Create*Bloom*Grow

Growing through life creatively…

Monthly Archives: February 2014


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Wishing you a Wii-ly Happy Valentine’s Day!

I guess I’m on a roll with the digi scrap program this week. In addition to using it for my Girl Scout Cookie thank you notes, I’ve also used it for my children’s Valentine’s for a number of years.

I love that they can have really personal Valentines to hand out to the class. Again, I make them as 4″x6″ cards (or sometimes 3″x5″) which I can print out as pictures.

Blank Wii

I usually start “bugging” my kids about what they want to be for Halloween sometime in August. I am the “Queen of Last Minute” (no joke, I think the first pin I ever pinned on Pinterest was a sign that said, “Don’t rush me, I’m waiting for the last minute.”), but I do not like being left in the lurch for Halloween costumes. My son has pretty much always opted for something he can buy at the store. That was fine with me because I was not going to attempt to make a homemade Star Wars character anyway. This past year, he told me early on that he wanted to be a Wii Remote. Um, excuse me, you want to be what?!?!?!? I thought he was kidding. I also thought he would change is mind. No such luck, he had decided what he wanted which presented Mommy with the awesome challenge of making his dream come to life. I am happy to say that I met the challenge and he ended up with a really cool costume! I will do a post on the making of this crazy costume later this summer.

For now, I hope you have a Wii-ly Happy Valentine’s Day!


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Too Much of a Good Thing?

‘Tis the Season – No, we have not rewound the calendar to December.  It’s Girl Scout Cookie Season.  Happy days….

I’ve been a Girl Scout leader since my daughter who is now in 6th grade was in 1st grade.  We have had many adventures, but some of our favorite revolve around selling cookies.  Can’t help it – I was raised in a retail family and I like to sell.  My daughter has the same genes.

We did realize early on that it is super-important to stay organized (you wanted how many boxes?) and to show our gratitude to her customers.  We discovered early that a very personal way to do this is by creating a 4″x6″ card in my digital scrapbook program.  I’ve been using Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories.  Sadly, with the closing of CM, you can no longer get this fantastic program, but there are others out there that you can use.  I use my digi scrap program for MANY things that have nothing to do with scrapbooking.

I print out a bunch of these cards as photos at the beginning of the season and we are ready to go.  We have done a number of fun cards over the years.  They often involve a photo of her and the cookies in some way, shape or form.  This year she opted for no photo, but we came up with something very “tweeny”.

Cookie TY Blank

The ones I print for her actually have a note of thanks at the bottom and her name, but I’ve posted one that you can actually use yourself!

I’d love to hear what other Girl Scouts do.  Happy Cookie Sales!


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Olympics are almost here – Go Team USA!

I LOVE the Olympics.  I get so excited about cheering for the good ol’ Team USA.  This past week, I decided to use some of my left over scrapbook paper to make a Team USA Banner with my Cricut.  I’m going to give you a quick overview of products & techniques I used to make it.

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I had used the BoBunny “Liberty” papers to do a scrapbook of our Washington DC trip a few years ago.  I had a bunch of different patterned papers and the solid Dark Denim & Paprika “Double Dot” papers.

I made rosettes in contrasting color to the background of each pennant.  There are a bunch of different ways that you can make the rosettes.  I have always found it best to use hot glue as it is really strong and dries quickly.

I used a banner from the “Pretty Pennants” Cricut cartridge to make the base and the letters are from “Storybook”.

I used silver glitter craft foam cut on my Sizzix Bigshot for the stars.  At first I was going to put the stars in the middle of each rosette.  Then I decided to mix it up for the rosettes with letters and keep only the solid star rosettes symmetrical.

I finished it up by punching holes with my slot punch and stringing ribbon through the whole thing.  I figure that I will also be able to use this banner again at the 4th of July, but just taking off the TEAM part.  Double duty!

It is hanging right under my TV and once I get my Olympic flag up out front (and maybe my red, white and blue bunting if I am feeling really crazy), we are all ready to watch the Opening Ceremonies!  Go TEAM USA!