Made with Love

This year for Valentine’s Day, I decided that my four year old, Jilly, and I would make her valentines for preschool together.  Her little face had the biggest smile.  All told it took about 4 hours, but I’m pretty sure if I had done it all myself it would have been under an hour.  The total cost was roughly $2.50 to make 20 valentines, with extra materials left over.  For me the joy was spending the time creating with one of my daughters.

 

This project was super simple to put together.  First, we embossed 5 sheets of Cranberry cardstock from Close To My Heart, next we cut that into quarters.  Then I cut (using the paper trimmer…for those of you who know our cutting issues!) the white inset.  I let Jilly pick the heart she wanted, and let her have at it.  Then I set the stamp up for the back with the “from: Jilly” and again, let her at it.  I let her have a turn putting the adhesive on, and I went back and filled in where necessary.  Then we popped the white onto the cranberry.  The next step was to punch a hole and lace some string to tie the lollipop with.  And just like that we were done. 

 

Enjoy!

“Faith”

Just a quick project for my oldest daughters God parents.  I love to put these together!

 

Enjoy!

Legacy

I thought to my self, how can I best honor a mother of 4, grandmother of 8, and great-grandmother of 10?  The answer was by giving her a piece of art to hang on her wall that features the 6 great-grandkids that live the furthest away from her.

I covered a 12 x 12 canvas with some Close To My Heart paper from the Wings paper pack.  I painted some wooden words then stamped them and finally added some Opaque's to give that little ‘pop’ of dimension.

This is the final product I came up with…this is actually the best of the 16 shots we were able to pull off in 90 seconds!

 

Enjoy

Made from scratch.

I love to deconstruct something and rebuild it and make it more me.  I love to journal.  I must have 30-35 journals sitting around half full at best.  To me, a journal is like a pair of shoes.  I will buy something that is ‘close enough’ instead of looking all over hither and yon to find the ‘perfect fit’.  Then it hit me, why not make the perfect journal? And that’s just what I did.

For this I used paper from the Close To My Heart paper pack Magnifique.  What sets this journal apart is that the matching pen fits into the spine.  I choose to use unlined paper (I tend to not like boundaries when pouring out my heart.) and rubber cemented the paper together and attached that to the spine. 

This project took a total of an hour start to finish, including drying time!  You have to love that.

 

Enjoy

Happy little accident

One of the newer trends is to use decorated oversized clothes pins.  I spent a lot of time trying to hunt them down, and when I did find some I scooped them up in a heartbeat.  Once I got home I realized that I had no clue what I wanted to do with them.  The next thing I knew Christmas was upon us and I went with projects that I could at least envision a final outcome for.  I have no idea how or why, but I had a flash of brilliance earlier today, and was inspired to use the clothes pin with some of the new CTMH Wings paper to create a magnet that will hold a recipe to your range.

But here’s where the happy little accident comes into play.  I have the project all put together, and it hit me while taking pictures to show off the dimension of the butterflies, that this would also look amazing sitting on a desk holding a favorite picture that you want to show off to co-workers. And, BOOM, now you have two uses for one oversized clothespin.

Enjoy

Just sitting around

And I’m not talking about myself…I made a few cards from the already cut scraps from my attempt at the Wings WOTG.  I took a CTMH photo box and converted it into a nice little card holder for a workshop last year, and I promised myself that I would always try to keep on hand one of any kind of card I could possibly need at a moments notice.  So these cards will be joining those. 

Enjoy

Holiday projects part 2

Funny story. I had my 4 1/2 year old help me make the presents for her preschool teachers. She helped me pick out the paper and ribbons, and then I put them together. So we had two gifts, and Jilly looked at me and said "Mommy, I have four teachers...remember?!?" (And she said that with a teenager like attitude complete with one hand on her hip!) What I was able to get from talking with her more, is that she wanted to give her two teachers from last year (that she still gets to see and play with) presents as well. So we went back to my CTMH stash, picked out more paper and put together some more gifts. It was great getting to craft with my daughter, and yes I did actually let her help, even if it was just putting the pop dots on the paper and choosing which papers to use, she did have a hand (or two) in these special gifts.

We made 4 signs covering wood with CTMH papers, painted then stamped wood letters, and added a few embellishments. We used some old beads to decorate the wire handle, and it took about a half an hour to do start to finish.

Her two current teachers were given little jars filled and topped with candy. We punched out a bit of paper, and stuck a sentiment to it, added some ribbon, and boom!

Her previous teachers we put some bath salts into a little vase and used the same design of paper and sentiment, more ribbon and a decorative straight pin with a bead on it and topped it off with a cork.

Holiday Projects pt 1

I was a very busy little bee during the holidays. I was making gifts left and right for my nearest and dearest. Here are a few of the things that I had a blast putting together.

This is the most precious piece of art that I have had the privilege to create. I adhered a piece of paper (that coordinates well with Zoey's room decor of little birdies that her Mommy painted)to a 12x12 canvas,painted and stamped wood letters for her name, placed a 8x10 picture and a few embellishments, and viola.

Wings WOTG part 1

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person (I was accepted into the nuclear program for the U.S. Navy for crying out loud!) but for some reason I can not figure out why my spray pen for the Wings WOTG will not work. After pouring over CTMH bulletin boards and trying all the different suggestions, and a total of close to 3 hours lost messing with this, I am about to chalk it up to a defective pen. I have to say that I love the look you can achieve (it reminds me of the Blow Pens my kids use) the sparkle from the paint is a very soft accent that adds a bit of bling without being 'in your face'. I am currently only happy with the left page of the WOTG that I have been able to finish. I think I am going to move on to some cards and come back to the right side of the layout once I get my mojo back. I hope you like what I have so far.

Inspiration

Now that the hub-bub of the holiday season is behind us, it is time to find your direction for the New Year. What better way to find your 'Inspiration' than with the brand new paper pack from CTMH?

I am currently elbow deep in a few projects using 'Wings' the newest paper pack and I will post some pictures once I am finished.