Lakauai {Life is Good} » Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking!

lakauai — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:14:57 +0000

Scrapbooking is my favorite hobby of all time. Why then have I not done it more often? I honestly have no idea! When we moved to Madison, a requirement for a house was that it have a room I could dedicate to scrapbooking. The house we bought is perfect. I have my own room and have been able to organize it around all my scrapbooking stuff. I have it decorated just like I want it, with lots of my favorite things that should inspire me. I have a friend who calls it my Happy Place. That is exactly what it is, I just feel happy when I am in it. So, why do I not spend more time there? I am going to work on doing just that. A big step would be to keep my fabulously huge antique square table clear! That way when I get a bit of mojo, I can jump right in!!

Anyway, I joined a contest at a scrapbooking site that a friend of mine runs. Each week they post a challenge giving you some rules/guidelines to create a scrapbook page. This week the contest was to create a birthday page using only leftover stuff from a birthday. So, I took the challenge and created this layout. I cut apart a birthday gift bag for the background, added the actual invitation, a picture and used the handle from the gift bag as an embellishment. Then I journaled on a green napkin and stamped a birthday hat.

Gifts for Baby Trey

lakauai — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:11:09 +0000

I forgot I never posted this after we went to visit our beautiful new nephew!
I was trying to come up with different ideas for a gift for baby Trey. Of course all new babies need diapers, lotions, shampoo, and all the other baby paraphernalia. Not to mention the big stuff if this is the first baby. But, I wanted to do something a little more personal. So, I came up with the idea of making personalized onesies. I found some plain white long sleeved ones at TJ Maxx and snagged them. Looking back, I should have bought all they had!! Anyway, I bought some transfer paper at Hobby Lobby, then set about creating some personalized designs for the onesies. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting it to print correctly, LOL! I actually wasted 6 sheets before I got it right. Oh well, live and learn. Hopefully, I will remember the next time I try this project. I also found a 3-panel accordian style frame thingy at Tuesday Morning. I did buy several of those because they were such a great price. I altered it and personalized it and left some space for pictures. Ta-Da – Unique and personalized Baby Gifts!

Some cards

lakauai — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:00:28 +0000

My friend Connie asked if I would be interested in creating some invitations for her and she would PAY me! whoo-hoo! yes, I could do that. The hard part was coming up with a price. Anyway, I created a few different designs for her to choose from, that is the first picture. The one she chose is not pictured, though. I forgot to take a picture before I finished them! Oh well, it was fabulous, trust me!!! The other picture is some cards I made with some of the leftover paper. It is nice to have handmade cards handy for those last minute gifts!!

Presto-Chango Chair

lakauai — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:11:10 +0000

I already have a great chair in my Happy Place that I sit in when I scrap. I got it several months ago at a thrift store for $5. I painted it orange and re-covered the seat with some great fabric. Well, anytime that Lael sees me here working, she wants to come in and help. But we always have to drag in a chair from the kitchen. So, I have been on the lookout for another chair. As I was driving down the road the other day, I spy an old wooden chair on the sidewalk in front of a thrift store. I turn the car around, go in to ask them how much. Imagine my surprise when she says $1. Yes a single dollar! I was shocked, but started digging in my purse for some cash. I brought it home and the next day started working on it. I pulled off 4 layers of yucky fabric til I got to the original damask fabric that was probably very nice when it was put on decades ago! Todd was helping me at this point, and he was amazed at the craftsmanship and care of detail that went into the construction of this chair. He said it is probably worth some money. Of course that was before I painted it red, and applied a bit of flair to it!!! Anyway, Lael is now happy, she has a chair. But, it is actually more comfortable than my orange one, I think we should trade! Here is the before and after.

New Blog Look and promised pics

lakauai — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:38:27 +0000

I was getting tired of the old look of my blog so I spent some time searching online yesterday for a new look. I was originally thinking of going wintry, but the more I searched I thought, no I think an ‘almost spring’ look would be better – so here it is! What do you think?

I did snap a few pictures, but the quality is not that great still. I need to start a fund for a new camera! Anyway, first up is the Altered Lunchbox I made for Catherine. I still need to print the photos of all the guests and stick them to the other side of each of the cards – but you get the idea. Next is the decorations. I made the invitation, altered a candle, made a pennant, and candlelit paperbags to line our sidewalk.

I wanted to include the text of the invitation here since you cannot read it on the invites. It is pretty clever if I do say so myself. However, I cannot take complete credit for it – I found part of the text online on a Fourth of July invite. Here it is:

We the people, of ______________ (The Anderson’s) in order to form a more perfect party, establish good will, insure memories, provide beer, hot dogs and other good things, promote a good time, and secure the blessings of friendship hereby invite you to a American Style Going Away Party for the Elfick family.

Going Away party

lakauai — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:04:21 +0000

I already wrote about the party a bit. But, I did want to share some of the ways I used my scrapbooking supplies to make the party scrapfabulous! The Elfick’s are a wonderful family. They lived two houses down from in the corner of our cul-de-sac. I miss them tremendously already!!! Dominic is from Scotland and Catherine is from Australia. They have been here in the US for a number of years, but the opportunity arose for Dom’s company to transfer them to Australia. Catherine was ecstatic, of course – her country, her family and friends. I cannot blame her at all!!! Anyway, when we started talking about having a Going Away Party for them, I thought we should have an American theme party to send them off in style. I had some small American flags in the attic, but that was about it for USA decor. So, I set off searching at my fave stores, Target, Hobby Lobby and the $1 Store and Michael’s. They actually had some, I was surprised. But then as I was checking out with my red, white, blue napkins, drink stirrers, plates, paper lanterns etc the sales clerk asked if I was having an Inauguration Party – Ohhhhh! Lightbulb moment! That is why there were displays of USA themed decorations around! Oh well, works for me and my needs.

I made the invitations, with the help of this digital kit from Scrapbook-Bytes. Todd helped me with the pennant. I bought one sheet of all the American themed scrapbook papers from my LSS. I had about a dozen sheets or so. I told him my plan, Cut as many triangles from each sheet as you can, glue them back to back if they were not double sided patterned paper, and then string them with some red fiber. He was a champ – handled that one all on his own! I covered a plain white candle with scrapbook paper scraps from the pennant and then wrapped some gold star wired garland around it. The picture stinks, the light was bouncing off the glass globe and the glass pebbles. I found some blue paper lunch sacks and used my star punch to punch a few stars in the bags. I weighed them down with rocks and put a votive candle in them. I used those and the small flags to line our sidewalk. Again, the picture stinks – hard to get a picture of a bag lit from within by a votive candle when said candle keeps blowing out due to the wind.

I think that is it for decorations. For the kids in attendance, I covered a folding table with butcher paper and set out crayons and playdough. That kept them busy for a while. I had also printed out copies of Patriotic Airplanes and Patriotic Pinwheels from Family Fun At some point they got tired of all my activities and moved on to the destruction of Lael’s bedroom. Oh well, they all had fun!

The other thing I made was a gift for Catherine and Dom. I used one of the lunchboxes that were so popular a few years back in the scrapbooking world. I altered it with some paper from my stash and then was totally stuck. It was like I was a first year scrapper, paralyzed by all my choices. I was opening boxes and drawers and folders looking for that perfect something for the front of the box. Finally, I found it – and it was not even something I made! It is a chipboard frame with a big “F” for friends and ribbon on it. It was made by my friend Liza and given to me years ago. I never found the perfect project to use it, til now! So, big thanks to Liza for that!! Then I cut a bunch of chipboard squares to fit inside and altered them, one side for notes and one side for pictures. Each guest was supposed to write a note to the Elfick’s, along with their contact info (email, addy, phone #), then Aimee took their picture. Each family unit had their own card. I thought this would be a wonderful way for the Elfick’s to keep in touch with all their friends here in the States.

Finally – the food and drinks. I found some cute little mason jar mugs at the $1 Store and got a few of those for our guests. I wasn’t sure if I would have enough glasses without breaking out my good crystal (which I really did not want to do!) Plus, I thought that they fit the theme! The signature drink I served was Carolina Ice Tea. Here’s the recipe:

1 1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur

1 oz Captain Morgan® Original spiced rum

1 oz peach schnapps

1/2 oz vodka

5 oz sweet iced tea

Add alcohol and stir lightly. Pour in iced tea. Stir a few more times and serve.
It was actually tasty. I was kind of worried with that many liquors it would be way too strong, but the sweet tea was the perfect complement.

Food – there was so much! Before everyone arrived, I was looking at all the trays and platters and thought wow, we have lots of stuff leftover. That was so not the case! Practically everything was eaten! We had chicken fingers, shrimp, sausage balls, pigs in blanket, fruit, cheese ball with crackers, deviled eggs, Kahlua cake, flag cookie cake, Southern Caviar, buffalo chicken dip, Party mix, pretzels and nuts. People kept asking me about the Cheese Ball. So, here is the recipe for that:

2 packs (8 oz. each) cream cheese

1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped

2 tsp. minced onion

2 tsp. seasoning salt

2 cup chopped pecans

Soften cream cheese. Add all ingredients except 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Chill, then shape into a ball and roll in pecans. Serve with crackers.
I didn’t have any pecans, so I just left them out and it tasted great. They just add a bit more crunch.

I think that is all I have to share. It was fun, I would definitely love to host another party, but not a Going Away one for any more friends. All of my neighbors MUST not move for many many years!

OK, will have to add photos later – can’t get them to work now. boo-hoo

Online Scrapbook Class

lakauai — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:44:07 +0000

I was talking with Traci and Lynda the other day about a recurring nightmare we all share – we’re in school and we can’t open our lockers, can’t remember the combination. Crazy I know, we’ve all been out of school quite a while, some a bit longer than others {wink}. Anyway, it got me to thinking about being back in school. Plus one of my friends, Sheri is really going back to school. I’m so proud of her – she has started college! So, then today I am checking out the various blogs that I like to read in the mornings and find that Shimelle is offering a free mini class called “This Year“. For Christmas she offered a class called “Journal Your Christmas” that I really wanted to do, but just couldn’t get my act together enough to commit to it. So, now that the holiday craze has settled – I am going to do this class. I would love for my other scrapping buds to join me! Click here to get info!
Shimelle is also giving away some fab prizes like stamps, a kit, classes, and a GC to 2Peas to 7 lucky winnners. Gotta love prizes! This is an image from Shimelle that goes hand in hand with the class.