Mother's Day Gift

Well, my Mom loves cards but loves them even better because they are made for her at no charge!  Guess who signed up for that????  ME!!!  I really like to do this as you know so, I usually make her a couple matching sets and then raid my stash for others that I know she will like and use with all her card writing that she does.  If you follow my blog, you have seen three of these card sets that are shown in the fronts of the bags but the baby onesie card.  I plan to do a video for this card sometime soon!  I promise! 

So, these packs of cards are what my Mother got for Mother's Day.  She was thrilled!  This is an easy, cute, and very useable gift for your Mother for any day of the year.  This year, since I have my blog, she made an "order" for the packs that she wanted.  She specifically wanted the black and white set and now she is content.  She has been bugging me since they were on the blog....took me long enough, huh?  :-) 

I hope you take this idea and give packs of cards to those who will put them to good use!  Enjoy, and remember, it is always homemade!

Lattice Work

This is a very cute card, if I don't say so myself!  :-)  This is very similar to the lattice die that Stampin UP! sells.  I found this image online and tweaked it a little bit in my SCAL software to make it as close as I could to the Stampin UP! image.  I saw this card idea on Google Images and I knew I just had to try it out.  It is pretty self explanatory and I hope you decide to do one too!  Very cute, very classy! 

Here is what I did with the negative to this image....DON'T waste anything, I always say!  :)

Have a great day and remember it is always homemade!

Paint Chip Cards

I know this should be a scrapbook page, but I am going to be in and out of town for the next couple of weeks, so, the next two weeks, instead of a scrapbook layout at the end of the week, there will be a craft idea or "what is coming up" on the blog.  So, enjoy and I will be back to do some layouts in a couple of weeks.
I know on Pinterest I have seen MANY ideas using paint chip cards!  From learning tools for kids to any type of crafts.  My kids and I made Christmas ornament trees, snowmen ornaments and also bookmarks with their fingerprints on them for their grandmothers.  A friend of mine walked into Sherwin Williams one day and said, "Look, here's the deal.  I need A LOT of paint chips for a craft idea for my kids.  How can I purchase them?".  Well, the man replied by saying that she could have as many as she wanted for free and she left the store with well over 200 (If I had to guess) of them.  So, the kids and I went to Lowe's the other day and I snagged a few of my own.  They come in so many different shapes, colors, sizes and textures.  So, I went "shopping" through the paint chips.  I picked up several colors and also some that had several textures.  This picture above is what I picked up.  I plan to use them on cards, scrapbook pages and some crafts with the kids.  I am so excited to use them.  I see great potential and to think, they are FREE!  That is the best part! 

Have fun coming up with ways in incorporate paint chips into your crafts.  Have a great day and remember, it is always homemade, especially when thinking out of the box!

Pillowcase.....SHIRT!

Here is another sewing project for my little girl.  Like I have said before, a friend of mine runs a business out of her home making pillowcase dresses.  Well, I don't think she sells these shirts, but herself and her daughter have a couple of these and they are so cute!  This is the same pattern for a normal pillowcase dress but at the bottom, instead of just a normal hem, it has elastic in it so that it hugs the waist area and becomes a shirt instead of a dress.  Cute, huh?  Another friend of mine does the hem at the bottom identical to the top and puts another ribbon in the bottom hem and then ties it and it becomes a cute little shirt as well with an extra ribbon.  Does that make sense?  Hope so!  :)

Hope you enjoy this cute little creation and remember, it is always homemade!

Dream Big

I saw a similar card idea using a city scape in a Paper Craft magazine months and months ago....probably sometime last year.  I found this city on the internet and cut it out using my SCAL software!  I love this little city scape!  This is another card that could be used as a graduation card.  It is open to many possibilities but would be perfect for a college graduation gift.  The city and the cloud are both on demensional squares which allows a 3D effect.

Hope you enjoy and that you can use this for your next graduate!  Have a great graduation season and remember, it is always homemade!

Battery Park Pics

This is a layout of our pictures from Battery Park, NYC.  If you are not familiar with the city (I say this like I live there or something) this is the park that you walk through to get to the ferry to get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The sculptre you see on the left side of the page is the sculptre that used to sit in front of the twin towers.  After 9/11 the sculptre was relocated to Battery Park as a memorial to those who died.  The picture on the bottom right of this layout is a picture of some steel pieces of the twin towers.  This actually sat in front of a firefighters training facility on Long Island where a lot of the NYFD men go through training. 

I used the travel paper squares that resembles a map with roads and parks all over it.  I REALLY like the pad of paper I bought at Tuesday Morning that is all "city" themed paper.  I can't wait to continue to use it all!  Every sheet has a purpose and I know that I will use a good bit of this paper.  I used white chipboard letters that I inked with a brown stamp pad.  The white needed to be a muted a little bit and the brown was perfect.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and the layout!  Have a great day of scrapboking and remember, it is always homemade!

Teacher Gifts (Caramel Popcorn)

Teacher Appreciation week was a couple of weeks ago and this is what my son and I put together for all of his preschool teachers.  He helped me make Cooking Light's Caramel Popcorn recipe and then he helped me with the cards as well.  I cut out the popcorn kernals on my Cricut using my SCAL program and then he drew "smiley faces" on the popcorn (upside down, but hey, he was proud of them) and then he signed each card.  I placed the popcorn in $.50 containers from Target.  GREAT gift!  Teachers don't want stuff that is just going to take up space....give them something to eat or actually use....think outside the box!  These turned out so cute and he was very proud of them! 

This was a very cute, quick gift that you can do for anyone!  This would be a fun activity for a surprise date night for your hubby after the kids went to bed!  Get a movie and pull out the Caramel Popcorn in these cute little boxes.  I think this might happen in our house sometime soon! 

Have a great day and make a homemade gift for someone today.  Remember, it is always sweeter when it is homemade.

Graduation Time

Well, since it is graduation time all around the country....whether it be high school or college....it is time to make some graduation cards.  I have a neice graduating high school in a few weeks and I thought it would be a good idea to do a few graduation cards in the next couple of weeks.  I know that this week and next week will be graduation themed cards. 

This one is a little bit more "sophisticated" and would be perfect for a college graduation.  Gold is a neutral color that will most likely be appropriate for any college color scheme.  This card would also be appropriate for any other "congrats" occasion.  I really like this card and will use it soon hopefully! 

Enjoy and remember, it is always homemade!

Bethpage Black

This is a very simple layout....I think I am going to make one change to it....I think I am going to remove the "black" and replace it with actual black letters.  We went to see the Black Course the same day we saw the Quaker House from last week's post....obviously, since it was just across the road.  We really enjoyed walking around the grounds of the clubhouse and the first tee.  It was a beautiful course and it meant a lot to Derrick to go and see this famous place since we were going to be so close. 

Anyway....Here is the layout that I finished.  The area to the right of the layout....this is where I am going to journal about our visit to the course.  Hope you guys have a great day of crafting and remember, it is always homemade!

"Jean" Skirt

Seriously, Pinterest.com was the best idea ever!  This is yet another Pinterest project.  I pinned this back in the winter, knowing that come summertime I would be sure to be making this for my little girl!  I cut off some old pants that still fit her in the waist but were too short.  I then added two ruffles to the bottom hem.  I made this in about 20 minutes!  She loved it!  She is a true little girl...she loves clothes and especially ruffles.  She plays with them when she is just sitting and she hates to take clothes off!  She gets attached to them...it is quite hilarious at times!  The link to the tutorial I used is below.  I made my ruffles a little longer than her measurements because I needed a little more length than what her measurements allowed.  What makes this great is that you can make it to fit your needs.

www.maryjanesandgaloshes.com   Search "From High Water Pants to Super Cute Skirt"  She has a step by step picture tutorial.  Have fun! 

Hope you have a great day and remember, it is always homemade!

A Step Back In Time

I bought this stamp set (which includes a couple of more stamps other than the four you see in the picture) at Hobby Lobby in the clearance section for $3 and some change!  It is an American Crafts stamp set!  It is sooooo cute and has so many possiblities.  I was stoked when I saw it because I have been looking for a cute bicycle stamp and here it was in a whole set full of cute, old-timey set!  (I don't know if I spelt "old-timey" right....so if I did, please ignore that!)  Anyway, I thought this was a really cute card.  I loved the blue!  I also added twine to this card (just like I did with the card last week) and it was perfect! 

Hope you enjoy and remember it is always homemade!

National Scrapbooking Day

...And, yes, there is a day dedicated JUST TO SCRAPBOOKING!!!  So, tell your husbands that today is nothing but scrapbooking!  :-)  Hehehe!  I read on someone's blog today that it is like a day camp for crafty grown-ups!  So true!  So, to celebrate, here are a couple of my older layouts that I did sometime last year in the album that I am currently STILL working on!  The first is a layout showing my son's first haircut by none other but me, myself and I.  My parents were in town and my Dad walked me through it...thank goodness!  The second layout is one that I did that revolves around my father-in-law riding my son around on the John Deer....you know they BOTH had fun doing that!  :-)  And it shows!

While I say to do nothing but scrapbook today, I probably won't do any today!  My husband has been out of town ALOT during the last 3 weeks and he came home last night and today will be "family day" at our house.  First, we will start off by going to my son's soccer game at 8am!  Yes, 8am!  Then it is just good ol' family time through lunch (which will probably be the local Quiznos, because that is becoming our traditional soccer day meal) and then we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo wit some friends from church!  Sure to be a fun filled day, even with no crafting in there anywhere....well, maybe during the kids' nap time!  :-) 

By the way, National Scrapbooking Day was started by Creative Memories in 1994 and continues to the present.  It actually lasts for a whole week with the first Saturday in May (which is the 5th this year) being the last day of the week, hence becoming NSD.  So, there is a little background!  Many, many, MANY sales are going on at local stores and at crafting websites all over the world.  If you go to HERE there is a list of websites that are having sales today! 

Have a fun day of scrapbooking and/or crafting and remember, it is always homemade!

Quaker House

This was our first NY attraction that we visited after getting off the plane and eating lunch at a diner on Long Island. We didn't waste any time. Derrick's colleague, who was so hospitable (along with her husband), allowed us to stay two nights of our trip with them....which kept us from paying the high prices in the city. So, we stayed the first night with them as well as the last night and had the other two nights in the city. After we got there, she took us to several fun places in their "neck of the woods" upon our request (and a couple of surprise places!).  ;) One place we really wanted to visit (or I should say my husband wanted to visit) was the Bethpage Golf Course....and this Quaker House and Cemetary was just across the road and was an added bonus! This was such a quaint little place that was filled with lots of history and very old grave markers. It was right off the road and probably forgotten or not "seen" by the locals most of the time but it had lots of historical meaning!

Anyway, these are the pictures I took of this visit. You can see the head stones were out in the open as well as in the middle of the woods. We found some pretty old dates, some that dated back before the civil war. Very interesting! I just couldn't get this layout to come together. I have been laying it out since last week...I just couldn't get it to flow for some reason. But, today it finally came together enough, and I liked it! ;). I hope you do too and I hope you don't get stuck like I did on your next layout! I hate when that happens. I think it may be working with the 8 1/2 x 11 pages that make me that way. I am so used to working with 12x12 that sometimes I need to step out of the box and work with something a little different to get my mind working in another way....make sense?

Hope you have a great day and upcoming weekend, and remember, it is always homemade.

Reuseable Snack Bags

I have been wanting to make some of these for a while but each tutorial I see just seems like so much for something that should be a simple project.  I use sooooo many ziplocs and I am sick of buying them!  When I saw this tutorial on Pinterest (the link is below) I knew this is the pattern I wanted to follow!  I made 4 in 20 minutes!  I plan to make a few more as well.  My little boy has seen me making several things for my daughter lately and one day I was making her a skirt and he said, "When are you going to make me something?"....how great do you think that made me feel???  So, that afternoon, I made these snack bags and he was overjoyed by "his" snack bag that mommy had made!  He was too cute.  I guess I need to get on some kind of project for him, huh? 

www.cottonbottommama.com  is the link for this tutorial and it was posted on March 29, 2012.  She has a picture by picture tutorial that is great! 

Have fun sewing today and remember, your kids will appreciate anything that is homemade....even if it is just a snack bag!