January Sketch-a-thon at Scrap-Friendzy

Can you believe that January is just around the corner? Only a week away! And if you are like me, you are going to have lots of pictures to get busy on in the new year. What better way to jump start your scrapping mojo than with a sketch-a-thon!! That's right, 31 sketches for the 31 days of January. Stay tuned for more announcements about this.

December is Here!!

I love this time of the year and all that goes along with it! I'm totally getting in the Christmas Spirit. I have bought um...just a few....well, like at least 7 different lines of Christmas paper. Guess I'm gonna be scrapping a lot of Christmas layouts. I also have some more projects planned to do as well.

Got some great news! I was accepted to the Memorable Seasons Design Team!! I love it over there...the girls are all so friendly and the STORE....well, let's just say that Jill has one rockin' online store! If you have never shopped there, you should stop by. You never know what she is going to have on sale.

And some more news....I just ordered a Canon Rebel XSi!! I am so happy and can't wait to get it and play with it. Merry Christmas to me! I told you I loved this time of year! ;)

Countdown to Santa Magnetic Bingo Board

I've made an advent calendar before. Spent lots and lots of time making all those cute little boxes. Hung it up on the wall and everything. Only got through about day 4 before I was bored with it and the kids were uninterested. However, they do like to change the days on the perpetual calendar as a way to countdown until the day Santa comes. So I decided to create this little diddy. It is a Bingo Board of sorts. Each day, I will call out one of the words in the 25 squares and they get to cover it with a magnet (the magnets are all around the perimeter of the circle). They will know how many more days until Santa by counting how many empty squares they have. They "bingo" when the entire board is filled....that will be Christmas Day. They may end up getting another "bingo" accidentally before the entire board fills up. We may have a special prize for them if they do so.

This is super easy to make! All you need is a Pizza Pan. I got mine for $3 from the dollar store and it is 12 inches. I could have painted the pan first and I debated doing so, but decided to just leave it as is. I chose to use the December Details products by Bella Blvd. because, well, I'm just in love with them! I won the entire line off of the Bella Blog and was anxious to break it open.
1) There are 5 papers in that line so I cut one 2x12 inch strip from each one. I then cut the strip into 2 inch sections making 6 2x2 squares. I used 5 from each pattern paper and created a grid. I rounded the 4 corners so they fit into the pizza pan circle nicely.
2) Before I adhered them all down, I distressed and black inked the edges so that each square would be defined.
3) Next, I added word stickers, die cuts and stamps that related to the holidays. These are the same words that I will put on pieces of paper to call out each day.
4) The magnets were next. I used buttons, premade flowers, brads, stickers....anything that I could find that would work. I also made some paper and crocheted flowers. I LOVE all the fabulous flower-making tutorials out there and put several into use for mine.
5) Now all that is left is the embellishing. I used the alpha stickers that came in the December Details and put them onto black cardstock before cutting them out. I used the Crop-A-Dile to put the holes into the pizza pan to add my ribbon.

I think the board looks great with the magnets all line up around the edges. Here are some close ups:
And here is what the board will look like with all the words covered:
I hope this inspires you to make one of these magnet boards. I'd love to see yours if you do create one!

Countdown To The Holidays Crop

at Scrap-Friendzy!!! Be sure to make it over...it will be so much fun and inspire you to get lots done before the holidays get here!

Scrap Whispers Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome! If you are just joining me, you may want to head back over to the Scrap Whispers Blog so you can start this hop off from the very beginning. Today, the designers at Scrap Whispers are shining the spotlight on one of our very talented members. This person is Mary Eason! Her gallery is full of such wonderful inspiration, it was so hard for me to choose only one layout in which to lift. I finally decided on this one:I loved not only the design and the colors, but the way in which she titled it down the side. Here is my scraplift:I used the Bo Bunny Gypsy line from the fabulous October kit by Simply Obsessed. The colors were perfect for my pictures of Andrew playing ball in that orange dirt!

Head on over to Karry's blog, so you can see more scraplifts of Mary Eason! And don't forget to give Mary some love too!

Scrap-Friendzy Birthday Blog Hop-Stop #6

Happy Birthday, Scrap-Friendzy!!! I'm so glad that you have come by to visit me here on my little 'ole blog!

If you've just popped in and you've missed the other stops on the hop, go HERE to start from the beginning!!

October 10th will be the last day of the hop so keep visiting Scrap-Friendzy each evening to find out which design team blog to visit next.

Also, make sure you leave me a comment and again at each stop to get your name in the drawing for an awesome prize. If you visit and comment on all 10 blogs for the 10 days of the birthday blog hop, your name will be entered 10 times.

At Scrap-Friendzy we have a point system called friendz points. For each challenge that you complete, you will earn FPZ which could earn you another great prize at the end of the month!

You have until the end of October to complete all of the BLOG HOP Challenges for Friendz Pointz, but only until October 15th to leave a comment on all of the BLOG HOP STOPS to get your name in the bucket for the BLOG HOP Prize Drawing!!!

Now on to the fun part! I love birthdays! I also love giving homemade gifts and most everyone enjoys getting them too. I have come to discover that mini albums make great gifts for just about anyone. There are all sorts of mini albums: chipboard, acrylic, and accordian-fold just to name a few. You can buy these albums and decorate them as you wish. I like to make them as well. Here are some examples.

Paper Bag Albums:There are several ways to make these cute and inexpensive mini's. I have put together a tutorial for you in another blog post that you can see here. These are so much fun and VERY easy to make. My daughter likes to make them too.

Altered Picture Albums:Here, I took one of the $1 picture albums that you slide your photos in and added my own paper. I punched holes into the spine and added some coordinating ribbon.

Altered Chipboard:This album was made from pages of an old board book and coasters. Simply sand them down, cover them with your paper and pictures and you have a mini album!

Cardstock and Transparencies:This may be one of the easiest mini albums to make because you probably already have these supplies on hand. Just use some scrap pieces of cardstock, transparecies or other items and voila...you've got a great mini album to give.



Now for the challenge! I want you to create your own mini album. Use one of my examples, or create something completely different! Upload it to the October Challenges Gallery and then link it to this thread and you will receive 30 FPZ!!!!

Paper Bag Albums

Here lately, I've been making Paper Bag Albums. I am in the midst of preparing to teach a class on these this weekend and so I thought I'd share with you how easy they are to make!

Supplies:
4-paper lunch bags (brown or white are fine)
6-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 7 1/2" x 5 1/4"
4-pieces of pattern paper (double sided is best) 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Stickers, Diecuts, other embellishments
Coordinating Ribbon
3- Binder Rings (found at Walmart or local office supply store)
Alphabet stickers of your choice

Tools:
Paper Trimmer
Scissors
Adhesive
Ink Pad for inking edges (optional)
Corner Rounder (optional)
Crop-A-Dile or other hole puncher

Instructions:
1. Fold all four paper bags at the bottom where the flap is.2. Take two of the bags and glue the small flaps together. Repeat for the other two.
3. Punch holes in one set of bags. Line up and punch holes into second set.4. Adhere to the two sets of bags together by placing glue/tape to the backs of the two large sides.5. Choose 3 sheets of 12x12 double-sided paper and cut them in half (6x12). Then use each half to cut one of each of the specified sizes. This will give you the six large pieces, 4 smaller pieces, and two leftover. Lay them out and decide which paper you will use for each page. Because they are double-sided, you will have plenty of patterns to choose from. * From here until the end of the tutorial, I am using different sheets of paper from the above finished albums, but you can still get the idea.6. Attach papers to each page with glue or other adhesive. Trim any edges necessary. Do not worry about it being perfect. Use an inkpad to ink the edges of your pages. Go ahead and cover all your pages first. Make sure you punch the holes in your paper after attaching to each flap.
7. Use one of the leftover pieces (or a piece of cardstock from your scraps) to use on the cover. Cut this piece 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". You many round the corners and ink the edges. Use this piece on your cover and then add title on top of it.8. Decorate your cover with sticker or die cut in the corner and anywhere else you choose.9. Now you may go ahead and add embellishments to the corners of your pages OR you may wait and add your pictures to the pages first and then embellish at the end. You may add your rings and put some fun ribbon on them to finish up your album!10. There will be openings where you can stick extra pictures or memorabilia into and attach ribbon to pull them out with.That's it! I hope that I have been able to show you just how easy these albums are and that will give them a try!

Scrap-Friendzy Birthday Blog Hop!!!

As you may remember, I joined the team at Scrap-Friendzy on September 1st. Well, October marks their 2 year birthday and we are ready to celebrate in a BIG way! Please make your plans now to join us for a 10-day Blog Hop Extravaganza. That's right....10 days of blog hopping and 10 awesome challenges from our design team that are sure to inspire your creativity! And wait...there's more! Everytime you visit and leave comment on the DT's blog, your name gets entered for a prize.

We would love to have you join us and become one of our Friendz at SF. Why not head over there now and sign up! You will meet some fab ladies, be inspired by a gallery full of amazing yumminess, and have a blast. I have a special RAK that I want to offer. If you go sign up for SF (or if you are already a member but make yourself active), I will enter your name into a drawing and pull out a winner on October 1st. The winner will receive the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper pack!
Hope to see you at SF very soon!