Tyney123's Featured Huugs©

Happy Saturday :)

I just wanted to take a moment to feature a wonderful knitter named Tyney123 who sent me a fabulous photo of not one, not two… but THREE Huug the Hug Monsters© that she has knitted using my free pattern. Aren’t they adorable?! The blue one was made first and belongs to Tyney while the other two are destined to be Christmas presents. How sweet! I absolutely love the expressive faces on these Huugs. Makes me want to cuddle them! This picture is property and copyright to Tyney123 and was posted with permission.

If you want to make your very own Huug the Hug Monster©, check out the free pattern! And special thanks to Tyney for sharing :)

Absence and (Finally) Freebie Friday

Hi everyone.

This Friday I have a quick page that I just threw together. I have a few other freebies that are ready to go, but I’ve been gone for a week or so and want to make sure I was completely finished with them before I release them. This week’s quick page was inspired by the seemingly hundreds of fall layouts I’ve seen recently. I love autumn colours and I wanted to make my own! No special kit was used… I just went through my resources and started designing my perfect fall layout. It’s 3600 x 3600 pixels in 300 dpi and ready for your favourite fall photo. And as usual, it’s for personal, non commercial use only! Don’t forget to check the TOU included. If you have any questions about how to use the QP or the TOU, don’t hesitate to contact me :)

Sorry for my absence and for missing last Freebie Friday. My grandpa went into the hospital and my husband and I flew back to Indiana to be with family. He passed away last night (well, this morning) a little after midnight. I designed a little page with a photo of him that my grandma gave me. It’s such a great picture of him, and it’s really how I remember him best. The last few years has been hard for him and my whole family. He’s had Alzheimer’s for several years now and then recently caught pneumonia. While in the hospital for the pneumonia, he had a massive stroke, about two weeks ago now, and never woke up again. He will be missed so much. Rest in peace, grandpa. We love you and will never forget you.

Much love and hugs to your families. Have a wonderful weekend <3 Download my Fall Foliage Quick Page HERE.

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"The Hoosier State" Quick Pages Freebie!

I managed to find a little time this weekend to put together a few quick pages for you using my freebie kit for “The Hoosier State.” If you missed parts 1, 2 and 3 of the set be sure to check back a few posts to nab them for yourself! The quick pages are all 3600 x 3600 pixel pngs. To use them, all you have to do is paste them as a new layer like an overlay over top of your photos in your favourite image editing software. It usually lines up best if you open the quick page first, then arrange your photos over the empty spaces, then shuffle the layer(s) that your photo(s) are on underneath the quick page layer. If you have any questions on using them, don’t hesitate to email me. :)

In other news, today is the first official regular season Bears game (versus my hometown team of the Indianapolis Colts!) GOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our little family is all prepped for the game and I hope to get another scrapbook page or two together using my “I Love the Chicago Bears” freebie because Winston was an absolute doll and posed wonderfully for me in his little Bears jersey earlier, as you can see.

Download “The Hoosier State” Quick Pages set HERE!

Happy (Football) Sunday and hope you all enjoy the quick pages. :)

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"The Hoosier State" Freebie Part 3 of 3

It’s Friday and you know what that means… Freebie Friday! :) Hope everyone has had a great short week — and now on to the final piece of “The Hoosier State” kit, part 3! If you’ve not been following my blog the last few days then you’ve missed out on parts 1 and 2, so be sure to flip back and grab them so you can have all of the Indiana goodness at your fingertips. Part 3 is a bit ‘cornier’ than the previous two pieces and consists of the final two papers, some corn-y notepaper, two more kinds of corn elements, another peony and a wheat inspired mat, a little wordart and wooden elements, a new button and a handful of bows, an acrylic state of Indiana and two more ribbons, with one being of the hand-beaded variety. It’s a beautiful final piece (if I do say so myself) and now your Hoosier state kit is all complete!

Don’t forget that this freebie kit is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY, as specified in the TOU included with all of my freebie downloads. Please be sure to read the TOU before using any of the items in the kit, and contact me if you have any questions about it.

Download “The Hoosier State” Part 3 of 3 (final!) HERE.

My ultimate goal is to make a quick page or two for you to give away late this weekend or early next week, but we’ll see what time allows; you know how it goes. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week — enjoy your weekend and “The Hoosier State” and hope to see you back again soon :)

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"The Hoosier State" Freebie Part 2 of 3

It’s day 2 of my Hoosier state freebie kit and I’m proud to give away 2 more themed papers and 14 more elements towards the complete set! Today you’ll get a little Indy 500 flavour with a cute road ribbon and wooden cut out car, plus word art, another frame and some more buttons, bows and ribbons. You’ll also snag my cute little gemmed and felt corn paperclip! (which you might recognize from my “Healthy Balance” kit) You’ve almost got the entire Hoosier state set, so be sure to come back tomorrow so you can pick up the final piece for Freebie Friday! :D

Don’t forget that this freebie kit is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY, as specified in the TOU included with all of my freebie downloads. Please be sure to read the TOU before using any of the items in the kit, and contact me if you have any questions about it.

Download “The Hoosier State” Part 2 of 3 HERE!

And like I said yesterday, Indiana is near and dear to my heart and always will be. So if you make any fab layouts with “The Hoosier State”, please let me know so I can show off how awesome you are :) Thanks for stopping in to nab part 2 (oh, are you a first timer here and missed yesterday’s part 1? Click HERE!) and I’m already looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow for part 3. <3 scrapbook

"The Hoosier State" Freebie Part 1 of 3

Happy Wednesday :)

This week I have three days in a row of amazing freebies for you, being kicked off today! And what’s the topic? Well by the title you’ve probably guessed — “The Hoosier State.” Most of you that have followed my blog (or notice the blog design or header) know that I’m a Hoosier girl… originally from Indiana, but now living happily ever after in Canada for over two years. I decided to create a big freebie kit dedicated to where I grew up because I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Hoosier state, even if I don’t technically call it “home” anymore.

I finally finished the kit last night, and together there are 8 papers and 40 different elements in this one including wordart, frames, mats, ribbons, peonies, notepaper, corn (lots of corn!), clips, buttons, bows, and even a few acrylic elements and wooden pieces such as the state flag, the state itself, and some Indy 500 items. All in a colour scheme that reminds me of Indiana. The kit was too big for one zipped file so I decided to break it up into 3 pieces and release all of the parts over the next three days. Each day contains at least two papers and a random handful of the 40 elements. This Friday’s Freebie Friday will be the final piece, and once you download all three, you’ll have the entire kit.

Don’t forget that this freebie kit is for personal, non-commercial use ONLY, as specified in the TOU included with all of my freebie downloads. Please be sure to read the TOU before using any of the items in the kit, and contact me if you have any questions about it.

Download “The Hoosier State” Part 1 of 3 HERE!

I would really love to see what you do with the kit — please send any layouts you make to me and I’d be happy to feature you here and show off your creativity. If I get around to it this week, I may release a quickpage or two. But don’t hold me to it! Be sure to check back tomorrow (and Friday) for parts 2 and 3 to complete the set! I hope you like “The Hoosier State.” Thanks for stopping by :)

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Latest Layouts

First of all, HAPPY LABOUR DAY! I finally got around to some digital scrapbooking of my own today and scrapped up some memorable new photos taken in the past couple weeks. I just wanted to pop in and share them with you!

The first involves my handsome husband and I, and uses papers and elements from Summer Splash by Christine Ousley, christinescraps for BTST.

The second is a compilation of some photos with my friend Michelle. Michelle was my maid of honour in my wedding and has been my best friend since moving to Canada. We met when we were both working in the Human Resources department of Safeway. We’ve both found new jobs but do just about everything together. This page is dedicated to her friendship and uses elements from the Citrus Berry kit by Vicki at AWP (A Work in Progress).
I love Vicki over at AWP so much that I used another one of her freebie kits, Fired Earth, for this layout of Lucas and I. Aren’t we cute?
This last one I did using the Express Yourself freebie kit by RPENN. Yay for girls just wanting to have fun! This is me with Kim and Michelle. We’re hawt mamas!
The hanging date tags you see in the last two are not part of the kits mentioned but instead are from scrapmatters.com by the Golden Girls digital designs. They’re super cute! Anyway, just wanted to share what creative things I’ve been up to this holiday weekend; hope you liked the layouts! Enjoy the rest of your long weekend.

My First Crochet Handbag

So I found a great pattern on the Lion Brand website for a Crochet Handbag, by Drew Emborsky. It’s such a gorgeous shape — I love the pleats! I decided since I had a bunch of off-white yarn hanging around that I would give it a go and see if I was a.] capable of following the pattern, and b.] I liked the end result. In the end, I love the look when it’s lying flat, but prefer it was a bit taller/deeper than the finished result, and maybe not quite as wide at the base… at least for my personal usability preferences. In my opinion the dimensions looked great flat but made for some strange interior space when the purse was in use. Full it looked a little funny but flat it looks fab! But maybe that’s just me. Check out a “full” pic below and compare it to this flat one, maybe you’ll see what I mean.

The pattern itself was super easy — all single crochet with ONE pesky row (row 15) where I had to follow the written instructions to form a pleat. And not just one pleat, but six total in that row! And then you had to do row 15 twice, because you had to make two side pieces to form the bag body. I got some help from fellow ravelers to interpret the instructions and I finally managed to get the hang of the pleat :) Yay! Beyond row 15, the rest of the pattern was super simple. My seaming isn’t all that great, but I’m learning. I’ve made some modifications that I plan to use on my next try and I hope it turns out the way I invision the perfect version of this handbag to be. Once I pick out some delicious brown yarn (after all, you can’t wear white after Labour Day, and with that coming up tomorrow, I only have one day to use this purse, LOL) for a more season-appropriate look, I’ll give the modified version a go. If that works out I’d love to post the mods for anyone else who might be interested :) As you can see, I didn’t make the little flaps (mostly because I had different handles than what the pattern called for) and I decided to add little crochet flowers as an accent. All part of the modifications, I tell ya. In the end it was a great project. I can’t wait to make another! :)

This little crochet handbag will be off to the bowling alley with us this evening for some dinner and fun with friends. Enjoy your holiday weekend!

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Freebie Friday: Healthy Blance (Part 2 of 2)

Woohoo! It’s Friday! And not only that, it’s the Friday that kicks off a nice long weekend. Hooray! So let’s get down to business and share this week’s Freebie Friday goodie :)

As promised last week, I have for you part 2 of 2 of my “Healthy Balance” series. This time the freebie includes two more full-sized 1200 x 1200, 300 dpi papers, two torn papers in solid cardstock, another ribbon, a frame with a blue ribbon button and ribbon hugger, acrylic cherries, some torn notepaper (perhaps for journaling your goals on) and 5 gemmed fruit and veggie paperclips! They are soooo cute.

If you missed last week’s part 1 which included all of the full-sized gemmed fruit and veggie embellishments and the first paper and measurement tape bow by Kirsty Smith, you can grab it HERE.

Hopefully these two kits will add some healthy spunk to your layouts. I mean, who can resist cute little gemmed fruit paperclips? Not me! Download “Healthy Balance” Part 2 of 2 HERE!

Hope everyone has a safe and healthy Labour Day long weekend — take care and see you soon! I’ve got another freebie ready to go and freebie plans for next Friday already in the works :) Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you back soon!

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Recent Craftings

I don’t know if “craftings” is a real word (And based on Firefox’s built-in spell checker, it isn’t.) but for today and for my blog post title, it is a word. This week I’ve finished two projects: a purple bouclé scarf for my mom for Christmas (Yes, I am ahead of the game) and a little tiny turtle for Somer. The scarf was knitted from a beautiful skein of Bernat Soft Bouclé that I picked up while in Penticton a few weeks back, in a colour called The Big Purple. What a fun name, huh? It’s 65 inches long and really soft and pretty, at least I think so. I hope my mom does, too! There’s no real pattern involved with this bad boy — I co’d 15 sts on big size US 15 / 10.0 mm needles and knit until the scarf reached my desired length of around 65 inches. I love the big loopy look to it.

The tiny turtle is from a pattern called Tiny Striped Turtle by KristieMN. It was surprisingly easy and quick to make up, and I think it turned out so cute! Somer likes turtles and she’s had a rough month or two so I thought I’d surprise her and send a tiny turtle her way to say hello. Don’t tell her yet, though… he’s so cute I haven’t mailed him off just yet hehe. I think my favourite part is his wee little tail poking out. And you probably noticed mine doesn’t have a striped shell. Well, crochet is fairly new for me and the idea of switching yarn so often on such a small item kinda intimidated me since I’m not really all that familiar with how changing yarn colour works. Instead I crocheted the entire shell one colour. I’m still on the hunt for safety eyes (Who seem to be hiding from me at Michaels.) so I cut small round eyes out of black felt and hand stitched them on with thread afterwards. He’s a cutie!

I’ve been rather busy this week and doing a little crochet in my spare time (I started on a crochet blanket last night… BIG endeavor for a newbie!) but I’ll have a digital scrapping freebie, Part 2 of 2 of the “Healthy Balance” mini kit, for you on Friday. I’ve also got a few other digi scrap items in the works, they’re just not finished and ready yet. Soon! Hope you have a great week :)

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