Free Merry Christmas Printable Gift Tag

My Christmas tradition in the past was to wrap my gifts in brown paper 

and draw on them with gesso and ink.

I think this gift tag will go along with the tradition.

Down load it here.

Print it on card stock and you are ready to go.

If you like it please leave a comment. Thanks.

Free Christmas Card Download

Merry Christmas to you!

Here is a new Christmas Card design what do you think?

If you haven't a Christmas card and 

you fancy this one please feel free to download it. 

All that I ask is for a comment on this post.

Free Recipe Card Download

Well Hello there December.

Hello Christmas lights.

(this is a picture of the floaty bubble lights

 on the water at Temple Square 

that my husband took)

Hello Pixel. 

(a pic of our awesome orange cat that I got for my birthday)

Hello awesome apple pie cookies I now crave. 

(You can find this fabulous recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

 I tried it out on Thanksgiving and it tastes as good as it looks. 

The kids loved having their own apple pie.)

Hello new recipe card design that I can share my new recipe on.

Just click on the image to download and print and share your recipes too.

I have a few more printable recipe cards in the works so check back.

Handmade Victorian Cuff

So I went to this awesome wedding for the lead singer of the band Eyes Lips Eyes, Tony, who is also my husband's cousin and my good friend. I absolutely adore his new wife Jackie, she chose a victorian theme for their wedding and it was epic!

Check out this picture. Don't they look awesome?

If you really want to be blown away watch this video.


Jackie & Tony - The Narnia Estate from Amy Johnson, One Fine Day Prod. on Vimeo.

For such a posh event I knew I needed a cool accessory.

When I saw this I loved it. Of course its antique and it's sold and I probably could have afforded it
anyway.

This one is from Third Floor Antiques.

So I kept looking and I found some really cool fabric victorian cuffs available as well.
Like this one.

Violet fabric cuff from DaWanda.

 And this one that I love.

Grey cuff from Crescendoh

I really wanted something to go with the brown skirt I planned on wearing so I decided to make my own. I decided to do an asymmetrical design kinda like the antique silver one above, with fabric and buttons I had on hand. Here it is.

Robot Onsie

Check out the Robot Onesie I made for my good friend Julie who is having a baby boy soon.

This was my first try at this kind of embroidering.  

The silver thread and the googly eye is my favorite part. 

Baby boy themes are harder for me to think of for some reason. But I love the robot. I think it would be fun to draw a slew of them and offer some templates to embroidery from.

Do you have any ideas for other baby boy onesies you'd like to see templates for? 

Please share.

Digital Scrap Page for Family History

We already know scrapbookers keep a family history by sharing memories. Most people are telling stories about their immediate family.

Lately I have been doing genealogy research and have been wanting to start designing creative pages with the pictures and data I have found to better tell my ancestor's story.

The Daily Digi tweeted a great link yesterday that I found inspiring, it led me to listen to a panel discussion featuring, Jessica Sprague, Ana Cabrera, Nancy Nally and Noell Hyman at Paper Clipping. It's pretty great so give it a listen. It inspired me to start creatively digi scrappin my family history. It's something I have been meaning to get to for a while. The paper and elements I used I designed my self and plan to release a full kit in November called Mustard Sky.

So here is my first page.

Meet Walter James Dockrill my Great Great Grandpa born around 1868. This photo was taken in the 40s. He was an upholsterer and cabinet maker with his father. A family upholstery shop existed for a many generations in his birthplace of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Very simple layout, just his picture and name. The next few pages I will tell more about his upholstery shop and family. I can't wait to print this at Persnickety Prints today.

What do you think?

Pretty Papers Preview for Digital Scrapbooking

Check out this preview of papers I am working on. They are inspired by my fine art and softened a bit.

I love to use ghosted textures and color to build depth. These will be great with some simple layered accents and photos. More to come soon. What do you think?

Sprightly Striped

Desert Flower

Want to see more of my fine art, go here.

Let the Good Stuff Out, Free Digital Scrapbooking Paper

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. 

The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over 

and let the beautiful stuff out."

That is one of my favorite quotes is by Ray Bradbury. I like the idea of reminding our self to let the good stuff out. For some maybe the good stuff is bottled up and needs to be set free?

(please dont use this image without permission thanks)

Some times it is hard to figure out how to let the good stuff out. I think as we practice, we begin to learn more about what the good stuff is and how to do that. For me the good stuff, is making art and creating things. For my husband it is capturing moments in time with his camera. Sometimes it's serving someone else, or sharing something we feel deeply about with a friend. It can even  be as simple as a child's laughter. What is it for you?

To encourage letting the good stuff out, I want to open this up to a few picture submissions that would go along with this idea and layout.

If you have a cute picture of a kid laughing their head off or having a good time please share. If you have picture that features another way that you think captured, letting the good stuff out by all means share a link in the comments or shoot me an email (jesselpetersen@gmail.com).

The first 5 picture submissions will get this design as a free download for their digital scrap booking and be featured here on the blog.

St. Vincent = Awesome

I had never seen St. Vincent live. My husband and I went up to Salt Lake's Urban Lounge and stood in the drizzly cold rain to get in last night. I was a little scared that the delicate sounds of Annie's music would get lost at a show. My fear was washed away as soon as she started playing her opening song, Cruel. I don't usually expect a song from an album to sound the same on stage, but what she did was better. The band put in so much emotion into their playing. She sang like a song bird, and thrashed her guitar so magnificently. The crowd picked up that energy and I was glad I was there to experience it.

Robbie took some pictures, here are a few that he took, that I absolutely love...

She was featured on NPR's World Cafe. (She talks about how she makes her gear work in a live show.)

You can listen to some of her music, order a white LP and get MP3 download here.

Yard Sale Fundraiser in Springville

If you live in Utah, here is a poster for a yard sale I made you gotta check out.

It's not just any yard sale, it's a fundraising event.

All proceeds to go to help 5 month old twin boys, Brent & Brooke, each are deaf in one ear and have heart murmurs. They need 2 hearing aids by the end of October, which cost around $5000. 

Every little bit helps, so if you can swing by do it.

Choose from household items, clothes, furniture and fresh bake goods. 

RAFFLE TICKETS available for a gun safe, gift baskets from hair

salons and gift certificates from local restaurants.

Native Americana Digi Scrap Kit:Tribal West

Native Americana is a trend we are seeing in fashion these days, and I thought why not make a fun Tribal West digital scrapbook kit? I was inspired by this lady.

This vintage screen printed portrait of a Native American Blackfoot woman was submitted to the Antique Helper. I just love the detail in the patterns and beadwork.

Here is a great example of the fashion trend, a wool dress by Lauren Moffat.

Who can't resist warm mocassins?

Here is the kit! What do you think? 

Right now, it is available on my Etsy shop, it will be available there until the grand opening of my online store in November. More details about the store coming soon.

Halloween gift tag freebie

It's fall ya'll. Well right now in Provo, UT  it is grey and raining. But, Halloween is just around the corner and I thought I should make a fun Halloween gift tag for treats to share with you. You could even use it in a Halloween digital scrapbook layout.

 Just click on the image to make it larger and download. 

I found that really cute witch at the Graphic Fairy's page.

Summer Saved

Canning tomatoes was fun. It is awesome that you can save the flavor of summer tomatoes and savor them during winter in sauces for  pasta and whatever else you can think of.

 If you want to learn how to do it, Colorado State University has a great fact sheet. More tips at BHG.com. I ended up using Better Homes and Garden pint size jars from Wal-mart. They came with cute red checkered lids and white rings.

Since these have patterned glass I resized my previous labels to fit the space provided on these jars. 
I think they turned out pretty great!

Canning Tomatoes Label

Canning tomatoes is something I have never done before. Saturday I am going to give it a try with my friends Beth and Brynne. I thought I would design a label for the jars and I wanted something vintage looking. What do you think?

I designed a blank one that you can download and write in our own name and date.

If you would like to use the same font as I did for the name and date, I used Campanile from Dafont.

I think I may make more canning labels in this style. Is there anything you are canning that needs a label?

Yellow Hair Clip

Here is another hair clip I made. Gotta love yellow and grey together. 

I thought these were great colors for a baby, and I got a great idea. You can clip on this style of clip onto a newborn stretchy headband!

My good friend Courtney took these pictures and you can see more at 

Courtney Beatty Photography.

Thanks Courtney!

New pin design

Since cooler weather is approaching I thought I needed to design a pin for sweaters, coats and scarves.

Here is is!

I used silk to make the yoyo and added an antique button and feathers.

More versions with different materials are being made and I will share pictures when they are complete.

This pretty pin design needs a name, any ideas?

Pie Safe

Portia Pie Safe

The beautiful Pie Safe. Oh how I covet thee. Growing up in the south lots of families had a piece of furniture referred to as a pie safe, which hardly ever actually housed any pies. 

Back in the day there was a version of pie safes where the cupboard door had decoratively pierced tin panels for ventilation. This kept a pie "safe" from flies and critters while it was cooling.

Red Painted Pine Pie Safe

This one is from yellow garage antiques

Small Black Pie Safe

Green Distressed Pie Safe

I have seen pie safes with glass or screens in the doors as well. There are many great uses for this antique pieces of furniture. My favorite use is keeping a collection of treasures safe, dust free and still visible which lends my tastes to the glass or screen in the door type. 

This is a hutch featured on There is no place like home blog that has screen doors like a pie safe.

Found this one at Design Studio

This one is from Pumpkin Hollow Primitives

 From Cottage Home

The Mother Earth News features an article on how to build this replica pie safe if you have any interest in building one. There are lots of people still making them, but I think I prefer to have one worn and weathered with a little history.

Now  that I am thinking of pie does anybody have any great pie recipes for fall?

5K Run Poster Design for Extreme Rhythm

Check out the poster design I did for Extreme Rhythm clogging dance studio. They are having a 5K run to promote their studio. If you live in the Provo, Orem area you can go down there and run or even just buy breakfast and watch the run. Should be a lot of fun. See you there.

Cabin Weekend

In August I hung out with my friend Brynne at her family cabin, in the Utah Diamond Fork Canyon where their cattle are. I thought it would be fun to do a quick layout of a few of the pictures I took on my iphone. Wish I would have taken more.

We had a peacefully good time. Brynne made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, my favorite! With no internet or cell phone service we had plenty of time for reading, chasing a porch mouse, and a few crafts. We took out the four wheelers and went down to the cow trough to see if the gold fish she planted there were still thriving. They were hiding under the green moss but they were there. I wondered if the cows could see them.

This is Brynne.

Cows.

It was nice and sunny. I enjoyed watching Mr. Mike fix a well, I think can he can fix just about anything. They are almost finished building a new cabin and I tagged along to see how it was going.

Mr. Mike Miner.

That night Brynne pushed the mattresses out on the porch and piled them with blankets. She tucked my blankets in tightly just in case the porch mouse returned to pester us.

Beds in the morning.

Even though I love how we are more available to to others than ever before, be it, texts, emails, Facebook or blogs, I think if we can go under the radar sometimes we can feel the more important messages our heart tries to tell us that get lost in all the worldly noise. Every time I carve out moments to do this I return, more energized, focused and creative.

Wheel in the Porch railing.

Thanks Brynne for the simple weekend at the Miner Cabin.

*See more digi layouts at Royston Design.