My Mind's Eye Blog

“Sew” Cute!

I’ve been waiting for today’s Good Things Utah segment for a few months.  Ever since the first time I saw the prototypes for the new See Me Sew fabric bags I’ve been anxiously awaiting their arrival.  These darling kits have been shipping for the last couple of weeks and are waiting to find their way to your home!

There are three bag styles: Ruffled, Tote and Messenger.  Each style has three different and equally beautiful color schemes.  The patterns even come from some of my personal favorite collections: Lush, So Sophie and, of course, My Mind’s Eye’s famous polka dots and plaids.

Seasoned and novice sewers will love the ease of these all-in-one kits.  When you open the package, you’ll find a flower embellishment kit ready to stack together and sew the button on and a fabric panel pre-printed and ready to go.  No pattern needed – simply cut out each piece along the border of the printed piece.  There are step-by-step instructions printed on the inside of the box and a video for each bag style available on our website (http://www.mymindseye.com/SMS/SeeMeSew.asp)

Since I am unable to actually sew on the program today, I thought it would be fun to demonstrate a few fun techniques you’ll find helpful when creating your bags.  Like how to create the flower embellishments, what some of the basic terms used mean (for us beginners) and my Mother-in-law’s “no frustration” gathering technique using Pearl Embroidery Thread.

Look for today’s segment here as soon as it is available.

I am by no means an expert seamstress, but I can sew a straight stitch and follow instructions.  Guess what?  Turns out that’s all the expertise you’ll need to sew these darling bags!

Happy Sewing!

Mother’s Treasure Chest

Every mother knows what her treasure is.  The problem is can you find the notes and gifts from them?  The perfect gift for the mother in your life?  A treasure chest for the precious gifts from her treasures.  Whether you make this box for your self or a special mother in your life, it will be a source of joy for many years to come.

Miss Caroline (Dolled up) and her spectacular embellishments made this project quick, easy and, most of all, beautiful!

I am demonstrating this treasure box on Good Things Utah today (locally from 10 – 11am on ABC4).  Don’t despair if you aren’t local!  We’ll upload the segment as soon as it is available here:

I have included a .pdf of the instructions so you can make this project, too!

Happy Wednesday!

 

Easter Gift Ideas

Isn’t Easter fun? I love this celebration of rebirth, new life, and Spring!  The happy, bright colors of the Easter candy aisle always make me smile.  I love to give treats to family, friends, neighbors, teachers, etc.  Here are a few fun ideas for packaging yummy goodies to share.

This first project is a simple bag topper.  I love how the vintage pastel colors of the Miss Caroline “Fiddlesticks” Collection go perfectly with the large malted eggs I found. Just purchase cellophane bags from the party section at your grocery or craft store, fill with treats, and staple the top.

1. Cut a 5 1/2” x 6” piece of the purple Fiddlesticks “Lucky” Textile paper (b-side) and fold in half so it is 3” x 5 1/2”.
2. Cut a 1/2” x 5 1/2” piece of Pink Fiddlesticks “Home” Paper (b-side) and adhere along the bottom of the topper. Print “Happy Spring” on the yellow Fiddlesticks “You and Me” Bloom paper (b-side) and trim to 2 1/4” x 5 1/2”.  Sew around the top and bottom edges with blue thread.  Adhere above the pink paper strip.
3. Cut a 1/2” x 3” piece of aqua “Lucky” Tapestry paper (b-side) and adhere along the right side.  Cut a 3/4” x 3” piece of the “Home” Dotted paper and adhere over the left edge of the aqua paper.  Place the purple 3-D flower sticker (Fiddlesticks “Home” layered stickers) on the left of the topper.  Adhere topper over the bag with a few pieces of double stick tape.

This Jelly Bean Jar is decorated with the soft colors of the Miss Caroline “Howdy Doody” collection.  The jar originally held the MME glittered letters from a few years ago.  You can also find these at crafts stores.

1. Cut a 1” x 12” piece of pink dotted “Baby” Lace Paper (b-side) and adhere to the jar with double stick tape.  Cut a 1” piece of the from the front side of the same paper and use scissors to cut around the green scallops.  Adhere over the pink paper.
2. Cut a 1/2” x 12” strip of the “Happy” Beach Stripe Paper and adhere around the top of the jar.  Place the pink circle doily sticker on the lid (Howdy Doody “Lovely” stickers) and the yellow flower with a brad on top (Howdy Doody “Like” Brads).
3. Cut a 2 2/8” circle from the pink dotted paper and place the yellow circle doily sticker on it.  Print a 1 3/8” circle with “Happy Easter”, trim, and adhere.  Place the pink label sticker from Dolled Up “Favorite” Label Stickers on the top of the circle, thread the yellow Fiddlesticks “Lucky'” twine through it, and fold to the back.  Insert a yellow brad.  Tie twine around the jar handle.

Make this sweet Butterfly Basket using the Miss Caroline “Dolled Up” line.  A transparency provides the perfect peekaboo window to view the delicious chocolate eggs inside.

1. Cut a 6” x 12” piece of blue Dolled Up “Favorite” Madras Paper (b-side). Score 1 1/2” from the bottom, 2” from the left, then 1 3/4”, 4”, 1 3/4”.  Fold on score lines and cut slits/notches along the bottom folds up to the 1 1/2” score line. The basket will stand 4 1/2” tall.
2. Cut a 3 1/8” circle from the center of the basket.  Cut a 2 7/8” circle from the pink “Cute” Garden Paper (b-side) and a 3 3/4” x 3 3/4” piece of transparency.  Cut a 1 1/4” x 12” strip of “Living” Blooms Paper and a 2 1/4” x 12” piece of the yellow b-side.  Center them over the circle opening of the blue paper and trace the circle.
3. Cut out the traced lines and adhere the edges of the papers along the circle cutout with glue.  Layer the pink paper cutout and the transparency behind, then sew around the circle cutout.
4. Fold the yellow and floral strips of paper over the blue basket before you adhere them, or they will bow.  Glue the center seam in back and re-enforce with tape.  Fold the bottom pieces under and adhere with glue. Insert the Butterfly brad from Dolled Up “Cute Brads.
5. Cut a 1” x 12” strip of the “Day” Butterflies” Paper and a 1 1/4” x 12” strip of the pink “Cute” Garden Paper (b-side).  Glue them together and attach with brads from the Dolled up and Howdy Doody lines.  Fill with chocolate eggs and deliver to a friend!

Have fun creating and sharing delicious treats!

Easter Baskets

Good morning!  I hope you are having a fabulous Thursday!

This morning I am demonstrating how to make these handmade Easter baskets on Good Things Utah.  Every once in a while the producers of the show will ask me to create something special.  This is one of those times. 

When they first asked me to create an Easter basket, I had so many different ideas run through my mind.  I sketched a few ideas and began to create.  Like most things I do, the project took on a life of its own and I enjoyed a few unexpected twists.  When I was done, I had created two baskets – each with a style of their own. 

 

The first basket I created using Miss Caroline – Dilly Dally.  The grays, blues and reds add an unexpected pop of color for Easter.  I chose to weave the paper together to create the look of a traditional basket.  The red checked handle adds to the feel of a weaved basket.  I thought this basked would be a fun one for boys, so I thought a red ribbon would be a great finishing touch!

 

 

The second basket is created using the soft, gorgeous pastels of Miss Caroline – Fiddlesticks.  For this basket, I wanted to accentuate the femininity of the colors, so I added a frilly border using a scallop border punch.  The yellow twine added an earthy touch and the buttons look like they are holding the handle on the basket.

On both baskets, I added ruffled trim along the top of the opening to add the look of grass without the mess.

These baskets went together surprisingly fast!  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive to quickly adhere the paper to the paper mache hat box which was the “base” for this project.  Tombow Mono Adhesive is my favorite liquid adhesive because it is strong and it dries fast! 

As always, I have included step-by-step instructions so that you can create your own!

For those of you who are unable to watch the segment live, I’ll upload it here:

Do your projects take on a life of their own too?  I hope your day is wonderful and that you have a little time spend creating!

Hugs,

Amber Packer 

 

p.s. The Tombow team has been creating with My Mind’s Eye products all week.  Be sure to swing by there and check out their beautiful projects and great products.

Karen's Project Life

Hi everyone!

As many of you might have already noticed, Project Life is really popular this year. One of the greatest things about this project is that it can be interpreted and executed many different ways. My word for this year is savor. And as part of my goal to savor my life as it happens, I decided to use the Project Life system to highlight four to six stories a week. You can read more about my project here <http://www.karenika.com/archives/21354>.

I create mini scrap pages 6x8 scrap pages and then cut and put them into my pockets. For this week's layout, I decided to use a lot of my new My Mind's Eye products and walk you through my process.

The first thing I did was grab my 6x6 pads. Since I make small pages, I prefer the smaller patterns.

I picked a bunch of papers I liked and cut them off. I don't care if they are all from the same line. I like to mix and match. I also make sure to pick some papers with lines or graph paper on them so I have some journaling space.

The next thing I did was to cut and layer them, and use punches to create strips and interest, so that I had four 8x6 sheets.

Then, I stitched on them for fun and cut them into two so they created eight 4x6 pieces.

And here's a closeup. You'll see my stitching is far from perfect. Especially since my sewing machine was being extra-uncooperative this time.

Then, at the end of the week, I printed photos of the stories I wanted to tell for that week. I use a small Polaroid printer for this project. It prints small photos that are also stickers. I printed them and organized them by story. For this week, I had five stories.

After that, I stuck the photos to the 4x6s and wrote all my journaling by hand. I also added a few embellishments but kept it pretty simple. Here's the final set:

And a close up of each:

This first one tells a story of my son putting grass seeds in our backyard:

The next one is both my boys coloring paper airplanes we created during family night.

This one is two different stories. On top is my youngest looking at his Legos using the binoculars and having fun. On the bottom is a soul-exercise I did for my Body Restoration class. It involved writing a letter and burying it in my backyard.

And then the final one is about my older son learning how to tie his shoe laces.

You can see that most of my imperfect stitching is covered up. And you can also see that I keep the embellishments to a minimum. This project, for me, is about the photos and stories.
And here it is in my actual Project Savor binder:

The stories occupy the big 4x6 inserts and I use the bottom part to display the art I created that week and for the family photo we take each week.
That's it. Thank you for letting me share my process and project. I hope you liked seeing how it works. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask and I will do my best to respond.

Karen Grunberg

Layers of Ruffles Lamp

As I was working on the jewelry box for last month’s Good Things Utah, I had an epiphany.  As I was looking a the layers of ruffles on the sides of the box, I thought to myself what a cute lampshade that would be. 

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was totally do-able.  At first I was worried about the heat from the light bulb.  But LED lights don’t get hot, so the paper won’t be a fire hazard.  If you are careful, you can use an incandescent (regular) bulb, as long as the lamp shade is far enough away from the bulb, it won’t get hot either.  Test it out and see what you feel comfortable with.  Personally, I would use the LED bulb.  You will need to be careful, but if you are, you can have a beautiful, hand-made, one-of-a-kind ruffled lamp within an hour or two. 

 

 

 

Since I have a few teenagers and their leaders in my area coming to watch me, I wanted to make the project something that they would like.  So, I pulled out the new Miss Caroline – Dolled up collection.  The combination of pinks, grays, blues, yellows and whites are the perfect mixture of soft and bright that teenagers (and preteens and grown up women) LOVE.

I used one 6 x 6 pad to create my lamp shade.  Depending upon the size of your shade, you may need more than one pad.  I like to use the pads because the patterns are made smaller and you can see more when you punch the holes

This was a fun and easy project that makes a big impact.

As usual, I have created project instructions for you to download so that you can make this project for yourself.

When the segment is uploaded, I will add the video here:

 

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I do!

Amber Packer 

Lisa’s Style

So this has just been the best month, Guesting here at My Mind's Eye..I feel so honored and blessed to be amongst the "regular" designers at MME, who are nothing but EXTRAordinary!  I have loved each challenge and post and the chance to work with all the beautiful new products fresh off the press was a dream come true!  So now, I'm here at my last post of the month and I'm to define "my style".  I do find that hard to do as I tend to evolve with the trends and my interests, but I think what comes to mind, if I had to choose a couple of words, it would be "Simply Embellished".  More than anything, my memory keeping is about the photos and the memories so I do like to keep the focus there...but then, the artist in me jumps in and says "now make it pretty!"  And that is what I do!  I start with the photos and then make them pretty.  I spend most of my scrappy time creating layouts for our family scrapbooks, and I'm highly motivated by a great photo.  This one was taken just yesterday and the minute I took it I literally ran in the house to upload it and get started scrapping it as I knew exactly what papers I wanted to use. My daughter and husband came home a couple hours later from the dance and handed me this pin so of course I had to add it to the layout, too, and it was the finishing touch to their memory.

(Miss Caroline Dilly Dally- Best, Hello and Curious lines)

I also love to give (and my family loves to receive) home made gifts, so I alter things quite frequently for my family and you will see my projects tucked into all the corners of my home (and my extended family's homes as well!).  I created this shadowbox frame for my Mom for Mother's Day (getting a little head start!) I used a white framed Shadowbox from Michael's for this one and just layered in the papers on the inside and the embellishments on the outside.  Not too fancy, but I didn't want to take away from that cute picture of me as a baby. :) Of course my parent's nickname for me was Princess, too..so the die cut worked perfectly for me.

(Featuring Miss Caroline- Dolled Up Princess and Cute Lines)

And lastly, a typical altered project from me...this was a box that previously held scrappy products.  I've been hoarding it for a couple of years and thought my daughter would love a little box for her upcoming birthday.  She is a collector (takes after her mommy) and needed someplace special to keep her little trinkets so I created this box for her. MME products are so amazing for altered projects..everything works together so beautifully to create that layered look that I love...from the bling to the paper, to the rub ons to the embellished brads and twine, the coordination of the products makes it foolproof to create beautiful keepsakes, be they scrapbook pages or altered items.

(Featured products- Miss Caroline Lovely, Happy, Beautiful and Like)

I'd like to thank Amber and all the folks at My Mind's Eye for allowing me to design for and with you this month, and to all the wonderful blog readers for all their sweet comments!  It's been a blast and I hope to be back soon!

Lisa Spiegel 

Jewelry Box

The Follow Your Heart collection designed by Rhonna Farrer is so soft and beautifully romantic and all the beautiful embellishments are like jewelry for your scrapbook pages and projects.  I guess that’s why when I saw this cute, plain jewelry box on clearance at Target I thought of Follow Your Heart. 

Many of you know of my love for mod podge and wood.  When I want to really be creative, I turn to projects like that.  For some reason, I chose to use double stick tape for this project.  I guess I thought that mod podge is permanent and if I ever wanted to change up the colors in my room that I may want to change the jewelry box.

I would suggest that if you are creating this for a younger girl that you use mod podge.  Isn’t it fun to have choices!  *wink*

I used the Follow Your Heart – Be Happy color scheme.  The soft colors blend so well together that you can really play with mixing patterns.

If you can’t get to a jewelry box from Target, you can pick up one from a thrift store.  Most craft stores have paper mache or raw wood boxes.  That’s another good place to check.

I had a lot of fun with this project.  You will too.  After you get the papers on the box, play around all the fun embellishments.  Remember – you are adding jewelry to your jewelry box!

What a great time I had on Good Things Utah today.  As usual, I have included instructions which you can download here:  Download 2012_02_16_MME_Jewelry Box

When the video is ready to go, I’ll add it here.

Have a happy time creating!

Amber Packer 

“Love”ly Cone Wreath

While our 6x6 paper pads ARE perfect for cards (yeah), they are also the perfect for cone wreaths.

Normally, to make a cone wreath, you cut down 12 x 12 papers or old music paper into 6x6 squares.

But, with just TWO 6x6 pads, some of our gorgeous trims and brads with some doilies thrown in for good measure, you have everything you need to make this “love”ly wreath.

Pin It

This project was originally designed using the Lost & Found – Madison Avenue 6x6 pad.  I demonstrated this project today on Good Things Utah using the Lost & Found 2 – Blush pad and the Love Me 6x6 pads would be darling, too.

I have included the instructions here:

Download 2012_01_10_MME_Love Wreath_cone

I will upload the segment here when it is ready this afternoon. 

This project is quick and easy to make.  With the fabulous variety of 6x6 pads My Mind’s Eye offers, there is something for every occasion through out the year!

Amber Packer 

2011 Holiday Hoopla day 6

It’s here - the time of year where I waver between having a comfortable “I’m almost done” feeling and a feeling of panic when I realize that even though I thought I was almost done, I have realized all the things I have forgotten.  I am blessed in so many ways, one of which is with spectacular friends.  Unfortunately, I have not planned in advance and am quickly running out of time to come up with something as spectacular as my friends.

I love the style of jewelry today – eclectic, feminine and fun with lots of ruffles and glitz!  I thought about going to a jewelry store to find something special and then I started thinking of the fabulous Lost & Found 2 trims! 

Guess what!?  They make fabulous flowers for use on layouts, why not use them for jewelry?

I went to my local Hobby Lobby (Michaels, Joann’s or a jewelry store will work too) and picked up some blank adjustable rings with a flat top, flat circles for necklaces (and small ones for earrings), a bangle bracelet and bobby pins with a flat top.

Then I got to work: twisting and gluing; stitching and gathering and came up with these:

They were fun to make and so easy!  If you want to really enjoy yourself while you create for others, this is the project for you!  You’d better make sure you make a few for yourself.

What do you think?  Is this something you would like to make?  I have included instructions here: Download 2011_12_14_MME_Ribbon Rosette Jewelry

I also demonstrated this project on Good Things Utah this morning.  I will upload the segment when it’s available this afternoon.

Since this is also part of the Holiday Hoopla celebration there IS, of course, a giveaway!  Leave a comment on this blog post by midnight, December 25, 2011.  We will send one lucky winner the trims and brads I used on this project!

Good luck in your preparations!  I know I need it in mine. *wink*  I hope you are able to get your preparations done in time to reflect upon the majesty of this season.

Amber Packer