This is a Banner Week.

A couple of weeks ago I went a little nuts with banners.  I kept making them.  I couldn’t stop!  I kept finding reasons to make the gorgeous things. There was a short moment when I thought I’d have to join a 12 step program.  Any way I thought I’d save them all and give you a week of banners.  So, are you ready?

Here’s #1: 

It’s a birthday banner.   I made it because we had 4 birthdays in one week and I thought “I should make a birthday banner.”  So I did. 

 

CAUTION!!!!

Do not pay attention to the strange arm and body in the background taking the picture.  She is merely a necessary evil in this whole thing. 

Here’s a close up:

I used my Mini Monograms Cricut cart for the lettering and the scalloped circles. Poor thing, it’s so neglected since I’ve got so many more cartridges.  And really I don’t have that many. Really, I’m not exaggerating. I wouldn’t do that.

The tags are from  . . . Winter Woodlands?  I really like this tag and have used it over and  over.

The card stock is C’ordinations.  There are only 2 pieces of patterned paper, and they are from Daisy D’s. I’ve had them forever. Is Daisy D’s even in business any more?

I added faux stitching because somehow it always makes my projects feel finished and I don’t like using my sewing machine on paper.  Another quirk I have.  For some reason I have this notion it’s not good for my machine.  

The hardest part of this banner was those darned little accordion pinwheels.  So many of them and my fingers were cramping after a while. I don’t have a Martha Steward scoring board so it was one score at a time on my Fiskars paper trimmer with a scoring blade.  What a headache.  My tenacity sometimes amazes me. 

I hot glued the tags to ribbon and left enough to hang it.  The ribbon was left over from doing my son and daughter’s wedding flowers.  I knew I’d find a reason to use the rest of it. 

So there!  Monday’s banner. 

Tomorrow’s banner is a tiny little treasure.  But you’ll have to wait for TINY TUESDAY! 

Gift Bag

Here’s the gift bag I promised. Again it was quick and easy but the effect is quite nice. 

I cut the bag from Tags, Bags and Boxes at the biggest setting possible on a 12x24 mat.  I used a sheet of light lavender from a Cricut 12x24 stack of paper. The album fit very nicely into it. 

The patterned paper came from a DCWV baby boy stack that I had left over from the album I did for my grandson.  The flowers are Hobby Lobby Paper Studio and the butterfly gem . . . well, I can’t remember.  The stitching is faux done with a black gel pen. 

Overall the whole gift turned out very well.  So because I want to and I thought you might to see the whole gift.  Here it is!

A quick birthday card

When I made the album for my sister, I also made a card and gift bag. I love the way they turned out. Today I’ll share the birthday card and I’ll share the gift bag Friday.

Again the photography is poor, but I think you can still see how nice it turned out.

The paper was again miscellaneous scraps of Bazzill card stock and K&Company CK Margo Vintage Vine Glitter paper which I love. The flowers are a mish mash of Prima, Flora Doodles, and the Paper Factory from Hobby Lobby. The ribbon is also from Hobby Lobby and the sentiment is a stamp from the dollar bin at Joann's.

Tomorrow the gift bag and I’ll have some neat projects for next week.

A Little Album

I made this little album for my sister’s birthday. That was back in July, so you can see how I’ve been hoarding these pictures back waiting for a time to share with you. Please forgive the really bad photography. I’m not that great at it and these pictures were taken on the run just before we loaded up the car to go to my daughter’s for our big party.

Anyway here it is:

This album was made to use the 5 1/2” x5 1/2” envelopes. It had some nice pockets for which I made journaling tags and tags for extra journaling.

I made this album as quick and easy as possible as I only got the bug to do it a few days before the party and am a known dawdler. I used my cricut carts Forever Young for the flowers, Walk in my Garden for the bugs and the lettering and foliage was from Ashley—I think. I inked and did faux stitching in several places. The paper was mostly from Hobby Lobby and was bought originally to do baby shower invites for my sister’s grandbaby. I thought that made a nice connection for my sister since she will be putting that baby’s pictures in it.

I used dimensionals to pop the elements on the cover. It turned out very nice and I didn’t spend much time on it.

As you can see I used a very simple template that I established on this page. This made the album quick and easy to assemble once I had cut out, stickled, inked and wha ever else I decided to do. I made the really big flowers from Forever Young to be used as photo mats. It helped fill the page and gave interest I think.

On the opposite pages I just included a square photo mat and a simple embellishment. I also used a lot of ribbon. Another fun detail is that I cut tabs from From my Kitchen and put them on the pages to add some interest. I will show you the tags later that slipped into the envelope pockets.

I started to just include the plain tag, but it seemed just that too plain so I added a photo mat and the flowers from Forever Young gave a nice finish to the tags.

Ok, no discussion for now just pictures.

This next photo shows that I choose to use the flap of the envelop as part of the decoration for the page.

I did make multiples of the bugs, so that’s why you are seeing the same bugs. I also used quite a few buttons.

I’ve included some pictures of the tags that I matted on one side and then stamped with lines for journaling.

I am famous for starting a project and letting my brain go so crazy on how to make it perfect, that the project begins to take on a life of it’s own and takes me forever to finish. When I photographed this tag, I really wanted to run back to my scrapping room and add flowers to the other side of the tag. But I didn’t. I loaded it into the car and my sister loved it as much as if I had added the flowers.

Lesson: People can love what I give them even if it’s not as perfect as I think it could be. I can do more projects by not obsessing so much.

Will I have to learn it again? I will!

Back to Blogging

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on my blog. We’ve had so many things going on in our lives that it has been hard to shift focus, but I am back and plan to be more consistent in my attention.

The biggest new thing for me is that we cleaned out and packed up my scraproom so that we could replace the carpet with the hardwood we’ve had sitting downstairs for 2 years and paint. I don’t think that room had been painted since the house was built 30 years ago. It was still that contractor’s white and really still in remarkable shape for all the wear it has gone through.

My plans are to redo my scraproom using what we have by repurposing and refinishing. We’ve got quite a few pieces of furniture downstairs and in the garage that taking on new lives. Oh, do I have some plans! My husband is frightened by them. As we finish all the projects I have in mind, I will share them with you. So without further ado, or really a whole lot more than it’s worth, I’m going to share what the room looks like now without all my things in it. I painted it a light shade of pink. I just had to! I’ve not had a pink room since I was 8 years old and it was high time that I returned to my girly roots.

What do you think? Since all the repurposing will take some time, I’ve moved back in—sort of. And I’ve been really productive. So as we progress, I’ll share all the projects with you.

I love you!

Three little words.  I say them everyday and hear them regularly from my husband.  They've become such an expected part of our everyday life that I haven't appreciated them lately.
Last night, however, as I sat reading before turning off the light and going to sleep, my husband rolled over and said with sleep heavily on his face, "I love you, Deb, with all my heart."  I was in his last thoughts as he drifted off to sleep, and for the first time in a long time, I felt his words like a comforting and luxurious balm that covered all the wounds and bumps from my day and week, and I knew that I could count on the strength that came from those words. 
I know Jim loves me.  He is a man of action and shows his love in gifts, in acts of unselfishness, and in consideration of my desires.  However, I often lose the knowledge and gratefulness that comes from their solidness, their reliability, and the godliness of their origins.  What better blessing is there than being loved by a man who is in love with God!  A godly man's love is a blessing beyond any other in my life beside the gracious, fathomless, abundant love of God. 
I do not write this to brag, or to lift up my man above all others, but to remind myself that I am blessed and because of that blessing, I am required by the abundance of God's love and blessing to know that blessing and make it grow in me and bleed out to others.  First on my list is Jim, and then to my family and then to those around me. 
Everyone should be blessed with the glow of the words "I love you," spoken from the heart of truth and abundance and given unselfishly with no strings or addendums. 
Ephesians 1:1: Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Love smells good! It is not tinged with odors of our neediness or conditions. It is pure and enticing. This chapter is often used to model a godly marriage relationship, but it really is a guide for living in love and not selfishness.  And if we forget or neglect to get the message God left us this scripture too. 
I Thessalonians 4:9: Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
Thank you Father for reminding me of the greatest blessing I have--godly love--manifested by Christ's sacrifice on the cross and by a godly man here on earth. I live in it's wealth.  I am blessed. I must bless also.

Some blog candy

Over at Obessed with Scrapbooking, Joy is giving away SEI's Happy Day line of paper and some embellishments. Check it out!
http://www.obsessedwithscrapbooking.com