Lisa Storms

book page wreath

I love the look of book page wreaths and knew I needed to make one for my home.  So I decided to put my own spin on it and add decorative edges to the pages first.  I love the texture and interest it added!

It didn't take long to add the pretty edges.  I finished up an entire book during an episode of Conan and then didn't even use all of the pages up for the wreath.  For full directions with some step-by-step photos, check out my wreath over at Fiskars.

I do have to warn you they are addictive.  And so inexpensive.  I used chipboard from some packaging and a book from the dollar store.   Have you ever looked at the books sold there?  My goodness, talk about really random topics!

sketch

So it appears I have now officially gone over the reasonable limit of mustache stick posts on one blog.  But if you have an obsession with them, as I apparently do, then maybe you'd like ideas on how to scrapbook them =).

To make one scrapbook-sized, ink a lollipop stick light brown for the stick.  (And yes, that is a mustache border.)  Here is a layout I created following a sketch created by the talented Valerie Salmon of GotSketch?.  To  view the original sketch and other wonderful interpretations, visit the Scrapbooks Etc. blog.

scraps

I kind of have a problem when it comes to pretty scraps.  I am not a hoarder in most areas of my life, but when it comes to little pieces of prettiness, I'm a sucker. 

I just finished up a project that used a ton of ribbons.  I was picking up all of the little scraps and as I was about to throw the little bundle away, I had to stop myself.  It was just so festive and happy.  So I decided to instead turn it into a little bow to top the next little gift I give. 

I took the bundle just how I had them stacked without any further thought (it was already pretty so why put forth any extra effort) and tied them at the center with clear nylon thread (since my ribbons were sheer).  You could whatever string you have around otherwise.   Then I wrapped a little cut of ribbon around the center adhering together with a glue dot at the back.  Super simple.  And just makes me smile. =)

Speaking of scraps.  Does anyone else keep ridiculously small scraps?  If there is a paper I like, I will save every last bit of it.  It's a sickness really.

You can see another use for scraps and other New Year's crafting organization ideas in an article I have up now over at Fiskars. 

shape cutter sandwiches

While using up gift cards from my birthday and Christmas, I snuck (I'm ignoring that spell-check is telling me this isn't a word)  in a little more than a few new toys to make lunches.  Please know I do realize no normal person does this.  I've never claimed normalcy.

So with lots of new sandwich cutters comes new lunch ideas.  I just wish it wasn't dark in the morning so I could get better pics...

I'll start with an ocean themed lunch starring my new dolphin sandwich cutter.  It cuts out a heart in the middle, too, but I just saved those to add to their afternoon snack.  The dolphins are joined by some goldfish friends.  The cucumbers are "starfish" resting on carrots.  The thin layer of blue jello serves, obviously,  more for theme design than nourishment lol.  I just poured the jello straight into their lunchboxes the night before so it would set flat in the refrigerator.  The sailboat is an orange slice (from a cutie) with cheese sail speared on with a toothpick.  If I do the sailboat again, I'll skip the cheese and do something that compliments the jello better, like maybe fruit leather.  My daughter didn't like that the cheese ended up touching the jello in transit.

Next up is a dinosaur lunch.  I had better ideas for this but nothing in the house to make them come to life, so with what I had on-hand, here's what I came up with!  These dinosaur cutters were cute but were begging for some spikes.  I did my lazy mom grilled cheese (toasted bread with slice of cheese melted in between in microwave), cut them out, and then pushed in broken off tips of tortilla chips along the spine while the cheese was still soft.  Very simple thing that adds a lot I thought.  The grapes are dinosaur eggs ... play along with me here, people.  And the crushed up graham cracker "dirt" with pretzel "bones" sum up that we need to make a grocery trip around here.  But, it's still fun to play with your food. =)

(The dinosaur paper I just happened to receive recently as part of the CUTEST line from Imaginisce featuring the most adorable argyle dinosaur.)

holiday thank you cards

So apparently the kids and I had a little too much free time during winter break.  That's when you take those silly ideas that pop into your head and actually do them!

After our Christmas card photo, it only makes sense to follow up Santa mustaches with snowman noses.  Right?  I mean who else thinks this way?  I figure it's silly, but hopefully will give the recipient a little chuckle. =)

The kids wore a white shirt, scarf, and top hat from a magician set we've had forever that I taped hand-cut holly and berries to.  Then we cut out a carrot from orange foam, scratched in some random lines with a toothpick, and hot-glued to a thin dowel.  Instant cheese!

I printed them out a little smaller than our card fronts after adding simple digital text "thanks snow much" to the bottom.  I changed the text color depending on what I was overlapping, but otherwise just straight text.  Now I'm designing my thank yous, which will (possibly) be a little more "sophisticated" and will share soon...