Little Notebooks

On a really busy day recently, I knew my only time to craft was going to be early in the morning. Typically, I clear off my worktable at least some before starting a new project.  On this morning, if I took time to clear up and then select materials for my next project, my time would be up.  So I played the 'use what is on your worktable game.'  This is a bit of a challenge for me.  I like to pick through my stash.  But I resisted, well, mostly.

These little composition notebooks are from the dollar store.  I covered them with some Webster's pages 6x6 paper.  I got my covers a tad small so filled in the space with Washi tape which wasn't on my table but very close by.  The embellishments were things that were all out.  The only cheating I did was to pull out a new-to-me MME stamp for adding a little something over the Washi tape.

For the back side, I used stamps on my table from Define Your Life by Stampin' Up!

Getting these done was a great way to start the day.

Thanks for spending some of your day here.

Don't forget to check out my upcoming webinar (Scrapinar).  The link is on the right side of the screen.

Join me for a Scrapinar!

I'm so very, very excited!!! I've been invited to present next month's Scrapinar at Layoutaday.com.  Lain Ehmann  hosts a free webinar each month.  To attend, all you have to do is follow this link and sign up.

Click here to view more details

The image at left and the one below are a little sneak peak of two of the new layouts you can see in the Webinar.

In June, we are going to be talking about how to use those fantastic 6x6 paper pads on regular 12x12 pages in scrapbooking.  I've done a couple of videos in the past where I really emphasized the use of 6x6 pads and have of course used these fantastic papers on other pages.  This time, all the pages and techniques will be focused on ways to get the most out of a 6x6 paper pad.

If you haven't been bitten by the 6x6 paper pad bug which is as sneaky as a chocolate craving, you may not know what a value these are (and they are calorie free!).  I'll talk briefly about the benefits of a 6x6 paper pad and then jump right into ways you can use them on your pages.  I'll share several pages with predominately 6x6 papers and some techniques in the 20 minute video.  Then we will have lots of chat time.

If you can't make it on June 12, no problem.  You can still sign up and watch the video later on.  But you do have to sign up to have access to the video.  This one won't be on my YouTube channel.  The only way to get it is to sign up for the Webinar.  It's free and fun.

I've attended other webinars through Lain's site and always learned some tricks.  It is recommended that you participate via a computer directly connected to your Internet service rather than Wi-fi for the best response time although I do remember participating in one via my laptop on the 2nd floor of my house (far away from the router).

This is such an honor for me to share my ideas in the Scrapinar.  I hope you will join Lain and me for the evening of June 12.

There is only one downside for me.  In the meantime, I'll be busy, busy putting together lots of pages and that means I won't be posting quite as often.

So here's the link again. I hope to meet you all at the chat following the video on June 12, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Favorite Ink

I read about the challenge at Simon Says Stamp over at Ashi Oliver's wonderful blog.  I sooo love her page using Ranger Archival Ink.  It is just gorgeous!

She commented that we might think it odd she picked black ink as a favorite when there are so many colors available.  Well, I can top that, I picked Clear!  Yes, my favorite ink is Versamark.  Why?  Well, it is so versatile of course.

Sometimes I just leave it clear and stamp as a watermark, but mostly I use it for embossing.  For my card, I stamped in Versamark and embossed with Stampin' Up!'s new Early Espresso embossing powder.  Then I used a trick I got from Kristina Werner in this post for her Mother's Day card.

She colored on the back side of her image after embossing.  I think she used Copics with her white embossing.  I'm using Stampin' Up! markers and they are blending great on the vellum as the ink doesn't dry immediately.  This is also a fantastic technique for someone like me who has trouble staying between the lines :-(  I tell you if there was a grade for coloring in elementary school, I would have failed.

So this is perfect and creates such a soft look.  I'm using Hero Arts Whimsical Houses.

The frame was cut on the Cricut.  I just moved the cutting blade in a tad and then cut a shape from the Storybook cartridge.  I used the negative space by cutting a border around the where the shape was and that became my frame.  It is finished off with more Versamark, a wood grain stamp and clear embossing powder.

This one is off to my Operation Write Home box.  Thanks for stopping by today.  The challenge is here at SimonSaysStamp.

Working with a Collage Print

Apparently April and May are busy months.  When I did Project Life in 2010, that is when I got behind. We had a family wedding out of town and things just sort of piled up. So I did both of those months as full months in my PL album.

I'm doing a little better this year as I have multiple layouts for April; however, May is getting past me quick.  So it seemed like a good time to try out he collage print option that my photo processor keeps offering me.

I use Walmart or Walgreens for photos as these are my closest places to pick up photos.  In my small town, Walmart is the only option.  Both seem to have the same photo interface with an option to turn your prints into a collage.

So for this layout, I uploaded several 4x6 prints and printed them as one 8x10 collage.  After trimming, it was more 7x8 inches.  This left plenty of room for journaling and with just a couple of embellishments, the page was done.

I really like the photo collage option.  It is cheap and easy.  It is also fun to keep shuffling on the screen and see what photos become the prominent ones.  I think this would work well for travel, a wedding or sporting event photos also.

So here's the video:


And here is the PDF which contains more details on using Walmart's (and probably Walgreens) photo collage option.

Thanks for stopping by today!

On Crumb Cake

Jennifer McGuire often white embosses and colors images on a kraft background.  I love the look and that is what I did here. This is Stampin' Up!'s version of kraft now called Crumb Cake.

The image is from American Crafts Soho Garden set and the sentiment from an old Stampin' Up! set.  I did the coloring with Prismacolor pencils.

Thanks for dropping by today!

gone Fishing Page and Video

 


Last summer's fishing adventures were a tad less adventuresome thanks to a motor on the raft that gave my husband and his grandson quick access to the lake shore.  They are both looking forward to this summer's fishing trip.

For the page, I took up a couple of CHA challenges:  Stretch your Supplies from Shimelle.com and Use 5 Tools from Two Peas in a Bucket.  The Quint-essential flower stamp from Stampin' Up! coordinates with 2 scallop punches and a whole bunch of circle punches. I also used my scallop border punch on the layout.

The other challenge I faced was very dark photos that seemed to recede further with the bright colors I chose for stamping and papers.  To make the photos pop a bit more, I matted them with white cardstock.  The scallop pieces were all distressed so they blended more with the photos.

Here's the process video:


Thanks for watching today!

Past the garden gate

This started out as a card to represent my Mother's garden and it sort of grew and grew.   Finally I just used a 6x8" canvas board so instead of a Mother's Day card, I did a small art piece for my mother.   I'm playing with some techniques from Christy Tomlinson's Behind the Art class.

First though, I cut the garden gates with my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge.  It was one image and I split it and then added Versamark in spots and embossed with copper powder for a rusty gate look.

The 'garden' is mostly flowers cut from Basic Grey's PB&J 6x6 pad which I think is almost used up. That was a really good one!  The background is really techniques from our art class with papers, paints, a ton of Modge Podge, stencils and a few stamps.

Hope you have a happy Mother's Day.  I'll be back in a couple of days with a new page and video.

Glass Art

Wow, that is a wonky looking photo, isn't it?  Anyway...

We get many of our outing or date day ideas from the NC Weekend program on PBS.  Last year they led us to an art glass show.  We visited 3 galleries and then one private exhibit that was by far the most interesting.  We didn't take photos there as it was in a photographer's studio so we didn't think he would appreciate us taking photos of his photos and glass collection. He had at least 4 cats weaving in and out of everything.  Cats and a glass collection?  Well, it seemed to work.  We really enjoyed the afternoon.

For this page, I did two NSD challenges.  I was inspired by a Garden Girl at Two Peas.  I picked Wilna Furstenburg and one of her layouts from her Art Class where she did lettering using modeling paste.  I used heavy gel instead that I attempted to color a light gray.  It got quite a bit darker when it dried I suppose because the gel actually dries clear so the 'white' goes away.  I added a touch of black paint, lots of Tinsel Colorshine mist, and a bit of Perfect Pearls for extra shine.

The page also fits Shimelle's 'use your mist' challenge.  The colors painted on the background are all mists.  One tip, if you use mist as paint, use old brushes.  It really stains the brushes.

Thanks for visiting today!  Both Two Peas and Shimelle's challenges go through Sunday night so check the out. Lots of great chances to craft and maybe win a prize.

Creating a Tabbed Mini Book

We celebrate birthdays here with 'the week of birthday.'  My husband and I don't exchange gifts anymore as we decided it was just a money swap.  So now we do little things to make not just each others birth day special but the entire week.  So I captured those things for Project Life one week last month.

I also added a few thoughts on my birthday, age, and what I'm into these days and what I'm not.  I wanted to keep those thoughts private so it was the perfect opportunity to use Heidi Swapp's Photo book or Fotostack.  She released this product at January's CHA and I got mine at Michaels a couple of months ago.

After completing my page and video, I went searching for other places you might find this product.  I was dismayed to find it has already been discontinued! I really like this product and would like to use it again. So, I made another one myself and created a video for that.  I

Making the tabbed mini book is easy.  You just need 1 12x12 sheet or 3 4"x12" pieces of designer paper, a tab punch or tab stickers, a corner rounder and a regular office stapler.  The mini book can be used to add photos or journaling to your pages or as Smash style books or travel logs.

I gave myself an on-line class for my birthday "Behind the Art" by Christy Tomlinson.  In honor of that class, I add some misting and stamping to the watercolor style paper background (part of Crate Paper's Acorn Avenue collection.)

The stencils are from the craft area of Michaels. Home stencils are often less expensive than those in the scrapbooking area.

I needed one photo to finish off my page and found this one of me on my parents front porch not sure what to do about the approaching step.  The main photo on the page was taken on our front porch.

Here are the videos.  This one is for the page as a whole.


And this one is for the mini book.



Thanks for visiting today!

NSD Color Challenge

One of the challenges at Two Peas for National Scrapbooking Day is to use two shades of green, a bright blue and gray.  My colors are Garden Green, Pear Pizzazz, and Pacific Point from Stampin' Up!  The stamps are those marvelous interlocking ones from Lawn Fawn.

Did you know that Stampin' Up! has come out with clear photopolymer stamps?  They just have a couple of sets so far.  I'm excited to see what will be in the new catalog available this month.

I was inspired here by various cards I've seen on Kelly Rasmussen's blog.

Two Peas NSD challenges go through next weekend.  Also, Shimelle.com has 24 NSD challenges this week!


Thanks for stopping by today!  I'll have a couple of videos for you tomorrow or Wednesday.

Last job?

A couple of months ago, we installed what may be my last window treatment job.  Then again, I haven't sold any of my machines so...

Right now, I'm quite happy to be out of the business.  It was an anchor in my life for 16 years and I made lots of wonderful friends.  It was rewarding to create beautiful things for my customer's homes.  The photos on this page are taken at a customer's home where we did practically every room over several years.  I loved this part of my job and it happened frequently. I'd do a room or two and then a year or so later, my client would call and want to do another room and so on.  You get to know people, know what samples to take and what designs they will like or not.

For these rooms, I did pinch pleat draperies in lovely fabrics on decorator rods.  It isn't a complicated treatment but very classic which suits the style of this home.

There was an irony to this day.  My mother was in the window treatment business when I was young and had advised me over the years about fabric choices.  However, she had never been on an installation with us.  On the morning of this last one, I woke up and twisted around pulling a shoulder muscle (a repeated injury or so I thought.)  I needed help so I called her and she came up and put in pins and did some lifting for me.

Another irony is that my shoulder cleared up nicely before the day was over but my legs were awfully sore by the next morning.  I'd run up and down ladders all day marking and taking measurements to keep both her and my husband busy.  I'm kind of glad I never got jobs big enough to have two helpers on install day :-)

The page is for the Counterfeit Kit Club blog's NSD challenges.  I started by assembling this kit.

Then I took a challenge to create a page with these elements:
stripes and dots, book page, packaging, pen work/doodling, labels, craft knife, circles, buttons, song title or lyrics, handwriting, journal on note paper, diary entry, journal in several places

The bold ones are the ones I put onto my page.  Not too bad getting that many in on one page.

The book paper is from a 1950's sewing book I bought for art projects.  This page was so perfect, I only added some pen markings (per the challenge). The line drawings aren't the same as what we installed.  I'm sure my client is glad I didn't put 1950's draperies on her window!   They are close enough to add a little fun touch to the page.


The background paper is an old one from Bo Bunny.  I chose the damask and added flourishes because of my client's very traditional home.

ETA:  I forgot to say that the sketch on which this layout was based was also part of the NSD challenge.

Thanks for visiting!   Did you get to play on National Scrapbooking Day!

National Scrapbooking Day!

Hope you are having fun on this National Scrapbooking Day!  There are tons of on-line challenges.  Check out these at Two Peas or at Counterfeit Kit Club Blog.

I've started on the latter by assembling a small kit of products.  I did cheat a bit and pick out some photos first.  The way they are approaching the kits is so clever.  You have CSI like files with "Evidence" "Testimony" "The Sketch."  I picked one with a blue, red, gray and white color scheme.

Today also happened to coincide with finally completing all the weeks 1-3 videos (whew!) from the Behind the Art class so I'm making my first canvas.  I've started with something small using only paints and stamps.  This is not as easy as it might look.  I made a real mess and had a marvelous time.  Next week we find out what we are putting on our canvases.

Of course, I've spent a fair amount of time on-line looking at the challenges and shopping - of course!  If you have a national day in honor of something, you have to spend money.  It is the American thing to do, right?

So I'd better get the kitchen cleaned up (my only chore today) and get back to my craft room.  Happy crafting!

Rhinestones, with a little polish

A couple of months ago I set out to find a way to make my own enamel dots.  I tried all kinds of things and I can tell you what does NOT work:  Dropping nail polish on wax paper and waiting for it to harden (it doesn't); coating drops dried Glossy Accents (an exercise in patience that yields odd shaped bits) and a few other things that I've already forgotten.  One thing that works fairly well is painting half pearls with nail polish.  However, they are thicker than the popular enamel dots available for purchase.

Along the way I did discover these.  If you take plain rhinestones and paint them with nail polish, you get some very pretty embellishments.  The backing shines through giving them sort of a colorful glow.  They have more of a bling look than enamel dots and aren't as rounded.  Since nail polish comes in every color these days, you can do all kinds.

These were a good fit for this layout with the glitter Thickers.  The background is watercolors on watercolor paper.  I first cut a tulip design from the paper with my Cricut.  Then I painted on watercolors until I was happy with the shades.  The rest of the layout is just some simple layers of designer paper.

The rhinestones do take quite awhile to dry and I pushed it a bit and smudged a few of mine.  (I didn't learn anything from my exercise in patience mentioned above.) Hopefully that goes with the watercolor look :-)

These photos were made at Biltmore.  I made a recent trip and found the tulips at their absolute peak.


Here's the video for making enamel rhinestones:


I guess I never said why I was trying to create my own enamel dots but you can probably guess.  If you've ever used them you know that they can disappear onto a layout faster than you can fill an on-line shopping cart and they sure aren't cheap.  I did find one idea on-line but it was just more time consuming than I was willing to invest.

If you know of a good way to create your own enamel dots, please share.  In the meantime, you can dress up some rhinestones and give your nail polish a second life.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking day!

Loving these stamps

I'm in love!  I'm in love with these stamps from Lawn Fawn.

Lawn Fawn appeared on my radar about 2 years ago but I never bought any of their stamps until recently.  I tend to be fashionably late to a lot of things.  And sometimes I wish I weren't.  Their stamps are fantastic!

The first thing I always try with a new stamp is to see if they will work with Stampin' Up! ink since that is what I have the most of.  Stampin' Up! is a dye ink like Distress Inks and Hero Arts Shadow inks.  They work well with water but they aren't always friendly with acrylic stamps.

These stamps make perfect images with dye based inks.  This card is made using Stampin' Up!'s Bermuda Bay (a color on its way back in), Cajun Craze and More Mustard (a retiring color).  One of the sets is designed to create an interlocking background and is super easy to use.  I got both of these at Two Peas in a Bucket.  The stamps also work well with Staz On ink.

The sentiment on the card is from a very old SU! set called Alphabet Soup.  I think this makes a good guy card.

Thanks for visiting today!  Tomorrow I plan to have a video up with a little tip for making your own enamel embellishments.  And this Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day so lots of crafty fun on the horizon.