Scrapbooking ~ Clean, Simple and Fast 12x12 Scrapbooking Layout

I love to scrapbook pictures of my family, friends and I especially love to scrapbook photo's of my little grand daughter Gia. When it comes to scrapbooking, I often don't have time to spend 1 hour per layout and when I am short on time...I go for the clean and simple look to my pages.

The layout above features 2 photos of my little grandaughter taken 3 days a part. We often have little play dates at Nanny's house so I am always taking pictures of her. The color scheme is in purples and lime green which I think turned out nicely.

My background is a piece of distressed purple 12x12 piece of scrapbooking paper. I then used 2 border stickers, one across the top and one across the bottom. The one across the top says "Memories start at the heart and live in it forever" and the one across the bottom is a simple purple floral pattern. They coordinate perfectly. I then had four 3-D embellishments which were purple and pink buttons mounted onto blocks and I glued them in each corner of my layout. I love the dimension they give to the page. I cropped down both photos, rounded their corners and then mounted them onto lime green and dark purple scrapbooking paper, leaving an 1/8" border around each mat. I glued them onto my page and had them overlap a little bit in the center. I then had two 3-Dimensional word stickers that I mounted onto light purple, lime green and dark purple scrapbooking paper (stacked the papers with an 1/8" border). One word sticker says "Cuddle" and one says "Love". I put the cuddle one near the top photo because little one is sitting in her wooden rocking chair rocking her Cabbage Patch Baby Doll. I put the love one near the bottom photo. To finish it up I placed 2 word stickers under the bottom photo and they say "Incredible" and "Charmer". I then signed and dated my page in the bottom right corner. I decided to do my journaling on the back of the page as I had a lot to say about those two particular play dates.

As you can see...you don't have to spend an hour working on a page nor do you have to spend a lot of money. This page cost me about $1.00 to make.

Cardmaking ~ Mother's Day Cards Stitched with Love

Mother's Day Cards Stitched with Love by Rachel Paxton

This Mother's Day, make your mom a homemade Mother's Day card she

will treasure forever. These two card designs are very easy and

will only take you about an hour to make. Using your sewing machine to add accent stitching will give your card an extra homemade touch.

Materials:

Blank greeting card
Scrapbooking paper with floral pattern
Two coordinating solid colored pieces of scrapbooking paper
Creme or white colored paper
Coordinating ribbon
"Mother's Day" rubber stamp
Floral rubber stamp
Ink pad
Paper cutter
Scissors
Glue stick
Glue dots
Sewing machine
Coordinating thread

Note: For my cards I chose yellow daisies for my floral print and gold, brown, and white for my coordinating papers. My ribbon was light brown with dark brown polka dots and I chose gold ink for my rubber stamps and gold thread for my accent stitching.

Card #1:

This card will open horizontally. Cut a piece of the floral print paper to fit the front of the greeting card, and glue it in place. For the left hand side of the card, cut a white piece of paper into the shape of a small rectangle (horizontal) and stamp "Happy Mother's Day" in the center*. Mat this piece with slightly larger rectangles of the two coordinating solid colored pieces of scrapbook paper. With your sewing machine, stitch along the inside of the white rectangle**.

For the right hand side of the card, cut a white piece of paper into the shape of a slightly larger rectangle (vertical) and stamp your floral stamp in the center. Mat this piece with the same two coordinating solid colored pieces of scrapbook paper. With your sewing machine, stitch along the inside of the white rectangle.

* You can vary the sizes and orientations of the rectangles depending upon the sizes of your rubber stamps.

** Before you begin stitching, practice on scratch paper first. You may need to adjust the tension to stitch on paper.

Arrange the two rectangles next to each other on the card, slightly angled away from each other, and glue in place.

Cut a piece of ribbon the width of the card. Glue in place with glue dots about an inch from the bottom of the card. Cut another piece of ribbon and tie into small bow. Use a couple of glue dots to glue the bow near the right end of the other ribbon, about an inch from the right hand side of the card.

Card #2:

This card will also open horizontally. Cut a piece of the solid colored scrapbook paper to fit the front of the card, and glue it in place. Cut a slightly smaller piece of the floral scrapbook paper, center it, and glue in place.

For the center of the card, cut a small horizontal rectangle from white paper. Stamp "Happy Mother's Day" in the center of the white rectangle. Glue this piece onto a slightly larger piece of coordinating solid colored paper. Use sewing machine to stitch along the inside of the white rectangle. Center this piece in the center of the card and glue in place.

Cut two pieces of ribbon to fit the height and width of the floral paper. Using glue dots, secure one ribbon vertically about a half inch from the right side of the floral paper. Secure other ribbon horizontally about half inch from the top

edge of the floral paper. Cut another piece of ribbon and tie into a small bow. Use a couple of glue dots to secure the bow at the intersection of the other two ribbons.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photos of finished Mother's Day cards:
http://www.crafty-moms.com/cards/stitched-mothers-day-cards.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com/

Cardmaking: Four Homemade Mother's Day Cards to Make

Four Homemade Mother's Day Cards to Make by Rachel Paxton

There is nothing as special or personal as a homemade Mother's Day card. Surprise your friends and family with your handmade creations. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Materials:

Four blank greeting cards (available at craft stores), scrapbooking paper with floral pattern, coordinating solid piece of scrapbooking paper, creme or white colored cardstock (whichever matches other papers best), paper cutter, scissors, glue stick, computer, printer, sewing machine.

Card #1:

For this card you will need a floral piece of scrapbooking paper, a coordinating piece of solid colored scrapbooking paper, and a piece of white or creme colored cardstock. Cut a piece of the solid colored paper to fit the front of the greeting card and glue it in place. Cut an approximately 2-inch strip of the floral paper and glue on lefthand side of card as a border. Use your sewing machine to stitch* along the righthand side of the floral border and around the outside edge of the card. Cut a large square out of creme colored or white card stock and glue to the center of the card. Type "Happy Mother's Day" on your computer and print out on white or creme colored cardstock. Cut out the phrase (narrow strip) and glue to the bottom of the square in the center of the card. Choose a flower from the floral paper and trim to fit in the center of the square on the front of the card. Glue in place.

* Stitching tips: If you have never used your sewing machine to make cards, it is easy! Just sew on the paper like you would on fabric. You might want to reserve a needle just for paper so you don't dull the needle for your fabric projects. There are two ways you can include stitching in your card making projects. You can either stitch directly on the card, or you can stitch on a separate piece of paper and then glue that piece to the card (then the stitching won't show through the card).

Card #2:

This Mother's Day card is quick and easy. Cut a piece of the solid colored scrapbooking paper to fit three-quarters of the front of the card. Carefully tear along the righthand edge of the paper and glue the paper in place. Next cut a piece of floral paper to fit half of the front of the card. Carefully tear along the righthand edge of the paper and glue on top of the solid colored piece of paper. Type "Happy Mother's Day" on your computer and print it on white or cream colored paper. Mat the cut-out phrase first on a piece of the solid colored paper, then glue to front of card. Stitch around the outside of the card if you wish, but it isn't necessary.

Card #3:

This card will open horizontally. Cut three approximately 3-inch strips of paper to fit width of card: two floral and one solid colored. Tear bottom edges of each piece. Beginning at top of card overlap the three pieces with floral paper first and glue in place. Cut a large square from the cream or white colored paper and glue it in the center of the card. Cut a slightly smaller square of solid colored paper and glue in center of cream colored piece. Type "Happy Mother's Day" on your computer. Print on cream or white colored paper, trim, and glue in the center of solid colored square. Stitch around the edge of the card, if you wish.

Card #4:

This card will open horizontally. Tear a rectangle from the solid colored paper and glue near top of card. Type "Happy Mother's Day" on your computer and print on white or creme colored paper. Trim and glue to center of solid colored paper. Tear another piece of solid colored paper (larger than first) to glue across the bottom of the card. Cut a rectangle from floral paper and glue to center of bottom piece of solid colored paper. If you wish you can accent edges of floral rectangle with coordinating eyelets.

Notes: - The terms "card stock" and "paper" are used interchangably here, but it is up to you which kind of paper you use, depending on the look you are trying to achieve - A sewing machine isn't necessary for this project, it is just a nice added touch - You don't have to use your computer for this project, you can handwrite the words if you wish.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photos of finished Mother's Day cards: http://www.crafty-moms.com/cards/mothers-day-cards.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com/.

Play Food ~ How To Make Canned Sliced Carrots & Canned Green Beans ~ Felt Food

If you have been following my craft blog for awhile now...you will have noticed that I design and post a lot of felt food patterns here on my blog. For almost 2 years now, I have been making a lot of playfood for my little grand daughters kitchen play set! If you love making felt food, I think you will appreciate this craft project as it's really simple to make.

I took 2 large clear plastic medicine bottles (not with child proof lids) and washed them out to use as 'store cans' for my grand daughters canned foods. I then cut down some scrapbooking paper and used a glue pen to glue the paper around the sides of each plastic can. I used my Cricut machine to cut out 2 ovals on the number 2 setting. I used my chalks and chalked around the oval's edge and then glued those onto the front of my cans. I simply used scrapbooking markers to write the name of the food items onto the label. You can get fancy if you want and write nutrition info on the back so that they resemble more like a can of food, that is entirely up to you.

You can find my free patterns for the felt sliced carrot rounds and the felt green beans here on my blog. I plan on doing a few more 'canned' food items for her playset next week.

Cardmaking: Quick & Easy Mother's Day Card Ideas

I love making handmade cards for Mother's Day because I can make them all pretty with girly embellishments, ribbons and flowers! This past Mother's Day I made two quick and easy cards for my mother and mother-in-law and each card took me less than 30 minutes to make. I won't go into lengthy details on how I made them but will give you a brief overview. Please refer to the pictures for more details.

For the card above I used a premade purple striped greeting card with a scalloped edge. I then cut out a "mother" sentiment that was pre-printed onto white cardstock and matted that onto dark purple cardstock. I left a 1/4" border on my matting. I then used a couple of self-adhesive foam dots and attached it to the front of the card. Inside the card I handstamped a Mother's Quote using a rubber stamp and purple ink pad.

For the second card I covered the front and back of the card with muted seafoam green print paper using a glue stick. I then cut a MOM sentiment from white cardstock and matted that onto matching seafoam green paper and then onto solid green cardstock. I trimmed it down leaving an 1/8" border around each mat. I then attached it to the front of my card using self-adhesive foam dots. At the bottom of the card I attached a seafoam green ribbon with glue dots and then glued on a matching ribbon bow.

Like I said...they are super quick and easy and make for a great beginner's project!

Do It Yourself ~ Herbal Foot Pampering Recipes

As a mother, I used to neglect my feet as it just was not at the top of my list of things I needed to do. Now, after a busy day spent chasing around kids, I look forward to 20-30 minutes of spoiling myself with some much needed foot care.

To cut down on time, I keep a plastic bin in my linen closet stocked with the supplies needed to make the following recipes. In addition to the inexpensive ingredients, I like to keep clean towels, loofah sponges, foot files, pumice stones and foot lotion in the bin so that I have everything ready to go as I need it. I recommend purchasing a plastic basin at your local drugstore so that you have something to soak your feet in. You can easily whip up these recipes in only a matter of minutes.

Lavender Milk Soak6 cups of water
2 cups of milk
4 tablespoons dried lavender

In a large glass bowl, combine the water, milk and lavender. Microwave for 1 minute until mixture is warm. Pour into a foot basin and soak your feet in it for 15 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.

Almond Sea Salt Scrub

3 cups of sea salt
1 cup of Epsom salts
8 ounces of water
2 ounce of almond oil

Mix all ingredients in a medium sized container. Use a plastic scoop to measure out what you need. Rub sea salt onto the heels of each foot for 3-5 minutes. Rinse under warm running water. Pat dry with a cotton towel and follow up with a gentle moisturizing foot lotion.

Soothing Oatmeal Soak

1 cup cornstarch
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 - 3/4 cup of oatmeal

Combine all 3 items in a blender container and process until smooth. Fill foot basin 1/2 full with warm water and add oatmeal mixture. Soak feet for 10-15 minutes. Towel dry and apply moisturizing foot lotion.

Shelly Hill has been working from home since 1989 and a busy mother and grandmother. Shelly enjoys taking time out for herself every evening after a busy day.

How To Make Easter Themed Foam Refrigerator Magnets

Looking for an inexpensive Easter Craft idea for your next project? This craft project costs less than .75 cents per refrigerator magnet and takes less than 20 minutes to make.

Great Project for: Sunday School, Vocational Bible School, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, School Craft Projects, Birthday Parties, and Easter Parties.

Appropriate Age Group: 4 and up

Materials Needed:

Patterns: Easter Egg, Easter Bunny Head, Chick, Cross, Basket

*note* A great source for patterns are preschool aged coloring books

Child Safety Scissors
All Purpose White Tacky Glue
Wiggle Eyes
Markers
Magnets
Foam Sheets: White, Yellow, Tan, Pink, Light Brown, Blue, etc
Miscellaneous: beads, buttons, sequins, yellow feathers

For the purpose of this project, we will assume that you are using Easter Patterns cut from a child's coloring book in the following shapes: Easter Egg, Bunny Head, Chick, Cross and Easter Basket.

To turn the coloring page into a pattern: Cut out the pattern by cutting just outside the patterns shape.

Place the paper shape from the coloring book on the reverse side and place it onto a piece of foam and trace around it. Using safety scissors, cut out the pattern from the foam sheet by cutting on the traced line.

Now its time to decorate your shapes using markers, beads, buttons and sequins.

Ideas:

Easter Eggs: glue on beads, buttons and sequins in pretty wavy patterns. If you are working with older children, you can coat your foam egg with white craft glue and let them sprinkle on colored glitter which also makes for a pretty magnet.

Easter Chick: glue on wiggle eyes and yellow feathers. Using a black marker draw on a nose and a mouth.

Easter Bunny Head: Using markers color in pink ears and a pink nose. Using a black marker add on whiskers and a mouth. Glue on wiggle eyes.

Cross: You can decorate them however you choose or have the children write a bible quote onto them using markers

Basket: Have the children draw designs onto their baskets. They can cut out small oval shapes in pastel colors and glue them onto the front of their baskets to make Easter baskets.

After you are done decorating all your magnets, flip them over and glue a 2 inch piece of magnet on the back and let dry for approximately 20 minutes.

Now you are all done! Super easy to do and they work up quickly. A great inexpensive craft project for kids!

This article is copyright 2009 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved. Please do not reprint my article without my permission. You may talk about my article on your site but you must link to my article here on my site.

Beffie's Boutique ~ Bamboo Knitting Needles Product Review!

Do you love to knit? If so, I got a fabulous company to introduce you to today called Beffie's Boutique where you can purchase high quality knitting needles, knitting supplies, gorgeous watches for us ladies, jewelry charms, knitting patterns, pre-made knitting kits and ready made completed pieces that were knit by hand! If you are a stylish chic and love unique hand crafted fashions, check out Beffie's shawls, shrugs and handbags! Wow, there is a lot of great things over at Beffie's Boutique!

I asked Beffie to tell us more about herself & her business and this is what she had to say. Lydia (Beffie) Johnston – retired middle school math & computer teacher. Ohio Knitting is now my fulltime passion. But I don’t like long needles especially if a project doesn’t need them. Many projects are narrow or overall just small. They can easily be done on needles that are only 17 centimeters long (7 inches). I couldn’t find needles less than 9 or 10 inches in length. So I have them specially made. Of course I had to order in large quantities. Hence, I have Beffie’s Bamboo to sell online at Beffie’s Boutique. There is no physical store. My website is the only source for these needles. The many booties my church group knits for the Community Pregnancy Center are made on size 5 of these short needles. The ladies prefer them. Another advantage is that we can pack a small ball of yarn & these short needles in our purse for knitting anywhere, anytime. I’ve traveled with them numerous times and have never had trouble at security in the airports. Needles are available in US Sizes 0 – 8. Also at Beffie’s Boutique are 5 inch double pointed needles, 27 cm circular needles in 3 sizes, Bamboo Pins, and assorted other knitting supplies.

Projects that can be completed on the short needles: · Baby items, especially booties · Coasters, Dishcloths, Washcloths · Most knit toys/dolls/stuffed animals · Mini- items (I’ve knit mini-sweaters, mittens, & socks for Christmas tree decorations) · Gloves, mittens · Scarves · Sleeves · Bookmarks · Doll clothes

My Review: I am an avid crafter but I have never tried knitting until about 10 days ago when I attended my first class. I am goig to admit up front that I don't know a whole lot about this crafting medium so I had to enlist the help of my 85 year old aunt for this review since she is an avoid knitter. Beffie's Boutique was generous to sent me a set of their 17 cm bamboo knitting needles in a protective case for me to review. Like I said, I am just learning and my first class was just about the supplies and basics. I am looking forward to class #2 when we actually start to learn how to knit. I took the bamboo needles over to my aunt's house to show her and she told me that 17 cm needles are hard to find and that she has never seen bamboo needles and immediately fell in love with this set. She told me that short knitting needles like this are great for taking your knitting products on the road with you. She said she prefers wooden needles over plastic or metal needles and she told me that bamboo needles are eco-friendly. So, I decided to let autnie try out my new needles for a few days. A few days later she told me that she LOVES them! She said they are easy to work with since they are short needles, they are comfortable to hold for long periods of time and that they are super smooth and glide through the yarn with ease. She also said that she likes that they have a blunt tip and are not super sharp so you don't have to worry about accidentally poking someone with your needles. I then asked her about the quality and she said they were excellent quality. So there you have it...the opinion of an 85 year old woman who has been knitting for 50+ years. I hope that after I am done with my knitting classes that I can become proficient in knitting too!

Purchasing Info: You can buy this set of Bamboo 17 cm Knitting Needles from Beffie's Boutique for only $4.00 and for an additional $1.00 you can get a purple protective case for them! Wow...talk about affordable!

I would personally like to thank Beffie's Boutique for allowing me to do a product review for their company here on the Passionate About Crafting Blog.

Disclaimer: Shelly Hill has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. Passionate About Crafting Blog is not responsible for delivery of any giveaway items won from this blog. We are not responsible for injury or mis-use of any products won from the Passionate About Crafting Blog. Please read our Terms of Service & Disclaimer Policy before entering our giveaways. Thanks!

Easy To Make From Felt Easter Egg Refrigerator Magnets Craft Project!

Looking for a quick, easy and inexpensive Easter craft project? Well, I got one to share with you today! This "Easter Egg" is made out of felt and takes about an hour to make if you hand stitch on your floral design or you can make it in less than 15 minutes if you use fabric paints to make the design!

Supplies Needed:

Pastel Colored sheets of crafting felt
Embroidery Floss and Needle (or fabric paints in a bottle with fine tip nozzle)
Scissors
Magnet strips or Magnet Discs
Quick Drying tacky glue

Draw an oval onto a sheet of paper that measures 4" high by 2 3/4" wide (at it's widest) point and cut it out to use it for a pattern. (you can make your ovals any size that you would like). We then drew some flowers onto our felt using a sharp pencil. Using 3 strands of embroidery floss and a needle, stitch a floral design onto your oval (covering up your pencil lines). If you want to use fabric paints, make sure you use ones that come in a fine tip nozzle style bottle and let the paints dry before assembling your egg. Once your stitching or painting is done, place two ovals together and hand sew them together (using a blanket stitch) or machine sew or glue them together. The choice is yours...I like to hand sew them together using a blanket stitch around the edges. Once done...glue your magnet on the back and slap them up onto your refrigerator!

You should really try to make several of them in a variety of colors and patterns as they look super cute on the fridge when there is a variety of them. They are also light-weight enough that you can tuck them inside your Easter greeting cards and mail them off to friends and family.

Happy Crafting!