Fun at the Park

I don't scrapbook chronologically, but I put all the completed layouts in the album chronologically. I do this by preplanning the pages I'm going to make and using post-it flags to mark where each page will go. It works for me, most of the time. Occasionally I have to shuffle things around later. This usually isn't a big deal, except when there are double-page layouts that get split by the shuffle. I don't do a lot of two-pagers now, but I used to. I recently did a big reorganization to deal with some layouts from a long time ago that hadn't fit in the albums. Rather than split two-pagers, I decided to make new pages to fit the two newly-created gaps. 

The first gap fell between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008. I went back through my photos, printed two from that time period, and then made this page. 

Fun at the Park (affiliate link)

I had a great time scrapping these pictures of 2-year old Trevor at the park! We spent so much time at many of the local parks when he was this age. I have many happy memories of him playing on the structures and collecting leaves, pinecones, acorns, and oak galls for his Treasure Box.

Glow in the Dark Newspaper Ghosts

I love Halloween crafts! For today's project, I created colorful glow-in-the-dark backgrounds for four whimsical newspaper ghosts. I really like how they each turned out, but I love them more all together. Give it a try! Affiliate links below.   

Glow in the Dark Newspaper Ghosts

Materials: 

• newspaper
• Glow in the Dark paint
• sandwich bag
• black Sharpie
• scissors
• glue stick
• chipboard
• tape

Steps: 

Go through the newspaper to find pages without images or bold headlines. For each ghost you'll be making, paint half of a sheet of newspaper with the color of your choice. I made four ghosts, so I used two sheets of newspaper (a half sheet for each background color). 

When the paint is dry, squirt a contrasting color on top. Put your hand in a sandwich bag and pounce it on top of the paint to smear it or transfer it amongst multiple backgrounds. You can add as many colors as you want. 

I used a snack bag instead of a sandwich bag because that's what I had on hand (har!) but a sandwich bag will do a better job protecting your hand. Obviously, a disposable glove would be even better. If you don't care about getting paint on your hands, you can use the snack bag or your bare hand. 

While the background paint is drying, use the Sharpie to draw a ghost on another page of text-heavy newspaper. Add eyes and a mouth, then cut out the ghost, leaving a small margin outside of the Sharpie line. Repeat for as many backgrounds as you have. 

Cut the chipboard into 8.5 x 8.5" squares.

When the newspaper background is completely dry, place it facedown on the desktop and center the chipboard inside it. Fold up the edges and tape them, just like you'd wrap a really skinny gift. 

Turn the background face up. Use the glue stick to add adhesive to the back of the ghost and press it in place. 

I had so much fun making my ghosts! Here are the other three. 

I don't have a photo of these glowing under blacklight, but the bright colors look great even when they aren't technically glowing. Such a fun decoration for Halloween!

Pancake Beaver

If your breakfast could use a little more fun, may I suggest a Pancake Beaver? The beaver is North America's largest rodent, and while rodents don't normally scream "breakfast" to me, I'll totally make an exception for the pancake version. Affiliate links below. 

 

Pancake Beaver

Materials:

• pancake batter
• cocoa powder
• sugar
• candy eyeballs
• edible marker

Steps: 

Prepare pancake batter. You'll need enough for 6+ pancakes, but I recommend making extras. Transfer a few tablespoons of batter to a separate bowl and add a teaspoon each of cocoa powder and sugar. Mix thoroughly.

Cook the plain pancakes. You will need one large oval(ish) pancake for the beaver's tail and two small round pancakes for the ears. Pour another round pancake for the teeth, but as soon as it sets, flip it and then use the side of the spatula to cut it into rectangles for the teeth. Pour a large round pancake for the face and immediately use the spatula to push the batter away to make the indentation at the bottom. If you prefer, you can cook the pancakes like normal and cut away the parts, but this worked well for me. 

Cook the chocolate pancakes. You will need one small oval pancake for the nose and a second oval pancake (cut in two) for the inner ears. 

Use the edible marker to draw lines to mimic the scales on a real beaver's tail. Select two large candy eyeballs. 

Assemble the pieces onto a plate. 

I had so much fun making this pancake beaver! I'm excited to add it to my collection of edible crafts featuring candy eyeballs. I should have held off making that graphic. I think this beaver is cuter than almost everything else I featured. 

World Cardmaking Day 2026

World Cardmaking Day was Saturday and I participated for the first time in four years. I always put National Scrapbook Day on the calendar way in advance and plan around it, but I usually don't even realize World Cardmaking Day has rolled around again until the challenges start popping up. I made cards for seven different challenges. All of the cards below are made with the Lucky Me and Hello Again collections, both by Doodlebug. Affiliate links here and throughout the post. 

-------

This card was for Doodlebug's Sketch challenge. The gold Sprinkles (enamel dots) were a last minute addition. I love how they add shine to the pot of gold. 

This was for the Mood Board challenge. I was inspired by the wide, horizontal bands of color and the large graphic on a solid background. 

For the Salad Bar challenge, we had a list of ingredients to pick from. I chose sprinkles (yellow), fancy frills (grass), and shaped sprinkles (ladybugs). 

All of the remaining cards were made for challenges at A Cherry on Top. The first I did: "Create a card with florals."

"Create a monochrome card."

"Create a card using one of the ACOT sketches."

"Create a card with at least three layers."

-------

I have a lot of blog maintenance tasks I need to do, so I will be taking a break from writing new posts through next week. I will be back with a new post on Monday, October 19. 

Cheese Plate Craft (With Bonus Geometry Lesson!)

The top cheese-producing states in the US are Wisconsin, California, and Idaho, in that order. Together, the three states produce more than half of the nation's cheese. Wisconsin, known as America's Dairyland, makes more than 600 varieties of cheese and leads the country in cheddar production. Popular cheeses including Colby and Muenster were invented in Wisconsin. California produces over 250 variety of cheese, including Monterey Jack, a California original. Throughout the 2000's, the cheese industry in Idaho has grown rapidly, although I couldn't find information about how many varieties are currently produced there. 

Most cheese is made in wheels or in blocks. In geometry terms, a wheel is just a very squat cylinder. A block is a rectangular prism. When you cut a block into parts with equal sides, you get a square prism (aka, a cube). When you cut a block on the diagonal, you end up with a triangular prism.  Learn how to draw these shapes and then turn them into a fun cheese board craft. 

Cheese Plate Craft + How to Draw Solid Figures

Materials: 

• cardstock
• colored pencils
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Use a piece of scratch paper to learn the basic steps to drawing rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, and cylinders. Start by drawing a triangle, oval, and rectangle with a colored pencil. 

Draw an identical (congruent) triangle slightly up and to the right of the first. (If you're using this as a proper geometry lesson, measure and use a straight edge, unlike my quick examples below.) Do the same with the rectangle. Draw a congruent oval directly above the first. How far apart you space the two congruent shapes determines the size of your finished solid figure. Experiment!

Finally, draw straight lines between the points (vertices) of the triangles and of the rectangles. Ovals don't have vertices, so draw straight lines between the outermost parts.

When you are confident drawing solid figures, try them on cardstock! Draw the lines very lightly with brown or grey. Cut out the finished shapes. 

Now get creative! Add holes to a triangular prism to make swiss cheese. Draw a cut wedge (segment, in geometry terms) from the cylinder and then color it to make brie. Put cubes of cheddar into a bowl. Arrange the whole thing on a board or plate cut from construction paper. When you are happy with your design, glue it in place. 

There are so many fun ways to extend this lesson. If I were doing this in the classroom, we would definitely follow it up with a cheese tasting. We'd jump into the history and science of cheese and maybe even make ricotta from scratch. So many possibilities!