The Quiet Book - The Mail Page

This page was so much fun to do! 

My favorite part is the little letters. I printed them out on PRINTER FABRIC! 
I didn't even know they HAD any such thing!!! WAY too cool! Defiantly going to use it again!

No snags with this page... it was pretty easy, thanks to the template and detailed instructions from Stephanie from Imagine Our Life who is SO very very talented! My page isn't as neat and crisp and professional looking as hers is, but I am pleased with it. 

Here are the pictures:

The mailbox on the page

You've got mail!

The front of the envelopes

Back of the envelopes

Letters in envelopes

My favorite part! The little letters!

Cute, huh? I love this page!!!! 

I would HIGHLY suggest checking out Stephanie's blog at Imagine Our Life even if you have no desire to make one of these books. Her imagination and talent is a sight to see! The pages she designs are so amazing!!! Thanks Stephanie for all your inspiration!!! 

The Gift Of Money

My oldest turned 19 years old the other day. (writing that statement and seeing it in print doesn't make it feel possible or the least bit real!) 

I had a really hard time deciding what to give her for this year's birthday. I really love giving sentimental gifts so at first, I thought that even thought I knew she wanted it, cash was out. I considered gift certificates, gift baskets, handmade gifts, etc... but kept coming back to the cash.

THEN as usually happens, PINTEREST came to my rescue!!! 

I found THIS pin, and got to work!

I used a small kleenex box and some leftover red satin fabric left over from The Quiet Book - The Barn Page, to wrap it and some pretty colorful ribbon. Here is what it looked like:

See the little tag that says 'Pull'?

Fabric is NOT easy to use as wrapping paper! 

I think she liked it... it was soooo fun to watch her pull out all that money!!! I taped 70ish ones end to end with scotch tape and rolled them all together. Here are some photos of her pulling and pulling and pulling:

As you can see, she seemed to enjoy the fun and so did my 12 year old. :) My husband and I got quite a kick out of watching this! I wish I could have put in a few hundred dollars!!! haha!

So, Thank you to LOVEZILLA for your idea!!! What fun!!!

The Quiet Book - The Shapes & Colors Page

I found this adorable 'painter's pallet' template on Serving Pink Lemonade and decided to make it a double page to incorporate shapes and colors.  I think it came out pretty cute and sturdy. It could be better... I need to slow down and not rush. I get excited about the 'finished' product  and I find myself rushing, got to stop that! Anyone have any tips or tricks for that? I can't be the only one.....?

Here is the completed page:

The left side, shapes

The right side, Colors

The whole page displayed

I think that if I were to do this again, I would use felt as backing like Stephanie from Imagine Our Life does. BUT I was concerned about this book holding up so it could be passed down, so I went with the muslin. I think the felt would be much cuter though! 

The Quiet Book - The Seasons Page (a.k.a. OMG SNAPS!)

I think that this has turned out to be favorite page so far, but it didn't start out that way!

I decided to use snaps for this page, not only is it a skill my toddler needs to learn but I have used mostly velcro so far and wanted something different. 

Now, before this page, I have never even sewn a snap. I've replaced a couple of buttons thought and figured it would be the same.  **HA HA!**

After sewing on the tree and the bottom snaps onto the page, I added the green pockets at the bottom to hold all the pieces. I then started the construction of the pieces, which is where (surprise, surprise) I ran into some issues. 

First, I cut out my leaves and then realized that I needed two cut-outs per piece to cover the snap stitching. So I cut out 15 more pieces.  Then, I did not realize that snaps are not the same on top as the bottom. I think I sewed twelve green leaves together before I had the five finished ones I needed! 

I did the flowers first, then the green leaves and then I started on the red leaves. The original red leaves we really detailed on the edges which made it really tough to blanket stitch and took me forever to cut out. I tried to salvage them by making 'veins' in them but I hated how they looked:

I only completed two leaves before I trashed them.

Then I thought, well, I could use the same shape of the green leaves for the red leaves, right?   Then of course I cringed thinking i'd have to make a million more mistakes with the snaps before ever getting to the end of this page! But I paid closer attention this time and made five red leaves in a row! whoot! 

Here is the completed page:

The Winter View

The Spring View

The Summer View

The Fall View

OK all you experienced sewers out there... I have a SNAP question for you:

Take a close look at the image below and please tell me which is the correct way to sew on a snap?

Which way an I supposed to be doing this?!

The template for this page was borrowed & adapted from Serving Pink Lemonade. 
Thanks Jeanie & Amy!!

The Orchid and the Fern

In the gardening section of Pinterest, I have noticed a lot of beautiful ferns lately  and it is those images that got this ball rolling.....

I may have said this before - I LOVE PLANTS. 
All plants, lots of plants, just about any kind of plant. I wouldn't feel at home without lots of plants. AND as luck would have it (once in a while), I'm pretty good with them - I've only lost a few over the years and the ones I have are flourishing. 

Now, contrary to that statement, there are two types of plants that don't appreciate my love.
FERNS and ORCHIDS.
*sigh*


The FERN:

I think ferns are just so pretty and feminine and there's some kind of soft, comfy feeling about them. I have tried multiple times to  grow ferns. Each time it has been an epic fail. The last time I tried was many many years ago and I recently decided after all the luck I've had re-growing produce, and all the amazing Fern images I've seen on Pinterest, i'd yet again try my hand (or in this case my thumb) at fern owning.

Here is my cute little fern that waved me down one day as I was walking through the plant section of The Home Depot:

Potted into an old terra cotta pot that I think once lived in my parent's house and
hung in the archway between my kitchen and dining area.

The above picture was taken on 9/29/12. I'll let you know how it fares. :)


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The ORCHID:

I think that orchids are really one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. I actually have two orchids tattooed on my leg that I have no problem taking care of  but real LIVE orchids are a gigantic sore spot for me.

My Father once left me all his orchids (there had to be 20 or so of them) to take care of while he moved. Not ONE of them survived and I still feel lots of guilt over that. I tried soooo hard to care for them they all make me feel like that cartoon character - you know... the little girl that squeezes her pets to hard... Elmyra!

So I thought if I have success with the fern, maybe, just MAYBE I will try my hand at one little orchid and see how it goes.

Then, FATE stepped in as it usually does, and my sweet and thoughtful Auntie Colleen brought me a drop dead (oh goodness, NO pun intended!!!) gorgeous orchid as a gift.

Here is what it looks like as of today:

Beautiful, huh?

I am going to follow the instructions to a 'T' and hope of the very very best!

Wish me luck! i'm going to need it!!!

The Map & the Ruler

I just completed this really neat world map project that I wanted to share.

The hardest part was taking apart the pallet. They are put together with these nails that act as screws and are quite difficult to get apart. Thank goodness I have a best friend with a very strong husband!!! THANKS CHRIS!!! 

The map was 24" x 36" so I knew I needed a pallet with 4 wide pieces to have enough room for the whole map. So I hand sanded each piece and then wiped them off with a damp cloth to get rid of any remains of dirt or dust and I used a rotary cutter up against the side of the wood to cut each piece of the map. I cut one piece then applied mod podge to the wood and applied the map piece. I did NOT put mod podge on top of the map at all.

I then grabbed my handy dandy grill lighter and tried to burn all the edges of the map but quickly discovered that my map and the mod podge glue under it seemed to be fireproof!!! I ended up getting a wood burner at Walmart for under $10 and burnt all the edges. That took about 3 hours to do all the pieces but I love how it turned out! This picture really doesn't do it much justice as the lighting in my living room doesn't always cooperate with my camera.

Before the edges were burnt

Finished! I love how the grain of the wood comes through,
sorta gives it a painted look.

This PIN is where I found and fell in LOVE with the old-time feel of this map and since we have a bunch of left over pallets from the The Pallet Garden  I thought wow! I could defiantly do this one! 

Now, if you click on the link on the pin, it brings you to the really lovely blog of Ms. Smartie Pants who did not make the map, she saw it in a magazine and did share how she thought it was made, so I just took her suggestions and made up the rest as I went along. :)


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A while back, I made a few of these, one for my 2 year old's room and one each for some really great friends:

This will eventually hang 6" off the floor.

I can not seem to find the original pin where I got the tutorial but if you put 'ruler' into pinterest's search, a ton of these will come up. VERY simple and cheap to make!!!

Bottle Cap Magnets

I took a short break from the Quiet Book to make a little gift for my In-Laws. That would be my husband's Dad and step-mom, who we adore! They are coming to visit this weekend as I just recently adopted my step-son and we are having a family cookout to celebrate! 

So, I came across THIS PIN a while back, which I actually didn't pin or like (hmm... what is wrong with this brain of mine?! Don't answer that! ha ha!) and it stuck in my head, so I decided to make some as a gift.

I used my Photoshop program to cut out 1" round parts of the pictures I wanted and put them into word to print. 
Then I proceeded to drink an entire 6 pack of Mike's Hard PINK Lemonade! 
That was absolutely the HARDEST part of the whole project! 
Cost me TWENTY weight watcher's points!!!!

I then used mod podge to glue the pictures into place and to seal them in. Once they were dry, I added dimensional magic to them to give that 3d look BUT the dimensional magic seems to somehow get under the seal and distort the images, so they look all fuzzy. Believe it or not, I actually did this TWICE.

Yes! That does mean 40 points gone!!! hahahah!

Here is how they came out the second time:

Dreamy looking?

And, if you look close enough (I don't think you can see in the picture) the top middle one has a fingerprint in it!!! Hmm... I wonder who that could have been?!

Well, I think I will put magnets on the back and give them anyways?
It's the thought that counts, right? *sigh*
Maybe I should chalk this one up to a big fat FAIL?
Thoughts anyone???