Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Grandma's Love

This marks my 31st post this year (every day). I'm excited that it's turned into more of a routine and that I can share what I've been making.

I often look through magazines for inspiration when I'm scrapbooking. I will often find a layout where I like an element or two and that will give me a push to do my own. Sometimes, I create almost the same layout. I like to be creative, but sometimes I find it takes a few days of scrapbooking or stamping before I can just let go and create wildly. The past couple of weeks have been really stressful and so I've been copying layouts and ideas more.

This layout was one I saw in a magazine (and old Simple Scrapbooking magazine; man I miss that magazine). It was simple, but worked for the two 4x6 photos I had. I used a paper pack just so I could find a border that coordinated with the paper. The colours are way out of my comfort zone, but I'm happy with how it turned out. You have to have some brightness to a little girl's album, right??

Monday, January 30, 2012

Fun with Candi & Edgeabilities

I went to the scrapbook store the other day and was looking for cool and different embellishments. I bought a bunch of cardstock, but that was it. Nothing caught my eye which was disappointing. I spent yesterday unpacking a couple orders and fell in love with the packages of Candi, so I invited my friend, Jackie (check out her blog) over to play. And it all came together. It was fun to bounce ideas off someone and in the end I made 6 cards. I have three cards ready for my Quick & Easy cards class on Thursday and I have a technique for February and March. I'm so excited.

Anyway, I made a card using the new Spellbinders Edgeabilities (I used the scallop one) and it was fun. Then I needed a little embellishment and the Candi ended up being perfect. Watch over the next little bit and you will see these little embellishment dots popping up everywhere.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Candi & A Sale

I haven't been into stamping and scrapbooking as much lately. I'm doing it and enjoying it, but I don't seem to get really excited about new product which has been disappointing.

Well, that changed back today. I finally got to opening one of my orders and it was chalked full of Candi!! These little paper embellishments are like "legless brads" as I've seen them called on different sites. They are so gorgeous. It's tough to tell what something is going to look like when I'm looking at pictures on the Internet, but these are stunning. They are metallic and really so pretty. I can't wait to sit down later and play with them. I have my Quick Cards class this Thursday and I know we'll be using them!! I brought in a ton of different colours and so there will be lots to choose from. Check them out!

The new Spellbinders Edgeabilities are in stock too. I have a few extras that haven't been spoken for, so let me know if you are interested. I'm going to play with them later too!!

To make room for the new and exciting stuff, I'm holding a sale to get rid of some of the old stock. I'll be doing different posts as I figure out what I'm selling off, but I'm going to start with Tim Holtz and Sizzix 2 pack embossing folders. Each 2 pack is going to be $7 (almost half price).

I have the following sets in stock (I'm going to do up a pretty sheet and email it to my list, so if you are interested, let me know and I'll send it to you if you aren't on my list already).

Burlap & Swirls
Collage & Notebook
Dot Matrix & Gridlock
Checkerboard & Cracked
Bingo & Patchwork
Argyle and Lines & Circles

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Dinner's on Me

As with all kids, Nathalie made one heck of a mess when she ate. I had fun doing this layout and it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted (although I can't remember now how I wanted it). I think that's a good lesson that even if it's not exactly how we had in our mind, then that's OK. We seldom remember what that image was, but rather, we cherish the memory that we did record.



The red and orange combination was really hard for me since I do mostly monochromatic. I'm trying to get outside my box, but it's really tough!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Pumpkin Festival

Well, I'm feeling better, but there is a ton of other stuff going on, so yet another quick post. But I'm kind of on a roll and want to keep it up.

Sometimes I do layouts and cards that I love and I tend to post those right away. Sometimes I do ones that I hate and I don't even scan those. And sometimes I do ones that I like and that are OK. Those get scanned and put in my folder and then I try to avoid putting them up. Well, because I haven't stamped or scrapbooked in over a week, we're getting down to those. They're OK, but I don't love them and so I've avoided sharing. But at this point, it's that or nothing, so I'm letting go of my Type A tendencies and sharing anyway.

Every year, we've taken the kids to the Pumpkin Festival at Prairie Gardens up by Bon Accord and Gibbons and the kids always have so much fun. Here's a layout I did of our trip a couple of years ago.


Thursday, January 26, 2012

Distress Markers

I suck at colouring. I really do. I don't know anything about shading or how to make things look good, but every so often I think I might want to learn.

I've managed to avoid the Copic Craze. Everytime I think about it, I think, why? I can't colour anyway.

So imagine my surprise when I heard that Ranger is releasing Distress Markers and I thought, hmm, that would be cool; I think I want them.

I'm not sure what I would do with them, but I know that Tim Holtz makes awesome stuff and always has lots of instructions, tutorials and projects showing you how to use them. And since I LOVE my Distress Inks, I'm thinking I might just need these!!


They will apparently come open stock and in a set. I don't have a price yet, but when I do, I'll take pre-orders.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Stained Reindeer

Yup. Still sick. And totally exhausted. But yet, still motivated to blog every day (although I'm running out of stuff to blog which isn't going to help me any).

So, another Stained Distress Card.


I love those trees (Tim Holtz: Reindeer Flight). I use them all the time. The Reindeer is from his Season's Silhouettes set which I am liking more each time I use it.

Sorry the posts have all been so short and choppy. I promise once I clear my head, I'll put more effort into them. But right now, it's short and choppy or nothing and so I'm going with the former.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Princess Eyes

Nathalie has huge eyes. And a smaller head and body, so they look even larger. I was texting with a friend a couple of weeks ago and she asked me how I ever said no to those "Disney Princess Eyes." I thought that was such a great way of describing them, so when I went to do the layout about her gorgeous eyes, I figured that was a great title.


The photo is an 8x8" photo which was fun. Sometimes, I like the different sized photos to change things up a bit. The rest is just paper. I cut out a flower and stamped some white flourishes on it to match the patterned paper and then added a bunch of jewels. It was a pretty quick layout, but I love how it turned out.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Stained Distress

I am still sick, so another quick post. Here is a card I did using the Distress Stains. I've done this technique with Distress Inks, but you get a more intense look with the stains. Ink a couple blots on a non stick craft sheet and mist with water. Then drag your cardstock through the wet mess and you get a cool background.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Dirt

I'm still sick (I did go to the doctor today and apparently I have Strep which really sucks). So, just a quick post to share a layout I did the other day.


Saturday, January 21, 2012

My Dad

I'm sick. It's been two days and I'm getting a little bitter and twisted about it. So, my post today will be short and sweet. Just a quick layout I did with a photo of Nathalie and Glenn. Overall, I liked how it turned out. So simple. The letters are done with Grungeboard that I coloured navy to match. It's been a few years since Grungeboard came out, but I still really like it!


Friday, January 20, 2012

Maiden Mackenzie

It was my niece's 6th birthday on Monday and my sister is having a Maidens & Knights party tomorrow. So, today I headed to her place to make the cake. She wanted to do castle cake. Ironically, it was the same cake we made about 6 years ago when we first started this crazy cake decorating thing and thankfully we've come a long way from 6 years ago!!

We've given up on icing because no matter what we do, we can never get it to look nice and we discovered fondant which seems to be so much easier.

Here is our cake from 6 years ago (we were so proud of it then; but now I'm somewhat embarrassed)
Today's cake went pretty fast. I remember doing that other cake and it took us all day. Seriously all day. Of course, we had little babies back then too. Today I think we did it in 3 hours which is pretty good for us. So, here is today's cake.

Then she had the bright idea to make a dragon cake. Her MIL had given her instructions and they didn't look too tough and we did have cake leftover. In the end, I think it turned out pretty cute.


Of course, now I'm exhausted and need to rest up for the 16 kids who are going to be playing Knights & Maidens tomorrow.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Our Family

I have been busy and haven't had as much time for scrapbooking, but I started to get back into the groove the other night. I started a layout, but was struggling a bit, so I just left it. I normally can't leave anything half way through. I'm way too Type A, but for some reason, I seem to be able to do it when I'm scrapbooking. You would think the logical thing to do would be to sit down, start a layout, work until it's done and then clean up. Instead, I'll work on a layout and then walk away part way through (especially if I'm struggling). Then I'll pick it up the next day and often times finish it and start a new one. I know I don't have time to finish the new one, but I start it and walk away when it's partly done. By doing this, I find I'm motivated to get in my craft room the next day because I've already started.

Anyway, I was working and finishing a layout last night and I started a family one and it just came together which always feels great. I added a couple pieces of patterned paper and then just kind of liked the simplicity. I was going to walk away at that point, but I started looking through my rub ons and found a perfect title and then a couple of stickers from the paper pack I was working with and all of a sudden it was done and I really liked it.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Organizing your Photos

I've talked to people who want to scrapbook, or who have started and feel completely overwhelmed every time they go to create because they're surrounded by pictures and don't know which ones to scrapbook, so I thought I'd share my system since I think it works well (for me anyway).

For each album (or series of albums), I have a photo box.

Right now, I have 5 series of albums:

Kayla
Eric
Nathalie
Family
Portraits

Since the portraits are generally 8x10, I don't actually have a box for them, I just scrapbook them as I replace them in the frames. But the other four have boxes.

The first three are pretty obvious. I have several albums for Kayla & Eric already and when I finish Nathalie's first year, I'll probably have two. I have layouts done for the family album, but I keep jumping around, so as soon as I finish Nathalie's first year, I'm going to work on finishing 2008 for my family album. In the family album, I do things like when we go camping or on a vacation, Easter, Christmas etc. I got tired of doing Christmas layouts for Kayla and for Eric and having to repeat a lot of it, so I decided family type events go into a separate album. Then I have one last album for all the portraits I've gotten done of the kids and of us. Any professional photo gets scrapbooked and put in that album (after I've changed the photo anyway). I started this because in theory if I stayed caught up in the kids albums, then I'd have to leave a space for their school photo or for their Christmas ones and that got too complicated. And then, what would I do with the picture of the kids together, so a separate album it is.

So, my photo process:

I get all my photos back and then I get organized. I have a pencil, elastics, pad of sticky notes and a bunch of bigger envelopes (I use extras from Hallmark that someone brought to a club meeting ages ago).

You can see that I hadn't ordered photos for awhile (I figured I was already behind, so why order more). Anyway, I write sorting groups on the sticky notes. The groups that I did this time were:

Kayla (to go in Kayla's album)
Eric (to go in Eric's album)
Nathalie (to go in Nathalie's album)
Family (to go in the Family album)
Then I also write the names of people I want to give photos to: my sister, cousin, mother, mother in law etc.

Then I place these stickies on the table and get ready to start sorting photos into groups.


And I start sorting the photos placing them into the large group categories.

For each group of photos that I'm giving away, I put that pile in an envelope (I often use the photo envelopes I get from Costco) and write the recipient's name on it and put them aside. This gets rid of a ton of the photos and leaves me generally with 4 main piles (Kayla, Eric, Nathalie & Family).

I take one pile at a time and divide it into layouts that I want to do with the photos. It's easiest to that now before I want to scrapbook. Then I put each pile into an envelope and label it. I'm fairly specific in my labeling system (but you just have to find what works for you). I like to scrapbook chronologically (since I'm so Type A and all that), so I scrapbook from birthday to birthday. In the top right of each envelope is a letter to represent the album (K for Kayla etc) and then the layout theme/idea. So, Kayla's birthday might be K - 8th birthday. Then at the bottom, I write the scrapbook year so I can group those together. Her 8th birthday would be in the 7-8 year (meaning from her 7th birthday to her 8th birthday; the year starts immediately after their previous birthday). For the family album, the year goes on the bottom. I also take this time to make any notes about the layout that I want to remember (ie: there is an 8x10 to go with this or a theme or possible title or the date).


Then I group all the layouts from one year and put an elastic around them and put them in the photo box.

When I go to scrapbook, I try to do a year for one kid at a time and then I'll move on to the next year or another kid or the family album (I have been mixing it up a bit lately so that I can scrapbook specific layouts for my paper pack club or my blog, but for the most part that's the way I do it). I will pull the whole year which is held together by an elastic and just start working through them as I feel motivated. Any photos that don't make it onto a layout, but that I still like go into an extra envelope and when I'm done scrapbooking their birthday, then I make a few collage pages with those extra photos.


I have found that if I can spend an hour or two organizing the photos when I get them, then I can scrapbook so much faster. If I had to look through all those photos I had in the first photo, then I think I'd never get anything done.

Wow. This is a super long post, but one I hope you find helpful!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Lumiere Crystal Again

I really like this technique. Back in the day, I used to do a technique with Future Floor Finish (remember that anyone??). It turned out so cool, but it took forever to do. Well, this is a twist on it and is so quick and easy.

Take some Lumiere Paint and put it on your craft sheet. Then spritz it with a bit of water to thin it out. Then paint it on a piece of acetate. Crumple up some tissue paper and press it onto the painted surface. If there are dry spots, just spritz them with water. Put aside to dry and then trim the edges when it's dry.

You get a really pretty metallic look and the best part is that you can use regular adhesive and it doesn't show through!

Here is a card I made using this technique for my Technique Club samples.

Monday, January 16, 2012

I love my Resists

Those who know me know that I have my go to techniques and some of my favorites are resists. I don't know why I like them so much, but for some reason, I just gravitate to them. This card is a simple resist with Versamark and then Distress Inks on glossy cardstock. I love the different layers it creates.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

I'm feeling Motivated

I was at my Pretty Mean Stampers Christmas Social on Friday night which was so fun. It was really relaxed and we had a great meal and did our gift exchange. Last year, we switched to a gift card exchange. We fill in a form about our interests and favorite places and we get a gift card to one of those. The trick is that you are supposed to wrap up your gift card so that it represents the card.

I bought a Homesense gift card for my person and I found a little notebook that said, "I want it all and I want it in chocolate." I put the gift card in the little book and then stood it up in a little dish and wrapped it in clear cellophane. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I received a Banana Republic gift card (which I am so excited about) and she made it into an awesome little book. Someone made a paper version of a Starbucks card and when you pulled the top out, there was a gift card. Such original ideas and I loved them. I left that night, so inspired. I really want to craft (but I'm behind in paperwork and I NEED to get caught up first).

So, here's hoping I can focus today and get it done so I can scrapbook tomorrow!! I really want to get stuff done and I'm motivated.

In the meantime, here is a quick card I did for my technique club before Christmas. It's a technique called Stained Distress. I've done this technique with my Distress Ink pads before, but this gives you a way more intense colour. Put some Distress Stain on your craft sheet. You want two or maybe three colours. Spritz with some water and then place a piece of white matte cardstock in the puddle. Pull and smear it and when you lift it up, you'll have a very cool background.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Love You

I'm still finishing off the odd layouts for Nathalie's first year. I am generally the ones taking photos and so often I'm not in them. That always suited me just fine until someone said something about my kids wanting to see pictures of me when they get older. I thought about that and I had to agree. So, I've been making more of an effort to be in photos and then to actually include those photos in their books.

I did this quick layout of a few photos of the two of us.


I like the simplicity with just the small splash of colour. The heart is done with Black Magic Core'dinations paper. I cut out the heart with my Cricut and then embossed with my Seeing Dots folder and sanded it so a little pink paper would show through. I love black on a layout and I really like how the pink tied it in a bit too.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Siblings

I was on a roll scrapbooking last week (which has since come to a grinding halt, but hopefully next week I can get back to it. I am down to the last few layouts of Nathalie's first year, and I'm so close I can taste it. OK, not really, but I'm really excited that I'm only a few layouts away. I did a page with two pictures of the three kids. I cut a couple papers and really struggled with what I was going to do with the paper and the pictures. I ended up moving the pictures up quite a bit on the page and liked it so much more, so yeah. It's very simple, but I still like it.


I thought it probably needs a title, but I wasn't feeling very creative and so I figured it was pretty obvious. I used my Kioshi paper pack from Basic Grey; this was the first pack I ever bought and I'm still using it years later. These things last forever. It had a great journaling box sticker too, so that part was really easy.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Distressed Flickers

I'm late with my Technique Club this month, but I had an idea in my head and I just ran with it. Here is a sneak peak of one of the samples. More about the technique later.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

More Distressed Felt

Again, it's 11:00 at night and I'm finally sitting down to blog, so suffice it to say this is going to be short and to the point.

I just want to show another Distressed Felt card. This time, I did the technique on glossy cardstock and then ran it through an embossing folder and sanded some of the colour off the raised areas. I love how it turned out.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Distress Felt

Awhile ago, I did Distressed Felt as my monthly technique.

You use Cut & Dry Felt (not Foam) and create your own custom ink pad using Distress Inks. Just put some ink in a line along a small section of the felt and repeat with 2-3 coordinating colours. It's quite fascinating because the ink will spread, but it won't cross over into the next section (I learned a variation of this technique from Tim Holtz' first set of the 12 Tags of Christmas). In the end, you end up with a custom variegated ink pad. It's awesome!! I then spritzed mine with a little bit of water and used it to swipe directly across my paper to create a cool background. I have a bunch of them and I just store them in a ziplock bag.

Anyway, here is one of the cards I made using this technique.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Simple

I like simple cards. I really do. I admire complicated ones, but I can't seem to do them. I lack the patience I think. And time. And the odd time I have managed to persevere and forge through, I didn't want to give it away. And I can only save so many cards. Besides, in a year or two, I'll hate it and want to throw it out, so really, I want to give away my cards and not hoard them since eventually, I'm likely to stop liking it.

At any rate, work is crazy busy and so I'll stop with the extraneous babbling and just post a picture of a simple card.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Baby, it's Cold Outside

The last of my paper pack layouts was a double layout. Very simple and plain, but I still really like how it turned out.

I'm still sick, so I'm just going to leave it at that.



Saturday, January 7, 2012

Sledding

I was so excited when I ripped open this month's paper pack. It is Winterland by Fancy Pants and it had some gorgeous and very cute paper in it. Not cutsie cute which I am so not into, but just cute.

I was talking to some friends once about the difference between cutsie cute and cute and the best difference I could come up with is that I don't like cutsie cute but I like cute. I know, that's really helpful, but it is what it is.

I ordered brads to go along with the kit and after doing three pages, I realized that I hadn't actually used the brads, so I pushed on and worked at a way to incorporate them. And then it just came together.

The bottom two strips of paper are part of one page in the kit which has a variety of border type strips on it. The curved one is actually curved and I just arranged the pictures so they would go underneath the curve and follow the line. It made me feel like we were sliding down a hill.

The mittens at the top are part of the paper and I just punched holes for the brads and then sewed with embroidery floss over the lines of strings. In the end, I actually really liked how it turned out.

Friday, January 6, 2012

So Sweet

I had my quick cards class yesterday and it's always my goal to have my paper pack club ready to go at the same time since two of the ladies who come to class also do the paper pack club.

Unfortunately, I'm sick today and I really just wanted to stay in bed all day. With three kids, however, it didn't happen. I did still want to blog though, since I'm trying to make it a habit, so this is going to be a very brief post.


Except for the picture of the layout, this is pretty much it!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Tuxedo is the New Black

I'm always on a quest for the best black ink. I have a ton of variety: Staz On, Ancient Page, Versafine, Document, Memories ...

I think I like them, but really I don't. I'm fickle or picky I guess. I like my black to be, well, black. Really, really black. Not like it has already faded just after I stamped it black.

I don't really like Staz On. And it has a funny smell which I can't decide whether I love or I hate. I didn't really like Memories either, although I have no concrete reason why.

Currently, my go to black ink is Versafine Onyx Black. It is the blackest ink I've found. But you have to heat set it which is a pain. And I find it doesn't work really great on vellum and really slick surfaces since it is so wet. For that I've been using Ancient Page: Coal Black which has been pretty good and mostly lived up to my very high expectations. Which is why I was really disappointed to find out that I can't get reinkers for it anymore. Why not, I have no idea? Has Clearsnap discontinued it? Must be since my distributor carries the whole Clearsnap line, so I can't see them saying that they aren't going to stock their most popular reinker. Regardless of the reason, I was very sad.

So the search was on to replace my well-used Coal Black inkpad.

I have had a few customers order the Memento: Tuxedo Black ink pads and I thought I'd give it a try.

I love it. It's so black and it dries right away. Even on glossy cardstock. I've decided it is my new Go To Black!

Here is a card I made for my class today. Everything is stamped in the Tuxedo Black ink and it worked so well. I love it.


Of course, in the scan, it doesn't show up as dark, but you'll just have to take my word for it that it is the blackest black!

Update: I asked my distributor about the Ancient Page ink and they said that they have stopped carrying it due to slow sales. So, while not actually discontinued, if I can't get a reinker, then it might as well be discontinued to me. I'm really glad that I found another nice black.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Peace Pears

They say it takes 21 days to establish a new habit and I'm trying to make blogging a habit. So, this is day 4, right?? I'm hoping I make it to 21.

Truthfully, I think it's less of a habit thing and more of a I ran out of time thing. Or I don't have anything to show thing. But I'm working on both of those too, so hopefully I can do well this year.

This is a card I did for my December "Quick Cards" class. I really like this pear and haven't used it in awhile, so it was fun, along with an old technique: kissing. I stamped the Pear with Distress Ink and then stamped another stamp on the Pear so I got the texture. Very quick and easy.


The Pear is from "A Stamp in the Hand" and the script is "Hero Arts." I love that script stamp and use it a lot; I really think everyone needs a background script stamp.

I hold my Quick Cards class the first Thursday afternoon of each month. People are welcome to sign up for one or as an ongoing commitment. Let me know if you are interested!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Sisters

I did a second layout for my December paper pack club using the same Basic Grey "Picadilly" paper.

It was a rather quick layout, but I like how it came together. I really like that it could easily be used for other layouts with different paper and have a totally different look.



Monday, January 2, 2012

Friends

I have a good friend who moved away a year ago to Madagascar. She was back home visiting in August and September and after our stamp club, some of us went out for Bubble Tea. Being with friends and laughing made me smile, but also made me miss her too. She sent me a picture with all of us and normally, I would have smiled at it and then put it in a folder, but I decided to have it printed and scrapbook it instead.

When I got my paper for the December Paper Pack Club, I knew right away that I wanted to do a layout with this photo. There were a bunch of flower stickers and I thought it would be perfect.

This layout was one of two that I did as examples (with instructions) for the Paper Pack Club. If you are interested in joining, let me know!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year

I have not been very good at blogging recently. I've had so much on the go getting ready for Christmas and working, that something had to give, and unfortunately, it always seems to be the fun stuff. Christmas is done, however and it's a New Year and I've decided to dedicate myself more to my stamping and scrapbooking.

I've been working at doing more stamping and scrapbooking and to building my business a bit which is good. I'm excited by it and I'm going to try really hard to not let stamping always fall by the wayside.

I spent some time the past few days reorganizing and cleaning and it has made me so happy. I am such a Type A person and I really like things put away and neat. I think that's part of the reason that I get into cycles of not stamping; I've left my craft room in a mess and it seems overwhelming to clean and organize it. I redid my office desk and emptied every drawer and bought organizers and I love it. I feel so much more at peace and I feel like I want to sit here and work. So, I'm going to try to apply the same logic for my craft room. I want it to invite me in to create.

So, Happy New Year. Here is a card I did while ago for my Technique Club. It's the Pearl Resist Technique.