Lenten Calendar

My friend Cheryl recently challenged our church family (through our family bible study night and through her blog) to think about this Lenten season in a new way.  (See Cheryl's blog post here.)  Traditionally, we "give something up" for Lent.  This year, with her suggestions, my family is adding something in to our Lenten Season.   We made and purchased blank cards to send out during Lent to family and friends - 40 cards for 40 days.  Actually, it's a few more than that, and it's hard to stop at 40.  We are including Bible verses in each card and a note that we are praying for them and thinking about them this Lent. 
Thanks to another Bible study contributer, a blank calendar was shared and I decided to put the two ideas together in a 12x12 scrapbook page.   Here is the result.

It's a great visual reminder to us to pray for each person or family listed as well as remind us to send out our cards.   Later, after Lent is over, I will add some journaling about the experience and reflect on how it affected us and those we prayed for.

All About Ribbon Class at MCC

All About Ribbon starts tomorrow at My Creative Classroom.  12 Instructors (including me!) are sharing awesome inspiration for everything ribbon!

From My Creative Classroom:

Got ribbon? We do! And we have boatloads of it. If you are looking for some ribbon inspiration, look no further as we explore borders, bows, flowers and faux ribbon. We'll even cover how to organize those unruly knots and how to use up that stash! Join 12 MCC Instructors for this fun class.

• Week One: Join us as we get you started on this journey. Shirley Pando will provide a general overview of the types of ribbons and some other basics. Then Cara Miller and Jeri Parks will dive into the many uses for ribbons as borders. You'll be amazed at how versatile ribbons can be. 
• Week Two: Join Jennifer Priest, Donna Maligno, Deena Ziegler, Rachel Smith and Cristal Hobbs as they walk you through creating flowers out of ribbons and mastering the bow!
• Week Three: Join Catherine Scanlon and Kim Parkinson as they guide you through a few different looks of faux ribbon. It might not help get rid of your stash but sometimes, you need to make your own perfect ribbon to complete your project.
• Week Four: Join Karen Hunter, Jennifer Priest and Deena Ziegler in our final week. This week we'll talk about organizing your ribbons and how to use up that stash.

To register, just follow this link All About Ribbon.  Hope to see you in the classroom!

Memo Board and Winter Layout

Happy Scrapdoodles Design Team Wednesday! I am highlighting two beautiful collections that can be found in the store.  First up is Authentique's "Gathering" collection.  This collection is so versatile!  The colors (blue, orange/coral, brown) are very trendy right now and lend well to layouts and projects of all types.  I fell in love with the patterned paper called "Flourish" and used it as my background for this hanging memo board.  I started with a 12x12 square of cork board and hot-glued the patterened paper (which I trimmed by about 1/4 inch on each side and rounded the corners).
I kept the board simple - just using a few of the die cut quotes and shapes from the same collection.  As a bottom border, I used some felt ric-rac ribbon I found from My Mind's Eye. 

Then, I found and printed a free 2012 mini calendar from online and cut each month and attached it to a square of patterned paper, punched holes and strung it with brown ribbon.  Since the back of my board is cork, I attached the calendar pages with a large felt-covered tac.  I also made my own little notepad with graphing paper cut into strips and bound together with ribbon.  To attach this to the cork board, I actually made two holes with my awl and secured the pad with the ribbon - it's tied in the back.  To hang the board, I hot glued the large ribbon hanger and then the two bows on top in each corner.   

Since I had a lot of scraps left over, I made several simple cards.  For these I started with a plain card base and decorated the fronts with paper, ribbon, buttons, and die cuts.

Next up is this wintery layout.  I know we've hardly had any snow in the region this year, but there are so many new winter lines in the store, it's hard to pass them up.  Maybe you can catch up scrapping the Big Snow we had a few years ago! One of my new favorites is Fancy Pants Designs' "Winterland" collection.  I love the soft colors and subtle patterns.  One of the border strip sheets had a quote "Snowflakes are kisses from heaven" which made me think of the fun my daughter had when it "snowed" back in January.  She kept running around saying it tickled and tasted like frosting!  I knew this was the perfect line for a layout with her sticking out her tongue to catch the snowflakes.  The layout came together easily with a full background sheet, one border and a few of the coordinating heavy-weight stickers.  I added a bit of paper lace I had in my stash and cut out a title using my Cricut (Gypsy Wanderings cartridge).  There's still more "winterland" left and, perhaps, one more snow in Virginia before spring is finally here!  Happy Scrappin' Everyone!

Valentine's Day Fun

Just thought I would share a few Valentine's Day projects we've been cooking up here at home.

First, I found these bubble tubes on clearance and thought I could transform them into cute Valentine gifts. 

I punched some circles out of cardstock and adhered them to the plastic circle handle, then Hannah added the glittery heart foam sticker.  I made a tag saying "You Blow Me Away" and Hannah added another foam sticker (okay she added one or two and then was "done" so mama had to finish the rest).  I tied them onto the bubble wand and "tada" ... very cute and inexpensive Valentines.

We also had fun making these "toilet paper roll heart stamps" we saw on Pinterest.  I just shaped the roll for Hannah and squeezed out some paint and she went to town! 
She loved the stamp and it was easy for her to use.  When she was done stamping, she moved on to painting - on paper, then the tp roll, and finally her fingers - then mama called it quits :) 
When the stamped images were dry, I cut up some of the paper and adhered it to a pink cardbase.  We added some more foam stickers and "tada" ... more cute and easy Valentines.  Hannah signed her "H" and we put some in mailbox. 

Happy Valentine's Day!