Family Recipe Book - My Creations Display Album

I've got another holiday gift idea for you today.

Close to My Heart sells something called the My Creations Display Album. This is a cute little stand up album with 6x6" page protectors.

You can easily add paper, photos, and embellishments to make this a desktop calendar, or mini album feature family photos, baby's first year, etc.

Here's another idea. How about a mini recipe book? We all want to make the holidays special for the ones we love. I know I've had to ask my mother-in-law for her Swedish Meatball receipe because Christmas Eve wouldn't be Christmas Eve for Andrew without them. Include all those family/traditional recipes. You can print them up on the computer, or handwrite them.



Since there are page protectors, your receipe cards are protected from splatter/flour/ingredients. What a great gift for a newlywed, a soon to be married couple, or for one of those kids who has just moved out. You can also print up some easy measurement equivalents/substitutions and put them in the back - easy reference for when you're flipping through. (I'm seriously considering making one for myself too!)



This is one recipe book that your kids will want a copy of when they leave home!

CTMH Products Used:
Stamps: Friendship Alphabet Large, Friendship Alphabet Small, Pair a Phrase
Ink: Holiday Red, Topiary
Paper: Chocolate, Holiday Red, Topiary, Bamboo, White Daisy, Believe Level 2 Paper Pack
Other: My Creations Display Album

Cheap, Easy, Fast, and Fabulous

If you have young kids, then you have stacks of artwork laying around your house that you don't know what to do with. I mean, the refrigerator/message board only holds so much artwork, and geez, they come home with more everyday!

I'm constantly gathering up little piles of it, hiding it between stacks of newspaper, and sticking it in the recycling bin. And heaven forbid if Ellie happens to see something poking out...."Hey, who put this in here?!!!!"....ahhhh the righteous indignation of a four year old.....

Sound familiar? Well then have I got the perfect idea for you!

CTMH sells a Monthly Calendar ($7.95). It's generally meant to be decorated with photos/layouts which you can display during the appropriate month and transfer directly into your scrapbook (it's acid free/lignin free/buffered), and that is a great use for the calendar.



BUT, if you have the artwork issues that I have described above, you can easily turn this into a personalized art portfolio calendar for gift giving purposes. The instructions are very simple.

1) Pick out 12 pieces of artwork.
2) Adhere them to the calendar.
3) Label the months/dates.

That's it.

Oh, did I mention that this is the perfect gift for your kids to make? It's true. Let them pick out the pictures to include. Have them write or color in the letters for the months (the Posterboard Alpha is PERFECT for this), and they can write the numbers too. Seriously, get rid of artwork, let your kids craft with you, and end up with a great, personalized, holiday gift for only $8. Doesn't get much better.

Of course, you can also decorate the calendar the traditional way, and below are a couple examples of how you could use the calendar: do the whole shebang, pictures and all, or just create the layout for a crafty/scrappy friend to add photos to, but I have a feeling I'm more likely to go with Option 1 this year....

My Creations Memory Game - some other ideas

There are so many different things that you can do with CTMH's My Creations Memory Game. In my earlier post (http://mprantner.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-creations-memory-card-game.html) I showed you one example for using this product, but there are so many more.

Here are some samples of alternatives for the whole set: numbers with a corresponding number of stamped images, and upper and lower case letters. You could also match stamped images with the letters they start with, match photos/stamps with the corresponding word in a foreign language, or if your family lives far away match photos with titles (Uncle Theo, Aunt Lydia, etc.).

You could also create an Advent activities box (see pg. 54 in the Idea Book), a visual phone directory for kids who can't read yet, a puzzle (by printing a 12x18 photo and cutting it into 3x3 pieces that are mounted to each of the coasters), the list goes on and on.



And you don't need to feel tied to the box. At 42 cents a piece, these chipboard coasters are a steal! Use them as above to make double frames, ornaments, or framed magnets. You could also connect a bunch of tiles to spell out words such as welcome, noel, family, or spell out your last name. Have fun, and involve the kids. These are easy, family friendly projects to complete.

Tag Calendar

This is one of the simple/easy, and inexpensive, Christmas projects I'll be sharing at my Holiday Gift Giving Open House on Saturday.



If you're one of those people (like me) who doesn't want to have to lug around a huge daytimer; prefers to be able to look at dates from a macro view; hates to use the phone as a daytimer; and your checkbook register is perpetually showing the wrong years, this is the perfect gift.



It's small and compact, and fits into pretty much any cute little purse. On the back of each of the tags I stamped a list for important dates/birthdays or things that you need to remember to do. It's easy to take a list/reminder with you! Is your gift recipent a big fan of lists? No problem, you can always stamp extra reminder tags to go with the gift and once a tag is filled up, they can just remove/replace it. This would be a great gift for someone who likes to scrapbook as you could easily add these tags to a layout or mini album.



In the first example, I did a lot of stamping, so it took a little longer, but here is a more simple version that you could easily mass produce. I cut both versions using the Cricut AP cartridge set at 4". The cartridge has a number of other tag shapes, so you can easily change up the size/shape to suite your needs/tastes.

If you'd like to see this and my other Holiday Gift ideas in person, you are welcome to attend to my Holiday Gift Giving Open House this Saturday (October 22nd, 8-10), call 703-536-8899 to RSVP.

CTMH Products Used:
Stamps: I used a lot of different stamps for this project, but the main ones (calendar/reminder/list) were Notice the Details, A Moment in Time, and the set form the Lucky Workshop on the Go.
Paper: White Daisy, Chocolate, Bamboo, Kraft, and various scraps
Ink: As with the stamps, I used many different colors (based on the paper scraps), but the main inks were Cocoa and White Daisy.
Other: Cricut AP cartridge

My Creations Memory Card Game

One of the new products in CTMH's Fall Idea Book that instantly caught my eye was the My Creations Memory Game. I'll be featuring this product at my Holiday Gift Open House on Saturday.

This little cube comes ready to decorate with 24 3x3 chipboard tiles inside.

As the name suggests, the idea behind this product is to create a matching/memory game, but there are so many other things you can do with it.

As soon as I saw the box I knew what I wanted to do with it. I've seen some different family discussion cards online, and wanted to do something similar with this box.


I used the Typeset paperpack. You only need about 1/2 pack for the box. The questions were printed out on cardstock in 2" squares. I used the Bonding Memories adhesive to adhere all the paper/cardstock, and the Finishing Files to get a clean finish on all the squares. I also sponged all the edges with Chocolate ink.











For the outside, I used the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to cuto ut the different ovals and numbers/?s. The 'Dinnertime Discussion' title was printed on the computer, and I used the utensils from the Pair-A-Phrase stamp set. To create the faux plate I simply used the wrong side of a couple of circular stamps and second generation stamped with Black ink.

I'm so happy with how this project turned out. This is something that our family will definitely be using.

Stay tuned as I'll be posting some ideas in the next few days for different ways you can use the box/game.

CTMH Products Used:
Stamps: Pair-a-Phrase
Paper: Typeset Level 2 Paper Packet, Grey Flannel, Colonial White
Ink: Black, Chocolate
Other: Bonding Memories Adhesive, Finishing Files, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge

Birthday Gift Tradition

Carina turned one yesterday, and we continued a tradition we started when Ellie turned one where we each select one of our favorite childhood books for her. Note, Ellie LOVES books, and while she gets them throughout the year for Christmas, or as prizes for an accomplishment, or a new book for a long road trip, the birthday books are special. We sit and discuss which book to get each year, and put more thought into the process.

Here are the books Ellie has received since her auspicious birth:

One: Caps for Sale (my all-time favorite), Curious George (Andrew's favorite, and you'll see that she is getting the entire set of originals, one a year from him)

Two: Tikki Tikki Tembo, Curious George Takes a Job

Three: Corduroy, Curious George Rides a Bike

Four: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Curious George Gets a Medal

It was a little harder to pick for Carina. She's just not that into books, and I wanted her to start collecting a 'set' like Curious George. I had a hard time thinking of one that I just LOVED that Ellie doesn't already have all or part of. I settled on Strega Nona. I do love Tomie de Paola's work, and figure when I am done getting the Strega Nona books, I can get her some of his others. Andrew picked Where the Wild Things are (which I'm kind of surprised we don't already own, and is PERFECT for our little wild one).

I'm curious if anyone else out there has some birthday gift traditions?