sincerely yours, dena

When we go to the beach we always write the date and the beach name in the sand and take a picture. That way when it comes time to scrapbook we can introduce the pages within the picture. It’s especially fun when it’s my nephew Eric’s first time on the beach.

My husband and I try to give each other thoughtful gifts rather than expensive gifts. For Christmas last year I gave this picture frame to him. It’s got a picture of the front door of every house we’ve lived in together. The last picture is of the architecture plan of our front door of our current house. Once it’s finished I will replace it with a real picture.

While drinking my tea this morning I caught myself looking at this shadow box I made 3 years ago. It’s got a pict and beach findings from our first trip to a Maine Beach with Rubbles. It was fun to compare the Rubman then to the massive beast he is now. 3 years and about 70 lbs later, he looks a little different. I’m going to go hunting for a similar shadow box and make another collage with a more recent photo.

I’ve got a limited craft budget and I’ve become very good at stretching a long distance. Here’s an example, instead of having a photo custom enlarged at a photo shop to fit a unique frame size I already had in the house, I creatively used my home ink jet printer and photoshop. I took the picture I took (of the Kennebec River) and within Photoshop removed all the color and cut the picture in half. I printed each half separately on 8 1/2 x 11 photo paper and then taped the 2 back into 1 in the frame. Yeah, the line is noticeable but so is the $ still left in my craft budget. When I win the lottery I’ll get the picture enlarged for real.

Our new bedroom was so boring and blah. It’s the room in our house where we spend the most time in, it deserves to be beautiful. I’ve always read in magazines how you are suppose to change your linens to match the season. Well, we’ve had the same khaki/blue color scheme for several years now. While my husband was away on a boys weekend trip, I went on a mini holiday of my own at Target and Lowe’s. I found this king size comforter on the sale rack for $34. Stores like Target have matching coordinates thru out the store. That’s where I picked up the matching bowl (on the side table) and dinner plate (displayed behind the bed). I am proud to say the miter saw is my new bff.

Before	After

I got the idea of putting a 2 inch shelf on top of the molding in Country Living and I’m so glad I spent the extra $10 and 30 mins cause it’s perfect for rotating pictures without putting holes in your walls.

To dress up the bedside lamp (which is older than the comforter) I glued a strip of fabric ribbon around the brim for an extra punch of “Oh Yeah!” Notice the bedside table, that was found on the side of a Boston city street. It’s one of my favorite finds.

My nephew Eric (Edog) and I had some fun crafting with finger paint. Once he went to bed, I cut hearts out of his masterpieces and put together valentines for his parents to send out. A few weeks later I got my valentine in the mail personalized with his picture. Once he’s able, I plan on naming him the Chief Executive of the Finger Painting painting division of SYD.

Whenever we go to the beach, we always take a stick, shell or rock and write the name and date in the sand. I’ve found this makes a great introduction page to a scrapbook. It’s also fun to incorporate what you can find or make on the beach like leaves, shells or your own footprints.

Birth announcements I helped put together for Baby Avery.

If you digital scrapbook one of the bonuses is replication. Creating Keepsakes has 2 options, blow it up and frame or shrink it down to send.

	page enlargements Get your 12×12 page blown up to 36×36! Service does not include mounting (foam core backing) or framing.
	mini page announcements (with fitted envelopes), ready for the mail Great for: - Christmas/Hanukah - Weddings - Baby Showers - Baby Announcements - Party Invitations - Family Reunions, etc

Here’s How: Choose the size and quantity you’d like, then place your order online. They send you a special box that you’ll use to ship your original scrapbook page. They digitally image your page and print your mini announcements on photo paper. At the end, they ship your original page back to you as well as your reproductions.

Every year my parrothead in-laws throw a huge rage in honor of Jimmy Buffet and every year I make a T-shirt for our caravan of friends who join us. The annual Maine get together had a theme this year “License To Chill.” I copied the Maine drivers license from the google images and modified them using Adobe Photoshop. I started by enlarging the license so it would fit nicely on a T-shirt. Then I changed the information on the licenses to be party appropriate. I made everyone 21 for the day! I then printed them out on T-shirt printer paper and transferred the design with a hot iron.

We looked pretty cool and my husband even got stopped at the gas station and was asked where she could get one.