Adventurous wall decor

Busy busy busy! It's been a while since my last post. The fall always tends to keep our family super busy & getting ready for a new baby is adding to the to-do list.

I recently completed a piece of wall art for my sweet Lachlan's new nursery & I love it soooo much!

Not sure what to call the theme, but it's arrows and bears and deer heads and teepees and along those lines. Hoping our bedding comes this week, and I really will be able to put some finishing touches on the room & post photos.

I really loved making this tray, which I got on clearance, btw, so that always makes it better! I used mostly Project Life/Pocket Pages cards. I glittered a chipboard L initial. I bought the adorable gold deer stick pins at a garage sale from an antique collector & I just adore them. Also, the little bear charm was found in the carpet of the nursery while my husband was painting it - so that's pretty special - it just kinda feels like the room was meant just for this nursery!

Here are a couple of up close detail shots.

Supplies are tagged in my Instagram post with a link in the photo to the left on this blog.

Thanks for looking!

Something SPOOKY!

So I tried to refrain on the Halloween decor, and I made it until September 11, so I feel like that is pretty good. Considering all the cute Halloween crafting supplies have been in my newsfeed for weeks!

I just love cloches. I think they're so elegant, and it's just a fun word, too! I got this lovely cloche from Pier 1 with a gift card a while back & I love to use it for my holiday decor. So, I made some Halloween inserts for the cloche with some of my favorite holiday papers &, of course, GLITTER!

I really happy how it turned out, although I may add some candy corn to the bottom in the future! I really love that I got to use my new floral frog I at the flea market a couple of weeks ago.

Here's one with the glass off to avoid some glare.

I had saved that little glass bottle from a reed diffuser. I cut out the label with my cricut. The black sand is actually from Hawaii where I had brought home a little tub and never done anything with it. I made a rosette with the Ribbons and Rosettes Cricut cartridge & glittered the spider medallion. The "wicked" quote was cut on my cricut with free downloaded fonts & glued onto a Halloween Project Life card. I dipped the ends of a couple of feathers in glitter & tied them to the cloche knob with some sparkly yarn & done!

Here is a close up!

I just love Halloween & holiday decor! I hope you are inspired to get fall started around your house. Remember: glitter makes everything better!

Thanks for looking!

Out of my comfort zone ...

I know the card making is the favorite past time of so many papercrafters, but I have a confession: cardmaking is not my forte!

I am not sure why, but I struggle to make cards I am proud of. Although I certainly hate the thought of dropping $3-$5 on a store-bought card which most people will end up throwing away! So I continue to try to make cards.

I made this little card for my mother-in-law for her birthday last month, and I like how it turned out okay.

I used mambi paper and pocket cards as well as some stash paper to make the balloons on my cricut.

Here's an inside shot. I think that is one main reason I do not like to make cards, I'm never sure about the inside. Do you leave it simple and hand-write a message? I put a background paper in here and used a journaling pocket card to write a little message.

All that to say, even if you're not comfortable with a certain type of crafting, the only way to get better is to keep practicing! Also, even if us crafters are not thrilled with the results every time, I think that non-crafters are still impressed and/or appreciative to receive something handmade when they don't handmake things themselves. It's the thought that counts, after all, right!?

Thanks for looking!

Banner mania

Do you guys love banners as much as I do?!

I feel like a banner can make a room pretty festive, and when you handmake your banner, it just adds to the festiveness! I love to use my Cricut to make banners, but nowadays there are a ton of kits you can buy to get the look for a handmade banner for less difficulty.

I love to scrapbook, but I'd like to showcase a few other ways that you can use papercrafting, so I hope you enjoy some of the banners I'm showcasing here! Be inspired!

(Sorry for the quality of some of the photos, as they're phone photos, and weren't planned for blog use.)

This is a banner I made for a baby shower earlier in the year. The baby's room is woodland theme with mint and orange colors. Another good thing about banners is that sometimes they can double as a gift for the party person, as in this case, the banner matched the baby's room.

For my son's 2nd birthday, we had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bash. I went a little banner crazy to decorate my house for that party! I kept the name banner (which I just freehanded the different character designs on from the Disney junior website). But I actually sold the other two party banners and some "picks" to use in cakes or vases on a local "garage" sale site. The buyer was happy to get the items without having to pay for them from a place like etsy, and they were a sunk cost since I was going to make them for my party anyway, so it was nice to get a little bit of the party price back from selling them!

I even love making tiny banners as cake toppers! This is one from my grandparents' 52nd wedding anniversary cake we had at our family Christmas celebration that happened to fall on their special day.

Of course banners for holidays are my favorites. Below is my Halloween banner. There are just so many options, it's hard to choose just one design! With this banner I also added a separate pompom string of sparkle yarn. It sheds, but worth the cute look!

For the last banner of today we celebrate this past weekend of the beginning of college football season (GO VOLS!). I made this banner with the Ribbons and Rosettes cricut cartridge, and it's pretty simple, but I love it. As the holiday season progress, this football banner migrates to under the television to make room for holiday mantel decor.

That is all the banners I have to feature today. Thank you for looking!

Best. Ride. Ever!

It's a new month for challenges & I got a "dillightful" surprise this morning! My layout was chosen to win the August prize over at the Creating with Paper and More blog! For my first month of participating in scrapbook challenges, I was pleasantly surprised. And even if you don't win prizes, it's lovely to have the motivation to complete those scrapbooking projects.

So I was highly motivated to begin the month's challenges again today. I participated in the challenges at The Rochelle Spears Blog & again with Kelly at Creating with Paper and more.

Rochelle has a tic tac toe challenge & I chose the row of pennants, stick pins, and #hashtag. I have to say that I just LOVE the pennant banner I made on my cricut. Not sure if you can make out the stick pin, but it says dreams & the hashtag is #magic.

Kelly's challenge is a color challenge & you have to use at least 3 of the colors in her challenge. I used red, yellow and charcoal/muted black.

This layout has a few more photos than I am used to working with on one page, but I am happy with how it turned out. I had to fit in all the sweet photos to document my son's first roller coaster ride with his daddy. He loved it & had to go a second time later in the evening. Wish I could have ridden too (prego probz) but it was a good experience for him & his daddy!

Thanks for looking & go participate in a scrapbooking challenge!