girly card

pink, lace, flowers, a little bling it doesn't get much better for a little niece turning five does it? (well, maybe with princesses . . .) I've never used thick lace on a card before. I think I like it!

lots of turkeys

I bought this turkey a couple weeks ago with the little buddy. He was so excited to show daddy the "bird." So we had a little talk about what  a turkey is. Since then he seems to really like turkeys. So, we've made lots!

 A thankful turkey, as seen here at Preschool Daze.

 One, that he was suppose to decorate his hand prints with markers. He wasn't into crafting this day . . .

 And this one using an egg carton section painted, with feather stuck in a peice of clay on the back. He really liked painting the egg carton. I think that was his favorite part. So much so, that I'd left to take care of the little sweetie, and the little buddy made this bottom turkey all by himself (he ripped a peice of the egg carton off): I love it! If I'd had orange pipe cleaners hanging around we would have added those sticking out the front. . .

There's some serious googly eye love going on over here . . . could you tell?

and the winner is!

First of all I want to thank you all for your great ideas. I love getting input. Sometimes it's nice for me to have a jumping off point when I'm in creative brain freeze. I'm always open to new ideas. So. . . without further ado.


The winner of my first ever giveaway is Tabitha! I will be in contact with you!

This was fun. I think we'll have to have another one!

Freebie Friday-Fall Leaf Cutouts

First, a little reminder that today is the last day to enter my first ever giveaway. Tomorrow I will announce the winner!

Okay, so I needed some new bunting. This is what I settled on, I liked it enough I thought you might too. I will warn you it's a little bit of a DIY. It may take an hour or two to cut them out if you do a lot. It's worth it! oh, I've also seriously considered sewing a dark brown ribbon along the backs of all of them instead of using clothes pins to hang. Maybe I still will.

You could do lots of other things with these too: They could work as cards, artwork in a frame, or I suppose even for just coloring. I used plain colored card stock, but child's art work would be an awesome background! Or patterned paper. I would just recommend you use highly contrasting papers for the front and back.

okay a couple notes on the pdf (usually these things aren't issues-and I'm sure most of you don't need all the nitty gitty details of how to do it):

The out line- I don't like how a little bit of it may show up in your cut out if your not really careful. I solved that by laying a brown piece of paper (the one I planned to use) under my white "template." I still tried to cut on the outside of the line in case I end up using the template for something else. But, I realize that is more work. If you don't want to use a template, by all means, it's not necessary.

my printer, and most likely yours too will have a little margin around the edge it won't print on. Cut all the way to the edge anyway!

If you don't cut them in fourth first, DON'T connect the two open ends of the leaf. Just start where the line starts and follow it around. to the other end. When you cut them in fourths (with a ruler or paper cutter) It will automatically cut the rest of the leaf out.

Okay, this was my biggest problem: in illustrator (the program I designed them in) the are each 4.25 x 5.5 inches exactly. But for some reason when I print them out, they don't line up right. the maple leaf and two leaves don't go quite to the center, and the oak goes a little over. I haven't resolved it entirely. But I did fix the oak leaf so it doesn't go over. So don't follow the pattern here! Just cut the 11 inch side to 5.5 and the 8.5 inch side to 4.25. ignore the outlines on this one!

I cut a plain piece of white to go behind these. You could glue them, or not. I didn't. I liked the shadow it created. Using 3D squares between the 2 layers would do this nicely. If you're doing a card, you may want to cut them down a half inch on two of the sides to create a little border before gluing it to your card. . .

The one on the left is my template. The one on the right bottom is the only one I used. I will, of course keep the others for future uses though. . .  The actual leaves might be fun as place cards for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

Then I decided I kind of liked it in my living room . . . sorry about the terrible lighting. It doesn't ever get good lighting here. Alas.

And last but not least . . . the printable itself:

YellowMums_Fall Leaf Cut Outs

Word Trains

The little buddy has had a lot of fun playing with these word trains I've just posted in the shop. So much fun, in fact, that I didn't even finish cutting them out before he was stealing them away. Right now we're working on spelling his name (nope, it's not John). It seems to be working, he can recognize it now and knows what letter it starts with. Progress! Get your own set here. Small Christmas gifts for friends anyone? Thanksgiving distractions?

what are little boys made of?

This is what I found when doing laundry . . . I knew he had a few holey socks. But I didn't realize how many! oh I love the little buddy!

Ta-Da! my mom cave

My little crafty space has been needing a cleaning for awhile now. But, it's finally clean, and all I want to do is go sit in my room and stare at it. Too bad I don't have time!

My favorite thing about the mobile I made from Craft Paper Scissors, by Patricia Zapata of A Little Hut, is the little orange seed beads under each white flower. I love looking up at it!

One of my favorite paintings. I love the brightness and the tulips. I painted it while I was still in college and had that sort of time.

my 12x12 scrapbooking open stock paper. I like to arrange it by color because usually I'm looking for a specific color. I use it for all sorts of crafts, but especially making cards since I don't really scrapbook.

These drawers I've organized using the bottoms of gallon milk jugs. They've worked perfectly and it was a good way to recycle them. Plus, they were free!

I always think it would be fun to display my ribbon out in the open, but I can't find a good way I like that's still easy to use them. Especially when I need to take one with me somewhere. For now, the drawer will do.


Anyway, there it is, obviously I could use a chair and a lamp. . . of course you know my first preference, but it's always a work in progress!