New class

Good evening everyone.  Boy, has it been crazy in my house this last week.  My oldest son turned 18 and my youngest daughter turned 13!  I am feeling a bit aged with some platinum streaks in my hair!!!  I treasure my kids so much and have spent a amazing amount of time with them all this week.  I just can't believe that I have an 18 yr old!  Wow!  Seems like he was born yesterday.  I made a point of telling him that he will always be my baby boy!

 Besides the birthdays, the birthday parties, and general school stuff I did manage to get a bit creative this week too.  Rather mundane but I made trash cans (ugh) for the spare bathrooms.  They match better than anything I could buy.  Just seems a bit ugh to spend my time making trashcans though  :)  I also made all the party stuff for my daughters party.  Oh, and cakes.  Lots and lots of cakes.  Layered cakes, cupcakes, sheet cakes.  Lots of cakes.  I think these kids have hollow legs!   I somehow managed to not get a picture of the beautiful cake I made.  My daughter chose neon for her party.  Do you know how hard that is to make icing for?  Just took some time.  But the cake turned out so cute.  And seriously yummy (layered double vanilla and devil's food iced with classic buttercream).  Oh, I have to stop.  I am getting hungry!  On to this week.......

Tomorrow is my next class at Scrapp n' Savvy.  We will be making the Romantic Love Notes box using Prima Romantique papers.  I really love the look of this vintage box and all the pretties it holds.

The Tim Holtz feet really add to the vintage feel of this.  I have distress inked most of the items including the flowers.  I am more than pleased that my oldest daughter has taken a real liking to it.  I had planned to give it to her after I taught the class.  The box holds 6 cards/tags and I am going to write the things that I love about her on them.  A personal adoration and inspiration box.

It's late.  I still have instruction sheets to type and print.  Maybe finish the kits for tomorrow.  Kitchen to clean.  Check back.  I will have new pics up for inspiration.

Graphic 45 Design Team 2012 Audition

Hi everyone.  Today is a banner day here!  I am auditioning for the G45 design team.  Woohoo!  This blog post will serve as my audition so it will have loads of pictures as I have numerous projects to share.  So let's get started!

First up is a greeting card using the G45 Magic of Oz paper.  I love the layered look and the multi dimensional effect of the ribbons.

The tin man on the paper is just so darling.  I instantly thought of this card when I saw him.

Two summers ago my family went to Hawaii for vacation.  Thank you frequent flyer miles!  We had loads of fun but I think I took the best pictures while I was there (think I can talk hubby into that again?).  One of my favorites is of my youngest coming out of the water.  I think the colors and the fact that he is so carefree make it a favorite of mine.

 I purchased the wooden "frame" last year for 25 cents!  I have no idea what is was originally meant to be but liked the feel of it.  It is carved on the edges and a picture hangar was added on the back.   It has been waiting patiently to be transformed and  G45's Tropical Travelogue was just the ticket.  I covered the center of the board with the beautiful tropical paper, added my fav pic matted out for extra pop, added some rolled flowers made from the paper collection, shells, and tags.

This is a close up of my rolled flowers.  (The shells were not collected from Hawaii but from the shores of Texas.)

Have you seen the G45 Botanicabella collection?  Early summer found me surfing the web.  I stumbled across this beautiful collection and just had to add it to my stash!  This is one of the mini's I made with it. I just love the colors and the stunning pictures.  It has a great vintage feel and adding the distress inks really wowed it up!

 This little mini measures in at 6 x 6.  The cover is embellished with Prima flowers and is held closed with a ribbon belt that I made.

 Each page has a flap that opens and a large mat in a "pocket" at the end of the page.

This is very indicative of my style.  I like my minis to have lots of interaction.  There is also room for quite a few pictures but I haven't put any pics in it because I just love the paper!

The next project is one that I featured a couple of weeks ago on the Scrapp n' Savvy blog hop.  It is my hot air balloon mini.

There was just something about the paper and the cardstock embellies that made me think of a hot air balloon.  The whole thing stands about 13" tall.  It has 6 pages (see the previous blog dated Feb. 3 for all the page pictures).

Blissful.  That's what the next project is.  As with the hot air balloon, this project was also previously on the blog ( November 21 - Getting Ready for the New Year).

This was made with the Authentique Blissful collection.  It was a very popular class.  The "pages" were constructed with catalog envelopes.  I have since made several different ones including one with the G45     Primer paper that turned out very cute.

My sis in law is interested in scrapbooking.  I spent some time with her at Thanksgiving working on mini albums and teaching her some new techniques.  What she did not know is that I had purchased the Printery collection by Prima with her in mind.  She is the epitomy of old world.  She adores the old movies and I thought this was just right for her.

The album is not small by any means.  It measures 9 x 9 and is loaded with places for pictures.  It has an old world, vintage feel due to the paper and the distress inks I applied.  There are quite a few Tim Holtz  pieces throughout the book.

I hope you have enjoyed these projects.  There are so many more on the blog itself.  Check out January 10 - Romantic Love Notes or December 30 - Snowfall.  Grab a cup of coffee.  Sit back.  Enjoy the posts.  Be inspired.

Picture storage

Pictures.  We all have them.  Usually lots of them.  When I first started my family we took tons of pictures and had them developed. (does that "date" me?  )  But somewhere around child 3 the digital camera took hold.  My ever loving hubby purchased a "really cool" one for us and we continued taking tons of pictures.  Now the difference was that we "stored" them on discs.  Very few were actually printed.  My family continued growing as did the number of pictures we took.  The difference was that we could not easily see them and that they took up so little space.  So, I guess this is where I truly began the desire to scrapbook.  I knew someday one of my lovely little ones would look at me and say "mom, where is that picture of me on the camel?" or something similar.  I wanted to be able to say "in the scrapbook darling!"  Well, maybe not those exact words, but you get my drift.

So,  I have been slowly working on the albums.  It is an overwhelming task and I decided to start at the "now" point and work with the "before" pictures as time allotted.  I do have my favorite pictures.  We all do. I find myself wanting to use them more and more.  Also, when I am working on an album I like to print out my pics first.  What do you do with them while you are scrapping happily away?  Well, this is what I decided on:

Somewhere along my wandering days I found this really cute little box.  I'm sure it had a lid at some point but not now.  I think I bought it for a dollar.  It had good lines and I just loved the size.  It's been hiding under the desk with all the dust bunnies for about a year now.  When we moved I dusted it off and thought it was time.  Time to make it pretty again.  A little paint, a little stain, some pretty papers, and lots of flowers and voila!  I have a pretty little box that holds my current "working" pictures.  I added dividers so I can keep it organized.  I love it.  Functional.  Cute.  Vintage.  Works for me.

You can teach an old dog new tricks!

As the old saying goes:  "you can't teach an old dog new tricks".  I beg to differ.  I learned something new today!!!!  No, I don't think I'm a dog.  And, no, I don't necessarily think I am old.  Well,  anyway that's for another time!

I took a Copic class today.  Thoroughly enjoyed it.  When I began working at Scrapp n' Savvy I met some wonderful ladies.  I continue to be awed and inspired by what they do.  Each one has something different to offer.  I met Debra there and she teaches the Copic card class.  The technique looked so cool.  She aided me in purchasing my first few copics and gave me some guidelines on how to use them and on future purchases.  I kept telling myself that I would take one of her classes and today was the banner day!  It has truly been many, many years since I took any kind of class.  This was really enjoyable.

Debra taught us 3 cards but one in specific has me thrilled!  This is the closeup of the front:

This uses the Elizabeth Craft Designs stickers with Glitter Ritz microfine glitter and sheet adhesive.  I was so nervous that I would mess up.  This is really my first copic card.  I just love the technique and especially how it looks.  Don't look too close......there are some mistakes.  I will get better.  I just LOVE the glitter look.  I found this incredibly easy because it is so much like painting (which is my first love).  I can hardly wait to play with this again!

It is a bit difficult to get the whole beauty of the card in a picture.  I had not even seen this product but it was released some time ago.  Be inspired.  I was.

Inspiration

Inspiration.  Sometimes it is really difficult to get inspired to do something.  I mean, really, just how many meals can one create that 6 other people are going to eat and love?  How many cards can I make before my brain shuts down?  How many times can I look at that piece of paper and will it to be something?  Well, apparently the answer to all of those is "a bunch"!

Today I was trying very hard to get some scrapping done.  3 teenagers home from school.  Repairmen coming and going.  Trying to get everyone coordinated for the weekend.  And BOOM!  My inspiration hit......my oldest daughter showed me a sketch she is working on and this one little piece of it just sent my mind whirring.  Gotta love that.  I was able to sit down and get tons on paper.....LO sketches, card sketches, a couple of painting sketches (for when I have loads of time), and a couple other projects.  I guess that the one little bit of inspiration created an overflow of the rest.  I can hardly wait to sit down and do some of these little gems!

What inspires you?  Let me know.

I give it an "A"

Just a quickie......I made this for my youngest daughter's room.  I found one like it for way too much money and decided to just make it.

The best part of making it myself is that it perfectly matches her room!  The flowers are black and white damask that match her coverlet on the bed and the A is the exact color of the turquoise  accents in the room.  I think she likes it because she hung it dead center of the wall!  :)

And the winner is.....

The blog hop was a blast!  For those of you who participated and left a comment there was a chance to win a prize.  Yeah!  And the winner is:  Posted by BLAP - she said . . . I love this project...I love doing projects like this one.  If this is your comment then please contact Scrappn' Savvy to collect your prize.  Congratulations.


As you may know I recently moved.  It is really difficult to move one's creative space.  What you set up in one place may or may not work in the new one.  I defined my space in the new house and then proceeded to make it work.  I have spent countless hours organizing, throwing away, and giving away an amazing stash of "stuff".    Sometimes I know my husband looks at the pile and wonders if he will ever see the floor again or if he will have to withstand an avalanche when he opens the closet.  Well, I won the battle with all the "stuff".  There is so much that I think "oh, I don't want that" but then I remember that I still have little ones that want to play with pipe cleaners!  (much to the pure delight of my kitties!)  I think my hubby was amazed when he looked last night.  Everything was neatly organized, labelled, and put away.  Easy access to all I want and "need" :)  I am totally thrilled with being able to simply pull out what I want without having to move everything.  


So, now that my space is mostly complete (still have some minor tweaks to do), I thought I would share.  

 This is my desk space.  An ancient drafting table that I love.  To the left is my solid cardstock stash.  Front and center is paper embellies, tools, work in progress.  To the right back corner is all sorts of stuff like envelopes, cards, tools, stickers, etc.  The hanging cabinet houses my small embellies, buttons, most of my flowers, ink pads, and some misc things.

 Under the desk hides my paper collections sorted by season or style.  Everything is in wraps to prevent tears.  I hope to sew some covers for the containers to inhibit the dust bunny farm from taking over.   The basket holds all my Scrappn' Savvy work.

 Behind me when I sit at my desk is my old farm table.  It's been cleaned and painted and I still love it!  It holds my Cricut world.  Drawers hold paper mache, chipboard, and cricut stuff.  The top shelf I built myself!:)  It contains (or tries to) my ribbon addiction.  The white drawer stack has my stamps, punches, larger flowers, and my adhesive bucket.

 Yes, I really am addicted to ribbon.  And it must be separated by color.  Each color has a separate ring but many have several rings.  I am sure the ribbon has learned from the dust bunnies because I am positive that it multiplies overnight!

 The closet - general craft stuff and easy access to my mini albums that are for sale.

The closet - sewing stuff.

I know sometimes inspiration comes from seeing how someone else works.  I hope this inspires you. It sure makes me happy!  I have tons of projects I'm working on so check back often.  Now, go on and play with some paper!

Love Is In The Air

Welcome to the first ever Scrappn' Savvy blog hop! During this blog hop, you will visit each instructors' website and see some wonderful projects featuring the We R Memory Keepers "Love Struck" collection. You must leave a comment at each blog, and then return back to the Scrappn' Savvy blog and leave a comment that you have finished the hop. There will be some small prizes given away on each blog for a random commenter, and there will be one grand prize given away from all those comments left on the Scrappn' Savvy blog after you have finished the hop.  The order of the blogs to visit is listed below. 


For my project I chose to do a desk top photo flip album.  Something about this paper collection made me think of a hot air balloon and I just couldn't get that image out of my mind.  My family means so much to me and when they are around love IS in the air!  The balloon carries some of my favorite pictures of my family and is easily flipped to see them all.  Take a look:

 This is the front cover, heavily embellished.  Since this will sit on my desk I added loads of pretties!  This was by far the most time consuming part.  The front balloon is stitched on the top to look like the strings that hang from the old time balloons.  I stitched the criss cross design with embroidery floss and added pearls at the intersection to cover the holes I made.  I used We R Memory Keepers tags and gumdrop heart brads as well.

 Inside page one.....tags, flowers, gumdrop brads, and a love note charm.

 These lovely fingers are those of my oldest son.  Sweetie that he is, he helped me this morning!

 All the above pages use the We R Memory Keepers Love Struck collection and Bazzill cardstock.  I used some things from my stash (like the birds that I have had for years!).

This is a closeup of the base.  It has the basket part of the balloon filled with valentine goodies.  The basket is adhered to the base and adds to the stability of the project.

Continue on with the blog hop and visit the next person in line.  All the blogs are listed below. Remember to leave a comment on each  blog and return to the main Scrappn' Savvy blog with a comment to be eligible for a PRIZE.  Prizes are local and must be picked up at the store.

Scrappn’ Savvy Blog- http://www.razzilldazzilltime.blogspot.com/

Karen Burniston- http://www.karenburniston.typepad.com/

Audrey Yeager- http://www.audreysreflection.blogspot.com/

Carol Brown- http://www.cricutbycarol.blogspot.com/

Debra Hensley - http://minuetsmuse.blogspot.com/

Margene Beadroux- http://margenesscrapbooking.blogspot.com/

Heather Leopard- http://www.thespottedleopard.blogspot.com/

Terri Burnette- http://thepaperassylum.blogspot.com/

Susan Mckinney- http://upinmystudio.blogspot.com/

Leslie Parlette- designsdessertdisasters.blogspot.com

Tove Mayer- http://totallytove.blogspot.com

Thanks ladies end enjoy these amazing projects from the talent at Scrappn' Savvy .