More inspired by Pinterest

Here's the original:
http://pinterest.com/pin/92746073545838664/

And mine:

More inspired by Pinterest

One of my favorite things about the holidays is all the crafty and bakey goodness that happens - both things I love to do. Here are another series of things I've made that were either copied from or inspired by things I found on Pinterest. Although I am usually a fanatic about credits, I have cookies in the oven and I'm going to be lazy - you can find the original pins if you follow me on Pinterest here.

Melted snowman cookies (a three day process and really a PITA - and don't even taste that good. Not worth it again).

Laundry sign. Super easy. I used digi elements from Backyard Crawlies and Backyard Cuties by Iliella Designs.

My version of important dates (framed this time).

Handprint snowman ornaments. Much harder than I expected. Even Alexa (a coordinated 7 year old) had a hard time making a good print with my help.

Important Dates - My Version

I saw this pin on Pinterest - a framed version of the important dates in a family's history. I loved the idea and wanted to create my own, so I fired up Photoshop Elements and gave it a try! I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The background paper is from Sweet Songs by ViVa Artistry and the fonts are Impact (dates) and Aquarelle (script). There are two date layers, both in overlay blending mode - one at 100% and one at 60%. I'm going to print this out (it's 8x10) and mat and frame it! :)

Handmade Holiday Gifts

I've been super busy making a lot of holiday gifts this year....and thought I would share! The first one is my favorite (and also the most complicated) - I made four flavors of Skittles vodka (which is more time consuming than I expected - you can google and find the recipe) and packaged them up in a Starbucks Frappuccino four pack that I altered with some digi supplies from Ho Ho Ho by Chelle's Creations, fiber and fluid chalk.


The second was really easy - I packaged up a Tervis Tumbler with a hot lid and a cold lid and included several packets of Iced tea to go and several tea bags. This gift came in at just under $20 each (mostly due to the cost of the Tervis supplies - but I did get them at Bed Bath and Beyond and used my coupons). I topped them off with a cute tag that fit the "tea" theme using Holly Jolly Holiday by Chelle's Creations.


And finally, even easier - I packaged a Starbucks gift card, some chocolate nuggets and Starbucks Via (coffee to go) in a mug, finished off with a tag using 12 Days by Mari Koegelenberg (which is also available as a paper kit by My Mind's Eye).


Hope this gives you some good gift ideas!

A few projects

So busy.....but still scrappin'! Here are few projects I recently did for Jessica Sprague's creative team:

Credits: Oh Boy collection by Carina Gardner and Crystal Wilkerson, Essentials Stitches Volume 1 and 2 by Carina Gardner, Birdhouse Buttons by Carina Gardner.

Credits (both coming soon): It's A Start templates by In the Making Design, Sidewalk Chalk collection by Echo Park

Credits: Meet & Greet Card Templates and Sassy Season Paper Pack by In the Making Design.

Another hybrid gift idea!

I made this for Alexa to give her teacher for Valentine's Day - using the Perfect Packaging: Heart Cup Template by iKari Designs and papers and elements from the Affectionate collection by Carina Gardner. I'll wrap it up in plastic and tie it with ribbon! Cute and easy!

I know, it's not even Christmas yet

but check out these cute Valentine's Goodie Bags by Elle's Studio, releasing Monday at jessicasprague.com:

Hybrid makes it easy!

I absolutely love printing my own gift bags, boxes and tags - it's so easy to perfectly customize them to look exactly the way you want them to look.

Here are a couple recent projects. The first uses Christmas Goodie Bags and Christmas Recipe Cards by Elle's Studio - the bags are the perfect size to slip in six small cookies and a gift card!


And the second project just adds a sparkly bow and Christmas Gift Tags (also by Elle's Studio) to locally made candles to make a simple gift!

It's beginning to look a lot like

winter! I have tons and tons of Christmas decorations, but I never know what to do with my house after the Christmas decorations have been put away and there are still a few months until spring and spring decorating. I decided to make a winter themed banner to hang above my fireplace. To create it, I used the easy-peasy template from Build a Banner: Rectangle by iKari Designs and gorgeous new papers (releasing at jessicasprague.com on Monday) by Splendid Fiins - Winter Wonderland Patterned Paper Pack. I added some transparent embossing powder over the letters, some stickles over the circle of dots, and some glittery dimensional snowflake stickers by Jolees. I wish you could see how glittery and sparkly the banner is in real life! Hopefully the closeup gives you at least a little idea. Enjoy!

We're back from Florida and some good stuff!

Well, it's been an eventful couple weeks! Have I mentioned that the cat pulled a full glass of water over on my laptop and drying it out for two weeks did not work? Limping along with Gimp has been awful (especially on my tiny little netbook screen) and I'm still mostly laptopless. A new one is coming with a very long delivery wait (thank you, Dell), so I loaded PSE on Adam's computer yesterday and I'll be scrapping some over the next couple weeks, when I can squeeze time in between his poker tournaments! And I learned something really cool - did you know you can buy a "hard drive enclosure" for your internal hard drive, effectively making it an external drive? I can't tell you how comforting it is to have my hard drive accessible - even though I back up my files obsessively (I've posted about that a lot), I still have favorites and application preferences and all my PSE presets that are in application data folders that AREN'T backed up. But now I still have them!

In other news, we were in Florida last week visiting The Mouse, Adam's family (mom, grandma, aunt & uncle) and my parents. It was a really fun and relaxing week - except for the frantic call we received from the petsitter on Monday saying Archie would not or could not get up. He's 11 1/2, which is old for a German shepherd, so I had some not so nice thoughts about what that might mean. Thoughts I definitely DID NOT want to be facing while on vacation 1000 miles from home. Adam flew home Tuesday morning and thankfully my old guy (Archie, not Adam) has Lyme disease, which is treatable. He's much better but still wobbly. And Adam got a nice vacation away from the kids while I stayed with them at my mom and dad's. He ended up flying back down on Saturday, just in time for me to pick him up at the airport and continue the long drive home to Pennsylvania.

OOOOkkkay then. So that's the personal news. On the creative team front, I haven't been doing much (you know, no scrapping computer), but I definitely wanted to make sure you're aware of the upcoming FREE class at Jessica Sprague:

And, I was actually able to get another hybrid project done! I hate that I can't effectively edit images and the quality of the photo is so poor, but there you have it. This little bag was so much fun to make and would be perfect for little Christmas gifts. I used Perfect Packaging: Boxy Bag Curved by iKari Designs and the soon-to-be-released Dashes Through the Snow paper and elements packs by Echo Park.

And yes, Christmas is coming!!!

A great gift for book lovers!

I have a lot of book lovers in my life, so when I saw these brand new create-your-own bookplates by LivE (releasing at jessicasprague.com on Monday 11/8) I shouted out loud! What a super easy peasy gift idea! I coupled the bookplates with Perfect Packaging: Stationary Box Template by iKari Designs and Coquette: Damsel papers by Carina Gardner and made a super cute gift set. *NOTE: You will need to resize the box template to make it the appropriate size for your bookplates! :)

Hope this gives you some inspiration!

(Sorry about the photo quality. My cat pulled a glass of water over onto my scrapping laptop and I'm limping along on my netbook using Gimp rather than PSE.)

Easy peasy gift idea

I'm always looking for hand-made holiday gift ideas, and this letter sized portrait template set by iKari: Create a Calendar: 2011 Simply Circles Portrait is perfect! It's so easy to get a few photos of each of my nephews and create a "grandchildren" calendar for my parents (and then it's easy to take those same photos and make a surprise gift for my brother and sister).

Because the templates are letter sized, they're easy to print on any home printer, or you can resize them to make a desktop-sized gift!

To finish mine off, I used Walk in the Park Paper Pack 1 and Walk in the Park Paper Pack 2 by Echo Park. Hope you enjoy!

Trick or Treat!!!!

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of all manner of treat bags and boxes....and this gable box template by iKari Designs is FABULOUS!!! I paired it up with some yumminess by Echo Park Paper Company and voila!

Credits (all available at jessicasprague.com):
Perfect Packaging: Gable Box by iKari Designs
Happy Halloween Paper Packs #1 and #2 and Journal & Element Pack by Echo Park Paper Company.

Hope you enjoy!!

I really love Halloween (and fall)

This time of year makes me so happy, especially now that we're back in the northeast and the leaves are turning. Here are a few projects I've done recently to celebrate! As always, credits under each.
Credits: Spookville by Mari Koegelenberg

Credits: Spooky by Elise Hansen

Credits: Frolic Thru Fall by Creations by Rachael

So exciting!

Four times a year, the Digichick designers release grab bags - a whole bunch of awesome goodies bundled together at great prices. August is one of those four times, and as you can see by the number of layouts I did using bags, I couldn't contain myself. SO MUCH GOODNESS and really, at great prices. Linked credits under each photo - hope you enjoy!
Credits: August 2010 Grab Bag - Summer Days: Noon Picnic and Carefree Afternoon by Mari Koegelenberg.

Credits: August 2010 Grab Bag by Kelleigh Ratzlaff, Celebrate! Brite by Chelle's Creations.

Credits: August 2o10 Classy Kid Grab Bag by Laura Banasiak.

Credits: August 2010 Template Grab Bag by Nikki Epperson, Lucky Scraps August Grab Bag by Karen Lewis

Credits: August 2010 Grab Bag by Susan Robinson, He Loves Me by Amanda Carlson

CHOO CHOO - it's a birthday blog train!

Today is Chelle's birthday and her creative team decided to celebrate with a freebie blog train! Also, everything in Chelle's store is 27% off today!

My contribution is a set of 2 printable cards that can be printed either as you see it in the preview (just cut out the card front and you're ready to go), or as layers that you can cut out and assemble in order to make a hybrid card. You can download the cards HERE.

Here are the hybrid versions of both cards - I added some distressing, fluid chalk, pop dots and Stickles!


The rest of the train stops are below - ENJOY!
Chelle's Blog (Stacey's freebie): http://chelles-creations.blogspot.com/
Janine & Stacey: http://digitalscrappinrocks.blogspot.com
Carol: http://thepadgettwayoflife.blogspot.com/
Fran: http://franscraps.blogspot.com
Karen: http://merchimakesit.blogspot.com/
Kate & Megan: http://www.earleyfamily.com
Kayla: http://www.keepscrappin.blogspot.com
Tanya: http://www.tanyatumbles.com
Emma: http://www.scrappy-dappy-doo.blogspot.com
Juli: http://julifreshfish.blogspot.com/
Heather: http://heatherw25.blogspot.com/
YOU ARE HERE -------->Tracy: http://tracykosofsky.blogspot.com

Oh, and one more thing - if you're a fan of Chelle's, you won't want to miss this blog post. You have until Friday to show us one or more of your layouts using Chelle's products, and you'll get the as-yet-unreleased Summer Splash Alpha, plus have a chance to win a gift certificate to Chelle's store!!

A Productive Weeekend!

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you so much to all the men and women who have fought to ensure our freedom.

I took Friday off from work and ended up having a really productive four day weekend - spending time with the kids (including a fun trip to Old Navy with Alexa), cleaning the whole house, and being crafty! Alexa and I made some really cute paper flowers and we set the kids up to fingerpaint on the deck - I definitely have some layouts to do - what a fun mess that was!

I did find some time for me and did these two hybrid projects using templates from Kelleigh Ratzlaff's May Grab Bag. The seed packet features the Tangled Twirls kit by Design by Heather T, and the soap box was made with a paper from Stenciled Papers - Two by Roben-Marie Designs. Oh, and one of our cute paper flowers! :)

It's another blog hop-hop-hop!

I love Kelleigh Ratzlaff's blog hops because her creative team is truly amazing and I always get so much inspiration from seeing a bunch of work using her templates all in one day!

Want to play along with us? Visit all the hop stops (list is below the photo) and then go to Kelleigh's site to cast your vote for your favorite project via the comments.

Here's my project using the Clover Box Template Set and digital papers from Sweet Shoppe Designs designer contributions to the January 2010 Digi Files.

You're here ----> Tracy - http://tracykosofsky.blogspot.com/
Sally - http://arainbowslife.blogspot.com/
Laura - http://www.lauras-little-corner.blogspot.com/
Juli - http://julifreshfish.blogspot.com/
Julie - http://mycrazylifeasamomandawife.blogspot.com/
Christy - http://scrapsofme.com/
LuAnn - http://livelaughcreate-luann.blogspot.com/
Jacinda - http://www.digikiwichick.blogspot.com/
Viva - http://vivaartistry.blogspot.com/
Dalis - http://www.stampergirl.com
Holly - http://lv2scrapnjp.blogspot.com
Sharyn - http://analteredlife.wordpress.com/
Karen Lewis - http://scrappingmum.blogspot.com/
Linda - http://www.yamstamps.com
Alice - http://aliceslittlewonderland.blogspot.com/
Mel - http://domesticatedlady.com
Sunghee - http://www.creativityinprogress.com/blog/
Carolina - http://creativepad.typepad.com
Debbie - http://www.debbieseyer.com/my_weblog/
Kim - http://paperrocksscissors.blogspot.com/

Have fun!

Another little ornament

I'm having so much fun making these little ornaments! Here's another - I used Kelleigh's Pyramid Box Template Set and stuck the bottoms together after they were all assembled to create a really cool shape. I again used Danielle Engebretson's Holly Jolly November Grab Bag for the digital papers, and finished it up with some gold ribbon around the edges. I played around with adding some beads and flowers, but I ended up liking it plain so I left it that way.

Make sure you stop by Kelleigh's blog to see the other adorable ornaments she's created this month!

Hybrid Ornaments - so fun and so easy!

One of the things I absolutely love about Kelleigh Ratzlaff's hybrid templates is that they can be used in so many ways. During the whole month of November, Kelleigh is posting "30 ornaments in 30 days" that shows how to use her templates to make adorable ornaments!

I have done two ornaments so far - this first one uses the Perfectly Square Template Set and digi papers/elements from Danielle Engebretson's November Grab Bag:

This second ornament uses one of the terrific templates in Kelleigh's November Grab Bag and digtial papers/elements from We Can Make a Snowman by Elise Hansen and Michelle Batton:

I hope this gives you some ideas for how to create some pretty ornaments from templates. I think these make great gift toppers - and you can even create little matching tags to go with them! Make sure you stop by Kelleigh's blog to see what she has created!