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Maximize your stamps Day 3 Home decor projects

It´s time for some home decor inspiration all made with the digital version of the "Eat more cake" stamp set from Kellie stamps.

For my home, I like to add simple designs that I can make myself. And it doesn´t get any easier than with a digital stamp! For this poster I simply opened a WORD document on my computer and added the "it´s your day" stamp from the set to the document and centered it. For a little more interest I added a border around the actual image (also in WORD) before printing it. I printed on A4 paper, but I am going to also be printing this on a larger paper size later. Here I have just added some washi tape to attach the poster to my wall. Doesn´t it look fresh and fun?!

Here I have added the same poster into a simple easy frame and put it in two different places in my home just to show you how nice it looks in a frame too!

Kim made this lovely banner with the digital version of the stamp set. 

Besides using digital stamps as photo overlays or bases for journal/filler cards, there are bound-less ways to use these modern, amazing tools for memory keeping. I also created this 'Celebrate' banner. After downloading the whole word,  I split each letter into its own file so it would be easier to maneuver them in my online Cricut software. Enlarging each to about 6 inches tall, I electronically cut each letter in pink and also it's shadow in a darker shade to add depth. Attaching to a white square of cardstock, the short pentagons on bottom part of the flag in stripes and dot grid gold, add just the right amount of accent to this all purpose banner. From birthday parties to everyday instances we commemorate,  it's a welcome addition to our house party decorations!

I have one more quick and easy project to share. These cute flags are so cute to add to a bouquet of flowers as a hostess gift or to a houseplant too.

I just printed a few of the sentiments aligned to the left to have room to fold them in half. Then cut them in strips and cut the little banner edge, folded them in half and with double sided tape I attached them to a grill stick.

See? Quick and easy is my middle name! Well maybe not easy :)

 

What would you make?

Out with the old: Stitchery

I have been a cross stitcher since I was in third grade, much longer than I have been a scrapbooker. I'm drawn to a few types of patterns, first classic samplers, which I put together on a sampler wall in the guest room:

Next, Noah's Ark samplers, which I keep with a few Noah's Ark craft figures in the living room:

And finally, garden patterns, which I mostly keep in my bedroom:

 (Side note: it's really hard to photograph framed cross stitching behind glass!)

I am a quick and prolific stitcher, so I have many that I have not yet framed, like this one, which I imagined framing in two circular mats, sans cat hair, which seems to be on it now:

I also have many classic samplers unframed, like this one, which will go in the guest room:

And many small Noah's Ark patterns like this one:

And then in 2002 I stopped cross stitching when I had kids. With my sons constantly on my lap, I couldn't imagine needle crafts. The lighting was so poor by the time they were in bed, I just put it away for a while. Recently, though, I realized the lighting at my sons' taekwondo dojang was excellent, so I pulled out and finished the pattern I stopped stitching when my eldest was born:

Then I picked up another, a Halloween pattern, that I finished quickly:

Somewhere in here I also made a few geek patterns I picked up on Etsy or in other places. These patterns were so simple I could finish them in a day:

This next one is in my husband's cube at work:

So why am I mentioning this? Now that my boys are bigger, and I have found a well lit place I will be in for a few hours every week all year, I am dedicating myself to picking up my stitching habit again. My goal is to stitch between 3-6 patterns by the end of the year. In addition, I want to frame 3-4 patterns that I have already made. My longer term goal is to design a classic sampler pattern myself based on Star Wars; instead of a house, I want the skyline of Mos Eisley, and the verse "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" along with the phrase "Home Sweet Home."  I haven't found one I like to purchase, so I'll have to design it myself!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you set goals for revisiting hobbies you have set aside but intend to go back to.

Decorate the Holidays-Christmas Edition

It's Valerie again. I have another Christmas DIY home decor project to share with you. This time I have a wall hanging I made for My Mind's Eye with their new Christmas collections. 

I picked a stick from the yard and draped handmade pom poms and strung gold die cut letters from the Christmas on Market Street collection.

I used this pin to help me make a cut file which I then used to create the snowflakes from patterned paper from the Cozy Christmas collection. I added a string and hung each one from the branch as well. 

I think this combination of pom poms, gold letters, and snowflakes would look great hanging from a mantel as well. To view my post over at My Mind's Eye click here. Merry Christmas everyone!

Decorate the Holidays

Aliza and I welcome you to a week of holiday decorating using your scrapbooking supplies. In my household we're getting ready for a trip so the holiday decorations have not come out of the closet yet. Although, my son is definitely ready for them! My project for you today is about as easy as they get.

I have created what may be the world's easiest handmade advent calendar. Supplies needed are: patterned paper scraps, Jenni Bowlin Studio Hotel Key Holder, and a 1 1/2" paper punch or die cutting machine. And I completely apologize for using a discontinued product today. You may be able to find one on ebay or a real vintage one. You could also DIY one with a thin piece of plywood and nails.

So this is the first and only Christmas decoration we have on display right now, but it's probably the most necessary one. Now I shouldn't get asked multiple times a day how many days are left until Christmas.

Vacation Layouts

Hello. It's Aliza back for another day. As promised, I have some layouts and a project to share from our recent road trip. In the fist layout,  The theme for the month of August, is "trying something new." This, my friends, is harder than I thought. I often begin a layout saying to myself, "I will not keep doing the same thing over and over again." Only to find myself moments later, doing what I know how to do successfully.

That is what happened in my first layout; I ended up using one of my go-to strategies for starting a page. I cut up some patterned papers, I layer them toward the center, put the photo on top, add a few embellishments, and voila:

I tried (really , I did!)to vary things a little in the second layout. Instead of starting my layout in the center, I started adding my patterned papers at the top of the page. Even though my photo still ended up layered right in the center, it still felt good to make that small change. It feels fresh to me. Which just goes to show you, even small changes can matter.

I was planning to keep on churning out a couple of more layouts, but I got distracted by a project that was completely new to me. Since we drove across many states, I was inspired by a Sillhouette project on Instagram, to create a crafty map of the Unites States. I spent a lot of time watching tutorials, finding fonts and brushes, and files, to create this masterpiece.

It felt good to create something new and way outside my comfort zone. Also, it was exhausting and time consuming. But, sometimes, it's worth it.

Thanksgiving Blessings

Hi everyone, Diane here today sharing some thoughts on Thanksgiving. While I have been out and about the last couple weeks, I have noticed that we have gone straight from Halloween to Christmas in the retail world. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas...the decorating, Christmas trees and lights, favorite Christmas movies and music, snuggling up inside with the fireplace on sipping hot cocoa, and spending time with the family and friends. But, I feel I should pause before heading straight into all of that and think about everything I am thankful for this year. As I started planning the Thanksgiving meal for my family, I thought perhaps I should create some Thanksgiving place settings too. So, I pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and came up with some quick and easy tags and name cards to make the meal with my loved ones just a little more special.

To create the Thanksgiving tags, I simply added a piece of fall flair, a greeting and a strip of gold glitter to office tags and tied it onto the napkin ring with cream and gold twine.

For the name cards, I used woodgrain textured cardstock trimmed in gold with cream and gold alpha stickers for our names.

These were quick and easy and really adds a special touch to the table. I'm looking forward to sitting down to this with my family next week.

Thank you for joining me today. May you be blessed this holiday season!

Scrap Plywood Transformation

 Do you all have your homes decked out for Halloween and/or fall yet? I don't do much seasonal home decorating with the exception of Christmas. My Mind's Eye has a super great new Halloween collection this year: Frightful. I never get excited about Halloween collections, but I honestly love this one! I decided to make a display piece with the fun chipboard elements from Frightful.

 I might have a craft supply problem—I have accrued quite the assortment of supplies of the years. I'll blame it on my high school art teacher for doing such an amazing job teaching and introducing me to such a wide range of substrates, mediums, and techniques. Now that the days of school deadlines are long gone, I can freely experiment and play. I have a lot of items that get abandoned and set aside to be finished later, or projects that just failed. This project started out as an 8 x 8 inch scrap of plywood. I attempted to gold leaf a design on it and it was a complete fail, so I tossed the scrap aside to be repurposed later. I have a whole of pile of items like this—mostly canvases, but there's some scraps of wood in there too. 

 Gold leaf doesn't photograph well, but it is on there. I messily painted around the gold leaf with some black acrylic paint. Then I grabbed some of the MME chipboard elements and played around with the grouping until I was happy with it. The elements are self-adhesive, but I used hot glue to adhere them to the rough plywood surface.

 And there you have it—super easy Halloween decor! I don't think your significant other will mind if you go raid the garage or basement in search of a really great piece of scrap wood. 

Anniversary Week - Day 5

Welcome to the last day of this Anniversary Week! Today I am sharing some ideas for anniversary gifts.

Some of these projects don't require photos, and others do, so you can pick the project based off of what you have available.

Let's start with a photo-less project. Here is a set of personalized coasters I made. I bought the tiles at Lowe's and covered them up with different digital papers.

Last year my in-laws' celebrated their 50th anniversary, so I collected a bunch of photos from their family and friends and made a photo collage. We had it printed and framed for them. They loved it!

Next, I want to share two frames I decorated. These make a great gift too. I got the frame from Michaels and it's very easy to cover up and embellish.

This other frame was from the dollar store, and I covered it up with paper.

Finally, I wanted to share the wall heart-shaped photo display I put together. I prepared photo and paper squares of ~3 inches side and arranged them in a heart shape. I just love how this looks in our living room!

I hope you enjoyed all the anniversary inspiration this week!

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween, WCS readers! I hope y'all have some fun plans for today. I will be heading out with my sweetest little one to collect candy this evening, but wanted to share some home decor products to get your home into a Halloween mood.

I don't go all out with the decorations, but do like to put a few things out.  Here is my front table.

I created the black frame with the stars this year, and it's featured today at the Fancy Pants blog so head on over if you want to check it out.

 

How cute is this tin that Laura made? You could use it as a gift or display it with your Halloween decor.

 

Wai Sam created this wreath, that is just fabulous!!

 

I've always wanted to create a Halloween mini-album, and after seeing this one from Stephanie, I am definitely going to get it done this year.

Stephanie's full album was featured on the Glitz Designs blog, so head over there to check it all out.

 

Last, but certainly not least, is this amazing quilt created by Amy.

Isn't it fabulous??!!

And now for the lucky number from our Chic Tags giveaway. Congrats to Suzie!

Suzie said...

Super cute LO :-) and love this kit! Thanks for the chance to win!

Send me an email at accoose(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll get your goodies shipped right out to you.

 

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Summer Fun Mailbox

Hi Everybody!  This is an exciting week because the end of this week is Summer Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere and it will be OFFICIALLY summer!  Both my husband and I work full time and we don't have children, so we don't get the summer off work.  However, I always think of summer as a special season where the daylight is long and we get to enjoy time outside after work, because it's still light out.  We are able to fit in an amazing amount of fun during the summer, even while working days at our office jobs. 

This week is also exciting because Todd and I actually are taking the whole week off and having a "staycation" in our own city!  This is actually very relaxing for us, because we don't have to find pet-sitters, and we get to sleep in our own beds.  But during the day, we plan to take full advantage of our fair city and enjoy all the sights, sounds, and good eats.

To help us maximize our fun this week, I created a "Summer Fun" Mailbox.

 

 

We filled the mailbox with fun activities we would like to do this week of staycation, and for the rest of summer.  Each activity is written on a small piece of paper and folded and tossed into the mailbox.

 

Here are a couple of fun activities we've picked for this week.

 

I feel happy just thinking about my mailbox of fun!  What will your Summer Fun Mailbox contain?  I hope your summer is full of sunshine and time spent outside! :)