scrappy

after finishing my Christmas quilt top and back (which I'm so excited to finally share) I had extra fabric strips. I love these fabrics and wanted to find a good use for them. after seeing this tutorial, I knew just what to make...scrappy Christmas cards. this is how they came together:

I'm sure you have a few fabrics in your stash you'd love to use again. I hope you'll try to make some scrappy cards for yourself.

felt fun

after reading the felt series over here, I had to join in on the fun. Sunday afternoon was the perfect time because:

~the boys were going to baseball practice

~it was bright and sunny with a light breeze- perfect for outdoor crafting

~I had all the supplies necessary

~I wanted to have some fun!

while I was creating, I realized I'm just a little girl in an adult body. if you have daughters, granddaughters, or nieces you can craft with, I can't recommend these projects enough. the number of applications is limitless. I can see felt flowers and pinwheels on everything!

Project Notes:

*I followed the directions given step by step.

*I made roses with the store brand (.29) sheets as well as felted wool from my stash. the store sheets were much thinner, easier to roll, and finished with more detail than the felted wool.

*I made all my roses and pinwheels with pin backs.

finish week::precious pillow

many, many years ago (when I was in girl scouts...that gives you a clue to how long ago), I made my first stitch project. our leaders had us stitch "I am Special" on a thin piece of loose weave (gauze like) cloth.

I have held onto this project ever since. I remember storing it in my bottom dresser drawer between yearbooks, when I lived at home. and then transferred it to my hope chest, when I got married. a few months ago, I went searching for my sock monkey, and found it again. I brought it out and began making mental project plans.

have you ever wanted to do something but just not known what or how? that has described this project for me. I obviously wanted to make it into something even more special...I've saved it for nearly thirty years! and something inside of me knew it could be something wonderful...I decided on a pillow for my craft room.

follow the journey with me ...
::I knew the fabric was too delicate alone, so I fused the piece onto white muslin
::trimmed the edges
::mapped out a plan for my fabric backing
::sewed it up
::attached front to back
::stuffed my pillow
::and hand stitched the opening to close.
I cried when I showed mark the finished piece. have you ever done that? been so proud of yourself on the inside that it spilled out?

mark insisted that the pillow be displayed in our living room, not the craft room downstairs. so for now, it sits on our petite antique rocker in the living room. a long overdue finish is now complete and making me smile with pride at every glance.

finishing

so, larissa asked this question: "why is it so difficult to finish something that you know will bring you so much joy when it's complete?"

I've been carrying that innocent little question around with me over the past few weeks. each moment I was able to take time out to create, I asked myself "what project could I work to finish?"

completing my february lady sweater last week was a major wip checked off the list. I can remember back to the start...when I was so excited, full of anticipation of completing my first sweater. yet when the hard work of knitting each and every row, frogging mistakes, and learning new techniques came, I just couldn't make the time to finish...until larissa's question got me thinking about myself and why finishing can sometimes be so difficult.

my personal discoveries:

*just finish it! when I look at my list of finished projects, I realize they took less time to finish than the amount of time I invested thinking about finishing them!

*don't let fear get in the way! when I'm unsure of a new technique or next step, I can become paralyzed with fear (fear of making a mistake that I won't know how to correct or fear of "messing it up").

*"you can do anything for 15 minutes!" (says FlyLady) investing small amounts of time really add up. just like saving small amounts of money each month add up to a retirement fund, spending just 15 minutes a day can bring significant weekly progress.

*anticipate the completed! anticipate the finish just as much as the start, while taking time to enjoy the process along the way.

*keep the ratio 2:1! I now know I can only have two projects in progress for every one I complete. when too many things are calling my name, I become immobilized. what should I work on first?

thanks, larissa, for the one little question that led to a lot of personal insight, future personal growth, and a few completed projects, which I look forward to sharing with all of you this week.

heart collage

this was the inspiration for my final valentine's day project. I loved how ali turned a few favorite papers into a framed piece of artwork and knew I wanted to try to create one as well.

so I took these:

and turned them into these:

with the help of this:

**my mods**

I started the process by being really tempted to send mark to target to buy a larger frame (so it could be just like ali's), but in the end I decided to use frames from my stash. and the idea to change the red and blue frames into beautiful black frames is thanks to this post. I'm blessed to own a cricut machine, so I was able to cut 1" hearts instead of using a heart punch.

I used pop dots to adhere the hearts to the white card stock and simply eyeballed the line up of hearts. in addition to the framed pieces, I used the same repetition idea to whip up some new cards.

I enjoyed making and sharing these fun projects! I hope you'll try a new idea that inspires you as well!

lunch box notes

during spencer's elementary school years, I added little notes to his lunch box. sometimes hand written, sometimes a lunch box note from a book. not every day or every packed lunch, but enough to let him know I'd be thinking about him while he was away from me. but moving onto middle school meant a stop to mom's little notes...until now.

so I had this idea. what if the note was small? small enough to be "hidden" in the bottom of his lunch box, visible only to him. something he wouldn't have to take out of his lunch box to read. something he could just glance at and know that I still think of him each day. the "what if" turned into these customized lunch box notes.

I typed my meaningful messages up on the computer; printed them out on white cardstock; matted them on black and then colorful paper; ran them thru the laminator; cut them out; and now they're ready to go into the lunch box.

I know you'll have phrases specific to your children, but these are the notes I started with:

*do your best, and we'll be proud of you!

*say "hello" to a student you don't know today.

*do something nice for someone today!

*you make wise decisions.

*you are a great friend!

*have fun at school today!

*make wise choices today.

*help a teacher today!

*you are fun!

*go out and learn something today!

we're entering the time in spencer's life when:

he needs to know I'm here waiting for him.

he needs to know he's special, just as he is.

he needs to know wise choices are rewarded.

this is just one little way I can keep reminding him of things he needs to know ... more than anything else, that I love him.

making room

as I've been fluttering from this to that, I realized I have a lot of 'works in progress' to finish! and while I have new and exciting projects I would love to start, I just can't move on until these are finished. so these last two weeks of January I'll be making room for the new and exciting.

one of the craft projects lisa and I did together back in december was paper crafting. this year it seemed like I just didn't have enough gift tags...so we started there. we stamped our designs on white cardstock; cut each out with a circle cutter; then matted them. we added a little bling to the merry christmas design with red jewels. when we add a hole punch at the top and string red and white baker's twine through them, they'll be ready for gift giving.

and you know lisa an I love to make cards...so we made a few of those as well. one can never have too many thank you notes, especially at gift receiving time. letting someone know you appreciate them in your own handwriting is a powerful gift.

my inspiration for these thank you notes came from this last-minute card idea on stacy's blog. after purchasing $7.00 worth of ribbon (because I thought it had to be just like stacy's) I exercised my creative muscle and changed course. instead of ribbon, I choose to make the cards out of patterned holiday paper I already had in my stash. there's no measuring to share. just cut the trunk of your tree wider than the rest of the strips and cut the branches at different lengths and you'll be set. I used Lisa's simple 'thanks' stamp on the inside and called them done.
and the Brrrr cards came out of crafting collaboration. I pulled out the winter hat paper and the brainstorming began. after cutting the brrrr with the circut machine, lisa started layering all the pieces together. the snowflake stamped background, inspiration paper, brrr, and last but oh so important the brown line border.

(special thanks to lisa for all the crafting fun and inspiration!

you're the best!!)

and last but not least...my cherish album. I purchased this album and the paper set you'll see inside from my creative memories consultant. after putting the album together last year, I finally added the cherished photos from 2009. the new albums and paper kits available really make scrapbooking so, so easy. and this 9x9 size is my favorite. it's small enough that looking at the white space of a blank page doesn't overwhelm you, but large enough to fit photos and a small amount of journaling. here are a few page samples:

so I've pieced together all my pending papercraft projects and now look forward to making valentine cards!

cards, cards, and more cards (project 4)

I love writing note cards. I love buying notebooks. I love journals. I just plain love paper! and one of the fruits of this love of paper is a love of blessing others through correspondence. whether birthday cards, thank you notes, get well greetings, or just hello notes, I enjoy them all. and as I've said before, if I allowed Hallmark to create all my cards for me, it would cost me a pretty penny. so out of necessity and now out of a love of the process, I make cards.

and while I can't seem to put together a tutorial like larissa or lisa, there are a few basic tools that I think are necessary if you have a desire to do basic paper crafting. as with any craft, having the "right" tool for the job allows you the freedom to create without boundaries.

so here are few of my favorites:
1. quality cards- I prefer the white note cards sold at Michaels over the cards offered at JoAnn's.
see the tool belt:
2. paper trimmer-one that is easy to use;
3. great adhesive- I use a tape runner and these awesome glue dots;
4. sharp scissors- these from Creative Memories are the best $5 value around!
5. a "pick up square" from Creative Memories. this little square looks like a gum eraser, but is a work horse for removing any stray adhesive. love it!
I can't give you a specific formula for creating the perfect card. I usually start with a type of card (birthday, get well, etc) then move into a favorite paper or sticker. I use up what I have cutting, bordering, and embellishing.