Grandma Day With Jayden

I try to make time for grandchildren to have a special day or a couple of hours with me. Recently Jayden and I were able to plan such a day. We went out to lunch and made crafts. I had started a project of making Valentine banners so when she saw my creative mess she wanted to make a banner of her own. This is what she came up with. I only helped a little. Way to be amazing Jayden!!

Her are two of the banners I created. I ended up making five more. All unique from the others.

This one with the old fashioned telephone ended up with a cute speech bubble saying, "Just called to say I Love You."

I was able to get a banner mailed to each of my children before I left on a spontaneous car trip to Nauvoo, Illinois with Jayden and her family. Note to self- don't EVER take that long of a car trip ever again!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Baby Shower Decorations and Banner

Andrea is having a baby in April so Katy and Amanda planned a shower to celebrate. The mission call banner came down and a baby welcome banner went up. It was a fun transformation since I made tissue pom poms in several colors to match baby's bedroom.

 The banner says, "Welcome baby girl Crockett". The pennants are sewn onto a long yellow satin ribbon. The letters are stamped onto paper, cut out and glued onto individual pennants. I added a silk yellow daisy to dot the 'I' in the word girl. I calculated how to cut the pennants from 12x12 paper utilizing the dimensions to my benefit. More pennants per page. The tissue pom poms were actually fun to make. I got four small poms from one package of ten count colored tissue. (a dollar at Hobby Lobby). I attached a doubled strand of curling ribbon to the center of each pom before I fluffed the tissue. Amanda tied the bows and tacked them each to the ceiling in varying lengths.

The results were so simple and easy that Andi decided she would use the decorations again at a baby shower given by the Crockett side of her family.

I like the effect of the trailing curling ribbon and flouncy bows.

It was a fun celebration with a lot of baby headband making and visiting. Andi received  a lot of expert advice from so many experienced young mothers. It was a perfect party thanks to all the wonderful guests.

Saint Patrick's Day Banner

    I was inspired by a cute banner Melissa, a gal from Oh My Craft's made out of seven card stock shamrocks and green wire. She had so cleverly adorned the end pieces with gold rosettes from the Bravissimo collection (which they currently have on sale). Melissa let me trace a shamrock and I purchased 2 of the gold rosettes. My penny pinching daughter challenged me to utilize only supplies I already had at home. The green and gold glitter card stock was left over from Christmas projects and I dug through old patterned paper and found enough green to match the green polka dot paper I had leftover from a more recent project I had done using Pebbles new 'Family Ties' collection. Even the shamrock stickers and embellishments were things I already had. SEE THERE IS A REASON TO PURCHASE THE FUN STUFF WHEN YOU SEE IT! Total cost of this project: 60 cents.

Where In The World . . .

 . . . will Amanda be called?

    Amanda has submitted her papers to serve as a missionary for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. We have heard that her status is 'assigned'. Which means the mailman should be delivering a large envelope to her on Wednesday!

    Am I giddy? Just a bit. :)

    When Amanda officially opens this large envelope she hopes to celebrate the exciting moment with her friends and family. In other words it becomes a party! And this party requires some festive decor. Thus- the fun banner Amanda and I created and at this moment I am bragging about to the world (or whomever will look).

    Look! Look at our banner! We found various country flags at a local map place and cut triangle pennants from a travel atlas we purchased cheaply at Wal-mart. Stapled them alternately onto a long piece of jute. How simple and easy is that? I made the letters by stamping acrylic paint onto a piece of card stock with a foam alphabet stamp (Making Memories), allowing time to dry before I hand cut-out the letters. Then glued them onto the map pennants.

    I want to make invitations out of pages of the atlas folded like a map, but Amanda is nixing that idea. Silly mom! (I'm making a few anyway.)

True Love Valentine Banner

I was so expired by Echo Parks Love Story collection that I just had to create a Valentine banner with the pretty, pretty paper. I worked on it little bits at a time. I camped out on the floor of the living room playing with paper while my hubby watched Grey's Anatomy. That show drives me crazy- real people do not act that way! Really? They are so unprofessional in the workplace. Just the fact that they operate with jewelry on and talk about their personal problems during procedures which should receive their full attention is mind boggling. I watch with my hunny only to be with him and sit on his feet while I cut, glue and embellish.

I am happy to say that my crafting mess is off the living room floor. It just moved to a long table in the front room where seven of my grand kids made valentine treat boxes yesterday. I just might leave the table up so Amanda and I can 'smash' this weekend, and then I have neighbor girls coming over for an activity on Monday. (The mess never seems to disappear completely). Yes! I love playing with paper.

I promise- I loaded this picture rightside up.
I even attempted it twice. Who knows?