Shoe-La-La

We had a fun morning reading the children's book, Shoe-la-la, by Karen Beaumont.  This is the second time that Hannah has borrowed this book from the library.  Her favorite line is "Sparkly diamonds, pretty pearls, Ritzy, glitzy Glamour Girls!"  It's a cute story of 4 little girls trying on a gazillion pairs of shoes at the "Shoe-la-la" shoe store in search of the perfect pair.  Alas, they go home with nothing but tired feet, only to discover the joy of creating their own unique pair of shoes!  So, what did we do after reading the book (a gazillion times)?  We decorated shoes, of course.  I used the Forever Young cartridge to cut a few large pairs of shoes out of cardstock and Hannah helped me gather the decorating supplies.  As you can see, we used lots of glue, glitter, sparkly bits and pieces, buttons, flowers, feathers, and more.  I did help some, but Hannah was the main artist.  A fun morning crafting with my girl.

 Artist at work.

 Love the glitter glue smiley faces!

Look at those gorgeous shoes!

We Do ART Layout

This is a fun layout I made with the DCWV All Dolled Up Stack.  It's a cute stack with lots of vibrant colors and fun punch-out girls to dress and play with.  I used some of the patterned paper included in the stack and cut out elements from the punch-out pages to use as embellishments on my page.  I think these are a great compliment to a fun afternoon my girl and I had last summer painting, getting messy, and "doing" art.

Winner!

Just came from random.org to generate the winning comment....

and it is...

The #4 commenter,  Libby U. said: 

Happiness = free time + my family + lots of giggles (I love schedule-free days:) And I need some inspiration for all the paper in my basement!

Congratulations, Libby!  I will contact you with additional information so you can get enrolled in Faith Inspired Projects!  and hopefully find that inspiration you're looking for ;)

Thanks to each of you for commenting.  Class begins on Friday, so if you didn't win (I wish everyone could!) you can still enroll and enjoy the course.  Just click HERE and you will be taken to the registration page at My Creative Classroom.  Blessings and hope to "see" you in the classroom!

Halloween Wreath and Layout

Just got back with wonderful goodies from Scrapdoodles!  They have an awesome selection of fall and Halloween papers and embellishments right up towards the front of the store and, if you're anything like me, you will be standing there a long time trying to decide what to go home with.  :)  Oh this paper addiction!

Anyways, I knew I wanted to create a rolled paper wreath ever since I saw this video tutorial from Graphic 45, and thought a fall or Halloween theme would be great.  With that project in mind, I chose (finally) some double sided papers from We R Memory Keepers' "Black Widow" line.  You can see the whole line here, and of course at Scrapdoodles.  I picked out the "Happy Halloween" embellishment for the middle of the wreath (I added some more paper ovals to give it more "weight") and when I saw the metal charms, I knew I HAD to use them somehow, too.  I added an eyelet to the ends of some of the paper cones for strength and hung the charms with some Tim Holtz jump rings I had in my stash.  Generally, I followed the tutorial from Graphic 45 with just a few changes.  Instead of a chipboard backing, I used a scrap piece of foam board,

since I had that on hand.  I also used a bit of foam board in the middle behind my center ovals and embellishment.  In the tutorial, the paper cones are attached with staples.  I had some difficulty with that, so I ended up using hot glue more than the staples.  I love how this wreath turned out.  An added bonus is how the little charms jingle on the door - love it!

Of course I can't let a Design Team week go by without a layout.  For this week's layout, I chose a few papers from Echo Park's Halloween line, "Chillingsworth Manor."  You can see the whole line here.   Lots of cute and spooky details in this collection!  I took home a sheet with spiders and polka dots and knew I had some cute photos of Hannah with spider cookies that I could use.  My layout includes a combination of lines - Echo Park, some of my leftover scraps from the We R Memory Keepers collections, and some sticker elements from Authentique's Halloween line, "Enchanted."   Man - there is a lot of good stuff out there for all your Halloween, pumpkin, and spider photos and projects!

For this layout, I punched several circles and simply straight stitched them right to the page in a line.  It's a great way to add lots of pattern and texture to your layout.  My title was cut with Echo Park papers.  I used my Cricut and the "Happy Hauntings" cartridge along with some sticker elements from Authentique.  I also used another sticker element (the spider and the fly quote) off to the side and added some Black Diamond Stickles to the two spiders.  At the last minute I added a thin black cardstock frame with distressed inside edge.

I had a few scraps left, so I cut some 3/4 inch by 5 inch strips to make this little paper pumpkin.  I just used brads to hold the strips together and then fanned them out and shaped them into a pumpkin.  With a few more paper scraps and a leaf punch, I added the stem, vines, and leaf.  I could see several of these decorating a table this fall. 

So, while the picking is good, visit Scrapdoodles and pick up some fall/Halloween collection papers.  I hope you have an easier time deciding than I did ;)

New Online Class and Free Seat Giveaway to "Faith Inspired Projects"

Combining things I love makes me extra, extremely, super happy.  Like a day with my husband AND my daughter, having ALL my sisters together, photos AND paper scraps, and my creativity AND my faith.  I have been very happily putting together all sorts of creative projects for my next class at My Creative Classroom. 
It's called "Faith-Inspired Projects" and you, my friends, could win a free seat!  Now that's a happy combination!

The projects presented in this class are designed to build, document, display, and help you practice your faith and most cherished beliefs and values.  Each week, for four weeks, you'll get a minimum of 2 project tutorials (in both full color pdf form and narrated presentation) to inspire your creativity and your faith.  All of the class materials can be viewed from the comforts of your own home, in your pj's, if you want! You can interact with fellow students and me, your instructor, through the classroom forums and student gallery, or simply download the tutorials and reference the ideas for later when you have time.   

Won't you join me?  The class is just $25 for all four weeks.  You can register right now and view more details online at My Creative Classroom HERE. 

OR leave a comment at the end of this post telling me what your favorite, happiness-producing combination is and have a chance to win a free seat in this class.

While you're here, become a follower - more followers makes me happy and might make me post more craftiness ;)

Leave your comment by the end Tuesday, September 25th, at midnight.  A winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced on Wednesday, September 26th.  You'll be all set to begin class on Friday, September 28th!

Apple Teacher Pin and Post It Note Gifts

My girl has started school.  Granted, it's only 3 year old preschool and it's only 2 mornings a week, but it is a big deal - for both of us.  Day one was great - no tears for either of us and while she was at school with her teachers, I was able to help out a friend.  And that felt good, too.

I wanted to get some great first day photos, but wasn't sure we would have enough time on the actual first day, so we did a little dress-rehearsal photo shoot the day prior and with a little help from photoshop, I was able to post this photo as soon as we got home from the big day.

I also realized that her starting school has opened up a whole new excuse, ahem, reason, for crafting.  Of course I'm talking about teacher gifts!  I had to create a whole new board on Pinterest to organize all the great ideas out there.  That's where I first saw cute ways to give a simple stack of post-it notes.  I made mine by covering plain cardboard with scrapbook paper and clipping a stack of post-it notes to it with a paper-covered binder clip.  So easy!  I also wanted to make something with an apple, so I went to my Cricut machine, found this cute apple on "Create A Critter" and cut it from felt.  The felt is self-adhesive and I sandwiched a pin between the two layers so Hannah's teachers have a cute felt apple pin to wear.  If anyone wants more specifics, let me know and I will try to create a quick tutorial.  Yay for school and more crafty reasons to make special handmade cute things!  Teehee!

Princess Room Decor and Gifts

Who doesn't love a little princess?  I sure do!  I especially love my little princess, but there is something so completely adorable about little girls playing dress-up and putting on pretend jewels and a sparkly crown.  They truly are transformed into little princesses.  We (my girl and I) were recently invited to a "pink" birthday party, so I enlisted my little princess's help to create a pretty little pink something for the birthday girl's room.  We took 3 8x10 flat canvases and my girl helped me paint them very pink with a few swishes of purple.  Using my Cricut (all cuts from the Princess Party cartridge) I cut out a crown, a wand, and Princess letters to decorate the canvases.  I added some sparkly elements, pearls, feathers, and jewels to the die cuts and attached them to the canvases with foam tape.  I sprayed a light coating of Mod Podge sealer over everything (covered the feathers, though).  Lastly, I added some ribbon loops for hanging.  I hope the Birthday girl likes it!

I also made the Birthday girl a little dvd crayon case.  I love to reuse items and this gift is a great little birthday or Christmas gift.  These awesome little gifts will be part of my new Cricut: Creative Gift Ideas online Class at My Creative Classroom.  If you want to join me and two other teachers for this jam-packed class, go ahead and register HERE.