Tag: crafting

White Christmas Village

A white paper village sitting on a table
~ Megan ~ 2 Comments

Last year I made a pretty, white Tea Light Christmas village for my mom. She loved it. But it turned out much bigger than either of us expected–so there’s some question where she’s actually going to display it. 😂

The simple elegance of the white cardstock make the touches of green and red pop. I love it.

I just love the village all lit up!
How I Made It

I cut the houses using my trusty Silhouette Cameo. The houses are available on the Silhouette Design Store by artist Marji Roy. The designs are also available on her website in other formats if you don’t have a Silhouette. The village tutorials are here. They were pretty easy to put together–but the most time-consuming parts were adding the scallops to some of the roofs. The houses are about 4 inches square, and the hexagons are about 6 inches in diameter. As I said before, the project got bigger than I expected. No one that knows me is surprised. ha.

For the windows, I used vellum to give them a frosted glass effect. It hides the view of the light strand but lets the light shine through. For the Church, I gave the vellum windows a watercolor effect so it looks like stained glass.

The village includes:

  • 20 buildings,
  • a plethora of snow-covered trees,
  • a covered bridge,
  • fences and park benches,
  • gazebos,
  • a couple of moose,
  • a horse-drawn sleigh,
  • a TARDIS (haaa),
  • a little nativity scene (I cut off the button loops),
  • little nutcracker soldiers (also cut off the button loops),
  • and an ice skating rink.

I used white glitter on the roofs and the edges of the trees to look like fresh snow. The bows have red glitter added to them. I realized after that using red glitter cardstock would have been better. Adding red glitter to the bows after they were cut was messy!

The hexagon bases, also from the Artist’s website, are a great way to hide the lights and add dimension to the village. I used the tutorial on her website to set up the village. There’s a hole in each base that allows the strand of lights to be threaded up and into each house. Because I used bendable fairy lights, it was easy to feed the lights into each house.

Supplies used:

This was such a fun project to work on! I’m just enamored by this little (or not so little) white Christmas village. I’m tempted to make a slightly smaller version for myself, but I still remember my hand cramping from all that gluing. 😂

“The Golden Ship” Paper Children’s Storybook

Cover of The Golden Ship Paper Children's Storybook
~ Megan

Awhile after I had made Margaret’s Butterflies and The Popcorn Farmer storybooks, some of my nieces and nephews wanted a paper children’s storybook featuring themselves. Well, of course, I’ll make them a book featuring them as the main characters!

So we started planning our story. The kids decided we were all pirates that searched for treasures and fought sharks. Obviously. We came up with hilarious pirate names: I am Captain Pink Beard, then there’s “Shark-Attack Sue,” “Two-Eyed Jack” who wore an eye patch (haaa), “Sharkbait” who has a pegleg, and “Horseshoe Harry” the good luck charm. The story is based on a game we play whenever we are together.

It was so fun to plan and put this book together. It was definitely more intense than the last two books I made! A lot more cutting! And a whole lot more glitter! Yaaas!

The Story
  • The cover of the book, featuring an overflowing treasure chest.
  • The Golden Ship, by Megan McGrath
  • The Flying Fish sailed swiftly through the sea. An adventure was happening that’s a guarantee. Captain Pink Beard ordered the crew to keep a lookout. She was hoping they were on a treasure route!
  • The crew consisted of four special pirates, Who all knew they were each the Captain’s favorite. The First Mate was Shark Attack Sue, Who defended the crew against all creatures in the great big blue.
  • Then there was Two-eyed Jack. He wore an eye patch. With a sword, he had a knack. No one was his match.
  • Next was a wee one they called Sharkbait, who now was missing a leg. All thanks to a shark they named Craig.
  • Then last, but certainly not least, was Horseshoe Harry. He was the Ship’s good luck charm–always as happy as a canary.
  • Suddenly, Shark Attack Sue yelled, while pointing at the horizon, “Look there, a bottle floating on the sea! I hope it’s not filled with poison!”
  • Two-eyed Jack fished the bottle out of the ocean. Said he, “Well, ‘tis not a bottle of lotion!”
  • Captain Pink Beard gave it a close inspection, and then made a loud clap. “Ye skallywags! This bottle contains a treasure map!”
  • So the crew sailed the Flying Fish to the small treasure island. The trip was much longer than they planned. All the while, the shark called Craig kept pace. Little human legs had become his preferred taste.
  • The ship set anchor in the island’s bay, They packed up their gear and headed down the gangway.
  • Captain Pink Beard led the crew through the jungle, Until they reached four rocks in the shape of a rectangle.
  • The crew dug, and dug and dug, and dug, until they heard a dull thud.
  • Crowns, and jewels, and pearls, and coins were passed all around. There was so much treasure in the ground!
  • Shark attack Sue yelled, “Hooray! We found the treasure!” Two-eyed Jack added, “Now we can live a life of leisure!”
  • Heaps of wealth were piled in the rowboat, weighing it down. They could not wait to spend the treasure in the next town.
  • Craig the Shark saw this as his invite. He raced up to little ol’ Sharkbait and tried to take a big, BIG bite.
  • Shark Attack Sue and Two-eyed Jack stepped into action. Beating Craig back till he hightailed it in a different direction.
  • Now with their foe defeated, and their treasure stores no longer depleted, They decorated the Flying Fish with gold and jewels that were beaded.
  • They sailed away in their golden ship shining and shimmering in the sun. And now this tale with pirates, sharks, and discovered gold is done. The End.
Some fun facts about the book:
  • It took so long to write the actual story! I love rhyming books and so I wanted this book to rhyme. Turns out it’s harder to do than it seems!
  • The waves are all glitter cardstock. I cut over 60 waves for this book. Whew. The waves were then inked along the edge with a darker blue ink to give them some depth.
  • The planks on the ship were all individually cut, inked, and glued in place. Easily the most time-consuming part! I even added little nail marks. Yes, it’s okay to roll your eyes.
  • I had to design the railing along the edge of the ship. It was a bit tricky to do the angled one so the ship had depth, like on page 1.
  • My favorite page is when the shark is trying to take a bite of Sharkbait. I think it’s such a funny page. I used the trace feature in the Silhouette Design Studio to create the shark.
  • The sunset on the last page is all inked in. I wish the shimmery ink translated better in the photos. The original is quite pretty.
  • Since this was such an imaginary story, I felt like I could go crazy with the gold foil, glitter, shimmer, and sparkle. Including the Pink Glitter Beard. 😂😂
Supplies Used:

The kids looove their story and we regularly play their special game and talk about the story often. I can’t wait till the rest of my nieces and nephew are a little older so I can make a special paper children’s storybook just for them.

Do you have a fun, special game or tradition in your family? How have you documented and recorded it?

Margaret’s Butterflies Storybook

Page of Margaret' Butterflies Paper Children's Storybook
~ Megan

I love family stories. As a child, being told family stories anchored and tied me to something bigger than myself. The stories told me who I was when I wasn’t sure how I fit into the world. They helped me navigate a really hard time. The most meaningful story to me was that of Margaret’s Butterflies. 

When I started having nieces and nephews, I knew I wanted them to have this same connection to our family that I had–that they were loved so much by so many that had come before them. And as a book lover, I thought making a cute storybook would be a way to share the story with them. 

The first storybook I wanted to make was was about Grandma Margaret Bryson. She’s my 4th Great Grandmother and a complete inspiration to me. I can’t wait to meet her on the other side of the veil.

This is part of her story
  • The cover of the book, featuring a pink butterfly.
  • Margaret’s Butterflies Retold by Megan McGrath
  • A long time ago there was a girl named Margaret.
  • She lived in a small time in Northern Ireland called Banbridge.
  • Margaret got married and had a baby boy named Sam. She was so happy. She loved her little boy so much.
  • Margaret’s husband, John, was in the army and never came home. This was hard for her to be all alone. But Margaret was strong and had faith in Heavenly Father so she raised Sam all by herself.
  • Sam grew up into a happy and handsome man. He also joined the army. This made Margaret sad. She worried he would never come home.
  • Whenever she would get worried, she would say a prayer to Heavenly Father. Then she would feel peaceful and that Sam was okay wherever he was.
  • One night when Margaret was feeling lonely and particularly worried about Sam, she said a prayer to Heavenly Father for extra peace in her heart. That night when she fell asleep, she had a very special dream.
  • In the dream, she was worried about Sam. Then one butterfly flew out of her heart.
  • Then two butterflies flew out
  • Then 20 butterflies flew out.
  • Then lots more butterflies flew out until there was too many to count.
  • Margaret woke up and knew the first butterfly was her boy Sam. The rest of the butterflies represented her grandchildren, great grandchildren all through the future generations. She loved all those little butterflies in her dream.
  • She didn’t know how so many butterflies would be her family, but she knew that Heavenly Father had given her this special dream as a gift. She had faith that He would fulfill this promise He had given her through her dream.
  • Whenever Margaret was feeling sad or lonely she thought of that dream and felt peace in her heart that Heavenly Father knew her and loved her.
  • Eventually Sam came home from the army and married a beautiful girl named Sarah. They had 11 children. Later Sam also married Isabella and they had 9 children. Margaret had 20 grandchildren.
  • Each of those grandchildren had children and grandchildren all the way down to you. You are one of those beautiful butterflies that Margaret dreamed about.
  • Margaret knew you and loved you a really long time ago–before your grandparents were even born.
  • Heavenly Father also knows and loves you. He will give you peace and comfort whenever you are scared and lonely, just like he did for Grandma Margaret.
  • Always remember you are one of Grandma Margaret’s butterflies. You have a family who loves you forever. And because Heavenly Father loves us so much, this isn’t The End of the story.

The original book is made of scrapbook paper scraps I had. Part of my goal with this project was to only use materials I already had on hand. Fortunately, I had my favorite tool to help me: my trusty Silhouette Cameo.

Supplies used:
How I Made the Book

To create a copy of the book, I took photos of the pages and uploaded them to Shutterfly and created an 8×8” photobook. You can see the finished photo book here, and even order a copy for yourself (no, I don’t get anything from the sale of the book from Shutterfly and make sure you look for a coupon, sometimes you can get the book for free and just pay shipping).

As I’ve shared this story with people, it’s been fun to “meet” cousins– other of Margaret’s butterflies– and be able to share this story with them. Some of them didn’t know about the events in the story. 

I’ve loved sharing this story with the next generation. My nieces and nephews have loved learning about their family and knowing how they fit into our family.

How can you learn and share stories about your ancestors?

Check out two other stories I’ve written: “The Popcorn Farmer” & “The Golden Ship”

Hello, World!

Road winding through fall forest. The leaves of the trees are green, orange, red, and yellow.
~ Megan

Hello, World! Once upon a time, I had a blog. It was so fun for me, but after a rough year, I stopped and didn’t pick it up again. Then I got sick. Again. My plate suddenly got really full trying to manage a serious, life-altering disease. It was really easy to narrow my world and just focus on that. 

Then, earlier this year I attended an amazing rare disease conference and was inspired to share my voice. So here I am, being brave and sharing my voice again. 
—

My adventures in crafting, especially paper crafting, began at 13/14 when I got very sick and missed a lot of school. As a child, I loved walking the aisles of office supply stores. The pens! The highlighters! The rulers! The planners! The paper! All the organization helps! Oh goodness, it’s a really good thing I didn’t know about or go into craft stores. I would have fainted from pure joy. Smart move, Mom! Ha! 

But then, my mom claims she made the “worst mistake of her life*” when she bought me a pack of fancy printed scrapbook papers, scissors, and glue to keep me entertained while I was sick. My obsession with scrapbooking, documenting life, and crafting began. I could turn that paper into anything my imagination could think of, just using scissors and glue! 

It took a long time to figure out what made me sick when I was 13/14, but in 2015, 16 years later, I finally got answers when I was diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) after a series of worsening allergic reactions, including several rounds of anaphylaxis. Since then we’ve also found out that I have dysautonomia (likely POTS, but I was having a good day when we did the testing), and a Primary Immunodeficiency (Specific Antibody Deficiency). Basically all this means my immune system is broken in a few different ways and I’m taking on a lot of medications to keep me from going into anaphylaxis. Good times!

I craft to keep myself sane as I deal with my complicated body. And I try to get out and adventure when my body is up to it. The photo above is from a recent drive up a canyon to see the fall foliage. So beautiful!

So, Hello World! I hope you’ll join me and follow along!

*that’s an accurate quote I’ve heard multiple times, hahaha!