Monthly Archives: October 2013

LOAD-ivated!

LOAD-ivated!

Chugging along with the first full week of LOAD. I love dedicating myself to creating every day, regardless of how busy the day is, or how much energy I have. This past week has been one of those weeks that started out busy and just got more hectic as the week went on. But there’s always time to squeeze in a  little creative play.

This first page started with 1920s design, which led me to fiesta ware, which led me to concentric circles, which led me here:

Fashion Queen

Since my niece is into fluffy, fuzzy and soft, the various ribbons seemed like the perfect addition to the page.

The next prompt was all about the lean years in the 1930s, which made me think of my father who was born during the 30s, and then to my grandfather, who I never met because he died when my father was 16. The amount of info I have about him is very lean, so that led to this page:

Mysterious chap

Love that I used the tear strip (including the name of the line!) on the page!

Another day, another prompt, this one about innovation. (Zippers people! Only since the 1930s. Can you imagine?)

The idea of innovation led me to how cities are finding ways to add beauty and interest and history to their streets, and the huge silly and fun clogs my local city recently commissioned.

You know you're in Albany when

The design is really simple on this, so the clogs take center stage.

Mend, Stitch and Patch was the next prompt. That was an easy story to come up with, since last fall we were inundated with repair projects.

when it rains it pours

The journaling is on the  tag in the bag. The clouds are rub-ons, and the raindrops are stickles.

I went off prompt the next day, because, while looking for photos, this one jumped out at me.  This is how messy my craft room is on a regular basis. Thought you might like to see it in use. 😉

working

The color schemes of the 1940s was the following day’s prompt. The teal and pink on the list just screamed my niece’s name, and I had the circles left over from making the fiesta ware inspired page, so created this:

daddy's little angel

You don’t need to journal a lot on every page, and in this case, the title is the journaling.

I read the last day of the week’s prompt super early in the day, and then went down a rabbit hole trying to find a favorite song of my father’s. When I discovered that it was actually from the 60s, I had to stop and go spend hours doing other errands, and by the time I was able to sit down to scrap I couldn’t remember what the prompt was, and I was so tired, I just scrapped the first story that appealed to me.

using an overlay

Once again I made use of the name strip to add some coordinating pattern. The acetate chevron is supposed to mimic the up and down of falling while learning, as well as the energy and motion of skating. Think it worked?

This week was super busy, filled with an overnight trip to Boston, a birthday party, birthday shopping for two of the most important people in my life (including finding 70 things to wrap for my mother’s 70th birthday!), yard work, hospital visit for tests, and a very painful dentist’s visit, proving it is possible to scrapbook, if it’s something you want to do.

Go make something. You won’t regret taking the time to feel and be creative.

 

Try It, You’ll Like It!

Try It, You’ll Like It!

One of the most fun events on the whole internet is happening this Friday and Saturday. Hyperbole? Probably. Unless you’re a scrapbooker.

What is it?

True Scrap 5. Haven’t heard of it? Where have you been hiding? All my scrappy internet friends love this event.

True Scrap is a live, web based scrapbooking event. Each day, you log into a single webspace where multiple classes are presented. There’s a live chat feed, where you can interact with fellow attendees, as well as the instructors for each class.  There’s also a question and answer session after each class where you can go into further detail about the class topic with the instructor.

It’s hosted by Lain Ehmann, one of my favorite scrapbookers out there, and she’s brought together 15 (yes 15!) instructors to bring you the latest ideas and techniques in the industry.

TrueScrap5

These are fun and fabulous events, with tons of ideas and inspiration. I’ll be using ideas from some previous classes when putting together the daily cards for November. (Must come up with a catchy name for that. Any suggestions?)

There are classes on mixed media and distressing techniques and spray ink. There’s design and embellishments and stamping. That’s just some of the classes from ONE event! These events are so FULL of inspiration, and camaraderie that springs up between the attendees in the classroom! So much fun and silliness as the conversation winds from class topic to superheroes to nail polish, and back again.

If you’re not sure, try one of the classes from previous True Scrap events that are available for sale at individual rates. They are inexpensive, and worth every penny. If you have questions about any particular class, let me know. I’ve attended ALL the True Scrap events, and they’ve been well worth the time and money.

These were my favorites from each event:

Nic Howard: True Scrap (1)

Jennifer McGuire: True Scrap 2

Shimelle Laine: True Scrap 3

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer: True Scrap 4

Bev Grey: True Stamp

If you’re still unsure about joining True Scrap 5, Lain Ehmann is presenting a Spreecast this evening, where she’ll answer questions about True Scrap, and talk about her impressions on the state of scrapbooking, based on what she’s seen while prepping for Friday and Saturday’s event.

You can check out the Spreecast broadcast tonight: Is Scrapbooking Dead? 

Don’t miss True Scrap 5 this week. It’s going to be FUN!

ts5adattendee

 

A Month of Cards!

A Month of Cards!

Today is National Cardmaking Day, in case you didn’t know.

It’s a totally made up holiday (created by Paper Crafts magazine if I remember correctly) but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate it!

The original plan was to host a card making party today, and make cards to donate to Operation Write Home. However, with a whole bunch of family obligations this week, I wasn’t able to do that. (If you’re local, I’m looking at weekends in November, if you would like to join me!)

Speaking of November…

Instead of spending all day today making cards, for the month of November we will be making cards EVERY DAY. If you have techniques you want demonstrated, or design questions you want answered, make sure to add a request in the comments below.

I am so excited to be doing this with you. So excited that I want to mail you the results! I’ll be sending an email out to my subscribers on November first, letting them opt into a snail mail list, so I can send each of them one of the cards I make. If you want to get something pretty in your mailbox, make sure you sign up for my list before the first of November!

You can sign up here, or use the sign up form on the top right of the page.

I can’t wait to start making cards with you! This is going to be fun!

Some card ideas to inspire you!

Some card ideas to inspire you!

LOAD in Action

LOAD in Action

The ScrapHappy Layout a Day Challenge is under way, and lots of gorgeous pages are being produced by the lovely members of ScrapHappy.

Want to see how the prompts get turned into pages?

Day one’s prompt was to create a page in memory of one of the ScrapHappy members who passed away this past summer. She was a cheery and supportive person, who contributed a LOT to the group, and she will be greatly missed. She always used a lot of butterflies and flowers and gorgeous textiles common to places she lived on the pages she created.

Thinking of her reminded me of one of the most creative people I know, my mother, and so a page was born.

Creativity can be taught!

This started with a Heidi Swapp color magic resist card stock, and a Dylusion spray mist in purple, and a bit of gold Color Magic mist as well. Then I added in some paper scraps, and leaves made from toilet paper tubes, and a tiny bit of inking. The heart was too dark as it was, so that got brightened up with a paint dauber from Ranger Inc. A little bit of journaling, and the page was done!

Day two’s prompt was all about the Arts and Crafts movement in the first part of the 20th century. As soon as I read that, I knew I needed to do a page about our former house. There were so many things to love about that house.

arts and crafts prompt

More scraps and kit leftovers got used on this page. I love using up stash!

Today’s prompt was inspired by the bob, the hairstyle that first became popular during the 1920’s. For me, the bob was revolutionary. Before I got a bob in college, I had gone through so many attempts to have decent hair. Perms. Feathering. Pin curls. Really short, boyish cuts. The boy cuts were okay, but the other hairstyles? Disastrous. And then I found a great hairstylist and let her play. That bob was the best haircut of my life. Seriously. So now, if I want a decent haircut, I try to have someone replicate it. It’s never as good as that first cut, but it’s still better than looking like a poodle.

the bob saved my hair

For this page I decided to start using the kit I put together. I want to use that up this month, so you’ll be seeing a lot of it. I’ll share some sketches and project ideas about the kit with you as the month progresses. After all, what good is creating a kit from your stash if you don’t actually use it?

Are getting crafty this month? What are you creating?

 

Alpha Sticker Sheet Vanquished!

Alpha Sticker Sheet Vanquished!

Way back in July, I challenged myself, and you, to use up an entire sheet of letter stickers. Last week, I finished up the sheet! Look at all that empty goodness:

empty sheet letter stickers

There’s just a half an 8 left over. (I turned it into an E.) I’m tempted to trim it into a mustache shape and use it on a card, but I think the mustache trend may have gone far enough.

So that’s it. An entire sheet used. At one point I realized I had an extra letter. Somehow, while doing the alpha letter scrabble, I managed to miss a G. So at the end I had a G, two F’s, and some extra punctuation. My friend GeeZee came to the rescue, and suggested modifying the F’s into E’s. That worked!

Want to see the last few pages?

Using up the pesky last few letters

Those pieced E’s came out pretty well, don’t you think?

a very big year

In looking for some month stickers or rub-ons, I came across an old kit with a few pieces of paper left over that worked wonderfully with the alphabet pattern.

making a promise

And finally, my favorite. This used up most of the scraps from the paper pile originally put together to use with the stickers, as well as an old border punch and journaling card, and an even older laser cut from an old set of cards rescued from my grandmother’s house when we cleaned it out to sell it.

That was fun! It was great getting that old sheet of letter stickers out of my stash, and challenging myself to come up with pages to suit the titles we brainstormed.

Have you ever done anything like this? What do you do with your unfinished alpha sticker sets?

Do share, I’d love to see!