School Year Planner

Whew! This week I have been dreaming about school every night and I still have at least 3 weeks of vacation! It's no surprise that I was super excited to start creating a new planner/calendar for the school year. It isn't completely finished...I still have to add a larger sized o-ring for the binding (should arrive via UPS today or Monday) and I want to add eyelets and an elastic cord to hold it closed but I will show you the basic steps I used to create this planner.





1. Found an old book and cut off the front and back cover. I could've used chipboard, but this was cheaper and sorry in advance for the first few pics, I seriously took these while I was making the book....at night, in my craft room.


2. Recovered the book with patterned paper. I used this really cool paper from Paper House Productions called Impressionists. I can't find it anywhere online...so if you find it somewhere, let me know because I bought it at a close out store and I would love to have more!

Also, I used those big sheets of sticky dots, they are perfect for this sort of project...I've learned not to use liquid glue or tape runners after lots of trial and error with this sort of thing.


Here, I scored the edges and creased them to make a nice cover.


Then I put some vintage patterned paper on the inside covers of the book.



3. Printed calendar months onto colored cardstock. I printed mine so that the months would be similar to the color wheel rather than in rainbow order...August is yellow...and December is Red...and by the end of the school year I am using greens etc. Anyway, I downloaded and customized the calendar pages from this site.

To elaborate a bit on what I did to each calendar month...I punched the edges with a scalloped punch or my lace punch.

I added a piece of the patterned paper on the back just because it was pretty and I wanted it to be a bit more decorative.


4. I drew up my daily planning guide based on Geninne's Art Blog that inspired me (Scroll down to see her journal pages. Isn't she fabulous??? I just love her blog, it is so beautiful!). I made copies of these (front and back) to use for the entire year. I wanted them to be blank so I could draw pictures or write out instructions and since I rarely plan my weekends on those pages, I left the spot where Saturday and Sunday would be blank for sketches or lists.



5. I made a little pocket for the back of the planner to hold notes etc. and I cut some of my favorite Hambly clear overlays to put in the planner at various points for visual interest.



6. Okay, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy a metal binding o-ring and I took it to school with me to use on the binding machine we have there. I used my 40% off coupon on a new 3-ring binder scrapbook album while I was at Hobby Lobby.

After attempting to use the binding machine at school with the zutter o-rings, I realized that I would have to have a Bind-It-All in order to finish the book. I called both scrapbooking stores within a 50 mile radius to see if they had one customers could use...or pay to use...no luck. So I made a phone call to a friend that gets the news paper and asked for her Sunday Hobby Lobby coupon since I already used mine from the online coupon site. I went to her house, picked it up, went back to Hobby Lobby, bought the darn BIA and took it home. In my attempt to bind the book, I made a few mistakes...but I am sure that no one will notice...also, Hobby Lobby only carried a 1/2" o-wire or a 3/4" o-wire and I really need to use a 1 1/4" so I had to order those from the website.



The finished calendar is 6" X 9" and the inside pages are 8 1/2" X 5" 1/4 which is basically a sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 cut in half, this made copying the pages really easy.



And for the record, this calendar is awesome in person! Now that I have figured out the ins and outs, I really want to make a few of these to sell in my Etsy store to make up the cost of the BIA....I hadn't planned to spend $40 buck on that this week. Do you think you would want to buy something like this or do you know someone that would? It would be perfect for a college student because it is set up in school-year order.
Thanks for reading!

Treetop Treat bag

I have been a bad blogger lately...Sorry about that. I was hoping to post every day this summer, but I am currently working on stuff to put in my Etsy shop. I am also creating a daily calendar for my lesson plans...it is super crafty and cool so I will post pictures of that as soon as it is finished. I am also submitting some cards for various magazines. I have a set of goals for myself and it takes time and dedication to reach those goals.

Here is a little gift bag I used as a make-and take at an open house recently. The top flap is attached with a small piece of velcro...I meant to post this a long time ago so I do not have the original link for how-to make it. Also, you can tell it is my demo-one because I got a bit of ink in the top left corner.
Everything on this treat bag is from CTMH. The white bag is from Michaels.

Stuff from Grandma's House

I mentioned in a post earlier this week about going through all of grandma's stuff. When I first got to her house, I went from overwhelmed by the all the stuff, to sentimental about all the sweet keepsakes, and back to being overwhelmed.

Some of the things that were so sweet:
1. Finding my birth announcement.



(and pictures from when I was 2 and 3 days old!)

2. Finding cards written in my mother's handwriting with the words 'baby Nellie'. Doesn't she have beautiful handwriting? I wish I could write like mom!


3. Finding all the postcards I had written to Grandma while I was traveling in college. (See, my handwriting isn't so great!)

4. Getting an elephant from Grandma Pat's extensive collection


5. Getting to pick out ephemera from 20 or more years ago (I got a stack of cards but my favorite thing was picking out a bunch of old stamps from a stamp collection!)

6. Realizing that grandma had saved little notes and pictures I had made for her when I was a little kid.

7. Finding this AWESOME owl lamp amongst all the junk.


I haven't really decided how to preserve everything, but the pictures and the writing from my blog entries will probably be part of an album, or they will at least become part of Project 52.

Thanks for reading!

Color Inspiration Challenge # 56

I haven't participated in one of these challenges in a while, but this one HAD to be done. I have the perfect patterned paper for the challenge colors this week over at KwernerDesign Bolg!


My card features B&T paper from CTMH, Animal Cookies Level 2 paper packet. It also has some really great Badge Buttons from the Tinkerin' collection. On top of the hand-stamped lettering 'A BIG Birthday' I placed a Hambly transparent overlay. It gave me a lay-out for the card. I really like how it turned out!

Enjoy!!

Cute cards!

Last night I hosted this month's swap club. It was AWESOME! Not only did we create a fun make-and-take, we also got to swap a lot of beautiful cards that everyone created using either a baby or a wedding 'congratulations' theme.

Here are the cards for this month:


Girls, you did a beautiful job! I love seeing what you create each and every month!

Here is my card.

Also, at the last minute I had the idea to create a fun little butterfly tag to add to our technique book. We used markers to make the wings have a watercolor effect.


Ooh, my good friend Lindsay made me the sweetest thank you card. She is new to stamping/papercrafting/scrapbooking/card making! I knew she would love it all and she has learned so much since she started making cards.


Here is her very first card...

She made this in June! Wow, I am so proud of how much she has learned! I know she is having so much fun! Thank you for the beautiful card, I love it!

Swap Club this week: Baby or wedding Congratulations!

Here is my card for this week's swap club. A pretty simple 4X4 card. I used a favorite sheet of Animal Cookies paper, the little monkey from Life's a Jungle, some ribbon and a white jell pen. Oh, and I also used the Code it stamp set on a few of the cards...but not all...




At the swap, everyone will add on to their make-and-take mini-tag book. I will teach them how to apply fun flock to this little lion and how to create their own backgrounds using random stamping and alphabets. They can apply ink very easily to the stamps attached to the acrylic backign sheet and then put their paper on to create this little blue circle.


I will also show them how to use 2nd and 3rd generation stamping to create movement.


Also, I thought I would show you the sweet card I received from Krista over at Simply Creating. I won her blog challenge and she sent it to me! It is so sweet. Thanks Krista!

Life is a jungle.

Here is a little card I used for a gathering make-and-take last week. The hippo is from 'Life's a Jungle'. I have to say that this is one of my absolute favorite stamp sets.

I have accidentally ordered the chipboard scallop circles at least 3 times...oops...so now I have tons of them and I just want to use them up!

This was a fun little card to make because it has lots of embellishments. The hippo is paper pieced, chipboard, paper flower and all the buttons. It has a lot going on.

All products are CTMH!
Enjoy!

Another Christmas in July Card (for a swap!)

Okay, I have been struggling with this swap club card for a couple of weeks. I knew that I wanted to have the textured Ocean and Tulip card stock and my original plan also had the large star from 'Shining Star' as the main image on the card. When I stamped the large star, I just couldn't get it to look right so I went back to the drawing board. I already had the card bases made, stamped and distressed so I had to find something to go with my color scheme and I don't own any CTMH patterned paper that would would've really worked with those colors....so I knew I was going to need a creative solution!

Last night, I wasn't feeling super creative, but I went over to the Christmas Stampin' All Year long blog to surf for ideas. My browser stopped on a wonderful little cardinal card. (And when I say that it stopped, I mean that it froze! Something about that site makes my browser freeze every time!) Anyway, it was made using a circle punch and some felt. It was perfect!

Everything on this card is CTMH (except for the punches of course!) It was pretty easy to duplicate the cardinal on all 10 of my cards!



Enjoy! Thanks for reading!!

1st Birthday Party Invites!

Last summer it seemed like all my friends were having babies...this summer, all the babies are turning ONE!


I worked on some super cute birthday party invitations with my best scrapping buddy, Abby a couple of weeks ago. Her nursery is in monkey so we continued the theme with this little invite! It is super cute!!


While we worked on this tri-fold card, I kept thinking of ways to make it cuter...Everything I suggested was cute, but it was LABOR INTENSIVE! Hand-cutting all the onesies, hand-cutting all the #1s, hand-coloring all the monkeys! Whew!! We had fun!! I like to cut. Luckily.


Ingredients: CTMH Stamps...Tiny Typewriter, Life's a Jungle and Baby Steps
Martha Stewart Patterned paper
Craft Cardstock
Scallop punch and circle punch
Blender pen
CTMH Vellum, brads
CTMH Exclusive Inks: cocoa

Family History--Preserving your legacy

I really love stickers. I adore stamps. I am crazy for patterned paper. All of the fun craftiness is really important to me.
Having said that....sometimes I wonder if I am preserving my life and my memories appropriately whenever I use rub-ons, chipboard, felt, foam etc. Seriously, in 20 years will those stickers still be sticky? Will my cropped photo hold the same value if I cut out my 2006 Toyota Matrix from the background?

I ask these questions because yesterday I had the pleasure of assisting my aunts and cousins in cleaning out Grandma Pat's house. This task is a bit overwhelming and daunting because of the large accumulation of junk one accrues over the years. Filled to the brim with books, vases, clothes, artwork, an extensive elephant figurine collection, VHS tapes, and other 'junk' my family has been working to sort out all the stuff from my grandma's life. My dad called me and said that I should probably go over there and see if there is anything that I want.


I wasn't feeling super sentimental about all that stuff until I walked in and realized that they were going through all the old letters, cards and pictures!!! Awesome, perfect, that is all I care about! I spent the afternoon sorting through every card, photo, and note anyone in her family has ever given her.


Boxes were created for each of her 6 children, her husband and her mother's family. Photos and notes from each grandchild were matched up with the box belonging to his or her parent. My dad's box already contained several of my letters and photos when I got there and it was so precious to recognize my handwriting and signature on cards we had given to Grandma Pat 15+ years ago.


As I picked up post cards I had sent her, notes I had written her and cards from me and my family, I realized that everything containing my handwriting was part of MY HISTORY. My legacy was recorded. My photos perhaps didn't tell the same story that a scrapbook would tell, but she had every school picture of me from K-12, in order, in a frame. She had letters that my dad had written to her when he was a kid. (Reading my dad's words, when he was 12-years-old brought tears to my eyes! This was exactly the thing that I wanted to discover! This was special to me!)


My aunt Robyn had over 2 boxes full of letters. She had written to Pat hundreds of multi-page letters over the years. She had sent Pat photos, cards, postcards, etc. Her entire life was captured in her handwriting.

We flipped through photo albums that had Pat's writing on some of the photos detailing the year, place and who was in the photo. Not every photo was labeled. Not every photo contained someone that WE recognized...but Pat would've known. She would've been able to tell us the story, in her words, if she were still alive.


Seeing all the memorabilia, I wondered if my (7+) scrapbooks would be able to do MY Story justice in 20, 30, or 40 years? How much stuff will I save? Will I save the special stuff, the stuff that will mean something to my family in the future? Will I correctly preserve my legacy? Will my 'design challenge layout' mean anything to anyone someday just because 'I' created it? Will I tell the right stories?



Also, I wondered about all the emails and electronic correspondence that I get from my family members and friends. THAT part of my history will never be recorded like an ACTUAL letter or handwritten note would be. If you visit a museum or see a biography on a person's life, their handwriting and letters are always part of their personal history. With the digital age, is all of that going to be lost? Will a person's voice be locked behind a password or deleted once they are gone?

My history with my family and Grandma Pat are important to me. Things I will never forget: playing in the barn, that old slot machine in the bus, playing by the mud puddles, tire swing, playing wedding in daffodils, climbing trees, eating cereal as a late-night snack, her chicken and noodles, dancing, Hey Bobby song, flowers on Memorial day with her, fish tank, book store, elephants, cougars, light bright, water-filled basement, Wendy's frosty and fries at the book store, VHS collection...Many of these stories can't be told with photos or letters because none exist, they are stories that I can tell using pictures and memorabilia that is available.