probably won't get in a picture every day, but I'm going to do as much as I can. I'll still do regular scrapbook pages, too, and add them into the binder. I'm going to get it all set up in advance, so it's just ready to go, as Becky suggests in this video.

But my next question was: how do I approach this big project? How do I make it meaningful?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I can improve my own relationship with God. I get so caught up in the day-to-day craziness of life that I let that slide way more than I should. I want to see the hand of God in my life and feel it in my heart, not just know it in my head. I've also been thinking about gratitude and how it can shape our whole outlook on life. Those two ideas have merged to give me a clear focus for my Project Life challenge, and I'm sharing it with you here so that it becomes a real commitment.

I am going to use my Project Life kit record the "tender mercies" that God gives our family this year. I know there will be lots of little things and maybe some big things, too. I pray that, as I look for these moments, God will open my eyes to everything He does for me and for my family. When my family looks through this year's album, I want them to feel God's love for them as much as we feel our love for each other. What an incredible gift that will be!

I can't wait for my big white box to arrive!

P.S. Are any of you doing Project Life this year? Do you have your own strategies for this kind of everyday life scrapbooking? I would love your input!

Birthday Spotlights (the scrapbooker's way)

2010-12-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Both my boys have December birthdays, and both their teachers recommended bringing in about "About Me" poster for their spotlight on their special day. But with the craziness of December in general and still trying to keep our house spotless at all times for showings, I could not wrap my brain around making a big poster and then trying to figure out what to do with it afterwards. My solution? Make a scrapbook page instead! I used my favorite pics from our recent family photo shoot and interviewed each boy about their current vital information. I took them to their classes, where they were much admired by students and teachers alike, and now I can tuck them away in their scrapbooks while patting myself on the back for killing two birds with one stone. (Spotlight poster? Done! Birthday milestone scrapbook page? Done! Now I'll probably just print off snapshots from their actual birthdays and put them in pocket pages with these in their scrapbooks.)

This is Joshy's:

Materials: PP -- Basic Grey; Letter Stickers -- Cosmo Cricket; Die cuts -- Cricut Lyrical Letters (letters), Paper Doll Dress Up (rocket ship), Christmas Cheer (swirls) and George (star) cartridges; green strap -- Lil Davis Designs

And here is Sam's:

I was pretty proud of myself on Sam's especially. I'm a lazy scrapper, and I really like to buy paper in collections so I don't have to stress about coordinating things. But this layout combines paper from no less than 4 different manufacturers! Ironically, it came together faster than just about any layout I've made. Go figure! Also, I challenged myself to make a boy layout with no stars for accents, because looking back through their pages I realized that had become my go-to shape for boys. So I made these cute little accordian flowers with the pencil paper and they turned out so cool! I also added a bottle cap, which is special because Sam LOVES collecting them. He even made a bottlecap necklace for his cute little best friend at school.

Materials: PP -- Autumn Leaves (cursive paper), Making Memories (green polka dot and brown houndstooth in the bottlecap), Scenic Route (green paper for the 7), and Cosmo Cricket (pencil/ledger paper -- actually the same paper): Letter stickers -- Cosmo Cricket; Scrabble tile sticker -- EK Success; Distressing -- Cat's Eye chalk ink; Die cuts -- Cricut Billionaire (letters) and Printing Press (7) cartridges

Easy Nativity Centerpiece

2010-12-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

We all know how crazy schedules can be during the holidays, so I really love a timesaver -- especially something that is quick and easy but still looks fantastic. The ladies in our church congregation were getting together for a lovely Christmas dinner and asked for volunteers to decorate and set the tables, and I wanted to put together something that was classy and elegant, but not too hard to transport. Solution? The Christmas Village cartridge from ScrapbookPal.com!

I love nativity scenes -- just a sweet reminder to keep Christ as the reason for the season, right? I cut the Baby Jesus at 5 1/2", Mary at 6", and Joseph at 8". Then I gathered up some Christmas decorations from elsewhere in the house to put together the rest of the centerpiece -- an amaryliss, an apothecary jar full of ornaments, and a silver-colored charger with spanish moss to serve as a base for my nativity figures. The red fabric is actually a twin sheet artfully folded, and the striped fabric is just a long strip of material. The green runner I got on clearance at IKEA for 99 cents.

Making this little centerpiece set my wheels turning about all sorts of handy reasons you might need a really portable nativity scene. Do you have a loved one in the military or maybe away at college? Maybe you're not in a position to buy a fancy nativity scene or you just don't have any room to store decorations through the year? These pretty figures can be tucked into an envelope until next year, or you could just cut more out next year.

Many blessings to all this beautiful Christmas season!

Do something amazing tonight! (Or tomorrow... but soon!)

2010-12-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

I feel so incredibly, immeasurably blessed. I feel like God has given me so much more than I ever could have asked for. Sometimes, when I see the suffering of so many around the world, I feel overwhelmed with a desire to help and overcome by frustration because I don't even know where to begin.

I know many of you feel the same way, so here is a very good place to start.

Julie at Joy's Hope (which, by the way, is a very inspirational and funny blog) is part of a group called Project 320, which is a lot of lovely bloggers raising money to build wells in Africa. What is more basic to life than clean water? What would it mean to you to be able to give that to your children?

So, Project 320 is running an awesome fundraiser right now, where for every $10 you donate, you get to enter one of the blogger's amazing giveaways. We're talking seriously good stuff, too. When you go to the giveaway page, you can see all the different prize packs being offered (and get all the details on how to donate and how to enter).

My only sadness is that I didn't find out about this until tonight, and the fundraiser closes tomorrow at midnight. (Well, the giveaways do -- I have a feeling that the Project 320 girls or the people in Africa without clean water wouldn't turn away your donation even after tomorrow.) So I thought I would spread the word any way I can. I hope you'll take a moment to go check it out!

My "grown-up" Christmas trees...

2010-12-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

When I saw this tutorial on Shanty2Chic (via Infarrantly Creative), I knew I had to make my own ASAP.

See, I had these paper mache trees that I bought years ago from Oriental Trading. I always intended to do something cute and whimsical with them, but they just sat, unloved and uncrafted, in their box in the top of the closet. Until now! I've been loving all the natural, vintage-y Christmas decorations out in blogland this year, so I decided I was going to make myself some Christmas trees just for me! Pretty much all our Christmas decor is the fun, bright, whimsical variety, which I love, but you gotta switch things up sometimes, right?

For the tallest tree, I cut 2" wide lengths of linen (I think it was 45"), folded them in half, and pressed them. Then I sewed a basting stitched down the non-folded edge, then gathered each strip, just a little. Starting at the bottom of the cone, I hot-glued each strip around and around the tree. I think the big tree took 3 strips. The star on top is a kraft paper-mache ornament from the craft store. I was going to do something fancy with it, but I decided it was very happy staying kraft paper.

For the middle tree, I used a border punch to create 1 1/2" strips of paper. I cut V-shaped slits every few inches so that I could fit the paper to cone as I wrapped it around. I crinkled up the paper before hot-gluing it on, just to give it more texture. This one took about 1 1/4 pieces of kraft paper. After the cone was covered, I hot glue pearl bead "ornaments" to the tree.

For the littlest tree, I used the same technique as the big tree, but instead of fabric I used one of those cheap bolts of lace from Joann's. I think the whole bolt was a dollar at most, and I only used about half of it.

Now, my intention when I started was to use the little pot bases that came with the trees, but they just didn't have the elegant vintage touch I was looking for. Luckily I had already scheduled a trip to Star Mill in American Fork. It's an amazing antique/junk shop, and it is my new happy place. I found this PERFECT spindle for $1.50, just begging to be turned into tree trunks. Well, I've never been one to crush the life dreams of inanimate objects, so of course I had to take it home and cut it into three fun tree trunks, which I then hot-glued to the cones.

But then, alas, the trees were so top-heavy they could not stand on their own. I thought about gluing them all down to a plank of wood, but I wanted to be able to arrange them independently. I hunted around my craft room for ideas... CD's covered with kraft paper? Too flat and too boring and not vintage enough. Empty ribbon spools? Too much work to unspool ribbon and find it a new home, and then still not super stable. And so on... Finally, inspiration! One of my little hobbies is designing and cutting snowflake ornaments out of wood with a laser cutter, and I happened to have a little stack of unpainted snowflakes that worked perfectly as bases for my trees.

(Happy sigh...) Don't you just love it when something you've envisioned turns out even better in real life? These make me happy every time I go through my entryway!

I hope you are all having a delightful Christmas with your families and giving yourself time to create something beautiful!

P.S. I'm entering this in the Kraft Journal's Holiday Challenge -- if you love kraft paper like I do, you should go check it out!

Mega Giveaway on Single Dad Laughing!

2010-12-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

Have you guys heard of the blog Single Dad Laughing? SDL is a hugely popular parenting/life blog written by the amazingly talented Dan, who just happens to be my little brother. :) It is a really funny and thought-provoking blog, which is reason enough to check it out, but right now he's doing a HUGE giveaway with over 150 prizes, one of which is a Cricut. There's also an i-Rock tool from Imaginisce and a lot of other really great prizes! The last day to enter is Monday, so check it out! Here's the link:

http://www.danoah.com/p/giveaway.html

Thanks,
Tomi Ann

Our 'Muy Fabulosa' Wedding...

2010-12-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

If you're a long-time follower, you may have noticed that my postings have not been what anyone would call frequent over the past couple of months... but there's a very good reason, I promise! My wonderful little sister Emily got married last month, and I was working like a crazy person on all sorts of decorations and goodies for her big day. It turned out so beautifully -- it was worth every minute!

In the beginning, Em & Luis had chosen to use a damask pattern as the theme for the wedding decor, with the colors black and white with a little red thrown in. I used that inspiration to create their wedding invitation:

And this is how the wedding reception looked! (Everyone say "Ooooooooh!" together now!)

We did the reception at Highland Gardens Reception Center in Highand, Utah, which was just gorgeous to start out with. Emily's new hubby Luis' family is from several Latin American countries, so we took a few of those traditions as a jumping off point for our decor. My sister-in-law Caitlyn's mom Jeralee was the visionary behind all this, and I was so happy I could help make it all come to life. My mom and Jeralee got these damask table toppers and borrowed all sorts of silver pitchers and containers from generous family and friends and filled them with roses to make these gorgeous centerpieces.

We made approximately a gazillion of those tissue paper pom-poms to hang around the reception area, which was truly a labor of love by several family members and friends who are NOT crafters but pitched in awesomely.

My biggest contribution was the white paper papel picado banners hanging above the tables. They are traditionally cut by hand out of tissue paper, but I wanted to customize them, make them a little sturdier, and give them a cleaner, more modern feel to match the damask theme of the wedding, so I designed 8 custom banners and then cut each one with my Cricut (using SCAL). I cut over 200 of these babies, so my Cricut was smokin' by the end. Here's a closeup:

And, just because I can't help beating a dead horse, here's what the designs look like without background distraction...

I was also in charge of hair accessories for the bride and bridal party. I made red satin flowers for all us bridesmaids and our sisters-in-law with this tutorial from Stuff & Bits. This is my beautiful sister Amy and me:

And of course we couldn't leave the little girlies out! I made these rolled rosette hair pretties for my daughter Eliza (on the left) and my niece Amelia out of the same fabric:

Here's a closer up picture of Eliza with my Dad where you can see the flowers better. (This is when she found him and asked him to dance -- oh, the cuteness!):

But my favorite was this enormous flower I created for the bride herself, using a technique I actually figured out myself (I know, don't fall over dead...).

As a fun little photo prop, I made this fun-shaped chalkboard. They took some pictures with "Just Married" written on it, and then I changed it to "Thank You" so we could use those pictures to print custom thank you cards for them to send out. (This is not the picture we'll use -- my amazing photographer brothers took "real" pictures for that...)

Now, I didn't have anything to do with these next couple of photos, but I couldn't go without showing y'all the cakes. This was their wedding cake, created by my aunt's sister Dorcas Woodward. She cut out all of that intricate damask patter by hand out fondant. That is love, people. And isn't it amazing?

My sister Amy made this AWESOME sombrero grooms cake, also completely by hand:

I also made them a pretty sign-in scrapbook, but my pictures of that didn't turn out AT ALL, so I will have to steal it from them and show you another time.

Whew! Just looking at these pictures makes me tired, but so very happy. Thanks for letting me be part of the fun, Em and Luis! Love you guys!

Sing Joyful Tidings -- ScrapbookPal.com

2010-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Looking for the Blog Hop? Scroll down!

For the month of December, ScrapbookPal.com sent me the Christmas Village cartridge, and what drew my eye first were the fabulous vintage caroler silhouettes! I have a secret ambition to dress up like that some day and go caroling, but don't tell my husband -- he already thinks I'm waaaay to crazy about Christmas...

I have a few vintage Christmas songbooks that I ~~stole~~ inherited from my grandmother, so I scanned in "The First Noel" and printed it out to use as my background. Then I cut the caroler at 4" and adhered her to this vintage kraft tag my mom got for me at an antique fair in England -- ah, she knows me so well. It needed a little somethin', but luckily I had also received some Christmas-colored Stickles in my package, so I added a nice big wreath with just a little bit of sparkle. I distressed everything with chalk ink. So fun and festive, but still with that elegant vintage feel.

Merry Christmas!