by Julie Jones

One of my favorite things about taking my daughter’s photo is the moment that she lets go of the fake smile and gives me the genuine giggle. I wanted to document that on a page, so I started with a series of photos that took her from fake smile to laughing out loud.

 

Supplies Used:

Patterned paper: October Afternoon (orange polka dot), Basic Grey (brown), Autumn Leaves (cream)

Decorative Tape: Heidi Swapp

Pen: Staedtler

Letter Stickers: American Crafts

Adhesive: Herma Tabs

Paper trimmer: Cutterpede by EK Success

 

Step 1:  Beginning with the background of the polka dot paper, lay your photos out in the pattern you would like them to be for the finished project.

 

Step 2: Go through your scrap stash, or use a new piece of patterned paper, and cut blocks and strips from the paper. Randomly add them behind your photos until you achieve the desired look. Adhere blocks and strips of paper and photos to the page with your favorite adhesive.

 

Step 3: Add decorative tape around the border of the photos where you’d like. For embellishments like this, I try to use the “triangle” rule and add embellishments so that they form a triangle around the focus of my layout. In this case, her giggly photo is the focus, so I added tape in three different areas to highlight that.

 

Step 4: Add your title with colorful stickers. Add the date and any journaling you wish. For this layout, the photos and title were self explanatory, so I just added the date and a small sentence about the giggle being my favorite.

 

This is a four-photo layout, but you could easily substitute more photos by cropping them down smaller. You could also use fewer photos, by filling up the space with blocks of patterned paper instead of a photo.

Did you ever make pom pom’s when you were a kid? They are really quick and easy to make. I thought it would be cute to make a garland of pom pom’s for my daughter’s room to hang her valentine’s from. Here is how: (images below!)

Step 1: Wrap some yarn around your hand or fingers. I used acrylic yarn from the craft store. I would think that any kind of yarn would work.
 
Step 2: Wrap the yarn around your hand or fingers 60 to 70 times, depending on how fluffy you want your pom pom to be.

Step 3: Gently take the wrapped yarn off of your hand. Be careful to keep the yarn wound. Lay it on the table or floor or wherever you are working.

Step 4: Cut a length of yarn long enough to  wrap around the wound yarn several times. For demonstration purposes, I am using a different color of yarn. You would use the same color of yarn as your pom pom.

Step 5: Wrap the length of yarn around the pom pom and secure in the middle with a knot. Pull tightly, this holds your pom pom together.

Step 6: Continue wrapping the length of yarn around the middle of the pom pom and securing it with knots. Do this about three times, to insure that your pom pom is secure.

Step 7: Cut the loops from the ends of your pom pom.

Step 8: Fluff the pom pom up with your hands. You may have to cut off any ends that are longer than the rest of the pom pom at this time.

Step 9: To make a garland, repeat steps 1-8 until you have the desired amount of pom poms.

Step 10: Thread a large needle with a long piece of yarn. The yarn just needs to be as long as you want your garland to be, plus a little bit extra for the ends to be tied to something.

Step 11: Insert the needle into the middle of one of the pom poms and thread through. Be careful here because some of the middle of the pom pom may want to come apart. If it does, just push it back down into the middle of the pom pom.
Step 12: Continue stringing the pom poms until your garland is the desired length.

Once your garland is completed, you can attach it to a piece of furniture or the wall with a simple tie. I used clothespins to attach my daughter’s valentines to this garland, but I think it would be cute to hang artwork from or just to be on it’s own. I guess she could even use it for dress up if she wanted too! 
Happy creating!
Julie

I am so happy to introduce all of you mommas to our new crafty contributor, Janna Wilson, co-founder of GotCrafts?!! She's a local momma who is o-so talented! 

Just in time for V-Day, Janna has posted a FREE Valentine Project Download. Click here for some great picture and full instructions! You'll love the website- promise. Welcome Janna!

 

I was at a store that shall remain nameless (Target: I LOVE YOU!) the other day and I found this cute placemat. I loved everything about it. The pattern, the colors, the pattern, the colors…okay, so I just loved the pattern and the colors, but that was enough for me to put it in my cart and say, “Let’s be friends.” 

When I got home with it, I had to ask myself what I could use this placemat for other than a placemat. I am not sure why I had to ask myself that. I only knew that I had to ask myself. So I asked myself and myself answered, “How about a memo board?” What a fabulous idea, self. Way to go! I thought that surely a dry erase marker would write and erase off of the plastic placemat. So I tested it. And it worked! The rest was easy. Let me explain:

 
Step 1: Find cute placemat. 

Step 2: Punch two holes in the top for ribbon. I used a Crop-A-Dile, but I’m sure any regular hole punch would work just as well.

Step 3: Find cute ribbon. Attach ribbon to cute placemat.

Step 4: Write message on “memo board” with dry erase marker.

Step 5: Hang somewhere in your home that messages will be read. 
 
See? I told you it would be easy! If the dry erase is a little hard to wipe off, just use a wet paper towel. Happy creating!

I love making mini books because they are quick and easy and use up extra photos. I made this one in about 30 minutes. Here’s how. (Photos below!)
 
Step 1: Gather your supplies. This will be the most time consuming part of the project, I promise. I found it easy to grab only a few things so that I wasn’t paralyzed by too many options. This mini book is 4x4 in size. I could have used just one sheet of patterned paper (a 12x12 sheet will yield 9 4x4 sheets of paper), but I had four patterns that I liked, so I just used pieces of that. Tip: Using patterned papers from the same manufacturer is an easy way to insure that your papers will go well together.  I grabbed the photos I wanted to use, the paper, some stickers, some chipboard accents and some rubons. 

Step 2: Decide the scheme of your book. For small albums like this, I find it easy to use the same scheme throughout. It saves time and takes out the guess work of whether or not your album will flow together. I decided to use a photo on one page (it is so easy to crop a 4x6 photo down to 4x4) and a piece of patterned paper and some embellishments on the next page. 

Step 3: Crop your photos. I quickly cut my photos from 4x6 (standard print size) to 4x4 (to fit this small album).

Step 4: Cut your paper. I cut two, 4x4 pieces from each of my 4 sheets of paper. Like I said, for this mini book, you could easily just use one sheet of patterned paper and still have a little bit left over. This would be a good project to use your scrap paper on too.

Step 5: Put your photos and paper in order. Lay them out on the table in the order they will go.

Step 6: Embellish each page with the accents you’ve chosen. Just go fast. Don’t think too hard about this part. Enjoy it!

Step 7: Insert pages and photos into the mini book.

Step 8: Decorate the cover. In this case, I just used a strip of decorative tape and a chipboard heart. 

Supply List:
Patterned Paper: Basic Grey (Gypsy collection)
Rubons: Making Memories and 7 Gypsies
Decorative Tape: Heidi Swapp
Chipboard Hearts: Heidi Swapp
Stickers: 7 Gypsies
Journaling cards: 7 Gypsies
Photos: LeAnne Bull Photography

Tools Used:
Paper Trimmer: Fiskars, Glue Dots and Glue Tabs: HermaFix, Emery Board (used to sand the chip board hearts), Pen: Zig, Bone Folder (used to apply rub ons).