Studio Calico's August Sandlot Kit

I am so proud of myself and used my entire Project Life Kit from Studio Calico for the month of August. I simply kept it on my desk and added it to different projects until all of it was gone. I am so happy!! Here are the 3 two-page Project Life pages I made with this kit.

Since this kit had some back to school themes to it, my first thought was to wipe out some pictures of when my daughter started school last year. I love the title reminding her to Shine Brightly when she's at school and with her friends. I used a new color pallet for me, pink, yellow, and grey, with some black and white. I love how it came together. I really like how kits push me to try new things and mix new colors. It helps me to grow as an artist. And speaking of growing, I was super pregnant in these pictures and wanted to highlight that as well. I love the "about us" card. It's my favorite. 

"Shine Brightly"

For the next layout I pulled lots of bright colors for a fun summer feel. I loved the oranges and blues, and the vellum stars were such a fun addition for a week about cheer camp. The "awesomeness" card is pretty awesome, so I used it for a title and the rest fell into place. One of my favorite embellishments to work with was the clear tabs. I stamped them to the tops and sides of various cards and they are such a fun addition. 

"Awesomeness"

This last two-page Project Life layout might be my favorite. The "beautiful day" title card steals the show. I added some florals, for a bight fun summery page. I love the bright colors, and the multicolored dots on the right. The book paper pocket kind of grounds the layout by the addition of some cream. This layout,  just reminds me of summer. 

"Beautiful Day"

Car Day

I love teaching preschool. I love teaching children and watching them discover and learn. Everything is an adventure. I love that children learn through play. I love turning fun thing into teaching moments. I also love fostering children's creativity. For a fun preschool day we let our creativity run wild. 

I worked on making the road. I simply cut black felt into strips and curved pieces and added a white line down the center with a white sharpie paint pen. 

The kids decorated fun cars. I simply hot glued some wheels on a toliet paper roll. Then the kids used markers to make them their own. 

Next the kids colored some buildings, mountains, and houses to make our city complete. 

Then we put it all together. 

Hours and hours of fun. 

Houses

I hope you all are enjoying back to school. I love the freedom of summer, but love the routine and schedule of school. I just miss my kids when they are gone all day. I wish the school day was shorter. 

Now I'm busy with teaching preschool, taking care of the little ones, cleaning over and over again, working on my bachelors degree, planning school and church activities, and finding time to live a creative life. How do you guys juggle it all? It's a constant struggle isn't it? Each week I sit down and set goals and plan my week. Some of my goals for this year are to spend more one-on-one time with my sweet kids when they get home, focus on reading my scriptures, and blog more regularly. (I guess exercising will have to be on the back burner for now, oh well. You'll still love me if I don't lose those 10 pounds right? lol) 

This summer we had lots of preschool camp days. We started by having a fun stuffed animal field day. Everyone brought a stuffed animal and came up with a game for us to play. We had three-legged races, toss your stuffed animal in the circle, a tug of war, and more. It was fun to play outside and learn about team work, sportsmanship, and leadership. 

Then we came inside and painted some houses for our stuffed animals. I bought these small packing boxes at Walmart and then cut out doors and windows. Then I let the kids paint away. 

After paint the big kids added details with markers. 

It's all ready for a little stuffed animal to live. 

These were a great art project and were lots of fun to play with! I hope this gives you some preschool art ideas!

Herringbone Quilt!!

So this summer I have been sewing like crazy. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen sneak peeks of my latest projects. Sometimes in life I need the clam predictability of a quilt. Some people don't think quilting is relaxing, but for me it is. It helps me deal with stress. It calms my mind and soothes me. I love knowing if I follow the steps it will be beautiful every time. I love accomplishing that and knowing I made something beautiful. 

This quilt is one of my very favorites. I used the Herringbone Tutorial by Micheal Ann Made. It was easy to follow and come together beautifully. Simply sign up for emails and you'll get this free tutorial. 

This is an in-process shot of me laying out the fabric and getting ready to quilt it. This is the first time I have ever sewn a quilt together and it came together great. I simply followed the straight lines. 

You can kind of see the quilting here. I used this chevron minky on the back. I got it at Fabric.com and I love it!!!

Before I quilted this together I decided to add some stitching. I added some zig zags all over just to add some more character. I love the detail it gives. 

Here's the finished quilt.  I used a combination of fabric from several different lines. Most of the turquoise and navy fabric comes from Basic Grey's PB & J Line. It was an older line that I fell in love with and knew I wanted to make a quilt for myself one day. 

My family loves it and I love knowing I made something warm and comforting for them. This quilt is full of love. 

I've been decorating our living room and it looks great on our new couch. Now I need some really fun funky pillows!!!

The Best Family in the World

I finally took a break from sewing like crazy to do some scrapbooking. I used one of my favorite lines The Polka Dot Party by Elizabeth Kartchner. I love the wood, the florals, and the colors. Pink, turquoise and yellow are my favorite colors ever! I also totally adore the pencil marks and quotes in this collection. They fit my family perfectly. 

I did this 2 page layout for my scrapbook. 

Then I did this one page version for my sweet little girl's book. This is my favorite layout right now. I totally love it!

Summer Memories

So how's your summer been? I hope it's been great. Ours was too short as always, but some how we were ready for school to start too. This year it was full of ups and downs, but I try to focus on the good stuff. 

We had fun with friends and ate lots of popsicles!

We spent time around a camp fire and roasted marshmallows!

We spent lots of time in swim suits and made great memories with our wonderful family. 

In the midst of the craziness I found some time for me. 

And I have a big exciting announcement! I now have prints, greeting cards, and prints on canvas on sale in my Etsy store! You can click on the link here or search for my store on Etsy, called Juliana Hall Creates. This is a big step for me and I'm so excited to get my art out there. The whole reason I started my Etsy store was to market my art work. I am so excited to share this with you. Just click on the image you want and then select if you want a print or card and what size you want. I even have some originals for sale. 

These are a few of my favorites. 

Get yours today and enjoy!!