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.



Sunday, November 30, 2014

Christmas card 2014 + video on effective mass production of cards

Hi there friends. I know that in some parts of the world, Christmas starts before Halloween, but I prefer to get into the spirit of the holiday season AFTER Thankgiving. Isn't that how it used to be? Anyways since I'm in the holiday mood now,I decided to share with you my Christmas card for this year...

I haven't massed produced Holiday cards in a while and decided that this year, I will go back to my "roots" so to speak. I loved making handmade cards for the holiday season and it gives me a great excuse to use up my stash. 

I created this card using this a few stamp sets from Inspired By Stamping. They can be found here, here and here

While creating my card, I found some easy ways to make this project cost effective and efficient. Want to hear it? Watch the video below to learn more.


And here's a few more close ups of the card...

Now all it needs is a family photo and I might even type up a year in review newsletter. I'm on a roll here!

How about you, do you make handmade cards for the season? What's the best tip you've found that makes it fun for you?

till next time,
Grace

Friday, November 28, 2014

Happy Family layout

So how was your Thanksgiving day? Was it full of yummy food and great company? Did you brave the crowds and got some deals? Well however you celebrated the day, I hope you were able to create some great memories. 

Speaking of memories, I got one documented recently, inspired by this sketch...

Happy Family layout
Remember my page from Wednesday? about my daughter's baptism? Well the photo on this page is from the same weekend. My parents and two of my siblings were able to come to the baptism and we had to document the mini reunion with a family photo. I got this one printed as a 5x7 and I thought it needed it's own special layout.

The sketch had an extra challenge that went with it. They wanted us to add something that inspired us. My family definitely inspires me and that's what I used as my journaling prompt.

I used a lot of die cut shapes and itty bitty pieces from my stash in this layout. I loved the deep turquoise background but needed to ground the page a bit so I added some white paint around it.

Here's a video of how I created this page....


And here are some more close ups...




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

Till next time,
Grace

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving


Just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends.

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

A Day to Remember layout

Hi there crafty friends. Today I'm sharing a page I created, inspired by this sketch from this challenge blog


A Day To Remember layout
I can't believe this was over a year ago. A lot of things happened to our family since then, the most significant is welcoming baby Mason to our bunch.

I used some pink accents in this page since one of the picture had some hints of that color. I also liked the turquoise cause it went' well with the creams,pinks and blacks. Instead of 7 small photos, I was able to fit four 3x5 images. I love sketches that helps me incorporate more photos in my layout. I was also able to use some die cut shapes that I had cut from my Silhouette.

Here's a video of how I created this page...


And here's some more close ups...




Thank you for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Family Update *November Edition*

Taking a bit of break from the "crafty" posts to share what has been happening in the Tolman home. 

November seemed to have come and went. We were filled with tons of scheduled events but going into this Thanksgiving week, we didn't have much planned and I'm soooo looking forward to the downtime. 

Anyways, Mitch's big thing this month was his Elk Hunting trip. He had been preparing for this trip for months- collecting all of his equipment/supplies to hiking and working out so he can be in shape for all the hunting part of the trip. Here are some photos he captured from his adventure....
It was a cold and snowy week when he did his hunting trip. It made for some picturesque views. He spent a week up in the mountains, unfortunately he came up empty handed. It was kinda sad to come home without any Elk meat but I'm sure that the adventure was still worth the effort.

November was also a pretty expensive month for us as far as home improvements. This month we had our roof done (hail damage in the Summer led us to get our roof redone), purchased a new over the stove microwave (our old one just died on us) and we had to buy a new water heater (an unexpected purchase but needed to be bought). As you can sense, we didn't WANT to buy all of these things but we just got hit with all of these needed home improvements at the same time.

But there's a silver lining here. Because we had to buy a water heater, it came in a big cardboard box and Maddie was super excited about it. Excited enough that she put the box in her room and slept in it for at least three weeks. Yes, you read it right....three weeks of sleeping in a box. Something that up to this day, I still don't understand. We finally got her to give it up about a week ago.

I went to a Veteran's day school program at Maddie's school this month since her grade performed a few songs. On our way up to her class, she pointed to an art piece on the wall that was displayed in the hallway. I saw the name on the bottom and was full of pride for my little artist. I then took a photo of her owl piece plus her in it. 

Sorry I didn't have any pictures but Marcus also has had a great month. Just a couple of days ago, we got a letter from the school stating that he was part of the honor roll for the first quarter of the year. His overall grade was above 3.5 GPA and that got him into the list. So proud of his efforts and I pray that he continue to love school and learning. 

Another story for this month that I don't have a photo of is the unexpected health issues I had to deal with. I had to go to the doctor at the beginning of the month for kidney issues that, thankfully, after multiple tests came up negative. My doctor and I are not so sure how the flare ups started and why the test results came up inconclusive but grateful that I don't have to deal with that anymore. 

So as for our little one. Today he's 3 months old. He's growing up way too fast {insert sad face here}. Here's a few highlights of his November:
-He experienced his first snow (didn't go out side though cause it's so cold out there)
-He got to visit his siblings' schools for their Thanksgiving feasts. 
-He smiles a lot now. He especially is more engaging right after a feeding. 
-He babbles a lot as well. It's so cute to hear him make noises. 

So that's how our month looked like. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, November 24, 2014

Christmas Gift boxes *Ribbons Unlimited Inc.*

Hi there Ribbons Unlimited friends. Today I’d like to share a project that can easily be mass produced and could hold your favorite Holiday handmade gift or like me, just fill it up with candy and you are good to go.


Instructions:
1. Using a full 12x12 sheet of paper, Score at 1”, 4”, 8” and 11”. Turn the paper 90 degrees and repeat the scoring process. Fold on the scored marks. 

2. Cut at the 4” and 8” marks leaving a 4” square box in the center. If you desire, you can cut away 2x4” on each corner of the template. I did this for the first one to trim down the excess paper and the layers of paper won’t be too bulky but I found that it lost some important structure so I opted not to trim the corners on the second box.
Punch out a border on each edge of the box. Grabbing the two 2x4” pieces towards the center, adhere them together and then adhere one side of the box over them. Fold the edge over the front. 

3. To reinforce the structure of the first box, I adhered a strip of the red checkered ribbon around the box. 

4. Adhere the ends over each other using some glue dots. 

5. Punch out a hole on two adjacent sides of the box. Adhere the checkered ribbon over the gold trim. 

6. Thread both ribbons through your holes, and adhere the ends inside the box using some tape. 

7. Create two bows from the gold ribbon and adhere on the sides of the box, covering the holes you’ve created for the handle. 

 8. Add a sentiment block using paper and stickers. Repeat the process for how many boxes you need to make.

Here’s some more close ups…

Thank you for joining me today and I hope this helped you find ways to incorporate your ribbons and papercrafting supplies in your gift giving this season.

Happy Creating,
Grace

Supplies Used:
Country check, Red, 1”, Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
#274 Luxor(Wired) Gold, 1 ½”,Ribbons Unlimited Inc.
Paper and stickers- Noel, SEI
Border punch- Recollections

Others- Adhesive strip, foam adhesive

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Happy Birthday card

Happy Sunday friends. I'm doing a double post today so I can share this card made with the latest Freshly made sketch.
Happy Birthday card
The colors and theme of my card might surprise some since we are in the midst of Thanksgiving week but to be honest, with my time creating projects for publication, my brain has become accustomed to creating off season. I make Christmas projects in July and Summer items in December. It's going to take a while for my crafty brain to go back to the "regular" schedule of things. 

Anyways, I created this card entirely with scraps from a layout that I will share later on this week. I love how the white die cut paper really pops out against the pink cardstock. I was also happy to be able to use up a ton of Simple Stories stickers in this card. So fun!
Anyways, thank you for stopping by and have a great rest of the week.

Till next time,
Grace

Stockings Gift Tags *Inspired by Stamping*

One of my new traditions for the Holiday season is giving homemade gifts from the kitchen. About two years ago I started making fudge and I fell inlove with how (a) fairly easy it was to make them and (b) they're quite delicious. My favorite one is the pumpkin pecan fudge. Just thinking about it makes me giddy! 

Anyways, part of my packaging for the fudge gifts are handmade tags and I love how most Inspired By Stamping stamp sets come with a downloadable cut file that can be used with the Silhouette machine. In the project below, I made four tags with a stocking cut file as my base. I added some stamping and twine and it's ready to be added to my homemade gifts this year.

Stocking Gift Tags
I cut the stockings twice from each pattern paper so that both sides of the tag would have the same pattern paper. Note: If you are replicating this project, make sure you flip on of the stocking image first before cutting it.

I then inked up the edges, stamped the stocking edge, added some leaves (which I cut as well) and my sentiment. Since the tags were about 1 1/2" wide, the sentiment I chose was small as well. 


So there you have it. Another quick project to add some homemade touch to your gift giving this year. 

For more info about the stamps used in this project as well as all the latest releases from Inspired by Stamping, please visit the site here

Till next time,
Grace

Friday, November 21, 2014

Santa's Helper layout *Inspired By Stamping*

One of my favorite part of the season is being able to decorate my home for the Holidays. I usually purchase decorations the day after Christmas so I can steal some deals. One year I got the Santa doll that my daughter is holding in the photos of my scrapbook page. It's so cute and we place him on the living room couch for everyone to see. And when you squeeze his hand, he will talk greeting you a Very Merry Christmas.

santashelper

 To dress up my page, I used the gingerbread man image from the Sugar and Spice set. I heat embossed the gingerbread man outline and face feature using white embossing powder. I stamped it on Kraft cardstock for that authentic gingerbread man color. I also added a red bow tie to give him some more personality. Super cute!

santashelper-001
 
 I also added some candy images on my title block as well as the "believe" paper block.

santashelper-002
 
 So there you have it. I hope this inspired you to document some of your favorite Holiday traditions and add some stamping fun in them.
 -Grace
image_thumb.png
 

Inspired-by-Stamping-Sugar-Spice-Stamp-Set_thumb.png
Sugar and Spice, Inspired By Stamping
Others: Cardstsock, Pattern papers, die cut borders, circle cutter, white embossing powder

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Hello card *challenge entry*

Happy Thursday and I hope you have been enjoying my crafty posts all this week. I gotta tell you, it feels good to create and use up my stash. Now I don't feel guilty having all of these beautiful products surround me, because I'm actually putting them to good use. My latest share was inspired by this from the Fusion challenge blog....

Hello card
I decided to use the sketch as my main prompt. Instead of having a card that is more vertical, I did mine horizontal. The jar die cut represented that long block on the sketch and the circle (with a heart sticker) is the star element of my card.

I was also inspired by the photo and so I used a scallop border punch to create that lace effect like on the cake and my background pattern paper has an ombre look as well.

So there you have it. Thanks for stopping by and if you have a challenge blog that I haven't played along with and you think it might be a great springboard for my next project, please share. I'm always looking for inspirations and your fave challenge blog might just be it.

Have a great day.

till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Slurpee Day layout *challenge entry*

Hi there. It's me again and this time with another layout using this sketch as a prompt from Stuck?! sketches blog...


Slurpee Day layout
I loved the sketch and the way it incorporated many patterns and elements. It's the perfect prompt for me to use up my stash.

It felt good to stick this cute drinking glass sticker on the page. I finally found a use for it. I don't know about you but it felt good to find a layout to match my stash. No more hoarding for me. Ha!



Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace