Tea Technique

So, I was completely inspired by the tea bag in this month's "Can't Buy Me Love" kit. When I was little, my Mom and I used to make treasure maps (fun crafty idea for little kids). We'd draw all these pictures and paths. We wanted to make them look old, so we would get wet tea bags and rub them all over the paper to give it that aged, lost treasure map look. When I saw the tea bag in this month's kit, I immediately thought of using it to distress and age some of the kit elements.

I wet the tea bag and put it in a mug with the white shipping tag and one of the tiny doilies. I crumpled the doily and tag up and rubbed the tea bag all over them. Then, let them sit in the mug for several hours. When I thought they had achieved the right level of aging, I (carefully) took them out of the mug and laid them on a paper towel to dry completely. Once they were dry, I had some nice, aged elements for my layout.

This layout is all about the journaling. I layered a bunch of stickers and embellies over the envelope included in the kit. I journaled on some regular paper and then made a little enclosure for the journaling out of some of the Jenni Bowlin paper. Then I tied some embroidery floss around the journaling to seal it up.

Valentine's Decor

Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?

I always dream of doing something pretty, and fluffy, and pink & red, and glittery... but I have yet to do it! I do think I'm going to Valentine's my house up this week as a fun lead-up to Sunday!

Here is a little something I made with the "Can't Buy Me Love" kit to hang up for V-Day, but I'm not sure if I'm loving it or not. Even so, it was really fun to experiment and create it, and I'm all about that when it comes to scrappin'!
Here are a few other things that I love:

(Tutorial here on the UCreate blog.)

I will so be making this for my house. And it will stay up year round. Because we love each other year round. :)

(Tutorial here.)

This is made from coffee filters. How much do I love this? A whole stinkin' lot.

And this is really simple, but oh so easy... you could even use your kit to make it!

Link me up to your favorite thing that you've seen for Valentine's decor!

Dear Lizzy CHA pre-sale

We LOVED this collection!! We LOVE Elizabeth! If you were at our Wishful Thinking event in the Spring, then you had the wonderful experience to learn from this amazing girl! She has so much talent and is such a sweetheart! We enjoyed seeing her at CHA and are very excited to bring you this amazing offer! We have her collection for pre-sale. Shipping in March and the kit is $40.00! Just click on the link in the Paypal store to the right! The best thing about this pre-sale is you have a chance to win an autographed copy of her book, 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges!! We are also going to throw in an official Dear Lizzy bag from CHA! All you have to do is pre-order the kit and your name will go in a drawing. We will draw the winner right before they ship out. This means it will come in the mail with your kit!! I hope you win!

One of our FAVES from CHAW 2010!

We were blown away by Margie's new line The Girls' Paperie. I loved both collections so much, I decided to order the whole line and offer it to you! We ordered both entire collections.
The Paper Girl line is $70.00 Here are the pictures from both collections.

On Holiday $40.00 - both collections are in the paypal store to the right. click on the sample to purchase!! Enjoy!

Chore Chart

I have had issues with the kids remembering to do their chores, so I thought I would use Virginia's idea and alter a Dollar Store silver tray to make a chore chart. It will be hung up in the kitchen, so the colors in the "Can't Buy Me Love" kit were perfect because my walls are maroon. My idea was to have an actual chart and to check things off each day, but as I thought about it, I realized I would be kidding myself if I thought I would actually do it every day! So it morphed into a reminder chart! The kids always have to pick up their rooms, so I wrote that out, then added "plus one more". For this they will have to pick one of the papers marked Kitchen, Bathroom, Room and Laundry. On the back of each of those, I have written specific jobs for each room or chore that need to be done.
I liked how it turned out, so even if it isn't used much, it will look nice in the kitchen! :)

Inspired by fashion

You know, we're all inspired by different things. I see some random things in a store and immediately take out my phone and snap a picture. I see things online and bookmark like crazy. I find something through a blog and it's immediately added to my Google reader. I collect more ideas than I can actually do anything with!!!

So lately, I've been inspired by several different sites - the first I owe to Lucy, who loves this store and I'm sure couldn't believe that I've never been inside. Still haven't, but I've been spending lots of time on their website - ANTHROPOLOGIE!!! I really love this and would like to find a way to do that type of cluster on a page, or a canvas!! I would love one of their necklaces, too - but I'm thinking I'll stick with trying to make one, instead of buying one! I love all the muted colors that are all over their site!

And I'm definitely a Vera Bradley girl - I love the patterns and colors and softness of her bags. I wish I could have every single pattern and style bag, along with the luggage and stationary! I just love it. This time of year, the previews start for the new spring collection. I've already picked out the pattern I want next - Sittin' in a Tree - it's just springy, in soft colors I'm really drawn to.

And we can't forget Pottery Barn - I know Pottery Barn isn't really fashion in the clothing department, but it's fashion for your home, right? Their new spring collection all seems to be the same thing I've been drawn to everywhere else - light, muted colors - everything's a little worn. I love that.

So, what new colors for spring are you drawn to? What fashion mags are you peeking through to get some inspiration?

More "Can't Buy Me Love"

So I got a little crazy with this layout. Tried a few new things - not sure that I like them all but hey - you gotta try, right?

This picture was from our last trip to Disney - taken on the SEC Championship day (Roll Tide) and it's the only picture of the two of us together (without Cole) from our trip. We rarely get pictures together since one of us is always the one taking the picture.



Some hidden journaling talks about how we should always remember to tell each other we love each other, put our family first - little reminders of the important stuff! I loved that craft alphabet and wanted to highlight the J and L (our initials) so I backed those letters with red paper. Like Virginia - I love that these alphas come with little extra hearts and stars!!




I tired to make an interesting flower, it didn't do what I wanted, but it's okay in the end! I love sheet music, but I usually am a bit too scared to cut it up and actually do anything with it. Maybe I need a little more so I won't be so scared to USE IT!!

Lisa