My Little Shoebox -- Part 2 (Clear Scraps)

My Little Shoebox teamed up with Clear Scraps this month. I worked with the Heart Album and the Acrylic XL Bird Shapes.

I had taken several pictures of my daughter with her best friend, and decided to put them together in this cute Heart Album. I just love how it came together! I left the journal spots blank, so that my daughter could write in her own sentiments and thoughts.

This mobile was inspired by one by the Pottery Barn Circles Mobile that my oldest daughter bought to hang in her room. My other daughter loved it so much that I thought it would be fun to recreate one for her room. When I saw the Acrylic Bird Shapes, I got even more excited to incorporate them into that design. Here is how it came out!

I used an embroidery hoop covered with ribbon for the top.

Then I punched out various circles from cardstock and My Little Shoebox papers. I just love the backsides of the MLS papers for this kind of project. I punched two of each one of the patterned papers and glued them together. Next I sewed the circles together on my sewing machine in one continuous line. Be sure to leave extra thread (clear) on each end so you can tie them to the embroidery hoop.
Next, I painted the edges of the XL Acrylic Bird Shapes. I found an image of a bird wing online and used it as a template to make the wings for the birds from the MLS patterned paper.

My little one loves it! And I love that I was able to make it on my own. :)

The new My Little Shoebox Correspondents, Heather and Erin, have put up their first episode on the My Little Shoebox blog! Be sure to check it out! :)

Thanks for coming by!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Jana

My Little Shoebox -- Part 1

I've been busy creating projects with the My Little Shoebox "Who's There" line and I have so much to show you!!! Three layouts and a project to be exact. We also teamed up with Clear Scraps this month . . . so check back tomorrow for those projects. :D

This line was so much fun to work with! I love all the little owls and birds and did a lot of handcutting on these projects. I hope you like them! :)

The circles on the "Wise Old Owl" paper reminded me of Japanese paper lanterns . . . so I went with the party theme and made a few to hang around my page. :)

This is a picture of Camryn as a flower at Halloween. She refused to wear the hat, and sit with the other kids for pictures, so this is the only shot I have of her not running away from me! LOL! I added a bit of Hambly, some jewels from my stash (Darice and Adornit) and the pink flower is from the dollar store.

Maryn's First Day of Kindergarten.

Cupcake Box

Thanks for making it through such a picture-heavy post . . . I'll be back with more tomorrow! :)

Happy Weekend!

Jana

Sneak Peek of June Urban Anthology

I forgot to add this to my Urban Anthology post yesterday, but I thought you'd still like to see it! :D



Here's a peek at the upcoming June Urban Anthology kit. Pretty, HUH?!!! :D :D :D
I'll post more pics as soon as they are available!

Have a great day!

Urban Anthology Sketch

Here is my latest sketch created for the Urban Anthology Sketch of the Week.



I used the May "An Enchanted Afternoon" kit (sold out) to create my sample page. It's been a long time since I've played with flowers, so I had fun layering and experimenting with the ones included in the kit! :)





Be sure to mark your calendar for June because Urban Anthology will be holding a month-long Birthday Celebration!!!



"Come join us in celebrating our FIRST birthday!
Join the challenges and games all month long...
win prizes, and the chance to be crowned our
Birthday Queen and have your work featured on our blog!"

The fun begins June 1, 2009...
and will end with a blog hop June 26-28.
Check out the Urban Anthology blog for all the details.

Hope to see you there! :D

Quick & Easy Gifts with Templates

Here is my Tip & Technique for the week posted at the Noel Mignon Tip & Technique blog.

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Sometimes you need something quick and easy to say THANK YOU to a friend, neighbor or colleague . . . but you still want it to be cute!

Here's an idea for you.

First, start with few Kit Kat bars (I used the JUMBO bars, but I think the regular ones would fit in much better).



Next, find a FRY BOX TEMPLATE online and print it. You can copy and paste it into a word processing program to size it if you need to.



Now, use the template to cut the shape from a piece of cardstock. Decorate as desired. I added some patterned paper to the inside of mine and then made a simple band of patterned paper with a label for the outside (papers from the Rise & Shine kit). "Thanks" is spelled out with Jenni Bowlin rubons.



Fill with broken Kit Kat candy to look like "french fries."



Place in a cellophane bag and tie with a cute bow! Done!!!
Hint: if your cellophane bag is too tall, just cut it shorter with a pair of pinking scissors. CUTE!

This would be fun for a teacher, friend, neighbor . . . or how about using this idea for Dad or Grampa for Father's Day.



For more fun templates check out the links below:
(if you know of any others, please tell us about them in our comment box and I will add them up here.)

Stampington & Co. Templates
Mirkwood Designs - Templates
Mel Stampz Blog - Templates
Jan Donavan Templates
Chia's Rubberstamp Art (House of Stir Fry) Templates
Jers Girls' Free Templates
Lori's Templates
Scor-Pal Projects (click on the different Volumes and E-zines -- some of these would be easier to do with a Scor Pal, but I'm sure some of them can be accomplished without one)

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BONUS TIP:

If you are like me and love to use buttons, you are constantly changing your thread color to match the layout you are working on.

Instead of rethreading your needle everytime, buy an entire package of embroidery needles (they have a larger eye and are easier to thread) and keep a length of each of your favorite colors on its own needle. Black on one, brown on another, white on the next, etc.

I keep mine in my tool drawer and they are ready to go whenever I need them.

Pictures and Sketches

Yesterday Kevin had to work, so my kids and I spent the day with my parents taking flowers to our ancestors gravesites. We drove up to my favorite city in Utah, Heber City. There we had a leisurely lunch at the Spin Cafe. Afterwards we took a drive around the Heber Valley to Midway and then back to the Heber City Cemetery where my mom's uncle and other relatives are buried. Here are a few pictures.

The kids LOVE to water all the flowers. We couldn't find the kids watering cans (I think daddy made them all "disappear" in our move), so we improvised and used water bottles. Maryn's smiling kind of goofy in this picture, I guess she was too busy watering to give me a real smile. LOL!


Here Camryn is pointing where the flowers should go. LOL! She had so much fun running around and sniffing all the flowers. She accidentally tumbled into a mum and broke several of the flowers. She felt so bad and just sat there sobbing, "I bwoke the flowas! I bwoke the flowas!" Even an hour later in the car, she said to me, "Mom, I sorry I bwoke the flowas." :)
Jensyn and my mom.



Then it was back to Bountiful where we visited Kevin's Grandpa and Grandma's gravesite. It was almost sunset, thus the squinty-eyed poses! :)



Yesterday, I mentioned that we worked on some "buried treasure" in our yard over the weekend. Here's the story behind that:

While building we had to figure out where the back of our lot was, so as we were walking the property line in the back corner we explored that clump of trees.



Underneath all the trees was an old swingset. Apparently the previous neighbors behind us put a swingset there several years ago. Trees had broken and fallen on top of it and so you couldn't even tell it was there. Kevin got it in his head to take it down and see if it was salvageable. Here is the spot where it was.

You can get an idea of how covered it was by looking in the center of the picture where the trees are. See those faint black lines . . . that is an old satellite dish . . . you know the HUMONGOUS ones! Crazy, huh?!!! I was standing right next to that dish and couldn't tell it was there until Kevin pointed it out to me. LOL!



So here's the set! All cleaned up, repainted with new swings! The kids are LOVING it! I was worried it wouldn't clean up well, and I was worried that the metal slide was too "old school" but when we went to pick up the swings they were selling that EXACT same set for $1800! I'm glad I didn't make Kevin throw it out! :)



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Here are the two sketches I promised you! These are challenges that I currently have listed for the month at Scrapperie. If you play along, you should come and link us up in the message board, so we can all see what you created!

My samples are created with the April Winging It kit found HERE in the Scrapperie store.

Hope you like 'em! :D

Talk to you again soon!

Jana