I made the hard decision, and got myself an iPhone.  WAHOO!!  

Long before the phone ever arrived….well, even before I ordered it….I started looking online for cell phone covers.

I had no idea how many different ones are available, and how hard the decision would be to make to pick just one.

At one point, I was inspired by another blogger who designed her iPhone cover by taking her own picture and uploading it to a site and getting it that way.  After I looked at the site and the costs, I immediately had a different idea in mind.

After a stop by the book store on the campus I work, my idea was put in to action.
I then spent my lunch break crafting.
{I love it when I can do that!}

My idea….get a clear cell phone cover and design my own inserts that I can change out as I want.

Using PowerPoint {because it does a nice job of making ‘pictures’ when I’m at the office} I pulled together some fun digital scrapbook papers and elements and designed my own personal cover……that can be changed in the future.

{The design pictured is actually my second attempt, since I rearranged things because of the wording on the bottom.  I didn’t notice it the first time.}

After I got home, I took a look at the Lost & Found Christmas papers, which are part of Jen’s line.  I had a friend select 4 Christmas papers for me to use, because I couldn’t make up my mind on which ones to use.

To complete your own custom iPhone {or any type of phone for that matter} cover, you will need a CLEAR cover, a digital design or scrapbook paper, a pencil, an exacto knife, and a mat to cut on.

As you can tell in the picture below, I made the digital design much bigger than it needed to be.  I wanted to be sure I had plenty of extra room to work with or mess up.

I traced the cover on to the design, then cut it out.  Cutting out the camera opening served to be the biggest problem for me.

Just be sure that you cut it out the correct way, so that the camera hole will actually match up!  {I messed that up on one of the papers.}

Paper number 1 for the 1st week of December.

Because I have 4 different Christmas papers cut out, I decided that I would change it out every week.

Once Christmas time passes, I will just keep changing up the paper or digital design to what I feel like, as often as I feel I need to.

I think that makes this the best type of cover!

Instead of spending $30-40 per each cover, I spent $20 on one clear cover.

To change it out will be free or just a few cents if I find a fun scrapbook paper.

Another idea would be to insert pictures of your kids {if you have them}, your favorite niece/nephew/pet, scraps of material glued to a piece of paper, etc.

Don’t let the cell phone cover companies limit what you can do with your cell phone.

I think your phone should represent you, not what is available for you to purchase.

Happy Creating!

Hello dear readers it’s Angie Hinksman here and a very Happy Holiday Season to you!  Today I’m going to share with you a little hybrid project, inspired by what is probably the most is talked about product this Christmas; the iPad2.  I love the simplicity of the design of the iPad and I think that the included stand is pure GENIUS!  Now, while my little Recipe Stand won’t help you surf the net, it’s certain to brighten up any kitchen table!  You’ll need very few supplies (no need for specialist binding materials  here, just paper, card and some basic crafting supplies.

To create the Recipe Stand and 6 recipe cards, you will need the following supplies:

• Recipe journaling templates – you can download the pdf file here
• Some plain co-ordinating paper or cardstock for printing the journaling cards.  I’ve used some simple ’letterhead’ stationery for mine.
• Selection of 12 x 12 inch patterned scrapbook papers – I’ve used papers from Jen’s beautiful Stella & Rosecollection.  You’ll need 2 for the stand and 1 sheet will 6 recipe cards.  Cut your paper to the following measurements:
  • 1 piece:  8.5 x 12 inches (just keep the off-cut handy, we’ll use this later)
  • 1 piece: 6 x 12 inches (again we’ll use the off-cut later)
  • 1 piece:  cut out 6 at 4 x  6 inches
  • Chipboard or very thick card.  If you can’t get hold of plain chipboard, the back of an old note book will work perfectly! I’ve used the back of one of my scrap-pads.  Cut your card to the following measurements;
    • 2 pieces: 4.5 x 6.5 inches
    • 1 piece: 2.5 x  6.5 inches
    • 2 pieces: ¾  x  6.5 inches
    • A ruler
    • Cutting tools (such as a Stanley knife or rotary cutter and scissors)
    • Adhesive (I’m using a glue stick and some double-sided tape)
    • Cutting matt
    • Rolling pin (this helps the glue stick well)

    

Instructions for the recipe cards:

Print your recipe journal pieces onto your paper and cut out.  Glue these to the front and back of your 4 x 6 inch pieces of scrap paper.  I’ve rounded the edges of mine, to keep with the iPad feel of the project!    

Instructions for the Recipe Stand:

Place your 4.5 x 6.5 and 2.5 x 6.5 inch pieces of chipboard on your 8.5 x 12 inch scrap paper as illustrated.  Align the top and bottom pieces with the edges of the paper.  Place the middle pieces approx. ½ inch below the top piece.  You want to have a bigger gap at the bottom (this will help your recipe stand close well).  Use a pencil to mark where your placed this pieces, then glue them down.  Use your rolling pin over the top then turn the whole thing over and use your rolling pin again. This will make sure your glue has good contact.  Leave to dry for a few minutes then glue the sides down as shown.

Once dry, glue the 6 x 12 inch piece of scrap paper on top, as shown and leave to dry.

Glue the 2 ¾ x 6.5 inch pieces of card together as illustrated.  Once dry, glue and cover with a piece of your left over scrap paper.  Leave to dry.  Once this is dry, glue to the bottom of the main piece(the bottom has the small piece of cardboard).  Leave this whole piece to dry thoroughly (I left mine for about an hour).

On the inside of the stand, cut a piece of your left-over scrap papers in a strip: 2.5 inches x 12.  Place this at the bottom of the stand so that it meets the edge of the ¾ inch piece.  You’ll need to trim this down so it fits your stand.  Using either a thin layer of glue or double-sided tape, glue this down.  This will create pockets to keep your recipe cards in.

Once your stand is completely dry you will be able to fold it as shown.   As you can see, the ¾ inch piece helps  the Stand stay in place!  Cut another little scrap of paper in a triangle shape to act as a photo corner to display your cards(mine is about an inch and half wide). Glue into place. 

Finally place your finished cards in your pockets and enjoy!   I think this would make a great gift andit  is light and small enough to post to far-away family and friends.  Why not invite some ‘recipe-loving’ friends over, give them each a recipe stand, filled with cards and have a recipe swap party.  Now wouldn’t that be fun? 

Have a great day

As I said, we are visiting family, my aunt and uncle and a couple cousins. This particular part of the family has always lived far from me, but they are amazing people and I love spending time with them. My cousin and I text MANY times a day. I decided to make my aunt some cards as a thank you for hosting us for dinner. I used several of Jen’s MME papers!

Gathering my supplies:

White cards, kraft cards, a few pieces of patterned paper, Papertrey Ink’s Botanical Silhouettes set (for the sentiments), and my Memento Tuxedo Black. Of course you’ll need adhesive and pop dots as well.

The paper pads I used: MME Stella & Rose Gertie, Stella & Rose Hattie, and Lost & Found 2.

The patterned papers that I chose. I love the 6×6 size for card making!

And here are the cards! I ended up using some matching cardstock behind the patterned paper to make it a little more substantial on the base. I also used the other side of each paper along the bottom of the sentiment to ground it.

(this sentiment comes from Congrats All Ways)

And the card I plan to send to my aunt and uncle is made with paper from MME Stella & Rose Hattie and a tag from MME Stella & Rose Mabel.

I hope everyone has had some lovely family time this week! Not to mention delicious food! Happy Thanksgiving.

I am sewing with Jen Allyson’s fabulous Christmas fabric line: Holly Jolly from Riley Blake.

Materials:

• Fabric for decorating towels
• Towels to be embellished
  (helpful hint: when possible pre-wash and dry your fabric, especially when using dark colors to prevent them from bleeding color onto your towels)
• Additional trim such as ribbon, lace or rick rac
• Scissors, sewing machine, measuring tape, thread and straight pins
  

Steps:

• Measure the width of the towel. Cut the fabric strips the width of the towel, plus one inch.  I like to layout my towel with the fabric and trim so I can see what the over-all effect will be.
• Measure trim the width of the towel plus 1/2 inch and cut.

• Turn under 1/2” on each long edge and press with your iron. Turn under 1/2” on each short edge and press.
• Load your bobbin with thread that is the same color as your towel and the top thread the closest color to your trim and fabrics.  You may need to switch colors for the same towel, but keep the bobbin thread consistent.

• Pin your fabric and additional trims with straight pins onto your towel.  Now you are ready to sew!
• Start with the fabric and edge-stitch along front pressed edges of strip, through all thicknesses.
• Decorate with more fabric strips and embellish with coordinating ribbons, lace, or ric-rac.

Pair your finished towel with your favorite bottle of hand soap and you have a wonderful gift that you’ll be proud of giving and the receiver will be pleased to get!

Karen from The Bald Dragonfly here, and I happen to think that nobody describes the iconic holiday image better than Clement Clarke Moore from his poem, The Night Before Christmas. The image portrayed in Lost & Found Christmas is the spitting image of what is written…”…He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf…” It became a great focal point to my hand crafted holiday gift tags and ornament holder. The beautiful textures and patterns from the Lost & Found: Christmas line offer a nice vintage vibe, while the red glittered accents add a touch of sophistication and glam.

To make the tag/ornament holder, I started with an upcycled package from my boys’ toys. After washing and cleaning the inside and out, I carefully measured the Santa paper and cut to fit inside the packaging. After rounding the corners, I simply added a bit of repositional adhesive in strategic locations to secure the image to the clear packaging. I repeated for the back side of the packaging as well with the same sheet of paper. Then I wrapped some jute twine around the outside of the packaging, having secured that with hot glue.

The tags were created from various designs from the Lost & Found: Christmas collection and scrapbooking/cardmaking tools such as corner rounders, label die cuts, twine and fasteners. I found a bit of red, glittery ribbon that had been recycled from my mother-in-laws holiday arrangement from last year that was a perfect match to the red glitter accents! I simply added a strip of the lighter patterned paper to the back of the tags as a place for the address of the gifts.

Once the person that I gift this to has used up all the tags, the decorated box remains as a perfect place to store precious and delicate ornaments. It’s is like two gifts in one! The possibilities are endless for tag-making with this line. Mix and match patterns and shapes to add variety to your tag line-up or let your tags become more vintage by including such things as lace and buttons.

But first things first.

At my house, we give out FULL SIZED candy bars. My husband wants to be “that” house, so who am I to say no? Especially when 30 full sized bars is less than $15 at Costco.

Behold the yumminess….

In order to dress the candy bars up a little bit, I went to Jen’s awesome designs at Design House Digital. Specifically the Spooked line. Vintage Findings would work great for this too. Just depending if you want to go traditional or vintage Halloween.

I printed out a couple papers from the Spooked Collection.

I used Microsoft Publisher to do this. I simply created an 8.5×11 document and inserted the digital papers as a jpg. You could use MS Word or any version of Photoshop for this as well. I am not very well versed at digi scrapping, so I tend to choose the easiest way. I printed the documents onto white cardstock.

I cut each 8.5×11 piece in half the long way, which left them just a little bit short of the length of the candy bars. I made a quick template with each candy bar and simply wrapped and secured with adhesive!

Here are some pretty bars wrapped and ready to go home with some new costumed friends!

Have a happy Halloween everyone!

Deena

I have always loved apothecary jars and I have a small collection of them, so I knew that I wanted to create an apothecary display.  I gathered my existing jars and then purchased a few more at Home Goods (where they are super affordable). to balance out large and small. I also got some tiny jars at a local antique/consignment shop.

I was so excited when I found the antique postal scale and it’s definitely my favorite new piece. Oh and forgive my circus posters in the background… the artwork is phase 3 of decorating so I haven’t quite gotten that far yet!

These two jars sit on the mantle (the sparkly one I use for christmas with those very same sparklies).

The next step was to design my Apothecary labels. I had a lot of fun making these, and I created them with the scale and contents of my jars in mind. And since they coordinate so well with my All Hallow’s Eve digital line, I packaged them up and released them in my digital shop this week:

Once all the labels were designed, I printed them and cut them out.

Then I used my glue runner on the back of each label and stuck them on the jars:

Once all the labels were on, I had to fill up the rest of my jars. I stratigically bought items that I WOULD NOT EAT. Mostly so I won’t eat them and partly so that I can keep them for years to come and can just set up the display really quickly.

These are the fillers I used:

black licorice for the “lizard legs”

chocolate sprinkles for “bat toes”

peppercorns for “eye of newt”

white beans for “tooth of wolf”

black beans for “black locust poison”

gold tinsel glitter for “scale of dragon”

coffee water for “tincture of hemloc”

Not appetizing at all…

So that’s my halloween apothecary collection! Maybe I will add one or two jars every year and eventually have a giant collection! What kind of Halloween decorations do you collect?

I will use my Holiday Planner to keep myself organized this Holiday season. I have big plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving dinner will be served at our house this year. So I will be including a shopping list and menu. I will also start collecting any recipes I think I might want to use. This way I can find it all in one place and have them available when I am shopping. How will you use your planner?

Here is a Free Downloadable Shopping List + Menu from Jen Allyson for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and general Holiday that you can put in your Holiday Planner.

Click on the images below to download the PDF files.

Before I can get too excited about the menu, here at the Lake house we are starting a new project…. We need a new wall oven. This means we get to pull out the old one, demo some sheet rock and cut a new hole. After 23 years, wall ovens have changed in size. Lucky for me, Jen posted the most wonderful Project Master List and Project Notes for free download.

And when that new oven is installed, here is a fall family favorite recipe my Grandma Norma always made for us kids.

When I was younger, I seriously would wear the SAME jewelry every day. Literally day in and day out, I’d wear small gold hoop earrings, a gold necklace with one charm, and one of my sister’s (stolen borrowed) rings. Once every few years I’d get something special, like a new charm or my high school ring, but pretty much it was the same jewelry all the time. Let me ask you – why on Earth was I limiting myself????

Since then, I have opened myself up to the world of jewelry! This has a lot to do with the fact that both of my bffs are now jewelry reps for home-party companies (though two separate companies). So I’ve had a few parties for them and it has been great fun! However, it has created a need for storing all this new jewelry I’ve acquired.

For Christmas last year, my husband bought me this wonderful large jewelry box that I keep in our master closet. But in the mornings, I’m not always completely awake and that can make picking the necklace I want quite a challenge. So I went to the power of the interwebs and searched around for a solution. Enter the Jewelry Shadowbox with Fabric.

Here’s how I did it:

I started with a plain shadowbox from A.C. Moore. I used a 40% coupon. I got the 11×14 size, because I wanted it to be a little bit on the larger side. I also used Krylon aluminum spray paint (purchased at Walmart). I also sent my husband to Lowe’s to get some of these hooks to screw into the top of the frame. I screwed them in every inch and a half or so. I actually enlisted my husband’s help again, because my hand was starting to hurt after like three hooks (I’m a wimp!).

I took out the guts and the glass of the shadowbox and went to spraying. I am not at all a pro spray painter, but it’s pretty much fool proof.  I did about 3 light coats of paint and just touched up as needed. My grass also got a fancy makeover in the process. Doesn’t that leaf look kinda cool as aluminum??

The hooks obviously got a makeover from gold to matte aluminum in this process as well.

Once the spray paint dries (read the bottle for specifics), time to take it inside to make-over the guts! Here are my supplies:

Spray adhesive, quilt batting, and the Riley Blake Designs Lost & Found by Jen Allyson for My Mind’s Eye Black – Main fabric.

I started by adhering one layer of batting to the shadowbox backing. I felt it wasn’t ‘cushy’ enough, so I spray adhered another layer of batting on top of the first. This is the front of the backing with the first layer of batting cut close.
Then there’s the back. The good part about the back? NO ONE SEES IT!

I used my good pal Scor-Tape to adhere the batting to the back of the backing. I made it tight, but not too tight because I wanted the backing to be able to bend a bit to fit inside the shadowbox snugly.

Then I spray adhered a layer of fabric to the front of the batting and used Scor-Tape again on the back. I tried to use the ‘wrap the corners like a present’ technique. Remember what I said about no one seeing the back???

Here is the finished backing put into the shadowbox! You can see the sides and the bottom were able to bend enough to fit snugly into the frame.

And here it is in it’s new home, holding some of my favorite necklaces.

Now my necklaces are sitting right on my dresser where I can see and grab them easily in the morning. It’s fun to decorate your house with the same things you use to decorate your clothes!

Have a great weekend everyone!