I got this pattern here from Heather Bailey’s site. My summer swap partner sent me this cute white and black headband that I really wanted to try.

Heather’s pattern is free to download and was very simple to use. Her directions and diagrams were great, and this is a great way to use up those skinny pieces of fabric left over. Check it out!

I made these to send off to our Joy and a few other friends who are melting in Mexico.

Here is a great gift idea that you could make and give your loved one for Valentine’s Day. This is what the box looks like put together:

The lid comes off, and this is what is found inside:

I got the idea for this from the cricut.com messageboard, but you don’t need a Cricut to make it. What you do need is 3 pieces of 12×12 cardstock, one piece of 6×6 cardstock and matching paper and/or embellishments you want to use. Start by scoring lines on one piece of cardstock 4 inches apart, making the paper look like a tic-tac-toe board. Cut out the four corners.

On another piece of cardstock, score the lines 3.75 inches apart, and cut out the corners. Repeat with another piece of cardstock, making the lines 3.5 inches apart. You will have to trim the length of the edges as well, as much as you want. I chose to round my corners and distress the edges of the layers at this point.

To make the lid, take the 6×6 piece of cardstock and score it at 1 inch all the way around. Do a straight line clear across the side of the cardstock on each side. Cut very carefully one line on each side so that you can tuck it up under the next side and tape it. Don’t cut past the one inch score line.

Fold the sides in, and glue to secure. Now you can begin layering your cut pieces, putting the smaller ones on top of the larger ones and adhering the middle squares only. Once the box is together, you can decorate and embellish each layer as you want. I did it this way, and found that it might be easier to decorate each layer before you assemble it, but that’s a personal choice.

My box isn’t quite finished yet, I want to add some journaling in the middle of the box, and I haven’t decided how I want to decorate the outside of the box yet. But it worked up pretty fast, one evening, and it makes a unique gift.

As an avid scrapbooker, I’m always buying scrapbook albums on sale or receiving them as gifts. In the end, I always end up with lots of empty albums and I can never decide to just keep them for future layouts or use them for other things. I came up with a great idea to use a scrapbook album for CD storage, that keeps the CDs out of sight, and the scrapbook looks great sitting on a bookshelf or entertainment unit.

Closed…it looks just like a regular scrapbook album:

Opened…its a storage secret - lots and lots of CDs:

I started with an empty scrapbook album, an empty page protector and 2 pieces of scrapbook paper (for each page of CDs). I folded each of the 12×12 papers into quarters and then opened up. I put the papers into the page protector with the right sides facing out, and I sewed along the folds using my sewing machine. This separates the page into 4 pockets. I then used a ruler and a scalpel to cut about a half inch below the horizontal stitching, creating pockets to slide the CDs into. And there you have it - quick and easy CD storage that matches your decor, takes about 5 mins to make (per page) and holds 8 CDs.

This is a great project to get rid of some scrapbook paper you have laying around, as well as embellishments if you want. I chose to keep mine simple, but you could jazz the pockets up using embellishments, ribbon, colored thread…the options are endless!

It’s good for the soul, right? So here I am confessing something in regards to my crafting (and only crafting - for other confessions you must visit my other site).

A lot of people I know enjoy scrapbooking. I love taking pictures, and I loved my design layout class in college, but something about scrapping didn’t appeal to me. Maybe it was because I had so many pictures, I already felt overwhelmed before I even began. People would talk about it, share layouts and what-not and while I thought they all looked fabulous, I still had no desire to do it. Until I was at Michael’s one afternoon and found a scrapbook I fell in love with.

So I bought it. And $50 in other supplies (which doesn’t buy much, but enough to get started with). And what have I done with it? Nada. That was four months ago and I still haven’t even thought about starting a page. I would think of layouts in my head, and then get overwhelmed. I know this stems from my perfectionist personality, of I have to do it 100% right the first time, perfect, or I won’t do it at all. I know I need to get over it, but then I see what other friends have done and think, “I could never show my work to anyone if it’s not right.”

So here I have a beautiful (and very empty) scrapbook, along with lots and lots of paper, and I don’t even know how to begin. I know I should stick with other crafts that I love (embroidery, painting, photography), but I keep thinking I should atleast give it a try, right? And if I don’t, anyone want some scrapping supplies?