A little notebook tutorial

I love little notebooks. Simple ones that I can throw in my purse, and if something happens to it then it's no big deal. Well, for my December My Little Shoebox project I decided to make a little notebook from the square die-cut sheet from "Green". Here's how I did it.

First cut the middle section out of the die-cut sheet
so that only the ends are scalloped (approx. 3.5 to 4" in width)

Fold the sheet in half.

About 1" of the way in from the 1st fold,
make another fold, and be sure to bend it backwards so it's pliable.

Now here's where it gets a tad bit tricky.

Fold the first fold in so that it's inverted.

This step strengthens the paper so that when the holes are punched
they won't rip. It also makes for a sturdier binding.

Cut down some regular ol' typing paper to fit inside,

and slide it inside the notebook covers
BEHIND the inverted fold.

Punch 2 holes at the top, going through the covers

and the paper. Tie a pretty bow, and there you have it.

A view from the top

A simple little notebook (without any bulky embellishments
on the front so that it can be thrown in your purse),
and a great way to use up some scraps too.

I also keep these in the console of my car so I can sketch or jot something down when I'm in a pinch. And Caroline has taken a liking to little notebooks too. Looks like I'll be making these for a while. :)

We have a sitter...

some drool...

and a messy mouth.

All at seven months.
His hands and arms are always going too.
Flailing actually.
But isn't he cute?
(you don't have to answer that.)
With as much as he's drooling,
you'd think there'd be some sign of
teeth too. But no. Nothing.
And so the drool continues...

You know you're a scrapper when...

you intentionally go to the Creative Discovery Museum on "Exploration Space Day" because you know there's super cute rocket/space themed paper coming out.

Yes friends, it's true. I did this a few weekends ago. Our childrens museum has a special "Space" day, and I made sure we went. :) BUT I also have to add that we hadn't had a family day in quite some time where we spent the day all together. Josh had just gotten back from working in another city for 2 weeks straight, and we needed to be together. We all needed some QT together. And we really did have a great time! I just happen to get lots of pictures so they could be scrapped too. wink, wink.

They made their own "astronaut juice" aka Tang in a bag

painted their own galaxy with glitter paint

posed for Mommy :)

and built their own rockets

Super day! The kids were excited with everything they got to see and do. I was happy that we were able to spend a day all together and get some fun pictures too. And the fellas? Well, they were just along for the ride I guess. Not much a 6 mo. old could do, but be held by Daddy. They were more happy about Mellow Mushroom afterwards.

My Little Shoebox is looking for talented, motivated, responsible designers who have time to commit to design layouts and projects each month with our products and promote our products online and at their local stores. We haven't set a specific number of designers for our team. We welcome international submissions.

We are looking for:
1. Enthusiastic, creative people that love My Little Shoebox and are able to do monthly assignments such as layouts, projects, and cards with our products.
2. You must post your work on 2 different galleries plus the MLS galleries
3. You must be able to commit to a 12 months term, which will be from April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012.
4. You must be at least 18 years of age.
5. You agree to release the rights of your designs to My Little Shoebox for display on the company website, blog, and in company publications.
6. If needed, your designs may also be needed for display at trade shows.
7. In addition, as a design team member, you will be contributing twice per term to our company newsletter and be required quarterly to make a photo or video highlighting a technique for the blog.
8. You may be required to contribute to the company’s blog during your term.
9. International submissions welcome.

In return you will receive:
1. Packages filled with plenty of MLS products to design with.
2. Your picture and bio on the My Little Shoebox website
3. Your own personal gallery on the My Little Shoebox website.

To apply please send the following to dtcall@mylittleshoebox.com (please use your full name as the subject):
1. Full name, address, phone number and email address
2. 2 layouts, 1 card and 1 project representing your best never before seen work using MLS products (jpeg files no larger than 500 kb)
3. A link to your personal blog and to the online galleries or message boards that you post on.
4. Design teams that you currently are on.
5. Write a paragraph about yourself telling us why you think you'll be a good fit for the MLS team.
6. If you've been published.
7. If you teach classes.
Submission deadline is March 10, 2011
Our design team members will be announced on March 31, 2011.
We thank you in advance for all of your work and appreciate your entry!

7 mos. and looking back

sigh....my little guy is 7 months old today. Over half a year has gone by already. That makes my heart hurt a little. Guess that's one reason I scrapbook, so I can look back and remember.

Here's a picture taken when he was one month old (or there about). I had nursery duty at church for the first time since having him, and the worker in there with me was a *professional photographer* who just *happen* to have her camera with her that day. (Read, God knew I'd want to always remember my little one cuddling up with me in the rocking chair. And this was a precious little gift He gave me. It's something little but I'm most definitely thankful for it.) And so of course, I scrapped it. :)

"Content to Cuddle"

Where in the world have the last SEVEN months gone? I know I've said it before but I'll say it again. I'm SOOO not a fan of my babies growing up! Especially this one since I know he's the last. And it doesn't help that he's a momma's boy (which I secretly love.) I just don't like him getting SO big SO fast. Not fan. AT. ALL.

Now, please excuse me while I go finish off all the Valentines candy.

Happy Valentines Day!

Just wanted to thank all of you for popping by my little ol' blog,
and for leaving me "love"
because it truly does make my day!
Thank you!
Hope you all have had a Happy Valentines day!

Simple and sweet.

A few of my My Little Shoebox projects were on their blog the other day. I think the one I like the most is the one that was the most simple. Sometimes simple is just better.

Happy Friday everyone!
Simple and sweet.

(Country Life cartridge used.)

Blurry boredom.

This is what happens when you're stuck inside for 7-8 straight with three small children like we were during our January snow. You learn to improvise. You become inventive with new "toys" because they're tired of theirs. Even if (cringe) that means you let them play with your camera. With the camera strap securely around their neck of course. OF COURSE.

And in return you also laugh. A lot. You make silly faces. And you get climbed on. And you hug'em and love'em, and squeeze tight. And surprisingly enough this cures any desire you had to want to kill them. And they don't want to kill you any more either!

And it becomes one big blurry fantastic giggly memory!

On a serious note, I really love these photos. I had to PRY the camera away from C. As in, pluck each and every one of her little fingers off of it one by one. And by the time she was done, I had pictures of nearly every object in my room, pictures of the dog taken through a mud-streaked glass door, and just plain ol' patio itself. She loves to take pictures.

SK was just too funny when she had it. She had to heave it up to her face because apparently it's still too heavy for her. She'd even grunt a little when she heaved. :) Then she'd try to find us in the viewfinder but only barely. We were always off to the side, never in any kind of focus. She could barely lift it much less keep it steady!

I think in all we spent 1-2 hours just playing in our bedroom. I also did the self-timer just to try to get all us together. I had to prop up the camera in my closet! hee! But oh we had fun! Good times, fun memories.

But all that said, I'm still dreading the snow they're calling for tonight. Thankfully it's been down graded to only an inch or two.

Happy (not-so-wordless) Wednesday everybody! :)

And just to keep it fair...

Do you ever find yourself taking pictures of one child more than the other(s)? I certainly do. I have one who seems to be a camera hog (can you guess which one?), one who doesn't know he can say 'no' to the camera (yet), and the other who runs, literally, almost every time I pull it out. Either that or she gives me such crazy goofy poses that she moves too much and the shots are all blurry.

Yeah, she's the one I don't scrap as often. My middle kiddo. She either won't let me or won't stay still long enough to get a good pic. sigh...BUT she was so proud and excited to start ballet that I got this precious shot of her. And thus, it got scrapped. (You know, just to *try* to keep it even.)

"First Day of Ballet"

I've tried to become a more detail oriented scrapper. Not just in my words, but also in my embellishments. Lately I've really been enjoying grouping or clustering them together to make their own little vignettes so to speak, and I've really enjoyed diving in to my stash to do it.

And then there's this one. It's a redo.

Something was just "off" with the first attempt,

and it bugged me so much I had to go back and "fix" it.
Usually I just let those type of things
slide, but I couldn't let this one go.

As I've been going through my scrap room and "cleaning", I've been running across papers that I still love like these from Cosmo Cricket (1st LO) and October Afternoon (2nd LO). Just because they're "old" and not a recent release doesn't mean I love them any less. And since I couldn't bring myself to give them away or (gasp!) throw them away, I used them. Again.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! :D

A new "new favorite"

because you know I posted earlier this week that I had a new favorite. Well, now I just can't decide. It's because of this one. Our "Lil Buddy".




I'm a HUGE fan of October Afternoon, and this little LO here is a combination of quite a few of their older lines (Ducks in a Row, Weathervane, Fly a Kite, Cherry Hill and Farm Fresh). Can you say OA obsessed?! I think so. They're my "go-to" mfr. Oh, and I'd already used the Fly A Kite tag and flag stickers I was planning on using, so I cut out their negative spaces and just adhered them to cardstock. Waste not want not, right?

I was also inspired by an Aussie scrapper from the Nook, Anthea and how she uses sewing floss on her LOs. I gave it a whirl, or should I say twirl (hehe!), and I LOVE IT!!! So fun! Love the movement it adds!

And of course I used my Cricut Expression to cut a few pieces too--the "pocket" from Stand and Salute cart (it's actually supposed to be a badge for military rank), the hand-sewn M is from Simply Sweet, and the label is from Lacy Labels.

In other creative news, I'm finishing up a mixed media canvas I started yesterday. I woke up with the hankerin' to paint, so paint I did--and white-washed, sanded, distressed, and Mod Podge'd my little heart out. It felt so good to create! I'll share it shortly.

And on that note, I hope you have a Happy Friday!! TGIF! :D

Inside the My Little Shoebox booth at CHA

Here's a quick tour our DT girl Erin did of all the new goodies MLS debuted at CHA!



Isn't Helen just the cutest?! And I have to say, I have "City by the Bay", "Oasis", and "home Tweet Home" in my hot little hands. And they're even cuter in person! I can't wait to work with them all! :)