Pi Day Apple Pie

There's not much going on this time of year. Mardi Gras's over; Easter's still a ways off. So, what do we do...celebrate Pi Day of course! These photos are from the the year our family began this tradition. I had never made an apple pie from scratch before, but the recipe I found in my ancient Betty Crocker cookbook seemed easy enough. Of course I had to make two. ;)

This scrapbook page is a mix of old papers and Simple Stories stickers, Thickers and alpha stickers, bingo cards, apple brad, and a couple of inked wood veneers. I was a little overzealous drawing seeds. Did you notice my mistake? ;)



(I should have confined those apple seeds to the area nearest the core, instead of spreading them about as in a watermelon! Ooops.)

For this year's Pi Day I also made two pies, one apple and one pumpkin. It was about time I used the pumpkin I had frozen from Halloween! With cinnamon crumb topping on the apple pie and orange crumb topping on the pumpkin, they were gone in no time. Yum!

Quilting with Paper

(This tutorial was originally published on the My Creative Scrapbook blog.)

It takes a lot of patience to piece together and sew a fabric quilt. For me, a paper quilt is much more doable, especially when you're working with simple shapes like squares and triangles. A pattern of triangles forms the basis for the layout I'm sharing today. 

This page is created with My Creative Scrapbook's Main kit for April. The gorgeous patterned papers are from Pink Paislee's Oh My Heart collection, designed by Paige Evans. The design can certainly be duplicated in alternate color schemes, but if you want to follow along and create an identical backdrop for your page, I've included paper numbers in the instructions. Let's begin!

First, cut away the center portion of Paper No. 18, leaving a 1 inch border on all sides. Tuck this outer section away, as it will be used to finish off the layout towards the end of this tutorial.

Next, cut out (12) 2-inch squares from various patterned papers. I used Paper Nos. 18, 01, 24, 10, and 12. 

Luckily Paper No. 24 is already arranged in a 6x6 grid with each individual square measuring exactly 2"x 2". However, Paper No. 10 is arranged in a 5x5 grid, so each of those squares are larger than 2"x 2" and must be cut down slightly to use in this design. 

Then, cut each square in half diagonally, resulting in 24 triangles, the number needed for the paper quilt design.

Here is what I cut for my page:

Next, ink the edges of the triangles, and arrange on a sheet of white cardstock which has been trimmed to 10 7/8 inches by 10 7/8 inches. Begin in one corner, and work your way around, placing all 24 pieces first, before attaching with adhesive. If you're the ambitious type, you could also add some machine stitching at this point. ;)

You may have noticed that there are only three pink corners. I meant to do that, opting for a little contrast with the one purposeful purple corner on the bottom right.

Now it's time to add that border cut from Paper No. 18:

Looking good! 

Next, sort through and add various die-cuts, chipboard and your photo to the center of the design. 

The cute little fox is my favorite!

Lastly, add your journaling (always optional). I began at the top and let it flow down the center of the page. 

This simple design makes a big impact on a page! I can't wait to try this with other colors and patterns. The variety in My Creative Scrapbook's Main kit for April makes it easy to do. If you try this yourself, I'd love to see what you create, so please link me up in the comments. Thanks!

Irish Pirate?

Since I only used HALF of my favorite water-color-look paper from Pink Paislee's Oh My Heart collection for the scrapbook page that I shared on the blog yesterday, I had a "whole half" left for today's project...yay! The vibrant pink/orange/fuschia really sets off my title, and the "tear strips", those little cut-away pieces with bar code on one side, give it a fun feel.

In homage to the event captured in my photo, I gathered up several of the green die-cuts and papers to surround my "Irish Pirate". (The kids were participating in the annual Irish-Italian parade, their first experience riding on a float!)

I sure am enjoying all the colorful papers in this kit and collection! Check out My Creative Scrapbook for ALL of their gorgeous kits.

The World Is Your Oyster

As soon as I saw this paper, I knew that it would make a gorgeous water-colored title for my page!

BUT, instead of cutting my title out of the patterned paper, I cut it out of white cardstock. Then, I placed the yellow/pink/fuscia paper behind the splattered white cardstock and voila:

A strip of patterned paper, a couple of die-cuts and several fussy-cut flowers from the floral paper below, were all that were needed to complete the page.

This just might be my second favorite page with this kit, the April Main Kit from My Creative Scrapbook. My first fave? I have a little tutorial for that one. It's coming to the blog soon, but here's a little peek. ;)

Cute little fox, huh?! Til next time...

This Is Gonna Be Fun Y'All

I have a book of his work. I have a mug. I have a flock of magnets on my fridge that are modeled off his signs. And now I have an original of my own. Actually...two!

Back in December, after Tommy had paged through Simon's colorful coffee table book, we decided to take a "field trip" to his workshop/studio in uptown New Orleans. We weren't sure what we would find! After perusing the small number of finished pieces on display (it was Christmas time and stock was low), we met Simon (French pronunciation) and decided to have him paint a sign with Famille Fox and the year we were married. We had seen similar works, ordered by other families, waiting to be picked up, and couldn't wait to have an original for our home. 

So we ordered and went off to lunch at Joey K's, an uptown eatery that displays many of Simon's overflow pieces. You can just guess what happened next: we fell in love with another of his signs and bought it right off the wall. Here it is...still on the wall. ;)

This is gonna be fun y'all!

I just got the call that our other (ordered) sign was ready. Yeah!