First Day of School Layout

  My crafty times have been pretty few & far between lately. It's been a very busy spring for us & now that the school year is winding down, I'm really starting to look forward to having whole summer days to get some fun projects done. 

  As the last day of school draws nigh, I'm just now scrapbooking photos from the first day of school. :) 

Products used:

• Red paper - Echo Park
• Yellow & green cardstock - Die Cuts With A View
• Blue polka dot paper - Bo Bunny
• Yellow lined paper, ABC border, & red letter stickers - Sassafras Lass
• Yellow ruler border - Little Yellow Bicycle 
• Tag - unknown
• Small letter stickers - Making Memories
• Apple sticker - We R Memory Keepers
• ABC sticker - October Afternoon
• Ribbon - My Mind's Eye

Has it been a busy spring for you? Are you looking forward to summer as much as I am? 

Enjoy your day!

Cheery Mother's Day Card

Mother's Day is just around the corner... are you prepared or do you still need to rush to the store? 

I'm a little of both, this year. My cards are done, but the gifts have yet to be purchased. 

(Mom, if you're seeing this, you can just pretend to be surprised on Sunday.) :)

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!

Spring Cards

Last month, I attended a scrapbook fundraiser that my sister-in-law, Carrie, organized for her children's school.

Each of the attendees paid a fee to attend & the school (organized by Carrie) provided a huge table for each person to work at, meals for the day, & workshops that you could attend to learn some new techniques. 

We brought our scrapbook gear & got our creative juices flowing!

There was a great turn out & tonnes of raffle prizes that were donated. Alas, I didn't win anything this year. 

Oh well. :)

Here are a few of the cards I created that weekend...

Note Card Set No. 3

If you haven't already noticed, I'm constantly on a quest to use up my paper scraps. 

This note card set uses a chevron design made of strips of patterned papers.

I made some pink, yellow, & blue, & then a combination of the three with the leftovers.

I finished them off with a strip of white with a sentiment stamped on it.

Then a small die cut butterfly (from the dollar store) mounted on a foam square.

Do you have anything that you make out of your scraps? I'm always looking for new ideas... please leave me a comment & let me know what you like to make.

Enjoy your day!

Check out these great parties I link up to!

Second Unofficial Crop Chocolate Blog Hop!

Welcome blog hoppers! 

I'm so happy to be taking part in the Second Unofficial Crop Chocolate Blog Hop! 

You should have come from Nina's blog, Nina's Time Out.

If you stumbled upon this blog hop & want to participate, you'll want to start HERE.
Check out the rules for a chance to win some prizes too!

My "Smiley" layout was made with these products:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics
Patterned Papers - Echo Park, Dots & Stripes & Style Essentials collections
Scallop Punch - Stampin' Up!
Pearls - Making Memories
Vellum Butterflies - Jenni Bowlin
Tiny Butterflies - Dollarama
Canvas covered chipboard Alphabet - American Crafts

Most of these products were purchased from Crop Chocolate. :)

I love me some layered pattered papers! I used the scallop punch to add a decorative border.

Here's another little strip of the scalloped border to echo the three main strips.

This is today's hop list if you're lost: 

1. Belle @ Stuff by Belle
2. Jasmine @ Wild Flower
3. Char @ Creations by Char
4. Nina @ Nina's Time Out
5. Steph @ Silver Boxes (Me! You are Here!)  
6. Julie @ Muddy Paws & Inky Fingers
7. Scrappy Canuck @ Scrappy Canuck Studios
8. Lucy, guest posting @ Crafting for Sanity? Or Insanity?
9. Brenda @ Central NY Scrapper

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment on each post for a chance to win the prizes!
If you like what you see here on Silver Boxes, become a follower/subscriber - I'd love to get to know you better!

Now, head on over to the next stop - Scrap Happy's Muddy Paws & Inky Fingers 

Happy Hopping!

Button Cards

   

  As I'm restocking my box of handmade cards, I'm endeavouring to make multiples of each design to save some time. It's also a great way to use up multiple scraps & other left over supplies. These are the latest design. 

They were inspired by the button cards that are actually packaging that My Mind's Eye mounts their buttons on. 

I changed some of the buttons to fit my colours & style a little better.

The papers are all My Mind's Eye. I used bits of ribbon & sentiment stickers to finish things off.

Easy & sweet... Just my style!

Stay tuned for a papercrafting blog hop I'm participating in this weekend with a chance to win a great prize... come back on Friday for more details. It's going to be good!

Thanks for reading!

Check out these great parties that I link up to!

This project was featured on:

Note Card Set No. 2

My card making days have been few & far between lately, but this past weekend I was able to pump out this notecard set using a bunch of Echo Park scraps I had kickin' around. 

All these patterned papers & stickers are from Echo Park's Country Drive, Little Girl, Splash, Summer Days collections. 

Nut Jar Upcycle

Can you guess this little container's humble beginnings? 

Well, you likely already have because of the name of this post. :)

But in case you skimmed over that part & really are wondering, it all started with a little almond jar like this.

After we ate the yummy almonds, I kept the little jar thinking it was a great size. But what to do with it???

I finally just started playing, not really having the whole vision when I started. 

Here's what I did:

1. Paint the lid black with craft paint.

2. Cut some patterned scrapbook paper to fit the jar. 

3. Apply the paper with Mod Podge.

4, 5, 6. One by one, layer the tabs on the bottom of the jar, using Mod Podge on top of each one. 

7. Apply a layer of Mod Podge over the entire paper surface. Let dry.

8. I learned how to make rolled paper flowers using this tutorial. I made 3 bigger ones & 3 smaller ones. Apply with hot glue. 

Now to figure out what to do with it now that it's all prettied up... any ideas? 

I'm thinking it would be great as gift packaging with a sweet little gift inside (maybe jewelry?).

Please share your ideas as to what you think I should do with it! :)

Enjoy your day!

I link up to these great parties! 

This project featured on:

Crafty Thoughts & Mountain Layouts

  I have to admit something to you.

  I like to make crafts. Oh, you knew that already? Ya, I figured. :) I'm what you'd call "a crafter".

  I also believe that a crafter doesn't have to be holed up into one specific kind of crafting. Not sure what I mean?

  Well, when I started this blog I just wanted to share the stuff I made, created, & decorated. After I did just a bit of searching on other crafter's blogs, I noticed that not many crafters were scrapbookers or card makers. And if they were, they often didn't share their paper crafts on their blogs. The same went for the paper crafters out there. Scrapbook layouts or cards were pretty much all you found on their blogs. It's almost like "someone out there" determined that a blogger couldn't share more than one genre of craft on a given blog.

  After I noticed this, I started to feel pressured (albeit a self-inflicted pressure) to make more generalized crafts & keep my paper crafts to myself. But after a few months of "hiding", I'm ready to throw caution to the wind & just be me! I have come to the realization that I can have several different crafting interests & I can celebrate them all!

  Lesson leaned.

  Am I the only one who has felt this way?

  I want to encourage you to stop hiding your talents & let them ALL shine! The world has something to benefit from what you have to bring to the table. Even if it's just a smile. :)

~~~

I'm still working on scrapping last summer's photos. I'm getting very close to finishing. Here's some of the pages from our summer vacation to Jasper National Park in Alberta.

I used a lot of Bo Bunny for these layouts. I'm in love with the wood grain paper! 

Go celebrate the talents that God put in you.

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!

"Guess Hoo Loves You" Valentine Bag & Card

  

Guess hoo loves you? Me!! :) 

  It's been a while since I've made any papercrafts. I'm so happy to bring them back! 

If you know me, you know I have a crush on owls. So any excuse to make something owl-icious... I'm in!

I started with my Cricut & the Hoot 'n' Holler cartridge.

All these pieces were cut of with this cartridge 

(except the bag - those were purchased from the craft aisle at Wal-Mart).

The card was very simple. Just a sweet owl & a sentiment. 

Together they make a cute little owl duet. Happiness!

Enjoy your day! Thanks for reading, my friends!

This project was featured on: