A New Bow Board

Two little girls and so many bows! Princess A's old bow holder wasn't nearly big enough, so we needed something new. I was going to do something like this...

Inspiration via Pinterest

But inspiration struck me while looking at the sale items during a trip to Pottery Barn Kids (where we only go for story time and to let the kids play... and apparently to get inspired). Here's what I ended up with:

Total cost: under $10

It was $5 for the plywood base (the guy at Lowe's marked a $15 2'x4' sheet of oak plywood down for me cause it had a lousy corner), $2.79 for a spool of grosgrain and a little more for hardware to hang it. The fabric and batting I had on-hand from other projects.

I had my sweet husband cut the oak down to 18 x 24 for me (the table saw tends to terrify me!)... aren't hubby's great? Once it was cut down I glued batting to it, then used a staple gun to attach the fabric and ribbons. All the bows and clips just slide right onto the ribbons. Also, once my girls outgrow the bow phase, this style board could be re-purposed as a bulletin board.

Now, if I can only stop making bows this board might be big enough. :)

Stationery card

Starry Welcome Birth Announcement

Birth announcements & graduation announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

2010 Christmas Card

Here's what I came up with for our card this year. I love it, and it was so simple to put together.

Sweet Holly Story Christmas 5x7 folded card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

On Christmas Cards...

I love paper crafting. If you've spent half a second checking out this blog, that fact in incredibly apparent. While I try to do mostly scrapbooking, I actually think I prefer card-making... the project are smaller, which makes them faster and easier. And there are not pesky pictures to try to coordinate your papers with. So much easier.



But I have a confession: the idea of making my own Christmas cards to send out completely petrifies me. I'm not really scard of making one... I'm scared of making 50. I'm petrified by the idea of that kind of time commitment to a single project this time of year, when I have SO many projects that I want to be doing and finishing.



But, luckily, theres another option. Shutterfly's unquie holiday cards get me off the hook of making my without boxing me into the ho-hum selection of cards available at the grocery store.



I absolutely love the designs available. You can see them for yourself here. Did you see the one with the timeline inside of it! I LOVE IT! Its like getting the card, a shortened version of the annual "what we've been up to" letter AND a picture all in one unique product! And I'm not limited to justone picture with them either. There are lots of choices that use several photos on the card. I think those are great options becuase I'm not sure I could pick just one picture... there are so many cute ones!



Shutterfly is also great for photo gifts this time of year. Photo gifts are always something I consider giving to grandparents (pretend to be surprised if you get these!). Check out the desk calendars here (a great gift for anyone with a desk at work, I think), or how about the canvas gallery prints here? Those look gorgeous, and ready to hang. I can see doing some of our pictures from Europe in canvas.



I can't wait to get started on creating my cards. Are you interested in some free cards from Shutterfly? Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. Find out more here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Dear Life...

Please slow down a bit. I'm having trouble keeping up...

Two more layouts

These are actually layouts that I worked on a few weeks ago, but hadn't yet titled, journaled or embellished. And now they are done. For your viewing pleasure...

100% Cute, 100% Boy. I'm in in love with where I had to place the "100%" on the B, but I didn't trust my first placement, and by the time I realized my mistake I had too much VersaMark on the thing to put it where I wanted it and I ran out of patience after 15 hours of drying time and the heat gun. Oh well. I still like this page. Paper pack is "Rough and Tumble" (retired) and the layout comes from Reflections (the left hand page is a "Title Topper" and the right is a "Side Bar", I think). I used a faux stitching technique around the edges of my Outdoor Denim cardstock. I love how it turned out. Totally done, including journaling. I didn't have much to say about these photos... I just like them becuase he looked so darned cute, so the journaling (little tags on the right hand page) jsut has his name, the month the photos were taken (I'm not organized enough to know the day) and his age at the time. Works for me!

Welcome Sweet Baby. I've had these baby themed vellum stickers for a long time, and this layout seemed as good a project as any to use them on. I was otherwise stuck for how to title this, so I was happy to come across these stickers again. The paper is from last year's National Stamping Month "Everyday Celebrations" card kit and the layout is Cherish "Gallery Collection". Just a little bit of stamped journaling with his name, date of birth and birth weight and its done. I like how it turned out, overall. Most of all, I'm glad its done and neither the photos nor the partly finished layout will be hanging out on my desk any longer.

A Creative Moment!

I finally found one! After moving 2700 miles to Syracuse, NY, living in a too-small rental, buying a house, moving again and getting settled, I finally found a creative moment or two. Helps that my husband is awesome and not only let me sleep in this morning and cleaned the kitchen floor, but took the kids out so I could have quiet creative time, and then didn't complain when my creative time spilled into the rest of the day too.

But, I have much to show for it: a whole completed layout. Honest-to-goodness complete, with a title and journaling and embellishments and EVERYTHING! I don't think I can remember the last time I had a layout that complete that I didn't have to come back to later for one reason or another.

So, here it is!

Its the first trip to a Cougar football game for Allison. Acutally, its not. I think we took her a few times as a infant. But its the first time she had any idea where she was and what was going on. I used papers from Game On and Stardust paper packs, plus some Bamboo textured cardstock (this came out of an old project kits). I really like how it turned out. Its not Cougar colors, which I would have liked, but I like this all the same.

Whaddya think? I have some more things to post soon... I've got layouts with pictures done, just not titles, journaling or embellishing. I'm workin' on it...

Supply List

(all products by Close To My Heart unless otherwise indicated)

Game On Level 2 Paper Pack

Stardust Level 2 Paper Pack (retired)

Black Cardstock

Bamboo Textured Cardstock (retired)

Pewter My Accents (retired)

Rustic Alphabet Stamp Set

Atomic Caps Stamp Set (retired)

Atomic Lowercase Stamp Set (retired)

Stitching Rub-ons by DoodleBug

Black Stitch Ribbon, Target Dollar Spot

*You'll see me using a lot of retired things... why? I use what I like and a LOT of the papers that I really like are retired or retiring this year as CTMH prepare to switch to semi-annual catalogs with shorter availbility times on their scrapbook kits. Several of the kits retiring in December are already sold out and unavailable, so I'll just list them at retired, since they can no longer be ordered. I do love the new stuff, but I'm trying to use what I have (which is a LOT) before I buy more. :)