Projects this week!

I've been hard at work this week! The Digichick was really putting out some awesome new products, and I just HAD to get my hands on them! Here is what I did early in the morning, during nap time and at night. I think I need to take a break!

Hybrid Pop-Top Can Tutorial

I'm serious, people. If you were to look into my hall closet, you would be appalled. Empty cans, empty juice mix containers, and empty boxes are on the verge of spilling out into the hallway. Well, okay, I guess it is not THAT bad. But still, I do tend to collect "useful items". What's worse (or perhaps, better?) is that my husband will look at an empty container at his office and think, "Hmm. I wonder if Kelleigh can do something with this?"

You see, I have this problem with being obsessed with creating pretty things with my digital supplies. Even better is when those pretty things are also useful. Which brings me to today's project.

Time to open up a can. Not just any can, though. I want you to look through your kitchen pantry and try to find a can of food with a pop top.



Yeah, I couldn't find one either, the first time I tried this project, so I went to the store and bought a couple of cans of fruit. While you are shopping, you need to pay attention to the BOTTOM of the can, too.



The reason the bottom is important is because you will be using a can opener that is designed to open the can from the sides and create clean edges that are NOT sharp. If you do not have one of these cool can openers, just ask a friend if you can borrow hers. They are pretty popular, so someone you know should have one!



Make SURE you open the can from the bottom and NOT the top! You will be filling the can and closing it up again, so if you pop the top . . . no good.

Now, feed your family, wash out the can, and tear off the label. This is what you should end up with.



At this point, you'll want to measure the surface area of the outside of your can. Mine was roughly 9.25in x 4.25in. Open Photoshop, and create a new document with these dimensions. Now it is time to design!

I used a great kit from one of The Digichick's newest designers, Nicole Seitler, who will be debuting tomorrow, so this is a little sneaky peaky at one of her products called A Little Birdie. So cute!

I went ahead and designed the outside to my liking.



Then I flattened my project and dragged it onto a new, blank, 8.5 x 11 in document, since my printer is a standard size. I added the little tag from Nicole's kit that I had fallen in love with to the right of my page. Then, to add a little dimension to my finished product, I used my rectangular marquis tool to select the flowers from the front of the can. I copied and pasted them onto a new layer, then dragged them to the side of my document. My plan was to cut these out, apply pop dots (dimensional foam stickers) and put them right back where I got them.



Next, I measured the diameter of the top of my can. To do this, just find the middle of your lid and measure across. Mine was roughly 2.75 inches. Now, just select your circular marquis tool and type in a fixed size of 2.75in x 2.75in. Design the top as you would like, flatten and drag onto your "page to print". You'll notice that I selected the flowers from the top of my can before I flattened and duplicated them so I could cut them out as I mentioned above.



And, since I am not one to waste valuable, quality paper, this is what my "page to print" looked like.



(Go check out the hybrid gallery on Thursday morning to see the other project I created with Nicole's goodies! Her stuff ROCKS!)



Now, print your page and begin cutting. I used my trusty micro-tip scissors to carefully cut around each flower that I planned to "pop".



Apply your favorite dry adhesive (tape runner, tabs, etc.) paying special attention to the "seams", or the area where the two sides will meet.



Line your paper up on your can so your main image is directly across from the pop top tab. Stick it to the can!



Now, cut out your top and position it. I cut out a notch in my paper using a 1" circle punch, but you could use your scissors, too.



Apply foam pop dots to the flower pieces you cut out, and reposition them on your can, right on top of the original flowers like so:



Add your tag and a ribbon to the pop top tab, if desired. This is my finished project!


Fill the can from the bottom with candy, tiny bath items, a gift card, etc. and seal up with a liquid adhesive that is appropriate for metal (or just push the bottom on until it is nice and tight!).

What a fun "wrapping" for a present, huh? And, after the recipient opens it (by pulling the tab!), the can could be used as a pencil holder!

Now, it is time to try this project for yourself. You have until midnight, Pacific time, Friday, August 8th to make your own hybrid can for a chance to win $5 to Nicole Seitler's new store at The Digichick! Just post your creation to the hybrid gallery and link us up in the hybrid forum.

Have fun!

Grant's 5th Birthday mini album

I finally put together Grant's 5th birthday mini album! I had a lot of fun doing it and it went together pretty quickly. I used a freebie template from Michelle Filo, which is SUPER basic (just the shapes of the pages), but got my creative juices flowing. She also has a similar layered template which I bought last week that is super cool. I'll probably use that soon. I ended up shrinking down my pages so that they actually fit on 1/2 a sheet of 8.5x11 paper. It's a real mini! Here ya go! (Notice I salvaged the hand picture! Ha!)

Pages and stuff I've been doing

Goodness, I have been busy lately!! VBS was this week, and I am exhausted. I absolutely LOVE VBS. The kids are so much fun and the activities are a blast. Lots of children made decisions for the Lord this week, and for me that is the most exciting thing about VBS. I "taught" one of the 3rd grade groups and my sister, Angela was one of my helpers. Well, she actually did a TON of stuff with the kids while I just sat back and watched. She is amazing. Seriously.

Since I was a worker, Cole got to come to VBS and stay in the nursery while Grant was in his own class. I loved being able to watch Grant sing and dance and watch Chatter the Chipmunk get into trouble. He had to cover his ears a few times because the little video clip is not so scary when your ears are covered. He's just like me! He would put his money in the offering bucket and then turn around and give me a big grin. I am so stinking proud of that kid that I feel like my heart is going to pop right out of my chest. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by how much I love my boys.

On that note, this has been a Grant layout week. Here ya go:










And, I did a little Hybrid project, too!

The baby shower

Rachel's Squash Book

I made this little squash book for Rachel's baby shower. The blue and white triangle pages are for words of advice or nice thoughts written down by the guests. The other pages are for pictures from the shower. Everyone really loved it! And, it is NOT digital (so yes, I still play AWAY from my computer . . . although I plan to do a hybrid squash book!).

Custom gift bag

I'm so proud of this cute little hybrid gift bag that I made for Rachel's baby shower. Isn't it cute?

Gasoline

No, we will not discuss the price of gas these days. Instead, let me remind my male audience out there that the laundry room is NOT a place to toss gasoline saturated rags. Please refrain. If you choose not to heed my warning, you may end up with gasoline scented underpants. You may end up paying a larger than average heating bill for all of the hot water that was used to clean up the inside of the high efficiency washer. Not to mention a higher grocery bill for all of the vinegar and baking soda that was also used. You may discover that gasoline is NOT a pheromone. Your wife may become cranky.

Just ask Mitch.

Relief

Ahhh . . . camera is back. Here is that mini I was telling you about!

My Sisters

These are my two youngest sisters, Hannah and Christina (age 9). Aren't they cute? They were adopted from Russia (same orphanage) when they were around 1. Actually, Hannah had just turned 1 and Christina was about 8 months. So, yeah, I'm about 23 years older than them!

Besides their wonderful, sweet, hysterical personalities, I LOVE the way they bring a smile to my Dad's face. Since they were tiny little things, my Dad has always completely lit up when they entered the room. At Thanksgiving, my Dad is thankful for the joy that Hannah and Christina bring to our lives. It is amazing to me that these two were considered "throw away" children by some, and yet they are so heartily embraced by our family. That is adoption for you! What a wonderful thing.

my camera (sob!)

I left my camera at my in-laws' house and I'm too lazy/cheap (gas prices) to go pick it up. I had no idea how much I NEEDED my camera until I didn't have it. I have resorted to using my old camera, which has to be plugged in for 30 minutes to take about 30 seconds of photos which turn out blurry. I attempted using my camera on my phone. Not so great with inside light.

I have completed the coolest hybrid mini-album and I am DYING to post it in the galleries, but the pictures I have are SO bad. Look.



I will have to wait, none-too-patiently, until I get my camera back so I can post this to the galleries and let the accolades roll in. Yes. I'm proud of this cute little album that took me very little time to create.

Soon

Notes:

I cranked out this layout pretty quickly last night. BRIGHT colors, I know!!

The snake

My handsome husband helped me figure out how to get the pictures off my camera! Here is the snake picture I was talking about:

Surfer Style

Saturday was Grant's 5th birthday, and we had a great time! This was Grant's first "friend" birthday party. Grant decided on a dinosaur theme, so we had a dinosaur pinata, a dinosaur egg hunt, and cupcakes with dinosaurs on top. It was low key and a lot of fun! I'll be doing a page about that soon, but in the meantime, here are a couple of the "cake" pics. Don't you just LOVE that hand that popped up at EXACTLY the wrong time? The scrapbooker in me wants to scream! Hopefully I can still do something with that pic.



Also, here is a page that I did this morning featuring my cutie!




Last night, the whole family gathered outside to wash the cars. I hate washing cars. I think it is because I had to do SO MANY fundraiser car washes as a kid. I hate getting my knuckles scraped on the wheels, I hate having cold hands and trying to get into tiny crevices and I HATE being sprayed with water. I really do. So, I was not excited to be going out in the HEAT to wash cars last night.

We were filling up the bucket when all of the sudden Mitch says something like, "Oh my gosh! Nobody move!"

At times like this, I wish my cell phone had a memory card in it for my pictures. I don't know how to get the pictures off of my phone, so let me describe this. A HUGE (although Mitch said it wasn't that big) gopher snake had slithered halfway out of the wheel on Mitch's truck and was coiled at the base of his tire. It was HUGE. I accidentally left our good camera at my in-laws, so I took pictures with my phone. Argh. At one point, my snake charmer husband sent me inside to grab a pillowcase, so I also grabbed our old (and practically dead) camera, so I did get to capture a couple of pics.



My brave husband used a hoe to "subdue" the snake, then PICKED IT UP and put it into the pillowcase. The rest of us were saying, "Kill it, kill it," however Mitch had a plan to let it loose in one of the empty lots by the creek. The boys walked down the street and showed everyone who happened to be out in their yard at the time. I guess the neighborhood kids loved it. On a semi-related note, my friend Cindy, who lives 3 houses down, had just watched "the release" and went back to work in her hard pulling weeds. Not 5 minutes later, she let out a yelp and jumped back at the sight of a snake in her garden! What in the world? (It wasn't a gopher snake, but STILL!) Mitch is now telling us that the female gopher snake is probably lurking in our garage waiting to strike. Nice guy, huh.


By the way, if someone could tell me how to get rid of the frame around my png files, I would appreciate it! :o)

Catscrap blog

I participated in a challenge over at the Catscrap blog. Very fun. It was basically like the telephone game, except with layouts. Check it out here.

This was my contribution!



Also, I finally finished the ADP scrapbook that I have been working on for Mitch's State Farm class. I printed up 2 albums (one for each instructor) and, of course, forgot to take pictures before I sent if off with Mitch this morning. I think it turned out great, though! They are 8x8 and feature one page for each agent who participated in the class that Mitch was in. I'm anxious to see what everyone thought.

This little project made me think hard about my album size. I've been using 12x12 albums almost exclusively since I began scrapbooking in 2003. Digital layouts can be printed as 12x12s, however I do not have a wide-format printer. I either have to send them out to be printed (which is very costly) or take them to my local print shop (where I would have to deal with the grumpy old man). While working on the ADP project, I began thinking about printing my layouts in 8x8 and putting them in an 8x8 album. This would typically be a no-brainer for me, however Close To My Heart doesn't sell 8x8 albums, and I LOVE Close To My Heart albums. Argh. Well, I bought an 8x8 album anyway. It is CERTAINLY not as nice at CTMH, however I am still very excited to begin printing my layouts here at home. Wahoo!

My Little Light

Happy Independence Day!

Goodness, it has been a while!

I'll try to quickly update.
- My 17-year-old sister is living with us for the summer. It is fun having her around!
- We've spent the last 2 weekends on Grandpa's boat. Expect some layouts in the future since I got some GORGEOUS pictures of Grant (which is pretty rare since he hasn't been cooperative lately).
- We had some friends over for a 4th of July BBQ. Relaxing and low key. Did fireworks in the driveway:



I've also done this layout:



And this one:


And this invitation to Grant's birthday party (which is this Saturday!):



And then there is this one that I put together SUPER quickly the other morning:



Oh, and the same designer who put my frame clusters in her shop (see below) asked me to play with another of her kits, and this is what I came up with!


Happy Independence Day!