Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Wednesday, August 27, 2014

August Family Update

Hi there friends. It's that time of the month when I look back at what my family has been up to and here's a jist of what our August looked like....

Marcus turned 11 last month and that meant that he was "officially" moving on from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. So with that he was able to be recognized for all the hard work he had accomplished as a Webelos during August's pack meeting. Because this was our first meeting after the summer break, his "awards" piled up. In this meeting he was able to get his Webelos advancement, Arrow of Light, Religious knot patch and did the official crossing over from Cub to Boy Scouts. We are definitely proud of all of his achievements and express our gratitude to his den leaders (all throughout cub scouts) for their assistance in giving my son the opportunity to grow and learn in the scouting program. 

Next big thing that happened in August was my baby shower. I am extremely grateful to be surrounded by friends who were so kind to throw me a shower. My baby and I definitely felt the love. There's too many of them to name one by one but I hope they know of my deepest appreciation for their efforts and of course, friendship. Here are some of my favorite pics from the shower....

I love having creative friends. The above baby carriage was cut from a watermelon and dressed up with different fruits. My friend Jen's daughter made it and it is uber adorable.

This cute centerpiece was made into a motorcycle using diapers and other baby items. I wanted to photograph it in better lighting (that's the photographer in me) but unfortunately my kids' got a hold of it and it didn't last the following morning. :( Trust me when I say that it was extremely creative and super adorable!

Above is a picture of me opening up the presents. We were definitely "showered" with a lot of gifts and it was a great combination of necessary items (diapers, wipes, baby essentials) as well as cute boy clothes. I gotta say....this little one is going to be one stylish dude! 

And here's a fun photo. The woman on my right is a teacher and at one point or another, all of us (in this photo) has had our children in her class. I love the bond that I have with these women. 

The day after the shower we attended a company picnic hosted by my husband's work. It was our first time to attend so we didn't know what to expect. The kids had a blast with all of the games they had. The food was catered by a local BBQ place and it was delicious plus Mitch participated in the volleyball tournament. Here are some photos from that...

Marcus at the sack race. The kids got a little bag of goodies for participating so both of them were excited to join in on all of the games.

Maddie impressed me by getting the rope around the bull's head on the first try.

 Mitch's team got third place and they got a small cash prize to split between the members of the team. It was fun to see him enjoy his time with his peers outside of the normal routine of work.


Another big event for our family in the month of August was school starting for the kids. Marcus started middle school (he's in 6th grade) and Maddie is in 3rd grade. Marcus rides the bus to and from school and Maddie will continue to walk to school. I was so relieved that Marcus' first day of school went off without any issues and he surprised me at how responsible he was with keeping up with his schedule and bus pass. 


Maddie's school has had some staff changes this year. They have a new principal and she is in a class with a new teacher. We didn't know much about this new teacher but after asking her how her first day of school went and she replying with..."Mrs. Moreau is so fun!" I think it's safe to say that we are off to a great start.


And finally a baby bump picture. This was taken at about 38 weeks. As you can see I'm ready to "pop"! I don't think I can stretch my tummy anymore than this so I'm praying that baby M will decide to come sometime soon. 

It will be interesting to do this family update post in September which will probably be littered with baby photos and stories. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, August 25, 2014

Ribbon charm bracelet *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

Ribbon jewelry has been a rage right now. Just check out Pinterest and you will find an enormous array of accessories that combine satin ribbon with some fun pearls, beads and accents. This trend inspired me to create my own charm bracelet. Read on to see how I created my bracelet that my sweet daughter is proudly modeling for me.

Instructions:
 1. Gather your supplies.

 2. Pick pattern papers that have small accents that would be good to highlight as part of your charm. I chose a paper pack that had a fall/autumn theme so I can wear my bracelet in the upcoming season. I also chose to use a 6x6 paper pack since I know the designs would be smaller in scale, which would be perfect for the size of my bubble circle stickers.
I just adhered the plain bubble sticker over the design that I wanted to use and then use my scissors to cut it out. 
 3. Then you add your bubble sticker onto a charm foundation. After looking at my design, I decided to add another charm making it 6 metal charms in all.

4. Next you thread the charms through the satin ribbon. I used my mat (with the grids) to space out my charms evenly. Because the hole of the charm fit nicely with the size of the ribbon, I didn’t need to tie my ribbon in between the charms. These accents didn’t move through my ribbon. I trimmed the ends leaving about 6” on each ends for tying. I added some fray check on the ends so that my ribbon ends don’t fray.

This process can be used for necklaces as well.

Here’s a couple of close up images of my bracelet…. 


Thank you for joining me today and happy creating.
-Grace

Supplies Used:
Satin, Pastel green, 5/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Pattern papers- Into the Woods, Lawn Fawn
Epoxy stickers and charm metal- Epiphany Crafts
Fray check- Dritz

Sunday, August 24, 2014

His Ride layout *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello there crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a layout I created for hubby. One of my go to design principle for scrapbook projects is to pull out the colors of my layouts from the photo/s that I am using. With this one, I used the dark color of the bike seats and the yellow on the tank. I also grabbed some green from the grass.

To make this "everyday" scrapbook fun I added some of the stamps in the Pretty Planners set from Inspired By Stamping. I had this paper that already had block designs so I just stamped the days of the week on it to create my homemade calendar. 
I also added the tag stamps and then layered them with stars. 
Here are some more details...




I got some Project Life cards at Hobby Lobby a month ago and decided to use some of it here. I used it on part of my title and also my journaling block. I love the quality of these cards. This definitely won't be the last time I purchase them.

What's your go to design principle when you create a layout?

Make sure you check out the rest of the stamps from Inspired By Stamping here.

Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

August scrapbook kit revealed

Hi there crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a video showcasing the scrapbook kit that I'd put together for the month of August. It has a combination of items that are "new" to me plus items that I've been wanting to use up. 


So what do you think of my kit? Has it inspired you to grab items from your stash? If it has, please play along and share what you've created.

Subscribe to my You Tube channel (if you haven't already) to be one of the first to know when a new video has been uploaded.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, August 18, 2014

Merry and Bright layout *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

I know that we are in the middle of summer but I can’t help but get into the Christmas spirit when I saw these photos of my Holiday decorations. Today I’d like to share with you how I created this layout along with a fun way to add ribbons to your project….

Instructions:

 1. I first pulled out papers and products that matched my photos.

2. I loved the circle die cut accent that came with this collection and used it as my journaling frame. I cut out a circle from a beige pattern paper and then adhered it on the back of the circle frame.

 3. I also added some stickers onto the journaling block before hand writing my thoughts.

 4. I adhered all of my elements on the page and then added a ruffle red ribbon over the photos and scallop border for some added dimension.

5. Next I worked on adding some bubble stickers to my page. I used my ribbons with these plain bubble stickers for an easy way to add festive touches to the page. 


 6. For the smaller bubble stickers, I added them to some plastic scallop accents and brad makers.

7. Then I added them on three different positions in the layout to create a visual triangle.

Here’s the layout again with some close up details…




Thank you for joining me today and I hope this inspired you to create your very own holiday project, even if it’s in the middle of summer.

Happy Creating,
Grace
Supplies Used:
Doubleruffle red, 3/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Dazzle, red, 7/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Grosgrain,Stripes, 5/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Countrycheck, Red, 1”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Cardstock- Worldwin Papers
Pattern papers, stickers, die cut frame- Heidi Swapp
Epoxy stickers, brad maker and white embellishments- Epiphany Crafts
Pen- Millenium, Zig

Circle cutter- Creative Memories

Friday, August 15, 2014

July Projects with homemade scrapbook kit

I have a confession to make....sometimes I have these grand ideas and I start them and then life happens and I either have to set them aside or I "occasionally" forget about them. Such was the case with this one. In the month of June I had put together my own scrapbook kit. My plan was to pull products from my stash that is either new to me or something that I want to use up and create pages with it. I am following a scrapbook group on Facebook and they have challenges that I was interested in participating in as well. But alas, with my craft camp and our trip to Southern California, this kit was set aside for over a month.

With birthdays, getting back to routine and finishing up my spring semester of school, it was hard to find time to pull it out until about the end of the month. Anyways I'm still glad that I didn't give up on this project because now I have four layouts completed plus a card.

Here's a picture of the kit that I had put together from my stash....
If you have been scrapbooking for a while then you've heard of monthly scrapbook kits. These are kits that you subscribe to every month and they send you a compilation of products that match and you use it u on your projects. Well I like the idea but I also know that I have way too many supplies already to add a kit subscription to my plate. So I decided to create my own. This allowed me to finally use up some supplies that I've been hoarding and mix it up with new things that I have purchased  within the last six months. 

And here are the projects I was able to make with it....

Celebrate Fall layout.
I started working on my "kit" in June so I tried to incorporate the challenge from the FB group that I belong to which is to add mixed media into your pages. I used a stencil, mist and some gelato in this layout



Like Father, Like Son
This was my fourth layout from the kit. I enhanced the circle title cardstock by misting a design on it before adhering my letter stickers to it.




Little Music Stars
This is my third layout from the kit. I am so happy to finally be putting to use some of the things I cut from my Cameo. The "little star" cut in my title was one of them.



Super bowl
This was my second layout from the kit. I used the gelato to color in my doily.



Have a Happy Day card
I decided to use up some more of the embellishments from the "kit" before I put everything away and this is what came out of that.

So that's what I was able to create out of the products in my homemade kit. It felt good to be creating for "fun". What about you? What do you do to bring the fun into your crafting?

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace