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We're not even a month into the 52 Lists project and I have not kept to my schedule once! Oops! :)

Week 3 started on Father's Day, so the theme was things I learned from my dad. This was WAY harder for me than it should have been. That's what I'm loving so much about this project... It really is making me think about my life in ways I don't usually do.

Here's my list.

The theme for Week 4 was my wishlist. This is literally never ending and could have turned into a really shallow exercise that only made me feel bad about my life, so I decided to narrow my focus a little bit and write my wishlist for July. Check it out.

Hope you're having a great week!

4th of July Treat Bag Tutorial

** Click here for my A Muse Studio Creative Consultants July Blog Hop post. **

** Click here for my Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop post. **

Happy Fourth of July!

I'm taking a quick break from the festivities (our awesome hometown parade this morning, family picnic this afternoon) to share a quick and fun project with you. I am in love with these goody bags made from envelopes - they're so versatile for any celebration!

I used the supplies I still had on my desk from making my A Muse Studio blog hop project, and made a cute little rosette to go on the front.

And, just in case you aren't familiar with the technique for turning an envelope into a goody bag (I mean, come on. It's brilliant!) ... here's a quick video tutorial for you. Enjoy!

July A Muse Studio Creative Consultant Blog Hop

** Looking for the Young Crafters Unite blog hop? Click here to see my post! **

Can you believe it's already July?! We have officially made it through half of 2011 - Wow! I hope you're having a great Independence Day Weekend. Thanks for joining us again this month for some amazing A Muse Studio inspiration!

You should have hopped over from Vanessa Buzard's blog. If not, please check out Samantha's blog to start at the beginning of the hop - You wouldn't want to miss out on any of the fun, would you? :)

Our theme this month is Red, White, and Blue. A fave color combination in this household year round! I'm especially drawn to less traditional takes on the combo - don't get me wrong, I love a good lipstick-white-cobalt, or cranberry-ivory-navy. But throw a little turquoise or coral into the mix? Yeah, that's the stuff!

So I decided to stray a little from my beaten path and whip up an invitation. I printed the party info on vellum (make sure to let it dry for a good long time so it won't smear!) and secured it with a cute grosgrain bow at the top.

I used masking and emboss resist on the cardstock under the vellum to create a subtle frame for the text.

I pulled out every color and pattern of red and blue A Muse cardstock and cut out a bunch of stars to layer. I don't have the A Muse Studio Star Trio dies (yet!) - so I hand cut all those stars! I think the end result was worth it. I also added some pearls and rhinestones that I colored with Copic markers.

Here's a little bit of a better view of the emboss resist frame. Cute, huh? :)

And now you're off to Lianne Vigil's blog! Have fun!

Supplies used in this card can be found at my A Muse Studio webstore.

Happy 4th! 

Young Crafters Unite! :)

Welcome Welcome Welcome to the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop! Isn't this exciting? :)

If you're here from Jess Larsen's blog, then you're in the right place! If you've come across my blog by another way, I highly suggest you head on over to the Young Crafters Unite homepage and start at the beginning. This hop is huge and it's jam-packed with amazing talent. Plus, every comment you leave on the participating blogs (through July 4th) will increase your chances to win prizes from Lawn Fawn, Simon Says Stamp, and Paper Smooches. Sweet!

What makes me a Young Crafter is pretty much the obvious: I'm young, and I'm a crafter. I'm also still (yes, still) relatively new to the world of contemporary paper crafting, and I like to think of myself as something of an apprentice (in that I'm learning from them, not that I aspire to take over for them!) to "the greats," which, in my opinion, includes amazing ladies like Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, Stephanie Howell, and Lisa Spangler (just to name a few!). 

For my hop project, I wanted to do something really exciting. (Well, ok, at least it's exciting to me. I hope you agree. lol.) The theme of the hop is My Favorite Things, and I have to admit I was a little bit stumped by this at first. My original plan was to wander around my craft space and choose, say, 10 of the items I'm loving the most lately, and then make a card with them. But I thought that might be too risky. So I decided to interpret the theme a little differently...

Let me be honest with you here for a moment. Lately, there have been a lot of things in my life that I'm not so thrilled about. But I'm working on it. I'm working on being happier, being more motivated, and enjoying my journey. And along with that theme, two of my favorite things right now are challenging myself and setting goals. So here are the challenges I set out to accomplish with this project:
     1. Document more of my everday life.
     2. Try out more scrapbooking.
     3. Use my Studio Calico kits.
     4. Allow a project to take more than one sitting. Don't feel the need to finish now, or rush through
         things.

So, without further ado (aka my propensity for blah blah blah), here's my project...

I'd seen a few of these accordion envelope mini-albums in various places online (most recently this beyond-amazing one that was featured on the October Afternoon blog), but I couldn't find a tutorial for them. So I decided to challenge myself to figure it out :)

Each "page" is an envelope where you can tuck photos, journaling, and memorabilia. The envelopes themselves are decorated, giving space to glue things in a more traditional scrapbook fashion.

I also made some little inserts to make more room for journaling, making lists, and gluing treasures.

Now, because I couldn't find a tutorial for this type of book, I decided to make one! Ok, two actually :) But since this has already been a very long post, and I'm sure you're anxious to get back a-hoppin', I'll let you know that the next stop on the hop is Brittney Baker's blog. I can't wait to see what she's created! And don't forget to comment along the way!

For those of you interested in how I made this mini-album, you can watch my videos below. Part 1 is about the inside, and Part 2 shows how I made the covers. Thanks for stopping by!