How to Make a Simple 4th of July Headband and Glasses

Just in time for the Fourth of July, how about a quick and simple Independence Day headband for girls or guys, with crazy stars, and some coordinating glasses?  Seriously - you can totally whip together this bandana headband, and starry sunglasses TODAY.  It's perfect for kids, but I'll be honest, I'll probably steal this from my kids and give it a whirl.

My kids and I wanted to put together some patriotic headbands - there are tons of cute ideas online. I busted out my new nesting star dies, from Technique Tuesday, and a stack of craft foam and started die-cutting away. We pulled some pipe cleaners out of the craft box, and a couple of bandanas we already had.

The kind folks at Tombow gave me their new XTreme Permanent Adhesive to try out, and it was perfect for this project. It's super strong, (5x stronger than their standard tape runner) and it's totally held up to my wild and crazy boys. After die-cutting a bunch of stars, I put adhesive on the back of one, and started layering them together with a pipe cleaner in between.

Once they were done, the boys and I twisted and curled the pipe cleaners. Then I folded up the bandana, making sure the final fold was facing UP. After tying the bandanas around their heads, I just tucked the pipe cleaners in. And since we had some stars leftover, we decided to jazz up these inexpensive sunglasses we had hanging around! PERFECTION. The boys look amazing, I must say!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

PS. I'd love it if you'd stop by to visit my friends at Tombow USA! They have fabulous adhesives,  plus all sorts of terrific drawing supplies! I'm in love with their Irojiten colored pencils - and I just saw they're even on SALE right now! (Very tempting!!!!) 

Visit Tombow on Facebook, or on the Tombow blog! Have a great day! 

PSS. For another Tombow adhesive project, check out my Mini Color Book, featuring Tombow's Fastener Tabs!

Hopping with Tombow! {Mini Color Book}

Hello! I'm so excited for today. . . .I'm blog hopping with the designers from Tombow! 

Tombow makes all kinds of great adhesives and supplies for papercrafters.  Today I am sharing a project that was inspired by one of Tombow's products - their Fastener Tabs.  

Tombow Fastener Tabs  are like velcro, but they're paper thin, and perfect for papercrafting! I used the tabs to create an interactive book for THIS cute little guy. . . .

You may have seen this project last week on the Paper Crafts Connection. (If you missed it, you can click over and check out more pictures there!) Today I'm going to share a few tips and tricks about creating your own board book. 

Here's the premise of the book - each page focuses on a color.  Each image on the page is attached with Fastener Tabs.  That way, I can pull all the images from the book, and my son can match them on the pages where they belong. I had a great time going through my stash of stamps to find images to match each color.  I stamped and colored each one, trimmed it, and adhered the Fastener Tabs.  In the next two images you can see both sides of the red pepper. If you look carefully, you'll see one side of the tab attached to the book, and in the second picture, you can see the coordinating tab on the pepper.

Let me talk for a minute about the actual BOOK.  I created this book with 6x6 sheets of chipboard.  You can trim pieces from a box or packaging - or you can buy a premade chipboard book.  I covered the 6x6 sheets with patterned paper, on the front and back of each. After covering each piece with patterned paper, I adhered them together using We R Memory Keepers Washi Adhesive Sheets.  (Think washi tape, on a sheet.) This stuff is great - you can cut it to whatever size you want (in this case, I trimmed 2x6 inch strips) I adhered each chipboard piece to the next, and then used one strip to cover the outside covers of the book.

{Note: Words or images that you want stamped directly onto pages should be done BEFORE attaching the book together - otherwise you might have a not-quite-flat surface to stamp on.}

A few other tips and tricks that I learned along the way:

*Use extra heavy cardstock or adhere two sheets of cardstock together, for extra strength and sturdiness of your images.  You could also laminate them before adhering the tabs, to make them more durable for little hands.

*Even if you don't have children at home, think about gifts for family members, or even a friend who might be a teacher or childcare worker. 

*Choosing images that have coordinating dies, will make less cutting work for you!

*Other board book possibilities: a number or alphabet book, or an interactive album with family pictures. The possibilities are endless!

If you're just joining in the Tombow blog hop, here's the lineup! 

Tombow Blog:
http://blog.tombowusa.com/

Debbie:
http://debbiedee.blogspot.com/

Melissa:

http://www.inkclinations.blogspot.com/

Jennie:

http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Marie:

http://mariebrowning.wordpress.com/

Laura: (you are HERE!)
http://lauralooloo.blogspot.com/     

Tombow Blog:
http://blog.tombowusa.com/

The more blogs you comment on, the better your chance of winning a FABULOUS Tombow prize pack, including the Fastener Tabs that I used on today's project, plus Tombow Foam Tabs and Power Tabs. The winner will be announced Friday the 23rd at 3:30 EST.

Thanks so VERY much for stopping by today! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, or email me any time! Hugs!

xoxo

Supplies: stamps and dies from Lawn Fawn (including Quinn's alphabet stamps), Paper Smooches, and The Stamps of Life (including the crayons and their coordinating dies) washi adhesive sheets - We R Memory Keepers, patterned paper - Pebbles Inc

Go Your Own Way! {Hero Arts}

Remember last week when I was telling you how I had hardly any travel stamps? And that I had recently accumulated some really GREAT ones!? (Like the Close To My Heart set I featured in the previous post!) I also mentioned some new Hero Arts stamps, so I thought I'd show them to you today!

I used the Travel set from Hero Arts on this card, along with patterned paper from October Afternoon (Farm Girl and Travel Girl).  These stamps are cling stamps, meaning they are rubber stamps, that stick onto a clear block.  What I LOVE about them, is that the image is also stamped onto the cling back, so even though it isn't a clear stamp, I can SEE where I'm stamping my image. LOVE LOVE LOVE that.

There are some great journaling squares to stamp, plus lots of great little graphics and sentiments, in this stamp set.  I created a little travel scene, and popped the vehicles up on foam tape.  Which reminds me. . . .I actually used an airplane from another stamp set, because it was facing the right direction.  (I think it's October Afternoon. . . . I'll have to double check on that for you!!!!)

In other news, today is Open House, and Monday my not-so-little 3rd grader starts school.  I'll admit, I'm getting a little anxious to establish a new routine, and get on a schedule.  We've been flitting around all summer, and it has been AWESOME. . . but it's TIME.  Know what I mean??

Okay, off to the last weekend of summer fun. Please, PLEASE - come back on Monday! I'm blog hopping with the Tombow Adhesive crew, and I am excited to share a GREAT project.  (You may have seen it featured on the Paper Crafts blog, this past week. . . . but I'll be back with more details, photos, and explanations! Oh and of course - a PRIZE!)

Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo

quick and simple thank you cards

I've been so blessed to received goodies from some super generous companies lately, and I wanted to make some cards for them, to show my appreciation.  Plus, I did a little crafty shopping a few months ago, (something I RARELY do) and I haven't had time to get everything inky yet. So, I thought I'd share some product today, that is making me absolutely HAPPY! This first card shows off a SUPER FUN stamp set from Paper Smooches, called I Heart Art.  It's perfection for a card for a crafty friend!  

I whipped up a couple of these cards at one time. They were quick and simple, plus a great way to use up some scraps.  (That paper is Dots and Stripes, from Echo Park.) There's just a little bit of coloring on here, on the easel, and I used some awesome new colored pencils, from Tombow. The Irojiten colored pencils are so smooth - I swear, it was like I was coloring with butter. (Well, not exactly.) But seriously - if you are in the market for colored pencils, I highly recommend these! I have been a Prismacolor pencil girl, for years - and I only have a couple of these Tombow pencils, but they have me craving the whole set!!!  They are absolutely gorgeous. (Sorry. I totally drool over great pencils! It's the art major in me. I can't escape it!) 

Next up, is another quick card, featuring Penny Black clear stamps - AND their paper. This 6x6 stack, called Madison, has bright colors, and cheery patterns.  I am all about BRIGHT and CHEERY so this paper is the perfect addition to my stash! 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back in a day or two with some more quick thank-you cards, and to share some more of my new favorite things!

xoxo

(other card goodies: cardstock - Discount Cardstock, twine - The Twinery, blue pearls - Hero Arts, ink - Clearsnap)