National Scrapbooking Month (Explosion Box) & meeting friends

Did you know that May was National Scrapbooking Month?

I love to scrapbook and now I try to find the time, but lately there's no time. What I had made is an Explosion Box. By the way this was done a few years ago and thought to share it with you. I think it's a wonderful idea. It has different slots where you can add pictures, do journaling, and add embellishments. I had seen an explosion box a while ago at a scrapbook store. Miami use to have many Scrapbook Stores and now it's sad to say there's none. I had never done one so I started researching to see how to make one. Have you ever one seen one? If not here you go.

I love this. It's a small decorative scrapbook box. It even has a luggage tag so you can add your room key or anything else to show where you went. Can you see the cuteness? I did a Disney box. Disney is one of my favorite place and since we are going soon. I thought it would be a great idea to show. At times when trying to replicate this it can very tricky, but at the end it's was worth it.

You open the box and start to see the pages unfold you'll be amazed at how many pictures it can hold. When I saw it I was so fascinated and happy by it. You can use as many different scrapbook papers, stickers, embellishments, photos, etc. as you want. Each slot can be a different character and or a different theme. I made this one rather plain as it was my 1st one.

 This is how it looks when you completely open it. Some of the flaps still stay open, but if you push them down they will stay.

If you have ever done one I would love to see pictures. Please send the pictures to maluboutiques@yahoo.com

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Being in the craft world you get to meet some pretty awesome and talented people. I'm lucky to have a few crafty friends. I asked a  couple of my crafty girlfriends if they did anything for National Scrapbooking Month and if they wouldn't mind me sharing some of there talent on my blog.

Meet Diana.
She has a blog called It's my life and I'm scrapping it. I met Diana in 2004 at my Scrapbook Store. Her talent is unbelievable. You should see some of her pages. She scraps from late at night to the OMG it's time to go to work. She puts so much details on her pages that it leaves you in Wow that's awesome. I'm glad I met her she has become part of the family. Here is one of her many pages that she has made.

To see more of Diana's Talented pages click here: It's my life and I'm scrapping it.

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I've mention this before that I'm also a Stampin Up! demonstrator.
 I was hooked 2 years ago when I met Isis who is my up line Stampin Up! Senior Demonstrator. She does beautiful work. She also has a blog called Pretty Paper Parfait. She's a stay at home mom along with many other hats. Isis does beautiful scrapbook pages and has done her share of party favors as well. In our last meeting she had challenged us to do this Mini Album that she had found in another blog. Hers came out beautiful.
I'm still working on mine.

The color combo and the mix of textured papers is just fantastic. She loves flowers and most of her projects has flowers. If you want to see more of what Isis has done pass by her blog Pretty Paper Parfait.

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I met another lady (Fiorella) a few weeks in the meeting who has wonderful ideas. Fiorella showed us one of her flowers that she had made and I thought it was beautiful. This is her mini album as well and it came out just as beautiful. Me and her just started sharing ideas once we met. On her blog you will find a Spanish tutorial about this album. Once we have the English version we will post it on my blog.

I'm a paper girl and love to see how people mix patterns and colors.

Here is  Fiorella link: Stampando 

I hope you enjoy today's blog on National Scrapbooking Month. Remember if you pass by these lady's pages let them know that I sent you. They are very talented and hopefully you will love the ideas that they have. Till next time.

xo,

Maylene

Inspirational Wednesday {Alice in Wonderland}

I've been looking at Alice in Wonderland themes now for a little over a year. I have been saving pictures for a while now and I'm sharing with you some of my most favorites. The details that one can really put in is just outrageous. This them can be in bright colors or pastels and still look vibrate.

These chairs are just beautiful. I love the colors and the deets with rhinestones and glitter. If my daughter would see this and automatically yell PRETTY!!!!!

Do you see these colors how the stand out? Mixing the brights are just wonderful and the flowers are a classic touch.

By far this was the best part. I love the carousel horse. I use to have one as kid and LOVED it!

Found via: Jessica Claire 

Do you see what I mean with the color scheme. Brights or Pastels this theme still just looks gorgeous. I'm a huge tea party person. I also love to collect Tea Cups. Do you see the designs in these? Just look at the cake. Classic and Elegant.

Photos from top left: Tic Tock, Country Living, Intimate Weddings, Floksy, Wright Creativity, Tea Forte.

via: Bridal Bar

I can't wait to have a Alice in Wonderland party for my daughter, but she is still too tiny. Soon tick tock tick tock.

Hope you have a Wonderland Wednesday.

xo,

Maylene

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was just fantastic. I started my day with breakfast being made by my hubby and son. While the two of my favorite men cooked, my daughter and I opened my Mother's Day cards. Which I loved because they were handmade. (BIG SMILE)

 My son and hubby have a tradition every 1st Saturday of the month Home Depot and Lowes have a kids workshop.  Well this Saturday landed the day before Mother's Day and they dedicated it making a projects just for mommies. As you all know I love flowers and Albert (my son) made me a Tulip flower pot holder. It's adorable. Now it will be a project between him and I to paint.

Isn't it just darling? Can't wait to paint it with him. 

My daughter made me card, which mind you it was her version of what a card should be. She's only 2 and very much alive. The card that my daughter had made ended up in the garbage. She is a LOT like me. I'm always picking up, throwing things away, or putting everything away. Major OCD. The only way I  realized it, was when I went to pick up the table from breakfast. (Sad face) it's ok at least I saw it and enjoyed.

We decided to celebrate differently this year. I normally have a gathering at my house, but this year we went to visit everyone.

We went to my sister-in-laws house we took pictures of the kids and all the mommies with their kiddies. We had fun talking and enjoying appetizers while the kiddies we playing the room.

Then we went to my momma house. This year we celebrated it differently. My mom has been researching our Family Tree for some time now it has been a slow process that is still in the making as it is very time consuming and time is so precious these days that it makes it an even longer process.

So, this year we wanted to do something different we wanted to pay tribute to the Mom’s in our family the PAST ones some of which we had the pleasure of having had them in our lives and some of which through research although not with us have played a part of who we are today and the PRESENT ones that we are lucky enough to still have in our lives that have shaped our family tree.

Unfortunately my mommy and I didn't take any pictures. On the up side I had a wonderful time and my daddy made a killer meal.

Our small dessert table.

The name tags of all the fabulous women that we were so blessed to have old and new. In our family tree we also included my in laws side of the family as they are part of our family now. These tags are handmade and hand stamped.

Our Family Tree

 

Here are some of our yummy dessert and the plants that were bought for each of the mommies.

 

I hope that all Moms had a wonderful day .

xo,

Maylene 

Madison 6th Birthday Goodie Sneak Peak

Happy Monday!

This is one of the goodies you will see in Madison's 6th Birthday. I can't wait till Saturday to see her face. Some of your favorite vendors be in the pictures.

Stay tune!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday.

xo,

Maylene

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day/Weekend

All I can say is what a WONDERFUL experience it has been so far to be a mother. I'm grateful to have been blessed with 2 amazing children. I hope and wish that all the Mommies and Mommy-to-be have a wonderful time celebrating this special day with your children, family, and friends.

My sunshine's

xo,

Maylene

 

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Happy CINCO DE MAYO!!!!

Woo Hoo!!!!! In celebration of Cinco De Mayo here are some fabulous recipe's. I have made and tried them as well. They are delicious. Hope you all enjoy it!!

Image Via: Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 4 lime wedges
• 2 tablespoons coarse sugar
• 2/3 cup thawed lemonade concentrate
• 1 cup frozen unsweetened raspberries
• 2 cups ice cubes
• 2 packages (10 ounces each) frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 cup tequila, optional

Directions

• Using lime wedges, moisten the rims of four margarita or cocktail glasses. Set aside limes for garnish. Sprinkle coarse sugar on a plate; hold each glass upside down and dip rim into sugar. Set aside. Discard remaining sugar on plate.
• In a blender, combine the lemonade concentrate and raspberries; cover and process until blended. Press mixture through a fine sieve; discard seeds. Return raspberry mixture to blender; add the ice, strawberries, blueberries, sugar and tequila if desired. Cover and process until smooth.
• Pour into prepared glasses. Garnish with reserved limes. Yield: 4 servings

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Now Rachael Ray is one of my favorite cooking ladies. I have a ton of her cookbooks. I love watching her show and reading her magazines.

 Doesn't this look yummy????

 

Image Via: Food Network: Rachael Ray

Prep: 15 min   Cook:15 min  Total: 30 min

Ingredients

• 2 bags corn tortilla chips in 2 colors or different flavors, such as blue corn, red corn, yellow corn, lime flavored, chili flavored or black bean chips -- pick 2 favorites

Pico de Gallo Salsa:

• 4 vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped, for medium to hot heat level
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup, 2 handfuls, cilantro leaves, finely chopped -- substitute parsley if cilantro is not to your liking
• Salt

Beef and Beans Topping:

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound ground sirloin
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dark chili powder
• 1 1/2 ground cumin, half a palmful
• 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper sauce, giving you medium to hot heat level
• 1 can black beans, 15 ounces, drained

Cheese Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 pound pepper jack cheese, shredded, about 2 1/2 cups

Additional toppings to choose from, optional:

• Sour cream
• Chopped scallions
• Chopped black olives
• Diced pimento
• Sliced avocado, dressed with lemon juice
• Hot pepper sauces

Directions

Arrange a mixture of 2 varieties of corn chips on a very large platter or use your broiler pan as a platter.

Combine salsa ingredients in a bowl and set aside for flavors to marry.

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add oil, garlic, onion and peppers to the pan and saute 2 minutes, then add meat and crumble with wooden spoon. Season meat with salt, chili powder, cumin and cayenne pepper sauce. Cook meat 5 minutes, then stir in beans and reduce heat to low.

In a medium sauce pot, melt butter and add flour to it. Cook flour and butter 1 to 2 minutes over moderate heat, then whisk in milk. When milk comes to a bubble, stir in cheese with a wooden spoon. Remove cheese sauce from the heat.

Pour cheese sauce evenly over the massive spread of chips and top evenly with beef and beans and the pico de gallo. UBER NACHOS! Serve immediately as is or, garnish with your choice of extra toppings from the toppings list.

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To prep for your festivities!!!!

If you need printables Claudia over at Tini Posh has some fantastic FREE printables. Just look at what you can design. Here is a sneak peak. For the full design checkout her Blog.

Que lindos verda?

Image via: Tini Posh 

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Teacher Appreciation Week

Remember that This week is still TEACHER appreciation week. We only have 2 days left to make our teachers feel real special. Thank you to all the wonderful teachers out there. You really do make a difference. To make them feel extra special Theresa over at Lauren Mckinsey designed these wonderful printables to make your teachers feel special.

Aren't these just darling?

Image via: Lauren Mckinsey

Have wonderful day in celebrating Teacher Appreciation week and Cinco De Mayo!!
 ¡Espero que disfrute su día!

xo,

Maylene

Inspirational Wednesday

To start something NEW we are doing

Inspirational Wednesday!

Let me just say they are so many talented people out there. I'm wowed at all the pictures out there of events, cakes, paper goods. Everything is just so inspiring. Especially after reading all the blogs it gets you going and wanting to create anything.

I am a HUGE cake fan. I love looking at all different types, but when I saw this one I was floored. This photo shoot alone was such an inspiration. I'm currently working on a Coco Chanel Baby Shower these pictures got my engines going on FAST mode.

 

Even look at this table set up. I LOVE the Flowers in the background. I might use this one day. 

None of this images are mine nor do I take credit for styling or designing and/or photography. This are only for inspirational day and to show off beautiful images.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and get your engines going!

xo,

Maylene

Found via: Style Unveiled