Freezer Paper Stenciling

This is an easy project with wonderful results. You need the following:

- freezer paper (found at most grocery stores)

- fabric paint

- a craft knife

- a sponge brush

Here's how I did it:

1. Draw your stencil on some freezer paper (I got some ideas from a children's book or you can get stencils from Google Images) and cut out the image with a craft knife leaving at least an inch or two of paper outside of image.

2. Iron a piece of freezer paper (as big as your stencil) to INSIDE of garment (shiny side facing fabric). Then, iron your image to outside (again, shiny side facing fabric). This causes the freezer paper to stick together and avoid moving while painting.

3. Using a sponge brush, brush on fabric paint evenly (I've seen cool examples where the image was layered and different colors used).

4. Let dry at least 6 hours and then slowly peel off freezer paper.

5. Do not wash for 72 hours.

Online Scrap Classes

I just discovered Big Picture online classes. Nic Howard is offering one starting Thursday and I really like her. They also offer workshops and self-paced projects. I'd love to give Nic's class a go, but I'm already doing Tam's free online Art, Heart & Healing class and I want to do Ali Edwards December pre-made book idea as well. So much to do and we're already embarking on a very busy season. How much can I fit in?

Stamping

I don't do a lot of stamping. I have a lot of stamps. I think I just often forget to use them or they seem like work or something. But I was visiting my friend Kristen Dunker's blog Cottage Stamping where she posts beautiful examples of her work, like the card to the left. I just love those paisley stamps. Now, I'm thinking I need to get some more stamps and work on incorporating more stamped images into my scrapbooking. The online catalogue she has posted on the blog has many wonderful stamps that I would love to utilize. If I spent some money on some fine stamps would that motivate me to use them?

Handprints

I LOVE this idea I saw on Becky Higgins' blog about turning your child's handprint into a cool work of art. Using a small canvas and acrylic paint, she records her children's prints yearly (see pic). I like the colorfulness of this idea. I don't think I'd do it yearly because I don't know where I'd put them all, but I'd like to try it at least once.

Baby Hair

Ever since my baby girl has had enough wisps of hair in which to put some head ornamentation, I've loved hair flowers. I like to buy adult hair accessories and make them work for mygirl. I love these fabric flowers from Whippy Cake that I saw on Becky Higgins' blog.

The following pictures depict my Chrislyn wearing adult-sized hair accessories. It's surprising to me how many adult hair things fit little ones.

Many headbands for adults fit little heads.

The crocheted flowers on the left were made by my mom. These seem very trendy right now. The black net-like headband is adult.

There's lots of flower options. I like more real looking flowers like the one near left that I cut off of an adult headband. The feather clip far left I got off ebay. As my little one is a toddler, it takes up a large portion of her head, but is so cute.

These barrettes are adult-size. I may have found them in a junior section.

The headband and the jeweled bobby to the left are Goody products purchased in the adult section.

Holiday Tees

I love these holiday tees I found at Target. I don't usually shop in the Miss section, but I wasn't paying attention and I grabbed a couple. They are so cute and, at $8 well worth a little wearable holiday cheer.

Two More Place Mat Pillows!

These pillows were made using place mats from Target. They have stitching on them and are the nicest, most pillow-friendly place mats I've seen. I really like them. They are for my "new" bedroom, which we're in the process of painting.

See below for a mini-tutorial on making place mat pillows.

New Stuff

I love the look of Basic Grey's Curio Collection. Tammy Tutterow did some amazing stuff with this collection on her blog. Love it. Love it. Love it.

I'm really liking Karen Foster Designs' 3D Peek-A-Box. I would love to get this and design it for Christmas. This would be such a fun project and I know the kids would love the anticipation of peeking into a box a day.

Now, the December issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. had "A Month of Memories" article by Ali Edwards about creating a December album. I am loving this idea and I think I'm going to get on that bandwagon this year. She gives ideas for creating a holiday-themed album. She encourages one to create the album ahead of time and then when December rolls around, you just need to pop in the pictures and the stories. I would definitely need to do it ahead of time in order to get it done because the holidays are so busy and just rush right by. Anyone else interested in this idea?

Stuck...Or Not?

I feel a bit stuck, scrapbooking-wise. I do challenges weekly with a friend and I'm always designing and executing new pages, but I feel like I've been doing the same style for so long and that it's boring. I don't know how to break out of doing the same old thing. And I'm not sure how much of it is a rut and how much is just how I THINK--my style. I'm a linear thinker, which is obvious in my scrapbooking--it's almost all linear. I like things lined up, straight, orderly. Do I need to change if I'm almost always doing the same thing? And HOW does one DO that? I LIKE other styles when I see them. I WISH I could design like that, but even when I try, it's like my brain doesn't DO that and in order to accomplish something different I need to almost exclusively scraplift. Should I just take my linear style and run with it--do all my linear layouts that come easily to me or try to challenge myself to do something completely different even though it's hard and takes SO much longer?

Cool Stuff For Kids

I've seen a lot of cool kids' gift ideas lately.Many you could find on Amazon. I love the little animal backpacks. The Wooden Memory Game looks nice and would definitely last longer than playing cards ad the Unforgettable Memory Game is cool too. I'm really into Plan Toys wooden games like theBalancing Cactus (below, left). Plan Toys' Modern Doll Family (below, right) would be a sweet Barbie alternative(and, of course, there are loads of accessories that can go with them).

I like the Animals in the Alphabet Puzzle for it's beautiful watercolor-like pictures. The Alphabeasties flashcards and book (right) are great, especially if you are a parent who is into type (like my husband, the graphic designer). [FYI: The Land of Nod is currently offering free shipping on many of their children's toys.]

The Land of Nod has great kids' room rugs like the Color Wheel Rug (left) and the Round & Round Rug, which I think is the coolest rug I've ever seen.

For this Christmas, I'd really like my three-year-old son to have a play mat for his cars. I like this one on Amazon because it folds into a carrier tote. We'd like to start taking our kids camping this coming year so I'd also like them to have sleeping bags. The Eureka Grasshopper bags got lots of top notch ratings and they look great. I'd also like my son to have some Charlie & Lola DVDs lik

e the complete season three and a Word Girl DVD (because I think it's funny). I think he would also like Wood Stacking Robots (right), a Melissa and Doug Sorting Clock, and a whole slew of books like Actual Size by Steve Jenkins, Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker, Good Thing You're Not an Octopus by Julie Markes, Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis, and the Tickle Monster Laughter Kit by Josie Bissett. We'll see what he gets. The Grands usually pick a thing or two off his wishlist, so he's bound to get something pre-approved!

Got the CB2 catalogue today. It had some neat stuff. I really like the Urban Mandala bedding. I'm really glad not to live in or near a city any more, but it's still cool bedding. I also like the look of the knitted pouf. At $80 I think it's reasonably priced. The back cover featured "grip bookends." Now, these are just c clamps, but don't they look so neat as bookends? At 10.5" high, $25 is pretty much what they would run at Home Depot anyways.

Placemat Pillow

I saw on a couple of different blogs the idea for making pillows out of place mats. I was at Walmart the other day and I grabbed a couple and thought I'd give it a go.

You need a place mat that is made out of TWO pieces sewn together. I got one that's shaped like a leaf for $3.

I found polyester fill batting on sale at JoAnn Fabrics for $2.99 for a big bag. Then, all you need is a seam ripper and a needle and thread.

I found the little opening on the mat where it had been sewn together from the outside originally and I used that as a place to open with my seam ripper. This was useful because there were already areas of threaded reenforcement on either side so that it wouldn't open or rip further while I was filling it. I used a seam ripper to pull apart the stitches in the middle of this. It wasn't a very big opening because it was just the bottom side of one part of the leaf. It would have been handy to have it big enough to put my hand through, but for this shaped placemat, that wasn't possible.

Then, I began stuffing it with batting. Z enjoyed helping me with this and the batting was silky soft, so it was fun to manhandle. I had to use the handle of a wooden spoon to push the batting to the leaf tips.

Lastly, I just need to sew it up from the outside using a couple

of simple stitches. I did this as unobtrusively as possible. And viola! a leaf pillow! I'm going to try this with some standard-sized place mats as well, but it sure was easy. And inexpensive!

Birdcages!

Bird-themed products have been at the forefront of scrapbooking supplies and home decor for awhile now. And I still love them! Hambly Screen Prints has birdcage decals in a variety of colors (left). And Prima has lovely bright pastel birdcage products (below).

On Etsy I saw this birdcage Wall Art, which is so cool-looking (below, left)! And this one on the black wall (below, right).

And this pillow--ack! so awesome!

One can find all sorts of digital birdcage downloads on Etsy, like the one to the right. Or the one below, left. Or the one below, right, which looks even more versatile.

And Pottery Barn got on the bandwagon this holiday season with Victorian era-style Birdcages.

Christmas Everywhere...Already

Of course, Christmas merchandise is all over the stores already. The Land of Nod has this whimsical Twelve Days of Christmas Ornament Set. I really like the look of it. Crate and Barrel has some sophisticated decorations like this Snowflake Mobile (ah! so pretty!) and Jewel Ruby Pillow.

I just love these Twig Reindeer and their Stocking Holder counterparts at Pottery Barn. And the Lit Mercury Glass Globes are just perfect for the holidays or anytime you need a little shimmer!

And, of course, Garnet Hill, which has adorable Baa Humbug Flannel Bedding. It's not exactly my style, but it's sweet and whimsical and it's something that would be nice for the holidays. I still have the Garnet Hill star santa duvet that I bought when I was in college that we pull out and put on every year at the holidays. And these Standing Pillow Trees are just so cool! I love Christmas, of course, and I look forward to it all year. Although I'm not at the point where I shop for Christmas decor in October, I am thrilled with its palpable impendingness!