Random Advice Journal

This is a great project from one of my favorite books - Yes, It's a Scrapbook.  This isn't really a scrapbook, but I still loved the concept.  I just picked up a little journal from the dollar section at Michael's.  I used the Cricut the cut out the letters and then added some other embellishements.  I also added tabs to the sections to divide the journal into multiple parts.  Each part is a section for different advice: Life, Love, Friendship, Career. 

Once the project was done, I added some ribbons onto the spine.  This is a great little baby shower gift.  I am going to make 2 of them for a friend's twins baby shower.

Valentine's Day Handmade Gift Round Up

It's always good to have your ducks in a row when it comes to handmade holiday gifts.
If your like me you'll need the extra month to get some of these super great handmade Valentine's Day gift ideas done in time!

======================================================

This cute little wrapped paper chocolate bar from Stinkin' Cute Stuff would make an excellent Valentine's gift for anyone.  

=======================================================

I love this idea from Alpha Mom! You could could do these up as a surprise for your little ones or have them help and send them off you Grandma. What a fun way to use up all of that scrap paper!

====================================================

These are just too adorable! I think I might wear one;)

The Purl Bee provides a wonderful tutorial on how to make some of these Rose Barrettes!

======================================================

Who wouldn't love this yummy jar of cookies! Found this idea over at Squidoo.

=====================================================

Catching Fire Flies offers a bunch of really affordable and fun ways for the whole family to share on Valentine's Day.

======================================================

Catching Fire Flies also has a very easy tutorial on how to make this sweet recycled firefly! This one is too good to not share;)

I love that these little treat boxes feature special art work! These would make very thoughtful classroom treats to share! Check out inchmark for more great ideas!

======================================================

This is one of the cutest ideas yet!!! Stitch Craft gives an amazing tutorial on how to make these little tissue holders. What a great time of year for a gift like this!

=========================================================

Moda Bake Shop gives full measurements and directions on how to sew one of these Valentine's Penny Pockets! These would be cute holding your silverware for a romantic dinner!

===========================================================

Cake Journal does it again!

My mouth is watering looking a this cute paper cone filled with sugar cookies!

=================================================

This crocheted edging on About.com would make a very sweet trim on the bottom hem of a pair of jeans or a cotton dress!

=====================================================

Sew Mama Sew has a really easy tutorial on how to make one of these sewn valentines for someone special in your life!

=================================================

Happy Crafting!!

Calendar Tutorial Roundup

I thought that it would be a fun idea for New Year's Day to put together this roundup of cute calendars you can make yourself. 

Nancy Morgan over at Paper Smiles made this adorable desk calendar tutorial.  I just love this.  This idea would really make a nice addition to your Christmas Cards.  You could even use a photo instead of the stamping.  For all of my sewers out there, you could use charm squares instead of the card stock for the accent papers.  How cute would that be.  By the way, you should really check out the Paper Smiles blog if you love papercrafting.   It is loaded with great ideas.

Catherine Cote at CeeCee's Creations made this great mini calendar tutorial.  Everyone knows how much I love minis.  This would really make a fun little project to tuck into stockings for next year or a great teacher gift.  Plus, I am seeing a scrap box project here that might help me get rid of all of those tiny scraps of card stock I am currently hoarding ;).   

Kelly over at AllThingsMadebyKelly made this totally fun little desk calender tutorial.  I especially love that she used recycled materials to create it. This would really be a fun teen project.  Just add some cheap stickers and they could really glam it up.  I'm also thinking that you could put a scrapbooked photo mat into to front of the cover so that it could be a little photo frame after the year is over. 

Angela Fehr from Scraps From My Table made up a tutorial for one of my personal favorite calendar projects, the cookie sheet calendar.  I have probably made about 20 of these.  None of them have looked as nice as hers and I made them a little differently (I used my xeron magnetic cartridge to make magnets). 

Naptime Crafts made this really sweet countdown calendar for Halloween.  I think that the same idea could be applied to any holiday or birthday.  Click here to check out the countdown calendar tutorial.

Tween Girl Christmas Gift Ideas & Tutorials

Arm and Leg Warmers

I've been meaning to do this tutorial myself for some time now but I never seem to be able to get around to it.  Basically, you are cutting off the foot of a pair of socks.  You can then make arm or leg warmers.  This is a really easy and cheap no sew gift to give.  I would also recommend cutting a little slit for the thumb to go through.  She didn't do that here, but that is what the kids want.

This great tutorial is from Brassy Apple.

Easy Fringe Fleece Scarf - School Colors

This is a really cute project and so easy to make.  Lisa and I just made a dozen of these in about 1 hour the other night for our shows.  This fleece scarf tutorial is from Make and Takes.

Memo Board

I thought that this tutorial was just great for a teen or tween.  It combines so many things they love, photos, messages, etc.

Check out the full memo board tutorial at Sew Dang Cute.

Mini Photo Album

For a tween I would substitute cds rather the vinyl albums, but the idea is really cute.  Scrapbook Crazy is really one of my all time top 10 craft blogs.   Especially if you love mini albums.



I would love to see more ideas.  This is such a hard age to make for.  Thus the name tween.  But there are a few great ideas here to get you started.



Scrapbook Altered Vintage Lunch Trays

A while back I picked up about 50 of these square metal lunch trays.  I didn't have an special plan for them, but I figured that I would be able to do something with them.  I came up with this little scrapbook project.   

First, I painted the trays because some were a little rusty.  Then, I used clear varnish to seal the paint on.  Next, I cut down the scrapbook paper to fit and cut a couple of mats.  Finally, I used prima flowers attached to magnetic strips to hold down the photos or notes.  If you wanted to make this for a locker organizer, which would make a great teen/tween gift, you could also add the self adhesive magnet strip to the back.  I actually just clipped binder clips onto the top of the frame so that it could hang on the wall. 

Altered Canvases

This is a fun little project I did for Kamille's room.  I saw somthing like this on TV and decided to make my own mini version.  To make the project you need:

Doll Hangers ($3.00 for 4)

Mini Canvas - I actually use one of the $1.00 pre-printed canvases from the dollar section at Michaels/JoAnns or the Dollar Store

Ribbon

Tulle

Flower,

Scrapbook Paper

Paint

The first step is to paint the canvas in a color that coordinates with your theme.  On the right, I painted the canvas black.  On the left, I used a convas that was already painted purple (it had ugly flowers painted on it - from the dollar store).  Once that is dry, I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit.  Then I added some title enbellishments from the scrapbook section.  To make the skirt, I gathered a piece of tulle on the sewing machine (But you could just gather with a needle and thread or gather it as you glue).  I hot glued the tulle tutu skirt into the bottom edge of the canvas.  Then, I glued down a piece of ribbon or other decorative trim over the top.  Finally, I added the flower as an embellishment.  

I tacked the straps onto the hanger with a dab of hot glue.  Then, I glue them onto the front of the canvas.  Finally, I covered that up with ribbon bows.

You can put a photo on the scrapbook paper.  I haven't gotten that far yet, but I will probably put a pic of Kamille and a couple of her friends on these little photo frames.  You could make a really huge version of this with a child's hanger.     

My Newest Paper Bag Album + Layouts

By now, everyone knows that I am crazy about sewing, but what you may not know is that I have an equally sick obsession with scrapbooking.  I especially love mini albums.  My favorite by far are paper bag albums.  I have about 200 of these things made up and sitting in tupperware at my house.  Lisa & I just love getting together and making them.  I was try to stockpile them for some Christmas craft shows, but we really haven't even booked any shows for this fall.  I put a few in our Etsy Shop but for the most part they are just sitting around here.  Sometime I like to make one that it over the top fabulous.  I'll probably start giving a new mini album layout every Sunday on our blog, just because I love them so much.  These are really awesome and affordable Christmas gifts, especially for people you work with.  I even put one in the mailbox every Christmas for Gretchen - our mail carrier. 

I came up with this Sweet 16 Album because I wanted to get out my Cricut and actually get some use out of it and because I had this wonderful stack of paper I have been dying to use. 

The basics of making a paper bag album are pretty simple, you sew a couple of bag together.  I like to make 8 page albums (sewing 2 bags together), but some people make the albums huge. I've seen them with 30+ pages.  You can only sew 3-4 bags together without breaking your sewing machine needle.  IF you want to go bigger than that, you should use rings or just tie it together with ribbon.  I've said it before, you need to buy a 2 hole punch.  It will punch through anything. 

Then, you can stitch down the papers or stick them down with tape.  I've done it both ways.  Tape is easier.  For the cover I used my Cricut to cut out the title with a shadow and the mats.  It's the cartridge that comes with the machine.  Under the mat, cover paper, I put a huge piece and tulle and then tied it in a bow with a charm.        

For the next layout, I added more mats from the cricut and some of the scrollwork from the Home Decor cartridge.  I also taped down a little remnant of beaded trim I had in the stash.

For decoration I've got some primas with buttons in the center.  For the tag, I folded a foil flower in half, stapled it down, and then added a sticky gem.  I inked the tag with pink. 

This album is 6x6.  These are the huge bags you get at CVS or Meijer.  The dollar store only has the smaller bags that make a 4.5x5 album (which I normally make).  For this layout, I cut a circle page in 4 pieces and used 2 to make pockets.  I used some felt sticker details, metal words, and more primas.  Inside I have pull out pages for more photos.  I stapled folded primas onto them as tabs and then I used some glitter decals.  Lisa made some donations for Colorblok for a charity event and they gave us a ton of freebies.  They are right down the street from us and I love to buy from them. 

On this page I did a triple mat for each of the photo layouts.  The tags are embellished with more primas and scrollwork from the Home Dec cartridge.  I tied a big bow to hold the tags in. 

On the back, I have a bunch of layered flowers.  I jazzed them up by adding some flower shapes I made out of tulle.  These flowers are really expensive, so I try to add tulle when layering to make them go further. 

Here, you can see my pull out pages that were tucked into the pockets on the bags. 

Happy Crafting!

Saving Art

My 3-year-old daughter has repeated her personal affirmation so many times lately.  Truthfully, I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.  But, I love her motto. 

"I am going to be an artist.  If I can't be a good one, I'll be a bad one."

Up until about a week ago, all of her art looked pretty much like this.  She would present me with a drawing and proclaim, it a rocket ship, or a princess, or a garden. 

Last week she brought me this drawing and said it was an ocean full of animals. 

They actually look like something.  I guess she had a breakthrough. 

Her latest art project from her first day of preschool:

It actually inspired me to start scanning her artwork into the computer to make a photo book for her.  I am going to keep all of the projects, photographing the 3-d versions and mix in some photos from this year.  At the end of 2010 I am going spend a few hours and make a digital scrapbook on snapfish for this year. 

Happy Crafting!

Sarah