Favorites from '08

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Some layouts...catching up on a few Chloe pics from the fall.

Cookies!!

Gotta love snow days! I don't know if I would have been able to do it otherwise, but yesterday I made FOUR batches of cookies, all with Chloe "helping" and being generally underfoot...

Here she is decorating the cookies; after dumping half the sugar on top, she proceeded to poke them all with her fingers...and I think she even sampled some dough!

Then the best part...sampling the goods!

Snow!!

It has been snowing here since Friday, and we're to have a white Christmas now for sure!! I wanted to bake lots of cookies today, but without being able to get to the grocery store, I am not sure I'll be able to get as much done. There maybe one recipe I have the ingredients on hand for, so that'll have to do. Here are some pics of D and the bear playing in the snow yesterday--so fun!

Stay warm!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

The 12 Days of Christmas Contest is going full-swing over at ScrapGal, there have been daily projects sure to inspire! Check it out here!

Yesterday was Day 8, and it was my turn to provide some creative craftiness, and the project I posted was all about getting MORE pictures on a scrapbook page. Here are the directions to making a mini-accordion book you can adhere directly to your page, providing room for lots more photos without the clutter:
1. Cut two pieces of chipboard 4.5x4.5, two pieces of patterned paper 5x5, and two strips of cardstock 4x6.
2. Score the cardstock strips every 4 inches, overlap and glue into one long strip.
3. Cover the chipboard with the patterned paper, by gluing the chipboard to the middle of the wrong side of the patterned paper, folding in the corners first and then gluing the edges.
4. Place a 12" ribbon across the center of the back cover, then adhere the last square of the cardstock strip on top.
5. Accordion fold the cardstock, then glue the front cover to the first square. Embellish, and add pictures and journaling (you can use the front and back of the accordion strip), then adhere just the back cover to your page. Hold the book closed by tying the two ribbon ends across the front of the book.
And that's it! I hope you have fun making an accordion book, remember to be sure to load up your project in the ScrapGal gallery to get your points!

Here's a page I did last Christmas using the same technique:

Puppets!

I finished this set of three puppets for Chloe's Christmas present, aren't the just the cutest!? That's a rabbit in the middle, mouse on the left, and bear on the right. From behind:
I followed these instructions for the mouse from The Long Thread blog, but added arms and felt hands. Then I adapted the pattern to make the other two. I love rabbit's ears, although I think the expression on his face makes him look a little kookie ;)

more christmas goodies

Directions for making this wreath out of recycled ribbon spools are up at Galblog. I had seen a few wreaths made with circles of patterned paper, and looking at the growing pile of spools I have accumulated, I realized they would be perfect for adding some dimension to the wreath. It was fun to make, because the spools are all different sizes and widths, I think it lends itself to these whimsical papers. Plus, I wanted to make something "winter" themed that could stay up past Christmas.

Next are a couple of pages I made for the December Scrapgal Newsletter:

I loved looking through old Christmas photos, it was fun reminiscing and then picking these two to make layouts for. I also LOVE this Basic Grey paper line, it's not a Christmas line, per-se, but I think the designs work really, really well for holiday-themed projects. I love the non-traditional colors for Christmas that are popping up everywhere, I gotta say straight red and green are not my favorite combination, but add a little light green and turquoise, and I'm all over that!

Paper Ornament Tutorial

We’re making easy paper ornaments! These look great hanging from the tree, on top of a gift package, or as room decorations (especially large ones).

Here’s the list of Materials:
Patterned paper— 8.5x11 sheet
Scrap chipboard/cardboard
Bone folder
Circle template and scissors or 2” circle punch
Triangle template
Adhesive—gluestick works fine, I like Zip dry liquid glue
Optional: Ribbon, beads, charms, glitter, glimmer mist





Step One
Punch 20 circles from patterned paper. If you don’t have a circle punch, you can print the file onto an 8.5x11 piece of patterned paper and cut out the circles by hand.









Step Two
Using chipboard, make an equilateral triangle that fits perfectly inside your circle.
If your circle is 1” each side of the triangle will be .75”
If your circle is 1.5” each side of the triangle will be 1.25”
If your circle is 2” each side of the triangle will be 1.75”
If your circle is 3” each side of the triangle will be 2.75”





Step Three
Place the chipboard triangle in the center of each circle, and use your bone folder to score along all three sides. Fold these three sides up. Do this for all 20 circles.









Step Four
The next thing is to make is the top and bottom of the ornament. Glue the flaps of 5 circles together so they all touch at the top of the triangle and make a kind of hat. Do this twice.










Step Five
Make the middle by laying out the next 10, alternating triangles upside-down and right side-up and glue the sides to make a straight line. Then, glue the first flap to the last to make a circle, or tube.

Step Six
Glue the top “hat” to the top of the tube and the bottom “hat” to the bottom of the tube. Before you are finished gluing, you will want to run your ribbon through, making a hanging loop at the top.







Step Seven
When it is dry, add ribbon loops or bows to the bottom, or hang beads or charms from the ribbon. Add sparkle with glitter or glimmer mist, then hang up and enjoy!

toot

yay for this mention on the scrapjacked challenge website for this layout:

I had so much fun scrapjacking lalscrap (julie) I just love her style! Seriously, I think I do some of my best pages when I am lifting someone--using another for inspiration seems to free me up creatively most the time (funny, you'd think it would do the opposite), and I love adapting different elements to fit my style. fun fun fun!!

Here's a sneak peek of a little tutorial I am posting on Galblog Wednesday, be sure to check it out!

It's a fun holiday project that you can make using something recycled!

Holiday Organizer Tutorial

We’re making an organizer for all of your holiday purchases! There are pockets for recipes and receipts, as well as a place for you to record gift lists and expenses, all in a cute mini album. Using a wet erase marker, write down gift ideas for loved ones, keep track of what you have purchased and spent, even menu ideas for holiday get-togethers! Then wipe the pages clean and reuse for another season.
Here’s the list of Materials:
Patterned paper— I used the Wassail line from Basic Grey
1 5x7 naked album (7 gypsies)
Thickers (Red Jewelry box)
Blank Transparency
Adhesive—gluestick works fine, I like Zip dry liquid glue
Ink Pad
Embellishments: Ribbon, American Crafts Flair, Little Yellow Bicycle Sticker, Rub-ons, Brads, Flowers, etc.

Step One
Cut your transparency to 5x7” (or the same size as your inner album pages). You’ll need 6 transparency pieces all together. For the pockets, cut 6 pieces of patterned paper 6.5x4.” Round the top two corners. For some pages, I stitched the pockets directly to the album page, and for others I stitched the pocket to a piece of 5x7 paper before adhering it to the page. Cut pattern paper to cover the front and back covers of your album as well.

Step Two
Print out the following images on a lighter color patterned paper (I used the flip side of Snow Dust and Winterberry). Size them to be the same dimensions as the pages in your mini album.












































Step Three
Adhere the paper to the covers and inner pages. I used scraps from making the pockets to give the pages a pieced together look.



















Step Four
I used my sewing machine to attach the transparency over the printed pages, first stitching them together, then adhering the two to the album page.
































Step Five
Ink all the edges, and embellish as desired. I used Scenic Route date labels on the tabs to make dividers so I could keep track of gift lists by family, and Jewelry Box Thickers make perfect holiday titles!

crop goodies

some day I will go to a real life crop, and get crafty with these girlies in person, but in the meantime, cropping online is SO much fun! There were so many awesome ideas flowing, tons of cool projects, and hi-LAR-ious chatting...I made these goodies:





That's Mooshi beside the tree, he likes t keep me company when I scrap :)
Tomorrow I'll post the first tutorial I made from the crop, so be sure to check back!

12 Days of Christmas

MORE fun happenins over at ScrapGal:

December 11-22nd.

Each of these days, the design team will be posting a fabulous holiday challenge or inspiration. Complete a challenge or lift the inspiration and you will earn points. Each project you post in the gallery will earn you 5 points. There will be a favorite project chosen from the gallery submissions for each of the 12 challenges. If your project is chosen as a favorite, you will earn 10 points. (AND there will be opportunities for BONUS points) You will have until December 31 to complete and post projects in the gallery. The winner will receive a Making Memories Embellishment Center-Ribbon Box.

tagged

usually I skip these, but I like the sentiments behind this one--get to know your online friends better, so here goes:

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends! Try not to be lame and spoil the fun! If you get tagged, copy this entire survey and paste into your own blog, change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then visit the profiles of some of your friends and "Tag" them by simply leaving a comment, asking them to visit your blog, and state that they have been Tagged! The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known! Some of you may get tagged several times, so they can always refer back to your blog for your answers.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 9:00 (sat is my day to sleep in D. gets sun)
2. Diamonds or pearls? diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Zack and Miri
4.What is your favorite TV show? America's Next Top Model...I don't know why, I like junk food television
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? coffee, coffee, and cereal
6. What is your middle name? Laurel
7. What food do you dislike? Green Peppers, Celery
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? It's a Charlie Brown Christmas
9.What kind of car do you drive? Toyota Prius
10. Favorite sandwich? Tofurkey and cheddar
11. What characteristic do you despise? manipulativeness
12. Favorite item of clothing? velour pj pants
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Tahiti
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Ann Taylor Loft, for work clothes
15. Where would you retire to? a little beach cottage sounds good
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? The last one--Sushi with D and my bff and her hubby!
17. Favorite sport to watch? does not apply, lol
18. Furthest place you are "tagging" this? huh?
19. Person you expect to send it back first?
20. When is your birthday? August 29
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? def. afternoon person!
22. What is your shoe size? 8.5
23. Pets? Mooshi the cat
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? hmmm...nope!
25. What did you want to be when you were little? little orphan Annie
26. How are you today? a-okay
27. What is your favorite candy? dark chocolate
28. What is your favorite flower? all of them
29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? December 21st
30. What's your full name? Judean Laurel Patten-Clark
31.What are you listening to right now? SNL
32. What was the last thing you ate? mini snickers bar
33. Do you wish on stars? always
34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? cornflower blue
35. How is the weather right now? Cold, maybe snow tomorrow!
36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? D, my hubs
37. Favorite soft drink? rasberry-lime seltzer
38. Favorite restaurant? Fugakyu (sushi)
39. Real hair color? dark brown
40. What was your favorite toy as a child? all of my dolls
41. Hugs or kisses? kisses
42. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate
43. Coffee or tea? coffee
44. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes!
45. When was the last time you cried? yesterday, when I found out we have to have our floors refinished--long story
46. What is under your bed? dust bunnies :/
47. What did you do last night? online crop, chatted, watched Entourage with D
48. What are you afraid of? swimming in water when I can't see the bottom
49. Salty or sweet? sweet
50. How many keys on your key ring? 1
51. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
52. If you can choose your talent, what would it be? I always wished I could sing
53. Do you make friends easily? no
54. How many people will you tag this to? um...
55. How many will respond? as many as want to!

Fun Stuff Happening Tonight!

We are having an Online Crop over at Scrapgal Tonight and Saturday 7-12midnight (eastern). I have tutorials for not one but TWO holiday projects on Saturday, and the rest of the gals have tons of awesome projects in store as well. Wreaths, advent calendars, ornaments, you name it, we're gonna make it!! Plus games and challenges, and prizes--Gift Cards where you pick out the perfect prize! Here are peekies of my two projects:

Be sure to stop by ScrapGal.com tonight for lots of FUN and CREATIVITY!!

Christmas Countdown

I wanted to create something fun for Chloe this year to mark the holiday season, something not focused around buying or getting gifts, and also to start a tradition that we as a family could continue as we grow. I got the idea for this pocket advent-type calender from a cute quilted wall-hanging a co-worker gave me for Chloe when I was still pregnant. For each letter of the alphabet, there is a pocket with a little stuffed object inside representing that letter. I knew I wouldn't have the time to make 25 stuffies for this year, but I figured I could do a few a year and eventually, by the time Chloe heads off to college, I'd have them all done! In the meantime, we're putting little ornaments in each pocket, for Chloe to hang on our "tree" (whenever we get one). The ornaments don't have to be anything special, I plan on collecting things throughout the month and asking family and friends to contribute. It can be something as simple as a pinecone, I think the fun lies in the the excitement of finding something new in each day's pocket and adding it to the tree. To start us off, after Thanksgiving dinner, D., his parents, Aunt and cousin and I all made shrinky dink ornaments together. It was fun to sit around the table, each of us coloring something we thought Chloe would like! We have a bear, turtle, clown, frog, horse, and Sailor Sam. I'll post pictures of those another time.I made the whole thing in an afternoon, using fabric and ribbon bits from my stash. I was happy to put some of those Thickers numbers to use as well. You can see that my eyeball measuring is quite a but off, but I like to tell myself that it adds to the charm! I pieced the fabric together until I had what looked like a big enough section, and then made the pockets just by folding the fabric horizontally in five rows, then stitching the rows vertically to hold everything in place.
The buttons D. and I made also from shrinky dinks, using my scalloped punch and cropadile to punch out the button shape, and then coloring them before watching them magically shrink in the toaster oven. Fun stuff! So far, Chloe has enjoyed taking days 1 and 2 ornaments out of their pockets and putting them back in, repeatedly.
Thanks for stopping by!

New prompt is up at the Creative Type

This will get your juices flowing, it's called ONE and there's an awesome prize up for grabs!!
This awesome kit from Sweet Spuds:
I used the list of Chloe's words from my last post to make this layout for the challenge:
Come and play with us over at the Creative Type--it's the last prompt before we go on hiatus for about a month, so you don't want to miss out!!