{Made by Me} Wednesday

Welcome to the {Made by Me} Wednesday linky party!  Many thanks to those who joined me for our kick-off party last week. Wonderful projects and great inspiration! A beautiful purse from Go Dansker: A cheerful Hello Card from Linda's Paperie: A keepsake Baby Girl Album from Rainbow Crafter: A lovely Praying for You card from Stamping with Klass: Now it's time to play again.  Come on and join in the party!  Link us up to something you're...

Read More

Friday Freebie - Rounded Corners 12x12 template

I created this template for my Ceramics Painting layout and am now sharing with my readers. It features 10 layers including the photo masks with shadows, journaling blocks and handprint shape. Click here to download the 12x12 Rounded Corners template Enjoy! Have you missed one of my previous digital freebies? Click HERE to find them. And, don't forget to subscribe to my feeds so you won't miss future freebi...

Read More

Welcome, Fall

In honor of the first day of fall yesterday, I went up to our attic and retrieved our fall wreath.  I love hanging it each year as it makes the door look so nice and inviting plus fall is my favorite season. I made the wreath a few years ago for $3.  Yes, 3 dollars.  I purchased the grapevine wreath, flowers and leaves all from the dollar store.  Then I cut apart the flower/leaf groupings and arranged them on the wreath. ...

Read More

{Made by Me} Wednesday

Welcome to the very first {Made by Me} Wednesday linky party.  I know I have a LOT of creative readers and friends who post great ideas on their blogs.  Come on and show off a little something you're proud of.  It can be anything (family friendly, of course) so long as you made it - scrapbooking, card making, cooking, sewing, whatever.  It could have been made this week or last year.  Whatever it is, link us up to your post! To...

Read More

Toddler Sun Hat

A few weeks ago I shared a photo of a toddler hat for Dylan in progress.  I was making it in preparation for the trip we took to the beach this past week.  He has, and does a great job of wearing, a very stylish hand-me-down khaki hat.  I joke it's his "signature look" as we've been plopping it on his head each time we leave the house since the spring.  The original intent was to protect his nearly bald head from sun and to shade...

Read More

CSN Stores Review: Maclaren Volo Stroller

Last month I mentioned that I would be doing a review for CSN Stores.  They kindly gave me an opportunity to shop again and I jumped at the chance to finally buy the stroller I had been drooling over - the Volo by Maclaren.  We already had two strollers - our large travel system stroller (great for long walks, the mall, etc. but too bulky to lug around for shorter trips) and a small inexpensive umbrella stroller.  The latter I wanted...

Read More

Luau Babies

Does it get any cuter than this?  Dylan's playgroup friend 'C', who just turned one this week, took a trip with her family to Hawaii in July.  She brought back these adorable little outfits for the boys so, naturally, we dressed them all up for a photo shoot.  Supplies: Paislee Press Designs Press Plate #17 template; Miss Mint's Tropical Popsicle & Kindergarten Crafts kits; Scrap Originals Ocean Breeze kit; 2peas Island Style...

Read More

card: first birthday

The last of Dylan's playgroup friends celebrates a first birthday today!  Our only girl in the group so I got to pull out the flowered paper & ribbon. We hope she has a very special day! Supplies: Die Cuts with a View card; miscellaneous black cardstock; SEI patterned paper; American Crafts ribbon. Inspired by the August A Year in Cards class at Two Pe...

Read More

Independence Day

We celebrated July 4th this year with friends at a cookout.  Dylan and his little buddies are so cute that, naturally, I took a ridiculous amount of photos.  Another reason I love templates - easy to drop in a LOT of photos and quickly trim them up.  I confess, I did shift them around a bit trying to find the look I wanted, but this was a lot faster and neater than if I had cut out each by hand and placed them for a traditional style...

Read More

sneakers

Our sneakers right now: I was inspired by this month's photography challenge at Design House Digital to get a shot of something lined up.  It immediately made me think of our shoes.  Seems like I constantly walk past Dylan's shoes and pause thinking how cute and small they are.  He recently switched from size 3 to size 4.  I'm glad I saw the challenge and took the time to photograph this little bit of everyday.  It won't...

Read More

Ceramics Painting

6 mommies + 6 babies in one ceramics shop = a whole lot of fun creating one of a kind Father's Day gifts.   This was such a fun playgroup adventure and I think I had almost as much fun scrapping the memory.  I made my own template while working out the photo arrangement (hint: watch for a freebie later in the month).  My goal was to keep the photos the focus of the design.  After the photos & journaling were placed,...

Read More

Duke Gardens

In June, our playgroup went to Duke University for lunch and then spent some time at the Duke Gardens feeding the ducks.  We managed to get all four little ones to momentarily pause for a photo. I was inspired by Gennifer Bursett's September Blueprint Challenge at Design House Digital.  I used her template and tweaked it a bit - changing from 2 photos to 1; adding the journaling block; replacing the embellishment cluster with a single...

Read More

In Progress: Toddler Sun Hat

I kept finding adorable toddler sun hats on Etsy and thinking, "I can do that."  Yesterday, Dylan and I ran a few errands including picking up fabric so I could give it a try.  Here's a peek at the hat in progress: The crown is complete.  Just need to add the brim and ties.  It's been more challenging that I imagined, but I am excited to see it coming together.  I'll share photos of the finished project so...

Read More

Watching Planes

This is one of my favorite photos from the Picture Summer class I took in July.  Dylan and I had gone out to the Observation Park at RDU Airport to watch the airplanes.  He always gets so excited to see them in general, but especially when we can get a bit closer to the action (and the noise!).  I finally scrapped the photo this week with inspiration from the Two Peas weekly challenge by Erica Hernandez. Supplies: Weekly Challenge...

Read More