Addys for Class Instructions

Hello, fellow scrappers! This weekend I'm teaching 4 (maybe 5) classes in a Mini Scrappy Retreat right here in town. I'm super excited about it, and have been putting kits together all week. We will be doing 2 Scrappy Layouts, an Exploding Box (like the one I made for Kath's birthday), and a mini book with hand-stitched pages. I pondered over how to send the unused kits home with the guests who opt. to spend their time crafting on their own projects instead of following along with the classes. Plus there is one guest who will only be staying one day instead of both days, and I wanted her to have the benefits of taking the kits home that we'll do the day she's not there. But how will she know what to do with the materials if I'm not there to tell her?

Bing! Dawn's the light! I found instructions on-line! All my friends who will do these projects with me can just refresh their memories on how to do these projects by copying and pasting a link right here in my own little blog. The instructions for the mini book are actually the original ones that I saw and altered for my own style. So glad to have found it again!

So here goes:

Here's the addy to the exploding box: http://tinyurl.com/ye86j4

And the video instructions for the mini book: http://tinyurl.com/23hebo2"

So for those of you who did NOT get to join us (sad face here!), you can see a couple of things we did this weekend.

Tim Holtz

 

I made a mini-rolodex of stamps featuring Tim Holtz! I love his creative style, and look forward to eventually getting a copy of his book "A Compendium of Curiosities."

The Artist's Way

There is a book by Julia Cameron I've recently heard about. My friend said it's like a twelve step course for artists. It's a course in discovering and recovering your creative self. In the book, the artist is encouraged to free-journal 3 pages every day. She says not to read back over what you've written for at least 7 months.

Hmm. That would totally be a challenge. Not to read back over what you write? Really? Well, since I can totally relate to some artist buddies' skitzy mental ADD attitude sometimes, I think if they are lovin' the 3 page journalling, I probably would as well. I've not committed to such a thing before.

I should probably just get the book. I'm into creativity.

Donna Downey

Here I am with Donna Downey! She is absolutely amazing!


Here's my favorite page out of the sample album Donna passed around. I got pics of every page, but I'm not sure she wants those shared around unless you get them from her site or at her class. She was so sweet! She said we could take pics of anything at all, and could even touch her hubby's hair! This was funny since she'd said there was a guy at the Atlanta Gift Show who told Bill, "I really like your hair!" Bill said that was kinda weird.



This is the only pic I got with Bill in it, and it's out of focus! Yikes!


Here's some goodies just waiting for me to play!

I'm working on completing the album today. Of course, I may not actually finish it today, but I'm working on it!

Tabbed Tall Mini

Okay, I love this album! It's still a work in progress, but I'm having a great time just putting in pictures and embellishments that make me happy. In fact, that's what I decided to make this whole album about. The title is "This Makes Me Happy." I chose a paper line that I simply adore, and is no longer available. I bought it at JoAnn's in Alpharetta, and it's made by Colorbok. It's called "Memory Boutique," and I don't think they made much of it. When I found that they were clearing out all they had left at stupidly low prices, I made a game of finding all the JoAnn's I could within a 45 minute driving range. I spent a lovely afternoon chasing down the sales. I was spending some time alone, and really had a blast doing it.





The next few pics are sideways. It seems that the problem stems from my camera. It formats the pictures in horizontal or vertical position based on internal programing. Then the pics are sent to my computer thusly. I turn them in my programs and files in my computer, but blogger does not take this into account. So there you have it.



The first open page of the album features my guy. The "house" you see here is our first Christmas ornament. I made a large shot of it, and cut the house out. Now that the ornament is over 20 years old, the fireplace is not always lit. I love that there are matching purple mugs and cute pillows on the hearth. It's so "US!"



Also, you see a pic of me on Charlie's lap huggin' on his head. We have such fun together. I love that we can recall the joys of early romance even in the midst of our middle years. Gotta keep that affection alive ON PURPOSE and not let life's challenges get in the way of what's REALLY important!




The next page features a journal block at the top that says, "My favorite fellow in my favorite setting." And the picture below shows him on a raised boardwalk on the east coast of Florida.


Then there's the sad sideways shot of the two pages together. :(


And I am so pleased with how the next page has turned out! I only have a sneak preview for you here. I used my cricut and layered papers with a black and white cutout of my two oldest girls all dressed up for a dinner out with friends. This definitely makes me happy!

Art Journal 4

So. No matter HOW I turn my photo, it seems to come up sideways. If anyone has a clue as to how I can make the picture turn the right way, I'd love to hear it. I'm not lovin' the Blogger way of photo uploading. I may find that wordpress is better, but for now, I continue to be frustrated with the photo side of this blog. And photos are such a big part of the whole point of having a fancyscrappin' blog!

Enough grumbling.

It's been a great crafty weekend, and I have more to share if I can get it to work right. First, I have posted the last project I did this weekend, which was this journal page. I made a comment to my Honey yesterday that my love language is "Quality Time," and he said it's just not that simple or clean cut for me. He added that I'm more complex of an individual, and little bits of ALL the love languages linger in my personality.

So I made this journal entry. I'd already painted the pages a few days ago, and I'd tried a "resist" technique by stamping and embossing the flourishes on the main page before painting it. It was a fun project.

I've been wanting to use my tools more, so I used a Sizzix Sizzlet set "Eternal Love" for the lettering. I looped the lowercase "l" over the "O" overhead. I'm really happy with how it came out.

Also, on the opposing page, I wrote in white ink, which I think stands out quite nicely on the dark background. Though I didn't take a pic of it, in the folder is a pull-out tag on which I printed all five of the Love Languages (Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, Physical Touch, and Words of Affirmation).

I totally love the concept of Love Languages. It makes it so much easier to act in ways that truly communicate love to the recipient.


And here's a sorry sideways pic of the whole double layout in the book.

Art Journal 3

Well, I finally got another page done. I really like it. I painted it with three colors, then added making memories stamps in an old favorite of mine: a Quickutz Label. I layered some flowers with mm snaps and paper circles I free-hand cut for centers. I really like the ribbon stems.

All in all, I'm happy with the outcome, and I enjoyed the process.

I'm gone from home and the fam. I had hoped to make some lovlies while away, but, alas, have had little to no creativity, and have instead spent the time on-line and reading books. It's still been so nice to have the peace and quiet all to myself. Selfish? Yeah, I know; but the end result is that I am a more rested wife and mommy, and eager to cook, clean, and care for my fam. It's just such a blessing to have the break.

I went to a Scrapbook Store I'd never visited before today. Of course, they are all dying out with this blasted economy, but this one is small, and is about to begin their 5th year. Nice, huh? Just real people like you and me, trying to make a living in a field they enjoy. Adapting to what customers want like kits all ready to put together. It was a nice place, and I bought one little book I'm about to cover. Should be fun! I'm trying to redeem the last few hours when I am alone and can set my own schedule. Granny and PaPa will bring the Littles back tomorrow, so I have the sheets in the washer, the towels are already washed and folded, and I'm going to have to put all my happy scrappy stuff away either tonight or tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I'll have another project well on the way before then though. = )

Art Journal 2

This was fun! I love how it all came together!

You'll have to click on it to see it closer and in detail.

Charlie surprised me with a Cricut Expression for Mother's Day (okay, "shocked me" would be a better description), and here I've used it for the bird, the bird in the cage. and the "TOTALLY" with brackets. Also the swirls on the left side of the page. I added details to the large bird on the left page, and I inked the word "TOTALLY" with Tsuneko's pigment ink "coffee bean." I pulled out an old happy font with my Sizzlets "Girls are Weird" for the "INTO" part of the page. I also added white ink with a gel pen to highlight that word.

I'm totally off the 12x12 groove. I've not done anything in 12x12 in months, and I so enjoy looking back through my albums, that I want to get back into this size. I'm going to challenge myself to do that next! Bye for now!

Art Journal

This is my first art journal page. I have recently been inspired by Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday's free videos. I also found a wonderful quickutz die set of birds at Hobby Lobby for a cheap price. The antique trunk you see here is a Sizzix Sizzlet die. The brackets are also a Sizzlet die. The letters are from Cosmo Cricket. I painted the background and the tree.

My "Art Journal" is actually a found book. I was driving home one day in the rain when I saw something in the road. I stopped to check it out, and found that it was a book! Obviously someone had the book on the top of the car or something when they picked up their child at the school near my house. There was no way to find the original owner, and the book was quite damaged, so I thought, "how can it be made worse, right?" This made me feel better about painting over the printed page, and I decided to use the entire book as an art journal.

This page is inspired by Melody Ross's blog post about flying again. Google it, and you'll find it, it's just amazing! I totally related to what she had to share there, and it's helped me during a current challenging time in my life. Seriously, you must read it.

So I am TOTALLY HAPPY with how these pages turned out. I meant to do only one page when I started, but ended up enjoying painting the tree so much that I spread it out to the opposite page which turned out quite well for the journal portion of the layout.

Nicey nice!

Paperclipping Entry!

Alright, so if you are familiar at all with my picture posting, you understand that my pics often get posted sideways. So frustrating. It's not sideways in my photo file! Hrumph!

None the less, here are my pics of the National Scrapbooking Day layouts! In truth, they are only a part of a paper bag album I'll be working on for awhile, but they still qualify as part of the Paperclipping challenge! Woo hoo!

Thanks to Noell and all the awesome sponsors of Paperclipping for the opportunity to participate!

Happy Scrapping everyone!

Paperclipping's National Scrapbook Day Event!

I have found myself to have some time to be creative, and I was getting ready to roll when I realized I might be able to participate in a fun challenge at the same time! Noell over at Paperclipping.com has issued some challenges, and these pictures represent my offering to join in on the second challenge she's posted so far. I am to choose a color scheme and embellishment that represents myself, so, here you have it!

I chose this lovely set of papers from K&Co., and I'm using flowers as my embellishment. I'm relating with the flowers currently since I feel my creativity is blooming in several areas of my life, scrapbooking being only one of them.

So without further ado, let me get at this project! Woo Hoo!

New Cricut Cartridge!

I still had money from my birthday- - -last year! Woo Hoo! I decided to get this amazing cartridge. I am so excited! I love all the shapes it will cut. I can't wait to play more with it. Since Emily will be turning 13 on Sunday (I know, I'm fainting too, HOW can she be that old?!), I first played with the cartridge to make these crowns for her birthday. So fun!

A Birthday Box

*NOTE*
Once again, my technical blogging woes haunt me. I selected these pictures to be shown in the "small" setting, and yet, they are still too big for the blog. In order to see them complete, you will have to click on each picture. How inconvenient is that?!

Anywhoo, back to the original post!

This was so fun to make. I recently won a random drawing on Ella's Blog. I have been following this amazing lady for just a little while, and she was a guest blogger there on Ella. I commented on her post hoping to win the scrappy goodies in the drawing, and much to my surprise, I won! She sent me a wonderful treasure trove of goodies including My Mind's Eye paper (double sided cardstock! A total fave of mine!), a cute bunny punch by Fiskars, and an alphabet stamp set by Fiskars as well. I got all excited to make something special with it, and I did it! I love what I made. I had such a good time doing it too. I was glad I had some black and white pics lying around waiting to be used since black and white look really good with the papers. Here goes!