paper arts: blessings

Here is my first scrapbook project. I think it turned out sweet. I decided to pay homage to Bert and I as kids and used some of our favorite childhood photographs. Below are 6 pages from this cute little 12 page book.

This spread is a tribute to Bert:

And, this spread is a tribute to me:

On this spread and placed photos of both of us together. Left side has portraits of us and the right side shows us on our first day of school.



This project began as a mother's day idea. I wanted to give Cindy, my mother-in-law, a scrapbook kit. She has boat loads of photographs and I thought it may be a nice hobby for her to learn and treasure. I wanted to help her get started so I bought myself a kit as well from my friend Krista who sells Creative Memories supplies and we took a little workshop together at Krista's to get going. I am happy with how my turned out. I haven't seen Cindy's finished book yet but, I do know she bought another kit! It may turn out to be a fun hobby for her after all ;)

paper arts: cards

I went to my first meetup last night with the "Not Your Grandma's" Super Hip Chic Craft Club and it was a blast! This is a group of 200+ crafty superstars in Arizona that make time for learning new crafts while meeting up with friends new and old. Last night was taught by Linda Ross, a very talented paper artist and there were 12 club members there. Linda had 8 card assembly stations setup with all sorts of goodies like stamps, ribbon, buttons, ect. I only had a chance to finish 6 of the 8 cards (see my cards in the photo!) but, they were nice enough to let me grab the needed materials to finish the other 2 on my own at home. It was a fun night of crafting! Linda's designs are beautiful and she made the whole process really easy. I have not dabbled with paper crafts too often. It was enjoyable to learning something new all the while chatting with some wonderful people. I can't wait to send these cards out to my family & friends!

kids art: lightening boltz

I picked up a new book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections by Amanda Blake Soule from the library last week. This book was recommended by Tiffany from her nature moms blog. I was just a few chapters in when I saw the "freezer paper stencil" project for creating your own t-shirts. This sounded fun and the supplies were simple, bonus! That same day my eldest son, Ethan saw someone wearing an AC/DC shirt on TV and immediately took to the lightening bolt. He thought that was really cool and wanted a lightening bolt shirt for himself. The aha! moment struck and I thought this was a great opportunity to try the fun "freezer paper stencil" project talked about in the book. A day later I gathered all the supplies, cut out the stencils and both Ethan & Hudson painted the fun new shirts you see here!