got tools?

This is my version of the weekly sketch from Scrapbook Steals.  I didn't stray far from the original sketch, so I was able to knock this one out in no time!  Here's the original sketch:

I used papers from Bo Bunny, from the Grease Monkey collection that I purchased last year from Scrapbook Steals.  I love the distressed look and think the papers work perfectly with this photo.  I decided to break out my "boy bling" and add some embellishments from one of my favorite places, the hardware store.  I love the look of metal on a page and I love that I can get things like this for not much money.   In this layout, I used a piece of plumbing strapping, some picture wire, and some flat washers.  I think it adds the perfect touch for my boy pages.  Using hardware has it's advantages:  my husband is always willing to go shopping at a hardware store, he doesn't complain when I spend money there, and I can occasionally find scrappy supplies for free just by raiding the garage and his tool box.  Thanks for looking!

felt flowers

I love the texture and simplicity of felt flowers and decided to try my hand at making my own.  I am making a headband for my beautiful niece and decided to create a few simple flowers to adorn it.  All you need is some felt (I purchased mine at my local craft store for 25 cents a sheet), scissors, and a glue gun.

 To make a "loopy" flower,  I cut a strip of purple felt approximately 9 inches by 1.5 inches and ran a line of hot glue along one edge.

If you don't have a glue gun, you could use fabric glue, but I don't have the patience to wait for things to dry.  After running your strip of glue, fold the felt in half, sealing the edges together.

Using a good pair of sharp scissors, make snips from the folded end every quarter of a inch, stopping a quarter inch from the bottom so as not to cut into the glued area.

Then start rolling the felt strip tightly, adding a drop of hot glue every couple inches to keep the felt wound tight. Secure the end using more hot glue.

Fluff out the loops of your finished flower, which is now perfect to add to a layout, a hairband, or whatever strikes your fancy.  You can make the flower larger or smaller by adjusting the width and length of your felt strip.  This finished flower turned out to be about 2 inches in diameter.

You can also make a similar fringed flower, using just a single layer strip of felt and making snips every quarter of an inch or less to make a "fringe".  I used a strip of pink felt which measured approximately 9 inches by 1 inch.

Once fringes are cut along the entire length of felt, roll the felt into itself, securing with a drop of glue every so often as you go.

Fluff out your fringes and snip off the ends of any fringes that are sticking out too far.

Lastly, I made a rolled felt flower by cutting out a circle of felt 3 inches in diameter and cutting a loose spiral pattern into the felt.

Starting with the outer edge, start rolling the felt and secure it every so often with hot glue.

Finish it off by gluing the end (the center of the original spiral) to the base of the flower.

I glued all three of my flowers onto a fabric headband that I picked up at my craft store.  I've also used these flowers on a shadowbox layout that I made for a friend and I think they'd look darling as a brooch by gluing  or stitching a simple pin to the back

I can't wait to see how pretty this looks on my beautiful niece!  I tried to get one of my boys to model it for me, but seeing my camera in hand, they wisely refused.  Instead, I had to use our favorite stuffed puppy to model my handiwork.

Catch of the Day

This is my take on this week's challenge sketch from Scrapbook Steals.  The original sketch by Kristy Lee looked something like this:

I decided to use some photos from our summer "staycation"  when we relaxed and hung out with my family.  Our fishing trip was not very fruitful, only catching one fish and a snapping turtle, but it made for a great layout.  Instead of using a bracket shape, I decided to get creative and I made my own fishing pole.  I stitched some "fishing line" and added a real fish hook at the end.  I love how it turned out.  Thanks for looking!

Back to School

It's that time of year again!  Back to school means lots of organizing, scheduling, and planning.  I love to make back to school gifts for the kids' teachers.  They really do have an important job.  I know how difficult my own children can be sometimes and I can only imagine how difficult it is in a room with 20 of them.  I try to send in random tokens of appreciation throughout the year just so they know they are appreciated.   I'm a big fan of the altered paint cans, so I created a school themed can for my son's 1st grade teacher.  I filled it with goodies from Target's dollar bin: stickers, book marks, post its, stamps, ink, hand sanitizer, etc.  And this year my 4th grader has a male teacher.  I wasn't sure what to do for him so I searched Pinterest for something cool.  I found an image of crayons melted thru a glue gun.  And since I just happen to have an old glue gun, a slightly stained artist canvas, and a bucket full of random crayons sitting in my basement,  I decided to give it a try.  I put the "dirty" end of the canvas at the top so it would be covered by wax and no one would be the wiser.  Then I peeled crayons and shoved them into the business end of my glue gun.  The crayons weren't exactly the same size as glue sticks, so the trigger wouldn't feed them thru.  So I shoved them thru by hand and used a pencil as a plunger when I got down towards the end.  The project was messy, but I deemed it a success.  I added the teacher's name with Thickers and wrapped it all up in bubble wrap to keep it from breaking on the way to school.  Both presents were a huge success! 

the Garden Grill

I took advantage of a little "me" time and created this fun layout featuring one of my new Cricut cartridges.  I found an awesome sale this week and snagged some $25 cartridges for $5 a piece and one had a bunch of fun garden themed images.  I thought it would be the perfect chance to work on this layout from our Disney trip.  We ate dinner at the Garden Grill at Epcot and had a wonderful time meeting characters.  A lot of the food we ate was grown locally, very locally, since there is an attraction right under the restaurant that showcases food and the growing process.  We rode the boat ride earlier in the day and saw lots of yummy vegetables being grown, then we ate some of those same things at dinner.  The restaurant spins slowly as you dine, so the boys had a great time tracking our movement.  Maybe someday we'll dine there again, but until then, I'm thrilled to have the memory captured in this layout.  Thanks for looking!

Kilimanjaro Safari

This week at Scrapbook Steals, my friend Kristy MacKeen was the lucky duck guest sketcher.  She created a beautiful layout and challenged us to use this sketch:

Since I'm working on my Disney album and have lots and lots of pictures, I decided to stretch this into a two page layout.

 I used a lot of fun animal prints and some chipboard embellishments.

But my favorite embellishment is a "non-traditional" item.  A few weeks back I picked up some wood veneer edging at our local hardware store.  It was a plain unfinished roll of wood with adhesive on the back.  I added some ink to darken the wood and bring out the woodgrain pattern and I used my iron to heat the adhesive backing right onto my page.  I love to try new things and I'm a sucker for unconventional methods, so I was pleased with how this turned out.  It is the first time I've ever used an iron as a scrapbooking tool. 

Thanks Kristy for a great sketch!  You did a great job this week.  I'd love to have a chance to be a guest sketcher someday, so for now I'm living vicariously through you!  Thanks for looking!

backyard beauty

Here's my take on the weekly scrapbook steals challenge.  I snapped these butterfly pics last week as we were playing outside and I thought it would be a good chance to bust out some pastel papers and do a more feminine layout.  Being a mom of boys, I tend to gravitate towards rough and rugged pages and seldom make anything this bright.   I added some irock gems to highlight the patterned paper across the bottom and wove some twine thru my border punch.  I also added twine to the doily and added a butterfly cut with my Cricut.   Thanks for looking!