Take Flight {and follow your heart}

This LO was inspired by a Page Maps sketch. I converted the sketch to a 12 x 12 and flipped it on its side. The papers are a mix of My Mind's Eye and Making Memories.

I adore this photograph of my youngest, it is so dreamy, so happy, so lost-in-thought.

Journaling reads:

Maddox, the sky is the limit for you. Spread your wings and fly. Take flight, reach for your dreams, and remember to always follow your heart. There is nothing you can't achieve, no dream too big. Be true to yourself, be kind to others, and believe you can do whatever you dream. You are the pilot of your own life. Take flight and follow your heart.

Method Playground: Heat Embossing

This week on the Playground it's all about keeping warm . . . with heat embossing. I rifled through the ol' scrap paper box and used some SU! background stamps to emboss over the existing patterns in the paper. A super simple layout (my oldest said, "That's it, Mom? Three papers and a word? That's silly!") I'm dedicating this page to all those who think scrapbooking has to be complicated and time-consuming. Anyone can do a page like this. Anyone.

My feeble attempt at capturing the texture of the embossing.

Crochet Hook Holder

I found this super cute tutorial for a crochet hook holder on Craftster and whipped one up for myself.

closed approx. (6 1/2 x 5 in.)

tri-folded with flap open (approx. 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.)

unfolded (approx. 18 x 6 1/2 in.)

flap open (approx. 18 x 9 in.)

close up of little pockets
I sewed mine in three different sizes based on the size of my hooks
approx. 1/2", 3/4", 1"

This pattern could be altered to hold any number of things: crayons, markers, pencils, knitting needles, paint brushes. The folded size is compact enough to be tossed into a bag or purse. I've even tucked a small skein of yarn into it so I have crochet-to-go. If you ironed on some vinyl it would be great as an art kit for the kiddos.

Some ATC Love

I participated in this lovely girl's ATC swap last month. The theme for the cards was {love}, and the color scheme was grey, red, pink and white. Just look at all the beauty that I received in the mail this week:

These cards were created by 12 women living in 5 different countries (Switzerland, UK, France, US, Canada). I love the connection between the 12 of us over some scraps of paper and bit of glue. I think Alexandra's card said it best:And that little pink heart? Filled with the most beautiful smelling lavender. How sweet is she?!

Fun at the Farm

This layout is inspired by this week's sketch over at Ella.

I started out following the sketch pretty closely, just substituting 2-4x4's for the second vertical 4x6, and stacking 2-5 x 3 1/2's for the 5x7. But as I shifted and rearranged, added and subtracted my photos, this was the result. I guess you could say I took some liberties with the sketch. But that's what it's all about, right? Sketches shouldn't make you feel trapped and challenged. They should be a jumping-off point, a design guideline to help you get your layout going.

I embossed a shipping tag with the Big Shot,

then layered elements onto it from a Making Memories kit.

I repeated the shipping tags in the title, and as a place for my journaling.

More Amigurumi

I had the brilliant idea at 8:30 the night before Valentine's Day to crochet each of my boys a little amigurumi for the holiday.

This little guy came from the Lion Brand website (oh, the goodness of patterns there--and all for free!). He only took an hour to make, but the embroidered mouth took me about 30 more minutes to get just so (while I watched the Olympics, so that may have had a little something to do with it). My middle guy is just smitten with him.

This owl also came from Lion Brand.

And in order to save my crocheting sanity, I had to make some adjustments to Dogbot to give *her* a more *him* look (namely, ridding him of pink). Three little friends for three very happy boys. And one happy crocheting mom!

My Very First Amigurumi

Meet Dogbot, crusader for all things crafty and creative. She's fearless in the face of projects gone awry (there seems to be a lot of those around here these days!) and poo-poo's the site of blood from a finger pricked by a sewing needle (again, lots of that). Dogbot won't balk (or bark) when glue oozes from your projects, or your stitching looks like it's failing the sobriety test. And with those big 'ol ears, she's always there to listen to your crafting woes, even when they contain some less-than-suitable-words uttered under your breath.

This was a blast to put together. I am totally *hooked* on crochet (Dogbot came up with that little pun!). This pattern came from the adorable book Crobots by Nellie Pailloux.

I'm setting straight to work this weekend on a little friend for Dogbot. Don't want her to be lonely!

Method Playground: Ruffles

As you know, I will look for any reason to *girl up* my layouts, and this week's challenge on the Playground was the perfect excuse: ruffles! It was also the perfect excuse to learn something I've been wanting to try: gathering fabric into ruffles. I found a great tutorial on line (of course!), and couldn't believe what a *cinch* it was.

Here's the how-to:

1. Cut your fabric into a strip. Mine is about 1 1/2" by 30"


2. Use your sewing machne to sew two lines down the length of the strip close to the edge, being careful not to et the lines cross over each other.


3. At one end, tie the two back thread (from the bobbin) together.


4. At the other end, begin pulling on the bobbin ends and gently sliding the fabric along the thread to gather.

To create the flower, use a narrower and shorter length of fabric (mine is about 1/2" by 6", but I would make it more like 12") and follow the same instructions for gathering. Once ruffled, stitch the two ends of the strips to each other and flatten to create a circle.

Could it get any easier?! Give it a try to girlie-up your next layout, and post your creations at Method Playground. And here's one more link to give you some inspiration for your project: ruffled flowers.

This layout uses a sketch from My Sketch World.

Sitting Pretty

A page for The Scrappiest sketch. I think it's perfectly acceptable to sprinkle some flowers on my sons' pages. With the word "pretty" in the title, how could I not use flowers! Someday, they'll hate me for it. I think I can handle it :)

Color at the Ecotarium

Playing along with the Ella Sketch for week #3 (deadline Thurs, Feb 4). Here's the sketch:

And here's my take:I used the same doodled frame from the Daily Digi kit--it's just too cute to not use more than once! I followed the sketch pretty closely. With this many photos, there's not much room for extras. I like pages like this: the photos tell the story and they whip up in a flash!

Patterned Paper = Cosmo Cricket; title letters are machine stitched to page.

Another ATC

I have a project planned for some ATC's that I was hoping to have more underway by now. Ahh, well. . .here's one I made following Ronda's awesome instructions.

Online Tutorials

Since it's February, the month of LOVE, I'm sharing what really makes my heart happy (besides my son just handing me half of his KitKat bar!). I am totally smitten with crochet. One month ago I was cursing the craft, but now thanks to some time with my aunt, a kids crochet book, and many, many viewings of Mandy's video at Little Birdie Secrets, I think I have it down (well, at least enough to fashion a decent looking flower and even a heart).

And then in a bit of blog catch-up this morning I finally got over to crafty chickie Lolly Chops to catch her fantabulous video on these little paper flowers. Do check it out, and scroll down a bit in her bog to see her absolutely AMAZING mini album cover.

Some close ups:

paper flower from Lolly's video made with a paper bag printed with vintage newspaper

Happy February!

It's a brand new month and I'm doing some thinking about my word for 20-ten.


Ali had this cool link on her blog [Spell with Flickr]. You type in your word and it pulls up photos of the letters. You can then click on each letter to change it.