Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

... these are few of my favorite things!  (This song is totally stuck in my head.  And now yours, probably.) I wanted to share a pretty and easy way to wrap gifts this holiday season.  We are heading out of town for Thanksgiving later today, and we'll be seeing our entire family on my husband's side. We are going to do a big family gift exchange while we're together.  I'm explaining this just so you know I'm really not that on top of my game this year - this is the only Christmas shopping & wrapping I've done so far!

But the wrapping... I love wrapping gifts. I saw these tags in the Pixels & Company shop and knew I had to use them. I went with a kraft paper and baker's twine to keep it simple, and helped myself to some of my neighbor's evergreen sprigs (snip, snip!).  I think it turned out simple and lovely.

brown paper packages, tied up with string... made even prettier with Fair Isle Festive - Tags by Celeste Knight

To print the tags I just arranged some of them on an 8.5x11 canvas in Photoshop Elements (I resized a few of them), printed on white cardstock, and cut with scissors. Very fast and easy!

I simply remember my favorite thiiings.... anyway, thanks for stopping by! Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Christmas is coming...

Hi there! We're just a few weeks away from Christmas, and new products are already hitting the shelves. Over at The Lilypad, the Document Your December (DYD) products were just released and I had some fun playing around with them.  First off, I made a page using new goodies from Just Jaimee, Stolen Moments, and Quirky Heart.  This layout features a photo I took last Christmas of my daughter in the glow of the Christmas tree, pure magic.

scraplift of The Crazies, a Princess, and Me by joelsgirl: http://the-lilypad.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=59952&title=the-crazies-2c-a-princess-26amp-3b-me&cat=667
created with Bling Alpha, Bling Bits, and Gesso Paint Bits by Just Jaimee; Merry Holiday Papers by Stolen Moments Design;  Jolly Junque 2 by Quirky Heart

And then I got crazy. That's right, I fired up the printer, pulled out my scissors and created this really fun Christmas Stocking Advent. A few years ago I saw this idea and I thought it was such a fun way to do an advent. I purchased 12 different pairs of socks and split them up. I hung them from a string with clothespins. This year I added the numbers by Stolen Moments which was so quick and easy, I just adhered them with good ol' scotch tape. Each day will have a small treat or a slip of paper with an activity that we'll do that day. So excited for this, and I love how it turned out with these numbers!

created with Coutndown Cards by Stolen Moments Design

I'm usually not a huge fan of Christmas things before Thanksgiving, but working with the new DYD stuff has really got me in the Holiday spirit.  I'm hoping to create some more magic with these products before the season is over. Thanks for stopping by!

Teacher Thank You Gift

School's almost out, but before we dive fully into summer, I wanted to share a teacher appreciation gift I made for my son's first grade teacher. I was going for something simple, practical, but also cute... so I decided to use brand new pencils and make them into a bouquet of flowers. I found the small striped bucket at Target (love the one spot!) and filled it with dry beans to make the pencils stand up. I added a simple tag that reads "Thank you for helping me grow" and tied it with some bakers twine. Easy, practical, and cute!

created with Artisan|set 1 by Karla Dudley; KB Scripting and KG Call Me Maybe fonts

Thanks for stopping by!

Projects

I always have a million ideas floating around in my head... and every now and then I follow through and make one or two of them! Here's a few things I've recently completed. First up is some cute (digital) button art:


{background from Fairy Tale Ending kit by Kelley Mickus (recolored); stitching from Social Butterfly kit by Megan Mullens; yellow button from Creative Minds by Sherry Ferguson; red button from Love Bug kit by GG Digital Designs; blue button from Sunshine 'n Showers collab kit from Designs by Tater and Happy Scrap Girl; orange button from Going Green kit by SuzyQ Scraps and Amanda Heimann; green button from Just Like Dad collab kit by Sarah Bennett and Connie Prince; Harting font}

I've been seeing some really cute button art on Pinterest lately. (Speaking of, have you looked at Pinterest yet? Are you as addicted as I am? If you haven't, and you're interested, let me know and I'll send you an invite!) I'm not really into sewing - I don't even have any real buttons - but I have a huge digital stash so I decided to give it a try with Photoshop. Now I just need to print and frame it! I have the perfect spot for it in my entry way.

Next up: teacher gifts. These little apples have nothing to do with scrapping, or Photoshop, but I had to share because they are so cute! I used this tutorial from The Crafting Chicks.



I packaged them up in little treat bags, and I made this treat topper in Photoshop. Unfortunately I left it all 'til the last minute so I didn't photograph the finished product!


{paper from Love Life freebie by Sahlin Studio; apple from Creative Minds by Sherry Ferguson; crayons from School 101 by Leora Sanford; star from School Rules by Something Blue Studio; rubber band from A Boy's Diary collab kit by Dunia Designs and Julianne Kneipp; chalkboard from MSA's Celebration collab kit by Chris Greiser; Love Ya Like A Sister and The Teenage Dream fonts}

And, now that it's June and summer is officially here, we made our family summer fun list. You might remember the one I did last year... we loved it so much we had to do another. It's already printed off and hanging on the fridge!



{banner from DIY Stitched Pennant freebie by Chelle's Creations; flowers Fresh Blooms by Kitschy Digitals; stitching from 3 Ring Circus kit by Valorie Brown Designs; 1942 Report, MTF Jotted, and The Teenage Dream fonts}

What do you think? Have you made anything fun with your digi stash lately? I already have a couple more in the works!

xoxo,

Easter Subway Art FREEBIE

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I've posted anything here! Life has been busy and I haven't been scrapping as much, although I do have several layouts I just haven't posted yet. I've also been talking Katrina Kennedy's Your Life Through The Lens photography class at Get it Scrapped!, which has been great but has taken some of my scrapping/blogging time.

I did want to quickly share something fun I made yesterday, this Easter subway art. I've been seeing subway art around on various crafting blogs, and it seemed like fun so I tried making one.



I like how it turned out. If you do too, you can grab your own right here. It's for an 8x10 frame. Enjoy!



xoxo,

Monster Party

This weekend we had a very fun MONSTER birthday bash for my boys... their birthdays are just over a week apart, so we had one big party with all their friends. I had a lot of fun planning for it and using my digital scrapbook stash to create some fabulous stuff. I used stuff from Digital Scrapbook Memories and SuzyQ Scraps.

First the invites:


{black letters from "Dark Comedy" alpha by SuzyQ Scraps; everything else from "Monster" kit by Digital Scrapbook Memories; "Love Ya Like A Sister" font}

Aren't those monsters the cutest? They're from this kit.

For treats I made some cupcake wrappers and toppers. This was so easy thanks to Suzy's cupcake templates. I also used her No Monsters Allowed kit.



I also made a bunch using the Monster kit from DSM. Too many cute monsters, I just couldn't decide!



This fun banner was made with the same supplies I used for the invite. This picture isn't great, but you can kind of get an idea. I did each letter on a 4x6 canvas so it was super easy to just do photo prints at Costco and then staple them to some ribbon.



For one of the games, we played pin the eyes on the monster. I used the eyes from the Monster kit, and the monster's body came from Suzy's Giggle Monsters kit. I erased the original eyes and nose using the magic of photoshop. (Specifically, the clone stamp tool and blur tool.)



I was a little stumped on what to do for party favors. I couldn't really find any monster themed toys or goodies, but Zach had this really cute wooden monster puzzle that I thought would be fun.



I purchased it at Target sometime last fall in the $1 section, which means it is no longer available. :( So I decided to make it the hard way.

First, I scanned all the puzzle pieces. Then I extracted them one by one and played with the colors a bit in photoshop. Next I printed them on cardstock, cut them out, lamintated them, cut them again, and added some sticky velcro. I really love how they turned out. They took a lot of time but it was worth it.



The finished product:



I put the extra pieces in a ziplock and attached it to the back with some glue dots.



And there ya go!



It was a lot of fun to plan and make all these fun projects for the party. The coolest part is that the whole idea for this theme came from these monster-themed kits that I already had... I was just looking for a good excuse to use them! I really love how everything turned out, and the kids had a blast.

xoxo,

Gratitude Album

Remember my 30 Days of Gratitude project? I now have something tangible to show for it. I decided to go with a fun little badge album. A badge album is super easy - I just bought some of those clear name badge holders - you can get them at Walmart, or any office supply store - and then created my mini layouts the size that would fit in photoshop. (I made a similar album last April for my 30 Days of Photos.) All you need is just a little ribbon to tie it all together, and viola!



I have a few of these little mini-albums on a shelf in my living room. It's fun to browse through them every now and then.



I used all kinds of products from my digital stash for this. Most of it is stuff from one of my favorite designers, Leora Sanford. I really love this simple kraft alpha that I used for the numbers throughout, it really ties it all together.



And a look at the back:



xoxo,

Halloween Hybrid

I wanted to add to my Halloween decor this year, so I came up with a couple of new items using my digital scrapbooking stash. First off was this super easy "spooky scene":


{created with "In the Graveyard" kit by SuzyQ Scraps & DeCrow Designs; "Firefly Castle" font}

On the left is how it looked before printing, and the final product is on the right. I just used a fun Halloween kit - "In the Graveyard" by SuzyQ Scraps & DeCrow Designs - to create a haunted graveyard scene. I had an extra 8x10 frame so I made it on an 8x10 canvas, printed at Costco, and popped it in the frame.

I also made this fun banner:


{orange dot paper "Happy Spring Paper Pack" by Crystal Wilkerson; black paper from "Happy Halloween" freebie by Michelle Coleman; stripe paper from "Funky Fall" kit by Amanda Heimann & Kelley Mickus; green paper from "12 Days of Christmas" freebie by Julia Makotinsky; newsprint paper from "Lovey Dovey" freebie by Faith True; black glitter paper from "Tangerine Twist" kit by Flergs; "Gungsuh" font}

I was inspired by this banner and this banner I saw at The Crafting Chicks. So cute! I made the shapes in Photoshop, then selected pattern papers with Halloween colors to clip to the shapes. I used a font for the letters and just clipped a black glitter paper to them to give them a little more dimension. After printing & cutting, I simply stapled them to a ribbon and tied it to my leaf garland.





I love it, it adds a lot to the mantle display! Happy Halloween!

xoxo,

Butterfly Mobile

Guess what? I just had a baby :) Which is why I haven't been posting (or scrapbooking) as much. I now have a sweet baby girl named Violet, who I've been snuggling as much as possible. But before she arrived, I made this butterfly mobile to hang above her crib:







This was super easy to make, and of course I used photoshop and my stash of digital papers to do it. First off, I used the custom shape tool and selected two different butterfly shapes from the list of custom shapes. I used an 8.5x11 document to place my butterfly shapes like so:




Then I picked some of my favorite bright pattern papers, and "clipped" them to the butterflies using a clipping mask. I made sure to create two of each, so that I could glue them back to back. After printing and cutting the butterflies, I took two wooden skewers, some colorful ribbon, and glue to finish it.



What do you think? *sigh* I love photoshop! Like I said, this was so easy to do. Oh... and you can go here to see my inspiration for this project.

xoxo,

Going Hybrid

I haven't created a whole lot of layouts lately; instead I've been using my digital scrapbooking supplies to make some fun things for my kids. First off were these money banks:



I wanted to help them learn about saving, spending, and paying tithing to our church. I bought these cheap little plastic containers and custom made the labels for them. I just cut them out and adhered them using a little Mod Podge. I think they turned out pretty cute! Here's what each file looked like before printing, it was easy to simply change the text and the little animal in photoshop.


{blue paper from "Renewal" kit by Michelle Coleman; graph paper from "Vintage Dreams Retro" collab kit from Little Dreamer Designs; sun from "Happy Day" kit by Erin's Dreams; grass from "Naturally" kit by Bren Boone; clouds from "Funky Nature" kit by Tara Dunstan; stars from "School Rules" kit by Something Blue Studios; felt animals freebie by Pamela Donnis; green string from "Olympic Dreams" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; "Jailbird Jenna" and "Pea Times New Camelion" fonts}

I also made them chore charts. I am amazed at how much they love these! I wonder how long that will last... I probably just jinxed it, but they love to mark off their jobs each day. I used the Happy Helpers kit from GG Digital Designs, along with a few other random elements to create these. I just printed them, had them laminated, and attached a dry erase marker using sticky velcro.



Here's a closer look:


{books from "School Rules" kit by Something Blue Studios; truck from "Zoom Zoom Zoom" collab kit by Kelley Mickus; moon & star from "Rock-A-Bye Baby" kit by GG Digital Designs; toothbrush from "Day at the Dentist" by Twin Mom Scraps; shoe from "Rougin' It" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; everything else from "Happy Helpers" kit by GG Digital Designs; "Smiley Monster" font}

And finally, our summer fun list. At the beginning of the summer we sat down as a family and wrote down some of the fun things we wanted to do this summer. Originally it was just a sheet of notebook paper stuck on the fridge, so I decided to make it a little prettier. :) Again, I had it laminated so that the kids could check off the activities as we do them.


{everything from "Going Green" collab kit by SuzyQ Scraps and Amanda Heimann; "Pea Missy with a Marker" and "Smiley Monster" fonts}

xoxo,

Teacher's Gifts

I wanted to share a couple of cute teacher gift ideas I've done using photoshop and my digi scrap supplies. I apologize first of all because the photos are not that great, and second because I know this is just a little to late to take advantage of for this school year. But, being the procrastinator that I am, I didn't get these gifts done until the last minute possible - and of course I have waited a few days before even uploading these photos and getting this posted. But I wanted to share anyway. :)

This first one I actually made for my son's teacher as a Christmas gift, but forgot to blog about it at the time. I found this idea and quote here. It says, "A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others." To create the label in photoshop, I first measured the width (diameter) and height of the candle, then created a new document using those dimensions. I also printed out the cute apple to go on top. I used Mod Podge to adhere the labels, and added some ribbon around the rim.




{stripe paper from "Echos of Asia" kit by Jessica Sprague; alphabet paper from "School 101" kit by Leora Sanford; ricrac and apple from "The Sky is Falling" kit by Krystal Hartley; label from "Cosmo Chic" kit by Michelle Coleman; "Century Gothic" font}

This was the gift I made for the same teacher for the last day of school as a thank you. I found this cute paint can made of clear plastic at the local craft store. I then used photoshop to create the insert and topper for the lid; again just by measuring the can and opening a new document in photoshop using the dimensions.



Inside the can, I added a gift certificate to a local teacher supply store as well as this poem and the coordinating candy bars:

Throughout the school year you have been a Lifesaver,
And that’s nothing to Snicker about.
So while the paydays are probably not 100 Grand
It’s time for you to Take 5 and rest your Whatchamacallit.
Thank you for all you do, and whether you go across the country
or down to 5th avenue, we hope your summer is extra special!



Added some colorful ribbon and voila! It turned out really cute.


{everything from "School Rules" kit by Something Blue Studios; "Pea Missy" font}


xoxo,