kinder{art}

My kids come home with a lot of art projects from school. And I'm always trying to find a way to show off their works of art without, you know, plastering them across every wall in the house. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging their artwork. But there's only so much room in the house if you know what I mean. So, I thought it'd be fun to make a little mini-album that the kids (and anyone else for that matter) could flip through.

I took some of those report cards from the backside of the Jillibean Soup papers in the Sept Kraft Girl Kit. I rounded the corners and added some Jenni Bowlin letters & thickers from my stash. Now, I originally made this album for my son. But since I won't get most of his artwork til the end of this year (the art teacher puts them in a big folder for each child the last week of school) I added some of my daughter's so you could get the idea. I scanned her work, resized it in Photoshop to 4x6, then printed it on white cardstock.

Punch some holes, accent with ribbon and that's it, a mini-album of your kids' artwork!

 

And the best part is that you don't have to worry about any of it getting ruined because the "originals" are safely stored away...and maybe a couple are up on the walls :)
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Also, just to let you all know, the Kraft Girl Kits are on sale. All of them (except Sept 09) are 50% off which means that they are just $16. So head here if you want to pick up a great deal!!!

A+

In honor of back to school I thought I'd make a back to school themed card. Super simple, just used some scraps from my Sept Kraft Girl Kit. I'm itching to get my hands on some more Jillibean Soup papers. I've been impatiently anxiously waiting for my package to arrive from 2 peas. C'mon guys, it's been almost 2 weeks!!! Patience hasn't always been my strongest asset.

Anyway, I punched out the letter A from the Jillibean Soup paper and since I couldn't find a "+" sign in my stash I made one with the ribbon. 

Additional supplies used:

Martha Stewart punch

Circle & scallop circle punches

Sizzix leaf die

white gel pen

By the way, speaking of Jillibean Soup...my "UR Sweet" card was picked as a runner up for the sketch challenge. Click here to see all of the amazing projects. I've said it before, there's a lot of great talent out there!!!

news about Kraft Girl Kits

I'm sad to say that there's some news about Kraft Girl Kits. You can read Pam's post here. I have so enjoyed working with the last 2 months' kits and getting to know the KGK girls. But I certainly understand Pam's decision.

Kraft Girl Kits SALE!!!!

After reading some of your comments in the last post, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with homework issues!! One thing I forgot to mention, my daughter gets a quarter a day for doing her homework/studying without whining but she also has to pay me a quarter out of the jar if there is whining. I know, I'm mean...but that's how it goes!

Now, onto the sale.....

There's a great deal going on over at the Kraft Girl Kits site. Purchase a June, July, August or September kit and get the November or December kit for just $5!!! That's an awesome deal guys! This deal runs Friday through Sunday and once the kits are gone....they're gone!

Here's pics of the kits.

Purchase one of these:

June

July

August

September

And get one of these for $5:

November

December

You can head over here for more details!!

family of 4

5 1/2 years ago our little family went from 3 to 4 when my son was born. And he joined our family as if he'd always been there. We didn't have any hard transition time, no jealousy from my daughter. Maybe because instead of living around the baby's schedule, our new baby went around ours. If it was naptime and we were out doing errands, he slept in the car or stroller. Time to eat? Well, then we'd have to stop what we were doing. But I just remember that time being relatively easy. You know, as easy as having a 2 yr old and a newborn can be!

When I got my Kraft Girl Kit this month and saw that cute vintage flashcard with the #4 on it, I knew what I would be using it for!

And speaking of babies, congratulations to my friend Katie who just had her first last week ~ baby Morgan!!!

I also thought I would share my tip for layering alpha stickers on your layouts. When I'm using them in a title (or whatever), I place them on my layout but don't press them down. That way I can adjust them how I want without risking damage to my page. You can see in this photo how they're not really stuck down to the page.

Then when I have my title looking the way I want, I press the letters down.

And there you go!

personalized id tags

Have you ever made these?? My kids love 'em, especially when I make them for a trip that we're going on. They're super easy to make. Just head over to your local office supply store (Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Kinkos, etc) and get a pack of plastic badge holders.

Then cut your patterned paper to fit inside. Now, even though these badges say 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, I actually had to cut the longer side to 3 1/4. So make sure it fits before you embellish. And keep the embellishments to a minimum or it won't fit in the sleeve. I simply used some strips of leftover paper from the Sept Kraft Girl Kit and a couple punches. I stamped a circle around the name using the Think Happy Thoughts stamp set from Stampin' Up! I added some stitching, twine and ribbon and voila!

I left the opposite side blank to add my kids' school info. You can do the same thing when using these for travel.

I'll be sharing some Disney ones soon...my kids fave!!

u r sweet

So I said yesterday that I had a few more projects from the Sept KGK. I also made another layout today but haven't gotten a picture of that yet. I cannot believe that I've created 5 layouts, a card & a couple tags and I still have a bunch of goodies leftover! Have I said recently how much I love this kit?!!

Anyway, here's a card I made with that cute Jillibean soup numbered cardstock (note to self ~ need to get more of this!)

Making these shaped cards is really easy, especially if you have a Sizzix (or similar die-cutting machine). What you want to do is fold your cardstock in half (for this card I used a 5x10 pc).

When you put your folded piece of paper/cardstock on your die, be sure to put part of it on the inside of the die.

The part of the paper that is on the inside of the die won't be cut and you'll end up with this:

Then you can embellish however you want! I used those cute letters from the other sheet of Jillibean Soup paper along with some of the other embellies that came with this month's KGK.

Now if you don't have a die-cutting machine you can still make a card like this. Trace a circle (or whatever shape you want) on your folded cardstock, leaving that one part on the edge that you won't cut. Then you can cut with regular or decorative scissors.

The inspiration for this card was from a sketch I found on the Jilibean Soup blog. You can check it out here!

And by the way, if you're not a member of KGK on facebook, head over here and become a fan. You may be able to win something {hint, hint}

September layouts

It's September 1st and you know what that means! This month's Kraft Girl Kits is up for sale. I loved every bit of this kit. And there were some fun new goodies from Jillibean Soup, Cosmo Cricket, & October Afternoon to name a few. Even though some of the papers & embellishments seem like they're just for school layouts, you'll find that they can be used for lots more. In fact, I've done mostly summer layouts with mine so far.

This first layout was inspired by Rita's sneak peek this month. I knew I wanted to use those cute squares from the Jillibean paper...so many possibilities!

In this next one I cut the big brackets with my Silhouette.

In these next layouts I decided to scrap these photos more about my thoughts for my kids and reaching their dreams rather than focusing on the actual photos (or making these summer layouts).

And I think Kari Ann must have rubbed off on me cause I found myself punching circles on everything this month! Maybe it was all the water photos...

Remember, the November and December kits are 50% off and the March kit is 25% off. You can head here to check them out.

I will have more projects to share from this kit this week...can't give it all to you at once! hehe of course, if you go over to the Kraft Girls Kit site you'll be able to see them!

You can also head over to the flickr gallery to see more layouts with the Kraft Girls Kits. All of the design team members rocked the kit this month...again! Be sure to upload your projects there so everyone can see! We love to give praise to our fellow KGK members :) If you're having trouble uploading, Christyn gave a quick and easy tutorial over on the blog here.

one more peek & a winner

Happy Monday everyone! I'll start with some fun stuff...the winner of my giveaway :)
I know that's hard to see but if you click on it #9 is the winner. So that means that Carolyn ~ you're the winner! Send me your address to meandmyscraps@yahoo.com and I'll send you some Halloween goodies :)

I started my morning out at 5:15am because I had to be at the hospital by 7am for an HSG. It was a lot of fun, lemme tell ya. Anyway, turns out I have one good tube and one blocked tube. So I'm still trying to process. I'm a bit sad but tomorrow's a new day :)

I do have a couple more sneak peeks of the Sept Kraft Girls Kit. I know I said it before but I just loved playing with this kit!!

The Sept kit goes on sale tomorrow so be sure to check back. This is a kit you'll definitely want to get your hands on!!

a couple Sept sneaks

I started playing with the Sept Kraft Girls Kit and I gotta say that I looooove this kit!! Everything in the kit is right up my alley. Don't you love that?!! The colors are great and the papers & embellishments go so well together.

I got a couple layouts done when Carol came over to scrap with me yesterday.

So here's a few sneaks...

I'll have more sneaks to share very soon. And there's still some Aug kits for sale that you can check out here. And, of course, the flickr gallery with all of the awesome projects & layouts!

Don't forget about the giveaway in my last post!

just to tease you a little...

A sneaky peaky for the Kraft Girl Kits Sept kit. Pam has told us of some fun goodies that are coming our way for the next few months so I can't wait to see the kit in person!!

Updated 8/24 ~ I just got my kit in the mail and it's awesome! You definitely want to check back and see this one!!

cards from scraps

Hey everyone! I'm back from the birthday bash! We had so much fun :) I'll be sharing some pics of the crop and the things I made over the weekend. But first I wanted to share what I posted today over at the Kraft Girl Kits blog about using your leftover kit scraps for cards!

Here are the cards:

Be sure you head over there and check out the full post!

Edited to add: in the first card I stitched each strip of patterned paper directly onto the cardstock. You can do it that way or stitch the strips first and then adhere. I find it easier to just stitch right onto the card. I don't mind that you can see the stitching on the inside of the card and I just think it attaches better.