"Clothespin"

I'm so happy to introduce you to our latest kit "Clothespin!" It's beautiful...if I do say so myself! And the gallery this month is equally beautiful, jam-packed with inspiration! You will be blown away...I know I was! It's packed with the latest and greatest finds from CHA.
I made flowers out of vintage sewing patterns for every one's kit. I hope you like them! :)
There are 2 alphabets, word strip chipboard stickers, layered chipboard flowers, a darling fabric banner, and all brand new patterned papers!

And so much more!

At Freehand Scraps we are making a few minor changes starting in March. We aren't going to be offering a subscription option any longer, in an effort to simplify things. We are also raising our flat rate shipping charge by $1.00. We have tried to keep our costs as low as possible, but due to the USPS raising their cost twice, it was necessary! We love our customers and are so very grateful for each and every one of you! Happy March!

Sneak Peeks...again...

Hi there! Hope your weekend is going great! I have been super busy getting all the last minute details ready for the big reveal of our March kit "Clothespin." It will be up for sale on Monday the 1st @ 8:00 a.m. CST! Here are some sneaks from my gallery. I can't wait to show you the rest!

Aren't you so excited to see the whole thing? We have Jill Sprott as a guest desinger this month and she did a wonderful job...can't wait to share hers also with you! Hope you have a terrific weekend!!

Sneak Peeks...

Hi there! Just checking in to share a few sneak peeks! Lexi posted a few to drool over on her blog...and Amanda just posted some cute sneaks today. You lucky readers :)

Cuteness!! Now if someone could please tell me where the month of February has gone I would appreciate it! My goodness, the end of this month always creeps up on me!! Hope your week is going well!

Heart of Gold...

I started this layout about my sister for my gallery, but because of CHA and traveling I didn't have a chance to finish it in time. I put the finishing touches on it last night, and added the journaling. Better late than never right?? This month's kit was just so cute! I took this photo of my sister while we were at a scrapbook event. This was all made with "Long Johns" the only thing I added was the metal title letters by American Crafts from forever ago!
I used my exacto knife to cut out the diamond shapes of the background paper. I think this is the first time I've tried this technique. It was kind of fun. I used the Hambly wood grain paper and wanted it to look kind of like a frame.
The journaling reads: "This girl has a heart of gold...ask anyone she knows and they will tell you."

And this was a little card I whipped up with some of my leftover pieces. That bear sticker is just too fun! The "hello" chipboard piece is by Pebbles Inc.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Seriously...

CUTE! You could do this on my car right now...it's a mess! It just won't stop raining/snowing. You get it clean...and 5 minutes later it's over.
And this is just perfectly perfect.
I have been working on a few projects that I'll be back and share tomorrow! Hope you had a great start to your week!

Newsletter!

Time for a mid-month newsletter! If you haven’t had a chance to get your “Long Johns” kit, then what are you waiting for? The cozy colors in this kit and flannel fabric all contribute to the charm of this one! Take a closer look HERE!
And if you haven’t had a chance to see the gallery full of creativity and ideas to get you started, well then you really must check it out! We were very happy to have Celeste Smith guest design for us this month! It was so great to have her back…and just look at what she came up with!

And of course it wouldn’t be a mid-month newsletter without a sneak peek of what’s to come for March. It’s shaping up to be a super cute kit!

Have you heard about our BIG sale?

“As many of you know, we just got back from an exciting trip to CHAW (the Craft and Hobby Association's winter show) where we found all kinds of wonderful products for our upcoming kits. Now that the orders have been placed and the products are starting to arrive, we need to make room for all of it! We are excited to be offering a 40% discount on all of our past 2008 and 2009 kits. It's simple, and a GREAT deal! The only way to take advantage of this offer is to email me at heidi@freehandscraps.com and I will email you a Pay Pal invoice to take care of the cost. The standard shipping rates apply. (The first kit has a $7 flat rate for shipping, but each kit after that is only an additional $1.50 in shipping cost!) Be sure to take advantage of this special limited time offer!”

I want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support of Freehand Scraps! I am so blessed to have such wonderful customers!

March is looking good!

Thought I would share a few sneak peeks of the upcoming kit! Isn't it darling? "Sew" cute! LOL!
All brand new products from CHA!
And this is what I'm making to go with it...no 2 will be alike...they will be just like snowflakes! :)

Hope you are all having a wonderful day! Be checking your inbox for a newsletter tonight!

You didn't really embellish your mailbox did you?

Um...the answer is yes, yes and yes. There is nothing off limits to me. If it has a paper, fabric, metal, glass, or wooden surface then it is fair game! The mailbox story begins with the fact that my house came with a lovely mallard duck mailbox. (I know, to each their own. And NO offense to anyone who has a duck mailbox.) However, this was definitely not my kind of mailbox, and every summer when the huge vine of poison ivy (yeah...I had NO idea that's what it was!) would grow all over it, I was happy to see the small ducks disappear into the greenery. This summer ants invaded the mailbox and a very large spider took up residence. As the time went on, I was liking that silly mailbox less and less...as I'm sure you can imagine. And each time I extracted my small stack of mail I had to wildly shake it like crazy to try and make sure that no unwanted critters had crawled into the stack. I finally resorted to putting an ant trap inside the box, which did take care of the crazy ant colony...but I'm sure my mail carrier wasn't too appreciative. The spider remained and spun crazy webs all through the mailbox. So as I drove into the driveway last week it looked like the mailbox was hanging by one tiny screw and about to fall onto the driveway. The mail carrier had nearly ripped it off the post. But instead of thinking that this was an unfortunate event...I saw the silver lining. A NEW shiny mailbox was going to be in my future! So guess what I bought myself for V day? You guessed it. Basic grey with all kinds of potential. (I would also like to say that I finished the install last night at twilight with frozen fingers and NO power tools to speak of. Each hole was drilled by hand with my little Fiskars hand drill...man I love that thing...and each screw was attached with my simple screw driver. Aren't you proud of me? Wait don't answer that...I already am proud of myself!)

This is what the old mailbox looked like...yeah I told you! (And as a side note...why do you suppose the ducks are flying towards the back of the box? They should really be flying towards the front I think.)
And here is my shiny new one...and YES we got more snow last night. Ugh! :)
I added the numbers after this photo was taken.

A few Hambly rub-ons on the front and a little bird added to the side. That's all it took. Now it's "personalized" just enough. Although I might have added a few more birds on the side...they can always be added later on. Every time I drive into the driveway a little smile creeps onto my face. Happy Tuesday! I'm working on a newsletter right now with sneak peeks, so be checking back for that!

Happy Love Day!

It's that time of year! Time to show the people you love...well that you love them! So this little guy was made to take to the kids Sunday School teacher this morning. She is a scrapper and I knew she would appreciate it! The first thing she said was..."oh I am SO scrapping this!" I can't take any credit for the idea though, I found it in the February Issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. I of course modified it to use up whatever I had sitting around. (BTW this sweet teacher knitted Chloe and I both matching slippers for Christmas because her son is in my Sunday School class. So cute!) So she totally deserved some homemade goodness...and I can't knit! :)
I used vintage buttons for eyes on this one and Prima fabric paper for the face. I made 3 layers of "feathers" which are just Heidi Swapp flowers cut in half and layered on top of one another. The base is made from 2 October Afternoon journaling cards. The top one I cut to give him some ears.
And then since I had all of the supplies out, I made him friend. Two is better than one right?

The only thing I would have done differently was used a scallop punch so that his wings had a fun edge instead of the Heidi Swapp journaling spots. I'm putting that on my wish list!

I hope you all are having a great Valentine's Day! I was woken up early this morning by 2 very happy and excited munchkins who were jumping up and down ready to open their gifts. By the time I got my bed made I came out to find that they had "wrapped" my presents they made me also. Chloe had gotten out a gift bag to put her drawings in, and Tanner had used a decorative metal box, that is sitting on the coffee table usually, to place his artwork inside. It was the cutest thing. I got lots of hearts and pictures with our names together and the words "I love ya" written all over them. Child-like love is the best kind of love...wouldn't you agree? Our afternoon was spent dancing and playing games (houseboat) and singing and doing school work for fun. A friend of mine on FB challenged all her friends to love their kids/families this week the way they want to be loved. There are so many ways to show love...and each person needs to be loved in their own way. It's not always easy to do, because we tend to show love the way we want to be loved. So today was all about the kids. Loving them the way they want to be loved. And you know I think it was very successful!

1 Cor. 13 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love NEVER fails!"

I may or may not...

I may or may not be up to something!! March's kit is starting to look super cute! There are exclusives in this one! I am making something to go in it. But you'll just have to wait and see. After all, patience is a virtue right? And it's one I need to work on when it comes to winter! Working on the March kit really makes me wish that we could just skip February all together and move onto spring. The last few months of winter seem completely unnecessary to me...see I need more patience. :)
And this little one addressed one of her Valentine's to herself to take to her party at school. To: Chloe From: Chloe. Self love people...that's what it's all about. I thought that was the cutest thing EVER. Look at the pure excitement on her face as she was opening it up...like she had never seen it before! I think there must be a layout dedicated to this is my scrapbook.
This was her 2nd favorite Valentine...after of course hers!

I wanted to thank you all for your sweet comments about my little mini book in my last post. I'm glad that it might have inspired you in a small way! Have a beautiful day!

A week...

A week in our lives documented in a mini version...this book has been in the works for a year. It was about time I got it finished wouldn't you say? This is the perfect kind of project to take to a crop. Which is exactly what I did this weekend. This is when a kit comes in handy. It makes your life a LOT easier. (This is all made from our Jan. 09 kit 'Spiffy' and a kit that I put together for a weekend retreat to go along with the 'Spiffy' kit.)
This sweet little owl is by Fancy Pants. The idea behind this mini is that years from now it will be so cool to see what everyday life looked like at this time. It's really just a snapshot.

These little tiny alpha stickers that you see throughout are brand new from Cosmo Cricket...I have them in every color available...and used a good portion of them just in this book! Fun! Chances are GOOD that you'll be seeing these in our upcoming kits! :)

What the kids were watching at this time. They were all about Max and Ruby.

I think sometimes I should just pitch a tent at my local post office. It would be so much more convenient...LOL! Shipping was a BIG part of my days...and it still is.

Living in the country makes even a quick trip to the grocery store an event. Definitely something I'm still not used to.

A close up shot of that chipboard cloud...which might be my favorite embellishment in the whole book. Love, Elsie were some of my favorite products EVER.

Here I trimmed a Heidi Swapp acrylic clock to fit the size of my page.

Fabric paper to cover the back of the album...and it's self adhesive. So cute! And easy!

Going back through the notes I wrote about this week was too funny. I wrote down every single detail of our days. Funny things the kids said. What time they woke up in the morning. You name it, it's written down. It definitely is documented VERY well. I just never got around to scrapbooking it. I have a lot more pictures printed and plan to put something together for my album at some point and time. AND I will for sure be doing this again this year. It's amazing how much life changes over the course of a few years! So today we had a snow day and so I had to munchkins to entertain and some shoveling to do. And blogger is not liking me at all...because this is the 3rd time I've written this post. I've been working on it forever!! Let's hope this 3rd time is a charm! Happy Tuesday everyone!