Paper Flowers

Do you remember the fragrance sticks that many of us used to have (or maybe still do)? You know...the decorative bottles with bamboo sticks standing in fragrant oil? See an example below which will serve as my "before" picture.

I had some on my desk at work for about 10 years! I never added more oil and they just sat there, collecting dust. Mine had small plastic flowers on the top end of the sticks and the bottle was shorter.

My sweet, long-time friend from work recently had neck surgery. I wanted to take her something special. Knowing real flowers wouldn't last very long, I decided to take a stab at making my own. Then I remembered these not so lovely bamboo sticks sitting in the cute glass bottle! Time to upcycle!

 I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. My girlfriend loved them, especially knowing I made them for her. Sadly my cell phone doesn't take the best pictures, but hopefully you get the idea.

 I cut the layers of flowers with my Cricut. I used two large daisy-like flowers, and 3 smaller flowers on each bamboo stem. I used a black Sharpie marker on the top and bottom of the plastic flowers to darken them. They were pastel before. I used a small hole punch in the center of each layer of flower, stacked them up and put the bottom of the bamboo through the holes, using a little bit of glue on each layer to hold it all together. Wink of Stella added a bit of a frosty shine to the top layer.

I washed out the bottle, of course, and tied some twine around the top and the bamboo fragrance sticks have been reborn!! 😍Hope you like them. I may have to make some for myself.

Two page Layout - "Life is Tweet"

Banners are still one of my favorite embellishments. They are so simple, but they add so much.

 The adorable flower was crocheted my best scrapbooking friend forever (BSBFF). I still can't believe she loves me enough to sit and crochet a whole bag of these flowers for me!!! They are so adorable! I'm pretty sure I borrowed her SU banner punch for this layout too...lol! How would I scrap without her?

I found this sketch on Inspired to Scrap. The paper is Doodle Bug Design, Making Memories and Bazzill. The bird in the photos was the inspiration for my title and paper choices. =)

 The title was cut with Cricut's "Straight from the Nest" cartridge.  Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Two Page Layout - "Ludington"

It's been a rough week, hasn't it? It's so hard to even watch the news with evil running rampant in our world. I don't think we are meant to understand the evil, what triggers it, or what kind of person it takes to carry it out. This is one of those weeks where I pray hard and keep trusting my father in Heaven who is still in control. My heart goes out to the families of the Boston Marathon victims. I felt like I couldn't just start a new post without sharing a little bit of my heart with you today.

 

I have no idea how to transition into scrapbooking from here, but I think some sunshine and peaceful pictures could do us all a little good. These pictures were taken in a beautiful little town on the shore of Lake Michigan. If I could live anywhere and money was not an issue, I would probably choose to live somewhere on Lake Michigan. =)



 The flowers are made from scraps of denim that I saved. I'm 5'11" and I am pretty sure that this is the first time I've ever had to shorten the hem of any piece of clothing. The jeans were "talls" and apparently there are some who are taller than me. I threw the scraps in with my scrappy treasures. I started with a Gluber circle, laying the denim around the outside edge and working my way to the middle. It looked a little messy in the center because the denim was so stiff, so I used a button to cover it.

 The picture grid is bordered on the top and bottom with scraps of paper cut with several different border punches. To keep the clean look of the page, I journalled along the bottom edge. I didn't feel like much journalling was really necessary because I've used other pictures from this destination in my layouts. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog. Anybody scrapping this weekend??? I AM!!! Can't wait. I'm hoping to get lots of pages done. Have a great weekend no matter how you choose to spend it. =)

Two Page baby layout - So Many Reasons

Hello friends! My week has been crazy busy. I believe it is well past time for a little distraction from all things work related and time for some blogging. It's chilly and drafty in our house tonight, so I will have to type fast to keep my fingers from freezing. =]

Today, another sweet baby layout of my new grandbaby. These are her newborn portraits. So beautiful!*

 Patterned paper is My Minds Eye. I love the vintage look of the paper in this MME stack! Lots of wood grains, florals, and chevrons.

Left:

Right:

Here is a closeup of the embellishments including Prima flowers, pearl drops, stick pin, and amazing crocheted flowers and leaves. Thank you so much to my BSBFF who slaved over these crocheted flowers for me!! I LOVE them!!

Here's another closeup of the flower embellishments and scalloped circle frame that I used for a bit of journalling.

Thanks for stopping by today. If it's cold and blustery where you live, be safe and warm.  I'm going to snuggle up with my hubby in front of the TV now.  =)
*Photo credit: Eta Fe Photography

Birthday card and gift bag

It's a dreary rainy day here!! I try to keep reminding myself that we really need this rain. I thought it was time for a bright and cheerful post.

I got the inspiration for this card from a mass produced invitation where the design was simply printed on the cardstock. I thought it would be fun to reproduce this with diamond shaped cut cardstock, placed in the same format. Well...it was fun, but WOW, it took a lot more time than I thought it would. I used only leftover scraps, except for the card base. I found the perfect diamond cut in Cricut's Art Philosophy cartridge by Close to My Heart. I ran each little piece thruogh my "X" and lined them all up. The pieces along the edges have to be cut to fit. I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out, but if I do it again, the diamonds will be bigger, so there will be fewer to deal with. =)

Here's a cute little bag that went together in a snap! I used the purse from Cricut's Tags & Bags cartridge. Sooooo Easy!! I tucked in a gift card and gave it to my coworker for her birthday with a few chocolates. They go together so quickly, they'd be great for party favors too!

 The flower decoration on the front is just as simple. I got the idea from my StampinUp! consultant, Jodi Geers. Find a newspaper ad with the colors you're looking for. Cut six with two different sized scalloped punches. Stack them all up with the smaller circles on top of the larger circles (6 of each). Poke a hole and put a brad through the center, and crumple up all of the layers individually. What a beautiful way to recycle all of those sales ads!! Perfect for presents or cards.