Catching Up

I'm kind of laughing at the title of this post... 

Is anyone EVER completely "caught up" when it comes to scrapbooking?

Oy.

I continually have to remind myself that this is a hobby & it's supposed to be fun. 

I don't have to be caught up... ever. I chose this hobby & it's a part of my life to be a creative outlet, not a burden.

With that in mind, here are a couple of layouts I accomplished at the recent scrapbook fundraiser I was at last month:

Vintage Layout:

• All supplies by My Mind's Eye

First Day of School Layout:

• Cardstock - Bazzill Basics
• Patterned Paper - Basic Grey (Oxford collection)
• Tag - Simple Stories
• Stickers - October Afternoon
• Alphabet stickers - Making Memories & American Crafts

How do you treat your creative hobbies? Do you ever feel like you're behind & try desperately to catch up? 

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

Enjoy your day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Heart Day!

These love-inspired layouts are ones that I created last spring.
The sweet photos are from a Valentine's shoot my friend, Allison, did with my daughter, Audrey.

Paper from the Echo Park "Little Girl" Collection

Paper from the Echo Park "For The Record" Collection

Paper from the Echo Park "Be Mine" Collection

They still make me smile. :)

Enjoy your love-filled day!

Summer Days Layouts / 100 followers!

  Are you dreaming of spring & summer as much as I? Even though it's still winter I'm enjoying planning for the warm weather ahead. Getting ideas for the garden, planning our spring cleaning & summer vacation, and doing some projects & crafts that remind me of summer. Part of that includes working on scrapbooking this past summer's photos. I'm almost done!

  I've found that since I've started this blog, I'm taking many more pictures of stuff than of the people in my life... bad mommy!! :) I've resolved to change that & return to taking more pictures of the everyday moments in our lives. I got a nice opportunity this weekend when we went ice skating as a family. The outdoor rink is in a lovely little spot right downtown beside the river. It was just beautiful & it was our daughter's first time on skates. Fun!

  Back to the point... scrapbook layouts.

  Here are two that I created using Echo Park's Summer Days line. I originally bought this line thinking I'd save it for  this year's summer vacation but those bright colours & fun patterns won me over sooner than I planned.

This line is so colourful & just plain happy! I can't wait to use it for all the fun photos we capture this summer!

~~~

This weekend, Silver Boxes reached 100 followers!! It's been a very exciting weekend for me. When I started SB & after perusing many other blogs, I thought it would take at least a year to reach 100 followers.
Here I am, 6 months into blogging & I'm astounded that I've already reached that milestone.
I want to thank you for you continued support & kind words. I appreciate you all!

AND...welcome to my new friends!
I look forward to getting to know you in the coming months. 

Enjoy your Monday!

Cardboard Roll Treat Packets

  Do your kids ever save toilet paper rolls "because we might be able to make something with them"? Mine sure do! Most of the time, I sneak them into the garbage when they aren't looking. For the past couple of months, however, we have all been saving any kind of cardboard tube on purpose.

  My son & I had the idea that we could make some kind of treat packet for his classmates at Christmas time. We finally saved enough tubes & this week we got to work! Here's what we came up with.

  I had thought that I may want to do something a little more fancy with a cut out tag attached or something & then had second thoughts. Realistically, these are 7-9 year old kids who likely will just tear it open to get at the candy inside. :) 

  So, we made it look as special as we could without spending too much time on this project.

  Here's what we used:

1. small bags of candy
2. toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls cut smaller
3. pretty Christmas paper
4. string, yarn, twine, or heavy thread

  I hope I'm not insulting your intelligence by describing this for you, since it was so simple. 

  We started by stuffing the bags of candy into the rolls.

  Next, cut your paper into strips & adhere around the roll.

  Lastly, loop the string around the tube several times & tie in a knot.

  If your kids are in my son's class, please don't spoil the surprise, k? It was pretty easy & my little guy is excited to have treats that he helped make.

  Are you making something for your kid's friends? What do you have planned? I'd love to know about it. Please leave me a link & I'll come check out your projects.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Home For The Holidays

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

One Artsy Mama

Create & Inspire

Craft-O-Maniac

Everything Under The Moon

The Girl Creative

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Made By You Monday

Fall Festival

  In the last few weeks of blogging, I've been talking about the Fall Festival that our church was planning. Sunday was the big day. My friend, MJ, & I had set up our booth on Friday afternoon. I was full of anticipation to see what people's reaction would be.

  We started the day out getting our kids all costumed up for our church's Candy Carnival. Our little girl was a hula girl & our little boy was a pirate. I got the hula stuff at Dollarama. Most of the pirate costume came from thrift stores (ladies slouchy boots, too-big black pants, & a ladies ruffled blouse). We got the pirate hat, stick-on moustache, eye patch & sword from Dollarama. The parrot came from Wal-mart. The coat is mine. :)

  The kids partied in the gym while we were having church. After church, everyone headed into the gym for a yummy meal of fried chicken, rolls, & salads with home made pies for dessert. Delish!

  There was live entertainment, fun fall decorations, caramel apples, carnival games, popcorn, sno cones, tons of candy for the kids, & of course the booths which were run by different people in our church. 

  Our booth was well received & MJ & I both sold about half of what we brought. I'd call that pretty successful. 

The goodies in our booth. Top row: my offerings. Bottom row: MJ's fabulous creations.

  

  I didn't get a lot of photos as we were kept pretty busy with our customers, but here's a few:

A great time was had by all! I, for one, hope it becomes an annual event. A huge thank you to everyone who helped pull it off!!

Enjoy your Monday!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Note Card Set & Cupcake Layout

  At last! Another papercrafts post. It seems like it's been awhile. :) As I said yesterday, I was able to get some time in at my craft table this past weekend. Here are the fruits of my labours:

  On Friday, Paper Crafts on Facebook shared a picture of a fan who had posted this idea. I saw it & got stoked to give it a shot. These cards were made entirely of scraps. Wouldn't the set make a great gift?

  The key to making this work was the black patterned paper being used in all of the cards. It ties them together as a set.

  I'm still lovin' Echo Park's Little Girl line. I've used almost my whole collection pack up... that's pretty rare for me.  Maybe I'll make some girly cards like the ones above with the scraps I have left over... now there's an idea!

Here's the latest & greatest layout I've made with this adorable line:

Have you been up to anything crafty lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Enjoy your day!

Linking up to: Today's Creative Blog & Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

Happy Labour Day!

  Are any of you working on projects on this last day of the Labour Day Weekend? I was to have at least started my table painting project by now, but we had a family emergency involving my husband's grandpa on Friday evening & all day Saturday. He's okay now, but his health seems to be deteriorating. We were able to have a very nice visit with him during our time together & we cherish that.

  So, my to-do list today consists of cleaning the house & getting to that painting project. I promise I'll post the results as soon as it's complete.

 I was able to complete a scrapbook layout on Friday. My daughter had a Pretty Princess party for her birthday this year. For this layout, I used Echo Park's Little Girl collection almost exclusively. I added a few felt crowns & some jewels to finish things off.

  Have a wonderful Labour Day! I hope you all get to do/finish whatever is it that you have planned. Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy your day!

~Steph

Park Tour 2011

At the beginning of this summer I had a brainwave. My kids are always asking to go to the park, so why not make it a bit more interesting & visit some parks that we've never played at? Thus began "Park Tour 2011". It's simple. Once a week, we seek out & play in a park we've never played in before. I've been taking photos along the way to remember where we've been. Here's a few we've gathered.

Do you have any summer traditions that you've started with your kids? I'd love to hear about them!

Enjoy your day!

~Steph