Scrapbooking

Gasp! I scrapbooked! I know it's hard to believe that I still play with paper but I do! I just post more about sewing. I am still obsessed with documenting every moment of our daughter's life believe it or not.

Last weekend I went to a scrapbook retreat for 3 days, it was fabulous! The retreat was in Denton which is only about 30 miles from McKinney and one of my long time college friends came along too so it was great to catch up and craft for three straight days.

I was very productive and actually completed nearly 80 pages! I've taken pictures of a few and will be posting in the coming weeks.

Here are the first four!

Catching Up on Scrapbook Pages

Ever since I got my Cricut machine last year I have been scrapbooking alot more. I've become somewhat of a regular at SWARMS which are crops for people with Cricut machines. I go to a great store in Allen, called Personal Scrapbook. The owner, Tara sets aside one Saturday a month for a SWARM and you can go there from 10 am to midnight and scrap all day. It's great fun and I have made alot of friends there.

I generally take pictures of simple every day moments, therefore generate alot of work for myself because I want to scrapbook them all. I have given up on fancy pages that take hours to assemble, now it's just a title, a couple of pictures, short journaling and move on to the next page. What I am trying to say is there's nothing fancy here... Just posting for proof that I STILL do paper crafts. Here are two of my recent favorite scrapbook pages.

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Soup for Teddy-- Using Alphalicious cartridge.

Elote (corn): Using Don Juan cartridge.

Sorry these pictures aren't great.... Thanks for looking anyway.

Merry Christmas from us...

Merry Christmas from my family to yours.

This was our Christmas card. It was a flat card, and measured 8.5 x 5.5. I had fun making these while watching Christmas movies. Originally I had planned to send out everyone the photocards you get printed at the store but when our portrait package included 32 wallet size photos I decided to design a handmade card instead of just inserting the card with our Christmas letter. I wish I had planned in advance so I could have made all 100+ cards (I always want everyone to get the exact same card) for our family but doing just 32 took long enough.

The Garden Green base was half of an 8.5x11 sheet and inked with Gold Craft Ink. The next layer is Very Vanilla. I printed all the wording on the computer and also inked with Gold. Our picture was matted in Real Red, placed on the the scallopped rectangle and then added to the Very Vanilla layer with dimensionals. The ribbon knotted in the center finished it off.

The scallopped rectangle was done with Spellbinders Nestabilities (I love those things) and punched with the 1/8 inch circle punch. I can't believe I punched out all those circles, it was 32 rectangles and each one had 34 holes. Do the math and it's 1088 holes!! I must admit that I punched the holes while I was driving in traffic to Irma's rehearsal. It took me two hours to cross the whole city of Dallas last Friday night, everytime I was at a stand still on the interstate, I would punch a few holes. By the time I got to Red Oak which is on the other side of the world from McKinney, all the holes were punched. How's that for multi-tasking!

Hope your Christmas was full of the things money can't buy-- friends, family, love and happiness!

Warning: Hole punching while driving on the interstate is not recommended.

Scrapbook Layouts

About six weeks ago I was able to go on a scrapbooking retreat with some girlfriends and downline. It was absolutely terrific. I glued myself to my chair and worked feverishly the whole time I was there....about 52 hours! In the end I completed about 70 pages, which made me very happy.

I've been scrapping since I was a teenager. I gave it up when I was single and climbing the corporate ladder but once I became engaged my girlfriend Kristi urged me to get back into it. I hestitated because I know myself, in a short period of time I went bananas with supplies and by the time we got married I had a room full of stuff. Two years later, after Micaela was a year old, I became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator... so you can only imagine the crowdedness of my craft room today--

In the coming weeks, I will share pictures of some of my layouts. I don't follow any particular rules when I scrap, I mix what I like together and just go with it. Some of my paper is from the dollar store, some is from expensive scrapbook boutiques. Remember, I have a room full of supplies and I am desperately trying to use everything up. Sometimes I stamp, sometimes I use stickers, I sew often. I tend to use alot of ribbon and vintage fabric accessories that I took from my Mom's sewing room. Really, more than anything I just try to capture everyday moments as best I can. I like embellishments but not too many. I try to journal alot, not just about the picture or the event but even boring details too. Overall, my goal is to get the page done and move on to the next set of pictures because I am so far behind.

If your not a scrapper but you are a Mom think about starting a book for your child, they will be thankful for it when they get older....

Here are some of my layouts. These are all 12x12, which are pretty difficult to photograph, forgive the poor quality of the pictures.

Berry Bliss Love Book

Ta Da! It's done. I have been working on this book the last few days but it's been in my brain ever since I saw the Berry Bliss paper back in December. I have been wanting to do one of these Word Books for a while and finally I was able to put it all together-- the right season, right paper, and book.
This was alot of fun to put together and it came together quickly. I will be offering this as a class on Feb 7, 13 or 21 @ 7pm. If these dates don't work for you, please let me know and we'll work something out.

Cost of Class: $22.00
Kit Includes:
LOVE Chipboard Album by Bo Bunny
6 sheets of 12x12 Berry Bliss* Designer Paper
6 sheets of coordinating card stock
6 yards of assorted coordinating ribbon (gingham, wide & narrow grosgrain and double stitched
3 rings
Assorted chipboard (hearts, flowers, corners, etc)
Use my ink and stamps to personalize your book

*If Berry Bliss is not for you I am happy to substitute another SU Designer Paper, coordinating ribbon and card stock.

Bring:
Adhesive. (sticky strip or a glue stick for adhering the paper to chipboard)
Paper Snips
Basic Cutting Tools
Pictures

Reserve your spot today!

'T was the night before Christmas book....

I've been working on this book off and on for the past week. I started it at a class offered at Recollections, a local scrapbooking store that is on the verge of going out of business. They alotted 2 hours for this class and I have no idea what they were thinking because there is no way one could finish this book in that time span. Nonetheless, it's finally finished and I am glad. It was alot of work... 14 pages with quite a bit of detail. --

Working on it inspired me to make one using all Stampin' Up! materials.... I'm using the Dashing DP, Real Red, Old Olive and River Rock color scheme. I am hoping to finish it in the next few days so keep checking back.

Out Little Cowgirl.... Outlaw Clip Board

I made this last night. It's one of the new 9" x 9" SU On Board Clipboards. I received it as an award for my sales in July from my upline Denise Sullivan.

I had been wanting to make one of these for a while and getting one for free was great! I knew I wanted to use the Outlaw paper and this 5x7 picture of Micaela. This was Micaela's Halloween costume last year, my hubby snapped this picture during our dress rehearsal. How do you like those hot pink boots?

Here's how I did it:

I adhered Outlaw Designer Paper with Modge Podge, sanded the edges and then inked them with Creamy Caramel ink. I did not Modge Podge over the top of the paper. I used the Wild West Alphabet for the name at the bottom and the stars, I stamped both in Chocolate Chip Craft Ink and then embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. I used the Really Rust and Sage Shadow markers to color in the letters and I thought they looked a little dull so I went over them with the Versamark Marker and then embossed them with Clear Embossing Powder. Embossing over the marker intensified the color and made the letters glossy. I colored the stars with the Creamy Caramel marker only. I used the Piercer from the Tool Kit to make holes for the brads in the center of the stars. The brads are from the Aged Copper HodgePodge Hardware box. The picture was matted with Really Rust, Sage Shadow and Chocolate Chip card stock. I used the ticket punch on the corners. I tied a variety of ribbons to the clip and Ta-Da, it was done!

I am pleased with the results, my hubby is really liking all of my recent Outlaw projects, he told me today, "finally, your making stuff that isn't so foo foo". Ugh, Men!

These would make great gifts. You can check out all of the different On Board Clipboards on page 181 of the Fall & Winter Collection catalog.

109192 Large with 3 Clips measures 13" x 7-1/2" is $15.95

109190 Wide with 1 Clip measures 9" x 9" is $7.95

109191 Narrow with 1 Clip measures 4-1/2" x 9" is $6.50

Show off your Fourth of July pictures in this cute little lunch box tin!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. I just love red, white and blue. Anyway, in keeping with my love for patriotic stuff, I made this cute little tin to keep all our special patriotic themed pictures in it. .

The tin holds 3.5 x 5 cards perfectly. I decorated each card like a little mini scrapbook page and added a tab with the year. You can see the tabs close up by clicking: TABS

Here are the details: Cost of Class/Kit: $22


July 17 & 23 @ 7pm

I will plan an afternoon class if I get enough interest. If these dates for the class don't work with your schedule, let me know- I am sure we can figure something out.

This is a fast project. As always come prepared with your favorite adhesive, basic cutting tools and punches. If you don't have adhesive, I have some glue sticks you can purchase and you can use my tools. Bring your pictures. I would recommend printing/cropping them to wallet size ahead of time.

Class-Kit Includes:

• one lunch box
• 4 sheets of 12x12 SU card stock in Real Red, Night of Navy, Ballet Blue and Kraft for making cards for inside*
• 10 6x6 sheets of coordinating patriotic paper
• 30+ embellishments. buttons, clips, brads, ribbon slides, eyelets, star sequins, etc.
• 10 18 inch strands of coordinating ribbon and fun fibers for embellishing pages and tieing around handle.

*The 4 12x12 card stock sheets will yield enough to make 24 pages.