Sunny disposition...

Good morning, all, I hope you are having a sunny day where you are! I wanted to pop in and quickly share one more page that I made with the May Jenni Bowlin kit. The kits are sold out, but you can visit this link to sign up for a membership if you wish!

My daughter Kati has such a sunny disposition, she's truly always happy and smiling and so content. Always. I'm very blessed to have her in my life! She's truly a god-send!

Today she may not be too happy with me, however. In about an hour, we are going to her pediatrician's office to get her Kindergarten physical and immunizations. :) However, I'm not ready to let her go to school yet!! So glad I have a few more months with her at home. I love her to the moon and back!!




I appreciate you stopping by today! Have a wonderful, sunny, happy day. XO

Danielle

Faux-chet crocheted flower tutorial for you.

Hello! Today I had a few minutes to get my tutorial together for you on how to make these "faux" crocheted flowers. I don't know how to crochet, but I LOVE the look of the crocheted flowers, and I don't want to spend a fortune buying them. So, I came up with a fun technique to make my own.  I taught these in my Reflections class...you can see a yellow one I made HERE on my mini album.

Here's how!

First, you'll need to gather some supplies. You'll need any sort of yarn, white cardstock, scissors, tape, glue and a circle punch (1" or 2"). I used Helmar's wet glue, but you can use anything that sticks quickly. Even a hot glue gun would work fine.

Step 1: Cut 3 pieces of yarn. If you'd like to make a 1" flower, cut 3 pieces of yarn that are about 12"-14" each. You'll want them all the same size. If you'd like to make a larger 2" flower, cut 3 pieces of yarn that are 24" or so. You can experiment to see exactly how much you need. I just eye-ball it and if the pieces are too long, I cut it off at the very end.

Tie the 3 pieces together in a knot at one end. Tape the end down to your work surface.

Step 2:  Braid the entire length of yarn. If you are not sure how to braid, see this link HERE.

Step 3: After braiding all the way to the end, tie the end in a knot. Trim excess yarn.

Step 4: Punch a circle from white cardstock. This will be your flower base. Here I've used a 2" circle. Apply some glue in the center. Start with one end of your braid in the center. Wrap around in circular motion. Continue wrapping the braid until you get to the end.

Step 5: At the end of the braid, you can tuck the end under the flower base and glue. If you have any white cardstock sticking out like I have here, just trim it off with your scissors. Finish by adding a pretty button in the center!

I'd love to do another give-away! I picked up a few fun colors of yarn today! So I will put a little goodie bag together for one lucky blog reader. Just leave a comment here if you would like to be entered, and I'll choose someone on Friday to send some goodies to. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by,
Danielle

She weebles and she wobbles...

Hi all! This month Tattered Angels is doing a blog exchange with My Little Shoebox, so I have a few new projects to share!

On the first layout, I used the Regal Fonts chipboard sprayed with Silver Sugar Glimmer Mist to house my journaling and a small photo. The swirl stamp is Screen Prints Regal Classic Accents Stamps by Tattered Angels also. All paper is My Little Shoebox, as well as the pink sticker letters and die cut borders. I love these colors and wanted the pink in the photos to stand out, so I chose the Silver Sugar as a subtle accent for the frames. Isn’t she cute?  This is my friend’s daughter, and I watch her a couple of days a week. She is just learning to walk and it’s adorable to watch her!

Thank you to Jennifer Priest for these awesome stick pins! I met her in California and she was so sweet to share some of these with me!

Next up is a card. I used My Little Shoebox grid paper for the background and a doily from the baking section at the craft store. I sprayed the Regal Fonts chipboard with Sunshine Glimmer Mist and used a “bliss” stamp from the Large Heart Stamp Set (Tattered Angels), stamped right onto the doily. The ribbon was seam binding that I bought on-line in a big roll and I sprayed those with Sweet Clover and Juniper Glimmer Mists.

And one more card…I used Delphinium Glimmer Mist over a Glimmer Screen from the Garden Iron Works line sprayed onto white cardstock. The stamps are from the Travel Set, ink is Perfect Plum by Stampin’ Up! The chipboard is from the Regal Glimmer Chips set. (all Tattered Angels) I painted the chipboard white and added some brown chalk around the edges. I made my own ribbon flower by running a stitch along the edge of the ribbon, then pulling on it tight to scrunch it up into a circular shape, then added a button to the center.

I think that layout is my new favorite layout!! I captured so many sweet photos of her the other day. Stephanie C., if you are reading this, I have a CD of photos for you from the other day! I think you'll love them.

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back soon with the "faux-chet" crocheted flower tutorial!
Danielle

A little bit about my Reflections trip...

I made it back from the Reflections event in California late Monday evening. Boy, was I exhausted after being gone for 5 days ~ but in a totally good way! Seems like you always need a vacation from your vacation! It was everything I had hoped and more. The event was so much fun, so much work, but I loved every minute of it, and Karen and Susan really put their hearts and souls into making every detail amazing. I had the best teacher assistant, Ly, she was awesome. Our first class was a little hairy, but after that I think we managed to get right on track to how we wanted to present the material and Ly was wonderful - so much help, loved her! I am super shy in real life, I think everyone who met me can attest to that, but I think they had fun with the project and techniques. lol When I created the mini album, I really wanted to teach some new ideas and things that nobody had done before, so one of the things I came up with was a new kind of "crocheted" flowers (lovingly we called them "faux-chet"). I'll be posting how to make these soon. Here is the mini that we made. And you can see ALL of the rest of the inside photos HERE in my 2peas gallery.

One of the highlights of my trip was getting to meet everyone and my roomie, Katie Watson. She is the sweetest, most down-to-earth person. Very genuine and the kind of friend who would do anything for you! I'm glad we got to room together and get to know each other. I also was also able to meet Kelly Goree and hang out with her - she's a blast. Here we are checking out Newport Beach one day. (I apologize for the quality of the photo, I took my daughter's camera along on my trip! Katie is on the left, Kelly-center, me -right)

A beautiful palm tree...loooooved them. I wish we had them in New York!

The hotel's amenities were unbelievable. If you ever get a chance to go to a Reflections event, you should. There were 3 pools (2 heated), 16 tennis courts, bikes to rent, golfing, etc. Lots, lots more...

View from our terrace, overlooking the tennis courts:

One of my classes hard at work:

On Saturday, my good friend Shonna and I were able to go to Balboa Island and do some touristing.

And on Sunday, I was able to meet up with another great friend of mine, Tiffany, who lives there in Long Beach. They took me to dinner on the Pier and we saw a beautiful sunset over the ocean. I miss her a lot. We met when our hubbies were in the Air Force and if you have been in the military, you know how close you can get to those who don't have any family around. Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures of her and her family on Sunday when we met up! :(

This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me...so I was very honored to be asked to participate with all of the other amazing scrapbook designers. Thank you, Reflections!!

Danielle

Blog hop winner!

Thank you soooo much to everyone who left comments for the blog hop! Wow! I really enjoyed reading all your sweet comments. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
The winner is-------------->Leah! Congratulations, Leah!

Leah said...
love.love the jewelry! and your card is totally fabulous!

April 30, 2010 8:32 PM

Pink Paislee's "Inspiration Station Blog Tour"...

Welcome to the blog tour...we hope you will find our Mother's Day projects and ideas inspirational!

I decided to make a bracelet for mom with Pink Paislee's Queen Bee cork buttons and brads! But any of Pink Paislee's cork buttons would work for this project...you could also use the 365 cork buttons or the Bayberry Cottage cork buttons.

Here's  how I made this...

Step 1: Gather your supplies. You'll need 3 cork buttons and 3 brads by Pink Paislee, a bracelet, wire cutters, a hot glue gun and a hole puncher or Crop-a-dile. My mom gave me a big pack of these silver bracelets one time, so I thought I'd use one for this project.

Step 2: Snip an opening in the bracelet with wire cutters.

 Step 3: Choose 3 cork buttons you want to use on your bracelet. The larger ones work the best. Punch 2 small holes in each cork to create buttons. Make SURE you get the holes as far apart as you can (or the width of the brad is fine). If the holes are too close together, the cork will rip when you bend it to get the bracelet through.

Step 4: Slide the cork buttons onto the bracelet. You will have to bend them a bit to get them to go on. I used the larger one in the center and 2 similar ones on the sides.

Step 5: Cut the prongs off the back of the brads with the wire cutters. Add a dab of hot glue in the center of each cork button and adhere the brads.

The cork buttons stay put nicely on the bracelet. For extra durability, you might want to add a dab of hot glue on the back of the cork buttons where the holes were punched as well. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

I have one more thing to share before I go, a Mother's Day card:

To create this card:

1. Cut white cardstock 8 x 4 3/4". Fold in half for card base. Round the top right corner with a corner rounder.
2. Cut Bee Hive die cut paper 5" high x 2" wide. Adhere to right side of card.
3. Cut a piece of the Queen Bee Press Ons 4 3/4" x 2 1/2". Apply to the left side of card.
3. Adhere pleated ribbon to the back of the round die cut. Attach to card.
4. Adhere large cork button from Queen Bee cork buttons.
5. Print out saying, "To my mom, my best friend." Cut into a tag shape. Attach.
6. Adhere a smaller cork button.
7. Stamp 2 bees from the Queen Bee stamp set. Cut out and adhere. Pop up wings for dimension.
8. Cut 2 leaves from the Worker Bee paper. Distress the edges with your fingernail and attach to card.

Finished size: 5" x 4 1/2" (with everything hanging off included).

Please leave a comment here and then visit each of the following blogs for 11 more chances to win a $25 prize pack by Pink Paislee! Thanks for stopping in!
Danielle

Lisa Cole

Ania Jo Lexander

Stacey Michaud

Leena Loh

Jana Eubank

Amanda Muirhead

Kristen Swain

Tina Albertson

Jen Martakis

Erin Terrell Clarkson

Kayla Aimee

One more sleep...

...and I'm off to Reflections in California! So excited to be teaching with Kelly Goree, Elizabeth Kartchner, Katie Watson, Kelly Purkey, Maggie Holmes and Debbie Campos. My plane leaves at 6 in the morning here tomorrow and I live an hour north of the airport, so I have to get up EARLY, early. It's going to be a loooong day, but I'm extremely excited!

Stay tuned...because this Friday, Pink Paislee is doing something really fun, so check back to my blog then! I have my post all scheduled for while I'm gone. Well, I have to go finish packing, see you California ladies soon!
XO
Danielle

Jenni Bowlin sneaks...

Morning, hope you are all enjoying your Monday so far! I have a couple of sneak peeks for you of the next Jenni Bowlin kits, which go up for sale on the 30th. I loved the little chipboard houses that came in the kit this time!

Here I used the bottlecaps and flower from the add-on kit, and the rest is from the main kit (with the exception of the doilie from my stash). To create the roof of the house, I cut the bottlecaps in half, layered them on like little shingles and then trimmed the edges to correspond with the roof shape! You could use this card for "welcome home", "welcome to the neighborhood",  or even "welcome baby".

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There are a lot of fun, bright papers in this kit! See the brown floral paper? That one is made especially for this kit by Jenni B. You won't find it anywhere else. Yum. This is a layout about our neighborhood and how we LOVE to go on bike rides and walks here! We absolutely love this neighborhood of ours!
I used one of the houses to trace onto the brown patterned papers and saved the actual house for another project. I didn't want to use up all my chipboard houses on one page. (Love how the scalloped paper looks like a roof!)

That's it for me today. I have to get busy with my day, but thank you so much for stopping by!
Danielle

Adore-able...

Jenni Bowlin had these adorable little Kaisercraft photo holders for sale last month, and I just got one in the mail, so I had to alter it right away with the May project kit that I just received!  The May project kit (available soon) has everything you see here, with the exception of the photo holder and wooden clips/buttons.

(pics of my girls)

I embossed the heart with my Cuttlebug machine and Swiss Dots folder, and added the flower/ribbon/twine from the project kit and hot glued it onto one of the frames.

Here is what the photo holder looked like before I started. I painted it with black acrylic paint, not covering the entire thing, leaving some of the natural color show through for a shabby look. I decided to add the little wooden clips from the craft store, so that the photos could be easily changed out!

You can find these photo holders here. And the May project kit (along with the main kit and add-ons) will be coming out soon! (on the 30th, I believe) Would be a great Mother's Day gift *wink*!

Stop by the Jenni Bowlin design team blog for lots of inspiration. Thanks for visiting today!
Danielle

Reflections event coming soon!

I've been working on my mini album class for the Reflections Event in California and am so excited...just had to pop in and show you a few sneaks of what we are going to be making!

There is SO much more, 14 pages for us to work on and lots of layering and techniques including hand stitching....

...these cute little "crocheted flowers" ...(no, we won't be crocheting, but I discovered a brand new technique that nobody has done before...I can't wait to show you!)

...and a MUCH, MUCH more!

We will be working with some Jenni Bowlin, Tattered Angels, Lily Bee, Pink Paislee, Cosmo Cricket, Prima, Sassafras Lass,  Technique Tuesday and Maya Road. (Hope I'm not forgetting anyone!) And also one thing that I custom-made for this class!

The book is about life moments, so bring any photos you want to use...any moments/photos you love of your family or loved ones. They don't have to be from a related event. Just random photos are fine. I love to scrap my favorite photos, but sometimes they are just random and don't have a story behind them. I used many wallet sized photos, but you can bring 4x6's if you wish and we can cut them down to fit. Bring some close up shots and some far away shots for cropping. See you in 2 weeks!

Danielle