Bloom Ball

Allie came running in after school on Wednesday eager to see the new Cuttlebug Challenge. She was stumped at first. hmmm table decorations. We do not have scrapping time midweek with after school activities, so we just peek and then run out to tackle the schedule.

"How about tree place cards?" Allie asked on Saturday. With each person's name and a cute little bird. Sounded good to me. We zipped up the cute little "lollipop" trees in a hurry.

Then came time to plan the centerpiece. "How about a real tree with lots of decorations?" Great idea. Except the real party is not until next July. Buying a tree now and then attempting to grow it indoors during a Chicago winter? Not quite the right plan. So it was back to the drawing board.

We had a ton of fun trying to make different trees. It was our own little Goldilocks adventure with too flat, too tall, too silly, but no just right. How could we make that top sphere? Then the light dawned on my darling girl's face: the bloom ball. Early in the school year, they created bloom balls as a book report illustrating and explaining different story scenes on each of the 12 panels. A little work with the circle cutter and the scor-it and we were off and running.


We started to reach for the bling or buttons to embellish the tree, but really thought the embossing was decoration enough. We added just a few items from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love and left it simple. And we love it.

Thanks, Cuttlebug Challenge Blog for some wonderful challenges!

a mini tree

Plant while you grow. This is definitely one of Allie's personal themes. She feels very strongly that with each year, she should be able to do more to make the world a better place. I could not be a more proud mommy.


It was make a mini album week for the Cuttlebug Blog Challenge--one that went with the continuing theme. I loved my very first tree invitation card so much that I adapted the design into a mini. I layered a few circles increasingly smaller in size and connected them with the Bind-it-all.

Take a peek inside:
Each of the tree fronts features the darling Cosmo Cricket Earth Love while the backs are craft paper embossed with a hint of ink by my Bug. For fun, I used a different folder for each one and stitched them together.


I adored this saying found on a 12 inch border strip so I snipped it up and inked the edges. The little birds on each page were cut out of a Earth Love paper, embossed and given a bling eye. I popped them up a bit for some dimension.

Choosing circle pictures seemed just right for the album. I cropped them in circles in elements and then trimmed them making it easy on me.

I couldn't resist embossing and slanting the back of the album a bit, too. Why ever use plain cardstock again?

Just for fun!

Ok, so scrapping is fun, but sometimes the list of things I "need" to do for my commitments takes over and it is a couple of weeks before I can just grab my supplies and scrap for just the fun of it. But no more!

I know that for most people New Year's Day marks the beginning of the year, but for me it is September 1. Not only is it my birthday so I start a new year, but it is the beginning of the school year. As a teacher (and a mom), that is the calendar that my life revolves around. As a result, I make my resolutions now.

One of my resolutions is to recapture the fun of scrapping. I will make one layout and one card just for me at least 3 weeks out of every month. That is totally doable, right? Please say right.


This layout documents the attitude Allie has had for the last year. She is all peace, love, and trees. And it all started with this Halloween Costume. Not much chance that this Halloween layout was going to be black and orange--not with that colorful ensemble. Instead, it is Cosmo Cricket with a title of Thickers and Pink Paislee and a touch American Crafts flair. Add in a few flowers and overlays from My Mind's Eye and I have a live out loud layout that can keep up with that Hippy Costume!

the tree party continues . . .

The second in the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog party challenges is to create a card and giftbag. I am so loving the earthy tones I am playing with for these! If you do not have Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love run to the lss for it is adorable!

For this card I used all of my faves right now. Earth Love, Maya Road (tree/trim), Thickers, and my Cuttlebug. I tried the "ink the bumpy" side of my folder before running the card through technique again since I loved it on the tree trunk of the first card. I know that all the experienced buggers are probably giggling at me, but as a baby bug I am soooo enjoying trying each technique. I get so giddy at the different things I can do with it.

The gift back gave me a bit more trouble. I wanted to just run the whole bag through my Bug. *Looks at bag size. Looks at bug. * Darn. Let's face it--right now I am so into this machine that I want to run ME through it. I needed the bigger bag since the party favor is a little tree to take home and plant and it needs to fit in the bag.

oh, did I forget to mention that Allie is so into this theme that she has decided it is her birthday party for next summer? And with my decisive 10yo I do not have to think she will change her mind--I know this is it.

Allie wanted the bag to say "I heart trees". The heart was giving us fits. We wanted it to pop with a bolder color. We tried a dozen different ones before we decided on this orange one cut out of some Autumn Leaves tags. I am sure that each bag will be just a bit different as we make them. We will probably end up using all of the dozen hearts we discarded all over the scrap desk.

Here is the close up of the embossing:

Obvious in real life, but not so much in the big photo. I must admit that the most fun for me with this challenge is getting to share it with Allie. She really has some lovely design ideas and is so excited about everything we make. We are having a ball!

Boo!

I know. Why be in such a hurry for Halloween? Or even fall? After all, September is definitely the best month to live in Chicago. The weather is flawless. There are a ton of things to do. But on my desk was a fabulous new package of Halloween papers and stickers by Reminisce as they are our October issue Showroom for ScrapStreet Magazine.

I started earlier this week and just cannot stop! What fun they are to play with. I will have a sneak peek of all our work up soon, but for now I am playing with the scraps left from my own projects.

This cute little card is one that I will tuck in a lunchbox for a happy note for one of the kids. I love being able to give my munchkins that extra "mom loves you and is proud of you" hug even while they are away from me.

I used Laura's sketch 34 from 2 sketches 4 you to inspire me:

I loved the simplicity of the sketch replacing the circle with my pieced pumpkin. It only took a few minutes since I built the pumpkin over a journaling block of the same shape from Reminisce. The little pops of green are My Little Yellow Bicycle.


Aren't these patterns just too cute? I cannot wait to show yall what else we are all up to with them!

Time to Party!

I loved reading that the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog is celebrating their birthday in September and is partying all month long. Not only is it my birthday month, but it is also ScrapStreet's 4th birthday! What could be better than for me to just party all month long.

CCB asked us to pick a party theme that could run all month long. hmmm what to pick? I asked Allie and she was quick to respond that we totally needed a tree planting party. She is all about peace, love, and green. Wait until I show you her new backpack (layout in progress). Darling!

I decided to start with a simple circle card and then add in a trunk. For some fun, I rubbed ink on the folder before I ran it through to give the trunk the extra depth. Love the way it turned out!


The paper and diecut are Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love (what else?) and the bird is Making Memories. A few pearls from Kaiser (a current obsession) and I have a quick and cute invitation to start off the party month.

Thanks Paper Trunk

Paper Trunk is featured this month in ScrapStreet.com Magazine Showroom column. We received several lines to scrap with and the game was on. All of us found mojo and went to town creating beautiful items.

Although I enjoyed all the lines, Maybe Baby just grabbed me and would not let go. I found uses for every spare inch of paper. Honest. There are no scraps. *looks around room* That is such a first for me.

You can see several of my pretties in the issue, but I have more to share. These cards were simple and fun, made from the die cut sheets. One is going to Carrie at Paper Trunk with all my love and thanks. The other two are going into the Cards for Heroes box as we are still creating for our soldiers.


I could not resist using Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder for this one. I may never be able to leave white unembossed again. The pearls are Kaiser, letters are American Crafts, Paper is all Paper Trunk.

These two could not have been simplier. I love you is simply a diecut with the edges trimmed close and a few Kaiser pearls for flower centers. It took seconds. XO again built on a diecut with a bit of another piece (left from making Thanks) and a hint of Thickers. This line is just so classy!

Birthday

Birthday present time! What did I ask for this year? A new phone. Honestly, mine was so old students would ask to see the rotary dial. I didn't have unlimited texting, but I didn't need it since it would take me so long to text that I would give up.

Which phone to pick? I called Lauren and asked what to buy. After all, if it is recommended by a 7th grader, it has to be cool, right? She screamed out enVtouch and so I am now the proud owner of:


A front touch screen, 3.2 camera, video, music and a zillion things I have not figured out yet are all included in this nifty little machine. It opens up to look like a mini laptop and I can catch up with all my gang even at school.

Shopping for it was enlightening. I made Drew head to the actual store with me instead of just ordering online. We figured it would be $100 for the new phone. Except when they pulled up our account, Drew had all kinds of credits as he is such a good customer. Turned out that they paid us to take the phone. Yep. Free phone, free case, and tossed in some free minutes to boot.

I tried to convince Drew that meant he still owed me a present, but he was not buying that one at all. I have to say I am one happy camper. Happy Birthday to me!