I have another fun project to share with you. Tithing boxes. These were my examples to show the girls at Activity Days. I’ve had several requests for instruction or template so here you go.

These are medium sized (about 4 inches wide) paper mache boxes from Roberts. I think they were around $1.29 each and happened to be 30% off when I bought them. I bought two different shapes because they didn’t have enough of one shape for all my girls but  I think the hexagon shape was the favorite with the girls.

If you are using scrapbooking paper, all you have to do is trace the box shape and cut it out a bit smaller so that it won’t hang off the edge. If you are looking for a hybrid project click here for a template and leave me a comment.

The strip of paper that goes around the bottom of the circle box needs to be 12.25 x 1.75 inches. So a 12 inch paper is, unfortunately, just shy of making it all the way around. I patched mine up but some of the girls opted to leave the little gap. If you are doing hybrid you’ll have to print 2 strips for around the circle as well as around the lid rim if you don’t use ribbon.

Once you have your paper printed and cut, simply paste the paper on the boxes with a glue stick. Make sure you glue the edges down well so that the lid doesn’t catch the corners when you’re slipping it on. Some of the girls tried modge podge over the top but I didn’t think it was necessary.

Decorate the top with a cute paper flower and button and ribbon. If you don’t have (matching) ribbon to go around the lid just use a slim strip of paper. Perhaps you have a small scalloped edge punch that will just look darling.

If you need a few paper flower tutorials, I found some here, here and here.

I made my circle box flower by punching out 4  scalloped circles. Then I folded each circle in half and in half again making 4 trianglish shapes. Then I glued the 4 pointed tips together in a circle which makes a flower. Then glue a button on top. Easy pease!

My hexagon box flower is one of those accordion ones. Take a long strip of paper, fold it like an accordion, staple or glue the ends together making sure the ends point to the underside of the flower. This will make the strip into a ring. Flatten it by pushing the top edge in to make a circle. Glue it to your box and put a button on top to hold in place. I used a hot glue gun which makes it much easier and faster.

Most of my activity day girls made the scalloped punch flower because it’s easier… but of course you’ll have to have access to a circle punch of some sort if you don’t want to cut them all out.

Next add a tag that you either stamped or printed out that says tithing on it.

And lastly, use an exact-o knife or razor to cut a slit in the top. Have an adult do this part and make sure a quarter can fit through.

ps. my slits are not perfect so don’t expect yours to be either.

And that’s it! Happy hybriding!

Hi, ya’ll. So sorry for the sporatic posting.

I have declared January PROJECT MONTH so my computer time has dwindled a bit. I’ve been busy sewing (show you soon!), digi scrapbooking, hybriding (tithing boxes for activity days) and even a little bit of paper scrapbooking with Emma (she has started her very own scrapbook!)

All these things have made me a wee bit tired but I’m happy to say that I have a free template up for you guys as well as a little pack for my template store.

One of the projects I’ve been working on is scrapbooking all 371 photos that my hubby emailed me from his iphone right before it died. These photos span the time of 3ish years and many of the photos are such sweet memories. I felt like I wanted to scrapbook these photos so we could look over them for years to come… but I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on them.

Thus, I’ve created this template pack. It’s on sale through Sunday the 23rd so grab it at half off while you can.

As a free template I’m giving away this one for a limited time (it is also included in the iphone picture pack so you wont need to download it if you are getting the full pack)…

Download here.

Here are some of the pages I created with the templates. I made 26 pages total.

Woo! That was a lot of work.
Time for a nap.

Here at Mandagirl I am hoping to offer a service that can’t be found anywhere else. At least, not at anywhere I know of. How would your like to submit a template idea to be created by me and then given to you to scrap with? Get it? You send me an idea for a template, I’ll then create it and post on my blog as a freebie. I’ll give you the credit for the idea and link to your inspiration if there is one.

So say that you’re browsing the internet and happened upon a gorgeous layout, one that you wish you could create yourself or even have the perfect picture for. Or maybe you’re looking at your pictures and wondering how your going to get all those pictures done. Perhaps you even have the vision of how you want your page to look but are not sure how to create it yourself.

Here are 3 ways to submit a template idea:

1. The easiest way- send me a link. Just not any link… one that you LOVE!! Completely obsessed with! Tell me why you love it, what specific things you like about it and what you hope to see on my template.

2. The wordy way- describe it to me. I’m going to need a lot of detail. If you have an exact number of photos you need to scrap this might be the perfect way for you. (How can you possibly not scrapbook all 25 pictures from Juniors birthday party?) Tell me all you possibly can, such as what kind of style would you like to see, what kind of background, simple and modern or lots of paper scraps, tons of spots for elements or journaling, strips of paper, a clustery style, a grid type page… you get the idea, yes? -give me something to work with. But remember, without a visual, I may not exactly envision the same thing you do.

3. The creative way- draw it out. Scan a sketch and email it to me or open up a blank document (4×4 or 4×8 inches and 72 px will be sufficient size) in photoshop, grab your brush tool and draw away. When you are happy with your sketch, save it as a jpeg and shoot me an email.  Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be pretty. I drew this one is 30 seconds just as an example.

Here are the rules:

1. Please do not send me to anyone’s shop or to any templates that are for sell. Links must be of completed layouts at galleries or blogs. I will not copy the layout exactly. It has to be legally scraplifted so expect a little mandagirl-twist to it.

2. Please do not ask for more than a 2 page layout per request.

3.  Family comes first so remember that my computer time is limited. Depending on the number of requests, I’ll have to see how many templates I can actually complete. I might not get to yours but I’ll try.

That should be it. Send the requests to manda at mandagirl dot com. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with.

I’ve created a page in my side bar if you ever need to refer to the instructions. —>

Hey, hey! Can you believe I actually have a template to give away! It’s been ages. Okay it’s been 2 months but that sure feels like ages to me. I’ve made a Year in Review template for you. So if you are looking for a great way to highlight 2010 or any other year for that matter, download here.

I always enjoy these because it’s such a great way to look back and see what we’ve done with our year in a single glance.

Here are my pages. They look a bit busy to me so I’m not sure how I feel about them… but I spent all day on this layout so I’m keeping ‘em. If you think it’s a bit busy too you could delete a couple photos or make everything a tad smaller except the background. This would give you a bit more white space along your edges. Just made sure to center everything so you can still cut it down the middle.

Happy scrapbooking.