The canvas of my life

My friend Shalamar brought to my attention that I hadn't shared this canvas on my blog yet. I made it right after Easter. It measures 9" by 12" and I used so many of my favorite products: paints, pearls, lace, buttons, Creative Imaginations papers and stickers, stickles glitter, beads, chipboard, and ribbon.



I hope you enjoyed it! Now, we're off to tap dance lessons....

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

I just had to share this cute thing that Sam does. I was thrilled to finally get a picture of it! When you ask him a question, he'll pause, roll his eyes, put his finger to his lips and say "Hmmmm....". Its just the cutest thing to see a 2 year old act so sophisticated.

Hey Grandma-- he's wearing that John Deere shirt you got him. He LOVES it and would wear it everyday if I let him.

Biten by the creative bug

The creative bug has biten and I couldn't wait to show you what I've made now. Everything I made was made so quickly. I love when projects give me that instant gratification!

Here are the 2 additional frames I made. They seem so romantic to me. They each fit a 5" by 7" photo. The frames are "antique" and I found them at a garage sale. I'd been saving them for the perfect project and this is it. This first one is my favorite:

More wine charms. These are made with Disney bottle caps.

I had this great shaped box left over from Christmas. You guessed it.... more junk from my closet. So, today I covered it with paper and it fits most of my awkward sized acrylic stamps. It'll be great for bringing to crops.


Here's a sampling of the 22 new hair clips I made. I surprise myself sometimes with all that I can make out of my scrap crap.

Oh, and I couldn't forget to show you this explosion box. Its a kit from K & Company. I bought it at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store and still today they had about 6 left. It looks like a gift box and then you open it and there are a few layers that "explode" out to show you pictures or greetings or whatever else you want to add to it. This one doesn't have pictures yet. It'll be a great birthday gift for someone!

I hope this creative bug I've gotten is contagious. Now stop reading my blog and go make something! ;)

Make your own Paper Flowers

Ok, I have a new fun thing to make and you can make them too! I made these super easy paper flowers and I'm going to share how I did it. They'll be perfect when you just can't find the right embellishment for a card or page.



They're made by folding and cutting 3 inch square pieces of scrap papers, layering them, and then attaching a felt flower (made by fancy pants) and a brad. Its sort of like cutting out paper snowflakes.

Here's how you do it:

1. Cut 4 pieces of paper into 3" squares.
2. Fold it in half.
3. Fold it in half again so now its in quarters.
4. Draw, or eye, the pattern of a leaf. One point of the leaf should be at the center fold. The other point at the opposite corner.
5. Cut out the leaf but DO NOT cut all the way to the point at the center fold. Here's a visual: Do not cut into the shaded part below that line.
6. Unfold the paper and repeat 3 more times.
7. Now, put a brad through the felt flower (or you could use a circle or other paper flowers) and poke it through the centers of your 4 paper flowers. Stagger the leaves and then open the brad. That's it.
   

A few tips:
I think it adds more interest to use different, yet coordinating, colors of paper. I made 2 flowers with pattered paper and two solid colored paper flowers.

You can also use different sized paper squares to cut your flowers. It would look great to use two 3" squares and two 2" squares.

I folded up the petals of my flowers to give it some dimension but you can leave it flat too.

I hope you enjoy making your flowers! Feel free to comment or email me with questions.

Now, off to wine tasting.... Cheers!

Funny thoughts from a 4-year old

Madeleine has been saying some of the funniest things and I just thought I'd share what really runs through the mind of a 4-year old.

Tuesday
We were driving in the car and she says "Mom, if I were a dinosaur, I'd be a pterodactyl. " Ok.... where did that come from? We haven't even been talking about dinosaurs....?

Thursday
After I picked her up from pre-school. "Mom, I'm going to be smarter than you when I grow up. I'm going to learn everything that you know AND everything that Dad knows AND everything that my teachers know. I'm going to be SOOOO smart. I can't wait!"

Today (Saturday)
"Mom, if I lie but you don't find out, is it still a lie?" Yep... I'm in trouble....

Have a great weekend!

New frames

In the spirit of cleaning out my closets, I made these frames. I've been stashing old and new frames for a while now. I had 6! I was inspired by an online class that I took from Janna Wilson. (She rocks! She is so crafty and creative. I learned a lot from her and it got me out of a little rut I was in. ) And when I get excited about something I tend to take it to extremes. Instead of making one, I'm making 6. Here are the first 4:

This was the first one. The frame was originally green but I painted it black and sanded the edges. The background is a fabulous flannel fabric I found at JoAnn's. I found the lace trim there too. The place for the 5" by 7" picture is mounted on chipboard and then adhered using foam tape. Look closely... yep, you can sew through chipboard. Fun, eh?

This one is my favorite! It's just like the previous one but this frame is really big. It was made to fit a 14" by 20" picture and like this, it will fit a 5" by 7". Flannel and flowers and felt... oh my!

These two will hold a 4" by 6". The background on these is fabric too. I love that black felt trim by Queen & Co.




Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to share how I made them. They're easier than you'd think! I'll post the other two frames soon. They're both in gold antiqued frames and very romantic looking.

Make it a great day!

The Family Farm layout

Here are my new layouts for the design team I'm on at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store. We were assigned to do a "heritage" layout using this K & Company family scrapbooking kit. Its not my normal style AT ALL but I thought I'd give it a try. I had a bunch of old pictures from my dad's side of the family. Most of the pictures I had were about farming so I took this as an opportunity to tell the story of how the family farm has changed over the years. You can read the journaling below.

Here's the first page of the layout "THEN":
Here's the second page "NOW"




I love how the journaling worked out. I had a lot to say and a lot more pictures so I created a mini-album with a gate fold on the layout.




Here's what the journaling says on the inside:

The Girard family has been farming as far back as I know. My great-grandfather, Narcisse Girard, originally bought the farm that I call “home” in 1929. Prior to this farm, they rented land and farmed east of Marshall and around Ghent, Minnesota.

In 1929, when my great-grandfather bought this land west of Marshall, Minnesota, he had 240 acres of land, a dozen horses, a dozen kids, and a lot of courage. Farming was, and still is, hard and risky work. If you don’t do your work or you have a bad year, your family doesn’t eat. Families were much larger then than they are now. The average size of a farm before the 1950’s was about 160 acres. If you had a large family (more labor) like ours was, the average size of that farm was 240 acres. Crops that were grown during that time were mostly oats, corn, and wheat. Many of those crops were grown to feed livestock. See the photo on the left (top) showing them thrashing grain with a team of horses.

The Great Depression brought hard times to the farm in the 1930’s. As a matter of fact Narcisse Girard almost sold the farm in 1935 because he didn’t want to pay the taxes on it. His brothers convinced him to try one more year and that next year made all the difference in the future of the family.

Times changed, Narcisse and Sarah Girard’s children grew, and my grandpa, Clement Girard, inherited the farm. His brother, Louis Girard, built the barn pictured here in 1949. The biggest change to farming in the last century was the advancement in machinery. On our farm, tractors were first used in the late 1930’s. (Look at this newspaper clipping, on the back page, of my grandpa (Clem) going on a trip to buy an Allis-Chalmers tractor. It was a big deal! And my Dad still uses that tractor today.) By the early 1950’s the last team of workhorses were retired. With less livestock to feed and better machinery, soybeans became a popular crop in the late 1950’s.

The advancements in agricultural technology have grown exponentially since the 1950’s. Now, my Dad, Donald Girard, owns the farm and it is about 1000 acres. The crops now are mostly half soybeans and half corn. Some corn goes to feed cattle but the majority of it is for sale. On today’s farm there are several tractors and attachments and no horses. And sadly, there are also no kids at “home” learning how to farm from my Dad. So, what will happen to our family’s farm in the future? It’s anybody’s guess. Two things are for certain: First, my Dad is going to farm as long as he is physically able to and secondly, everyone who has been a part of this family is proud of their farming history and it will not be simply forgotten.

Make it a great day today!
Christy

Be creative everyday

My goal everyday is to be creative. I have so many creative outlets that I usually have no problems finding something to do but finding the time... that's usually a problem.

Wednesday I'm providing dinner for our church's youth group so today I made 5 pans of lasagne. That really didn't take much culinary creativity so I hope that's not the only CT (creative time) I get today.

Last night I made up a load of wine charms.


These are so easy and fun! They make great hostess gifts but I'm also thinking of opening a shop on Etsy to channel some of my energy. I feel a passion to make stuff, I should probably reap a return on it somehow. But, until then, my friends and family are just going to get homemade gifts. (And I've made some terrific ones lately!)

I'm making some frames right now and getting some projects ready for Nat'l Scrapbook Day. I'm going to the all-day crop on May 3rd at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store. Should be fun! Especially, if Cydne will be there.

Time to get back to laundry and the rest of life....

Ok...I'm opening my closet to the world!

After months of admiring other's blogs, I'm starting my own and going public with my life, my family and all my creations from my closet. Why? Let me count the reasons...

1. I find so much inspiration from other scrapbooker's and crafter's blogs. I want to give back some inspiration, if possible.
   
2. I make a lot of stuff but I also tend to "collect" a lot of supplies that get thrown into a closet. So.....I'm cleaning out my closet! ....I'm coming out of the closet! ...showing you the skeletons in my closet...and any other cheesy metaphors you can dream up. In a nutshell, I'm going to show the world what I like to make.
3. I like to share pictures and the day-to-day busyness of our lives with our friends and family that live far away.
   
4. It's free, quick, and easy.
   
5. I like to journal and write about my random thoughts and discoveries.
   
6. I'm just not busy enough. (Ha! That's a lie!)

So...Here I am.

One of my favorite quotes: "Those who matter don't mind and those who mind, don't matter."

Have a terrific day!
Cheers!
Christy