Be Happy

Starting fast and fresh with these goodies ;) I think spring and summer are my favorite pages to create. My best photos are the ones taken outside and the girls just love a chance to play model when the weather is nice. These sweet pictures of A are from last spring. The girls are always so happy when the weather warms and they get to wear skirts and dresses nearly all the time. I took inspiration for this layout from another one of Susan's. I added more goodies since this is a girly layout ;) The bees I have been hoarding for a while and I'm so glad to finally have used them on a page. They were the perfect little addition with that title.


A lot of the embellishments I picked to go with my stash shopping have a bit of dimension and I know it's hard to capture that with a straight shot of the layout so I thought it would be fun to share some of the little details too ;) Thanks for popping by and have a happy Wednesday!


Green at Heart Paper by Basic Grey
Cardstock by American Crafts
Kraft Cardstock by Roberts
Urban Prairie Chipboard (bees) by Basic Grey
Spring Sprout Blossoms by Sassafras
Dear Lizzy Rubons by American Crafts
Regards Thickers by American Crafts
Journaling Lines Stamps and Raspberry Fizz Ink by Papertrey Ink
Gingham Ribbon by Making Memories
Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye
Apron Lace Border Punch by Fiskars

Stash Shopping - Green at Heart

I had so much fun making layouts from that last collection that I thought to put together one using items from my stash. So I did a little 'stash shopping' and put these together to use on my next layouts. With the Sweet Summertime set I didn't use everything I got, though I did use quite a bit of it. My hope is to do the same with these and use up my goodies rather than buying more, especially since I haven't even broken into some of them! ;) Here are the details :

Green at Heart Papers (3) by Basic Grey

Lime Rickey Paper by Basic Grey

Paper Doll Collection Paper by Crate Paper

American Crafts Cardstock

Kraft Cardstock from Roberts

Dear Lizzy Details by American Crafts

Spring Sprout Blossoms by Sassafrass

FieldHouse Flocked Boutique by American Crafts

Lush Decorative Brads in Green by My Minds Eye

So Sophie Savvy "Best Thing" Alpha stickers by My Minds Eye

Bird Chipboard bases by Scenic Route

Journal Cards by October Afternoon

Free Bird Beauty Title from Penny Lane by My Minds Eye

Urban Prairie Chipboard by Basic Grey

Rhinestones by Kaiser

Pretty Replacement Covers

After making those darling pincushions I kept thinking about making a sewing machine cover to complete the set ;) The cover I had been using was one that came with the machine, a very flimsy white plastic thing that was now very torn, crinkled, and stained. Needless to say it was ugly. So I pulled out the scraps from the fat quarters I used for the pincushions and found another fabric in my stash that matched the reds to make the sewing cover. I lined the inside with bleached muslin and used some light interfacing for more structure since I didn't have any scrap batting hanging around. There was literally just enough of the plaid floral to make binding. So much better!

I was about to call it a day when I realized just how gross my ironing board was. I still had that interesting vine fabric out and laid it over to see if I had enough. A while ago I had read the instructions for recovering table top ironing boards in the One Yard Wonders book so just going from memory I measured, cut, sewed, and finished recovering my little board. I happened to be lucky that my foam covering the board was in great shape and remarkably clean considering all the stains on the cover itself. I even managed to reuse the cording which worked out great because I didn't have any on hand. So not only is my ironing board like new - it matches my sewing goodies!

10 Things Mini Book and Some Bookmarks

Here's the minibook I made for Paul. As much as I love to scrap, making a page or album for Father's day isn't very display compatible with his space. However, a mini book would be right at home on his desk. I opted to make this pretty small, it's only 3.5x 4.25 basically so I could cut the 6 base pieces from one piece of 8.5x11 cardstock.



One of the first things I had to do was to plan a little bit about what was going on the pages. I knew I wanted each page to have a number, and at first I wanted each one to have a stamped reason as well but found that there were reasons I wanted to include that aren't generalized. So I made a list and then found 5 reasons that included the more generalized stamped words like sweet, caring, and smart.



There aren't any pictures, just journaling and embellishment. It was really liberating to make a project without pictures. You still get to document and decorate but don't have to match up photos ;) I simply picked a few papers I wanted for the minibook throughout and then went from there.



Not every page had a 'theme' but I did try to work them in as much as possible. I probably could have gone with hearts through the whole thing, but that seemed a bit Valentines to me. I did work them into a few pages though and put them with the lovey journaling.



I mixed and matched a lot of stamp sets though the main ones were Journaling Lines and the Take Ten set + additions. There's also quite a bit of dimension since I used 3d foam tape on all the images for extra depth.



This project was perfect for using up those Thickers numbers. I love the numbers but usually only use a couple and I feel like they get wasted. Now I have a project that uses the whole range, quite nice!


And last but not lease a couple fun book marks using some of the extra chairs I made. I love the book list one and am thinking of making a couple of those for me as well. As it is I've been using receipts, post-its, or whatever scratch paper I have laying around as bookmarks! Both of these projects were so fun, I am definitely going to be making more mini-books in the future! I hope you enjoyed and are having a wonderful Father's Day with your families ;)

Father's Day Cards

Here are the cards I made for the guys. Masculine cards are usually really difficult for me but making these wasn't too bad. This one is for the girls' poppa. C wanted to make her own goodies and drew a cute tie and wrote I love you boba. So cute! I left the spelling wrong simply because I thought it was adorable. Hopefully Poppa thinks so too. A copied C and drew a tie. I have to wonder where they got this idea since they don't often see Paul or Poppa wear ties and I didn't prompt them on this one either. I think it's crazy that they picked that up on their own to link ties and fathers day.

We had a birthday to go to before the weekend and so I whipped this card for our chocolate loving friend. Inside it says "except, of course, a friend with chocolate." So fitting for him! This card was the inspiration for the others. I really liked how the blues looked with the kraft and brown.

And here is Paul's card from me. I love the guy and girl pillows since that's an item of hot debate at our house ;) I kept everything else simple, not coloring any of the background stamping since I wanted the couch to stand out. The girls drew a bunch of pictures for him. A's first few ones she forgot she wasn't supposed to show him and went running back to display her hard work to Paul. So sweet! I'll be sharing another Father's Day project tomorrow since I'm still working on it right now. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Freshly Picked Pincushions

I love these little pincushions! Months ago I picked up the Freshly Picked pattern at our quilt shop because this pattern by Heather Bailey was way too cute to pass by. The added plus is you get patterns for 4 different pin cushions. I wanted to make them all but after finishing the pear off it was after midnight and I thought it was probably best to call it quits and clean up ;)

The tomato I made first and after having made the other two I can vouch that the tomato was definitely the easiest to make. It also happens to be my favorite of the three I made, though I was for sure that my fav would be the pear since I love pears so very much. But something about the tomato, maybe it's cute short and plump shape... maybe the darling double buttons I sewed on top... maybe just the colors. Whatever the case, the tomato is my go-to pincushion of cuteness!

How darling is this apple! I'm thinking it would make such a cute teachers gift. Even if they don't sew this makes such a cute little softie. C hoarded it the moment she saw it. It's C's favorite fruit so of course she was in love with the apple. This one was the hardest to create mostly due to the tufting to create the apple shape. I'm sure it would have been infinitly easier had I a nice long doll needle but I'm a stubborn girl and made due with what I had in the middle of the night instead of waiting until morning to buy myself one.

Last but not least was the pear. Doesn't it look so scrumptiously pretty! This was a nice break from the apple. It took longer than the tomato, simply because of the leaves and stem, but was almost just as easy. Though it's darling I'm not sure it makes for a very stable pincushion, it's the wobbliest of the three of them. They are so cute all clustered together on my bookcase though! The last pattern is for strawberries. I'm not sure if I'll be making them, though the girls keep telling me "You forgot to make the strawberries, Mom!"

Meadowsweet fabric by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller