Wednesday, July 30, 2014

No Sew- Curtain Refresh with Thermoweb


Happy Mid- Week WHOOP!  I have a quick and simple curtain hack using Thermowebs Peel and Stick Fabric Fuse.  I used this stuff to make a no sew curtain for my scraproom and I also made the no sew bean bags for Parker.  It is so flippin handy.  Especially if you can't, just hate to sew.  Our house faces West and it gets beat on with the sun 90% of the day.  So in the summer months I have to keep thermal/heat blocking sun blocking curtains on my windows.  These curtains for the most part are pretty boring.  Most don't even come in a pattern.  I've been slowing doing to updating to my living room and was on the hunt for new curtains.  I had thought about sewing them myself and using a thermal backing, but one I figured out the cost....holy cow NO.  Insert......my hack.  I was at Kohls and these quatrefoil curtains were on sale for 19.99 (what a deal!)  Butttttttt they were not thermal, wah wah.  I bought them anyway thinking I could add the thermal backing to them.  Then it dawned on me.  I had my own curtains so I decided to just attach them to the back of the new ones.  Problem solved AND I didn't have to sew a darn thing.  Here is how simple it is.

I spread out the curtain on the floor and placed the tape along the top.  Thankfully the red thermal curtains were the same width.  
 Press firmly and peel back the tape.  Then place your other curtain on the tape and press firmly making sure you have a good bond. 

Now once I hung the curtains I placed another couple pieces down the sides of the panels to hold them in place when I pull them open and closed.  Total cost $44.  Not bad eh? Fabric Fuse is machine washable so no worries!  I also attached the red curtains upside down so the more bulky part with the tabs was at the bottom.  My curtains fall behind the couch, so you wont see it.  I didn't want to cut them just yet in case I wanted to refashion them again later.  Happy Fusing!




Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Island Paradise - Guest Designing for Scrapbook Circle!


Happy Tuesday gang! Its just about August ( I can't believe it?!)  and I am Guest Designing for Scrapbook Circle.  The August kit went live for purchase yesterday.  This months kit is called Island Paradise.  


I received the Main kit along with I purchased both add-ons Tiki Torch and Bungalow.  I couldn't decide between the two so I said heck give me both!  I am SOOOOOOO glad I did too.  I really loved this kit. You can stop by HERE on the main page of the shop and check out all the full details and photos.  My favorite part of the whole kit was these exclusive cork pieces.  I will be blogging the whole project later in the month.  It's so fabulous I want to MARRY IT.  Ok enough. 


SBC has printables and die-cut files that coordinate with each kit.  I didn't even get a chance to use them because I was playing with the 500 other things in the kit.  I am hoping to bust them out this month.  I have gobs of goodies left.  Lastly stop by the SBC blog for inspiration all month long! 











Monday, July 28, 2014

Cascade Lake- Daycare Field Trip Day!


Last week Parker's daycare had a summer field trip to Cascade Lake.  I was happy to be able to go with them.  The kids had THE BEST TIME.  Since becoming a mom I have really been trying ti find fun things to do with her.  I am not from the area, so I really have to seek things out.  In a mom group a gal shared a newsletter that comes out weekly sharing things to do in the Baltimore/DCish area every week.  You can see the calendar of events HERE and sign up for the emails.  I highly recommended it!  


Alright!  So Cascade Lake is located in Hampstead.  It took around an hour to get there from Baltimore.  It was an easy drive and easy enough to find.  The cost to get in is roughly in line with other attractions around the state.  They have the lake, tons of picnic tables with small grills, a small beach and board walk before the water, a driving platform, 3 slides, paddle boats and more.  It really was a great find.  The kids loved the lake.  LOVED. I am only going to share mostly Parkers photos and a couple of my girlfriends kids because I don't know how the parents would feel about their kids on the blog and that is A OK! We had 8 kids in tow and 3 adults.  













For the bigger kids the slides were by far the big hit of the day.  For the littles......it was the SPLASH PAD.  They are hard to come by in Maryland believe it or not! 









The splash pad was super nice and was located right by the food and snow ball stand.  The food was typical...hot dogs, corn dogs, fries etc.  It wasn't super expensive either! 





Highly recommend Cascade Lake.  We will be going back before summers end for sure! 








Thursday, July 24, 2014

As you Wish - Let's be Explorers


Hi gang, I have another Fancy Pants layout for you this week.  This time using As You Wish.  This collection is just totes adorable.  I really love all the collections by Fancy Pants lately and their new lines upcoming are amazing as well.  Stop by the Thermoweb blog to check out the creations by all the girls.  Also below is a code for Paper Issues.  There is a HUGE sale! 






Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Happy Days are Here! A Mini Album Tutorial - My Creative Scrapbook


HI everyone  I am going to be showing how I built the base of my mini album using the July Main kit for My Creative Scrapbook. I make a lot of mini albums, so I have a streamlined process.  I tend to keep them to 6 pages, 5 to 10 photos and I keep the embellishments very similar in placement or alternate 2 or 3 designs.  I knew I wanted to make a mini as soon as I saw the kit.  Kits make me nervous though! I am always worried about spreading my embellishments around.  Thankfully there were full and fabulous embellishments in this kit.  I went ahead and created my layouts and made the mini last!  That way I knew I could throw everything I wanted to on it. 


To start I trimmed down the wood grain paper to 4x6, 1 sheet- 6 pages.  I then lined the back of each with another piece of paper from the kit to bulk it up.  I took my 2 3/4" circle punch and punched away.


Once I had my shapes cut out I lined the backside with pop dots.  You could also use kids craft foam to make them have some depth.  Or you can skip this step if you like! 


I printed out 5 photos, each at 4x4 square.  I chose them based on where they would line up within my circle.  I attached each photo to the pop dots and then covered the backside with yet another piece of paper.  This time cardstock to save my pretty pattern paper.


I repeated the process for all pages and then punched my holes out with the crop-a-dile.  Next up was actually making them all pretty. I kept all the embellishments tucked just under the circles along with strips along the bottoms.  I used the Gardens pattern paper a lot to create other embellishments to add in.  I really love how it came together.  I hope you enjoyed and incorporate some of these ideas in your next project!






I wanted to share with you what I had left of the kit after the mini album.  I think this kit was pretty awesome and I got a lot of projects and used a ton/almost all of it!  I probably could have squeezed out another layout easy.  Hope you enjoyed the projects this month.  I had a great time making them.