Girl Scouts and Ribbon Board

Hi Everyone!

It has been a hectic and transitional week.  Pretty much just trying to get back into our normal not summer routines. School, band, soccer, and Girl Scouts are all starting back up again.  All 3 of my girls are in Girl Scouts- all different levels and different troops that meet at different times.  And I am the leader for my 8th grader's troop. Sometimes I still wonder how I got suckered into leadership, but after going on 8 years, I wouldn't give it up for the world.  Some of these girls have been with this troop since the beginning.  It has been wonderful to watch these girls grow from little 1st graders to the beautiful, amazing young ladies that are ready to take on any challenge that 8th grade can dish out!

Anyway, one of my biggest challenges for my troop meetings as they have gotten older is finding activities that 1) takes more than 5 minutes but less than 1.5 hours to complete;
2) relates to what is going on in their lives or troop plans; and 3) something that will not just be taken home and thrown on the floor or in a drawer and forgotten.

So this week, my project doesn't actually involve paper.  Our "Welcome Back" project for my troop will be to make Ribbon Boards to hang in their lockers.  I thought about traditional cork boards at first, but I don't want the teachers and custodians mad at me when push pins and thumbtacks keep falling on the floor in the hall.  And magnet boards seems redundant considering the whole locker is metal! So came the ribbon board project- no pins to fall out and still plenty of places to put pics or notes or whatever they want!

Here is what I used for my ribbon board:

I used an 8x10 canvas (value pack is on sale at Michael's this week), quilt batting, fabric left over from other projects that I never started, staple gun, ribbon, and thumbtacks (but I will be switching this out for brads).

There are lots of tutorials online about using foam board or cork board, and I thought about those. But since I got the canvases on sale, that is what I went with.  The boards are actually very easy.  The hardest part was deciding which fabric and ribbons to use.

First, cut the batting and fabric large enough to have about 3 inches extra on every side. Lay the batting down, then place the canvas (face down) on top of the batting.  Pull the batting around the edges and staple to the frame of the canvas. It can help to cut the extra fabric away from the corners to keep the bulk down. Next, place your fabric good side down on your table.  Place your batting covered canvas on top of the fabric and repeat stapling like with the batting.  (Tip: pull fabric as tight as you can to get out any wrinkles, working with opposite sides) I didn't take a pic of this part.

Now that you have the canvas covered, play with the ribbon placement until you are happy with it. Place pins at the ribbon intersections to hold them in place. Flip canvas over and attach the ends of the ribbon to keep them in place. I went a little overboard with my staple gun trying to aim with my smaller ribbon, my troop will be using hot glue for this part. 

All that is left is to replace the pins at the ribbon intersections with something more permanent.  I used white thumbtacks (would have worked if I used the cork or foam boards). The canvas was pretty tough to poke through so I had to use one of my piercing tools. Then the tacks wouldn't stay by themselves. Again, improvising with extra school supplies, I cut up one of the extra big pink erasers and stuck them on the back of the tacks to keep them in place. I like how it looked from the front, but I will be replacing them with brads for a more permanent solution.  Attach a ribbon on the top and it's ready to hang!

I have a blog hop post coming up later in the week...  make sure to come back to check it out!

Base & Bling Oval Cuff

Hi Everyone!

I was so excited to get my package from Close To My Heart today!  Couldn't wait to open it and make something. The item I was most looking forward to playing with was the new Base & Bling Oval Cuff. Base & Bling is CTMH's jewelry line. There are also pendants and chains and charms in both antiqued silver or gold. You can use your own images or CTMH even has some great sticker image collections to choose from. 

I chose the Journey image sticker sheet for my cuff.  There are quite a few sayings and images that I really liked on this sheet. I finally picked "Just Keep Swimming".  It is a saying that we use in my house a lot.  It helps remind me that when things get rough and a bit overwhelming, if I "just keep swimming", eventually I can make it through anything. It took me longer to actually pick the image than it took me to put the whole thing together! There were just a few simple steps:

1. Use the Glass Oval Cover to trace oval over selected image.

2. Cut out sticker and adhere to Oval Cuff.

3. Cover image with Liquid Glass adhesive (it dries clear, don't be stingy with it)

4. Place Glass cover over image and use a damp paper towel to wipe off the excess adhesive that seeps out the sides.

Here is a list of products and links to my online store if you are interested in purchasing these for yourself.

Silver Oval Cuff

Oval Glass Covers

Base & Bling Journet Sticker sheet

Liquid Glass

Chalk It Up

Hi!

I am excited to share that the new Close To My Heart Annual Inspirations catalog is now live! There are so many new products that I can't wait to use in different projects.  The good news is that the new book lasts for a full year! The bad news is that means I have to make the tough decisions on how to spread everything out! I have so many projects running through my head, but I thought I would let you all know about the paper line I am most excited to start with...

Since my girls will be starting school soon (Friday, actually! Way too early in my opinion, but that is a completely different soapbox I don't want to climb on right now), I am starting off with the Chalk It Up paper line. While this paper obviously works for school related projects, the patterns and colors work well for lots of other things too.  I can't wait to try it out. Click this link to check out this paper and all of the complements in my online store: Chalk It Up

This awesome line also has a Scrapbook Workshop On The Go, which includes the paper pack, additional cardstock, accessories, a D-sized exclusive stamp set, and instructions on on how to create some fantastic layouts. Check it out here: WOTG Chalk It Up Scrapbook Kit

And finally, there is also a Picture My Life Program kit in the Chalk It Up line!  See it here: PML Chalk It Up.   This is especially exciting because for the month of August, if you buy any of the 13 available Picture My Life  scrapbooking programs, you can get one of 8 qualifying 10-pack of Memory Protectors for just $3! Check out all the different Picture My Life here: Picture My Life.

And this month's Stamp Of the Month (only $5 with a $50 order) is this really cute Owl themed set:

Ok, that's it for now... I'll be back Tuesday with a new project to share with you!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!  This is the beginning of sharing my love of paper crafts with others.  I have been mainly a card maker with an occasional home decor item thrown in for fun. But recently, with the realization that my babies are all growing up so fast, I have decided that I want to spend more time scrap booking and recording as many of the little moments that I can.

I joined as a Close To My Heart Consultant in April, so many of the projects that I will be posting will have our CTMH products.  If you like what you see, you can click on the link to go to my site to order any of the supplies you might need.

I plan on joining some blog hops, so new projects will be posted regularly. Hope you will visit often!