My Favorite Flower

If I need some quick inspiration, blogs are my go-to. I found this amazing pinata not long ago:


at Inchmark and thought I needed to do something cute like it. Spring is finally coming closer too, so I thought some little versions might be in order! They are incredibly easy and so much fun.


Go to a craft store and buy a round foam ball; ours is 6". Then go find the tissue paper and pick some springy colors, and be sure to grab some hot glue sticks if you're running low!

Start out by cutting approximately 100 1" circles out of your tissue paper. You may need more or less, but it's a good starting point. Take your warmed up glue gun and glue a few petals to the "top" of the foam ball (the side we photographed). Carefully start layering them in concentric circles, being sure to overlap little by little. Be patient and before you know it you'll get to the end! They turned out really nice, but I thought it could use just a tad more of something. I grabbed some Tumble Dye and lightly sprayed the tops to create the gradient. Just what I wanted!

It would be pretty to have three different sizes and make a bunch for a table setting. Go and have fun with your pretty peonies. :)
-Mandi

Monika's Favorite Things Book

Today we are featuring Monika Wright and her Favorite Things book. We love the idea of having a neat little book handy to jot down your ideas. What a beautiful job she did with papers and embellishments from the Poppy collection.

Monika won one of our giveaways a while back and has sent us images of several projects she made with her goodies. Thanks Monika! We love to see everyone's creations. Just send them to our e-mail at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com and don't forget to enter March's challenge.

Spring Tree

Pia made this spring tree with a freshly cut branch. She layered Claire petals, Lovebirds Forget Me Not paper, and Bridgeport petals. Then she placed treats on it, put it in a vase of water, and tied a Lovebirds ribbon around the vase.



Just in time for Easter, leaves will appear on this branch and add even more color. What a fun way to spruce up your home for spring!

3rd Thursday - Claire

Club SEI's April kit features Claire. This collection has beautiful colors and charming patterns. The foil treatments add a little metallic shine. Click here to see what club members can make with this kit. If you aren't a club member, you can still sign-up and receive this kit.

These projects were made as an alternate project with some of the contents from April's club kit. We love that the club gallery shows members alternate projects for each kit. This project would make a great gift for a friend or Mother's Day. It has everything needed to start a salsa garden, all presented with pretty packaging. Happy 3rd Thursday!

Giveaway Winner

Thank you for commenting on Davinie's posts last week. We are excited to make some baskets too! Now, the giveaway winner as selected by random.org is:


Congratulations Dana! Now all you need to do is send your mailing address to us at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com to claim your Jocelyn goodies.

Giveaway Reminder

Just a reminder that you have until midnight tonight to enter the giveaway for some Jocelyn goodies. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Matching Game

I made this matching game to teach my 3 year old his colors. SEI has so many beautiful solid cardstock colors, it was hard to choose. It would also be fun to use the animal papers from the Zoo Pals paper pad. It only took me 30 minutes to make the game. The hardest part was saving up all the juice lids. You could ask friends to save theirs for you too.

To make this project you need:
12 frozen juice concentrate lids
6 different papers (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, & purple)
circle punch (or scissors)
Mod Podge
a foam brush

1. Punch 2 circles out of each paper using your circle punch or a pair of scissors and a circle template).
2. Mod Podge a paper circle onto each juice lid.
3. Let dry & play.

-Maria

April Calendar Page

This calendar page is to help you with our challenge to scrapbook one page each month in 2010. Each month we will post a FREE monthly calendar download and a single-page scrapbook layout idea. If you create the layout, print off the calendar page & slip them into a sheet protector, you will have a calendar to display with your own photos and twelve great layouts completed to represent the year! Go here for previous layouts and calendar pages.

April 2010:
Happy Day assortment pack

Happy Day designer brads

green apple puff alphabet stickers


Also, don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway.

Egg Artist + Giveaway

Today is my last day on the blog and for this last post, I wanted to create a scrapbook layout using the fun spring colors in the Jocelyn line.

Easter is almost upon us and I thought I had done the smart thing by purchasing egg dying kits, tools, and plastic eggs after Easter last year at 75% off, but it has turned into a bugger, because when I dragged the Spring décor boxes out and my girls saw these items, it has been a daily hassle of saying no to “mom, can we decorate eggs?”. Ayiyiyi. Only a few more weeks left and then we’ll be doing just that.

I went through my photos at Easter time last year and dug up some fun shots of Morgan during her intense decorating session. They were the perfect colors for this layout:


And here’s a detailed shot:


Hmm. Someone thought this layout should have been about them……

Let’s try this:



I loved the glitter covered borders, and wanted to bring some detail to the page, so added stitching and a border punch, and finished it off with some fun brads.

Thanks for spending the week with me! And a huge thanks to SEI for asking me to be here. Have a great Spring! Davinie

Thank you, Davinie! We loved all the fun and pretty spring projects you shared with us this week. Now we have a lot of great ideas of how to decorate and celebrate spring this month. If you need more project ideas or inspiration, be sure to go to Davinie's blog, My Little Piece of that Azure Sky.


Readers, leave a comment on this post telling us which post was your favorite this week and you will be entered into a giveaway for a chance to win some Jocelyn products, including papers, designer brads, dimensional titles, and rub-ons.

Just leave your comment by Tuesday, March 16th at midnight and we will announce the winner Wednesday. Be sure to check back next week to see if you are the winner because if we don't hear from the winner by March 30th we will pick a new winner!

How to Make an Easter Basket

With kids and Easter and Spring in mind, I thought I’d share a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to make some fun Easter baskets for the holiday or your home décor.

All you need are a couple of pieces of cardstock weight paper, and some brads.

You need one piece of cardstock weight paper for the main body of the basket. For something fun, use white or light colored cardstock and let your kids color, paint, and draw all over it in fun festive colors and patterns.

Another choice would be to use a nice festive colored cardstock weight patterned paper. I chose a blue pattern from the Jocelyn line.

On the reverse side of the paper, draw a grid creating 9 4x4 squares.

Next, round the corners using a ruler or a corner rounder. A corner punch would be fun too.


Score all of these lines, except the two inside lines at the top and bottom of your cardstock. Trim those lines 4 inches from each side.


That square in the middle of this grid is the bottom of your easter basket. Folding the right and left sides up, create a basket shape, lining up those two rounded corners in the middle.


Next we need to make a handle to slip into each side. I used another piece of the blue pattern and trimmed a piece of paper 1x12 inches long and slipped the end between the 4x4 square and the two rounded squares.


I then took a pencil and marked a spot in the top and middle of my project, that would go through both of the side pieces and the handle when I pushed a brad through. I made a second mark an inch or so below that which also went through the 4x4 piece from the side.

I then added some fun jeweled brads.


Now do the same on the other side.

Voila! An easy easter basket for a center piece on your kitchen table, a fun décor item on your shelf, or even a place to put those hard-boiled eggs for the potluck.

Spring Garland

(a tutorial if you need one and a peek at my heart banner for Valentine’s day here)

“Each moment of the year has it’s own beauty…. A picture which has never before and shall never be seen again.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Decorate for Spring!

Spring is a great time for home décor projects. Over the years I’ve made several items that have graced my home as the grass starts to grow and the spring bulbs come up.

Every couple of years I redo a grapevine wreath I’ve had for a long time. Currently it looks like this:




(wreath published with directions to recreate in Memory Makers Magazine, March 2009)

I’ve also taken a $1 container from Michael’s and turned it into a vase for spring flowers.

One of my favorite spring projects involved my kids. When they were 1 and 3, we made Spring trees using a basic tree shape and some fun craft punches.

That is one of my all-time favorite kid projects because no matter how they did it, the trees were perfect. As I mentioned, my 1 year old participated with that one.

So welcome spring and make over your house today! :-)

My Boys

I've been making the most of Facebook lately after a slow start. I used to only look at it if I was contacted through it but now I check it daily and keep up with what everyone's doing and it's addictive. My favourite part of Facebook is staying in contact with some of my students through the years. Quite a few have found me and added me as a 'friend'. I now get to see them as they get older and move on to new and exciting phases of their lives. I can't belive that my babies are now grown men!

Grade 4 - 1997

Boy in Blue (my, hasn't he changed!)
.

Grade 3 - 2000

Skater Boy (with cigarette I notice!)

.

Grade 4 - 1997

Ok, so they didn't all turn out to be rocket scientists - but at least they're having a good time!

.

Inspired by Kids Clothing

How many times have you been shopping for kids clothing and run across something so adorable, you wish it came in YOUR size? I do that all the time. Why can’t clothes that look so cute on kids look just as great on adults?

I mean really. I would adore ruffle pants in my size:

from Baby LuLu

And this romper? Heavenly! (Oh, who am I kidding. I have a long torso. A romper would never work for me).

from Chasing Fireflies

This whole ensemble screams beach fun to me! I’ll take either outfit.

from Hanna Anderson

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that kid clothing is adorable, and can also be very inspiring. If ever I’m in a rut, I need to go no further than a clothing magazine or my girls’ closet for ideas.

Particularly if I am short on time, or short on inspiration, card making is my first stop in the creative process if I just want to get my hands dirty or only have a couple of late night minutes to cut paper into bits.

The other day we were at Old Navy and I picked up this summer dress for Morgan, my 6 year old.

from Old Navy

The color palette matches the SEI Jocelyn line to a tee, so decided to pull inspiration from it and create a card inspired by the dress.




I decided to use the contrasting striped pattern in the paper for the ruffle at the top instead of making it the same color as the high waisted seam in the dress.

To create this ruffle was simple:

The creative process can be fun, like scavenger hunt. Fashion drives the paper industry so be on the lookout for your favorite clothing catalogs for inspiring ideas for your next paper projects.