April Blog Hop

Welcome to Lori's blog hop for April... Thanks for stopping by...

Here is the order of the hop..

Corri 
Mendi 
Brigit 
Traci 
Lorrie 
Natalie *** you are here ***
Chrissy 
Stephanie 
Ashley 
Mary 
Lisa

So today I am sharing a little project I made for some centerpieces for a school function I am helping with.  The theme was "UP", so I decided to use Lori's Easter basket as a hot air balloon basket and make this darling center piece.  I used this basket file found in Lori's store here, and cut it out of kraft colored card stock, inked the edges with brown ink before assembling it and assembled all but the handle.  I then added the balloon on a stick and mounted it to the bottom of basket with a piece of foam.  I laced string around the balloon and attached them to the bottom of the basket with glue dots, and added the bunting made from this card here.  I used paper and embellishments from Lori's new Summer Bliss collection from Echo Park. And finally filled it with jelly beans to add weight and yumminess to it!  I think it turned out super cute, and think they will look darling on any table!

Don't forget to stop in at Lori's blog and shop and use this code for a 30% off code from now until the 20th!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

March Blog Hop - Lori Whitlock Design Team

Welcome to the Lori Whitlock's design team blog hop for March!  

Here is the order of the hop

Lori Whitlock 

Brigit Mann 

Corri Garza 

Mendi Yoshikawa 

Natalie Graham  **** you are here****

Traci Penrod 

Chrissy Guido

Ashley Cook

Lorrie Nunemaker

Smitha Katti

Stephanie Chavers

Lisa Bell

For today's project I took the regular svg file and used it for little out of the box thinking.  It's a little girls headband with a shamrock center. 

You can use it to cut fabric, which isn't to unusual, but to use a border to create a shamrock, well, sometimes you need to stretch your mind a tad.  I used the file from Lori's store here. These are the same borders I used for my flower pots in this project here.

Here is how I made it...

I added some fabric stabilizer on the back to make it stiffer and easier to cut.

I cut two 12 inch borders from fabric.

Cut them into two bump pieces.

Then hand sewed three together to make the shamrock.

Then when it was all sewn together, I glued it, along with two flowers, some lace, ribbon and rhinestone on some felt, and attached it to a metal headband.  Perfect for St. Patrick's day.

My daughter was thrilled and has been wearing it all day.  I am sure we will get some good use out of it between now and St Patrick's day for sure.  

Now for some more fun stuff.... Lori has some fantastic freebies going today on each stop of the hop.... some fantastic Photo Prompt Tags.  My tag to give away is this darling Photo Prompt Growing.  I used it on a Project life card below.

You can download it for free today only. (sorry this has expired)  Make sure to stop at all the design team gals and collect all of them and look for them coming soon as a collection on JessicaSprague.com soon.

And don't forget the sale going on over at Lori's shop...

Next stop .....  Traci Penrod 

Bottle Heart Card - Thank you.... and a winner of the Gift Card

We have a winner of last week's blog hop!!!  My favorite Valentine treat is sugar cookies.... especially ones that sweet neighbors bring every year.... which is what I may or may not have had for lunch today....

I had only one guess it... so congrats to Carla.... she is the winner of the $10 gift card to Lori Whitlock's store!  Whoohoo!!!! Some one will contact you shortly with the details on your card.... Thanks to all who entered!!!!

Today's project is a thank you card.  I saw this in Lori's store and knew I need to make it.  It was darling.  I made it with Lori's Reflections collections from Echo Park found here.  The card file is found in her store, here.    I love these card files, they are super easy to put together, and they make such darling cards that everyone loves.  I dressed this one up with some stitching, twine and a thank you sticker.  Perfect for that someone that needs a thank you!

Thanks for stopping by....

I love you pallet sign - February Blog Hop

 Welcome to this months Blog Hop... so glad you could join us! There are lots of fantastic Valentine ideas today which I hope you will enjoy.  Can't wait to share mine.....

Here is the order of the hop.....

Lori Whitlock 
Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Natalie Graham  **** you are here****
Traci Penrod 
Chrissy Guido
Ashley Cook
Lorrie Nunemaker 
Smitha Katti
Stephanie Chavers
Mary Moseley 

I love signs, LOVE them, love to make them, love them for every holiday.... just ask any of my neighbors, who has to see them on my front porch.... or my husband, who is always willing to make them for me... this one is not an exception.  This one however was made from scraps, so its a cute little one.... My husband was making me a giant flag for the summer, and I sat and watched as he was gathering up the scraps to throw away, and I couldn't bear it.... wait, lets make a little one...  For what he said?  I don't know, but I will know when it when I see it.  So when I saw these quotes in Lori's shop, I knew that  this little pallet sign was destined to be a Valentine sign.... so this is what I came up with.

And so you can see what size and where it's new home is.... here it is in my living room sitting by my mantel by the giant chalkboard sign I made last year.... I told you I liked signs....

I painted this ombre style, started at the bottom with full strength pink, then added more white each plank going up til I got to the top, which was mostly white.  I then cut the saying from vinyl, and using the negative space for stencil, painted it gold.  (the gold was a fun choice, however it is a little harder to read... i still like it, though) After it dried, I lightly sanded it and then sprayed it with a coat of glitter blast, because everything at Valentines should be a little sparkly?

I got the quote from this set here, found in Lori's shop.  She has some super cute things right now, just in time for Valentines.  And of course because of the blog hop, they are on sale!  So make sure to stop by and grab some...

She also has a give away! So grab that as well.....

And for one of my lucky readers, I will give you a $10 gift certificate to her shop!! Whaaooo!!!  Leave a comment, and tell me what your favorite Valentine treat is, and if we share the same you win! Unless there is a whole slew of you that share the same treat as me, and in that case, I'll pick a random winner!!!  Contest ends at midnight...  Make sure to leave your contact info!

Thanks for stopping by.... next stop....  Traci Penrod 

January Blog Hop

Happy New Year!  Welcome to Lori Whitlock's creative team blog hop.

Here is the order of the hop...

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 

Christine Ousley 

Corri Garza 

Mendi Yoshikawa 

Natalie Graham *** you are here****

Traci Penrod 

Chrissy Guido

Ashley Cook

Lorrie Nunemaker 

Smitha Katti

Stephanie Chavers 

I am excited to share with you a little project I made for my girls.  It kind of makes me giddy and happy just looking at it.  Possibly because I would have loved it when I was a little girl, so of course making it was just as fun.  My girls love their American Girl dolls. It seems like every birthday and Christmas we collect more clothes and accessories for them.  This Christmas we picked up these doll bed at IKEA, which were the perfect size for the American Girl doll.  So with a little stash of Lori's Simply Sweet Collection for Riley Blake Designs, this little beauty was born.

All this bedding was made from fat quarters from this collection.  Which makes it easy to cut and collect multiple pieces from the line of fabric.

I made a foam "mattress" cut from a piece of foam to fit the bed found from my local craft store.  I covered that with two fat quarters, using the left overs for the small pillows.

For the sheets, I used plain broad cloth trimmed in ric rac, folded over to create a hem just like you would find on real sheets.

For the quilt, I cut various sized strips of fabrics ranging from 1 inch to 3 inches, sewing them in random order, occasionally adding ric rac or trim.  After it was the size I wanted, I added batting and added an additional fat quarter as the backing.

As much as this project would seem like it would have taken a long time, it didn't, I made two full bedding sets in one night, including the mattresses and pillows.

My girls were thrilled to get these.  They love it, and hopefully enjoy them for years to come.

So along with this hop, Lori is having a sale, so make sure you stop by her store to check out all the wonderful things she has going!

Thanks for stopping in!

Next stop ...   Traci Penrod 

Christmas Boxes

As it gets closer to Christmas, we get closer to thinking more about how we are going to wrap the gifts we are giving rather than what we are shopping for.  When I saw these boxes in Lori's shop I knew that it would be the perfect holders for a gift we are giving some of my family.  It's a three part gift, so the three boxes were the ideal solution to wrap up this gift. Most of the things going inside are small like gift cards and treats, so these worked out great.

I used the 3 Stacking Christmas Boxes found in Lori's shop here. I cut them out with various Christmas paper and card stock.  After assembling I tied them with some bakers string added some ribbon and tags and they are ready to go.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

December Blog Hop

Welcome to the December Blog Hop for Lori Whitlock's Creative Team.  Hope everyone is getting excited about Christmas and getting as much done as possible!

  

Here is the list of the wonderful and creative team members joining me in this hop today.

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 

Christine Ousley 

Corri Garza 

Mendi Yoshikawa 

Natalie Graham ***you are here***

Traci Penrod 

Chrissy Guido

Ashley Cook

Lorrie Nunemaker 

Mary Moseley 

Smitha Katti

Stephanie Chavers 

OK, so I have a couple of quick and easy digital projects for you today.

First I used Lori's 2014 calendar files to make a quick and easy gift for our grandparents.  For years I would scrapbook and make a big fuss over a calendar, then I found these cute templates.  Now I make one, print it and stick it in a frame and you have the cutest gift around. The template, found here at Jessica Sprague, had slots for 6 pictures, but I only had this one, so I only used the space for it.  I used Lori's Sweet Life collection for the paper and embellishments also found at JessicaSprague.com

Next, of course, I need a Christmas Card for the year, and once again, Lori's templates came to the rescue.  I Christmas Card Set 3, found at Jessica Sprague and used the Christmas Day Collection as well.  They came together quick and easy.  No only if printing and addressing them went as fast!

Hope you enjoyed your visit, don't forget the sale over at the shop....

next stop ...

Traci Penrod