An Inside Scoop

After all the buzz about The Craft Spot, I thought you might like to see what we're talking about! Here are some pics taken right before our open house.



Our logo, designed by Michelle James. This is on the pillar just outside The Craft Spot so you can see it from the rest of the store!




This is taken from the very back of The Craft Spot so you can see all of our tables set up, just waiting for people to come work at them.






I'm standing in front of the curtains from the previous picture, taking a picture of one side of the space, and a teensy bit at the back.






One of the work stations. Look at my super-cute chair I refinished! Kathy Jackson did the upholstering, I did the sanding and painting. They're so shabby-chic!






A display of products offered at another local store, Hughes Pharmacy. We are trying to get the word out so we can support local stores.

If you are local, or nearby, stop in to see it. We would love to keep the memberships coming!

The Craft Spot

Anticipation is part of the experience, and I've been anticipating the opening of The Craft Spot for about 6 months! Woot!

Michelle James, Kathy Jackson, and I have created this monster. Together we have been plotting, planning, and preparing for this membership based crafting club, located inside Kathy's existing clothing store, K. Jackson & Co. Here are the details:

*Membership is for any crafter, age 18 and older. We welcome quilters, model makers, cardmakers, knitters, scrapbookers and more.
*Cost is $10/month with a 3 month minimum commitment.
*Members receive access to the crafting space during K. Jackson & Co.'s normal store hours, as well as one late night per month. (That's all 7 days a week!)
*A limited amount of storage space is available for members to leave their supplies, so no need to transport everything each time you go.
*Classes will be offered for an additional fee, and non-members are invited to take classes as well!
*A limited amount of papercrafting supplies will be for sale at The Craft Spot.

Tonight, Wednesday January 26th at 6:30 pm, we are hosting an open house to give you all the details, answer questions, and get you registered! I hope to see many of you there.

I'm SO EXCITED!! :D

Lining An Envelope

Have you ever lined an envelope? It is really, really easy to do, and it adds such a pop of style to your handmade cards.

To line an envelope, pick a piece of patterned paper or cardstock that will coordinate with your card. Measure the outside of the envelope, both width and height, measuring up to the adhesive strip. Cut your cardstock somewhere between 1/16th and 1/8th of an inch less than both of those measurements.


For example, my A2 envelope was 5 3/4 x 6 1/8, so I cut the cardstock to 5 11/16 x 6 inches. Slide the paper or cardstock into the envelope, keeping the printed side showing. From here, you can either turn the envelope over, trim the excess off the cardstock along the angle of the envelope, or you can trace the angle, remove the cardstock, cut it, and slide it back in.

Fold the paper or cardstock at the top of the envelope and crease. Add adhesive to the sides and top of the paper, and stick it to the envelope.



The results are fantastic! Look how cute!


This pink card and envelope were probably based on something I saw a while ago, but just don't remember. (I want to give props where deserved...) Anyway, the color scheme is certainly my style, isn't it?



This card I know where I scraplifted it from: Technique Tuesday's idea book. They did theirs with different colors and the flowers were stamped images, but the concept and layout are the same. I'll save this card for someone who really, really deserves a big thanks! :)

What other cute ideas have you always wondered how to do?

New Releases!

OK, I've been slacking...you all need to get on my case if I don't keep up on posts!

Anyway...

Happy to share with you new releases from Scribble Scrabble. Scribble Scrabble is a paper company with a very boutique-y style. Their two newest paper lines are Naomi's Collection and Jubilee. I couldn't figure out how to copy and paste the pics from their website, so I'm just giving you the link to click:

http://www.scribblescrabble.net/sneakpeek.html

Let me know what you think!

Organize and label. And label, and label and label!

I'm obsessed with labeling. My label maker is probably the most used tool in my scraproom, and it has even ventured out to other parts of the house which absolutely drives my husband nuts! I just love how easy it is to label a container so every time I need something, I mostly know where to look.

The organization of scrap supplies is NOT one size fits all. You have to find what works for you, usually through trial and quite a bit of error, then make a plan and stick to it. Make sure it's something you can keep up on and follow its logic.

As for me, I organized all my patterned paper by manufacturer:






and my cardstock by color: (using ROY G. BIV) If you're unfamiliar with Roy, you obviously didn't have Mrs. Leonard for elementary art. :)
R- red
O- orange
Y- yellow

G- green

B- blue
I- indigo
V- violet

After V, I go to pink, tans, browns, blacks, and whites.




I have ribbon sorted by colors as well:



then a separate tub for flowers:





one for blingy thingies, rubons, letter and number stickers, and finally, one labeled "random embellishments" for things I just didn't know what to do with! (This one is currently overflowing, so it's time to shift a few things around...)



How do you organize your space? Do you use a label maker? What's your key to sorting and keeping things in their place?

A technique using Technique Tuesday!

There comes a time in every scrapbooker's life where she realizes...she actually doesn't have it all. You know, you're looking for that perfect embellishment, the final doo-dad, the background paper to beat all background papers...and it's simply not there. We might spend a moment cursing our stash, or perhaps the manufacturers for not making something so "obviously" needed, but our time would probably be better spent making what we need! After all, we're crafty, right? Craft it then! For today's project, I did just that. I stamped my own patterned paper. First, a look at the completed layout:

This was a page I did showing two of the cutest people I know (tee-hee!) all dressed up for their friends' son's wedding. I had the perfect shade of turquoise blue cardstock, (Bazzill's Yosemite for those of you wondering...) but all my patterned papers were too busy, too yellowy, too colorful, or just plain wrong! I decided to take out my all-time favorite Technique Tuesday stamp set, Fanfare, and stamp my own patterned paper!

I had four strips, (approx 2x8) that I wanted to make up the background. I used Quick Quotes' Blue Hawaiian ink, which also matched perfectly, and stamped each strip using a different fanfare swirl.

When they were all laid out side by side, they looked fluid, as though they were meant to go together! I thought it was a great way to add a little pattern and a touch of color.

The extra-nice thing about Technique Tuesday's stamps is that they are very well made, and therefore ridiculously easy to get a great stamped image. You'll notice no smudges, shadows, background blotches, or missed images. It's not because I'm a professional grade stamper, it's just that the stamps are that good. If you look at your clear (or rubber) stamps, you can quickly tell if it's quality or not. If the stamp is cut deeply, you have less of a chance of accidentally inking the area around the image you wish to stamp. If the image is cut close to the edge, you are also less likely to get ink where you don't want it.

So, the next time you are lamenting that you don't have what you need, take a look at your stamp collection and see if there isn't something that they could do for you! Don't be afraid to mix stamping with scrapbooking. They make the perfect pair.

Final 3 Moxxie releases

Here we go! These are the last of the new releases from Moxxie. You're going to LOVE these!


This line is fabulous for so many reasons! Think boo-boos, braces, tooth fairy, and first pair of eyeglasses...all these events from daily life should be scrapbooked too. The colors and patterns lend themselves well to all photos, so scrap away!


Yay! A family line! These are great for family reunion pages, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, birthdays, anniversaries...you name it. I absolutely adore the color scheme and can't wait to get my hands on them!

Hee-hee! How cute is this line?!?! For all my friends with little guys running around, this line will have a million uses. Birthday cards, scrapbook pages, altered projects. (How cute would a crayon box be covered with some of this product?) It's so cute and frightening all at the same time!

I hope you enjoy seeing these. Let your local scrap store know what you're interested in so they know what they need to order.

More new releases

As promised, here are a couple more of Moxxie's new releases!

A line just for you to scrap your furry friends! The graphics in this line are positively adorable. The faces on the pups and kittens make my heart melt. Awwww....

A new baby line! The colors in this line can only be described in one word: yummy. :) They look positively rich and delicious, and I think would make some very elegant, yet cute, baby projects.

New Releases!

Remember, you saw them here first! I just got Moxxie's email that includes pictures of all seven new lines. I'll post a couple now and a couple later, otherwise it's just too overwhelming!

The first one is a new love themed collection called XOXO. The colors are fantastic, and I love how edgy it is!

I have been SUPER-excited about the St. Patrick's Day line, and it's finally here! If you click on the image, it should enlarge it and give you the option of zooming in on it. There are shamrocks, not four leaf clovers, and lots of great Celtic designs. I volunteered to make last year's scrapbook for our local St. Patrick's Association, so this is going to come in quite handy for me.

Check back later for more posts with more new goods!

Another craft space!

My pal Michelle sent me pics of her craft room to share with you! I can't wait for you to see them. It looks amazing. :)


Check out her great work area...Cricut, 12x12 printer, and an 8 1/2 x 11 printer too! It appears her plants are happy in front of the sunny window as well.

In her closet you'll see a lovely setup of Neatnix organizers...one of my faves! On the wall she attached a 4 foot section of slatwall, then put up her paper racks to hold what looks like a LARGE variety of yummy scrappin' papers! Underneath, 3 cubes are all lined up holding other necessities, and on the right, a craft cabinet! Am I seeing correctly? Is there a bottle of "Fruity and Full Bodied" up on the shelf? For more information regarding that wine, visit www.micheggy.blogspot.com .

Michelle is a BIG fan of digital scrapbooking, so who would be surprised that her crafty space would house a computer as well? She also has around 15 tubs on custom shelves built by her husband (who may be for hire if the price is right...) filled with stamps and other goodies. Nice!


So.,.what does YOUR space look like?

Feeling kinda Retro, baby!

So...are you a scrapbooker? What made you start scrapbooking? When did you start? As for me, I started scrapbooking because my friend Cindy scrapbooked. (I call her "My person of blame.") She didn't know that her influence was going to lead me down a dangerous path of addiction, sticker sneezing, impulse purchasing, and darn near HOARDING in my house! She thought she was helping me to journal the everyday events in my life. Thankfully, I do that too, so Cindy is off the hook for the rest.

I started scrapbooking in about 2001, but my first "official" scrapbook album was the story of how my husband and I met and our wedding. In hindsight, that might have been a bit of a big topic to undertake when I was a newbie, but it also gives me a good chuckle to see what kind of pages I made.

Now, I'm going out on a limb here, posting a pic from the FIRST page of the FIRST album I ever did...be gentle! In all honesty, the first page isn't too bad. For some reason, I won't post the really, really bad ones...

Ha! See? I'm still laughing... OK, here's a breakdown of what you see: First of all, the album is set up like a fairy tale story, so I titled my book "Once upon a time," and wrote about a prince and a princess and other bad ideas.

The green grass and title are made from CONSTRUCTION PAPER! Seriously. I think at the time my friends said things like, "You know, you should use acid-free paper." They were right, but I wasn't listening. Construction paper was cheap! The castle on the left is a very large diecut, and embellished only slightly by the dragon sticker I put in the lower right corner. As you can see, there are other, quite random, stickers sneezed across the page: a frog, Cinderella, a knight and princess, all placed wherever I thought there was a blank spot. :) I even used decorative scissors to cut the mat around Cinderella and Prince Charming! The final detail you need to know, and I discovered when I pulled the page out to take its picture, was that I used a glue stick to adhere everything to the page. Sigh...

Now that I've opened myself up, let's talk about it. Obviously, the style isn't important. I had fun, and it does set a theme, and the story is in the album, which is the goal after all. However, I probably could have listened to friends and scrapbook store employees a little better and followed their advice about acid free paper and a more permanent adhesive. Things are falling apart on this page, and it's only 8-9 years old. The construction paper hasn't faded...yet, but we all know it will.

I'd like to hear/see some of your less-than-proud moments in papercrafting. Ever send a card postage due? Ever have one fall apart upon the recipient's opening? Have a sticker sneeze page of your own? C'mon...out with it! Let's hear it!

Sketches!

Today's post (gasp!) will not include a sample photo. Instead, I'm going to bring up my favorite, all-time, can't-live-without scrapbooking tool: sketches.

My friend Elizabeth introduced me to sketches, I think it was a Becky Higgins Sketches publication. At first, I didn't see the value: lots of prep work, and a layout that ends up looking like something someone else did. Where's the creativity in that?

Well friends, the creativity is in each person's interpretation of that sketch. Elizabeth's pages were always so beautiful, I decided to try a sketch on for size. I used a sketch she had used, and wouldn't you know it, my page ended up looking completely different from hers AND from the sample page in the book! This was a useful little tool...

I use sketches quite a bit now, and I have my favorites: Becky Fleck's Pagemaps. Fleck has published two books, both of which I've purchased and used and still LOVE and refer to, but she also publishes several sketches every month...for FREE on her webpage. I'm posting a link on the left for you to click on and see for yourself. You can even sign up for her emails, and she'll send you one letting you know when new sketches are available to download and print. For free. Seriously.

Jumping off from sketches, I began looking for color combination suggestions. I found a site I really like called The Color Room. Every week (I think) they post a new color combination for you to try. If you're a digiscrapper, they include a digital number value you can repeat in your programs. Check the link on the left to see what you think. I print these off every once in a while and store them in a binder, with my pagemaps, and refer to them when I need a boost in creativity.

What are your go-to items or favorite sites? Share so we can all enjoy!

I Got Moxxie!!

After a brief exchange with my friend Leah via Facebook yesterday, I had been called out. The projects that I already posted here were not new ones that I was spending time creating and posting the same day, but rather creations from a few months ago. Realizing that I hadn't spent much time being creative lately, aside from finally making some holiday cards...(those of you who haven't gotten one yet, don't worry. I'll probably get to them!) I set today's goal to create something new and post it!

I dug through my supplies and looked for something to inspire me, and I came across Moxxie's "Chillin' Out" line. I LOVE this line! It's retro, quirky, grungy, and bright...and absolutely perfect for a cute stationary set:


I made 6 cards, all with a "fun" or "friends" theme that would make a great gift for a teenage girl with a few pen pals or thank you notes to write.

Here are a couple of the cards. On the left, the "BFF" is a sticker from the line, and the squares are cut from a piece of patterned paper. This is a good technique to remember if you think the whole paper is too busy to use: chop it up! The card on the right also uses the square paper, "best friends" sticker, and rubons on the orange scalloped circle.


This card started with two different patterns of paper from the line, some coordinating turquoise cardstock, ribbon, and a "buddies" sticker. The circles going up the left hand side are both punchouts and stickers. I finished it off with a bit-o-bling, right on top of the circles on the "buddies" sticker!

As you can see, no stamps were harmed in the creating of these cards. :) For my greetings, I used rubons and stickers, which really cut down on time. I didn't have to search my stamps, mess with inking and cleaning, and the elements were already made to match.

Leah, this is for you. (Seriously. You'll probably get at least ONE of these in the mail!) Thank you for inspiring me to create today!

Today's highlight: Paper Trunk!

I was introduced to Paper Trunk by Twin Oaks Print & Frame in Cedar Falls, IA. As soon as I looked up the company, I was HOOKED! Paper Trunk not only has fresh, fun, funky designs, they are also eco-friendly products, from paper to ink to packaging.

I did the following layout as a sample to show my stores one option with the Krafty Collection. The collection contains 11 sheets, plus a cover sheet that has thumbnail prints showing what each of the papers in the pack looks like. I took one look at the cover sheet and thought, "Wouldn't those thumbnails be cute as journaling blocks or punched out shapes?" That's exactly what I did. Take a look:

Along the right hand side you'll see lots of scalloped circles, regular circles, and a square. Those are the thumbnails from a sheet you might be tempted to throw away. Look how cute the thumbnail of the polka dot paper worked as a journaling block. (It's the shrunken version of the paper I used as my background sheet.)

Another close up below:

It was really fun to work with, and I still have oodles of pieces left from the kit. I've used them to make other projects, layouts, and cards. I'm in love!

Quick Quotes Private Reserve

In October of last year, my friend Laura and I embarked on a CRAZY road trip to Dallas, TX for a Quick Quotes Private Reserve weekend. Quick Quotes is one of 11 scrapbook companies I rep, and I was so excited to attend this event. The Private Reserve weekend is jam packed with classes. I think we took 7 classes in 3 days, AND we had time for cropping in the evenings.

The first class I'm posting is a two page layout class with a tropical escape theme. (I chose this one first as it made me think of warmer places right now...)

Page 1: We used laser cut chipboard for the "escape" title, and stamped it with any stamp we wanted, using Quick Quote's Blue Hawaiian inks. (I LOVE their inks. They are chalk inks, designed to dry quickly and add a bit of distressing or color. They also happen to perfectly match their papers!) I added Stickles to the stamped image to give it a little sparkle. The paper line is called Summertime Blues. With a little sanding along the edge of the photo mat, I exposed the white core of the paper. I thought it gave it a nice pop!

Page 2: This also used a laser cut chipboard for the compass rose. The phrases are cut from a 12x12 sheet of paper with several quotes that are appropriate for all areas of life, not just tropical destinations! My other favorite part of this layout is the giant flowers with the giant brads in the middle. Supersize me!

There's the whole layout together! Isn't it cute?

But wait, there's MORE! With the scraps left over from the layout, we were able to put together this adorable mini-album. The album itself is made from 4x6 pieces of canvas. We punched the holes using a Crop-o-Dile, and it went through like butter.

Get Creative!

New year, new blog! I'm starting over with a better attitude and more ideas of what to post. I am going to attempt to focus on creative stuff, so what better way to start than with pics of my creative space!
This is where the "magic" happens. I have my old dining table from years ago as my workspace. It was a great repurpose because it gives me lots of room to spread out, and the surface is durable. Behind it you'll see my cubes. I love my cubes. Best purchase ever made! My room is light and airy, with plenty of natural light.

This space also doubles as an added guest room, so the futon can be folded out into a bed. When it's folded up, I use it to plop down and read a scrappy thing or two, or spread out items to organize, use, etc.

The cubes are full of all kinds of goodies, and I have decorative jars and projects on top of them to add a little decor to the room. This is my favorite room in the house, and coincidentally, was the first one finished when we moved in over four years ago.

I'd love to see your creative spaces! Leave a comment and post a link or a pic and share. :)