Pinspire Me Monday

I am smitten with

In the few months since I began using it, Pinterest has changed the way I surf the internet. When I have a specific project idea in mind, I search for it on Pinterest: the content is always more applicable and current than regular search engines.  Pinterest has become my recipe box, my source of inspiration for cards and scrapbook pages, my place to stash house projects, color schemes, holiday ideas.  I no longer bookmark sites I love or projects I want to make; I simply “pin it”.

And now with nearly 1300 pins and counting, I always have inspiration at my fingertips.

So I had a brainstorm of an idea recently.  There are others like me who love Pinterest, other crafty people who pin ideas to their boards, and then use those pins to inspire projects of their own.  Why not have a link-up of projects inspired by Pinterest?  

Introducing:

 Here's how it'll work:  Each Monday I will share a Pinspired project that I have created.  You will have the entire month to link up your Pinspired project over in the sidebar--->

Your project can be anything that you have pinned to your own boards: a recipe, a scrapbook page, a home decor object, a holiday project, anything.  Oh, and if you haven't yet joined in on Pinterest, send me an email, and I will send you an invite.

There may even be some fun giveaways {nudge, nudge}. 

I hope you will join me.  I can't wait to see your Pinspired projects!

And don't forget to grab the button so readers of your blog can play along with us, too! 

ps.  I am working on the post for my first Pinspire Me Monday project, so it will be up next Monday (the Monday holiday totally threw me this week!).  No need to wait for me, though; feel free to start linking!

{Note: a huge thank you to Danielle Thompson of Kitschy Digitals for letting me use her adorable vintage stick pin frame to create the button for this.}

Countdown to Halloween

Somewhere along the way I had come across a cute little advent calendar made out socks.  

I tucked it away into the crafty-project-ideas file in my brain (the one that seems to be expanding and pushing out the fifth-grade-math file so that I can no longer help my oldest son with his homework--I digress).  

Well, the other day, as I was making the rounds in my local Target, I came across a bunch of cute baby socks in the dollar bin.  

{light bulb!}

How about a Countdown to Halloween calendar?

This project couldn't have been any easier.  Let's walk through it:

ONE: cover spring-style clothes pins with Halloween themed paper

TWO: print numbers 1-13 on cardstock, and use various sized circle punches and stamps to create layered accents; glue these to the socks (i just used my white papercrafting glue)

font=Nasty found here or download and print my number sheet here

THREE: find a stick that is long enough and thin enough for the clips and clip the socks on

Four: hot glue some ribbon bows to the stick and hang

Easy, right?!  Now all that's left is to fill the socks with treats or notes for your little ones beginning on the 19th of October.

Have fun!

{linking this project up at Skip to My Lou}

October Reveals

 It's reveal time over at Scrapbook Heaven!

These are the fun kits I got to play with this month:

Let's begin with the Elite.  This kit was a bit Jekyll and a lot Hyde.

I took a walk on the creepy side and created a door hanger for my oldest's bedroom.  He's a bit Rockstar and the skulls and crossbones are right up his alley.

 Then I got back to my formal {ahem!} self and created these:

a card for those who are forever young.  this one has my SIL's name written all over it!

the old world charm of Portland, ME

this MME paper is perfect the way it is, but I feel like I'm cheating if I don't cut it up and rearrange the pieces.

And I still have plenty of papers and goodies left over to scrapbook this year's Halloween photos.

Now onto the Petite.  This kit is a bit softer, if you're a soft Halloween kind of person. 

It was screaming and shrieking at me to create a mini album.  I didn't want it giving me nightmares, so I did.  Here it is:

love, love the Pink Paislee acrylic pages that come in here--two of them, perfect for the covers of a mini

 And the pages:

these are just a few of the embellished pages. it really came together in a jif with the Pink Paislee tabbed dividers.

A couple of layouts:

just had to find a way to use up all those buttons!

 And my last project:

another super easy one with the Pink Paislee orange banner stickers

 I even used book paper from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

note: orange buttons and black rosettes are not included in the kit

If you want to get your hands on this kit, jump on your broomstick and fly on over to The Store!

Crochet Pumpkin

I don't usually like to post twice in one day, and I thought about scheduling this one for next week just to spread things out a bit.  But I am just too excited to share this project I finished this morning with you.

As if I don't have enough crochet projects to work on: cuffs, my blanket, baby boy and baby girl blankets, I decide I needed to go searching for crochet pumpkin patterns.

I'm thrilled I did because I found the cutest and quickest little pumpkin ever (and I learned a new ribbing stitch and found a new crochet blog to add to my reading list).  She even has a fab video tutorial to walk you through it!

Here's mine:

I added a little tag and a vintage pin (I'm sure these have a name) and it's good to give to my dear friend who is always surprising me with little gifts.

And as if all those reasons are not enough to be glad I went searching for crochet pumpkins, check out Crochet Geek's latest pattern share:

Be still my gift-giving heart.  I just landed on the PERFECT gift for my little guy this Christmas.  Add that to my crochet projects list.

DIY: Camera Strap

Happy Friday!!

Tomorrow I am going on my first World-Wide Photo Walk and I'm super excited.  

But my little camera strap was a teense bit embarrassed about going out on the adventure stark naked!  Something had to be done.  

I pulled out the tried-and-trusted, never-fail-me camera strap tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew and got to work. 

In less than 1 hour it was complete and ready for photographing:

 And Ms. Strappy is oh so very happy {hey, that rhymes}!

Hopefully I'll have some photos worth sharing with you after the walk.

Have a super fab weekend. And if you are looking for a quick project to stitch up this weekend, please try Cluck-Cluck's tute--it's sew easy.

And that concludes this uber corny post.  I'm blaming it on Friday!