Write. Click. Scrapbook.

CHA Armchair Attendee Week: Write. Click. Scrapbook. Team Members' "Must Haves"

Welcome to the last day of CHA Armchair Attendee Week! I hope you've enjoyed our week this week - I had a lot of fun checking out all of the sneak peeks, pics and video from the CHA show floor, and sorting through all of that to find the key trends I shared earlier this week.

For today's post, I (Vivian) asked Write. Click. Scrapbook. team members to tell me what their top "must have" is from this set of CHA releases. The only parameter I set was that they had to choose a product from a manufacturer whose design team they are not on. Some team members had an easy time doing this and were able to instantly name a favorite. Others took some time to think it over. Some of us had a really hard time and listed more than one product since our top "must have" was, in fact, a tie amongst several "must haves." Some are still thinking about it. Some lines were pretty popular amongst the team, as you will see below.

Without further ado, here, in alphabetical order by team members' last names, are our "must have" products:

Francine Clouden: Studio Calico Abroad Thickers and Alpha Stickers

Paula Gilarde: Crate Paper Storyteller Collection (especially the chipboard)

Donna Januzzi: Simple Stories Documented Mix & Match 6" X 8" Album

Vivian Masket: Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Date Stamp and Echo Park This & That Charming Collection

Lisa Ottosson: Pink Paislee Prairie Hill Collection (12 x 12 papers)

Christa Paustenbaugh: Crate Paper Storyteller Collection and Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection

  
Diane Payne: American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Collection, in particular, the Remarks Pigment Stickers (the set at the far right)

Katrina Simeck: Lily Bee Double Dutch Collection

Celeste Smith: Studio Calico Abroad Collection (the papers, in particular)

Amy Sorensen: Bella Blvd Sopisticates Collection High Five Alphas

Emily Spahn: Heidi Swapp Instaframes and Bella Blvd Designer Tape

Keshet Starr: October Afternoon 9 to 5 Collection and Studio Calico Take Note Collection

Erin Sweeney: Studio Calico Classic Calico Vol 2 (especially the chevron mask and the washi tape) and Take Note Collections and the Crate Paper Storyteller Collection

 

Feel free to share your "must haves" in the comments below - we want to know what's caught your eye, particularly if we've missed seeing it!

I hope you've enjoyed CHA Armchair Attendee Week here at Write. Click. Scrapbook. this week! I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait until some of this new product hits stores!

CHA Armchair Attendee Week: Trends, Part III

Vivian here, welcoming you to Part III of the CHA trends report. Today we're going to take a closer look at trends in the types of products offered. (If you missed Monday's and Tuesday's posts, Monday's focus was on pattern and motif trends, and Tuesday's focus was on theme trends.) A reminder that I'm not aiming to be comprehensive in these posts; instead, I've chosen to comment on a few big trends to give you a taste of what's being released at this show. Today I'm going to focus on just two trends.

Our first product trend is one that I thought had already reached its apex, but I have clearly been proven wrong. Banners, flags, pennants, and garlands are everywhere! As I've done the last two days, I am going to share with you where I'm seeing the unique takes on this popular trend.

First up is Epiphany Crafts' Pennant Shape Studio Tool, which creates epoxy pennant shapes (click here to see a video of it in action):

Bella Blvd's new flag embellishments, which come in a huge variety of themes, are another fun take on this trend:

If you are interested in decorating your own flags, Maya Road's Kraft Flag Pins offer a great blank canvas option:

Another twist on this trend is the ready-to-go garland, like these two from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line:

 

One more for this trend that I feel compelled to share...pennant buttons from the My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart collections (look at the bottom row of buttons in each set):

On to the second trend for today: washi tape. Wow. There's a lot of it out there. A lot.

Let's start with Queen & Co's six different sets of Trendy Tape, which I feel safe in saying offers something for everyone:

Aly sent me a photo showing the fun way these tapes were displayed in the Queen & Co booth:

Bella Blvd's Designer Tape comes in two different widths:

Crate Paper is offering Decorative Tape as part of both its Storyteller and Pretty Party lines:

October Afternoon is also offering washi tape, like these tapes that are part of the 9 to 5 collection:

I could go on and on here, as there's lots more washi tape out there, but hopefully the images above give you a good sense of the variety of tape that's being released at this show.

What do you think of these product trends? What other product trends are you noticing? Leave a comment and let us know.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for our weekly give.away.day. I'll be back with you on Friday to share write. click. scrapbook. team members' "must haves" from the CHA show.

Welcome to CHA Armchair Attendee Week!

Welcome

Welcome to CHA Armchair Attendee Week! I'm Vivian, and I will be your host this week. As most of you know, the Craft and Hobby Association’s winter trade show is taking place this week in Anaheim, CA. Companies that manufacture craft products  -- including our beloved papercrafting products -- show their new releases in booths visited by retailers, who place orders for the new products. Lots of other folks figure into the mix as well, as craft publishers are represented, design team members help to staff booths, and celebrities usually figure into the mix. (I still have my piece of Paris Hilton scrapbook paper, signed when I met none other than Paris herself at CHA a few years back. Rumor has it that our own Marnie Flores may cross paths with Tori Spelling this time around.) 

I’m not at CHA this year, but have been having a lot of fun following all of the hoopla online and am excited to share some of that fun with you this week. Here’s the plan for this week:

 Monday: Introduction and Trends, Part I: Patterns and Motifs

Tuesday: Trends, Part II: Themes

Wednesday: Trends, Part III: Products

Thursday: CHA give.away.day. (yes, that’s right, as in goodies straight from the show floor!)

Friday: Write.Click.Scrapbook. team members’ “must haves” from CHA

 

Introduction

Getting on with our introduction…some of you may be wondering what it means to be an “armchair attendee.” How can you “attend” the show if you’re not there? Well, here’s my process.

• In the weeks ahead of the show, I regularly frequent websites that compile manufacturers’ sneak peeks. Most manufacturers “sneak” their new releases prior to the show via their company’s blog/website, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and that can be exhausting to follow without the aid of websites that do the work of compiling sneaks for you. Three good websites for this are Scrapbook & Cards Today, Scrapbook Update and The Scrap Review. Each presents the sneaks a little bit differently: Scrapbook & Cards Today provides clickable links by manufacturer, Scrapbook Update provides a clickable list by date of sneaks, and The Scrap Review blogs sneaks as they appear.

• As I look at sneaks, I make sure to check out both official product images as well as any projects showcasing the new products. Often a line or a product that doesn’t grab me at first looks different when I see it on a layout or a card.

• Once the show starts, I watch online for photos and videos from the CHA show floor. Not all companies do sneak peeks or extensive sneak peeks and seeing new products together with projects made with them in the booth can inspire. You can try searching #CHAshow on Twitter, check magazines' and manufacturers' Twitter feeds/Facebook pages/blogs, or follow targeted CHA forums (like the CHA Winter 2012 forum at Two Peas in a Bucket or Studio Calico's CHA forum).

• Most important, I make my wishlist! That was made much easier this year by Pinterest. I started a CHA Winter 2012 board and every time I looked at sneaks I pinned ones that grabbed my attention. (Don't worry, I won't buy it all!)

 

Trends, Part I

Now let’s take a look at trends in patterns and motifs. I am not going to attempt to be comprehensive here, but have selected three trends that have caught my eye and will share those with you. Beware, lots of images forthcoming!

The first trend I want to share with you is chevron. Chevron patterns started appearing recently in scrapbook products, but they have really taken off with this show. While chevron up until now has been primarily a single color chevron stripe paired with a neutral, this time around it seems to be “chevron with a twist.” Let me show you some examples.

This paper from Lily Bee's Buttercup line features a text-print chevron pattern:

This paper from My Mind's Eye On the Bright Side line features a fun multi-colored chevron pattern:

How cool is this quilted chevron from Pink Paislee's Prairie Hill line? When I first saw this sneak I had to stare at it for a bit to figure out all that was going on here!
Let's move on to look at another trend: clouds. I don't know about you, but cloud patterns just make me happy. I'm seeing a lot of patterned clouds this year.

This fun paper from GCD Studios' Oh Happy Day line features chevron clouds.

This sticker sheet from Echo Park's Hello Summer line features three different patterned clouds - one with a text print and the other two with different grids:

This piece of paper from Bella Blvd's Sunshine & Happiness line combines polka dot and chevron clouds with solid clouds, some with tiny hearts:

This paper, from My Little Shoebox's Happy Go Lucky line, features polka dot clouds, clouds with a doodle swirl pattern, and, while it's hard to tell from the sneak image (one of the limits of being an armchair attendee!), I think some of the clouds have text:

One more pattern/motif trend that is popping up all over the place: honeycomb/hexagon.

I first noticed this trend with these two stunning papers from the My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart collections (note that these papers also follow the quilted trend that we saw earlier in the Pink Paislee chevron pattern):

Another interesting take on this trend are the Jenni Bowlin Quilted Stickers, which come in four different designs:

Hambly also has an interesting take on the honeycomb/hexagon trend (and more chevron!) with one of their patterned cardstocks:

 

I could continue commenting on pattern/motif trends and pasting examples here for days, but hopefully this will give you a taste of what's out there and coming to stores soon.We'd love to hear from our readers - which of these three trends is your favorite? What other patterns and motifs are you seeing across sneaks?

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Trends, Part II, which will focus on product line themes seen across companies.

Back to Back-to-School Pages

It's that time of year again! Moms in many places of the world are - or will soon be - taking various photos of their kiddos on the first day of school: wearing new clothes, sporting a new backpack, riding a new bus, sitting in a new classroom, meeting a new teacher, greeting new (and old) friends...

If you have school-aged kids, no doubt you'll be busy creating layouts to document this fresh start. So here are a few free printables and digital elements to adorn your pages!

 

PRINTABLES

  Library Journaling Cards via

 

After School Convo Cards via

 

Back to School element pack via

 

School Days printable via

(This is designed as 8x10 subway art but could be printed on a smaller scale.)

 

First Day of School signs for photos, Pre-K - 12th grade via

 

DIGITAL

Back to School mini kit via

 

Hand Colored Pencil via

 

Back to School word art via

 

Grade Tags via

 

Back 2 School chalkboard set via

 

If you use any of these freebies, please post your layout in our Flickr gallery and link to it here in the comments. Enjoy!

Food Festival

Happy Friday, everyone! Vivian here today to encourage you to bring out your inner foodie this summer. Today’s post is designed to motivate you to do any or all of the following: cook, eat, take photographs of what you cook and/or eat, and then use those photographs on layouts.  

Scrap A Food Tradition

Do you have an annual summer food tradition? Maybe a food festival you attend? An ice cream treat that’s a regular part of your summer ritual? A no-fail summer recipe? For our family it’s the lobster roll on our annual trek to New Hampshire:

What can I say? I grew up in New England. My mother is from Maine and my father is from Massachusetts. They split the difference so I grew up in New Hampshire. Lobster is part of my heritage.

On this layout, I used a lobster dingbat as the main design element. I downloaded a free set of dingbats (if you want this lobster, go here: GE Out to Sea), changed the font size in Word to get the lobster the size I wanted (450 pt), layered a text box over the lobster and typed in my title, and then printed the whole thing out on white cardstock. I cut the bottom of the lobster claw loose so that it would overlap my photo. I added a white strip to the bottom of the layout and printed a second lobster so that I could add another claw at the bottom. Now that I’ve done this I’m ready to go out and find lots more dingbats and see what I can do with them!

Scrap a New Food Experience

There are so many foods to enjoy in the summer that I find a lot of my new food experiences take place during this season. Maybe you’ll encounter a new fruit or vegetable at the farmer’s market. Maybe a friend will introduce you to a new hot dining spot. Maybe you’ll try a new recipe. Maybe you’ll taste a new ice cream flavor (wished I thought to take a picture of the brown butter sage ice cream I tried last month – sounds bizarre, but I promise you it was delicious!). Maybe, as was the case with my kids, you’ll be introduced to a new treat by a family member:

Yup. Banner flags on steroids. No tiny toothpicks here! I glued these babies onto skewers that I trimmed down. Want this look? Use sharp scissors to cut skewers at staggered lengths. Cut a 1” X 2.5” piece of patterned paper for each flag. On the reverse side of the paper, mark a dot ½” away from the short edge, centered at the ½” mark along the 1” side. Snip from the corners to the dot, add adhesive to the non-pointy end, and wrap around one of the skewers. Voila! Banner flag on steroids. Adhere them to your layout with pop dots on the backs of the flags; secure the flag bouquet by tying baker’s twine around the flags and use a small pop dot on the underside of the skewers to hold the whole thing down (the bow hides the pop dot).  Another fun trick on this layout: mist white cardstock, let dry, and print journaling on the misted paper.

Try Some of My Favorite Recipes

I’m going to hook you up here with some of my summer favorites:

Mango Salad with Grilled Shrimp: Even if you don’t make the mango salad, make the shrimp. Trust me.

Scallop and Bacon Chowder

Mojo Chicken:

3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tsp salt
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin

Put above ingredients in a blender and combine. Pour over two pounds of boneless chicken breasts and marinate for at least 4 hours. Remove chicken from marinade and grill.

Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches:

Toss red bell peppers (or orange or yellow), zucchini, and asparagus with olive oil and salt. Grill. Brush ciabatta bread slices with olive oil. Grill. Mix mayonnaise and pesto. Spread the pesto mayonnaise on the grilled bread and layer on the grilled veggies. Top with a second slice of bread.

Happy cooking, eating, food photographing, and food scrapping!

Making a Long Title Short

Hey people!  I hope everyone is enjoying the summer format of our blog. 

I sure am. 

Partially because I only have one night of sweaty nightmares leading up to my turn, rather than a full week of them (sweaty nightmares are not my favourite) and partially because of all the diverse talent here that we've been enjoying (diverse talent is my favourite).

So here's my offering of the day. 

Something I'm going to call:  ONE KIT: Three Ways.

My initial title was (said with feeling):  OMG. Libby Pritchett you do the cutest stuff and you say you WILL make a mini kit for me to give away on my WCS blog host day?! You're the best. I'd like to be like you one day with all the digitizing and making stuff.

Sigh. 

But I thought maybe it wasn't to the point enough. 

And as I'm confused enough for the all of us, I thought I would simplify it. 

I put together a little tutorial for one of the projects including an image to download if you are so moved to do so. 

Oh right, first, here is:

PROJECT ONE: Not Your Nana's Decorative Plate

 

And here is where I tell you, I had planned to take photos of this project from start to finish to share with you.

And then I didn't.

So, please, close your eyes and imagine, if you will, a place that looks suspiciously like my garage complete with basketballs and razor scooters strewn about willy nilly and a large flattened cardboard box in the middle of the space that is covered with the spray paint remnants of days gone by.

Nestled in a box nearby, lives a family of well loved spray paint cans. 

Let us remove the can of Kilz (which sounds much more awful and violent than it is in reality - this is our primer) and a can of Rustoleum Ultra cover gloss white (normally, I'm opposed to shiny, among other things, but I find a gloss works better for painting plates).

Spray the plates that you've lovingly chosen from the thrift store, Aunt Olga's wedding china, or wherever you have found them. 

Spray them lightly and from a distance to avoid puddling and drippings (more things I am opposed to). You might need two coats of this to cover the ducks/roses/insert ugly decorative pattern here on your plates.

When that business is dry, give it a coat of the gloss paint.

And when that business is dry, bring them in and we'll get to the photo portion of our project.

As you can see, I'm not always silly, sometimes I am VERY businesslike.

The first thing I did was use this lovely little kit (download available at the end of this post, monsters however are not).

To create this:

Downlaod May Love Always Follow You

The download should print as approximately 7.5x7.5. I don't think there will be too many dinner plates with a diameter larger than this. Mine was about 7 inches across. I left a little extra room around the edge of the patterned paper to account for this.

Then I used my cricut to cut mine.

You don't need a cricut, but I figured I may as well use it as I am not too handy at following the lines (or colouring inside them for that matter).

So...

Measure across plate and make sure you give yourself about 1/4 inch inside of the rim of the plate (if you cut it too large the circle won't lay flat on what I'll call the "meat'n'potatoes" part of the plate, ie. not the edge).

This is part of the reason my next photo shows not a little birdie circle being cut out but a lime green practice piece.

Take the practice circle, we'll call her Bob, and make sure it fits flatly (is that a word? Or only when referring to the Lord of the Dance? WCS readers are pretty clever chickens, so you get the gist) against the meat'n'potatoes of the plate.

Next I went on to cutting the actual digital print. 

To make sure I had the circle cutting exactly where I wanted it (step one was developed after the circle cutting exactly where I didn't want it too many times to count).

What I did here was keep the sheet on the cutting mat and peel up the edge where the circle had been cut from and slide in the digital print, using the negative circle as a guide to where the machine would be cutting and stick down the photo paper and only then did I remove the green sheet.

And proceed with cutting.

Now a word from our sponsor.

Not really. 

Just an aside.

I just wanted to show you what I did with one of the matching plates (I ended up making 4 more for my niece's bedroom) which I kind of wish I had of done with the larger plate that I'm sharing the instructions for. 

But I didn't. 

And sometimes you just have to forge ahead.

One thing I really dig about digital is that you can add dimension by printing and cutting out elements. 

So, see the banner and heart that I printed? I thought it would be nice to have a bit of dimension on some of the plates, so I printed them apart from the main circle and handcut them. (And hated every minute of it. I swear!)

Here I used some of my baker's twine and my trusty Zig glue pen to attach to the top of the banner.

And here is the heart, upside down, slathered with pop dots (pssst...it's the pop dots that give it the dimension).

I glued the tiny buttons on to "hang" the banner from and secured the banner with a couple more pop dots.

If I were going to redo it, I probably would have used this technique to make the bird pop on the larger plate.

But I'm not.

So that's that.

What I did do to add dimension to the larger plate was use the Zig glue pen to adhere more of the baker's twine around the perimeter of the circle. I tied a bit through a red button and added that to the centre of the circle as well (you can see this in the first photo I shared.)

Now, on to:

PROJECT TWO: Layout

(I use capital letters and italics to both catch your attention and wow you. Maybe I should have tried a different font?)

As I mentioned, I am making these plates for my niece, as I have been both blessed and cursed with stinky little pink hating boys.

Well, not so little anymore, but plenty stinky still.

So I thought I would whip up a layout that I could frame to go with the plates.

I made the layout in 8.5x11 format, but the white frame I had was a weird shape (the photo opening was 6.75x8.5) so after I saved the layout in normal size, I cropped it to the weird size.

I do this often for framing layouts - usually before cropping I group all the elements together (everything but the background paper) and using the corner dragging option I resize everything a bit smaller.

PROJECT THREE: For You

Finally, I made a digital card.

I do this almost exclusively now.

It's so fast and simple it's almost silly. (And I know silly.)

Here it is with the layout I framed:

and here it is as a download if you like:

Download For You card

And here is a final shot of everything together:

Still with me?

Thanks for sticking around, I know I get so wordy on these blog posts.

I feel like I'm all - "and this, and this and this...did I mention this?"

They say that admitting you have a problem is the first step, no?

This is the mini kit, Libby so kindly designed for us!

Supercute Free Download from Libby

The rest of the projects I made using the original kit that she made, you can find it here:

And Your Bird Can Sing

(take a look at Libby's other kits - they are awesome. And while you're browsing, don't forget to check out her titles - they are always make me laugh!)

With that, I am out of here!

I think I'll go catch some sun on the deck and clean up my mess later!

Hope you all have a most excellent summer!

Cheryl O. (I'm supposed to have a cool uploaded signature here, but I haven't done it yet. Sorry Marnie! Have I told you how beautiful you are lately?) [Dearest Cheryl, No, actually, you haven't. I haven't slept in weeks worrying that perhaps my new bio picture with my gorgeous new grey roots and awesome new wrinkles had either scared or scarred you. So tonight, finally, I can sleep knowing that you still think me foxy after all these years... xxMarnie]

Wait a minute, was that just a means of distracting me away from that missing siggy???

Organizing My Thoughts (Stop Laughing.)

This is me getting organized.

I have a heap of different projects to share today and as per my usual M.O. they are kind of all over the place. 

But I'm okay with it, if you are.

I figure you're getting used to me.

Let's get to it, shall we?

I thought we could start in the Mudroom.

I'm going to call this montage "The Dumping Ground":

Also, Bella's stomping grounds.

Bella is our pooch. 

She's kinda sheddy, not all that smart, and totally neurotic. 

But we still love her.

This is usually what I have to work around in my scrapbook room:

And you people with cats think you have it tough when kitty wants to sit on your keyboard.

Here's a layout I did a while ago of Bella wearing J's clothes:

Instead of college funds in our house we have "Future Therapy Funds" (and a swear jar).

Anyway, back to the mudroom, remember, this is me being organized in my thoughts.

I hate things on my counters and things that don't have a place to live.

I didn't want a big bag of dogfood (the forest green bag completely clashes with our house decor) just laying around crappin' up the place.

So I used a big empty dog treat container (Costco).  Bella was very happy to help me empty the container.

She likes food quite a lot. 

Something else she and the husband have in common.

So I decorated the front and top with some patterned paper and punched a couple of holes in the lid and threaded some ribbon through to act as a handle.

The other idea I had (after someone (husband) put wet boots in the cabinets we have and ruined the bottom of the slide out drawers) was to use patterned paper to frouf up the place (frouf: meaning to spiff).

I just took 2 pieces of 12x12 paper, pieced them together and taped the seams on the backside. I have since found a large roll of clear sticky vinyl at the Walmart that I'm going to try and laminate the pieces of paper with (I'll let you know how that goes.  Me + large sticky anything = fiasco written all over it).

I still had some thrift store scores left over so I used this shadow box (I shared the before photo in the previous post), painted it black and made the inside using some little scrapbook tokens that I've had probably since the early 2000's).

It's hard to see, but the tokens have a fire hydrant on them (though I've never seen a dog in real life use a fire hydrant as a bathroom.  Weird.) a bone and the word "woof".

You can see them better here:

And the quote I chose was because of the previous photo of Bella on her back in my scrapbook room. 

She is a shameless hussy. 

My friend tells me it's all learned in the home, but I plead the fifth.

I hung her leash and the poop bags from it. 

That way my kids will ALWAYS know where the poop bags are and can't plead ignorance (all learned in the home...I'm starting to see what she means).

The quote I printed on photo paper and adhered it to a piece of wood that I had painted black and I put the hooks on afterwards.  I also used a bit of black craft paint to touch up the screws as they were silver instead of black.  Dollar store screws, I tell ya.

..............................................................

Chapter Two:  Bathrooms and Laundry Rooms: No One is Going to Get Punched in the Face

I made these pieces a couple of years ago using an AMAZING tutorial that Linda Barber had online.  It showed you how to iron on freezer paper to the back of muslin type fabric and then run it through your printer.  Or something like that.  I kind of forget.  But it was brilliant!  Linda is awesome.

I wrapped them around a couple of dollar store canvases I had laying around:

My wrapping technique leaves quite a bit to be desired. 

I don't know if any of you eagle eyes noticed, but that is a remote control on that stack of towels and yes we do have a tv in the bathroom.

If it were up to cable-guy, we'd have one in every room of the house, and I fought him like crazy (crazy being the operative word, a TV in the bathroom? Really?) but I have to admit, I really like to take baths and now I can totally get my reality on while soaking in a big soapy tub of water. Sometimes crazy is as crazy does.

And this is the other stuff I have in my laundry room.

And by stuff I mean thing:

I downloaded a font that had the laundry symbols and put it on a digital paper in PSE and printed.  Another cheapo frame jazzed up with Heirloom white.  I found (pilfered) a piece of velcro from the garage and hung the frame on the old washboard.

...........................................

Chapter Three:  Short and Sweet.  Well, short.

Here is the other piece of the metal tiered cake rack I promised I would share today:

Way better for my necessities and bedtime stuff. 

And yes, that's dental floss. 

And yes, I floss my teeth in bed. 

And yes, I know many people think that's gross.

But my dental hygienist thinks it's awesome.

Well, I didn't tell her about the "in bed part" but I know she's proud that I'm getting the job done at all.

...........................................

Chapter Four: Some Random Stuff (Organized-schmorganized)

The reason I like spray paint so much is that I don't have to clean (let dry by accident and then throw away) brushes.  Imagine my delight when I found chalkboard paint in spray form. 

Back to my 50 centsing ways, little plate at the thrift store, what?  You guessed it.  50 cents.

I used my gluegun (who I hate because she burns me and makes a mess on my floor, but sometimes I have to take the whole no pain, no gain thing to heart and plug her in) to glue the little Making Memories clip on and then wrapped a piece of chalk with patterned paper (I scalloped the edge first), strung it up with twine and capped it off with a decorative brad that I used my good (why do I do that?) scissors to nip the prongs off of.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

That's me jumping on the Keep Calm bandwagon.

This is for our trailer.

I adhered it to a piece of chipboard and used some Tim Holz clips on a canvas, so I can remove it when the next bossy trend comes along telling me what to do.

I know I tease my family and joke about them, but they're okay.

I'm pretty sure I'll keep them.

I made this one in a similar way to the butterfly one I shared earlier this week. 

MDF.

Patterned paper.

Cardstock.

The only difference is I glued these little knobs (heh heh) to it and then strung the baker's twiner across them and used little clothespins (dollar store) to attach some photos, a tag and a metal flower.

Bob. 

Dad. 

You know the story.

...............................................

Chapter Five: Recycling Bags and Stuff

Three things that have brought me a small amount of joy:

1. Starbucks sugar free vanilla syrup (with a free kraft bag!)

2. The most awesome of watches from the most awesome of husbands who really DOES read all those "if you're looking for a present to buy me, check this out" links that I email him (with a free kraft box!)

3. Scrapbook paper.  KI Orange Peel White mostly (can you guess what goes here?  Free bag!)

All these free bags go into a big tub in my room for future use. 

Here's what I did today (also I had a lot of free butterflies from the murder flutter I cut earlier this week):

The butterfly garland was super easy:

Fold over and punch small hole through back butterfly:

Adhere butterflies together with pop dots between their wings (no adhesive on the body part).

String them together (I used more of the baker's twine.  It's my binge today.)

Add to bag in whatever way pleases you.

Just a note - on the large bag, I folded the top over, pushed a large brad through a punched brown circle and then through the top layer of the folded part.  Then I glued a tiny magnet under the folded part and this holds the top shut.

Here's my free box.

I used more of the old book that I made the nest stuff out of and used this tutorial to make the bow:

And here's another idea for gift bags - I made these for Valentine's day for my boys.  I have about 400 lunchbags (remember when paper bag mini books were trending?  Yah.  Me too.)

 And, now I shall close the curtain on this week.

Thank you for joining me, I hope you got inspired to make something.  Or at the very least gather up some of your 50 centses and hit a thrift store to see what kind of treasures you can find.

Overton out.

2011 Calendar Idea

  A Note from Celeste

For the past couple of years, I've made CD calendars to give as gifts.* I used Microsoft Publisher to set up the calendars and I've shared them online as a free printable. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to Publisher so making my own would be difficult. I set out to find another free option to share. On Splitcoast Stampers, I found this free printable CD calendar from Cat. Thanks Cat! All you have to do is download the PDF and print the bases—then you can decorate the calendars to your heart's content.

For my calendar, I decided to create it digitally so I opened Cat's PDF in Photoshop and used the calendar bases to create my pages. I used a kit called 365 Days with You by Shawna Clingerman and Lauren Grier at Sweet Shoppe Designs. The kit has themed mini-kits for each month—an easy way to create a calendar! By creating my calendar digitally, I can print out a slew of them to give to relatives and friends.

When your calendar is finished, you'll need to find an old CD case you no longer need or buy some new empty ones. Follow these directions to create the CD case holder for your calendar. If you make a calendar, be sure to share it in the Flickr gallery. Happy Holidays!

*Pssst—a 2011 calendar makes a delightfully on-time gift for New Years' if you ran out of time before Hanukkah or Christmas : )

Brown paper packages tied up with strings...

I'm starting to detect an unplanned Sound of Music thread running through this week!

(Speaking of a few of my favorite things, we have even more snow now.  However, as I type this (on Monday night), there's actually a blizzard warning in effect through Tuesday morning, with a predicted wind chill of -10 to -20!  Brrrr!!!)

Don't you love receiving gifts that are wrapped up all pretty?  Sometimes I'm just as thrilled with the packaging as I am with what it contains.  And I feel so loved when I see that someone took the time to foofify my present when she could have just tossed it into a gift bag with some tissue paper.  (Like I typically do. *Blush*)

Today's post will be a blitz of printables practically guaranteed to produce that warm and fuzzy feeling when the recipients of your gifts see that you took time for the foof.  The best part?  They won't cost you any more than the paper and ink required to print them. 

Simply click on an image to be directed to the appropriate page. 

 

{via Creature Comforts}

{via designworklife}

 

{via Fresh Picked Whimsy}

 

{via Creativity by Crystal}

 

{via Worldlabel}

 

{via Miss CutiePie}

 

 

{via My Sweet Prints}

 

{via Eat Drink Chic}

 

{via HP Creative Studio for Home}

 
{via our own Monika Wright}

 

(via our own Karen Grünberg}

.

{via Mae}

There!  A few things checked off your list.  See how organized you are? :)

 

Take a deep breath...

Good Monday morning! 

Am I a bit too chipper for you?  The truth is, I love Mondays and I love snow, and today the two make quite a striking couple from where I sit.  

I'm feeling very grateful and content, which is an ideal way to approach this Thanksgiving week and beginning of the Christmas season.  And it's also a great way to start off my focus for the next few days: creatively chasing the joy-killers frantic and broke from the holidays.  My goal is to send you off with all sorts of free and easily-accessible resources that will save you both time and money as you move forward with all of the things you want to accomplish over the next month.

This is a busy week, so I'll try my best to keep things short, sweet & simple. Here's the basic outline:

• ORGANIZATION
• GIFT PACKAGING
• CHRISTMAS CARDS
• RECIPES
• LAYOUTS

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A-B-C, when you plan you begin with O-R-G...  Okay, cheesy.  But admit it--you were at least tempted to sing along.

If you're not organized to some degree, there will be no avoiding frantic and broke.  So I would like to share some ideas and printables that you can use to get plans down on paper and keep track of all the details.

This is a mini accordion file I decorated and labeled last year to help me keep track of gift receipts.  There's a section for each member of my family and one in the back for everyone else. This was a lifesaver.  Notice that I didn't put a year on it.  I will reuse it until it falls apart.

 

And this year I'll be printing off a few of these to tuck inside, courtesy of Atypical Type A.

 

Remember last Monday's WCS feature by the sisters of eighteen25?  On this guest post at Under the Sycamore, they offer a free download and step-by-step instructions for how to put together this cute and practical planner.

 

Giver's Log offers a very thorough Ultimate Holiday Checklist (both a filled-in and a blank version).  Jump in on Week 4 and fight that tendency toward procrastination!

 

If you're anything like me (i.e., you consider organization to be a worthy form of recreation), you may swoon at the sight of the Christmas planning ebook and slew of printables over at Life...Your Way.

 

Forget plain white scratch paper.  Allsorts gives us a much more cheerful way to create our to-do lists this year.

And team member Celeste Smith not only offers a free to-do list download, she explains how to make those sheets into a pad!

Perhaps you have the desire to do Ali Edwards' December Daily, which is very feasible now that you're taking the steps to plan ahead ;)  That link is full of information and resources.  And our own Karen Grünberg provides this free download of adorable Christmas tree days which can be used as layered templates.

I hope you're inspired to get a handle on your plans as you utilize some of these free resources.  Please leave a comment and let me know if you do!