adventure album

I found this great kid-friendly project in the most recent Family Fun Magazine. This would be great for any summertime family adventures you're planning or have already taken. Or it would also be an awesome album to add to your collection even if you don't have kids (like me)!

Map-Envelope Book
(Family Fun, August 2010)

Materials:
Envelope template (download it here)
1 large map (or several small ones)
glue stick or tape runner
small hole punch (1/8 or 3/16)
brads

1. Use the template to cut envelopes from the map. (The book in the photo above is made from three envelopes.) To assemble the envelope, fold in flaps A and B so that they overlap in the center. Adhere them together, then fold over flap C and adhere that down.

2. To assemble the book, stack your envelopes and punch two holes through the sealed ends, 2.5 inches apart and 1/2 inch from the edge. Use the brads to hold the envelopes together. Secure each envelope by folding over its open end, punching a hole through it, and closing it with another brad.

Obviously you can customize the configuration of the book - the binding, how the envelopes close, etc. - however you like. Tuck memorabilia into the envelopes, and you can decorate and add photos and journaling over the maps as well. So cute!


Have fun doing projects with your kids this summer! :)

we need a little Christmas

It hasn't snowed a single flurry but Santa, dear, we're in a hurry...

Do you know that song? It's from Mame, which is one of the very few musicals I have never seen any incarnation of and don't know a thing about. But that song has been stuck in my head off and on for weeks now! :)

I made two more cards using my Gina K. Designs purchases this afternoon, after sleeping until 10:30 and then lazing around in my nightie until 2pm! :)

This time I focused on the beautiful tree stamp and I used a color combination of red, ivory, and brown.

This card was inspired by my recent StampTV youtube marathon, this video in particular. The technique is nothing new, but it's not something I usually think to do. You can see the dimension a little bit better in this photo:

I used the ivory cardstock, which I'm thinking is probably the layering weight but is good and heavy and works great for a card base. It has the ideal smoothness-to-"tooth" ratio that I like for stamping. The color is a really nice ivory too. And the red is a nice heavy weight with a subtle stripe texture. Two thumbs up for both! I added a little bit of Frosted Lace Stickles over the trees and under the snow. The button in the bottom corner is a cork button from Pink Paislee's 365 Degrees collection. I had a hard time getting it to stick over the twine - thank goodness cork is flexible!

I think I was channeling Gina K.'s minimalism when I made this card... and also trying to make the very best use of a small inventory of cardstocks. The ivory background is embossed with Cuttlebug's swiss dot folder. I couldn't figure out where to put a sentiment, so I did something I never do - I put a sentiment on the inside! :)

Tomorrow's Friday and I have to work (boo) but then DH and I are going to see HANSON in concert! Yup, Hanson's still around, and they're even more awesome than ever! If you haven't heard it yet, you should really check out their newest album. You can start with this video. (I love the little kids! And doesn't Zac look like he's channeling Zac Efron trying out for Grease?)

Have a good weekend!

Thinking Inking youtube playlist

I just compiled a youtube playlist of Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking Class for 2 Peas in a Bucket, since I've found it's really hard to find on 2 Peas's website AND on their youtube channel.

it makes me want to wag my tail

MAIL! :)

Yesterday was a good day - well, in the mail arena at least. I ordered my first stamp set from Gina K. Designs. I recently discovered her store and her StampTV site - probably through a youtube video or something. Her style is clean and graphic like mine, but her cards are all kind of the same... the best word I can think of is uninspired... They're lovely and well made but all just layered solid-colored cardstock and stamps. I like more patterned paper and embellishments and stuff. But her videos are great - There's just something about her over-the-top bubbly charm that I'm loving! So I followed their July release and fell in love with the Christmas in July stamp set.

It's called Blessed is the Season... I'm not at all religious, so I don't usually go for stamp sets with scripture and sentiments that mention God. But, on the one hand, if I'm trying to promote my etsy store better, there's a huge market for religious cards. On the other hand, the less shrewd hand, I love this stamp set! The images are lovely and simple and I adore the mix of fonts.

Now, I don't really do enough stamping to be able to give a fair review of how these stamps compare to others. I've only used a couple so far. I had a little trouble with the block of text inking up properly, but when I switched to a different ink pad it worked just fine.

I also bought a holiday themed cardstock assortment to try out Gina K.'s Pure Luxury cardstock.

Here's my biggest complaint with it: The description is "Contains 5 sheets of 5 Pure Luxury card stock colors in assorted weights and textures." OK. Isn't the idea of a cardstock assortment to get you to buy more in the future? What if I love what I get? I won't know what to reorder if they don't tell me what I'm using! And how do I know which of these cardstocks are appropriate for various projects? Pure Luxury has a base weight and a layering weight and they're not necessarily interchangeable. So far I've only used the white, which I'm pretty sure is the base weight. I really do like the weight of it, but it's so smooth that it's almost glossy, which I don't love. It seems to stamp nicely, but I had some trouble getting my favorite Colorbox chalk ink to dry, which led to smudging and having to re-stamp over and over. (Now I understand why Gina K. uses dye ink in her videos!) I'll let you know how the other cardstocks work out, and if I figure out which one's which!

In the meantime, here are my first two projects with Gina K. Designs products. I used emboss resist on both, with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China. (If you're not familiar with this technique, you must check out Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking class for 2 Peas!)

This is my favorite stamp in the set - which is a little weird considering I don't usually go for the religious sentiments. For some reason I just love the concept of a "conspiracy of love"... I don't know if it's from somewhere in particular but I love it. Rather than using one focal image, I wanted to make a super simple card with the sentiment as the focus. (The navy cardstock is from Paper Source; I used Gina K. Designs and Bazzill white cardstock.)

On this card I did emboss resist on the dove after stamping the text block stamp in gray. This was where I had trouble with the text stamp, but I think it was really the gray ink. This is more in keeping with Gina K.'s style of cardmaking. It makes me wish I had more Nestabilities so that I could create thinner borders, but I kept the 1/4" border fairly consistent so I don't hate it. But I'd rather have a 1/8" border! The white background is embossed with the paisley Impressabilities.

More to come soon from this stamp set! I'll let you know how I like it as I continue to use it!

Thanks for stopping by!

top {five} reasons I'm excited for CHA

... not that I'm going or anything :(
Someday...

But anyway, everybody's doing previews and I'm having so much fun (although my checkbook is wincing already)! Here are my top 5 (so far) new releases that I just can't wait for...

No. 5

 

Sew Easy by We R Memory Keepers (this better be as awesome and convenient as it looks!)

No. 4

Dear Lizzy Christmas by American Crafts (I want the stamp set nowwww!)

No. 3

Modern Homemaker by October Afternoon (and, I guarantee it, whatever their other releases are that they haven't previewed - oh yeah, they'll make the list!)

No. 2

 

Elementary by Studio Calico

No. 1

 Mitten Weather by Cosmo Cricket (scroll down for L-O-V-E!)

AND... I'm not sure it's technically a CHA release, but have you see OA's new Seaside collection?!

I pre-ordered the entire thing and I'm just dying for it to be released and delivered to my door! I especially love the stamps... I've never used such realistic stamp images before but it will be SO perfect for Copic coloring! :)

a night at the movies

Well, we're back from Maine, jettisoned forcefully and somewhat brutally back into the relative frantic-ness of summertime life.

As wonderful as our vacation was, I was itching to play with the new craft materials waiting on my table at home. It's actually quite nice not having the money to do "exciting" things on vacation... It's one of those simple, lovely pleasures to be able to just do what you normally do day to day (except go to work, of course - but that's the best part!) but in a different, beautiful setting. So all week I was keeping up with all my normal blogs in my beloved Google Reader, glancing occasionally over the top of my computer at the sparkling cove.

One of the items in my Reader feed was a post by the lovely and inspiring Lisa Spangler. She did a wonderful tutorial for the Hero Arts blog on how to do Japanese bookbinding on a mini-book for keeping cookie fortunes. (You can see the original post here.) She did a fantastic video, which I watched, starred to maybe do something with later, and then kind of forgot about.

On Friday, we went to the movies in Brunswick to see Inception. It was AMAZING and you MUST see it NOW, if you haven't already. But afterwards I thought of Lisa's book, and how fantastic it would be to save movie ticket stubs. After DH and I got the office cleaned up this afternoon (it had been the house's dumping-ground for a few days before vacation), I dumped out my new SC kit and, in the same frantic manner that my mind has been going in since we got back last night, standing at my paper cutter, I whipped up a quick cover for my movie ticket book. Then I popped the tv on, punched some holes, and did the play-pause dance with Lisa's video while I sewed the biding.

My pages are more utilitarian and much less adorable than Lisa's (mostly because of her use of fabulously fun washi tape), but I really wanted to put the first page together so I just used what I could find.

I used this stamp set from We R Memory Keeper's Old Glory collection (I love these little $1 stamps and more and more manufacturers are making them these days!) to do the rating stars. You can see on the photo above that they came out a little wonky when I tried to stamp the 5th star; I didn't leave myself quite enough room and so I had to stamp the stars on a little bit of an angle. It kind of bugs me, but it's ok. And I colored in the stars with a coordinating dark blue Mr. Sketch smelly marker (hee hee!)... Doesn't matter that it's not an acid-free marker because neither is the ticket stub and this book isn't likely to gain family-heirloom status.

You've gotta make this project - It's SO fun! And to help you out, I've got the video for you right here! :)



Thanks to Lisa for the great inspiration, and thanks to you for stopping by!

{Christmas in July} on etsy!

Today marks the start of etsy's 3rd annual Christmas in July SALE! My shop, Little Olive Designs, will be participating through the end of the month. EVERYTHING is marked down AT LEAST 15%! I have a ton of great stocking stuffers including adorable embellished hair elastics - if you're someone like me who likes to buy great gifts when you see them and squirrel them away for birthdays or Christmas! :)

Please check out my items at http://www.etsy.com/shop/littleolivedesigns. You can see a sample of my offerings in the right-hand margin ----->

Thanks!

more {Maine} days 2-3-4

I tried posting this earlier in the afternoon... tried using Picasa for the first time thinking it'd be a quicker way to post a bunch of photos to Blogger. But I couldn't really figure it out. So now it's almost 9pm. We just finished dinner (hotdogs, sauerkraut, baked beans, corn) and I'm sitting with my legs dangling over the side of the front porch of our cottage. It's wicked quiet out here.

We haven't been up to too much the last couple days, but I've got some snapshots to share nonetheless.

baloney lunch on the wharf

hazy lunchtime view of the cove

late night (that's anytime after 8pm here!) ice cream cone at the Island Candy Co.

the Little Dog Cafe on Maine Street in Brunswick

They have the best mochas ever there; sadly, it was too hot today so I got an iced tea lemonade.

Isn't their logo cute? I got a t-shirt from them years ago that I just wore into the ground. Waiting for them to start carrying long sleeves again - We might have to make a trip up in the winter! :)

Pretty much the best, and definitely the biggest fish sandwiches ever at Holbrook's in Cundy's Harbor.

The view from Cundy's Harbor.

YUM!

Probably wondering why I'm taking a picture of him eating.

Not afraid to get my hands dirty... ;)

Hope you're having fun too, whatever you're up to this week!

{Maine} day 1

So here we sit on Orr's Island, just south of Brunswick, Maine. Thanks to hubby's uncle Brad for installing the wireless internet... the signal doesn't reach into the house, but it's better than nothing! We really can't afford to do much of anything exciting while we're on vacation... It's just nice to not have to work, to be able to sleep in, and to enjoy these glorious surroundings, even if I am still on my computer just like I am all the time at home! :)

I'm currently sitting in my sweatshirt, sipping a very welcome cup of tea. After getting up very late and getting an even later start, we drove all around Brunswick today, checking things out and getting some errands (grocery shopping, etc.) done. And let me tell you, even though it's generally cooler overall here than it is on Cape Cod, we were glad for the air conditioned car today. But by the time we got back "home" around 4pm the fog was rolling in, and fast! We're no more than a couple hundred yards from Lowell's Cove, but you can't even see the water from where I'm sitting anymore! Breezy, damp, and chilly!

So let me start my story with last night...

We got a much later start than we had hoped, hitting the highway no earlier than 5:30. This is my 5th summer coming up here with my hubby, and I don't think there's been one trip where we haven't gotten lost or took an unexpected detour. So last night, we'd made it through Boston and were driving along on I-95. DH said he was starting to get uncomfortable driving along... maybe he thought he'd gone too far or something, who knows! So he took a random exit. We ended up driving through Wenham, Hamilton, and Ipswich, before realizing we had to get back on I-95. (On a side note, I could easily see myself moving to Hamilton, MA!) On our way back to I-95, we were stopped at a light and I noticed an old-style diner on the left. I joked that we should stop, and before the light turned green we decided we would. (...which is weird because we never randomly stop at places like that.) It's called the Agawam Diner and it was so much fun - and the food was perfect diner fare too. I got chicken pie with mashed potatoes, and the whole thing was absolutely covered in chicken gravy! :)

Here's Tyler, my hubby, contemplating his meatballs

And of course pie! Yummy strawberry rhubarb!

It turns out the original Agawam Diner dining car was moved in the late 1940s to Cook's Corner in Brunswick, which is just up the road a ways from where we are now! Unfortunately, the family that bought and moved that dining car didn't do very well, and it didn't stay for more than a few years. But we thought it was SO cool that we happened to stumble upon this diner. :)

Today while we were driving around Brunswick, we came across a bunch of sheep, which I wanted to visit. DH didn't want to pull over, but around the corner there was a driveway with a small parking lot so we pulled in to check it out. It's partially a privately-owned farm, but part of the land is part of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, and there are a few trails that run through it. We walked one of them, but it's not terribly well maintained, so when it got a little swampy we decided to turn around. But it was a really neat discovery - They have a farmer's market there on Saturdays and we're hoping to check it out on our way home.

Time to go get supper started. Thanks for stopping by!

what a whirlwind!

Holy cat! I have been super busy lately! Worked 37 hours the last two weeks... which may not sound like much but is way more than I'm used to! Plus, in the heat... Ugh. I really feel like I haven't had the time to thoroughly check my computer (email, facebook, Reader, Twitter) in days; I feel like I haven't seen my cats in weeks; I feel like I haven't cleaned an inch of my house in months! And now we're leaving for a week in Maine! ...and leaving the kitties behind which I'm feeling really bad about :( 

As if all that wasn't bad enough... my Studio Calico kit was waiting for me when I came home on Friday. I got the chance to open it and look through it quickly, but then DH and I went over to my parents' house to clean out all the stuff I still had in my old bedroom. We were there for a few hours, and when we got home we stayed up until almost midnight pricing things for our table at my friend Sarah's yard sale. So that was where we were all day yesterday (Saturday), and the we had to rush over to my sister-in-law's birthday party, and we stayed way too late there too! We were up early again this morning, and spent a couple hours at the yard sale. (We made $2, which I spent on a bagel and cream cheese.) Then the dump, lunch, and now I'm home, where I really really need to be packing and finishing laundry. And we're hoping to leave by 4pm. Yikes!

So no playing with the new SC kit for me for the next week... Sad :( I thought about trying to lug my crafting things to Maine, but I've never been to a crop or anything and I really wouldn't know what to bring and would inevitably leave too many requisite items at home. So I'm going a whole week without crafting... OK OK, I've only really been this heavily into crafting for 6 months or so, but still... :)

Enjoy your week!