Beautiful You-Scrap Challenge

When you finish with any project do you find yourself with tons of "good scraps"? No I don't mean that tiny stuff only destined for the garbage can, I mean, pieces that the crafter in you cringes at the thought of throwing away. I end up with tons of them and I saved them, and saved them. Finally I started challenging myself to create with the leftover scraps before putting my supplies away. Normally I just create a card or two, this time though, I had enough I wanted to see if I could create an entire layout.

Starting with a solid white base, I used some larger pieces to add color to the base, inking around the edges to make them stand out. After mounting the photo, I used smaller pieces cut into pennant shapes for a cute border. Tying the whole thing together with a border strip punched out from a longer scrap, and scrap ribbon.

The only "non scrap" items besides the photo, were the letter stickers (Basic Gray) and chip board (random), and the solid sheet of white which happened to be an insert from a page protector. I love the way I was able to feature this photo of my daughter. It's one of my favorites. This was our "last day" on the merry-go-round before they tore it down at the park, and the look of pure joy as she was spinning just makes me happy!

Easy Peasy Custom Cupcake Toppers

So what's a gal to do when she wants to bring some special cupcakes to some fabulous Operation Christmas Child volunteers? She creates custom cupcake toppers of course!

Supplies needed:
XL scalloped circle punch (Fiskars) Large circle punch (Fiskars) red and green cardstock, printed images/logo, adhesive, toothpicks, and cupcakes.

To make, simply punch out two scalloped circles from the red and green cardstock, then punch out circles of your printed image/logo, layer the scalloped circles together with the toothpick, making sure to adhere the toothpick well. Add your punched out logo to the center of the scalloped circles and insert your cupcake topper into your cupcakes and enjoy!!!

Shoebox 1k

The long anticipated day came and left and oh how we were blessed! Over 300 volunteers converged upon the Christian Youth Center of Morris, IL to help us pack over 2000 shoebox gifts. (Our final total ended up being 2129!) In addition to the 300 volunteers we had Shine FM radio join us for the day as well. They took photos that people could put in their packed shoeboxes along with a letter to the child receiving the boxes.

I wish to thank the hundreds of people that have volunteered not just during the packing party, but throughout the year as well. Thanks to our generous sponsors that donated supplies and money and items to raffle off.My regular crew; David, Winter, Emily, Sharon, Sherri, Tricia (and kids,) Mike, Ed, Jules, Judy, Heidi, Erica, Laurie (and company) Lana, Rita, Sylvia, Clare, and Emma, and I'm sure there are more people that I am forgetting...(please forgive me) You all are amazing and it's our efforts put all together and mixed in with God that turn this project into a "whole lot of AWESOME"

Please enjoy a few snapshots from the day, to view the full photo albums, visit the "Shoebox 1k" photo albums on Facebook:

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