Quick Gift Idea

Here's a quick gift idea that's cheap, fun to put together, and can be modified and used over and over for many different occasions.

Michael's stores are selling these little acrylic turn-able boxes:

and Jenni Bowlin mini Bingo Cards fit into the sides of the box PERFECTLY!

For a quick and easy teacher's gift you can combine the School Days Mini Bingo Cards with school supplies you think the teacher would love and use for a sweet little gift:

Can you imagine this filled with all those cute decorative pencils teachers give as "rewards"?

Or for a gift for another scrapper in your life, how about using these mini bingos:

with scrapbooking supplies?

Or how about these party mini bingos:

with a bouquet of lollipops?

 I used the mini Christmas Bingo Cards with some sprigs of berries and a JBS butterfly to make this sweet little arrangement:

I LOVE stuff like this.  Where the possibilities are endless - simplicity and creativity rule - and you don't have to spend a bundle to do it!

Thanks for visiting!

Like Dogs with Hooves and a Peek

Gotta tell ya:

I just LOVE goats.  They are like dogs with hooves, don't you think?  So adorable!  And check out those eyes!  

This "mosaic" was made at Big Huge Labs .  Love that site and can't wait to try more features there! 

I made a little gift for dear niece's birthday.  Here's a peek:

 and you can see the rest of it here!  Check it out - it's an easy way to make a great little gift for someone!

Wish I could share more, but I'm wiped!  Hope to show you my flea market treasures next time around!

thanks for stopping by! - betsy

The Beach Rocks!

I know what you're thinking!  Ya, ya, ya - the beach DOES rock, but I'm talking about beach ROCKS:

The beach we visit has the coolest beach rocks.   Every wave brings a loud clatter of thousands of rocks banging against each other.  And they are tumbled and tossed smooth into the most interesting shapes.  These rocks are fun. You can do a lot with them.  And we do spend a bit of our vacation playing with these rocks.  Well, I think it's just me who might play with these things . . . 

The boys were inspired by another kid they saw who was creating the most amazing "impossible" towers with these rocks.  "Impossible" because he stacked the most unusually shaped rocks on top of each other.  His towers seemed to defy physics by standing without support.  My boys were totally amazed and made some tiny towers, just to try. Nothing like the "impossible" creations they saw, but cool, none the less:

and I OF COURSE had to use my scrapbooking supplies on a rock . . .

jenni bowlin rubons

jenni bowlin embellished butterfly

and make a simple paper weight . . .

I'll be sharing more from vacation . . . cool treasure hunting days, goats, America the beautiful, . . . all good . . .

thanks so much for stopping by!

betsy

My Obsession Continues . . .

I admit it! I'm totally obsessed with notebooks and journals! I think I've altered about 20 of them and yes, I use them all . . .

And who says the paper  in your notebook can't have a bit ol' hole in it?

I had a blast prettying up this one - that started out with a beautiful pink cover anyway:

I like having a big ol' hole in my notebook:

And the notebook dangle is so sweet:

Supplies: Notebook from Barnes & Noble, wire, ball chain

Jenni Bowlin Mercantile: rhinestone buttons, butterfly rubon, journaling card, journaling stickers, letter stickers, chipboard buttons, vintage buttons, old jewelry pieces

There's still time to check out the free crepe paper flower class right here: Fabulous Flowers. Although the class is officially "over", the class files are still up!  A big thank you to everyone who checked it out and participated!  

Pam will be teaching a class over at Scrapbook Challenges soon.  Check it out here: Everyday Life Canvas Album.  Scrapping about everyday life is so important, isn't it?

My JBS layout is up on the JBS Inspiration blog:

You can check out the Inspiration blog to see how it was made.

Gotta run and get this house in order.  Maybe one day my house will look like this:

source

one can dream :)

Have a wonderful day!

betsy

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."  W. Clement Stone

A ScrapHD Baby Shower, a Photo Lesson Learned, & Roses

Lesson #1!  Don't forget the light settings on your camera:

We had a baby shower for a coworker yesterday!  I was in charge of decorating.  When you look at these photos, keep something in mind.  I work in a department that has no windows.  When I emerge everyday from the dungeon, I have to shield and squint my eyes.  I feel like a mole.  So under the ugly lighting, these are the photos I got.  I'm sure if I remembered to change my light setting to flourescent (duh!) they would have come out fine.  Lesson learned!

All of the paper elements were made in ScrapHD using their Jenni Bowlin elements.

I strung buttons, JB chipboard buttons, felt butterflies, vintage buttons, milk caps, Prima flowers, and crepe paper along the baking twine.

And here were the table centerpieces:

Little plastic buckets and balls from Party City, matching towels, and JB bingo cards.  Ummm, the stuff wasn't that neon.  Really. Must. remember. to. change. settings.   :)

I was cruisin' the blogs and this wonderful artist wrote about Big Huge Labs. I'm new to Flickr, so I just LOVED checking out all the FREE "toys" Big Huge Labs has for your photos using Flickr.

Here's one I did using the Mosaic Maker:

I couldn't believe the roses in Connecticut this year. So, so beautiful. Too bad I didn't think of taking photos earlier.  These are all late - the roses were on their way out.

If you've done cool stuff with Big Huge Labs, link me up!


And look at this contest over at 2Peas! Three winners?!  $50 of JBS stuff each?!  Go for it!

Have a GREAT day! - betsy

I love this stuff . . .

With the end of the school year, HS graduation, and lots of other stuff, the scrapping just has not been happening these days! But I've got the itch, and gorgeous Jenni Bowlin Play Date papers on my desk, and a photo I LOVE, and a cool idea . . . .  it'll happen . . . .  :)

Speaking of Jenni Bowlin and scrapping . . . I wish I could scrapbook like this girl:

Jennifer Johner -- her stuff is a work of art . . .   this image came delivered in a JBS newsletter this morning.  Jennifer is going to be a guest star on the Inspiration blog one day this month.  Can't wait to see!

And my dear friend Chris, was a guest star also.  LOVE her stuff, too. You must check out the blog this month - so much cool stuff.

And speaking of cool stuff . . . I'm an organizing FREAK and I LOVE this store.  And had a cool gift idea for a new college student:

I got the boys' friend a gift card to the Container Store, 2 little metal thingies, and put paper clips in his high school colors on the bottom, and his new college colors on the top.  Cool, huh?

And I love these guys:

for BIKING 62 MILES! to raise money for MS research and support. This disease STINKS big time - it's soooo hard, but this is the way to eradicate it from the lives of our children and our children's children . . . THANK YOU to my wonderful brothers and friends!

When you have a chronic illness you can get a "now or never" type of mind set.  It's been now or never to earn as much money as I can to send the boys to college, now or never to remember the really important things, now or never to clean out this house, and the list goes on and on.  So, it's now or never to get my garden in shape again.  And I love that ds#2 will help me - and without complaining - so we took a neglected area that the boys worked on for me years ago - that became loaded with weeds - and created something simple that I can handle:

more pictures of what we've been doing next week!  And scrapping will happen next week *hopefully* . . . how 'bout you?

- betsy

School Colors, ScrapHD Plant Sticks, and Rescued Wildflowers

Last night was our High School Baseball banquet.  After doing a ton of volunteer stuff for the team, I have the school colors permanently ingrained in my brain.  But I have to say, we have really nice school colors:

What a nice night.  Unbelievable to think John will be graduating this year and Matt next year.  I can remember holding little baby Johnny in my arms 18 years ago and not being able to imagine him going to kindergarten!

So once again, I couldn't resist decorating flower pots! Hope you're not sick of seeing this!  These are gifts for our team moms. I found the cutest lavendar plants in watering cans at Costco:

The thank you notes were created at ScrapHD.com with Jenni Bowlin digi journaling cards:

I made these in MINUTES before I had to leave - so easy - but so cute!

And I'll leave you with this photo.  A few years ago, the abandoned lot next to my in-laws was being developed and I rescued some phlox before they were lost forever.  They're happy in my yard now:

Don't forget to post a comment to this post for a chance to win a Jenni Bowlin Mercantile Dime Store kit!  Drawing a name Thursday 9pm eastern time!

thanks for visiting! - betsy

Hybrid Happiness - Two on Tuesday

Sharing 2 hybrid projects today - both created at ScrapHD.com . . . having a blast over there!

I made this for the sweet little baby of a coworker. I wanted the name to look like a clothing label, so I created the label at ScrapHD and printed it out on fabric.  The blue text paper is also from ScrapHD.  I added some flea market pearls, Jenni Bowlin patterned paper, felt butterflies, and a stick pin.

I had the funniest picture of my dear niece from Easter that I wanted to get in my books. I created this digital layout at ScrapHD using Jenni Bowlin digital products:

And then added some paint with a Making Memories foam stamp and finished embellishing with Jenni Bowlin Pearl Flowers in maraschino and cream cheese to get this:

I cut up the Pearl Flowers to get individual pearls of different sizes for the flower centers.  I totally smudged the paint, but I'm letting it go!

Check out this post on the JBS blog for a couple more hybrid layouts!


Hope you're having fun creating too! Thanks for stopping by!

betsy