Echo Park: Head Over Heels "Oh Darling" Layout: FREE Tutorial Download

I'm back in the saddle already with creating tutorials and loving every second of it!  Afterall, teaching others how to craft is my passion. :)

This time it comes in the form of a double-page layout using Echo Park's Head Over Heels collection.I absolutely *adore* everything about this collection. 

I love that the Element Stickers sheet it is versatile enough to be used on layouts with pictures of couples AND photos of children and/or other loved ones. The soft colors paired with the red are just so sweet.

If you're not a double-page spread type of scrapbooker, no worries. I created each page in such a way that they can stand alone if desired. Just pick one of the two and ignore the instructions for the page you don't wish to create. Easy enough, right?

I've used a good portion of the patterns from the Head Over Heels collection pack that includes 12 12x12 double-sided patterns, along with the Element Stickers sheet, the Journaling Cards, and the Alphabet Stickers sheet, but still had PLENTY leftovers to create several other projects.

The instructions also have some other close-up detail photos that will be helpful as you follow along.  As always, if you have any questions, you're welcome to email me using the link over there in the sidebar under my photo!

You can download the FREE step-by-step tutorial for the layout by clicking here: Head Over Heels "Oh Darling" Layout by Tania Willis

Enjoy, and I'll catch you back here soon!

And We Have Our First Broken Bone

Early morning, Saturday June 29th, my youngest, Emma was playing basketball with my husband and jammed her finger. Immediate tears ensued. How many times have you seen or heard of fingers being jammed playing sports? If you've been around active kids, it's plenty, I'm sure. I know I jammed a finger or two many different times as a kid playing basketball or practicing tae kwon do and all we ever did was use some athletic tape to buddy tape the injured finger to the next one and went about our day.

Well, by Sunday evening it was all sorts of pink & purple at all three knuckle joints and quite swollen. Add to that a super irritable personality (which is so not her). Fun....not! So I thought I'd take her to get it x-rayed at a Close to Home Children's Urgent Care. We arrived about 1 hour before closing time and the place was empty. Small miracle, for sure.

I was convinced they would just say "continue with the buddy tape." But, before long we were handed a copy of an xray. Sure enough, broken. At this point it's about 10 minutes after closing and in walks two nurses. One oversaw the other putting a splint. Mid splint, the doctor peeked his head in the room and said "goodnight" to the nurses. After the door closed, we were told (mid splint, mind you) "this is her first time putting one of these on.

Let me just say....I'm all for people learning, but after this experience when it comes to my baby and a broken bone....give me the professional. Keep reading, you'll see.

So, the splint is done and they sent us on our way with instructions to follow up with her pediatrician. Along with instructions for not getting it wet, meaning no swimming. No swimming is such a bummer summer. Let's just say, I've never been more thankful for daily rain showers than I have been this last 10 days. Twelve inches in 10 days and they are calling for 2-4 more today. I digress.

We called the pediatrician Monday morning and we were referred to an orthopedist at Children's Hospital. Scheduled for one week out, Monday July 8.

We went about our day Monday, handled bath time like we'd be doing this awkward thing all the days of her life, and all was well in the world.

Until Tuesday morning.

My girl woke up freaked out in the worst way because her splint had come off. You would have thought it was the end of the world. I quickly got her dressed and took her to Urgent Care at the main hospital. First thing we heard from the nurse was "who did her splint?" Um, well, funny you should ask. And so the story was told of our less-than-ideal experience less than 36 hours earlier.

So we waited, and I kept Emma content by handing over a marker to draw on the paper cover.

Soon we spoke with the doctor who pulled up her xray from our first visit. It was then we learned, it's not just broken in one place but three. The nurse reassured me, "Don't worry mom, we'll fix her right up and things will be good as new and this splint will stay on until you see the orthopedist on Monday." She debated on reusing the already formed hard Orthoglass splint, when I politely asked that she not, but instead start from square one. She changed the splint to an aluminum splint and wrapped it half-way up her arm with an ace wrap. Before leaving the room she asked if she wanted a popsicle for the ride home.

Um, if you know Emma at all, you know the answer to that question is ALWAYS a yes! We left with a new splint and a popsicle for breakfast....and feeling confident that this one would absolutely stay put until Monday.

Monday, late afternoon, I get a call saying she's complaining of the web of skin between her thumb and index finger feeling raw. We agreed to slap a band-aid on to cushion it and call it good. She was happy with that provision and went about her evening. Come bedtime, out of nowhere she starts sobbing hysterically saying her hand hurts. After looking at it, we see that it's red and angry. We immediately removed the wrap to find her hand under the wrap entirely purple. *sigh* Her circulation is being cut off.

At this point, she's coming unglued and won't let me touch it, so we pack her back in the car at 9:30pm and take her back to the same Urgent Care--twice in the same day--to have it done for the third time. Somehow, in her mind, a stranger doing it is better than mommy touching it. We heard once again from a nurse "who did your splint?" in a questioning way as if to say "wow, they really botched this." Because reliving this third trip is mentally and emotionally exhausting, let's just say that we got back in the car after that third visit, sat in the parking lot and both just sobbed. It looked like a 2 year old had splinted it for her in their sleep. A mega mess and Emma was none too pleased. She begged me to take her somewhere else.

We got back home and I calmly told her I'm going wrap this thing myself. So, I did. And guess what? It stayed on the entire week and didn't come off until we saw the Orthopedist on Monday. Yes, I'm awesome. *ahem* (in her eyes, anyway) She repeatedly told me several times each day "thank you for doing a good splint mommy." Each time the stress of it all melted away a little more.

We won't talk about the drama of my infusion July 3, in which I had a reaction....AGAIN....to the medication and had to have an excess of IV Benadryl and steriods. The one that was supposed to take 30 minutes, but ended up more toward the 3-hour mark. The one where I was pretty much dead to the world for the past week from exhaustion. Yeah, we won't talk about that.

So where does that put us? Right. That brings us to the next Monday--July 8. We arrive at the Children's Hospital Orthopedist office---which is a zoo---get checked in and wait our turn. The whole while I'm saying prayers of thanksgiving that it's just her pinky and not her entire leg or arm...or both.

After being brought back to the exam room, we wait some more because they don't have our x-rays or any history from any of our Urgent Care visits. Hello!?! Look in the computer, people. That's why we stick with the same network of facilities so we don't have to worry about this kind of stuff. After this being our fourth visit for this pinky finger my patience meter is pretty much depleted.

The nurse removes the splint, and leaves the room. Just looking at the bruising, Emma starts to panic and is afraid she's going to "toss her cookies." She's definitely not a fan of blood or injuries. This of course, sends Ashlyn into a sensory tailspin (remember her aversion to seeing/hearing/talking about someone about to get sick?). It wasn't long before we were greeted by a resident with a medical student tag-a-long. This isn't new to us since we've spent much time at Children's over the years and are very familiar with the fact that it's a teaching hospital. They both look it over, tell us it's broken in one place (hello, did the two other breaks miraculously heal overnight?) and tell us they'll either re-splint it or cast it, the doctor would make the final call. So we wait.

The doctor comes in, says they'll re-splint it for a week along with a what will come next, except mid-sentence he stops, opens the air-conditioning controls and adjusts the temperature and gripes about it being too warm and leaves the room. He was in our room for less than 2 minutes. The patient care tech then comes in with splint materials and starts measuring and cutting the metal splint down to size with giant scissors. He may know more than me about those scissors, but with each of the five cuts he made metal was fly across the room. I was praying a piece wouldn't hit one of us.

Once the splint was done, I was concerned with the minimal wrap that was on it and the fact that it wasn't supporting the proximal knuckle joint at all. I was also concerned the unwrapped portion would catch on clothing or a blanket and be ripped off affecting the fracture even more. He was much displeased with my questioning and rather rudely started to usher us back into the room to re-do it just to make me happy.

Within seconds, the doctor was back in the room asking what the problem was and then rudely told me the finger was only broken at the medial joint. I let him know that's odd because of what we'd be told the three other visits we've had for this same finger. I left feeling incredibly inferior at the whole experience of that visit and still wasn't convinced.....I mean how hard is it to look at the radiology report? Three doctors all looking at the same report telling me three different things? How can that happen?

Before leaving the tech who splinted it made it known that he's been doing this a long time and it will be just fine, it won't fall off, and he'd see us back next Monday.

We go home, I check out of life for the evening and remind myself it could be worse.

Tuesday morning, 7am, I'm sound asleep as she throws herself on my bed, sobbing the kind of sob you only hear when something is terribly wrong. Bleary eyed, I get up and calm her down enough to understand what she has to say and realize.......the splint fell off.........AGAIN! Are you freaking kidding me?

At this point, I'm cautious around every turn because surely this is a set-up that the whole world is in on, except me, including the producers and cast of Punk'd. If they are ever looking for good material, the last week and a half would certainly be in the running.

We all get ready, I look up the hours of operation for the Orthopedist, and make it there the minute they open. I walked in the door without an appointment and calmly asked for a Patient Advocate. Within minutes I was ushered back into an exam room while the girls went to a private family restroom. Minutes later they both get to the room and are sobbing. Turns out they turned the handle to get out of the bathroom and it fell off in their hand, keeping them locked on the inside with no way to get out. *sigh* Once they calmed down we then proceeded to tell the advocate and the hand-specialist nurse the whole run-down of our experience with this finger starting from the visit to the first Urgent Care.

To make this crazy, almost-unbelievable situation I'm recounting a bit shorter, they decided to start at square one and do brand new x-rays. After x-rays, THREE breaks were confirmed....so no miraculous healing....and a new doctor decided that it needed a hard plaster cast for 3 weeks. Surely the first thought that comes to a momma's mind when hearing the words 'hard.plaster.cast.' isn't 'Hallelujah!', but HALLELUJAH! LOL.

Surely a hard plaster cast cannot and will not fall off and we can finally be done with this drama.

She ended up with a 'waterproof' cast. Instead of the normal cotton material on the inside, she was wrapped with a water wicking material that keeps sweat and water away from the skin. She can shower with it and get it wet in the swimming pool for up to 30-40 minutes a day.

She chose pink, which didn't surprise me at all, and is rather pleased with how it looks. She only had minimal pain while it was being set because of the way they had to form the bend in the cast to shape it.

She was instructed to let the cast set for 24 hours before letting anyone sign it. The 24-hour wait about killed her. LOL. Afterall, she is my social butterfly and she even worried about there not being enough room for all her friends and family to sign. Too cute.

This morning, once again at 6am she was throwing herself on top of me while I was peacefully sleeping, but this time she was eager with anticipation of making it to summer camp for her friends to sign her cast. She wanted me to know she was awake and got herself dressed. She was worried about her outfit matching and excitedly told me she got baker's twine from my studio and tied up the lid of her Sharpie marker to it so she could wear it as a necklace all day.

Gosh, this kid. She's cute.

I'm pleased to say that she is happy as a lark, the cast hasn't slowed her down and has a sweet smile back on her face now that she doesn't have to worry when the next time a splint will fall off.  She came home after just a few hours at summer camp with nearly every spot on that cast covered with well-wishes and friends' names on it.

I'm thankful for her sweet disposition. I'm also thankful that it shines through so much in these photos I've taken throughout the whole ordeal that others notice it too. But even more thankful that she's resilient and in a short while won't even remember medical inconvenience.

All I have left to say is that never in my life, more than right now, have I wanted one of those random "Tell Us About Your Visit" surveys to land in my mailbox.

Xyron Create A Sticker + LYB Acorn Hollow

this week the Little Yellow Bicycle design team has been strutting their stuff after using the Xyron Create A Sticker, while the Xyron designers have been showing off their skills with Little Yellow Bicycle's Acorn Hollow collection!  a blog swap hop! such fun!

boy, oh boy, this Xyron Create A Sticker Maker they sent for me to use is slick-stuff! if you've missed the week of inspiration, you'll want to keep reading, then hop over to the Little Yellow Bicycle blog and the Xyron blog and read back a few days worth of entries to see all the possibilities.

i’ll be honest, i used to get so frustrated with the limitations i had using my Xyron 1.5” Create A Sticker—you know the ever popular “X”. why? because, well, 1.5” just felt so limiting in my little creative world.

but, when Xyron sent me the 2.5” Create A Sticker…..wowza! it instantly changed my mind when it comes to sticker making. it’s amazing how freeing that extra inch can be in the world of crafting.

the first thing i noticed was no longer did i have that crinkly plastic film over the item i was stickering. And no longer did i have exposed adhesive! no sticky fingers, no messy glue, no fussing with glue dots (i’ve lovingly nicknamed them glue boogers….ha!).

what makes it even more awesome is that now, the backing material is even a bit different and my punches could go through it like butter! no more jammed punches.

so, for this layout, i ripped a handful of pages out of my 6x6 paper pad, and then trimmed them down to 1 ¼” wide. placed two strips side by side, but not overlapping, then cranked them through the Create A Sticker machine.

then I used a 1” circle punch to punch down the length of each patterned paper. In less than 5 minutes, i had 50+ 1” circles with edge-to-edge adhesive. all i needed to do was peel off the protective backing and stick them to my page.

so while the layered circle embellishing looks super fussy, reality is this page was constructed in 20 minutes tops!

Xyron 2.5” Create A Sticker? in my opinion, a must have in every scrapboooker’s tool arsenal. get yourself one!

Don't forget to stop over to the Little Yellow Bicycle blog for details on how you can win yourself some Xyron products in today's giveaway!

Acorn Hollow Journaling Cards	Acorn Hollow Stick Pins	Acorn Hollow Chipboard Shapes
Acorn Hollow Clear Cuts	Acorn Hollow 5 Things Pocket	Acorn Hollow Favorite Pieces Stickers
Acorn Hollow Fresh Verse Stickers	Acorn Hollow 6x6 Paper Pad	Fiskars 12" Rotary with LED

InLinkz.com

randomness from the willis house

so i've had it with myself and not blogging.  somehow life went from super busy to flying at mega speed.  i laugh at myself for thinking we were busy 4 months ago, because the last 4 months have defined busy in a whole new way. sheesh.  still waiting for someone to invent a machine to slow time. somebody get on that, would ya?

i've had enough of the self-imposed guilt trips with myself for failing to document everyday life in the way that my brain thinks i should, so here i am making an attempt to drown out the voices in my head.

just so you know, this is going to be as random as random gets.  and in order to make sure that this was something i could mark off my mental 'to-do' list, i've decided that editing and resizing photos was a waste of precious time. so let's just pretend there are no flaws, shall we?

spidergirl has an on again off again relationship with her smile lately, but when she flashes those pearly whites at you, it's the cutest smile you've ever seen. seriously lights up the room. she's been off the charts emotional about anything and everything lately and i thought to myself "tania, if you think this is bad, just wait a few more years 'til those teenage hormones kick in." anywho. she was super proud to be wearing a towel on her wet hair after her shower just like mommy does. not sure what it is about a twisted towel---ashlyn went through the same fascination.

ashlyn has been spending her free-time drawing, creating, crafting, etc.  her hands are almost always covered with paint or sharpie marker. her latest creations are these 'made-to-order' phone pouches made from folded notebook paper that's been reinforced with duct tape.  she's ready to go into business folks!

just spidergirl looking so very little and quite adorable.  there's so many times i look at her and marvel at how grown up she looks, but so many other times where i realize how very little she still is.  it's time playing a cruel little game of tug-o-war with my heart.

if you've been reading for some time, you're aware that this sight is nothing new to behold.  my studio is in a constant state of disarray.  i'm so not complaining because that means there's been a flurry of activity keeping things hopping.  this summer has been one deadline on the heels of another and i've loved every moment of it.  but, really. it's time to clean! this i know.

we've been spending lots of time with sore hind ends from sitting on the bleachers in the observation deck at gymnastics for two reasons....

1. because spidergirl begged and begged and begged and begged some more to take gymnastics just like her big sister from just about the time ashlyn started her first lesson.  but that pesky asthma flaring up non-stop the first 4 months of this year kept my answer at a firm NO. but over the last several months her doctors seemed to have found the right combination of medicines to keep her well-controlled and well, i didn't have a reason to say no anymore.   she's over the moon thrilled, can't you tell! :)

2. because ashlyn was moved from 1 hour a week training to 3 hours a week training in the pre-team class.  but she was in pre-team for a whole week before they asked her to join competitive team!  she's super stoked.  so now she trains 5 hours a week and loves every second of it. my wallet is crying in pain though.  competitive gymnastics is off the charts EXPENSIVE.

this is how we roll when the pain is out of control.  heating pad and puzzles. oh joy.

shark week was celebrated with baths in the dark with glowsticks and.....

floating sharks.  eeeeeps!

my house is littered with little trinkets that are near and dear to spidergirls heart.  finding them laying around everywhere is almost as annoying as stepping on a stray lego on the floor.  she's completely smitten with this nerdy chipmunk brought back from Disney.

peace.  did you know that Friday was World Peace Day?  it was.  the girls' school did activities all day long to celebrate peace.  ashlyn had written an essay on peace and was chosen along with 9 other kids from the school to read her essay during an assembly that day. of course, i know that has nothing to do with a photo of spidergirl's backpack. lol.

this is HUGE news around here.........doug.ate.a.salad.  whoa. never thought i'd see the day where my meat and potatos man would start eating all kinds of vegetables and actually LIKE them.

awwww. i'll never get tired of looking at pictures of her missing her two front teeth.  anywho. we're still making the 100 mile roundtrip adventure every friday morning to the allergist for spidergirls' allergy shot. not my favorite outing of the week, but we try to make it fun. she always takes along some sort of stuffie to keep her company.  this is her Duffy bear--a souvenir she brought back from Disney.

it's always extra stressful for me when ashlyn joins us because the two of them together in a waiting room with nowhere to burn off excess energy is a recipe for obnoxiousness. 

this pretty little batch of fabric kept me busy the last few weeks for a deadline. it was fun to play with fabric again, but i think i've decided that i'll stick to my paper. i'm so much more of an instant gratification project person these days. maybe some day when life isn't so busy i'll enjoy fabric more than paper again.

that's all i've got folks.  pretty lame. i know. 

around town: The Ohio State Fair

back at the beginning of August we decided at the last minute to take the girls to the Ohio State Fair. they had been once before but were too young to remember it at all.  you should know....i avoid the fair like the plague. fairs just aren't my thing.  too many people....all sweating along with funky foul odors (both body and food) in one place for me.  it feels like mass chaos. but i was ready to take one for the team and suck it to go for the girls to experience it.

we really weren't there for the 'fair' per se, but i'll get to that in a bit.  i thought if we were all together, why not take a family photo. you can see that they are all jumping out of their skin thrilled about it, yes?  here's a secret: i'm not the only one overwhelmed by the fair around here.  mind you, we had just gotten back from Disney World, so they were comparitively thinking: LAME. but in all honesty, all my life, whenever i hear the word 'fair' the first thing that comes to mind is miserably HOT....and usually really humid.  this day was no different.

but there is some really, really cool stuff to be seen at the fair.  i always enjoy going into the Youth Discovery Center. some of the things they have displayed in there are quite fascinating.  my favorite is always the lego town.  they use nothing but legos to reconstruct major US landmarks into this cityscape display and it is a massive display. and if you ever miss getting your girl scout cookies ordered, never fear, they have loads and loads available for you to buy at the fair.  Youth Discovery Center is the place to get 'em.

 

whenever doug thinks of the fair, he thinks two things: corndogs and funnel cakes.  we were about 35 steps into the fair he and emma stopped to check out the corndogs.

they decided they were only mildly impressed. me?  i don't eat at the fair. EVER. fried food just isn't my idea of appetizing.

 

if you know ashlyn, you know that she will pick chocolate icecream.....excuse me, soft-serve chocolate icecream, over real food any day.  and if given the choice she'll pick the largest size offered. every time. the girl loooooooooooves her soft-serve chocolate icecream.

just because i don't eat at the fair doesn't mean my salivary glands don't excrete a little when i walk by the caramel apples. mmmmmmmmm. i LOVE caramel apples just as much as i love peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches, buuuuut i don't eat fair food.  you know, it's kinda hard to get a caramel apple if you aren't buying it at a fair. unless you make it yourself, i suppose, but that's way too much work for a single apple.  i don't think i've had one since 2007 but still consider them my favorite treat. 

 

anywho.  we were making our way over to the dairy building and got sidetracked by an enthusiastic entertainer preparing to start a magic show. emma loooooves to be entertained so we decided to stop and take in the show. just two minutes later emma was approached about being pulled from the audience to be an assistant in James Johnson's magic show and instantly melted into a puddle of giddy giggles. i'll never forget the pure joy radiating from her being during that magical 15 minutes.

 

funnel cake location found and noted for a stop later. :)

after the magic show we continued toward the dairy building and met some livestock along the way.  this dairy cow was such a sweet and mild tempered beauty.  i adore giving my girls experiences like this because when i think back to my childhood most of my memories revolve around time at my grandparents' farm or in the barn milking cattle by my grandpa's side. :)

and then we found the butter cow!  actually there were two and this was the smallest of them. there was also a three tiered cake......all sculpted from BUTTER.  amazing. the kids weren't overly impressed, but it's been an iconic thing at the fair for as long as i can remember.

but the reason we were really at the fair was to take the girls to their very first concert!  after scoring one heck of a deal on tickets we took them to see......

 

my girls are highly entertained by two shows on television right now: iCarly and Victorious.  Victoria Justice is the leading actress in the show Victorious, so they were thrilled!  tickets for this concert were $34 each face value, but we found great seats through Stubhub for $11 which also included fair admission.  typical fair admission is $10 for adults and $8 for kids, so, yeah....a deal!

 don't mind us....just killing time before the concert.  doug doesn't know how to smile for a camera....it's quite the joke around here.

 

our secret for keeping an antsy 7 year old little girl happy through a 2 hour concert?  a giant lollie purchased for $1 at Walgreens.  :)

 

 i was worried about how this one would handle a concert.  she doesn't usually do well with large crowds, dark spaces or loud noises, but getting there early and allowing her to adjust and take in everything around her before the lights went down was very helpful.  but i'm not gonna lie, i think i held my breath the entire night waiting for the sensory overload to take root.

the only thing i wasn't impressed with at this concert was her opening act, Max Schneider.  not that his singing wasn't stellar...because it was, but because he doesn't have many of his own song, so he was covering other artists. call me prude but i thought singing Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' to 20,000 girls who's ages averaged 11 years old was a bit over the top.  it really icked me out and made me second guess our decision to take the girls to the concert.  yep. prude. i own it. at 7 and 10 they don't need to hear that stuff.

 

i spent the majority of the concert mesmerized by the lighting and trying to distract myself with testing out the various settings on a new point and shoot camera.  

 

  

and checking in on spidergirl who was still happy as a lark licking away at her lollipop and taking it all in.  she sang along to almost every song.

after the concert, there was only one last thing they wanted to do........

and that was find a funnel cake. and that they did.