Christmas Bookmarks: Twine Tassels

Note: My December Daily is at the bottom of this post.

We're big book lovers in my family and it's always handy to have a cute bookmark. No dog-eared pages, please! For Christmas this year, we are doing a holiday countdown with children's books.  We have 24 wrapped books under the tree and each night in December my little one picks a package, opens it, and we read the book inside. 

I thought it would be fun to add a cute holiday bookmark to one of the packages. This is what I made:

Bookmarks are quick and easy to make and are a great use for scrap paper.  The base of my bookmark is about 1.5 inches wide by 6 inches tall and is made from two coordinating papers from Echo Park collections. The diagonal stripe is from EP's So Happy Together and the polka dot is from Hello Summer. Though neither is a Christmas line, they work well here with the colorful snowman sticker from the Holly Jolly collection.

The twine is Trendy Twine and I made the tassel using Holly Berry, a fun mix of red and green.

Trendy Twine is sponsoring a snowman-theme challenge this month. Come play along! There's a great prize up for grabs. Just link your twine project by Dec. 31. You'll find all the details to the challenge here.  You can find other projects from the design team on the Trendy Twine blog.

And continuing with my December Daily. This is Day 2:

For this day, I documented our Lego City Advent Calendar.  This sounded like a great idea, but it was a bust for us because our son was too young. We will pack this away to use when he is a little older. 

Day 3:

For Day 3, I had a church program from a Christmas luncheon I attended that was just about the same size as my foundation pages, 6x8.  I added a small strip of green patterned paper to the right side of the program and it fit perfectly in my album. Yay!  No need to make a foundation page for this day. On the right is a photo from the luncheon and one of Cory on a swing outside the church.  

Documenting Baby's First Year: 11 Months

I started scrapbooking in 2009 just prior to my son’s birth with the goal of making a baby book of his first year. Someone had given me an album, cardstock and stickers at a baby shower and that was my start.

As my son grew, I was dogged about one thing: taking a photo each month of my baby on his birthdate and writing down that month’s milestones. Recently, I was looking through his baby album and saw I had milestone layouts for months 1 – 9 and a birthday page for age 1. Hey, that’s pretty good. I was just missing milestones for months 10 and 11.

So, here we have it: the 11-month milestone page. I was grateful I had written these down. At the time, you think you’ll never forget. But trust me, new mommas, you will.  Here, I added the list of milestones to a cardstock pennant.

I used Echo Park Paper for this layout, primarily the Note To Self collection. The star paper is from EP’s Pride and Joy mini theme. The wood veneer heart is Studio Calico; stickers are October Afternoon. The Polaroid frame is a die cut from Paper Issues’ etsy shop.

And coming soon to a blog near you: the 10-month milestone page.

And speaking of Echo Park , I was so pleased to see this little beach ball card I made from EP scraps muscle its way into the week’s top 3 lists at Two Peas in a Bucket.  Two Peas just recently switched from daily top 3 lists to weekly ones. This shaped beach ball card topped the list for the week as the most liked project and came in 2nd as most bookmarked.

I originally blogged about this card here.  I had made the card for a publication call for shaped cards. It wasn't picked up, which is always a bit deflating, so it was extra sweet to find the card in the Two Peas rankings. :)  

Bark, Ruff, Howl: A Doggie Hello

Hi, hey, hello there.  Bark, ruff, howl.  I like to keep a stash of cards with every day sentiments on hand, something that I can send for any occasion or just because. I’m always on the lookout for a paper line that fits this bill and the Echo Park Paper's mini theme Woof was perfect.  Even though we aren’t dog owners, I couldn’t resist this cute collection.

I particularly liked the paper in the Woof collection with all the doggie sayings. I used that paper as a background on my card, then pop-dotted a few speech bubbles for emphasis. The chipboard doggie is from Echo Park's Hello Summer line and worked perfectly with the Woof collection. 

Also, I wanted to share some fun news today. My Creative Scrapbook is having a contest that starts June 5. The particulars are still under wraps but I know it involves Prima and bling and lots of fabulous prizes. I’ll post more information about the contest and sneak peeks of the prizes as soon as I know more.

All the details of the contest will be posted on http://www.mycreativescrapbook.com/ . We’d love to have you join us!

Shaped Card: Quilted Beach Ball

Today, I have a quick card to share with you:  a bright happy beach ball card.  On the inside, I used the sentiment: It's your birthday!  Have a ball!

To make this card, I drew a ball shape on cardstock (tracing a small plate) and cut it out.  Next, I gathered some coordinating paper scraps from Echo Park and cut them into pie-shaped wedgess, inking the edges. I laid them on the card front in a beach ball design, lightly tacked them down, then used a zig zag stitch between each panel for a quilted look.

At top, I added a small cardstock circle and large stitched brad from Crate Paper.  On the bottom right, I stitched on a label sticker from October Afternoon with brads, chipboard and letter stickers.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a warm and sunny weekend wherever you are.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream

Last year when we went to the beach, we were sitting poolside and I thought I would go buy an ice cream cone to share with my little boy. I bought mint chocolate chip, Mommy’s favorite flavor. As it turns out, it was Cory’s favorite flavor too because once I gave him a lick of the cone, he wasn’t giving the ice cream back. No sirree, bob!

I couldn’t very well deny my toddler his first ice cream cone, so I stood back and snapped some photos instead. This is the result: one happy toddler.

I used a mix of Echo Park patterned papers on this page: Happy Days, Victoria Gardens and Summer Days and tucked a journaling card under the photos.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper, Stickers, Alphas: Echo Park

Ribbon: Bo Bunny

Staple: Ranger

Ink: Ranger

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Thread: Craft supply

Journaling: 20 Random Things About My Life

Like many scrapbookers, I began this hobby when I had a baby, or more accurately, when I adopted a baby, as a way to document my son’s early life, recording his photos and capturing his milestones.  Along the way, I’ve found that, every once in awhile, I'd make a page about Mommy too.

This particular layout, though, isn’t about me as a mommy. It’s just about me.  Just random things about my life before my son came along. Twenty things, because that is a nice round number and because, well, that’s all that would fit on the page.  In truth, when I went to design the page, I needed to cut the last three items from the list to fit the journaling block so I added those three things to the tag under the photo. It's always a bit of a design challenge to fit in a lot of journaling.

I used a mix of paper lines here: Cosmo Cricket, Little Yellow Bicycle, Crate Paper and October Afternoon. The border sticker is from Echo Park Paper and the alphas are from Bella Blvd , October Afternoon, Studio Calico and Basic Grey. Chipboard is American Crafts and Cosmo Cricket.

How about you? Do you make layouts to capture you? If so, feel free to link your projects in the comments or tell a random fact about your life.

My Mind's Eye: Banners and Chevron

I am really digging the popularity of chevrons and have seen this trendy pattern in so many patterned papers and embellishments. I love it. It’s so fun and versatile.

The Paper Issues blog has hopped right on this bandwagon and is currently hosting a “Show Me Your Chevron” challenge, which runs through April 14. Paper Issues is giving away six terrific prize packs of new CHA releases for this challenge. You can find all the details here including how to link up your own chevron project on the PI blog.

I decided to play along using My Mind’s Eye chevron collection, On The Bright Side, which was included as part of the March kit at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I thought the sunny, happy papers perfectly suited this photo of my toddler last year, enjoying a Fall festival.

In the photo, there is a string of pennants in the background and I recreated the look beneath my photo with some small pennants. I also added a yellow chevron banner peeking out from both sides of the photo mat and added a blue chevron flag waving above for a festive feel. On the left, I stitched a small chevron border to the page and repeated the pattern in three half-circles above the photo mat.

After I finished the layout, I used some of the My Mind's Eye leftovers to make a quick card. I punched out three squares in the denim paper, backed the negative punches with chevron, then machine stitched the two together, following the white doodled stitches on the patterned paper.

To complete the card, I added a sentiment sticker from Echo Park Paper and a butterfly die cut from Cosmo Cricket. A quick and simple card: my favorite kind!

Mr. & Mrs. Egghead - Decorating Plastic Eggs

On the agenda for the weekend is to dye Easter eggs with my preschooler. But before we tackle real eggs, I thought it might be fun to decorate some plastic ones. I saw a feature in Disney’s Family Fun magazine of plastic eggs sporting a variety of hats and thought I’d follow suit.

May I introduce Mr. and Mrs. Egghead? These two are obviously Southerners, maybe Texans, given their headgear.

I made Mr. Egghead’s cowboy hat using a paper egg carton, a small piece of cardstock and a bit of twine. I made Mrs. Egghead’s Easter bonnet from a cupcake wrapper, felt trim and small paper flowers.

The couple is sporting border stickers from Echo Park’s This and That collection. I thought the red triangle border sticker looked a bit like a bandana and suited our cowboy. I used a scallop border sticker for Mrs. Egghead to mimic a dress collar. I also used stickers and paper from This and That to build the house. The roof and door are Cosmo Cricket.

They’re just about ready for Easter, I’d say. Have you decorated eggs yet this year? If so, feel free to link them in the comments here or on the Paper Issues blog. Our current theme is Candy Shop. We’d love to see your projects. Paper Issues also has a great giveaway on its blog.  Saturday is the last day to enter.

Spring Cards

We’re having the most beautiful spring here in North Carolina. The sun is out. The flowers are blooming and all over the neighborhood, I hear the hum of lawn movers. On days like this, it’s impossible not to find myself wanting to create something bright and sunshiney.

The first card, "Let The Fun Begin," is a hodge podge of stuff laying on my desk and things I eyed on my Clip-it-up. This project started life as a color challenge to use yellow and pink. That’s where I got the yellow base (Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer) and large pink scallop (Making Memories journal book).

　

Then I started poking around my desk, adding this and that. I had just gotten a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper‘s new Storyteller and I pulled the blue ledger from there. On top, I added a scallop border sticker from Studio Calico, a bit of twine from The Twinery and a trio of Crate chipboard birds. The sentiment sticker is from Amercan Crafts's new Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. Love that collection! I nearly stopped there, but then decided the sun and kite stickers from My Little Shoebox would add just the right touch of whimsy. There, now the card feels complete.

The second card, "I Really Bike You," features Echo Park’s paper and stickers. I love orange and blue together and took advantage of that combination here. To make the bicycle pop against the background, I whitewashed the paper with thin white acrylic paint. I used heart punches to make the clouds then sewed them on the card to make them look a bit puffy. The sun sticker had a sentiment that didn’t fit the card, so I covered the wording by adding a plain yellow circle on top, then added my own sentiment with alphas under the bicycle.

　

I submitted this card to Scrapbook & Cards Today, the terrific quarterly Canadian magazine, and was delighted to see my card featured on its blog here.  I hope you're having a beautiful spring day wherever you are.

Pair of Summer Cards

The East Coast has been hit with an early heat wave and it feels like summer. It's been sunny and in the 80s for the past week. It's beautiful, perfect weather. When I wasn't outside enjoying the sunshine, I was inside dreaming of it. In that spirit, I made a couple of summer cards.

I used Simple Stories' 100 Days of Summer, which was one of my favorite finds last year. It's a terrific summer line and the sheet of journaling cards was my favorite piece in the collection.  The journaling spots are just the right accent for cards.

To make the cards, I layered the journaling spots on 4x6 cards, then added stickers and stitching to complete the look. 

I had two sheets of the journaling cards, so to build the clothes line on the "Let's Hang Out" card, I cut the bathing suits from one card and pop dotted them over the same image on the extra sheet to give some dimension. I added a line of twine between the pop dotted suits to form a colorful clothesline.

On "Ahhh Summer" I added handstitching to the umbrella and sun chair for a little added dimension and a pop of color. I love this little scene. It looks so inviting and has me ready for the glory days of summer. 

Supply List:
CS: Bazzill Basics
PP: Simple Stories, Echo Park Paper
Stickers: Simple Stories, October Afternoon
Die Cuts: October Afteroon
Chipboard: October Afternoon
Gems: Close To My Heart
Floss: DMC
Thread: Coats & Clark
Sewing Machine: Bernina

You Make Me Smile

Cosmo Cricket has a challenge on its blog this week to make something happy and sunshiney using the color yellow. For every project made and linked to its blog or Facebook page, Cosmo Cricket will donate $5 and a can of food to their local food bank. How awesome is that? I think we should load them up with all things yellow!

I really love the new Cosmo Cricket collections from Winter CHA, which feature wonderful shades of yellow. But those lines haven’t made it yet to a store near me. Instead, I pulled out some patterned paper and chipboard from Delovely, one of my favorite happy CC lines, and made a sunny card.

The sun is a doily from Martha Stewart that I inked and misted and the little die cut butterfly is from Cosmo Cricket’s awesome “butterflies and doilies” that coordinated with its Social Club, Salt Air and Upcycle lines. The stickers that spell “smile” are Echo Park. The yellow alphas are CC Tiny Type, which I have in every color. They are so handy!

If you have a chance this weekend, rustle up your own yellow creation and send it over to Cosmo Cricket. The local food bank will be awfully glad you did.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I don’t know what it is about Valentines but I find them ridiculously appealing. They just make me smile. Their sentiments may be short and sweet, corny and silly, or mushy and romantic. I love them all. I like to make all kinds and receive all kinds. Especially when they come with chocolate!

For my first card, I made a traditional Valentine.

I used Echo Park Paper, the new Yours Truly with a mix of some older lines. I love the way that it's so easy to mix and match the colors of EP's collections. The little tag at the bottom is a printable from 2Peas that I inked to match the card.

For my second card, I went playful.

I used the B sides of October Afternoon's Holiday Style collection.  I love B sides!  They're so versatile.  To make the card, I hand-cut the dragonfly shape, stitched the edges and added a journaling spot for the sentiment.  To make the antennae, I put gel glue (Claudine Hellmuth's multi medium matte) on a length of twine and while the glue was still wet, I wrapped the twine around a pencil until it dried.  When I peeled the twine off the pencil, the twine retained its curly shape.

A very happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

Sewn Hearts

I love the trend I've been seeing on cards and layouts lately to sew columns of embellies straight down a project. I thought it would be fun to try this with hearts for a Valentine card.

I got out some Echo Park Paper scraps (mostly Victoria Gardens) and a heart punch and made nine hearts. I tacked the hearts lightly in columns on a white cardstock base. I intended to sew a single line down the middle but I got slightly off course on my first row, so I decided to make each row a double.

To make the columns of hearts into a card, I followed a layout design for my inspiration. My friend Karen Tarpley made this adorable layout with sewn butterflies.

I thought her layout would be easiliy adaptable into a card. Following her design, I added a bit of patterned paper above the hearts, then added a bit of pink trim, a doily and a journaling card.

:

Thanks for the inspiration, Karen. You can find more of her work on her blog. 

Supplies:

PP: Echo Park Paper

Trim and Resin Heart: Webster's Pages

Doily: Martha Stewart

Ink: Ranger

Mist: Tattered Angels

Sewing Machine: Bernina

I Resolve: Things To Do In 2012

With the New Year rolling in, I decided to document a few of my goals for 2012. Well, 26 goals to be exact. I made a list of action verbs that started with each letter of the alphabet. A couple of letters were tricky. My action for Z was zoom. And my action for X was to give kisses and hugs (represented as xoxo).

When I put my list into a Wordle, I got a word cloud like this:

I used the Year.o.graphy line from Simple Stories for my layout. Love that collection. It lended itself so well to this type of page. The white banner stickers and the scallop border sticker are Echo Park Paper.

This was my list of things to do in 2012:
Adapt, Balance, Create, Donate, Experiment, Fix, Garden, Hug, Invest, Join, Kneel, Listen, Make, Nurture, Organize, Pause, Question, Read, Snuggle, Try, Understand, Visit, Wander, XOXO, Yield and Zoom.

This was a really fun way to document my goals and was based on a challenge for Birds of a Feather Kit Co.

Supplies:
CS:  Bazzill Basics
PP: Simple Stories
Stickers (non letter): Simple Stories and Echo Park
Alphas: Crate Paper
Sewing Machine: Bernina

December Daily: Final Pages

This was my first year doing a December Daily and I had such fun with it. I ordered the Studio Calico kit. I so loved the American Crafts album that came in the kit. It is a great size. The pages are 6 x 8.5 inches. I almost always scrap 12 x 12 and it was such a treat to work on the small canvas of the December Daily.

I used the calendar pages that Ali Edwards offers and followed her general framework. I used her calendar pages on the right and a foundation page on the left. I stitched around the foundation pages to mimic the frame of the calendar pages. I used mostly Echo Park throughout the album to give the Daily a cohesive look.

Day 21:

Over the years, we collected crystal Orrefors ornaments for our tree and I highlighted them in this entry, a filler day.

Day 22:

One of our city's favorite family-friendly traditions is going to see the Leonard Bearstein Symphony Orchestra, mechanical bears that sing and play holiday songs in the lobby of a building uptown. 

Day 23:

Mom has been using the same recipe to make these sugar cookies since 1966.  It's not Christmas without these cookies. LOVE them!

Day 24:

Scenes from the candleight Christmas Eve service and journaling about the tradition.

Day 25:

Christmas morning. I especially wanted to include photos of my parents here because they are so special to Cory and I love to observe his relationship with them.

I very nearly wrote “The End” at the bottom of the last page. I'm going to tuck my album away with my Christmas decorations.  It will be fun to pull it out next year and have a look. 　

December Daily Entries

I’ve finished my December Daily except for a few pages in the middle. Those last stragglers are the hardest to do, especially on days without holiday activities. I am going to try to tackle those entries this weekend so I can put my book away and get back to other paper crafting projects.

Here are a few more of the early pages of my December Daily.

Day 6:

　

We went to see a special performance of The Nutcracker, benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. My son, age 2, is still a bit young to appreciate this show but Mommy enjoyed it. To commemorate the outing, we added a ballerina ornament to the tree, right next to Big Bird!

Day 7:

I wanted to add a holiday project to my December Daily. This spread is a bit incomplete. I need to go back to stitch around the patterned paper and add a caption or embellie. On the left is a card I made for the Echo Park Paper blog hop. I will just slip it into the page protector without attaching it to the page. The right side of the spread is a screen shot of my blog entry that day.

Day 8:

Here I journaled about getting the tree: both this year and in years past. We always buy a fresh tree for the holidays. I love the smell! The tree becomes such a presence in the house. It’s always hard to take it down and put the ornaments away once the holidays are over. I keep the tree up as long as possible.

Day 9:

This is a filler day, so I decided to tell the story of an unusual Christmas and memorable gift. In 1998 while a Peace Corps volunteer in southern Africa, I hitchhiked with friends to Tanzania (several countries north), then took a ferry to the island of Zanzibar. I had no gifts that Christmas but I did get something more meaningful: a special letter.

My supply list and earlier December Daily posts can be found here,  here,  here and here.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the last entries of my December Daily.

My Growing Boy

My baby is growing up too fast.  I caught him here last year, at age 1, before he was weaned from the bottle, dragging along his favorite blanket and toting along a puzzle. I'm so glad I thought to grab my camera and get these shots. They really take me back.  Cory went through a stage where he took that blanket and a puzzle everywhere he went: from room to room in the house, in the car, to the grocery store, at school, etc.  It was such the cutest stage.  I miss my baby!

I used the December "Naughty or Nice?" kit from Scraptastic Club.  It's full of a great mix of holiday papers from Lily Bee, Echo Park, Fancy Pants and Crate Paper.

Scraptastic Club sponsors challenges each month with great prizes. Come play along. There are four challenges and you have until Dec. 31 to upload your entries. The prize this month is the Random Collection from Crate Paper. Oh, I love that line!   You can find the challenges on the Scraptastic Club Blog here.

Echo Park Handprint/Footprint Ornaments

Echo Park Paper gave its in-house team and Fresh Face designers a challenge to make holiday projects with children. My child is 2 so that did present a challenge.... I went old-school and made ornaments using my son’s handprints and footprints.

This is an easy and fun project to do, but a bit messy, as it does involve a toddler with paint on his hands and feet. Right before bath time is a good time. Just sayin’.

We started with handprints. I enlisted my mom’s help and we painted Cory’s hand with red acrylic paint then stamped his hand on cardstock. We tried both white cardstock and kraft to see which we liked better.

After the handprints dried, I cut them out to form Santa’s face and beard, adding googly eyes, a button nose and a brad smile. I hand-drew a hat from Echo Park paper then used a small circle punch and some adhesive pearls for the trim. We finished the ornament with a “ho ho ho” sticker and a twine hanger.

To make the penguin, I painted Cory’s foot with black acrylic paint and stamped his foot on white cardstock. After the black paint dried, Cory used his fingers and some white acrylic paint to give the penguin a belly. We added arms (flippers) and a hat using Echo Park paper (Metro Dots and Stripes), stickers and brads. We finished the penguin with a chipboard greeting and a twine scarf.

You can find more about this project and other Echo Park projects with kids on the EP blog.  　

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Echo Park Paper (Holly Jolly, Metro Dots and Stripes)

Brads: Echo Park Paper and American Crafts

Button: Making Memories

Adhesive Pearls: Close To My Heart

Paint: Plaid

Punch: Marvy Uchida

Twine: The Twinery

Favorite Gift Under The Tree

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I often find that I don’t scrap Christmas until well after the fact. Does this happen to you? One of the things I meant to document last year, but didn’t, was my son’s favorite Christmas present. Like so many boys his age - and older - he has an obsession with cars. In fact, this may well be a stage that boys never outgrow.

Under the tree last year, every present was wrapped except one: the Little People racetrack. My toddler is an early riser and we wanted him to have something special to find while everyone else was still nestled in bed. I got up with him at 6 am to see what Santa had brought. Cory couldn’t have been more excited. Even later that morning, as he opened present after present, he kept going back to his cars and the racetrack. It was his favorite present.

I created this layout with the Scraptastic Club’s December kit: Naughty or Nice. I’ve had such fun this month as guest designer. The kit club is running four challenges this month with a great prize: a collection kit from Crate Paper. You don’t have to use the kit to participate in challenges. You can find the details here.

Supplies:

CS: Bazzill Basics

PP: Lily Bee, Echo Park, Bo Bunny

Journaling card: Lily Bee

Wood Shapes: Studio Calico

Stickers: Crate, Echo Park

Letter Stickers: Lily Bee, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey

Border Punch: Fiskars

Circle Punch: Marvy Uchida

Pen: Zip

Ink: Ranger

Sewing Machine: Bernina

Kit: Scraptastic Club

Echo Park gift tags

I love making tags. They are such a fun little canvas to work on. Echo Park Paper asked its in-house team and Fresh Face designers to each make a tag for their blog this Christmas. You can find the blog post here.

I had the first day of Christmas and this is the tag I made.

I used the B side of the border strips from EP's Season’s Greetings as my tag base, then added a bit of burlap and a red border sticker. To embellish the tag, I used stickers, brads and pp from the Season's Greetings and Holly Jolly collections.

Echo Park Supplies:

Season's Greetings: patterned paper, element stickers and brads

Holly Jolly: journaling cards (pop-dotted gift) and element stickers

Other Supplies: burlap, twine and ribbon