Scrapbooking News & Review

I am excited to announce that I am going to have a project published in the January 2009 Scrapbooking News & Review E-zine... I'll share when I know more!

Check out their website at: www.scrapbookingnewsandreview.com

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Christmas Goodies

I was so excited to receive some scrapbooking goodies for Christmas!

From my mom I got some of my favorite "consumables" - black & white paper, photo tabs, cosmetic wedges & a brown fine tip pen. From my inlaws - a new Pulp Paper Products 12x12 album for 2009, a basket for my mini-albums (as suggested by Ali Edwards), a Craft Mat and the Tim Holtz Tonic Scissors. I have wanted the mat and scissors ever sine I used them at CKU, but managed to wait until Christmas! I also got to go a little crazy in JoAnn Etc while I was visiting my parents --- lots of fun stuff that my small JoAnn's doesn't have.

Now to get the holiday mess cleaned up so I can get going on some new projects!

Desktop Photo Display

About a month ago, I was the lucky winner of a Cosmo Cricket "Chemistry Set". Here's what I did with it!



It is a double-sided photo display which I will be giving to my mom for Christmas. I decorated three Cosmo Cricket lacing cards to make a cute little stand to put 2.5" x 3.5" photos in. The photos are interchangeable because I attached baseball card protectors to make photo pockets. This way, when I mail my mom new photos throughout the year she can change them around.

Quick Gift Card Holder

I procrastinated the teacher gifts again this year, so this morning I needed to come up with something while trying to get the kids out the door. I settled on giving the gymnastics teacher a gift card, so I made this little matchbook gift card holder in about 10 mintues using some scraps.

Instructions:

1- glue two strips of paper about 3" x 9" together back to back (or use double sided card stock)

2- create folds 3" from top and 7" from top. Trim about 3/4" off bottom

3- glue both side edges of short flap and staple bottom edge to create pocket for gift card

4- use a sticker or strip of paper to cover staples

5- glue punched circle on, gluing only the bottom half to create closure to tuck flap in

6- embellish as desired

Here is how mine came out in 10 minutes or less...

Photo Matchbooks - ***Updated***

*Finally with photos!*

Three days without power has set me back on some of my holiday projects, but I was glad to be back home and able to create tonight. I just made the cutest little project for a Secret Santa gift. They are wallet sized photoholders that close with a matchbook closure. It was a really quick project - I just made 3 in an hour and a half. I am giving all three to the same person, so she can have one to keep and two to give away (I happen to know that she just had holiday portraits taken). My thought here was that she will have one to enjoy and she can also give a nice handmade gift without having to do the work!

Supplies - makes 3

1 sheet pattern paper (Prima)
1 sheet card stock
3 sheets of baseball card protectors
floss
stapler
Embellishments(Prima): 3 flowers, 3 buttons, and flowers cut from another sheet of patterned paper

Directions:

1- Cut pattern paper and card stock into 3 strips 4" wide

2- Cut baseball card protectors into 3 sections, two squares wide

3- Create folds in cardstock at 3", 3.25" and 7" and trim length to 7.675". In the binding fold poke 3 holes .675" from top and bottom.

4- Fold page protectors in half and poke holes .5" from top & bottom.

5- Using floss sew protectors into binding and knot on backside (will be hidden by outside paper).

6- Wrap pattern paper around outside & glue.

7- Create matchbook closure with 2 staples.

8- Add embellishments.

9- Repeat as necessary.

Sketch it out ***Updated***

Every month I get numerous magazines delivered to the house, browse websites & blogs, and get together with friends to scrap. Each of these is a great way to get ideas to create layouts and projects - whether it is a color scheme, design, theme or technique. Over the years I have used several ways to organize the things that inspire me - from tearing out pages to leaving tabs throught a magazine and finally landing on creating a sketch book full of ideas.

Here I draw out my interpretations and make notes about what I might want to use it for (I also work the other way, starting from my pictures and creating a design). This book travels with me almost everywhere so even when I don't have all of my supplies at my fingertips I can still be creative. Then later I can quickly translate my ideas when the materials are in front of me.

These days I can't imagine life without my graph paper (one of the few connections to my engineering background) notebook. By itself it can tell quite the story - projects of the past present and future all side by side.

In the spirit of scraplifting (which has to be the sincerest form of scrapbooking flattery), here is a Donna Downey inspired holiday layout.

Update... My layout was featured on Donna Downey's blog today! Check it out!

Life at the Pole

I just got my Scrapbooks Etc January 2009 issue and it had the cutest insert from Sassafras Lass. Daniela got quite the kick out of it, because she had already chosen some of the papers for herself when we were at the scrapbook store last week.

Here are the projects I created by pulling out the magazine ad:

A holiday layout (with some additional supplies from the store)


A Photo Holder (I added 3 pipe cleaners and swirled the ends)


I also made a little playscene for Daniela's Littlest Pet Shop animals, which she has had a blast playing with. She particularly liked hiding them behind the mountains and having them "lick" the candy canes.


As always, these papers were lots of fun to play with!
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Card Swap

Here is the card I created for a card swap this weekend... If only I would give my own holiday cards this much attention! Actually, it didn't take too long to make 12 of these, once I had come up with the design.



It didn't take much material either...

1 1/2 12" x 12" sheets of red printed paper
1 1/2 12" x 12" sheets of light blue paper
4" x 12" sheet of blue paper
scraps of ivory paper
snowflake, journaling square, "tis the season" stamps
Versamark, black ink
12 snowflake stickers
12 circle stickers
36 rhinestones

Scrapping "On the Go"

Since there never seems to be enough time in the day, I have been trying to use my time more effectively. I have been taking magazines and my sketch book/paper to gymnastics and swimming in order to take advantage of any downtime I might have. Today I took that a step further and actually packed up a "mostly done" project and took it with me to the Y. All that was left to do was the journaling and attaching the journaling blocks into the album - so the supplies needed were minimal.

And I am pleased to finally report... I finished my "Peek into my Week" mini-album in about 45 minutes. This was a class I took at CKC-Hartford and I had completed most of the album 2 months ago and just hadn't pulled it out to finish it. It feels really good to get the journaling done and check it off of my to do list! I can't believe I put off 45 minutes worth of work for so long.

Here is how it came out:

Christmas Projects

I like to read Ali Edwards' blog, and this month she is doing her "December Daily" album. Since I like to focus on primarly 12" x 12" albums, I think I am going to make a double page layout capturing our holiday preparations for my 08/09 album instead. Since I haven't quite completed my "Week in the Life" mini-album, I don't think I should start another mini just yet!

I have been inspired by her ideas to share the lead up into the Christmas Holiday, so I have begun blogging (on my Scrappin' Mom blog) about the holiday preparations. I am not one to hold off on the holiday prep, so I started well before the first of December and I would like to include all of those things as well, so I thought "Countdown to Christmas" would be a good theme. That way there is room for my October trip to Hallmark to buy ornaments, putting Christmas music on in the car at the beginning of November, family holiday portraits and of course "Black Friday" shopping. I have begun developing a layout concept, but need to think more about how to fit everything in!

I am going to continue to blog regularly about our holiday prep through out the month, and of course keep tabs on Ali's progress on her December Daily, but I don't anticipate starting my project until January. In the meantime, I will be working on finishing my "Week in the Life", making holiday cards for a card swap, copying recipes for 3 cookie swaps, actually sending Christmas cards, a handful of layouts and completing my Disney project during December.