Pinterest inspired pumpkin

Hi! Today I am sharing a project that I just finished. I am obsessed with Pinterest lately. I have a big house and we just moved in 6 short months ago. I am trying to get it decorated without breaking the bank. I am loving the things I find on Pinterest and I am trying my hardest to get one project done a week for the house now that we are coming into the colder months.

So I found this little beauty on Pinterest:

I fell in LOVE instantly. I went to Walmart and for $2 I picked up a box of lids. I then headed to Michael's with my coupon and got the spray paint for a little over $2. Little did I know I picked the exact same color as her. I just wanted an off-white to go with my foyer. :)

I had 6x6 Halloween paper here and string. I bought the Cinnamon Sticks from Walmart too. They were the most expensive part....$3.49. I then came home and got to work.

I did mine a little differently than hers. I put all my lids in a box and took them out and spray painted them. Two to three coats worked really well. I then cut my paper a little thicker, I used 1/4 x 6 inch strips. I glued mine on with Modge Podge. They don't go all the way under it but you can't even see the area that isn't covered.

I do have some tips that will help make this project a little easier:

TIP 1: Don't try and straighten the lids out before you pull the string. It pulls together beautifully all on it's own.

TIP 2:
I would suggest trying extra long zip ties to tie the lids together. I had to do it with string because I couldn't find our zip ties. At first there was a really large gap in the middle too big for the cinnamon sticks. So I went back through with string a second time and tried to pull it as tight as I could.

The other option is to have someone put their finger on the string while you tie the knot. I was alone when I did this so it was a little more difficult but it worked out fine in the end. I think zip ties would make this a cinch...no pun intended.

TIP 3:
Tie the cinnamon sticks together first and then flip the pumpkin over and use a piece of fabric to cover the hole in the bottom (I used scrap canvas and a dab of hot glue) That way the cinnamon sticks won't fall through while the hot glue is drying.

TIP 4:

I used Canvas scraps for my leaves. I stamped a leaf from Hero Arts in Just Rust. I stamped it and then cut it out. I doubled it up and stitched the leaves together and then stamped the backside of the leaf then frayed it. That way it looks good 360 degrees.

That is all. Her tutorial rocks and you can read it HERE

Hope you enjoyed. If you have any cool pin projects you are working on I would love if you could link me to them. I'm always looking for easy, fun projects.

Happy FALL!

Michelle

Then & Now

Today I am here with a sketch challenge from The Memory Nest.  I was really excited when I saw this sketch. I love this sketch. Then again, I love every sketch that Becky Fleck makes. Her and her Page Maps just rock!!!!

I had this single picture of my 3 youngest together from this past Easter. I really wanted to put it in my book and tell about their relationship. While I didn't add journaling to the front of the layout, I will add a pocket and a letter to the back expressing my feelings to them about how important each one will be the other as they grow older. I do this on a lot of layouts that are in their 8.5x11 books. Those books are more like "letters from mom", things I want to say to them, things I want them to know, things I feel are so important for guiding through this rough and tumble world.  I use their 12x12 books differently.

So because I was putting it in an 8.5x11 album I had to modify the sketch just a little bit. Because the actual sketch didn't call for a journaling spot I jumped at the chance to challenge myself into making it smaller.

Here is what I did with it:

 I stayed pretty true to the sketch. I had a lot of fun playing with Echo Park's new line Here & Now. I thought it worked great with what I wanted to do.

 I cut the large ampersand, arrows, artisan shapes and the notebook paper with my Silhouette Machine. I double layered the ampersand to give it some dimension. I also added some Hero Arts black pearls to it.

For the Arrows I just used the letter stickers to point to them then and them now.

I machine stitched it all together.  The honeycomb paper is from Basic Grey's Fact/Fiction line.

Thanks for stopping by. i hope you will stop by The Memory Nest blog to see what the other girls did and join us in the sketch challenge this month!

Michelle

You are awesome

Hi everyone! I am here today to share a card that I made with the June Kit for Scrapmaster's Paradise. This month's kit was Echo Park's Here & Now designed by Lori Whitlock.

I combined some of the paper (blue woodgrain, pink strips) with the stickers (pink burst, flower, butterflies) and some SP& Co stamps (Chevron chase, Circletastic background). I used the Certifiied Awesome stamp and die for the title.

I hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Michelle

The Funniest Story Ever

Hi everyone!  I am here today with a layout for the color challenge over at The Memory Nest. I was SUPER excited when I saw these colors. I knew instantly what I wanted to use for this challenge...Echo Parks "All About a Boy" designed by Lori Whitlock. It's no secret I am a HUGE fan of Lori's and these papers just make me swoon. I actually think I need to go buy another paper pack...and if you know me...I usually use a line once and get bored with it. Not this one! It's just too fun!

Here are the colors:

I had no idea what I was going to scrapbook and then Wednesday night the best and funniest thing happened while I was out for all of 30 minutes. My boys recounted the story to me and dh when we got in and I have been laughing about it ever since. I even used some quotes from the voice mails I received from my panic stricken son.

While I captured some of the story with the journaling quotes I still needed to tell the whole story. It's a long story and I didn't want to go to 2 pages. The easiest way to do this is to hide the journaling. I trick I learned a long time ago and utitilize it ofen.

That panel on the front with the subway word art is the perfect spot to hide journaling. it lets you get a lot in there. I have two 4x10 journaling spaces in there. I used some old hinges from Making Memories that I had to hold it all together.

The cover of the journaling needed decoration so I used this really cool patterned paper from the kit and cut the design out of my Silhouette. I cut it again out of gray and mounted them together using spray adhesive and then attached it to the front after everything was done.  The gray paper gives it nice dimension and a shadow effect.

 The title for the page was also cut out of some of the patterned paper. I created the title myself in my Silhouette software. I welded it together, cut it out and then edged it with a white gel pen. I also cut it out of gray like the subway art above.  Some of the letter stickers from the kit made a nice finish to the title. I love that hexagon shape.

A close up of that tag strip. the tags are from the Silhouette store. They too are by Echo Park. I just can't get enough of their stuff!  The hahaha is a print and cut from the Silhouette store also. I printed them on photo paper and I use Soft Gloss so they have a nice little sheen to them.

I used border stickers from the kit (starts), I die cut the notebook paper (Kerri Bradford) and used a Lori Whitlock tag that i added a gear sticker to the hole and added another print and cut to that.  The book mark is also cut from my Silhouette and I used a Technique Tuesday stamp with Colorbox White Frost on it. I kind of smeared it so I traced over it with my white gel pen. I like how it looks shadowed.

The date stamp here is from Studio Calico and the arrow is part of the sticker kit. I stamped a Hero Arts telephone on the tag that had the voice mail quote in Soft Stone.  The orange dot paper is Bo Bunny.

I pop dotted some of the tags but not all of them. I also layered each one on gray cardstock like I did all the lettering.

 journaling

journaling

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out what the other girls did over at The Memory Nest. I hope you choose to play along. You don't have to scrapbook...you can make cards too. In fact, I am off to make some boy cards with this paper line.  Have fun!

Congrats Kelly, Welcome Nathaniel Craig

So excited to share that my fellow, very talented, teammate over at A Blog Named Hero and my dear friend Kelly gave birth to a beautiful little boy Nathaniel Craig the other day. I am so happy for her and her husband. He's just precious!!!

I used Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Boy line for this card. I kept it simple. I stamped a couple of stars, colored them with Copics and then added some Star Dust stickles (just for you Kel!)

Congratulations Kelly & Craig. He is one very lucky little boy to have you as parents. Love you.

New Puppy

Hi everyone. Happy NSD. I am scrapbooking today but I first wanted to finish up a card that I created with a new stamp from Scrapmaster's Paradise. I love this little boy and his puppy. He is just sooooo cute. I paired him with Lori Whitlock's A Perfect Summer for Echo Park which was also the paper that came in SP & Co's monthly kit this month. Just a perfect match for this stamp.

I started by stamping the Furever Friends stamp on watercolor paper in Archival ink. I then used my watercolor pencils and waterbrush to color it in.  I layered the EP papers and sewed them with my machine. I cut the scallop banner out of some of the patterned paper and pop dotted that over the  other banners.

For the title I created a custom title for this card in photoshop because my little cousins just got their first puppy and I wanted to personalize the card for them.

I'll be back soon with my NSD projects. What are you working on today?

Michelle

New Baby Girl

Quick share today. I made this card from some scraps and a sticker sheet from my monthly scrapbooking kit from Scrapmaster's Paradise. It uses the papers from Echo Parks new line Bundle of Joy girl version.



I love using up my scraps!

have a great day! :)

Michelle

You are Fabulous

YAY! It's FRIDAY!!! Sorry for the impromptu break, my laptop had a major crash this week. I just got it back.

So I have a quick card to share. I used Scrapmaster's Paradise & Company's Certified Awesome stamp again but this time I just used a little banner and phrase. I love how versatile this stamp set is. I paired it with some patterned paper's from Echo Park's For the Record 2 by Lori Whitlock. Love these!



I should be receiving my first kit from Scrapmaster's Paradise this weekend and I am hoping to have a fun layout to share with you too. If you have a love of Echo Park you should really check out these kits and her stamps. It just fantastic!!! There are so many great things on the horizon over there!

Have a Fabulous day!!!

Michelle