Pinspiration

 I have decided that I will start posting pictures of my Pinterest inspirations as I complete them…one by one.  Call it my virtual checking off of my to-do’s. I love to cross things off my list!  Here’s what I’ve created so far:

1. I love these yarn letters...so cute!  I made this one for my dearest friend Crystal's little boy Gideon.  I added a button instead of the Etsy creator's idea for a little felt mustache.  But, you could do that too. I got all of my supplies at Joann's, and am finishing up one for each of the girl's rooms.

2. This button monogrammed pillow was for my friend Lana (a friend from Highschool) who recently got married, and coincidentally was my labor/delivery nurse with Charlotte!   I wanted to keep the colors neutral so that it would accompany any decor.  

That's it for now, I have other projects in the works though......until then! 

The Shabby Shoppe

   I have always been a lover of scrapbooking and creative crafty projects. From my childhood days of Christmas and craft boutiques with my mom, to doodling and creating cards in high school, to scrapbooking through my many years as an employee at the amazing Crackerjack Too! Scrapbook Co. in Redlands.

   After I became a teacher, I found myself pouring any available creativity I had into setting up my home and my classroom. I stopped scrapbooking all together, and whenever I tried to pick it back up again, it was like an athlete who hadn’t played in awhile-and went out for a quick pick me up game with buddies. I was out of practice, and by the time I had everything out, set-up, and had decided what project to tackle first…it was time to clean it all up and go back to work, or whatever other priorities took precedence at the time.

   I remember when digital scrapbooking first came about. I was a die-hard “old-school” scrapper, and I was determined that digital scrapbooking was unauthentic and one-dimensional and fake. Not “real” scrapbooking. There wasn't that creative, handmade feel to it.  To be honest, at the time, some of my judgments were partially true because there weren’t many available resources for Digi-Scrapping, and the ones that DID exist were in their infancy stage and just barely developing product.

   So, I postponed my creative hobby for a few more years, and decided that I would get back to it when “I had time”. Ya, like when I get to heaven. My sister continued to inspire me with her cute mini-books, and collage boards and various scrapbook crafts. But, I knew I was the Queen of unfinished projects, and I still had countless amounts of unused scrapbooking supplies from my years of “working in the biz”, and I just didn’t want to get in the middle of another unfinished project. So, I stuck to little projects. Did I finish any of those…nope.

Years passed, and in November of 2009, I was pregnant (very pregnant) with Ellie, and visiting my sis-in-law’s family for my niece’s birthday party. My sis-in-law’s sister (got that) was there visiting from Texas, and she had brought along her latest book of her oldest daughter’s 1^st year-created using a Digital Scrapbook kit and an online book binding company.

   I was mesmerized! I seriously couldn’t focus on anything else! Here I was at my precious niece’s birthday party, and I couldn’t stop looking at the book, and asking tons of questions, and trying to memorize every detail of every page. It was stunning! A masterpiece! She had basically created a hardback book that had pictures and journaling documenting all of the important events, stories, memories and joys of the 1^st year of her daughter’s life. It was so awesome!

   I was immediately hooked! She graciously copied some of the free kits that she downloaded off of her favorite site, the Shabby Shoppe, and burned them to a disk for me to try at home. You would have thought it was my MY birthday! I eagerly went home, popped the disk in, and then realized I had to have the software to use the kits. So, I downloaded a 30 trial of Photoshop Elements, and figured that would give me enough time to play around and determine if this was really something I would commit to and be interested in. The software would be an initial investment-but other than that, I had plenty of kits to keep me busy for awhile, and the only real cost would be ordering each book.

I had found the perfect thing to keep my mind occupied until Ellie was due to arrive about a month later.

   Needless to say, I LOVE IT! It’s wonderful to scrapbook digitally because it’s all self-contained in your computer! You just complete each page, save it, and then upload the finished product to the online printing company of your choice, and VOILA!

   So, here are a few examples of the pages I have worked on for Ellie’s 1^st book. I stared it before she was born, and then the reality of being a new mom set in, and I had to put it off for a few months. But, I’m almost finished, and am so excited to order the finished book.

I can’t take credit for these pages. I went onto the Shabby Shoppe's gallery, and basically mimicked pages that I thought were cute-as it can be a little overwhelming to create a layout completely from scratch at first. Plus, I had to get used to the Photoshop software too. 

Cute Seasonal Pennant Banner

Last fall, I was inspired by one of my crafty neighbors who created a really cute pennant banner in various Halloween colored fabrics to hang above her porch entryway.  It was cute because she didn’t use super busy prints, she just stuck with a few colors that went with her decorating scheme at Halloween.  I remember loving the idea – but I was 7 months pregnant at the time, and was still getting ready for baby-so I snapped a few pics, and put it on my to-do list for later.

The following summer, I was remembering this little project, and was on summer break and in need of a fun and easy project to work on during Ellie’s naptime.  So, I used the inspiration and created a 4^th of July themed banner to hang outside on my porch.  It was actually pretty easy once I had the template.  I didn’t even sew it, and per the advice of my neighbor, used fusible adhesive to bind the fabric and extra wide bias tape together.  A little ironing, and viola – I had a really cute banner to hang outside of my house.  And for those of you who didn’t know – I am ridiculously obsessed with decorating for the holidays.  I always do either a tree or something around my dining room mirror for all of the main holidays.  Its a little nuts, but I grew up with a mom who always decorated for the main holidays – and it made the year so much fun!

Materials: 

-6 to 8 varieties of your favorite seasonally colored fabric – approx. a ½ yd. of each

(choose a variety of textures and prints for added interest)

-cardboard to make a template (my pennant was about 5” wide by 11-12 inches tall)

-extra wide bias tape (choose a color that works with your fabric)

-bond adhesive (on the roll) to be used with an iron

-pinking shears (to keep the fabric from fraying)

-any other trinkets/buttons, etc. you want to add

Rough Directions:

-make a template from the cardboard

-trace 2 pennants from the same fabric (to go back to back), and create enough to make a banner.  I made about 5 double-sided pennants per fabric choice.

-cut out the pennants and piece together, pretty side out

-glue the pennants together, so you end up with approx. 30 double sided pieces.

-iron bonding tape to one side of each pennant, and then iron to the inside of the bias tape.

-turn the entire banner over, apply bonding adhesive to the opposite side of each pennant.

-fold bias tape over and them iron the second side.

TIP:  I felt like even though this was easy-it was A LOT of gluing and ironing.  It might just be easier to sew the pennants together, and them sew each to the bias tape.  Whatever works for you!  My sewing machine was packed away so I opted for ironing.

New Project:  here is my fabric inspiration for my own Halloween banner...although, I'll have to get to that later. :)

Photo Collage Boards

A few months back, I start a blog where I talked about a project.  So, here's a recap from the original post, and pictures to match!
     I have been working on some different projects over the past few months, and I wanted to post some pictures of my progress. I have been working on a photo wall that was inspired by my Aunts' and my Grandmother. 
     When I was young, they started a photo wall of three simple bulletin boards that had a variety of pictures from all of the grandkids and their growth through the years. I remember being really excited to see what new pictures of each of us had been added to the wall each time we made a visit to my Grandma's. Such a simple but precious memory from my childhood. 
     So, I have decided to duplicate this project in my own home. I have three bulletin boards, and I covered two of them with fabric, and purchased a framed one for the center. I hung them with drapery tie backs and it adds a nice architectural element and really makes it like artwork on the wall. 
     I decided to use one board for pictures of Jon's life and family, one for pictures of my life and family, and the center one for pictures of our life together. It's turned out pretty cool, and is a great way to display all of those photos that you have and haven't room to display or scrapbook. Whenever family come over to visit, they enjoy seeing pictures of themselves and I am confident it's going to be a great conversation starter for many a family gathering!
      I still need to finish adding pictures to Jon's board.  I am in the process of scanning all of them first, just in case.  The center board will be a continual work in progress as it's of our immediate little Allen family.

  Adjustments - per my Aunt's advice, I think I'll replace the push pins with straight pins for a cleaner look. 

Wishful thinking....

So, I may have unintentionally exaggerated my daughter's height in my last post. I was cracking up when I realized I listed her height at 37"....not quite. At her 9 month check-up a couple of weeks ago, she was 31 inches. I wanted to correct my wishful thinking-but i didn't want ti change the original post because it was just too funny! I know we'll look back on that one day and giggle at my silly mistake.

September has flown by, and Ellie's first Halloween is just around the corner, and I am at a complete loss as to what her costume will be. I just can't make up my mind! I want to do something creative-but realistic too. I'm leaning towards something involving a tutu-but I guess we'll all just have to wait and see what happens.

We have joyous news to share! My newest little niece was born last night to my bro/sis-in-law, and Caleb and Kirsten Allen, as they welcomed sweet little Aila Marie-3 weeks early-but as beautiful and precious as new parents could hope for in a sweet baby! Congrats and We can't wait to meet the little sweetie!

I have been working on some different projects that past month or so, and i wanted to post some pictures of my progress. I have been working on a photo wall that was inspired by my Aunts' and my Grandmother. When i was young, they started a photo wall of three simple bulletin boards that had a variety of pictures from all of the grandkids and their growth through the years. I remember being really excited to see what new pictures of each of us had been added to the wall each time we made a visit to my Grandma's. Such a simple but precious memory from my childhood. So, i have decided to duplicate this project in my own home. I have three bulletin boards, and I covered two of them with fabric, and purchased a framed one for the center. I hung them with drapery tie backs and it adds a nice architectural element and really makes it like artwork on the wall. I decided to use one board for pictures of Jon's life and family, one for pictures of my life and family, and the center one for pictures of our life together. It's turned out pretty cool, and it's a grate way to display all of those photos that you have and either haven't room to display or scrapbook. Our family that have visited have enjoyed seeing pictures of themselves and i am confident it's going to be a great conversation starter for many a family gathering!

Pictures of all of the above to come.....until then-