Isn’t that such a cool and funky collaboration kit? And best of all its free! All you have to do is hop around to all the different blogs on the hop and collect a letter.

My Letter is B

And to grab the NEXT letter, visit Deena Rutter’s Blog.

Once you collect all the letters, you will have a coupon code to get the kit in the DHD shop for free.

This is the part of the kit that I contributed to the big kit:

Also if you are participating in the iNSD layout challenge at DHD, my challenge is to use at least 3 items from the Retrospect kit in your layout.

For those of you who do not get the DHD Newsletter or subscribe to my Facebook page, I recently announced that I am retiring from DHD and Digital Scrapbooking. I’m sad to go, but am excited to be able to spend more time with my growing family. Hopefully when things calm down in a year or two, I’ll start designing for digital peeps again. In the mean time, this will be the last week to purchase any of my DHD digital kits. They are 50% off through May 8th, so grab them while they are still available.

I hope you all have a great Scrapbooking Day!

 So Sophie, how many projects can we make from a 10×10 stack?

Project # 1 Baby Bib

This simple patchwork baby bib used only a few 2.5 squares. I cut one strip of 2.5×10 of each of the prints and then sub cut those strips into 2.5×2.5 inch squares. I then sewed those squares together in a simple patchwork pattern, added some linen and lace. I backed the bib in absorbent terry cloth and used my favorite baby bib pattern from the book One Yard Wonders.

 You can see that there are still many pieces and scraps to play with. Next week I will share more projects made with the 10×10 left overs.

Do you ever fall in love with a single stamp and want to use it everywhere? The starburst image from My Mind’s Eye’s Lost & Found Two Sunshine “Lovely” stamps by Jen Allyson had me at hello. All the images in this set are so unique and beautiful, but that starburst image is spectacular. I’m going to show you a quick way to use a single stamp to make a big impact on a card. I call it Repetition Stamping.

Start by stamping your favorite image onto a piece of scrap paper and measure both the width and height. This particular image was simple since it is a circle. Then, onto your cardstock, measure out in a grid format the dimensions of the stamp across the entire cardstock (make sure you have a light hand with your pencil!)

Now you can stamp! Lining up your stamp is a breeze because you’ve done all the measuring and have guidelines. Allow your ink to dry thoroughly and then erase your guidelines.

Finish your creation with a few fun embellishments. For mine, I inked the edges of the cardstock and added a wooden button from the Lost & Found Two: Sunshine Memories Collection and a sentiment tag.

I hope you try out Repetition Stamping! I feature it quite often on my blog, The Bald Dragonfly! Stop on over sometime.

For my card today, I chose a pretty image from the Rosy stamp set from Lost & Found 2 Collection by Jen Allyson for My Mind’s Eye. I stamped and colored the image, as well as stamping the sentiment onto a neutral piece of card stock. I then flanked that with two strips of the paper from the Lost & Found 2 Blush 6×6 paper pad and a touch of lace, adhering the elements to the kraft card base on only the top and bottom portions.

Here’s what the card looked like without the stitching. A good enough card but I felt it needed a bit more.

I extended the line of the trapeze wire which rounded out the the design of the card too by completing a visual triangle.

Here are some tips to consider:
1. You don’t want to gum up your needle or machine, so be careful to not place adhesive where you will be stitching.
2. Draw light lines with a pencil to use as a guide when sewing, and erase later.
3. Attach lace or ribbon to your card with sewing to avoid those unsightly adhesive marks.
4. Choose your thread color to coordinate with your ink pads- also keep staple colors in your stash such as dark brown, black, white and tan.
5. Most machines have a few basic stitch designs, vary these on your card for added variety and texture.

I hope you’ll be inspired to pull out your sewing machine to add the little bit extra to your card!

I work with one very talented lady in my office, who just so happens to have the cutest of cute granddaughters. After a dry conversation concerning work, the subject our hobbies came up (she is a photographer and I a paper crafter, see my blog The Bald Dragonfly…). She had been searching for a long while for a simple, colorful photo prop and I knew right away that I could help her out.

My husband got to work framing out a sturdy box  from 1/2 inch plywood and after about 30 minutes he presented me with the unfinished prop (he’s the best, isn’t he!) I had to ask him how he did it and here’s what he came up with: Cut two 12×2 inch panels, two 12×11 inch and two 11×11 inch panels.  Attach one each 12×11 piece flush to the edges of the 12×12 pieces with screws, making sure the 12×12 pieces match up. Complete the cube with the 11×11 pieces. (Sorry, no pictures of the assembly or unfinished piece… they were accidentally deleted from my camera!)

The next step was to sand the surface area of each side of the cube. I then started covering the exposed sides with papers from the My Mind’s Eye Lime Twist Collection by Jen Allyson, being careful to keep boyish patterns and hues on three visible sides and girlish patterns and hues on the other three sides (although either could work for both sexes!). I did so by dredging the plywood with Mod Podge as well as the side of the paper not being exposed. After carefully removing all air bubbles from the surface, I added few more layers of the sealer, drying between each.  I  finished by distressing the box by sanding the edges and swiping a thin layer of satin stain on each side of the cube.

Karleen from Starlight Productions, Auburndale, Wisconsin  was so pleased with the end result. Here are a few more pictures of the Lime Twist Photo Prop in action!

This photo prop was so quick and easy to make, and what a great way to showcase the fabulous and diverse designs from the My Mind’s Eye Lime Twist Collection by Jen Allyson. Even if you don’t know a professional photographer, why not make one of these for yourself? It would be a great constant prop to document the growth of your child, or you could even change up the paper in a few years too for a whole new look.

you know that little strip on the bottom of the 12×12 patterned papers that shows the pattern on the back side? well i love to use that on my pages! sometimes if i only have that one sheet, but need another little piece to coordinate, this works perfect! and i added that cute little bicycle stamp, fits perfect in that little collage on the patterned paper.

i added both the dimensional stickers and the pennant stamps to create this banner.

i found that my butterfly stamp is just about the same size as my butterfly punch…so i layered the punch on top of the stamp! love it!

*the strip of houndstooth paper is from the bottom of the 12×12 paper…i did it again!

*another strip!

the “19″ sticker worked perfect for this layout…my daughter and son are 19 months apart!

i love working with jen’s papers…i love that her designs have lots of layers to them, and her stamps match, you can add whichever ones to personalize your pages!

i picked out a few green papers from that same collection…i love to use color that goes with a theme/holiday…you don’t necessarily have to use something with shamrocks or little leprechauns to scrapbook something about st. patrick’s day!

i cut out a piece from this paper, so that i could use the back side of it, i loved the printed words and the green swirls…if you see that part of your paper will be hidden any way, might as well cut it up so that you can utilize more of your paper! i do this a lot, especially if it’s double sided patterned paper and i only happen to have one sheet! and even though i loved the coral orange text on the paper, i decided to cover it up to go for a green monochromatic page.

here’s where i added a scrap square piece i cut out…added a banner stamp and a green brad!

i used the banner stamp…just a corner of it…i liked the “3″ on it…for my three kids.

ran a tag through my printer for some journaling, added a few stamps at the bottom.

my sewing machine wasn’t liking my adhesive runner that i used…i just left it instead of trying to match up the holes again, embrace imperfection, right?

products used:

lost & found 2 rosy “everything” dry goods 12×12 paper

lost & found 2 rosy “everything” 6×6 papers

lost & found 2 rosy “everything” ”princess” & “breeze”stamps

lost & found 2 rosy “best of friends” pearls

lost & found 2 “favorite” trims

heidi swapp alphabet stamps

DHD is hosting an awesome month-long challenge called Mad March Memories! There are all sorts of rounds of competition and sales and so forth and it should be a lot of fun.

To kick off the challenges, the designers put together a fun and FREE collaboration kit called “Spring Menagerie” Here is what my portion looks like:

So how do you get it for free?? You need to hop around to these blogs and collect all the letters:

• Liz Jutila
• Anna Drozd
• Aria Andrus
• Audrey Neal
• Carey Bridges
• Celeste Knight
• Celeste Smith
• Erica Coombs
• Gennifer Bursett
• My Blog! The Letter is A!
• Jen Papadimitriou
• Karen Funk
• Katherine Hansen
• Lori Pickens
• Mandi Buchanan
• Mary Rogers
• Robyn Meierotto
• Sarah Hemmert
• Shannon Dombkowski
• Tiffany Bodily
• Wendy Bretz

You have to make sure they are in the right order (order shown above) – you’ll know because it will be a phrase. Once you have the phrase you’ll visit Design House Digital, enter your phrase,  and you’ll receive a coupon code to get the WHOLE COLLABORATION kit for free. You’ll also be entered in a drawing for a Wacom Bamboo Capture tablet!

Your entry must be received by Wednesday, March 14th at 11:59 PM MST.

Also not only will most of these blogs have the secret letter for you, they’ll also have some tips, tricks, or a freebie!

So you’ll want to go visit all of them! Just in case you missed it, My letter is A!

Click on the image below to begin download of PDF file

The Project Girl Printable 2012 Calendar Free Download

Click on the image above to download a PDF version of my printable 2012 calendar. The downloadable PDFs in this article (and across my entire site) are free for personal use only. If you would like to blog about this free download, please accompany any images from my site with a credit and link back to this article. As a courtesy please do not link directly to a downloadable file but rather to this page. At this time, no customizations of this or any of my forms are available. Forms are a free download AS IS. Also since you’ve made it this far, please subscribe to my RSS feed and facebook page so you can find me again! And don’t forget to tell your friends!

We’re really done with most of the work (yay!) with the exception of a few things…

The fireplace mantle.

It’s boring and was just old dirty brick when we bought the house, here’s a before:

Once we were finished with the majority of the renovation, Mr. Project took out the wood stove and primed the existing brick:

Which took a much longer time than we thought it would… and a lot more primer. Then we dove into painting it a dark charcoal gray…

And apparently decorating it for Halloween.

This is how it’s looked (minus the Halloween decorations) for the past 7 months.

But we have a vision for what we want it to look like… we want to create a big white mantle and then built-in bookshelves next to it. I drew some rough sketches, and Mr. Project translated them into this illustration:

So… if all goes well in the next several weeks, we’ll have a beautiful hearth area which will turn the existing blah fireplace into a beautiful focal point in the house.

Next up after the built-ins are the closet organizers. Right now we’re living with a $15 ikea clothes rack. I’ll be so excited when I can actually organize my closet and unpack my coats!

So that’s what we’re up to on the house. Hopefully I’ll be able to update sooner rather than later.