Unexpected Inspiration

 I recently completed this page:

 Inspired by this baby blanket:

I love everything about this blanket...the colors especially. If you find a pattern or something that you really love, take that opportunity to try out some techniques, instead of focusing so much on design.  The design of my page is pretty simple, I think, but it's colors, and texture that make it pop.  I cut some circles and put them in a polka dot embossing folder, and colored the dots with a white paint pen...and it ended up mimicking the blanket perfectly.  It's also a mostly cardstock LO, which I love, because I have a ton of it. So, if you are in a  slump, take a moment to glance around, and see what inspires you.

      TFSB,

Poinsettia Tutorial

This isn't my original idea, I saw it somewhere else, but I honestly can't remember where I saw it.  Anyway, I thought this paper poinsettia was really pretty, and so easy to make.

 I started with a 1.5 inch paper strip:

 Cut four pieces on the diagonal:

 Pinch each diamond together in the center, you'll have to play with it a bit:

 Hold them together and wrap the pinched part with wire:

 I used Prima leaves, but if you don't have any, you can make some leaves the exact same way.  Except for pinch the ends together instead of the middle, and clip off the end:

 Add several small buttons, or one large one to the center, and it's done:

Just in time for some last minute holiday cards.  Have fun!

DIY scarf tutorial

I came across this DIY scarf in a magazine, and thought it was pretty awesome. Especially, since I was going to try to knit myself a grey scarf this fall, but really didn't see it happening, and this was a whole lot quicker. Here it is, you start with an old shirt:

Lay it flat and snip of the top of the shirt with one horizontal cut under the arm holes. Toss the top half.
Now create fringe along the unhemmed side of what's left by snipping every half inch.
Ta-da! Presto chang-o: shirt to cute scarf. (I think it's cute, anyway.) And it only took 5 minutes.
( Picture courtesy of my daughter, Leah. Didn't she do a good job?) It would look cute from a shirt with a pattern, too. But, I didn't have one.

Tropical flower tutorial

I love tropical flowers, and instead of going bankrupt buying all kinds of embellishments, I found a way to make my own, here is a layout with an example:

It was pretty easy, let me show you how I did it. Please excuse the last three pictures, the battery in my good camera died half way through this process :) Anyway, here is what I started out with: 5 punched out labels, 2 small circles, and a die cut swirl.
I started by cutting the part of the swirl that I wanted to use for my center. Next, I cut the labels into kind of a heart shape, and then cut a very loopy heart out of their centers.
I taped all of the 'petal' ends together, and adhered a yellow circle on the top, and one on the bottom. Next, I taped the in the center.
I arranged the flower with a couple of leaves from Prima, and a tag. Here is the final result:
It came together pretty quick, I hope you can give it a try. Thanks for checking it out!

Handmade Flower Tutorial

I made a card last night inspired by a Home Interior picture hanging over at my MIL's house, and I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out. All of the flowers are handmade, and so easy to do. The card probably took me a half an hour to complete, once I figured out what I was going to do. The roses are actually a technique I saw in an article in the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes, found on page 52. The rosebuds, and the calalilies I kind of figured out myself after playing around a bit.

Here is what I started out with: 6 small circles, 2 medium circles, 3 large circles, 2 kite shapes, and 2 die cut leaves.

I began by rolling the small circles, and the 3 end leaves on each branch with the help of the end of a paint brush. I cut the medium circles in half ( they will be the center of the roses, we only use 3 out of the 4 halves), cut the large circles into spirals, and rounded the top 3 corners of the 'kites', and drew a yellow line down the center.
I glued the ends of the small circles together, and then glued them inside the 3 curled leaves. For the roses, I curled the large circles, starting from the outside rolling in, an glued it to the center. I curled the medium circle halves, glued the ends and glued them into the centers of the large circles. The calilies took a little playing around with, I rolled them around on the paintbrush end for easier shaping, I also used it to curl down the rounded edges. I then folded it in half kind of and glued the ends together.

Finally, I added some ink with a paintbrush around the edges of the roses, and added some stickles. I also added stickles to the centers of the calalilies, and arranged it all with a couple of larger leaves from Prima.
It was really easy, and so fun. It took a little bit of patience, but so worth it. Give it a try! TFSB!

Just catching up....

It occurred to me today how ridiculously behind I am with the kids scrapbooks. Oliver will be 3 in October, so I should be finishing up his 2-3 yr. album. Instead, I am only half way through his 1-2 yr. album. And, it is the same way with the rest of the kids' books. So, I find my self doing a lot of scraplifts, and some simpler page designs to try and get caught up. Here are a few pages I have done lately:

Sweet dreams: This one was kind of inspired by the Jenni Bowlin Studio products, I love her stuff, kind of vintage-y/ office inspired types of things.

He loves him : This one I actually lifted from the cover of the October issue of Scrapbooks Etc. It kind of has a school type theme to it even though it really has nothing to do with school. I find a lot of my boy pages have an office or school theme, or lots of stars. I try to make them as masculine as possible, otherwise my husband complains :)

I hope to get a lot more done with in the next couple of weeks, so I'll post some more soon. TFSB.

Grilled Chocolate Marshmallow sandwich

I promise I ate this before I was pregnant. I actually came across the recipe in a magazine. I don't usually keep a lot of sweets in the house, or bake too often....because I am home with it all day and WILL eat it. But every once in awhile I have got to have something sweet. That's when this recipe comes in handy, if I want something bad enough I make it. You basically make it like a grilled cheese. Spread some marshmallow creme on a slice of bread, melt about 1/4 c. choc. chips in the microwave and spread it on another slice of bread. Put them together, butter one side place in pan butter side down, butter the otherside and flip when ready. When I first saw the recipe I thought it was weird, but I was curious enough to try it, and it's awesome. It's not something I do every day, but every once in awhile, it hits the spot.