Sneak, Sneak!

Jennifer Fox has a kit coming out tomorrow that you just have to get!  It's called 'Memory Keeper' and it's fabulous!  I made both a card and a layout with it - check it out:

Don't forget - tomorrow at The Digichick!

Crafts with the Kids: Pine Cone Bird Feeder

The kids and I had some fun this morning - we made Pine Cone Bird Feeders.  I remember making these when I was a kid and I figured the boys would like it too.  Anthony was more interested in getting the peanut butter all over his hands than actually helping, which was what I expected from the 2 year old!  Nathan really enjoyed it!

The neighbors behind us have some White Pines growing in their yard (the Michigan state tree) and some of the pine cones had fallen into our yard, so I gathered a few up and we got started on our craft project.

I admit that our pine cone feeders aren't exactly the coolest looking ones on the block, but we had fun making them.

A Sneak!

This post is full of exclamation points because I'm so excited about the new item that Kelleigh Ratzlaff at The Digichick has coming out tomorrow!  Just check out what I made with them.  I also used Laura Banasiak and Micheline Martin's new kit that is coming out tomorrow as well!

And fyi, I don't have a cutting machine - I cut these all by hand!  They were very easy to make!

Hybrid Paper Pinecone Ornament

For those of you who don't already know, my post is up today at The Hybrid Chick.  I show you how to make one of these:

I used to make them with my grandma and sisters when I was growing up, but with ribbon.  I took them hybrid though, of course!

I really enjoy making them - so much so that today I made one with Meg Mullens and Traci Reed's All That Collection: Magical kit found at The Sweet Shoppe.

Happy crafting everyone!

Turkey Tutorial

Want a little kid friendly craft to add to your Thanksgiving decoration stash?  Take your digital scrapbook supplies and turn them into this:

I made this little turkey for The Hybrid Chick's Digital Scrapbook Day Hybrid Challenge and now I'm going to show you how incredibly easy he was.

First, print off the digital papers you are going to use on to matte presentation paper.   I used the awesome designer collab Season of Thankfulness from The Digichick.

Take an empty container (you could even use an empty toilet paper roll) and clean it out.  I used an empty spice container:

Then I drew on the back of each of the five papers that were to be feathers and cut them out and assembled.  I used red line tape to attach them together.

Then I attached the paper around the spice container:

Finally, I assembled the turkey and added some wings and facial features.  

Now the turkey sits on my dining room table.  If I happen to get any more empty containers in the next few weeks I am definitely going to have my kids join in and help me make some more.  They are that easy!

Owl Treat

I found this way cool blog a few weeks ago and promptly bookmarked the Owl Smores recipe she shared.

I made them for Nathan's preschool class, as tomorrow is our day to bring in the snack.  I hope they like them!

Halloween Treats

Each year, some friends of ours host a pumpkin carving party and we all make spooky treats to eat!  I'm making a few different things this year and this is the least spookiest of all - some Oreos dipped in chocolate and sprinkles! Yummy!!

Halloween Vial Treat Holder

Head on over to The Hybrid Chick today and check out my blog post on how to make this cool treat holder for a vial full of candy!

You Make Me...

In the words of Uncle Kracker, "you make me..."  I can have this song stuck in my head for hours!  It's a good one though, so I don't mind.

Meghan Mullens will have a release out tomorrow called "You Make Me" and here's what I did with it:

I also used the Mojo Monday Sketch 159:

Happy crafting everyone!

Treat Bags

I joined in with Joana over at The Hybrid Chick for her treat container hybrid challenge.  I decided to use one of Arty Pants Digital Stamps new stamps - Witch Girl.  I have never used a real stamp in my life before, well at least for card making, that is, and I'm not about to go out and buy any now that Arty Pants offers digital stamps!  These are so easy to use - you can either print them off and color them with markers, pencils, etc., or color them digitally on your computer!  I chose the latter.  I used Laura Banasiak's Pumpkin Spice kit and clipped the papers to the different layers of the Witch Girl.  For a great tutorial on how to use the digital stamps, see this post over at The Hybrid Chick by Dalis.  For the finishing touch, I added in a cutesy saying "Hauntingly Sweet" with DJB Woke Up Late font from Darcy Baldwin.

First off, I took some of these paper sacks and used my Big Bite to punch some holes in the top of both the printed off stamp and the sack.  I overlapped the printed image in the back by about 1.5 to 2 inches.

I then added some ribbon and tied it off.

An easy way of making some plain ol' bags cute!  

One more thing - Darcy Baldwin (the resident fontographer) at Sweet Shoppe Designs is having her second ever "So You Think You Can Font?" contest!  

Have you ever wanted to see your handwriting made into a font?  This is your chance!  You never know if she'll pick yours!

I Touch Myself and A Giveaway!

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I created this card.  I was inspired by a friend who sells custom made jewelry HERE and a little goodie she made that said "I touch myself" on it for the month of October and by the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 87.  I used Kristin Cronin-Barrow's Cloud 9 kit and printed off the papers.  I also used some twine, a button, and stickles.  I hate waiting for stickles to dry.  Just hate it!  But I love how it looks when it is dry.  :-)  Oh and I used my favorite tool - my paper piercer to punch some holes along the edge of one of the paper pieces.

I'd love to give this card away to someone.  So please, forward this on to your friends, become a follower on my blog, and leave a comment by Wednesday, October 6th at 11:59am EST!  I'll enter all the comments in to random.org and the winner gets the card!  **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

World Card Making Day

Did you know it was World Card Making Day today?  I wanted so badly to make at least one card today, not only because it was World Card Making Day, but because I hadn't made one in awhile.  And guess what I made?  A Christmas card!  I am actually tossing around the idea of making my own this year and considering that Christmas is 2.5 months away, I should get started!

I grabbed the freebie card template that Julie Billingsley so graciously provided for everyone over at Sweet Shoppe Designs today and got to work.  This is what I came up with:

Credits:

All Tied Up Card Template - Julie Billingsley
Santa's Bake Shoppe - Julie Billingsley and Misty Cato
DJB Joan Euro - Darcy Baldwin

Of course, it was easy peasy.  After I printed it off on an 8.5 x 11 piece of matte presentation paper, I cut it out and then punched the holes for the ribbon with my Big Bite.  I then scored the card base, glued the inside of the card on to the card base, added the ribbon, button, and tied it all up.  Now only 50 or so more to make.  Ha.

Halloween Button Bauble & Tutorial

Kristin Cronin-Barrow (a designer at Sweet Shoppe Designs) is turning 30 this week and she's having a week-long celebration with various giveaways and stuff.  One of the challenges is to create a layout or project with either 30 flowers or 30 buttons on it.  The winner will receive a month long guest spot on her creative team.  I decided to take mine hybrid and use one of those empty baubles that are starting to pop up in the craft stores for the upcoming holidays.  While shopping for the bauble, I found this fun and cute ribbon with green, orange, and black polka dots on it.  I had found my color inspiration!

So, in keeping with the orange, green and black colors, I took some different papers from various kits (the darker orange is from All Star, the lighter orange and green are from Artist's Canvas, and the gray is from her contribution to the Sweet Shoppe collab freebie Simple Pleasures) and printed them off on matte presentation paper.

Then I used one of the small circle paper punches I have and cut out a handful of them.  I don't have a smaller circle paper punch, so I took a round object and traced it and then hand cut it out.  Talk about tedious work! 60 small circles in all because I wanted the buttons to be double-sided.  I used my good old Tombow adhesive to create the double-sided buttons.

Then I took one of my most favorite hybrid utensils - the paper piercer - and poked holes in the buttons so I could later thread them.  FYI, I use the back side of a mouse pad as a mat so I don't poke a hole in anything below the button.

Then came the real fun part: hand stitching each and every button to make it look like a true button.  30 buttons in all.  See!  For this, I used a needle and embroidery floss.

By this time, my oldest son was home from preschool, so he helped me insert the buttons, along with some black Halloween crinkle (as the bag said) that I got from Michael's into the bauble.

And voila!  The finished product!  And yes, there are 30 buttons in there - it is kind of hard to photograph all 30 of them in a round object!

Autumn Blessings

When I first saw the Taylored Expression Sketch 128 I had no idea what to do!  I had to think about it for awhile.  Then when I saw the new kit coming out tomorrow (9/23) from Jennifer Fox and Nikki Epperson, I knew I wanted to use that kit with the sketch.  This is what I came up with:

For the words 'Autumn Blessings' I used DJB Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin and Lauren Reid - one of my favorite fonts.  

Happy crafting and scrapping everyone!

You Make My World Happy

I can't get enough of the new kit from Meg Mullens and Kristin Cronin-Barrow called A Wonderful World.  I decided to use it on Mojo Monday's Sketch 156 this week.  Here's how it turned out:

And another view:

I'm not happy about my little handwritten sentiment.  Had I been thinking clearly, I would have printed it out on there instead of me writing it.  Oh well!  It is what it is.  :)  

Happy crafting and scrapping everyone!