tipsandsolutions

3 fun ways to fight summer boredom

Tired of hearing, "I'm bored," from your kids during summer vacation? Summer is the perfect time to make scrapbook and memory craft projects that the whole family can enjoy. It's also a good time to go through the scrapbook products you don't often use and find new ways for your kids to enjoy them. Use these ideas below for some kid-friendly craft projects.Keep in mind that these projects require parental supervision, depending on the age and ability of your child.

Room Mobiles

Mobiles are a great way to decorate a child's room. Use your favorite colors and shapes to make your own unique mobile. Consider these themes: sports, beach, vacation, school, friends and holidays. Paperkuts designer Janna Wilson made this holiday mobile with her two children.

Checklist

• Lifetime table
• Lifetime folding chair
• Stickers
• Cardstock in desired colors
• String
• Spiral buttons

Steps

1. Back some stickers with cardstock.
2. Cut a spiral out of cardstock. Tie the stickers onto the spiral with varying lengths of string.
3. Cover the knots on the spiral with buttons.
4. Hang up to display.

Composition Books

Every child has thoughts to ponder and secrets to record. Decorated journals provide the perfect place to write them down! These journals let your amazing child keep a personal diary, art book or whatever he or she likes for privacy. Use your child's favorite colors and embellishments to create this masterpiece. Paperkuts designer Stephanie Barnard and her daughter Kirstin made a darling book and pen for Kirstin to keep as a personal journal.

Checklist

• Lifetime table
• Lifetime folding chair
• Composition notebook
• Scrap paper in desired colors
• Stamps
• Paintbrush
• White paint
• Ribbon
• Pen
• Adhesive tape
• Scrapbook embellishments, sayings and letters

Steps

1. Spray journal with adhesive spray and lay cardstock and patterned paper on top. Using a craft knife, cut around the cover of the journal to remove the excess cardstock and paper. To create a worn look, lightly sand the edge of the journal.
2. Stamp "DREAM" onto ribbon embellishment and adhere to journal. Paint metal flowers and add to journal. Add ribbon to the top of the journal with a common stapler. Add ribbon to the "Girl Talk" embellishment and adhere to journal.
3. Using the Sizzix die-cut machine, cut out title. Adhere to journal. lightly ink flower and add to journal with adhesive. Stamp "love" and "believe."
4. String the word "journal" on ribbon and adhere with brads. Add to journal with adhesive.
5. With a dry brush and a minimal amount of white paint, brush paint onto journal and over all embellishments.
6. To make the pen, tightly wrap adhesive tape around the pen and wrap with ribbon. lightly ink the flower and add to the end of the ribbon.

Album in a Box

This project is a great way to reuse small plastic boxes. It is also a super way to use up your extra supplies. Paperkuts designer Stephanie Barnard made this cute album in a box with her 7-year-old daughter, Katie.

Checklist

• Lifetime table
• Lifetime folding chair
• Small plastic or wood box
• Metal letters
• Sand paper
• Paint
• Cardstock to cover your box
• Cardstock for pages
• Ribbon
• Small photos
• Scrapbook embellishments like stickers and die cuts

Steps

1. Lightly sand the box bottom and top.
2. Paint the box bottom and top. Let dry.
3. For box cover, add metal letters and use stamps to decorate.
4. Cut and fold your cardstock to create the pages.
5. Add ribbon, small photos, die cuts, stickers and more to create your box.
6. Once complete, adhere the back of the last page to the inside of the bo using strong adhesive.
7. Note: In order to get photos small enough for this project, use the photos that are provided on an index sheet.

4 fun ways to bring people and albums together.

The best part of scrapbooking is sharing the process with family and friends. Use these steps as ideas to help you gather loved ones. Collaborate and get creative with your albums. Start a tradition of making new memories as you preserve old ones!

Checklist

• Large Lifetime folding tables
• Lifetime folding chairs
• Basic scrapbooking supplies (see Scrapbooking Tip 1)
• Friends and family

Ideas

1. Make your hobby fun for the whole family. Sometimes the best activities are ones you can do together. My children love to pull out the die cuts, stickers, and supplies and work with me. We make family vacation albums together so we can all enjoy them. Give your children the OK to be crafty and creative while you get some of your own layouts done too. A banquet table is perfect for you to sit side-by-side on projects.

2. Get the whole family involved- Instead of putting together the family album all by yourself, ask your spouse and your children for help. Keep the process simple by giving each person a specific assignment or asking each person to share their thoughts. Try making a single layout or a mini album about a fun vacation, a special tradition or a memorable celebration. One night my family got together and made the mini album (pictured above). Each family member took a turn wearing the homemade family crown, and the others had to say why they loved that person. Working on a simple project like this can bring your family closer together.
3. Celebrate a scrapbooking girls night- Pull out your tables, snacks and beverages and you've got a party! Invite new and experienced scrapbookers alike to the house to crop. You'll be surprised how much you learn about (and from) each other. Exchange supplies or make an album together. Scrapbooking is a social event, so it's a fun way to catch up on each other's lives and spend quality time together. This is also a perfect for bridal or baby showers.
4. Host a crop or page exchange- There's never enough time to do all the scrapbooking you'd like. If you want to feel caught up, get a lot of layouts done or make pages and exchange them with fellow scrapbookers, host your own crop. "Crop" is the official term for a scrapbooking event where people make page layouts. It's a great way to make new friends or recruit your old friends to this great hobby.

Tricks to designing an eye-catching layout.

Before you dive into scrapbooking, it’s important to outline the purpose of your book and stick to an overall theme or feel. Deciding this will help you buy materials, organize photos, and ultimately create awesome layouts.

Checklist

• A Lifetime folding table
• A Lifetime folding chair
• Your album and photos
• Cardstock and patterned papers
• Some time to think creatively

Steps

1. Plan first- Before you start your scrapbook, ask yourself: Who am I making this album for? What do I want to record or document? What time-period does this cover? How many pictures do I want to scrapbook? These answers will help you determine the type of project and the type of album you need to achieve your goal.
2. Determine your page elements- Each page should generally have: Photo/photos of the event or person, A title that describes your layout, Journaling to tell the story, Background papers to use on your page, Embellishments and page accents. These are extras that run the gamut from stickers to ribbons to charms.
3. Create a focal point- Every strong layout has a focal point. This is the image or place where you find your eye naturally drawn. It's usually the main or strongest photo and is usually larger than others on the layout. You can add small embellishments to make your focal photo and focal point stand out. When your page has too many elements or photos the same size, your eye doesn't know where to go. Capture your audience with one standout photo.
4. Use color as a design tool- How do you know which colors to use? Simply look at your photographs! They should be the focus of your layout, so it follows that they should determine which colors you use. When you pull colors from your photos to design your layout, your photographs will leap off the page.
5. Find your Scrapbooking Style- Once you've created a few pages, study them. What is the common thread? Are they clean and sparse, funky and full, montages, artistic and full of media such as paints, markers, textured papers or are they linear? Once you recognize your scrapbook style, you can really explore what it is and follow your own heart to make more defined and expressive pages.

6 Easy steps to get your photos organized.

Once you have planned your workspace, it's time to tackle your most important element in scrapbooking: your photographs. Depending on the period of time you’re attempting to scrap, you’ll have anything from a small stack to boxes full of photos. It may seem intimidating at the beginning, but these simple steps will have you organized in no time.

Checklist

• 2 Lifetime tables
• A Lifetime folding chair
• Your photographs
• Photo-safe or acid free photo boxes
• Folder tabs that fit your photo box
• A few hours and some patience

Steps

1. First, decide how you want to create your albums. If you want them to be chronological, then sort and organize your photos in that manner. If you plan to do albums about each family member, sort that way. Or, if it is by theme, keep this in mind too when you sort photos.
2. Spread out all of your photos into piles on a separate table from your workstation, and sort them either by year, theme or person. Once those piles are gathered, go through each pile and put them into chronological order. Once sorted, put them in photo boxes, multi-file folders or other organized storage containers. Date each section so you can find it easily.
3. Store photos safely. Never put photos in paper envelopes or use metal clips, rubber bands or regular clear tape on photos. These can have acid or gases that cause your photos to deteriorate. Place photos in products that are photo-safeor acid-free photo boxes or photo chests of archival quality. When in doubt, check the product label.
4. Keep your organizing current. Once you've gone through the process of organizing your photos continue using that process for current and future photos. Keeping your photos organized can make scrapbooking an easier and more enjoyable process.
5. Scrapbook the best and save the rest. The slogan, coined by Colorbök for its new album system, says it all. Don't try to scrapbook every photo. Go through your pictures and ask yourself, "Is this photo necessary to tell the story?" If not, give yourself permission to put it away in a box of leftover photos. I often see women scrapbook four of the same picture. Your picture means more when it stands out than when it is surrounded by like photos-unless they are used to create an effect.
6. Pay attention to your photos. The best photos make for the best layouts. I sometimes find all the tools, toys and accents so much fun that I want to use them all-but it's not the goodies that tell the story, it's the photos. Make yours count. Choose the most powerful pictures for your pages.

Create a crafting workstation! The first step to scrapbooking or any other kind of craft, is deciding on a space.

One of the beauties of scrapbooking is that it can be whatever you want to make it - and that goes for your work space, too. You can make it as large as an entire room or as small as a folding table. Design your scrapbook space for flow. Once you know where to put your scrapbook workstation, put your hands out in front of you in the spot you choose as your immediate workspace. Anywhere you can reach without stretching is your critical workspace. In that space, put your most important tools, such as your scissors, trimmer, adhesive, etc. Beyond arm's length, you can start to sort less-frequently-used materials. Remember to use your wall space and under-the-table space for organizing all your supplies and photos. Now it’s time to get the right tools. Besides your comfortable chair and table workstation, you'll need to have a few tools to start. I recommend you use this checklist for your shopping:

Checklist

• Lifetime 6-foot folding table
• Lifetime folding chairs
• album with sheet protectors
• Cardstock and patterned papers
• Scissors and a paper trimmer
• Scrapbook adhesives and photo corners
• Scrapbook pens

Steps

1. Buy an album with sheet protectors. Decide what size album you want to put your layouts in. They come as small as 2" x 2" or as big as 12" x 12" or larger.
2. Cardstock and patterned papers. Be sure to have extra white and black cardstock as these are used most for matting pictures.
3. Get sharp scissors and a paper trimmer. Both are tools you'll need to cut, size and crop photographs.
4. Think about what you want to attach to your pages and buy the proper adhesive. You can use wet or dry adhesives. Wet adhesives come in forms such as glue sticks, glue pens or liquid glue. Dry adhesives include tapes and transfer adhesives such as dots or mounting tabs. A good starter kit is photo corners (so you can remove and replace photos as needed in the future), a glue stick to adhere paper, and glue dots to adhere heavier embellishments like ribbon or buttons.
5. You'll want to have a variety of pens for journaling, the part of your page where you write about the photographs and your experiences. Be sure to purchase basic dark colors like black, blue and brown, along with some of your favorite fun colors like pink or green. Before purchasing any pens, be sure to test them for visibility and writing ease. Be especially careful of yellow pens, as they can be too pale to read.

Tips

• Two long Lifetime tables in an "L" shape, or three in a “U” shape make a great work station for a group. To establish place settings, sit at each chair and mark off the furthest you can reach to your right and left. If no workspaces overlap, your group should have plenty of space.
• Be sure that all products you buy are approved for scrapbooking otherwise you could end up with acid migration on your page over time and ruined photographs. The price ranges vary greatly so check local craft and scrapbook stores. Your starter supplies could cost as little as $30 or as much as $150, depending on the types and quantities of products you buy.

If you’ve ever looked at masterfully carved pumpkins and thought: how in the world did they do that? Now is the time to learn!

Most pumpkin carving tricks are easy to learn and simple to do. The steps and ideas in this article will help make pumpkin carving this Halloween less of a trick and more a treat! Whether you like spooky, simple, or complicated designs, or even if you just carve pumpkins for comic relief, you’ll find a template for you in our free downloads at the bottom of this article.

Checklist

• Lifetime table
• Lifetime folding chairs
• The perfect pumpkin
• Masking tape
• Pencil or grease pencil
• Sharp knife
• Large, sturdy spoon
• Hole poker
• Tea light or small candle
• Garbage can

Steps

1. Find the right pumpkin. Select a pumpkin with the right shape for the carving you’d like to do. Some carvings look better with a perfectly round pumpkin and some look best with a strangely shaped pumpkin. Choose a shape that will work best for you.
2. Use your pencil to draw a circle at the top of the pumpkin. This will be the hole you use to dig out the seeds and pulp, so be sure it is large enough to fit your hand through. A fun alternative way to doing this is to make your circle at the underside of the pumpkin. This will allow you to simply set the hollow jack-o-lantern over a candle and maintain the top of the pumpkin.
3. Cut out the circle shape using a sharp knife. To keep the pumpkins “lid” from slipping down, cut at an angle toward the center of the pumpkin. You may need to use a back and forth sawing motion to cut through the tough, thick skin.
4. Remove the cut circle. If it is at the top of the pumpkin, scrape off the seeds or pulp attached so you have a smooth underside. If it is at the bottom, simply throw the piece away.
5. Scoop out the insides. Using your large, strong spoon, scoop out the insides of the pumpkin and remove the seeds and pulp. Try to make the inside as smooth as possible. If you’re a pumpkin seed fan, be sure to set aside the seeds for baking, and try our Sweet N’ Salty Pumpkin Seeds recipe.
6. Clean up. Wipe off your Lifetime table with a wet paper towel or rag. The guts should wipe clean from the plastic surface easily. Throw away the pumpkin guts you don’t want to save.
7. Time to trace the design! If you are using a free downloadable template, print out the desired design and use masking tape to secure it to your pumpkin. Use a hole poker to make small holes along the cut lines. If you are making your own design, you can use a pencil to sketch out the cut lines on the pumpkin. It is a good idea to use a pencil because it is very easy to erase lines made by mistake. In some places, you may wish to only carve off the top layers of the pumpkin and create a light glow. In these instances, be sure to mark the places you do not want to carve right through the pumpkin shell.
8. Start cutting. If you are using a template, remove the paper and tape from the pumpkin. Start cutting along the small holes or pencil lines. Be sure to follow your marks carefully. If you try to carve half way through the pumpkin shell at some places, be sure to gauge the width of the shell, and only penetrate midway through. This is easily done by scraping off layers at a time. Light things up. Place a lit candle at the bottom of the jack-o-lantern and set it outside to get that spooky glow that every trick-or-treater loves!

Tips

• For an easy, fire safe alternative, use electric candles instead of real candles.
• For a really crazy effect, leave the guts inside the pumpkin and let them spill out to make a "barfing" pumpkin.

Free Downloads

• Scaredy Cat Template (easy)
• Cemetery Template (easy)
• Goofy Template (easy)
• Happy Template (easy)
• Pirate Ship Template (challenging)
• Skully Template (challenging)
• Frank Template (challenging)

Frightfully delightful décor ideas for your table. This Halloween, please any crowd of goblins, witches, pirates, or ghosts!

The only thing scarier than Halloween, is not being prepared for it! If you host an annual Halloween party, or are looking to throw a party this year, try these table topper ideas to entertain your guests with frightfully delightful décor! From a black fuzzy tablecloth, to a variety of pumpkins and candles, a miniature trick or treat bag for a name plate, these peices are easy to make and set the perfect scene.

Checklist

• Lifetime tables
• Lifetime folding chairs
• Black, furry fabric, enough to cover your table or just the center
• “Pumpkin” placemats: Orange and black shiny vinyl fabric or felt (1 yard per 4 guests),glue gun, scissors,
• Guest party bags: Free downloadable cut out templates or kid friendly cut out templates, Halloween patterned paper bags, glitter, dark stamp ink pad, paintbrush, colorful tissue, glass or plastic vials, lollypops, and whatever additional candy you want inside.
• Miniature pumpkins
• Tea lights or small candles
• Black cat, witch or moon stickers
• White plates
• Black wire
• Pencils
• Fake black spiders
• Lots of pumpkins of various sizes and shapes

Ideas


1. Cover your Lifetime table with the black, furry fabric
2. Make “pumpkin” placemats: Cut the orange shiny vinyl fabric into the shape of a large pumpkin (no larger than 17” x 15”). Glue the vinyl pumpkin onto a 17” x 15” rectangle of black vinyl. Glue short tufts of raffia at the top of the pumpkin for “stems”. Cut out eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc. from additional black vinyl and glue onto the orange pumpkin placemats, to create a spooky face. Hollow out enough tiny pumpkins to place 5-6 on every table. Put votive candles inside.
3. Place pumpkins of several different sizes in the middle of each table.
4. Make the baby pumpkin-votives. Place the candle or tealight on top and center of the pumpkin. Use a pencil to trace around the candle and make a circle. Use a knife to cut out the circle, go as deep as you'd like the candle to sit. Place the candle in the pumpkin. Set the baby pumpkin-votives around the other pumpkins on the table.
5. Place the black stickers on the rims of white plates at each setting.
6. Tie napkins with black wire, spiral the ends by twisting around a pencil and attach fake black spiders to the ends.

Tips

• Set up a small kids’ table using either the Lifetime Kids picnic table or an adjustable-height Lifetime table. Have crayons and white paper on each table along with stickers, spiders, black cat charms, etc. so they can draw spooky Halloween stuff and decorate it. Remember to have an adult supervise.
• Furry and vinyl fabric can be found in most fabric stores, and black fake spiders and stickers can be found at most party supply stores.

Free Downloads

• Free downloadable cut out templates
• Free kid-friendly downloadable cut out templates
Posted by katie
Tables and chairs, celebration