Baby Shower

I guess I better begin to start thinking about that whole "you're getting older" thing. I was invited to attend a baby shower for a gal I baby-sat when SHE was a baby! Geesh! Granted it was 22 years ago... but still! I mean she was a baby!!! Gift wise I couldn't decide what to give Angel until I saw this adorable "diaper trike" online. Surprisingly I found the directions by doing a "google search." Knowing she was having a girl I designed the trike accordingly. Turned out pretty cute and there were many "oohs and ahhs" when she opened it as well.

Congrats Angel...I can't wait to meet Delilah!

Cause he asked

The only problem with having a "crafty wife" is that you can't just ask "Hey honey do you have a few current pictures of the kids???"

So the end result of that question was this little mini album. I used baseball card sleeves for the "pages" in the album to make it go quick. I simply had to trim the photos to fit the sleeves and then punch the sleeves and photos with the "Crop a Dial"

Supplies used: Cardstock/patterned paper K and Company, Epiphany Crafts Heart Button shape studio. Letter stickers Topline Creations, and Craft ribbon.

US of F Illinois

Wow, where do I start?? The day was amazing. Bright and early a fabulous team of hostesses showed up at the church to help decorate, set up and get things ready for 40 some fiskateers (and 4 fiskateens) that were attending the event. Our set up time flew by all too quickly though and soon fiskateers started showing up ready to craft! The "senior most" fiksateer Misty #33 met gals at the door and gave them a welcome goodie bag. Lori #5613 was available to collect their cards for Operation Write Home.

After finding a seat, their first stop was with Dot #6703 where she not only did a make and take with them (showcasing her fabulous rosettes) but made name tags using the new "snip-snip" squeeze punch. After our group was done with that Alex #3614 played a "getting to know you game" were we found out some fun snippets of info about our fellow fiskateers. From there we tested our knowledge of "trivial state facts" with an Illinois Quiz. The better you did on the quiz the sooner you got to choose your prize.

Three unsuspecting Fiskateers that found a pumpkin punch inside their table favors were the lucky contestants for our very own version of "Minute to Craft it" They were given 10 minutes to decorate a wooden frame using items from the "Trash to Stash" table. (People could bring in their cast off and ununsed/unwanted supplies and hopefully find them a new home, after all one persons trash can find it's way into another one's stash!) The 10 minutes flew and Linda #3567, Helen #7288, and Mandi #4722 shared with us their lovely frames and told us a little of the inspiration behind their decoration. After the competition the Trash to Stash table was open! It was CRAZY from 1 1/2 foot piles stretching down 16 feet of table to a few scattered pieces of cardstock and some sticker sheets in a matter of minutes!

When the craziness died down, the fabulous Ashani #4682 our food coordinator announced that lunch was served. After lunch there was more time for crafting, including another make and take. Everyone got to compare Fiskars trimmers including the new LED trimmer while creating an adorable pumpkin with me and then a surprise "pop quiz" on all things Fiskateer! We finished our time together with a couple of group photos. Before we knew it, our time together was over and we were hugging everyone goodbye!

We are already talking about when we can meet again because we had so much fun! Thanks to everyone that came out to spend the day crafting, making cards for Operation Write Home (We collected 155 cards!!) and just being fabulous! The day was truly special!!!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Welcome Michigan Scrapbookers!

Hey Michigan Scrapbookers! Welcome to my little corner of the web! I'm happy to be joining the staff of Michigan Scrapbooker Magazine and look forward to sharing my love of crafting with you!

With fall in the air and Halloween around the corner these cute little pumpkins are a perfect project for your little pumpkin or to line up on a windowsill (or as a table favor for a Halloween party or even Thanksgiving dinner :)

You will need:

Supplies:

1-4" x 6" piece of patterned paper (I used some from Fancy Pants)

1-thin little strip 12" long and about 1/16" thick (seriously just a thin little piece) of Green cardstock

1-1/4" x 1" piece of brown yardstick

Glue Dots

2 mini brads

Tools:

Trimmer

A piece of foam (I used one of those foam door hangers but a piece of fun foam works great too)

A flat edge (bone folder or something similar. I'm shown using my pampered chef pan scraper :)

Needle or paper piercer

Optional Supplies:

Ink Pad

glue stick

Start by slicing your 4 x 6 piece into 6- 1" x 4" strips.

After you have your strips, ink them if desired and lay them out so your pattern is "reassembled" (you can skip this part if you want a more random look)

Stack your pieces in order

Using the needle or piercer make one hole in the middle of each end of the stack of strips (about 1/8 of an inch in or so)

Insert your mini brad in the holes, you can open one brad fully, leave the other one closed and set this aside for a moment.

Take your green strip and lay it on your piece of foam. With firm even pressure run your straight edge along the strip. This will curl up the paper giving it the look of a "vine"…for an even more natural look, vary the direction you are pulling, even start and stop. It' fun to see how the paper curls up (and you can always redo it if it's not to your liking.)

Take your strip of green and make a loop in the middle. Wrap your loop around that brad you left closed. The green should be on the top of your strips. Open the back of the brad.

Starting with the back strip, start fanning out your strips. You will see the pumpkin shape starting to form.

To make the stem, roll the strip of brown into a coil and insert a glue dot into one end. Place the glue dotted end on top of the brad holding your vine in place. )You might need to secure the tail of the stem with a touch of a glue stick.

There you have it. A cute little pumpkin. It honestly takes longer to explain than to make! And kids LOVE making them! You can vary the colors, and the sizes of the strips for the pumpkin. (With larger sizes you may want to add a few strips to fill out the shape as well as secure the bottom in place (cause they can flop over when they get larger.)

Winner!

Congrats to Silvia

silvia said...

Cute pumpkins!! I LOVE the different patterns!!

October 1, 2011 7:44 PM

You are my orange blog hop winner! Please email me at lets_scrap2 (at) juno (dot) com for info on how to claim your prize :)

Playing with markers!

So I got a SCREAMING deal at the thrift. I found a set of Prismacolor Professional Artist Markers. (in case) these can run from $50-$75 and I got them for $15! YUP $15. I had been wanting to try copics and these are kinda similar. Well I really needed to play with them AND needed to organize some jewelry. I've been doing some jewelry making and my necklaces are a bit ...chunkier....ahh more involved than my jewelry has been before and they kept getting tangled. So I decided to make a necklace organizer.

Digging through hubby's scrap wood pile I found two pieces that were the same size. I then sanded them and painted them a creamy yellow and edged them with a touch of green. I then pulled out a couple of Crafter's Workshop Templates and my newly found art markers and added a few flourishes and flowers. A drilling some holes and adding some drawer pulls turned the scrap wood into this:

and with necklaces:

A bit of wall decoration and organization...can't get any better than that!

WELCOME FISKA-BLOG-HOPPERS!!

You have found the next stop on your wonderful orange journey! If you are coming from Kim's Scrap and Stamp Blog you are at the right place if you are just visiting me cause you love me :) check out the Fiskateer Blog Hop starting at Fiskateers.

While all ya'll are hopping away I'm partying with 40 lovely fiskateers (and 4 fiskateens) at the United States of Fiskateers Illinois event!

I wanted to share with you the fun make and take I'm doing at the event. With fall in the air and Halloween around the corner these cute little pumpkins are a perfect project for you little pumpkin or to line up on a windowsill (or as a table favor for a Halloween party or even Thanksgiving dinner :)

You will need:

Supplies:

1-4" x 6" piece of patterned paper (I used some from Fancy Pants)

1-thin little strip 12" long and about 1/16" thick (seriously just a thin little piece) of Green cardstock

1-1/4" x 1" piece of brown yardstick

Glue Dots

2 mini brads

Tools:

Trimmer

A piece of foam (I used one of those foam door hangers but a piece of fun foam works great too)

A flat edge (bone folder or something similar. I'm shown using my pampered chef pan scraper :)

Needle or paper piercer

Optional Supplies:

Ink Pad

glue stick

Start by slicing your 4 x 6 piece into 6- 1" x 4" strips. I used the new Fiskars L.E.D. Trimmer with this project. This was sent to me to use at the US of F event. It's wonderful! Your cutting area lights up not only showing you exactly where you are cutting, but giving you that "extra" bit of light to illuminate the paper, great when you are cropping in a poorly lit area.

After you have your strips, ink them if desired and lay them out so your pattern is "reassembled" (you can skip this part if you want a more random look)

Stack your pieces in order

Using the needle or piercer make one hole in the middle of each end of the stack of strips (about 1/8 of an inch in or so)

Insert your mini brad in the holes, you can open one brad fully, leave the other one closed and set this aside for a moment.

Take your green strip and lay it on your piece of foam. With firm even pressure run your straight edge along the strip. This will curl up the paper giving it the look of a "vine"…for an even more natural look, vary the direction you are pulling, even start and stop. It' fun to see how the paper curls up (and you can always redo it if it's not to your liking)

Take your strip of green and make a loop in the middle. Wrap your loop around that brad you left closed. The green should be on the top of your strips. Open the back of the brad.

Starting with the back strip, start fanning out your strips. You will see the pumpkin shape starting to form.

To make the stem, roll the strip of brown into a coil and insert a glue dot into one end. Place the glue dotted end on top of the brad holding your vine in place. )You might need to secure the tail of the stem with a touch of a glue stick.

There you have it. A cute little pumpkin. It honestly takes longer to explain than to make! And kids LOVE making them! You can vary the colors, and the sizes of the strips for the pumpkin. (With larger sizes you may want to add a few strips to fill out the shape as well as secure the bottom in place (cause they can flop over when they get larger.)

Now what blog hop would be any fun without a prize? I have a wonderful assortment of Fancy Pants Halloween papers and dies, and two coordinating transparencies. To win simply leave a comment. If you are a follower I'll toss in some extra ribbons and such to match! (I'll draw a winner on Monday.)

I hope you enjoyed a peek into what we are doing at the Illinois event. I'm glad you stopped by!

Your next stop on the journey is Scrapulescence

Thanks for stopping by!