Graduation Crafts! Diploma Cover Scrapbook

Hey, hey, hey! It's graduation time!  There's nothing like the feeling of letting all those school burdens go and feeling that sense of accomplishment.  Plus, it makes me want to sing School's Out by Alice Cooper and who doesn't love that song?  Nobody, that's who, because that song is awesome.

Johnny Boy and I got married our Junior year of college so we spent our Senior year and our first year of marriage enjoying date nights at the library.  Oh yeah, keepin' the romance alive.  Nothing says love like a 1,000 page science textbook.  We graduated Spring of 2006 from BYU-Idaho, John with a bachelor degree in Chemistry and me with a bachelor degree in Geology and Earth Science.  Nerds.  You can say it.  We know. 

John's parents were generous and bought us nice frames for our diplomas which left us with these empty diploma covers.  You know I wasn't going to let that go to waste.

The cover is a nice pleather and satin bound cover with our university stamped in silver on the front.  This isn't a piece of junk {I mean I paid thousands of dollars and years of my life to get it} and it had a greater purpose than just tossing it.

So I added a few scrapbook stickers and pictures from our big day and The Diploma Cover Scrapbook was born.

This scrapbook is John's.  Mine is basically the same.  Just with a few more pictures of my parents.

I also had these cute little diplomas that I stuck in there.  You can buy a similar one HERE.  If you don't frame your original diploma you could still keep it in the cover and just scrapbook the left cover.  Lot's of options here.

 

The scrapbook is nice and compact and fits on my bookshelf but I can also take it out every spring to remember the accomplishments that we achieved and look at how cute we look in black robes and cardboard hats pre-children.

 

 

Happy Graduation to All You Grads! 

 

 

 

Feel free to turn this post into a little graduation brag board - Did your baby graduate Kindergarden, High School, College?  Give a shout out to your High School {Reed High class of 2000!} or did you finally pass all your classes and get that higher degree?  Whatever it is, y'all have worked hard so be sure to brag about it below in the comments!  

 

 

Personalized Paper Doll Quiet Books

I was going through old posts on my family blog today and discovered this fun project I did for Maggie a few years ago.  It's a personalized paper doll quiet book.  This book was very easy to make and could be used not only for entertainment but would be a great way to help with speech therapy, or even learning how to match and dress oneself.

How I made my book:

1.  I used my Cricut cartridge, Paper Doll Dress Up to create all of the images, however you could always just cut out pieces by hand if you do not have a Cricut.

2.  I created the main doll by cutting out a doll and trying to make it look as much like Mags as possible, long brown hair, blue eyes etc.  I also used different outfits on the cartridge to make an undershirt and underpants.  {The fewer naked dolls we have around here the better.  Why are there always so many naked Barbies at my house??}  I also decorated the background page by cutting out grass and flowers.

3.  I then used patterned paper and cut out a few dresses.  You could also cut out shoes, socks, pants, shirts, hats, headbands, wands etc.  This cartridge basically has everything.

4.  I then used my personal laminator to laminate all the pieces.  I laminated the entire page of the main doll and each dress individually.

5.  Glued the main page into a cheapy file folder.

6.  On the back of each of the dresses is a piece of sticky tack.  This allows for the pieces to be placed on the doll and stay in place.


Super simple little book that can provide lots of entertainment for your little one!

If you're looking for more ideas for paper dolls be sure to check out my tutorial for

Actual Size Paper Dolls

 

Or check out all of my other Quiet Books

 

 

Beach Fun and a WINNER!

Hope y'all had a lovely Mother's Day, celebrating moms or even yourself. I've told you how much I love my momma so you know I was sad to not be with her in Nevada this year but the kids and John made up for it and took me to the beach for the weekend!!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on the beach in Orange Beach, Alabama. The gulf is perfect and I highly recommend this hotel. It was wonderful.

We saw wild dolphins, built sand castles, swam, relaxed, collected shells (project coming soon!) and had a great time. The kids even got to touch a dead fish. Exciting!

At the end of the first day Maggie said, "I love me!" I loved hearing that and by the end of the trip I declared that I loved me too. I hope y'all take the chance to love yourselves as well.

P.S. Today, we wrap up the doTerra giveaway from Lemon Living! Thanks so much to them for proving such a great giveaway. The winner was #10 Mary. Thanks to everyone who entered!

CLOSED- doTerra essential oils from Lemon Living

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNER #10 MARY! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

For over a year now, my sister-in-law, Jill Lemon, has been on a journey for better health.  She's focused on fitness, diet and enhancing her lifestyle.  She's worked hard and it has paid off.  Jill looks amazing but more importantly she feels amazing. 

She's started a new blog called Lemon Living, full of tips and tricks that she has used in her journey to better health and I'm happy to introduce you to that blog, Lemon Living.

In addition to exercise and better eating she has also discovered essential oils as a way to improve her health even more and has become a consultant for doTERRA oils.  Now you need to understand something about Jill, she is not a person who wastes her time and money.  She researches every purchase she makes and doesn't spend time doing things just for the sake of doing them or because it's the next best thing.  So when she told me that she loved these oils and wanted to share them with others I sat up and took notice.  These must be for reals because Jill wouldn't mess around with them if they weren't.

I was skeptical but she sent me a few samples which to my surprise I actually have enjoyed a lot.  There are lots of ways that you can use these oils and they can help with a variety of ailments.  Here are the samples she gave me and my experiences with them -

• Lavender:  I used this on a patch of poison ivy I had on my arm.  My ivy burn was close to healed when I started using the oil so I can't say that it "cured" my burn but it did make that patch's scar clear up a bit quicker than the other patches I had.  My friend Mary also uses this as aroma when she cleans the floors and I plan to put a few drops in my carpet cleaner solution the next time I clean.
• Lemon:  My husband had a major stomach ache a few days ago.  He was complaining about being sick like only a man can do.  I put two drops of lemon oil in a glass of water and made him take a sip.  After only 5 minutes he was back to normal and even he had to admit that it really did make him feel better.  I also plan to add this scent to my homemade cleaning supplies.
• Peppermint:  Jill used to get migraines every day and since she started putting peppermint behind her ears every day.  She hasn't had a migraine since she started doing this.  I had a headache one day and I used the peppermint instead of Advil.  I felt like it worked well.  My daughter also complained of a headache one night.  I put a drop on her forehead and she stopped complaining about the pain and started asking for candy because is smelled so good.  Haha!
• Deep Blue:  This is like a lotion with a mixture of a few different oils in it.  It's supposed to help with things like sore muscles, bruises etc.  I slept funny one night and my shoulder and neck were in so much pain I couldn't move them.  I tried the Deep Blue and the pain was gone and I had mobility within minutes.

These are just a few examples of the uses for these oils there are hundreds more but these are the ones that have helped me in the past few weeks.  I was skeptical at first but I really did like them and will be buying more in the future. You can find what oils are available and their uses HERE.

Now... who wants some free stuff???  I can sense you raising your hands behind those computer screens so let's get on with it.

Jill from Lemon Living is offering one lucky reader a doTERRA Introduction to Essential Oils Kit valued at $26.67.  The giveaway is open to anyone in the US or Canada.

The doTERRA Introduction to Essential Oils Kit includes:

- an introductory audio CD and booklet

- 5 ml of Lavender

- 5 ml of Lemon

- 5 ml of Peppermint

Here's how you enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post about essential oils.  Have you used them before?  What's your favorite?  Are you skeptical?  Do you have an ailment you hope they can fix?  Do you make homemade soaps or lotions that could benefit from some delicious scent?  Just leave a comment about anything and you're entered.
• BONUS ENTRIES just leave a separate comment for each one that you do to be entered multiple times.  That's up to 8 chances to win!
• Follow Lemon Living Blog
• Follow Lemon Living on Facebook
• Follow Lemon Living on Pinterest
• Make a doTerra purchase from Lemon Living
• Follow The Creative Vault Blog
• Follow The Creative Vault on Pinterest
• Share this giveaway (pin it, facebook, email, google+, etc.)

The giveaway will be open for one week and a winner will be announced on Monday the 13th.

Thanks Jill for the awesome prize!  Don't forget to visit her blog, Lemon Living and say hello!