Emily Jones

Easy Leprechaun Craft

This morning has been stressful.

Jim had to work today, and that leaves three stir-crazy kiddos with me all day with nothing to do.

I asked the kids if they wanted to maybe do a craft and Joey said: "Can we do a Leprechaun craft?!" 

I thought for a minute and said, "Hang on, I'll see what I can come up with."  So I went to my little Cloffice pulled out some supplies and in about five minutes had a craft for the kids.  I am super proud of myself because I am not an on the fly kind of thinker, so yay me!

I don't know about you, but the worst part about making crafts with the kids is the prep time.  Cutting and tracing and measuring, it just sucks the fun out of it, at least for me.  So let me tell you with great happiness that this little craft takes around  two minutes to prep.

 

Here is my little Leprechaun creation, isn't he cute?!

Here are the materials you will need: 

A square punch

A large circle punch

A larger scalloped circle punch

A heart punch

Cardstock

And scissors or a trimmer, and glue.

You will need to punch: 

Two large circles of the green (my green cardstock was double sided dark and light green, so you may want to grab two different colors of green, but all one color is fine too!)

One large scalloped circle of orange

One large circle of peach

One green square

Two green hearts. 

Then you will cut a small strip of black cardstock for the belt and a small square of yellow for the buckle.

Your supplies should look like this:

You can use white cardstock or construction paper for the base of your project.

 

Using Elmer's glue or a glue stick, adhere the peach circle to the orange scalloped beard, set aside.

Glue your large green circle (the belly) to your paper base, leaving room at the top of your paper for the head and hat.

Next, glue your head to the body, overlapping the two circles just a bit.

Next you will glue your black belt to your Leprechaun's belly.

Then add the buckle.

Use the other green circle, cut it in half, and adhere one half to the top of the leprechaun's head, overlapping just a bit again.

Next, use your green square and place it flush against the half circle.

Grab your two green hearts, dab a bit of glue on the backside of one, and place it over the top of the other, creating a four leaf clover.

Add some glue to the back of your clover and adhere to the leprechauns hat.

Once he is all put together, you can use a black pen to add a face, or legs and arms, and that's it!  Easy peasy! 

Joey made his say "Yay!"  And told me that this craft was "Sooo much fun!"  So there ya go.  A craft that is pleasing to a Second grader, Kindergartner, and a three year old!  Woohoo!

Clean up was a breeze, there was virtually no mess! 

Now on to the other things on today's agenda....LAUNDRY.  (BOO!)

XOXO,

Em

Kitchen Redo For $22.50

Hey all,

So today I thought I'd share with you a fun project that I finished up the other day.

As you can guess by the title of this post, I redid our kitchen for under $23!. 

Now, I am so terrible at taking before shots, and I of course forgot, so here is the closest thing I have to a before..this was taken in April, you might remember it from my Week In The Life series I did.

As you can see, the kitchen was a sea of boring Oak cabinets, no personality whatsoever.  No color.  BOO!  But at least you can enjoy the pic of my super hunky hubby! <3

So here is the AFTER:

When you are on a tight budget but you want to give your kitchen a lift, it can be challenging for sure.  A coat of new paint in a fun color is one of the easiest ways, but is not always practical.

The next best thing, in my opinion, is a great piece of art.  And it doesn't have to be expensive either.  See that guy behind the stove?  I painted that.  I had the canvas in my garage, and the paints I always have on hand...so I grabbed some paint colors that I wanted to bring out in the kitchen and got to work.  It took about 2 hours to paint from start to finish, but I'm very pleased with the end result. :)  It was literally a no cost painting.

Oh, and if you are worrying about the canvas being damaged by stray grease or food splatters..don't!  I sprayed a double coat of clear matte finish over the whole thing, so it can be easily wiped clean!

The canisters on the counter were also no cost.  Remember a couple weeks ago when Jim made me a Cloffice in our bedroom? When I used to scrapbook in the garage, I had all my ribbons sorted by color in the canisters, but alas, there was no room in the cloffice for them.  So they were re-purposed into flour, sugar, and brown sugar jars.  And the tall one with beans was previously just hanging out on our expedit in the dining room.

The rug on the floor is more of a soft mat, and I found it at Target.  It was only $9.99!  The brightly colored dish towels were also at Target.  I got the blue ones for $2.99 and a pack of two striped orange and and one solid orange for $3.99.  What a steal!

A few months ago I was inspired  by this post on Apartment Therapy.  I loved how this smart girl thought to remove the fronts of her cabinets to reveal her cute Fiesta Ware.  What I loved was the fun look of the paper she put in the backs of the shelves, but I was a bit turned off at how busy it looked with every door gone.

After prodding Jim multiple times and making him look at the post, he finally relented and took the doors to the cabinets above the microwave off.  Once they were off it made a HUGE difference in the overall feel of the space.  It took us two days to agree on which papers we wanted in the shelves.  As a scrapbooker, the sheer volume of paper I have is pretty staggering, so we had a lot to choose from.  We both immediately loved the blue, but it took a little convincing to get Jim to like the funkadelic paisley print.  I actually put it in the shelves temporarily for a day and we looked at it and decided it worked.

Once the papers were up, we chose what to display.  One of our Christmas gifts to ourselves was a new set of dishes.  We originally found the 10 piece set of small colorful plates at the Goodwill back in November, and then we decided on the off-white bowls and plates as accents.  The colors of the plates work well with the papers we chose.  Also displayed are my china plates and our Princess House collection of Fantasia Ware.

And I couldn't resist putting my little Gnome in there too.  He is special to me because my super talented Grandma Rose carved him for me.  She is a brilliant wood carver and she has made tons of little guys like these for the 21 grandchildren.  I also have a Santa she made me too. <3

This was Jim's idea...instead of putting an ugly bottle of dish soap on the counter, we used an old syrup jar with a wine cork...much cuter. ;)

Here's a shot from the dining room.  I love this table cloth, not only because it's cute...but I'll tell ya a little secret...it is actually a fabric shower curtain from the Target clearance section, and it was $2.48!  Can't beat that!

So there you have it, a new kitchen for minimal cost but optimal effect! 

Below I broke down the cost, just so you can see how cheap it really was,

 

Total Cost Breakdown:

Canvas and Paint: $0 (already on hand)

Canisters $0 (already on hand)

Paper $0 (already on hand)

Dish Towels $10

Floor Mat $10

Clearance Shower Curtain $2.50

TOTAL COST: $22.50

 

I truly believe in shopping around your home first before buying any new pieces.  I tend to collect little things here and there around the house and when I'm putting together a new space, I'll pull things from other rooms.  It helps with cost but the important thing is to give the pieces you love a home to display them in!

If you've done any new decorating projects lately, leave me a link in the comments, I'd love to check it out!

XOXO,

Em

December Ramblings

It's definitely starting to feel like Christmas!

We've had our tree up since the second of December, and the lights too, but I'm getting so excited now that Christmas is only a few days away!

We finsihed up our shopping yesterday afternoon, and I cannot wait for the kids to open their gifts.  Also, remember that guitar that Jake asked Santa for?  I'm pretty sure Santa is briging Jake his very own Toy Story guitar. 

Just like every year Joey is getting a TON of books, which I'm sure he'll have read by January 1st.  ;)  That boy is such a voracious reader.  He is getting a ton of Goosebumps books, Diary of A Wimpy Kid 4, 5, and the Do-It-Yourself Journal, Animorphs, various Science related books, and my favorite?  The Baby Sitter's Club Mysteries.  Yep, you read that right.  My boy likes the Baby Sitters Club!  Just don't tell his friends. hehehe.  I am so excited that he enjoys those books, as they were my absolute favorites as a kid.  I had the whole series, including the mysteries and super specials, and I wanted to be Stacy.  So, I am pretty stoked that Joey likes them, though he tells me he likes the mystery ones because I think that makes him feel better about liking such an overtly girlish series. ;)

The present I am most excited about this year?  My novel.  It is a Middle Grade (meaning for middle grade elementary kids) fantasy.  The best part is that Joey is the protagonist in the book, and I wrote it for him.  I finished editing it a couple weeks ago and ordered it through lulu.com, and I got notice yesterday that it should be here sometime this week.  I cannot wait to give it to him.  He has NO idea that I did this. 

Anyway, I thought I'd share some pics from around the house and what we've been up to the last 21 days of December.  I am participating in Ali Edwards' December Daily project, but I'm waiting to put the album together until after the Holidays because I am getting the photos printed and shipped next week.  So here is a bit of our December:

 

My vintage glass bulb lights, LOVE them!

My Christmas Village.

Stockings were hung by the (pictures) with care.

Tis the season for Christmas themed homework!

Our pretty wreath.

The tree has been trimmed. (And re-trimmed by little fingers that like to move ornaments around.) ;)

Taking pictures of ornaments that mean something to me.  This particular one was given to me by my Grandmother when I was a young teen.

Baking and decorating sugar cookies.

Hanging the ornaments on our advent tree.

Tearing off links on our Christmas Countdown chain.

Just a few short days until Christmas!  Unfortunately Joey is having an MRI tomorrow, (more on that later) so I am looking forward to tomorrow being over quickly, and then beginning the joyous festivities. 

Christmas is and will always be my favorite time of the year.

XO,

Em

A Space To Call My Own

Living in a small house, the one thing that constantly goes through your mind is: "Where can I put it?"  It doesn't matter what "IT" is, you are usually hard pressed to find space.

As a scrapbooker, the sheer quantity of supplies I have acquired over the past ten years is staggering.  Jim has always been very supportive of my hobby and in every house that we have lived in, he has helped make sure that I have a place to call my own.  When we moved in, he very graciously let me have the garage, and let me tell you.  I took the garage.  The whole garage.  Jim is a carpenter, and he comes with many many tools and he needs space too, but he let me have the garage.  Such a nice boy. ;)

And it has worked, sort of.

In the summer I would come out to the garage and scrapbook to my hearts content because it often stayed very cool in the heat and it was a nice get away.  But I always felt bad about being segregated from the family.  And then we had an unusually cold fall, and it became freezing in the garage. And I started dragging my stuff into the house to scrap at the dining table.  Which presented a whole slew of new problems, like "Oh, where are we going to eat dinner?"

So the other day I saw this and this at Apartment Therapy and the wheels began turning.

I casually mentioned to Jim that turning a closet into an office was a very cool idea. 

And he got to work.  True to his craft, he wanted to build me something beautiful and polished and stained beautifully, and I just laughed.  I told him, "Babe, I'm going to be painting and sewing and glimmer misting and it's going to get ruined.  I just need something functional."  He saw that I was right (as per usual ;)) And he went out to Home Depot and bought some wood.

This is what the closet looked like before: (Now, I took this picture after we had started pulling stuff out, so just so you know, my closet is actually always very organized. ;) )

Before:

 

Jim cut a desk that spanned the entire length of the closet and added an extra shelf under the pre-existing shelves, and voila!  An office! 

 

After:

You can see that he put up a pegboard and a cork board inside so I can pin up inspiration, and hang up tools and embellishments.

 

I've got all my wood stamps and acrylic stamps on this shelf, to the right of the picture below is a basket of loose acrylic stamps and all the acrylic stamp sets.

I consolidated my button, flowers, and thread and opted for a more compact storage solution..they aren't separated by color anymore, but it's no biggie, at least it all fits!

 

These little jars were Jim's that he gave to me, they are magnet topped and attach to the metal strip.  I've got beads, brads etc.. in them.

This is a pic looking up while sitting at the desk.  You can see I have a lot packed in here!

Under the desk I have a white rolling cart to the right side, it houses ribbon, extra tools and punches.

Under the desk to the left, I've got my Fat Max.  I keep all kinds of stuff in here.  This is the best thing I ever bought for scrapbooking, true story.  It holds so much product and tools and it is so easy to travel with.  I use it all the time.  I got it at Costco a couple months back when it was on sale for $39.99, such a great deal!

 

Oh, and if you're wondering where all the clothes went...we went through all of them and scrutinized what we actually wear and still like and we gave a lot to the Goodwill, and then the remainder went folded into "Under the Bed Boxes" and into the dresser.

So there you have it!  I now have a space to call my own, and I don't have to freeze my batootie off just to scrapbook! I still have some stuff to find room for and I'm planning a big purge soon, but most of all the important stuff is in here!

Jim says he is very excited about the prospect of hanging out and watching movies while I work, this way we're not banished to two different spots in the house when I work!

He's the best husband ever. <3

Best Christmas present ever.

XO

Em

first post of the new year...

Happy 2010!

I finally feel like I'm recovering from all the craziness that went on over here during the Holidays!

I realize I have slipped in my resolve to blog more, so I'm sorry, (you know, to the 3 people that read my blog...hi mom.)

I feel like I haven't scrapped in forever (and up until 2 days ago, it had been a LONG time), and to be honest, it feels so good.  I have pretty much decided that I need to fall in love with this hobby again, to scrapbook for me, to make things that I like, because I like them.  

One of my Christmas gifts this year was the book 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges by Elizabeth Kartchner. 

I am HUGE fan of hers, her creativity and her outlook on life, and I have been looking forward to this book for a long time..and let me tell you...I was NOT disappointed!  The book is chock full of inspiration, I literally spent 2 hours reading it cover to cover devouring its contents, soaking in all the amazing talent.

So anyway, I decided I wanted to work through the book, challenge by challenge, just for fun..for myself.  That's my scrapbooking goal for the year...to have 52 completed amazing pages that I love. :-)

Here are my first two pages so far.

The first challenge was to take inspiration from an outfit Liz was wearing in the book...I would show it to you, but I don't know all the copyright rules, so I just tell you I took inspiration from some swirls in her yellow sweater and dark jeans and her gray shirt and pink lipstick..and voila!  Here is my page..

Happy Go Lucky

And here is my second layout, the challenge was to use a multimedia image and I chose to use the Harry P font from dafont.com to do a layout about Joey's obsession with Harry Potter.

Harry Potter Obsession:

I especially love this one because Joey loves it.  He was so happy that I made this for his album and kept asking to see it.  :-)  I don't often use type on my layouts other than journaling strips, but this was fun and something I'll try again soon!

Anyway, Lily is waking up from her nap and I have two bathrooms to go clean...so I will post more later..I have a couple stories to share.

Hugs,

Em

what do you think?

I changed it up a bit, added my fave happy yellow color....does it look boring? 

Be back in a bit with a longer post...also...how cute were the Emmy's last night?  NPH did an awesome job hosting, I <3 him so much!

and just for fun, here's a layout I never posted...this one I did a while back, probably in may??

journaling:

Jake, you love to take photos!  You steal mommy's camera whenever you can and I find your pictures on my memory card when I upload to my computer!  Sometimes you ask mommy to pose for you, and if I don't say cheese, you say "Mommmm!  You fo'got to say chhhhhhheeeeeeeeseee!"  I love that you are interested in photography!  My hope for you is that you will find a hobby that you love and stick with it into adulthood, it's so important to have a creative outlet!

If you get a chance, take a peek on Page 48. of Scrapbook Trends September 2009 issue!  My layout is in there!!!

Happy Monday!

-E

My Little Shoebox CHA Projects!

Hey Guys!

CHA is upon us again, and My Little Shoebox has some seriously cute stuff for you to see!  I got a chance to work with the line "Robot's Unplugged" here is what it looks like:

Here's what I made!

My 3 Little Nuts:

A layout about my feelings and anxiety about having three kiddos...

4th Of July Kisses!

Love how this line is totally perfect for Fourth of July layouts too!

Hi! card

Oh The Places We Go:
places we love to visit in '09

This mini was so fun to make!  I used the dividers to showcase the different places we visit, and inside each envelope is a little poem I wrote about each special place...

Check out the My Little Shoebox blog for other projects with the new lines!

-Em

i <3 Cosmo!

So, Cosmo Cricket (one of my favoritest manufacturers ever!) is having a DT call, and I thought I'd give it a shot!  We are supposed to show our projects on our blog, so here are some of my favorite Cosmo Cricket projects!

The Jones Family 1st Annual Memorial Day Camping Trip!
(AkA, the longest title for a mini ever! LOL!)

I used the Mr. Campy and Snorkel lines on this one!  Don't you love how they coordinated so well together even though they are two completely different lines?!

I used stickles to create the stars on this one...

Goofy In Goggles

I made this layout using the Snorkel line!  Isn't it perfect for this picture of Joey with his new swimming goggles?!

Lily Banner

Here is a super fun banner I made for Lily's room!  I'm thinking I'm either going to hang it above her dresser or above her changing table...isn't the Girl Friday perfect for a baby girls' room?!

If you look closely, you can see that the bloom of the flower is actually made up of a bunch of tiny butterfly punches! 

Meeting Auntie Sarah

This layout is all Girl Friday!  I love this line with it's whimsical butterflies and polka dots!  SO cute!

For added dimension, I stickled the title!

Play Time

This layout is also all Girl Friday, but I wanted to show how easy it is to turn it into a boy layout!  By using all the non-pink papers in the line, I was able to scrap these pics of baby Jake without it looking too feminine...

Hello?

This one features some of the Girl Friday line!

Little Swimmer

This one features more Snorkel, I just love this line!

Play

This layout is pretty much all Get Happy from Cosmo, I swear I used this one so many layouts last year and I'm still holding onto the scraps!

Girly Girl

Love love love the soft and sweet colors in Girl Friday and even though I didn't have the chipboard set for the line, I was still able to create a title by cutting out the letters from the patterned paper!

Yum!

This one is also Get Happy, love these newsprint letters, they are so fun to ink and play with!  I used a black ink first and then outlined them with yellow marker, then pop dotted them to pop off the page.

A Typical Joey Look

Cogsmo is still one of my favorite lines ever!  I love robots and the colors and characters here are adorable! I love how easy it is to cut out the cogs and by pop dotting them, they actually look like they could start turning any minute!

Hi Card

This is a fun little card and envelope set featuring the Get Happy line...such a fun and easy way to use up your scraps!

Bus Rider

This layout is so fun!  I used mostly the Snorkel line, but the background paper is from the Jack's World collection...I also used some of the blackboard shapes and used watercolor pencils to color the stop sign...watercolor pencils actually work wonderfully on the blackboard!

Happy Campers

This layout is all Mr. Campy...I think this is probably my most favorite paper collection ever!  The s'mores totally melt my heart! (No pun intended! ;-)

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

This little mini is actually a little photo album that I altered...I think I got it at Michaels for $1.99 on sale, and I just fell in love with the bright yellow color!  I cut out the Popsicle from the Snorkel paper and decided this would be a fun little summer keepsake for Joey to show his friends when he goes back to school in the fall!

 

So there you have it!  My latest and greatest Cosmo projects!  Cross your fingers for me!  I love Cosmo Cricket and would be HONORED to have a spot on their team!  I tried out last year, but didn't make it, so here's hoping for 2nd chances!!!

I'm off to scrapbook some more!  I'm on a roll this week!

Hugs!

-Em

Congrats Are In Order!

To my sweet friend Michelle!!!!!!!!

She made it onto the My Little Shoebox Design Team!!!

There were over 400 submissions, I am just so proud  and excited for her!!!!!!!!!!  She will do an amazing job on the team, and  it's going to be so fun working with her..we can work on our monthly DT work together!

Here is what was posted on the My Little Shoebox Blog this morning!  Check out the other talented ladies who made the team!  Such Talent!  Congrats GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!

Meet our new team members!!

Hi there everyone!!! I would like to thank everyone for their beautiful submissions! Let me tell you, it was the hardest thing for me to do. I never expected 400 submissions!!!
Please help me welcome our wonderful new team members that will be working with the lovely Gretchen McElveen, Erin Yamabe, Danielle Holsapple, Emily Jones, Norma Kennedy, Jana Eubank, Molly Peckham, Michelle Lanning, Pattie Beltran, and Tanisha Long....

Robyn Weatherspoon

Melanie Stanczyk

 

Heidi Sonboul

Pamela Young

Michelle Magana

 

Bethany Kartchner

 

and our correspondents at the MLS newsdesk (they will be making fun videos)

Heather Brown

Erin Payne

My Little Shoebox May Projects!

Hey there!

Thought I'd share my MLS projects for May....this month we were lucky enough to partner with Hambly Studios and use some of their products in conjunction with our MLS product!  I LOVE Hambly, so this was extra fun for me!

Also, this month at My Little Shoebox, we are focusing on showing different techniques with our transparencies and chipboard, so I have added those techniques in my descriptions.  You can find the rest of the MLS DT's techniques and projects here starting May 1st!

Playing Ponies

Journaling:

This was the best $2.99 I ever spent!  I found this My Little Pony house at the goodwill and you fell in love!  You now have4 ponies and love to bounce them around their house!

Technique: I used a nail file on the chipboard letters to create a cross-hatched pattern.

Love Birds

Journaling:

We are totally snuggly lovebirds!  Even after all these years, you still make me weak in the knees!  I am so lucky to have  found you and made a life with you.  I love our beautiful family and I love you! April 2009

Happy Lily

Journaling:

You are always smiling!

Technique: One of my favorite things to do with chipboard titles is to layer the letter for extra depth.  I also ran out of the letter "P" and used letter "a" turned upside down with the tails cut off!

Another technique here is creating personalized embellishments with the transparencies.  I used the "Who's There" flowers and stickled them so they popped right off the page! 

Beach Baby (MLS and Hambly)

J0urnaling:

Lily, I think your fave part of our beach vacation was sitting on the beach in your baby bikini!  Although I don't think you liked the sand too much after you figured out what it tasted like!

Expecting You (MLS and Hambly)

I used my square punch to punch out the MLS patterned paper and the Hambly Overlays!  I didn't know if you could punch through an overlay, but surprise! You can!  I then stitched the squares with my sewing machine and embellished!

Budding Artist (MLS and Hambly)

Journaling:

Lily you loved painting at the Children's Museum!  You were very excited to try it by yourself, and even though you got it EVERYWHERE it was great fun!  You painted such a pretty picture!

I created this paintbrush my free hand drawing the base and stem and used a die cut heart turned upside down for the brush!  I then flicked pink paint on the top and bottom of the overlay for added texture.

Congrats Card (MLS and Hambly)

So there they are!

Also, if you get a chance stop on over to Bella Blvd, where I am featured!

And oh yeah.....It's my birthday! ;-) Happy 25 to me!

-Em