How to Make Cheap Bookmark

I still have MOST of these bookmarks leftover from our Ruffled Rooster boutique!

Make Your Own:

1. Collect cereal boxes. Open the top and the bottom and flatten them that way to store--do not crunch the sides because otherwise that part can't be used. You can get at least 10 or more bookmarks from 1 cereal box.

2. Cut cereal boxes into bookmark sizes. I cut some of my bookmarks 2x6 or 2.5x6 inches and others 1.5x5 depending on my cereal boxes and the sizes I liked. I used a paper cutter for this to get nice straight lines (but it probably dulls your blade, so I'm not sure you want to do this)

3. cut out scrapbook paper to size of the bookmark.

4. Glue the patterned paper to the side with the cereal box pictures leaving the cardboard side for the back of the bookmark. I used regular school clue around the edges of the bookmark. Don't use too much glue or it will look sloppy and not very smooth.

5. (optional) laminate the bookmark. I left most of mine un-laminated, but I wanted to protect this bookmark and give it a longer lifespan. I used clear contact paper for cheap, easy laminating (also see here). Just cut out a piece of contact paper that is the same lengh, but twice the width of your bookmark.

6. punch a hole at the top.

7. String a ribbon through the top

8. set down and admire

9. Go read a book!

All lined Up

I love this stage of development.

Luke lines up all his toys and then often times he will start counting them.

He’ll count all the way up to 20...

skipping 16 of course.

Sometimes he leaves his toys in funny places as he finds new ones to play with.

One day I found this:

And it really made me giggle

Not because they were on the bathtub,but rather that a dinosaur and a sheep would definitely not play nice in real life.

The Cat in the Hat

This fall PBS started showing The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot about That.

Luke loves it.

He also loves Green Eggs & Ham, Mr Brown can moo (which he recites daily) & the The Cat in the Hat books (which are sooooo long to read!)

I was digging through my fabric stash & old t-shirts (that will someday be a t-shirt quilt)

And I found this shirt!
So...

I made it into a little pillow for Luke!

I am like the best mom ever.

{pretty tending to sleep, but obviously peeking}

Inspiration Bulletin Board

An Ikea bulletin board for $5.99

Paint the edges bright green

Pin quotes to live by this year
Pin goals so that you can constantly work on them this year.

Pin pictures that make me happy

A Happy Board, indeed.

Color Me Mine

I L.O.V.E this place.
If you've never heard of Color Me Mine before, you are missing out on pure fun.

I could spend hours there painting. I always come home wanting to paint more, too. So maybe I will break out my old paint brushes and put something on canvas.

We went here last week for a girl's night. My mom, my sister, and my sister-in-law and me. We had lots of fun.

I made another plate. I love this red plate I made last time I went so much that I wanted to make another one.


My mom made this cute flower plate. She had to go home before we got to pick up the pieces, so I will be holding onto it for her for a while. Hope you like it, Mom!
My sister made a really cute striped mug. It took a long time to do all those stripes in a bunch of different colors. My mom & Steph (SIL) left to go home and Jen & I were still there another hour! I stayed to keep her company--After I finished my plate, I made some cute magnets out of broken pieces of pottery.

Now I just have to use some E6000 and some neodymium magnets so they won't fall off my fridge and shatter into a million pieces!

Kid's Wallet

Luke loves to take apart our wallets if he ever gets the chance!
He especially gets attached to our driver's licenses and things like our Costco card because they have our pictures on them.

(cute, right!? He does love us :)

However, I'm a little tired of watching him like a hawk with our cards (he almost bent my most used credit card in half the other day!) So, I decided it was time to make him his own wallet!

(that's right, mom, I'm actually going to sew something!!)

I knew what kind I wanted to make for him, but I wasn't finding exactly the right tutorial, so I just used this Summer Wallet Tutorial from Lola Nova and adapted it to work and look how I wanted it to for Luke!

Embellishing the front = dollar sign applique.

traced it backwards on the wrong side of the fabric so my marks wouldn't show.


Ta-da!
Now sew it onto the outside layer fabric only

I wanted more layers for more cards to fit into, so I added two more fabrics.
The tutorial I was following for a guide just had you sew one stitch at the bottom for the 3 layers. But if I did it this way all the cards would fall to the bottom of the wallet.
I wanted the cards to poke out of each pocket like a real wallet and not all sink down to the bottom. So each layer, I sewed onto the back, inside layer, measuring where the card stops in the pocket and then sewing it onto the back fabric.

Does that make sense?

Then sew the layers and the denim front together as her tutorial says and finish it up!

I got all these fabrics like 2 years ago when Luke was just a few months old because I was going to make him a little baby quilt. Ha. But they were bright and colorful like I wanted his wallet to be, so into a wallet they were made!

Luke's going to love it!

Come back tomorrow and I'll show you how to make your own personalized credit cards to go inside!

Framed Puffy Hearts

Here is a quick little thing I made for F.R.E.E because I already had all this stuff.

Awesome.

[sorry for the poor picture, I took this picture after the sun went down!]

1 5x7 Frame
Scrapbook paper
Scraps of flannel, fabric or felt
stuffing

First, cut the paper to size, and then put it in the frame. I didn't want to take out the glass by chance that it might get broken, so I took out the glass, slid the paper in front of it and put the glass back in. That way I could still have my puffy hearts sticking out. I used hot glue to glue the front and backs of the heart together, but you could sew them too. I glued most of it shut and then put my stuffing in. Then I glued it closed. Then I hot-glued all the hearts to the paper which was already in the frame so I could put them in exactly the right place.

Easy Peasy.

And in case you missed it, last spring I did a tutorial on a quick ruffle headband. It's perfect for Valentine's Day!

Need Your Help

Dear Readers,

I love love love when you comment on my blog!

Thank you, Thank you!

I love to know that what I am writing is worth taking the time to write and that you love what I make and do every day!

I also love when you ask me questions! However, I need your help.

I need you to go to this wonderful link on House of Smiths and follow the directions she gives!

Tutorial: How to let ME reply to YOUR comments

Because, I have the same dilemma sometimes. Unless you email me here kd.klipboard {at}gmail.com, then I can't answer you most of the time.

When you click to "show" your email, it doesn't actually show up on the profile screen. {i checked}. It just shows a link that says "email" which if you click on you can email that person.

I get an email every time one of you awesome readers leaves a comment, and I can reply directly to your comment if and only IF you have it set up to "show" your email. If you don't, then I just get the dreaded "no-reply" from blogger and the only way I can respond is to make a comment on my own post that you commented on, or blog lurk you and your profile looking for a way to answer your question--a messy and unnessary process.

So help out the blogging community and follow the tutorial!

Thanks, Readers!

When I Grow Up

When I was younger, I wanted to move to Paris and be a fashion designer.

When I was a little older, I wanted to move to Italy instead (much better in my opinion) and have my own runway shows. I used to watch them on TV every Saturday morning.

I've always drawn girls and designed their clothes.
I've kept some of these drawings and here they are

Most of these were drawn between 2001-2003 when i was in High School, even though by the time I was in high school I was thinking of doing something other than fine art or fashion design.

Now I'd much rather stay out of that world.

I'd rather be a graphic designer. And i think it fits better.
But that is just a little about me, and i thought I'd share.