Check me out!

We are continuing along with our Summer Scrapathon over at Sharing Memories Scrapbooking. This week's challenge was to use a favorite quote for either your journaling or title.
Here's mine!

TES Sketch Sunday!

It's Sunday and you know what that means.
- Laying around the house and being useless?
Well, yes, but also a new sketch from The Everyday Scrapper. By the way, TES has changed up their looks and let me tell you, it looks amazing. I love the new forum.
Here's the sketch -

And here's my take on it!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a look at my projects using the new kit from Scrap Freak. It is so summery you have to have it.

My Challenge to You!

We are having a Crop today over at Scrap Freak and I have a little challenge going, which I thought I would share with you guys.
My challenge to you is to go find a picture that you think is too bad to use on a layout and USE IT! It doesn't matter if it's blurry, or too dark, or whatever. Just use it. You took the picture to help you remember a story, so tell that story.
Here's  a few of my layouts that all use blurry pictures.

Tissue Paper Flower Tutorial

Is anyone else obsessed with making their own little flowers? Hmm? Hmm? I know I am. And does anyone else hoard tissue paper from gifts just because you know that one day you'll find a purpose for it?
Well, here's a little tutorial to help you whittle down your stash and make some adorable little, or big, flowers.

1. Pick out your tissue paper and pick out your flower. I chose to cut a flower  that I hand drew from leftover think cardboard. You can use a chipboard flower that you already have, or just wing it and go without any guide at all. Either way will work perfectly fine.

2. Cut a strip of the tissue paper a little wider than your flower.

3. Fold your strip a little wider than the flower.

4. Cut around the flower and wa-la! You've got a set of flowers.

5. Get out your glue and start gluing. Put a little dot of glue down, put one flower on top of the glue and kind of squish in the middle of the flower to make the petals poof out. Repeat this until you've either used up all of your flowers or you've got it as poofy as you want.

6. Now, embellish your center. I chose to cut out a smaller flower from a different color tissue and place it in the middle. I can also envision using a button, rhinestone, or any little chipboard piece.

Where have I been? And some updates!

Well, to deter possible thieves, I decided not to tell anyone that we were going out of town last week. We made a quick, but seemingly very long, trip back to the old homestead to see some friends. Robert did a bit of work while we were there, but Anna and I pretty much just swam.
While I was gone, there was another sketch put up over at The Everyday Scrapper.

 I had a blast with this one.

Scrap Freak finished up the Luau Crop, but don't worry if you didn't make it. There's a TGIF Crop this Friday! Whoo Hoo! Oh, and have I mentioned that you should join their Facebook Fan page? Well, you should.

And last, but not at all least, there's a Summer Scrapathon going on at Sharing Memories Scrapbooking. (Check out my cute blinkie!) What better way to keep up with your scrapping and help get yourself out of a rut. I mean, I never get in creative ruts, but maybe some of you do. :) ::wink, wink::

New Sketch from The EveryDay Scrapper

Sorry about the late posting. I've been sick as a dog and just now able to get up and do a little bit.
Here's the sketch, which I fell in love with as soon as I saw it.

And here's my take.

It's a Luau!

What are you doing today? If your answer is "nothing special." head on over to Scrap Freak. We are having a week long luau themed crop that starts today. Grab a drink (but don't spill it!) and go check out all the fab challenges and games that are going on!

PSE for the technology illiterate

I got my fancy new computer and photoshop elements a couple of months ago and haven't had the time to really sit down and figure everything out. So tonight I decided to order some cute little frames and figure out how the heck to use a clipping mask. And guess what.... I figured it out! Whoo hoo for me.
Don't you just feel like you found this old picture at a flea market somewhere?

I used the Vintage News action from CoffeeShop (oh my, I love that site!) and purchased the Vintage Photo Frames by Kitschy Digitals at JessicaSprague.com.

Beach Bum

I could live at the beach. The one good thing about moving is that we are only a couple of hours away from a beach. Granted, it's not the beautiful white sand, blue water kind of beach that I would prefer, but it's sand and it's water. It works. And I'm not the bikini model type by far, but I always come back from the beach feeling much better about myself because I see people there wearing things they should not wear.
So Sunday was spent at the beach and it was wonderful. Anna had been last year but didn't remember it. And for some reason it turned crazy cold when we took her last year, so she didn't even get in the water. We even took the ferry to a different beach just so she could ride on a big boat. She had a blast.
I'm pretty sure we'll be going back soon.

We brought along this little boogie board thing that's actually for her blow up slide at home. Robert would put her on it and take her out into the waves and just let her ride it in. She had a blast and I was pretty impressed.

News to Use

1. The winners have been announced at Sharing Memories Scrapbooking. Go see if it's you!
2. A new sketch was posted at The Everyday Scrapper yesterday.
Here it is:

And here's my take on it:

Sorry about the late post. I kept getting a message saying blogger wasn't working!

DIY Bike Basket

Anna loves bikes. Anna loves baskets. What would be better than a bike basket?
Luckily I saw this post over at Noodlehead. I love it! I'm going to have to make it.

The Sorry Sewer's Guide: to making cute curtains

 I've decided to start a new feature here on this fab blog of mine. We all know I can sew. I can't sew well, but I can sew. So I do consider myself a sewer, but a sorry one. So every so often I think I will post a guide for all us sorry sewers out there. We aren't the the point of calling ourselves seamstresses, just sewers. And the fact that that's the exact same spelling for the word that is used to describe that thing that carries waste underground, well, that just helps accent what kind of sewers we really are.
So here we are for the first installment of the Sorry Sewer's Guide. It's all about making fake Roman shades. Because who really has the time to make real ones. And if you think my instructions are sorry, you should see my curtains!
I hope you enjoy.

The Sorry Sewer's Guide to Making Fake Roman Shades

My instructions are for curtains for 4 windows which ended up being 31" long. If you need something different, you'll just have to figure that one out yourself.

Materials Needed:

1. Magic Pen (also known as a disappearing ink fabric marker)

2. 2 Curtain panels twice the length of your desired curtain. 

    Mine were 42" wide and came from Target for $17.

3. Ribbon in the desired length.

    I wanted mine to hang down about 5 inches so I could tie it. So I needed two 37" pieces for the front and

     two  10" pieces for the back of each curtain.

4. Thread that matches the ribbon perfectly. You don't want people seeing your crooked sewing skills.

5. Hem tape. Because I forgot to buy thread that matched the curtains.

6. A seam ripper. Because I always need one. Everytime.

Instructions:

1. Get your scissors (oh that wasn't on the materials list, huh.) Go find your scissors.
2. Fold your panel in half. Realize that it's too wrinkled to lay straight.
3. Go iron them.

4. Fold it hamburger style in half again and cut. Try to cut straight.
5. Measure to the length you want and pin the raw edge in place, then iron it flat.
6. Realize that you didn't buy thread to match the curtain, so hunt down your hem tape.
7. Iron yourself a pretty little hem.
8. Turn your curtain with the back side facing you and figure out where you want your ribbons. I placed mine 14" from each edge. Mark it with your magic pen. Pin the ribbon in place.
9. Sew the ribbon on. Since this one is on the back and your front ribbon will cover it, just sew it straight through up the middle of the ribbon. Just make sure to back stitch so it won't fall apart. Don't sew all the way to the hem though. You want to be able to gather it up and tie it to make that nice little swag. Stop sewing about 4" from the bottom. More if you want more swag.

10. Turn the curtain over and mark the placement of your front ribbons. Use your back ribbons as a guide too. You want them to be in the same spot on each side.
11. Lay your front ribbon with the end at the same length as the back ribbon. Pin it in place.

12. Sew it on. But this time, sew on the left and right edge of the ribbon. You don't want the edges curling up. That would just be unprofessional.
13. Admire your work.
14. Get your curtain rod and shove it through realize that you sewed the stinking ribbon straight through the rod pocket and now the pocket is shut.

15. Say some expletives. Maybe even write them straight onto the fabric with your magic pen. It'll disappear in 24-48 hours. Hopefully.
16. Get your handy dandy seam ripper.
17. Rip out just enough seam to let the curtain rod slide through.
18. Get your hem tape and iron that unsewn ribbon piece on. No one will ever notice.
19. Put the rod back through. It's a tight fit, but it works. Hang it. Tie your ribbon in a nice little knot at the bottom.
20. Now admire your work. Forget about the fact that you have 3 more to go.

Giveaway! Giveaway!

Just a little drop in to tell you guys that there is a giveaway going on over at Sharing Memories Scrapbooking. All you have to do is leave a comment here. Easy entry for lazy people like me. :) While you are there, check out the page packs. They are coordinated papers and embellishments that are also great for lazy people like me. :)
And I know that some of my followers are not scrapbookers, but this giveaway would be a great way to get some scrap stuff for free to try out scrapping to see if you like it - which you will!