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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!

Blog Challenge 33 winners!

WOW!  What a fabulous response we have had this month!  You created and entered 109 beautiful layouts and 59 gorgeous cards!  Thank you for sharing your talents with us.

We are pleased to announce this month’s winners!

Layout Winner: Marcia Dehn-Nix

 

Layout Honorable Mention: Missy Widden

 

Card Winner: Shilo Miles

 

Congratulations, ladies!  Please email your shipping information to [email protected].

Be sure to check out all the amazing layout and card entries in this month’s challenge.

We look forward to seeing what you will create for our next challenge!

sets by six

My Minds Eye Stamp releases are always filled with cute and classy images - so versatile - which makes every set a wanted one.

Armed with some foam adhesive and some My Minds Eye's embellishment, I had an evening of stamping and coloring fun and a bonus was the fact that this week I also got to play with some of the new Tombow Stamping marker sets.

This is the same stamp but I went for a washed stroked background with the brush pens instead.

I cut up some of the cute adhesive jewels to get the pearls for the banner.

I loved the bright colors in the Tombow pens and the blender pen was awesome to work with.

I used the pens for the little details in the flowers.

I think my favourite from this release is the 'recorded' badge stamp.

Followed closely by the 'domino' stamp...

And my favourite phrase stamp in the sets is the "whole heart' one... I ended up making a lot few cards with it :)

Having the two nibs makes the pens so useful for fine and wide coloring.

The phrase and rose stamp are both from the Miss Caroline release.

I hope you check out the awesome new stamp sets form My Minds Eye, and have a play with the Tombow products at your local store.

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.

Welcoming Stephanie Howell

We are thrilled to announce that we have invited  Stephanie Howell to join My Mind's Eye as our Social Media Director. Stephanie has big plans for this blog, as well as Facebook and Twitter. Look for some fun new changes,exciting contests,and plenty of new posts!!!

Welcome to the team, Stephanie! We can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve!

On the Bright Side

Hello everyone!

Today, I have a page to share with you using the new collection, On the Bright Side. I also used two of Towbow's products to complete my page. This page was used with their Stamp Runner Adhesive. If you have not used this new runner, you are going to love that it has dual applications! On one end, you will receive the tape runner function, which helps to adhere all your elements in place! On the other end, it is a stamper! Meaning that with a simple click, you will receive a perfect squre of dot pattern. This takes the place of using glue dots! One adhesive with two great functions!

I thought I changed it a bit, and create a page about my handsome boy! Love the On the bright side collection. Perfect colors to document the special boy in your life! Also, I think this collection, just might be perfect for upcoming Fourth of July projects, too!

Here are few details of my page:

In this cluster of embellishments, I put to use the stamper side of the runner. Underneath the bow of the twine, I stamped adhesive, so the bow would stay in place. Underneath the pins, I also used a bit of the stamped adhesive, too. The pins are pretty secured because they are pushed into pop dots, but extra adhesive never hurts!

Here I used  the Towbow Dual Brush Pen in gray. Using the dual tip, I outlined the edges of the banner shape, and the word embellishment. It is very subtle, but does add a nice bit of detail to the embellishments.

Stamping is another great technique that you can achieve using Towbow's dual brush pens. I used Lost & Found's Breeze "Dream Stamps" to ink the banner image in the lower left hand corner. Loved using the markers to acheieve this subtle stamped image! They also have a fine tip on the other end, which I used to write the date of the photo.

Thank you for visiting the My Mind's Eye Blog, and I hope you will have a chance to play with Towbow's fabulous papercrafting products!

Mothering Sunday

Most countries celebrate Mothers Day in May, but in Ireland and the UK, the third Sunday in Lent in known as Mothering Sunday, basically Mother's day. So as I am now based in the UK, within a few miles of the seaside, I thought I'd share some mother layouts for our UK fans and give everyone else advance inspiration for their upcoming Mothers day.

This layout was inspired by the On the Bright Side diecut "They are everything to me"

 

Text: I am a mother to these two amazing girls. Days like this where they express their love of the sea, the waves and the sounds. show me that they share parts of me that make me know that I am their mother.

Supplies: 'On the Bright Side' Two Paper Pack - including the diecut sheet,  Miss Caroline Dilly Dally Curious Adhesive jewels, FiddleSticks Cardstock Sticker and Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' bookmarks & Twine. I added the wooden alphabet.

I am very lucky to have an amazing Mother-in-Law. This woman is nothing like the tales I hear from others so I know I have been blessed to have such a strong and understanding woman in my life and for my children, she is a wonderful Grandma. 

Text: This woman is a huge blessing in my life and I am proud to have her in my life and to know she will influence my children as their Grandma.

Supplies: 'On the Bright Side' Two Paper Pack - including the diecut sheet, Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' bookmarks, Adhesive Jewels and Twine. I added the heart punch and the glitter alphabet.

I hope you enjoy these layouts and cherish those in your life who help you be a mother or provide you with the positive aspects of mothering.

 

Luck of the Irish

I was born and lived in Ireland until 1996 when I moved to England to be with my now husband so i've earned my Green stripes with many years of Irish Dancing and Pub Music nights so i've taken today to share some of those with you.

One of my favourite Irish wedding blessings is this one:

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain,
tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you,
those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.

So I thought on this very Irish day that I would share some cards and layouts with you that ran with the Lucky or Irish theme.

I wanted the card to be very masculine, so I bent the die-cut to hide the flower and added the button on the other end. I used the awesoem scalled down 6x6 papers as they add so much depth to a card.

Supplies: Miss Caroline 6x6 Dilly Dally Paper Pad, Dilly Dally curious & best DieCut, Dilly Dally Hello Rubons, FiddleSticks Title DieCut, FiddleSticks 'love' buttons and Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' Twine.

This is a really simple card but the awesome MME papers make it special. I took inspiration from today's sketch at Twisted Sketches and went with the yellow theme.

Supplies: Miss Caroline 6x6 Dilly Dally Paper Pad, Dilly Dally Curious Layered cardstocker sticker, Dilly Dally Curios Adhesive jewels, FiddleSticks 'love' buttons & Pins and Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' Twine.

I learnt Gaelic (Irish) in school but a lot has fallen to the wayside over the years - it is a beautiful evokful language full of melody and descriptions.  So I thought I'd share the famous blessing 'Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.' There are many translations and meanings but this one is my favourite.

May The Road Rise To Meet You,
May The Wind Always Be At Your Back,
May The Sun Shine Warm Upon Your Face,
May The Rains Fall Soft Upon Your Fields,
And May The Roads Always Lead You Home.

Text: You get this smile from me - and I like to believe that its some of the Irish in me that passes on to you than means you always bring sunshine to the lives you touch.

Supplies: 'On the Bright Side' Two Paper Pack - including the diecut sheet,  Miss Caroline Dilly Dally Curious Layered cardstocker sticker, and Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' Chipboard Phrase, bookmarks and Twine. I added a heart punch and the wooden alphabet.

And this both is the perfect Drinking Toast and a description of Lily somedays...

May your glass be ever full,
May the roof over your head be always strong,
And may you be in heaven Half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

text: You love looking for wishing flowers on our walks. I hope you always have hope and wishes in your life.

Supplies: 'On the Bright Side' Two Paper Pack - including the diecut sheet,  Miss Caroline Dolled up Princess Adhesive jewels  and Follow your Heart 'Be amazing' bookmarks & Twine. I added the wooden alphabet.

So I wish you all the Best of the Irish Spirit and may you keep your luck throughout the year...

Sláinte!

ps. for those wondering about the difference between USA and Irish abbreviations of St Patricks Day: in Ireland it is known as Paddy's Day (as Patick is Padraig in Gaelic) but when the Irish emmigrated to the USA, it became St Pattys Day there as to call any Irish person a 'Paddy" was considered offensive.

 

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