Refurbished Memo Board {October Kit: Birds of a Feather Kit Co; Crate Paper: Farmhouse Collection}

The past couple of years, I've been less into altering items and more into scrapbooking actual layouts but when I saw chalkboard paper in this month's kit at Birds of A Feather, I knew that I wanted to make something useful out of it! So I took this unused dust holder (everything in there was 3+ years old): 

and turned it into this:

I wanted the tag to be permanent so I wrote on the chalkboard paper with white pen.

I used cork that I already had on hand. I actually stole it from a wall hanging in my scrappy area...so now I have a new project to replace that wall hanging! I painted/misted the alterable Maya Rd buttons, tied thread through them then hot glued them to thumb tacks.

I inked all of the embellishments in black:

This chalk tray is a drawer pull that has been turned upside down. I simply glued this down with E6000. For the key hooks (see first picture), I bought a pack of plant hangers and painted them black. Then I had my husband drill holes for those.

A close up of the button push pins. I painted two brown, two black and then misted all 4 of the to give a shimmer that isn't really visible in the picture...

I had hoped to get this entered into last week's challenge at The Paper Variety but life got in the way and I didn't get this posted in time! I already have two more posts almost ready to go so check back tomorrow for another project :-)

Eggs-tra Scary! & Easter Cones {Cosmo Cricket: Togetherness}

Happy Easter! I just wanted to share a layout I worked on this week - the picture was taken just a couple of week ago and I think it's great that I have one smiling and one screaming ;) Thanks to Suzanne for help with the title! I used a PageMaps sketch from February. I'm not super thrilled with my stamping or sewing but I thought overall it was super cute :-)

 I made these for teacher gifts & stuffed them full of candy. I saw the idea here and changed just a couple of things but they were a big hit. The carrot was SUPER easy to make as you didn't have to embellish with anything except green grass and ribbon ;)

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you are all having a great weekend :)

Recipe Mini-Album {Cosmo Cricket: Early Bird}

Hello! It has been waaaay too long since I've posted here on my poor neglected blog. I have been working on some projects though ;)

This mini-album is something I started (notice, I didn't say completed?! lol) for Kayla's June challenge at Creative Cookbooking. She was our guest designer and challenged us to alter something useful for your kitchen. I had an album that I bought over a year ago and cut up some pieces of chipboard that comes in packaging with paper. I covered everything with Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird collection.My goal is to have my common recipes here in one easy to grab location. So far, I've gotten one recipe done! It's a weight watcher recipe for Chicken Marsala...

But there are other pages covered and just waiting for their recipe and embellishments!

I had a lot of fun doing something other than my 12x12 layouts :) Thanks for the challenge, Kayla!

Mini-Muffin Tin Christmas Countdown Calendar

This project has been very similar to birthing a child. In the beginning, you're very excited of the idea. Then you get frustrated with trying to get all of the supplies ready to actually get started on it. Next, you're so happy to begin the process...then boredom sets in (24 of the same thing...several times over). Seems like months go by, then you're just ready for it to be done with already! Final anticipation as the last pieces come together...and then when it's done...it's not quite as big of a deal as you had anticipated. I am glad to know that she is super excited about it! She woke up this morning and went straight for it - VERY disappointed that we aren't starting this right away. Poor thing!!

Some closeups:

Everything is magnetic - including the little circles inside the tins. So if I get tired of the design or want to use it for another holiday, I can reuse the tin!

Now I need to figure out where I will store the days as we remove them...And decide if I want to include a title. I could cut out some words in the green/red cardstock using my Silhouette and put them at the top and/or bottom....like "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" or "December". What do you think- Add words or leave it alone? If you vote for adding something - what do you suggest?

******Edited to add:

I forgot to give credit to someone who I lifted an idea from... I try to always give credit when I steal an idea ;) I came across an Etsy seller in my search for ideas on how to make each square different and I came across SugarPlumMommy. It was actually one of her sold items...I took her idea of using the ribbon like I did above on #6. There are a couple of other Etsy sellers that have these types of calendars - so check them out if you want one (or need ideas!).

I'm now kicking myself in the behind for not just cutting out the dates with my Silhouette!!! You don't even want to know the complicated process I went through...

Milk Carton Bunny Easter Basket

Look at me! One week after major surgery and I'm posting again ;) But I have to admit this is NOT a craft that I made.

My 3 year old's preschool teachers made these baskets for the kids. I think they are adorable. Such a cute idea if you're looking for something to do with kids. She was so excited to have it (and not just because there was candy in the eggs!). She was most excited about the soccer egg since she is playing soccer now. I guess I will be running out this weekend trying to find some soccer eggs...