Have a great day!
tammy

and the back…

or you can do it without the boom box handle… 

A funny side note…when I asked Andy if he knew what a stereo was he said  “nope.”  Feeling a little dated here!!   Anyways, he loved them and thinks they are totally fun…even if he does have to explain to all the kids what a stereo is. lol!! 

Would you like to create these yourself?  Here’s what you’ll need:

-large (movie theater box size) box of sweetarts  (Walmart or the Dollar Store are the cheapest I’ve found)

2 small boxes of lemonheads or similar

2 large chocolate coins

2 medium chocolate coins (you can find all these coins in bags at party city in their candy section)

1 small box of nerds

2 rolos

if you want to create the handle you’ll need about 6″ of ribbon.  Tie a knot at each end and then glue the handles at the knots to the top of your stereo. 

You’ll also need this free printable message for the back of your stereo.    You know I love you guys!!   Cut them to about 3.5x 5.5 size.

Download your free copy here:

Free Stereo Valentine Printable

And…if you’re in the mood to listen to the song, here you go! 

 have a great day!
tammy

You can download it here:

If you need the frosted pillow boxes to create these valentines I am now offering a limited number of them here in quantities of 10 I will be receiving my shipment by mid-late next week and will ship them out to you as soon as they arrive in plenty of time to create your valentines.
BOXES ARE NOW SOLD OUT

Have a great day!
tammy

These were created using frosted pillow boxes (the 3.5×5 size), a little satin ribbon, a 1.5 inch circle punch, a 2 inch scallop punch and some goldfish crackers. you know, a little salty to cut through all the sweets these little ones will be getting.

To make them easier to create I will also provide a free download for the tag, how does that sound??   That means all you need to pick up is some fun ribbon,  and the fish!   If you wanted to do them as candy valentines they woud also be fun with swedish fish. 

i love love love the pink and orange combo, but to “boy” these up it would be really cute with a blue ribbon and tag too. blue and orange is always so striking!  I will make the free printables in an orange option and a pink option so you don’t even have to go the extra step of buying colored cardstock to put under your white tag if you’d like.    You will be able to just punch them out with a 3″ scallop or circle punch and ta-da!

You can find the free printable for these tags to download here:

o-fish-ally be mine tags

I hope you have  fun creating all these handmade valentines!  Place your order now so I don’t run out of boxes!! There is a limited supply. BOXES ARE NOW SOLD OUT

have a great day!
-t

I turned it in to a box of assorted homemade gift tags.  There are tags with ribbons, regular tags and some little cards with envelopes.  Also included are a date stamp (i think it’s fun to date cards so that if you save them you can remember when you received it) a small ink pad and a nice black pen.  What do you think???  Wouldn’t that make a great gift for a neighbor or friend??  All the tags they need for their gift wrapping this season?? 

I LOVE to wrap gifts and so a little handmade touch like this would really  jazz them up.  It was SO EASY!!!  What really made it so easy was the   “tis the season” line from  Teresa Collins that was in my stash at the time.  It is so cute.  The pre-made tags are all on ONE sheet of paper, you just cut them out.  The ribbon tags I made by just tracing a tag shape onto her cute papers (8×8 and 12×12 find them here) , the cards I just used her pre-made and already die-cut cards, and her cute stamp is on the front of the green card.    I LOVE it when it is so easy to make something so cute and fun looking.  I seriously just cut some stuff up and that was IT!!  There are so many cute christmas lines on the market right now, just head to your local scrapbook store and you can find something you love!  These cards measure about 3×2…I found the envelopes at a floral supply store 

 the contents minus the pen, ink pad and stamp……

Once everything was neatly tucked inside I slid the lid on, tied it up with some ribbon and added a handmade tag on the outside.

Now who wouldn’t want that???   So search the clearance aisles of your local stores and see what you can create!

Have a great day!!

-tammy

Your Paper Life: Tammy Mitchell Photography Episode

I was DEATHLY ill while filming and have NO voice…so sorry if I sound funny!!

Have a great day!
tammy

Whether you are a paper crafter, party planner, love to sew, take pictures, decorate, renovate, make jewlery…you name it, this channel is for you.  Web based TV programming is becoming the wave of the future and you can be one of the first to jump on board.  Debuting in September– coming live to a computer screen near you– are 20 new shows from your favorite bloggers and crafters teaching you how to do the things you love– think HGTV for crafters!  It is going to be awesome!!  I was honored to be asked to be a part of this exciting venture and had the chance to travel to Utah last week to film a photography show with the creators of mycraftchannel.com

Here’s a quick shot of Amy and me on set.  Amy is the creator of The Paperlife a great website and fun paper printables. 

I wish I had taken a minute to get a shot with the darling Kristine McKay president and founder of MyCraftChannel.com it was so fun to meet her.  You can check out her great website and designs here. 

I’ll be sure to let you know when the show premieres!

Have a great day!

tammy

The idea behind it is simple. Give the kids something fun to look forward to everyday…it can be something little that takes 5 minutes, or an all day activity. The key is to mix it up. But, the biggest excitement of all is that it’s kept a secret until the day of. They are left wondering each day what the next day’s activity will be. So far, so good in our house! The beauty of it for us moms is that it’s totally changeable if something comes up…because it’s a SECRET and a WHITE BOARD you can change activities to fit your schedule as unexpected things come up without the kids knowing anything about it! I’ve also devised a system to prevent arguments between kids as far as who gets to reveal the day’s activity. By making the squares with numbers you can assign odd/even days if you have two kids, and by making them different colors you can assign colors for more than two kids!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own:

Dry erase generic calendar (I got mine at walmart)

A dry erase marker

alphabet stickers

number stickers

8 sheets of cardstock (any colors you want)

I think the instructions are pretty clear just by looking at the picture. Just make a fun header and title for it…you can definitely customize the whole thing…it does NOT need to look just like mine that’s for sure! Add your activites under each day, stick your paper on with a piece of tape and wa-la!

Now…the important part…coming up with the activities. Like I said, some activities may take all day, some may take 5 minutes. The important part is just to give the kids something to look forward to and something that they know they are doing that day to hopefully prevent them from asking you all day!!

I divided my activities up into categories: in the kitchen, crafts, outings, and fun around the neighborhood. I also tried to keep things very inexpensive or free to help keep costs down. Here are some suggesstions to get you started:

make popsicles

get a slurpee

have a waterballoon toss

run through the sprinklers

tissue paper art

corn syrup painting

make ice cream

go to the pool

go to the library

make tin can phones

have a lemonade stand

beach

free movies at the park

dollar tuesdays at Baskin Robbins

silly string fight

bonfire and smores

bowling

sprinkler park

make a fort

have a picnic

movie night

play a game

water guns

make iron on shirts

that’s enough to get you through a whole month!! (I only did M-F since we often have other things going on on the weekends) The best part is you can repeat many of these things! Who doesn’t want to have a waterballoon toss or go to the pool more than once during the summer??? Hopefully this will help make your summer fun and easy and minimize the curse of summertime boredom!!
You can always throw in a few favorites that are a little more elaborate too, like one of my kids favorites…an afternoon at Chuck E Cheese!

I would love to hear fun ideas for things that you find in your community. Leave a comment with any suggestions you have here on this post so we can help each other come up with stuff!!

Have a great day!

-t

Here’s what you’ll need to recreate this layout:

12×12 green sheet of paper

8×8 mustard sheet of cardstock

7.5×7.5 Karen Foster bowling sheet of paper

3.5 x 12 sheet of red and white striped paper

1 4.5x 6.5 red cardstock photo mat

3 4×6 photos

Karen Foster Bowling Cardstock Stickers

Crate Paper Admit One Layered Chipboard sticker

3 yellow felt Stars

and here are the steps…

layer your papers…

add your pictures as shown…

embellish with stickers and felt…

and you’re done!

Have a great day!

-t

Here’s what you’ll need…

Tools:

Paper Trimmer, Scissors, and a Corner Rounder Punch (not a necessity)

If you want to ruffle your ribbon you will need a sewing machine and white thread, or a needle and thread.  You can also just lay it flat on the layout if you don’t want the trouble of ruffling it.

Papers and Embellishments:

October Afternoon: The Thrift Shop Near Mint Paper, Seaside Beach Chair Paper, Seaside Swim Trunks Paper, Thrift Shop Journal Cards

Crate Paper: School Spirit Layered Chipboard Stickers

1.5 yards of Tuqouise Ribbon

1 4×6 picture

Cuts to make:

Cut your Thrift Shop Near Mint Paper into an 8.5 x 11″ sheet

Cut your October afternoon Seaside Beach Chair Paper:  7.5 x 2.75″ piece of paper (round the corners on the left side if you like)  From the remaining 2.75 x 4.5 inch piece cut a 2.75 x 3.25″ piece to mimic a journaling card.  You’re going to use the red striped side on that piece.  Round all the corners if you like.

Cut two banners from the October Afternoon Seaside Seashells Paper

Punch out two journaling cards…the blue polka dot, and the take note card

To Assemble:

place all papers/journaling card on the background as shown in the picture:

Add your picture (if you are rounding the corners of your papers, round the corners of your picture as well) and then your banners.  To add the banners simply lay them on  your layout in a manner that you like then cut them to size to fit your paper.

Add your journaling card and arrow sticker and apple sticker as shown…

Finally, the ribbon.  Whether you’re using a machine or doing this by hand, simply run a straight long loose stitch through the center of the ribbon all the way down.  Don’t tie or back stitch anywhere.  Once you get to the end, leave yourself plenty of extra thread before you cut.  You will need to pull on this thread to gather the stitch.  Once you have cut the thread, gently pull or hold one end of the thread while you scrunch the ribbon down along the stitch. You will just have to work at it to get the look you want.  Make sure that you are keeping it at least 8.5″ long since it will run the length of your layout.  Once you gather it as much as you want, attach it to your layout and cut off any excess.

I hope you enjoy this layout!  I’d love to see your version of it!

Also, don’t forget I would love to feature you and any great scrapbooking or crafting tutorials that you may have created.  Check out the submissions page to see what to do so we can share your ideas!!

Have a great day!
-t