National Donut Day and a Giveaway

I was on Facebook last month and I saw that some of my friends had posted about National Donut Day. What kind of holiday is this? Well, one with free donuts, of course! We couldn’t let this holiday pass us by, so after dinner, we hurried on down to our local Dunkin Donuts and went in for a free treat. I think this may be Cory’s new favorite holiday.

I used the July Creative Kit from My Creative Scrapbook to make this page marking the holiday:

The kit features Echo Park Paper’s Hello Summer collection and I thought this yellow background paper looked a little like donuts (you may have to use your imagination here, lol). I used a simple design and mostly let the photos take center stage. Donuts with sprinkles. Yup, life is good.

Here’s a closeup of the title work.

Love those multi-colored alphas and little banners.

Have you been over to the My Creative Scrapbook blog lately? You might want to go take a peek. We’re giving away TWO July Main kits this coming week that feature Carta Bella’s Beautiful Moments. The kits contain the full Beautiful Moments collection plus lots of extra embellishments.

Here's a pic of the July main kit we're giving away:

It’s super easy to be entered to win the July kit. Winners will be chosen from comments on both the My Creative Scrapbook blog and Facebook page. To enter, follow the My Creative Scrapbook blog, "Like" the My Creative Scrapbook Facebook Page and leave a comment at both places telling what you'd create with the kit.  It's as simple as that! One winner will be drawn from the My Creative Scrapbook blog and one winner from the Facebook page. Winners will be announced on Friday, July 20th.

Read To Me!

The only things my toddler loves more than cars and snacks....



are books. And, invariably, whenever he gets a new book, he goes looking for a lap and a willing reader. For Christmas, Cory got a set of Thomas the Train books and the day wasn’t complete until the whole family had read to him.

Got to scrapbook this or maybe add it to my December Daily.

Home for the Holidays

It's good to be home for the holidays.  All the lights and sights and sounds and smells and festivities really put me in the Christmas spirit.  It's fun to pull out the holiday boxes and decorate the house for Christmas.  I wanted to capture a few of my favorite things around the house for this layout.

I decided to use patterned paper and embellies that weren't Christmas themed because the photos clearly indicate the topic. I used an 8x10 photo collage as my centerpiece, tucking a little journaling card behind it on the top left. Underneath, I added a border strip, spelled out the title and added a little chipboard house from the Pink Paislee Hometown Summer line and trees from My Mind's Eye. I finished the page with a little pop of color in the upper left, using a flower sticker from October Afternoon and a few buttons, and stitching around the page.

Wishing all of you a beautiful Christmas. I hope you find yourself home for the holidays.

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

Repurposing A Banner Stamp Set

I love banners. It's the most fun trend. You'll find banners on many of my projects and I have a couple of great banner stamp sets.  For the holidays, I thought I would repurpose triangle banners for Christmas trees.

I used this red rubber banner stamp set co-branded from Unity Stamps/Simple Stories:

From the set, I used the polka dot banner on the far left and the ledger banner next to it to make these trees.

I drew little tree trunks with a black zig.  Below is the full card. It was really quick to do.

I used a journaling card from Elle's Studio and patterned paper from a 6 x6 holiday pad from Basic Grey. The little stamped greeting at the top is from Fancy Pants.  Cardstock is Bazzill kraft.

Echo Park's Holly Jolly Holidays Blog Hop

Welcome to the Echo Park Paper "Holly Jolly Holidays" Blog Hop! We've created a special one-day blog hop event in which you can hop from one designer's blog to the next, viewing beautiful holiday cards.

Here's the card I created. The tree detaches and can be hung as an ornament. 

I used a brad to make the sentiment a swinging element. You can push the title in toward (and under) the tree to better fit the card into an envelope. To detach the tree, pull gently at each corner and hang as an ornament.  
 

 
Be sure to follow the blog hop list below and leave a comment on each person's blog. Finish up at the Echo Park Paper blog with a final comment. THREE winners will be selected to win a collection kit of their choosing. Comments can be made through midnight MST today for a chance to win! Winners will be announced on December 8 on the Echo Park Paper blog.


The hop order:

Leslie Ashe

Lowri McNabb

Vanessa Menhorn

Izzy Anderson  <----- you are here
Wendy Sue Anderson
Carolyn King
Tamara Tripodi
Linda Auclair
Kandis Smith

Patricia Kumfer

Amy Heller

Echo Park Paper

Thanks so much for playing along!


Echo Park Card Supplies:
Holly Jolly: 6x6 Paper Pad
Season’s Greetings: Chipboard Accents, Brads, Borders, Journaling Cards

Victoria Gardens: Picket Fence

Metro Dots and Stripes: 6x6 Paper Pad

Everybody Loves Christmas: Wrapping Paper

Other:  Bazzill Basics cardstock, Twine from The Twinery, Fiskars border punch, Bernina sewing machine

Finished card size: 5 x 6 inches