Grateful

Please scroll down to see out Beary Sweet "Double or Nothing" winners!

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November is such a lovely month-- the beginning of the holiday season, a time for excitement, family and to remember to be thankful for all the wonderful things we have (as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States). It's the perfect month, then, for the great challenge we have going on now, show us "Your Beary Best" and I am so delighted to see all the wonderful projects you have entered so far!
My project for this week is a Gratitude Journal:


I started with this Thanksgiving quote that I absolutely love and altered a composition notebook using papers from SEI's Oasis line-- these are perfect for fall and Thanksgiving theme projects with pretty fall colors and foil accents.

This journal could be used just by one person to record all the things they are grateful for or it could be used at the Thanksgiving table and sent around so that different family members had a chance to write down their thoughts, creating a family keepsake.

Supplies used:
SEI Oasis papers
Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock-- Mint, Burnt Orange, Gingerbread
Tim Holtz Distress Ink-- Vintage Photo
Seam Binding-- Canyon (sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Latte)
Misc. crochet flowers, rhinestones and stick pin

Keep those "Beary Best" projects coming all November long! I love visiting your blogs and seeing all of your fantastic work-- I am grateful for you!

Tic Tac Toe for Back to School

I love this time of year-- back to school! And no, it's not just that my two older kids have been driving me crazy and I was excited to send them back (though that is a tad bit true.) As a former teacher, there is just something about the smell of a classroom, clean and awaiting new students, that makes me smile! Mostly it's the promise that the new school year holds-- those piles of new notebooks and unsharpened pencils, new school clothes and backpacks all represent the journey that the kids will undertake this school year and makes me wonder where they will be at the end of it next May and how they will have grown and changed.



So my project for this week's round 2 of our Tic Tac Toe challenge is a little teacher gift for the first day of school. This one is actually for my 4 year old's preschool teacher as he doesn't start until next week and her gift is still at my house-- the other two kids already took theirs on back to school night.


This was a really quick and simple gift to make. I used a small legal pad and just covered it by cutting a 5 x 8 piece of paper for the front and gluing it securely to the top of the notebook (not the paper itself). I cut a 5 x 9 piece for the back and folded it over the top to cover where I glued the first piece. The pencil holder is an empty Prima flower bottle that I have been holding onto knowing it was too cute to throw away! It's always great to reuse stuff!

I used some not-so-typical school paper from SEI's Sonoma collection. I really love the colors of these papers and they are perfect for a more vintage look instead of the typical bright primary colors. I thought the sheet of numbers really represented a back to school theme. I also used the Die Cut Labels and Arrows from that collection. These are all a fantastic price right now at the store so make sure you check them out!


For the Tic Tac Toe choices I used distress (dark brown ink around the edges and I used my Zutter Distress-All to roughen up some of the papers), glitter (red Stickles around the apples) and lace. For me lace wasn't an obvious choice for a back-to-school project either but I really loved how it turned out and adds to that vintage look.

Supplies used:
5 x 8 legal pad
Prima flower bottle
SEI Sonoma papers and die cuts
Stickles-- Red
Colorbox Fluid Chalk-- Chestnut Roan
Pink Paislee Expressions Whimsies Alphabet-- Chocolate (wow! only $1.00)
Misc. lace, clip, buttons and bakers' twine
Sizzix apple die

YOUR Tic Tac Toe projects so far are phenomenal! Check out everything that has been entered so far by clicking here, it's definitely worth looking! There are still a few more days to enter this challenge for your chance to win a $20.00 voucher to The Beary Scrap so spend some time this weekend getting your creative juices flowing.