Thanksgiving Projects

Ooooh, lots to blog about, we've had a busy few weeks! In no particular order: Annie's 4th Birthday, dance performance, temple night, Primary Program, Relief Society lesson, Disney Princesses on Ice, helping with PTA stuff, Parent Teacher Conference, parties, photo sessions, meetings of various kinds, Brandon won a CEO award at school....and we celebrated my Grandma's 90th birthday with a big open house on Saturday! I gathered photos and memories from all of the families and designed a special memory book for her and was SO happy with how it turned out---that is how I spent a huge part of my entire week last week, and it was worth it. :) I will post about that and other fun events later. So you see why blogging has taken a back seat while life is happening! :) But before Thanksgiving is over and it's too late, I wanted to share 2 little Thanksgiving projects, one I made last year, and one I finished TODAY. :)

Thanksgiving Canvas

I love making things in photoshop using digital scrapbooking supplies, then combining them with other mediums, such as canvas and ribbon. I created this in photoshop using a scripture that I love from the Book of Mormon (Alma 34:38)---Live in thanksgiving daily.

I LOVE that and really need to apply it in my life on a daily basis! So I needed to make a cute reminder. :) I printed it at Costco on luster paper. Meanwhile, I had a canvas just sitting around, so I painted it dark brown, and once I picked up my photo I used Mod Podge to stick it on the canvas. I also added a polka dot ribbon and Mod Podged that baby right on too. Mod Podging is a verb, people. :) I love that stuff. I added a layer of Mod Podge on top of everything, and instead of doing a carefully thin perfect layer, I did it messy and cross-hatched, so I could get more of a textured look. Last of all, I added a small velvety flower to finish it off. I love how it looks hanging on my wall!!! It makes me happy and it was super easy. This is something that I can keep up all year long to remind me how blessed we are and to give thanks every single day.

Thankful Banner

I made this project last year for the Oct. 2008 issue of Bella Scraps Magazine, and thought I'd share the tutorial here just for funsies. :)

Materials: printed layouts, coordinating cardstock, adhesive, hole punch, distress ink, various ribbons

Step 1: Create your letter layouts in your photo editing program. I was making the word "thankful" so I made 8 little coordinating mini layouts. I knew I wanted my mounted letters to be 6 inches x 6 inches when finished, so I created my layouts at about 5.25 inches by 5.25 inches so I could have my cardstock mat provide a nice border.

Step 2: Print layouts and cut them out. I used the luster photo paper at Costco, that's my favorite. For the cardstock mats, I used my QuicKutz Silhouette to cut out the various shapes (bracket, scallop, circle, and rounded square). It saved me tons of time but you could make any shape you wanted and cut by hand, or even use chipboard pieces as your mats. I've seen cute banners that use triangles.

Step 3: Adhere the layouts to the shaped cardstock with your favorite acid-free adhesive. You could use double-sided sticky tape, glue sticks, Mod Podge, or Zyron machine, whatever floats your boat! Then punch a hole in the top 2 corners of each layout. I made my holes about 1/2 inch in. I also inked up the edges of the cardstock with distress ink.

Step 4: Now it's time to string up the banner. I cut my ribbon to a 7 foot length (I laid out my banner and allowed enough ribbon for a few inches in between each letter and about 12 inches on each end for hanging up). Then I threaded the ribbon through all of the holes in the tops of the layouts until they were all strung together. I used about a 3/4 inch wide ribbon and it was very easy to thread through the holes. Knot the ends to secure.

Step 5: Add coordinating ribbon as accents to the banner. I wanted to keep it simple so I just added some green ties in between each letter.

Step 6: Hang up your banner and enjoy! It's a fun way to use digiscrapping in your home decor. Credits: Shabby Princess "Autumn Medley" and "Harvest Spice" papers; GG Digital Designs "Fall Fun" chipboard letters
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Well, gotta run. I'm in organization mode today, and while Haylie's napping I've got to get a move on! (As you can guess, Haylie like to "un-do" my organizing!) I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with a post, it's on my to-do list. :)

Have a great day!

Halloween 2009

I'm probably the last person on the planet to blog about Halloween, but that's okay, right? Unfortunately I got really sick (again) for about a week and had a billion things going on, which severely affected my computer time and hence, the lackage of posts. But I'm feeling much better now and am tackling my to-do list the best I can. :) And trying to avoid what's left of the Halloween candy stash. Plus I was tired of my poor hobo Halloween photo being the first thing you lay your eyes upon when you drop by my little bloggie. :) So here we go.

This is a picture a few days before Halloween. I love the combination of the bright red fall leaves that made me happy each time I drove Annie to preschool, with the dusting of snow on the mountains. So pretty!!! I'm always a little bit sad when the leaves are all gone. A few days before Halloween also brought Brandon's school parade (where Annie got lost for a minute or so! Panic!), Annie's dance party, Annie's preschool party, and Brandon's class party, and I pretty much completely lost my voice too. Whew! It was sort of a crazy whirlwind of a morning but the kids had a blast. :) I took a bunch of pictures but didn't feel like posting all of them, to be honest!
Then on Friday night I was feeling good enough to go to an awesome party with my handsome space ranger, Buzz Lightyear. We were the random Disney couple. I know, I look (and felt) like Cinderella in drag, and sounded like it too with my hoarse voice. :)

The party was hilariously fun, and involved a scavenger hunt/road rally with friends (we seriously felt like we were in high school again--in a good way) that had us running around a baseball diamond, a cemetary, a movie theater, to outhouses by a construction site, fields, grocery stores, etc. Then we did karaoke where I made a total crazy fool out of myself and shook my Cinderella booty way too much. :) I laughed 'til I cried. Total fun. Too bad I didn't break out my camera to get pictures of the other couples.

Halloween Night

Brandon is enamoured with all things Star Wars related, so we weren't too shocked when he chose to be Darth Vader months ago. He even had Jaden carve his pumpkin into Darth Vader. :)

Annie-cakes was a darling little ladybug this year. She loved to dance and leap around when I put on her wings. She wanted her pumpkin to have a scary face with a pointy teeth mouth. (I'm planning to post pics of our pumpkin gathering and carving soon.)

Miss Haylie B. Our little butterfly. She was happy as can be with one little piece of candy and hung onto that thing for quite awhile. She loved trotting around in her costume and would say "butterfly" so sweetly.

Here are Brandon and Annie, looking oh-so-grown-up together.

And......here is our attempt at getting all 3 kids in one shot. Yeah, not gonna happen.

Haylie just wanted to be free to frolic down the sidewalk with her fruit snacks. :)

It was a pretty night for some trick-or-treating--a little bit chilly but at least it wasn't snowing.

At our neighbor's house--the first official door of the night. :) Haylie got pretty good at saying "treat or treat" and loved following the big kids to the door.

Jaden + Buzz= Awesome. At this point I went back home to hand out candy and the rest of them went around the neighborhood for awhile.

Brandon met up with some buddies and stayed out for a bit--he probably could've gone all night. :) Surprisingly, Annie was done after about 8 houses! She told Jaden she was done and wanted to go home and take a rest and eat her treats. :) She was a great helper passing out candy with me.

It was fun but I didn't feel well at all, so now I'm sort of glad it's all over! This week we celebrate Annie's 4th birthday so that's the next big event to plan. :) Have a wonderful day!

The Story of the Forlorn Hobo (aka Halloween circa 1982)

Once upon a time, long ago in the early 1980's, there was a small little hobo named Brooke. She wore an oversized vest, an old sweater, rainbow suspenders, moon boots, a bright orange hat, and apparently she didn't have access to a mirror because she majorly missed the mark with her lipstick and her hair hadn't seen a comb for days.

Brooke the Hobo was forlorn and melancholy because she didn't have any friends to play with. Her cardboard box was too small for playdates. To make matters worse, Brooke was being held captive by the ruthless villain, the Chubby Devil!!! So one day she met two fashionable girls with big gold birds on their shirts, capes and skirts, with beautiful hair and faces. To her astonishment, they were super heroes! They were called Wonder Women, and they were sisters, working under the alter-egos Julie and Amy!! And their mother could spin thread into gold.

Brooke was skeptical of their powers and was slightly jealous of their beauty and fashion sense, but soon they became fast friends/cousins, and eventually saved Brooke the Hobo from the evil clutches of the Chubby Devil, who she later found out was the little brother of the Wonder Women, and his name was actually Jeff. And he really wasn't evil, he was just sleepy and needed a nap.

The End.

Fall leaves, festive Halloween crafts, and a freebie

Aaaaand......I'm back! We've had the sniffles and more at our house the past week, including a trip with Annie to Primary Children's ER (she ended up with viral respiratory infection and improved greatly after a nebulizer treatment and suction) so life has definitely not been boring. I was also able to spend the weekend at a wonderful mothers' retreat and feel like I'm more ready to take it all on! :) This post is going to be random so buckle up.

Prettiness:

The sunset was gor.geous on Thursday night. Just looking at it makes me happy.

Fall Leafiness:

This morning we went to my friend Ashley's and the girls jumped in a big pile of pretty leaves.

They had a great ol' time. What a beautiful day it was today!

I love fall.

Halloween Craftiness:

I have a few new little projects to share and am reposting a few from last year, just for kicks. I made a cute Happy Halloween banner a few weeks ago using "Fright Night" by GG Digital Designs and it is enjoying hanging out (hee hee) by the fireplace.

Here is what the digital files look like closer up:

I also made another paint can insert, using a variety of goodies from Digital Scrapbook Memories.

If you wanted to make one for yourself, the dimensions are 13.5 by 4.25 inches. I print two of them on an 11x14 sheet at Costco, then slip the insert into the small clear paint can that I bought at Roberts. Again, here is what the digital file looks like:


I made this Trick or Treat canvas last year for a tutorial I wrote for the September 2008 issue of Bella Scraps Magazine. I love it and wanted to post about it again. :) I actually scanned a Halloween box I have to get the "trick or treat" part, cropped it and added the scallops and other embellishments in Photoshop, printed it, and Mod Podged it onto a blank canvas that I'd painted black. Then I trimmed the edges with black ribbon.

Another project from last October--I wanted to do a quick project with my kids since they are always asking me "when is it going to be Halloween?" So I made a simple Halloween countdown for them so they can know exactly how many days until Halloween. I used an 18x18 inch magnet board for the base. Then I created 31 round mini "layouts" in Photoshop Elements (using the digital kit "Batty For You" available at http://www.ggdigitaldesigns.com/), printed them at Costco on luster photo paper, and cut them out. They ended up being 2.5 inches in diameter. I used a 3 inch scallop punch and punched out 31 scalloped circles from black cardstock, then adhered the numbered circles to the scalloped circles with double-sided tape. Then I simply added a magnet to the backs of the circles and ribbon at the top of the magnet board, and I was done! My kids even helped me tape and put the magnets on. It was a fun, inexpensive project and they are excited to put a new magnet on every day. You could really do this for any holiday or countdown.

Halloween is fun. We've pretty much figured out costumes, the house is all decorated, we just still need to visit a pumpkin patch. Hopefully this weekend.

Freebie-ness:

So my brother got married in June, and for one of their gifts I made them a personalized The Family: A Proclamation to the World for their home. I took 14 of my favorite engagement photos and arranged them around the text of the Proclamation, and printed as an 11x14 photo. I was really happy with how it turned out and now I need to find some time to make one for US! :)

You could make one like this in photoshop and do it any size you want. I taught a little mini digital scrapbooking workshop a few weeks ago and shared this project, and lots of people asked me if I would be willing to share the template. So, here you go! The zipped file includes a layered TIFF file (without the text) as well as basic instructions for digiscrappers but if you need a better tutorial on how to use this template (using "clipping masks" in photoshop), please visit this link: Clipping Masks. Please do not share links or sell, just direct people to this post if they want to download. I'd love for you to say hi if you decide to download! :)

Click here for the link to download the template, it's good for 7 days or 100 downloads: Brooke's 11x14 Photo Collage Layered Template

Blogginess:

Before I forget, I've been asked about how I changed my blog background. There are lots of cute free blog backgrounds you can download but you know me, I have to make my own. I'm a weirdo like that. :) I used a great tutorial to help me do it: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/tutorials/how-to-make-a-scrapbook-blog-background.html. Or you could purchase a "blog wear" kit from a digital scrapbooking shop such as GG Digital Designs or Shabby Princess which could make life easier too.
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Whew! I told you this was going to be random! :) Thanks for sticking around! I'll be back much sooner next time, I promise. Scout's honor.

PS: Why does Blogger always mess up the line spacing?? GRRRR!

I love fall.

I'm back! :) Thanks for your lovely comments. I'm going to do my best to post more often but not get too bogged down if I don't get everything posted.

So this weekend I was desperate to see some of the fall leaves before it was too late, especially since it has already snowed here!! So we hopped in the van Saturday afternoon between conference sessions (which was fantastic bytheway) and headed to Provo Canyon. And I was thrilled at the spectacular color we saw! Oh my, it was gorgeous. I kept squealing and clapping for joy. The kids were loving all of the bright colors too. We went up past Sundance and to Aspen Grove and it was awesome. I had my handy tripod and was excited to get a family photo with the pretty trees. Yum.

I took this flourescent red picture out my window as we were going 35 mph. What I like to call a drive-by shooting. :) har har har.

SQUEAL! So pretty.

Then we stopped by this cool park that I haven't been to since my college days, and it's way more fun now that we have kids to enjoy it with. An awesome abandoned track with a few train cars were a big hit!

Annie can do crazy things with her eyebrows.

Brandon was in heaven.

Happy Hays.

We definitely need to go there again.

We also went by Bridal Veil Falls which is also beautiful this time of year. We hiked there this summer but with the touch of colors it was even prettier.

I love our family. We had a great time on our little mini road trip. :)

Brandon really wanted a picture of him with the waterfalls, and he is making sure that I get it printed so he can show his friends at school. :)

Cute Annie also wanted her picture with the fall leaves. It was pretty windy but we didn't mind!

Anyway, I was so happy that I didn't miss out on the fall leaves this year. Yay! This is my favorite season! xoxoxo