Talk of the Town

I had so much fun putting together the September Scrapbook Circle Kit, Talk of the Town. Choosing paper and embellishments for the kits is the best kind of shopping.

Opening up boxes of scrapbook products as they arrive is a bit like Christmas. Only difference is that I'm lucky enough to get to open packages year round.

This kit includes hot off the press items from American Crafts' new Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go line, some Lily Bee Persnickity plus goods from Glitz, Maya Road, Bella Blvd plus some exclusive Scrapbook Circle quote bubbles and a custom printable.

The last of the kit items just arrived today, so I don't have any layouts to share. I have plans for pages though and promise to share really soon.

Stop by and check out the Talk on the Town kit. There are also a few Say It Like It Is add-ons and cardstock add-ons too.

1st Day of School...One Month Later

Our kids started school at the end of July. Yes, it's an early start to the school year. Yes, it's still very hot. We love our school schedule though because they get 2.5 week breaks in the fall, December and spring.

Of course, on the first day of school I made the kids pose for a few quick pictures before heading off to school.

I dug into my Fancy Pants Off to School line for this page. Love the colors in this line!

Time is flying by. I can't believe my oldest is now in Junior High!

Happy, Happy Birthday Cards

Since our house was broken into last week, I've been without my camera, but I'm happy to report that today our replacement camera arrived. Hooray! Hopefully I will have time this weekend to take pictures of things I've been working on over the past couple of weeks and will share them next week.

Two of my kids have birthday parties to attend this weekend, so this afternoon I put together a couple of cards to go with their gifts.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the 8 and then layered up paper and stickers and mounted the text sticker on pop dots for a little dimension. One of my favorite crating embellishments is stickers. On this card, I used a couple of border stickers plus the yellow chevron layer is a sticker too. They make embellishing quick and simple.

This was a fun card to make that came together pretty fast. I cut and layered up several layers on paper, added a little stitching and finished it off with the balloon and cupcake.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Card Supplies

InLinkz.com

6 Week Bran Muffins

While we were visiting friends in Baltimore over spring break we were treated to some really delicious bran muffins as part of our breakfast one morning.

One of the great things about these bran muffins is that the batter makes a large amount and will store in the fridge for up to six weeks. You can just scoop out what you want to bake and always have fresh baked muffins.

Want to make these?  Here's the recipe...

Mix and let stand for 20 minutes:
6 cups bran cereal
2 cups boiling water

Then add:
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart of buttermilk

Mix the following dry ingredients and then add to wet batter:
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons baking soda

Bake at 375 degrees for around 12 minutes.

Dough can be stored uncovered in the refrigerator for up to six weeks.

Let me know if you give these a try!

Beach Scrapbook in a Jar

This summer our family and some friends spent some time at the beach in Mexico. I wanted to create a little album that could hold my favorite pictures from the trip. While we were at the beach, we collected a bunch of seashell and I thought that it would be cool in incorporate those into my scrapbook project. I had an empty jar sitting in my scrapbook room and the idea came to me that I should combine the shells and a little scrapbook into one project.

I built the mini album in the jar using a few different Happy Travels Glitz Designs papers. Here's a look at how the project came together.

1. The base of this album was built just using pieces of patterned paper. Each page was cut to 5" X 2.5". (The finished album size is 2.5" X 2.5".)

2. After cutting the pages, I scored them down the middle and folded them in half.

3. Next, I punched holes along the center creases of each paper. The holes are about 1/3" from the edge of the paper.

4. To bind the album, I stacked all of the punched papers on top of each other and threaded a piece of baker's twine onto a needle. I then used the needle to thread it through the holes and tied the twine to hold the pages together.

5. Now that the base of the album was assembled, I printed out 25 of my favorite trip photos so that they were each 2 X 2 inches.

6. The fun part was adding the pictures and embellishments to the pages. I added some stickers, used stamps and did a few patterned paper embellishments.

7. With the mini album assembled, I added a background picture to the jar and backed it with a piece of patterned paper so that the jar would look pretty from all sides.

8. After the background picture was added to the jar, I added a few of the seashells that we collected with on our trip to the bottom of the jar. I didn't fill it too mach because I wanted to leave room for the album plus a bit of the picture to show through.

9. The finished project with be something fun to display and I like that it is interactive because of the little album inside of the jar.

This was such a fun project I think I'll do it again with another vacation. The jar would be a great place to hold brochures and ticket stubs collected on a trip and the mini album can highlight a few favorite photos.

Supplies

Glitz Designs Happy Travels Patterned Paper:  World, Polka, Flower, Stripe
Glitz Designs French Kiss Patterned Paper: Hats
Glitz Designs Happy Travels Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs French Kiss Glitzers
Glitz Designs Happy Travels Stamps
Glitz Designs Happy Travels 6 X 6 Paper Pad

Other: Jar (IKEA), Tape (Target & Bella Blvd.), Twine (Whisker Graphics)

One Crazy Week!

Our week started off different than planned on Sunday when we came home from church to find this:

The kids walked in the house ahead of me and said there was glass all over. I told them to get out of the house and we called 911. Yes, someone thought it would be a good idea to break into our house Sunday morning. They also got into two other house on our street that morning.

Total bummer.

So this week has been filled with things like filling our insurance paperwork.

We've also been choosing new glass to replace the broken glass.

Plus we got to have a carpet cleaner come to get out the fingerprinting dust the police left behind on our bedroom floor.

Luckily, I was also able to squeeze in some creative time. Once we replace our SLR camera that was stolen, I'll get a better picture of the layout and share it.

I also spent some time sketching out the September printable for the Scrapbook Circle kit. Totally excited about this kit and can't wait to share peeks soon.

I put my Silhouette to use today and cut out a little gift box for my daughter to give to her friend tonight. Love that machine!

Looking forward to spending the weekend with my family. Hope you enjoy your weekend too!

Happy Day

It's been a while since I've put a card together. Its seems like I've been a little lazy when it has come to cards lately, but yesterday I had a few extra minutes and put a birthday card together for a friend.

I think you'll agree that the big yellow blossom steals the show. It's from my friend Tessa's Precocious Paper etsy shop. She made one for each of the Scrapbook Circle August Kits and I'm so thankful for all of her beautiful work.

Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle August Kit /// Maya Road Paper Doily