Published at Practical Scrappers Today!

Have a card up at Practical Scrappers for a challenge to use doilies.  You can check it out here.  It is the second from the bottom.

Kid’s Craft Week #9-Pluffy

Today Grandma got in on the crafting fun!  She and The Girlio made some fun figurines, etc. from Pluffy.  For those that don’t know what Pluffy is-it is kind of like air-dry clay except it never dries out.  I picked up some blue on clearance at Michaels along with some clearanced cookie cutters, and here are some of the fun things they made!

The lilacs add a nice touch, huh?  🙂 My mom is so super talented!

Love You Both Layout

I made this for a challenge at A Walk Down Memory Lane to use Basic Grey on my layout (I won!) and also a challenge at fortheluvofart.com to use inks/mists:

Supplies: Paper and Flowers: Basic Grey; Doilies: Little Yellow Bicycle; Chipboard: Magistical Memories; Butterfly: Studio Calico; Letter Stickers: Basic Grey and American Crafts; Mists/Inks: Bluegrass and Lunch Tray by Studio Calico, Seed Packet by Jenni Bowlin; Stickles

I only got 1/2 pack of BG flowers and I used them all, so I made up for it by cutting out the designs off the back of the packaging and adding them to my flowers.

Echo Park Monthly Design Team Call

I am absolutely LOVING playing with Echo Park products.  The lines are very easy to work with.  There are so many great patterns that will work for any occasion, and I love the ability to mix lines together as they coordinate so well.  I also love that they are always coming out with something new!

So far, I have made four projects with Echo Park, and I want to share them with you along with instructions in case you would like to make your own.

With All My Heart Wall Hanging

For my first project, I wanted to create a wall hanging for my daughter’s room.  I had just been looking at this stamp by Embossing Arts Co.:

I wanted to create something with a similar design-almost as a letter to her-so that she could see a reminder of how much I love her.  I was also working on a challenge to use polka dots.  The Be Mine collection has some GREAT polka dot papers-a black, and a beautiful gray (definitely my favorite paper of the bunch.)

Looks the same as the stamp, right?  🙂

To create your own:

Supplies: Echo Park Be Mine Black Diamonds, Sweet Stripes, Airmail Stripe, Black Damask, and Journal Card papers, Echo Park Sticker Sheet and Alphabet Sticker Sheet; Prima pearls; A Million Memories ribbon; Martha Stewart butterfly punch; Marvy Uchida two inch scallop punch; Small hole punch

1. Cut a 5×7 piece of the Black Diamonds paper (use the B side) for the base.
2. Cut a 4×6 piece of Sweet Stripes and layer the B side (pink swirl) on top of the Black Diamonds paper.
3. Punch four butterflies using the B side of the Black Damask paper (the gray dot.)  Curl the wings slightly for added dimension.
4. Cut a circle (1-2 inches approximately) out of each of the following papers: Black Damask, Airmail, and Journal Card.  Using the B sides of each paper, cut each circle into a spiral shape and, starting with the center of the spiral, start curling the paper tightly around to create the flower shape. When you reach the end of your spiral, tuck it underneath and adhere with a glue dot.
5. Punch a scallop circle from Airmail Stripe (B side.)  Trim off 1/3 of the scallop and set aside.  The larger piece will be used on the top right-hand side of the project when you adhere everything together.
6. Use phrases from the sticker sheets to add words to your project.
7. Adhere pearls to the centers of the butterflies and the flowers.
8. Glue everything down.  I used my Glue Glider Pro for everything except for the flowers (glue dots) and the butterflies (Martha Stewart glue pen.)
9. Punch holes at the top of the project and thread ribbon through the holes.  Tie small knots on the back side to hold the ribbon to the project.

BIG PROJECT TIP: Don’t be afraid to cut up phrases to get just the words you want.  Get creative with letter stickers-I used the letter x for my checkmarks.

Our First Grandchild Layout

My next project was made for my parents.  They have a wall in their hallway where they keep layouts (in clear 12×12 frames) I have made of the kids.  They already have a layout I created for when they met my son for the first time (see here), and I wanted to go back and make one of the first time they met my daughter. The Be Mine collection is just perfect for that with all of the beautiful pinks and grays (there is that gray dot again-love it!)

To create your own:

Supplies: Echo Park Precious Polka Dots, Airmail Stripe, Black Damask, and Journal Cards papers from the Be Mine Collection Kit; American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin, The Girls’ Paperie, and Making Memories letters; Crate Paper brad and buttons; Studio Calico wood veneer butterflies; Making Memories metal charm; Marvy Uchida two inch scallop punch; McGill heart punch; Signo white pen; Zig black pen

This page looks rather complicated, but I promise-it’s easier than it looks!

1. Use the B side of Precious Polka Dots for the base.
2. Using the index page (the page that comes in the front of the kit that shows all the designs) trim out the portion that shows the paper designs and the black and white pattern just underneath and adhere it to the bottom half of the Precious Polka Dots paper.  Note: you will need to trim this piece down to get it to fit inside the pink border.
3. Trim three borders from the Journal Card paper, cut to fit, and adhere just above the index sheet.
4. Make the banner.  For the pieces, punch scallop shapes from the B side of the Airmail Stripe.  Then, cut off two of the sides on each scallop.  This will give you more of an oblong shape instead of a circle.  For the gray pieces, I used a diecut tag from another company that I traced onto the B side of Black Damask to get the shape, and then trimmed to the size I needed.  You could also cut a freehand shape.  Punch hearts from the B side of the Journal cards and adhere them near the tops of the gray banner pieces.  Using a white pen, trace around the hearts to make them stand out a little more.  Add a name to the banner using letter stickers/diecut letters.  Add butterflies.  Adhere the banner to the base paper and use a black pen to add the “string” to your banner.
5. Add a title to the layout.
6. Create a spiral flower using the B side of the Black Damask paper (see instructions in the wall hanging project for making the flower), add a brad and adhere.
7. Add buttons and metal charm around the flower.

BIG PROJECT TIP: The index sheet in the front of a kit can be a great resource for extra designs.  I used the images of the pattern papers to create a mat for my picture and was able to include several paper designs without using up my paper, or trying to piece the patterns together.  Try cutting out the smaller images for projects too!

You Are My Sunshine Plaque

For this next project, I decided to create a little plaque for my son-didn’t want him to feel left out!  🙂  I used a combination of Echo Park Little Boy and Summer Days.

To create your own:

Supplies: Echo Park Little Boy Boxer Stripe paper, Echo Park Summer Days Scene paper and Chipboard; Nikki Sivils letter stickers; Studio Calico wood veneer frame (the 6×6 inch piece); Fiskars XL cloud punch; Silhouette die cutting machine

1. Using the B side of the Boxer Stripe paper, cut it into the four sections so that the four patterns are separated.  Use the plaid pattern for the base.  Adhere the wood veneer frame to the base paper.
2. Die cut the green polka dot pattern to create the tree tops, and the brown for the trunks.  I used the Silhouette Little Town Set by Jamie Koay to cut the trees, but now Echo Park has a Summer Days Silhouette shape called Echo Park Tree that would be perfect for this project!  If you do not have a Silhouette, you could easily freehand cut a tree, or if you had a tree stamp you could stamp it on to the green and the brown Echo Park paper, cut out the pieces, and paper piece it together.
3. Trim a very thin strip of the brown and cut it into four sections.  Use them to form a little picnic table.
4. Punch two clouds from the Scene paper.  Adhere the punched clouds, along with a Summer Days chipboard cloud and sun at the top of the project.
5. Trim the You Are My Sunshine Echo Park chipboard piece to create a rectangle shape instead of a tag.  Adhere this piece, along with the other letter stickers to the center of the project.
6.  Adhere the trees and picnic table at the bottom of the plaque.

BIG PROJECT TIP: Papers that include four designs on the B side give you a lot to work with-four different patterns to use, and a smaller version of those patterns that work great for smaller items-like the trees on this project.  Challenge yourself to use all four patterns on one project!

Doll Crown

Finally, I want to leave you with a simple project I made using Echo Park Be Mine and my Silhouette.

I used Silhouette shape Pixie Princess Crown by Valerie Foster and adjusted the size to three and a half inches tall and just over ten and a half inches wide.  Then, I cut my design using the Airmail Stripe paper from Echo Park.  Now, my daughter’s doll has a quick, cute, and reversible (a must) crown!  🙂

So, that’s it!  If you have any questions, let me know, and I would love to see if you make any of these projects-just include a link in the comments section of this post and I will come check it out!

Kid’s Craft Week #8-Paper Plate Fish

Saw this great idea to make fish out of paper plates on makeandtakes.com.  The Girlio LOVES to paint, and since we just got the art supplies we won from gummylump.com (THANK YOU Gummy Lump!), I thought it would be a great time to give it a try!  Her favorite part was using the end of the paint brush to make polka dots on the fish.  🙂  For more details you can check out the article at makeandtakes.com here.

The final results: