Live.Capture.Create - Everyday

New Gallery!

2011-10-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been thinking about how my scrapbook layouts and projects are kind of all over digi-land and how I really needed to get them all in once place. You know, have one complete gallery with all my work. I was having a hard time deciding just where to do that between gallery restrictions and the worry of loosing layouts - yeah, that's happened before. I had an entire gallery go completely missing when a site was having issues once. Then I remembered Blogger has this great new layout that you can set up to look like a gallery. I'm sure you can guess what happened next. New blog created where you can check them out! I'm really excited about it and will be adding all 300-something layouts and projects over then next few days. You can check it out with the link below or on the sidebar menu there's a tab that says gallery.

New gallery blog: http://scrappymelly-gallery.blogspot.com/

Check it out and grab some inspiration!

Creative Journal: Day Ten

2011-10-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

I decided after messing up yesterday's prompt by not reading ahead that I should read ahead each night for the next day. I was so glad I did so I could do what I did. I took the ice cube tray I used to make homemade baby food and filled each spot about half way with water and then added one drop of food coloring to each. I'm out of blue I guess so I had green, red, yellow and orange. I froze them overnight and then today Mason and I went outside to play. The prompt was to use water by the way and we had lots of fun creating our water color painting together. We even colored some of the driveway where we were sitting lol It was super windy today though so don't mind all the tree junk in the pictures!

As you might be able to see, I started out trying to make a sun (top right corner) and a flower (lower left) but Mason soon took over and it became one big color mix. But that's okay - it's still pretty awesome and it's lots of fun. I definitely suggest doing it with your kids sometime. It's not just an art project, but a sensory project too! Mason kept saying "ice, cold" over and over again. And no, the food coloring doesn't stain the fingers too much. In fact it's already gone from both of our fingers tonight.

And yeah, our finished product made it to the fridge. Now that's some awesome art work :D

Yay for Halloween!

2011-10-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

I finally got off my butt today and got our few little Halloween decorations up. We don't have a whole lot, but it's enough for now. And we try to add a little to our stash each year. Since we don't have a coffee table anymore I decided to put the decorations on a shelf we used to keep books on (the books have been moved to a Mason-free zone where they can't be tortured anymore) and also added a little spookiness to our center window. It's quite festive and Mason is super stoked about the potential to wreck havoc.

Also, in honor of the spookiest time of year, I decided to share some of my favorite spooky fonts. They definitely add just the right touch to my Halloween inspired pages and projects. Oh and they're all free to download too! Just click the font name to get to it's download.

We've also decided not only what the kids are going to be this year, but that we're going to make their costumes. I'm so excited about it and can't wait until we go get all the stuff later this week. We actually started Mason's earlier today! Not telling what though - it'll be a surprise!

How are you getting spooky this year?

Creative Journal: Day Nine

2011-10-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

So being that today was Sunday and I didn't have any computer time until late this afternoon I missed that today's project was to make something with your breakfast. Oh well. I just decided to take out the Bamboo and paint something in PhotoShop instead. Well the Bamboo decided it wasn't installed (trust me, it is) so I ended up just using my mouse since I really didn't feel like arguing with the tablet and the laptop tonight. I saw a little tutorial on Pinterest today to draw this little bird so I was wanting to give it a try anyway.

I think it's pretty cute :D

Creative Journal: Day Eight

2011-10-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

I was so excited about getting to today's prompt. It was to make something out of an old book and I had already pinned this super cute pumpkin made from a book that I've been wanting to make. You can find the tutorial on how to make this super cute craft at Craftberry Bush if you're wanting to make your own. It's not hard really, but it does take a bit of time - and the ability to make a mess. In other words, don't do this when the kids are around!

I decided to put mine on a shelf so it sits against a wall so mine is flat in the back. I also decided to glue it to a piece of poster board to give it a little more strength too. It took a little patience to get the pages to to fluff the way I wanted, but I finally got it to look like I wanted. Kind of :)

My Scrappy Week

2011-10-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well if my mojo was lost it has clearly found it's way home. I have 8 layouts and 2 projects that I've uploaded this week. Craziness, I realize :D So here they are, no particular order.

As always, you can click each image to see full credits in the gallery. Have a great rest of the weekend!

Creative Journal: Day Seven

2011-10-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

A whole week! Yay! Today's prompt worked in perfectly with my plans to carve a little pumpkin. I'm on a quest to find a way to have my cute carved pumpkins more than just a couple days before Halloween. A friend gave me a link that said to carve, soak in bleach water 8 hours and then seal the pumpkin with either a special spray you can buy or vaseline. I happen to have vaseline on hand so that's what I'm going to try. So I created my template and taped it down to my little pumpkin.

Then I traced the stencil onto the pumpkin and then started carving away. I tried to get Mason to help, but he really hates the whole pumpkin guts thing. Seriously hates it. Hopefully he'll be more helpful with the next pumpkins. Here's how my pumpkin turned out!

I think it turned out pretty cute. And it's not my usual Jack Skellington pumpkin either lol Though I'm sure I'll make one when we all make pumpkins together. This guy is mainly to see if the bleach water and vaseline will keep the pumpkin fresh. I'm also going to keep him in the fridge during the day to help keep him fresh too. I've got him soaking in the bleach water tonight and I'll get him sealed tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed he doesn't rot!

Creative Journal: Day Six

2011-10-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today's project was fun - though I don't recommend trying to work with banana any time soon. It gets messy lol

That's a pig by the way. And I didn't ruin the banana with a marker. It was a food coloring writer. Mason throughly enjoyed eating every last bit of banana when I was done taking pictures. Well except for the snout. Bailey ate that part :)

A Little Fall Treat

2011-10-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

I totally enjoyed our three days of cooler temps and I'm kind of bummed it's back in the 90's now. I know, that's what I get for living in the desert. But that aside, I decided to make a fun little fall treat that I've been seeing on Pinterest in a few different forms. I was hesitant before because I had never had Nutella until yesterday. Yeah I know. I'm like the last person on the planet. But it looked gross to me lol But yesterday while at WalMart they had these little snack packs of it and some little breadsticks to dip it in so I figured, why not?

Oh. My. Gosh.

Why didn't anyone tell me about this stuff? I'm in love with it's yumminess and decided I needed to make this little treat today since it's pretty simple and didn't involved turning my kitchen in a furnace with the oven.

Aren't they cute? And so totally simple. I made those few in just a matter of minutes - and that time including fighting Mason off! We snacked on those right away so I'll have to make more later. Another plus. You can make as many or few as you want and just whip out a few more if you need them. I'm not sure who came up with these, but kudos to you ma'am or sir.

Here's my little recipe card I made myself. Feel free to right click and save a copy for yourself if you'd like!

Creative Journal: Day Five

2011-10-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm officially farther along than before...not that it was that hard to get past 4 days lol Anyway, today's prompt really tripped me up last time and it was still a challenge today. It's to create something with something you collect. I don't collect anything. Well, maybe digital scrapbook kits, and I did consider doing a scrapbook layout mixing several kits, but I wanted something different. So I looked around the house for a while and well, we seem to collect Duplo blocks. The collection has diminished some (where do those things disappear to?) but there was still enough to consider them a collection. At least I think so. So I borrowed Mason's collection and had a little fun.

The perfect desert house, complete with a race car and cactus. Though it has a chimney and there's really no need for that in the desert... Anyway, I've left my little creation for Mason to find when he gets up from nap and I'm sure he'll be thrilled. What? You think I was brave enough to play with his toys while he was awake?

Creative Journal: Day Four

2011-10-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

Since I had to work today I didn't get to follow the directions of taking a walk and making something with nature. Instead I played around with my Bamboo some more and created a painting of nature. Close enough right? It's definitely not going to be in any galleries any time soon, but I had fun lol

Creative Journal: Day Three

2011-10-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

For today's paper only project I went back and made another paper flower like before. I love these flowers! They look so complicated and detailed but they're so easy. I did cheat a little and add some glitter to the tips. Oh well, the book is really more of a guide line ;)

ScrapMatters Retirement Sale!

2011-10-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

Come grab those things that have been sitting on your wishlist for ages and you keep putting off buying before they're gone! They'll be 50% off for this sale!

Creative Journal: Day Two

2011-10-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today's little bit came from another Pinterest idea. Well at least it started off like that and then I totally changed it around. Not to mention I broke out my Bamboo and did it totally digital too. But I had a lot of fun playing and blending the colors thanks to a tip from a friend and managed to incorporate today's prompt, animals.

I can definitely see more doing more stuff like this in the future for various projects. I've already got a few running around in my head now. So how did you get creative today?

Creative Journal: Day One

2011-10-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

Wait. Shouldn't this be like day 13 or something? Yeah. It totally should. But see what had happened was...

It only took me, what? 4 days to get totally burned out on coming up with creative ways to make flowers. I thought it would be so cool, but I realized it was too limiting. And isn't creativity all about no limits anyway? So I'm starting fresh with no limits. Any subject, any medium...whatever my heart's desire is each day. Still of course using the book as my guide.

So here's what I made for day one. I saw this on Pinterest and decided this was within my sewing capabilities (which are like, none) and pinned it thinking "one day." Well tonight as I was thinking about today's creative journal entry of "Use anything around you to make something that fits in the palm of you hand" I came up with this. Granted the onsie is slightly larger than the palm of my hand, but the buttons aren't, right?

The hardest part was keeping the buttons where I wanted them, and I'm sure there was an easy way to make that happen, but I have no idea what that might have been LOL I think it turned out cute and I'm sure it will look even cuter on little Miss Bailey when I wrestle it on her!

Thanks for taking a peek!

This Scrappy Week

2011-10-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm finally starting to scrap again after what I like to call my "funky period." I feels good to be scrappy again :)

All images can be clicked to see their spot in the ScrapMatters gallery with their full credits.

Have a great weekend!

October Getting Hybrid & A How To

2011-10-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

This month's Getting Hybrid at ScrapMatters is being hosted by Ami {steami} and is a fun challenge to create some kind of party favor. I took this chance to grab some pillow box templates from Krisi's Kreations and made a super cute little owl box I've been seeing on Pinterest lately. I have to say I was greatly disappointed in the tutorial I found. Not so much because her directions worked around using a Sizzex, but because she gave to specifics as to how many pieces you needed or any steps in the making process. So, I decided while I making my little guy I would snap some pictures and share the process. Plus this is slightly different since it using digital scrapbook supplies and does not use Sizzex cutter - or any cutter for that matter.

So here's my list of supplies:
Digital Hybrid Template: Pillow Box by Krisi's Kreations
Digital Scrapbook Kit: I Heart Fall by Crossbone Cuts
Fiskar's Circle Cutter
scissors, glue stick, silver glitter glue & black marker

Step One:
First I got all the digital parts ready. I chose 5 papers from Tanya's cute fall kit - the dark brown, light brown, orange and yellow solid papers and the wavy line/pumpkin patterned paper. I clipped the light brown to Krisi's pillow box template and the printed a full sheet of the patterned paper. I blended the orange and yellow papers then split a page with my new blended paper and the dark brown. This way I didn't waste paper or ink.

Step Two:
First thing I cut out was the pillow box. Super simple task.

Step Three:
The next thing I did was cut out my small circles. I set my circle cutter at 3/4 inch and cut out 10 circles from the patterned paper.

Step Four:
Then I cut the dark brown half of my paper off of the page and folded it in half. The I cut out what would be the wings of my little owl. I chose to wing it (haha pun totally intended) and just cut out an oval-ish shape. If that doesn't feel right for you, flip the paper over on the white side and drawn your wing shape first.

Step Five:
Next I took a small section of the yellow/orange paper and cut out the beak and feet for my owl (make sure to leave a good portion of this paper aside for another step!). The tutorial I went off of used a heart shaped die for both of these so I used that as a guide for my feet. Hate cutting hearts? Use an old trick my aunt taught me - fold a square piece of paper in half and cut half a heart, unfold and viola!

Step Six:
Next I took the rest of my yellow/orange paper and flipped it over to the white side. I set my circle cutter to 1 1/2 inches and cut out two circles from the paper. These will be your owl's eyes.

Step Seven:
This step can be done 1 of 2 ways. You can either take black paper and cut out two 1/2 inch circles or you can do what I did. I took a piece of scrap paper I had left over and cut out a 1/2 inch circle and then used the hole left over as a stencil and colored in a black circle on my two large white circles for the inside part of the owl's eye. I didn't center my black circles - I thought it added a little more expression to his face - but you can set your anywhere you like.

Step Eight:
The tutorial I followed used little bits of bling for this step, but I didn't have any large enough so this is where my glitter glue came in. I took it and made a little dot in the inside of the black circles. This just adds a little glint of light to the owl's eyes and again can be placed where ever you like.

Step Nine:
Now let's get our owl put together. I did fold my pillow box first and then laid it back out flat just so my fold lines would be my guide lines for the working space. First glue on his (her her) little feet with a little glue on the bottom tip of the heart. Then place it upside down so the curved parts of the heart point down and make little feet. Next glue three of your patterned circles in a row, overlapping the tip of the heart.

Step Ten:
Now we're going to get the rest of the feathers on. With the rest of your patterned circles you're only going to glue the top part of the circle down, leave the bottom half free. I even used my big black marker to kind of give each circle a little some curl so they would stick out just a bit. The first row should have 4 circles (with two edges of the outer two hanging off the sides) and then the last row will have 3 circles again. The last part of this step is to flip your owl over and cut off the edges of those two circles that are hanging over

Step Eleven:
Almost done! Now we're going to glue on the wings. You can have the pointing in any direction you want your owl pointing. I chose for my guy's wings to hang pretty much straight down his sides. Just add a little glue to the top part of the wing and attach it just above the top row of circles.

Step Twelve:
Now all that's left is adding the beak and eyes. Add a little glue to just the very top of beak and center it right over the top circle. I curled up his beak just a little too. Then glue the eyes on (they'll stick up over the top of the pillow box some) and have him look in whatever direction you like. You're all done!

I was really glad how easy it was to make this little guy and definitely have plans on making more. Maybe a whole bright and colorful family of owls for fall. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial - now go get hybrid!

Pin It

Oven Baked Chili Dogs - A Yummy Twist

2011-08-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

I saw these on Pinterest quite a while back, but didn't get the chance to have them until recently. Basically because Tori was here for summer and her Papa doesn't want her eating beef. That kind of kills the chili part of the chili dogs. Anyway! Chili dogs was on our list of meals this week so I decided to take advantage and make them in the oven. They turned out a little more done than I wanted, but that was because of Mason - another post for another day. They were so yummy though! All warm and gooey and melty....yeah we're definitely having these again! I'm sure there's recipes all over, but here's the one I found along with a link to the blog I got it from - just click the photo (also from her blog post since I didn't get a chance to take a photo of mine) to get there.

Ingredients:
8 hot dogs
8 hot dog buns
1 can of chili
1/2 an onion, diced
cheddar cheese
mayonnaise
mustard
sweet relish

Directions:
Preheat over to 350 degrees.

1. Line inside of hot dog buns with mayonnaise and sweet relish. Evenly add mustard. Fill with hot dogs and squish into a 13×9″ baking pan, or whatever size is best for the amount of dogs you're making.

2. Top hot dogs with chili, cheese, and diced onion. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.

Now I left off a lot of that. I'm kind of a simplistic person with my chili dogs, so I only put mustard in each of the empty buns, laid the dogs on top and put them in the pan. Then I topped with the chili and the cheese. Everything else I left off and if Nick had been home (he was at his first class for college this semester) I would have made some with no mustard for him. They were, as I've mentioned, absolute perfection.

New LO's & Projects - August, Week 2

2011-08-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

I know. I'm a day late. I got a little behind because I accidentally deleted a LO that I spent an hour putting photos on. Anyway! Here's what I created with new releases this week!

First off I have Wendy's new release. Some more fabulous templates from the Be Inspired series - this set from Yolanda!
Be Inspired - Yolanda

Next I worked with the awesome stuff in this grab Bag from Stolen Moments and Little Green Frog Designs. This LO uses one of the templates in the bag!
Nightfall Collab Grab Bag

Next I have this fun LO that I made for the 8/12 Roadmap to Scrap challenge. Love how this turned out. This one uses last week's new release from Jady Day Studio.
Silly Bo Billy

For the 8/11 It's In The Cards challenge I made this fun card using this fun bright kit by Stolen Moments & Studio Flergs.
Imagination Creation

And last, but not least, the LO I deleted! I love this two page LO using a new template released this week by Jady Day Studio.
Desert Canyon Sun Template

Want to more about the different products on my pages? Just click the image to get to it's spot in my gallery for full credits!

Pinterest Funnies 8-11-11

2011-08-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

I totally heart Pinterest. I haven't been able to stop pinning since my first pin. One of my favorite things to do when I'm just tired of doing everything else is look for funny pictures and quotes. I pin them with glee, knowing if I ever need a laugh I've got a board full of funnies. Some are better than others. Some I wonder why I ever thought it was funny. Here are my favorite from this week!

If you've read this blog at all you know our house is full of cats at the moment. This is SO true and had me rolling!

This one is probably a little dumb, but it made me chuckle none the less.

I think all mothers {and probably some dads too} can relate to this one.

Amen!

I totally love a good fantasy-action type movie. Okay. I'll just say. I'm a total Lord of the Rings nerd and this literally made me laugh out loud.

And just in time for back to school!

Do you pin too? Follow my boards so I can follow yours - just click the link at the top of the right column!

Happy Birthday Blog Train!

2011-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ugh! Sorry this didn't post! I checked and rechecked and still something went wrong! Well, I'm sure everyone totally derailed, but hopefully you're checking back and get the download now! Sorry again!!

It's ScrapMatters' 4th birthday and to help us celebrate you're chugging along our blog train! You should have just come from Chel's Blog. And when you're finished up here you need to head over to Heather's Blog! Just click my preview below to get to the download!

And remember to download all the freebies along your trip so you can find all the puzzles pieces! Oh! And if you get lost along the way, you can find the whole list at the ScrapMatters Blog!

We're Grandparents!

2011-08-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, don't freak out! Our newest adopted fur-daughter had her litter of kittens last night. Yes, we knew she was expecting when we took her in. That was exactly why we told ourselves we weren't going to bring her home when we went to see the other kitten the lady had. But then we met her and fell in love with her sweet personality.

She did get a little cranky the last couple days and then last night she just walked around for a couple hours meowing. It was driving us all crazy! She finally settled down after the little ones were in bed and Tori, Nick and I were relaxing. Tori was sitting on the floor next to the end table when all the sudden she exclaims "I think Caboodle is having the kittens!" We pull the couch out and the end table out and sure enough there were already two kittens there with her. We had decided the bathtub was going to be the best place for her and the kittens, so Nick went and laid some sheets down and brought one in to carry her with. I grabbed some gloves out of a hair dye kit and scooped up the two kittens and we got them all settled in the tub. We checked on her a couple times before bed and by morning there were six fluffy little kittens snuggled up with our little momma cat. Later we set up a box with a clean sheet and set that in the tub. That way we can just move the box when someone needs to shower. This photo doesn't really do them justice, but it's the best we can get right now since they're in kitty pile mode still.

So anyone want a kitten at the end of September?

Guess Who's Turning 4?!

2011-08-03T09:51:00.001-07:00

ScrapMatters turns 4 this weekend and to celebrate there's lots going on! So be there this weekend for all the games, prizes, speed scraps and of course the sale!

Welcome!

2011-08-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

So I've started a new blog! I used to try to keep up with two blogs, a personal one and a scrapping/craft one, but I've realized it's more than I could really keep up with. Especially with the hectic life of having kids. So here's the new blog. Be on the look-out for new posts, some scrap related, some food related, some preschool related and all family related.