Paper Crafting & Patience

{video via Etsy}

Wishing that I had this kind of patience and wishing I had this talent! 

Video via decor8, featuring art by Nicole Licht.

Claire, Claire, Claire...

Spent Friday afternoon being crafty with work peeps and made a little reverse applique shirt for Ms. Claire. Didn't turn out quite as planned, but it works, right? After work, I went to drop off the shirt, and she didn't want anything to do with it because it wasn't a "princess" shirt. (Me = fail!) Claire is convinced that Grammie (my mom) made the shirt for her, not me! Ha! (Doesn't Claire know by now that I do have a crafty streak in me? :)

Katie got Claire to wear her new shirt on Saturday--yay! But Claire got ahold of the scissors and did a good little whack-job to her bangs--no! Katie called in a panic, needing "help" with the situation. Claire was so proud of her new 'do, as evidenced by her sassy little attitude when I got the camera out. It was only a matter of time til it happened.

Family pictures next week should be highly entertaining! How can you be mad when she's loving it?! (I know, I know...if she were my daughter...yada, yada, yada...)

Valentine's Day Card Swaps!

I loved participating in a couple swaps over the holiday season, so it was fun when I came across more card swaps for Valentine's Day! Several people asked me about the swaps I participated in over the holiday season, but by the time they asked, it was too late to sign up...SO...if you want to get in on the Valentine Card swaps that I'm participating in, sign up now! :)

The first swap is over at The Stationery Place. Lyndsey is a friend of mine who formerly worked at American Crafts. Her blog always has inspiring paper-slash-stationery related inspiration from around the web. Be sure and add her blog to your reader! Sign up deadline: January 20th. Visit her blog for more details.

Crow and Canary is also hosting a Valentine's Card swap! I just recently found this blog, and it's a super fun blog showcasing all-things stationery. Love it! Sign up deadline: January 21st. Click here for more details.

Unrelated, I saw these pics of kitchens on My Happy Little Life today and totally fell in love.



Someday my kitchen will be as awesome as these kitchens! ♥

Images via My Happy Little Life.

Giveaway + How To + Get Well Soon!

First, a little "get-well-soon-shoutout" to my seester, Katie. She had surgery today and is having to take it easy for a few days (hopefully just a few days!)...Katie can share the details! :) I was hoping that I'd have lots of blog content (funny stories from the operating room), but unfortunately it was a pretty uneventful day. She does claim that the male nurses were hitting on her...I'll let her tell that one! :)

Second, I think it's safe to show off my "ornament" for the Freshly Blended ornament swap that I participated in, along with a how-to! I kind of, might of, ok...I didn't make an ornament. I made a paper garland instead, but I felt it was ok! These garlands are super easy and fun to make, and they're fun to use for holiday decor.

What you'll need: a circle punch, paper, and a sewing machine. I love my circle punch from Fiskars...easy on the hands and you can see right where you're punching. Punch out a bunch of circles...I used scrapbook paper, and can get about 110ish 1" circles out of a 12x12 piece of paper. When all your circles are punched, you're ready to sew! Feed your circles through the sewing machine, just like you would with fabric. Make your garland as long or as short as you like! Easy. For directions with pictures, here's a post over on Armelle Jewelry's blog, with some fun pictures of her garlands in use!

Third, because the garlands are so easy-peasy to make and because I had lots of left over paper that needed to be fashioned into a garland, I decided to make another garland for a giveaway! This garland is probably about 15 or so feet in length, so plenty of garland to use as a last minute Christmas decoration somewhere in your home. Cute Christmas colors: red + green + gold...you can't go wrong with that combo! Simply leave a comment, and I'll draw a winner on Thursday evening.

Lastly, I hope you're enjoying the holiday season. I don't know that I'm totally there yet, but I'd better start enjoying the season soon--Christmas is NEXT week! Yikes. So much to do, so little time. I love this time of year; I love the kindness and thoughtfulness of everyone that you run into--friends and strangers alike. I love Christmas!

Enrichment Ideas??

Have you had any fun craft-y enrichments lately?? I'm trying to come up with a few fun/easy/cheap enrichment ideas...I have a few thoughts, but would love input! My friend, Amy, had a fun little friends craft day and made a bunch of fun decorations for the party...super cute, huh? Maybe we could have a craft party/enrichment sorta thing...? Here's a pic from Amy's par-tay:

I want to hear your ideas or if you have favorite enrichment idea blogs!

Kinda cute...right??

My roommate Michelle and I got a little crafty last night and made some simple little fabric flowers! These flowers aren't sewn to the shirt yet...I'm still deciding if I like 'em or not. They're kinda cute...right?? :)

...and because I haven't blogged about cutie-patootie Claire lately:


Claire climbed into the front seat of my car as I was buckling her car seat in the other day. When I turned around, she had climbed over to the driver's side and took over the radio! (Not really. Note: no keys in the ignition.)


Those "who me?!" eyes get me every time. I can't help but laugh!

I Try...

I really do try to keep my desk clean, but to be honest, sometimes I kind of like it a little out of sorts. It means I've been busy and tonight it means that I've been spending my time being a little crafty! I pulled out my sewing machine (another post on another day about this *sweet* machine!), assembled my Valentines and got 'em all packaged and ready to be sent out...look for yours in the mail soon!




ps...I still have some Valentines that need places to go :) Send me a little note and one will be on its way to your home! lindsaybowerman {at} gmail.com

Being Crafty

Katie told me last night that I haven't really talked about work too much on my blog...oops! Maybe a little recap of the last few months would be a good place to start! Here's the quick version: back in September/October when mom and I headed back East for a couple weeks, Pebbles was sold to American Crafts, another scrapbook company in Orem. When I came back from Virginia, I started at American Crafts! The last few months were pretty busy getting ready for CHA (the Craft & Hobby Association trade show), but it's been a fun change and to be around so many other talented designers has been so great!

This month at work, we were asked to attend a crop...and for a non-scrapbooker like me, I wasn't sure what to think about attending one of the scrapbook get-togethers! (Side note: I'm often mistaken as being a 'scrapbooker' because of where I work...the truth is that I've never "scrapbooked"...I love the products and think that there are some seriously talented scrapbookers that make art when they scrapbook, but I am definitely not one of them!) I managed to talk Katie into going with me to a crop at the local Archivers last night. Katie printed off some of Claire's crazy pictures and we started on an album! After a few hours there, we maybe got a quarter of the way done and had lots of laughs along the way.


It was funny watching some of the women who were clearly veterans of scrapbooking--the ones who just wanted to get it done and could complete 10 to 12 pages in an hour-- and the other ones who loved to look at all the "cool" stuff that they had in the store and would spend a half hour thinking about how they could use a certain embellishment on their page! I'm not sure what the other women thought of Katie and me, but we probably looked a little out of place, not really knowing what we were doing! :)


After the crop, my friend Heath came down from Salt Lake! Heath and I were friends up at the BYUI and had a fun time catching up! I had all my scrapbook stuff out, so we made Valentine cards and poems for each other...Heath totally put my poem to shame:

I'm glad you're not
a wreath,
or teeth,
or beef.
I'm glad you're my friend, Heath!

(I know that beef doesn't rhyme. Whatev.)

Heath's specialty is ninja turtles, so he made me a ninja turtles card with this lovely poem:

I made you this card for Valentine's Day
So you can take it to work and put it on display.
Love's seed has been planted in soil so fertile
And manifested itself as a ninja turtle.
For this special day you deserve a lovely bouquet
But this is the best to say Happy Valentine's Day!

Awesome, right? The ninja turtles card will be displayed at work come Monday morning! Was your Friday night this awesome??

Bow Love

I had to get in on the bow action tonight! I pulled out some felt and twisted this sweet bow together...simple and cute, right?? This tutorial is fantastic! (How About Orange is one of my faves!) I was already planning on making a few of these gift bows, but seeing it in felt made me love felt even more than I already do!

Lynn on the Pebbles Design Team made a bow out of some scrapbook paper which is really cute, too! Check it out!

Some Things Take Time...Right?

Happy early Christmas to me!!!! Remember the quilt I started (*cough*) a year ago??? It might finally be finished!! Wahoo!!!! I haven't put it down all night! Mom sneakily got it quilted for me and dropped it off today! I couldn't be more excited about it...it turned out so beautiful!! I'll get a better pic of it this weekend when Dad comes with his new toy (super fancy-schmancy camera)!

Handmade Birthday!

Little Miss Claire is one today!! Can't hardly believe it's already been a year since she was born...it's hard to imagine life without that lil' munchkin!

When I saw this alphabet tutorial, I thought it'd be perfect for Claire! My alphabet didn't *quite* turn out as good as the photo in the tutorial, but it works, right? :)

Lessons learned:
• sewing machines and magnets (and needles!) don't mix well
• make the letters a little bigger next time
• next time I'll be sewing by hand
• perfect way to use up small scraps of fabric



I think they turned out pretty cute for round one. I learned a few things and will change it up a little next time!

Happy Birthday, Claire!



(next major purchase: a camera!!)

Pics from when Claire was born here and here. Crazy to think this was a year ago! Time flies...

DIY: Mousepad Edition

Yay for pretty mousepads! My mouse was struggling, and until today, I got by with putting some paper under it and it would kind of work. I broke down this afternoon and paid the $2.50 for a mousepad. (I probably could've found a free one somewhere!) The blue wasn't working for me, so I got out some fabric and fusible interfacing and went to work. Five minutes later, I had a pretty new mousepad!

Sneak Peek

Work has been busy these last couple weeks as we've been getting ready for a product release! The two new collections coming out are kinda baby themed...lil' buddy and lil' miss. Josh did an awesome job on the lil' boy one (it's way cute!) and I did the little girl collection. It's always a good feeling to be done with a collection. It looks like it'll be out at the end of June/beginning of July...be looking for it!

Oh--American Idol finale = party tonight!!!

Quilt Update...

Saturday afternoon found me quilting the day away! Mom, Katie and I headed back to Material Girls to get the rest of the material for the quilts that we're working on. The top of my quilt is getting close to being done!

Katie update: STILL no baby yet. Boo. Maybe tomorrow...hopefully. Check back for updates.