Happy New Home {Housewarming Card}

  When was the last time you were at a good, old fashioned housewarming? People don't throw housewarming parties very much anymore. I suppose it's because of the business of our lives these days.

  I remember when I was about 7 or 8 years old, my parents built a new house in the small town we lived in & we had recently moved in. My parents had some friends over for coffee & were visiting in the living room. My brother & I were ready for bed, already in our pyjamas, when the doorbell rang. I answered the door & to my utter astonishment, there, on the porch, were a string of people, their arms loaded down with bags of groceries. In they came, bringing with them enough groceries to stock our cupboards & fridge for days! A true housewarming!

  That was my first housewarming experience & probably one I'll never forget.

  In these days of never-ending business, let us never forget the things that are truly important - building relationships. A housewarming is a wonderful way to show God's love for a new neighbour. Even if it's as simple as making some cookies or muffins, attaching a card, & going across the street to introduce yourself. It will definitely bring a smile to your friends & neighbour's faces & hopefully start (or strengthen) a wonderful friendship.

Products used for this card:
Pre-made card - My Mind's Eye
Cardstock - American Crafts
Font - American Typewriter
Puffy House - KI Memories

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Enjoy your day!

Check out the great parties I link up to!

Isn't It Grand? Layout

As I've shown you before, I made some prephoto layouts for some of our vacation photos. This is another such page. I have to tell you that it's a lot of fun to get photos developed & just adhere them into place in the layouts that are premade & see your vacation scrapbook develop before your eyes. 

Products used:

Cardstock - American Crafts

All other products - Making Memories

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Twinkle, Twinkle Baby Card

Twinkle, twinkle little star...

Do those words conjure up memories of your childhood? 

Or perhaps memories, recent or distant, of singing lullabies to your sweet babies?

Making this card brought back some lovely memories of some precious times I have spent with my children. 

Products used:

Cardstock - Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - American Crafts

Felt Heart - Pebbles

Font - Brannboll Smal

So easy, sweet, & loveable. Perfect for a new little addition to the world.

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Thrifty Finds

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? I had a lovely time on Saturday out thrifting with my friend, Sarah.

Here are the treasures I brought home with me:

A nice, little grey suitcase. This makes me want to throw a bridal shower so I can use this to collect the cards. :)

Some wire baskets. I've been looking for some of these for almost a year. I finally found some!

I bought this tray for the mesh on the back. But I'm not sure. I may end up using the whole thing for my future project (stay tuned).

This was my squeal of a deal! I've been looking in the fabric stores here for a nice yellow & white cotton for a future project. No luck. I also looked on Etsy, but the ones I liked would have been a little pricey with shipping. I found this duvet cover in the perfect shade of yellow. And there will be lots of fabric left over for pillows & other projects! I'm so excited to get working on the project I have planned for this!

And... Some pretty doilies for gift wrapping (stay tuned for this as well).

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Zion National Park Layout {Basic Grey}

  For those of you with kids in school, does that mean quieter days or much busier days? In our house it's a combination of both. When the kids are gone, I get my housework finished faster, but school also means a lot of driving for me. Oh well, it's certainly nice to be getting back into a routine & enjoying this new season that's just begun.

  I'm steadily getting some layouts of our trip finished as well as cards made for our church's Fall Festival & another order. 

  Here's one I did of our whirlwind tour of Zion National Park, Utah. We were driving through a nearby town & stopped at a little bakery for lunch. We were chatting with the owner & she said we had to go visit Zion National Park since we were so close. We had the time that day, so off we went.

  We were only able to stay for an hour or so, but it was so worth it! We want to go back & spend a few days there in the future. It is stunningly beautiful.

  I'm a fan of this page design because:
a) I could cram 7 (count 'em, 7!) photos on this layout.
b) It was simple to throw together because I used (mostly) products from one line - Basic Grey's Wonder.

I used some chipboard letters from Making Memories for the title.

That little scooter was just too cute not to tuck in somewhere on this page even though this subject has absolutely nothing to do with driving scooters.

I kept things simple by journalling along the side & keeping the margins nice & open. 

I love me some "white space"!

Products used:

Cardstock - American Crafts

Patterned Papers, Stickers, Border - Basic Grey

Chipboard Letters - Making Memories

Have you started sorting, filing, or scrapbooking your summer memories?

~~~~~

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Strawberry Punch {Back At It}

  School starts today for our kids & it's a great time for me to get back into the swing of things here on the blog too. We've had a wonderful summer, but I'm ready for fall... crunchy leaves, warm drinks, baking, & autumn decor.

  In the spirit of bidding summer goodbye, I have one last summer recipe to share with you. I made this for our Labour Day BBQ & it was a hit! I've had this recipe clipping in my stash for years, but just had never made it. I believe it originated with Taste of Home.

Strawberry Punch {Printable Recipe}

makes 14 cups

1 can pink lemonade concentrate, thawed, undiluted

2 1/2 cups frozen unsweetened strawberries, partially thawed

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups strong brewed tea, chilled

2 liters ginger ale

In a food processor or blender, combine lemonade concentrate, strawberries, & sugar. Cover & process until smooth.

Transfer to a large pitcher or punch bowl; stir in tea. Add ginger ale. 

Enjoy!! 

I hope you all had a great summer!

~~~~~

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Ideas For An End-of-Summer BBQ

  The end of summer is almost here. It's sad, but true. To send summer out with a bang, why not throw an end of summer or Labour Day party? We plan to.

  Here's some ideas that are inspiring me to make our party just a bit more festive.

Don't you just love the look of bunting? I don't know what it is, but it's just so darned cute! I'm thinking of whipping some up with some colourful handkerchiefs from the dollar store.

Source

Continuing with the handkerchief theme, I might make a table runner to match. :) 

Source

And use them as napkins with the cutlery in mason jars. The mason jars can also be used as glasses. 

Source

Adding some mason jars with brightly coloured flowers would be pretty. 

Source

And because our meal is a pot luck, I'm thinking of making some of these so people can label what they brought.

Source

I'm all inspired to party now! How are you ending your summer?

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Indian Summer Cards {Basic Grey}

Earlier in the summer I made this little series of cards out some products from Basic Grey's Indian Summer line. 

I thought I would save them to share with you in the fall or when I when I was feeling a bit more excited about fall.

That time has come.

Recently, I found out that our church is holding another Fall Festival this year. This time, it's at the end of September instead of October. Because of that, I've been busy getting cards made for my friend, MJ, & my booth. 

And in thinking about fall & getting ready for it, I find I am becoming more & more excited for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to squeeze every last drop of fun & sunshine out of the last of summer before the kids go back to school after the long weekend in September. We still plan to go swimming a few more times, do more gardening, & have an end of summer bbq. Summer is not quite over.

And for that, I am grateful. :)

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy your day!

Map Gift Box

  Since coming back from holidays I've been 1) recovering from a cold 2) cleaning up the house & doing vast amounts of laundry 3) scrapbooking vacation photos 4) trying to spend some time outside on the nice days. We still have 2 weeks until school starts & we've pretty much got everything bought & organized for that (other than a couple of uniform pieces we need to order), so we're now trying to squeeze every little drop out of summer that we can!

  With all the travelling we've done this summer, today's project seems to make sense to me. Maps were a daily occurrence on our trip. Whether we were driving & consulting our road atlas to see where the heck our GPS was taking us or consulting the map to see just where exactly the Space Mountain ride was, we got to know our maps really well.

  In July, when I made my Map Gift Bag, I had some materials left over. One pinwheel & a whole bunch of maps. I also found this little gift box in my gift wrapping supplies. Put it all together & here you have a sweet little map gift box.

Isn't that pinwheel so much cuter than a bow? I love it!

Have a great weekend! I will have a bunch of new projects to share with you next week!

Thanks for reading. If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, I'd love it if you would become a follower, 

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EXCITED!

  I. Can't. Stop. Smiling. :D 

Via

Wanna know why? 

  Because I just got an email from Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine telling me that they want to publish one of my cards in their Winter issue!!!! 

  I've been submitting to various scrapbook magazines over the past 6 years (although sporadically; not at all faithfully) in the hopes of having one of my layouts or cards featured in a magazine someday. Now it's finally happened!

And I'm pretty pumped.

I'll share more details when the publication hits the stands in December.

Smiles,

Home.

  It's been three weeks. Three weeks of driving, playing, sightseeing, & experiencing. What a wonderful trip we had! It included 7 states: Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, California, Oregon, & Washington. Each one held new sites  & adventures.

  Some highlights (in no particular order):

1. Disneyland! The main reason for our trip was Disneyland. None of us had been before & it did not disappoint. My favourite rides were Radiator Springs Racers, Peter Pan, & It's A Small World.

2. Legoland. 

It was my son's wish to be able to go there on his birthday. We were thrilled to be able to make that wish come true! 

3. Sea World. We thoroughly enjoyed Sea World. The highlight of the day was petting the dolphins. 

4. Zion National Park, Utah. We only got to spend a couple of hours in the park & it just wasn't enough. We plan to return in the future to explore, hike, & enjoy for several days. The area is just breathtaking.

5. The Grand Canyon, Arizona. So vast & majestic. I had visited many years ago, but the rest of my family had never been. It was exciting to share this natural wonder with them.

6. Route 66. Driving from Flagstaff to Anaheim, we drove on Route 66 & stopped in a little town called Seligman, Arizona. We ate at a restaurant called The Roadkill Cafe & took lots of photos on the town's main drag.

7. The San Diego Zoo. My son loved the huge collection of reptiles & bugs. My daughter loved the pandas, elephants, & having her face painted. :)

8. USS Midway in San Diego. It actually wasn't in our plans to visit this floating museum, but we had some time one afternoon & the admission was included in our Go San Diego cards, so off we went. I have to say, even from a woman's perspective, it was pretty cool.

9. Avenue of the Giants. The stunningly beautiful drive through the redwood trees of California is indescribable. We would love to visit this area more extensively someday.

10. The California/Oregon coastline. We drove up highway 1 for the better part of a day. It was cool & foggy. Even though we couldn't see much of the ocean, what we saw was beautiful! We'd also like to come back & visit this area again. 

When we arrived home a couple days ago, I posted this on facebook:

"3,200 km travelled, a car covered in bug guts & dust, lots of Disney paraphernalia, almost 1,000 photos, 7 states, some great hotels, some not-so-great hotels, 1 house key mishap, 1 hospital visit for an ear infection, many Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew audio books, lots of Christian radio, so many beautiful vistas viewed... the epic Richardson road trip has come to an end, but the memories will stay with us forever."

Alas, it is over, but we now have several more places to go back & visit. We were so blessed to be able to take this trip & we treasure each memory we were able to make together as a family.

It's good to be home.