Scrapbooking | Paradise Bliss Beach Scrapbook Layout Idea

I finally had some time to do some scrapbooking last weekend and decided to work on some beach theme'd layouts from photos I took last year of our grand-wee-one when we are on vacation down at the Jersey Shore. (note: You can click on the photos in this post to enlarge them to see them in greater detail).

I did this scrapbook layout in the 12x12 format size. My background is a sheet of 12x12 printed scrapbooking paper in a tone-on-tone orange block pattern. I went with orange since Grand-wee-one's bathing suit was in white, orange and hot pink, so that is my color scheme for this layout. I then took a white, hot pink and orange plaid piece of scrapbooking paper and trimmed it to meaure 8" by 12" in size and glued it down the middle of my background paper. I took a piece of solid hot pink scrapbooking paper and trimmed 2 strips down to each measure 1/4" by 12" in size and glued one of those along each long edge of the plaid piece of paper to trim it off.

I had 3 photos I wanted to use in this layout, so I cropped 2 of them down into more of a square shaped and then matted them onto orange and hot pink cardstock, trimming them to have a 3/16" border on around each frame mat. For the third photo, I just trimmed around my grand-wee-ones head and upper body (there was a slew of clutter around the photo which I didn't want on the layout). You can see my photo for placement of all 3 photos that I used.

I used 2 packs of self-adhesive beach theme'd embellishments on this layout. I don't remember if they were Jolee's or from Soft Spoken but it was one of the two LOL! I made a beach scene in the bottom right corner with the one pack.

I made my own journaling block out of white, hot pink and plaid scrapbooking paper that I had left over from my background and frame mats. I chalked around the edges of my journaling block with hot pink chalk. I used 2 green rivets in the top corners of my journaling block and I chose green because I needed a little color in that corner of the layout. I then took a chipboard 3-D embellishment (flower) and stuck it onto the top of the journaling block and then did my journaling in my own handwriting.

Overall, the layout took me about 40 minutes to make and I am pleased with how it turned out. I normally don't mix hot pink, white and orange together but I think it looks very beachy & summery. yeah!

Mother's Day Wall Hanging Gift Idea - Craft Project

My crafty friend Barb Ireland has done it again! Today I am sharing with all of you her YouTube video on how you can make an adorable wall hanging for your mom this Mother's Day. Her instructions are so easy to follow and all you have to do is watch her YouTube video to learn how to make it. You could have it completely completed in just one day!



I think this wall hanging is just adorable! You could use the instructions and change the color scheme and them to suit Valentine's Day too! I think a few of these in a young girl's theme would be darling for a little girl's room too! I know my little grand-wee-one would love one in a fairies or ballet slipper theme!

Watch Barb's YouTube video as I am sure you will love this crafty Mother's Day Gift idea too! Enjoy and thank you Barb for sharing!

American Girl Dolls Make Great Birthday Presents

I have always loved dolls and I admit, I have a small collection of beautiful dolls sitting in my curio cabinet. There is just something fun and wonderful when it comes to collecting dolls, playing with dolls and displaying the dolls in your home.

My little grand daughter is just like me and is passionate about dolls. Her birthday is coming up the end of May and she asked me to purchase her two American Girl Dolls for her birthday gift this year.

I had never heard of American Girl Dolls before, so I hopped online and looked them up. Oh my gosh, they are just totally adorable! What is really cool about these particular dolls is that they can be displayed and can be played with.

There are all kinds of American Girl Dolls and each one has a name and fits a particular theme. They are dressed super cutely and most of the time their clothing represents the theme they are portraying. Their little facial features are just too sweet!

I haven't decided on which one to get for my grand daughter just yet, but I am definitely going to honor her Birthday wish and get her one this year. Do any of you own any of the American Girl Dolls and if so, which ones?

Scrapbooking | Toddler Girl Fall and Halloween Scrapbook Layout Idea

I am finally just getting around to scrapbooking my grand daughters fall and Halloween photos from last year. You can click on the photos in this post to enlarge them to see the details. I had 4 photos of my grand-wee-one that I wanted to use in the layout. I cropped 3 of them down to a smaller size and matted them onto dark olive green and dark red cardstock, leaving an 1/8" edge around each mat. For the 4th photo, I used my small trimming scissors and cut her out of the photo.

The layout was done on a 12x12 piece of mustard yellow textured cardstock. I then had a sheet of leaf print scrapbooking paper and cut two corner pieces out of that sheet and glued them onto my cardstock to make my own background. I then placed my 3 matted photos onto the layout next using glue dots.

I used a leaf punch and from cardstock I punched out 2 yellow leafs and 2 pale orange leafs that measure 1" in size. I chalked around their edges with dark brown chalk to add depth. I then over-lapped them together using glue. I placed one set under the bottom photo and wrote on them Oct. 2010. I placed the other set under the top right photo and wrote FALL on those. I used foam dots to place them onto the layout to add depth & interest.

I cut out my own journaling block from medium orange and light orange cardstock. I inked around the edges with black ink. I did the journaling in my own handwriting and glued it onto the layout in the top left corner. I placed adhesive foam dots onto the back of the cut-out photo of my grand-wee-one and placed the bottom third of that photo onto the journaling block.
I had a self-adhesive border that was in a fall leaf pattern and cut it down to measure 1/2" by 5" and 1/2" by 5 1/2" in size. I placed one of those along the right edge of the top right photo and placed the other one underneath the bottom left photo to add interest. I accented the left side of the bottom photo with 3 pumpkin stickers that I attached with foam dots.

I had a package of "real" dried leaves from Leaving Prints (tm) and glued a few of those onto my layout using a glue pen. They were too delicate for glue dots (ripped one of them). I layered a green leaf with a yellow leaf using a glue pen and placed it underneath the bottom right photo. I then wrote "FALL FUN" onto it to serve as my small title block of the page.

The photos are of my grand daughter during the end of October and early November and they worked well together and I got them all onto one page. Overall, I am very pleased with how this layout turned out. You can click on the photos in this post to enlarge them to see all the details. Thanks for reading my craft blog!

Wedding Album

This guest post from Hong Alexander

I was really disappointed when I got our wedding album back from the photographer last year. I felt like he hadn’t taken enough pictures and that the album was much smaller than what we had discussed. Luckily, I had the rights to the photographs and had everything saved on CDs. When I got our album back and was so disappointed, I immediately logged onto Snapfish.com using our wireless internet connection and uploaded all of the pictures from the wedding. I started creating my own wedding book. By the time I was finished with it only a couple of days later, I was amazed at how quickly the book came in. The book came in within a week and was really high quality. I had to give myself props because I thought that the book was really well laid out. My husband agreed and loved the way that it looked. I ended up ordering another two copies: one for my parents and one for his parents. We are going to give them as Christmas gifts this year. I am really excited because I think they will be really happy with it!

Turn a Shoebox into a Keepsake Box for Mom for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner and my crafty and talented friend Barb from Barb Ireland Designs turned an old empty shoebox into a beautiful keepsake box using craft supplies that she had on hand.

I think this beautiful keepsake box would make the perfect Mother's Day Gift for your mom this year! Inside the keepsake box you would place a piece of jewelry or other gift that you want to give to your mom along with the card and keepsake box that you made for her.

You can find the complete step by step instructions on how to turn an empty shoebox into a beautiful keepsake box by watching Barb's YouTube video below. Wow, she is one talented lady!



Isn't the keepsake box just beautiful? I think so! You could really do any type of design that you would like by using Barb's easy techniques. Enjoy!

Nurture and Feed your Garden with Whitney Farms Organic Gardening Products

This is a partnered post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am so glad that winter is finally over and now hubby and I can get back into the garden again. This year we plan on having a 100% natural and organic garden so have been on the hunt to find new organic gardening products to try out.

We were looking around online and came across Whitney Farms® organic gardening products and like what we saw on their site. They sell organic soil and organic organic plant food so that is something we will definitely need for our garden this year. In addition, they have a great money-saving $3.00 OFF coupon on their web site right now, so make sure you go over there today to claim yours!

Whitney Farms has been a leader in the gardening industry for over 25+ years now and their products are sought after by those who wish to garden organically. Their products feature:

* low to no dust
* no stinky manure smells
* contains beneficial microbes to help your plants grow and thrive
* their products are easy to use
* contains beneficial micro nutritents and macro nutritients

Last year we had several storms come through central Pennsylvania so our garden took a heavy beating. Our winter was extremely mild and dry. We want to get a head start on our gardening this year and only use top-notch gardening products so that we can bring back the "good health" that our garden once had. When it comes to eating healthy, it all begins with a healthy organic garden so that is why we are going totally organic this year when it comes to our backyard garden.

We are really hoping that this year will be the best gardening season that we ever had and will be trying hard to accomplish all of our gardening goals. We have a large family to feed so having a large and healthy garden is important to us.

Do any of you have a backyard garden? If so, what are you doing to ensure a healthy garden this year?

Scrapbooking | Jurassic Adventure Mini Golf Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few months ago my hubby and I took a vacation trip down to the Jersey Shore and we played a few rounds of mini golf at a place called Jurassic Adventure Mini Golf in Wildwood, N.J. I went to my local crafts store and couldn't find mini golf embellishments or stickers so I had to make my own. This layout is in the 12x12 format and features 4 large photos, a title block and a journaling block.

I slightly cropped each of the 4 photos down so that they were all the same size. I matted them on ocean blue colored cardstock. My background is a darker ocean blue color of textured cardstock. I placed all 4 photos onto the background as show in the photo above. I took a photo of the mini golf sign while we were there and enlarged it slightly and then printed it out. I then cropped it and matted it onto dark pink and ocean blue cardstock, leaving an 1/8" border with the dark pink and a 3/16" border with the ocean blue cardstock. I used foam dots to put the title block onto my layout.
I decided to make my own journaling block by simply drawing out an odd shaped oval on medium green cardstock. I then cut it out and inked around the edges with an olive green ink. I then framed it up with dark green cardstock and cut it out leaving about an 1/8" border. I then added a dark red eyelet to the left side of it to serve as my "putting hole". I took a cocktail drink umbrella and used that as my golf putting flag and attached that with glue dots. I used sticker letters to spell out "Par 2" which I placed at the top of the journaling block and then did my journaling in my own handwriting.

Scrapbooking | Jurassic Mini Golf Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few months ago hubby and I took a vacation down to the Jersey Shore and while we were there we played miniature golf at a place called Jurassic Adventure Golf so I wanted to do a scrapbook layout that was in the brown tones with red & green accent colors but was worried about it coming off looking too Christmas like (with red & green) so I used them just sparingly in my layout. In addition, I wanted a pretty plain layout since the theme of the mini golf course was dinosaurs aka Jurrasic.

I did the layout in the 12x12 size and used a sheet of textured chocolate brown cardstock for my background. I then cropped down a piece of printed a piece of scrapbooking paper that had a neutral colored texture to it and off-centered it onto my cardstock using dark red eyelets to attach it in each corner.

I slightly cropped down 2 photos and matted them onto dark red cardstock and left an 1/8" border on my mats. I then placed them down the left side of my page using glue dots. I saved our mini golf score card and placed that on the right of the page. I wanted to add a touch of foliage to the page but didn't want flowers so I simply added a 10" long piece of green fern using glue dots on the right side of the page. I took a pic of one of the dinosaurs there and trimmed it out of the photo and placed foam dots on the back and put it at the bottom of the page. I then finished up the layout by using a 3-D embellishment by Soft Spoken and put that red embellishment on the right side of the top photo.

Overall...I am pleased with the layout and decided to do my journaling on the backside as I didn't want my layout to look to cluttery.

Scotts® Snap® Spreader System Helps You Have a Better Looking Yard

This is a partnered post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

We had a really harsh winter this past year and now that spring is finally here, We are really looking forward to working on both our front and back yards. One thing that I recently learned is that our grass is "alive" and needs to be fed regularly. I had never thought about "feeding" our grass in the past, but this year I am determined to do it and hopefully have the best looking grass in our neighborhood.

I was doing some research online and came across the Scotts® Snap® Spreader System which is a no mess, no guess spreader system. I love using easy products and this one definitely looks super easy to use! The Snap Pac connects directly onto the Snap Spreader, so there is no cutting open heavy bags and no lifting of heavy bags to pour it. I love that feature for sure since I had back surgery a few months ago and heavy lifting is definitely out for me.

The system will auto-set the proper flow rate so you won't have to waste time trying to mess with any settings. I love simple and that is definitely simple enough for me! It also has a unique edge guard feature that keeps the product where you want it - on your lawn and not on your sidewalks or driveway! With that edge guard there will be no waste! Oh, and get this, when you are done using it the Snap-Pac will self-seal itself up, keeping it fresh for when you need it next.

Have you checked out Snap perks on Facebook yet? You can earn all kinds of "special" perks for liking them on Facebook where they announce special promotions and contests! I love a good contest so I went out and liked them on Facebook!


I am really looking forward to having a beautiful yard this year and hopefully, I will be the envy of the block! I have big plans for both our front and back yards and it all starts with having some nice grass!

Grab FREE Downloadable Scrapbooking Software Online!

Love to Scrapbook? Are you into digital scrapbooking? If so, I found some great sites online where you can find FREE downloadable scrapbooking software and digital scrapbooking kits. All are free and easy to use. Enjoy!

FREE MyScrapNook digital Scrapbooking software! You can download it for free and use it today! Great for those who want to do digital scrapbooking!

FREE My Scrap Artists digital Scrapbooking software! You can download the compact version for free! This is NOT trial-ware!

FREE digital scrapbooking kit! Great for those of you who want to do digital scrapbooking. this is a FREE digital kit sent via email.