Halloween garland

I love fall. I love Halloween! It is such a fun, creative, imaginative holiday!
This year we made a Halloween garland to hang over our dining table. We die-cut several Halloween shapes (I used QuicKutz Revolution shapes) from scraps of fall-colored paper. Alli and Ruby decorated several of the shapes with markers and crayons. We strung thread from the wall to the light fixture and then used small pieces of clear tape to hang the die-cut papers on the threads.
Alli and Ruby are so proud of their contributions. The garland is whimsical and festive, and just the right project for an afternoon of spooky fun.

Mom, don't look at this yet...

Mom, if you are reading this, stop now... until my card arrives in the mail.

Here is a card I made for my mom. I went with a bird nest theme. There are many, many kids in my family, and 90% are out of the nest. My mom is an amazing mother, who has had a busy, full nest for 39+ years. Anyhow, I thought Mom would appreciate the sentiment... and she always appreciates any home-made card from her peeps... er, kids.

This is the front of the card. The mama bird and the nest. (Click on the pictures for a more detailed view.)

This is the inside. There are ten little birds inside (there are ten kids in my family) who have hatched from their eggs and are flying around like chickens with their heads... oh wait, lets stick to nice bird-isms...they are flying around like a bird out of ... oh well. Crazy, busy, colorful flying birds. Here is a little detail on the back of the card... under the heart-felt message to my mom.

The card is made from paper collage and drawing. The paper shapes were made by cutting freehand (with my favorite Tonic spring-cut scissors... essential for detailed cutting), and there are some QuicKutz die-cut shapes as well.

The birds are simple to make: cut out two tear-drop shapes, one larger than the other (I used QuicKutz rain die-cuts). Use the large one as the body, the small one as the wing. Add a beak, eye (googly eyes are great for this), and twiggy feet.

The darling patterned papers are manufactured by Colorbok, Chatterbox, Paper Source, Bazzill, SEI, and others.

My mom will like it. Happy Mothers' Day!

Getting Crafty

Congratulations to my friend Stephanie! Baby Eliza was born March 3rd. To celebrate her birth, I got a little crafty and made a nursing cover. The front is held open with a flexible plastic piece that keeps mom's view unobstructed while baby nurses in privacy. The nursing cover folds into the front pocket for compact storage. The magnetic clasp holds the strap on one side. I got this great fabric at JoAnn's.

Every mom and baby needs a diaper clutch to hold the essentials. This little bag holds a small wipe container and a few diapers. The fabric lining inside is glittery pink. The magnetic clasp is hidden under a felt flower. I cut the felt with my QuicKutz die-cutter.
The wipes container is embellished with fabric, felt and beads. The flowers were cut with the QuicKutz die-cutter. I used clear Gloo by K.I. Memories to adhere the fabric and beads.

thinking of summer

It is insanely cold here in Chicago, and I have summer on the brain. I find myself browsing through sunny warm pictures of the fun things we did last summer and imagining myself warm and wearing sandals at the beach. (Sigh.) It was 2 degrees yesterday morning... not counting windchill. I had to put on my big ugly warm boots just to check the mail (right outside of our door).
So many of our summer pictures included our dear neighbor Elijah, Alli's best friend, that I had to do a scrapbook page celebrating their summer of fun together. I used paper from the dollar section at Target (12 sheets for $1), a Sharpie felt-tip pen, the QuicKutz Moxie Classic alphabet, and some plain cardstock from Costco.

Click on the picture for a larger, more detailed view.

I doodled and sketched on the die-cut letters and on the paper flowers to tie them together. Doodling makes a very fun, care-free, light-hearted scrapbook page. Some people are intimidated by free-hand drawing. Doodling isn't too difficult. Try this... I drew along the inside of the letters (this font works well because it is so chunky), creating a boundary for my doodling. I filled in the letters with stripes, polka dots, zig zags, etc. The lines don't have to be perfect (that is what makes them fun and innocent).

This was a temporary cure for winter chills, but a permanent preservation of sunny memories... and that warms my heart.

Fish Pinata

My daughter wanted to have a fish-princess-unicorn-themed party for her fourth birthday. (She is all about mixing and matching. Her hairstyle for the party was one French braid and one pigtail.)

Here is the pinata for the party.

It is a fish princess.

I made the body from a basic pinata (paper mache over balloon).

The pinata is covered in die-cut circles (I used the QuicKutz bagel die) to make the scales. The scales are glued on, row by row, overlapping from front to back. The fins, eyes, lips and crown are hand-cut originals. I used a bone folder to score lines on the fins for a little texture and shaping. I embellished with plastic jewels.

This was a great project to use up lots of miscellaneous paper scraps. I used patterned and solid cardstock. I even used some drawings that Alli had done.

The funny thing is, the kids at the party had never smashed a pinata before, so they were quite reluctant to hit it... until they saw the candy come out. Then it was bashed to pieces in seconds. And candy is probably still scattered throughout my living room... which is fine with my kids.