Peanut Butter Cookies {Pinecone Press: "C" is for Cookie}

My four year old loves to help me in the kitchen and this peanut butter cookie recipe is pretty kid friendly. She helps me all along the way including forking the cookies to put in the oven and then putting the chocolate chips or M&Ms on top when they come out of the oven. This little cookie is actually pretty similar to how the real cookies look!We don't make gingerbread men out of the dough, but I liked him with stickles :) I didn't have any pictures of the cookies or us baking them...but I think I'll make a coordinating page later on when I can remember to snap a few pictures.

Altered Clipboard/Recipe Holder {Graphic 45: Domestic Goddess}

I altered this clipboard (I think it came from Stampin' Up!... It's more square than normal) with Graphic 45 papers - from the Domestic Goddess line. I wasn't sure what to do with the silverware paper on a layout but like it on the clipboard. The apron is made from a template in the Pine Cone Press book that came with the paper.My thought was to use it to hold lists or recipes. It's perfect for the recipe cards I have from my mom...

Love the apron!

Although I think this is cute, I'm just not sure it's my style...so I'm thinking of opening up the Etsy shop to list this for sale! Must go clean the cobwebs ;)

Pine Cone Press Designs: C is for Cookie

About this time last year, I started scrapping single page layouts...before that, I preferred double page layouts. What I find interesting now is how often I do single page LOs but end up with two layouts that coordinate really well together! Here's an example:

I made this layout using one of Julie's old sketches at 52 Sketches...52 Weeks (#14 I think). I was trying to use the papers that came in one of my kits from Pine Cone Press Designs - the "C is for Cookie" kit. I'm not in love with the paper but it fit the theme of these pictures!THEN, still having the photos out and the kit... I made this page for this week's sketch at The Scrappiest.These aren't my favorite pages but I would have been lost with the paper I was using had it not been for the sketches. And I've got to say that I can't wait to get my new circle cutting tool so that I can quit cutting the large circles by hand! I found one that supposedly cuts up to 12" circles!

Family {SEI Paper}

Here I am using orange again! All of the papers were given to me at our bookclub meeting for our make and take. I think the papers are SEI - not something I would have picked up myself but they go well with this picture. Some of the paper also has flocking on it - pretty cool! I didn't realize it till I actually started putting this together. I copied the layout exactly like the front cover of our Pine Cone Press Design's idea book - but they used the Jolly By Golly line from Cosmo Cricket. I tried to find an image to show but didn't come across one easily - and am too lazy to just go take a picture of my book!

What I really thought was neat was making my own "chipboard". I got the idea from someone on the Quickutz Yahoo group forum. I used the Silhouette to cut "family" 3 times and then glued them together. It gave the added dimension to the page without having to use popdots...would have been hard with this font to keep them hidden. Stacking them was actually very easy - I expected to have some issues getting them stacked so nicely.

One more layout to share tomorrow (NOT orange!) then I'll have to get busy again!

Pine Cone Press NYOBC {My Mind's Eye: The Spider's Web}

These two layouts are from one of the two kits from this month's bookclub. I like the paper MUCH better after seeing it with my pictures. When I first got it, I wasn't sure I would have pictures that really coordinated with it. Luckily, the pictures from last year's portrait party looked GREAT with the paper!

I designed this page based on sketch #16 at Inspired Blueprints. I did use a couple of pieces of paper that is not MME but the rest is from The Spider's Web line.( And after seeing the picture on the computer, I went back to add more pearls!) Credit for this next title goes again to my sister!

What I think is interesting...is that what looked acceptable in real life (the font for "dolled up") is totally NOT acceptable when I see it on the computer screen (just like for the layout above needing more pearls). It does not fit with the idea of the whole page and I WILL be changing it. Probably with red gingham paper like my sister suggested ;) The reason I originally thought it would work is because of the "dripping" in the bracket and in the font for "halloween night" but, well, NO.

I only wish that I had thought to put makeup on her for these pictures...those red cheeks add so much to the costume! There's no "bling" on this page...but I'm guessing once I see what others did at our bookclub meeting, that I'll come away with an idea to dress it up a little (pun intended!).

Thanks for looking - I still have a couple of more layouts planned with these kits so hopefully I'll get to them this week...

Bookclub Projects

Last month's projects for Pine Cone Press' Not Your Ordinary Bookclub were for the book "Celebrate the Good Times" (am I supposed to underline or italicize that?).

The first kit was a summer page using BoBunny paper. I stayed pretty close to the sample in the book but did change a few things and I think mine is veeeery cute! (might have something to do with the kid though!) On this page, I added stickles to the waves and sun-

And on this page, I took the journaling block out (I did mine in a line across both pages) and added the three flowers. I had to go shopping for ric-rac as the kit didn't come with enough. Then I added stickles to that and the flowers.

The other kit used Pine Cone Press papers and man is it ever frustrating when they only give us one of each sheet of patterned paper. ESPECIALLY when it's double sided paper! The "What a Hoot" paper had my attention because I love owls but haven't used them much in my scrapping (although I've collected A LOT!). The theme was birthday so instead of doing 40th as in the book, I went back to my oldest daughter's first bday.

Up until about 4 hours ago, I wasn't even going to show this LO - I was very bothered by all of the patterned papers but was committed since I already made so many cuts. I started off copying the LO in the book but changed it completely. I'm happier now because I covered one of the patterns with the brown cardstock. Stickles on the leaves and rhinestones for the eyes. One of the owls even has heart rhinestones :)
Each of the pictures is actually a fold-out mini-album. They all have 3 pictures except for the one below on the right - it has 7 pictures tucked in there!

And each of the sets has an owl as a tab to lift up.

I definitely think this layout is even cuter in person (aren't they all?). It took me several days of work (off and on of course) and I am TIRED of looking at it. I have a couple of sketches that I'm dying to try but I wouldn't allow myself to work on those until this was done! lol

It's 12:30 am....now I have to decide to start a new project or get some sleep....tough decision! :)

Cosmo Cricket Snorkel Line and Pinecone Press Mini Album

For this month's Not Your Ordinary Book Club, the first kit was a project that I didn't care too much for.... Instead I made a 12x12 layout for my daughter's album:

The book had a layout that I lifted the idea from - to use the fish paper in the shape of waves. The one in the book was MUCH more artsy and time intensive so I had to scale it back a bit...

I was most excited when I decided to add stickles for a little sparkle. It's hard to capture in a picture but you can definitely see some on the popsicle cutout below. I never would have purchased the Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper on my own but I ended up really liking them once I worked with them! I still have lots of accessories left over so I'm going to pick up a few more sheets whenever I visit the store for our meeting this month.

The other kit was to make a mini-album. This took a lot of work just because a lot of items were cut out. There are tons of embellishments on this too - giving it a little bit of "bling" on each page - but they don't show through well on the pictures. My camera battery died so I can't go back for closeups now :) Here's a collage of the book...

Lots of Layouts

I have been very busy these past few weeks. Of our two kits for the book club this month, one was the supplies to complete 2 two page layouts. This one ended up not being exactly like the book because I couldn't get the paper to sand correctly. If you distress the paper, brown should have shown through. I couldn't get it to work right and it just looked horrible. I'm pretty excited with how it turned out.

Yes, that's my helper in the background. I was taking pictures with the front door open and she couldn't resist the beautiful weather we are having today!

This months kit was about using stickers. So the lace paper is actually stickers, as are most of the embellishments on these layouts. I made this layout by copying two single page layouts. I really like that I wrote a letter to my first daughter. I normally don't do that much journaling but I'm glad that I did for this layout and plan to write more letters to both girls.

{My pictures of the pages aren't great but I was working on limited time between both girls' naps and keeping the cat indoors!}

This is my favorite layout this month. Mainly because I love the pictures! The papers are wonderful, too, but you can't see much of the detail in these pictures. The ribbon is part of what I won from a blog contest :)

I'm also proud of myself for finishing 3 pages in the baby's album. The first page is her birth announcement (going out today so I didn't want to spoil it for those getting it) and then I completed her first month's layout.

The second kit for the book club is a project for a school age child. I thought about not making it until I had a school aged kid but I'm glad I went ahead and put this together...

Because I really like the "pop-ups". This is something I can incorporate into other projects that I make. A little scoring and cutting a circle is all that you have to do to. Can't wait to use it on something else.

Thanks for looking!

Rainy Days - Accordion Book Foldout

We had some bad weather in the area Friday and Saturday. It didn't really hit us hard until Saturday but the warnings were bad enough to keep me inside both days. Since it looked like this: I was able to stay inside and get some scrapping done! Here is the two page layout:

The first wagon is actually an accordion book that has 6 pages when you open it...

This was such an easy way to get lots of pictures on the layout!

It was one of the kits from this month's book club and I just copied it from the book making only a couple of minor changes. It still took several days to complete since I can't devote any long stretch of time to sitting at my craft table...and I'm still struggling with napping or scrapping ;) It was also a lot of punching and cutting out - I think my scissors hand needs a break!