Quick-n-Easy Collage Board

When I was a child there was nothing that got me more excited than to see paper, glue and scissors!
I knew that meant some crafty fun and what better way to create than to start with these three basic things.

That is the inspiration behind my post today for "Busy Bag", the latest edition of  the "Craft Lightning" series hosted by Angie from The Country Chic Cottage and Carolina from 30 Minute Crafts.
This edition is also co-hosted by guest blogger: Stacey with "Glued to My Crafts". (LOVE that blog name by the way!)

When I found out the topic of this version of Craft Lightning, I was a little stumped at first as my creative flow has been lacking lately because of other "stuff" going on in life...but then I remembered a draft post I started a couple of years ago, but never completed and I thought how perfect it would be for this series!

Since I babysit two of my Grandchildren, I often try to think of Crafty Fun to do with them and making collages was something I always loved, I thought it would be fun for the older Grandgirl at the time (Little B), who was 6.

I thought it would be nice to have her make something for her Momma to have at work to remind her of her girls during the day!

We started with a plain piece of cardboard and glued on some pretty tissue paper.

Then I had Little B tell me some things her Mommy liked and of course I knew of some things that my DIL liked and together we came up with ideas to include on the collage.

One thing she really likes is vintage pin-up girl pictures and I had just recently found this cool book full of pin-up photos at a yard sale. It had been partially damaged by water and I got it for practically free, so I felt like it was okay to salvage what pages were still good and not feel guilty about cutting-up the book!

We also printed out some instagram photos using my Zink printer which was really handy for this project!

The Starbucks logo and sweet little girl graphic were printed out from the internet using my Lexmark Printer.

My Granddaughter added some cute stickers and washi-tape accents and then we attached a pretty ribbon to the top for hanging.

I kept this project fairly simple so that it could be easily done by a 6 year old and be done quickly.

Even though the concept of a collage is nothing new...I think it's always timely and loved because of the thought and planning put into it. It says a lot about the person who made it and the person it is made for!

Me and my Granddaughter had so much fun making it too!
Made for some good memories for me and for her also I hope!



Here are the tools and supplies we used to make this project:

Tools/Supplies Used:

Pin-up Illustrations/Pages out of Book, "The Great American Pin-Up"
Zink Printer
Mini Personal Photos (printed on Zink Printer)
Printed Tissue Paper, Expressions from Hallmark, Lt. Purple design on White
Stickers, Tiny Crafts, Felt, Owls
Stickers, Puffy
Stickers, Me & My Big Ideas, Girly, Mambi Mini's, Words
Lexmark Printer (not shown in photo above)
Graphic of little Girl (Internet)
Logo/Graphic of Starbucks (Internet)
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Elmer's school glue stick
Stapler & Staples (to attach ribbon)
Scissors, Large Adult Size
Scissors, Kid-Safe (not shown in photo above)
Ribbon, Satin, Polka-Dot, Fuschia/Dk. Pink
Washi Tape, Tapefetti, Monster High

Be sure to stop by the other host blogs (click on graphic below) and see all the great Kid's Busy Projects you can do in 15 minutes or less!

Thanks for stopping in to visit my blog!

Carnival Dresses for My Grandgirls

Since DH bought me a new sewing machine, I’ve been trying to sew a lot more and recently I had the opportunity to actually make good on a Pinterest inspiration I told my DIL I would try to re-create for her girls (My Grandgirls, B & C!)

Sweet Little “C” had her first Birthday coming up and DIL “K” told me that she was doing a Vintage Carnival/Circus theme.

I was perusing Pinterest one late night…(Who am I kidding? I peruse Pinterest EVERY night…and day for that matter!) and I came across this adorable dress made by Ashley Hackshaw from Lil Blue Boo. 

(Note to Pinterest Users: This Photo is the property of Ashley Hackshaw at www.lilblueboo.com
 and is used here only for  reference purposes.
If you decide to "Pin" this photo,
please be sure to go to Ashley's blog and pin it from there:
 http://www.lilblueboo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/party-dress.jpg)

I knew “K” would love it, so I pinned it to my sewing board and tagged her in the pin so she’d see it.

She really fell in love with the dress, as did I, so I told her that I would try my best to re-create it, but that I was sure my sewing skills were not up to the level  of Ashley’s!

Fortunately, Ashley sells the pattern for the skirt portion of the dress and has a tutorial on how to add the tank top and underskirt to make the finished product.
(*Update: 4/18/18 - The pattern is now sold here on Ashley's Etsy Store.)

I purchased the pattern from Ashley and was lucky enough to find the vintage crazy eights cards on ETSY and purchased those also.

I had a hard time tracking down the adorable fabric she used though, so I e-mailed her and found out it was called “To the Zoo” and she had purchased it from a store in North Carolina, called Mary Jo’s.

I found their website and called them, as I did not find the fabric on their site.

They were kind enough to search for me and finally came up with 3-5/8 yards remnant. 

I was so relieved, as I had searched “High and Low” on the internet and in stores to find that fabric or something remotely similar to no avail.

Most of the carnival/circus fabric I found was brightly colored and “K” wanted the vintage look, with the more muted colors.

I pretty much tried to re-create the dress exactly as it was on the Lil Blue Boo blog, with the exception of adding Pom-Pom fringe to the bottom of the top skirts. 

The fabric I used for the underskirt was slightly different than what Ashley used, but it was a close as I could come to it. 

I found this fabric at: Hancock Fabrics

The plain white tank tops were purchased at Dharma Trading Co., but I know that WalMart usually carries a very similar tank top to this one also, because I bought one to make a “test” dress before I made the real thing. (That’s how paranoid I was that the dresses wouldn’t turn out!) (LOL!)

I scanned the crazy eight cards I needed for the shirts and then printed them out on SuperSoft Inkjet Transfer Paper from Dharma Trading Co. and applied them to the shirts following the included instructions. 

The day before the birthday party, I did a fitting on the girls, and here is a photo of “B” modeling her dress: 

At this point, the dress was pretty much done with the exception of the bow embellishments.

“B”s dress fit perfectly, but I had to take the shirt up a bit on “C”s as the tanks were long bodied and even though I trimmed them before sewing them to the skirt, Claire’s had to be trimmed a second time and re-sewn.

Here are the finished dresses:

The girls really loved them and so did “K”!

(“B” really liked that the skirt “twirled”!)

That made me happy and I learned a lot by tackling this project, because it was a bit out of my league, but I know the more I sew, the better I will get at it.

Here are some cute photos from the Birthday Party where the girls proudly displayed their new dresses from Gigi Lisa: 

So many thanks to Ashley at Lil Blue Boo for the awesome inspiration!

And…thanks to Pinterest, because without it, I may have never found Ashley and her really neat blog!

Go check it out if you get a chance, www.lilblueboo.com not only are her projects inspiring, SHE is one of the most inspiring persons I’ve ever seen and she will enlighten you and brighten your day for sure!

Just a quick note about the project: If you decide to try it, be sure to go to Ashley’s blog and follow her tutorial and pattern instructions carefully, as she has more detailed info on this project than I have and she was very patient with me when I had a few questions during the process of making these dresses.

I hope one day to be able to do detailed sewing tutorials of my own, but I am not quite there yet in expertise and Ashley is really good at it!

Take Care Crafty Friends and thank-you for joining me today!

P.S. I have linked-up this project to the following sites:

Free Pretty Things for You - Whatever-You-Want Wednesday #73
Sara Hamer Designs (Pink Cricut) - Link-up Tuesday
Crafty Texas Girls - Cowgirl Up! - Creative Link Party

Storybook Video for Granddaughter

As most of my loyal followers already know...I usually post about crafty stuff, but that usually includes some tidbits about my beautiful Grandbabies as well and since this blog is also about the "Grandma Life", I'd like to post a little bit about that today.

God has blessed me and Hubby with 5 beautiful Grandchildren and sadly, we don't get to see 3 of them very often because they live far away.

Because of this, I started thinking of ways that I could stay "in touch" with them more often, besides just a phone call or "Skype" call. (Not that these are not GREAT...I just wanted something more to let them know I am always thinking of them!)

So, awhile back, I started video recording myself reading stories to them, just as I would if they were right here with me!

At first it was a bit hard for me, because I do not like to have my picture taken and I REALLY don't like to see myself on video.

But, I realized that my Grandchildren love me just the way I am, flaws and all, so I just went with it!

At first I just sat in front of my webcam and read the stories and just did a simple video, but as I went along, I decided it would be fun to add music and titles and make it look a little more formal.

Recently I got one of those little "bloggie" type HD cams, (JVC Picsio) and I've been experimenting with it to see how it might work for some of my crafty blog videos.

I decided to try it out on one of my Storybook videos for my Granddaughter "J" and even though I wasn't thrilled with the lighting in the room, otherwise, the video turned out pretty good.

Check it out and let me know what you think:

The best part is...My DIL sent a picture of  "J" watching it with her Dog "Simon" and she looks so happy watching it, which just tickles me pink!

That is all that really matters...is that my Grandbabies are well and happy!!

If you are interested in seeing any of the other "Storybook" Videos I've recorded for my Grandbabies, just go to my YouTube Channel and you will find them all there!

Thank-you all for joining me, I love talkin' about my babies!

XOXO
Gramma "Gigi" Lisa

A New Blessing to Love & Cherish!

So it's been over a week since I've posted...sorry about that!

I've been busy as a bee trying to get our spare bedroom set-up into a dedicated craft room for me, myself and I!

Yes, I'm finally going to be a little selfish...I'm just tired of using the kitchen table to do my crafting...and I think DH has had his fill of it also!

He willingly tells anyone who will listen that I have relegated him to a tiny 12" square area of the table!

But, there is even BIGGER news than my impending craft room...we have another new Grandbaby!

Baby A was born on April 24th and he weighed in at a very healthy 8 lbs. 15.6 oz. and was 22-1/2" long!

Isn't he just precious??!!

We are so excited and our hearts are filled with so much love and joy!

Mom (our Daughter S) was a real trooper.
She had to have a C-section, but took it all in stride.

We are so proud of her, she is an awesome Mommy!

Big Brother J was pretty happy also.
He loves his little brother and can't wait for him to get a little bigger so they can play cars together!

Sadly, DH and I couldn't be there for the birth, as they live in Okinawa because our Son-in-law C is stationed in the Air Force.

Thanks to modern technology though, we were able to Skype with them the very next day and see them all live, in the hospital, so it was pretty neat!

Thanks for sharing in our joy!

I will be back soon with a project posting...hopefully later today.

Thanks for checking in!

Lisa

Grandchildren Autumn Layouts

I am still working on my most recent project and have not finished so I can't post about it yet, but i thought I'd post some layouts I did in November last year while at a crop with my friend Melissa.

Hubby and I had just taken two of our Grandchildren to the local Pumpkin Farm/Patch (Bishop's Pumpkin Farm, Wheatland, California) as we try to do every year.

I just love that time of year...all the beautiful colors of Autumn are my favorite and the weather here is usually fairly mild.

Here are the layouts I made:

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch!

My Precious Pumpkins!

Autumn Fun with Poppy & Gigi!

Since I did these months ago, I can't remember all the specifics of the materials I used, but I know that I used the following Cricut Cartridges for the Lettering:

Ashlyn's Alphabet (Top Layout)
Old West (Bottom Layout)

The 12x12 paper was purchased at Green Tangerine's where we were at the crop.
It is an awesome scrapbooking store in Rocklin, California with all kinds of neat goodies and two HUGE scrapbooking rooms for crops.

I have not added any journaling to these yet, as journaling is always hard for me for some reason...I just never know where to put it and I feel like I don't write my feelings down well, like that it would sound corny or not proper.

I have to get over that and just let my creative thoughts and emotions flow!

I guess for me...the photos are the big part.
I've always been a big fan of photos and have been carrying a camera with me since about the 6th grade!
I know the emotions I feel when I look at the photos, I just have a hard time writing it down for some reason.

Maybe some of you out there in scrapbook land can help me with this...what do you do to help move your thoughts along while journaling?

Thanks for looking and if you like what you see...will you please follow me?

This post/project is linked-up to the following sites:

Blog Change

When I fist started blogging a few years ago, I'll have to admit I was a bit depressed as I was going through the dreaded "empty nest" syndrome!
I recently read through that old blog and was stunned at how bad I sounded and I realized that no one wants to read that stuff!
With a lot of praying and 3 beautiful blessings from God (My Grandchildren!) I finally came out of my depression and have been happily crafting & sewing again, while caring for my Granddaughter during the week.
I'm hoping to make this blog a little more positive & uplifting.
Maybe I can pass on some Grandmotherly wisdom and a few crafting tidbits!

Don't know how exciting it will be, but I do feel thankful to have a renewed sense of purpose in my life and I'd like to share it with anyone who is interested!