The One with Jane at 3!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Jane is 3 today! I absolutely cannot believe it was three years ago today that she came into the world, much much much faster than I expected - she was ALMOST born in the car! You can read her birth story here - I'm fascinated with birth stories, maybe you are too :)

I like doing these questionnaires - I mostly filled it out myself, but next year hopefully she'll be able to answer them herself:

What is your favorite color? Purple

What is your favorite toy? My Little Ponies

What is your favorite food? French fries

What is your favorite show? Lizards (Oscar's Oasis)

What is your favorite game? "birthday" (?)

What is your favorite snack? Jelly Bellys

What is your favorite animal? Cats

What is your favorite book? Princess of the Potty

What is your favorite song? Humpty Dumpty

What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

Who is your best friend? Fox

What do you like to do outside? Anything to do with water

What is your favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

What do you want for dinner? French fries

What do you like for breakfast? An assortment of cereals

What do you want to be when you grow up? Fox

She is definitely a challenging child and tests my patience nearly every minute of every day. She is spirited, strong-willed, stubborn, loud, burps in public louder than my mom, says "no" a million times a day, spits, hits, punches, doesn't eat anything except french fries, will not give up her pacifier, makes the biggest messes I've ever seen, refuses to go to nursery on Sundays... Sigh. Gotta love her. On the flip side, she still loves cuddling, takes a 2.5 hour nap, loves being read to, sings songs often, has the sweetest little voice, goes to sleep super easily, loves her mommy to pieces, and could play all day.

This has NEVER happened before! She had woken up pretty early and fell asleep watching a show on my computer.

We celebrated her birthday a few days early because we were going to be on the cruise on her actual birthday. It really confused both the kids when we woke up on her birthday on the boat and said Happy Birthday. Fox was like 'Jane gets two birthdays?!' Her first birthday we spent in the hotel when we moved to Germany, her second birthday was fun, and her 3rd birthday was on a boat.

A day in the life of Jane:

7am - wake up

7:15am - eat breakfast, some kind of cereal

8:30am-12:00pm - run errands and play with Mommy

12:00pm - lunch. She loves Taco Bell and "chicken, fries, and brown sip," usually from Charley's.

1:30pm - nap time!

4:00pm - play with Fox

5:00pm - dinner

6:00pm - play with Fox, watch a show

6:30pm - bath time!

7:00pm - popcorn!

7:30pm - bed time!

We just started potty training and she's doing great at #1, but #2 is a whole other ball game. She starts preschool in a few weeks and I'm so excited to see how she likes it!

Happy 3rd birthday Jane! Love you!

The One with the Elle's Studio July 2015 Layout

Monday, July 27, 2015

My July Elle's Studio step-by-step layout is up! Here is the page in its entirety but be sure to visit the Elle's Studio blog for the complete how to:

4TH OF JULY by Paige Evans

On this layout I used elements from the Elle's Studio July 2015 kit:

I made a short video to show how I wrapped the string art stars:

Visit the Elle's Studio blog for more details of how this layout came together!

The One with the Ali Edwards WEEK IN THE LIFE Layout

Friday, July 24, 2015

Hey howdy hey! Sharing my latest Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team layout today! The team was given access to the Week in the Life digital files:

And here's what I came up with:

TACO TUESDAY by Paige Evans

DESCRIPTION: I saw the 3x4 Days of the Week card (png) and knew exactly what I wanted to do! I loved all the patterned digital journaling cards and printed then punched them out to make my own patterned paper.

JOURNALING SAYS: The moment I saw this Polish pottery dish set I thought of a million different uses for it! Taco bar, Thai food, ice-cream or potato bar. Loved putting it to use!

HOW TO: Trace a square portion of the days of the week design in Silhouette Studio, delete a few rows, and then die cut it from white cardstock. Print some of the 3x4" and 3x8" cards then punch them out into 1" squares. Use the patterned paper squares to back each die cut letter. It just so happened (and it's what inspired the rest of the layout!) that the "TUESDAY" was at the top and my taco Tuesday photo colors matched perfectly! I love when layouts come together like that. Serendipitous :) I stitched around the "TUESDAY" with black thread to make it stand out and then layered the photo over a few more printed cards. I embellished a bit with the Let's Eat collection by Elle's Studio and splattered some India ink next to the photo and title. The last step: I was going to watercolor over every single letter, but I'm SOOOOO glad I didn't and chose only to watercolor over "TUESDAY" because the water made the ink run on the printed patterned papers! Disaster averted! It looks okay in the title (maybe, just don't look too close), but would have totally ruined the layout if I'd painted over everything. Anyway, all's well that ends well!

SUPPLIES: Digital files: Ali Edwards; Cardstock, adhesive, pen: American Crafts; Wood veneer, stickers: Elle's Studio; Sewing machine: Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Die cut machine: Silhouette Cameo

photo Taco Tuesday Detail by Paige Evans.jpg

That's all she ~~wrote~~ made for now!

The One with Teaching a Bookbinding Workshop in Munich!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

It's officially happening!

I'll be teaching a bookbinding workshop in Munich, Germany on Saturday October 17th from 10 am-5pm! The class is €70 and includes a big kit filled with papers, wood covers, thread, needles, embellishments, and instructions so you can keep making books forever smile emoticon Lunch and drinks are also included.

There are only 20 spots available (UPDATE: only 10 spots left!!!)... so... don't hesitate!!! :) :) :)

Or go to bit.ly/munichbookbinding!

Sincerely hope to see you there!

The One with the Scrappies Recap

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Yesterday I drove two hours down to Munich to teach how to create two layouts to 20 lovely ladies at the super cute Scrappies shop!

I was having a blast chatting with the ladies I didn't have much time to document how cute this local-scrapbook-store is, but seriously, it's a gem!! I miss LSSs!

Reminds me of my days working at my very first job: a scrapbooking store in Redmond Washington called Yesterdays! It's been out of business for a decade or so, but it was lovely while it was open.

We walked across the street to the crop and got right to work!

Here is the first layout we made featuring the Amy Tangerine/American Crafts Rise & Shine collection and patterned paper triangles:

DREAM by Paige Evans
JOURNALING SAYS: There was a bench set up outside Fox's school one morning so of course I used it as an opportunity to snap some pics of you two. Not that you cooperated or anything, silly little guys. It's so true to your personalities though, this is real life! :)
HOW TO: Use the woodgrain paper as your background. Trim (2) 2” (or 5.5cm) squares from each of the remaining 11 papers. Cut each square in half diagonally to make triangles. Piece the triangles onto the background to create 16 squares. Adhere (3) 2” square photos across the center. Journal on either side of the photos. Place a paper flower between the photos and add a “dream” bottleap. Tie ribbon into a bow and glue it below the flower and next to the bottlecap. Embellish the layout with jewels. SUPPLIES: Patterned paper, ribbon: American Crafts; Bottlecap, jewels, flowers: ScrapBerry’s; Other: paper cutter, scissors, adhesive, pen, (3) 2”x2” photos

With all of the leftover triangles, I showed a few different options for what to do with them and then Sandra was so nice to give everyone another piece of cardstock so they could make an extra layout if they wanted.

I love when people think outside the box and pick and choose their own colors of papers.

Triangles galore :) :) :)

Paper piecing.

Then we took a break for lunch and shopping! We ate delicious pizza. One kind even had pears and nuts on it!

Then we worked on the second layout, also using the Amy Tangerine/American Crafts Rise & Shine collection and I showed how to use a Silhouette Cameo.

TOGETHER by Paige Evans
JOURNALING SAYS: Together is the best place to be! I love my little family more than anything in the whole wide world!
HOW TO: Die cut 12 hearts from cream cardstock using a Silhouette Cameo machine. Turn the cardstock over and place dimensional adhesive around each heart. Hand cut 11 hearts from patterned papers and one photo – use an inside heart as a template and trim one heart about 1/8” wider all around, then use that heart as a template to cut the other 10 paper hearts and a photo. Back the open hearts with the paper and photo hearts. Watercolor around most of the hearts, matching the color of paint with the color of paper. Add jewels to three of the hearts and three bottlecaps to three different hearts. Tie ribbon into a bow and add it below a bottlecap. Trim out a title from patterned paper and glue it along with a paper flower above another bottlecap. Cut out a journaling tag, trim it in half, then add it to the sides. Trim striped patterned paper strips and glue them to the left and right edges. Journal on the tag pieces.
SUPPLIES: Cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon: American Crafts; Bottlecaps, jewels, flowers: ScrapBerry’s; Other: paper cutter, scissors, adhesive, dimensional adhesive, pen, 3”x3” photo Busting out the inks!

We took turns coming up to the mixed media table and adding ink and chalk around the die cut heart edges to really make the colors pop!

Such a fun day filled with inspiration and shared interests!

I might be back if we can work out the details to teach a bookbinding workshop, so stay tuned!

The One with Insta-Lately July 18th Edition

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Here's the newest installment of our "insta-lately" life according to my instagram (@paigetaylorevans) and phone camera. I haven't done this since February, but I won't go back that far cuz that would be like a ba-jillion photos :)

I went to IKEA some moons ago to replace all of my colorful and deteriorating boxes with white ones. But then I regretted my decision after seeing this! Makes my color-loving heart so happy!

Haylie found these at Target, hehe.

My favorite show is on!

My errand buddy. This is outside the German post office we frequently bi-weekly.

Loved putting together this batch of pacifier clips from my etsy shop (use coupon code BABYJANE for 15% off your order)!

Pretty flowers lining a pretty door in Weiden.

I stocked up on thread from the craft shop on base and loved all the colors.

One morning we played hookie and I took the kids to Weiden. I said "yes" to everything they asked. So, donuts and juice packs for lunch for the win!

It's our goal to get some dirndl and lederhosen before we move back to the states. This dress I actually love!

Heaven on earth for me AND Fox!

Happy Mail.

Sometimes after preschool we stop at the gas station and I let them pick a candy. Jelly Bellys for Jane and Nerds for Fox. Shhh, don't tell daddy the dentist...

I like making books and I cannot lie!

I was feeling depressed about Joey one day (or really, it was for about 6 weeks) and took a reflective picture of the clouds.

My favorite piece of furniture, prominently displayed in our dining room. I need another one though, this one is all full!

Jane. Yup, she's still in a crib. She can climb out though... We'll make the switch soon, but I'm holding out as long as I can because I don't think she'll take naps in a big girl bed... And, well, naps are my saving grace.

One of my favorite views in Weiden.

Right after I snapped this he said, "I just farteded". That's my boy.

Our 4th of July was small. We stayed home, ran errands, took pictures of the kids in their red, white, & blue gear, and then ate Thai food (and chicken/fries) outside in the warm and summer sunshine for dinner. And I loved it. Fox hates loud noises, they scare him half to death, so fireworks are still a no-go for now. Maybe next year.