Imaginisce

My mom brought the kids some flat, colored stones from Florida a few weeks ago.  I wasn't sure what we could do with them that would allow the kids to enjoy the stones, without them becoming a tool of mass destruction in our home or another "something" to pick up. (Who am I kidding?  everything becomes "something" to pick up)....

Side note: I LOVE grandparents and the gifts they give to our kiddos.  And the kids LOVE the gifts.  However, said grandparents may need a lesson or two in age-appropriate gifts.  :) Breakables = no nos.  Kids don't understand the difference between "decorative" and "toy".  Sadly, we've lost several sweet and sentimental gifts to because-they-loved-them-so-much-they-broke-them "accidents". 

Anywhoo...truly there's nothing wrong or breakable about these stones, and Ayla especially was very excited about them, so I wanted to come up with a good way for the kids to use them.  Together, we came up with pendant necklaces.

Originally I was going to drill a hole in them, but my drilling skills are limited, the stones are SOLID, and my efforts did NOT produce anything more than a slight scratch.  Plan B.  Washers & E6000 glue.  Yeah, that'll do it.  Then I added some cute rub-ons (hearts for Ayla & a dinosaur for Paxton) and a ribbon, long enough to go over their big ol' heads!

The kiddos were pleased.  I wouldn't call this the most quality jewelry designing, but for a 4- and 1-year-old...it was just right:

Nope, that's not a basketball, that's his belly... :)

Nope, I wasn't *quite* finished with the Apple Cider line from Imaginisce after all. I had one more fun project up my sleeve. 

This year, all of my siblings & parents are headed south to AL for Thanksgiving -- at our house.  Which means we're cooking!  We usually have the same traditional menu for Thanksgiving every year, but we always have to hunt down the recipes from 2-3 different recipe books.  I thought it would be helpful to collect them all in one place.  

Ben suggested photocopying them and stapling them together.  Sure. That would work, but I knew this would be SO much cuter:

And it is. :)  Now let's just hope I got the recipes copied down correctly.

When Thanksgiving rolls around, I plan to photograph each dish to put on the back of each recipe card.  And add in the recipes for the few things that Ben always "wings" (like the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, etc.)

I finally had a chance to play with two of Imaginisce's new paper collections:

First, a Thanksgiving-themed two-sided decoration.  Might use this on the buffet table this year:

This layout is in an 8 x 8 photo sleeve in my 2010 album:
front

back

and an 8 1/2 x 11 page, also in my 2010 album:

And here's my only Dino Roar page so far - Paxton's 18 month portraits:

I especially loved the Apple Cider collection of fall themed papers, but I have some more things in mind for that Dino Roar collection too -- just need some good Paxton photos to go with them first! 

Thanks Imaginisce! Check out their blog for more Apple Cider and Dino Roar inspiration!

With all the pictures I take, it's about time I framed a few. :) 

I've had this collage frame sitting in my "to do" projects forever, and finally decided that a bathtime baby bathroom collage would be the perfect use for it.  So, I printed several bathtime baby photos of both of our kids in black and white, added some patterned paper & Imaginisce "Splash Dance" rub-ons and stickers and viola!  A cute little bathroom collage.

While I was working on this project, I flipped the Splash Dance packaging over and was surprised to see a familiar face looking back at me! 

Cool, huh? :)

Another CHA sneak peek from Imaginisce.  This was my favorite line of the bunch to work with.  Rock N Roll, Robots & cool gray, blue, turquoise & orange.  Loved it!

Be sure to check out the rest of the gallery & all the other designers' work!

I did some design work for Imaginisce a few months ago for some of their new products....a few of those projects have been revealed!  Take a look!

Be sure to check out the other designers' work too! Lots of great ideas for this fun product line!

Instead of doing all the things I *should* be doing today, I was inspired to make these photo tags for each of our Christmas stockings as I was in the middle of decorating the house for the holidays:

I made Paxton one too...but he doesn't have a stocking yet!  I gotta get on that...

Supplies: 

• Pressed Petals Chip Chatter Alphabet
• Imaginisce Polar Expressions Rub-Ons
• Imaginisce Polar Expressions Ribbon
• Clear Scraps acrylic circles
• Crop-a-dile
• large white eyelets
• alphabet beads
• artistic wire
• StaZon black ink
• glue dots

It's that time of year.  

Time to make your Christmas wish lists, who-to-buy-for lists, what to make, what to bake, when to decorate, etc.  Whew. I'm already tired.

But here's the notebook I'm keeping all that info straight in this year:

An easy project!  It's just a $1 composition book covered in Polar Expressions papers from Imaginisce.  Makes me excited to open it up and write in it.  And it's tote-able.  I just slide it into my purse or diaper bag (depending on my shopping companions).  

I know I won't use the whole notebook this year, so I might just save it and use it next year too...it might be nice to have a reference to what I bought, made, etc.

Ayla's bedroom was featured today on the Imaginisce "Just Imagine" blog.  Check it out!

This is a fun little Halloween banner I made (with Ayla's help) to hang in my office doorway. I have it hanging so that the "Boo" side peeks into the kitchen, but it didn't photograph well that way, so I just turned it around to show both sides.

Products: Imaginisce Spooky Town Collection