Crafty Wednesday / Card Design #4

Got another cute card for you today. This one is about using scraps, since there are lots of small papers.

{Supplies}

• 4.25” square card blank (The one I used was dark pinkish)
• 1.25” x 4” patterned paper (mine has flowers)
• 1.5” x 3” patterned paper (mine was green)
• 1.5” x 3” patterned paper (blue polkadots)
• 3 flowers of decreasing size (I used a Cricut something or other, but you could use anything you’ve got. Or make them the same size, like from a punch, and just layer them differently)
• mini brad
• button
• 3” + 2” ribbon
• vellum quote or some sort of sentiment
• black fine point sharpie
• small hole punch

{Directions}

Rip the blue polka dot paper on one of the 3” sides. Glue flower paper vertically and the green and blue papers horizontally, leaving gaps between each.

With the black sharpie, make zig zag stitch marks along the gaps. Glue vellum flush with right side and centered in the space remaining on the front card blank.

Glue the longer strip of ribbon overlapping the flower paper a little bit. Punch a small hole in the middle of all the flowers and insert brad. Glue to top of ribbon, overlapping the stitching.

Take the shorter ribbon and fold it in half. Glue down both ends about halfway up the flower stem. Add button.

This card will fit in a regular invitation envelope, which is why I made the card blank 4.25” square :)

~S

Crafty Wednesday / Card Design #3

This week I remembered, hooray!

This card does not require any fancy tools, just a paper cutter and a corner rounder.

Supplies:

• green card blank
• 5 1/4” x 4” blue cardstock
• 3 - 3” x 1.5” strips from a large patterned paper
• 4.75” x 1” pink cardstock
• 4.75” x .5” pink cardstock
• 5 buttons
• 10” thin blue ribbon
• blue ink

Round ALL the corners (except top two on smaller pink strip). Ink the blue cardstock, three front strips, and pink strip that goes on the front (hold the ink pad in your dominant hand and the paper in your non-dominant, brush the ink pad on the edge of the paper away from you just on the edge. The more you tilt the ink toward the front of the paper, the more ink you’ll be able to see).

Glue the blue cardstock onto the front, then the patterned pieces, then the pink piece. Then glue on the buttons. Tie the ribbon around the top of the card blank.

On the inside of the card, glue the pink strip on the bottom, then glue on the buttons.

As a side note, the reason you want a large patterned paper for the front is because then it gives a nice illusion of the pattern still being connected.

If you want a sentiment on the front, it would fit nicely on the pink strip :)

~S

Crafty Wednesday / Card Design #2

Right, completely forgot last week that I was going to post another card design, oops. Actually, I forgot a lot of things last week…maybe I’m getting old ;)

Copied the idea for this little cutie from a Cards magazine (I highly recommend these pricy magazines, btw, but look on ebay for them before you pay full price!)

Supplies:

• Green card blank
• 5.25” x 4” White cardstock
• 24 – 1/2” circles (used a punch) in 3-4 colors
• 1.5” circle I used the same color of dark green as the card blank
• 1.25” circle birthday paper or white paper with sentiment, inked
• Small flower stamps or other embellishments. Buttons would work well as would bling.

I glued the white cardstock on first, then laid out all the small circles on the front before taping them down. Notice they’re not in any particular order, I decided I liked that best. After those were all taped down, I used a small foam square to stick down the layered circles. I then embellished a few of the circles with small rubber stamps. You could use whatever type of embellishment you like, I was trying to go for a card I could give to a male if I wanted, so I stayed away from bling. I saved one of each color circle for the inside to add a little coordination.

I think I’ll definitely revisit this design using a different color scheme or maybe even a different theme all together!

~S

Crafty Wednesday / Card Design #1

I had a great time at the Crop Your Heart Out all-day crop last Saturday. Add to that my new Cricut Expressions machine, and now I have a new stash of cards that I’ve made. I decided a long time ago that I’m not really a scrapbooker, and that’s fine with me, but I do really enjoy making cards. So, every Wednesday, at least for awhile, I’m going to post a new card design. They’re mostly just for you to get inspired to make your own, but if you *really* like mine, I would sell them to you too :)

So, here’s the first one:

Supplies:

• 5.5” x 4.25” card blank
• Green cardstock 1.5” x 5x5”
• Green cardstock – two very small strips for stems
• Green cardstock – “grow” inverse image cut using Lyrical Letters cartridge
• Yellow quilling paper or strip
• White quilling paper or strip

I just took a quilling class at Capture about a month ago, so I’m still learning the techniques. I think this was the first one I tried outside of the class since I just bought a quilling tool this week.

~S

Wordless Wednesday / Daily Photo – January 26th

I’ve updated my wall hangings to include this great specimen art idea. That’s probably about all the decorating I’ll get done for Valentine’s day this year (unless you count 4-year-old art hung on every available surface), but that’s just fine with me :)

~S

Brain Book, hooray!

 
I got my new brain book all done last Friday, hooray! I can’t tell you how many things I wanted to write down in a safe place last week and had nowhere to do so. Several people have expressed interest in my files, etc, so here goes.
What is a brain book?
My brain book is all the daily/weekly/monthly information that I would otherwise either attempt to store in my head or write down on a scrap of paper and then proceed to lose the paper. They’re called many things by many people: household notebook, daily planner, etc. I call it my brain because that’s what I think of it as. With this bad boy, I don’t have to remember all that stuff, I have a safe place to keep it all. I use it to “brain dump” before I go to bed, too, so that all that stuff I’m supposed to do tomorrow doesn’t keep me from sleeping (as it has in the past)
That’s great, but what kind of things are actually in your brain book??
Of course, mine is tailored exactly to me. This is the second one that I’ve put together in this format, and I *love* it! I got this idea from Life As Mom about 6 months ago, so I used quite a bit from her site. I even purchased her Organizing Life As MOM e-book so that I wouldn’t have to recreate everything she’s already done. She also has some other great free printables that I’ve used here and here. I did create several sheets that are exactly what I wanted, but you don’t have to if that’s what’s stopping you from having some type of book. Part of the reason I ended up doing that is because I wanted mine to be 5 1/2” by 8 1/2” (which is 1/2 a sheet of paper, not a whole one) so that it would fit in my purse instead of always getting left behind. Also, this one that I just made covers 6 months because more than that is too much and less than that is too much work to make a new one.
Okay, the nitty-gritty
Here’s the sections I have in my current brain book:

1. To Do
2. Calendar
3. Errands
4. $$$
5. Shopping (code name for mystery shopping)
6. SVCC Preschool
7. Blog
8. Food
9. Paper

To Do:
This is my daily to do list. I printed enough to use about one every other or every 3rd day. I really only need one on a day that’s not the normal routine of things, like when I have errands to run or other things going on. You could also just laminate one and wipe it off every day, which I might try in July.
Bubble Planner
Back to the list
Calendar:
The calendar section actually has the most parts to it. First, I have a weekly calendar on the left side and a household chores/weekly to do on the right side. After the weeklies, I have monthly calendars because sometimes it’s nice to have it all laid out like that. I don’t have much on there, but you could put in birthdays, holidays, etc. I put all that stuff on my weekly calendar since I’m going to be looking at the weekly a lot more often. At the end of this section, I also have a year-at-a-glance, mostly for things that occur after June that I don’t have a calendar for in this book.
I got the monthly calendars from Organizing Life As MOM e-book. She already had them set up as two pages per month, and in the e-book, they’re fill-ins, so I *could* put info in them if I wanted to before printing.
2011 Weekly Calendar Part 1
2011 Calendar
Back to the list
Errands:
My friend and I came up with this one. It’s just a basic list for when you know you will be going to a store, but not necessarily right away. Simply has the date you think you’ll be going (or are planning to go) and the name of the store, then a place for your list. I hate getting to a store and forgetting half my list because I didn’t write it down or because it was two weeks ago when I thought of something I needed to get there.
Errands
Back to the list
$$$:
I’m not always good at writing down my spending when I get home. We have a big white board on the wall in the stairwell for our expenses, but after I go to the store, I usually forget. So, since this will be going everywhere with me, maybe this will work! Again, we went for simplicity. Date, name of store, description of purchase, and amount.
 Monthly Expenses
Back to the list
Shopping:
Obviously, mystery shopping is something that is specific to a very few people. BUT it’s something that I must keep track of, so I put it in here. I also took a manila envelope and cut it down to size to keep my receipts in it. If you want my tracking sheets for some reason, let me know and I’ll send them to you.
Back to the list
SVCC Preschool:
Another section very specific to me. I coordinate the preschool room at our church for Sunday school, so I needed a small place to keep track of my volunteers and any action items I have for the classroom.
Back to the list
Blog:
I like to have a plan. I don’t always follow the plan, but if I didn’t have one, then I wouldn’t do anything at all! Besides “the plan” I also have a few to do lists and a few pieces of lined paper (they’re at the end of this post).
Blog Schedule
Back to the list
Food:
Another section with several parts. I started out with a weekly menu plan as I’ve been doing for Menu Plan Monday. On the back of that, I have meal ideas that fit within each of my categories. Then I have two pages for recipes to try. I like finding new recipes, but I hate it when I lose them or forget all about them. Next, I have a grocery list that I’ve broken into 9 categories that relate to how my grocery store is organized. Last I have my master Costco list. We go to Costco about every 6 weeks because the closest one is an hour away, so when I run out of something or know I need to get it next time, I’ll just add it to the list.
What's for Dinner
Meal Ideas
Grocery List
Back to the list
Paper:
The last section just has lined paper and blank to do lists. You never know when you might just need a piece of paper :)
Lined Paper
To Do List
Back to the list
So that’s it! I printed it all out (which takes some thinking to get it all double sided the way I want) and took it to OfficeMax to have them bind it. I had them put a clear cover on it too, but I made the *fancy* cover with a few pieces of scrapbook paper :) The binding was only $3.50, and the paper was free for me since I have a ton and I have a laser printer now too. Pretty neat, eh??
If you really want one, but putting together your own seems terribly overwhelming, I would be happy to help! I can put together a custom one for you for $15. Also, I’m happy to share my publisher files (that’s how I do most of them), just email me at theyoungns at gmail.com.
Off to make some more to do lists! ;-)
~S

Daily Photo – December 16th

For yesterday.

What I’ve been working on for the last week:

Go here for the tutorial if you want to make your own.

~S

Crafty Wednesday – Floating Beaded Necklace Tutorial

I was asked to share a tutorial at a women’s project night at church last week, so here it is :) I have to say, I haven’t made any jewelry for myself in at least four years. My daughter liked to break my necklaces as a baby, and I haven’t replaced the ones she broke. Now that my beads are out, I just might have to make a few more before putting them back away!

Materials you will need for necklace:

• Invisible Beading Cord
• Clasp
• Crimp Beads
• 30 small accent beads (I used small silver rounds and small silver squares)
• 8 slightly larger colored beads (I used 3mm crystal bicones)
• 6 larger beads
• 1 large bead for the center
• Wire cutters or sharp scissors
• Small smooth-jawed pliers

• Measure how long you would like your necklace to be and add 1 1/2”. Cut a piece of invisible cord to that length.
• Secure the clasp onto one end of the cord:
• Put two crimps onto one end of the cord.
• Then thread the clasp on.
• Put the short end of the cord into the crimps as well and use pliers to lightly crimp both crimps.

• Thread all of your beads on:
  • First thread on a crimp bead
  • Then the smallest accent bead
  • Next a small colored bead
  • Then another small accent bead
  • Then another crimp bead
  • Repeat small section
  • Then a crimp bead
  • Next a small accent bead
  • Next a larger colored bead
  • Then a small accent bead
  • Then a crimp bead
  • Repeat small section
  • Repeat large section
  • Repeat small section
  • Repeat large section
  • Then a crimp bead
  • Then a small accent bead
  • Then the large middle bead
  • Then a small accent bead
  • Then a crimp bead
  • You’re halfway there! Repeat all sections.
  • Crimp other side of clasp onto the other end of the cord, following the same procedure as the first side.

 

 

 

• Crimp your beads in place:
  • First lay out all beads with the spacing you’d like. I eyeball it first, then use a ruler to make sure they’re about even.
  • Starting with the middle section, start crimping the crimp beads using light pressure with the pliers.
  • Work up one side first, using a ruler if you desire to make sure the spacing is approximately the same for each set of beads. In this case, they’re about 3/4” from one crimp to the next.
  • When you get to the clasp on one side, go back to the middle bead and start back up the other side. You can use the first side you did to measure if they’re in the right place instead of using a ruler.

 

• Voila! You now have a floating necklace! But what about a matching pair of earrings?
• Materials Needed:
  • 2 Earring Hooks. I recommend sterling silver
  • 2 2” Earring Head Pins
  • 4 Small Silver Accent Beads 
  • 4 Small Colored Beads (I used 3mm crystal bicones)
  • 2 Larger Beads

 

 

 

• Thread beads onto earring head pin:
  • Start with small colored bead
  • Then a silver accent bead
  • Then a large bead
  • Then a silver accent bead
  • Next a small colored bead
  • Last a earring wire

 

 

• Using the pliers, bend the head  pin around into a loop and into the top bead.
• Repeat for other earring.
• Tada!!!!

 

 

 

Floating Necklace Tutorial

~S

Copyright notice: Please be kind and do not take my pictures without asking. You are free to print for your personal use, but don’t repost them somewhere else. If you would like, you are more than welcome to link to this page. Thank you!

Crafty Wednesday - Photo Editing

Right, I know it's almost Friday...oops.

Anyway, I haven't been working on much new crafty type things the last few weeks because I'm trying to finish up some projects similar to ones I've already posted. Like wall decor for Nate's name just like Kahlen's and a shirt for Kahlen that's very similar to Nate's Tie Shirt.

I've also been busy taking a ridiculous amount of pictures first with my stepdad's camera that he let me borrow and now my new Canon 20D that I bought (hooray!!). While blog surfing today, I came across this tutorial from Kristen Duke about photoshop and workflow. Okay, wow! First off, she spoke English, not technobabble that I couldn't understand. Partly, I'm sure, is that I was now ready to edit some of my new pictures, and partly it's just a great tutorial with a TON of screen shots showing exactly what she's talking about. I have PhotoShop Elements 4.0, and this worked exactly as she said it would!

To show you, here's the before and after of a picture I took today of Nate's first wagon ride:

Picture before. Not a bad picture. Yes, he has a thing about talking with his eyebrows :)

Picture after I followed her tutorial. The color just looks much better, doncha think?

So don't be afraid to give it a try! I'm off to edit more pictures :)

~S

Took Kristen's suggestion (See comments) and fixed up his face a little using the dodge tool:

Thanks Kristen!!

Linked to

Crafty Wednesday - KAHLEN

I've been wanting to put something up in the kids' room since we moved in three years ago, and just haven't really gotten to it. Now I'm one step closer :) It still isn't hanging up, but at least it's done.

Here's the finished product:

It's just sitting on that piece of wood so it's not on the floor where little feet might trample it. I'll be hanging it all up hopefully in the next few days (need to get the right kind of adhesive first).

How did I do it? Read on!

First, you'll need:

• Wooden letters. Got mine at JoAnn's during the coupon commotion sale a few weeks ago.
• Scrapbook papers you like. I decided to coordinate mine instead of matching them, but that's entirely up to you.
• Mod Podge. What else?
• 1" Sponge brush. 
• Ink pad for distressing
• Sand paper
• Embellishments (not pictured)

{Step #1}
Trace the letters upside down on the BACK of your scrapbooking papers

{Step #2}
Cut out the letters as close to the lines as you can.

{Step #3}
Apply a coat of mod podge to each wooden letter, place the paper letter on, and smooth out. Because my letters are pretty small, I just used my finger, but you could also use a ruler or something else if you're worried about bubbles. I didn't have trouble with most of my papers; the textured cardstock gave me a little trouble, but you can't really tell in the finished product.

{Step #4}
You could stop at this point, but that's not as cute! Next, sand the edges a little bit to make the paper lay flat around the outside. I didn't cut my papers as precisely as I could have, so they were hanging off the edges a bit.

  After sanding, it looked much better.












{Step #5}
Distress the edges with the ink pad. I chose green because that's one of the theme colors for their room and it generally matched with the papers I chose. I couldn't get into all the crevices with the ink pad. I pondered it for awhile, then thought I'd try another 1" sponge brush. Worked like a charm! I dipped the very end in the ink pad, then just distressed like I normally would.

{Step #6}
Embellish! I was in my craft room while working on the project, so I just pulled whatever I had on hand. I'd seen these cute paper flowers everywhere in blogland recently and was just waiting for a project to use them on. Cut out three circles on coordinating paper in incremental sizes. Crumple up to get nice texture, then flatten out. Distress the edges with the same color as you did the letters. Hot glue all the middles together and add a coordinating button. Mod podge to the best of your ability. Hot glue to letters.
I also used ribbon, self-adhesive jewels and buttons from Oriental Trading Company, and raffia.

And there you have it!

Now I just need to do the little man's too, need to get some more coupons or a screaming sale at JoAnns on the letters though, Nathanael is a long name ;)

~S

Remember, recipe linking party starts in under two weeks!

Crafty Wednesday - Tie Shirt

Okay, I finally finally got to my Cricut project that I've been wanting to do for weeks now. I watched this video a couple months ago and got really excited about it, then just didn't have the supplies or the time to do anything with it.
Here's what I made:

This is what my little man will be wearing for Easter.
I got the shirt on clearance for less than $1 and the fabric was on sale at JoAnn's (don't know how much, I think $4/yard, and I got 1/4 yard). I still have a lot of the fabric and interfacing left too, so I can do many more projects with it :)

For instructions on how to create your very own, watch this video:

I used paint to draw a tie since I couldn't find one and then used Make The Cut software to cut it out. It was an extremely smooth process, loved loved it! Now to find some more shirts to embellish...

~S

Crafty Wednesday - Make the Cut 1

I just bought Make the Cut, a program for my Cricut that allows me to cut ANY font that I have installed on my computer. There's a {ton} of really cool things you can do with this program. Here's my first foray:

I welded the letters together using the font Wish I Were Taller from Kevin and Amanda.

Just a cute little card to get started. More to come...

~S

Crafty Wednesday - Fabric Wall Hangings

I have a large space above my dining room table that I've kept filled with Christmas and Valentine's Day decorations for the last few months, but I knew it was going to look pretty empty after I took down my cute banner. So, did I really want to spend a bunch of money for some decorative thing or did I want to make something and have it be affordable and just what I was looking for? When I saw this tutorial over at Make It and Love It, I thought it was EXACTLY what I was looking for!

 I used burlap, home decor fabric, and the wrong side of satin. I found them all in the clearance section at Joann's. I think the burlap added enough texture without the fun folding that is shown in the tutorial. The project took me less than two hours from start to finish (not counting the half an hour I spent wandering around the hardware store looking for someone to help me).

The cost for the project was around $25 including the fabric and wood. I'm sure I could have done it cheaper if I had been able to find the clearance section at the hardware store (silly Lowes, not being well organized) or if I had remembered that we already HAD scrap pieces of 1x2s from a different project or if I had a collection of fabric (which I do not since I don't even have a working sewing machine right now). Anyway, I still thought that was extremely reasonable for how great it turned out!
Easy, inexpensive, not time consuming; my kind of project! Thanks Ashley!

~S

Crafty Wednesday - Bathtub painting

Didn't do much in the way of mommy crafts this week. I did buy a new computer program for my Cricut, but I have yet to use it.
In the mean time, here's what Kahlen did today. Found this recipe on a blog somewhere (sorry, can't find where!), it was really easy and really fun.

1-3 tablespoons cornstarch, depending on desired consistency. I used more rather than less.
1/3 cup dish soap (I used Dawn 'cause that's what I have)
food coloring

Mix together and enjoy!
I used my "muffin" trays that I got from Oriental Trading Company, they come in a pack of a dozen and have SO many uses that I'm glad I have a dozen!
Here's what Kahlen thought of it:

 

I didn't get any pictures of what she did with it after she was done painting on the wall. She then proceeded to paint herself and swim around in the colored water before I washed her off with the shower. It entertained her for about 40 minutes, long enough for me to do my hair and fold the laundry :) It was surprisingly easy to clean up too, just sprayed it down with the showerhead and it was clean!

~S