I Am a Mother!

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.

A little way to help...

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)

Flashback Friday -- Glitter? Gulp!

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!

How to make sure bloggers can reply to your questions!

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...

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.

My "grown-up" Christmas trees...

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!

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

Bee-yewtiful Thanksgiving Giveaway

Sachiko at Tea Rose Home is doing a giveaway for Thanksgiving with the most beautiful goodies.  One is a gorgeous necklace, another is one of her beautifully trimmed bags, and the biggie is a $50 gift certificate to M&J Trimmings.  Yes, please!  Go check it out!  (It will even give you a chance to think about something you're thankful for!)