Craft and Fancy 2013

I'm excited to be part of the 6th annual Craft and Fancy sale at Home Ec Workshop. It is tomorrow from 10 am - 5 pm, featuring lots of lovely handmade gifts. I'm packing up fairy garden kits, tooth fairy pillows, and play tea bag sets for my table. If you're local to Iowa City, I hope you will come say hello!

Project Life week 47

Well, I left a few recent weeks behind (I'll go back and catch up soon). But I did finish the pages I missed at the end of 2012 and ordered the 12x12 book from Blurb. It is SO fun to look back at the spreads in a real book format. Looking forward to ordering part two of 2013 at the end of the year.

Splendid Fiins has a new December paper and card kit on sale this weekend. Super cute journaling cards and patterns, as always. Go check it out!

Project Life week 42

I've fallen a bit behind on my Project Life, but if I do 2-3 spreads/week, I'll be good to go. I wanted to share the pages I've just finished, featuring some great designs by Splendid Fiins.

When I fall behind, I try to keep things very simple, and think of the pages as more of a photo album than a scrapbook page. Nisa's designs make it easy to pop in photos and fun patterns and details. This weekend you can get her new 3x4 2014 calendars on sale. I've enjoyed including them each week in this year's album, and I'm planning to use them again next year.

The Lilypad has released a huge collection of holiday products called Design Your December. I picked up Splendid Fiin's releases, and also the Paislee Press journal cards and cut files. I've got my eye on this confetti, and Merry + Bright bling washi tape too!

I loved using the 4x6 Remember December templates to put together a PL spread from last December (I only have 3 incomplete weeks to finish, then 2012 is done!)

Get Inspired crop pages

I had a great time on Saturday scrapbooking at the Get Inspired crop in Des Moines. It was an opportunity for me to dig into my Studio Calico kits and I got lots of Halloween photos from this year and last year scrapped. Here are a few of my favorite pages from the day. Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life week 42

Here are my pages for this week, using Splendid Fiin's new November kit. Great color combos, as always!



But that's not all I made this week, I also carved a Yoda jack-o-lantern! :)

Project Life share time!

Well, life got busy and I fell behind on sharing my Splendid Fiins pages. Here are my recent spreads - so much goodness in Nisa's October releases! The kraft paper collections are very versatile. I love the colors of the October kit and the Brilliant collection (lots of great papers and details!).

Project Life week 36

Project Life week 39

Project Life week 40

and a layout using one of my new favorite photos...

PL week 38

I'm sharing my newest digital Project Life spread today. It's the release day for Splendid Fiin's October card and paper kit, and they are lovely (and 20% off this weekend!). I had fun using them on these pages.

Also, the Lilypad has an adorable new collaboration kit called #Selfie that is free with any $10 purchase. Go check it out!

Splendid Fiins Design Team

I'm thrilled to have been selected for the Splendid Fiins creative team! Nisa's designs are my favorite to use in my digital project life. She has an awesome team making layouts and Project Life spreads. I'll be sharing my Project Life pages here occasionally, but they're also on Flickr.

Sanibel shadow box

I started this project over a year ago. I had some Instagram prints made from our spring break trip to Sanibel Island, FL with the intention of displaying them in a frame.

Finally, some new pretties from Studio Calico + plus a little beachy bathroom redecorating inspired me to revisit the project.

I loved this little piece of flair designed by Kal Barteski and the gorgeous letterpress card by Lindsay Letters.

Done and hung up, yay!

Tea Party for big sister

I wanted to send a little something special for big sister when I sent the quilt, so I made some fabric tea bags for a play tea party. There are a few tutorials around, but I just winged it with some fabric scraps I had on had, and a piece of batting inside each tea bag to add a little weight. I stamped "TEA" onto a bag that I had received from a jewelry order, and ta da!

I had so much fun making these. I think there are more in my future!

Crinkle Quilt for baby V.

I made this quilt for a special new baby girl who lives in Colorado. I knew right away when I saw the Crinkle quilt pattern that I wanted to give it a try. It creates a very fun texture, and I loved playing with the Simply Style fabrics by V and Co. from Home Ec Workshop. I would say that it comes together very quickly for a baby quilt (even though it took me months from start to finish, ha ha!).

One detail I added was a little embroidered message on the quilt back. I plan to do this on all the quilts I make from now on. It is an easy, but special detail that marks the time and occasion for the quilt.

I hope I get to meet little V. in person sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'm happy to have added a little coziness to her nursery.

First day of school and first try at canning

We are lucky to have two plum trees in our yard, and this year they have been producing prolifically. I decided that it was time to order some jars and a starter tool kit. I also ordered this book which has instructions and lots of great recipes.

This attempt (#2) at plum preserves turned out pretty well. My first attempt was awfully thick, I think I overcooked it. Then I tried a watermelon-jalepeno jam with no luck - I think I cooked it too long at too low of a temperature. Then, I tried another batch of plum jam with orange zest, but it didn't set-up. Bummer. Looks like I have lots to learn, but I am determined. I want to have another way to make use of the bountiful fruit we have in our yard.

My plum preserves were ready just in time for a first day of school gift for Lachlan's kindergarten teacher. I used a 2" circle punch and alphabet stamps to label the top, then added a tag with letter stickers and a written message on the back.

Then I put the gift and a packed lunch in his new backpack and sent him off to Kindergarten! Big day for all of us! I think this photo accurately captures the excitement and nervousness that he and I were feeling.

L's second year at preschool, Vol. 2

I took advantage of Preucil's photo Shutterfly Share Site + a 40% off photo books promotion, and made a book about Lachlan's year at preschool. This design matches the 8 1/2"x11" book I made last year, so now we have a fun set!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Turn your favorite photos into a photo book at Shutterfly.com.

Hello, Story - first 3 pages

I decided to sign up for Ali Edward's Hello Story class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, because I basically love every single thing she makes, and I've been looking to be re-inspired to make paper scrapbook pages.

week 1: Timeline - SO much inspiration in Ali's content - I decided to make a photo timeline from when Bill and I started dating until current day. It was so fun to look through those old photos!

week 2: fill-in-the-blank - I had been planning to interview L about some of his "favorites" at age 5, so this seemed like the perfect format.

week 3: direction - Again, a perfect theme for my week - I had just finished my third week of the couch to 5K running program, and I wanted to document my motivations and the fun feet photos.

Well, it's week 6 now, so I'm feeling a little behind on creating layouts, but I'm still absolutely inspired by Ali's class!