Paper Bag Photo Album

I love making paper bag photo albums, they're cheap and easy to make and I can use up left-overs from other scrap-booking projects. First, take a paper bag and fold it in half:

Then fold one-three more bags (I usually don't make make these mini albums out of more than four sacks because they become too fat once you add all of the embellishments and photos). Take the other bags and stack them alternating the ends like this:

At this point you can punch three holes on the spine of your book and tie them up with ribbon or you can decorate them first (that is the way I prefer to make them). Staple the opening of one of your sacks to make a sleeve for adding more photos (sorry for the crappy photo):


Staple other end of the bag to add more sleeves for photos and embellishments:


Decorate your bags just like you would a regular scrap book. Here is the cover of my bag:


This is the inside of my cover:


Here is the outside of bag #2:


And the inside:


Here are my inserts for secret, hidden photos!

Now all I have to do is print my photos and add them to my cute little album!

And the Winner is...

Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter our giveaway. Random.org was used to select a winner, and the winner of our first CSN giveaway is:

Comment #30 - Jo! Congratulations!!

We'd also like to thank CSN for the chance to host this great giveaway!

VW Bus Quilt

I finally got around to taking pictures of my VW bus quilt. I started this quilt (and thought I would finish it) my year off between undergrad and grad school. It turns out I overestimated my ability level and underestimated the difficulty of this quilt. Luckily I had my mom to help me along the way.

This was the view from my front yard as I was taking photos today, thought it was too pretty not to share.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love decorating my house for Christmas. It makes our little old home even cozier. I'll start the tour in our living room:

Our Tree



These are our childhood stockings. I love how they're a little matchy!

Now on to our dining room:



I got these great trees at an antique store in Grace, Idaho. They were going out of business so I got them for $5!


Here is one of our advent calendars

Our Christmas village:

One year my family and I worked on this village together (since it was clear I was never going to get in done on my own!). We watched movies, ate snacks, and painted our fingers to the bone. I love the way it turned out though.

My husband painted this little cutie

This was my mom's handiwork

I painted this house, look at the car in the garage!

The hamburger shop and post office are from the Lemax Christmas village

My talented mom painted this beautiful church

I painted the little school

Christmas crept into the kitchen as well:




Hope your holidays are merry and bright!!