{Who's That} From Blank Pages

Today I'm swappin' blogs with the lovely Diane from From Blank Pages.  She is super-terrific and you all are going to love her!

Hi! :) I'm really excited to do a blog swap with Courtney today! I hope you have as much fun as I am.

First, to introduce myself, my name is Diane. I'm a stay-at-home mom of two crazy little boys and a girl that should be here any day now (ok, I still have a couple weeks, but I can hope right?!) :), and I couldn't have a better "job".  I studied Art, Horticulture and German in college, and love to create anything I can put my mind around. I love the outdoors and doing anything that involves being outside. Since having a family (and small children) I've been a little more home-bound, and thus have picked up a joy for "crafting" (I still don't like to admit that I "craft". I prefer to say that it's being artsy, but lets face it. I craft.) ;) and sewing among other things. I opened up my etsy shop just over two years ago, db By Design, and last August I started my "new" blog, from blank pages.... The time I put into them definitely comes and goes depending on everything else going on in life, but it's fun to have something that is for me, and I love it!

Originally we were going to do the blog swap earlier, but I got put on bed rest and that kind of put it on hold. I was going to do a tutorial for a cute Easter Basket... but now Easter is over, so I think instead I'll share with you a couple of other projects that I already have tutorials for, and a few of my favorite projects.

First off I will show you the Easter baskets I made... there will be a tutorial coming. I just need to finish it up and post it, so you'll have to come stop by my blog and see it when it's done. I made the first one last year for my oldest, and whipped up the second in about a day for my second boy. They like to play with them all year long, as well as wear them as hats. :)

A few other sewing projects and tutorials of late have been this Scrappy Pincushion (I have a link to where you can download the pdf pattern for this)

along with this Phone Pillow Tutorial. This works for iPods, phones, eReaders, Kindles, iPads, etc. It's really quick and easy and you can easily adjust the size to fit your needs. I whipped up a lot of these for Christmas presents this last Christmas and they were a big hit. (Also a pdf pattern)

Besides fabric I also like working with paper. This is one of my favorite paper projects: Paper Name Mobiles - with a full tutorial right on my blog. Just make sure to keep it out of reach of children. My oldest ripped both of theirs up and I cried. ;)

 

I also always wanted to bind my own books and found a few tutorials online and whipped these out for some birthday presents for a bunch of girls at my church. They were so much fun! and now that I've had a little break from the mass production I think I'm ready to make some more. 

A few of my favorite shop items have been paper and fabric matching game sets:

and these Erasable Activity Books:

Besides tutorials and projects, I also use my blog to keep track of "Fab Finds", all those great ideas and projects that everyone else makes that I love, and bookmark. It's like my way of keeping all my bookmarked stuff organized. I also keep track of "Bloggity Blogs", which are some fab blogs that I want to remember and keep track of so I can go back to often and not let them get left by the wayside. It's also a dual purpose blog and works as my keep-my-family-updated blog. All of those posts start with "Our Story:" So if your not into other people's families, you can skip those posts. ;) With getting ready for the new arrival of baby number 3, I've been a little more inconsistent with all the elements of my blog, but I'd love to meet you all, so be sure to stop by, say hi, follow along, whatever! 

Thanks Courtney for letting me stop by and take your blog for a day! :) 

Thanks so much for swapping with me today, and for sharing your blog, Diane!  I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Diane and go pay her a visit over at From Blank Pages!