Simple Scrapper - May Blog Hop

It's time for another blog hop with the Simple Scrapper and I never tire of the amazing sketches and story starters available through the premium membership.

1.  Just You and Me {a digital scrapbook layout}.  This layout is based on a sketch from the May 2013 Simple Scrapper Premium Membership.  I also got to finally play with my digital goodies from Pebbles Seen and Noted. 

Supplies: Template (Simple Scrapper Premium Membership - May13_Single3); Paper and Embellishments (Pebbles - Seen and Noted); Staples (Splendid Fiins); Letter Stickers (Echo Park).

2.  SWOS Graduation {a digital scrapbook layout}.  This layout was inspired by a Story Starer from the Simple Scrapper Premium Membership and highlights a ton of photos from Justin's SWOS graduation.

Supplies: May 2013 Story Starters from Simple Scrapper Premium Membership; Template (Splendid Fiins); Papers (Pink Paislee).

Blog Hop.  Make sure to visit all the blogs in the hop for lots of inspiration from our Design Team members! 

Simple Scrapper (Jennifer Wilson)Lisa Corbin-Polak

Ronnie Crowley

Margrethe Aas Johnsen

Amy Kingsford

Samantha Landay

Pam Lozano

Aimee Maddern

Jean Manis

Van Nguyen  <<< THIS IS ME!!!

Melissa Priest

Mandy Ross

Celeste Smith

Sara Strickland  

Giveaway!  Would you like a chance to win a free membership to the Simple Scrapper?! Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter a giveaway for a one month trial membership at Simple Scrapper. There are three ways to enter and three winners will be selected. To be eligible, you must enter by 11:59pm CDT on Wednesday, May 8.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As always, thanks for stopping by!!

NOTE:  The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping. Each month members receive a new collection of sketch templates and Story Starters, story-focused prompts for pages and projects. Want to work with our collections for FREE? Simple Scrapper is having a call for new team members.

Blue Star Families and Disney Host Books on Bases Event in Hawaii

This past Sunday, I was beyond honored and excited to volunteer at a Books on Bases event hosted by Blue Star Families and Disney.  The Books on Bases Event was created by Blue Star Families to impact military children in a positive way through the power of reading.  And since April was the Month of the Military Child, the timing could not have been more perfect.

Volunteers were on deck from both Blue Star Families and Disney.

The event kicked off with a special reading by Deputy Joint Base Commander Colonel Dann S. Carlson and Disney Aulani Director of Public Affairs, Todd Apo of Billy Twitters and the Blue Whale Problem.  The children were so engaged during story time!  It also highlights what amazing work Blue Star Families does to broker relationships between the military and private companies to help military children.

Each child then picked up a generous goodie bag filled with pencils, puzzles, and a DVD of Pixar's Meet the Robinsons. 

I saw my beautiful friend Michelle at the event with her kids!

The children walked past table after table overflowing with books, ranging from board books to chapter books.  Along with a copy of Billy Twitters and the Blue Whale Problem, each child got to select four brand new books to take home.  I was genuinely blown away about how generous the sponsors were with the gifts.

There were plenty of craft tables nearby for kids of all ages.  There was a bookmark making station...

 

A table to make your own crowns...

And of course, to go with your crown, a station to make your own paper swords...

Everyone was also super surprised and excited when some special guests showed up...

Micky and Minnie stayed for the entirety of the event so that everyone could get a picture with them.  How nice is that?!?  Here is a shot of a family posing with Micky and Minnie.

And a photo of the adult VIPs with Mickey and Minnie.

And gosh golly gee, I had to get a photo too!!!  I'm posing with Benjamin and Alyssa (a daughter's friend and amazing volunteer).

Alyssa also helped me with Benjamin during the event.  Here are the two of them getting a little snuggle in amidst all the chaos.  This young woman blew me away with how hard she worked supervising the crown craft table on her own.  Go Alyssa!!!

And finally, here I am with Meghan Scott, Program Manager for Blue Star Families and coordinator for the entire event.  She flew all the way in from Alaska to bring this event to Hawaii!!

Thank you Blue Star Families for coming all the way out to Hawaii to bring so much love to the military children stationed here!  I had a BLAST volunteering!

And if you aren't familiar with them, make sure to check out the Blue Star Families facebook page and "like" them.  They work directly with government, companies, and the military to help make military life for military families sustainable.  Seriously fantastic work on so many levels.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!

Project Life 2012 - Week 18

So I started Project Life after Thanksgiving 2011 and my track record has been a bit hit and miss.  Regardless, I still am committed to finishing 2012 and seeing 2013 through...eventually.  :)  So here is my Project Life 2012 Week 18 Layout using the new May Cards from Splendid Fiins. 

Sticking with these card kits really make it super easy for me to get everything done!

Supplies: Splendid Fiins (May Card Kit, 4x6 Horizontal Halvies, Script Day Stamps).


Here are the close ups.

As always, thanks for stopping by!!!  Aloha Friday!

Xyron - Something Old, Something New - DIY Lamp Shade Tutorial

I love the Xyron Something Old, Something New Challenge.  This time around, we were each assigned an old project from their project gallery as our inspiration to create a "new" project.  I chose this darling embellished lamp shade by fellow design team member Ann Corbiere-Scott.

I was inspired to make my own embellished lamp shade for my son's bedroom and this is what I came up with.  

I really wanted a lamp for my son's room but was reluctant to purchase one for $50 at the baby store.  We have had this lamp lying around the house for years with no real home; it's just tucked between the TV and piano in the living room.  I figured it was the perfect lamp to "steal" and use for my project.  

In addition to Ann's beautiful flower lamp, I was also inspired by this patterned paper from the Pebbles Let Freedom Ring Collection.  

I'm a sucker for banners and the colors matched my son's nursery perfectly.  Making the lamp was SUPER EASY using my Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker and Xyron 2.5" Create-a-Sticker.  

DIY Lamp Shade Tutorial

1.  Tools.  You will need the following tools: (a) Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker, (b) Xyron 2.5" Create-a-Sticker, (c) Fiskars 1.75" Circle Punch, (d) Martha Stewart Scoring Board, (e) We R Memory Keepers Paper Piercer.

2.  Other Supples.  In addition to the tools mentioned above, here are the supplies I used: (i) Pebbles Let Freedom Ring Star Patterned Paper - 1 sheet, (ii) American Crafts 8.5" x 11" Red, Blue and Light Blue Cardstock - 2 sheets each color, (iii) Twinery Red and White Bakers Twine, (iv) undecorated lampshade in a neutral color, (v) color coordinating brads and stickers.

3.  Punch Circles.  Punch out circles from the American Crafts cardstock and a few from the Pebbles patterned paper using the Fiskars circle punch.  Note: the exact number of circles you need will depend on the diameter of your lamp shade.  I punched out circles from about 1.5 sheets of paper and about 6 circles from the patterned paper.

4.  Score the Circles.  Score each circle in half using your scoring board.  This will make assembling the pennants much easier.

5.  Add Adhesive to the Circles.  Run the circles through the Xyron 2.5" Create-a-Sticker to add edge to edge adhesive on the back.

6.  Bend the Circles.  Before removing the circles from the backing sheet, bend them slightly along the score line.  Note: you can actually bend them slightly after removing them from the backing sheet as well.  

 

7.  Assemble the Pennants.  To make your banner, take a scored circle and place it adhesive side up.  Then lay the twine along the scored line.

Take your finger and fold the circle down in half to make a half circle pennant.  Remember to rub the pennant a bit to make sure that the adhesive sticks.  

 Continue until you have filled your twine length with the half circle pennants.

Note:  I used four different lengths of twine for my project about 45" in length each.  

8.  Add Adhesive to the Banner.  To easily add the banner to the lamp shade, run the entire banner through the Xyron 1.5" Create-a-Sticker.

9.  Adhere Banner to Lamp Shade and Embellish.  Finally, simply adhere the banners to the lamp shade and embellish.  Note: for some extra stability, I placed color coordinating brads at the "peaks" of each pennant grouping.  If you choose to do this, keep in mind to place the tails of the brads behind the pennant so that it doesn't cast a shadow when your lamp is lit.  I also added some dimensional stickers from the Pebbles Let Freedom Ring Collection on some of the pennants.

Make sure you visit the Xyron Blog all week for lots of "Something Old, Something New" inspiration from our entire Design Team.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!!

Sweet Stamp Shop - April Release

I'm so beyond excited to be guest designing for the Sweet Stamp Shop again this month.  It blows my mind how Nicole Rixon (the owner and designer) is able to release such fun and creative sets each and every month.  Plus, whenever I use them, they somehow make me feel like a stamping rock star (when in all actuality, I can't even tell my acrylic from my photo polymer).  Okay...that's not true but I just wanted to geek it out there for a second.  :)

I got to play with the awesome Cityscape set.  This set is so versatile.  You can use it for moving announcements, graduation cards, new years cards, city layouts...the list goes on and on.  I especially love it because the combination of outline and solid image stamps lend themselves perfectly for some fun single layer cards. 

1.  We've Moved Card.  For moving announcements, you usually have to make A LOT so my answer is usually simple stamping using multiple ink colors.  And did you notice how awesome that font in the "spreading the news" sentiment is?!?!?  LOVE!!!

Supplies:  Stamps (Sweet Stamp Shop - Cityscape); Cardstock (Neena Paper); Ink (Jenni Bowlin, Impress).

2.  A Day in the City Card.  Here is another fun and simple card.  I love the idea of two step stamping (i.e. you stamp a solid image and then the outline).  So I made my own sold image "stamps" using the building outline stamps using some craft foam and Xyron repositional and permanent adhesive.  Easy peasy.  And then I paired the building image with some hand drawn cars a la Ed Emberly.  Anyone remember those?!?!?

Supplies: Stamps (Sweet Stamp Shop - Cityscape); Cardstock (Neena Paper); Ink (Versafine, Impress, Copic, American Crafts); Adhesives (Xyron 5" Creative Station - Permanent and Repositional Adhesive); Craft Foam.

And I seriously love how cute those cards look with the building stamps. 

 

Make sure you check out the Sweet Stamp Shop blog and facebook page all week for some awesome new guest creations!!!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Project Life - Week 6

I love putting together my Project Life layouts whenever I can get around to them.  It is an opportunity to sort through my photos and play with the awesome monthly card kits by Splendid Fiins.  With Week 6, I stuck with Splendid Fiins' February Card Kit and the Project Life Template Design A.

The photos and stories relate to this Aloha Friday post.  And here are some close ups of the layout.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!

I {heart} Amy Tangerine!

On the eve of my last day as an attorney and just a week before our big cross country move in 2011, I emailed Amy Tan (of Amy Tangerine).  I was directionless, scared, and yearning for advice and guidance.  I wrote: 

"I'm one of your amazingly loyal fans and here I am asking for any bit of advice or encouragement you might have.  I'm a big firm lawyer but today is actually my very last day of work.  My husband is in the Navy and is getting relocated to the east coast.  After our daughter was born (2.5 months premature) and while I was on maternity leave, I found a lot of peace in scrapbooking.  It has quickly become as passion and I have the hope to be able to turn that into some sort of career/business.  The entrepreneurial spirit is certainly ingrained in my family and I've known the value of hard work from day one.  I think I have to tools (or the ability to find the tools) to succeed.  I just don't have ANY idea on where to start.  Do you have any tidbits of advice?"

And can you believe it, but she actually responded.  She guided me to The Purpose of Your Life which helped in her career transition, she encouraged me to start a blog and to continuously create , and she advised me to become a part an active voice in the scrapbooking community.

While that advice in and of itself was hugely welcome, I was most touched by the fact that she took the time to respond to my plea for mentoring, advice and support.  I have hung on tightly to her words and with the continued mentoring by other awesome women in the industry, I now have the confidence to continue crafting.

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure and honor of finally meeting Amy Tan in real life!!!  She was teaching a class at the Mapunapuna Ben Franklin.  I was so giddy and I thought I was going to hyperventilate.  I get so star struck.  But Amy was the epitome of calm and kindness and I had the most amazing time.

Here is Amy talking to everyone at the beginning of the class.  She is so tiny even with the baby bump!

A packed class with super excited crafters!

This is the mini album that we are going to make using some new products from Amy's Yes, Please Collection by American Crafts! 

Here are some photos of my work space.  I obviously had my Xyron Mega Runner on hand to adhere everything together.  :)

And here are some of those posed shots.  Okay...me and AMY!!!!!!  SHUT UP!!!  I think I'm still hyperventilating.  :)

I also got to finally meet Joscelyne Cutchen (Owner of Bossy Joscie Crafty Flair, 2012 Paper Crafts Gallery Idol Winner, fellow Navy wife and all around super awesome crafter).

And here I am with Nicole and Jessica, my crafting friends/ milspouses/ preschool mommys.  I love these ladies so much and am SO GLAD that Jessica organized everything so that we could attend the class!!!! 

If you want to see more pictures of the class, check out this blog post by Joscie.  She took some fantastic photos.

As always, mahalo for stopping by!!!