Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season with family and friends!  :)

A little Christmas Cheer!

It seems that this week we have little time to breath while preparing for Christmas, entertaining family from away and trying to get some work done.  When I had to bake cupcakes today, I had no time to do anything fancy so I had to think of a way to make my cupcakes stand out.  Cannot have plain cupcakes people!!!  So I thought back to Thanksgiving when Elsie created these adorable cupcake picks and thought, I CAN DO THAT!  I printed some tags from this months Guild kit, Season of Delight, taped some toothpicks to the back of them and stuck them in the cupcakes!  Now when we are at the party taking pictures, people can add their Christmas wishes before they chow down.  :)  Thanks Elsie for the inspiration!

On Tuesday evening I baked this little gem for Connor’s Christmas party at school!  He told me that the class really liked Fred, which is what Connor named him.  He was a chocolate cake with butter cream for snow and everything is made from marshmallow fondant!

I made some snowball garland today, which took a whole ten minutes and four dollars!!!  :)

And I even took a few minutes to scrap while I was waiting for everything to bake… Seasons of Delight, this months Guild kit.

 

 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

A New Tree Skirt

When I was pulling out my Christmas decorations this year, I noticed that the red of my tree skirt had  bled into the white.  It must have gotten wet somehow?  So I thought it would be a good idea to toss that one and make a new one.  I gleaned what supplies I could from around the house and came up with this!  Otis is a pattern for a plushie and can be found here.

I simply cut up pieces of materials I had around the house to put him together.  A pocket from an old sweater, some burlap scraps, felt scraps, buttons, ribbon, trim, and the berries and garland I snipped from some other decorations. 

 

He  makes me happy!  :)

PUBLICATION CALL for the Artisan Notebook!

February's theme is all about Toys & Games! Send us your game pages! Anything goes! Traditional board games, your child's favourite teddy bear, or even your WOW obsession, it all goes! Send them along to me!
Send 8"x8" or 8"x10" layouts, 150 dpi, under 1 mb to amyeileenhead attt msn dotttt com by November 13.
The subject line should read FEBRUARY ISSUE.
In the body of the e-mail, please include:
Layout Name
Your name aka user name
Link to your favorite gallery
About the photo(s):
Techniques: (Including what program you use)
Journaling:
Credits and fonts:

Happy Holidays

Because it made me smile

And I know it will make you smile as well!  :)

How to make a Dollar Store Journal

In order to improve my son’s creative writing, we decided that we are going to write in a journal each night.  This can be anything!  A simple story.  A few lines about his day.  A cartoon drawing with some simple conversation.  Anything to get him writing more.  I thought it would be a good idea to create my own journal and write along with him.  So I created this one for him.  I simply bought a composition notebook at the dollar store, traced the front, cut out the paper, glued it on, glued on some ribbon and a mailing tag.

The other day I was at the dollar store and found this red, faux leather place mat.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew I wanted it.  :)  I ended up using it as a cover for a journal, check it out!  :)

What you will need:

composition notebook

place mat

strong glue  (or waxed thread, I used glue because I was lazy)

Velcro

Rip the cover off of your notebook and throw it in the recycle bin.  Place your notebook on the backside of the place mat.  Measure the place mat to where you want your cover to end, draw your line, cut off the excess.  I just kept mine just under half an inch on each end.

With your notebook on the place mat, line up where the spine of it should be on the middle of the mat.  Using a ruler, draw a line vertically down the mat, this is going to be your guide for your glue.    (If you want to sew it instead, use waxed thread, open the journal to the middle and stitch through the original binding holes, depending on how thick the material you are using is, you  might want to pre poke the holes with an awl first.)

Run a strip of glue down the line, place the notebook back in place, close the cover tightly, place something heavy on the book to help set the glue.

Next I took the scraps and made a closure for my journal. 

I cut a one inch piece of Velcro and glued it to the cover (or stitch it if you are sewing it), and the opposite end to the inside of the strap end.  If you have a sewing machine, it would probably be a good idea to sew it on if you will be opening and closing it a lot.  Better for wear.  ;)  I lined up the strap and glued it to the back of the journal.  I just made a little mark with a pencil on the inside so I knew how to line it up.  Wait 24 hours or so for the glue to dry completely before using.

Voila!  All done.   

I already had the glue on hand and the Velcro, so the total project cost me $2.  :)  Hope you like it!  If you make one yourself, link me up.  I would love to see it!

How to make a Feather Headband!

This morning I woke up wanting to make something pretty, so I did!  :)  I have never done this before and there very well be better ways to do it, but this is how I did it!  Hope you enjoy it.

What you will need:

Feathers

Glue

Headband

Felt

Button

The first thing I did was cut a thin tear drop shape out of the felt.  Not long, just a wee bit shorter than what you want the feathers to extend over your head really.

Then I picked out what feathers I wanted to use and played with them until I got an idea of what I liked.  Then I started to glue them on.  I started at the tip of my felt piece so that the ends of the feathers would be hidden as I went.  Make sure you place the feathers down!  You dont want the tips poking out.  :)

I decided I wanted another brown feather on top after I took this but you get the idea.

This is my back….

Just be careful with the glue, you dont want to use too much or it will make a mess of the feathers.  Clean up the back of the felt, just pulling gently on the glue and tiny feather bits.  I than trimmed a little of the excess felt that was showing on the front.  Then I just found a matching button and glued it on the button to hide the end of the feathers.

Next put your headband on and decide where you want the feathers.  You can mark it with a piece of chalk if you like.

Simply run a line of glue up the center of the felt and attach it to the band.  Wait for it to dry for a little while before wearing.  After I did that, I added small dabs of glue here and there to make the feathers lay flatter against my head.  Hope you like it! :)

Let’s just pretend

that I havent been horribly at blogging.  Again.  :)

Some pages that I scrapped recently.  :)  I have gotten into a habit of just using one kit per page.

Land of Odds by Lynne Marie

About by Creashen

This One’s for the Birds, this month’s Guild kit.

In Good Company by Paisley Press & Leora Sanford

Boy’s Retreat by Catherine Designs

In Good Company by Paisley Press & Leora Sanford

Times Flies by the ladies at After 5 Designs

Times Flies by the ladies at After 5 Designs

Have a good scrapping day!

Baaaaaaad Blogger

So a few weeks ago I fell horribly ill and it seemed like it took forever for me to recover.  While I was out sick, I kind of fell out of blogging mode… I also missed a lot of 365 photos… :(  I will do my best to catch up with today’s post and be better from here on in….

Day 202

We went to St. Peter’s for my girlfriend’s bridal shower and Connor wanted to stop at the beach on the way home.  I was not prepared for the beach as I was in dress pants and heels.  lol  We had fun anyway, I just relaxed here on the rocks and watched him swim.

Day 203

Sean had wonton soup, which I have nicknamed Brain Soup.   Do the wontons not look like brains?  lol

Day 204

Apparently the only photo I took this day was a bad picture of an ugly spider….

Day 205, 206, 207

Missed…. :(

Day 208

My brother and his girlfriend became engaged and I made this cake for them when they came home to celebrate.

Day 209

We went to a bike show and Sean ran into an old friend who has a business doing custom bike work.  This is one of his helmets.

Day 210

The buskers were in town.  This man stood on a bike, on a pole, and juggled a torch, knife, and apple.  Here he is taking a bite of the apple.  Very talented people the buskers are!

Day 211

 

We went swimming at Connor’s BFF’s pool.  :)  Ahhhh….

Day 212, 213, 214

Missed

Day 125

It has been a long time since I even started this post.  I have completely lost track of my 365 photos.  :(  I have missed so many in the last few weeks that it seems that I can hardly call it a project any more.  Alas…. I stop the project.  I will not stop taking photos though!  Nope!  Not going to happen.  Want to see some photos I have taken recently?  Yes?  Okay!  :) My friend Jennifer got married….  The first set of photos are a trash the dress session we had after the wedding.  I was MOH in the wedding so I didnt get to take many photos but I did try!  So I will post some of them here too!

Ok…. I am off for a bit but I promise to be better about posting!  And scrapping… SPEAKING OF SCRAPPING!

I have a TWO PAGE SPREAD in Canadian Scrapbooker magazine this month so CHECK IT OUT!  :D