Scrapbook Sketch # 1

I have created some scrapbook sketches and I will be posting one per week. I will also be posting links to the free page elements that I have found around the web that I use in my digital pages. 

Here is the page that I created with the sketch above. As you can see the journaling and title block have a sheer overlay to help the text to pop off the page. There are different ways to interpret the sketch so I can’t wait to see what you all create with this one. I have a few more that I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks. I hope that you all enjoy working with this sketch. Let me know what you think. The paper that is used for this page is from the Happy Go Lucky  kit  from the Shabby Princess.

For your Inspiration

I thought that today I will send out at post to inspire you for the new year. I hope that you enjoy these links just as much as I have over the past few months.

Amy Butler’s Style Stitches

I have really enjoyed this book. The patterns are very well written with easy to follow directions. The book is organized by skill level and this really makes it easy to pick up the book and find something on any skill level. I do think that you need to know how to read a pattern and have basic sewing skills.

If you have made anything with a sewing machine and feel confident using it then this is a great book for you.

 

 

 

If you want to learn how to sew then you need to find a beginner’s book. I really like this book because I wanted to find a book that included full size patterns that I did not have to enlarge and that late at night when I got home from the bookstore I could start making the bags and not have to find a late night copy shop to make enlargements.

The images throughout this book make you want to keep flipping the pages and keep looking to see what you can find in the pages. You can see influences from ready-to-wear in the pages of this book also. I love how they really play well together, and they mix great and show how each bag can fit well into your wardrobe.

This is a very beautifully photographed book and would make a great coffee table book if it was just a book of images. I love the way the images make you want to make each and every project out of this book. I am the type of person that when I by a how-to book I at least have to make one project as soon as I get home or at least within a day of purchase.

I love that these patterns are almost instant gratification. I did not have to purchase too much extra things for the projects that I didn’t already have in my stash. I only had to purchase the interfacing and I knew that I could use any of the fabrics in my stash.

Post Christmas Crafting

I have been busy crafting. I have made some headbands with fabric scraps, and inexpensive Dollar Store elastic headbands. Add in a little hot glue and small paper pieces for the foundation and you have a collection of headbands.  Tutorial after the jump.

 

I used a large circle punch to punch the base out of cardstock. Then I covered each circle with matching fabric. I then made the rolled fabric flowers using a tutorial from Allison Burke and then used a hot glue gun to adhere the flower to the base.

I then covered a second circle with another scrap of fabric and then used the two to sandwich the elastic headband in between. I made sure the seam and metal connector was covered by the two pieces. 

 

On the blue one I added 3 pearl buttons just to add a little something extra. On the third one I used ribbon scraps from my ribbon jar to finish off this one.I love the way it turned out with the look of leaves, Next time I think I will use various colors of green to make a more realistic leaf.  The last one is made out of multi-color polka dot fabric that has a white background, It really created a different effect with the green, blue, and pink colors popping off the white background.

These were very easy to create. After I ran out of headbands I made a few more flowers and now I just need a few more headbands to finish them off. I might turn them into pins because they are larger than the ones that I made for these headbands.  My youngest daughter really loved these and then she asked me if I was going to make her some more in other colors so that she could have one for every outfit. I had to laugh because she is such a girly girl and loves to dress up and my oldest daughter laughed when I said that I would make her one for every outfit too, (she would rather not dress up and be casual every day).

I have joined the,.

Daily December 23-25

In the Christmas Mood

Today was our day to deliver the Blessed to Bless Bags, to the homeless. We had planned to take them to the homeless that we would see on the street, but we knew that this would have be a very large undertaking and then we heard about a shelter that was in need of the types of items that we had collected. We took them to the shelter and were able to give them to people in need. This has put me in more of a Christmas mood than any other activity that we have done all season.  I know that it is better to give than to receive and this was a great thing for my children to be involved in. They were so excited to be able to take them, Anastasia  has been collecting stuffed animals all her life and so she choose a large bag full to take to the children at the shelter. I am so proud of her for doing this. I really think that it is something that our children need to know, that it is better to give than to receive.

Daily December Big Pages

I have been taking so many pictures that I had a lot left over and so I decided to use the templates from PhotoScape to created a few 12 x 12 pages with just the leftover pics. I thought I would share what I have finished. These were fun to make because I only had to add the pictures. They were very quick.

Daily December Day 22

We went to dinner at Tava’s (a local Greek Pizza place) and then we visited my sister’s church for their candlelight and memory service. I decided to take a picture of the songbook because we sang carols before the lights were turned out for the candlelight part of the service.

A Great Find

I just wanted to share this wonderful find for a great last min gift idea. Here is the link. I love this site.

Daily December Day 21

Today’s page was about our yearly tradition of visiting Patrick’s to buy candy. We always go the Saturday before Christmas to get out qtr. pound of candy. We have went since as far back as I can remember. I love that my children are able to get to keep up this tradition.

Font is Santa’s Sleigh and the paper and embellishments are from Designer Digitals.

Daily December Day 20

Here is the page for my daily December day 20. I love the way it turned out. I used items from the Shabby Princess Happy Go Lucky Collection, and Designer Digitals Downloads.
Journaling Text:
This day has been hard for the past 3 years. We have been
coming to the Cemetery to release balloons on Joe's birthday.
We will always miss him and this time of the year is very hard
on us all. Dinner followed at O'Charlie's and everyone was
there except for Josh and Sarah because they were with
their dad for the holidays. You can see the balloons are in
the top picture you just have to look very closely.

Daily December Updates Dec 13-19

Daily December Days 11 and 12

Day 11 was a full day that include decorating my church and filling bags for the homeless. We made Blessed to Bless bags and I also decorated our yard. We had a very fun and eventful day.

Day 12 turned out to be a surprise snow day. We were thrilled to see the snow after church, When we arrived home after eating dinner we were greeted with a snow covered roof. The girls were having a fit thinking that they would get a snow day out of school on Monday. But no such luck for us we had to go to school any how with very blistering winds.

Overwhelmed at times

Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with life and all its trappings. I was listening to my youngest daughter talk tonight and she was telling me how she did not feel like she fits in at her school. I listened quietly as she was talking and then she started to cry about how she was so different from the rest of her friends because she believed in Jesus and they didn’t and she was very upset by this thought that they believed in “Santa” but not Jesus, and it hit me that it can take a child to make us see what we have. I told her that God did not make us to “fit in” he made us to led by example and to standout  and be different and to show the world that there is something more to life and we can have a better life with Jesus in it. We are to be a light in the world and to let God shine through us. We need to have so much of God in us that the light can not be missed. Our light can shine on everyone no matter what we are going though if we give God the opportunity to work through us. We need to let God use us to be a witness to the people around us where ever we go we are his ambassadors.

Daily December Day 10

This page shows a picture of the tree in my classroom.I turned to light off and took the picture with just the glow of the tree.

Daily December Day 9

This page is from day 9 . We took a Carriage Ride and visited the local candy shop. In our town we have a tradition, every Thursday night they have carriage rides around our town square. We try to go every year as we have for the past 6 years, we have only missed one year. We missed last lasy year because there seemed to be bad weather on the only nights that we could go.

Free Digital Magazines

Open publication - Free publishing - More christmas

I hope you like this one. I really love this and the previous one of this magazine.

Daily December Day 8

I choose to tell a story about the new $1 toy the girls purchased during our shopping trip on Dec 7. They have played with it ever since. They took it to school yesterday and after they got into my room proceded to play with it there and then when they got home they had to play "Battle" with them.

Daily December Day 7

I have already created the page for today. I took the girls on the annual shopping trip where they get to make purchases for the people on their list. I take them to Dollar Tree and let them each have a certain amount of money.They are old enough to shop on their own now. So while I was shopping for the Blessed to Bless Bags they were able to shop for the people on their list. They did not want me to see what they purchased so I gave them the money that they could spend before we went in the store and they checked out by themselves. They had a great time, and this is the story that I really wanted to record for today's page.

December Daily Day 6

Here is my Day 6 Page. I am creating the journaling on a separate page and when I get this printed I will add it in my own handwriting.

Daily December Day 4

Daily December Day 3

After school we went to the Porterdale Christmas Parade. It is a nighttime parade and has been a fun event ever since it was started 4 years ago. It has grown each year and this year  was the longest they have ever had. I used pictures from this event to make the page. I typed my journaling on the dgital page so that I would not have to try to remember the details that I wanted to share. I took my cue from Ali Edwards about not worrying about perfect pictures, if they really tell the story.
Supplies:
Digital paper from Designer Digitals (recolored to match)
Digital Alphabet from Designer Digitals (recolored to match)
Stitching element from Designer Digitals
White Snowflakes (stamp from the PhotoScape library)
Merry Christmas (stamp from the PhotoScape library)
Font (My Computer)

Daily December Day 2

I decided to created a digital page along with the traditional page that I created. I will have them printed out after I finish them all. I like the way that I can add these with my traditional pages, and I will do more of my journaliing on the paper pages and add pictures on my digital pages.  Once I get these printed out I think I will add a few handwritten words or phrases.

Supplies: Digital Paper Freebe from Designer Digital. I recolored it to match the colors of the papers that are in my completed base pages. The Frames are also freebes from Designer Digitals. The date circle is from Designer Digitals also I recolored it to match my page and then added the day and year. I cannot remember the font name I will try to find it and repost. It came standard on my computer. I used PhotoScape to create the page.