Show & Tell - Altered bird house

I purchased a little wood bird house from Joann’s for $1. I thought it would be cute for Nika’s room. I decorated it to match the altered letter I made.

I started out by sanding the edges and any rough spots. I painted the birdhouse using the same lavender paint that was used to paint my daughters bedroom. Next I traced the roof onto the back of my patterned paper and cut out. I ran the paper through my Xyron machine for adhesive and then filed the edges with the Basic Grey Precision Filing Set. The white mesh is self adhesive and went on great. I tied raffia ribbon around the white mesh for interest. I used wet glue to apply the gemstones and a tape runner for the ribbon on the roof. For the buttons on the back of the house I used glue dots.

Products used

• Wood bird house {purchased at Joann’s}
• Patterned paper {DCWV}
• Buttons {these are extra buttons from my daughter’s clothes}
• White mesh {FibaTape}
• Gemstones
• Ribbon {Really Reasonable Ribbon}
• Cardstock {DCWV}
• Paint {Yolo}
• Adhesive {Xyron, Scrapbook Adhesives, Ultimate Glue, Glue Dots}

Lookin for some RAK goodies??

Check out Misty’s blog, Li’l Buck’s Creations. She has some awesome {blog booty} she’s giving away!

Wendy’s blog, An Inkling of Love has 2 fabulous give aways!

Be sure to stop by Lim’s blog too, The Voices in My Head. Lim will be picking 3 winners for some really great goodies!

The coolest box ever!

My friend Don makes the coolest boxes I’ve ever seen, they’re called explosion boxes. They look complicated, but are surprisingly easy to make. What a cool and impressive gift to give someone. This box has 12 flaps for photos and journaling when it opens up {or explodes} and there is still room to put a nice little gift inside too.

Don is teaching this popular class at Ben Franklin Crafts in Redmond, Washington on June 2nd. Don is a very talented paper crafting artist. If you get a chance to take a class with him I highly recommend it. You’re sure to have fun!

Here’s some really great explosion box examples I found online.

Collette in the 2Peas gallery has the most wonderful box, check it out here. She has several photos of the box so you can see all the details.

Jessica Acs has a pretty box with pockets and tags inside.

Check out this Flickr stream for more cute examples of exploding boxes.

MaddyH in the 2Peas gallery has a fairy tree house exploding box that will {wow} you!!

Up to trying this on your own?? Over at Scrapbooker Online they have a great how-to with lots of photos. There is also another excellent tutorial at The Fine Art of Rambling blog. I also recently discovered Anso’s blog, Glitter Adventure. She has several really cool free online classes including the popular exploding box.

Clever ribbon storage idea

I came across this video from SpazzGirl on ways to organize your ribbon. She shows a really clever way to hang your ribbon from a jump ring using safety pins. I hadn’t heard of this idea before and love it!! Check out the video.

Shout-out to SheetLoad

Have you checked out the free SheetLoad of Cards eZine? April’s issue is now available for download. The April issue features products from Stampin Up! If you have not heard of SheetLoad of Cards, every month they publish a PDF newsletter for card makers. They feature a great sketch and show you how to create a bunch fabulous cards with just a few sheets of paper. The best part is they show you how to properly cut your paper to get the most cards out of your sheets, love that! Check it out, great samples and directions for making a batch of cards all while being efficient with your paper!

Want to win some cool Stampin Up goodies? SheetLoad of Cards is having a giveaway when you sign-up to get their updates through FeedBlitz.

Download the SheetLoad of Cards - April Issue

Friday Freebie - the best FREE brushes!

Here’s the best places I’ve found to get free Photoshop brushes. These four places have just about every kind of Photoshop brush you could need. Everything from florals, vines, grunge, doodles, vintage, wings, and even coffee stains…so many cool brushes to play with.

• Brusheezy is a very popular place.
• TutorialBlog has a great list of free brushes.
• Photoshop Support has a large compilation to download.
• DeviantArt has an awesome selection of unique brushes.

Here’s a small sampling of what you can find from these place.

Have a fun and crafty weekend! XOOXO ~ MamaSheg

Cool scrapbook organization ideas

I’m always interested to see how people organize their craft space. I came across Amanda’s scraproom today and really like these ideas. There are lots of pictures and details. She even gives information on where she purchased the items. Lots of good stuff, check out Amanda’s scraproom here.

I also love how she presents all her information and pictures. When you get to her site and the main image, you will be able to mouse over any part of the image to zoom in. You can even look inside the drawers by putting your mouse over a drawer…it’s really cool!

And, if you are looking for some {free fonts}, Amanda has a page of fonts for you to download and a tutorial on how to install them!

Show & Tell - Easter layout

Here’s the layout I did for the Crop-A-Latte club that I attend. Both the flowers and ladybug embellishments were made with coffee sleeves. You can see my previous post on using coffee sleeves here. If you are curious about what Nika is wearing, it’s her Easter basket! She thought it was really fun to wear on her head.

Products used

• Patterned paper {3 Bugs in a Rug}
• Cardstock {DCWV}
• Wood letters {Woodsies}
• Pink paper on letters {SEI}
• Chipboard embellishments {Heidi Grace}
• Butterfly {Fiskars pop-up punch}
• Buttons {my own stash}
• Blue ribbon {Stampin Up}

Gymbucks…winners!!

Good Morning…I have 2 winners for the Gymbucks RAK. I asked my husband to pick 2 numbers from 1-20 and he picked numbers 5 and 14.

Katey {comment #5} Fisk-A-Teer #3548 ~ $50 Gymbucks

Jennifer {comment #14} ~ $50 Gymbucks

Thank you to everyone who left comments. I have RAKs for Gymbucks every time they are offered and also give out coupons for Gymboree about once a month. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! XOOXO ~ MamaSheg

Nika’s party favors & Cream City Ribbon

I’ve been busy putting together the favors for Nika’s 1st birthday party. The pails have bubbles, sticker sheets, bouncy balls & crayons. A couple of the guests are under 6 months and those pails have peek-a-boo blocks in them. I used my Sizzix to make the tags and also tried out the coolest ribbon on the tags. I’ve had this ribbon from Cream City Ribbon for a while and the colors were perfect to match the Elmo theme for the party.

Cream City Ribbon is unlike any ribbon I’ve ever used. It’s very versatile and unique. It’s an all-natural product composed of cotton and water soluble adhesive. The texture is crisp, and feels like a paper-thin wood chip. The ribbon is springy and holds its shape beautifully. I used the rainbow colored ribbon and was able to shred/tear it and then curled it by wrapping it around a bamboo skewer. You can also stamp on it. Really fun stuff to play with. Lots of possibilities for crafting with this.