24 Olive Street

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!!

Valentine's Day decor...and a giveaway!

I don't do a lot in the way of decorating for Valentine's Day. By the time it rolls around we've already had 2 birthdays at my house without having had any time to recuperate from the craziness of Christmas! But I did put up a few things around the house.

I made this simple banner out of some vintage book paper & cut the hearts from papers in the Lasting Love kit with my Silhouette.

Some other crafty decor items that I made a few years ago... burlap wreath & mason jar candles.

One thing I do love to do is decorate with cute towels...for every holiday. Even if you don't do anything else, cute towels add some fun to your kitchen or bathroom.

So, of course, I spotted some cute waffle towels in the dollar section of Target. I noticed that they've gone up a little in price...they used to be $2.50 and now they're $3.00 for a pair. Still a good deal on some cute towels.

And when I saw this cute vintage Valentine's Day fabric I had to add them to these towels!

I bought mostly the turquoise towels...because they're my fave :) But I did also get a few pink ones. They had 1 or 2 more styles but I didn't like them as much. I try to stick with the embroidered ones because I just don't think the one with what look like decals will hold up in the wash.

I bought several of these towels (just couldn't resist!) and after I take a few down to my space at This Old House I'll have a couple extra to giveaway :)

If you'd like a chance to get a cute set Valentine's Day towels (US only please) just leave a comment! I can't guarantee which one you'll get but I promise they're all cute :) I'm only going to leave this open until Sunday so I can mail them out to the winner on Monday & hopefully get them by Valentine's Day!

more Easter towels...

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my Easter towels! I've been meaning to come back & post a winner but we've had spring break this week so I'm trying to keep the 2 older kids busy. You know how that goes!

I had fun making them and thought I'd make a few more. Someone had mentioned that all they could find were the yellow chick towels so when I was at Target the other day they had just a couple sets left, one of them being the chick towels, so I scooped them up.

I'll be honest, when I bought the towels the first time I skipped those because I thought they'd be too hard to match up with fabric. But I have to say, I was really happy with how these turned out!

I had an Amy Butler fat quarter that I used for these. By the way, fat quarters are great for projects like this. You don't have to cut up a big piece of fabric.

I wanted to use white ribbon but didn't have any (huh??) so I grabbed the green. Then I found this cute white trim that I added which I think made it extra cute :)

I'm thinking these are going to stay up past Easter since they're very spring-y.

You also might notice that the fabric piece is sometimes bigger on one towel than the other. I didn't measure. I eyeballed everything. Like I said, quick project!

Since I was on a roll (and Addie was napping) I made a few more...

Again, I pulled out some fat quaters I had on hand...aka, the fat quarters I've grabbed at fabric stores & shows because they were just too dang cute not to snatch up! If you sew you know exactly what I'm talking about ;)

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And since I was able to make more of them I thought it'd be fun to give away 2 sets :)

So here's the winners...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7	5	

Timestamp: 2012-04-06 01:41:26 UTC

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So that means Shannon & Dawn! So email your addy at 24olivestreet {at} gmail.com so I can get those out to you!

Someone else also asked if these are washable and the answer is yes! I can't have anything around this house unless it's washable.  

Point in case - I only had my new towels up for a day when someone wiped their dirty hands on them. Of course, when questioned the 2 suspects both denied having any knowledge of such events.

Mmm hmmm... Maybe I should've let the hubby 'interview' them... hehe

I will tell you that towels like these are stretchy and the edges are never quite straight. Just the nature of the fabric. I wash mine in cold water, low dryer or sometimes even hang them to dry. And they sometimes need a quick ironing to make them look pretty again :)

Easter towel makeover...and a giveaway

I love that Target has a dollar spot. And even though everything isn't technically a dollar, they're still pretty cheap. Like these cute little bunny towels that were $2.50 for a 2 pack.

I thought they were cute...but a bit plain. And, of course, my first thought was "I can fix that!" So I bought a couple sets, came home & raided my ribbon & scrap fabric. And this is what I came up with...

Much better I think :) Just a bit of fabric on the bottom with some ribbon to finish it off! And I whipped them up in no time flat. My kind of project!

Now I could have made the bottom fabric into a ruffle...but I didn't have that kind of time. Addie was napping and I had to take full advantage of my limited time.

And since these towels are pretty generic I thought they'd look cute not only in the kitchen but also in my spare bathroom downstairs.

I'm hoping I'll see more of these kind of towels...maybe in a summer print or something. I'd love to make more. I love lightweight towels like these.

**Giveaway**

And since I picked up a couple sets of these I thought I'd give away a set to my blog readers! So if you want to be entered in the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick a random winner on Monday!