Write. Click. Scrapbook.

Mother's Day Celebrations

Each night as I tuck my girls in, we read a book, say our prayers, and then sing song after song until they fall asleep. (Yes, I know. I'm indulging them. I am certain that I really only a year or two left of snuggling them before bed, so I am taking full advantage of the love!!)

One of the songs that sticks in my head is one I grew up singing, Mother, I Love You. Here are the lyrics:

1. Mother, I love you; mother, I do.
Father in Heaven has sent me to you.
When I am near you, I love to hear you
Singing so softly that you love me too.

2. Mother, I love you; mother, I do.
I want to help you because I love you.
I want to mind you; I want to find you
Happy and smiling because I love you.
Mother, I love you; I love you, I do.

I often find myself humming it during the day. And it totally makes me think of my mom and how much I DO love her. I hope that if I sing it to my girls enough then they will grow up and sing it and think of me kindly, too!! Not a bad strategy, no? And one day hopefully they will get married and have kids that I can sing to, too. 

 

LAYOUT IDEA: GRANDMOTHERS

Grandma layouts don't need to be just sappy bits o' love. Sometimes you can let them just capture the real deal. My oldest and his grandma like to banter--they are both teaser-types; there is much guffawing when they are together! We got to spend two days together in March. And for their parting together pic, this is what we got:

Silly, no? I love it. I also have a whole selection of blurry photos from Nigel doing the duck and dip to avoid the kissing love. Another relationship trait/quirk/regular that needs to be recorded.

 

Another idea for a grandma page is to document similarities. We all love to fit in with our families; seeing how we are alike gives us such a sense of belonging!

 

And let's not forget how much we love photos of grandmas with their tiny babies. LisaO made this sweet layout.

Mmm. Love that.

We have a few teammembers who have lost grandparents lately. They all would like to remind you to take more photos. And be sure to get in those photos.

 

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT IDEA: BIRTHDATE ART

This year, why not make something personal? How about a bit of wall art that respresents all the grandkids? Depending on how many grandkids there are (one of the kids in my sunday school class has 90 cousins - this might not work for her!), a list of birthdays is graphic, fun, and helpful!

And if you don't have grandkids yet, you could make one for your mom that has the birthdays of all the kids in your family. Or all the people in your family. No rules!! I've even made them for special events in a couple's life. Anything that is important to your mom or grandma would work!

 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying our week. Please stop back tomorrow for our final day of preparations!

Inspiration

Hello! Tomorrow is March 1st (March!), and that means a new gallery! I believe you shan't be disappointed. So today I am back for my final day this week of exploring the joys (and occasional hardships) of creativity. I thought I'd wrap things up this week with some thoughts and projects about inspiration.  

 

Collecting Your Ideas

Inspiration can come from everywhere and anywhere, and while I have notebooks set aside for jotting down ideas as they come, just as often, I quickly write things down on scraps of paper, or type a note on my phone.I just feel that the sooner I get an idea written down and out of my head, the more likely it will be that I will go back to it at some point.  I like to keep my notes, or photos that I'd like to use, out and about on my desk, so that I usually have some project to turn to when I am ready to sit down and scrap.

Both Lisa and Christine made layouts to record some of the things inspiring then right now.

Christine created an inspiration board within her layout (genius!).

 Lisa printed photos of some of her favorite pins on Pinterest, and then used the inspiration from those pins in her layout. (Again-genius!)

 

Reminders

To stay inspired to keep creating, I like to surround myself with little reminders, in the form of home decor. 

I created this project as a message directed to my kids, but now that it is framed and hung up in the kitchen, it gives me a little (inspirational and nutritional) boost too.

Here is a more specific reminder to keep taking pictures, that I keep near my desk.


And this one, doesn't use any words. Just some wood veneer and patterned paper, to remind me of the joy that cutting paper can bring.

Put Something In

Once again I will close with some inspiration from the world of children's literature. Here is a poem by Shel Silverstein, that I have loved since discovering it in college. The closing line forever inspires me to keep on making things. 

Put Something In

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-grumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

Last-Minute Christmas Ideas

Merry Christmas Eve! With a little help from some fellow write. click. scrapbook. teammates, I, Vivian, am here today to help with some quick-fix last-minute ideas if you suddenly need something for last-minute gift-giving or decorating. Let's face it, we've all been there - suddenly there's an extra guest at at a holiday gathering, an impromptu visitor, etc. - and we all wish we had a quick fix (provided we have at least some advance notice!).

Decorating

Let's start with decorating. I am not one of those people who is good about switching out holiday decor, prettying up my mantel, etc. I would love to be that person, but never seem to find the time to get it done. I came up with this quick-fix art that could either sit on a mantel with some candles or could be hung on the wall to add a little holiday cheer (simply take down a non-holiday piece of art hanging up and replace it with this for the holiday):

Start with a simple shadowbox frame. Cut patterned paper to fit the background. A smaller-scale print, tone-on-tone print, or text print would work well. The subway art Christmas-print paper here is from Echo Park, and October Afternoon also has a fun one. Grab a couple of rolls of Christmas-y washi tape and add four strips of varying lengths at the top left and bottom right. Add dimensional embellishments over the washi tape at the top and the bottom. Add a large dimensional embellishment at the center (mine is a star cut using this Silhouette file - I cut just one half and just the background part), put the art in the frame, and you're done! I promise this can be done in under 10 minutes once you have the papers, embellishments, tape, and frame in front of you, even if you are cutting something with a die-cutting machine!

 

Cards

How about a 2-minute card? Grab a piece of cardstock, a sheet of washi-look stickers (like the ones I used here, from Crate Paper's Sleigh Ride line) or a few rolls of washi tape, a star punch, a scrap of holiday patterned paper, a pop dot, and a paper trimmer. Cut a 7" X 10" piece of cardstock, score at the 5" mark, and fold in half. Stack graduated lengths of washi-look stickers or tape to form a tree and its trunk, then punch a star from patterned paper and adhere with the pop dot. Done!

 

After I made the card above, I realized the negative star shape peeking out of the tag I'd cut it from looked pretty cool, so that got me another 2-minute card. I backed the opening in the tag with another scrap of paper (love those little reindeer peeking out at the North Pole!), tied the tag with a doubled length of baker's twine, and then adhered the tag to a card base with a washi-look sticker greeting.

 

 

Francine made some quick and easy cards by downloading free card printables, printing them, and adding embellishments, including washi tape, baker's twine, and gems:

See here for the source of the downloadable cards and here for more information on Francine's blog.

 

Tags

This first tag is super simple - just a tag base, alphas (these all came from one multicolored set, but you could mix and match sets nicely here), and some ribbon. Start with either a pre-made tag base or make your own by cutting a rectangle from cardstock and punching a hole at the top. You can also either angle or round the corners of your tag. Add words, tie a bow, and you're done!

The next tags are a non-traditional set I created using photobooth-print paper, chevron ribbon, colorful label stickers, and a stapler. I used my Silhouette to die-cut five tags from the patterned paper, added a sticker hanging off the edge of each and trimmed it flush with the edge, and then stapled a folded piece of ribbon at the top. This set could be easily replicated with black and white photos of the recipients for a fun twist, or could be created using holiday-themed patterned paper, label stickers, and ribbon.

Ornaments

Lisa made this fantastic (and quick!) set of ornaments. Don't they make a lovely gift? She simply added stickers to plain ornaments to personalize them and dress them up.

You can see more information about these on Lisa's blog.

Hopefully we've helped those of you in a pinch out a bit with today's blog post!

Pretty Paper, Double Duty

 

I love pretty paper. I love embellishments and stamps and washi tape and well, I love it all. And, lucky me, I have loads and loads of all sorts of goodies.

Hi, I'm Monika and I'll share just a few ideas to help you reduce your stash and actually use some of those goodies you've been hoarding for way too long.

My oldest son lives away from home, several states away, so this Mama decided to package up some items and put together a few little advent calendar goodies for him and his girlfriend this year. Because, after all, girls are so much easier to craft for!

I used some canvas bags from my Etsy shop and began embellishing them with washi tape, stamps, layered stickers and rhinestone gems all from My Mind's Eye. Just the perfect size for gift cards and chocoates. I like the stamped bags the most of all and can't wait to embellish more. Nest, I added some washi tape embellished shipping tags and a supply of twine to a tin, making it a gift that's cute and useful too. Yep, this one's for his girlfriend.

After adding lots of goodies from SEI to this repurposed mini art canvas, it has become one of our newest holiday home decor items. Adding the gold washi tape to the edges of the canvas was the perfect solution to hide the pattern that was already there and then all I had to do was just add layer after layer of pretty paper and die cuts. Going one step further, I even used a border die cut strip to embellish the front portion of my wood stand.

I hope you have as much fun playing with your pretty papers and embellishments as I have. May your December be delightful and full of joyful memories!

 

 

 

A Wreath

Hello! Emily Pitts with you today, I have a project I'm rather proud of. I have a lot of paper and glue and such, but rarely do I make anything but scrapbook pages and cards. I have bought supplies, like say, a grapevine wreath, to make wreaths in the past, but those projects never came to fruition.

Until this year.

I blame Better Homes and Garden magazine.

I've been subscribing to BHG since I was first married. I love how all the houses they feature are sooooo beautifully decorated. It gives me something to aspire to. I love their gardens, I love their health tips. Occasionally, I'll even make a recipe, or try out a decorating tip or two. But this year, I saw this star ornament and knew I had to give it a whirl.

 

I went to Pinterest and looked for Star Wreaths. So many gorgeous varieties, I was inspired by this one, and this one, and this one.

If you go to the BHG website, you can print off the pattern and directions to make this star. I've tried making a 3D star before, let me save you the trouble, go print this off :) It was so much easier than what I tried to do on my own. Each star took me about 5 minutes to make, start to finish. I used nice heavy duty patterned papers from Authentique's Christmas line, Festive, some Scotch Quick-dry liquid adhesive, my paper scorer, and scissors. So very easy.

Once I finished making a bunch of stars, I wrapped my grapevine wreath in some ribbon and started arranging the stars, overlapping and grouping them. I used my hot glue gun to attach them, then randomly inserted some Maya Road Kraft Shipping Tags between the stars. It needed a little more, so I added some Die Cut Kraft Doilies, also from Maya Road. Finally, I punched a few more smaller stars, dipped the edges in some glass glitter and tucked them in to fill any holes. 

 

I love how it turned out. It's going to be a gift for a friend, but I'm so tempted to make another one for me! It took my about 3.5 hours from start to finish, about the same amount of time it takes me to make a layout.  

I hung it on my door to take pictures and a mom of one of my piano students wanted me to teach a class on how to make one, NEXT year. Wow :) Thanks BHG! 

Deck the halls...

Hi everyone, it's Diane bringing you some fun ideas for decking the halls this holiday season. One of my favorite things each December is changing up my home decor with fun, festive holiday decorations.

I have an 8x10 black frame that I purchased on sale a few years ago that I use as my "official" holiday frame. When each new season/holiday arrives I simply put in my newest holiday creation. It's as easy as switching out a photograph. I made a couple more pieces of Christmas art this year, so a trip to the craft store for a couple more frames is in order. 

 

Joy Christmas Tree Art

My first piece is simple and elegant and was inspired by a pin from Pinterest. It doesn't link to a direct source so if you know the creator, please let me know so I can credit properly.

It features gold glitter chipboard stickers, gold glitter paper and natural twine with gold layered on a piece of Christmas green cardstock.

This is a wonderful way to use up a partial pack of chipboard letters. If you don't have all the letters you need, try altering some. If you look closely, you will see that all my e's do not match. I cut apart a "B" and used two number 3's to create the remaining e's that I needed.

 

Christmas Cheer Subway Art

Another piece of framed art I made this year was inspired by a free printable of subway art. It has a quote from one of my favorite Christmas movies, Elf.

To create this piece, I typed the words in my Silhouette software and cut it out with my Cameo. I backed the words with cheery patterned paper. Would you like to make your own? I'm sharing the Christmas Cheer cut file here. It fits in an 8x10 frame, but you can alter it to any size you need.

 

Elf T-Shirt Tutorial

Do you love the movie Elf as much as I do? Christine shared a Silhouette tutorial on how to make an Elf t-shirt using yet another quote I love from the movie!

Christine has an annual Elf party and provided one of these shirts to her guests this year. Now that is fun! Thank you Christine for sharing this with us. To learn how to make one of your own, visit Christine's blog to view the tutorial. This is definitely on my to-do list!

 

Christmas Button Tree

Last, I want to share a Christmas Button Tree I made a few years ago. This is not as simple as the other two pieces of framed art but if you love buttons and have a stash of them, this is a fun project!

It is made with buttons, beads, chipboard, ribbon and twine. These were all supplies that I already had in my stash.

To create your own button tree, begin by laying out the buttons in the shape of the tree. Once you are happy with the shape, glue your buttons down then fill in the empty spaces with additional buttons and beads. Last, I added a tree skirt made from felt (no sewing) and added presents made from painted chipboard under the tree.

If you choose to recreate any of these projects I would love for you to link me up! If you are short on time, Monika has several beautiful pieces of Subway Art that you may customize available for purchase at her Etsy store, I Love it All!

Pretty Paper: Holiday Trimmings

Hi Everyone! I'm back for our final day of Pretty Paper. In anticipation of the holiday season, I have lots of holiday trimmings for you today created with patterned paper. Paper is an awesome way to decorate your home for all sorts of holidays the whole year through. I'll be featuring buntings, frames, wreaths, and trees today--all made with paper! So, without further delay, I present you, dear Write.Click.Scrapbook loyal readers, with holiday trimmings, pretty paper style!

 

Buntings

So my friends, who shall remain nameless, have dubbed me the Queen of Buntings. They know that where there is a holiday, I shall create a bunting. The easiest way to make a bunting is from paper, but I've also made buntings from fabric and felt. Since my theme is about paper, I'll be sharing my paper buntings. Shocking, right? The first bunting is made with book pages, patterned paper, ribbon, staples and a few glittery dots. I cut the book pages into banners, hand cut the hearts, and backed them with red paper for Valentine's Day.

 

 

 

The next bunting was also made with paper, staples, and jute, but was a bit more complicated. I cut strips of graduated lengths, stapled them together to another center strip, then curved them around and stapled again to make hearts. I used a hole punch and ran the jute through the punched holes. For the shamrock, I stapled three hearts together and tied it with a bit of fabric.

 

 

Frames

Just like the frame I made for my daughter's birthday party, I also decorated some frames to use as Valentine's Day decor using paper, mod podge, and some embellishments.

 

 

 

Wreaths

Well, one wreath, anyway! I quickly embellished this heart shaped grapevine wreath with a mini-bunting made with paper. It was a festive edition to my front door during the winter tundra that is February in Michigan.

 

Trees

Last year during Christmas I went on a tree-making spree. I'm pretty sure I made fifty billion trees. A few of them were made with...you guessed it, patterned paper! The first trio was super easy. I used chipboard cones from the craft store and covered them with patterned paper. I used hot glue to make sure they stayed covered.

 

 

The next duo of trees was also made with patterned paper, and was inspired by this blog post over at the Crate Paper blog. They took a long time, but were my favorite trees out of the fifty billion I made last year.

 

 

So, there you have it, friends! A week's worth of Pretty Paper: Patterned Paper's Plethora of Purposes! Thanks so much for joining me this week! In honor of our last day togther, leave me a comment telling me your favorite use for pretty paper!

give.away.day featuring STUDIO CALICO

Hi Everyone! I am so excited to share that Studio Calico is sponsoring a give away featuring their gorgeous new release: Darling Dear! One lucky commenter will receive a bunch of goodies including Darling Dear patterned paper and embellishments! How cool is that?

I snagged some items from this beautiful line as soon as it was released, and in keeping with this week's theme, I used patterned paper to make two projects: a layout and a ticket frame.

 

 

 

Beautiful papers, right?? If you'd like to be the one lucky number for the Darling Dear gift pack, make sure you leave a comment by 10:00pm Eastern Standard Time tonight. The randomly chosen winner will be posted tomorrow. Please remember it is your responsibility to check back and claim your lucky number via email (writeclickscrapbook at gmail dot com) before midnight on Saturday!

Tomorrow is our last Pretty Paper day and it is a good one: Holiday Trimmings!

Pretty Paper: Home Decor

Hi Everyone! I'm back today to share some home decor projects created with patterned paper. Pretty paper is an easy, cheap way to decorate and personalize your living space. You can dress up frames, canvases, printer's trays, letters or anything you can think of with patterned paper. Pinterest is an amazing source of inspiration for home decor projects, and I have a pin board filled with all kinds of things that I'd like to make to jazz up my house. Sometimes I copy the pins just as they are, but more often I change up the design to make it my own.

 

Frames

Frames are super easy to decorate and alter with patterned paper. You can cut paper to replace the photo mat in glass covered frames, you can create your own mats to transform a vintage frame into art, or you can frame a beautiful piece of handmade art.

 

 

 

Sarah created this amazing alphabet art using patterned paper and QuicKutz dies. Seriously gorgeous!

 

 

 

You can also use 12x12 frames to turn your scrapbook layouts into wall art, or use vintage supplies to create something new. 

 

 

 

Emily S. made some super cute frames to decorate her space as well:

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, if your life is as crazy and chaotic as mine, you can provide a little order with a large 18x24 inch frame, some patterned paper, letter stickers and a dry erase marker. 

 

 

Canvases

Canvases are a quick and easy way to decorate your space. I made this very simple art for my youngest daughter's bedroom with a pre-made 18x24 canvas, patterned paper, ribbon, a button, and mod podge.

 

 

Sarah created these awesome pixilated canvases for her son's room with a square punch and patterned paper:

 

 

 

Christa created this fun spring piece with patterned paper and bright embellishments:

 

 

 

Letters

There are no shortage of letters of every size available at craft stores. Adding patterned paper to wood, plastic, or chipboard letters with a little mod podge is a super easy way to turn letters into home decor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Printer's Trays

Lisa O. created these gorgeous printer's trays with pretty paper and other embellishments. Printer's trays are an easy way to give your home a serious wow factor.

 

 

 

If your home is feeling a little bland and you are on a budget, grab some pretty paper and create something fun and easy to spruce up your space! I'll be back tomorrow with some party decorations made with patterned paper.

 

Thanksgiving Week

Today we conclude our Thanksgiving day preparations and celebrations week. We hope you have enjoyed your week and have found inspiration for all aspects of the day. Today we have all the extras that will make your holiday special.

 

Invitations

There is little as lovely as a formal invitation. Here is an example of one that you can use. The fonts are free: Parma Petit, and Quickier Demo.  With joined parentheses, seasonal colors, and a heart banner, this one conveys a sweet message as well as the important parts of time and invite.

We love how this one is a bit of a love letter, too. Even if they couldn't come, your invited guests would feel your love for them.

If you don't want to put one together on your own, please stop by wcs friends, Pearenthetical Press, and let them make one for you! Look how beautiful it is. They do such lovely work.

 

Table Decor

Megan Atwood, friend and artisan, put together a tablescape for us today. We love the pumpkins and the simple beauty.

As you put your placesetting together, remember to keep an eye on textures. Look how she combined a more dense weave, with a looser one on the layered placemat. And then how the napkin is smooth.

For a napkin, you don't need to spend a lot. Rather stop by your fabric store and find a print that appeals to you and fits your color scheme and style. If the fabric is all cotton, tear it into squares by hand and then just run a quick straight machine stitch along the edges. A quick run through the wash will give it a nice homespun look.

Adding the name tag to the napkin will save you a step and a purchase. No need for a napkin ring and a placecard, when you can do a two-in-one! Get out that twisted twine, too. With a terrific texture and pop of color, you will love what it does.

Megan found the tumbler at her dollar store. 

Using her Cricut, she cut out vinyl letters to represent the occasion. For this price, you could store them away each year, and keeping them unique to the holiday. 

 

Placecards

Nothing says fancy like china and a place card! We will have to rely on you for the china, but put together two placecards for you to choose between.

You may download the polka dots here and the acorns here.

 

Shopping List

After the turkey has cleared, many of us will turn our attentions to the ads and inserts for Black Friday ads. Fighting the tryptophan sleepies, we chart our course for the early morning making lists of what we want and from where. Then we map out the stores according to need and deals. We thought maybe you might like some help. We put together a page of cards hoping to have all you need in one place.

You may download a copy here.

So that's it! You are officially ready for Turkey day! Thank you for spending your time with us this week. We hope you feel more prepared. Now a stop by Pioneer Woman for recipes and you will be good to go! Enjoy!