I bought two pre-designed albums from Making Memories for my twins--great time savers when you don't have a minute to sleep, much less scrap--but I thought the covers needed a little more personalization!
So I thought I would hand sew a few little embellishments for the covers, easy-peasy!
I started with my fabric, embroidery hoop, chipboard letters, and disappearing ink pen (you can find one of these with the sewing notions). Lay out the letters, making sure they all fit, then trace around them. I do one at a time, then sew, because I am a slow sewer, and they'll disappear before I get to them otherwise!
Then just do a simple backstitch over the letters that you trace.
Or, you can do a running stitch all around the letter, then go back and fill in the spots that you missed...sometimes I find this easier!
Then I cut out my completed piece using pinking shears, secured it to a slightly larger piece of felt using a running stitch, embellished with a flower and buttons, and finally glued the whole thing to the front of my album using fabri-tac.
For Peter's, instead of using the chipboard letters, I decided to try a different "font" for his
This went much more quickly, so I was able to write out the entire name at once.
I was having so much fun, I made a heart and star using the same technique!

Much better, don't you think!?! What do you do to make the front of your albums unique?

I'm moving over posts from the now-defunct Galblog, so that I'll have them all in one place. Here's a mini album I made using some favorite pictures of Chloe last summer.
The Fly a Kite line from October Afternoon is so cheerful and bright--perfect for all those Sweet Summer pics you took the last few summers!



I used a little 6x6 photo album from American Crafts--at $1.50 it was a total steal--you could find something similar at the dollar store! Plus it's so easy to cut your paper to 6x6, stick on your photo and a few flat embellishments, and pop it right into the page protectors. I then placed thicker embellishments on top, so as not make the plastic pages get too bumpy.

Thanks for looking!

Yarn Ball Wreath

I remember seeing these at Starbucks last year, and thinking I am so all over that....but alas, having newborn twins seriously put a cramp on my Christmas crafting! Fast-forward one year, and I run across this amazing version at life through the lens, and again I think, I am so all over that. And guess what!?!
I did it! It was a super quick project to put together--I could do it even in my sleep-deprived mother-of 1 year-old twins and an energetic 3 year-old sorry state. I mean, it's winding yarn around styrofoam balls! Nothing sharp involved, I even used glittered foam balls in place of the glass ornaments (safety first, folks). Chloe made friends with one of the yarn balls, chatting and cuddling with it. Yep, that's my child, bff with a ball of yarn.
I used yarn from my stash, and cut out a cardboard circle to hot-glue the balls to. So all-in-all, a very thrifty project.
Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday, Sadie & Peter!

I wanted to do a Raggedy Anne and Andy theme for Peter and Sadie's birthday, but that pretty much got vetoed by David. The compromise, I guess, was their Halloween costumes, and I used red and turquoise for the party colors. Plus A&A manged to sneak in for the picture ;)
I did their hand prints using poster paints (fun, but MESSY!) for the invitations, then scanned them in along with David's lettering, and threw together an invite in PSE. On the back were the party details, printed on colored cardstock.
I made the name banner using scrapbooking papers (from Jenni Bowlin, 7 gypsies, Sassafrass and Bella Blvd) and letters (Pink Paislee), and stapled each circle to the ribbon using my tiny attacher. Love those itty-bitty staples!

The rosettes for the hats I made the same way, and just applied them to store-bought party hats. You can see the ribbon banner I made a while back in the background (tutorial here), another super quick and simple project.

The kids made toilet-paper tube turkeys, I pre-cut the feathers out of sheets of colored foam, and they went to town. I love the one-eyed guy on the right my nephew Jack made.

Here are Peter and Sadie in all their glory, you can see that the hats were not such a big hit :)
Well, I survived my first year as mother-to-twins! I am so glad to be where we are at, Peter and Sadie are on the cusp of so many exciting things--I love them more every day!

The last weekend in October...

Yes, know it's almost half-way through November, but I wanted to share some pics of a really nice family outing we had to this little spot up the road from where we live:
Yup, it's a farm. In the city. Within walking distance from our house. How lucky are we? It's actually the oldest operating farm in Boston, and we went for a hay ride around the property one sunny Saturday! Here I am holding everyone on the wagon:
Where's Peter, you're wondering...
In the backpack! And Daddy doing double duty, holding both girls:

Check out this lil pumpkin--at 69 cents a pound, she's a total steal!
In our quest for a pic of all three, there were lots like this, always with someone blinking or looking the wrong way, or looking generally perturbed. That Christmas card picture may not happen after all...
This guy got pretty sleepy on my back...
Time to go home for a nap! Thanks for stopping by :)

SEI Necklace

I was lucky to receive some of SEI's Metal Filigree Accents from the Moonrise collection, and had the idea to make a necklace using a few of the pieces. They are so pretty and delicate, I thought they'd look great on!
I took 3 necklaces (2 chains and 1 beaded) and attached the three ends together on each side.
Then I used a 7-gypsies clip-thingy to attach that to the metal accents, and another one to attach the metal accents to some glittery Prima ribbon. A little hot glue to make sure everything stayed secure, and I was done!
What scrapbooking embellishments are you thinking of wearing?

Catching up...

Here are few recent layouts--the first one is an iphone picture of me & D that I {heart}
See all those yummy scallops? I used the edges of the Sassafrass papers, and some CI wood veneer paper I used an edge border punch on--the threading water one--which is totally to blame for my current addiction to border punches--it's the gateway punch, lol!

Next up...
Peter and Sadie are my Grammie's 9th and 10th great-grandchildren. We are so blessed to have her in our lives!
Crazy pictures of Chloe at her birthday party--having a blast in the sprinkler. Wearing, of course, her birthday suit!
Birthday card for my awesome mom...
And the mini-album I made for her. Happy Birthday, Mom!