Design School at Two Peas

Hi!

Have you been enjoying the Design School classes at Two Peas in a Bucket? Did you know about Design School? Well, it's not too late to join in!

"For three weeks beginning August 22nd, "design school" at Two Peas is in session. We will be exploring principles and elements of design that will help push our projects from "Good" to "Even better!" Ready to learn? We promise the homework is much more fun than algebra! Each week we will explore 2 principles of design with tips from the experts - our team of Garden Girls and special guests! See how a wide range of styles can use the same principles and give amazing and differing results! Look for printable design cheat sheets, videos, color combos, sketches and challenges!"

Sounds great, huh? And guess what? It's free!

This week the design principles being discussed are Emphasis and Repetition and I was asked to create a page.

I used the striped patterned paper below the photograph and then again in the banners at the top of the page. I also used these darling little bird stickers, and added hand stitching throughout the page. This repetition of paper, accents and stitching, give my page a sense of unity.

Do you recognize this colorful and fun line of papers? They are from Echo Park's 'Country Drive' collection. Oh how I loved playing with these accents and pretty papers!

Isn't this little bird tweet? I stitched around his wing to make it stand out a little more. And those

fabulous corrugated alphas on the photo below are from Jillibean Soup.

The picture I used is a favorite from our summer photo shoot with Patricia Kumfer. Isn't she terrific! I always hate my own pictures, but Patty changed that! ;)

I hope I've inspired you to check out Design School at Two Peas! Have a fabulous day! :) Kathy

I Love Pinterest

Hi!

Oh how I love Pinterest, let me count the ways...

I love Pinterest for the e-bulletin boards I can create and share with all my favorite crafts, recipes, vintage goods, decorating, etc. This amazing scrapbook page was created by Michiya Nobeno, design Team Member at October Afternoon.

I love Pinterest for the yummy recipes! This Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Lemon Pasta from Smitten Kitchen is what I'm cooking for dinner tonight.

I love Pinterest for the endless supply of sinful desert photos and recipes! Oh how these Peanut Butter Cupcake Brownies from Baked Perfection make me drool!

I love Pinterest for the all the holiday decor and project ideas! I haven't seen such a clever and easy pumpkin carving idea since the little pumpkin that barfs its seeds into the toilet! This cool creation is from Neatorama!

I love Pinterest for the vintage decorating ideas! Love the use of this old ladder as a shelf...a unique display from Mia's Interior!

I love Pinterest for the quotes, some that make me laugh and others that eloquently express exactly how I feel about something.

Thank you Pinterest!

Thin Die Storage

Hi!

How has your weekend been? I can't believe it's almost over already! I got a headache Friday morning that continued to get worse as the day went on and didn't let up until Saturday evening. Today I've been busy getting stuff done so it seems that the weekend has just raced by me!

Well, in my headache induced state I didn't feel too creative so I did a bit of organizing and thought you might be interested in my latest storage idea for thin metal dies. I've been buying a number of those adorable little things from places like Papertrey Ink and My Favorite Things and storing them in a plastic craft drawer. But now that my collection has reached a nice size, I usually have to take every die out of the drawer before I find the one I want!

Recently, while on a vintage treasure hunt, I found this great wood card catalog box that turned out to be the perfect solution for my dies!

A2 size envelopes fit in this box perfectly and I have plenty of them on hand since I make cards! I also have a lot of plain white card stock...lots of bits and pieces in my scraps bin that I used to make a sample die for the front of each envelope.

I have the dies organized by similar type, flowers all together. At some point I can add dividers if I find it necessary.

Ah...how much easier it is than looking for a die lost in this mess! :) By-the-way, if I hadn't found that lovely card catalog box, I could have used a small plastic Sterilite container from Target.

Well, I hope your weekend was way more fun than mine was! I'm happy to be headache free now and have a lot of things to catch up on. I want to get into the kitchen and try some new recipes. I need to bake a sweet for the boys. Have a great week. I'll be popping onto the blog to share some more crafty goodness with you soon! :) Kathy

Fourth Grade & Dance

Hi!

It's Friday! So what are your plans for the weekend? I was thinking about taking a run to the flea market tomorrow morning, but with a hurricane heading our way, I doubt anyone will be setting up shop!

Well, today I've got a couple paper craft projects to share with you. This first is a scrapbook page of my little guy from last year. He was sitting down to his first day of school homework when I snapped a couple photos. He either ducks and hides from the camera or he makes funny faces!

This  is one of my hybrid projects using a brand new Two Peas in a Bucket digital kit called 'School Day' by Polka Dot Pixels. Look at the goodies packed in this kit! I LOVE the patterned papers!

And I think these stencil alphas that I used for my title are awesome! After I printed them, I cut the letter part out with an Xacto knife and then stitched around the edges.

There are so many fun accents...the report card, A+ circle and twill ribbon!

I added a plastic pencil and sheet of binder paper, a couple die cuts and stitching. That's it! Super fun page to create!

My second project is a hybrid card.

This card was made with digital stickers called 'Bunny Ballerina' by Holly Brooke Jones.

 Holly's the queen of cute! Love this rabbit, she's tutu cute! ;)

 The phrase 'dance' is included in the kit and I used it as a pattern for stitching. The papers were from my stash, one is from Basic Grey's Kioshi line and the striped paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Odds and Ends collection.

So, keeping dry will be a challenge this weekend with hurricane Irene coming! I need to run to the grocery store so hopefully there will be a dry window of opportunity at some point in the day! Wow, we had a rare earthquake Tuesday, and a hurricane coming tomorrow...all in one week! Mother Nature certainly is busy!

Sew Cute Pencil Bucket

Hello!

Tomorrow is Christopher's first day of fifth grade and he's pretty nervous! And I'm envious of you moms who have children that are excited and can't wait to go back to school! I'd even take the child who is not ready to go, but willing! For a child with autism, change is very difficult and this past week has been hard on Christopher. For me and his dad too, who are dealing with tantrums everyday. So...I'm really looking forward to when he settles in and starts to feel comfortable with his teachers and new schedule! Soon! Deep breaths! Craft! Repeat! :)

Today I have an altered project to share. I haven't done one in a few blue moons!

This little colorful bucket is for the craft room, to hold pencils, scissors, etc. I used the Nifty Notions line from Doodlebug Designs...perfect for this project!

This pinwheel was a breeze to put together with a cool new die I got from My Favorite Things! And it actually works! Oh how I love this die!!! :) Too fun!

I also can't get enough of the Doodlebug Boutique Brads! They are the cutest brads available!!!! Look at the little scissors on my bow!!! Cute, huh?!?!

Oh, before I go, I have to tell you about an EASY recipe I made last night for dinner. It was so easy that I read the recipe several times because I was sure that I was missing something!

This is Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Peas and it's so delicious! I found it on Pinterest! I've found so many great recipes and food blogs on Pinterest, this one from Closet Cooking. Give it a try...you will not believe how simple and flavorful!

Have a super day! :)

Pumpkins

Hello!

Hope your week started out on the right foot! :)

If you read my last post, I mentioned that all the autumn and Halloween projects I'm seeing lately are making me want to create something for fall too!

So...I whipped up this card. This summer my very talented friend Amy Heller has been challenging her blog readers to use their scraps and I've been playing along since I have a ton! The papers on this card are actually scraps of scraps! I dug them out for my last scrapbook page and now I'm using them again for this card!

It's also been a while since I practiced with my Copic markers so I colored this adorable Papertrey Ink stamp from the Friendship Jar Fall Fillers stamp set.

I used some of my favorite die cuts and some vintage mother of pearl buttons for accents.

This banner die cut from Papertrey Ink gets a lot of use!

In between each layer, I added a piece of chipboard for texture...love texture!

Along with this card, I also whipped up a batch of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies.

I made my man happy with these! I always want to experiment with some new sinful dessert, while he just wants some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies that remind him of childhood! These babies turned out just the way he likes them...a little crunchy on the outside while remaining rich and gooey on the inside! And they're huge too...about 4"!

I can't wait until one of the big computer companies invents a way for us to share goodies on-line! That way you could try one of my cookies! Wouldn't that be awesome? And while they're figuring out how to do that, if they could make them zero calories too....wouldn't that be a slice of heaven?!?!

Thanks for stopping by! :) Kathy

Supplies:

Patterned Paper:  The Girls' Paperie

Yellow Card Stock:  Bazzill Basics

Gray Card Stock:  Doodlebug Designs

White Card Stock:  Neenah Paper

Rubber Stamps:  Papertrey Ink

Banner Die Cut:  Papertrey Ink

Rectagle Die Cut:  Spellbinders

Corner Rouder:  EK Success

Thread:  Coats & Clark

Markers:  Copic

Raffia:  Craft Supply Store

Vintage Mother of Pearl Buttons:  Stash

A Day in the Sun & Recipe

Hello!

Hope you've had a terrific weekend! Along with some cooking and cleaning I was able to finish up a scrapbook page with one of our vacation photos!

What else did you expect from a stitching obsessed scrapbooker? ;)

I created this stitchy goodness by outlining a Silhouette die cut. If you would like to see more detail, just click on the photo(s).

This scrapbook page features my boys, taking a load of at the boardwalk, Carolina Beach.

I used a Spellbinders circle die to make my sun and journaling spot. The badges are from American Crafts. And the blue ticket is from the Skee Ball machine Christopher played.

So, I mentioned that I did a little cooking today. Technically, I didn't cook at all since I made ice cream and a Cucumber Dill Salad.

This is the little ice cream machine I use, called Demi. Ours is older than this model since we've had it for about 10 years. I whip up a quart of ice cream in just 25 minutes. Best of all, the vanilla ice cream I make has milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. That's it! Nothing you can't pronounce! And you can create all kinds of flavors by adding fruit, chocolate and different extracts.

Here's the latest gadget to grace our kitchen, a Cuisnart Prep Plus food processor. It's amazing that I've gone so many years without one of these. You can do so many fabulous things besides chopping. I love to make our salad dressing and pesto. I want to start making hummus too. I used to use our blender to do some of these tasks, but so many times the ingredients sat below the blade in the nook where the glass container attaches to the machine.

So, to test the new food processor, I made this lovely, delicious Cucumber Dill Salad I found on Pinterest. The recipe calls for some feta cheese, but I omitted that since I'm cutting back on a few calories.....I ate everything but the kitchen sink while on vacation. :)

Hope you enjoyed my post! I'm off to make a card. I've been itching to do something for fall or Halloween. It's your fault you know! I've been seeing so many cute projects on your blog! I'll show off my creation in the next couple days. Have a great week! :)

Beach Photos

Hey!

We're back from the beach with a little more relaxed attitude, some great memories and pictures! Thought I'd pop in to share some of our photos with you.

Sunrise at Carolina Beach.

Gentle morning waves.

On the surface...lots of pretty little shells.

Enjoying the birds.

Beautiful sand dunes.

Catching some waves.

Now were getting ready for school to start next week, on Thursday. We'll be purchasing some class supplies and maybe a few clothes. Hopefully fifth grade, the last year of elementary school, will be a enjoyable for Christopher. :) Kathy

New Vintage Goodies

Hey!

I think it's awesome how many of my fellow scrapbook and blog buddies also love vintage goods and how I can talk about both on my blog and not bore too many visitors! ;)

I had the chance to go on a vintage treasure hunt and the Raleigh Flea Market last Saturday and picked up some fun goodies that I thought I'd show you.

I believe I mentioned that I found an old school desk for just $10? I did! I couldn't believe what a steal it was! I don't always get that lucky! As I always say, "You never know what you will find!"

Isn't this desk cool? I know this goes back before my elementary school days because we had a protective laminate type coating on our desks and this one doesn't. For now, I plan to just clean it up and display it in the house somewhere. At some point I may repaint the metal portion to get rid of the rust.

I also found the following items to list in my Etsy shop!

These soda crates will be listed for $20 a piece. I love that they are in great shape, still colorful and easy to read. The yellow box is stamped from Charleston, South Carolina, I believe from 1964. The red one is dated 1979 from Temple-Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Look at this unique treasure...a 1950's 'Bandages' apothecary jar from a doctor's office. Until someone snatches this up from my shop, I think I'll display it in our bathroom! This will list for $39 since these are hard to come by.

I love this old metal American Family Scale! The food images on it are so fun and it's in great shape! This one will list for $22.

How about a vintage wood coffee grinder? This one is from Germany and is very clean...the owner must have given up on grinding their own beans! ;) I'll list this piece for $25.

Here's the last one...a fun little cheese box with a leather strap attached. This box was made before Kraft and American split into two separate companies. It's in great shape and has a lovely patina. This little goody will list for $18.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a preview of the goodies that will be listed in my shop as soon as I can get them up. If you are interested in any of them or have a question, please leave a comment and I'll try to get back to you quickly. :) Kathy