vintage pear studio

Today's The Day!

2012-01-23T18:29:00.000-05:00

New twine colors are being released at The Twinery today!

The Shore is going to be perfect on my baby boy scrapbook pages! I'm also in love with the Orchid and Cantalope- perfect for upcoming spring projects! The Flax looks just like kraft, and really, who doesn't love some basic kraft?! Use discount code NEWCOLORS for 10% off your entire purchase at The Twinery...discount ends Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:59 EST.

A Big Announcement!

2012-01-13T08:00:00.017-05:00

I'm excited to announce I'm a member of the 2012 Design Team at The Twinery! I'm truly honored to be chosen and join so many other talented ladies on the team! I'm excited to start creating and see what the other ladies have to show us.

Here is the team:

Angi Barrs

Ashley Bores

Jen Carter

Jamie Cripps

Katarina Damm-Blomberg

Jessica Fick

Stacy Rodriguez

Shannan Teubner

Karola Witczak

Angelica Suarez- Senior Designer

Monika Wright- Senior Designer

Julie Ranae - Design Team Coordinator

To celebrate, I had to break out some twine (Stone and Maraschino) to make these pom poms for a fun layout...

Check out The Twinery's blog to see the 4 newly released twine colors and to check out the sweet Valentine sampler packs they have out. Perhaps you'll enter their Sampler Pack giveaway while you're there! :) Have a fun weekend, everyone!

Handmade Gifts

2011-12-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

I made a few gifts myself this year- I love giving something handmade! This year for teacher gifts and for some coworkers, I made the cupcakes in a jar that have been so popular. For Quinn's teacher, I gave her one with a gift card to our local bakery. These were French Toast cupcakes with maple buttercream frosting- the same ones I just did a scrapbook page about! :) I baked them at the suggested temperature in the recipe, but left them in for a little longer. A doily and some bakers twine made wrapping these super simple!

I had plans to make this spool wreath for my mom since sometime in November. I started it and worked on it very sporadically since both kids were sick for weeks. I finally finished it about a half hour before my parents pulled in my driveway on Christmas Eve! I used scraps of fabric from the quilt my mom made my daughter for her 4th birthday. It's Basic Grey Blush from Moda. I also wrapped some of the spools in twine that matched perfectly- cappuccino, caribbean and blossom from The Twinery. I got the spools on eBay from a sweet lady that didn't charge near enough for shipping.

I'd really love to do a whole wreath with twine wrapped spools- we'll see if I can get one done for spring! :) I hope everyone is hanging out with friends and family and relaxing this week! Enjoy ringing in 2012!

Pinterest Love!

2011-12-18T20:10:00.000-05:00

This month at A Cherry On Top, I was super lucky and got to do a reveal all about my pins on Pinterest! I'm always pinning, but haven't really had the time to use all of those pins on my Inspiring Me pinboard until now.
Here are a few of my favorites:
I saw this print and knew I had to use the quote ASAP!

I printed the quote out, then cut each word apart and arranged it into a heart shape. I liked the color scheme on the print, so I kept that going on my layout, too. LOVE that chevron paper from Crate!

I also did one a recipe I pinned- French toast cupcakes with maple buttercream frosting. Oh, they were SO good! After I made them, I took a picture of one to scrap:

I love that wood flower button at the top! And what would a baking layout be without a little bakers twine from The Twinery? :)

This one wasn't part of the reveal, but I did it a few weeks ago and forgot to share. Here's the inspiration piece:

and the layout- I LOVE that Crate Farmhouse line!

On another note, how's it going for those doing December Dailies? I have some of mine done, just need to print photos for the rest. We've had the sick bug in our house for 2 whole weeks now, so that's kind of put a kink in my holiday prep, but I'll get it done sooner or later! Have a great week!

December Daily Made Easy

2011-12-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

I love the idea of the December Daily, but last year fell short on my plans for it. And I mean fell short as in... it's still not done. I put a lot of work into the foundation of the book- lots of cardstock, sewed binding, found just the right flocked overlay, hand stitching on the cover. It had lots of room for journaling and photos, which I really don't have time for this year (or apparently last year either. LOL!).

Here is this year's simple version:

13 Shipping tags from Staples, Maraschino twine from The Twinery, Chevron Tag, December 2011 flair button and Merrymaker Flappers from Ormolu.

This year, a little photo or quick note of our day will be all I need to fill this baby up. I plan to add the photos first (and no pressure to include one from each day), then add the Flappers over top. Seems so easy! Lets see if I can keep up with it. If you're doing one, I'd love to see it. Link me up! :)

Gift Wrap Ideas

2011-11-22T10:24:00.000-05:00

This month at ACOT, I was able to do a really fun reveal- holiday gift wrap ideas! I really love the wrapping part of the holidays, so it was fun to be able take some time to create and add a personal touch to some of my gifts.

A border punch, some twine and some die cuts dress up a plain paper lunch sack.

Wrap several strands of twine around your gift, then top with a medallion and stickers.

These little bags from Canvas Corp. are absolutely perfect for gift cards! Dress them up with twine, die cuts, stickers and doilies- anything goes!

I saw this idea on Pinterest- great for small gifts, or you could change up the size to accommodate anything! Wrap a folded piece of cardstock with twine paper and a doily, then top with stickers or die cuts. Add twine for hanging from your tree!

Use a paper punch (I used Martha's pinked circle), then feed the pieces through your sewing machine for a cute garland. Just continuously sew while feeding the punched pieces under your presser foot. Wrap it around a gift or string on a tree!

Is anyone doing a December Daily this year? Since I haven't finished 2010's yet (and have no idea when/if I will), I am really scaling it back this year and just doing a little tiny book made of shipping tags. Less space to fill might be a little less daunting, so here's to hoping I actually get it assembled before December! :)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:16:00.000-04:00

Q wanted to be an angel this year. I love how the costume turned out! I used a pattern from this book, which has lots of great costumes that are pretty easy to put together.

Have a fun Halloween, everyone! :)

2 Months

2011-10-24T17:51:00.001-04:00

Little P turned 2 months old in October (on his sister's fifth birthday, actually!). I took him outside on an unusually warm, beautiful fall day. I set up pumpkins, a blanket & even a mini wheelbarrow in the perfect spot of fallen leaves. I added a really super cute little baby. Then guess what. He wouldn't smile. At all. Really. But guess what happened as soon as we were back inside? Yup... smiles for like an hour. Oh, well!

So I ended up with all of these photos with no smiles and him just looking around, but I decided that was good, too. That's what a baby does, after all! I decided to scrap it for a challenge at Ormolu.

I'd really been wanting to use my Crate Farmhouse papers. They go perfectly with those wooden buttons from Prima! I dug in my stash for that Paper Whimsy from Sass Lass with the 2 on it. The colors matched perfectly... it was meant to be!

My next post will be Halloween related, but right now I have to go take a photo of the costume we made and we're off to a Halloween show at school. :)

A new look!

2011-10-20T21:17:00.000-04:00

I decided to do a little blog face lift and I'm so happy with the results! I love the color scheme and the fresh new header. It's now a 3 column versus my old 2 column, so now I have a bit more room for links and buttons and fun stuff. I want to make a cute little button for my blog, but I have yet to find a cute digital pear... which leads me to the name change!
We have an old farm house we're in the process of restoring and there used to be an orchard on the property. The only remnant of the orchard is a 100+ year old pear tree that is slowly dying. We love that tree, even if the pears are fewer and smaller than in years past. So, hence the name "vintage pear studio". Do I really have a studio? No. But it sounds cool.
Hopefully I can do some scrapping next week. For now, I'm working on a Halloween costume... it's almost finished! I also have to make a bunch of chocolate mustaches on sticks for a bake sale on Monday. :) Have a great weekend, all!

An international swap!

2011-09-26T10:59:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite blogs is helping to host an international swap! I saw the info over at i love it all and decided to join in. Here's a peek at what I'll be sending over to France later today:

I'm sending 10 large and 10 small shipping tags, Cosmo Cricket Upcycle Butterflies & Doilies, 4 Maya Road heart straight pins, 10 yards of blossom twine from The Twinery, 10 Pink Paislee tickets, Maya Road potty people chipboard and a sheet of my absolute favorite alphas from Sass Lass in pink.

I packaged it up in a printed paper bag I got some fabric in, then folded the top over and sewed it up. I also added a selection of tags and goodies to the bag:

I wish I could make a living at gift wrapping and packaging things up all pretty-like. :) I can't wait to see what I get in return. I'll be sure to share it here. If you're interested in joining, I think there's still some spots left. Let Monika know with a comment on this post. Enjoy your day, everyone!

School Photos!

2011-09-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

I wanted to take some fun school pictures for this year. The regular Lifetouch photos just aren't as fun as photos with some fun props and a kid just being themselves, right? We had a beautiful fall day yesterday that let us get out and snap a few photos. Here are our version of school pictures for this year...

These last two were edited with the Poison Apple action from My Four Hens.

I'm trying to decide if I want to get separate prints of these, or do a storyboard. Better decide soon- mpix has free shipping, but only through tomorrow. :) Enjoy your week, everyone!

Off to School!

2011-09-12T09:57:00.000-04:00

My latest reveal is up at A Cherry On Top today! This new line from Fancy Pants was just what I needed to scrap Q's first day of Kindergarten pictures. Can't believe she is this big already! I am enjoying the one-on-one time with the baby during the day, though. It does help she's excited to go to school every day. I feel so bad for the moms with the crying kids each morning!

Here's her supplies all laid out around her while we were getting her backpack ready. For some reason, school supplies get me all excited. I even had fun sharpening the pencils. I'm weird like that.
I layered some of the cards from the cards sheet to make up the journaling spot, then used a lot of the chipboard embellishments around it. I love that star paper, too- it was what I added to the page when I thought I was all done, but it still needed a little something extra.

Here's the big first day! I love the shot that Daddy got of us walking in together. I'm sure in a year she won't want to hold my hand like that anymore, but I hope not. ;) I love the buttons in this line, so I used a few here & there. I changed the title area around no less than five times and I was finally happy with the apple sticker from the Chalk Stickers sheet.

Some flashcards were sent home for learning sight words through the year. To keep them all together, I made a little box, using a box of 24 crayons as a template. A flash card from the Design Elements pack was the perfect fit for the front of the box. Love those Jenni Bowlin Chalkboard alphas, too!

And I also found that in addition to storing lots of little stuff, my library card catalog is also the perfect backdrop for school-type photos. :) Have a great week everyone!

September Challenge!

2011-09-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone! The whole big list of September Challenges are up at ACOT. For the Supply Challenge this month, I'm challenging you to use 4 or more embellishments on your page in a group or cluster. Pretty easy, right?! I did one up in the corner on the first page I've scrapped of Pierce.

No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you.
After all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside.

I found the quote on Pinterest, but no credits were given. It's so darn sweet it almost made me cry when I read it, so I knew I had to use it somewhere. The little boy on the bike at the top was from a Studio Calico kit-packer card. I knew saving those would be handy one day! :) So, if you're home this holiday weekend and want to scrap or have time later this month when the kids head back to school, check out the ACOT challenges!

Introducing...

2011-08-30T10:36:00.000-04:00

the newest addition to our family! Pierce was born on August 2 and is 4 weeks old today! It seems like just the other day I was hot and huge and pregnant and now we're holding this little guy and watching him get bigger every day!

He is much loved by his big sister, too! I thought I'd be dealing with her jealousy, but instead I'm giving warnings to "be gentle" when she's hugging on him so much. And I'll have to be sure to capture on camera the next time she whispers "I love you" or "You're so, so cute!" in his little ears. :)

Giveaway at The Twinery!

2011-08-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

Help The Twinery celebrate their anniversary by heading over to their blog to check out the awesome giveaway they have for today! Two Ultimate Twine Bundles are being gifted to a few super lucky ladies (or gents!). It's the best twine out there in my opinion- great color, thick twine and so many uses! Here's just a few things I've done with their twine:

The birthday candle flames are Lemondrop twine.

The tags are tied with Pink Sorbet, and the little spool is wrapped with it, too!

These gifts were wrapped up with Maraschino twine.

Get over there and enter to win! Then of course, share some with me if you do! ;)

A Little Allergy Awareness

2011-07-24T13:56:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned here and there that Miss Q has food allergies, but thought I'd just take a little time to explain what life with food allergies is like for her (and the rest of the family, too).

When she was 5 months old, we were running low on frozen breast milk, so decided to supplement with formula if needed. The first time we did this, within minutes she started vomiting, getting hives and swelling up. We called the ambulance and when they arrived, they told us that some babies don't handle certain kinds of formula well, so we should try another kind. Ok.... so they left and when she continued to vomit and the swelling was increasing, we decided to take her to the ER ourselves and found out she was in anaphylactic shock. After that ordeal, our family doctor referred us to an allergist and we had her tested for all sorts of food and animals. I was shocked at the results- she was allergic to milk, soy, wheat, eggs, cows and dogs. That is quite a list for a 5 month old child! Later testing revealed she is also allergic to cats and all nuts.
Since I was nursing, I couldn't eat those foods either because they are all passed through breast milk. For the next year and a half (yes, I nursed until she was 2), I had to follow the allergen-free diet as well. It was hard at first- no ice cream, no chocolate, no bread, etc., but I got used to it fairly quickly since I really had no choice. All formulas have some type of milk or soy protein, except one brand that was $40 a can, which is quite expensive!
What can she eat? Lots of things, actually! She can eat all meats, fruits and veggies and rice. Our local Meijer and Kroger both have really good allergen-free sections where we have found alternatives to cake mixes, chocolate bars, graham crackers, pretzels, pasta, even ice cream cones (she has them with sorbet). Some of her favorite snacks are marshmallows, potato chips and Slurpees. We are very diligent about reading food labels- usually several times over. We can't eat out at restaurants, but that's probably not such a bad thing anyway. Below is our version of "trail mix" that she's taking with her for her VBS snack tonight. Looks pretty good- allergen free pretzels, animal crackers and gummy Life Savers!

I do get nervous sending her off places- especially school next year. She carries an epi pen with her every where we go and will have one in the school office. We practice every month or so on how to use it in case she were ever somewhere without us and had an emergency. We got her a cute shirt to wear (in top photo) when we go places where people may need to be reminded of her allergies (she's wearing it to the first night of VBS tonight). She also wears this cool bracelet that has all of her allergies and emergency and doctor contact information tucked safely inside. They are both from Allergy Apparel, which has lots of fun allergy awareness items for kids.

So far, we've found people to be open to making a safe environment for her. Her preschool was wonderful with her snacks. If we end up going to some sort of fund-raising dinner or to parties, we bring our own food for her. Once we find out for sure which school she'll be attending in the fall, I'm hoping they are easy to work with as well.
So, no crafty post today- just a little glimpse into our life! :) I hope everyone is enjoying what's left of the weekend!

Latest Etsy Faves... and Buys

2011-07-19T14:33:00.000-04:00

Being 9 months pregnant in this kind of heat makes for lots of sitting inside with the AC (and ceiling fan) running. So what's a girl to do besides a little on-line shopping on one of her favorite sites... etsy! Here's a few of my latest finds... and of course buys!

Paper straws from HeyYoYo. I got an assorted pack, but you can order in all one color, too. They even come with a free pdf of flag toppers, which would be awesome for party favors. I plan to use them to go with glass bottles of soda for little gifts. I think they'd be an awesome little thank you gift, Halloween treats for friends or for those people you need small Christmas gifts for! I got these within two days of ordering- yay for super fast shipping!

Big Sis necklace from Sunshine Ceramics. Quinn is getting this when the little guy arrives- she is going to be so excited! They come in other shapes, and even Big and Lil Bro ones for boys!

Recycled Paper Pencils from Moxiepear. I haven't ordered these yet, but I just know they would make great party favors for a kid's party, or even little gifts like the paper straws if you added a cute topper. You can also order these in an assortment or all one color. How fun!

Cup of Love Brag necklace from Brag About It. I am most definitely getting one of these once we decide on a name for the little guy. No, we still aren't sure... it seems as if we'll be making a final decision on the car trip to the hospital!
Has anyone else found anything good I should know about on etsy lately? My other internet time suck lately has been Pinterest- I'll have to do a post with some great pins I've come across soon! I hope everyone is staying cool! :)

Want to Take a Drive?

2011-07-12T07:05:00.000-04:00

I was so, SO excited to get to work with Echo Park's Country Drive this month at A Cherry On Top. It had the perfect colors to match my daughter's room, so I knew I wanted to make a wall hanging. First, it was going to be a canvas or two, then that idea changed into a printer's tray. I got a tray at Hobby Lobby for cheaps and moved the handle and hardware around so the blocks would be tall instead of wide. This was labor of love, taking me probably about 12 hours total, but I LOVE the way it turned out!

I think my favorites are the bird, the butterflies and the tags, but I really do love them all! The bird is from MME Fine & Dandy and the chipboard windows are from Maya Road. I also am pretty much in love with the Doodlebug buttons I used! Close ups of each block can be seen here.

I did a few layouts, too. This one is about the joys of country living- you gotta love having a big yard with lots and lots of room to run and play t-ball with a bike trail that runs through farm fields right down the road!

I put this one together for the little guy, too. I really love how it turned out! The orange polka dot paper is one of my faves. Those are some older Making Memories alphas, and boy do I wish I could get my hands on some more!

I hope everyone is having a great summer. It's been hot and humid here, but I've been living it up in the AC we just had installed over the winter! :) Best home improvement investment EVER. Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

A Challenge for You!

2011-07-01T06:25:00.000-04:00

July challenges are up today at A Cherry On Top! There are always some good ones to get your mojo going or just to get your photos scrapped, including the one I do every month- the Supply List Challenge. This month I'm celebrating 2's since baby #2 will be making his appearance very soon! I'm challenging people to use 2 different alphas, 2 different border punches and at least 2 photos. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?!
Here's my little example...

I started following along with 28 Things I Love in February- a flickr group for a photo a day. I did really good with it last year, and had high hopes for 2011, but then a nasty cold visited everyone in our house, the stomach flu made an appearance, and it pretty much turned into a random photo here & there. Still a fun page, and I had just the right number of photos to fit just perfectly on here! The buttons were actually an afterthought, but kind of add that finishing touch and now they're one of my favorite parts!
I hope you'll pick a challenge or two or three to do this month!

Catching Up!

2011-06-22T18:24:00.000-04:00

Is summer a busy time of year or what?! I never knew that having a school-aged kid could keep a mama so busy, but apparently it does! We had her graduation, then a day of festivities including her being in a parade for the Bavarian Festival, we moved, everyone got a never-ending cold and now I think we're finally back into some sort of normal routine of lounging around. That includes picking strawberries, the summer reading program at the library, planting flowers and just enjoying the weather. :)
I missed posting on my last reveal using MME's Happy Go Lucky line because it went live the day we were schelpping boxes of belongings over to the new (or newly remodeled) house. Here's one of my favorites. I really love the big paper ribbon-looking part and those cool flowers:

This week, I used the Dots and Stripes line from Echo Park. There were two lines, actually- Metropolitan and Candy Shoppe. For most of my layouts, I used a mixture of the two. Here are a few of my favorites:

This one is some of my sewing projects I completed this spring. Wish I had time for more of that right now...
I really do like scrapping in 8.5 x 11- it's fun to switch it up a little and use a smaller canvas.

This is from our little anniversary trip to the Tigers vs. Yankees game a few months ago. It was a blast and the Tigers won. :)

I've been having Blogger problems lately- I can't upload photos from my computer and I can't comment on blogs with an embedded comment box. I know I'm not the only one, so I hope they get it corrected soon! I've heard trying a different browser may be a fix, but I've been too lazy to try that. I'll have to try it soon so I can share some pictures from this month- I've *sort of* been following along with a photo-a-day prompt for June and got some fun shots. :)
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Teacher Gifts

2011-05-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty bummed preschool is coming to an end for Miss Q this week. She's had so much fun this year, met some really great kids and has learned SO much from her teachers! Luckily, they are going to be in the Kinder Parade at the Bavarian Festival next month and she'll get to see her friends again soon.
I wanted something special to show her teachers how much we've appreciated them this year- they have been really awesome with her food allergies, which was a big worry of ours sending her off in the fall. Not to mention they are caring, patient and really awesome teachers! I found these beauties on etsy from Art Under Glass and had to order two right away!

One side is personalized with their name, the other side says My Favorite Teacher. They are great quality and I would highly recommend this shop to anyone. My time between order and arrival was about a week, which is awesome for a personalized, handmade gift!

I saw apples layered like this in a magazine last fall and had filed the idea away. Using my Slice and the Applique Basics card, I cut several sizes of apples and sewed them together and added stems. The Jenni Bowlin Chalkboard Alphas were just *perfect* for this project! I used Maraschino twine from The Twinery to tie it all together. I definitely need a whole spool of that color- best twine ever, I swear.

Is anyone else making teacher gifts this year? Link me up! :)

Sew Busy!

2011-05-14T15:21:00.000-04:00

I've been in sewing mode lately! I made that library tote bag awhile ago and apparently got bit by the tote bag bug in the process. Since then I've made 3 more by kind of melding a few different tutorials into my own pattern. The last 3 I made were smaller than the library tote. One I sold, one I gave to my bff for her birthday, and I made this one for me:

Fabric: Michael Miller from hypernoodle2

I also made some onsies for the little guy- they turned out so cute! So cute, in fact, I had to make my sister one for her new little guy and a matching one for his older brother. I can't wait to see pictures of them in their matching shirts! :) Quinn says this will be perfect for him to wear if he has to go to a meeting:

I did take a sewing break to do a layout for a challenge at Sass Lass this month. I really loved how it turned out- I think the white Mr. Huey really added a fun bit of interest to it! It's one of my faves lately because of all the pink & the softness. This photo was just from a day we were playing around with the camera, but the journaling is about how her one of her preschool teacher told me that she is very caring and compassionate to her friends. When one of them is hurt or sad, she's there to make them feel better. It's fun to see her hug all of her friends as they arrive at school and again as they leave for the day. Love that girl! :) And we're going to miss her friends when preschool is done for the year... in just a few weeks!

I hope people are having a drier, sunnier weekend than we are here. Have a great one! :)

PageMaps and a Challenge!

2011-05-01T06:38:00.000-04:00

This month's PageMaps were created by none other than the awesome paper design team at A Cherry On Top! It's always fun to get to do this because Becky's sketches are so fun and easy to work with. I got to work with an 8.5x11" sketch, which is a size I have never scrapped before. I really liked working on a smaller scale, though and think I'll incorporate more of this into my albums. It's easy by just buying some smaller page protectors and slipping them in amongst the regular 12x12 pages in my d-ring album.
You can check out all of the sketches for this month here at the PageMaps site.

The banners are made from the Creative Imaginations canvas cut into banner shapes and sprayed with Maya Mist. The stitched circle border was something I had been wanting to do for quite awhile- one of those things filed away in my idea book- so I decided now was the time! I really love how this turned out on the kraft background. And just in case you wondered, don't try sewing through foam Thickers- or at least this font. It didn't turn out so well and I had to peel them off and start over.

The May challenges are going up today at ACOT, too. The supply challenge for this month is to use stitching (hand, machine or faux is fine), fabric and a shipping tag or two. This layout was really fun to put together with the Sass Lass Mix &Mend paper- they really did a great job with the realistic looking layers in this line. It's hard to tell what is the paper and what is my addition to it!

At the end of this week is the National Scrapbooking Day Crop at ACOT, so you won't want to miss that. I'll be working on my challenge layout for that today, so hopefully I can share a peek of it later this week. I also have some other non-scrappy projects I've been working on that I'd love to share, too! Have a great week, everyone!

Some of my Daily Junque

2011-04-25T07:11:00.001-04:00

My absolute favorite release at CHA this winter was the Daily Junque line by Pink Paislee and House of 3. There were just SO many possiblities with this line because it's not a themey line at all- just a little bit of everything. I was actually saving photos to scrap just for this line, so imagine my happiness when I found out I could do my reveal at ACOT this month with it!

Quinn asked me how to spell "I Love You", then a few minutes later, brought me this sweet note. I painted over one of the metal flags in this line, then wiped it off and the paint left in the debossed image was a fun touch. I also made a little pocket behind the photo to keep the actual note in when I take it down from my frame... if I ever do- it just makes me so happy to look at it. :)

The next one I did was about all the fun things I did on my birthday. All of the little paper embellies were actally cut from different papers in this line. And did you see the PINK ledger paper?! My favorite for sure! Since it is my birthday layout after all, I added my favorite things- lots of stitching, buttons & those cute Sass Lass alphas in pink!

This one was another one of my favorites. I saw a layout Piradee Talvanna did with a huge banner across the page, so I put my own spin on that for this layout. The journaling tells the baby what we're up to getting ready for him to arrive at this point in the pregnancy. I also love the mist splatters- Maya Mist in Licorice Metallic if you're wondering.

I had to do something fun with the tissue paper from this line, so I made a big flower! I loved this card- it was so fun and springy! It was a perfect card for my Grandma's 70th birthday and I think she really loved it. It's a bit dimensional, so it's really a card best hand delivered. ;)

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We did a little kite flying, nap taking and egg finding and had a great day. Although, I think we're still missing one egg, but I'm not completely sure. Good thing they were all plastic! :) Have a fun week!

Happy Spring!

2011-04-12T06:26:00.000-04:00

It's finally looking like spring here, which is much welcomed after this long, cold winter we've had! Sunday was the first day that we've had that was really warm enough to be outside without coats for awhile, so we took a little break from our bathroom remodeling to get outside and snap a few pictures.

I've loved making these headbands lately. They're bright, fun and totally unique! I followed this tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional. The actual plastic headbands are the best I've found to stay put in Q's fine, thin hair. They're made by Scuncci and have rubbery little comb/bristle things to make them stay put and not slide right out like regular plastic ones. I picked them up at Target for $3.99 for a 4-pack.

If you're needing a kick in the scrapbooking mojo, join in on the April challenges at A Cherry On Top! For the Supply List Challenge I came up with this month, you'll need stick pins, die cut paper and foam adhesive.

There are lots of other challenges, too! Also, National Scrapbooking Day is coming up the first weekend of May, so be sure to set aside some time that weekend for the on-line crop at ACOT. There will be lots of fun, challenges, fast scraps and challenges- around the clock! Hope to see you there!

Super Cute Library Tote!

2011-03-19T20:27:00.000-04:00

Do you ever make something and when it's done you just can't believe how great it is? That's exactly how I feel about this library tote! I had been wanting/needing to make one for awhile and finally picked out the fabric this week and got to work. I followed this tutorial using a little different measurements, but then added the cute ruffle. I saw a ruffled bag on a blog a few weeks ago and decided I could figure it out myself, and I did. I'm quite impressed since I really think of myself as "pretending to know how to sew", and not really knowing anything but the basics. This bag is so fun, I really can't wait to make another trip to the library. I hope they all notice my bag. And then I hope they want to know where I got it. LOL! :)

The fabric is from Moda- it's the perfect pattern for a bag of books, no? The lining of the bag is the same material as the ruffle.

Oh, by the way... have I mentioned the cute ruffle I did all on my own? ;)

My next sewing adventure is going to be some of those cute little necktie onesies for the little baby boys being born into our family this year. Are you doing anything crafty this weekend?

Twine Winner!

2011-03-18T19:07:00.002-04:00

Random.org picked the lucky winner just now... Lucky number 2!!
That means Lea needs to send me her addy so I can drop the twine in the mail! :)
Anyone know how to get the Random Number Generator to copy over to a blog post? I have no idea, but I assume you all trust me. ;) And if you didn't win, you can get their twine at their website or if you're local, Scrapbooks Galore & More in Midland carries it now, too!
Any fun weekend plans? I plan to sew up a library tote bag this weekend and then sit around reading the second book of The Hunger Games called Catching Fire. I heard great things about the trilogy, but took my time getting around to reading them. Then once I started, I finished the first one in just a few days!
Happy weekend, everyone!

Feeling Lucky + a Giveaway!

2011-03-16T20:44:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm one lucky girl! I have a great husband who makes me laugh every day, a little one arriving this summer and I get to be Mama to this cutie...

Miss Q doesn't have any green clothes (just pink, pink, pink!), so we compromised with a rainbow shirt, rainbow stitched jean skirt and green hairbow today for school. :) Those tie-dyed tights are my fave!

Are you feeling lucky this St. Patrick's Day? I have a small giveaway... 10 yards of Blossom twine from The Twinery! They make the absolute best bakers twine (and didn't I wrap it up all cute-like?!).

Just leave me a comment telling me what you're lucky for and you'll be entered to win. I'll draw a winner on Friday! :)

A Birthday Post!

2011-03-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post today for my mom's birthday!
This is the bow for the gift we made her. I saw these on Pinterest and thought it was a tutorial and got all excited. Then I found they were just for sale, so I had to make my own. A $1.99 pink measuring tape, some thread & glue and I had this cute gift bow...

The funny thing is that I was so excited about the cuteness of the bow, I forgot to take a picture of the handmade gift inside! Oops! :) But we also made her these truffles from a super easy recipe...

20 squares Bakers Chocolate (I use the red box)
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
sprinkles

Melt 8 chocolate squares. Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy, then blend in melted chocolate.

Refrigerate until firm, then shape into balls.

Melt remaining chocolate. Use a fork to dip balls into chocolate, then place on wax paper covered baking sheet. Add sprinkles, nuts, or nothing if you prefer. Refrigerate for an hour.

Happy Birthday to my mom and a Happy Daylight Savings Sunday to everyone else! xoxo

For Little Girls... and a little something else.

2011-03-09T06:02:00.000-05:00

This month I got to work with Echo Park's Little Girl line at ACOT. I was so excited because I knew I'd have no problem coming up with ideas having a 4 year old girl in the house. This line was full of pinks, purples, cupcakes, hearts and tiaras- just perfect for us!
The first one I did was of Quinn opening presents on her birthday. My favorite part is the candles and using my twine from The Twinery to make the flames. That and the journaling strips are a brilliant idea I came up with while lying in bed. :)

I also loved this line for fun, bright summer photos, and these ones of Quinn outside reading "her book" as she calls it, were a perfect match. That plain white cardstock was calling out for some Maya Mist, too. :)

The last layout I did was of Quinn excited to show off the Big Sister shirt she got from Auntie Amber. Lots of girliness on this one- pink, purple, hearts and ruffles! The alternating pink & purple pleated strip was fun to make- I used the pink/purple cardstock from the line, cut it into 1/2 inch by 1 inch pieces, folded them in half and adhered them. I also stitched down the middle just to be sure they stayed put.

When I do my reveals with a heavily themed line, like girl or boy, I like to show that even if the whole line doesn't call out to you, there's always a few pieces you can use for something else. I made this card for a baby boy with the turquoise, light blue and orange papers.

Normally I'll ink the edges of my photos and paper with brown or black ink, but for all of these projects, I really liked outlining with my white Uni-ball Signo pen. I think it's a known fact among scrapbookers that all white pens aren't made equally and that this pen is the best!

Later this week I'll have to post a super cute idea I found on Pinterest and had to make right away for my mom's birthday this week. Is anyone else finding lots of inspiration on Pinterest? I love it- what a brilliant idea. Totally wish I would have thought of it! Enjoy the rest of the week!

2011-02-27T09:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Sunday morning! Doesn't a nice, hot breakfast sound good? How about a few eggs, bacon and a pancake dripping in syrup?

This is what Quinn served up for Daddy this morning! I was a lucky blog winner of a giveaway from the LuBirdBaby shop on etsy and this is what Quinn and I chose. Kristin has more cute felt food- poptarts & cookies, lots of cute onesies for boys and girls and some super cute and trendy bibs and burp cloths! She also has a blog you can check out here with lots of fun posts through the week!

This is the last day of the online crop at A Cherry On Top! I was hostess for a few hours Friday night, where I gave a challenge to use this collage as inspiration for a layout (from alicebgardens on etsy):

Here's my resulting layout... I feel like it needs something else, though. Maybe a handstitched border to tie it all together? Hmmm... not sure. For now it's in the album just as it is. I really liked the vintage feel, the colors and buttons from the collage.

The crop ends at 6 pm EST tonight, but you have until Tuesday to finish up challenge layouts for a chance for points. Points = $$$, so why not get over there and see what you can get done today?!

Happy February!

2011-02-01T20:34:00.000-05:00

I love Valentine's Day and all the pink that comes with it! This is Quinn's first Valentine party at school, so we decided to make all of her friends these cute little Valentines:

First we started with a heart-shaped cupcake pan and bits of broken crayons. We melted them in the oven at 250 degrees for about 10 minutes. When they were cooled, we popped them out easily. I also found little heart notepads at Target, so the notepads and crayons went into a treat bag. I used the cards from the Fancy Pants Love Birds line as toppers, punched holes and tied ribbon. Quinn is very excited to share these with her class!

The photo above is also my first photo for 28 Things I Love in February. It is a Flickr group I joined last year and it's going on again this year, so I had to join in! Last year I had fun coming up with shots to take and seeing the creativity of the other members. I put all of my photos into an album last year and I'm going to do the same this year. Please feel free to join in! Here's the link to the group.

Good luck with the storm, everyone! If you're lucky enough to live where the sun will be shining, don't mention it, k? :)

A Good Weekend for Staying Home

2011-01-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

This weekend in Michigan was COLD and WINDY and SNOWY. None of which I particularly enjoy. Saturday we spent time making Valentines for Quinn's preschool friends, but we're still on the search for the packaging, so I'll have photos later this week.
One other thing I was working on was a ginormous flower for Quinn's hair from a sewing book I got for Christmas. Using one fat quarter of fabric, a sewing machine, needle, thread, an iron, a button, hot glue & a headband, we ended up with this beauty today...

It was a bit bigger than I anticipated, and I even left one petal out of each stack just because I didn't have enough material. It's pretty much nearly the size of her head, as you can plainly see. Too funny! And no, it certainly was not warm enough to be wearing a sun dress, but it was a pick-your-battles type of thing, so whatever. Like I said, we stayed in where it was warm all weekend long! :)
The pattern is from the book Sewing Bits and Pieces- it's pretty cheap on Amazon and has other cute patterns, too!

Another fun Echo Park reveal!

2011-01-13T07:42:00.000-05:00

This month I used the Echo Park Little Boy Line at A Cherry On Top. Even though I have no little boys, I found plent of other uses for this line!
I knew before I even had the papers in my hand I wanted the airplane sticker to carry a banner with the title...

Here I overlapped a bunch of the journaling brackets with a grid design for a lot of photos. I resized them in Photoshop Elements before printing them at 3x3.

This one is one of my favorites! So bright and fun! I love my baker's twine from The Twinery! I splattered Cherry Red, Fern Green and Cream Maya Mist on this one.

And a birthday card for my nephew, Avery, who is turning two next month!

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek! :) Have a great weekend!

Featured at Crate Paper

2011-01-08T08:02:00.000-05:00

I was so surprised to see one of my layouts from the Snow Day collection featured on the Crate Paper blog on Tuesday! If that didn't feel lucky enough, then there was a whole slew of comments from complete strangers about how much they liked it and that totally made my day!

Over the weekend, they are taking comments on Friday's blog post to see which project of all featured this week is your favorite. Everyone who comments is entered to win a collection of 3 Crate Paper kits! You can go vote here on the Crate Paper Blog.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We're hoping to stay in where it's nice and toasty this weekend! :)

Holiday Randomness...

2010-12-21T19:29:00.002-05:00

Christmas is just a few days away now and I'm getting pretty excited! All the gifts are wrapped and just waiting to be given out. I made these for Quinn's teachers this year...

I thought it was a fun preschool gift. I got the shadow box frames from Hobby Lobby and one box of 64 Crayolas was enough to do two letter K's. I would have liked to try another letter just to see how it turned out. They were fun to put together! Speaking of preschool, Quinn had her preschool Christmas program at church, where she was determined to get the little boy in front of her who decided to sit down and not sing to stand up by pulling him up by his armpits. Eventually she gave up, and I was mad I didn't bring the video camera because it was rather funny!

Next up, we made this bell ornament today. The one on the left is one I made when I was 4 years old, and it's still in perfect condition, which really does prove styrofoam never dies. Quinn thought it was so funny that we scrounged up a cup and she made one of her own this morning, with a pink pipe cleaner of course. They have a little bell on the inside, too!

Last week was my latest reveal at A Cherry On Top, where I got to work with the Fancy Pants Love Birds line. I also put together a Maya Road Acrylic Calendar stand, which turned out really cute, too!

I'll admit that I haven't been keeping up with the December Daily so well. I've got pictures, but I'll have to fill the details in later. I've been meaning to catch it up, but man is it busy this time of year! How is everyone else doing? I'm not sure I'd do it again next year- maybe just the picture part. :)

Handmade Gifts + A Winner!

2010-12-12T08:09:00.000-05:00

I love making handmade gifts! There is a satisfaction when giving the gift that it's really from the heart since you took time and care to make something so special. This year I made my sister scrapbook pages for my nephew's album and I made her family a little Christmas album for photos of this year. I also made my nephew a bunch of felt food. I got Simplicity pattern 2445 on sale for $1 at JoAnn's and went to town cutting, sewing and stuffing. There are a lot of free tutorials and patterns online, too. I found some of my favorites at Smashed Peas and Carrots and Craftiness is not Optional. Even if you're not into making felt food, they are really cute crafty blogs to follow anyway! The cinnamon rolls are my favorite- I had to make some for Quinn, too. And she is requesting chicken nuggets for Christmas, so I'm making some of those for her, too. Here's the bounty I made for my nephew...

Is anyone else making handmade Christmas gifts this year? We also made our Chrismas cards- I'll have to post a picture later because they turned out really cute!
And now, the winner of the Scrapbook Trends is Mandi! Send me your address and I'll get it in the mail to you!
Happy snowy Sunday, everyone! :)

December Giveaway!

2010-12-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

Today I have a copy of the December issue of Scrapbook Trends to give away! I thought my subscription was up so I bought a copy and wouldn't you know it... mine arrived later that day. Of course! So my lack of patience will be somebody's gain! :) Just leave a comment telling me what crafty type of thing you're doing for the holidays and I'll draw a winner on Friday!
We've been busy making cards, wrapping gifts (my favorite holiday activity!) and Quinn is planning her list for Santa. Her top request is chicken nuggets, followed by the blue-haired Lalaloopsy doll that is supposed to be so popular this year. The weird thing is that we saw one sitting on a shelf at Target on a random Wednesday evening and my husband snuck it out of the store without her knowing. Well, I mean he paid for it, then snuck it out to the car. ;)
I'm keeping up with the December daily... here's our December 1st picture. It was our first snow of the year- not much, but enough to make a tiny snowman that we kept in the freezer until Daddy got home from work so he could see it, too.

Don't forget to leave a comment for the magazine... lots of inspiration and cool ideas every month in this one!

December Daily

2010-11-26T15:16:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year! We had a really great dinner and it was all low-fat, low-sodium because of my dad's post-heart attack diet. Nobody could tell a difference in the taste of anything and we all saved a billion calories probably!
Since the Holiday season is underway now, I thought I'd post my December Daily album. If you haven't heard of this or want to know more, check out Ali Edwards' blog for the details. Here are the shots of the cover and pages...

Supplies:
Fancy Pants Traditions Flocked Transparency
Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology Tickets
Slice + Noteworthy Design Card
Bazzill Kraft Cardstock
My Mind's Eye Lush Flocked Alphas in Red
Office Supply Tag from Staples
Jenni Bowlin Mini Bingo Card
Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprout and Corrugated Star (little gifts from CHA!)

I hand-stitched the "December" and thought about doing snowflakes on every page where the date would go. Then I decided that was WAY too much work, and stuck with cutting the numbers out with my Slice. The Pink Paislee tickets are a must have- 100 in a pack for $4 so I barely even put a dent in my supply of them.
My book will cover December 1 through 31, but I know some people are doing "12 Days of Christmas" and just documenting 12 days out of the season, some are just doing December 1 through 25th, and some are doing Thanksgiving through New Year's. Either way, it's a fun little project that you will really enjoy looking back on in years to come.
Is anyone else playing along with this? If so, leave a link- I'd love to see your albums, too!

Enchanted!

2010-11-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

I got to work with the American Crafts/Dear Lizzy Enchanted line this month at ACOT. I was a little unsure at first, but these pretty products really scrapped themselves! Lots of flowers, butterflies and straight up pretty in this line! I also used a large Jenni Bowlin rub-on butterfly on one of my new all-time favorite layouts. This is one for the frame that I switch out every so often... usually when I come up with a new favorite. :)

I loved the design of the laser cut paper, but it was originally blue. To match my photo, I flipped it over and sprayed the back with Brown Maya Mist. Wasn't my bff a beautiful bride?! Wasn't her boquet gorgeous??? Who made it you ask? Well, that would be my mom- she's really quite talented. And that dress I'm wearing... it has pockets, which is really quite genius if you ask me.

I also made a birthday card for a friend. She needed something big and pretty because she brings so much sunshine where ever she goes! :)

Notice those journaling tickets I used on EVERY project? They are completely awesome. I barely even put a dent in the box because there are SO many in there! I loved those things!
We're finishing up the last little things we can do at the house before the furnace and ductwork is installed. Then once they get that in, we have a few of our hardwood floors to refinish and we can MOVE IN. Finally! It's been a LOT of work and work and work, but it will be so worth it when we are finally done and living there. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Alpha Giveaway Winner!

2010-11-05T19:36:00.000-04:00

Happy Crop Day, everyone! All the fun is in full swing at A Cherry On Top for the fall crop! It goes through the weekend, so even if you can't devote a full day to it, just pop in when you have a few minutes. My crop class for a super cute 4x4 mini album is tonight at 8 pm EST, but if you can't make it the instructions will be posted after the crop, too.
Now for the big announcement.... Random.org has chosen #9 as the winner! That means that Sandy needs to send me her address so I can get her goodies out in the mail. You can e-mail me at sarahgreeneye(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Thanks for playing, everyone! Hope to see you this weekend at the crop! :)

Alpha Giveaway!

2010-11-02T07:04:00.000-04:00

While going through my stash, I realized I have several doubles of alphas, or ones I haven't used in awhile that need a good home, so here is an alpha giveaway!

Alphas included are Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types, Jenni Bowlin banner alpha, October Afternoon Boardwalk alpha, Fancy Pants Wishful Thinking Square Alphas, Scenic Route, Dear Lizzy Bliss Thickers and yes, those are the completely awesome Sass Lass chartruese Glitter Alphas (how did I end up with 3 of those?) . All you have to do to win is leave a comment! I will draw the winner Friday night right before my Christmas Mini Album Crop Class at A Cherry On Top at 8pm EST. Shipping to US residents only, please. Good luck! :)

My Newest Obsession + Crop Class Sneak

2010-10-21T16:24:00.000-04:00

I am just finishing up an on-line workshop with Amy Tan. She has been so inspirational over the past 2 weeks and I've learned a lot of fun ideas and little tricks. I'm so bummed tomorrow is the last day- I've really enjoyed having a little post from her each day. And her videos are seriously the cutest tutorial videos ever!
One little trick is how to make these minis/journals out of scraps and other goodies. It was so fun putting this together and now having it to flip through. I can honestly say I may never buy a pre-made chipboard mini again- these are way more creative and personal!

One day focused on fashion inspiration, so I used a page from my "Delights" journal to document my love for Miss Me's.

The next on-line crop at A Cherry On Top is November 5-7 and I'm teaching a mini-album class on Friday at 8 pm. These minis are 4x4, made of paper with a few stickers and some twine. Super fast and easy for gift giving or keeping for yourself! Hope to see you there!

Ready for a Snow Day?!

2010-10-18T20:25:00.000-04:00

Oh, I was one lucky girl this month when I got the Crate Paper Snow Day collection for my reveal at ACOT this month. I had been waiting impatiently since July when I saw it at CHA to get this in my hot little hands! My favorite colors ever and some fun bakers twine from The Twinery made some really cute layouts!

I've been really busy painting the house we've been remodeling. I have one more room to paint- my scrapbook room! It's going to be in Ralph Lauren Sunwashed Blue. Gorgeous. Cannot wait to get all my stuff moved in and all of my little bits organized in my card catalog!
Oh... and can you believe my little girly is FOUR? Either can I! Love these photos I took by our barn...

Have a fun week, everyone! :)

Scrapping with Bella Blvd.

2010-09-21T20:27:00.005-04:00

This month I was super lucky to get the Hello Beautiful and Happy Sunny Skies lines from Bella Blvd. for my reveal at A Cherry On Top! I did the first two layouts from Hello Beautiful and even managed to get a Fourth of July layout out of it! You can check out the reveal here.
I saved Happy Sunny Skies for the end because those are my favorite colors to scrap with- pinks, blues, yellows and greens! Very fun and girly- perfect for Miss Q!

In addition to those, I also had time to dive into my new Studio Calico kit and come up with this layout. I love all the Sass Lass in the Back 40 kit! And the Maya Rd. frames were so cute, too- lots of possibilities for those!

Another layout is in progress and I'm working on coming up with a mini album with a Christmas theme for the November crop at ACOT. Hopefully I can share a peek soon! Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

Sew Cute!

2010-09-09T20:00:00.006-04:00

I had to pop in to show off my new shirt! I signed up for this on-line workshop with Liz Kartchner, got the kit and got to work! It was fun to see the messages pop up in my inbox every day with new instructions and see how everyone else's shirts ended up. I think it turned out super cute... cute enough I may have to make a few as gifts this Christmas! ;)

Miss Q had her first day of Preschool this week. She asked me about 5 times if she got to stay there alone, so no worries about her missin' her mama or hanging on my leg when I dropped her off. Nope... she hung up her backpack and got to work going down the indoor slide. I love that there are just 9 kids in her class- makes it easy for the teachers to keep an eye on her long list of food allergies at snack time. And we've been able to match up allergen-free snacks pretty well with what the rest of the class is having. So here's Little Miss Independent on her first day...

And her very first ever homework assignment? To make a name banner. They supplied the banner and we did the rest at home. If only the next 13 years of school came with crafty homework, I'd be all set.

September Challenges!

2010-09-03T07:05:00.003-04:00

The September challenges are up at A Cherry On Top. You can see the long list of inspiration here. I alternate hosting the Scraplift the Guest CT Member and this was my month. This month's GCT is the super talented Mandi (averys_mom). Her layout had die-cut hearts in a column down the middle, but I replaced that with journaling about Quinn's favorites at three years old:

My Labor Day weekend plans are priming and painting my downstairs. The drywallers finished up earlier this week and now I have 5 rooms that are one big, blank canvas! If only I could make a decision on paint colors! Of course the scrapbook room was my first decision, the rest of the house is pretty much in the air right now, though. We're getting all supplies at Westside Decorating Center. I love that place. ;) I hope everyone has a fun, safe Labor Day weekend!

Happy About...

2010-08-28T09:09:00.006-04:00

This workshop I'm doing that starts next week with Liz Kartchner. Here's the goodies I got from her in the mail- doesn't she package things up so cute?!

The beginnings of Quinn's Halloween costume. She's going to be a cupcake, and so far we just have the headband made. That's the easy part. Check back with me in a month and see if we haven't given in to buying a costume yet. ;)

Beautiful summer weather...and fun little girls to enjoy it with.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

KaiserCraft Lush

2010-08-25T08:39:00.007-04:00

I had fun with the KaiserCraft Lush line this month at ACOT. The neutral colors went so well with my outdoors and beach vacation pictures! Here are a few of my favorites from the reveal...

KaiserCraft posted the link to the reveal on their facebook page and said they liked the layouts, so that was fun to see! I also LOVED the Core'dinations woodgrain cardstock I used on the sunset layout. I'm pretty sure I need more of it very soon.

And since it's almost time for back to school, here's a layout I did earlier in the summer of Quinn visiting preschool. This was my example of a scraplift of Leslie Williams for a challenge I host at ACOT. I used the Partly Sunny kit from Studio Calico, too.

And finally, Quinn enjoying the last lovely days of August. This is a big cedar tree at our house that's shaped kind of funny. She could play out there all day. It's been a car, a pirate ship, a castle, a house and a motorcycle. :)

School Year Pocket Album

2010-08-21T15:23:00.005-04:00

The instructions for the crop class I did at ACOT are now up! I made this cute little album using a Melissa Frances envelope album, October Afternoon journaling cards and stickers, Sass Lass alphas, K&Co. Handmade Alphabet cards, Fancy Pants paper and Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock. It goes together very quickly, too! We'll be taking a picture of her each month, then using the journaling cards to record what she has learned that month. Click here to see the step-by-step instructions.
The happy soon-to-be preschooler with her album:

Some of the inside pages:

Are you ready for back to school yet? We got this cute backpack from LL Bean, and now Quinn is more than ready to head off to preschool and play with her new friends.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! We're starting work on Quinn's Halloween costume this weekend. I figure if I start early enough and it doesn't work out, there's still time to buy something. LOL! ;)

Vintage Frame Project

2010-08-11T16:53:00.008-04:00

I bought these frames at the beginning of the summer and it's taken FOREVER for me to finally finish them! I was originally looking for one frame to turn into a magnetic chalkboard for my scrap room. I couldn't find one at the antique stores and the antique festival around here, so I went to the source of everything you could ever want... eBay. I found what I was looking for as a set of two, so I then planned on one for me and one for Quinn's new room.
I gathered my supplies: chalkboard paint, magnetic paint, spray paint. I spent days applying coats of paint, paint, paint and more paint. I have to say, as brilliant of an idea as it seemed, the magnetic paint was a let down. You have to use SUPER strong magnets, and even then I couldn't hold very thick paper (I applied the recommended 3 coats). And the darn paint was $21 a quart! The chalkboard paint was as cool as expected, though, so now Quinn has a slightly magnetic chalkboard in a really cool frame for her new, pink room.

Since the magnetic thing turned into a crafting fail, I decided to go another route with the one for my scraproom. I had originally thought of stringing thin wire across it and using little clips to hold my stuff kind of clothes line style. At CHA, inspiration struck in the Jillibean Soup booth. Or, more precisely, I stole their idea. They had smaller frames with chicken wire holding some of their new product and I decided THAT was my plan for this frame. I went out to our old, dark, cobweb-filled barn that has produced some pretty good treasures for me lately and found some old chicken wire. I spray painted it the same color as the frame, then used a staple gun to attach it to the back of the frame and trimmed the excess off. Now it's a super cute little holder of goods- little pictures, Studio Calico cards, cute little scrappy goods and some CHA swag. I used paper from Fancy Pants Wishful Thinking line and Mod Podge to cover small wood clothes pins to hold everything.

Supplies:
Rustoleum Magnetic Paint from Menards
Rustoleum Spray Paint in Berry Pink from Menards
Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint from Michael's
Wood Clothes Pins from Joann's
Paper and Mod Podge from A Cherry On Top. com

ACOT Crop this Weekend!

2010-08-06T17:46:00.006-04:00

A Cherry on Top is hosting another FAB crop this weekend! Lots of points, games, fun and scrapping! Oh, did I mention the prizes? Because they are quite awesome- tons of companies gave us goods at CHA to offer up for prizes- paper packs, tote bags, shirts! Lots of good stuff!

The first challenge is already up... a chance for a guest creative team spot for October! All you have to do is scraplift a Creative Team member. Here is my example- I scraplifted Sara Keiling:

I also haven't shared my last few reveals at ACOT, so here are a few of my faves from the past few months:

Fancy Pants Wishful Thinking

Echo Park Walk in the Park

I'm hosting a class for a school year memories album tonight at 9, then I'll be hosting games and a fast scrap at noon on Sunday. Hope to see you there!

CHA 2010 Wrap-up

2010-08-02T18:35:00.003-04:00

I have been so absent from this blog lately! Summer is just busy, busy, busy around here! We've taken a trip to Silver Lake, been working hard on getting our "real" house ready to move back into and last week I was at CHA in Chicago! It was my first time and definitely won't be my last. I had such a blast meeting up with my fellow ACOT Creative Team girls. You'd never know that some of us had never met before in person- we just had such a good time together. It's definitely a special group of ladies close to my heart! Here we are Tuesday night, quietly enjoying each others company. Or maybe not so quietly...

Seeing the sneak peeks on the computer is fun, but actually getting to see all of the new goods in person is WAY better! For one, I was not excited about the new Fancy Pants releases, which was bumming me out because I love them! BUT... in person it did more for me, and they're back on my must have list! Other lines I loved were Pink Paislee's Parisian Anthology, Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness and October Afternoon's Modern Homemaker. Jenni Bowlin has some SUPER cute new embellies that I need like the vellum butterflies and the mini chalkboard alphas. Studio Calico has new mists, including a WHITE one, and some completely awesome wood veneer alphas that are so on the top of my list! Echo Park... awesome! Wait until you see the Christmas lines! Maya Road had awesome make & takes... I would have loved to take their whole booth home. Every. Last. Thing. Oh, and Sass Lass! Yummy, yummy new stuff! Wait until you see these metal brooch flowers they have. They are to die for! Plus, I got to meet one of their designers, Kay, who I've talked with on-line before and she lives right by me, too, so that was a great added bonus at their booth!
So my favorite release? Crate Paper Restoration! I just love the colors and their papers always have the best texture I think. Maybe working on restoring our old farmhouse has me a bit biased, but I've heard other people say it was their favorite of the show, too! Here's a photo of it at their booth:

With all of the make & takes and goodies they're handing out all over the place, my suitcase weighed 10 more pounds when I left than when I came according to American Airlines' scale. Lots of great stuff- paper, a signed book, embellies, paints, mists, adhesive, tote bags & a water bottle are just some of my haul. It was a great, super fun week with lots of inspiration and ideas every time I turned around. I cannot wait until next summer!

Hopefully I can pop in later this week and show what I've been up with some old vintage frames. I made one for Quinn's room and one for my scrap room- they're different, but both totally cute! And pink, of course. ;)

7 Gypsies and Fireside Girls

2010-06-07T21:30:00.005-04:00

My latest reveal at A Cherry On Top was with a few of the newer 7 Gypsies lines, Avignon and Victoria. It was fun working with 2 completely different styles at the same time. They aren't normally styles that I would use, so it was also fun to work a little out of my comfort zone, too. Here are my 2 favorite projects from my reveal- I just loved using that little bird cage!

My daughter loves Phineas and Ferb on Disney, and I will even say that Daddy and I like them just as much. So when she was using her bath robe belt as a sash to be Isabella one day, I thought "Hey, I could make a sash pretty easily!" And I was right. Fifty cents worth of clearance fabric from JoAnn's and some scraps of felt later, we had a pretty good replica of a Fireside Girls sash! It just cracks me up every time I look at it! I went online and looked up some of the patches and we ended up making the Moving Mountains patch, Cupcake Delivery patch, I Just Saw a Cute Boy patch and the Marshmallow patch. Too funny if you ask me! :)

I'll be posting some pictures later from our Princess Day last week. It was lots of fun and turned out really cute! And I'm hoping to get some time to scrap tomorrow- summer sure does keep us busy!

Mojo Gone Wild!

2010-05-19T07:28:00.005-04:00

I have been in the mood to create, create, create! It seems like I have so many ideas and luckily have had the time to put most of them to use. It's probably thanks to all the rainy days we've had lately that have had us stuck inside the house!

For Mother's Day, I made a really cute little wall hanging for my mom's sewing room. I sprayed a Maya Road canvas banner album page with Maya Mist, then stitched on a quote. I painted and dressed up some of the Maya Road chipoard sewing pieces and added some buttons. I was so happy with the way it turned out- especially because I had no real plans going into it, just a blank canvas staring at me and I kind of went with the flow as it came together.

I have done a few sketch challenges lately at Studio Calico. The first one was for NSD- I had to jump on this one because I am so in love with cute banners right now! The second one was a sketch based on a layout by Maggie Holmes. I really like how it turned out with the yellow cardstock. I'm pretty sure I've never used yellow as a background before, but I really like it! And I am IN LOVE with the Sassafrass Lass alphas I used on this page- I have them in 3 colors and they are just the perfect size!

I also couldn't stop with the About A Girl line from Fancy Pants and did another layout with those papers. I used some Cream and Cotton Candy Maya Mist and really loved how this one turned out, too!

I've been working on cards a lot lately because I had an order for a set of 12 birthday cards. I'm usually not a card person, but the more I do them, the more ideas I get and it's been a lot of fun. I hope to share them here soon!

About A Girl

2010-05-03T21:14:00.004-04:00

For my reveal this month at A Cherry On Top, I used Fancy Pants new line About A Girl. I loved it- every last little scrap, button, rub-on and ribbon! I was so inspired to scrap it was like I couldn't stop! I even did one more layout not shown in my reveal.

I had to use the super cute rub-ons for something, so I made some gift tags. Super easy and quick with some office supply tags from Staples!

I've got a few other projects around here that I'll have to post later this week. I'm hoping to get time to accomplish some of the awesome challenges that were floating around over the weekend for National Scrapbooking Day!

Happy NSD!

2010-05-01T10:34:00.003-04:00

So, if you didn't know, today is National Scrapbooking Day! To celebrate, ACOT is having an on-line crop all weekend. I hostessed for 2 hours last night and had a blast giving away prizes from Creative Imaginations and American Crafts plus lots of points, too!

Tonight from 8-10 I'll be hostessing again. And guess what... I have more points and prizes to award! I have another prize from American Crafts for one lucky winner. Also, I will be doing a fast scrap at 8:00 and a challenge at 9:00. Want to know what the challenge will be? Well, of course I can't tell you... but I can show you the example I did for it.

So, it may give you a little clue... or not. ;) Come check it out at 9 for all the details.

I'll be going to Scrapbooks Galore & More in Midland later today for their awesome sales and to pick up some Maya Mist I have waiting for me. So excited for that! :) I'm hoping to get a few challenges done at Studio Calico this weekend, too. Monday I'll be back to share my next reveal for ACOT- Fancy Pants About A Girl line. I totally LOVED it! Have a fun, productive scrappy day!

Weekend Plans

2010-04-28T07:27:00.002-04:00

This weekend is going to be a busy one! The fun starts Friday with the A Cherry On Top NSD 3 day online crop. Yes- 3 days around the clock! I'm hostessing 2 shifts- from 8-10 on Friday and Saturday nights when I'll be bringing you 2 challenges and a fast scrap! There are also lots of games, points and PRIZES planned. And when I say prizes, I mean nice, big ol' prizes! Oh, and at 9:00 pm on Friday there is a chat with a designer from My Mind's Eye. It's always interesting to hear what the designers have to say about their process.

Saturday I'm taking engagement pictures at Dow Gardens where the tulips and apple trees are all in bloom and beautiful! Misty and Kevin are going to have some gorgeous photos! After that, I have to make a stop in to my LSS for their NSD festivities, which include picking up a nice bunch of Maya Mist they just ordered.

Also, the May kit just released at Studio Calico. I got the main kit, Granny's Cupboard, and the first add-on, Linens and Lace, PLUS some Girls Paperie flowers. Cute. Love it.

I hope everyone has a fun, busy, scrapbooking filled weekend. I know I will! :)

Little Sewing Project

2010-04-13T17:00:00.004-04:00

I had seen a bunch of cute camera strap covers all over the web and finally decided to make one myself. Couldn't be too hard... right? I always think this about sewing projects, then they get left half done or I get so mad at my sewing machine (because it's always the machine's fault you k now...) that I give up. Reminds me of the half finished quilt top sitting in a plastic tote my mom finally made me take back to my house or the half finished iPod case that I just found while looking for fabric for this project. Anyway, this one really WAS easy. I swear! You could definitely do this in under an hour if you have even beginner sewing skills.

I know-you totally want one now, right?! Well, here's the linky for the tutorial on how to make your own. I found it at Priddy Creations right HERE. Super easy, super cheap and super cute!!!

I also did a layout the other day for a sketch challenge at Studio Calico. I used some brown Maya Mist, which is totally my new favorite. Until I get my next bottle, which hopefully is soon. I just bought out my LSS and put in a *little* request for more colors. :) This was using the March Joyland kit, which I just got the night before and couldn't wait to get my hands into it!

What's Cool at My House... today at least

2010-03-30T10:58:00.002-04:00

Here's my top 5 for today- I know you've all been dying to know what I'm into lately. ;)

1. Cute Cardigans
I love a 3/4 sleeve cardi with a cute tank or t-shirt underneath. A comfy outfit for home or even dressed up a little for work. And there are like a ton of designs out now- plain, ruffles, flowers- whatever you want. And lots of colors, too- I currently have white, cream, several black ones, turquoise and green. Pink is next on my list, of course. :)

2. Eloise- we've watched a few of the movies and lugged home every Elosie book the library has. Then we have to re-enact Eloise. I always have to be Nanny. Better than being Weenie, I guess.

3. Fancy Pants Road Show
I think this line was made just for me. I love every last little thing and am really thinking I need two packs of this paper. I've seriously been saving pictures for this line ever since I saw the CHA sneak peeks back in January!

4. Princess and the Frog
We've watched this movie at least 10 times since it came out a few weeks ago. It's a cute story and the songs are great! I even listen to them in the car by myself. If we aren't playing Eloise, we are playing Princess and the Frog. And somehow I'm usually the Shadow Man. Although I was once allowed to be Lottie, but that didn't last long.

5. Pepsi Throwback
I'm lovin' this stuff. Not the calories, but whatever. It's supposedly a "Limited Time" thing, so I look at it as indulging in a treat that won't be around for long. Although knowing me, I will stock up on it when it starts disappearing from stores and will have such a stockpile that it will be around until they "bring it back from the vault" or whatever their marketing ploy will be. Just like those darn coconut M&Ms.

Canvas Banner Birthday Fun

2010-03-20T19:03:00.003-04:00

For my mom's 50th birthday, I wanted to make her something really cool... so I did. :) Studio Calico had a banner project kit as an add-on last month, which made this really easy to put together. The Maya Road canvas banner album was the base, with some additional canvas included to add photos using HP Iron-on Transfer Paper. The kit included a few pieces of fabric to make some fabric flowers, some of the new Making Memories felt embellishments and ribbon for connecting everything. I used some Heidi Grace chipboard alphas backed with cardstock to spell out "Henny", my daughter's name for her. It really was quite fun to make and came together quickly. I also sprayed the banners with Cream Maya Mist first for a fun look. Maya Mist is my new obsession. I'm lovin' it more than Glimmer Mist for it's bolder color and coverage. It also doesn't curl the paper- a huge plus in my book!

I'm working with one of the new Cosmo Cricket lines for next month... Material Girl. So, so cute! I love Cosmo for their fun strips and card sheets that give you a ton of options. I've got lots of ideas for layouts for this line, so keep watching!

Lovin' the Homespun!

2010-03-14T16:01:00.006-04:00

This month I was one lucky girl and got to use the new Jenni Bowlin Homespun line along with her new embellishments for my reveal at A Cherry On Top.

These pages came together so quickly! Everything coordinated so well, even with older pieces, such as the cute calendar card on the page about our family Valentine dinner. The papers reminded me so much of vintage fabric that my Grandma Avery would have had stashed away, and the embellies were gorgeous- vintage buttons, pretty stick pins and great butterflies.

My favorite turned out to be this card. I misted it with Blue Skies Glimmer Mist for the sky, then "hung" the little dress and banner stickers.

All of the layouts had to do with food... must have been hungry that week! :)

I'm so glad it's finally starting to look more like Spring and less like a frozen tundra out there. This was our first day that it was nice enough to ditch the coats for just a few minutes to get a few fun pictures in...

PageMaps Layout!

2010-03-02T19:57:00.003-05:00

I was so excited to find out that the Creative Team at ACOT were asked to do layouts for Becky Fleck at PageMaps this month! We each got our own sketch, and it was really fun to see what everyone else got and how their layouts turned out. I absolutely LOVED my sketch and had the page done in no time at all! You can check out the sketches on the PageMaps site for the rest of the month. Here is my layout using Fancy Pants papers and rub ons, the Martha Steward Classic Butterfly Punch, Sassafrass Lass flowers and an October Afternoon flashcard.

The new challenges for March are also up at ACOT, and the challenge I posted this month was to scraplift our Guest Creative Team member. I'm totally lovin' the big Fancy Pants chipboard scalloped circle. And really, that picture of my little fries is so darn cute I can hardly stand it!

I'm really excited about the Patchwork add-on kit I ordered from Studio Calico. I really cannot wait to get that box in the mail this month! It's going to be the CUTEST little banner for my mom's 50th birthday later this month! Stay tuned for pictures! :)

Check it out!

2010-02-25T09:03:00.003-05:00

This weekend there is an on-line crop at A Cherry On Top! Lots of fun, challenges and prizes!
It starts Friday at 3 and goes until Sunday night. Come check it out!

My last reveal at ACOT was with the Basic Grey Sugar Rush line. I LOVED working with this line- I ended up with some of my favorite layouts ever!

I'm really looking forward to the new CHA arrivals. Some of the things I can't wait to get my hands on are:

Fancy Pants Roadshow- I have a TON of ideas for this line!

The entire Maya Road release. Really- the entire thing! Canvas banners, sewing themed chipboard, kraft envelopes, library cards... I just can't wait! :)

American Crafts Dear Lizzy line:
These ribbons are just some of the cute and fun items from her line. What I'm really looking forward to is her fabric paper!

Don't forget to check out the crop this weekend! I'll be hostessing from 8-10 on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday I'm hosting a challenge and Sunday I have a fast scrap (start thinking of a movie title...) :)

That's What She Said!

2010-02-02T12:03:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to put a book together of all the funny things Quinn says. There seem to be more and more of them lately, and between my memory and various Post-it's floating around my purse and the house, they were bound to get lost.
After looking at things for months, I finally found the perfect solution- the Jenni Bowlin Mini Circle Label papers! I couldn't find them because they were sold out everywhere I looked, so my awesome LSS ordered them for me (thanks, Cari!).
I adhered the pages back to back, then punched holes that I added some felt flowers to. I used a binder ring and tied some 7 Gypsies binding ribbon to it, which will make it easy to add pages later. The Jenni Bowlin Chalkboard Alphas were perfect for the cover page!

And a peek at a few of the inside pages:

Since you can't read it too well, I must share and give you a giggle for the day:
"Mama, hiccups are like a squeaky toy in my mouth!"
Quinn looked at her watch and said "It's fifty cents until Daddy gets home!"

I'm looking forward to filling up this book, and with the things she says and does lately, it shouldn't take long at all! :)

One More Sketch

2010-01-21T08:32:00.005-05:00

Here is my layout from the last sketch for the week, one our CT member Juliana made for us!

I loved this sketch and pretty much followed it just as it was. The Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses line was perfect for this page about Quinn's new stocking this year. Actually, that line is good for just about any photos! For my journaling, I used my sewing machine to stitch journaling lines. It was quick and easy to do following some light pencil lines I drew and ties in with the whole "handmade" idea of the page. I used some of the circle stickers from the sticker element sheet and topped them with some of the transparent buttons from the button package for the circles on the sketch.

Here's a few close-ups of the details:

Next week the rest of the Creative Team will be sharing their layouts from these sketches following different themes. Be sure to check them out!

Spectacular Sketchapalooza!

2010-01-20T08:33:00.004-05:00

This week the ACOT Creative Team is doing an awesome sketch-filled reveal! We used 3 layout sketches and a card sketch to get some creativity flowing following 3 themes: Boys, Adult Women and Holidays.

Here is my layout from today's reveal using a sketch provided to us by Becky Fleck at PageMaps:

I loved this sketch and the layout came together quickly. The Christmas Magic line from Fancy Pants is one of my favorite Christmas lines, so I was lucky to be able to use it for my reveal.

As soon as I saw the paper with the large ornaments, I knew I wanted to cut them out, and the circles in the sketch were the perfect place to "hang" them using some baker's twine. I used a few strips from the strips paper for the middle and some of the buttons from this line for the other circles (I seriously LOVE these buttons!). I thought the name of this line was perfect for this photo, and used Christmas Magic for my title and in my journaling.
You can check out the other layouts the CT did using this sketch here.

Tomorrow I'll show you the cool sketch our own CT member, Juliana, did for us and the fun layout I did with that. It's got lots of pink and is one of my faves! :)

Happy 2010!

2010-01-06T22:28:00.003-05:00

Well, now that the holidays are over, I'm back into the regular swing of things. We had a really great Christmas and are looking forward to a new year full of family, fun, learning and creativity!

I had to share Quinn's new stocking, even though it's a little late for Christmas crafts. I am still just so excited with how it turned out! While looking through some of my mother-in-law's Christmas decorations, I found a cute stocking and Quinn just so happened to need one- she still had a small pink baby one, but Santa brings bigger things now. ;) It had a Christmas tree with buttons decorating it, but I wanted to make it more personal like one I had growing up. We removed the buttons and tree and headed to JoAnn's, where Quinn picked out green felt for a large Q. I traced a big chipboard Q I had in my scrappy stash on the felt, cut it out, then used a blanket stitch to attach it to the stocking. I had to Google "blanket stitch" because I can never quite remember how to do that. When I took the original tree off, it tore the fabric a little, so I added the row of red ribbon which covered it up perfectly. I put the original buttons back on over the ribbon and, as Quinn would say... TA-DA!! A cute, new personalized stocking all her own! It was fun making it together (I loved her encouragement- "you're doing a good job, Mama!") and I love that it is something special that she can have to remember Grandma by each Christmas.

One more note... the ACOT Creative Team is putting together something really exciting for later this month. I can't wait to share it with everyone, so stay tuned!

A little Persuasion!

2009-12-16T22:16:00.007-05:00

OMGosh! My latest reveal at A Cherry On Top was my favorite one yet! I LOVED every last little bit of this line- the colors were fun, the patterns were pretty and there were buttons. I am a total button junkie, so this was the icing on the cake for me!

I did one page with a quote that I had been saving for quite awhile... just waiting for the right page. I knew I wanted to use this picture of Quinn and Grandma with some journaling about Grandma's love for Quinn and their special relationship in the hopes that Quinn will have some memory of this in the future. By cutting the die cut sheet in 2 pieces, I could use the smaller one for my lengthy journaling.

The other 3 layouts I did were fun ones using lots of the buttons, stickers and cut-out pieces from this line. My favorite one was of Quinn and Daddy on her birthday- partly because the pictures are so natural and fun (okay... and cute!) and partly because those super cute Pink Paislee alphas went so well with this line! The girly layout was fun to put together with all the pink, and the one of Quinn and her little cousin are in a scrapbook on their way to Texas as a Christmas gift right now!

I had more ideas and projects I wanted to do with this awesome line, but 'tis the season and presents need wrapping, cookies need baking and stockings need large felt Q's stitched on them.

Cutest. Hat. Ever.

2009-12-07T07:12:00.008-05:00

So seriously, is this not the cutest hat or what?! Not to mention the model :)

I found this hat on Etsy by Sparkleberry Crafts. She has a ton of cute, made to order hats for every size, and even some boy hats, too! Lots of colors, designs and different gorgeous flowers. I think my next purchase will be the Sandy- love the colors and BIG flower! Now go check out her shop! :)

Christmas Cards are DONE!

2009-12-01T12:48:00.004-05:00

This was the first year I was adventurous enough to make my own cards. I always did the photo cards, and last year even designed my own with a digital scrapbooking kit. I did feel bad that I never actually signed the cards- our names were on there & there wasn't any room to write a little note. So, I thought making my own would be fun and a little more personal. I got an idea from Scrapbook Trends Holiday magazine, and adapted it a little bit.

I sewed a regular card on three sides to make a pocket and used a circle punch to punch half of a circle at the top to let the photo peek out. I had some of last year's Basic Grey Wassail line left over to use, which really matched quite well with this year's Fancy Pants Christmas Magic line. All the cards are a little different, but I added buttons, chipboard, Stickles and some really great pearls that couldn't have matched more perfectly! The Fancy Pants Cards sheet was cute, perfect and couldn't have made making your own cards any easier! Oh, and I used Velvet Red and Pearl Glimmer Mist on all of the cards before adding the papers and they really gave the cards a little shimmery, festive touch!
It was more work than I realized, but it was still fun and it's possible I'll do it again next year. I really like the photo pocket idea- it's cute and easy, so perhaps that will be my trademark Christmas card design! ;)

Here are a few of my favorites~

ACOT Crop This Weekend!

2009-11-21T15:31:00.003-05:00

Well, my hostessing duties are over for this crop, and boy am I pooped! So many games, points, fast scraps and challenges really must wear me out!
I came up with a challenge for the crop- an art inspiration piece using this playbill:

There are so many fun elements to this one- the colors, the stitching and sewing elements, the design... I could go on and on! Take what you like and turn it into a layout, then upload it to the gallery for Challenge #6! While you're there, check out the games and classes that are happening- there are lots of great ideas for hand-made gifts for the holidays, or just fun stuff to keep for yourself!

25 Days of Christmas

2009-11-17T08:23:00.006-05:00

My reveal at A Cherry On Top yesterday was for the Little Yellow Bicycle 25 Days of Christmas line. This was an elegant line filled with traditional christmas colors with a little gold and silver thrown in. There were swirls, reindeer, glitter and tons of fun embellishments! There are so many choices with this line- many double-sided papers that are glossy and gorgeous!

I was able to make this simple but beautiful layout with the glittered die-cut poinsettia sheet of cardstock. I just layered it on a matching cardstock background and with some gold letters and ribbon, it was complete.

I was also able to make a layout with a more fun feeling with this line. I cut some of the papers into strips (and used my new EK Success large scalloped punch- I am so in love with it!), used the fun chipboard button embellishments and some snowflakes for embellishments. One of the fabric tags is on there, too- one of my favorite parts of this line! I used their mini alphas for the title and sprayed a little Pearl Glimmer Mist on for good measure. :)

I also made this Christmas card with some of the papers and one of the fabric tags. It is a fun way to include a photo with your cards- I sewed 3 edges of the cards to make a pocket to slip the photo into, then used a circle punch to punch a half circle in the top for the photo to peek out of. When you mention sewing, it automatically sounds time consuming and maybe a little difficult. I promise it's not! If you just do them all at once, you can get them done quickly! And if you're not into sewing or don't have a sewing machine, just use adhesive to stick the sides together, and you'll get the same effect!

Don't forget (like you would anyway, right?!) about the crop at ACOT this week starting Friday at 3 and going until Sunday night. I have a fun fast scrap planned for Friday and a challenge on Saturday, so be sure to check them out. There will be lots of fun, games, classes and points handed out! See you there!

Some Favorites Right Now...

2009-11-12T09:36:00.003-05:00

How come it's only the beginning of November and I'm already busy with holiday stuff?! My next projects for A Cherry on Top will be revealed Monday, so pop back here then to check them out!

Until then, a few of my favorite things right now:

Pearl Glimmer Mist- it adds the perfect touch of shimmer to any project! I've been using it on EVERYTHING! If you only buy one bottle of Glimmer Mist, make it Pearl!

Basic Grey Nook & Pantry- This line is so fun and cute and makes me want to bake all day!

Mint M&Ms- they're only here at Christmas, so I think I'm going to buy Target's inventory of them so I can make them last through the year. Or at least through January maybe.

My new bathtub- I love it. The bathroom is far from being done (it's a former upstairs bedroom), but it's getting there. The tub is particularly nice for sitting in while watching your husband assemble sink faucets and other bathroom plumbing stuff that you have no idea what it is or what it does and you have no desire to know. He really likes it if you cheer him on and tell him what a nice job he's doing while you pop the bubbles from the bubble wrap the tub came shipped in.
Studio Calico's Flea Market add-on kit- it's sold out so I am SO glad I got one! Is the sewing machine stamp not the cutest or what?! And don't get me started on the Hambly dress form paper!

I have been bitten...

2009-11-01T21:43:00.011-05:00

by the photography bug! I just finished a 6 week workshop from Maggie Holmes. She was an amazing teacher- her little tips and tricks were so helpful and she really made everything easy to understand. I would definitely recommend this workshop to anyone who would like to learn how to shoot in manual with a DSLR. I'm hoping she holds an advanced class next year- if so, I am so signing up! :)

One of the girls in the class formed a Facebook group for us so we can all stay in touch and come up with some of our own challenges for each other (thanks, Becky!). I have gotten a lot of great ideas from them and found some great websites for inspiration and tips.

Prop Insanity: This site has tons of links to places (mostly etsy!) to buy props, printing sites, plus a blog where they feature tips, freebies, fun prop ideas and do-it-yourself tricks. Lots of links to super sweet props for newborn photos. You will seriously not believe how stinkin' cute they are!

The Maternal Lens: A really fun blog with more tips, links and great inspiration.

Natalie B Photography: She is a photographer from Michigan, not too far from me, with some beautiful photos!

The Album Cafe: They have a lot of card and book templates, business cards, actions and even some fun freebies. Such a cute site!

I know you're dying to see my newly acquired skills, so enjoy! :)

And one more from Halloween, because it's really just too cute to not share it. :)

Halloween Cards

2009-10-20T09:18:00.004-04:00

I've been a little pressed for time lately, so I made some really quick and easy Halloween cards this year. Simple? Yes. Still cute and fun? Yes!
I used the Fancy Pants Trick or Treat Strips and the My Mind's Eye Boo! To You! Accessory Sheet for these. I cut & adhered the strips, then used foam pop-dots to adhere the die cuts. Done. So simple!

I'm hoping to get out and take some practice photos today & tomorrow for the last week of the photography workshop I'm taking. I have some fun ideas, so I'm hoping the weather holds out and lets me get downtown for some great backdrops! Stay tuned for more photos!

Fancy Pants Dancing Girl Reveal at ACOT

2009-10-19T07:34:00.005-04:00

I was SO excited to get to work with the Dancing Girl line this month. Pinks, purples, girly doodles... all right up my alley! Plus I had some great tutu pictures to scrap and a birthday coming up, so it was perfect!

First I made this KaiserCraft cupcake album with Quinn's birthday photos. It was a lot of fun to put together. I think this line has the perfect colors and patterns to go with the cupcake theme! It also has a lot of pink & diamond Stickles because a cupcake shaped album with pink & purple papers is really just asking for it I think. ;)
Here are a few photos. You can see the whole book here.

I also did two layouts- both of Quinn wearing the tutus I made for her awhile back. I used a lot of the Dancing Girl Journaling Notebook as paper layers on these layouts. The notebooks are really versatile in that way- I've even seen the pages used as bases for cards and the entire notebook as a mini album.

The first layout I used one of the transparencies, which I have never done before. It was a really easy way to add to the layout, and it even included the title for me. Now I can hoard more of my Thickers! I matted the small photo with one of the stickers from the sticker sheet and used some of the fun ball trim.

Since I made the tutu and fabric flowers on Quinn's outfit on the next layout, I thought it would be fun to add some machine stitching. I love stitching on layouts, and even though it looks time consuming, it really only took about 5 minutes! It is an easy, inexpensive way to dress up your layouts. This one is my favorite of the bunch. I used some of the more subtle papers for this and I really like the color combo here! I also love, love, love buttons and I thought these buttons from Fancy Pants added a cute little touch!

Later this week I'm going to share some quick and fun Halloween cards I'm sending out this year. :)

Some Favorites for Today

2009-10-10T13:27:00.005-04:00

Here are just a few things that have made me happy lately...

This fun photo I took at the pumpkin farm:

And this awesome Jenni Bowlin Core'dinations cardstock. Fun, sandable, color core cardstock embossed with JB designs. Too much fun! :)

Hopefully the sun stays out and the rain stays away for a little while longer this afternoon so I can work on taking some photos for the photography workshop I'm doing. Now that would make me REALLY happy! :)

So much to do, so little time!

2009-10-06T09:46:00.007-04:00

If somebody gave me 10 minutes of free time, I would fill it up with 20 minutes of things to do! It seems like it's non-stop going around here lately, but that's a good thing. I don't even remember what life was like before having a little girl around to fill my time!
I've been taking a photography workshop, and I've learned so much! I actually know what all those settings and little things in the viewfinder mean now. I am really happy with my progress and practicing has been fun. I also got a few actions for Photoshop from Maggie Holmes, and they are awesome and so much fun to play around with.

The Original

Urban Sunkissed

Urban Antique

I also went to a crop a few weeks ago, where I really got a lot done- I did 9 pages and started a mini album. Here is my favorite from that weekend, which is really one of my all-time favorite layouts I think! I used the Basic Grey Lemonade line, some fun Prima Cherry Blossom branches and some really awesome Jenni Bowlin Coredinations embossed cardstock. I bought a whole pack of it and can't wait to use more!

Ooh La La!

2009-09-24T21:52:00.006-04:00

I'm excited to share my reveal layouts from A Cherry On Top this week! I got to work with the new My Mind's Eye Ooh La La line. It was really like two lines in one with a For Him and a For Her.

The For Him had the perfect colors for a few pictures I had been wanting to scrap for awhile- one of my husband and I by our barn and a nice outdoor photo of a fun family day this past spring.

The For Her line had really great colors for girly pages. Lots of pink, turquoise and some really fabulous die cut embellies! I used just about every single one of them up on the 2 layouts I did with this line. My favorite layout of all was Girl of Summer- I just love the velvet bow and the butterflies!

Thanks to ACOT for the awesome papers to work with! I had so much fun putting these layouts together. Can't wait for my next reveal!

Tutu Cute!

2009-09-13T10:23:00.005-04:00

The past 3 days, Quinn has insisted on wearing her tutu. All day. Everywhere we go. I decided it might be nice for her to have another one (even the neighbor said "Oh, you're wearing your tutu again today!). So off to Etsy I went in search of a new one, or at least a pattern for one. Then I realized there was probably a free tutorial out there somewhere, and I hit the jackpot! I found the best one at the vermillion rules! blog (you can get the instructions by clicking here). If you have time, read her blog posts- she will crack you up!
Within an hour of reading the directions, we were ready & out the door to JoAnn's. Quinn chose bright pink, purple and light pink for her tutu. It took a better part of the day to cut and attach the tulle, but it was more than worth it! I definitely think I could do the next one quite a bit faster now that I know what I'm doing. Quinn loves her tutu and has been dancing around the house & the yard all morning. I'm thinking of making a brown & cream or brown & orange for a trip to the pumpkin farm & some fall/birthday photos. These are so much fun to make and very easy! Is there ever an occaision where adults can wear tutus without looking a bit too eccentric? Because I really kind of want one for myself! ;)

A Fun Family Photo Project

2009-09-12T18:53:00.014-04:00

I've been wanting to get this project done for a few weeks now and last weekend we got some good pictures to go along with it. I saw this little wooden house wall hanging at Michael's in the clearance bin and immeditately thought of the Jenni Bowlin HOME Bingo card. This little project was so fun and came together quickly (as all exciting projects do when the mojo is flowing!).
First I painted the edges of the wood with brown paint. Then I used Mod Podge to adhere the Jenni Bowlin print paper for the roof, sanded and inked the edges, then added another coat of Mod Podge over it to seal the edges. More Mod Podge adhered the Bingo card.
I printed out 4 small index sized photos and matted them with a bracket shaped paper that I cut out using the Noteworthy design card for the Slice (LOVE that card!). I used some of the small Basic Grey Eva buttons for little embellishments and adhered them with Glue Dots. I added a Chatterbox chipboard butterfly embellie over the star- I liked the extra touch of green it added to go with the green in the photos.
I used a few short quotes about family & home, then distressed & inked the edges and adhered them. The house originally had wooden beads on either side of the roof on the string, but I took those off and added a few short pieces of ribbon instead. I'm really happy with how this turned out! Thanks for taking a peek!

Halloween is only 55 days away!

2009-09-06T21:54:00.007-04:00

You wouldn't know it if you came to my house, though. It would seem like it's next week! I have been busy making Halloween decorations. Last year I realized my decorations for this holiday were pretty sparse and since Quinn is getting older, I decided I need to add to our collection. First this week, I made the Halloween Banner from the crop last weekend at A Cherry On Top. I used the MMME Boo! To You! line for it and it turned out so cute! Cindy had great, detailed instructions that you can find here.

Next, I used the remainder of that paper pack for this wreath I made with instructions from one that Making Memories had at their CHA booth this summer.

I won't even pretend to be modest here... that wreath is AWESOME!! I find myself just staring at it from time to time. :) I used one 10 inch foam wreath, 8 sheets of paper (cut into approximately 384 quarter inch strips!), about 4-5 sticks of hot glue, 4 die cuts that came with the pack and several hours of my life. It was totally worth it, though. I'm thinking of replacing those die cuts with some from the Pink Paislee Twilight line, but they're sold out right now, so I'll have to wait to see on that.
I wanted to use the letters on it, so I glittered them up and put them on, but they blended into the wreath too much. In a moment of pure genius, I cut out the cute bracket shapes using the Slice Noteworthy design card and used them as a base for the letters. It was one of those moments when a plan just comes together perfectly! That could be my favorite part of the whole thing!
If you want to try your hand at making one of these, you can get the instructions here.

Happy (really early) Halloween crafting!

My Paul Frank Obsession

2009-09-01T20:31:00.002-04:00

I met Julius, the Paul Frank monkey, back in high school when my sister had a Julius shirt. When she told me it was now at Target, I couldn't believe it! Paul Frank has a collection of kid's clothes at Target and they are the CUTEST! Quinn's wardrobe has expanded slightly since my first sighting and it all started with this rain coat my sister sent from her Target:

Then I found this shirt, which she wears as soon as it's clean every time

Then I picked up this hoodie for a Christmas gift because it's a little big right now, and the jammies for her birthday:

Then yesterday I found one more shirt, but I'll save that for her birthday, too. Which I cannot believe is only a month from today! How did I end up with a 3 year old?! I must say, though, 3 is a pretty fun age- the things she says and does amaze me, crack me up, and make me realize how lucky I really am. :)

How much fun can one girl have?!

2009-08-30T13:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I scrapped for 13 hours straight (well, okay- there was talking, eating, a little spa action & of course some shopping thrown in there, too) at Scrapbooks Galore & More in Midland. This store has the latest & greatest supplies and the best staff around! Those ladies really know how to throw a party! They had an awesome goodie bag (mine was a super cute My Mind's Eye bag- yay!) and I was even lucky enough to win a sample pack of the new Fancy Pants lines. I've looked through it about 6 times now and can't wait for the rest of the lines to make it to the stores!
The online crop at A Cherry On Top is still going strong today. I was so exctied to see so many people participate in my fast scrap on Friday- everyone did an awesome job and the little fry boxes were so fun to make! There's about 8 more hours of challenges, games and fast scraps left, so head on over there for some great ideas and lots of fun!

Ready to crop?!

2009-08-28T10:34:00.003-04:00

Today is the first day of the weekend long crop at A Cherry On Top! I'm looking forward to having lots of time this weekend to get a few projects done that I've been working on and to start a few more. Before the crop starts I have to get to the grocery store, get more photo printer ink, print some photos & pack up my supplies to go to Scrapbooks Galore & More tomorrow morning. Oh, and possibly pick up that really cute purse I saw yesterday, but didn't buy. Busy, busy, busy! My mom will be here later today to watch Quinn for the weekend so I can join in all the fun. She's awesome like that. :)
Aren't these little fry boxes the cutest? If you want to learn how easy they are to make, be sure to be at ACOT today at 5:00 sharp!

New scrappy goodies!

2009-08-24T21:30:00.004-04:00

I picked up an order at ACOT today and luckily Quinn fell asleep in the car on the way home. I carried her in and put her down on the couch and dug in! I got a few things for future projects and some stuff for the crop this weekend. I'm interested in Cindy's Halloween banner class, so I got the My Mind's Eye Boo! To You! package and ribbons. Too cute! I'm also using a sheet of this paper for an example for my fast scrap project, which is at 5:00 on Friday.

Another item I ordered is the KaiserCraft Beyond the Page Cupcake Album. Quinn's 3rd birthday is just over a month away and this album will be PERFECT for all the photos. It even comes with 3 candles and a cherry embellishment, so I'm pretty sure they had me in mind when designing this!
I must do some photo editing and printing so I'm all ready for the big crops this weekend. ACOT's crop is Friday through Sunday and is always lots of fun. I had a blast guest hostessing the crop in May, so I'm excited to hostess again on Friday evening. Saturday I'll be cropping at Scrapbooks Galore & More with Theresa and Jan (aka Venus70 and GrandmaFlowers) at their anniversary crop. They are the nicest, friendliest LSS I've ever been to and I'm super excited for this weekend!

I have a BLOG!

2009-08-21T22:08:00.002-04:00

I'd been thinking about starting a blog for awhile and finally took the plunge today. It was much easier than I thought it would be to get started and lots of fun to set it all up. I'll have to play around with it and add some more fun stuff over the weekend.
Today I picked up an order of scrappy supplies for my first reveal at A Cherry On Top, so I'll be spending some time this weekend playing with those. For some crazy reason, I also decided to have a bit of an impromptu garage sale tomorrow, so that should be interesting. It was way more work to get ready than I thought it would be, so I hope everything sells & I don't have to worry about putting it away again!

Have a good weekend!