Friday Freebie - Free Scrapbook magazines & more

February 29th, 2008

Scrapbook & Cards Today MagazineTodays freebie is an awesome one from Scrapbook & Cards Today Magazine! You will definitely want to get this free quarterly magazine devoted to scrapbooking and card making. This is the nicest free magazine I’ve seen. Don’t be fooled by the fact that its free as the quality and content is the same as any print version. They do offer this magazine in print as well. You can get the current issue as well as download previous issues. You’ll also find downloads for all of these lovely goodies from this magazine too.

  • Cards that sparkle & shine
  • Home decor projects
  • Top 10 techniques
  • Sketches
  • Recipes & more

You really have to check this magazine out, it’s fabulous…lots of good stuff here.

Get the Friday Freebie

Martha goodness

February 28th, 2008

How about a little Martha goodness? I found these tutorials on MarthaStewart.com and thought they could be useful for some scrappy projects.

  • Custom coasters - Download this template and use for creating those fabulous flower embellishments for your scrapbook layouts and card projects. Or use to make a cute chipboard album.
  • Dot-painted china - Download this template and use as a really cool hand stitching pattern for a scrapbook layout or use a doodle template.
  • Paper-plate update - Check out this tutorial and create a lacey border for your plain circles to embellishment layouts and cards.
  • Wing it - Butterflies are always great for embellishing pages and cards. Get this pattern for cute butterflies.

Check back tomorrow I’ve got an awesome freebie for Friday. I’m so excited about it I almost posted it today. XOOXO ~ MamaSheg

Free Gymboree & Michael’s coupons

February 26th, 2008

I have a couple 20% off entire purchase coupons to Gymboree. Good for purchases made online or in store through March 9th. Leave me a comment or email me if you want one and I can email you the code to redeem online or I can mail one to you.

Get a 40% off coupon for Michael’s here, good for in store purchases before March 1st.

Happy Shopping!

Show & Tell - Blinging spring bloom card

February 25th, 2008

Saturday I took a class and made this fun spring bloom card. I love how it turned out and had a lot of fun blinging it out! It took a while to make but I think it was worth it. There are several layers. I used pens to color in the images and lots of stickers and glitter. Thanks for checking it out. XOOXO

Blinging Spring Bloom Card

Bling Card - left close-up Bling Card - right close-up Bling Card - layers

Wonderful children’s theatre - Tim Noah’s Thumbnail Theater

February 24th, 2008

I took Nika to her very first theater performance a few days ago. We went to the Tim Noah Thumbnail Theater located in Snohomish Washington. What a fabulous place this is for kids.

Cyndi Soup - Tim Noah Thumbnail TheaterLittle Nika was mesmerized by the performance. She bounced up and down on my lap as the performers sang and danced. The kids in the audience were invited to participate on stage as well as encouraged to sing along and dance. The puppets in the show were funny and the stories and songs were catchy and spirited. I love how interactive the performers were with the audience. It’s a very intimate theater experience. After the show the performers and puppets came out to the lobby to meet all the guests. This was a really fun and exciting place to go with Nika. Kids of all ages will enjoy these shows…we’ll definitely be coming here again.

Tim Noah - Thumbnail TheaterMore about the The Thumbnail Theater
Located in a quaint and charming historic building this theater has much to offer. This non-profit organization is dedicated to preserving and ensuring the vitality and sustainable future for the art of musical theater in Snohomish and surrounding communities. Love that!!!

They offer children and adults a creative outlet to experience various levels of musical theater with their peers through acting, singing and dancing. Their classes and performances encourage empathy, appreciation and recognition of their own and each other’s unique gifts and talents. Find out more about upcoming performances and check out the music and acting classes offered.

Here’s a video clip highlighting the founder, Tim Noah’s career. He’s a Emmy winning song writer and entertainer who knows how to make kids smile. Towards the end of the clip you’ll see the Thumbnail Theater and some of the workshops being held.


Cyndi Soup{ PARTY NEWS} This just in…The Thumbnail Theaters very own Cyndi Soup will be Nika’s guest entertainer for her 1st birthday!!! Lots of fun stuff being planned and so excited Cyndi will be with us for this special day.


Friday Freebie - cool place for digi scrappers

February 22nd, 2008

Cottgae Arts - Zig Zag Brush SetI happened upon the CottageArts website and really like their style. They have a great tutorial section and tons of freebies for you to download and try. Lots of good stuff here.

Check out all these freebies:

  • Zig Zag Stitch brush set
  • Cottage Arts - love embellishmentsTear template
  • Heritage page pak
  • Rusty Copper Destination Alpha set
  • Action sampler
  • Layered PSD template
  • Love embellishments
  • Snow day & old friends templates
  • Linen paper pak

Get the Friday Freebie

Download the goodies…if you want more Cottage Arts is having a sale for 20% off all downloadable products through Friday February 29th!

Have a wonderful weekend! XOOXO ~ MamaSheg

Show & Tell - Altered letter

February 21st, 2008

We’re in the last few months {fingers crossed} of building our new house. All the rooms were recently painted and Nika’s room is a beautiful lilac color. It’s so pretty. I made her this altered letter for her new room. This was a fun project to make. I like how easy it was to create.

Altered Letter

Altered Letter - butterfly close up Altered Letter - flower close up Altered Letter - name close up

To start I traced the letter onto the back of paper and cut out. Next I ran the paper through the Xyron machine for adhesive. I did not do any prep work or sanding to the letter as it stuck on just fine. I used the Basic Grey Precision File Set to tidy up the edges. The ribbon under her name {in the lower left} was put on with a tape runner. I punched all the butterflies. The smallest butterfly was made with a Fiskars pop-up punch. The butterflies and wood flower were adhered with a wet glue. I added some glittery stickers to spell Nika’s name, tied on ribbons, and also added gemstones to the wood flower.

Products used

  • Patterned paper {DCWV}
  • Wood letter {purchased from Michaels}
  • Ribbon {Really Reasonable Ribbon}
  • Wood flower {purchased from Joanns}
  • Stickers {Portafolia}
  • Adhesive {Xyron 900, Ultimate Glue, Scrapbook Adhesives}

A little scrapping philosphy from Ali

February 20th, 2008

Have you seen this interview with Ali Edwards by Real Women Scrap TV? Tasra Dawson interviewed Ali at Memory Trends. Ali talks about her philosophy…Good stuff, check it out.



Collage Discovery Workshop: Beyond the Unexpected

February 19th, 2008

Collage Discovery Workshop: Beyond the UnexpectedCheck out this awesome book I won on the Fisk-A-Teers blog, Collage Discovery Workshop: Beyond the Unexpected by Claudine Hellmuth. This is a beautiful how-to collage book with tons of great ideas. Many of these projects utilize scraps and things you already have in your stash. I really like all the techniques in the {Creating Textured Backgrounds} chapter. Great instructions and lots of pictures detailing things like, how to make a crackle background with Elmer’s glue. Other clever ideas using things such as masking tape, tissue paper and even bubble wrap to design beautiful and unique projects. There are some really cool techniques that I’m looking forward to trying. The whole book is just fabulous. I recommend this for any paper crafter that is interested in designing outside of the box. LOVE IT!

Watch a video clip of Claudine on the Martha Stewart show demonstrating how to make poppets{r}. You can get the instructions and pattern download here. Check out more of Claudine’s projects on her blog.

Nika update - 10 months

February 17th, 2008

Nika Crawling - 10 monthsNika is just getting over a cold that she’s had for over a week now. Vlad got sick too. I was lucky not to get it. Thank goodness for Airborne–love that stuff! Nika is now 10 months and very active. She is turning out to be a speedy little crawler and currently loves climbing over everything and everyone. She is eager to pull herself up and stand so we are now having to childproof a lot of areas and things around the house.

Nika really enjoys interacting with other kids too. At the grocery store yesterday we sought out 2 other babies. A 7 month old boy and a 10 1/2 month old boy and she flirted with just about everyone who looked at her.

Some of Nika’s new favorite things to do…

Nika’s 1st birthday is coming up soon. I’ve already started to plan her party, so exciting and amazing how fast that went by. We’re going to do an Elmo theme since she is a HUGE Elmo fan. La la la la…La la la la — yep I know all the words to the Elmo theme song and known to sing it when needed.