Time to break out the scrapbooks...

I had some friends over for scrapbooking the other night and look what I finally completed! It's been a while since I've done a whole layout for my scrapbook. I've worked on mini-albums or other little projects but haven't worked on my main book, which I'm 4 years behind on. Someday I'll be caught up, really. I just need a whole month to myself, uninterrupted, to focus on it. Anyone want to come take care of my family, house, and other responsibilities while I do that? Anyone?

This is four years ago when I was pregnant with Abbie and didn't have anything better to do than take pictures of what I was making, eating, and growing in preparation for our first baby. Those were the days...

Just a few things I've been working on...

Here are some craft projects I've been busy with lately. For some reason, I've got the decorating/crafting/sewing/scrapbooking bug right now and with the holidays coming up, I feel even more pressure to get things done before life gets crazy with Thanksgiving and Christmas. So if you'd like a guilt trip for all those half-finished projects in your basement that you keep meaning to get around to, keep reading!

These are wood blocks for Leah's room that match the themed baby room decor. I just painted the wood white and glued on these squares from some leftover wallpaper border that I've been saving for something like this. I meant to do this 2 years ago before Leah was born when we moved and had to take down the wallpaper border...

This FHE board I did a couple years ago but I never got around to making the name tags. Well, I finally found the wood tags that I bought over a year ago, painted them, and shopped around for white rub-on letters that fit and stuck them on. Ta-Da!

One of my sisters had a baby almost two months ago and I finally finished this Nursery Rhyme baby book for her. To see a sample of the scrapbook pages inside, look at my slide show on the right of the Nursery Rhyme Gift Album.

We had our Christmas Workshop today and I made this magnetic recipe board. It wasn't very hard at all to do (everything came in a kit from http://simplycreativecrafts.blogspot.com/2008/03/other-cute-stuff.html) and now I have a cute place to display the recipes that I'm always intending to make.

There also was a class on making these "I Spy" bags for kids for church and other places where you want them to be quiet and busy. I couldn't take the class since I was teaching one at the time but figured out how to do it myself with help from these sites: http://rosie-baby-crafty.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-spy-bags.html or http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=261769.0;all . Pretty easy and cheap and I can't wait to see the girls' reactions when they get to play with them tomorrow.

The class I helped teach was to make these swirled paint glass ornaments. You can do any combination of colors and designs and they turned out really pretty for really cheap. To find out how to do it yourself, go to http://www.save-on-crafts.com/howtomakcero.html . Using similar colors in different shades (ex. bright red, maroon, brick red) with white or silver or gold seemed to work the best.

This was my favorite craft from the workshop. This is a kid-friendly nativity set made of wood and stickers. We just sanded and painted the wood blocks, stained the edges with stamp ink, put on the stickers, and put modge-podge over the whole thing to seal it all in. The girls are going to love it! If you want to make a set for your kids, go to http://creativeholidaygiftideas.blogspot.com/2008/09/were-back-nativity-blocks.html for more info.

Well, there you have it! I'm sure I'll procrasinate for the next year and not get any of the following things done that are next on my list of things I'd like to make. Until then, celebrate with me in finally completing some long over-due projects! Woohoo!

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My "Someday When I Have More Time" list of crafts I want to do:

Baby Rag Quilt. To buy or for color ideas go here: http://www.quiltsjust4kids.com/category_6/Baby-Quilts.htm

For tutorial:

http://jenyu.net/pj/stuff/ragquilt/

Crayon Roll-Up Holder: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

Christmas Advent Calendar Boxes: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2007/11/christmas-proje.html

Favorite Things magnet board: http://simplycreativecrafts.blogspot.com/2008/03/other-cute-stuff.html

Decorative Photo blocks: http://www.mylifetime.com/lifestyle/home-crafts/craft-ideas/paper-crafts/scrapbook-cubes

I'm a scrapaholic...

In another burst of creativity, I finally completed a scrapbook layout, the first in a couple months. I've been trying to get back into it for a while and always doing a little here or there on mini-books or fixing up other layouts, completing journaling, etc. but not really starting anything new. So this is my attempt to start catching up since I'm about 4 years behind. Wish me luck!