For Teacher Appreciation, I found these adorable light bulb containers at Hobby Lobby’s online store for $1.50 each. Seriously, I just could not resist the cuteness of this little container! I filled it up with yellow m&ms and made a little tag.

I wrote his teacher’s name on the back of the tag and also had Mason sign his name. He said she liked it when he gave it to her.

This next gift was a Mother’s Day present from baby Owen to his mom. She had mentioned to me that they didn’t have a height chart for him. I told her to just mark it on the wall or a door and she explained that their current house was only temporary and eventually they will move. So I got her a 6 foot tall ruler that could easily be mounted to the wall but could also be removed and go with them when they move. I even included a Sharpie so she could mark Owen’s height–NO EXCUSES!!! I made what is probably the easiest card in the world with just a piece of patterned paper on a folded piece of cardstock and baby Owen colored the inside. When we gave it to her, she said it was perfect!

I am so excited that Creating Keepsakes’ newest idea book, “Scrapbooking Boys & Men” has just been released!! I have three layouts in this book and they are some of my favorites!

On pages 14 and 15 are two of my layouts. I love that they each got their own page and they both got a detail shot, too! AND check this out—-

On page 11 is the chapter opener and that’s my layout that you’ll see on page 15!!!

My third layout in this book is at the top of page 67 and guess what!!?? This layout was featured on the Creating Keepsakes blog here.

Make sure you pick up a copy of this awesome book!

I was invited to attend a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed baby shower recently and wanted to share the card I made for the lucky mom-to-be. It was so easy!! I just looked at the cover of the book and made simple shapes, inked the edges, and assembled it! I spelled out “Congrats!” with letter stickers and wrote a personal note on the back.

Here he is all folded up. Since I attached the body segment circles with brads, it made it very simple to fold it up so it could fit in the envelope. The recipient loved it and said she would hang it up in the baby’s room!

In honor of Earth Day, EcoScrapbook is releasing its brand new eBook: EcoScrapbooking: Crafty Ideas for Eco-Conscious Scrapbookers.

I am grateful I was able to contribute to this awesome book! It’s completely filled with cool ideas and invaluable tips about recycling, using up scraps, saving money on supplies, and more! I am so impressed with the creativity of these scrapbookers–each layout truly is a work of art!!

Here is a little sneak peek of my project. I give some tips on using found materials as well as re-using product packaging.

You can check out the online version here.

Or download the PDF version here.

There are so many ways to be eco-friendly in our scrapbooking. One way is to use products by Basic Grey.

This layout uses a lot of patterned papers and letter stickers from Basic Grey, a “green” company that uses soy based inks. (as if I need another reason to LOVE Basic Grey!)

Another way to be eco-friendly is to use up scraps. I find that I end up with LOTS of leftover paper strips. I hate to just throw them away because it’s wasteful so I found some ways to use ‘em up!!

1. Weave ‘em!

2. Line ‘em up!!

3. Make ‘em radiate!!!

Would you like to see more ideas about eco-friendly scrapbooking? Well, you’re in luck because the contributors of the new eBook are also having a blog hop! Check out each of these talented ladies:

                                                    Go here next>>>>    Jody Spiegelhoff | SpiegelMom Scraps

Hope you have a fabulous Earth Day! 

It’s an adorable little bunny that you can pull out of a top hat!!

I based the colors of my page on this little accent and had a fun time playing with text.

Lots of Echo Park and the accent is K & Company.

Ever since Mason’s class read the book “Flat Stanley” in school, he has been obsessed with all things flat. Here is Mason with the Flat Stanley character he created. He’s very proud of him.

One of their class assignments was to mail Stanley to someone out of state. Mason chose to send Stanley to Hammy and Happy in Washington. Only one other person in Mason’s class chose Washington. The class took a field trip to the post office to mail their Flat Stanleys off.

Apparently, Flat Stanley has been having lots of fun with Hammy and Happy. They sent us this picture:

Wow! That deer came right up to Flat Stanley! He must have held really still!

And the best part is Flat Stanley has a TON of other adventures so Mason is enjoying LOTS of reading!!

These were the Valentine’s cards that I made for Mason’s class. I found the mason jar printable (get it–mason jar!!) on Pinterest and printed them on different colored cardstock, cut them out, inked the edges, and stamped “love” at the bottom. Mason wrote his name on all of them and I found the gummy bug candy at Oriental Trading and glued them on.

I was also inspired this Valentine’s Day to finally scrap this little mini book I had made on Snapfish when Mason was one. The mini book is really small–it’s about 3″x4″ and there is a clear pocket that it can slide in and out of. The page it’s on is small, too–about 5″x7″ but I have some 8″x8″ page protectors and it will fit o.k. in one of those.

The book is titled “Mason’s Valentine Message” and inside are pictures I took of him with different words to spell out some sentences. The entire message reads: “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you. Hugs and kisses from Mason. Feb. 2007. 14 months.”

I had sent them out to friends and relatives and they were a big hit. But now…six years later…

Here’s my boy at his Valentine’s Day photo shoot. I know he’s a seven year old boy but I just couldn’t help using pink, flowers, and hearts all over this layout. It’s okay because it’s for Valentine’s Day, right!? When I saw these teeny tiny little envelopes from Doodlebug, I just about melted into a little puddle. They are so cute I had to have them. I didn’t add any journaling to the page because I like how the center envelope has the simple “i love you” but I may go back and add a few lines of writing. I haven’t decided yet.

And for one last Valentine’s Day project, here’s the card baby Owen and I made for his parents.

It’s the Year of the Snake so I thought I would share this layout that features photos from last Halloween where one little boy I know dressed up as a snake ninja. This is the first Halloween layout where I’ve felt I could use creepy supplies–usually my Halloween layouts are very cutesy. I had fun playing around with some mist in the background. I used a mask that has diamonds on it and by purposely placing the mask where I did, the misted diamonds look like sharp pointed teeth (well, at least they do to me!)

Speaking of Halloween…here’s a little present baby Owen and I made for his parents last October. 

It’s a gift! It’s a card! It’s a gift within a card! My mom just celebrated her birthday and all she wanted was photos. I thought about printing or emailing them but figured the most cost effective and least time consuming option would be to put them on a flash drive for her. So we got an inexpensive flash drive and put 240 photos on it, and that’s when I got the idea to incorporate the drive into the card design.

I planned out the card design and cut a hole where I would put the flash drive.

I used the packaging the drive came in and taped it to the inside of the card so the raised portion stuck out through the hole.

I put the flash drive in and then covered it with a piece of cardstock held on by some washi tape. Washi tape peels off easily and this will make it easy for my mom to remove the drive without completely destroying the card.

I wrote a message on the inside and sent it off in a padded envelope. Hope she likes it!

Supplies: Patterned paper: Echo Park, Crate Paper; product packaging: Prima; stickers: Echo Park; journaling spot: Jillibean Soup; ink: Clearsnap; other: ribbon, date stamp, bag, felt embellishment.

I created this layout to be completely eco-friendly. Not only is the base a shopping bag, but all the other supplies I used were product packaging, off cuts, or things left over from other projects.

This is what the bag looked like before I started. I thought it was cute and decided it would make the perfect background for my photos about our trip to Color Me Mine. I really liked the colors and decided to leave the store name visible for my title. The green and teal papers to the right are packaging from Prima flowers which I decided to use as photo mats.

This is a brand new sheet of patterned paper from Crate Paper’s new Fourteen line, but what caught my eye was the green scallop on the manufacturer’s cut off strip. I thought it would be perfect to incorporate into my layout.

A few old strips of patterned paper, snippets of ribbon, and leftover stickers combined with my photos and journaling, and my layout is complete.

I love this bag as a background because I can also slip extra photos, my receipt from the trip, and any extra journaling directly inside. The handles make the layout easy to hang if I want to display it, and if I want to include it in an album, I can just slide the whole thing into a 12×12 page protector. The bag itself measure 8 inches across, but with the overhanging elements, it is 11 inches across and with the handles, it measures just over 12 inches in height, so there will be a little bit of handle sticking out over my album but I’m okay with that.