LOVE Banner

Seems like banners have been the thing for quite a while now and even though I've crocheted a few I hadn't made any out of paper till the other day.  Since I had tons of this black ribbon I chose this burg/black paper that looks great with it.  I'm thinking about making another one that says "Be Mine".  If you need a banner for anything let me know and I'll be happy to make one for you.

DAMIAN name plaque

So when we cut out the vinyl for the name frame there was room for two names. Secretly I was hoping for two vinyl names so I'm so glad it worked out. I had a scrap piece of 1x4 I wanted to make into a name sign since there was a bit of paper left over from the frame that would fit it perfectly. One edge of the board was very crooked but after several minutes with the sander I got it straight enough. Since I had a better idea of what I was doing I painted the entire board black first, then I mod podged on the scrapbook paper. Then I applied the vinyl lettering and then I added a top coat. It is completely nerve wracking working with paper as it wrinkles up something terrible everytime you add a layer but eventually it smooths back out. I really like how this turned out. I think I'll be making a couple more soon.

Custom Vinyl Plaques & Frame

After I recently made the sign for my brother's wedding I received a couple of custom orders. The top two plaques are doors from IKEA. I checked on the retail prices on doors the other day and who knew that most were $100 or more. Crazy! Thank goodness for the "as is" section where they sell doors that are either returned or taken apart from their former displays. You can buy doors for just a fraction of the price. It's my latest addiction.

The bottom frame is from my stash of tole painting wood from my Provo Craft days. Although it looks like it's painted really fancy I actually just mod podged a piece of paper on it.

I love how these projects turned out and can't wait to make more.

Scrap my Scraps Challenge

A couple weeks ago my friend Erin put out the call for volunteers to participate in her "scrap my scraps" challenge. I was lucky enough to get picked to play. She sent me about 6 rectangles of scrapbook paper and I combined them with some of my scraps and made some stuff most of which turned into packaging for other items but it was a lot of fun. She posted my pics the other day. Follow this link to go to her posting. While you are there check out all her fun stuff.

Wrapping Paper Bows

Not my most impressive bow to date but this is after a long car journey...

I can't remember where I first saw the idea of making bows from your leftover wrapping paper but I loved it and have been making them ever since. I thought I'd post about it since it seems like there's always someone who hasn't seen it before and wonders how to make them. Being a compulsive hoarder it's always difficult for me to throw away those strips of paper that you end up cutting off when wrapping a present so this is the perfect solution for me. All you do is cut your excess paper into 1/2" strips and curl them with your scissors just like curling ribbon. They magically curl up and then all you have to do is tape them into a bow. You don't have to worry about if your strips are perfectly even because this method covers up a lot of mistakes. I have used a paper shredder before but the strips ended up quite narrow which I guess would be good on small packages but ended up being a bit time consuming on larger packages.

So there - my secret of wrapping paper bows is out. Happy wrapping!

Check out this Chick!

It's so fun sharing the love of crafting with your friends. One of my friends that I've known for a very long time has a really great bog that I love checking out. I admire her amazing paper crafting skills. She recently started designing for Skipping Stones Designs which means she gets to play with completely adorable stamps and make the cutest cards with them. Check out her card this week: http://inkysmiles.blogspot.com/2010/03/skipping-stones-design-sketch-ssd016.html

BABY Blocks

I found these BABY stickers in a $1 bin at Michaels a few months back and had to have them. At first I was going to individually frame them in these adorable little white square frames that I saw at the Dollar Tree but I resisted spending more $ on the project. Finally I realized that they fit perfectly on the little white blocks I already had. I was going to sand the edges and seal the blocks first but due to time constraints I just attached the stickers directly onto the painted blocks. They are the perfect stickers - layered, glittered and have foam stickers on the back for added dimension. Of course I had to tie the whole thing up in a leftover pink ribbon from my wedding and voila! In just a couple of minutes I had a very cute baby shower decoration to display on my end table and since I've hosted 3 baby girl showers in the last year I'll pack these up with the rest of my baby decorations for the next baby shower I host.

CTR blocks

When we first doing vinyl my friend had her huband cut up this board that she had and we sanded the blocks and painted them white but then we ended up switching over to using 2x4s so these blocks were left undone. I was thinking about them the other day and came up with this idea. The paper squares and letters are precut from paper. I have stacks of them. I love how it turned out. They will be great to use for baptism gifts and will make a great project for my Activity Day girls.

L o v e

These were mostly made by my friend. We were supposed to work on this project together but due to her kids being ill I didn't go over and help much. All I actually did was apply the vinyl letters which is the fun part. She's kind of obsessed with making them and has plans for many other projects throughout the coming year. She made J O Y blocks for Christmas and they were super cute.

I have them all wrapped up in gift bags I had on hand and I made these Valentine's cards on Sunday evening. I found these heart cards in my box of Valentine decorations. I found cute Mary Englebreit images from an old page a day calendar and matted them with cardstock and glued them on the cards with a glue stick. Now I just need to get them all delivered so my friends can display them for a bit before the big day is here!

Pink Baby Booties

I was trying to figure out what else I could crochet since I've been making nothing but dishcloths for the last couple of weeks and I decided to try making some baby booties. I looked through my saved patterns and found this. They were pretty easy. A good pattern to make for the first time and I think they are super cute. I'll def. be making more soon.

And I was so excited that they fit perfectly into my origami gift boxes. They will make the

perfect present. Tied up with a bow and ready for giving.

TODAY

I received this quote a couple weeks ago in an email and really liked it. I decided to frame it up so I could read it everyday. It seems like I always have so many ideas in my head and never get around to doing all of them. I'm hoping that this reminder will help me be more productive in working towards my goals and taking the steps necessary to make them happen.
I just printed it off on regular printer paper using this awesome font from Creating Keepsakes. The ribbon is cream with pink & brown butterflies and flowers. It matches the master bedroom/bathroom so I hung it in there for now. I might add some additional embellishments later but for now I just wanted to do something fast and get it up.

ETSY Cards

I made these cards the other day. The letters are cut from the months from a Mary Englebreit page a day calendar. The cards are from Die Cuts with a View. They are really nice textured cards that are colored on the outside and white inside. The little flowers I glued on the envelope flaps are cut from a M.E. page a day calendar from a couple years ago. The paper borders are from scrapbook kits from Westrim I collected when I worked there eons ago.

Here's a closeup of one of the cards and envelopes. Trying to figure out what else I can spell so I can make some more cards!

From Trash to Treasure

Before I throw anything away I try to think if there's a way I can repurpose it into something else. The other day I went to a baby shower and received a favor in this little box. When I got it home I thought that I could cut it apart and make it into a card. I ended up making it into 4 cards instead.

I made 4 cards. I'd picked up some ivory greeting card envelopes from Staples a while back since they were being clearanced out at an amazing price. I made the cards from two pieces of ivory cardstock I cut in half with my paper trimmer. The ivory, pink and green mattes are made from scraps of cardstock I made two pink cards for two friends who are expecting girls within the next few months and two green cards for two other friends who don't know what they are having yet.

Marble Magnets

Yet another project I did a while back but never got around to posting. Several years ago a friend sent me some magnets for Christmas. The images used in them were stamped but as you can see here you can use anything you have on hand to make cute magnets: stickers, cancelled stamps, scrapbook paper, ads, etc...

These images are from a booklet inside the last Pirates movie.

These planes are from a piece of scrapbook paper. They are all actually the same size. The angle of the photo makes them look different.

A cancelled Miss Piggy Stamp had to be preserved somehow.

They are pretty easy to make. The only drawback is the strong odor of the glue. This is a project best done outside.

Decorated Composition Notebooks

I had always wanted to try my hand at decorating composition notebooks but never had tried. When I made the plarn bags (shown below) that fit them perfectly I knew I had to decorate books to match the bags for the perfect presents. I actually just wrote an ehow article on it as well.

Photo Collage Greeting Cards

About a month ago my cousin let me in on a great thing she discovered - printing 4x6 photo collages at Wal-Mart! I had this idea to make photo cards for a friend and my mother in law from some pictures that I took of turtles since they both love them so I knew this was the perfect solution. I could pick a couple of the best photos and even include a greeting. I ended up using the same pics in both collages. I already had a stack of 5x7 white greeting cards with envelopes so I used those for the base. I trimmed each side of the photos and then mounted them on green patterned paper and then used my favorite deckle edge scissors to trim all the way around. They turned out great. Really simple but a fun way to incorporate several photos into a project without a lot of effort.

Mother's Day Cards & Magnets

For many years my cousin gave me a Mary Engelbreit page a day calendar for Christmas. I loved looking at the new artwork each day but ofcourse couldn't bear to throw any of them away. Once my grandmother ripped off a page and used it for scrap paper and I was horrified! This is artwork not a mere piece of paper. As I ripped a page off I would just put it back in the box for safekeeping. Well a couple years ago I was going through my endless boxes of prized possessions and found many of these calendars. I started making cards and other projects with them. I haven't bought a card in years since the artwork covers every Holiday and gift giving occassion possible. I use them to decorate notepads and give sets of cards away for presents as well. I had tons of "mom" themed art so recently I made a collection of cards and magnets.

Close up of one of the cards. Each envelope is decorated with a flower.

Some magnets I made. They are "upcycled" using those pesky magnets you get on the front of your phone books. Many of them are for plumbers and since my husband is currently working as a plumber one day he took one of the magnets off the fridge and threw it away. I fished it out and told him I would cover up the advertisement one day and now I finally have made cute magnets out of all my plumber magnets that were on the fridge.

Tithing Boxes

So Saturday we went to Josh's Cousin's Son's baptism. I was trying to figure out what we could give him to help celebrate his special day and with a little help from a friend I thought of making a tithing box. I already had a box made so I just made a label for the top and a CTR card to go along with it. Also included a red pencil for marking his favorite scriptures.

Then I made another set for my cousin's son who is turning 8 tomorrow and will be baptized in a couple of weeks.

Happy Birthday Boys! It's great to be 8!

Framed Family Proclamation & Relief Society Motto

Relief Society Motto matted with navy blue paper with cream stars. Ribbon is cream, red and blue. Cute!

Family Proclamation is matted with brown/cream paper and hung with a brown, black and cream ribbon.

I've had a stack of these 8 1/2" x 11" frames for many years now. I think my original idea was to frame the R.S. motto and decorate it back when I was in the R.S. Pres. but never got to it. Since we've been studying the family lately in Young Women I thought it would be nice for the girls to frame a proclamation for a mutual night. We had a lot of fun. The girls are very creative. I took my cardstock and decorative edge scissors and punches and they all did a great job. I had a couple frames left over so I made these the next day.

Easter Carrots

I hadn't made these in a few years so I thought it would be a good idea to make some for the combined YM/YW activity and take them around to members of the ward to wish them a Happy Easter. It was a little overwhelming to say the least to try to get 40 youth to work on these but eventually we made 20 carrots and set out on our visits. The members that we visited were very happy to be remembered so that made it all worthwhile. I had extra supplies so I made a bunch more and we took them around on Sunday to some family members and I also gave them to the YW at church.
The cutest thing about them I think is the paper. It is Provo Craft. It was being "retired" about 12 years ago so I bought a ream of it and just use it to make carrots from. Yeah it'd been a while since I'd made some. I was going to post a tutorial on how to make them but since Easter is over maybe I'll do it next year.