Chinese Mountain Sunset

I created this for my sister!

She Holds Their Hands Forever in Her Heart

I love She Art.

I've even made one before.

But, this one is different. When I first saw this, I knew I had to have one. It just took awhile to get it done.

It might be my favorite thing that I've ever created. I just treasure these little ones so much and can't stand how fast they are growing.

Off to hang it beside my bed now!

Scrapdango June Reveal

This month has another amazing Sugar kit!

I finally created my son's First Eucharist layout (a year later!):

My medium DD on the first day of school this year:

Our trip to Natural Bridge last summer:

I also scrapped-up a set of mirrors that we have hanging in our home.

The only major thing that I added here were the Sassafras chipboard pieces and the bling. Be sure to stop into the store and pick up this kit starting May 5th!

Scrapdango Crowned week 2: Pageant Moms

We would be remiss to have a pageant competition and leave out those loveable, low-key pageant moms! My challenge to you is to create something for a mom in honor of Mother's Day. It can be a layout, card, or altered art. It can be made for your mom, your mother-in-law, a grandmother, a friend or sibling that is a great mom, yourself... anyone that is a mother figure. I used the May Sugar kit to create this for my mom (I just need to get a frame!) The pictures of her grandkids will go on the largest 9 circles. The three flowers at the bottom with the initials represent my sisters and I.

I was inspired by this! Entries must be posted by midnight EST Sunday, May 13th. I hope you can play along with us this week!

Scrapdango May reveal

I had been WAITING for this kit! These releases from Studio Calico and Crate Paper go so well together, I want to order another one! Be sure to mark your calendar for May 5th, when the new kits go on sale. :) So many great boy colors were in this kit. I rarely use pink in my son's book, but I like the pop that it gives this page...

I used almost every patterned paper in this layout with a picture from my parents's wedding. I was inspired by this layout from Susan Weinroth and used 30 hearts to represent their 30 years of marriage.

I wanted to feature the fab patterns again on this double layout, but there are so many awesome embellishments, that I had to work them in, too.

Lastly, I made this mini gratitude journal for my goddaughter with a Jenni Bowlin circle album. It's adorable, just like her.

Stay tuned this week for more reveals!

7th birthday Tea Party

My medium child just turned 7. She decided six months or so ago that she wanted to have an American Girl party, so went the English tea party route. It was tons of fun, and I thought I'd share here what we did (also so that I can remember for my youngest daughter someday!). I've added links to the pictures that I was inspired by.

The invite requested “Fancy tea party attire” (dress, gloves, hat, pearls) and had a tea bag tied to the top.


American Girl-themed Food:
Sombrita’s Sandwiches: pimento cheese on mini bagel, chicken apple salad on waffle, ham/American/lettuce/Italian dressing on wheat, turkey/cheddar/tomato/vinaigrette dressing on white

Josefina’s Pinwheel wraps

Felicity’s Cheeses & crackers

Penny’s Carrot sticks/ranch

Sugar’s Fruit kebobs/yogurt dip

Mrs. Merriman’s Macaroni Salad

Coconut’s Treats: lady fingers, cream puffs, rock candy sticks, marshmallows

Kit’s cakes: Big & Mini cupcakes (choc. & white, colored icings, sprinkles), cake pops

Cecile’s drinks: Sprite w/ Kool-aid ice cubes






Cupcake Bases: Williams Bakery
Inspiration: stacked cupcakes, adding cotton candy

Cake Pops credits: Short and Sweet Desserts

Decor:


Plastic "chocolate" rectangular plates that were on sale at CVS, doilies for placemats, decorated tables with rose petals, confetti, lace, tulle, pearls, beads, and ribbons.

The birthday girl got a chair decorated with ribbons, and she made tissue flowers for the others.



We had a photobooth, which the girls loved. I used paper chains/tissue paper in background, and the girls held either a paper fan or flower as a prop.


Behind the food table, I hung the Happy Birthday banner from home and placed her age in photos on a foam board.


Favors: teacups with treats inside (I also made hair barrettes for each girl).

We also had craft tables: bracelet making (I prepackaged beads and stretchy cord to make it easy on the kids), American Girl sticker coloring, edible teacups (butter cookie, non-pariels, big marshmallow, life saver, icing), and an American Girl word search. We played a game called Pass the Parcel and had a dance party at the end.

March Scrapdango reveal

I'm so excited to share my Scrapdango projects with you!

I used the Sugar kit to create three layouts and an altered bulletin board. (AND, I still have paper left to work with!)

Scrapdango MARCH MADNESS Blog Hop & Crop

Welcome to Scrapdango's Grand Re-Opening Blog Hop!!! It's time for a little March Madness... girly style! Because you came hopping with us, your reward is a sneak of the challenges that will be listed on the message boards beginning Monday, March 5th. The crop will go through Sunday, March 11th at midnight EST.

There will be games and prizes, and one lucky person will be a grand prize winner of...

are you ready for this?

both an old kit and the BRAND NEW March kit!!

Squeal!!!!!!!

So don't forget to mark your calendar for Monday and play along!

Ok, here is my challenge... use circles (because, after all, a basketball is round) as the basis for a layout, card, or altered something. My medium DD's birthday is coming up, so I made tons to decorations out of the January Scrapdango sugar kit as well as Crate Paper's Lillian line and some odds and ends from my stash. I love how well the two went together!

I made paper chains, food labels, and a huge fan flower:


As a special treat for stopping by my blog, I'm offering up a RAK to one commentor that pinky-promises to check out Scrapdango...



I know this is a long post, but if you don't yet know about Scrapdango, you will love this DIFFERENT kind of kit club. Each month, there are two different kits to choose from a masculine(ish) Spice kit and feminine(ish) Sugar kit or you can subscribe to both. For each year subscription that you purchase, you receive your 13th kit for FREE! I've been on the boards there for almost two years, and it's SUCH a fun group of girls. I'm so excited to have been chosen for the DT there.

Now that you have stopped by, don't forget to hop on over to Kimberly. If you started here, make sure to stop at the beginning and hop all the way through so you can get a peek at ALL the challenges and get a head start!!

Ana White
Jessica Jennings
Heather Topich <---- you are here
Kimberly Hornikel
Shannon Blinn
Scrapdango Blog

Thank you

I made this card and welcome sign as a thank you for my husband's cousin, who we stayed with a few weekends back. I am so proud of the way the canvas turned out.

She believed

I saw a canvas by Nicole Pomeroy that I loved, and I wanted to make it my own.

She used a lot of paint and gesso, but, naturally, that is not my forte, so I pulled out Crate's Restoration line (again!)...



I'm off to go hang it in my 6 year-old's room!

Trading card box

My son loves trading cards. So much that they end up all over his bedroom floor more often than not... because he'll want to check a stat on one particular card.

This project doesn't solve the mess, but it might help with the organization.



I repurposed a shoebox, adding lots of boy papers to the top and sides, and split off the inside with chipboard into four rows.

Now he can organize by sport, year, or whatever. Once he decides on that, I'll make labeled chipboard tags.

No more mess.

Right?

Love Grows Here

When I saw this framed art by Sarah Eclavea, I knew I wanted to create one of my own. This is what I came up with, using canvas, paint, scrap paper, a bit of twine, and a bunch of hot glue.



Sarah is actually teaching hers as a class. You can see details here. I wish I could have made hers, but I am sewing impared!

More room plaques

I made two more bedroom door plaques. My youngest sister is pregnant with her 2nd child, and I wanted to make him one out of Sassafras goodies, but she won't share the name yet, and, of course, I don't have a picture to place on it, so I also made one for her oldest son so that you can tell what the end result will be. The picture on this is actually MY son because that was what I had handy, but you get the gist.



This was based off of a Sassafras sketch.

Smile plaque

As mentioned yesterday, this plaque is for my DD's BFF's 6th birthday...




I'm embarrassed to say that the plastic Easter eggs and grass haven't yet made it back to the attic, and that was how they ended up on this piece. BUT, I love the way that it looks!

I came up with the idea through this Polkadot Door inspiration challenge. I'm also linking this one up to Paper Issues.

Birthday gift bag

I created this for my DD's BFF...



Stay tuned tomorrow to see a plaque that I made for her bedroom door!

Prima-based headbands

I made two gorgeous headbands earlier this week, one for each of my daughters!

The Purpose of the Task framed thought

This post by Becky Higgins inspired me. I've been pondering over the words and what they mean for my role as a mother.

I created this for a Friday Fun Day Challenge over at Lucky Girl Crafts and used the kit that they sent me last month to complete it. As a bonus, I lifted my scrappy friend, Ana.

Scrapdango January reveals

I am SO honored to have had the opportunity to play with the Scrapdango January Sugar kit as a guest designer this month.

I used almost the entire kit and two sets of add-ons. Seriously... I have only scraps of paper left (and not even that many!), some alphas, a couple Pink Paislee glitter stickers, and some Smootch Spritz that was part of the add-on. THAT'S IT! The entire package was awesome!

Go grab yours now... I'll wait. :)

You saw one layout made with the kit in yesterday's post. Here are the rest of my reveals...