Recent Layouts

I thought I would post a couple of layouts that I have recently finished. 'Here Comes Trouble' is my favorite right now, the pictures make it absolutely priceless (look closely,my daughter gets into a lot of things)! The other two are just random one page layouts that I'm happy with. I just finished my 2010 family album, yay! I'm trying to stay up to date with my scrapbooking so that when the baby comes I'm ready to get started on another 'First Year' album. Wish me luck I've found I'm already falling behind on 2011!






Sorry I apologize, the pictures aren't the greatest!Happy Friday!

Birthday and Easter Highlights

My birthday was last week and I had a great day! My parents and my sister's family were visiting for the weekend so that made it even more special. The Highlights: -we went for a nice spring walk. -my dad took us all out for supper that evening. -we watched the movie Tangled -I recieved a sweet card from my husband.




On Sunday we celebrated Easter together as a family. The Highlights: - S's first Easter egg hunt (she loved it!). -going to church and having both my family and my husbands family there. - cooking the Easter meal with my mom and sister.



Of course my girlie wore the Easter dress** that I had made her. As promised, below are a couple of pictures with her modeling it!




Isn't she so dang cute?
I hope you and your family had a blessed Easter weekend as well!



**I forgot to mention that I got the tutorial for the Easter dress from the Moda Bakeshop blog. Just in case you want to make your own!

Easter Project #3 - Table Runner

Here is my last Easter Project to share with you, a simple table runner. I wanted to dress up my table a little bit this year since I am hosting my family for Easter. (I plan on doing a post about my Birthday and Easter highlights after this busy weekend is over) This was a fun and super quick project to do, I'm so glad I squeezed it in! The cute little froggy adds to the look as well as the beautiful Lily(a house warming present from my husbands sweet grandma).




I hope you all enjoy Easter Sunday tomorrow and don't forget the reason for the season!
Rejoice for HE is Risen!!

Easter Project #2 - Decorative Banner

I just love the new Close to my Heart Pendant banner and when I first saw it I knew I wanted to do one for spring/easter. I used the Twitterpated paper pack (which is advertised as a 'fall' paper pack but I thought it worked perfect for Easter!). I made all the paper flowers and used twitterpated chipboard buttons for the center. This was one of my first attempts at such flowers and I love how they turned out, you may be seeing more in the future! I lined all the tops with Pearl opaques and tied them all together with sweet leaf ribbon. I also added a length of chocolate ribbon on each end so that it would tie easily to the railing. Another project checked off of my list!





So as it is technically the 22nd (by an hour or so), I can officially say Happy Good Friday, Happy Earth Day, and Happy Justine Day! Yup today is my birthday (a post to follow in a few hours as I need to get some sleep). My Birthday of course is Earth day every year but it has never coincided with Good Friday (or anywhere near Easter for that matter, always after the fact) So I am really looking forward to it! Hope it's a gooder not only for me but you too!

A Sneak Peek of Easter Project #2

This is just a sneak peek of the next Easter Project to be posted. I realized that I had added an important embellishment after the pictures had been taken so I need to take new ones. After how busy I have been lately I am going to leave it til tomorrow, so you'll have to be patient and wait and see!

Easter Project #1 - Spring Has Sprung

Ok before I talk about this post let me explain my absence (I truly do have a good excuse!), we moved into our new house a couple of days ago and I have been busy packing then unpacking (which I am still in the middle of, but am taking a much needed break!). My husband had disconnected our internet and phone a week ago and I forgot to post something stating that I wouldn't be around for a bit. So sorry, anyways......
Before we moved I managed to finish a few Easter Projects and I plan on posting them all within the next couple of days (that makes up for my lack of posts lately right??). The first is another seasonal frame, more spring theme than Easter but the cute bunny makes it work. You may remember the frames I made for Halloween and Christmas (HERE and HERE). This one is a little different because I didn't use the square pattern around the edge just one piece of patterened paper cut to fit.



I couldn't resist showing off a couple more pics from our Easter photoshoot last year. Isn't she the cutest little bunny you have ever seen?




Project #2 coming your way tomorrow!

Ruffled Name Cushion Tutorial

I've done it, I'm finally posting my FIRST ever tutorial!! I'm usually using all the other wonderful and amazing tutorials out there in the blogging world and I've finally decided to post one of my own! This is a cushion I made for my daughter and thought I would share how it is done. Bear with me as my instructions may not be up to par!

First Off: the supplies
(sidenote: a great start to a tutorial post- no supply picture! err sorry!)

- 2 rectangles of fabric**
**size will change according to length of name and size of font. I used 8 1/2" x 12 1/4", white broadcloth for front and pink flannel for the back.
- 2-3 strips of 5" wide x 44" long fabric
- fabric for the letters
- computer and paper to print out font, or you can just freehand it
- Heat and Bond paper
- Iron
- Embroidery Floss
- Sewing Machine
- Stuffing

On to the fun stuff:

The Name Applique

1. Using a large font size print out letters onto computer paper, make sure to 'mirror' the image in print settings.


2. Trace the letters on to the Heat and Bond paper (on the non-shiny side). Cut out and follow the ironing instructions that come with the H&B paper. First attaching the letters to the fabric of choice, cutting out and then attaching to your rectangle of fabric that will be the front of the pillow.


3. Use Embroidery Floss and hand stitch around the letters.


4. Set aside the finished front piece, for now :)

The Ruffles

5. Sew your strips together along the short sides so that you have one loop of fabric.


6. Iron the seams open


7.Fold strip in half lengthwise and iron, so that your strip is now 2.5" wide. (I did this step before sewing them together, whichever works You just have to make sure you get where they are sewn together good and flat)

8. Sew two gathering stitches around the bottom of the strip(opposite of the ironed edge), leaving enough thread on both ends to be able to pull on them.


9. Pin strip/loop around the front piece, making sure it is evenly distributed. Pinning it down in one spot then the half way mark and then the 1/4 and 3/4 marks. I just eye-balled it, doesn't have to be perfect


10. Pull on the threads from the gathering stitches, which will cause the fabric to pucker, creating your ruffle. Evenly distribute ruffles between pins til the strip has shrunk to fit the outside of your rectangle.



11. Add more pins to make sure the ruffle stays put.


12. Sew in between the two gathering stitches all the way around.

13. Gently pull/rip out the gathering stitch that is on the outside of the sewing line. (closest to the ironed edge of the strip, the other one will be hidden inside the pillow)

Putting it all Together

14. Pin and sew the back rectangle onto the front rectangle, right sides together. Make sure the ironed edge of the ruffles stay in between and won't get caught in the stitch. Leave a hole so that you are able to turn it right side out.


15. Turn it right-side out...bet you never saw that step coming,haha.


16. Stuff with fluff to the desired plumpness and sew up the hole.


Ta Da!! You have your very own Ruffled Name Cushion!


If you try this out please let me know, I would love to see what you come up with! I would also like any feedback on the actual instructions..if they were at all easy to understand or not. Please also give credit where credit is due and link back to this tutorial please:)

Hope to see some fabulous name cushions! Happy craftin'!

To-Go Cup Card

This is the card I made to accompany the Coffee Kozy posted HERE. This adorable to-go cup pocket card was just to much to resist! I found the fabulous tutorial for it HERE and just had to make it! The main products used were Close to my Hearts 'A Sip' Stampset and the Magic Moments paperpack.



Complete with a Starbucks (yum!) gift card and the coffee kozy, a perfect gift for a coffee junkie! Happy Monday everyone!