star banner tutorial…

Hi there!  I thought it was time to add this step-by-step tutorial here on my personal blog.  I created it almost a year ago for Doodlebug and I shared a little peek on my personal blog – but I have been getting dozens of clicks from Pinterest and I’m sure they are from my fellow crafty peeps looking for the tutorial – so here it is!  Let me know if you have any questions – and please come back again for more fun paper crafting projects!

I am excited to share this fun (and easy) project you can whip up in an hour or less and it will make your home feel extra festive.  I made my banner for the 4th of July, but it would work for many occasions depending on which papers you choose to use.

  Here are the papers I used:

 

I used the "b" side of pretty poinsettias, baby boy alphababies, and cool camo.  I also pulled out some ladybug, gray, and bubble blue glittered candy dots paper.  You can mix & match whichever papers you like best. 

 

I used a Silhouette Cameo to cut my stars. 

 

You could, of course, hand-cut large stars, but I’d definitely recommend investing in a Silhouette Cameo if you don’t already have one. I use mine ALL. THE. TIME!  Go ahead and cut stars from each paper:

 

 

Repeat this process for however many stars you want to create.  (I did six)

The next super useful tool you want to use is a scoring board.  My favorite is this basic large unit by Scor-Pal.  You can see it HERE.

After your stars are cut out, score them all from point to valley:

 

It's easier to score the stars with a score board, but you can simply fold each star if you don't have access to a score board or tool.

Now you need to fold the stars - the points are the hills and the valleys are the valleys.

 

 

   Repeat for all of the stars:

And here's the trick to keep the stars from folding down flat - squirt a puddle of hot glue right in the middle of each star on the back.

Now punch holes in all of the stars - make sure one of the points is straight UP and punch the left and right points.

My favorite tool for hole punching is the Crop-a-Dile (available here).

Decide on a pattern.  I wanted red, gray, blue, red, gray, blue - with the glitter dots divided by the other papers:

Now grab your doodle twine in coordinating colors and start tying the stars together.

 

Once everything is tied together, go ahead and hang up your super patriotic star banner!

If you're looking even more inspiring 4th of July projects, please check out my inspiration board on Pinterest (here)! 

Enjoy making your own banner and thanks again for stopping by! :)

photo freedom | birthday wishes…

Good morning friends!  I was just thinking yesterday about how fast time is passing.  My kiddos are growing up so quickly.  We are all so busy and there are so many things happening and no matter how hard I am willing life to slow down, time marches on.  Case in point: my sweet daughter is less than a month away from being 16!  She is only two weeks away from finishing her sophomore year in high school.  Driving, dating, working…those life-changing events are all right around the corner for her! 

Even though my efforts to slow time are not working, I am grateful for photographs and recorded memories that allow me to reflect, time and time again, on events from the past.  I recently created this photo freedom spread to share on the Echo Park blog (here).  I used the “Birthday Wishes” collection – you can find it here.

If you’re not familiar with the “photo freedom” system (much like the popular “project life” system), you can read more about here on the Echo Park blog…it’s based on a system created by the oh-so-talented Stacy Julian!  It’s a “pocket page” based style of scrapbooking.  Super fast.  Super easy.  Super fun. 

There are several types of pocket page protectors available for this system – this is a combo pack with two of each style.  They are available at Two Peas (here), Scrapbook.com (here), and Amazon (here), just to name a few online stores.

Here are a few more details from my project:

If you’d like to find out more about my project, you can download this (and other FREE) project PDFs HERE in the "Inspiration" section of the Echo Park website.

Happy Monday!

a recommendation – and a GREAT deal…

One of the “work” questions I get asked all the time is “do you have a Silhouette or a Cricut?”  The technical answer is “both.”  Because I do own both.  However, I only actually USE one of the machines – and that’s my Silhouette Cameo. 

I love, love, love it!  And whenever anyone asks, it’s the machine I recommend.  (Of course I know a lot of very happy Cricut owners too – this is just my preference.)  I’ll be honest – it’s not inexpensive.  I believe the MSRP is $299.  But being able to create so many customized designs saves me a lot of money (and time) in the long run – so it’s TOTALLY worth the investment!!  Just think of how much you’ll save when you can cut your own custom titles, embellishments, backgrounds, and even items like gift bags and boxes! 

So, this morning I was looking into ordering some replacement mats for my machine and I happened to come across this AMAZING deal on Amazon today and I wanted to pass it along to those of you who are on the fence about purchasing this awesome machine.  Check out this bundle package:

• The silhouette cameo starter bundle includes an extra mat (2 total), cutting blade (2 total), metallic pen set and pick-me-up-tool
• 50 exclusive cuttable designs and $10 gift card to the Silhouette Online Store

And you’ll never guess the price – it’s only $269.99!!  Truly an amazing deal!  I believe the mats and blades, when purchased separately are about $15 each – and believe me, an extra mat is a MUST!

 

And if you do decide to jump on the Cameo Bandwagon, or you’re already on it with me, be sure to check out the new downloadable shapes over on Two Peas as well – there are some really fun shapes – including some FREE ones! :)

 

And just for fun…here’s a project I made for the Create: blog a while ago using a cut file and my cameo to create this little photo envelope. :)

The cute bag shape is available in the Silhouette Store HERE! 

And if you’re interested in seeing a tutorial for the bag, you can see the full post HERE!

family ties…

Hi friends!  I really need to get better about sharing my projects here on my blog…I have a whole bunch that I’ll be sharing over the next few days, starting with this little card trio that went live on the Pebbles, Inc. blog today:

 

*Click here to see the entire collection:  Pebbles - Family Ties*

Making sweet handmade cards is easier than ever! Pebbles recently started creating the most fabulous little booklets to coordinate with their new paper collections - the booklets are comprised of 4"x6" phrase cards and 2"x3" phrase cards.

The cards are really versatile and can be used in many ways - but my favorite way to use them is on handmade cards. By adding patterned papers and embellishments from the same line, the result is always a very coordinated and tasteful card. For this set of cards, I used the Family Ties collection - I just love the uplifting phrases that were in the booklet and thought they made perfect card sentiments!

In addition to the quote pad, I used the 6x6 paper pad:

the stickers:

and the “chips!”

And of course I used plenty of pop dots behind the quote cards and machine stitching on each card too! :)

 

You can also find the Pebbles - Family Ties collection HERE at Two Peas and/or HERE at Scrapbook.com.

Have a great day!

one lucky mom…

{Earlier this week I was working away on a layout to share on the Lily Bee blog.  I had been perusing facebook earlier in the day and noticed a post by a friend, saying that she would be delivering her 6th baby sometime that day.  I was excited for her.  I worked away and completed my layout, wrote up a blog post to share on the lily bee blog, and started preparing dinner.  It was then that I thought again about Katrina, and came back down to my computer to peek in and see if she had shared photos of her new baby yet.  Imagine my shock and horror when I found her facebook page and started reading notes of condolences from her family and friends.  My first thought was that the baby hadn’t made it.  Heart-breaking.  It took me several minutes to grasp the fact that the baby was fine…but Katrina, my friend, had passed away shortly after the baby was delivered.  My heart broke in two.  Such a sad, sad, sad thing to happen.  I can’t even begin to imagine what this would be like for her husband and her six children.  And following along on her facebook page, I can see that she had more friends than anyone I know…seriously, she was that way – no matter how many friends she had, she made each of them feel loved and important.  If nothing else, it’s a huge reminder of what’s important (and what’s not)…living your life in a way that so many people would be impacted when you are gone, full of love and friendship and happiness, those are the most important things.  And, just like Katrina, I feel so blessed to have my sweet little family and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be a mom to my children.  It breaks my heart that she won’t have the opportunity to finish raising her children here on earth, but I am so grateful to be reminded again of the plan of salvation – knowing that our families can be forever, not just in this life, but truly for eternity…I can’t imagine not believing we’ll see our loved ones again…}

I am glad that I had spent that day reflecting on how much I love being a mother, and creating a scrapbook layout based on this idea.  Here’s a look at the layout I completed earlier this week:

And some of the details:

My layout was based on a sketch I created earlier this month:

Some of my fellow Lily Bee Design Team Members also created layouts based on this sketch – you can see them HERE.

If you like this sketch and want a chance to win some Lily Bee products, go HERE to see how you can play along and be entered to win something fun!! :)

And for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new Lily Bee collections – you can find them HERE at Two Peas and HERE at Scrapbook.com.

echo park and hampton art blog hop…

Good morning!  Thanks for stopping my blog as part of the hampton art & echo park blog hop!

I have a quick little project to share with you today featuring the “Scoot” stamp set and paper collection. 

I love these colorful little lunch sacks…I like having a bunch of them in my stash – they are Hallmark brand and they are really inexpensive. They make great bases for decorating a quick gift bag!

To begin, I folded over the top of the blue bag and cut two blocks of patterned paper to create the oversized flag banner on the front.

I used the “cool guy” tag stamp to create four tags in different colors.  I arranged them “banner style” along the top of the folded bag.

I added colorful little gems to each tag.  I stamped the “happy birthday” sentiment on a bit of patterned paper that had several colorful “x'”s…the effect is subtle, but I like having all of the colors in the title block.  I used foam dots to attach the sentiment to the top of the bag.

Finally, I punched holes in each side of the bag and tied the top closed with coordinating baker’s twine.

{click on the images below for purchasing information}

This is only one set of stamps, but there are several more collections available so be sure to follow the entire blog hop so you can see all of the fun echo park/hampton art collaborative sets!  After you’re done hopping, be sure to enter for a chance to win a fun prize from hampton art or echo park! 

Here are the Giveaway details: For a chance to win either a stamp prize from Hampton Art or one of three collection kits from Echo Park Paper, please continue on the blog hop leaving a comment on each blog. Winners will be selected and announced both on the Echo Park Paper and Hampton Art blogs on Monday, April 29th. All comments are due by Sunday, April 28th at midnight EDT to qualify.
Here is the blog hop list:

Echo Park Paper

Hampton Art

Laurel Seabrook

Linda Auclair

TamaraTripodi

Susan Stringfellow

Wendy SueAnderson

JenniferGallacher

Kandis Smith

spring break 2013 | st. george…

We celebrated spring break in southern utah again this year…luckily this year we didn’t have to drive home through a terrible snowstorm (though it was right on our heels and it’s here now…the storm and snow, I mean)!

I’m slowly getting caught up with the post-vacation to-do list and soon I’ll be busy creating fun projects to share…but for today, here’s a  quick glimpse at our week in photos. 

It really was a lovely week and I’m so grateful I was able to spend it with those I love most! :)