Scrapbooking | Hot Tub Momma Scrapbook Layout Idea

A few months ago my husband and I took a mini vacation to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary and ended up near the Pocono Mountains. Our suite at the romantic resort was absolutely gorgeous! We spent quite a bit of time down at the pool and in the hot tub as the resort was pretty empty and we practically had it all to ourselves. yeah!

The Title of this Page is... Hot Tub Momma

My background is a solid sheet of medium teal colored cardstock. I then took a pale teal colored piece of vellum and cut out a bunch of circle to represent bubbles and put them on my background piece of paper. I spaced them out pretty far as I didn't want it to look too cluttered. I had 3 photos of me sitting in the hot tub and cropped them down, rounded their corners and then matted them onto dark teal cardstock. You can see photo placement above.

I used my Cricut machine to cut out my letters for my title "Hot Tub Momma" first from a pale muted green and then from dark teal and ran them thru my Xyron machine and layered them together. Underneath the word Momma is a 3D embellishment that says "Taking it Easy, Do Not Disturb" on it and in between the two photos on the right I used glitter letters to spell out "Getaway" . Top right corner of the layout I used a sticker pebble that says "Our Paradise" on it and I did a little journaling on the one vellum circle (bubble) on the bottom right corner.

A very clean, easy and inexpensive scrapbook layout.

How to Make a Tutu :: Quick and Easy Instructions

How to Make a Tutu
By Mariana Patrick

I've always dreamed of having daughters and doing crafts with them. I grew up with crafts all around me and I knew it was something I wanted for my daughters. I knew I wanted to create a lifelong bond with them and what better way to do that by coming up with an activity they'll always remember doing with their mommy. I never thought it would be to make tutus. Now that my oldest daughter is 6, I'm beginning to teach her the basics of making a tutu.

I was having trouble thinking of a birthday theme for her and she came up to me and said to have a tutu making party! Why didn't I think of that? It's the perfect theme and the perfect activity because the girls will learn a new skill and have a party favor to take home!

PREPLAN:

Cost of Roll/spool: $2-$3 (you'll need 2, maybe 3).

Precut elastic and sew ends together for waistband or use an elastic headband instead of sewing.

Precut the tulle strips days before the party. To save time, lay a cutting mat down and roll out at least three rolls evenly on top of each other. Start at the 0" mark on the mat and measure out the strip length. Let's say you want the tutu to be 10" long... cut about 22" to compensate for the knot you will be tying. Place a quilters lip edge ruler where you will be making your cut. Carefully roll your rotary cutter over the tulle fabric using the ruler's edge as a guide to make sure you have a straight cut. You will need to cut about three to four strips of tulle for each inch of waistband.

FOR THE PARTY and for each guest making a tutu:

Step 1: Slip your elastic waistband around a paper towel roll that will hold the elastic in place. If the elastic fits loosely around the paper towel roll, use sewing pins to cinch up the elastic until it fits snug.

Step 2: Have the girls fold a strip in half and bring it behind the elastic waistband to form a loop.

Step 3: Bring the ends of the tulle strip up and through the loop and pull the ends down to tighten. Make sure they don't pull it too tight as it can overstretch the waistband.

Step 4: Continue tying slipknots or show them how to tie regular double knots around the entire waistband. They will probably use about 60 strips of tulle. Try to tie at least 3 knots per inch of your waistband measurement.

Step 5: The fun part!!! Embellish. Supply them with tons of embellishments... Glue or pin flowers an tie ribbon around the waistband. And there you have a finished tutu and a successful birthday activity!

Learn everything you need to know to make beautiful boutique quality tutus including 10 different variations in my complete step-by-step instructional course. You will not find a better or more affordable course on the Internet for how to make a tutu. I've been selling my guides since 2007 and have thousands of satisfied customers who have taken the skills learned from my ebooks and started their own successful tutu boutiques! ~ Mariana Patrick

Scrapbooking | Nature Walk Scrapbook Layout Idea

Back in early June my husband and I took a trip down to Cape May, New Jersey. While on our trip we visited "The Nature Conservency" which is located in Cape May Meadows. It's a beautiful FREE nature walk through a coastal marsh area in Cape May. You can see ducks, swans, geese, turtles, rabbits, etc. while you walk around the beautiful paths.

I wanted to remember this day so I did a 12x12 scrapbooking layout with 4 of the photos I took that day. I wanted the layout to be clean looking (not cluttered) and wanted it in neutral tones so I went with olive green, beige and chocolate brown for my color scheme.
My background is a white sheet of cardstock and then I layered a piece of olive green textured cardstock along the left side (it measures 4 1/2" by 12" in size). I used a block of green handmade textured paper in the upper right corner and a piece of textured brown/beige paper in the bottom right corner. I did use chocolate brown ink around all paper edges and I left an 1/8" edge of the white cardstock show through when adhering my blocks of paper on top. I like how that shows throw framing off the 3 different pieces of paper I used.

I used my Cricut to cut out my bottom border which featurs grass and cattails from the Paper Doll cartridge. I used the same cartridge to cut out a rustic looking sign post which I inked up and wrote a message to follow the path on it.

I slightly cropped down my 2 photos on the right and then matted them onto beige cardstock and then chocolate brown cardstock. The photo on the left was cropped down into a 3 1/2" square and matted to match the other 2 photos. I had some brown floral rub-ons and some brown butterfly rub-ons and just sprinkled them onto the layout in different places to add more interest.

I made my own title block from 3 sheets of cardstock (lime green, medium green and olive green) and place one small white eyelet in each corner. I used the same cattail cutout that I used along the bottom of the layout on the title block along with a brown butterfly rub-on. I then just wrote the name of the Nature place on it in my own handwriting as I felt that looked more rustic than if I had used my Cricut to cut out letters.

The final small photo is of a swan and it's in the slide frame. I don't like white slide frames so I covered the slide frame with olive green handmade paper and inked around the edges. I think it framed up the swan beautifully.

Overall, I am very pleased with my layout and did my journaling on the back as I had a lot to say about the afternoon we spent there.

Scrapbooking | Forever Yours Romantic Vacation Scrapbook Layout

Back in April of 2012 my husband and I took a mini vacation to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary. We decided to head north and stay in a resort that was small but surrounded by mountains. Our room was perfect, very roomy and included a jacuzzi tub! I made a few scrapbook layouts from our romantic vacation and will be sharing them here on my crafting blog over the next few weeks.

The Title for this scrapbook layout is... "Forever Yours".

My background is made up of 2 different print sheets of scrapbooking paper. The base is a mauve print and the right side strip is a dark gray print with slanted lines and tiny dots. I felt that sheet was manly looking while the mauve sheet was girly. I slightly cropped down the 3 photos on the left and decided to not mat them and let the dark gray print paper serve as their mat/frame. From dark mauve paper I cut a strip that measures 1/8" by 12" and ran that along the edge of the dark gray paper where it meets the mauve paper to serve as a divider strip.

I had a cardstock cutout that says "Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one" printed on it. I matted that onto dark mauve paper and then again onto the dark gray paper and trimmed around it to frame it up. I had a fleur de lis cutout and did the same thing to that. I then used foam adhesive dots and placed the two pieces together to form my own 3-D embellishment on the top left of the page.

I slightly cropped down the photo of the jacuzzi tub and placed a file folder tab on the top of the photo and simply labeled it as "The Jacuzzi". I used a coordinating cardstock tag underneath that and put a Forever Yours sticker on top of that. I ran sheer pink ribbon through the tag and then anchored the tag to the page using dark red metallic heart shaped brads. I also put 2 corner pieces on the top left and bottom left corners of the page to finish that off.

I decided to do my journaling on the backside of this layout. What I wanted to say was private and just between hubby and I so...I did it on the backside so that when people look through my scrapbook, they won't see it :)

Starfish and Seashell Scrapbook Layout Idea

My husband and I took a one week vacation down to Wildwood New Jersey back in early June. Wildwood happens to be one of my favorite Atlantic Coast beaches, I absolutely love it there! I decided to scrapbook a page in the 12x12 format featuring photos of my husband collecting seashells, starfish and sand dollars for me. On that particular afternoon we found 3 sand dollars, numerous seashells, 1 starfish and 2 large conch shells. It was a great shell collecting day!

I made my own background by ripping 3 sheets of cardstock (one beige, one white and one pale blue) and layering them on top of a medium blue sheet of cardstock. I wanted it to resemble the beach, water and the blue sky without it being too busy looking.

All of the tags, embellishments, stickers and photo frames are from K & Co. that I purchased at my local scrapbooking store. The layout features only 2 photos of my husband on the beach while he was collecting seashells for me.
I did the journaling in my own handwriting on the K & Co. tag and then accented the right side of the tag holder with a 3-dimensional sea horse sticker. I also added 3 tiny white half-pearls to 3 of the starfish in the bottom border to "jazz" it up a bit.

I really like how the layout turned out. It's full, but not overly busy. If you have been following my craft blog for awhile now, you already know that I prefer uncluttered and un-busy layouts.

How To Properly Clean Rubber Stamps

I use rubber stamps in a lot of my crafting projects from scrapbooking to cardmaking and I had to learn the hard way on how to properly clean my rubber stamps. If you don't take the time to clean them each and every time you use them, they will not last long! In addition, you won't get as nice stamped images from dirty and worn out stamps as you get when you use clean and properly cared for rubber stamps.

Here is how you should be cleaning your rubber stamps and you need to do it after each use!

After using your rubber stamp it is important to grab a scrap piece of paper and stamp off as much ink as possible. Once you have completed that, grab a baby wipe and wipe down all sides of the rubber stamp to remove as much ink and/or paint as possible.

For the next part of the cleaning process you will need two clean cotton cloths, liquid dishwashing soap and some water. Place one to two drops of liquid dish soap onto your rubber stamp and rub your fingers over the stamp while holding it under running water. It is best to not submerge your rubber stamps! Once you have removed the ink, rinse completely and then towel dry with the second cotton cloth. If you decide to let your rubber stamp air-dry, it is best to keep the rubber part facing up and the wooden or plastic handle (back part) facing down on the cotton cloth.

The Don'ts: You should never use harsh chemical cleaning products on rubber stamps as they can cause the rubber to split, crack and craze. Do not use toothbrushes or other types of scrubbing brushes to scrub your stamps as they can damage the surface. You should never store your rubber stamps in moisture-rich or severely dry environments and you should always protect them from extreme heat, cold and direct sunlight.