Some Purging Tips

Hi, Nesters!  It's Dawn here, with a quick post for this last Monday in October.  I'm going to share some tips for purging your stash (I've been in the midst of a huge purge lately!). But first, a little background...for the past couple weeks, my children and I have been fighting the yuck that seems to be going around.  We had to cut a mini-vacation short I got so sick (my husband knew it was bad when I was willing to forego a trip to IKEA to come home!).  No sooner did I get better than my boys came down with it, so we've been sniffling and sneezing all over the house!  Once I got better, I went into super-cleaning mode, and my craft room seems to have taken the brunt of my "tidying".

I have a ridiculous amount of scrapbook product, and it was at the point where I was forgetting what I had.  As soon as I started to clean, it seemed like I couldn't stop!  

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I've currently got three 18-gallon storage tubs filled with purged product, and I'm working on a fourth.  Eek.  And I've still got most of my Expedit, all my alpha stickers, and three Cropper Hoppers of paper to go through.  Double eek!  (Remember, I did say it was a ridiculous amount of product.)

Here's a list of a few things I have learned as I've been cleaning out my space:

1. If I haven't used that "must-have" product in the 5 years since I purchased it, the odds are against me using it in the future.
2. Buying in bulk is over-rated; I will never use the 50-pack of sheer journaling spots I bought in 2008.  Note to self: in the future, share the large packs with friends.
3. It is ok to break up kits!  I used to belong to several different kit clubs, and had dozens of kits still in their jumbo-sized ziplock bags.  I went through all the kits and pulled out what I knew I'd use and put the rest in my purge bin.
4. I don't need 3 or 4 (or more!) sheets of the same paper.  No matter how pretty that paper may be.  Really.  For me, there is one exception to this rule: Scenic Route.  Darn it, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't put any Scenic Route in the purge pile.  Don't judge me.  ;)
5. Keep what you like.  What you REALLY like.  If you're feeling so-so about paper or ribbon or stickers or rub-ons (don't even get me started about the rub-ons!), get rid of it.  Don't keep product that you don't like.  Of course, the bigger question here may be why said product was purchased in the first place, but I digress...
6. It's really fun to re-discover "lost gems".  I found paper from 5 years ago that I love (and totally forgot I had!).  Not to mention the kits and wood items that were sitting collecting dust - but are now on my to-do list for Christmas!
7. I can pretty much guarantee that after going through your stash you'll be much more careful what you purchase in the future.  (Even when it's a great deal.)

And now, I need to head back in to my craft room for more cleaning.  :)

Have a great week Nesters!

Paper Pumpkins

With Halloween fast approaching, we've been seeing pumpkins everywhere!  Today, I'm going to share a tutorial for some easy paper pumpkins that my boys and I made together.  

Aren't they cute?  They're super quick too, and very kid-friendly!

What you'll need:

• patterned paper (we used 6x6 paper)
• cardstock for the stem and leaves
• brads (to hold the paper strips together)
• strong adhesive
• a paper trimmer
• a pencil to wrap the cardstock around to make the stem
• small punch or paper piercer
• a leaf punch (optional)
• ink for the stem/leaves (optional)

First, cut the paper into 1" strips.  We used two 6x6 sheets of paper for each pumpkin, which resulted in 12 strips.

With a small punch (we used the 1/8" setting on my crop-a-dile) or a paper piercer, make holes on each end of the strips for the brads.

Stack the strips and secure a brad through one of the holes.

Fan out your strips.

One at a time, curve the strips onto a second brad (the pointed end will be up).  And please excuse my fingernail that desperately needs to be repainted.  ;)

When you're done, the bottom of your pumpkin will look like this:

Cut a small strip of cardstock for the stem (mine were roughly 3.5" by 3/4").  Ink the edges if you wish.  To make the stem, wrap the strip around a pencil and glue the end down to keep the curved shape.

At this point, you could also cut leaves.  We had an abundance of leaves once my boys were done with the punch.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures....just picture my living room with little green paper leaves all over the floor.  :)

To finish your pumpkin, simply glue the stem and leaves (if you made them) onto the pumpkin with a strong adhesive.  I used Diamond Glaze, but I think E-6000 would work even better (I didn't want to risk the fumes on my boys though).  A glue gun would also be a good choice.

Super quick and easy!  Since there are five of us in our family, we made a family of five pumpkins.  :)

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial!  Are you crafting anything for Halloween at your nest?

Oh, the memories!

I've gone digital!  For today, at least.  :)

This week, I've been playing around with their My Memories Suite digital software, and I'd like to share a couple of my creations with you.

I've been creating with the Coast to Coast kit - it is adorable!  Here is a layout I created of my youngest son:

I'm a newbie at these digital pages, so I'm definitely learning as I go.  I did figure out how to add the star from a Persnickety kit onto the page, and I was pretty proud of myself for that one.  :)

I'm also working on an "abc" book of our family.  Here's a page of my middle guy:

Happy Birthday Banner

Today I'm going to share a quick tutorial on a banner I made using one of the papers from the Celebrate kit that we've been working with here at Craft Your Nest.  

My oldest son just turned 10, and this Saturday we're having a pirate-themed birthday party for him.  Our color scheme is red and black, so I started with the Happy Birthday Banner sheet along with some red cardstock.

I quickly cut out each letter using my trimmer (I just cut rough squares...no precise measurement needed here).  I also cut the red cardstock down into 4-inch squares at this point.

I then used a circle die and my Sizzix Big Shot machine (I'm old school...no electronic die-cutting machines at my house) to cut out each letter.

I used a scallop circle die to cut out the cardstock.

To give the cardstock some dimension, I ran it through the Big Shot one more time with an embossing folder.

I used glue dots to attach each letter to a cardstock background, and then punched two circles so I could string the letters together.

After stringing some baker's twine through the letters, it was done!

Right now, it's hanging out (literally) in my kitchen, but for the party it will get moved to our screened porch with the rest of the decorations.

I love quick and easy projects that come together in under an hour.  This one could easily be adapted as well.  You could create a title for any occasion by using word processing software and bumping up the font size to 136.  If you don't have a die-cutting machine, you could use punches or even trace drinking glasses for the circles.

Have you been making any banners lately?  Do you have any more tricks for making homemade decorations?  I'd love to hear about it!

But it's not my birthday!

Happy Monday!  Today I'm going to share a layout using the Teresa Collins Celebrate line.  While this collection was originally designed with a birthday theme, it's very adaptable and today I'm going to show you how I used it to create this layout of my son:

Isn't he adorable?  :)

I made a video of my process (please excuse the background noise; apparently I need to film at 3 am to get a quite house!).  I used some of the new Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray on this page, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out (though the color photographed a bit more pink than it is in real life).

Here are a couple close-ups of the layout:

And here's the full page once again:

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