wrapping up valentine's day preparations

just a quick post to round out the week as we wrap up our valentine's day preparations around here. for those of us with kiddos in school all the big parties are today, so the last couple of nights have been a rush of filling out valentine cards, stuffing bags with little bits of the sweet stuff, and even making a cute little necklace for a special little valentine. and while all that was going on i decided that i wanted to complete a little project of my own....

first the valentine treats for michael's kindergarten class...totally stole this idea from becky higgins and it worked out great. i had michael create a "card". we scanned it and printed them out and then folded them down the middle. he wrote his classmates' names on the back and we stapled them to a ziploc bag of goodies. very simple and very cute. thanks becky!

but there is a special little someone is his class he wants to be his valentine. this special someone was very close to getting my sapphire and diamond necklace from right out of my closet (!!) but luckily someone decided to let me know that he'd taken it before it actually made it to school. so after some discussion about what is appropriate (and what is considered stealing) we decided to make this little necklace for his special valentine. and oh how i wish i could be a fly on the wall tomorrow when he gives it to her - how fun would that be?! but then there is this whole big thing about how he never talks to her because he gets nervous and can't think of anything to say. which is unbelievable in itself as i've never seen him at a loss for words....

and here's a picture of my project - taken right off the pages of ali edwards blog. i pretty much just love everything she does and well...imitation is the best form of flattery....i saw it and immediately thought about this small 8 x 8 shadow frame i had gotten last year. i pulled out my heart punch and a couple of mini brads...love it! thanks ali!

i hope everyone has a great weekend and a happy, happy valentine's day!!

scrapbook page to framed photo art

just taking a break from my 25 days of december album posts to talk about another scrapbook layout i did as part of an assignment during ali edwards' online class at big picture scrapbooking called yesterday and today. (unfortunately this class has ended, but it was amazing!!)

throughout the class we created layouts that featured photos and stories from the past and from today. the layout that i'm discussing here came from week 6 and showcases a visual evolution of my family - pictures of my great, great grandparents on my father's side, my great grandparents on my mother's side, all the way through to today of my little family. i am lucky that i have hundreds of old family photos from both sides of my parents family tree. originally the hardest task was selecting my favorites to feature on the layout - 26 in all.

i loved the layout so much that i decided to create something similar and frame it. so i did! and i liked the framed piece so much that i decided to create another one and give it to my parents for christmas. and i did that too!

the hardest part of the whole project was finding a suitable size frame. the original layout was two 12" x 12" scrapbook pages and it was rather difficult to find a frame that is 12 x 24 inches. i looked online and in all the craft stores around town and ended up finding a 13 x 25 inch frame at wal-mart of all places. it worked perfectly!

the only other change i made from the original layout was that i used fabric as the background instead of cardstock. since the entire layout would be in a single frame, i did not want a seam running down the middle so i decided to use a solid piece of muslin fabric.

here is page 1 of the original layout.....



and here is page 2 of the original layout....



i started with this frame from wal-mart. the frame itself is 13 x 25 inches.....



i did use two sheets of white cardstock to cover the mat included with the frame because i wanted it to look smooth through the muslin.



then i covered the cardstock and the mat with the fabric tucking the ends underneath and securing on the back side.



close up shot of the fabric. very neutral....



then i pretty much just treated it like one big scrapbook page!





and here's the final framed "layout" (the lighting is horrible - sorry). a visual evolution of me!



the journaling on the bottom row....when i look at thoses photos i see my family. when i look at these photos - the faces of the people who belong to me - i see my past, my present and my future. when i look at these photos i know that i exist because of the choices made by all of these people. when i look at these photos i see all the people that are part of me and part of my personal journey. when i look at these photos i see a visual evolution of my family. when i look at these photos i see the passage of time and i see life.

thanks ali for this amazing layout! and thanks mom and dad (and the rest of my extended family) for all the old family photos!

the shark project

so this project actually started out as bribery. my six-year old ended up having to make a trip with me to my local scrapbooking store. certainly not his favorite place to visit (no toys) and not a place i like to have to take either of my boys when i go....but sometimes when you're out of school for veteran's day and your mom has errands to run you end up going to places that aren't your favorite. anyway, to entice him to behave and not to complain too much i told him they had some really cool stickers in this store and if he was good and let me look around without incident he could pick out any sticker he wanted. he was good and one of his favorite things right now is sharks. so he picked out some shark stickers.

on the way home he decided that he would create an ocean scene and put the shark stickers "in the water along with some fish for them to eat". i thought it sounded like a great idea. when we got home he immediately started on his project. in the end the picture turned out great and he was very proud of it. we added some chipboard letters from my stash to spell "shark" and matted it on some light blue cardstock. i found an old frame that fit perfectly! instant art that is now waiting to be hung up in his room after its trip to school to show all his friends and his teacher.

we started with this....



and ended up with this....



and here are some of the close up details....





an excellent way to use some scrapbook stickers if i do say so myself!!

october 31st preparations

we've been getting ready for halloween around here.....

buying goodies...



picking out pumpkins...

and making cute little crafty stuff... this cute little guy was super easy to make. i found this halloween night paper craft kit here, printed it out and gave it a shot. i was a little intimidated at first so i just decided to make the skeleton/zombie guy, but i totally think i can do the whole scene - it was that easy! all you need is a good pair of craft scissors and some adhesive. give it a try!