5 Sweet Tie Dye for Pink, Who's Passed Out for Polka Dots

Yesterday I received some goodies in the mail from Pink Pineapple for a DT assignment--LOVE THEM! It was the new papers from Best Creation with strawberries, flowers, and birdies. Too much cute! With Matt being home all day it is easy for me to take more photos of him than Katie and I seem to be scrapping him all the time, Granted, Katie already has like 10 books completed and who knows how many mini books but she notices. So this week it is all about the monkey!

The new challenge is up at One Little Word: Sweet!


And I knew I had the perfect photo of Katie at TCBY. For my "Sweet" page I stitched two pieces of felt together to make a word bubble. The sponsor at OLW, evalicisous, has these in her etsy shop but just glued together so I put my own spin on it. I pinked the edges of the bottom layer when I was done. Suprisingly, American Crafts Thickers stick really well to felt! I also based this layout on a sketch for the Who Gives A Scrap? Challenge this month.

"Sweet" Supplies:
Paper - Best Creation, Jenni Bowlin, Scenic Route
Felt, Buttons - Joann's
Letters - American Crafts, My Little Shoebox
Ribbon - Fabric Barn
Cardstock - Bazzill

A few months back we tie dyed with our Girl Scout troop. It was out of control! Apparently the week before ( we weren't at that meeting) the Juniors, my group, helped the youger girls tie dye. Bad idea. Some of them dyed their hair and it was still colored the next week! We took silly photos before they dying started. Despite our best effort sot keep it under control, shoes, clothes, and hands were dyed by the end of the night! I used a giant felt coaster, cut in half, as an accent and then just pulled some items to match the colors in the butterlfies on the PP. Easy peasy.

"Tie Dye" Supplies:
Paper - Best Creation
Cardstock - Neenah, Bazzill
Alphas, Buttons - American Crafts
Journal Spot - Jillibean Soup
Felt - Darice, Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks
Sequin Flowers - HydrangeaHippo
Gems - KaiserCraft
Diecuts - Collage Press

I've been secretly designing a make n take for Pink... It's for Shop Hop participants only so if you wanna make one, sign up for Shop Hop!

I also made a couple more pages with the July Polka Dot Whimsy kit:



I swear it takes me more than a month to get through all the stuff in the kits--they are jam packed! I am trying to not have leftovers but it is pretty much impossible because Michelle is so generous with these kits! Love it ;)

Now off to get some more scrapping done while the kids play outside ;)

Happy Creating!

1 Splish Splash at the Table

Splish Splash
6x12 Summer Book
@ The Scrappin' Table
August 22, 2009
12pm-3pm
$35

Make a splash with this fun summer themed mini album, featuring Bo Bunny’s Popsicle Collection. Each book can be customized to your summer experience be it at the fair, waterslides, or beach days using the journal cards you’ll receive in the class. We’ll also learn some tricks on the Zutter Bind It All, play with Glimmer Mist, and create fun accents using crepe paper.

Supplies: Adhesive (glue dots, 3D foam squares, and a strong liquid adhesive) , Scissors, Chalk Ink for inking.

See you there!!

1 Cropping this Friday!

Let's break in my new cropping space this Friday from 5pm-???! I've added all wood tables to the area, some tools tables, new can lights, and an embellishment bar for your enjoyment. I also have A/C on full blast so bring a sweater! j/k But yeah, I have A/C ;) So come cool off and crop!

Xaver will be BBQing, serving up Carne Asada, so please bring a small Mexican food potluck dish to share. As much as my family loves eating all the leftovers after potlucks let's save a little cash.

We'll also be scrapping to win--every 5 layouts completed during the night I will draw a winner to get a cool prize. All the Divine Desert Divas will be here as well so you know you'll have fun!

Here's all the details:

• Friday July 31, 2009
• 5pm - ???
• $5 plus a potluck dish
• Hesperia, CA, off the 15 Freeway and Main St
• RSVP, questions at hydrangeahippo@yahoo.com

Hope to see you there!

3 Layout Envy Envie

I've got a new, exclusive kit up in my etsy shop!!

It's a
"Layout Envy" Envie
(short for envelope)
and it is just $5!

Yeah, $5!!!

In each Evnie kit you'll receive a regular business envelope with a copy of the layout and all the embellies you need to create the page. You provide the background paper and photo mats (for mats larger than what fits in the envie if the layout has any of those). Each kit also features a fun technique, a handmade something from me, or something else really cool and exclusive to the kit. I don't know how often I will release these kits but once they are gone, they are gone! I'll make sure to announce them in my email newsletters too.

Wanna know more?
Here's the layout for the first kit:





And you can buy "Layout Envy" Kit 1 in my etsy shop RIGHT NOW!

Thanks for looking. Happy Creating!

2 A Place to Sketch

I’ve been clipping sketches from magazines, printing them from the internet, and sketching my own over the years and I have amassed a large collection of bits and pieces of papers with sketches on them. I’ve seen sketch books made from Composition books but I wanted something totally customized to me. Enter the Bind It All!

I posted a link to a sketch book design by Kinsey Wilson as one of my "Little Somethin' links" a couple weeks backs. On her blog, she had links to templates but I could not get them to open on my computer. She made her book using the Bind It All (yay!) but I wanted something a bit smaller that could fit easily into my tool tote to take to crops. I also wanted to have some sketches for double layouts so I started my project by designing blank sketch pages on the computer.

I set the margins to ½” on all sides but left about an inch on the bottom so that I had room to punch my binding holes. The pages are printed on 8.5x11 paper and then cut in half to create 8.5 x 5x5 pages. This is a nice size for taking in a crop bag, I think! I printed all the pages on both sides, creating single 12x12 sketch blanks on one side and double layout sketch blanks on the other side of each page.

After I printed and cut all the inner pages, I cut some blank pages to put in the back so I have a spot to glue sketches I’ve printed or cut from mags. You can put divider pages in if you want – I put one to separate sketches I make from the ones I printed or cut out.

Cut one Zutter Chipboard Cover down to 8.75x11.5. Then cut it in half to make two 8.75x5.75 covers. Cover with paper, then punch binding holes on the 5.75” side. Put the book in order with a cover, inner pages, and then a cover. Lay the back cover on the front cover so the outsides of the covers are facing each other. Insert binding wires and bind with the Bind It All. The rule of thumb for choosing wires for your project is to choose a wire with a diameter ¼” larger than your project is thick. Since I plan to glue things to the inside of my book, which will make it thicker over time, I am using an O-wire with ½” bigger diameter than my book is thick right now. After the book is bound, add a title and decorate! You can also use the Round It All to round the corners so they don’t get bent up while the book is stowed in your tote bag.

Supplies:

O-Wires, Chipboard Cover, Round It All – Zutter

Paper – The Paper Company, October Afternoon

Stickers – American Crafts, Making Memories, 7 Gypsies

Stamp – Scenic Route

Diecuts – October Afternoon, K&Company

Ink – Close to My Heart, Colorbox

Ribbon & Seam Binging -- Offray, May Arts, Making Memories

Now I am off to have Sunday Dinner with the family. Happy Creating!

3 Our Little Monkey...It's BACK!!!

I've redesigned the Our Little Monkey book from a few years back using Bo Bunny Press' new Mango Luau paper collection. The book does not include a title because I thought it would be fun to add your own--I will likely bring my Revolution (or Epic Six if I have it by then) to class so we can cut titles and such. The book features one large monkey but I will have supplies in class to make more monkeys if you choose.

Our Little Monkey
It's Back and Better Than Before!

August 26, 2009
5-730pm
$30
Ph: 909-793-2200
Collective Journey

September 12, 2009
11am-2pm
$35
Ph: 760-598-2222
Pink Pineapple

September 27, 2009
10am-1pm
$35
Ph: 714-961-8011
The Scrappin' Table

Join Jennifer Priest for a fun-tabulous book about your little monkey. The class features Jennifer's custom 16 page canvas and paper bag book as well as her cheeky monkey paper piecings. Try your hand at painting on canvas and learn secrets for creating pockets in paper bag books. Create extra monkeys and a custom title for your book in the class.

Supplies: Foam Paint Brushes (4), Adhesive, Scissors, Crop A Dile, Needle (and threader).

Here are a few more sneaks of the details:



Happy Creating!!

0 Five Fridays: Living in a Circular World

The economy, economy, economy. It stinks. And I am tired of hearing about it and I bet you are too. But we ain't gonna give up scrapping, no way, no how, no matter how bad this nonsense gets!

I've recently been delving into my scraps more to make my dollar stretch...okay, and also because they have grown and no longer fit in the bin I have for scraps! One of the easiest things to do with scraps is to use them to create punchies. Tammy I punches paper into circles and scallop circles and filled the top of her Tammy I case with them--she always has journaling spots handy. If you make a habit of it, it can be pretty easy to camp out with a bag of scraps and a few punches to crank out some punchies while you watch your favorite show or a movie.

But if you don't have time or the desire to do that, then you can always take a few circle punches of various diameters plus a bag of scraps with you to crops. Some of the ideas I show below may be old hat to some of you if you read my blog regularly but hey, a reminder is always nice!

Here are some ideas of projects you can use your circle punched scraps for:

1. Punch from the pattern. Many patterned papers, like Bo Bunny's Popsicle line, come with circles printed in the paper. Just punch out the circles and embellish! I like to punch slightly off center for a whimsical effect, like I did on this card:


2. Add brads or buttons. On this page I used a few punched circles to embellish the page in addition to a few brads. The punched circle acts like a pseudo-brad.


You can even back clear buttons with punched circles. Here I stitched clear buttons to circle stickers (as shown in yesterday's blog post) but you can do the same thing with paper circles.




3. Mat embellies. As much as it is taboo to love Jolee's Boutique stickers, I do love them because they have so many themes to match family and kids pages. I reworked this Dr. Seuss page that I had been struggling with by using punched circles to mat my embellies and add a touch of whimsy:


4. Paper piece. The monkey featured on my "Our Little Monkey" books (version 1 and 2) are made with punched circles--that's it! This monkey on a wall hanging we did in Book Club last year was made the same way but by using Sizzix circle dies.

You can pretty much create any shape with punchies. Layer them to create something or fill in a shape, like a star, tree, or Christmas tree, with punched shapes. Here I used asterisks instead of circles but you get the idea:


5. Scalloped Edges. Cut circles in half and lay so that all the straight sides are lined up to create a scalloped border like I did on the edge of this sticker:


I'm getting ready to send over my submission for the Bo Bunny Press Design Team! Wish me luck ;) I don't usually create items for DT calls but I did for this one - I really like Bo Bunny and use their products ALOT in classes so I am hoping for the best! Two of my projects are above, the third is the "Our Little Monkey" class I'll be posting sneaks of in my newsletter. So if you wanna see it, be sure to sign up in the newsletter box to the left. My "vacation" is almost over so I'll be back to blogging and sending newsletters out regularly soon.

I'm also off to crop with the Divine Desert Divas tonight and then with Who Gives A Scrap tomorrow in Redlands. Have any scrapply plans this weekend? I hope you have a great one and stay cool.

Happy Creating!

1 Mom, Why are you making a Christmas book in ... July??

Good question Ms. Katie! LOL I just got my Stampin' Up! order from the new catty from my demonstrator Maria Getz--woohoo!! It is sooooo awesome! Maria kindly gave me the following items to create something with:

#115696 -- Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' Kit
#112456 -- 8.5x8.5 On Board Album
#116313 -- Buttons from Playground Set in Real Red
#105447 -- Clear Buttons
#109857 -- Mini Library Clips
3/4" Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon in Real Red
1.25" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon in Old Olive

PLUS I had to work a little Zutter magic in so I added:
Zutter 6x6 Acrylic Covers
Zutter 3x4 Clipboard Wood Covers
Zutter 4x4 Canvas Art Board Covers
Teresa Collins 8x8 Chipboard Cover

I managed to use almost every single scrap of paper from the kit to make this 30 page album! I plan to keep my family's Christmas traditions in it. And it just goes to show that just because something says "Zutter" on it, you don't HAVE to use the Bind It All. I used the Crop a Dile to punch holes in the Zutter products so they would fit in the Stampin' Up! On Board Book. Here are some of the 20+ pages:

These little pages are Zutter products!

The scalloped page on the left is a teresa Collins 8x8 Cover and the 4x4 mini page is a Zutter Canvas Art Board Cover.

If you want the scoop on the techniques I used as well as photos of every page, please visit Maria's blog at next week for the full reveal and step by step directions.


One technique I do want to share right now is the one I used to make the buttons on the layout above. The buttons are clear and the circle behind them is a sticker that comes in this Simply Scrappin' Kit.

First, lay the button on top of the sticker you want to back it with, Use a paper piercer or needle to mark the holes onto the sticker. I like using baker's twine because it is festive with a little vintage flair. Stitch from the front of the button.

Once you've stitched back up from the back through the button you will have two ends of thread. make sure there is enough to tie a knot so that you have about 1" of string dangling from each end of the knot. You could tie a bow if you prefer, you just need longer string.

Once the knot is tied you can leave the sticker on the sheet until you are ready to use it. It is okay that the stitch goes through the backing of the sticker sheet because the stitch will break through that thin sticker backing once you pull the sticker from the sheet.

I inked the edges of the cardstock sticker to make it stand out more then used it as an embellie on the page:
That's all for now!! "Christmas in July" is only a few days away and serves as a reminder to get those cards DONE. I have a few leftover stickers from this kit that I plan to use on cards to get me started.

Happy Creating!!

0 Faux Embossing

It's all the rage! Faux embossing--well, that is what I am calling it anyways. Lay punchies of any shape on a piece of cardstock of the same color and there you have it. I recently saw a sample KWerner did on her blog and then I was flipping through my Stampin' Up! catty and saw quite a few samples of the same thing. I was curious to see if it worked in real life, not just when someone is taking fabulous photos of their samples.

Yesterday I was working on a layout of Katie and my grandma and felt it just needed something subtle. I stamped some butterflies with versamark and then added a few punched Martha butterflies from the same kraft paper I used on the page. Easy peasy!

Here's the sequins:


And here are the "faux embossed" butterflies!

Happy Creating!

5 A Little Peek Into My Life Right Now

Right now I haven't really been creating too much. My main mission is to use this time "off" (no more classes really until August) to get my house in tip-top working order. Last night Xaver and I got the garage pretty well cleaned. The main purpose of that was to a) put the car BACK into the garage and b) empty some cardboard boxes for my sister who is moving...anyways, things have progressed from there and my little crop room in the front of my house is coming along nicely. We rearranged all the tables (after removing Matt's furniture from the room) and I started setting up shop with some cute little displays I got at the Farmer's Market in town last week. I plan to have a whole embellie area set up for when I have crops. Here's a little sneak peek at the start of something good:





The first crop I am hosting in my new space is on July 31 from 5pm-???. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates and more info on how to sign up.

Speaking of the Farmer's Market, funny story. I tried and tried and tried to get a booth and finally I got approved on Thursday. Right after I dropped my SUV off to get painted for 3 weeks. Arrgh!! So I won't be having a booth until August because I don't have a big enough car to cart all the tables, EZ-Up, and loot to the market each week. I am bummed but that gives me some time to design more fun things to offer in our little flea market. Also I have to figure out how to get Katie from school to the market since her dismissal time is after the market starts. School starts in a couple weeks! Summer just flew by...

Yesterday I taught a class at Collective Journey. I am really trying NOT to buy stuff right now. Not that I am being frugal, I just don't have any money left! LOL That darn Martha had to come out with some new punches that do a border all the way around a page so I HAD to get some. And you need TWO punches, one for the border and one for the corner. I so hate her and her stinkin' cute punches. ;P


I did this page for PDW. It's about headbands Xaver made for me and Elena. Someday he will sell them on etsy I hope!

I just got my PDW kits in the mail on Saturday and they were soooooo calling my name but I had to teach and stuff so the box didn't get opened until late last night. I really like creating while I am at home in a clean house. I think this is where I work the best. I have been going to so many crops this month and not getting much of anything done. I hope after this whole house re-org I am doing I can get to the point where I am productive at crops again. I think it has to do with my upbringing--work before you can play and then you can really relax when you're playing. So since my house has been dirty I haven't been able to get really creative because I have so much housework hanging over my head.

I've done 8 loads of laundry today so I think I earned some creative time. I am off to create some fun stuff in my room before X gets home. I am working on version 2 of the Our Little Monkey paper bag book from a few years back. I STILL get requests for this bad boy and now it is redesigned featuring my NEW canvas paper bag books I handmake! I'll be listing some in my etsy shop soon so keep an eye out.

That "Our Little..." series kind of faded away--not sure if anyone is interested in me continuing the series so if you are, please let me know and I work on the next installment. If you don't know what it is, it started out as:

Our Little Monkey
Our Little Monster
Our Little Angel
Our Little Sweetheart
Our Little Critter
Our Little Cuddlebug
Our Little Camper

...and I think that is it so far. I have a few more titles up my sleeve just in case I start up again and I'd love to do another monster one--that was fun. Thanks in advance for letting me know what you think!

Happy Crafting!

0 Splish Splash today!

I'm heading out the door to teach my "Splish Splash" Summer 6x12 book at Collective Journey. I still have room for two more so if you wanna come down, just call the store to save your spot and come on in. 909-793-2200.

Here are some of the pages:



Yesterday I cropped with Laurie Rush in Orange and with some of the WhoGAS girls. I also got to meet Pam Hoffman--she is a volunteer for Scrapbook Royalty and a total Godsend. She has taken on the newsletter and does alot of our online marketing now which frees me up to do other stuff. Yay!

I also taught a Prima Certified make n take at the crop. My friend Joanne won the prize pack!


On my way home I stopped at The Scrappin' Table and chatted with some friends cropping there. Sometimes I wish there were more days in the weekend so I could crop with everyone I want to--I miss cropping there!! I need to make a date to go again SOON.

On Friday I was at the world's hottest crop (if you've been keeping up with me on Faccebook then you might have seen that). I managed to stay in the non-air conditioned room for about an hour--it was cooler outside where it was 110! One of these days I am going to post about cropper's etiquette when you're the hostess. Seriously I have experienced some crops that make me wonder if I am on Candid Camera or something!

Well, I am good to go today since there is A/C at Collective Journey so if you don't already have plans, join me for a cheery summer book!

Happy Crafting!

2 Christmas In July Cards

Last weekend I got started on my Christmas cards while I was at a Christmas in July event. I had grand ideas that I would get them ALL done--ha! I got 13 cards done which is a pretty nice start. I actually spent some time playing with my Copic Markers to color in stamped images on the cards. I love these markers!!! The stamps I used (reindeer, owl, frog) are from Hero Arts and I got them at Collective Journey last fall.


The postage stamp stamp is from my friend Pat's stash and I think it is Stampin' Up!. I am really pleased with how well the coloring came out since I am a) not a stamper really and b) not a colorer of stamped stuff.


I also used 100% scraps on the cards (except the card base & some ribbons). I simply brought my red and green scrap bags with me and used the items inside to create the cards. My scraps are overflowing, once again, and what better way to "get rid of them" than to use them on my Chritmas cards!


I also used some new strung sequins from my etsy shop on a couple of cards. Love the sparkle!!


Today I planted a some tomatoes, eggplant, a sunflower, squash, and bell peppers in my garden. I am looking forward to being outdoors more and eating fresh, homegrown yummies. Oh, and the opportunities for photos will be quite nice too. Gotta love being a scrapbooker! LOL I see gardening pages in my future ;)

Until tomorrow, Happy Crafting!!