2 New Spring Layouts

I love these layouts!  I'm not sure if it is because Miss H. is so darn cute - even when she has her finger up her nose - or if it's the bright papers and patterns.  Either way, I've captured another memory and they make me happy to look at!  The "it's just not very ladylike" layout is made with all Cosmo Cricket "Salt Air" except the smaller letters.  They are out of my Creative Memories stash.  That girl just cracks me up!  With these bold patterns, it worked to keep my layout pretty simple.  I also inked some edges to help separate the papers.

On my "Tweet Tweet" layout, I used a pink sheet from My Paper Studio as the base, and the rest is American Crafts.  I love this line ("Hello Sunshine").  The colors are so happy and springy.  I stitched on a piece of vellum and then added the other layers.  I don't remember where I got the pompom ribbon.  The stickers are American Crafts. They are sold in a little booklet and are super cute!  I like how I could use the cloud as a journaling spot.

I am lucky enough to design for my local scrapbook store, Scrapdoodles.  If you are local, visit them and the girls will show you where to find these two delicious lines of paper and all the coordinating goodies.

Springtime Pinwheels and Tutorial

This spring I am decorating with pinwheels.  They are so cute and fun - and easy to construct and display.  I've seen them as garlands, standing in buckets or vases like flowers, as well as on cards and scrapbook pages.  For these seen here, I used some gorgeous papers by American Crafts.  It's best to use a 2 sided paper, and these yummy spring colors are a perfect choice!  You will also need: ruler, pencil, hole punch, brads, glue dots, buttons, and a ribbon (if you want to string them into a garland) or lollipop or popsicle sticks (if you want them to stand up).

Step 1: cut your papers into square pieces.  I used a 6 inch square for the large pinwheels and a 3 inch square for the smaller pinwheels. 

Step 2: mark the center by using your ruler and drawing a light pencil line from corner to corner.

Step 3: Cut on your marked lines almost, but not through, to the center.  Leave at least 1/2 inch.

Step 4: use your hole punch to punch one hole in each opposite corner (4 holes total).  If you can get to the center with your hole punch, make a hole there also.  I had to use an awl to make my center hole.

Step 5: use a brad to secure the opposite corners to the center.  This was a bit tricky on the small pinwheels, but it can be done.

Step 6: adhere a small button (mine are from Cosmo Cricket's "Salt Air" line) to the center of your pinwheel using a glue dot.

Step 7: essentially your pinwheel is done.  Now you just have to decide how to use them!  I used glue dots to adhere a lollipop stick to the backs of the small ones and stood them up in a small tin (that used to hold loose tea).  There is some foam inside the tin to keep the stick steady and I punched a hole through the cover with my awl.  I decorated the tin with matching papers from American Crafts and glued a mound of green moss to cover the tops.  For the garland, I threaded my ribbon through a large (yarn) needle and simple wove it through the backs of the pinwheels to join them.  Because the holes are small, they stay put and don't slide up and down the ribbon.  I think it looks cute on my kitchen door.  It makes me happy to look at.

Spring Bird Nests

Hannah and I had a fun time making this cute paper plate bird nest.  It was very easy to get everything ready and Hannah could assist in every step.  We started with a plain paper plate and painted it brown.  I let Hannah use a sponge which she dipped into the paint and onto the paper plate like a stamp.   I had previously cut up a bunch of strips of brown paper from my scraps, about 1/2 inch by 3 or 4 inches.  You definitely don't need to be precise here.  Hannah liked putting the glue on the strips, but didn't like picking up the sticky paper to set on the plate, so I helped here.  She occasionally patted some down.

 Next we assembled the birds.  We used each half of a blue plastic egg for the body.  Each birdie got 2 googly eyes, a beak (free cut from orange scraps) and a blue feather.  We used glue dots here which seemed to work very well.  I helped Hannah place each piece.  I then used some hot glue to glue the birds onto the next.  Hannah was very proud of her "birdies".  I think they (H. included) are adorable!

For the "adult" version, I found some brown scraps of fabric, cut a long strip about an inch wide, and rolled it to create the nest. I twisted the fabric a bit here and there and applied glue as I went until I got the look I wanted.  I was using Fabri-Tac glue. I had picked up some blue beads for the eggs earlier in the week and ended up securing them with thread, though I think a strong glue would be fine.

 The last step was attaching a pin to the back to wear it.  I think it turned out pretty cute, but I would choose a material that didn't fray so easily next time.  Maybe a bulkier cotton would work better than this coppery satin.  It's nice to try something new once in a while.  Happy Craftin'!

Five Fabulous Finds for Your Friday

Easter is next weekend already!  At the last minute I decided to make a 12-day Easter Countdown with Hannah.  I kept it simple and used 12 plastic eggs and number stickers.  It's a bit like Resurrection Eggs, but a little toned down for a 2-year old.  Each egg holds a little picture or object that relates to a story about God or Jesus.  I'm just using our bible or books we already have to tell Hannah stories about God's love for us and then starting with Palm Sunday there will be more details on Jesus's death and resurrection.  I saw a similar idea on the How Does She blog.  If you're in a hurry, too, she lists each item and even has Bible passages ready to print for you to use.  You could have it ready to go for your kids lickity split! 

While searching for inspiration I came across this so stinking cute bunny kisses board.  Making this one involves chocolate and power tools!  Yippee!  Hannah would love this - I'm thinking, can I make one as a countdown to no more diapers?  She's motivated by chocolate.  hmmmmm

Have you ever made Resurrection Rolls?  I found a super easy and kid-friendly recipe here.  So great for spurring some Easter discussion at dinnertime.  I'm thinking it may even be red dye-free so I can make these with H.  She'll love dipping the marshmallows!

I'm loving birds nests lately.  I found some really nice metal wire and bead necklaces on Etsy from several sellers. 
This one is a favorite.  I'm not a metal worker, so stay tuned for a post featuring my cloth and bead version and a kid-friendly craft with H.

Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful spring!

A Barbie Tale

My daughter loves Barbie.  She's a little young, perhaps, for this love affair, but she prefers Barbies over any other doll.  She watches Barbie movies and plays with Barbies and their shoes.  One movie she loves is the Barbie version of the 12 Dancing Princesses.  It's a cute movie with not just one, but 12 Barbies, wonderful dancing music, dancing shoes, and even a dancing kitty.  Auntie Nini picked it out for Hannah and it's definitely a favorite.  At the end of this movie, Barbie gets married.  A few weeks ago I dug out a wedding dress for Barbie.  My mom made it - a beautiful beaded crocheted number that fit Barbie perfectly.  She had a veil, too, and Hannah loved her and called her "Barbie-married."  Hannah liked to reenact the "Barbie gets married" dancing scene.  

For a few days she took her Barbie-married everywhere until...we lost her.  A couple of Fridays ago, somewhere between Walmart and Lowes, Barbie disappeared, probably left in a cart, but we're really not sure.  We didn't even realize it until the morning, when Hannah awoke and asked for her Barbie-married.  I thought she was in the car, but when I failed to find her there, I began to worry.  I called Walmart and we even got up and dressed and went to physically look for her at our previous night's errands, but to no avail.  Barbie was gone.  I cried.  I felt worse than Hannah, I think.  Hannah had only played with Barbie and her beautiful beaded dress for a few days.  I had lost another piece of my mom - her hands making that dress, threading the beads, following the pattern, probably spending hours on it.  I still feel sick for having lost that dress.  In conversation about this loss, it was suggested that I just place all of my mom's items (made or passed on) in a glass cupboard under lock and key.  I could, but then they wouldn't be enjoyed quite as much.  I am lucky to have kept or been given many things that my mom crafted.  I know my mom made her crafts to be used, not just put up on a high shelf to look at. 

Well, Hannah still asks for Barbie-married.  When I tell her it's lost, she says, "Find it."  We tried, baby girl, we tried.  So, now Hannah wants a Barbie-married and well, JoAnn's had 99 cent patterns, and some tulle in the remnants bin, and I had a few scraps of satin and...

I made Barbie a wedding dress.  I spent most of a day on it.  I'm not a terrific seamstress to start with and those Barbie pieces are really small and fancy material frays.  So, when I finished the dress according to the pattern I had to add a few "touch-ups" to hide some ill-fitting flaws. 

I wasn't going to give it to Hannah right away - maybe save it for Easter, and try to make it a little better in the meantime, but she asked for Barbie-married this morning.  I was disappointed with my sewing and thought the dress and veil really weren't that great, but apparently Hannah disagrees.  When I showed her the new Barbie-married, I almost cried again at her reaction.  Hannah stared, drew in a deep breath and in awe and wonder, said, "oh," as she looked at her and then at me.  She then gently took Barbie-married into her own hands and examined her, touching the sequins and flower, the full skirt and the veil, and she approved.  Right now Barbie-married is sitting with Hannah eating breakfast.  Maybe the dress isn't as good as my mom's, but I guess it doesn't really matter.  Hannah loves it, Hannah loves me, and I love Hannah.  If Barbie runs errands with us, we'll be more careful and hopefully my stitches will last long enough for Hannah to play Barbie-married with her daughter, and think of me.

I linked this post to a Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot.  Check her out for lots of fun crafty ideas.

Spring-Inspired Layouts

I love how spring changes not only the appearance of the land - green grass, yellow daffodils, pink and purple blooms - but it also changes my spirit.   I feel more energetic, hopeful, grateful, and generally happier.  It's hard not to be inspired by the new, fresh colors that catch my eye when out and about.  The master artist puts together a beautiful palette that I cannot perfectly duplicate, but I can sure be happy trying. 
Why not try some of these color combonations?
Combo #1:  green - pink - white
Combo #2:  purple - green - cream

Combo #3:  yellow - grey or brown - green

I chose a couple of photos of our Hannah from a recent spring day and focused on my color combinations to emphasize the spring feel.  I hope you can recreate a little spring in your scrapbook, too!

Boy Oh Boy Layouts

A change of pace for me is to scrapbook boy layouts.  Luckily I have a cutie patootie grand nephew and some fun photos of him from an October visit.  It was so sweet to be able to spend time with him and my niece - it's a bummer to live so far away.  That's another thing to love about scrapbooking - it helps me remember all the fun times we have when we are able to get together and relive them by looking at the photos and reading the stories in my scrapbooks.  On the Playtime 1-2-3 layout, I used a few leftovers from my Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety kit, red cardstock, and a polka dot background page from DCWV.  The numbers are cut from Birthday Bash. 

I really love how this second layout turned out.  To me it's "classic boy" with the blues and browns color scheme.  These papers are from a DCWV stack.  The felt stars with buttons were a last minute pick-up (Pebbles makes them, I think) from the scrapbook store.  The title is cut from Birthday Bash (boy) and the new Baby Steps cartridge.

 

Speaking of the new Baby Steps cartridge - look at these cute cuts!  We are throwing a baby shower for my niece next month and I bought this cart in anticipation of needing the baby boys and the sailboat image.  Everything will be so cute!  I am liking this cart a lot.  I've found that it includes an awesome font plus shadow and lots of cute cuts and titles for baby's first couple of years.  The baby sleeping on the moon is so sweet - I can see this as a little "Baby's Sleeping" door hanger for baby's room.  Of course you can make it any color to match your decor - for a boy or a girl.   The cartridge has lots of girl images, too, in case you were wondering.  I can't wait until all the pieces for the shower come together!  I will be starting on the invites soon, then on to all the decorations.

New Stacks!

I love scrapbooking with DCWV stacks - they make coordinating a page so easy.  Now there's even more to love with new stacks coming soon.  Check out Erin's video of the stacks on the DCWV blog!

Five Fabulous Finds for Your Friday

Take a few minutes this fabulous Friday to enjoy some amazing eye candy and do-it-yourself inspiration.  On this first day of April, I'm thinking about breezy spring days made for flying kites high in the air, the twinkling sound of wind chimes chiming, and appreciating the cozy warmth of family and home.

1.  Make your own adorable, amazing kite!   This is more than just a little paper diamond.  I saw some kites flying last week, and was inspired to find a few diy tutorials.  It may be beyond H.'s scope right now, but they are so darn cute!  We may start with a simple paper bag kite first.

2.  Another wind related project I am interested in making is wind chimes.  H. loves them, too, and wants to "ding" them all the time.  I thought we could hang one from her swingset.  This is a great tutorial for using silverware: click here to make a fun wind chime from old silverware.  I hope Goodwill has stocked up on silverware.

3.  Visit Ashley's beautiful blog - beautiful photos and a beautiful reminder to fill your home with the unseen.  Looks like a new mini album / photography project to me.  As if I needed another reason to take pictures and scrapbook :). 

4. This is hilarious!  A beautiful cupcake that - April Fool's - is really meatloaf and potatoes!  Dessert for dinner - yummy.  The link will have additional creative ideas for "fooling" your family at dinner tonight.


5. My 5th fabulous find arrived with my visiting sister and brother last week.  My oldest sister, Kathy, knitted a beautiful dress for my daughter.  I cannot knit, so I consider her work amazing.  Hannah agreed that it is a very pretty dress and of course she looks adorable in it.  There is a super cute hat to match, but Miss H. is not in the mood for hats as of late.

Oh - yes, those are two plastic snakes that Miss H. is holding.  A remnant of a practical joke from the Women's Retreat Weekend (what happens in Williamsburg, stays in Williamsburg), they are now among H.'s favorite toys.  Last night she covered them up and put the "snakies" to bed before we put her down for the night.  She cracks us up!