Itsy Bitsy Spider

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I haven't blogged in over a week, which is soo not my norm, but I've been busy celebrating my now three (or "free" as she says it) year old's birthday, going to pre-school Halloween parties, helping my oldest daughter dress up every day last week for various activities at school - superhero day, camo day, book character day and more.  We also went through some evaluations for my oldest daughter and found out she has severe ADHD possibly coupled with something else that I'm not ready to blog about yet since we need to do more evaluations but either way, we are so relieved that we are starting to get some answers to things we've all been struggling with! 

Anyway, I was just trying to say that we've been busy but I'm here today to show you a couple of things I made for Halloween. The first is a tribute to Reese's favorite nursery rhyme (last year). It just made sense to dress her as a spider for Halloween last year.

I used the Bella Blvd Too Cute to Spook product line that I won in a Bella Blvd contest a couple of months ago.  It's just too perfect for my cute little spider girl!  Lots of fussy cutting, hand stitching and machine stitching but oh so worth it! I made one of those spiders with my sewing machine!

Love the clouds and those little stars were very tedious to cut and glue.  Some are even popped up.

Thanks Bella for the great line to work with!

The next is a little Halloween project I created for Imaginisce.  If you have kids, you've probably been Boo'd by another neighbor kid but if this is new to you basically, you leave a little "boo" gift and poem by the front door, then ring the doorbell and hide.  If you're good and hide like a ghost, they never know who boo'd them.  Anyway, I created these little "Boo" candy corn door hangers, which contain you guessed it - candy corn.

I made a little cone out of scrap paper to get it the shape I wanted and then I used that pattern to cut the different colors.  I cut the yellow a little bigger on the top and then gave it a pretty trimming with a punch.  I used white for the entire cone and stitched the orange and yellow to the white, adhered it with ultra strong glue.  Then I used a Martha Stewart lace punch to create the pretty lace handle.  I cut out some of the lace on the handle and threaded black ribbon through it for that "extra touch".  I found the mini chalkboard signs at Joann's. I painted the frame orange and wrote "BOO" in chalk. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Holding the Future in our Hands

I LOVE the January challenge over at Crop Suey. Mia provided an ad as inspiration for us.  I used a sketch from the Design Dollies December sketch challenge. At first I was going to play off of the retro vibe and the tv and do a layout on my favorite classic Christmas cartoons but then I realized I'd be posting this well after the holidays so I switched gears. I looked at the ad more closely and had an A-HA moment.  I had the perfect picture and the title was right there in front of me.  So, here's the ad and my layout.

I wanted to keep this layout as clutter-free as possible because of the delicate nature of it. I found some really pretty black lace to help soften up the layout, added some flowers, including one hand-made from ruffled ribbon and added a little pearly bling.  I usually shy away from stickers but they were in the kit and I am so glad they were.  These are 12" border stickers that I cut up.  I applied them to the upper right of the layout. There are two there - one symbolizes the newness of bringing baby home and getting settled in to a routine.  I applied the second one to a darker cream colored scalloped border sticker which has a nice little design on it and says "November", which is when this photo was taken.  Thanks for looking.

Supplies: Scrapbook Circle Kit - Pink Paislee Amber Road Collection: Autumn Blossom, Apple Cider and Paislee Postcard pattern papers, Borderline Stickers; Jenni Bowlin Border Stickers Black; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Alphas; Handmade: ribbon flower at top; Tattered Angels Mist - brick & charcoal; CTMH: Pearls, Stocking Style stamp, white crocheted flowers, Garden Green & White Daisy ink; Glossy Accents; Other: black lace, flowers, journal blocks

Dash on over to Crop Suey to play along for a chance to win a mitten weather kit from Cosmo Cricket!!!

Photo (or Notes) Block

I'm so excited to share this chunk of wood with you all today...LOL! I wanted to make something crafty yet universal for my daughter's Christmas gift for her 1st grade teacher.  Here's what I did.  read below for a supply list and to see how I did it.

I don't know why you can see the mod podge streaks in the photo because it wasn't visible in person.  Must have been something with the lighting and flash because the streaks are only showing where the flash hit. I'd take another photo but she gave it to her teacher yesterday. 

Supplies:

• Wooden block - you can get one at a craft store or have a lumber yard cut them for you.
• Spray paint
• 8x8 piece of paper
• mod podge
• foam paint brush
• bullnose clip
• fibers, ribbon, tulle (optional)
• embellishments
• Photo - I sed a 4x6

How I did it:
Rheagan's teacher is a "fancy" lady so I went through my stash and found this beautiful paper (Crate Paper - Restoration Collection "Slipcover") and the project came together so lovely I think. 

• I had my hubby cut a 2x10 piece of wood (white pine) down to 8.5" square.  I got a ton of blocks out of it so you just might see some more being featured in the future.
• I spray painted them different colors based on the look I was going for.  This one happens to be black.  You could also sand the edges to give it a more weathered look but I wanted this one to look more polished. 
• I then cut my paper to a 8x8 and stitched around the sides to give it a bit of flair.  I inked the edges blue and then modge podged it on along with the border at the bottom. 
• While that was drying I fussy cut some flowers out of the remaining paper and modge podged those and set them aside. 
• Once the block was dry I added a bullnose clip to the front. I decorated it with a strip of the backside of the paper, a smallblue-green flower and fibers.
• I picked some matching ribbon, found some bling, tulle and fibers and went to work decorating the rest. 
• One last thing I did was I added a little tag on the back with my daughter's name, grade, school and date so that her teacher would always know who it came from. I'm sure she'll swap the picture out at some point and she's taught hundreds of kids in her 30 years of teaching so a little hidden reminder doesn't hurt in this case.

And there you have it.  I added a picture of my daughter with a note of appreciation written on the back of the photo.  The alternative to using it as a photo block would be to use it to hold some pretty stationary.  What a great idea; I think I might make some custom stationary for the next person I make a block for.

Trimming the Tree

I hope you all are getting in the Christmas spirit like I am.  I haven't finished my Christmas shopping, I've barely started actually, but we are loving the spirit of the season - the songs, the decorations, the parties!

Here's today's Sketchabilities sketch and my LO reveal. I had some fun with this layout, creating some mini Christmas trees using that ribbon I had to hunt down, that I mentioned in my previous post. I can't remember if these trees were a brain child of mine or my gf Audrey or a collaboration of both. Either way, they are TDF cute. So here goes...

Supplies: Echo Park Merry Christmas papers - Holly Berry, Home for the Holidays, Christmas Countdown; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Alphas; Creative Imaginations Foam Stickers (alphas); Bazzill Cardstock; Glossy Accents; Clear Embossing Powder; misc. ribbon

Thanks for looking and make sure to play along over at Sketchabilities for a chance to win some yummy goodies from this week's sponsor!

They Say You Can't Choose Your Family but...

...my daughter said otherwise.  I'll get to that story in just a sec.  The Crop Suey December challenge is to use the word "family" on your project.  I've been wanting to scrap this story about something my daughter said to me about 2 months before she turned 3.  It's the most wonderful thing I think I've ever heard.  She saw another mommy walking in the neighborhood pushing her little girl in a stroller. She said "I didn't get that mommy.  I picked THIS mommy." OMG, talk about melting my heart.  Something about this challenge was perfect for this LO that's been waiting 4+ years to be scrapped.

Supplies: October Afternoon Fly a Kit Line - Ice Cream, Sprinklers pattern paper; October Afternoon Mini Market Alpha Stickers; Kraft paper; Tattered Angels Mists - Spring Rain and Brick, Thickers; Cosmo Cricket Tiny Alphas.

I choose a pic of her and I together around the time she said what she said. I could have not used a pic at all but I really wanted to include one that shows how much we adore each other. I used Kraft paper as the background and frame to represent the sand color and then I misted selectively around the distressed cream paper.  I cut a handmade wave pattern out of the October Afternoon paper. Oh and I love how the OA paper looks like shells. The green, yellow and blue flower was made from the portions of the OA paper that I cut for the waves (using the reverse side of the paper).  After I cut the edges out I realized they made little petals. The other flower is made from grossgrain ric rac ribbon. I hope you like it.

Now, head on over to the Crop Suey blog to see the rest of the design team creations and check out the yummy giveaway from December's sponsor, Pretty Little Studio.

Christmas Tree Trio and Tutorial

I've been so inspired by all the beautiful Christmas papers and embellishments. I saw this paper by Imaginisce and immediately knew that I needed to make a trio of Christmas trees.  If only I had an i-rock, I could have adhered some serious bling. Hint, hint to anyone looking for gift ideas. ;)

Pint this Image & Tutorial to Pinterest: 

Ready to make your own set of trees?

Here's the supplies you'll need:
3 styrofoam cones (various sizes)
3 pieces of green felt (8.5x11)
1 piece brown felt (8.5x11) - I found some with texture that looks very cute in person
4 sheets green cardstock
2 sheets of Imaginisce Christmas Cottage Peppermint Stick (stripes/holly) paper or another paper of your chosing.
1 sheet Imaginisce Christmas Cottage All That Glitters (ornaments) paper or another paper of your chosing.1 sheet Imaginisce Christmas Cottage Winter Woods (trees) paper or another paper of your chosing.


1 sheet yellow paper for the stars
2" circle punch
Clear or colored embossing powder (& versamark) - optional. I used Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder (mustard)Christmasy stamp set (if you decide to emboss the stars). I used a Close to My Heart star stamp set
Glue Gun
Lots of glue sticks
Ribbon - amounts depends on your styrofoam size.  I used about a yard
Beads or small ornaments - I used a string of beads from Hobby Lobby

How to put it together in 10 easy steps:

Step 1: Turn glue stick on. HA - a nice simple first step to get things going. No picture for this. :)

Step 2: Take a piece of styrofoam and roll the green felt around it.  Cut green felt to cover the styrofoam. This is so that you won't see the styrofoam in case you have any spots that don't get completely covered by the paper you will be adhering to it. Make sure to cut a circle for the top. You will also cut the brown strip to cover the bottom to make a tree trunk. Hot glue all this to the styrofoam.

Step 3: Mist and/or emboss the yellow cardstock and cut out stars.  I free hand cut mine but if you have a star punch, then you are smarter than me.  I made 6 large stars and numerous small stars.  I used a tutorial from Scrapbook & Cards Today for the folding of these stars. Set the little stars aside and then glue the largers stars together (back to back) in sets of 2 so that you have 3 sets of stars now. Glue the stars to the top of the tree. No pic for this because I placed mine AFTER I adhered all the leaves and trust me, you want to put it before you add the leaves.

Step 4: Punch all 4 sheets of green cardstock and the 2 sheets of striped paper. Get as many as you can out of it. I believe I got 16 from each sheet. Ink the edges to give it some dimension.

Step 5: Fold the circle in half WITHOUT creasing the fold. Now fold it again and hot glue the inside corner. It's okay if that corner creases. I actually pinched it together after the glue was applied.  That will not show on the tree. It should end up looking like a fortune cookie.

Step 6: Start gluing the leaves you just made to the tree. I just adhered them randomly but you could place them in one direction if you like things more uniform.  Make sure to sprinkle the striped paper appropriately. Picture coming later tonight.

This is where it gets fun and easy so I did not snap photos of the rest of the process...

Step 7: Once you have all the leaves placed on the trees it's time to start decorating it. Adhere your ribbon to the bottom.  I looped mine to give it more dimension.

Step 8: Glue some of the real ornaments or beads (whatever you chose) sporadically around the tree.  I placed some of mine on ledges, in the crevases and even hung some from leaves.  This is also when I added the small stars to the tree.

Step 9: Cut out some paper ornaments from the All That Glitters paper and start hanging them from the leaves. Cute out some trees from the Winter Woods paper and place them on the base of the tree.

Step 10: Place it somewhere where everyone can see them and listen for all the oohs and aahs!

And there you have it - your own set of Christmas trees!!! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Pin this Photo and Tutorial to Pinterest:  

 Thanks for stopping by today!

Who Wore Them Best?

The grandparents came to celebrate Rheagan's 7th birthday so we all went out to eat at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.  The wait staff came out and placed a huge sombrero and these groovy glasses on her and sang a very off-tune version of Happy Birthday.  After the song, we took turns sporting the green glasses from the 80's and I of course captured the silliness. 

I saw this sketch challenge over on Sketchy Thursdays for the December Guest Designer and I thought I'd give it a try with the intention of NOT submitting it but after working SOO dang hard on this layout, I decided to go ahead and enter the contest.  It's harder than it looks to get those pictures JUST the right size in JUST the right place for the wheel I made with cut-outs in JUST the right places.  I kept the rest of the layout somewhat clean and simple as I thought the wheel was quite a bit in itself. Oh and there was a twist to this sketch...in addition to making a layout using this sketch, you needed to use at least 5 pictures AND give them a little bit of sparkle (glitter, foil, etc). I used 8 photos (4 on top and 4 on bottom) and the sparkle was on the alphas and the swirlydoos on the spinning wheel.  I hope you like this and if chosen as a finalist I will indeed be asking you for votes. ;)  The sketch and my layout:



Supplies: Jillibean Soup Atomic Soup: Cup of Equations patterned paper and die cuts; My Mind's Eye Shabby Dots paper; Thickers Alphas - Niki Riki Glitter letter stickers & Delight foam letter stickers; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather Glimmer Mist; Glossy Accents misc. buttons and ribbon.

Yes, the wheel actually spins, see the pics below.

The handmade flower with clear button

Thanks for looking!

Heather

My Heart Melts for Those Baby Blues

I was checking out My Paper Treehouse again this week and found this challenge to include something your heart desires AND she included a sketch from my girl Shawn at Nuts About Sketches so I had to make a layout.  I chose to focus on Reese's gorgeous blue eyes and how my heart melts every time I see them.  I did a bit of fussy cutting and manipulating of ribbon and lace to make the flowers.  You have to look closely because it's a little hard to see in the photo but I also fussy cut two of the scallop flower circles from the blue paper and applied them to the back of the clear buttons and placed them on 2 of the large red cutouts.  I also used glossy accents on each of the red flowers in the paper on top and then added a couple of teeny tiny red bling to a couple of the red flowers to make them stand out just a bit more.  Oh and I only had a little bit of blue lace and it wouldn't fit around the entire ribbon flower so I cut it in half and pieced it together to make the flower.  There's actually 4 cuts of lace pieced together but you can't tell. I did the same thing with the cream ribbon for the bootom right flower.  How's that for extending and not wasting supplies?

 Supplies: October Afternoon - Thrift Shop One of a Kind, Complete Set & Near Mint; October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers (tiny alphas); CTMH Ink & Bling; Glossy Accents; Misc. ribbon & lace

Gifts From Above

I stumbled upon a fun challenge at My Paper Tree House and I was eyeing this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch so I thought I'd mix the two together.   I didn't want to layer with too many patterned papers (from my Scrapbook Circle November kit) on this layout so to give it an effect to resemble the sketch I misted over some Tattered Angels stencils with brown mist.  Then I took the stencils that had been heavily doused with mist and applied them to plain cardstock.  I loved the effect so I cut them out and included them on the LO. I misted them again with the same blue mist I used on the border and title paper. Thanks for Looking!

Supplies: lilybeedesigns paper - fall festival & caramel apple; Tattered Angels Tattered Leather & Spring Rain mist & stencils; handmade flower; Thickers Delight fabric letters (dyed barn red); CTMH Doodle & Tiny Typewriter Alphabet stamps

Here's an up close of the flower I made:

Here's an up close of the stitching I am proud of ;) and the frayed title to match the flower

Truly Madly Deeply In Love Sketch & Challenge

I've been playing around with creating my own sketches and challenges lately. In all reality we create our own sketches and challenges when we scrap; I just actually documented it. I don't plan to make this a recurring thing because I love playing along with sketch challenge sites but I thought I'd share the ones I do create with you. 

Here's the first sketch and challenge I created.

1. Alter the dominant paper using paint/ink/mist - the now brown areas on the left and right of my layout were originally black and were painted brown with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam.
2. Think outside the box with your ribbon - I used ribbon to decorate the front of the photo/journaling pocket.
3. Use heat embossing on the layout - I heat embossed clear transparency to create the "X" and "O" letters and "in love" words. I also used Mist on the transparencies to give them more depth.
4. Incorporate a handmade flower - I fussy cut the flowers, painted and arranged them and voila, a handmade flower.
5. Include hidden photos and/or journaling. 

I have to add that I NEVER scrap photos that don't include a kid.  I don't have an album of just my hubby and me, other than what was done pre-kids.  I don't plan to start one at this time either.  I do, however, plan to scrap more photos of me, us, or him to include in the girls' albums.  They need to know more about us as individuals and as a couple.  I WILL scrap more photos like this!

Easter Chicks

Okay, so I know it's nearly Halloween and this is an Easter layout that has enough hearts to have been used for a Valentine's layout but you know what? That's okay.  Check out Karan's lastest sketch.  I just love it.  Here it is along with my take on it.

Handmade Flower with heart as leaf

Other Details

Thanks for looking! Make sure to check out what the other Sketchabilities DT did with this sketch.  And there's a chance for you to play along to win a yummy scrapkit worth $35.00 from Scrapshotz.