Pattye Duffner's Blog

Merry Christmas From The Duffner Family

 Merry Christmas

 And a Rockn' New Year

Thankful

 
 

Happy Thanksgiving From our Turkeys to yours!

Ella turns 8! One sweet party

With 4 brothers you are truly the princess not only on your birthday but everyday.  Happy 8^th birthday princess Ella. 

    
 

You plan your own parties, make all the decisions and run the show.  I love that about you.  You wanted an all sweets party this year.  Paper invites attached to large lollipops hand delivered to your friends was the beginning of a sweet day.

 

I made small pink cakes frosted in white for all the girls to decorate, aprons with candy fabric and a table full of your favorite sweets.  Happy Birthday, I love the person you are.   

 

Robot Valentine

Another Valentine idea!

Braeden loved making these.  He even came up with the words...  Happy Valentine's Day  
 

Valentine Fun

Quinn’s valentines were fun to make… I saw them somewhere and remembered I had to do them when he was big enough.  We took a book of Mad libz and cut out each page rolled them up and tied them off with a note that reads, “You have mad skilz!  Happy Valentines Day Quinn"

 

How fun these would be with coloring pages or word searches too?

 

Gift ideas

Getting ready for Christmas around here includes party planning, Santa’s lists, and crafting, shopping, card making along side the every day jobs.  Having a new baby in the mix too!  This year I am going to find 1 thing to make and hopefully it will work for a number of gifts.  Teachers, nieces, friends, sisters etc.  While I am searching I wanted to share some of  years past handmade holiday ideas…   Hopefully I will get on schedule soon, running behind this year!

 

handmade crayons

letter blocks

 

chalk board mat

personalized score cards

 
 

Happy Birthday Braeden!

Braeden turned 5 today and for the 3^rd year in a row he did not want to change to the next age…  Last year on his birthday it was a sore subject to say he was turning 4 and this year he is feeling the same way.  He wants to not turn 5!  This just makes me smile, this is so Braeden.  I tell him that is fine he can be any age he wants.  No one is making him grow up.  I am glad he has his very own opinion on what he wants… 

 

His birthday party was a blast.  The book theme went as planned.  The only issues were that I had a house full of sick kids the week before and I was not up for any last minute planning so I am glad I had done what I had before.  I turned target t-shirts into "brown bear brown bear" iron on shirts.  Party hats were made out of old books.  The food was all the food in the book "Very Hungry Caterpillar".  Read books.  Made bookmarks.  We played musical chairs, hot potato, pin the hat on the cat, and had a piñata…  I found these book bags and the decorations that I did not make from Highsmith, a library resource on-line.   Breaden loved it and so did I.  Happy birthday baby Braeden, I love you.   

 

Lost and found

Once upon a time, I had the good luck to be working with some amazing scrapbookers on an online scrapbook show for Scrapbooks Etc. magazine.  Unfortunately, not much of the 7 seasons worth of shows are available to me .  Season 1 and Season 2  were a daily format with guests.  It was similar to the format of  the "While You Were Out" design show.  These 5 days worth of shows were shot in the winter of 2007.  By the summer of 2007, the producers of the show changed the show's format slightly and went with one longer weekly show.  The show ended in December of 2007.

I thought I had lost access to most of the videos I made for Scrapbook LifeStyle. Luckily, I happened to think of searching my name on the ScrapbooksEtc.com/BetterTV site and found quite a few of them archived! I'm still not sure how to link to them specifically but I am happy to share how to find them:

1.Go to http://my.scrapbooksetc.com/bettertv/

2. Enjoy the latest episode Scrapbooks Etc. has running while you search for Scrapbook LifeStyle videos

3. Type "Pattye Duffner" in the "Submit Query" box at the top, left-hand area of the home page.

4. From here, you can find your way through different SbLs videos.

Thank you Angela for this info, how in the world did you figure this out?

Handmade Valentines

 

 

This year I am making the valentines with the kids…  I can’t say it is cuter then any store bought ones but it was fun to make together and it is homemade.   

 

 

I had each kiddo write on a blank sheet of paper “Happy Valentines Day From --------” or what ever they wanted to add.  Ella added the word “friends” on hers (so cute) and the boys drew a heart.  After they each wrote their own valentines on their own sheets of paper I scanned the image and saved it as a jpeg.  I opened elements 5 and started…  Open a blank file to be the size of my colored sheets of paper (mine were 8.5 x 11).  Opened the jpeg of their original written words.  Simply dragging and resizing the words to fit on the page as I wanted,  (over and over and over and over) I had a finished image.  Flattened the jpeg and renamed it. 

 

 

 

From here I printed this new image onto colored paper.  Used a play doe cutter to trace onto the backsides of the colored paper and cut!    Using a small hole punch cut 2 holes for the sucker to weave through….  I put the finished valentines on glass bowls around the house for Valentine decorations. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Book Belongs To

 

 

 

In planning Braedens 5^th birthday party I have made these for the guests.  He is having a book party and the plans have begun.  With not having as much free time as I use to I am trying to get anything done way ahead of time as I can in order to not feel rushed.  Here are the book labels I made out of Quinn, Ella, Braeden and Brittney (my niece and wonderful babysitter) artwork.  Scanning it and adding the frames in Adobe with the text to top it off.  I am thinking to print them out and the guests can write their own names on them when they are ready to use them… More ideas to come on the book party!

 

 

 

Project 365

I first heard about this project from Debbi and thought it was a very interesting concept.  Preserve a piece of your life every day for a year. Every year I do a “year book” for our family with all of the exciting events.  After much thought, this would be changing the way I have documented our family events for the past10 years I have decided to try it.    I still have my individual traditional scrapbooks for each baby but our “year book” for this year was going to be different.  I have added a photo album button on the side to keep me up to date on my daily photos.  Here are some links for some inspiration on this project.

 

Creating Keepsakes

 

photojojo

 

 Designers digital

 

6, 4x6 We Are Memory Keepers

Close To My Heart Photo Storage Pages

 

Scrapworks Scrap Smart System

 

Pebbles Inc. Share & Tell

 

 

Extreme makeover dollhouse addition

 

My friend Debbi talked me into buying a dollhouse from Craig’s list to makeover for Ella for Christmas.  She was doing one for her daughter Iris; we were going to help each other.  Well as the season creped up on us this is how Ella’s turned out.  She did LOVE it on Christmas morning… All the paper is from Paper Source… Thank you Ella for loving it, you are a sweet little girl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

This year our Christmas card included a family crossword puzzle.  One side had the custom puzzle and the other side ha the key.  I have made these before for birthday parties but I thought it might be fun for Christmas this year…  You can make your own here.  Merry Christmas to you all.

 

05: Handmade Holidays Babysitter Checklist

 

A paper-covered clipboard with a funny pad of paper attached is a creative Christmas gift.  Why conjure up the same information for the babysitter over and over again? Parents can now keep the kids safe and happy the fill-in-the-blank way. With prompts for all possibilities, you’ll remember to clarify everything from food quirks to bedtime rituals. “Don’t Kill The Kids” is found here…

Giving and Thanks

 

  

I found this idea and loved it so much that I needed to share it with you.  This idea from Chocolate On My Cranium of creating trees with leaves declaring things you are thankful for and giving moments to be shared!  Even better, she has this available as a free download!  I printed one set off on heavy cardstock and plan on using them as my Thanksgiving scrapbook pages… With photos of our family and our words this project is heartfelt.

Customized pendants

Using a thin piece of wood or chipboard circles you can make these customized pendants for any occasion.  I made this one for Ella to wear on her birthday.  Using some background paper and an image of your choice toped with a ton of Modge Podge (about 3 thick layers) you can punch a hole in the top.  Attach a circle ring and some flowers or beads.  I used an elastic string to make it into a necklace.  I am thinking a Halloween one with stamps would be adorable…  Beads added to the bottom would be fun as well!

Accordion Photo Book

 

If you have never treated yourself to Paper Source you are missing out!  To me it is like a kid in a candy store.  I needed a birthday gift for a dear friend who would enjoy a hand made gift so off I went.  Making an accordion album for her was done in less then an hour.  Simple and fun…  They sell their kits on line or in the store with full instructions; I have bought a ton of them and have loved every one.  Gluing the paper larger then the board and wrapping it like a gift.  Using some ribbon I had to finish off the closure was just the finishing touch it needed. 

Back To School

 

The "back to school" teacher gift was a quick last min put together.  Our apple tree is over flowing with green apples again.  So I took the similar project from last year and made it a bit bigger with a full size Carmel dip and apples to fill a cellophane bag.  I attached a tag made out of chipboard and paper.  I had to use one of my favorite stamps to write on so that the teachers would know who it was from.  Quick and easy…

Back To School Count Down...

My back to school check list continues with lunch box love notes.  Here are a couple of ideas to get you going… I have found some great ones at Target and Hallmark.  They are very different but fun none the less.  One you can write on the back and are more child like and the other has a re-positional back like a post it note!  Another idea is to take some of those flash cards that are missing the complete set and hand write a note to your little one.  Even some left over party napkins have filled in a pinch for me as well.  The kids get a little surprise and hopefully bring a smile to their face.

 

From a to z

Making these letter blocks was a project I wanted to make for my daughter that is addicted to learning!  What a fun addiction for me to watch because I enjoy so much seeing her grow.  Reading and spelling is actually fun for her!  I cannot wait to see her in kindergarten soaking it all up!  I took Creative Imaginations blocks and painted them all with one coat with one color.  Then another color on top of that when it was all dried.  Sanding the edges to expose the under side color.  Next apply letter stickers making sure there is several of the same letters on every block so the little one can make any word they can come up with.  The final step is to modge podge the entire block in order to get the shinny finish.  Sit back and enjoy your little loved one playing and learning all at the same time.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mother’s birthday… I have not mentioned about the importance of journaling / scrapbooking lately and I am thinking today is the perfect day to reflect on that again. Adding your love notes, true feelings and heart filled journaling to your projects is something your children will cherish forever. Use a pen and your very own handwriting for a personal touch. Take it from me… if I had anything like this from my mother I would not only think she loved me, I would know it. Every child knows their parent loves them but having a written document telling them all of your feelings (good or bad) is something to cherish. Almost like the nightly prayers you say in your head for your children… write it down so they will know forever.

Birthday Cards

For birthday cards I have been caring on this tradition of pre making large, laminated, bound cards that the guests at the party can all sign.  This is a fun way to get all of your family and friends to sign one card and you can discard (or re-use like I do) all of the birthday cards when you are ready!  I make a 2-page 12x12 card with miscellaneous photos from the year along with patterned paper (scraps) and solid cardstock.  I always include how old they are turning and get it laminated and bound before the party even starts.  I then tie a permanent pen to the corner and pass it along at the party.  You can even make it and leave it by your front door for the month so when you get any guests for the month of the birthday kiddo you will have all of there wishes.  My kid’s love looking at the previous years and our friends and family even look forward to signing them every year.  I started this tradition at there 1^st birthday for each child… I will have quite a collection I am sure!

Epson CX8400

  Have you ever wanted to scrapbook a priceless photo but worried about using the original for one reason or another?  I have the perfect solution for you the Epson CX8400 is a scrapbooking must!  I have taken old non-replaceable photos of my Mom as well as photos my my own childhood, scanned them in edited the color and printed them all with out a pc!!!  For someone that does not have a PC in there scrap space or even has to share their pc with there 3 kids (like I do) having this printer as not only your everyday printer you can pop in your card and print directly and quickly.  Here are a few samples of my photos that I have done. 

• View, edit and print photos, PC-free, with large, 2.5-inch, tilt LCD
• Print black and color text up to 32 pages per minute¹ with DX3™ print head technology
• Get smudge resistant documents and truly touchable photos with instant-drying DURABrite® Ultra Ink
• Print documents that last - prints resist fading up to six times longer than leading competitive prints
• Replace only the color that you need with individual ink cartridges
• Use the multipurpose card slots to print photos PC-free, or easily transfer files
• Get perfect prints automatically with Auto Photo Correction
• Archive documents and photos with high quality scanning
• Reduce and enlarge copies from 25 - 400%

With the help from this Epson printer I can only make my priceless photos even more priceless…. Thank you Epson!

Happy Valentine's Day

I saw this Valentine somewhere last year and had to try it!  Quinn is saying “I”, Ella is saying, “Love” and Braeden is saying “You”.  I guess next year I will have to make one with 4 words… Maybe I Love You More!  Happy Valentines Day

Love The Duffner Family!

CHA

Of course you need to check out the Pink Paislee blog in order to see the photos of the booth I worked and designed for!!!  I was so busy working I did not get any photos of that myself! 

Here are a few fun photos from CHA this last weekend.  I did not take enough photos… everything is sooooo yummy there!  Enjoy!

Here is my dear friend Merilee and Brenda Walton… Merilee was star struck.  She even got some tears in her eyes!

Live Pink!!!

  I have been playing with these goodies for a few days now and have been dying to share them… now is the time!  Here are some of the layouts I have done for the new company Pink Paislee.  Their product is amazing and fun!  The papers are vintage looking with a touch of modern edge!  I got to play with 2 of their lines that will be displayed at their booth this up coming week at CHA.  I cannot wait to get my hands on even more of their delicious product!!! 

Know What Matters...Family

Here is a sneak peak of the newest kit from My Kit & Pieces .com kit club.  If any of you that are addicted to scrapbooking and all of the beautiful supplies you should look into a kit club like this one.  It is great to get a collection of supplies every month that you can work with right away.  Everything coordinates, all you need to do is add your photos.  Kind of like just add water scrapbooking.  Their online gallery has all of their designers (of which I am one of them) with their take on these kits.  So if you are a bit challenged by a blank page this is a great place to find inspiration.  Another unique thing that this kit club offers is extension or options to your kit.  You can add buttons, brads, ribbon anything you especially like working with but wished you had more of…  I also need to mention the prices.  The base kit is amazingly priced being that you have the option to add more if you need to… or not.  I love that you have so many options!!!   I made this mini book this month (along with some other goodies) but wanted to share an idea with you all.  Next time you go to make a mini book try to journal more than normal.  Maybe even try to journal more than you use photos.  In this book I wrote about things that matter to me and I want my kids to know...  Not that they will feel the same way as me but at least they will know.

Don't Kill The Kids...

 

I found these fill in sheets at Paper Source (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that place) and made a funny yet practical clipboard for our brave babysitter!  It was super easy to make…  First paint the clipboard background for the edges.  One full 12x12 for each side of the clipboard cut to fit.  3” strips of patterned paper adhered to front and back as shown, one with torn edge.  Cut with circle punch 2 circles out of yet another patterned paper.  Stamp "Thank YOu" into grid paper cut into square.  Stamp flower on grid paper cut out with a button in the center.  Make sure to adhere button flower where you will not be inhibited to write by it!     Off to my next project…

Letter Perfect???

Well I don’t know about perfect but here is the ornament for this week!  Making these adorable letter ornaments for each one of your kiddos is simple and easy!   I took the Creative Imaginations 8” bare elements chipboard lowercase letters, added my very favorite art glitter along with ribbon and a couple of buttons…  I told you it was simple!  The kiddos love seeing these hang at there level.  The large scale on the tree is a bit whimsical and very fun! 

Scrapbook LifeStyle Is Ending...

And we haven't been able to tell anyone about it until today when the announcement was made at the end of our weekly video.  I do hope you will continue to watch our shows through the week of December 17th.  I can tell you that, as a cast, all of us on the show have become close.  We can't imagine not working together again so we have put ourselves to work on the second stage of our online/scrapbooking careers. 

We can't tell you exactly what we are thinking of doing but I do hope you continue to follow our personal blogs so that you'll be the first to know if we start traveling to stores near you... or if we think of something even more creative to do so we can be together, share our passion for scrapping and most importantly, connect with you,  our favorite Scrapbook LifeStyle viewers.  And we're taking suggestions- what would YOU like to see us do in the future?  What do you think we have up our sleeves???

Around The Block!!!

 

In celebration of Scrap-A-Fair I want to share with you a fun product and technique!  Around The Block scrapbooking paper and embellishments are a fun and easy way to get a layout done!  Their Tagger tool is something that I have seen before and was going back and forth on if I really needed it or not… until now. Using the tagger tool to adhere embellishments to this page was a snap!  If you do not have a tagger yet you need to get one! 

On this page I punched out every other circle on this bazzil scalloped paper to expose the around the block patterned paper underneath.  Stamped with versa mark circles on each one to highlight this detail.  Using the tagger tool I attached the title, and embellishments.  Finally I punched the right side with my ledger punch to add a bit more details! 

Wraping Paper That Does More...

Wrap your gifts in our new Autism Speaks wrapping paper and ribbon and give a gift twice – once to a loved one and once to Autism Speaks, which benefits from all net proceeds of your purchase. Adorned with our signature blue puzzle piece arranged in snowflake form, the wrapping paper is great for the holidays, and our blue satin ribbon is the perfect accompaniment. You can even do any paper crafting with it!!!  Buy now.

Dear Mom,

If I had one day to spend with someone whos gone... Who would it be?  What would I do?  This is something I read from the Sunday paper last year and thought to myself who would it be?  For me it was easy and I documented it in a simple dedication scrapbook page to my Mother.  Today 21 years ago my Mother passed away in a horrific car accident.  In remembrance of her I would like to share this page that has helped me somewhat cope with the “whats” of that question I read in the paper.  I challenge you to journal this question yourself.  If you had one more day to spend with someone that has passed away who would it be and what would you do?  What would you talk about?  Where would you go?  I look forward to reading your answers…

New Life... Old Paper

I was wondering if you could answer a question about a product I saw
on one of your videos a while back.  You were in a
Beverly Hills paper store and had cut out some butterflies
from some wrapping paper and had glazed them with clear glue so
that they were raised. I was just wondering what product you use.
You said that it took you about there coats to get it to look right.
It was such a great idea for using old pretty wrapping paper and
scrapbooking. I am hopping you can answer my question. 

Thank you.

I am so glad you asked…  Here are the directions

1.   Cut out shape of paper on patterned paper of your choice.

2.   Apply versa mark ink directly to the shape

3.   Sprinkle with clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE)

4.   Apply heat gun immediately to melt the UTEE

5.   Repeat 4 times after each layer has dried

Great question.  Keep them coming!

Back To School... 283 Days Until Summer

Back to school here in the Duffner home is a mixed emotional day.  Happy for the little ones, sad inside for me.  I will miss them terribly.  Here is the Back to School project for this year.  The clipboard I made after seeing Stephanie’s in her home a few months back while working on her scrap room (which by the way will be aired on Scrapbook Lifestyle On Sept. 10^th) and thought this would be a perfect 1^st day of school gift for the teachers.  I did a bit of a twist on it and came up with this… It is a mini clipboard with a notepad that has the calendar of how many days until summer. I had to fill in the numbers so that took a while but I did save the file so if you are interested please leave a comment telling me and I can easily e-mail you the doc. 

Along with this I wanted to give them the more traditional gift of an apple but as you know me I have to twist that up too!  I bagged a red apple on top of raffia and put caramel dipping sauce on top and tied it with a raffia ribbon.  Supper easy and fun to put together with the kiddos!  I hope the teachers like it as much as we do.

Paper Flowers

Here are the step by step directions to the paper flower I made on ScrapbookLifestyle this season...

Center of Flower

Cut 2 2"x 2" squares out of white paper

Cut 1 2" x 12" strip out of solid color paper (both sides are same solid color) fringed

Petals of Flower

Cut 9 2" hearts out of 9 different patterned papers

Leaves

Cut 2 8" ovals  out of a green patterned paper

You will also need floral tape and floral wire

Take one 2" white square and wad it into a ball taking the other 2" white square and wrapping it over top.  attaching it to a 8" piece of floral wire with floral tape.

using your glue gun wrap the solid fringed paper around the white center gluing it very often.

Take the heart petals and hot gluing them around the center of the flower into a liking pattern. 

Take the ovals and attach floral wire to them on the back side with hot glue, bend them to give a more realistic look.

Attach the leaves with floral tape one at a time. 

Finishing up by wrapping the stem with floral tape. 

The reason I Scrapbook...

Here is a video I did for Scrapbook Lifestyle on why I scrapbook.  I hope you find it inspiring...

Setting the tone

I always love talking about how important it is to pay close attention to the details.  The first impression for your guests is the invitations.  It is fun to go all out on this in different ways.  You do not have to spend a lot of money or time on this if you cannot.  But heck it is a lot of fun if you can!  A beautiful handmade Japanese paper would defiantly set a tone for you.