peace cranes

 

If you're wondering what you can contribute to help Japan after the horror of the tsunami and earthquake, here's a project that I think is amazingly uplifting, and something you can definitely do with your children to try and explain the enormity and severity of this heartwrenching disaster.
I took this photo last fall after receiving this paper crane from a dear Flickr friend, but I'm definitely going to make a few of my own tonight with my boys and send them in. I think this is very worthwhile cause, and something we can all contribute to. And yeah, I'm sure that many of you have a lot of pretty paper sitting around that would be perfect for this. ;)
Here is a link ( the PDF they mentioned won't open for me) to an animated tutorial of how to fold Origami cranes:  
http://www.origami.org.uk/

What else to do if you're all thumbs at folding paper? A Flickr contact of mine, Ali, is in the process of setting up a shop called 'One Thousand Wishes', where you will be able to purchase handmade Japanese papers, fabrics & washi tape, as well donated artwork and photography. 100% of the proceeds raised will go to the
Canadian Red Cross Earthquake and Tsunami  relief fund. Please consider making a small donation, purchasing an item, or donating something pretty that you've made. You can read more about it here on her blog:
http://thedottedline.typepad.com/the_dotted_line/

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AC bloghop winner is...

  Fifi said...

this is sooo cute and adorable, my favourite thing I've seen on the hop

March 17, 2011 12:38 PM

Fifi, please email me at

melaniedotlouette@gmaildotcom

and I will get a nice little package of AC goodies out to you.

Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments-hope you had fun on the hop!

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feeling lucky? :)

Hey All!
Welcome to another American Crafts bloghop, and Happy St. Patty's Day to you as well! I hope you're wearing a bit of green today, and are feeling the 'luck of the Irish' - I've got a fun little giveaway down below, so be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win some goodies.

For my bloghop layout, I decided to use the beautiful new line, 'Hello Sunshine', so I could scrap this summer photo of my  adorable niece. I'm going to frame this layout and send it to her, so there's a bit more 'stuff' on here than I would normally use, but I LOVE how it turned out!  'Hello Sunshine' is perfect for girly pages, as well as Spring & summer photos- the colours & designs are really fresh & vibrant.  And I'm so happy that AC has started to do patterned papers in Kraft- I've been using these a ton lately, I love, love, love them, as well as those totally cute perforated borders that are on all the papers. I'm really enjoying these new lines, they're all awesome.

 I fussy cut the clouds out of the 'Dandy' paper, used one of them as a journaling spot for my subtitle, and adhered it with dimensional dots above my title. The strip of tiny hearts is one of border strips I was talking about above, cute huh? :)  I added the felt tree ('Daybreak' Details) in my title in place of the 'i' in 'Skip' as I wanted some green there to recall the green trees in my photo. Another bit of cuteness. :) Finally, I adhered a little scrap of ribbon I had on my table to add some blue to the middle, and used some previously punched loopy border strips to my photo edges to make it stand out... I don't own this punch, but I'm thinking I need to buy it. It's a new Martha, and  uh, again... totally cute. Finally, I added some of the 'Sunbeam' paper butterflies to fill in the space above my journaling, et voila!

Now, to continue on your bloghop journey, next up in line is the talented Michelle Lanning, who I'm sure has something totally gorgeous whipped up for you.

Thanks for coming by!  Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win these pretty 'Details' rosette flowers, and I'll pick a winner on Sunday evening. 

 

  I'm also doing some Spring cleaning, so you'll get a few other extra things tossed in there as well. ;)
Happy Hopping!

ETA: I'll leave this open until 8pm EST tonight, and draw a name shortly after. Thank you for all the wonderful comments!

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My heart is aching for the people of Japan. Many, many, many prayers are being said today. It is really just unfathomable.

May God watch over you all.

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I'm ready.

For Spring, that is. We had a walloping snowstorm yesterday, and this is what it looks like this morning.
 Yes, I'm over it. There are days when I really understand why people here fly south until mid-April....

 

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Some sharing...

I've been scrapbooking a lot lately. Well, a lot for me, which is probably considered a slow period for the average scrapper. ;p I'll never be a prolific scrapper. Or a fast one. And I've found that when I'm in the mood to take photos, scrapbooking is put on the back burner, and vice versa. Lately? I haven't picked up my camera much at all. I can't seem to do both hobbies at once, and that's okay, I can live with it. But I don't necessarily understand it. ;p
So without further ado, here are a few of pages I can share here... mostly all using product from my favourite company, I think you all know who that is! And speaking of American Crafts, stay tuned here to see something fun happening in the next few weeks... :)

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a fresh start.

Hello, remember me? :) It's been a while. I finally talked (actually begged) my gal pal Linda into doing a mini makeover here, and I'm so thrilled with the results. She reworked my tired,cluttered blog, and made it fresh, clean, and minimal- I love it. LOVE it. :) She's the best bestie.
I'll be adding some links to the sidebar over the next few days, ( with Linda's at the the top of the list, of course!) and switching a few things around, so I hope to be up and running on a regular basis soon- yeah! It's amazing what a bit of decluttering will do for the morale, huh?

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