graduation printables...

A few months ago the awesome Kim of Today's Creative Blog was looking for printables contributors for TCB - and she chose me (as one of the group)!

Kim wrote a post for Disney's Spoonful.com for graduation that included a chalkboard banner that I designed and a sweet printable quote, designed by Creative Girl Media. 

If you're throwing a graduation party, the banner would be great for the fireplace or as a "feature" at the party and the quote would make a sweet gift for any graduate.  I'll be back here tomorrow with a free printable that matches the graduate banner!

You can view the post here and download both graduation printables!

relish the charms...

**I wrote this post last week but it seems especially appropriate after the horrible tragedy in Boston yesterday.  I am thankful for a God who is bigger than all of the evil in the world.**

Do y'all read Kelly's Korner blog?  I was catching up on some blog-reading and came across this picture on her blog.   The quote is from Jen Hatmaker, a church planter's wife who lives in Austin, from her devotional book Out of the Spin Cycle. 

As the momma of 2 sweet little kiddos (Grayson is 5 and Mollie Kate is 4 months), this TOTALLY spoke to me.  There are a lot of days that we make it to the very end of the day, when the house is totally quiet, and I think "Another day of their little lives has passed."  The days with preschoolers sometimes seem SO LONG, but the years go by so quickly.  My husband even reminded me at breakfast this morning that Grayson is 1/4 of the way to 20 years old.  Goodness gracious. 

I love the photo above, but I wanted one that I could put in our house - maybe on the fridge?  Or above the kitchen sink?  So I created this little printable below.  Feel free to download it, Pin it, share it!

I thank God for our sweet little kiddos every day and am going to be making the choice to relish the charms of the present!  Have a wonderful week!

looking for a father's day gift?

If you're looking for a sweet, sentimental, and QUICK Father's Day gift, check out our "Daddy's Shoes" Storyboard in our Etsy shop.

Would you like one for your husband for Father's Day? Visit our shop, 517 Creations on Etsy. This would also make a great birthday present.  If you supply the photos, I'll do the work in Photoshop and e-mail you a photo that's ready to upload to your favorite print shop! I'll even customize it to any size you'd like.

This particular print (pictured above) is sized to fit a 10 x 20 frame, so it can be printed at Sam's as a 16 x 20 for $5.95 and trim it down to size. A great Father's Day present for less than $20!

a summer Scripture printable…

 

 

*I shared this printable over at Worthy of the Prize on Monday, but wanted to post it here, too. 
I don’t know about your summer, but ours is CRAZY!  My youth pastor husband will be out of the country for 10 days, at different camps for 2 weeks, and helping to oversee 300 teenagers who will be staying at our church (while I’ll be helping to man the kitchen to feed all of those hungry students).  Whew!  It makes me tired just thinking about it, but it’s going to be great…especially since one of those camps is at the BEACH!  Woohoo!   One of the great things about his job is that Grayson and I get to tag along on most of those adventures.
Anyway, when I came across this verse on Sunday I thought it was a perfect verse to print out for the summer.  Just to remind me that we can be filled with JOY and PEACE so that we can overflow with HOPE.  What a promise we have!
To print this out for yourself, simply right-click on the photo and save it to your computer.  Print it out at home or send it to your favorite photo processing shop!

find joy in the journey…

I wanted to share a little printable that I designed for my friend, Erin.  She blogs over at Worthy of the Prize and is a fellow pastor’s wife.  Our husbands were on staff together for a few years and they are dear friends of ours.  Erin is an amazing writer so I wanted to share an excerpt of the words she posted along with the printable:

Sometimes it is incredibly easy to find joy in the journey, isn't it?

Love. Engagements. Weddings. New jobs. Healthy babies. The list goes on.

But what about when the journey gets tough? When you just cannot take it anymore and you want to quit.

Anger. Break-ups. Divorce. Lost jobs. Miscarriages. Sickness Death.

It is during these times that you must "choose joy." And believe me, sometimes you have to search for it. And sometimes the holidays can be the hardest. Find God in the little things. Count those blessings that you usually take for granted.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. {James 1:2-4}

May you find joy in your journey in 2012.

cookie exchange wrapping & recipe…

We had our annual cookie exchange at my MOPS group this morning and I knew just what cookie I was going to bake…my double chocolate peanut butter cookies!

I whipped up a batch last night but realized that I didn’t have any paper plates (or disposable trays) to wrap my cookies up.  I racked my brain and remembered a “good thing” from Martha Stewart Living years ago…wrap the cookies in a wax paper tube and tie some ribbon (or tulle) on the ends!

We were also encouraged to bring the recipe along, so I designed a cute “Christmassy” recipe card in Photoshop, typed out my recipe, printed it on cardstock, and attached it to the tulle.

Need a good cookie exchange recipe?  Here’s a copy of my recipe card.  Just save it on your computer and print it out!

Want to make your own recipe card for a cookie exchange?  Here’s a blank one you can print out and write your recipe on!  These would also make cute note cards to use during the Christmas season.

Do you have a favorite “go to” cookie recipe?  Or are you more of a “slice and baker”?

Chevron wrap around labels…

Have you ordered your Christmas cards yet?  We should have ours in the mail any day – just waiting on the order to arrive from TinyPrints!  In the mean time I designed the wrap around label for our Christmas cards.  I always print my own labels as soon as I order the cards and then by the time my cards arrive, I have the addresses done!  I simply wrap the labels around, sign the cards, stuff the envelopes, and mail them!



I’ve created a .pdf version for you if you’d like to download it!

Can you guess what color scheme we used for our Christmas cards?  Do you stick with the traditional red/green colors or branch out a little?

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 30} luke 2:7

Click here to download a .pdf of this printable.

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 27} merry christmas printable banner

Today’s printable is a printable Merry Christmas banner in lovely apple green polka dot and chevron prints!  I am loving the apple green and red color combination for Christmas this year!



Simply right-click on the pages below and save them to your computer.  Print them out on your home printer, punch holes in the corners, and string them together!



Just a little reminder that these are free for personal use only!

Christmas printables…

 

Did you start your Christmas decorating this weekend?  We did! I went to print out my Christmas Scripture series and thought some of you might want to print them out, too.  Here are a few of the Christmas printables that I’ve designed (so far)…I’ll post the second batch tomorrow!  Enjoy!

Looking for a .pdf of this printable?  Download it here.

Looking for a .pdf of this printable?  Download it here.

Looking for a .pdf of this printable?  Download it here.

Looking for a .pdf of this printable?  Download it here.

Looking for a .pdf of this printable?  Download it here.

If you download any of the printables, leave me a comment!  I’d love to know that you’re using them in your decorating!

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 20} vintage santa toppers

A friend recently gave us a bunch of vintage Golden Books, including several Christmas books.  After reading those for a few weeks, I have fallen in love with vintage Santa images.  I turned to the internet to see what I could find and came across lots of free images!  I turned those images into these sweet toppers.  You can use these for cupcake toppers, gift tags, etc.  I can’t wait to see what you crafty people come up with!

To download the .pdf file of these Vintage Santa Toppers, click here.



*Just a friendly reminder that these are free for personal use!

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 16} matthew 1:21

If you’d like to download a .pdf of Matthew 1:21, click here.

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 13} wrap around address labels

Do you send out Christmas cards?  I LOVE to send (and receive!) Christmas cards.  My goal is usually to send them by the first of December, but that doesn’t always happen.  I also like to hand write all of the addresses. I know, I might be a little crazy, but there’s something about writing all of the addresses out to our friends and family.  One of the things that I have done to make that easier was designing these wrap around labels.

I first used them on my brother-and sister-in-law’s wedding invitations a few years ago and have since used them for our Christmas cards each year. Here’s a look at our cards and labels from last year (I used white envelopes to mail our cards, but couldn’t find any of those!)

The labels are 2”x8” and are designed to wrap around an envelope.  The return address folds around to the back.  To make the card-addressing process quicker, I simply printed these 5 to a sheet on sticker paper, addressed them all, and then cut them out.  Then it’s just a matter of sticking them on the card.  The nice thing about these is you can have all of your addresses done while you’re waiting for your cards to arrive – if you order them from a site like Shutterfly, which I did last year.
To customize the wrap around labels with your return address, you can edit the label above in Photoshop (or Picnik) and then print them!  You can also print these on regular printer paper and attach them to your envelope using a glue stick.
If you’d like to download a full sheet of these labels, click here.
Let’s have another giveaway, shall we?  If you’d like your own sheet of customized wrap around labels like the ones pictured above, only with your return address added, leave a comment letting me know your favorite Christmas movie/TV show! The winners will receive a .pdf file of the labels to print as they wish– not a printed sheet.  I will use random.org to choose 5 winners!  The giveaway ends Saturday night and 9pm (Central time). 
**Remember, these printables are free for personal use only!**

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 9} luke 2:13-14

  Imagine that sight...it must have been amazing.

If you’d like to download a .pdf of Luke 2, click here. I'd love to know if you download it - please leave a comment!

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 6} red number tags

Welcome to Day 6 of our 31 days!  I have designed several printables for the Christmas season and thought I’d share those with you each Thursday!  First up are these cute little red number tags .  These tags will show up in an advent countdown post next week but they have a lot of uses!  They are numbered 1-31 with several blank tags thrown in.  The tags measure 2” and can be cut out by hand or punched out using a scrapbook punch. 

Click here to download and print the tags!

**These are free for personal use!**

31 days of warming up to the holidays: {day 2} isaiah 9:6

I love the idea of using Scripture as art in our homes.  I have designed 4 printables for these 31 days…a new one will be posted each Sunday.  If you’d like to download a .pdf of Isaiah 9:6, click here.

I’m so glad that child was born…are you?

1 thessalonians 5:16-18 {filler print}

I'm back with another filler print!  I posted a {blessings} print a few weeks ago and have been toying with the idea of framing it for our master bathroom.  Our bathroom is pretty simple at the moment, which has been kind-of nice, but I think it needs a little something.   However, the {blessings} print needed a partner to fit the space that I'm looking at.

Out of that, this filler print was created...

 {download here - it will open in a new window}

I love these verses and thought they were the perfect thing to hang where I'd see them several times a day.  We all need reminders now and then, don't we?  It's a perfect compliment to the lyrics in the {blessings} print (which is why my friend, Erin, asked me to add the reference at the bottom) so I thought they'd naturally be a perfect pair.

 {download here - it will open in a new window}

I also re-worked the {blessings} print and removed the reference.  Someone left a comment (anonymously) correcting me that the lyrics were not, in fact, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  While I knew, I didn't want anyone else to be confused by it. 

Do you have any great verses that you've posted around your house as a reminder?  Have you printed the {blessings} print for your home?  Leave me a comment...I'd love to know.

{philippians 4:19} filler print....

Confession time...I have a stash of frames under a bed in our house that are just begging for something to fill them.  I have LOTS of photos displayed in our home and wanted to design something else to fill one of those frames from my stash.

As I was thinking about what to design, the verse from kid's camp kept flashing through my mind...so that's what I used!

Introducing the Philippians 4:19 filler print...

{download here}

Simply save the filler print to your computer and then print out at home or send it to your favorite photo lab to print out as an 8x10.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This would make a great house-warming gift or a great gift to print out, frame, and give to a student when they head off to college in the fall.

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I also have 2 other filler prints available for download...

{download here}

 

{download here}

{blessings} printable...

One of my new favorite songs is "Blessings" by Laura Story.  It's an amazing song, but an amazing songwriter!  We actually had the chance to have her lead worship at our church in Austin - she's wonderful! Anyway, my friend Erin (over at Worthy of the Prize) asked me to design another printable, this time based on the lyrics from "Blessings".  I thought I'd post it here for download, too!

Simply right click on it and save it to your computer.  It's an 8x10, but let me know if you need it in a different size!  I'd love to know if you download it, so leave me a comment!

{mighty to save} printable

 

If you're looking for a new printable to fill an 8 x 10 frame at your house, check out this {mighty to save} printable that I designed!  You can view the story and download it over at my dear friend Erin's blog, Worthy of the Prize!

Do you need a different size? Send me an e-mail and I'll be glad to tailor it for you!