SnowMobiles

I just hosted my first 'Mommy & Me' class and we made some cute little SnowMobiles. I totally couldn't resist the pun :)

I created the top in MDS using the Festive Flurry Digital kit. I love that with these images you can stretch them to be as big as you want without any distortion. It made for an awesome top to hang the strings down from. I actually printed this out twice and glued them together back to back for a little added stability.

For the dangles I used the retired sizzlit snowflake strip. To attach the snowflakes to the strings I used glue dots, and then covered up the otherside of the dot with a small punched circle. On some of the snowflakes I also added a punched circle to the front to give it a little extra pizzaz. I especially liked using the silver glimmer paper to add a little pop to the center.

To attach the strings to the top of the mobile I just punched a small hole and ran a bit of the string through. Then we attached it with a glue dot on the top side (and covered the extra glue with another punched circle). Since the strings are fairly light this was enough to hold it in place.

The one other tip I have for making this is to be sure to spread out your large and small shapes in order to make sure the mobile hangs fairly level. And if it doesn't, just go ahead and add more spots to the center of the snowflakes on the side that isn't heavy enough- it doesn't take to much to get it to level out and that is a good spot to 'hide' the extra weight.

Hope you enjoyed our project. Flutter by again soon!

Merry Christmas

Hope you are having a blessed Christmas Day! I'm sharing my day with our close family and I'm so excited for my little boy's first Christmas :)

I'm loving the trendy chalkboard look this year. It makes me think of Caribou Coffee... and that makes me think of Chai tea. Mmmmm.... Chai.... and now I'm craving one! Anywho, back to the task at hand- I took my inspiration for the back from the chalkboards they have in the Caribou shops. They just give you a header to write about and then leave some chalk out for you to fill up the board. What do you think of my take on it:

There are a couple of good downloads with a chalkboard background in them. This one is the Convention 2012 photobook. It actually has a couple of different color chalkboards in it- Love That!

Then, the key to achieving the chalkboard look is all in picking the right fonts and playing with opacity. For some great chalkboard font ideas I suggest searching Pinterest- it is always a wealth of information :)

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope your day is as Jolly as Santa himself :)

Caution: Elf Crossing

So every month my mom hosts a scrapbooking class and they do a themed page. Just check out this adorable spread they made for December!

Well, when I saw this the first thing I thought was- I wonder if I could do that in MDS. So here's my take on the page.

The layout uses DSP from the Season of Style product line. Then I used a couple of pine stamps (thank you search feature), ornaments, bows, and LOTS of punches. Most of the punches are also featuring some sort of special crop to make them the sections of the punch I want- it is really awesome that we can do this in MDS now :)

Now all I have to do is add some photos on top of the DSP pieces (but behind the ribbons) and I'm ready to go for one of my Christmas layouts. Yay! There is a lot of things going on in these pages- it took quite awhile to get all the details in- so let me know if you have any specific questions on how I did something and I'll be sure to make a post for it!

Hope you enjoy! Let it inspire your holiday scrapping too. Have a blessed Christmas Week.

Creating my own Embellishments

I loved the World Traveler Photobook for my trip to Glacier National Park. But it just didn't have embellishments for everything I needed. Like for the page with the kids blowing bubbles- the travel themed decorations just didn't seem to fit. So what is a girl to do...

Well with MDS the answer is always to improvise! And there are so many ways to do so.

First off I created matching bubbles :) I used a circle punch and filled with the blue World Traveler DSP (don't forget to add a shadow for extra dimension). Then it just had to have a little 'shine' added to it. To create the reflection I actually made my own punch. Did you know you could do that with MDS? All you have to do is select a punch and instead of adding it select edit instead. Then you can move the object anchors around to achieve the shape you want (for my shine I altered a circle). Isn't that cool!

I also wanted the background paper to look spotty. By doing a search I was able to find a stamp that would do just that. I blew it up really big (love the new .svg file types) and turned down the opacity so that it wasn't overwhelming. It turned out pretty cool- it matches the rest of the book but yet has its own style now.

Last but not least by doing a search for 'bubble' I came across the little image of the boy and girl blowing bubbles from the Storytime Ensemble. I thought that they would fit perfectly on this page. I didn't want the bright colors though, so I recolored them to a nice neutral brown and shrunk them down so it would look like they were sitting on the picture.

Flutterby again soon like the Bubbles!

Let's Talk About an Oxymoron

I have to laugh when I hear the name for the stamp set "Gorgeous Grunge". I mean, really, what is gorgeous about being grungy...

Don't get me wrong. I like the stamp set. The splatters are classic and add a fun effect to lots of cards. Kinda like the old splatter tool that Stampin' Up! used to sell (but without the requirement of markers and way less messy).

But then a fellow demo from my group showed me this card. Now I get it- this 'grunge' set really can make some gorgeous stuff :)

Then of course you know me. Anything with butterflies and I'm sold. Love those pretty little creatures :)

I did hear a couple of 'rules' for using this set though:
1. Don't use brown with the streak stamp (Eww skid marks)
2. Don't use red with splatter... your recipient may worry that you bled all over their card (then again if you are making a Halloween card by all means do it on purpose!)

Stick to those rules and you should be making 'gorgeous' cards yourself in no time :)

Be like the snow around here and "flutterby" again soon :)

Christmas Countdown

Only a couple of days left before Christmas- if you haven't started to countdown with your kids yet there is still time!

Here is what Elli and I are doing to watch Christmas get closer:

Isn't it fun? Best part is that it was super easy to make with her too. First I threw this sheet together in MDS. If you click on it it will come up full size and then you can print it up too!

The squares are sized big enough to fit the scallop square punch- so just cut the printout into strips and the punch out the numbers you need. Elli loves helping me punch!

The rings were made from the Season of Style paper stack. So if you have one handy that will be great! Otherwise you could use any Christmas paper or plain cardstock. I cut the strips 6.5" x 3/4" which should give you 6 strips per sheet of the paper stack (I actually made two of these- for the first I cut 4 per sheet of paper stack but I didn't like the finished look as much). Then staple them into rings and tape the countdown numbers on. And you've got an adorable little countdown!

Elli keeps asking me "Are we counting down Mom? Are we counting down right now!?!" She is so cute. Just old enough to really get into the anticipation of Christmas. I can't wait to share the season with her :)

Hope your holiday season is Merry and Bright!

Clearance Rack Blitz

What is better than getting something fantastic off a clearance rack? Getting it off a clearance rack where the prices have just been dropped even lower!

Seriously, you have to go check this out :)  Say Hello to last minute Christmas stocking stuffers. WooHoo!

If you guessed a banner, You're RIGHT!

Update: I did in fact have this ready to go last week... but apparently it works better when you push the "Publish" button instead of save. Opps :) Guess that is what happens when you have a LO that is making you horribly sleep deprived! Well, belated or not, I hope you enjoy today's project ;)

I wanted to use my Build a Banner kit to make a festive banner for Christmas. Although, I wanted it to be able to stay up all winter, so I stuck to the "snowy" side of the holiday. Do you like how it turned out?!

I tried both sponging and spritzing the ink on. The letters I did with a sponge dauber in Island Indigo, and the chevrons/spots were spritzed on in Bermuda Bay (10 drops of reinker and then fill up the rest of the spritzer with water). Personally I liked the more refined look of the part I sponged on- the spritzed part was wetter and thus more apt to bleed. Also, it made the banner curl so I had to flatten it out again after it dried. So if I make another one I'll stick to the sponge daubers. But if you prefer the more watercolored look you should go for the spritzer all the way :)

I added more pizzaz to the banner with the snowflake pennants around the letters. For these I used the Winter Frost Paper stack, Festive Flurry Framelits, and Silver Glimmer paper. To make the small, blue 3D snowflakes I cut two of the little framelit, removed 1 of the six sides from each and then folded them back and forth in a circle. Then I attached them together, overlapping them by one 'pattern'. The final effect was the cute little lolly snowflakes. For the big silver lollies I used a 1/5" x 12" piece of the glimmer paper and folded it ever 1/2". Attach the ends together and flatten. So sparkly :)

I also added a little bling bling on the 'b' with a Frosted Finishes Embellishment. I love these things. They are so pretty and elegant!

Hope you flutterby again soon!

Daniel Tiger Party Wrap-Up

The last project I have to show you from our party in the neighborhood of Make Believe is the cute banner for over the food:

Daniel Tiger always likes to refer to things as "De-licious!" and I thought that would be perfect to have with the cupcakes. The picture doesn't do justice to the cuteness this banner has :)

As always I started with MDS to make the banner. I used the pennant shape punches and filled them with my custom DSP. I was able to fit 6 to a page (imagine how huge this would have been if I made them bigger!!). Then it was just to add the letters to the center- or on the ends I added Daniel with a Trolley instead of a letter. Here is a close-up of the printed pages:

    

To wrap up the party I also wanted to show you a couple of other photos too. The bottle labels turned out so cute printed up- I even got orange and brown pop for the tiger theme :) Although... it helps if you remember to put out a pen for people to use to write there name on the bottle!!! Silly me with my sleep deprived brain.

And then here are a couple of toys I picked up to use as a center-piece. This seriously cute trolley goes 'ding-ding' as it moves- the kids all LOVED it. Of course the Daniel Tiger figurines were a must too :)

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little adventure into the world of Daniel Tiger :) Or if you aren't a fan of the show (as I'm sure no person without small children is) I hope you got some party decor ideas out of it- just add your own theme and off you go!

Flutterby soon!

Can you guess what I am busy doing...

Here is a little hint :)

Sorry to keep it so short today. Life is busy around these parts! If only my LO would take real naps, then I would have more time to craft. Someday perhaps :)

Flutterby again later this week. Hopefully I'll show you the final product... but if not I'll at least have a little more birthday decor for you.

Daniel Tiger Cupcakes

What would a birthday party be without cute little cupcakes :)

I love cupcakes. They are so easy to make and then you can decorate them with cute little cupcake toppers. And don't you love the frosting on these? This summer I learned how to use icing tips- and it is SO EASY! I don't know why I was so scared of trying it out before- seriously... it looks nicer and is actually faster than trying to frost these bad boys with a butter knife. You've got to give it a try :)

But I digress. You came here to see paper crafts, not my baking :) So back to the toppers. Didn't they turn out adorable.

With MDS they are so easy to make. First you figure out what size you want them to be- I started with a circle that was slightly bigger than my scallop punch. Next I decorated them using my homemade Daniel Tiger DSP and the images I had found online. I wanted to add an individual touch to each of the characters- so I circled them with quotes geared towards a party (if you haven't given it a try yet, create a freeform line and attach a text box to it- the results are Grr-rific!). Then all I had to do was print them up and punch them out. And (depending on your size) you can usually get about 20 of these from a sheet.

I hope you give some customized cupcake toppers a try at your next party!

Daniel Tiger Party Favors

We had an awesome time at Elli's 3rd birthday party. I hope you are enjoying hearing all about it (at least the crafty parts of it :) )

Today I want to share with you her party favors. I had seen on Etsy some cute little fry boxes filled with goodies for a party... and I thought "Hey, I can do that." Enter MDS- you know I love it :) - and out comes these adorable little party favors. I filled them up with crayons, reminiscent of the episode where Daniel Tiger goes to the crayon factory, and then printed up booklets of coloring pages for each of the kids (PBSkids.org has some wonderful printable coloring pages available).

Here is what it looks like inside and outside before folding:

I found the fry box template online and turned it into a stamp. If you look on the inside picture you should be able to see it there lightly. In order to fill it in with the DSP I actually set the entire background to the DSP, then overlaid a Freeform layer and colored the areas outside the stamp white. I didn't do the job of a perfectionist as you can see- I figured I was going to cut it out anyway so it didn't matter. Really the only reason to remove the outside areas was to save on ink :)

Want to make your own fry boxes? Subscribe to my blog via email and leave a comment on this post- then I'll send you your own copy of the stamp I used. Hope you enjoy!

Flutterby again soon. I've got a lot more Daniel Tiger Birthday to show you :)

You can be a Tiger too...

... with this cute headband and tail. Won't your little Daniel Tiger fan just love them :)

  

Mine sure did! She saw me making these little cuties the night before her party- and insisted on wearing hers RIGHT AWAY! The next morning it was on again way before the party started and it didn't come off without prying :) She even put it on again on Sunday too! LOL what a little cutie.

Designing these in MDS was a cinch. I just used a variety of pretty standard punch shapes- rectangles, ovals, half circles, and a flower. I let the initial version be 'messy' with the parts I wanted to cut off hanging around like this:

But then so that I could fit more on the page and not waste so much space I decided to trim the extras off. In order to do this I exported the 'messy' version to a JPEG. Then, I designed a similar layout using rectangle and circle photoboxes. I grouped them all together and placed my JPEG inside (when you group photoboxes you can add one photo to the whole collection at once). It cropped out all the mess! I was then able to ungroup them and squish them together- it even left me enough room to make a copy of the back of the headband to use as a tail. Woo Hoo! So much fun :)

I hope you enjoyed today's idea!

Get Ready for the Holiday Sale!

Did you know that this year Thanksgiving is the latest it can ever possibly be? True Fact!

So if you wait until after Thanksgiving to start your Christmas shopping then you are cutting yourself short on days. So, why not take advantage of the great savings Stampin' Up! is offering and get your holiday presents off to a good start :)

The sale starts tomorrow (November 20th) and runs thru December 2nd. So pick out some awesome products and save big!

Even better- shop the first day and get 40% off one of the doorbuster items! Woo Hoo! Happy Holidays :)

Paper Stack One Sheet Wonder- Part 3

Here is the final card in this Mini One Sheet Wonder. All three cards have featured the Winter Frost Paper Stack and the Festive Flurry bundle.

After creating the first two cards you should be left with a strip of DSP that is 4.5" x 1.75". For this last card I shortened the 4.5" to be 4.25", and then I cut it length wise so I had one strip 0.75" wide and two 0.5" wide. I arranged these along the side of the card and added the two smaller snowflakes.

Top off with bling again and there you have it. Three cards from one sheet of the paper stack. And you used each of the snowflakes once as well (you should be able to cut all four from a half sheet of cardstock).

So what are you waiting for? It is time to get started on you Christmas cards now too! There are two different paper stacks to choose from- and then just add stamps of your choice. Enjoy!

Paper Stack One Sheet Wonder- Part 2

Glad you fluttered back here to see card #2 from this mini One Sheet Wonder. Once again, it features the Winter Frost Paper Stack and the Festive Flurry bundle.

So, after making the first card you are still left with a piece of DSP that is 4.5" x 3.25". For the next card you are going to cut a strip that is 4.5" x 1.5", and then take said strip and cut it into three squares (all 1.5" x 1.5").

All you have to do then is tile them on a strip of Island Indigo (5.5" x 1.75") and add the second largest snowflake. Make sure to top it off with some bling again :)

For all the snowflakes in this Mini One Sheet Wonder series I used the Silver Encore Pad. It adds a nice shine to the flakes. Here is a close-up

Isn't that pretty. I do want to point out though- when adding rhinestones on top of this ink you have to use a glue dot underneath. The adhesive that comes with them just is not sticky enough to adhere to this particular type of ink. However, if there is a large open white area within the stamped image it will be just fine.

Stay tuned for card #3!

Paper Stack One Sheet Wonder- Part 1

Have you seen the paper stacks that Stampin' Up! offers? They are these little paper pads cut at 4.5" x 6.5". That makes them the perfect size for a photo mat. But what else can you do with them? Well, I decided to revamp the idea of a One Sheet Wonder on these little babies. So now you can get 3 cards per sheet... and with 48 sheets per stack that is a lot of cards!

My cards feature the Winter Frost Paper Stack and the Festive Flurry bundle. I just love using snowflakes for Christmas cards. They are so pretty :) Here is the first of the three layouts:

For this card I cut the piece from the paper stack in half (so it is 4.5" x 3.25"). Then I dressed it up with the large snowflake and the Christmas greeting from the Tags 4 You stamp set. And to top it off I added a little bling :)

Flutterby again soon to see cards 2 & 3!

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 8

Today is the final day of celebration. I'm going to miss this- how about you?

Last but not least for our 50% off deals is the Afternoon Daydream kit

Wow. This kit is absolutely packed with embellishments. And they are mostly butterflies. Can you tell I'm giddy :) As if there is no indication that I love butterflies...

I'm thinking this would make an adorable album for my daughter. Wouldn't that be cute?

Well, I hope you enjoyed Digital Scrapbooking week. I know I did. Great deals, great inspiration, and lots of reasons to do what I love.

Hope you flutterby again soon. Now back to our 'regularly scheduled' blog :)

Autumn Traditions

My favorite season is fall- which is why I love today's kit. Anything that makes me think of Autumn gets an A+ in my books. The pumpkins, corn stalks, colorful leaves (they are my absolute favorite), and apple cider of the season just put me in a happy mood.

Anyway, I got today's half off download as soon as it came out. I absolutely needed those leaf punches :) and the papers were so yummy. Here is a page that I made with it way back when my little girl was actually little!

Isn't she just a doll :) You can't imagine how many pictures we took before we finally got lucky on this shot. But it was well worth the effort. The paper and stamps on this page are actually from the Autumn Spice kit, but the pile of leaves is the punches from today's download. Fun effect right?

And here is another sample from this kit. I actually made an entire album using this as a theme and it turned out so cute. This was one of my favorite pages though:

The colors here are slightly changed up from the original kit. I did that so that it would coordinate with some other papers I was using in the photobook. Do you like?

Can't believe Digital Scrapbook days are almost over. I'm going to miss this week.

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 7

So I won't be buying today's download.... but that is because I already have it. And it is AWESOME.

Seriously. I based an entire album on this kit already. It is so wonderful. One of my favorite parts is the leaf punches- there are four of them! Sigh- I love fall :)

Alright. Tomorrow is the last day. Make sure you don't miss it :)

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 6

I am so excited about today's 50% off download. It's a PHOTOBOOK template! I need as many of these as I can get. They make my scrapbooking go so much faster. And with two kids underfoot, FAST is something I need :)

The neon colors are so IN right now too. What do you think- do you like it?

Only two days left of this MDS extravaganza. Enjoy every last bit of it!

Be Brave

Okay, so there is nothing particularly 'brave' about this page, but it does use today's "Be Brave" half price download. Although... it does take a pretty brave boy to wear his sister's flower headband like that :)

The mosaic look is very popular right now, and I'm jumping on this bandwagon. I really love it! In order to add the mosaic look to the background I stretched one of the pattern stamps to be the full size of the page. Then I took the two mosaic stamps and added a splattering of sizes and colors. Loving it!

Hope you enjoyed the update, and I hope you are taking advantage of the deals this week. Only a few days left to go- enjoy them!

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 5

Have you joined the pocket card movement in scrapbooking yet? Today's deal may just make you give it a try :)

I love the mosaic look that goes in this kit. And I think my favorite part may just be the 'pockets' that they made to put tags in. What a great idea for the pocket scrapbooks- areas that you can move. Not sure why I hadn't thought of something like that already... but I like it :)

Make sure you don't miss a day of the celebration. Flutterby again tomorrow!

Modern Medley

Hey there. I made it back again today! I had actually gotten today's 50% off download a long time ago when it first came out. I love anything that allows me to build my own backgrounds, so I have a lot of the overlay type stamp sets like this :)

In honor of today's deal though I used this kit to make another page for my calendar next year. This one is for February. Do you love it?

I'm really starting to get into using the freeform lines to make my words curve. It is so fun and gives the title some flair. And did you see the music notes in the background? They are from today's kit :) The hearts come from all sorts of places- I just did a global search for 'heart' in MDS and added a splattering of them :)

Hope you are enjoying these Digital Scrapbooking Days! Don't forget- as you use the deals from this week upload your samples to www.MyDigitalStudio.net. You just may win $20 in free downloads!

See you again soon.

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 4

Like creating your own DSP? Then today's 50% off deal is for you.

It's got stripes, birds, music, houndstooth, and even quantrafoil. And most of the kit is stamps so you can add together whatever colors you want. Love this one :)

The week is halfway over already. Are you enjoying all the great deals and inspiration. Hope so! And I hope to see you tomorrow!

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 3

Today's deal is all about you. No seriously, it is a photobook template meant to hold information all about you :)

What a great way to document a little about yourself. Let's all be honest- we like to scrapbook our children but rarely put much of us into the story. This on the other hand will be a great book for your kids to learn and remember all about you when they have grown. How fantastic.

Make sure you also head on over to the www.MyDigitalStudio.net blog today. They've got a fun video of a scrapbook page being created from scratch (in fast motion of course).

This is likely it for me today- the LO kept us up last night to see both 1ams and 2ams (little stinker) and to top it off I caught the kids cold. So I think a nap for me is in order during their nap time today :)

See you tomorrow for more celebrations!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day

And I'm back. YES! I made it. I managed to put together this beauty during the kids naps (even though the LO was napping on me :)  ).

Do you see today's free download in the title? Love it? I think this stamp set is going to see a lot of use from me.

Sorry to keep this post short, but I've got to get moving. We have a Halloween party to be at in 15 minutes and the kids are still sleeping. YIKES! I hope fashionably late is acceptable at this kids shindig :)

Hope you flutterby again tomorrow!

Digital Scrapbooking Week- Day 2

Today's 50% off download is super cute.

 

So perfectly sweet for remembering the little girl in your life. Or it would make some excellent Valentine's Day projects. Check it out.

Also, today is "officially" Digital Scrapbooking day! And for a little extra celebration there is a FREE download over at www.mydigitalstudio.net. Isn't it the best:

I absolutely LOVE it. I'm always looking for cute handwriting, so these will be awesome on my projects. Go get your own copy - and remember to do it today - HERE.

Make sure you don't miss a day of the of this exciting week. See you tomorrow (or maybe later today if I get some free moments from my kiddos to make a sample)!