Hearts on a String

Many thanks to Tif at Dottie Angel for the inspiration for this fun and easy project. Go here to see her post.

You will need:

Sewing machine &
Thread color of your choice (I used white) &
String for hanging loops &
Scissors for cutting paper (don't you dare use your good sewing scissors!) &
Various papers - I used leftover scrapbook papers as well as paper pulled from my stash torn from old books

If you have them and want to use them, heart shaped paper punches are useful, too. I've got a small and medium punch, and used them both.

Cut or punch out hearts of various sizes. Use a variety of papers, and get a nice assortment ready to sew. You will be sewing pairs of hearts together as you go. You may find, as I did, that you don't want to stop!

Originally, I did my strings the way Tif did, with long threads left at the top for hanging, and long trailing threads at the bottom. I decided I didn't care for them that way, so I trimmed off the danglies. Instead of long threads for hanging, I stitched loops of string between the top heart layers.

Lay one heart, "good" side down. Put a loop of string on top, with the ends pointing to the bottom of the heart, and the loop sticking above the top of the heart. Place another heart on top of that, "good" side up.

Zigzag across the top center of the heart, going back and forth a few times to securely catch the ends of the string. If your machine has a "needle down" function, it helps a lot. After going backwards & forwards with the zigzag, stop in the middle of the center top of the heart.





Pivot the heart so the top is fac ing the back of your machine (leave your needle down). At this point, I switched to a straight stitch, although you could continue to zigzag. Stitch down to the point of the heart. Put another pair of hearts in position behind it, and keep on sewing until your string is as long as you like. I tried to mix up papers as I went, to keep it interesting.

I hope these directions are clear. It's very fast and it's a great way to use up odds & ends!

Keep on creating!
Immi

What's Truly Important

I created this digital layout in response to a challenge in a free online class I'm taking. More and more, I'm learning that scrapbooking doesn't have to be chronological. I'm seeing the value in creating pages based on relationships and connections. This really frees me up from the tyranny of being "caught up". That's not to say that I won't continue to do event or time based layouts! I have some in mind right now.

Supplies used: Digital papers from Crystal Wilkerson; journaling tab from Katie Pertiet.

Celebrate the relationships in your life!
Immi

August Sunshine

I spent some time this morning playing with a layered digital template. This one was a freebie from Designer Digitals by Katie Pertiet. All the cute stuff is done for you; all I had to do was drop in photos and size them to fit the frames. This is so nice for someone like me who doesn't know too much about Photoshop Elements; most of the work is done by professional designers. I decided to use the template "as is", although the possibility of changing or deleting some of the layers exists. To refresh my memory on working with layered templates, I referred to a video tutorial made by Ali Edwards, which was very helpful.

I plan to have this printed by an online service since it's too large for my color printer. I'll have to wait to see it in person to know whether or not the edges seem too bland. If they do, I'll either trim off enough to put it on a more colorful background or do some inking. I will also print some photos from the trip to do some traditional scrapbooking.

All these photos came from a recent trip to see our grandkids. We enjoy these visits so much, and I try to take lots of photos hoping to get a few good ones. It was hot, hot, hot that weekend, but we had a great time!

Do something fun with your photos today!
Immi

Showing Off

Daddy couldn't resist showing off a couple of cute outfits they had for N. The Indian maiden costume was bought with the intention of using it for Halloween, but as you can see, it fits quite snugly in April. No way that's going to work for Halloween! So cute, though.
This page features a leftover strip of decorative paper, edged with brown, and a cute rub-on.

The next page shows off our little bathing beauty. I have a great fondness for baby swimsuits, especially girls' suits. They are so teeny and cute! For this layout, I used more leftover papers (is it okay if I stop saying edged in brown?). A flower at the top left completes the layout.

Enjoy!

Immi

Having Fun

Here are a couple of fun pages. I love the background paper on "Fresh". I added a couple of leftover green strips to frame the photo, edging all the paper in brown. The word is a white sticker with a felt-like finish.

The bath time layout also features a fun paper. I used a small rub-on in the top left corner, and adhered the plastic duckie to the bottom right. Couldn't be simpler!

Happy crafting!

Immi

Precious Face

Who could resist that sweet little face? Looking at this picture makes me want to pick her up and get some sugar! N is about six months old here and learning to sit up by herself.

I had a little fun using up some scraps on this layout, layering as I went. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the pink strip to the right of the green paper is folded accordion style. I also used a small piece of sewing trim along the bottom of the picture.

The embellishment at the bottom is a clear acrylic piece, which can be difficult to adhere, because you usually don't want your adhesive to show. Sometimes you can do a work-around by hiding the adhesive under something that sits over part of your clear piece. I wanted this to stand alone, however, so I had to come up with something transparent. I chose to run this through my Xyron machine, which isn't my favorite adhesive, but works well for this type of use.

As I've been doing throughout this scrapbook, I edged all the paper pieces in brown. It's one of the ways I'm trying to tie things together.

Enjoy!
Immi

Santababy

Here's Daddy, holding his little Santababy. Poor babies; they have to put up with grown-ups decking them out in all kinds of outlandish outfits and taking photos for posterity!

The polkadot paper allowed me to continue the pink theme even though the picture is strongly red. The white strips on the right side are leftover trims from other pages. Her hat seemed to be crying out for a white pompom, and the white flower brad fit the bill. I added a little bling on one of the paper strips just for a little something extra. I felt like the upper left corner of the photo needed some interest, so I added a white photo corner, punched from a scrap of white paper. Rather than place it on top of the photo, I chose to slide it underneath. The edges of the background paper are, once again, edged in brown.

Next stop, April in Minnesota!
Immi