24 Olive Street

Day to Day kit release // On Cherry Street

Today is the relase day for the new On Cherry Street kit! This Day to Day kit is filled with bolder colors and lots more cards & die cuts!

And, of course, a cute, coordinating stamp set :)

I was able to make a full 2 page pocket page spread and I still have tons of cards leftover.

I keep my pocket pages pretty simple. I don't usually like to add a lot of "fluff" to them. The cards and stamps in this kit make that easy to do and add some fun color!

I added stamping along with journaling on the cards and also some little tags cut with my Silhouette that I also stamped the little sentiments on (love those!).

That little house in the stamp set is so cute and versatile, it doesn't have to be used *just* for "moving" cards & layouts. I've been taking the online Copic markers class and I've been having fun playing with coloring in the house in different colors.

My little one (who always likes to do what mama's doing!) had fun playing with the stamp set, too :)

Be sure to head over to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog for more inspiration & pics of the kit!!

forgot one!

It's been such a crazy busy couple of weeks that I just realized I forgot to share one of my Noel Mignon layouts from last week! Last week Noel posted a request to members to give us DT members a challenge. There was one that was all about using up frames on a layout so I decided to take on that one!

The Tea for Two kit came with several chipboard frames so I started with some of those along with 3 photos that would fit perfectly inside of them. Then I used Britt's layout (see here) as a springboard for my layout. I loved how she used lots of different elements of the kit on the bottom of her page so I started adding & moving things around til I liked it.

I also added some stitching around the outside of the layout to frame it up. Super simple layout but I really like how it turned out!

salsa

Note: Be sure to check out my giveway post here to see if you were the winner!

A few years ago I started canning for the first time. And I have to say I'm hooked! Now don't get me wrong, I don't can a ton of things. I'm still learning and trying to expand my garden every year.

And this year, quite honestly, my garden was pretty lame. Going to Disneyland in June kind of set me up for failure when it came to my garden (and really my whole yard) because I didn't get things planted in time. I only planted some tomato plants and cabbage. And out of 5 cabbage plants I planted only one survived thanks to some pesky pests.

I did plant some pumpkin plants but only one pumpkin is growing :( So next year I will probably have to try and pollinate them myself since the bees didn't do their job this year. I noticed within the last week that I might have more pumpkins starting to grow but they won't have enough growing time between now and Halloween. Although, I might have some green pumpkins for my fall table :)

It's all a learning process for sure. But my little one loves helping me in the garden which makes it so much more fun!

Every year the one thing I always plant is tomatoes. They're easy to grow and you can do so much with them. Although this year mine didn't fare so well and I'm wondering if switching planting beds was what made the difference.

I don't usually make spaghetti sauce since it takes a ton of tomatoes for even one quart sized jar of sauce. And quite honestly, the time it takes just isn't worth it to me. But the one thing I love to make is salsa. It's pretty easy to make and my whole family loves it. Seriously, when I start making it we go through several jars! And my kids love to take it in their lunches. So I like to can a lot of it to last us til the next year's salsa making.

I love to use this salsa mix. You can find it at just about any store that sells canning supplies. When I first started making salsa I found tons of recipes online but I worried about getting the wrong balance of spices. But this one is perfect. If you're not a canner you can still make it and either freeze it or just eat a lot of salsa! hehe It makes six pint sized jars out of about 6lbs of tomatoes.

After I've cooked the salsa I like to use my immersion blender just before adding to the jars. We like our salsa a bit more on the "saucy" side & less chunky.

Btw, these immersion blenders are great for soups, too!

Then just process according to the package directions!

I also got to finally use my blue canning jars. I've been hoarding these cause they're so cute! You can barely tell they're blue but I like how it makes the salsa look like a deep red color.

You can see the difference in the regular jar vs the blue one. Well, I have another batch of salsa to make! Cause those 11 jars that we have left will not last us til next year!

1 layout 2 ways

I posted on the Noel Mignon blog yesterday about creating multiple layouts using the same layout design. I sometimes do this when I have multiple pages I want to create with the same theme, usually with my kids (school, sports, etc). It makes it much easier to use one layout design to create these. And you can make them look totally different by using different papers, embellishments, etc.

Here's what I mean. The first layout is for my oldest daughter's 1st day of school.

I used this layout I found on Pinterest as inspiration. I like the use of one 4x6 photo as the focal point, adding embellishments around it.

I found those great chalkboard printables on Pinterest, too! (found here)

And here is the layout I created for my son's 1st day of school...

You can see the design is the same but the layouts look quite different.

And doing it this way saves me a bit of time. Since the layouts are going to go in my kids' individual scrapbooks I don't really need to come up with totally different designs.

The great thing about these layouts is I was able to use the same Noel Mignon kit (Tea for Two) for both. At first this kit seems very feminine but you can see there are still many ways you can create a more masculine layout as well!

Oregon mini-album, September stamp release, & a giveaway!!!

Hi there friends!

I have a lot to share so buckle up cause this is going to be a long post! haha

It'll be fun, I promise!! And for putting up with me I'm going to have a giveaway at the end :)

First off, today is the September stamp release over at Sweet Stamp Shop and oh my are the new stamps cute!!! I'm on the kit design team so I haven't "officially" gotten my mitts on these beauties...but I will very soon!!

And check out what Nicole has in store for the next stamp release...coordinating stamps to go with the September release!!!

Aaack!!! Can you stand the cuteness??!!

Don't you love when companies do this??!

I have to say that I have loved working with these stamps. They're super easy to use, stamp really well, and you can't beat the price! Plus, they're made in the USA!

Ok, so now on to my Oregon mini-album. When I took a look at the AHOY! kit I knew it would be perfect for my Oregon trip pics with the nautical/beach/summer theme. I knew I had too many photos for a layout but not quite enough for a full album which is why I settled on a mini-album.

I started with using that "Explore More" card for the cover. I actually created the base of the album ahead of time, creating the cover & cutting up various pieces of patterned paper. That way when I got home it made creating the album much less time consuming.

I added that pressed penny that I got in Seaside with some E6000 glue. I think it added a nice touch :)

Inside the album I added various photos in 3x4, 4x4 and 4x6 sizes and mixed in some things from our trip like postcards & such.

Btw, a neat thing to do when you're on a trip is to mail yourself a postcard! Then when you get home it has the postmark of where you've been!!

I've been doing this on trips for years now. And usually the postcard it waiting for me by the time I get home :)

Sometimes I write a lot, sometimes it's just "having so much fun!!" kind of thing.

It's just a fun little addition to a mini-album or pocket page style scrapbooking. I did the same thing when we went to Disneyland back in June.

To see more of my album and how I put it together & all of the stamp, you can head over to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog for my full post!

Giveaway

********Giveaway Closed********

Winner Announced Below!

In "honor" of the new September stamp release I thought it'd be fun to do a giveaway. It might be something handmade, it might be a stamp set, who knows!! But it will be great, I promise :)

You have 3 opportunities for entry:

1) Comment on this post. Easy, right?!

2) Go the the September release page and then come back here and comment with your favorite stamp set. Or, if you see another stamp set from all the others that is your fave you can tell me that, too!

3) If you make a purchase from the Sweet Stamp Shop between now and Friday (either new release or something else) be sure to tell Nicole I sent you in the comment section of your order (Michelle Whitlow...there are other Michelle's on the DT!) and come back here & comment that you ordered something. And be sure to tell me what you ordered...just cause I get excited about others ordering fun stuff!!

Be sure to leave 3 separate comments on this blog post for each item and good luck!!!

Winner!!!

Lisa, you're the winner of my giveaway!!! Please message me your address at 24olivestreet {at} gmail.com!!

right now // Sweet Stamp Shop project

The other day I posted a "right now" project about my kids and what they're into at this moment. Today I have a little project about my oldest daughter who just started middle school using the Reflections kit from Sweet Stamp Shop.

One of the cards that came with the kit had some journaling prompts that I thought would be perfect for my daughter to jot down some of her thoughts on starting this new journey.

I let her filll it out all on her own...I didn't want my ideas or thoughts to cloud her journaling.

Since I didn't have any school photos yet I used a photo that I took on our recent Oregon trip.

On the backside I used more of those great quote cards from the kit (they're actually smaller than 3x4 so you can back them with the polka dot cards in the kit) & photo stamped with a sentiment from the Enjoy Calligraphy stamp set.

I will put this mini-page in her school scrapbook in among the regular pages. It will be nice for her to look back on. The stamps in this kit are great for lots of different projects. They'd be a great tool to use for back to school pages every year!

Supplies used: Sweet Stamp Shop Reflections kit // Enjoy Calligraphy stamp set // Color Theory Clean Slate ink pad // 6x8 photo pocket pages Design 3 // black journaling pens

right now

It's been a while since I've done a layout like this - a snapshot in time type of layout. Actually, I probably haven't done one since before I had my little one! I like to do these every once in a while, not about anything too "deep", just likes, interests, stuff like that.

I used the Tea for Two classic kit from Noel Mignon on this one. I'm in love with this kit. The papers are just so adorable and the embellishments...well, Noel always knows how to add such great embellishments to her kits!

I cropped the photos at approx. 3x3 with a white edge because I knew that would leave me a little bit of room on the edges of my layout.

That yellow doily added a bit of color and a nice background for my title.

I hope you're enjoying your Labor Day if you have the day off! My kids go back to school this week so we'll be getting into new routines (and I'll probably be requiring more than average amounts of caffeine!!)