Holiday Crafting with Children

My daughter is as excited about crafts as I am! So I should have known she would be excited when she saw my newest supplies! I had planned to make a snowman decoration for our house. Once she spied the packages she asked if she could make one, too! And there is no way I can turn down that sweet little face! I knew my project would be too detailed oriented for her at age 4, so I made some changes and simplified it for her!

She had a sleepover and I decided it would be the perfect afternoon to do our craft! This is what we used for the girls’ snowmen:
· Styrofoam balls in different sizes
· Old cardboard
· Random holiday themed scrapbook papers and stickers
· Modge Podge
· Glitter
· Hot Glue Gun
· Pipe cleaners
· Glitter Glue like Stickles
· Googly eyes
· Glue dots
· Markers
· Sticks (we used lollipop sticks)

We started by covering the Styrofoam balls in Modge Podge and coating them in glitter! One dry, the girls decorated the face and “tummy” with markers, glitter glue, and googly eyes. While they decorated, I made hats out of scrapbook paper. Then I hot glued the Styrofoam balls together while the girls made scarves with pipe cleaners. While the hot glue and glitter glue dried we made the base. I cut out squares of cardboard and gave them lots of scrappy supplies to play with. They covered their bases in paper, die cuts and stickers. Lastly I hot glued the snowmen to the cardboard base and pushed in the arms. They were quite proud of their little creations!!!!





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For my project, I used the following supplies:
· Decorative tin
· Paint, glitter & glitter glue
· Scrapbook papers, buttons, markers, die cuts, etc
· Modge Podge, hot glue, glue dots
· Various glittery holiday picks & trim
· Ribbon
· Felt
· Pipe cleaner
· Paper mache star

I started by painting the decorative tin and paper mache star. I then covered part of the tin in paper, tied a ribbon around it and added silver trim. Next, I Modge Podged the Styrofoam balls and the star and covered them in glitter. The scarf was cut from red felt. I also I created a hat from paper and pipe cleaners. Once everything dried, I attached the hat, scarf, button and drew a face. Next I added glitter glue to the Styrofoam ball and star. I arranged the snowman, star and various picks in the tin and added smaller embellishments as I saw fit.




Hope you can think of a fun craft to do with your children too!!!!

Using Your Scraps

In the tough economy lately, many people are trying to use more of their scrapbook stash instead of buying new products. I have a few layouts and inspirational ideas to share that will help you stretch your scrappy dollars. Most of these layouts were made using simple squares. First, figure out what the smallest scrap you want to use is, then trim it into an even square. Then you can cut or punch squares of the same size out of your remaining scraps. Arrange the squares in a grid pattern, and add a few embellishments. This is a super quick way to get layouts done as well! Here are a few examples...




I made a template and sketch out of the layout below because I loved how it came out. Simple, but fun.



Here's the sketch. If you would like to save it to your computer, just right click your mouse and then click on "Save As".



If you are a digital or hybrid scrapper, you can download a layered .psd file of the sketch/template here...
http://www.4shared.com/file/128725959/e93519cd/MMD_LetsDanceTemplate.html

You can also use your Cricut machine to cut circles or other shapes out of your leftover patterned papers. This works really well with double sided papers because you end up with more options to mix and match. Here's an example...



*Note* Photography on "Jordan at Four" by Heather Munsterman Photography.

A Template By HEIDI SONBOUL!!

Ok, check this out, it is one of the cutest templates/sketches I have seen! My friend Heidi sent this to me and I was so excited when she told me I could feature it! I love how perfect this is for any holiday or celebration! The bag and bow are so fabulous! The detailing of the bow is amazing!

You can see so many more amazing projects at Heidi's blog! If you use this blog PLEASE send it to me at scrappingpam73@yahoo.com , I would love to feature you project! Also if you have a template you would like to share with our readers email me :)
Have a super Sunday!

Reader's Page + Bonus!

Hi all! This is a reader's page by Kayla DuPont!! It is such a fabulous example of the flower template from a few weeks ago! I love how she flipped the photos to bottom, what a totally cool idea! You can see more of her work here at her blog.





Here is layout by contributing artist, Julie Howard!! I love how she used the leaf photoblock template for her photos. I especially like the photo in the middle with the tag, it looks so good! Plus she used the great big leaf! :)




Would you like to have you page posted here?? Work with one of my templates on the right hand side and I will feature you page! Just email your image to scrappingpam73@yahoo.com .
Have a great weekend!

Winner of Journaling Challenge!

Congrats to Darlene S. (aka - yadee87) who created this is AMAZING layout for the "thankful" journaling challenge! This is a beautiful example of a being thankful and documenting it!


I asked for more information on this page to learn the story behind it:
This layout was made for a very special day, my husbands homecoming from a nearly 12 month deployment! I was so thankful to have him back and I thank God he, and all the people in his unit, came home safe!

I used about 7 patterned papers and used up a few flowers and other embellishments from my stash. I like to keep my colors down to 1 or 2 main and 1 accent, here the main colors were green and tan, and the small touches of white embellishment bring it more together. I distressed all of my edges with my nails(!) and mini inks.

I inked and sanded the letters in the title and I thought the effect the lace behind the title made it stand out so much more, and added so much more interest.

Here is her gallery at sb.com! thanks for everyone who made pages for the challenge!

I will be announcing a new contest in a week or so, so stay tuned!!!

Three Layouts to Inspire You!

These are 3 recent pages of mine. I wanted to show examples of using one of Pam's template, how to use a hand made template, and a layout with no template at all.

(this is the modified leaf template by Pam)

Here is the digital layered template for Photoshop:
http://www.4shared.com/file/186299302/a233c959/pc_c_template.html

Title: ABC

Text: Library time....one of your most favorite things. So much so, that you typically go at least once a week. This particular day was the annual pumpkin palooza. They had apples & cider, face painting, and pumpkin decorating. But you didn't need the special event as a reason to visit the library. You just love books. Ever since you were a baby you enjoyed books and being read to. I love reading & I love books also. I hope this is something we will share together for many years to come.

Description: This came from the photo block section of Pam's leaf template layout. I knew I wanted to use some recent library visit photos, and when I saw this photo block, I really loved it. But in keeping with the library/reading theme of the page, instead of the square corners, I rounded them to form the letter "C" in which to showcase the photographs. I found some paper with die cut apples along the top, and since some of the photos from the library included my son eating an apple from the event that day, I thought this paper would be perfect. I wanted the focus of the page to be the "C" photos, and the apple-top paper, so the rest of the layout is very basic. Just an smaller sized "A" and "B" creating the ABC title, some journaling, and minimum embellishments. I love that Pam's layouts can be used as presented, but also with minor alterations, can be used for many others layouts as well.

Title: Feeling You Grow

Text: I used to love when you moved around in my belly. I never minded the kicks or the discomfort, as I knew that those kicks and punches were God's way of allowing me to feel you grow.

Description: I had been toying with this idea for a while in my mind (using a pregnant silhouette to showcase sonogram photos), and finally decided to try in on paper. I made the template first. I drew a small outline of a pregnant woman and played around with it until I liked the way it looked. Then I photocopied and blew it up until it was larger enough to fill a 12 x 12 page. Them I traced it out cut it out in black. Since the silhouette and the photos are the main focus, again the rest of my page is very minimal. Just my title, some embellishments, with the journaling around the edge.

Title: You MONOPOLYze my Heart

Description: I am always looking for ways to use multiple photos on layouts and thought a Monopoly board would be a great idea. The monopoly money I used was just color photocopies from internet images (as I don't actually own a Monopoly board). The cut out shapes were all made with the Cricut. The MONOPOLYze title was cut using the Monopoly font, but I used 3 layers (1 black for shadow and 2 white) to give it additional dimension. With these 3 layouts I mainly wanted to show that you can find inspiration anywhere, even the most common things, and still makes it original and yours.

With these 3 layouts I mainly wanted to show that you can find inspiration anywhere, even the most common things, and still makes it original and yours.

Introducing Our Featured Artist for Dec. 4th!

Ok, I am so excited to announce our featured artist today!!! Can you tell? A few weeks ago someone sent me these AMAZING layouts featuring my templates! Seriously cool stuff! I asked her to be a featured artist and I was delighted when she accepted! I totally love her style! You are going to love her gallery! Her name is Cindy and now it's time to get to know her!

My name is Cindy Childress and I live in the beautiful State of Maryland. I am in my early 40's, and was a late in life Mom (we were almost 40 and 44 years old at the time). My son Thomas Jacob (TJ) is 3 years old, and really has become the added light in our lives. I think becoming a first time Mom at an older age made me appreciate parenthood much more than I would have in my 20's, and probably even my 30's. Those feelings of gratefulness and appreciation led me to scrapbooking, as I wanted to document not just my photos, but the actual memories of the time. I started scapbooking when my son was about 1 year old, and have been addicted ever since. In the roughly 2 1/2 years since I started scrapbooking, I have come to really enjoy the entire process, from taking the photos, to creating a page, to seeing the finished result, to sharing it with others. I just began posting my pages online this month, so Pam asking me to be a guest artist was wonderful, as I have been a fan of her work since I first began. Thank you for looking.

You can view her gallery here, so be sure to check out all of the fabulous pages! You will love her next post! So be sure to check back to see some great inspiration! Thanks for letting me feature you Cindy!