Core'dinations Design Team Call

Ask me what my favorite cardstock is...Go ahead, ask!  Well, that's easy!  I really LOVE Core'dinations Cardstock!  I love that it comes in a TON of colors!  I love that it textured!  But most of all, I LOVE THE COLOR CORE!  I can tear this paper and see a coordinating color inside.  I can also emboss and sand it too (or just sand, for a distressed look).  And I can't forget my most favorite thing to do with Core'dinations papers is to cut them in my Silhouette Cameo digital die cut machine.  All of their beautiful papers cut like butter in the Silhouette!

All these reasons came to mind when I saw that Core'dinations is having a Design Team Call!  I was recently chosen to be a part of the Craft Warehouse Design Team and I think that being a part of the Core'dinations team would be the perfect match for me.  I use Core'dinations papers on almost all my scrapbook layouts and papercrafting projects.  I can't imagine a project that wouldn't look a little nicer with some textured cardstock that has a fun colored core!

So, here I go...Core'dinations asked to see three projects featuring their amazing papers.  These projects are  some that I think show you lots of options for using Core'dinations papers and ones I think you'll enjoy seeing.  As always, I use a lot of color in my projects, along with some fun cuts from my Silhouette.  I hope you like them!

For this layout, the kids jumping in the pool reminded me of a clothesline.

I found the Loads of Fun die cut shape from Samantha Walker and altered it to fit my vision.

I added the flower & number 12 to the shirts and then I wanted to find a fun girls' swimsuit for

my clothesline, I found the Bikini by Sarah Bailey.  It was perfect with the addition of tiny holes for polka dots.  I love the way the Silhouette Cameo cuts such intricate shapes into the

Core'dinations papers!  Next, I used some tiny sanding tools to add a little texture to

my die cuts.  Distressing my little clothes lets you see the coordinating color inside the textured

cardstock and gives this layout that extra 'something'! 

Here are some close ups of this fun summer layout:

Next, I want to share a card I made this week with my favorite collection from Core'dinations,

the Vintage Collection.  I LOVE the Vintage Collection because you can see both colors of the paper in the texture without tearing or embossing it!  The Vintage papers give every layout an added color and texture without me doing a thing! My most favorite of all the hundreds of Core'dinations papers is Kisses from the Vintage Collection.  Kisses is the most perfect red for all my projects and, of course, its texture and colors give my projects and added depth I can't get with any other cardstock.

But back to my project!

I found this rainbow quote and the design of this card just popped right into my mind.

I used my Silhouette Software to design my own rainbow.

(I can explain how I did this, just let me know if you're interested in a post on it in the comments!)

I cut the entire rainbow out of each of the six yummy sheets of Core'dinations Vintage Collection papers.

Then I chose one of each color (in different sizes) and laid them together on my embossing folder.

This one is from Lifestyle Crafts.

After embossing the pieces, I used a sander to sand over the textured sections.  In this photo, the red and purple pieces have been completely sanded, while the blue piece has only been sanded on the right half.

You can see how much the design 'jumps' out of the Core'dinations papers when they are sanded

to reveal the inside core color of the paper.

I found this banner in my Silhouette library.  I used a Silhouette Sketch Pen and my own handwriting font to print the quote onto my banner.  Then, I cut the center of the banner.  The paper for the center of the banner is from the Core'dinations Whitewash Collection, and is called Washboard.

I cut the ends of the banner from metallic gold paper to symbolize the gold at the end of the rainbow.

I was very happy with the way the Silhouette Sketch Pens worked perfectly with the textured

Core'dinations paper!

For my last project, I want to share a double page spread layout I created to showcase

my daughter's birthday photos.

On this layout, I tore and sanded to reveal the coordinating bright colors inside the cardstock.

I love the way this paper adds just a little extra flair to my page!

 Here are some close ups of the Core'dinations papers at work!

I hope you enjoyed my projects featuring Core'dinations papers!

I also want to let you know that I'm in the middle of redesigning by blog and moving it over to juliechats.com

All of this should be finished by next week!

Stop over and LIKE my Facebook page for last minute details in case this site is down and 

the new on isn't quite ready yet!

Announcement: Craft Warehouse Design Team

Hi everyone!

I'm SO EXCITED to announce that I've been chosen to be a part of the Craft Warehouse 2014 Design Team!  I'll be sharing my scrapbook creations soon on the Craft Warehouse Blog.  I have all sorts of project photos that I've been waiting to post because I'm also moving my blog to JulieChats.com.  If you visit me at JulieChats.com, you'll be redirected here for the time being.  I'm still figuring out all this website stuff. :)

But for now, I wanted to share my news and say YIPPEE!  I am SO HAPPY to be a part of such a great group and get a chance to share my creations with all of you!  I'll be back next week with some fun projects!  Please let me know if you have any specific questions or things you'd like to learn about scrapbooking and papercrafting.  I'd be happy to return your comments and/or create a post to answer your questions.

Here's a little about me:

I've been creating scrapbooks for 21 years.  (Not including my pseudo-SMASH books from the 80's!)  I worked for my local scrapbook store for 8 years, doing marketing, social media, designing samples and make & takes and teaching at workshops and events.  It was such a great time and I love all the wonderful, crafty friends I've made over the years.

Now, I'm ready to put my designs and creations out to a larger audience.  And I'm really excited that you are a part of my new chapter.  I hope you join me here on my blog (you might want to bookmark JulieChats.com) over on my Instagram, where I've met tons of super creative people from all over the world, I'm @juliechatsblog over there.  My blog also has a Facebook page.  OH, and if you're looking for more creative inspiration, head over and check out my Pinterest boards.  I can't say enough about how much fun it is to find papercrafting projects and share them with you on Pinterest.  I have 132 boards over there, but you'll probably be most interested in my Scrapbooking, Card Design Ideas, Project Life & Pocket Style Scrapbooking boards.  But you might also enjoy my Craft Studio Ideas, Craft Ideas & Silhouette boards too!  Just look around & see which boards inspire you!

It's SO NICE to meet you!  I'm excited to share my projects with you and to see what you've been making too!

I can't wait to see what fun, crafty things are in store this year, as I join the Craft Warehouse Design Team!

I'll be posting my projects and answering your questions here on my blog and over on my JulieChats Facebook page!

As soon as I finish last year's December Daily (Yep!  10 days left!) I'll share it!  It's one of my favorite mini albums ever! 

See you soon on the Craft Warehouse Blog!

:) Julie

Quick Mother's Day Gift with Free Printables

I don't know about you, but I always feel like I'm doing everything at the last minute! Too much to do, too little time...yada yada yada! Well, I sure don't have time to stop & complain!  I just need to find ways to get more done in less time!  Last night & today's issue was how to make my mom a Mother's Day card, wrap her gift, get the kids to make her something special AND get it all in the mail today!  I'm like so many of you, I LOVE making personalized gifts and using my imagination to create something special for my loved ones.  But that whole issue of too little time enters the picture way too often!  I did make it to Costco to pick up my mom's gift, something she loved but didn't buy herself on her recent visit.  No, I'm not saying what it is on the off chance she's reading this! So, I had the gift, which was good.  But still, how do I squeeze in a post office visit into my Wednesday...it just wasn't in the cards!  Then it came to me, at Christmas I was too late to do this (Yep, this lateness seems to be a theme for me recently!).  The Post Office has a print online option for postage and thankfully, I had remembered to pick up some of those flat rate priority mail boxes on my last trip to the physical Post Office.  So, a quick trip to the garage solved part of that problem.  The medium box was the perfect size.  Then I went online and printed out my prepaid label on usps.com.

Even though I was running short on time, I did find a quick minute to check Facebook.  Yes, I'm sort of a procrastinator....  But this time, my Facebook visit actually saved me some time!  Yes, I'll be telling my husband about this when he's back from his business trip because he swears Facebook is the biggest time sucker ever invented.  But, I digress!  There at the top of my news feed was a post from Kim over at Today's Creative Blog, she had a new free Mother's Day printable designed by Michelle from Elegance and Enchantment.  And Michelle also had coordinating pieces for free on her blog!  Lifesavers those two!  I grabbed some white cardstock and quickly set about printing one page of each Mother's Day printable.

I only had time to get everything printed before I had to get kids to bed and work on one of my other business projects.  I do a few freelance contract type jobs that I squeeze in between being a mom.  So I got back to my Mother's Day project this morning before Jake's swimming lesson.  I looked through my cardstock stash and found a nice dark green that complemented the printables and made a card out of it.  I cut out the printable tags and note card and used them to decorate my card, with the addition of some coordinating printed papers and wood veneer pieces, sequins and twine as embellishment.

After Jake woke up, I had him fill out a cute Grandma printable that's free over on 30 Handmade Days.  He had a great time answering the questions about Grandma and drawing a picture of them together.  He didn't have as much fun doing the writing and having to ask me how to spell words, but I really wanted it to be his handwriting she was reading with his comments.  I rolled his photo and a letter that prints with it in some baker's twine for Grandma to open when she gets our package.  My daughter, Delaney, had made Grandma a special card with a drawing on the front and a poem inside.  My mom always loves seeing what her little artists come up with.

Next, I wanted to wrap my present so it looks special inside the box when Mom opens it.  I used kraft paper I picked up at The Container Store a couple weeks ago and taped it with pink washi tape.  Then I combined pink & yellow baker's twine with a medium garden twine for the ribbon.  (I use garden twine in different sizes in tons of my projects.  It's one of my very favorite go-to "ribbons".)  I added a couple of the cute Mother's Day tags from Elegance and Enchantment to the twine and taped one to the package with a bright floral washi.

With time running out before swimming lessons (the mailman comes while we are at the pool), I grabbed some white tissue paper and ran everything downstairs and started filling my box.  I put the gift in first and then layered our other items between tissue.  I added a couple of the printable tags, tied with baker's twine in between the layers and put my card on top.  After it was perfect, I taped the box closed and added some of the printable circles to the outside of the box, so mom knows it's special the moment she picks it up at the Post Office.

I shot some photos of everything and put the box out on my front step just before we had to leave for swimming.  When we got home, it was gone!  Off to Mom's house just in time for Mother's Day!

I hope you stop over and check out the printables on Kim's, Michelle's & Mique's blog (there are tons, not just these!).  Pin them to a special Printables board on Pinterest and next time, you're in a time crunch, you'll know just where to find what you need for that someone special.  If you'd like to see some of the variety of printables that are out there, stop over on my Printables Pinterest board.  I've got lots for you to check out.  I also categorize my finds on the internet a bit differently than most people.  I like to use monthly Pinterest boards to help me go back and find what I need in a particular month.  My May Pinterest board has pins for Mother's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Teacher Appreciation...really anything I think I might need in May.  I have boards for each month of they year, stop over and check them out when you get a chance.

Hope you enjoyed my take on these beautiful free printables!  Happy Mother's Day!

Inspired to Create

I love all sorts of quotes about Creativity!  I've always considered myself a creative person and I believe EVERYONE can be CREATIVE!  Through the years, I've worked with many people through my classes, workshops and quick make & take sessions at the store and at vendor gatherings and trade shows.  It never fails that some of these people say, "I'm not creative!"  I do not agree!  I think that creativity lives inside all of us.  I admit that sometimes my creativity or need to create fads into the background.  At the end of February, my dad passed away.  Since then, I have had a hard time being inspired to create...even though I've had some projects with deadlines and a huge event at the store during this time.  But, for those things, the creativity came to me more like I was a dentist pulling someone's teeth without anesthesia instead of blowing in like a warm summer breeze of inspiration.  In the last week or so, I've been looking at some of my projects, and cruising Instagram & Pinterest (you know..."just for a minute or two") :) (Hey, stop over and follow me there, I'm finding some AWESOME stuff! I'm @juliechatsblog on Instagram and Julie Chats on Pinterest.)  But, I digress...somehow, for no apparent reason, my feelings of inspiration and creativity seem to be on the rise of late.  You just never know what's coming next.

Just as I was beginning to feel the need to create again, but wasn't ready to pick up the mess from that last bout of "forced creativity,"  I opened my email and found the sweetest note from someone who said, basically, "I hope you don't think I'm a craft stalker, but I've been checking your things out online and I'm impressed!"  Nope, that isn't a stalker, it's another little step on my road to inspiration!  After a few email chats with my new friend, Nancy, I was on the road across town, "halfway to the mountain," as I explained to Jake.  To experience Nancy's craft heaven...it's really called Domesticraft, but to me, just being there, hanging out for the afternoon, chatting about all things creative, with Nancy was such an inspiration.  Nancy has turned a huge daylight basement space into, seriously, what I can only call CRAFTHEAVEN.  Today, she has a sneak peek of the space and on May 1st, she's opening her version of heaven to crafters.  Nancy has all sorts of creative workshops and events planned for May.  She'll also be open so you can sign up to work on your own projects during her Open Studio times.  You can find Nancy on Pinterest and Facebook too!

I know all my friends on the east side of Portland will want to check out Domesticraft, it's off of Orient Road just outside of Gresham, on the way to the mountain, as I told Jake.  It may be a little far for us "westsiders," but I promise you'll be inspired, just like I was, if you make the trip out to visit Nancy.

Nancy & I chatted about all things creative and shared our lastest projects yesterday.  I could sit for days like this, getting inspired, especially in a place like this...packed with creative treasures, vintage antiques and more craft supplies than I have ever seen in one person's collection!  Nancy has TONS of things you can use while you're working in her space...so many, I couldn't even hope to list them all!  So, I hope you check out Domesticraft for yourself and escape to CRAFTHEAVEN!

Let me know what you think!  I can't wait to get back & spend more time with Nancy!  She's got a May schedule packed full of events and workshops that she'll be teaching.  And, Nancy & I are hoping to collaborate on some workshops in the future.  I've got some big plans and can't wait to teach some fun workshops this year on both sides of town.

Family Love Layout - Layout of the Week

This week I'm sharing another layout I created Plus Corp's CHA booth at the Winter 2014 show.  When I saw the new Vintage Camera Decorative Roller Stamp from Plus Corp., I almost jumped up & down!  I LOVE anything with a camera on it!  I immediately knew which paper I wanted to combine with this awesome stamp.  The Camera Bag paper from October Afternoon's Travel Girl collection was the PERFECT paper to complement the camera stamp.  Once I had the stamp and my paper, I headed to Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio (the LSS where I work here in Beaverton, Oregon).  I knew that we would have some great solids to coordinate for my layout.

When I first started planning this layout, I didn't know which photo I would use, only that I just HAD to make a layout with this super cute camera stamp.  I started to consider photos and realized that we had just had our family photos taken right before our Disneyland trip.  I have a friend who is an AMAZING photographer and a teacher too (in her spare time...ha ha!)  If you're in the Portland-Vancouver area, please consider her for your family and senior photos! Check out her website Stacy Major Photography.

I decided to use my shiny silver metallic paper as the background and layer gray and aqua on top of it.  I mounted my photo on a black matte and placed it on a horizontal strip of gray textured paper.  Next, I rolled my Decorative Roller Stamp with its cute cameras across a piece of textured white cardstock from American Crafts.  I really like the vintage look the textured cardstock gives to this stamp.  What would normally be a solid black impression is distressed using textured paper.  I worked at getting the stamp straight by laying my paper down next to a ruler and making every effort to roll my stamp perfectly along the ruler.  I think it took about three tries to create a camera strip to my liking.  And, just in case you have one of the Decorative Roller Stamps from Plus Corp. and are unhappy with the impressions you get at first, be sure to grab a piece of printer paper and roll the stamp around until your image is clear and perfect.  The images on the stamps I used did not come out perfectly on the first try.  Some black ink was printed in between the cameras and other images on the other stamps I used for my projects.  After rolling them around on printer paper a few times, the images began to come out perfectly clear with no black ink in between. To create a focal point, I used a vertical strip of the camera paper behind my photo, tearing and distressing its edges by rolling them back & forth between my fingers.  

Even though we are wearing gray and white in our photos, I decided to print my photo in black & white for this layout.  I really love the look of black and white and it looked perfect with the palette of aqua, gray and silver I chose to go with my October Afternoon paper.  I used my SMASH date stamp next to my photo, so we'll remember when we had this fun family photo shoot.  After stacking and adhering my papers, I used my sewing machine to machine stitch aqua, gray and white thread in a combination of zig zag and straight stitches.  I like the effect the stitching adds to my project, it coordinates with the vintage look of my camera stamps stamped on textured paper.  It also contrasts with the shiny silver paper and bold sans serif  Bebas font I used for my title.  Last summer, it seemed like everyone on the internet was hashtag (#) crazy, so I thought it would be fun to use one of the hashtags I use on Instagram as my title.  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the title.  #familylove is a hashtag I try to use on all my family photos, so I will be able to easily find them when I want to share them.

For embellishments, I chose a couple groupings of sequins and one tiny wood veneer camera from Studio Calico.  I painted this camera just like the cameras I used in my Wood Veneer Camera Shadow Box blog post.  I used pewter mist from Luminarte as paint, read about it in my shadow box post.

This was another fun chance to create with a brand new product.  I have some more projects created for Plus Corp.'s booth at CHA and I'll share them soon!  In case you missed last week's post, I shared my Disney Carsland Layout using another new roller stamp from Plus Corp and 2014 winter release stamps from Technique Tuesday.

Sharing this project over at 

The Link Party Palooza!

So much fun over there, be sure to stop by & check out all the great St. Patrick's Day & Easter theme projects!

"Say Cheese" Disney Carsland Layout - Layout of the Week

A few months ago, I was asked to create some layouts by Plus Corp. for the Winter 2014 CHA show.  I was really excited to have a chance to work with Plus Corp's brand new Decorative Roller Stamps and Decorative Tapes.  The stamps I used were so new, I had one of the only sets in the US to play with!  Fun Fun!  With 12 roller stamps and 12 decorative tapes to choose from, I just had to grab some recent photos and use my imagination to create some super fun projects.  My very favorite project is this layout featuring a photo of our family with Lightning McQueen.  Our August trip to Disneyland and California Adventure was AMAZING!  And I was SO happy that I purchased the Disney Photo Pass CD full of our trip photos.  Knowing ahead of time that I would probably want to buy the CD, I was sure to have our photo taken by the Disney photographers every chance we got!  I love the CD and all of our photos, but I do wish that there were more photographers and photographers with every character we met.  It was strange that our photos with Mickey & Minnie in Toon Town had to be taken on our cameras.  It would have been nice to have professional ones with these characters.  But, all in all, I was very impressed with the quality of the photos and excited at the opportunity to reprint my photos many times, in any size I want!

This photo is from our very first day in the theme parks.  My little guy, Jake, has always been obsessed with the Cars movies and their characters, so of course, Lightning McQueen was at the top of his list of characters to meet.  To this day, he still tells everyone who will listen that Lightning McQueen lives in Disneyland and that he met him!  Such a fun memory!  We had just about every photo shot with our whole family and then again with just the kids.  I wanted as much versatility as I could get for my projects later.

For this layout, I looked to the photo for my color palette.  Bright red, electric yellow and black are classic Disney colors and help me show off Lightning too!  Putting them on a white background helps them jump off the page!  Textured white cardstock from American Crafts is my go-to white paper, it's a perfectly bright white and cuts like butter on my Silhouette Cameo.  To give my white background a more custom look, I used a paint brush to splatter acrylic paint onto the paper.  The black & yellow paints are regular acrylic from Kaisercraft, but the red is DecoArt Ultra Gloss Acrylic Enamel (usually used for painting glass).  I love how the red splotches are SO shiny!  I looked through my stash and the local scrapbook store where I work to come up with supplies for my layout.  Polka dots always make me think of Minnie and Disney, so I choose some polka dot elements in my color palette and grabbed my Mickey outline punch and Disney castle punch (I bought those years ago in Disneyland).

I arranged my elements on the page and balanced them out with another little cluster down in the bottom right corner with a little tag & some washi and a castle.

The new black honeycomb roller stamp from Plus Corp. was the perfect thing to mimic tire treads going across my page.  I used colored pencil to few in a few hexagons here & there.

For my title, I used the brand new "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday.  I stamped "cheese" with Versamark ink and embossed it in glossy red.  I used a couple of the hashtag word stamps from the set around my page, stamping them onto tags I cut on my Silhouette Cameo.  I inked the top tag in red before stamping it to help it stand out from my page.

This is one of my favorite layouts ever!  It was fun working with the new roller stamps from Plus Corp., along with the 2014 "Say Cheese" stamp set from Technique Tuesday too!  Stay tuned to this blog next when I share another Plus Corp. CHA sample!

York Peppermint Pattie Snow Ice Cream

Today is our third day of snow here in Portland, Oregon.

We don't get a lot of snow here, so the 8 inches I have in my yard is a TON of snow for us!

We have done all the typical stuff that we usually head to the mountains for...sledding, CHECK...snowball fight, CHECK...build snowman, CHECK...put the car in 4 wheel drive and see if it's really that slippery out there, CHECK...after 3 days, we were sort of running out of things to do.

Then I saw a recipe a friend of mine posted on Facebook for snow ice cream!

I don't remember seeing this before, so we were all pretty excited to try it.

The recipe called for snow, milk, sugar and vanilla.

Thinking we might be running low on milk and seeing freezing rain in the forecast, I decided to go my own way and make up my own snow ice cream recipe.  I used International Delight's York Peppermint Pattie Coffee Creamer to flavor my ice cream.  My husband, kids & I LOVED it and we can't wait to make it again!  Maybe we'll try it tomorrow, although we'll have to break off the piece of ice on top of our snow (the freezing rain is clinking against the windows now).  After that, it may be another five years before we get this much snow again, so we have to enjoy it while it lasts!

York Peppermint Pattie Snow Ice Cream

8 Cups Snow

1 Cup International Delight Peppermint Pattie Coffee Creamer

1 Cup Milk

1/3 Cup Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla

Scoop the snow into a large bowl, top with other ingredients, stir and enjoy!

As, I think of all the other wonderful flavors of International Delight Coffee Creamer, I would imagine they would all taste wonderful substituted in this recipe.  I'd love to try the Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream and Heath.  I'm sure you have your favorites!  I'd love to hear which ones you use to make your own Snow Ice Cream!  Leave me a comment!


Don't forget to stop by my friend Kim's link party for
all sorts of inspiration... Winter, Snow, Valentine & otherwise!

Find it over at Today's Creative Blog

DIY Lego Valentine Hearts to Exchange

Jake will be six this week and he's obsessed with Lego's.  While helping him put sort his pieces the other day, I had a thought that it would be cool to go non-traditional for class Valentines this year.    It's funny how I sometimes get these bright ideas without actually realizing a million people have probably had this idea before.  Wouldn't it be cool to make little hearts out of Legos for the kids in Jake's kindergarten class?!?!  Of course, I tried to make one from scratch and shockingly, I am not the best Lego creator ever!  So, I went to my trusty Google, where I realized quite a few people have gone before me in this quest.  I found a few ideas and after trying them decided on this pattern from instructables.com.

Jake wanted to help, so we sorted through his red Legos and didn't have enough to make the entire heart red, so a few of our pieces were white.  We liked the shape and the combination of colors, so we decided to make them for Jake's class and a couple other friends.

Then my daughter Delaney & I made a quick trip to the mall.  Having a Lego store with a "fill your bucket" area was super cool for this project.  You pick a large or small container (They probably measure about a 16 oz for a large cup and 8 oz for a small cup, but don't quote me on that! Price is about $7.50 for the small and $14 for the large.).  Then fill your cup with bricks of all sizes & colors from bins that cover the back wall of the store.  The employees are super helpful and shake your container or rearrange the bricks for you, so you can fit a couple more.  The trick is to put in a few large bricks and fill the wholes with little ones.  We counted the pieces in our sample and then chose red & white bricks to create that shape.  We did end up with different bricks because of what was available in our store, but the final product will be the exact same shape.  We are making 22 Lego hearts, after a 50 cent deposit credit for reusing one of our own containers and putting a $5 credit from my Lego VIP card toward the purchase, our total ended up being around 70 cents each.  If you don't have a Lego store near you, I did check the Lego website and found that you can order individual bricks HERE.  I am not sure exactly which bricks are available or how much the little hearts would cost doing it this way, but it looks like a good option.  There are 157 pages of individual bricks to explore and you can narrow that number by entering information such as category and color.

After making some of the hearts, I looked around the internet and ended up combining a few of the ideas I found and adding a little touch of my own.  I searched for free Lego clip art and came up with some fun little minifigure faces and a stack of bricks.  Being a self confessed hoarder of fonts, I searched for a Lego font and came up with Legothick from Urbanfonts.

I used my trusty Photoshop Elements to come up with my design for the tags and some cellophane bags I use for my custom Project Life cards.  And we're all ready for Valentine's Day!

I had planned on using the same little minifigure head on all four of my tags but then I came across the cute little girl with the eyelashes & red lips and couldn't pass it up.  So the little girls will get a girl and the boys will get the little smiling face.  Jake loved the one with the sunglasses, so I put that one next to his name on all the tags.  Download the FREE printable tags for your Lego Valentines HERE!

Don't worry, if you're in a hurry or can't find the bricks to create the hearts for your Valentines.  This idea works just as well with a little bag filled with miscellaneous bricks.  Buy a bin at Target or just grab some from your kids' stash...chances are they won't miss a few (maybe...)!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Check out this post and tons of other great Valentine ideas over on InspirationDIY.com:

And, of course, don't forget to stop by my friend Kim's link party for
all sorts of inspiration...Valentine & otherwise!

Find it over at Today's Creative Blog

December Daily 2013 with the Heidi Swapp Believe Memory File Album Days 6-15

As always, for me, creativity is messy!

I got to work catching up on my December Daily today.  I have all the photos edited and uploaded and most are printed.  All but a couple journal cards are written on.  Pretty good, since I'll be sharing my 2012 December Daily soon (just finished it in December 2013).  So, you see why I'm so happy with how much I have done this year!  I keep my supplies in a couple little bins and a ziplock bag.  I chose everything to match my Believe collection from Heidi Swapp...red, lime-ish green, black, white, and some gold & silver thrown in for good measure...stamps, ink, ribbon, twine, stickers, washi, whatever I could find in those colors went into the little containers or baggie.  Then I knew it wouldn't be too difficult to throw together a few pages when I had time.  Of course, my time didn't free up until the second week in January.  But, I think that's how it is for a lot of us.  We're so busy with family, friends, parties, making gifts, cleaning house, etc. during the holidays that these projects can easily get tossed into that box of 1/2 finished projects.  I did really try to keep up on the photos this year though, so at least I'd have the photos to go by when the time came around.  So, here's what I have for days 6-15. I get to work on the rest and be back to share soon!

I'm continuing to use the cute little countdown cards that Heidi posted FREE on her blog this year as overlays, printed on vellum, topping my Technique Tuesday Story cards. I love seeing all the Christmas prettiness on my pages before seeing the handwritten cards. And maybe people will have to stop & look around a bit before they find the journaling.

I added a cute little word grain tag to this one! And I love the die cut, so my photo from Day 7 can peek through.

The 7th was a fun day! My daughter, Delaney, teaches a monthly kids class at the scrapbook store where I work, here in Beaverton, Oregon. She has a great time! Then after, we snuck out for some Christmas shopping & lunch, just us girls.

I added some sequins and silver ink to give this page a little flair. I attach my sequins with mini glue dots. Wet glue might work too, but I design these pages quickly & move on to the next...no time for glue to dry.

I'm having fun using Heidi's little ephemera pack in this album!  It's SO nice to have all my embellishments ready & waiting in a little baggy! I poured all the ephemera into a baggy and separated the black number stars, just so it's easier to find the number I need for each page without going through the entire bag!

What goes with December more than a blinking Rudolph nose...

Or a neon green wig!?

For the main embellishment on this page, I used one of Heidi's Freebie tags I had printed from last year. I trimmed it and adhered it to my very favorite red...Kisses from the Vintage Collection by Core'dinations. Then I left a little border and trimmed around the tag. Kisses matches tons of reds from many designers and adds just the right amount of texture to my projects even without sanding or tearing it.

We had the tiniest dusting of snow late at night on the ninety...it just so happens that was the week Delaney's dance studio was holding secret practices until 10pm every night for flash mob at Zoo Lights Saturday night. So, she had to make a barely visible snow angel in the driveway before going to bed with her clothes on inside out while praying for a snow day!

This cute little tag in the middle of the book was perfect for a little pile of ephemera & embellishments!

For the back of the tag, I chose a little vellum sentiment and a couple puffy silver stars. The stars are from a yard of trim I bought at a local fabric store. (Mill End, if you're looking in the Portland area.)

I was super excited about this bracket page with the little window for Day 10.

Since I hadn't used any garden type twine yet, I added some here in a little pile, under my acrylic "joy" piece from the ephemera pack. I think it's a little unexpected to mix such a slick, shiny, clear piece with a tangled pile of twine...that's why I LOVE it!

When you open the little flap, you find some fun photos & my journaling card with its Countdown topper for Day 10.

Day 11 has a fun little stack of photos...a selfie...trying to get myself in my albums...a photo of our backyard on this cold, icy and SUNNY day! Plus, a shot of my Christmas mantel.  Each day I'm including photos from the #heidiholidayfotofind. This is a little photo scavenger hunt, where we had a different theme each day and posted our photos on Instagram everyday. Today's clue was #wrapping paper. This year, I covered the frames on the wall above my mantel with kraft wrapping paper. I borrowed this idea from a friend who's a Super Star decorator!

On the next little tag, I added some really old ribbon and a little piece of ephemera.

I ALWAYS keep ribbon. Ribbon from packages, gifts, store packaging...anywhere really. I have two wire farm baskets on the wall above my desk in my studio. I just toss whatever I find in there & dig around whenever a project comes up. I almost always have a ribbon that will work for my project!

On the backside of the little tag, I placed my journal card & overlay.

Somehow I only had a couple photos for this day...and my kid are perfect examples of the Heidi foto find...#naughtyornice. You'll see I'm using a lot of washi in this album. This is a concerted effort to use some of those rolls I've been collecting.

This page has some stamps from the Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards December Daily collection from 2012 and also some of her new flair, just for Christ.

In addition to the Ali stamps, I have a cute little tags from Chic Tags here too!

Just a little tip...that tag is covering a stamp that didn't come out perfectly the first time! Don't forget, you're tiny tags are perfect for occasions like this! Don't forget...there are no mistakes, just opportunities to improve your project! 

Such a busy day...our 5 store tour, Passport to Creativity's holiday party was on the 14th and I had to leave early to get Delaney and some of her friends to the zoo in time for the flash mob proposal they were dancing in! Oh and Dave took Jake to watch a Duck basketball game at the arose Garden, the rode Max & got to see the tree at Pioneer Square too!

I used a super festive digi scrap kit from The Daily Digi's November collection to create this flier that was also printed as a poster.

I stamped some solid red Target washi with black Stayz On ink and some little stars from the 2013 Project Life class at Studio Calico.

For a change of pace, I hung this photo off the edge, just so you'd see the kids faces as you looked at a few pages before this one. I added a little green tab with ribbon & my trusty stapler.

Small projects like this are some of my favorites!

I love the feeling of accomplishment I feel when I actually FINISH a project!

So, don't just look at this album as exclusively for December.

You could put together a small album for all sorts of occasions...trips, anniversaries, birthdays, family, friends. The possibilities are endless, just be sure to limit your color palette and gather just a few embellishments in that palette and you're ready to add them to a small album, along with a few sheets of coordinating paper.

Until next time, don't forget to #makeityourown!