carnival issue 5 ••••• thoughtfulness

happy new year!  i'm soooo looking forward to 2009 being filled with creative papercrafting!


i wanted to share a gift idea that can really help a mom out!  my cousin has three kids, lots of family activity, loads of photographs of piling up in shoeboxes, and no time to do any scrapbooking.  so i offered to put together a scrapbook for her that the kids could enjoy looking through together....and it would help them remember how much they really love each other whenever they were in a squabbling mood!  i went to their house and pored through the boxes to select shots that best captured their special family moments. i took the pictures home and started sorting, trimming and organizing them into groups by theme.


i lined all the pages of an 10x10 blank board book with a variety of colorful papers. i mod-podged the front and back covers for a little extra protection from kids' sticky fingers. i created very simply constructed layouts to get lots of pictures on each page, and to make it kid-friendly with stickers and bright colors. each page has a theme like halloween, dress up, christmas, playtime - it was so much fun to make and my cousin's family thought is was pretty special!  

(sorry for the somewhat fuzzy shots, i was using an older camera)


•••••  these green and crafty folks submitted their posts to me - great stuff!

•  katie in germany recycles and reuses everything! check out her gift tags, handmade from stuff you are gonna think twice about tossing out.

 the vintage info network reminds us how to make a favorite classic - the pinwheel!

•  lisa at condo blues makes cute danish woven paper hearts and snowflakes from her junk mail and wrapping paper.


•••••  here are some posts that i have been collecting since the last issue - things that made me say "wow!"

•  jenn turned me on to japanese kusudama - origami paper balls that you can use for gift accents, or glue together to make a gorgeous paper ball ornament. a tutorial is at folding trees.

•  rubber stamping fun shows you how to make custom rub-on transfers from your hair styling products!

•  rosanne has a quick and smart idea for a hostess gift.

•  louise shows off an adorable explosion box she made for her hubs!  there are great tutorials at scor-pal and at life as lou.  i can't wait to make my own explosion box!!

•  i've been seeing lots of really cute squash books - split coast stampers has a good tutorial plus a whole gallery of samples.

•  debbie in new zealand shows you a sweet window scrapbook layout with folded paper that looks like curtains.

•  i'm in love with spinner cards!  hero arts has a terrific video tutorial - such a fun way to animate your greeting!

•  becky in tennessee makes these very thoughtful abc baby albums for new moms!


•••••  that's a wrap

thanks so much for visiting and clicking -- my next issue will be posted on 1/24/09. feel free to share a link to this issue in your own blog - grab my badge up there on the right to post with it!