Happy 4th of July!

Today is the start of the big holiday weekend.  So hard to believe that tomorrow is the 4th of July already.  We’ve only had a few days of summer vacation so far, since just getting out of school on Tuesday.  So it seems to me that it should only be June.  It is hard, even after 2 years, to get used to our year-round school schedule.  However….it is definitely hot enough to be the 4th!

Those of you who know me, know that I tend to get into decorating for any and every holiday.  I definitely am sparse on 4th of July decorations, but I did want to share the few items that I do have.  I haven’t been scrapping as much as usual lately, although I did make just a couple of crafty creations to brighten my home for the holiday.

This star, hanging on the back of my basement door, was made from the handle and paper of a large, kraft shopping bag.  I made myself a diamond pattern to begin with, and traced several diamonds onto the backs of various red, white, and blue patterned papers.  Each diamond was then cut in half the long way, and opposing halves were placed around the star shape.  Once I had all the diamond halves dry fitted, I traced around the entire image onto the shopping bag, leaving about a quarter inch edge of bag.  I then adhered each triange down with just a bit of double sided tape, and then machine stitched each piece in place.  I also made a small center piece using a smaller star pattern, some ribbon and tulle, and a few paper curls.

As you’ll probably notice, some of these papers are quite old!  I love digging into my stash and using up scraps on projects like these.  And speaking of scraps, I used the bits of leftovers from this star to make this smaller arrangement here.

I’ve got Christmas balls in a variety of color, and use them throughout the year on various holidays.  I use these blue ones for both the 4th of July, and New Years, and I have some bright pink ones that I often use on Valentine’s Day and Easter.  To add to the patriotic theme, I dressed up my glass container with a big red satin bow and a small flag made from scraps, more paper bag, and a shish kabob stick from the grocery store.

My last, and by far favorite project, is this gorgeous barn star that my good friend, Kathy made for me this year.

The base is one of those paper mache shapes from the craft store, which she then decorated with various patriotic papers, a big raffia bow, a glittered star, some buttons, and a vintage 4th of July clip from Crafter’s Secret.  Kathy makes the MOST gorgeous projects.  To see more of her work, check out her fabulous Etsy shop here.

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and peaceful holiday weekend.

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Holiday Crop

Morning everyone!  I’m so excited because today is our annual holiday Paper-Playground crop.   I look forward to these opportunities to gab, eat, laugh, and maybe even get some scrapbooking in.  (For me, that’s a big maybe.)    I’ve already spent a lot of time preparing, but of course I still have a ton left to do.  I did finish all my star ornaments yesterday that I want to bring with me.

All are made with Webster’s Pages Winter Wonderland and Ting-a-ling holiday papers.  The centers are made from the shimmer papers, also from Webster’s Pages, that not many people are familiar with.  They come in silver and gold, and I really like the shine they add.  I’ve got the full directions for these stars, along with the star templates in the classroom forum at inspireME, if anybody is interested.

I’ve also put together a little kit to take to the crop to work with.  My scrappy friend, Kimmy, came up with a great idea that I’m hoping to be able to play along with.  She, in turn, got the idea from the current design team call over at Create My Keepsake.  We all have a ton of stuff in our stashes, right?  Stuff we buy that we absolutely have to have, but then it sits forever in our scraprooms or still in the bag it came in.  I do that all the time.  I fall in love with it at the store, but then it sits untouched because I either forget about it, am afraid to cut into it because it’s so pretty, or lose the idea I had for things in the first place.  So Kimmy decided she was going to put together a kit from her stash every month and challenge herself to make at least 2 pages and 2 cards from that kit before she allows herself to put together her next kit.  After 3 kits, she will allow herself to buy something new.  I think that’s such a great idea.  So I’ve decided to play along as much as I can.  yesterday, I put together my first month’s kit.

Now, I don’t know how much “stuff” we’re supposed to put together, but I just decided that since this is completely and totally for me and for no other purpose, I could do what I want!  Ha!  I’m totally crazy that way!

I had made a trip to Archiver’s last month, and all my goodies were still sitting in the bag.  Isn’t that pathetic?  So, the first place I went was that bag.  And once I spread all the papers out on the floor, I decided that they actually looked pretty good together.  So, all the paper, the Teresa Collins journaling prompts and the glitter alpha stickers came from that shopping trip.  Then I just dug through my stash to come up with some ribbon and some extra goodies.  My gosh, did I find some old crud.  Some old, some new, and hopefully, some pages done and some stash used.

And it was kind of fun, too.  If anyone else wants to play along, especially after things quiet down next month, Kimmy is talking about putting some prizes together!  Check out the full scoop in Kimmy’s blog.

Have a great day everyone!

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A Little Peek

Hi everyone!  I just had to share a peek at what is going on outside on my driveway right now.  There’s a little friendly competition happening out there.

Isn’t that fun??  That’s Pete!  Outside!  Off the computer! Another miracle is happening at my house!  For two days in a row now, Peter has gone outside to play with Glammie and PopPop when he’s gotten home  from school.  They’ve played frisbee and soccer, and oh, now I see the badmitton raquets coming out.  Might have to pop back outside with the camera!

And here’s a peek of PopPop working on my outdoor lights yesterday.

It is SO nice having my parents here!

I’ve been trying to work on ornaments today.  Don’t have many days left.  Each year, I try to make something with an angel for Nik.  I really had no idea what I was going to do this year, but then I finally decided to go with star ornaments to match the garland that I made earlier this month.

Once again, I used some Christmas paper from Webster’s Pages and some cream felt, but for Nik’s ornament, I substituted this stamped angel image in place of the shimmer paper I used on my garland.  I watercolored the image, and then coated it with several layers of UTEE, and finally finished it off with a bit of Stickles for some sparkle.

Here’s another look at the garland stars. I’m making a bunch of these as individual ornaments, too.  Want to have them to pass out at our December Paper-Playground crop we’re having this Saturday.  If anyone is going to be in the Raleigh/Durham area and would like to come, we would LOVE to have you!  Just drop me a note.

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