{creative} living

A Million Memories Blog Hop: Making a Parade Wand

Welcome to the Blog Hop!  The hop starts today, Friday July 2nd through Sunday July 4th.  Each blog will be showcasing a different project inspired by summer and all of its glory!  Hop through each blog to check out the instructions for creating each project, then choose a project to recreate.  Post your project in the AMM gallery and in this thread.  You will have until  Friday July 9th at midnight to post your project to be eligible to win an Echo Park Collection pack!  More than one project created earns you another chance in the random drawing.  Please be sure that projects are created especially for this contest.  Good luck!

Creating a Parade Wand:

Materials Needed:

3 Dimensional Star Pattern (http://www.craftathome.com/Instructional/paperglitterstar.html)

Cardstock

Patterned Paper

Wooden Dowel

Strong Adhesive

Ribbon

Embellishments

To Create Your Parade Wand:

1. If your patterned paper is cardstock weight, print one template and trace it and cut it out 5 times of your chosen paper(s). If your patterned paper is light weight like mine was, print 5 templates on cardstock weight paper and cut them out. Adhere to the back side of your paper and then cut them out.

2. Score your fold lines (dotted) and fold, adhering the tabs where they should be adhered to create your star point. Repeat for all 5 star points.

 

3. Adhere your points together to create your star.

 

4. Decide the length you want your wand to be and cut it out of the wooden dowel.  Keep in mind that you will need to cut the length that you want PLUS the height of the star as it will be inserted all the way into the star.

5. Cut an opening large enough to place the dowel through the star.

6. Add adhesive to the tip of the dowel and insert it into the star. Add adhesive around the bottom of the star where the dowel is to add strength.  Don't worry that it looks messy, you will cover it up!

 

7. Cut several lengths of ribbon and adhere them to the wand. Cover up where they are attached by using more ribbon to wrap around it.

8. Add stickles or paint or puff paint to the creases of the star if desired and let dry.

9. Create a center embellishment using embellishments etc that you have to fit the look of your wand.  I used a milk cap, crepe paper ribbon and stickers to create mine.

10. Adhere to the center of the star and let dry for at least an hour to be safe.

Now hop on over to Staci's blog! http://creatingmyeveryday.blogspot.com/!

Celebrate with A Million Memories!

National Scrapbook Day is this Saturday and A Million Memories is celebrating ALL weekend, starting on Friday with an online crop!  Head on over and register on the forums if you aren't a member already and don't miss out on all that we have to offer!  Tutorials, a mini class, challenges and more, it is sure to be a weekend of creativity and fun!

 

March at A Million Memories!

The March kit is live and on sale right NOW at A Million Memories and you can purchase this lovely here.

just look at these details!  And I spy some new Sassafrass Lass and Jillibean in there- some of my favorites from CHA!

And, I saved the best for last!  Right now US shipping orders (excluding kits) is only $5!  So stock up on some of the latest and greatest new products out there!

  

Scrapbook sharing :)

Sharing a few layouts today that I have made.  I've been so inspired by all of these fresh, beautiful light and airy spring colors that I haven't been able to stop creating with them!

Turning 5 at Disneyland:

 
I have been so incredibly inspired by Stacy Cohen lately.  Everything she makes is pure art.  What I love in particular about Stacy's work is the absolute polished to perfection details that she adds.  You look at her layouts and know that she has loved every second of creating them and pouring her heart into all the little details.  When I made this layout I did my best to channel Stacy's brilliance in creating a layout that conveys my heart and is created purposefully with a lot of love and attention.

One Fine Day:

This layout was just so fun to play around with.  I love these pictures that Kristin took of Roslyn last spring so much- I think this is the 3rd or 4th layout I have done with them!

Fit For a Princess:

 
I decided to bring in a mix of some of my favorite supplies that I have been hoarding for this one, mixing some Love, Elsie fabric paper and Basic Grey papers.  I also added some KI Memories lace paper that I cut.  To change the color of the AMerican Crafts thickers I simply misted them with some Glimmer Mist and then coated them with Glossy Accents.

And in other wonderful news, I found the latest Scrapbook Trends Mini Albums special issue at Hastings last night and of course had to pick it up because my Halloween mini album is in there!  I am always so humbled and incredibly grateful to be featured amongst some of my biggest scrapbooking inspirations... truly honored.

That's all for now... off to pack for tomorrows super fun crop!  I can't wait!


 
 

7.6.98 {Creative Therapy}

Catalyst #103 went live today on Creative Therapy, to tell about when you first fell in love.  And that one is an easy one for me.  I fell in love on July 6th, 1998.  The day that I met Drew.

Journaling reads: July 6th, 1998 was the most important day of my life. The day I walked into a music store & walked out in love for the very first time. That day my breath was taken away by the most handsome & talented boy I had ever met & I was smitten. I played giddily in puddles with a smile on my face & dreamed my school girl dreams that would in fact come true. July 6th, 1998 changed my life. It was the day that my dreams started coming true. I fell in love with the boy & have been falling again every day since.

I created a banner inspired by the patterned paper by misting some small doilies with glimmer mist and folding them in half over thick bakers twine. I then adhered it to my page.

This layout was made using the February 2010 Studio Calico kit, Bakers Dozen.

Have you scrapbooked your love story?

 
 
   

February at A Million Memories...

is definately where you want to be!  We have some amazing things going on starting with the absolutely GORGEOUS monthly kit "Sew Sweet":

I was so excited when this beauty arrived that I had to drop everything and immediately get to work.  Here are my designs for the month. :)

 One of my favorites in this kit was the measuring tape paper by Cosmo Cricket and I wanted to use it as much as possible.  To add some texture, dimension and interest, I rolled the ends of it to reveal the backside and create that dimension and texture.

With this being the month of Valentines, I am all about the love and found this kit to be perfect to showcase that as well.  To change the color of the green thickers, I simply painted them and added a coat of glossy accents.

 I created the background to this layout by simply adhering a pattern piece to the chipboard that comes as a backing to every kit using gesso.  I then stitched and built my page right on top of it!

I created this banner using the banner mini book that came in the kit.  To be able to have my words stretch across the places where there were no banner pieces, I simply backed the entire banner with transparency to provide a base in which to adhere my words.  I also added some sewing notions from a mini sewing kit that I had and wah-lah!  A perfect banner for my scraproom!

and speaking of banners... right now and through the 19th we are having our BANNER BONANZA!

 It is a banner day here at AMM as we announce our new contest, "Banner Bonanza", in which you have the opportunity to win brand new, not-yet-in-stores product direct from some of CHA's most popular manufacturers such as October Afternoon, My Mind's Eye, Pink Paislee, American Crafts, and Tattered Angels!

As we fawned over all the new product coming out, one trend we certainly noticed was banners. We saw chipboard ones, canvas ones, fabric ones, doily ones, wooden ones, banner embellishments, banners on paper, and more.

So what do you have to do to have a chance to win this awesome prize pack? Well, you'll have to check out the contest thread for details or you can also click on the contest blinkie over there at the top of the sidebar.

Here's a little hint...the February kit just so happens to have a little chipboard banner kit in it. So if you are need of inspiration or materials I suggest signing up for this kit, or better yet, a subscription!

The project that wows the design team the most will win this awesome prize pack! We can't wait to see what you come up with! Here is a sampling of what you could win. For full prize photos be sure to visit the contest thread!

 

Good luck if you enter! 

  
  

Scraproom Re-do!

It seems that every new year I get the urge to redecorate a part or all of my house and this year was no different.  I had been really wanting to repaint the room for a while to help brighten the small space up, but until a little over a week ago, hadn't taken the plunge to do it.

I went from a color similar to this:

To this one (Wading Pool from Walmart):

And now... pictures of my actual room!  We have a small house (700sq feet) so as you can imagine, the room is smaller so it is not really possible for me to get a whole room shot without a wide angle lense which I do not have.

This is what you see when you go to walk into my room.  It's a chalk board painted wall (the closet is right behind this little wall) that I use to write ideas or quotes on that I like and let Roslyn draw on as well.  She loves that!

If you look just to your left you will see the rest of my room, my desk, shelves etc.

When you are sitting at the desk, to the left is a cart which holds my printer, iHome, modem, external harddrive and more.  I also have my paper punches in a basket and another basket full of adhesives there.

To the right when sitting at the desk are my large shelves, idea books and loose flowers.  I like to sort my supplies by how I think when I scrapbook so I have  large canvas bins for alphabets, journaling spots and tags, rubons, chipboard alphabets, misc. vintage odds n ends, and themed (girl, travel, holiday etc) and baskets for bling, buttons, transparent embellishments and tapes.  Ribbons are stored in jars by color and I have a large basket for packaged flowers and a small basket for chipboard shapes.  The very top holds all of my to-be altered items and blank mini albums.

Across the room from my desk you will see on the right side (when sitting down) a photo wall and two shelving units that hold completed mini albums, my vintage sewing machine and goods, diecut machines (sizzix, cricut and cuttlebug) and dies and cartridges, bind it all and button maker, and all of my foam stamps.

And across from that wall is what I have dubbed my "listening station" which has all of our CDs and records and record player.  The record player sits on a portable kitchen island.  My typewriter is on that cart as well.

It's already been a much more inspired week in the newly redone room, I'm loving it!  If you have any questions about how I organize anything please ask away and I will respond! :)

 

latest canvas project

lately I have been into creating larger scale pieces for myself in addition to my scrapbooking by creating canvases for my scraproom.  This is my latest piece- serving as a daily reminder of how I want to live.

I used a lot of different materials for this including alcohol inks, soft pastels and various papers.  It was really good to just get my hands messy with paint and walk away with a piece that I love.

 

10 Favorite Layouts of 2009

It's safe to assume that I live and breathe lists.  *Love* them to the point of nuerosis.  So the next couple of days will involve lists... lists of 2009.  Favorite layouts, moments, songs, adventures and more.

So without further adeiu... these are my top ten favorite layouts that I created this year and that I am most proud of. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my work this last year- it's been a wonderfully creative one and I am excited to see what is in store artistically in 2010!