Easy-peasy idea for Fathers Day

I just had to share this straight forward suggestion for Fathers Day (or your DH's birthday) - though I totally lifted the idea from Martha Stewart, here.

Grab a bucket & fill with the man-of-the-hour's favourite treats, new DVD's, gadgets, things for his hobby or, as in my husband's case, things for his second love: his motorbike.  Add a simple tag, fun banners, ribbons or even get your children to put painty hand prints all over it & voila!

I used Susan Bartolini's Mission To Mars kit to decorate mine, plus lots of ribbon, mini star buttons, even a little hessian-style ribbon (all of which will mysteriously disappear back into my craft stash when DH has 'opened' his gift of motorbike cleaning goodies (trust me, he'll be putty in my hands after he sees this lot - he's a little OCD about cleaning the bike!)

Bye for now!

Book clubs & other things

Hello!

I recently joined a book club - my first ever.  Its an on-line club run via the Sweet Shoppe's community forum, and we're just into the second month of books, so its all new, fresh & welcoming new readers all the time.

This month so far I've read 'The Girl Who Cased the Moon' by Sara Addison Allen - and just loved it.  Its a really light, charming & simply happy book to read.  I've already ordered another of hers.  I'm finding myself progressively reading more & more light-hearted books, rather than the more 'educational'ones. I find I more & more appreciate a little escapism in my choice of books - too many harsh things going on in the world without reading about them in a novel too.

Truthfully I rarely read books - I listen to them instead! ...which is precisely what I'm doing with a second of the book club book choices for May: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

I felt like I'd given into popular demand & downloaded a heavy, deep book, but about 4 hours into the audio unabridged version, I am a total convert.  Its a beautifully written story - the audio version is told by 2 actors, an older Jacob & a younger version, and it works splendidly.  If you've never tried listening to a story - give it a go with this book, its worth joining a club like Audible for this one alone.

I hope you like the 'lil Love Bot box above (the little robot makes me smile) - the papers worked perfectly to make this more masculine themed gift box, don't you think?  Its complimented by this card - perfect for your man on any special occasion :)  The designs are all by Ju Kneipp, though the box template is by Heather Roselli.

Have I mentioned Heather has a new-look blog??  She's also beginning to sell her templates for commercial use too!!  I've been pestering her for this for ages!  Her range of Stick Learnings are also worth a peek if you've small children - made in happy collaboration with Rebecca from the CT team.  I've a couple of how-to's on the blog if you're interested too :)

Finally, in response to a art journal themed challenge this month, I had a go at making a journal cover in this new-to-me style.  This was the result:

I didn't have a journal to actually cover so I made one with recycled card & key rings.  I will definitely try this style again - including the 'she would...' quote idea.  It was fun & nice to try something a little different :)  Its made with lots of SuzyQ Scrap's goodies!

I'm off to dry my hair after swimming (30 lengths this morning!), and get more washing on the line :)

Wishing you a sunny day too,

Happy iNSD!

Happy {inter}National Scrapbooking Day - when we all have a lovely excuse to shop the extraordinary sales, play games & hopefully have time to scrap, create & have fun using all the lovely goodies in our stash or on our hard-drives!

Everyone is having a sale today, and have created new goodies to pop into their shops too.  Here are some of my personal fave goodies:

  

   

Heather Roselli has just launched her gorgeous, new-look site, plus a new range of fun and very colourful teaching aids called Sticky Learnings - well worth a peek if you're home schooling or simply want another play resource for your little ones - you can see one of the previews above.

I have a little something in stores today too!!!  I have had the sincere pleasure of playing with Kate Hadfield's wonderful doodle designs again to create these two mini sets - available only at The LilyPad:

These mini ready-to-print and assemble sets are perfect for Mother's & Father's Day, but are also suitable for birthdays, or any time you simply want to give a little something special.  Lots of how-to's are included if you're new to 'hybrid' :)

I'll leave it there for now, and let you go shopping!  ...oh, but I should tell you that there is a fun blog train departing from DigiScrap Addicts, with fun & lots of freebies along the way!

Crafty Project: Dry Erase Board

Hi!

Celeste is a lovely lady I know at the Sweet Shoppe.  She is full of amazing ideas & inspirational sources that she readily shares.  Recently she showed off an idea for a DIY dry-erase board - the type you write on with a special pen then rub off when you're done with the message, again & again.  Very environmentally friendly :)

... and I can honestly say I don't think I've tried a simpler, cheaper or easy to personalise project!  Here's what I did:

I went all digi for my first attempt: a small memo board for Alex to use.
First I bought a very, very cheap clip photoframe - seriously it cost me less than £1 from ASDA.  Next I created a file in Photoshop the same size as the frame aperture, then the best bit: I had fun with the papers, banners & elephants from Alphabet Soup for Boys & School Days, both by Zoe Pearn.

After printing, I put the finished page into my frame, and let Alex loose with a dry-erase pen.  This is a perfect way to encourage him to keep track of all the things he has to do or take to school! ...and when he gets fed-up with this image I can simply create a new one from my ever-growing digi-stash!

Loving Alex's board, I had to make one for myself to pop next to my craft space, using a slightly more expensive frame - this one cost just shy of £3!  Again, I started by opening a file in Photoshop sized to match the frame's aperture, but this time I wanted a more grown up look, and chose to play with the gorgeous Everyday Moments from Lauren Grier & Jenn Barrette.

After printing, I added a little ribbon, glitter glue, a Doodlebug Designs flower plus button - and then popped it into my ever-so-expensive frame, & ta-da!

Andrea, of The Ribbon Girl on-line store, and HybridBabe extraordinaire, has just added this article to her blog, showing you how to make the most gorgeous dry-erase board I've seen. Her blog is always worth a peek for card inspiration, but this post is a definite must-see!

I made a LO!

...I know its only a very simple one, but hey its still a LO - there's a photograph and everything! I made it using Ju Kneipp's new collaboration kit Everyday Love with Valerie Wibbens, over at The LilyPad where Ju is guesting for the month. I have to admit a bit of an addiction to Val's designs so I was delighted that Ju got to collab with her!

Just one more thing to mention before finishing this post. Many of you are aware that Lauren Grier has been very ill recently. La is an amazingly talented lady, who creates some of the most original, fun & funky doodle-icious kits, alphas & element packs out there. A huge group of her friends within the digital scrapbook community have got together to create a not-to-be-missed kit which will be sold to help La & her beautiful boy, Ce.

The contributors, led by Shawna Clingerman include everyone at the Sweet Shoppe plus too many others to mention (except I will mention Kate Hadfield 'cos I love her). Its going to be sold at the Sweet Shoppe for sure, but I have a feeling it will be available elsewhere too including DigiScrap Addicts. The kit is called 'With A Little Help from My Friends'.

I promise you, its too beautiful a kit to miss, and you'll be helping out a lovely lady & her son too.

Hybridy blog post to share

Hi there! Quick post to say I've a blog post up here, on the Sweet Shoppe Design's blog that I think you'll enjoy - especially the bookmark idea! No more hints, just go & read all about it :)

Sara x

PS If your mojo is in need of a kick start you should have a peek at the Sweet Shoppe's monthly portfolio challenges, which a packed with a variety of prompts, & ideas for you to spark off. Well worth making a coffee & taking 5 minutes to relax & wander through!

Hot off the Press

Look what I made! I have never made an 'explosion' box before - the number of photos have always intimidated me 'cos I am lousy at taking them - but Heather has a huge release scheduled for tomorrow morning, and needed her team to make up examples. I got to make the hexagonal & pentagonal boxes as you can see, and I loved it. Heather's templates are (as always) a breeze to use, and these boxes only required the minimal equipment to assemble: a printer, a knife & ruler for straight edges, my Scoreboard for neat creasing & some adhesive. As Heather wanted printables that were already good to look at, I didn't add any 'real' embellishments - but the possibilities are endless! My mum will love them as a gift for sure. ...well worth looking at when they hit the Sweet Shoppe store! Sara x