text-style...

Just for fun today, I thought I would share some projects with you made with text paper! Whether it's vintage book paper or paper that is current, but made to look vintage...I am loving it!

Text paper makes a great backdrop for colorful accents, like the Tranquility Trilogy banner I made here. Also great for stamping on, like the sentiment, which is from Think Big Favorites #4.

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I've used text paper again here again for another backdrop for a colorful accent.
I cut two of these gift bags Favor It Box #1, one from cardstock and one from vintage book paper, then layered them.

These cute lollipops were found at Dollar Tree, love that they have clear wrappers, so you can see all of the fun colors! The little tag is stamped with Sweet As Can Be. The chipboard lolly is from Crate Paper.

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These are Echo Park papers, Dots & Stripes - but one of them, the text paper, is actually a Christmas paper from the Season's Greetings line. I used a 2" square punch to cut out squares that had toys, dolls and vintage images on them that weren't alltogether Christmas-ey, and used them on a page about how I love to make baby quilts for friends.

I added some stickers and a star stamp from the Simple Circles stamp set by Papertrey Ink. Stars seem to go with anything, don't they!

Of course, I had to add stitching to give the layout a "quilted" feel. Hope you enjoyed these ideas and ways you can use TEXT paper on your next project!

jolly treats...

Thought I'd pop in and show you some little treat bags made with the Echo Park Season's Greetings line! I still can't get enough of this line. It's just so cute! Wouldn't you agree?

To create these, I just sewed paper together to form the pockets, then inserted a glassine bag inside. To create the shredded paper, I cut little strips and folded them back and forth. I don't have a shredder, so I just cut and folded a bunch at a time! You don't have to be precise with them at all. Slice them with your paper cutter (12"), cut them in half so you have smaller pieces to work with, then grab a bunch and fold them all at the same time. Insert some of these with a few pieces of candy.

These are all papers, brads and stickers from the line! Ribbon is from my stash and the glassine bags are by Papertrey Ink. These went so fast, I can't wait to make them for the kids in my girls' classrooms this holiday!

gingerbread joy...

Here is a quick layout I made today with the Season's Greetings line by Echo Park! (See post below for a giveaway of this line!)

When Kati was in Kindergarten last year, her class made little gingerbread houses from scratch and the parents were invited to come join in on the fun. You can imagine my excitement, as a scrapbooker! lol

Well, I got all ready to go to her class, went out to start my car, and it wouldn't start. It was SO cold out. I went inside and emailed her teacher to let her know I wasn't going to make it. My husband was already gone to work, and I had no way to get it started. I cried. I was so sad I couldn't be there to help out. I did get photos of it when she came home. Not sure why I don't have any photos of her with it though!

You can see here on this close-up, I made a little house to hold one of the wallet sized photos...

Love the gumdrop path she made to her house and the little Twizzler door. lol

I used the 12x12" Season's Greetings papers, the chipboard, brads and stickers. I just noticed that this line is available HERE at 2peas.

Don't forget to leave a message in my LAST POST for the Season's Greetings giveaway! The giveaway is still open to win this fun line.

a little Christmas cheer...

Good morning! Remember this post when I said I was going to be doing a few retail kits here and there starting in the fall? Well, that company happens to be Echo Park and I'm loving their stuff lately. Did you know they come out with a new line or two EVERY month? I had no idea! I don't know how they can crank out such cute lines so fast.

They have two new Christmas scrapbooking lines that just came out this month. One is called Season's Greetings. It's SUPER cute in person. Here are a few cards I've made with it so far. I used the 6x6" paper pad for these, along with some of the other embellishments - chipboard, brads, etc!

I wanted this one to look like a little present. I had a small piece of paper leftover on my table, so I wrapped it in twine and topped it off with some chipboard. VERY simple.

On this card, I layered a few of the 6x6" papers, then added a chipboard snowflake, sticker and chipboard star.

I tied the ribbon around the papers before adhering to the card front, then added the little "christmas cheer" chipboard piece over the ribbon.

On the "holiday traditions" card, I put my sewing machine to work and stitched some little dangles for the ornaments with a stitch that looks like little snowflakes. (My sewing machine is a Singer and this is stitch #30, in case you are wondering.)

On the "Believe" card below, I turned one of the journaling cards upside down and tied the twine around it through the hole at the bottom of the tag before adhering to the card. I cut a Damask Snowflake out of felt with a Papertrey Ink die, then added some chipboard over the top! It came together very quickly.

Don't you love these brads? Adorable.

I can't wait to play around with the stamp set too.

I just happen to have an extra set of these 12x12" Season's Greetings papers, the Decorative Brads and the Clear Stamps that match this line! Please let me know if you'd like to be entered to win this little giveaway and I'll choose a random winner soon. Thanks so much for stopping by today. Hugs,

Echo Park and The Twinery blog hop!

Welcome! If you arrived here from IVONA's blog, you are in the right place! If not, make sure you start at The Twinery blog.

Most of my blog readers know how much I love, love using twine on my projects, and The Twinery is the BEST place to purchase colored twine in my opinion. :) The colors are so awesome! Today Echo Park and the Twinery have asked me to participate in a fun little blog hop to showcase some of their new goodies!

First off, a little layout that I made for a special friend of mine, Shonna. She lives in my hometown in South Dakota and we don't get to see each other often, but we keep in touch with email, phone calls and Facebook time! I want her to know how much her friendship means to me! We met... oh, I would say somewhere around 1994...? Gosh, that means we've been friends for about 17 years. Wow, wow, wow. Time sure flies. That's me (right) and Shonna (left) this summer when I went home for a visit.

Here I used Echo Park's new Country Drive line of papers, journaling cards and stickers. The teal twine is called Caribbean from the Twinery. The stamped flowers and remember sentiment are new by Papertrey Ink and are called Harvest Berries, and I cut them out with a Harvest Berries die as well. The "thinking of you" is from a new stamp set by PTI called Think Big Favorites #7.

I love creating my own backgrounds with stamps. Using a similar color of ink makes the background interesting and supportive to the theme of the page, but doesn't take attention away from the photo.

After stamping, I wrapped the cardstock twice with twine and tied it in a knot at the end. I used one more piece and tied it into a bow over the top of one of the knots. Kind of reminds me of a nice warm HUG, the way the twine wraps around the page.

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My second project is a fun little baby card. Twine is perfect for hanging things like banners and tags!

Here I've used a paper from the Country Drive line again (floral), along with a paper from the Dots & Stripes: Candy Shoppe (pink background). The twine is black and is called Charcoal.

I've used some new tag stamps by Papertrey Ink called Fillable Frames Additions 2 and stamped them right over the patterned paper with Pure Poppy ink (red), then cut them out and punched holes for hanging. The background is white cardstock that I added some Vintage Cream paint to, just swiped the ink pad right across it, then embossed it with a polkadot embossing folder and my Cuttlebug.

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On the next card, I made my own little faux crocheted flowers. I know I've shown this technique before on my blog, but instead of yarn this time, I used twine!

Here is a close up of the twine flowers....

I've put together a how-to for these Faux Crocheted Flowers:

Step 1.  Cut 3 lengths of twine 15" or so. (This will create a flower that is about 1 1/4" wide.) Tie them together in a knot at the end.

Step 2.  Braid all the way to the end and tie another knot. Punch a 2" circle of cardstock.

Step 3.  Add adhesive to the cardstock circle. Start in center and adhere twine braid.

Step 4.  Begin rolling the braid around the center.

Step 5.  Continue until you get to the end. Trim excess cardstock off with scissors.

Step 6.  Tuck end underneath the circle and tape the end on the back.

On this card, I used Echo Park's Dots & Stripes again (blue polkadot) and the Dots & Stripes stickers that come with the collection! Stamp set is the Love Lives Here set by Papertrey Ink. Twine is Maraschino and Blossom.

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I will be giving away the Country Drive and the Dots & Stripes-Metropolitan collections! Deadline for commenting will be 11:59 EST Friday, August 19th. Prizes will be announced August 20th on each blog. Echo Park is giving away 3 collections and The Twinery is giving away the Ultimate Color Sampler Pack!

Next on the hop, please visit HERA's blog!

two birds of a feather...

We are definitely two of a kind, my little Kati and I! We are so alike, it's crazy. I never thought I'd have a little mini me! I call her my "baby bird".

She has my personality, almost exactly to a T. Scary! ha We are both very quiet, caring and sensitive...little things bother us that people say, and we both take things very personally. Both love artsy/crafty things, of course! She can draw like no kid her age I've ever seen! She's patient and a perfectionist like me, so her Kindergarten teacher tells me, and takes a long time finishing her work, but quick to catch on. (My junior high art teacher said the same thing about me...that it took me much too long to finish my art projects, but when they were done, they wowed him. hee) We both love to stay up late and sleep late into the morning. We both are more "stay indoors and paint your nails" type of girls, not very outdoor-ish. :) (She hates bugs and is so afraid of them!)

I wanted to get it all down on paper now to show that even at a young age, she is so much like me. My other daughter's personality is very much like my husband's. Hmmm...page idea for the future!

The paper line used here is Echo Park's Country Drive line. Love the little bird paper and the honeycomb paper! I created my own stems for the birds to sit on with this new stamp set by Papertrey Ink called Flower Fusion #7:

The stems were just stamped one on top of another with Aqua Mist and Pure Poppy ink. I made the little birds myself. I just punched a 1" circle for the small bird and cut it in half. I punched a 2" circle for the large bird and trimmed it as well. The beaks were made with the Simple Circles stamp set, and I just trimmed a small triangle out of the circle.

She's 6 now and getting so big. Took these pictures a couple of days ago, she's really looking grown-up to me lately! I really can't comprehend how fast the time has gone!

Love my little sweetheart!