{kids can do it!} stuffed animal superhero mask and cape

If your kids are anything like mine, the wonder of summer is starting to wear off. The long, glorious days with hours of free time are starting to get just a bit, well, boring. I'm beginning to hear "Mom, what should I do?" all day long. When the standard answers (legos, read, color, hide & seek, scrub your bathroom!) didn't work one day, I suggest a different activity: let's make superhero masks and capes for your stuffed animals. And then I ammended my suggestion to: how about you guys make superhero masks and capes for your stuffed animals?

So I came up with a simple process that my older kids (9, 9 and 11) were able to complete by themselves to make little outfits for their Build-a-Bears (yes, my older boys all still love their Build-a-Bears. I think it's awesome.) Younger kids would need assistance, but would probably still be able to do enough on their own to feel pretty proud of themselves. (There are my nine year olds hard at work.)

If you have a lazy day just asking to be filled, here's what you'll need:

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photograph: creating a photo collage in Photoshop Elements {part 2}

It's been a few weeks since I posted part one of "How to Create a Photo Collage in Photoshop Elements" and I finally have part two ready for you. Part one explained what clipping masks are and how to use them. Part two uses the same process to show you how to create a more complex collage. Once you've viewed both videos, you should be able to create a photo collage in any size and with as many photos as you wish. You'll be able to make collages like the ones I have up on my gallery photo wall.

This video is a little longer, because I show the technique a few different times to make sure you understand the process. I hope you enjoy it!

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new look & new indexes

Happy Monday everyone. Over the weekend I updated the blog a bit, hence the new look. What's more important, though, is that you can now see all the posts in any given category using the new index tabs above the header. Each tab links to a photo index, so it's a lot easier to see what you may have missed in the past. For example, the photography index looks like this: (Click on any photo to be taken straight to that post!)

                                    

See you back tomorrow with part two of How to Create a Photo Collage using Photoshop Elements!

creating keepsakes mixed media issue winner!

Denise, you are the winner of Creating Keepsake's Mixed Media Special Issue! Use the contact button on the sidebar to send me your full name and address, and we'll get your copy in the mail.

The Sept/Oct issue of Creating Keepsakes is due out in three weeks, so stay tuned for another giveaway!

sew: kid size travel pillows with carrying case and velcro pocket

We recently drove 14 hours each way to spend a few weeks visiting family. My kids insist on bringing their pillows along on every long car trip we take. They NEED them, they say, to get comfy while they're reading books or watching movies on the ride. I can understand, but we really don't have room in the very full mini van for four pillows. The pillows invariably end up squished on the floor of the van (which is always covered in crumbs by the time we've been on the road an hour or two) and then stepped on for the rest of the drive. I decided we needed a better solution.

And so, I whipped up a travel pillow for each child. I cut an old pillow into four pieces and sewed up the open sides to make four mini pillows. Then I made cases using fun printed flannel (1/2 yard for each). I added a handy velcro pocket on the front so each child could keep a few books handy.

I added handles for easy transport to and from the car.

For just a few dollars and about 30 minutes each, my kids had handy travel pillows just large enough to keep them comfy, but small enough to be convenient on the long ride.

Here's how:

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Make: simple fabric covered wall hanging

Hey everyone. Things have been a little slower than normal on the blog for the past few weeks because we've been out of town visiting family. We're back home and I'm drowning in laundry, but I have lots of fun posts in the pipeline that you'll be seeing soon (like instructions for a DIY rocket launcher, recipes from Grandma's sweet shoppe, a how to photograph toddlers post, and easy instructions for making your kids travel pillows with cool carrying bags). So stay tuned! In the meantime here's one more post that originally appeared at the Ribbon Retreat blog. 

 Have a bare wall and some favorite fabric? Spruce up any room with a fabric covered wall hanging like the one above. To get started, you'll need:

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cook: s'mores brownies {w/eight layers of yum}

I've always had a love/hate relationship with campfire s'mores. They're good, maybe even fantastic if you pack enough chocolate in there (half a bar's about right). But I want my chocolate melty, which is kind of hard to achieve when a campfire is your only heat source, and chomping down on a hard piece of chocolate kind of ruins the s'more experience for me. Plus, campfire s'mores are a slippery, slidey mess. It's not that I really mind a gooey mess, but I want the proportions of chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow to be about the same in every bite. I don't want to have to take a big bite that's just plain marshmallow because it's all squishing out one side and I certainly don't want my last bite of s'more to consist of only graham cracker because all the good middle stuff is already gone. You know, this is important stuff!

So it's possible I'm a little high maintanence when it comes to s'mores. I've found a pretty good microwave method - start nuking the chocolate first, when it gets shiny add some mini marshmallows and go for 7 more seconds, then spread the gooey mess out on a graham cracker - for heaven's sake please don't ever nuke the graham cracker! - but I figured it was time for a s'more brownie. Because s'mores, like most everything in life, could use just a little more chocolate.

By the way, I've tried the "s'mores bars" recipe, which uses ground up graham crackers along with butter, sugar, flour and eggs to make a graham cracker cookie-ish base for chocolate and marshmallow, and I'm not a huge fan. I don't want my graham crackers messed up with a whole bunch of added ingredients. I want them left alone. Except for adding lots more chocolate to them. You know what I mean. Keep reading for the recipe!

Click to read more ...

win a copy of creating keepsakes mixed media special issue!

It's that time again - another new issue of Creating Keepsakes Magazines is hitting the newstands today, which means you have another chance to win a free copy. 

Here's how online editor Nicole Larkin describes this issue. She says: "we talk about how to scrapbook using mixed media--and trust me, even if you don't think of yourself as a mixed media scrapper, if you've ever colored with markers, added bling to a page, or set an eyelet, you've worked with mixed media."

In case that doesn't pique your interest enough, here's a cool sneak peak of the issue:

Open publication - Free publishing - More art mediums

For my contribution to this issue, I was asked to work with metal accents, which was a first for me. I created this layout featuring metal charm embellishments and a sunburst accent and journaling block frames made from metal foil tape. The issue includes step-by-step directions for creating the fun foil tape frames.

To add to the fun, next week is Summer Camp over at the Creating Keepsakes blog. Be sure to check it out next Thursday when I'll be showing you how to make these fun frames using regular old aluminim foil.

If you'd like to win a free copy of this issue, leave me a comment. If you want a second chance to enter, like itsalwaysautumn on facebook or pin a photo from one of my posts, then leave me another comment telling me which you did. Next week I'll announce the winner, and someone's free issue will be in the mail!