Back to School Round-Up

It's the beginning of August and children are headed back to school throughout the month. Luckily, we have a few more weeks of summer at my house!

To get into the "back to school" mood, I've gathered together a few school-related craft projects, as well as some educationally-themed posts.

Back to School Project Tutorial: Upcycled Pencil Holders:

Week in the Life: Back to School Shopping 1985 vs. 2011:

Words of Wisdom: Try Something New:

Tutorial: Framed "Things To Do" list for School-Aged Children:

Would you use dryer lint on a [school-themed] scrapbook layout?:

12 Favorite Children's Books to Read Aloud:

 

Smashed Advice: Learn Something New:

Shopping for clothes and supplies were my favorite things before going back to school. What was (or is) your favorite way to prepare for a new school year? ~Danielle

Smashed Advice: True Nobility

It's the last day of my week long Smashed Advice series. I'm happy to finally share these pages with you and hope I've inspired you in some way. 

Day 5: True nobility

Smash Book: True Nobility

"True nobility is not about being better than anyone else: 

It is about being better than you used to be."

Dr. Wayne Dyer is one of my favorite authors and this quote is from The Power of Intention. I try to live my life according to these words. I avoid competition with others and focus on self-improvement.

Can you name one thing you would like to improve about yourself? Or your scrapbooking? ~Danielle

Related Smash Book Posts:

Mysterious

Words of Wisdom

DIY: Smash Magnets

Smashed Advice: Learn Something New

Old habits got you down? Feel better by learning new things...

Day 4: Learn something new

Smash Book: Learn Something New

"Youth is lost when you stop wanting to learn."

Quote by yours truly and words of wisdom I try to live by daily.

How can you apply this to your crafty life? Is there a new technique you've been dying to try? ~Danielle

More Smashing Goodness:

Mysterious

Words of Wisdom

DIY: Smash Magnets

Smashed Advice: Do What You Love

We're onto the third day of my Smashed Advice series and now, it's more personal. Have a look...

Day 3: Do what you love

Smash Book: Do What You Love

"Hush the excuses. Do what you love. Work hard at it."

My own advice to myself and I have to constantly remind myself of this. Can you relate? ~Danielle

More Smashing Goodness:

Mysterious

Words of Wisdom

DIY: Smash Magnets

Smashed Advice: Quiet

All things are connected. We covered that yesterday. Today, we focus on the importance of quiet time.

Day 2: Quiet

Smash Book: Quiet

"Empty your mind of everything. Let the mind rest at peace. The ten thousand things rise and fall while The self watches their return."

Those are only a few lines I quoted from Lao Tzu and a great reminder to stop and simply be.

How do you make time for quiet moments? Do you wish you had more of them? ~Danielle

Related Smash Book Posts:

Mysterious

Words of Wisdom

DIY: Smash Magnets

Smashed Advice: All Things Are Connected

Catching up. That is what this week's blog series is all about. For five days, I will be sharing the Smash Book pages I created last summer during Lain Ehmann's Your Story Matters (YSM) class. (Yes, I'm about eight months late!)

My Smash Book is dedicated to my daughters and will be packed full of advice and other important tidbits. The pages you'll see this week feature an assortment of photos, embellishments and paper from my stash.  Many of these items have been overlooked...or waiting for the perfect scrapbook page. Sometimes, you just have to let go and tell a story.

Day 1: All things are connected

Smash Book: All Things Are Connected

 

The quote is by Chief Seattle and one that is meaningful to our future:

"All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth."

How do you feel about the quote above? Do you think it can relate to scrapbooking? ~Danielle

Related Smash Book Posts:

Mysterious

Words of Wisdom

DIY: Smash Magnets

Smash Pad + scrap paper + magnets = Smash Magnets

I have way too many magnets on my refrigerator, many are old and unwanted, but still used for notes and children's artwork. Is this going on in your home too? 

If so, it's time to redecorate with a little upcycling project that I like to call Smash Magnets.

Upcycled Craft: Smash Magnets

I took the out-of-date magnets, covered them with Smash Pad tear-off sheets and scrap paper, then added twine and buttons. Much nicer, right?

Read more about my project on the MemoryWorks blog.

Other Tutorials:

Eco-friendly business card bookmarks
Recycle old greeting cards into party invitations
Upcycled pencil holders

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Welcome to my new blog series called Words of Wisdom Wednesday!

You may have noticed that I've been blogging every day. Originally, this started out as a seven day project and then I decided to take it up a notch and try for thirty days of blogging. Can I do it? We'll see...

With that in mind, I came up with Words of Wisdom Wednesday, which ties in perfectly with my Smash Book project.

Have a look at this week's Words of Wisdom:

"Words of Wisdom" Smash Book

You can see more of this layout and other pages of my Smash Book over at the MemoryWorks blog today.

Supplies: K&Company Smash, Cosmo Cricket Elements, Simple Stories letter stickers.

Related:

Illustration Friday: Mysterious

Eco-Friendly Scrapbooking: Toilet paper roll mini-album

I can't stop crafting with Cosmo Cricket and made a retro girl birthday card

Illustration Friday: Mysterious

Do you like to doodle, paint or make mixed media collages? If you've been hanging out around here, then you know I do.

I've been experimenting with alternative scrapbooking and changing the way I scrapbook by (attempting) to go green. I'm not all the way there yet, but as I slowly progress, I find myself diving deeper into my artistic side.

If I'm doodling, that means I'm using less (virgin) paper and other scrapbooking products, along with trying to put a dent into my scrap paper bin.

As I was creating my Week in the Life project (my "brain doodles"), I stumbled upon a site called Illustration Friday. The basics: sign up for the weekly topic via email, do your thing (paint, draw, whatever) and then submit a photo of your project.

Here's my first one:

Illustration Friday Topic: Mysterious

"When it comes to relationships

don't be an open book

allow room for a little mystery."

I used my trusty black Sharpie for most of the lettering, added in Pink Paislee cardstock (hair), along with Cosmo Cricket diecuts (eyes) and letter stickers ("allow") to create this spread in my Smash Book by K&Company. (Note: The thick Sharpie bleeds through the Smash paper. I'll be doing a cover-up on the opposite pages.)

Although (from what I've seen on the packaging), I don't believe that the Smash Books are made from recycled paper, K&Company does offer eco-friendly products.

So, the story behind this Smash Book is that I'm dedicating it to my two daughters as my advice to them. It will be something that they can share with each other (make copies, etc.) as they grow older. And in the case that something crazy happens to me, they'll have my words of wisdom with them whenever they need me.

Morbid? Yes, but it's something that I have to do. It is a work in progress and I will continue to share as I doodle along.

Okay, so back to Illustration Friday...I tried over and over again to submit my photo yesterday, the last day of the week to submit before the new topic is announced and just couldn't do it. (Procrastinator? Yes.) I received an error message saying "Wrong file type or extension." I checked and rechecked to make sure I had all the specifications down right (has to be a jpeg, 50 x 50 pixels, etc.), but no luck. 

Hopefully I'll figure it out by next week.

Have you Smashed yet? Or made your own homemade Smash album? I'd love to hear all about it!

And don't forget about the My Memories Suite giveaway! Check out my digiscrap pages and tell me what you like about My Memories for a chance to win the digital scrapbooking software (Enter Here). Winner will be announced Monday, September 12!

Additional Reading:

Attention: Scrapbooking Manufacturers! Tell me you're green!

Back-to-school Project Tutorial: Upcycled pencil holders
Secret journaling tool for scrapbookers