… print photos?  When I was only doing digital stuff, I printed my layouts a couple of times a year at Scrapbook Pictures.  It’s one of my all-time favorite places to print anything digital – just wait for a sale if you’re penny pinching!  They have sales a couple of times a year and will store your files if you place an order once a year!  Who doesn’t need more backups?

Anyway, when I was only doing strictly digi, I would never print actual photos – just didn’t have a need to do so.  Now that I’ve been venturing over to the “other” side (JUST KIDDING!), I have that need to print a bit more often.  Granted, I do a lot of printing at home just to have a place-filler photo (I typically do all my paper work, scan/photograph my layout then work on the digital side including overlaying a digital photo so it’s totally crisp & clear, adding journaling, etc.), but sometimes I actually need a real photo to use.  Once every couple of months, depending on how often I’m actually scrapping, I get prints made and always get an index print.

The other day when I was playing around, I found an older index print and thought… there’s surely something I can do with it…  This is what came of it!  A fun hybrid layout (in this case I didn’t overlay the photos, though!) that channeled a little bit of Debee – or tried to, anyway, with the drippy paint.

This layout uses goodies from the KR February kits and includes some goodies from CD Mucksosky (title alphas).

Hope you all had a truly blessed Easter and have a blessed Spring.  Hopefully you’re lucky enough to actually have spring weather already!  We had 4″ of snow yesterday!  Good times!  Happy day.

so…the kids are home on spring break & you need some activities to occupy them…

guess what?  we’ve got you covered :)

popping around the internet i’ve come across some great little craft ideas for this beautiful season & most of them are perfect for the wee ones to participate in…

the fabulous charlotte lyons has been posting a great series of crafty ideas on her blog:  house wren studio…how cute is this Egg wall hanging??

mel goodsell & fiona carter have been hosting some really great Easter crafts on both of their blogs which they have dubbed the “Egg-ceptional Egg-stravagazna” (so awesome :)…my favorite are these adorable pom pom chicks…seriously…how cute!!!

and also found via mel & fiona…this super cute bunny download from revoluzza….at my house i’ve printed them off on all sorts of colorful cardstock & the kiddos have been cutting & collaging & coloring them all week…they’ve got plans to give them out to the whole family when we gather for our big Easter dinner…how cute will they look on the table as place cards??

& if you ever are in the need of some kids craft ideas, be sure to check out the crafty crow…this blog is filled year round with wonderful tutorials & links from around the web for crafty kids…really a wonderful resource to have in your bookmarks :)

have any great spring crafting ideas you can share with us?

together we all CAN survive spring break :)

have a great week!

gigi

we are sponsoring a challenge givewaway this week over at 52 sketches 52 weeks.  complete the sketch and you’ll have get an opportunity to win the sold out ‘reading room‘ add-on from our march reveal.

what are you waiting for… get going.

i (me, lisa) always get the weirdest looks whenever i go into a hardware store.

last week, i went to pay for my 50 tiny peat pots and bag of live ladybugs (i’ll explain the ladybugs later)….

you know, those biodegradable, cardboard pots that you use to plant seedlings & they just decompose when you plant them?

these guys:

so, the cashier guy smiles at me and says, “hi, how are you?  planning to do a lot of gardening this weekend?”

“no”, i replied, “actually, they’re for a project for my kid’s school classmates.”

“oh”, he said, “they’re planting stuff?”

“nope”, said i, “i’m making little easter basket pails for them.”

“oh”, he says, “so, you’re putting gardening stuff into the easter baskets for them!, (like he’s beginning to understand me)… we have some cute seed packets that would go perfectly with these… here let me show you…”

“no… hang on!” i blurted, “the peat pots ARE the easter pails. i’m going to decorate them & fill them with candy”.

“okay”, gardening guy says giving me a strange look. “so… what are the ladybugs for?”

“oh,  the lady bugs are just for my kids to put out in our yard”

“of course” says bewildered gardening guy. “are you going to decorate them & fill them with candy, too?”

so, here’s the project:

pretty, huh?

and pretty cheap & easy to make, too!

here, let me show you:

what you need

little peat pots (mine are about 3 inches tall)

paint

glitter

assorted paper, vintage ephemera, or clip art images.

wire, pipe cleaners, or tinsel covered wire.

hole punch

and anything you want to use to decorate them… buttons, brads, flowers, ribbon, anything your little heart desires!

step 1

paint your pot, or glitter & let dry.

i’ve found that if you paint the outside & inside it kind of makes the pot a little sturdier.

step 2

punch holes on sides of pail to add wire handle.

add decorative eyelets or grommets if desired.

thread wire through & twist to secure, making sure there are no sharp edges… you don’t want those little fingers getting hurt!

step 3

decorate!

i’ve included a PDF of little vintage spring postcards that i’ve put together & used at the bottom of this post :)

step 4

fill with treats, pass out & revel in all the compliments from your kid’s teachers & parents on how creative you are ;)

if you have any questions, please fell free to ask them in the comments section & i’ll answer them as soon as i can!

happy spring, everyone!

vintage-easter1

(please only use these images for your own personal use)