End of school means time for summer crafting fun!

Now that schools been out for a few weeks and we are finally getting into a routine it's time to start on some fun craft projects with my kids. My daughter and I did one with an awesome watch kit from Oriental Trading the other day and it was a lot of fun.

The kit I got was called a Winter Watch Kit and it came with enough materials to make two watches which was perfect. Each set was in it's own little package with all the necessary pieces (it also included an extra parts bag) as well as an instruction sheet.

The instruction sheet gave you a pattern you could follow, or you could create your own. As you can see my daughter and I each did ours similar, but a little different on the backside where it came together. I thought the larger beads might be too big for my arm. All in all it was a very easy watch to make and now we have a set to wear together. She loved the time we spent together making them and couldn't wait to tell everyone at church Sunday that we had a matching set that we made.

My next project is going to be starting on school scrapbooks for my kids. I am completely in love with the School Year Paper Pack and the School Puffy Stickers that Oriental Trading carries. The papers are perfect for highlighting their school picture for the coordinating year. And because I got two sets I can do the same layout for both kids and get through them extra fast! The bright colors are easy to match with solid papers I already have so it will be very easy to coordinate with them. I can't wait to get them started and share my layouts with you!

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oriental Trading for your Scrapbooking & Paper Crafting Supplies!

Did you know that Oriental Trading has lots of Scrapbooking and Paper Crafting supplies? I had no idea until I was browsing around recently just how many different products they carried in this category. I had always had the pre-conceived opinion that they just carried supplies for parties and crafts for carnivals and things like that. I had even ordered things from them before for Vacation Bible School and still didn't know about this "hidden treasure" that was just sitting there waiting for me to discover it. And since I didn't know I bet lots of you didn't realize it either and that's why I'm sharing this great resource with you. My  two page layout above was created using all of the items shown under my scrapbook. I got them all from Oriental Trading, and they were all available with a minimum order of one. You don't have to worry about having to order multiple sets like some of their other items, these are all available in as many or few as you'd like.

Have I got your attention now? If not maybe some of these great items will peak your interest:

This is their 1/2 Lb. Pink Scrap Pack that features just what it says 1/2 Lb. of assorted scrap paper. I like this because it has the papers already cut with straight edges. There are so many ways you can use these papers to jazz up a plain page of pictures.

This assortment is their Christmas Scrapbook Paper Pack which you can pretty much tell just by looking at it why it's called that. I really liked this package and what it came with so I've included a few more individual pictures below of some of the papers included.

There's a few sheets of paper with cute words all over it that really you can use for things other than Christmas. I actually plan to use them in my sons baby scrapbook when I get it started. The other paper is a heavier card stock and can be used for lots of things. You can use it as a background just as it is, or you can cut out the individual parts to use on pages, or for other crafts.

The next thing I found really cool in this package was the half sheet card stock sheets above. They will make for some really awesome journaling boxes.

And finally there were several card-style folded sheets. Again I loved this because they are already pre-cut, scored, and folded ready to use. And they aren't exactly in Christmas only patters so I can utilize them year round for making my own cards, or letting my daughter make cards for her friends.

The final package of paper I got was their 3 Lbs. Solid & Pattern Mix Scrap Pack. As you can see it's another very nice assortment of papers in various pre-cut sizes. Several of the colors and patterns actually coordinate quite well with my Christmas pack so this will make for some great layouts. With two kids I'll be needing plenty of paper for their books and will be doing duplicate pages for holidays since I'm doing a book for each of them. Having such a great assortment, and duplicates of many sheets will be perfect!

Make sure you keep an eye out because I have even more great scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies to share with you soon!
Disclosure:  Thanks to PR Firm/sponsor I was provided with the above mentioned product for the purpose of my personal review. This blog post is not a paid post and the honest opinions stated are my own.

Scrapbook Weekend Ahead

Do any of you scrapbook? I've been scrapbooking for a few years now and have finally gotten my own space in our home where I can not only store my stuff, but also start on a book and not have to worry about picking it up before walking away for a few hours...days...or even (as I hate to admit) weeks. I'm so excited about my new space and wanted to share it with you, my readers. I hope to in the future be bringing you more of my scrapbooking adventures and have some great product reviews to offer you from different brands that make scrapbook products.

Until I started scrapbooking I never knew there were so many great products out there to use in creating just one book. Glue pens, glue sticks, glue dots, glue tape runners, paper, stickers, embellishments, stamps, paper cutters, and the list goes on and on. Oh and then of course there are all the things you need to store your materials and photos. Photo holders, paper holders, scrapbook bags, photo boxes, wheeled bags, and yes that list goes on and on too. I feel like I'm always finding new things to help me organize my stuff and ways to make my pages stand out. So why not share some of those with my readers! I know I wish someone would have shared some of the things I've learned when I first started.

So for now I leave you with a one tip. If you are new to scrapbooking...or even a seasoned scrapbooker you too may enjoy this tip. Do NOT crop all of your photos as soon as you get them. You may think what a silly tip this is, but I tell you the first night I went to a crop I did just that. I took a big stack of photos and chopped them all to just around the person or object I wanted in the photo. It wasn't until I started laying them out in my book that I realized this was a big mistake. Lesson learned, now I crop as I put them on the page. Sometimes you need that extra part around the picture for a photo to fit behind border paper and look good.