Flower Pom Poms

I have had a few people ask me how I made the pom poms that we used to Leah's birthday that are now in her room. This only shows five, but there are actually 10 hanging in there! I know it's not the best picture, but it at least shows some hanging.

I found this link on Martha Stewart's website and followed that. I also found another site at the time but now I can't find it. In this picture, the turquoise and purple flowers have pointed ends and the white and green have rounded ends. I totally forgot to do anything with the ends on that one pink flower and if you click the picture to view closer, you'll notice it doesn't look as pretty as the others. So always make sure you trim your ends!

Etsy has a few vendors who sell these pom poms and offer a LOT of really pretty colors. It was tempting not to order them only because there were so many colors to choose from compared to any store around here.

Here are a few tips from what I learned while making them:

• It says to use craft tissue paper because it's heavier. No need. I bought the regular Meijer tissue paper for gifts. They have some real pretty colors - like the turquoise, lime green, purple and pinks.
• It says to use 8 sheets of tissue paper per flower. I used 10 - the whole pack from Meijer. It made them more full and I really believe it was needed.
• Make sure you do something to the ends. You will either want to make the ends pointed or rounded. I think rounded is my favorite even though the pointed are cool. It seems like the pointed ends like to not stay straight, so that's the only reason. I did both rounded and pointed so they wouldn't all be the same. The rounded ends just look more clean.
• A whole pack of tissue paper makes one big flower. You can cut the whole pack in half lengthwise (once opened) to make two smaller ones. It's nice having the two different sizes.
• I bought really thin silver floral wire. You need that for securing the center and having something to tie the monofilament to - like the directions say.
• You'll want monofilament or something along the lines of fishing line for hanging because it makes it less visible and gives the "floating" effect.
• I used clear push pins for hanging them on the ceiling and they stay just fine.

Getting Caught Up

I'm slowing starting to get back on track and get caught up on my pictures/pages. Although I have done a handful of pages that are more recent, I left off mid-June 2009. That really makes me feel behind, but life has been busy. My week days are becoming more normal which is why I've been able to make some pages. We've got a busy few weekends ahead of us, but I still plan on using "nap time" to keep documenting our family's lives.


Some things were on my mind and heart and this page is a result of that.

Remember I said that I had one more page to do of Leah's second birthday? Well, I finally got it done today! Thankfully, it turned out a lot different than when I first started working on it! It feels really good to have her birthdays up until this year done! And I just may start working on the pages of her last birthday. I was looking at these pictures and pictures from this summer and noticing how much Leah has changed over the past year. It's insane! She's such a little beauty!

My Kids

These pictures were taken today as well as scrapped today. Yay! I love all of the bright colors! Most of the papers, the flowers and green journal card are from Greener Grass Designs. These pages were fun to create and didn't take much time. I love when that happens!


I love the orange and green together!

The bigger picture is just too funny!

The journal circle had journal lines in it, but it wasn't working well for me. So I used the eye dropper tool to match the white/cream background and then used the brush tool to cover over the lines. It worked great!

2009 Parade

My friend, Christina, created a new digital 4th of July kit and asked if I would like to make a scrapbook page featuring it. It was fun sticking to her kit (minus a few templates)! I really like the spray painted stars! Didn't she do a great job?!

With this page, I stuck to pictures of our family and not the attractions at the parade. It can be annoying seeing the same things year after year. This year's parade is only a few days away so I'm trying to think of the kind of pictures I want to take that would be different from years part. Any ideas?