Deerfield Water Park Layout

Happy Friday. Today I thought I'd share a layout I created (sometime last month) that showcased one of the fun places we've discovered in our town two summers ago. Unfortunately we haven't been back here since then (we've had other fun things going on in the summers and it's a bit of a drive down south) but it's great to know that there are free places like this in our area. 

Deerfield Water Park layout

I have been trying to use my stash and this was created with most of the products coming from my Chic Tag collection as well as American Crafts and Studio Calico stash. I used some little acrylic paint dots to create the dimensions on the center of the flowers and other dotted lines in the layout. 

Here are some more close ups....

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

June family update

So I guess this family update thing will have to be a monthly occurrence on this blog. We started off our Summer with lots of activities. Both for the kids and I. We have been busy in the month of June and we are counting down the days when we go on our vacation. Looking forward to unwinding and being with the family. 

Anyways, here's how our June looked like so far...

School ended in the beginning of this month. But before then, the kids' school had their last pride assembly. This is when they give out awards and recognize the kids for their achievements for that year. The day before the assembly, I got a letter from the PE teacher and Sports club coach saying that Marcus will be one of two kids that will be getting a special award that he has never given out before. Marcus has been attending after school sports club since 3rd Grade and Mr. Brubaker was very organized and kept track of all of their attendance during this time. Well he counted and I guess out of all the three years that my son participated in this once a week after  school activity, he has only missed two days. This was one of the things that my son enjoyed and he didn't mind staying up one more hour after school once a week for it. Mr. B. thought that these boys deserved to be recognized for their dedication so he gave them a certificate. What a great way to end 5th grade!

Speaking of Marcus, he finished Elementary school this year. He is now officially a middle schooler. I still can't believe that! The collage above shows him on the first day of school (left photo) and then the right shows him with his certificate of completion during the "promotion" ceremony. I wanted to give him a little something as a gift for making it this far and I knew that flowers or balloons weren't going to be much appreciated by this boy so I made him a candy lei. He was very happy about that. The problem now is that I have to remember to make Maddie a candy lei too when she gets to this point or I will never hear the end of it. Ha!

And of course Maddie gets her collage picture as well. The image on the right shows her on the first day and the one of the left is of her on the last day of school this year. The one thing I noticed about these two images placed side by side is how fast she is growing up. I mean, piggy tales on the left and then a flower with hair down on the right! She definitely got the "preteen" bug this year and I'm not excited about it. Why are my babies growing up so fast?

During the month of May, I decided to do a major overhaul of my craft space. I went through ALL of my stuff and made a pile to keep and one to part with. After doing all the purging, I held a scrapbook yard sale in the beginning of June. I made some money and the kids even joined in with a table selling lemonade and some baked goodies. Marcus was a little disappointed that what he was selling wasn't flying off the shelf but it was a good teaching moment to them about working hard and paying your tithing afterwards.

The major home improvement project this month was painting the backyard deck. Mitch actually started this in May but with our afternoon rain showers, it was hard for him to find the time to finish it all. I wasn't able to help him out with the painting as I was afraid the paint fumes might be bad for the baby. But as always he did an awesome job after it was all done. He only did one coat though so he'll have to do it all over again starting in July.

As you can see from the photo above, our deck needed some major TLC. It was really looking bad. We suspect that the prior owners just did a coat of varnish when they were getting ready to sell it and that's why the color didn't last long (we've only been here for 3 1/2 years). This time we bought the type of paint that supposed to restore and protect the wood and that it should last for a long time. Crossing our fingers we don't have to do this again too soon. 

June also means craft camp for me. I snapped this photo of bags of craft supplies just before I pulled them out and made a big huge mess in my craft room. I'm holding the camp this week and I'm super excited about the projects we are making this year. I have a small group this time (which I don't mind at all) and decided to make some of the projects a bit more detailed since there's less kids to teach/help. I hope they like it. Maddie saw some of my samples and was already excited. :)

Of course June won't be the same without celebrating our favorite daddy! I let Mitch go with me to See's candy store so he can "personalize" his chocolate box. We are not into surprises in this home (at least the adults are not) so we don't mind knowing what we will get before hand. He liked the idea of picking the chocolates himself and now he says that he as a new favorite besides the Bordeaux kind. He also got a cool card from Amanda.

Marcus got to participate in another year of Cub Scout day camp this year. This is his last year and although, in the beginning, he was not too thrilled to be doing some of the Webelos events again (he got an early start with Webelos last year) he had an awesome time. When I asked him what was his favorite, he said it was the rock climbing. I was not there when he did this event but from what I heard from the other moms, he was fearless and was able to make it to the top. I was asked to photograph the events of the last day of camp (Webelos day) and the above was a shot I took of a boy focusing on his archery. I am always impressed at the amount of volunteer work that members of our church put in order for these boys to get their pins and requirements done. I am blessed to have such devoted leaders working with me and my husband so that my children can have such awesome experiences like this. 

And finally, a "baby bump" photo. This is me on Father's day so it would have been a couple days before my 29th week of pregnancy. I am now officially 30 weeks so that means 10 (or less) week to go. We are very excited for our little one and already have a name picked out. We even talk about our baby boy using this name so we can test it out and see if we like it. I especially adore it when the kids mention him by his name.I think it's so adorable that they already have this connection with him even before he's born. Oh and no I am not going to share his name in public (only with immediate family) as I'm worried I'll jinx it. I had a name picked out early on and then shared it with a couple of friends only to find out that my husband refuse to use that name for our boy. Don't want that to happen again! 

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by and keeping in touch with us.

Till next time,

Grace

What A View! layout + New Pile it up video

Happy Monday dear blog friends. If you have subscribed to my YouTube channel, you probably have seen this latest installment to my "Pile it up" series. This is a video tutorial where I share how I try to put as many of that item in my one layout. This helps me use up my stash as well as think of innovative ways of incorporating products into my scrapbooking. 

This specific video's product to pile it up was washi tape. And here's the layout I created...

What A View!

Check the video to see the process behind this layout...

*If you would like to check out the rest of my process videos, please stop by my You Tube channel here. 

And here's some close up shots of the page....

I hope my process and the ways I used up washi will inspire you to bust those little rolls of fun from your stash storage and make something fun with it. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Till next time,

Grace

For You card *Inspired By Stamping*

Hello there crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a card that I created for Inspired By Stamping. 

For You Card

With this one, I rummaged through my scraps and found some papers that worked well together. I noticed that I can fit in a floral stamp inside the dots of the yellow pattern paper and I matched the ink to the pink paper that I used on the bottom border of the card. 

 I added some buttons on a couple of the stamped flowers to create a visual triangle (the third one is on top of the ribbon)

I used some white embossing powder and heat embossed the frame and sentiment to make them stand out against all the pattern papers on the back.

Thank you for stopping by.

Supplies Used:
Fancy Label Dies 3, Inspired By Stamping
Spring Blossoms, Inspired By Stamping
Fancy Labels 3, Inspired By Stamping
Sweet Peas, Inspired By Stamping
Sage Ribbon, Inspired By Stamping
Others: Cardstock, Pattern papers, buttons, twine, border punch

Till next time,
Grace

Live, laugh, love altered frame *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

I am always on a hunt to find treasures in the clearance bin of my local craft store. At one certain visit I found some place card holder frames that went down to 99 cents. I didn’t know (at that time) what I will make with them but I couldn’t pass them up.

Fast forward to this week, I was looking at a certain wall in my home and found it to be lonely and bare. The thought of hanging up a saying on it came to mind and I knew that the frames and some gold wired ribbon from Ribbon’s Unlimited will brighten up that spot.

Here’s how I created my home décor project….

1. First, I grabbed my frames and the ribbon. I then went through my stash to find papers and letters that would fit the frame and also match with all the colors that I’m going to use.

2. Next, I took of the easel back of the frames. I wouldn’t need it since I’m adhering them onto the ribbon. That was an extra bulk that I didn’t need. Luckily I was able to easily take it off.

3. Third, I measured the inside of the frame and cut out my papers according to the size. I then adhered them onto the inside cardboard of the frame, added the plastic on the front and slipped them back into the frames. *I initially used the green floral paper but after trying to place the letters on top of it, I realized that the pattern on the paper clashed with my letters. So I changed it with the star paper instead.

4. Then I added my letters over the plastic cover of my frames.

5. Using a glue gun, I adhered the frames onto the ribbon.  I added a ring on top of the ribbon so it can easily be hung anywhere.  I added a bow from the same wired ribbon on the top.

6. I added a velvet flower on the center of the bow for a finished look.

Here’s another look at the finished project and some more detailed shots…

Thank you for joining me today.

Happy Crafting,

Grace

Supplies Used:

#274 Luxor(Wired) Gold, 1 ½”,Ribbons Unlimited Inc.

Frame- place card holder, Celebrate it

Pattern papers- 6x6 Party Day, Crate Paper

Letter stickers- Thickers, American Crafts

Flower- Maya Road

Sweet treat boxes *Inspired By Stamping*

 Hi there Inspired By Stamping friends. Grace here to share with you one of my favorite ways to share my love for papercrafting. One of the super easy way for me to share my love for all things stamping and paper is to package sweet treats with them. I cut the papers for the treat box using my Silhouette Cameo and then I added some beautiful stamped images along with the circle die from the Fancy label dies 3 set plus a ribbon from the IBS store.

I decided to cut out a circle from the center of the box and then covered the spot with vellum so that when I fill these with sweet treats, some parts of the dessert will peek out.

 
I combined the label die along with a sentiment from the Petite Banners set for my title.

 
 I decided to add the floral image from the Fancy Labels 3 set. I colored it with some markers and then adhered it just over the circle cut. I hope my project inspires you to bust out those papers and stamps and create some pretty packaging for your treats made in the kitchen.

   

Fancy labels 3

 Petite Banners

 Fancy Labels dies 3, Inspired By Stamping

Sage ribbon, Inspired By Stamping

Others: Pattern Papers, Vellum, Die cut machine, Adhesive

Trick or Treat layout *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

Hi there ribbon friends. Today I’m sharing with you how I can incorporate some ribbons and trims with fun designs as part of my scrapbook page. I wanted to use up some of my scrap papers and I noticed that if I lined up my ribbons on blocks of cardstock scraps, I can make them look like paper as well. Read on to see how I created this page…

1. First I decided which trims would work well with my theme. I ended up picking the animal printed grosgrains along with the orange/purple dot ribbon. They worked well with my Halloween themed page.

2. Then I cut up a blocks from scrap cardstock measuring 2 ½ x 3”. I added some strips of ribbon over one side of the paper.

3. Next I covered the paper with ribbon. You can decide if you want to cut off the excess (some of the blocks will have extra trim since the widths of the ribbon varies). I cut some of them off depending on how well they fit into my block design.  I repeated this process for all the ribbons that I wanted to add to my page.

4. I wanted them have some more texture so I added some acrylic paint dots on the inside edges. Set aside to dry .

5. While the ribbon blocks are drying, assemble the page. I used a block design, filling it up with my photos first and then adding strips and blocks of pattern paper to fill the rest of the page.

6. When the paint dots are dried, adhere the blocks to the page. Layer some paper and ribbons blocks with stickers and more paper.

7. I decided to add some circle accents on the page to break up some of the square design. I had punched out a 2” circle from cardstock, run it through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss dot embossing folder and then added some “mustard” ink on the raised dot. I then adhered it onto a scallop circle die and added a few more details.

Here’s the final page again and some close ups…..

Thank you for joining me today and I hope this page encourages you to turn your favorite ribbon trims as pattern paper blocks on your next project.

Happy Crafting,

Grace

Supplies Used:

Dazzle Dotribbon 3/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.

LilacLeopard Grosgrain 5/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.

#338 NeonZebra 7/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.

Giraffe7/8”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.

Cardstock- WoldWin Papers

Pattern papers- Graphic 45, Authentique, Echo Park, Elle’s Studio, SEI, DCWV, Farmhouse

Stickers- Bazzill

Flair- Lawn Fawn

Paint- Claudine Helmuth Studio, Ranger

Glitter Glue- Hampton Arts

Embossing folder- Swiss dot, Cuttlebug, Provo Craft

Scallop circle die cut- Spellbinders

Crow die- Die Versions

Circle cutter- Creative Memories

Ink- Mustard, American Crafts

Pen- Millennium, Zig

Adhesives