Pages

Friday, July 30, 2010

Simple Stories Fall Catalog and A Chance to Win

MemoryWorks just released the fall catalog for our exclusive line of  Simple Stories scrapbook kits. The Simple Stories-Life Documented kit is a great way to capture a year's worth of memories. It's similar to Project Life or the CK Project 365 kit. (I'll have some sample layouts posted in a few weeks.)

The new fall release is the ele.ment.ary kit and it's all about capturing school memories. I am so excited to get my hands on this one! This kit is an excellent way to record your child or grandchild's school year. It will also be a great tool for making teacher gifts throughout the year!

You can go here to download the catalog. All of the products will be available to order August 16th  If you are interested in purchasing anything from this catalog,  or hosting a party, just shoot me an email.
You can also enter for a chance to win the ele.ment.ary kit,matching cardstock, journaling jots, & stickers, page protectors, and a classic leather WRMK 3 ring binder!!
Just visit the Simple Stories blog and leave a comment by August 2nd for your chance to win this prize package worth $70!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Fancy Pants/Cosmo Cricket Mini Album Share

I just recently became obsessed with mini-albums. And I absolutely love these mini-albums by Cosmo Cricket.
I have been wanting to do a little album with all of the pictures I have of my son Jackson and his cousin Andrew. Jackson and Andrew are only 4 months apart in age and they are the best of friends. We attend the same church as Andrew's family, so they see each other fairly often. They absolutely love getting their picture taken together and typically make seriously cheesy faces. Needless to say I had a lot of material to work with.
As soon as I saw the Fancy Pants Rough and Tough line, I knew it was perfect for this project!

I used a few other items from my stash as embellishments. The album came together really quickly. Because of the size of the mini-album, I could use 4x6 photos without trimming them. Huge time saver!
I love these Blackboard albums and I have them in a few styles. I love that they already look finished and I don't have to do a lot of complicated trimming and sanding to cover them. If you are just beginning to experiment with chipboard albums this is a great way start!

Materials used: Cosmo Cricket Jack Blackboard Album, Fancy Pants Rough and Tough patterned papers and journal cards, American Crafts Thickers letter stickers, Basic Grey Archiac chipboard embellishments, Doodlebug Design letter stickers (bff), American Crafts Flair, KI Memories rubber stickers, American Crafts ribbons
Markers: Copic, CTMH, Zig

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bazzill In Stitch'z

Let me start this off by saying I have the utmost respect for people that can sew. My mom was a professional seamstress; I am in awe of people with that talent. I, unfortunately, am not one of those people. I have trouble sewing buttons on correctly; let alone stitching in a straight line. So, when sewing on paper became a trend, I stood on the sidelines watching. I loved the look but knew it wasn't something I could do.

Until, I saw the Bazzill In Stitch'z products at my Archiver's. Hmmmnnn...maybe I could sew!

Background
Each piece is sold separately: the piercer, mat, case, templates, thread, etc. At first, I purchased just the template. I used my paper piercer and my cutting mat. It worked okay but I realized the In Stitch'z mat would make things a lot easier.
Eventually, I bought the piercer, the mat, the carrying case, 3 templates, and 2 sets of threads. (All with 30% off coupons at Archiver's).
Each piece runs between $3.99-$9.99. They can be purchased at most online scrapbook retailers, Archiver's and many LSS's. I have not seen them at Michaels, Jo-Anns, or Hobby Lobby.

 How It Works
Using the mat as a base, place your cardstock on the mat, overlay one of the templates onto your cardstock. Use a paper piercer to pierce holes through the template into the cardstock. Simply, thread your needle and stitch along the holes.

Viola! Cool hand stitching without a sewing machine or skills!


Why It's So Cool
-No sewing experience required! Woo-hoo!
-Thread that matches Bazzill cardstock perfectly
-Dozens of templates with 12" designs, handwriting fonts, words, card sentiments and more
-Relatively affordable when combined with a coupon
-Because it's sold in pieces, you can build your collection over time

I love this product! As soon as I finish the circle layout I will share it here. Join me tomorrow when I share a fun mini-album using Fancy Pants Design papers.

Monday, July 26, 2010

I won! I won!

Remember that scene from Christmas Story where the Dad wins the "leg lamp". That's kind of how I felt this morning when I visited one of my new favorite blogs-Monika Wright's blog. Because I won her super cool summer memories kit. If you have visited my other blog, then you know that instead of going out of town this year, we chose to stay home and do some local stuff. I have been on the fence on what to do with those photos/stories. I would typically create a 12 x 12 vacation album, primarily because I generally take 400 or 500 pictures on vacations. And while I did take a lot of pictures, I'm not sure I wanted to do a 12x12 album, so this is the perfect solution! If you are looking for a way to capture your summer memories, I encourage you to visit her Etsy store, I Love It All. Not only does she have fun scrapbook items like this one:
From Monika's Etsy store
But check out these adorable prints (they would be perfect for our playroom!):
Seriously? How cute are those!
I'll be back tomorrow with another review of the Bazzill In Stitchz kit! :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Win Monika Wright's Summer Fun Album!

Just head on over to her blog for a chance to win this cool mini-album.
While you are there check out her adorable mini-album share and flower tutorial.
Needless to say, I have bookmarked her blog-love it!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Tools I Love: Martha Stewart Scoring Board

I've been making more and more cards in the past year and finally broke down earlier this year and bought a scoring board. A scoring board is a tool that allows you to score lines into your paper to fold it into a variety of shapes. I use mine primarily for cards and envelopes. You just place your paper on the board and use a bone folder to make a crease at the correct measurement.

When shopping for a scoring board I looked at the Scor-Pal and the Martha Stewart Scoring Board. Both do the same thing but the Martha Stewart tool had a few advantages:
-a handy little compartment with a  flip up lid to store your bone folder
-a triangle envelope making tool that is stored on the underside of the board
-the grooves on the MS board are every 1/8 of an inch-they are much more spread out on the Scor-Pal
-the MS board is much more affordable! The Scor-pal is available at Archiver's for $39.99 (you can use the 30% off coupon to bring it down to $27.99). The MS Scoring Board is $19.99 ( it was 40% off at Michael's and I had a 25% off all MS products coupon, so I got it for $8.99!)
-a nice bonus is inside the compartment to store your folder are measurements for a number of projects, they are kind of hard to see though. But another scrapper has been kind enough to create a PDF of them here, thanks Candice!

 I am very happy with my MS scoring board-it's a must have for card-makers!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Certified Scrapbook Design and You Instructor

That's me! I'm officially a certified SDU instructor. I'm very excited to be sharing my love for memory keeping in a classroom setting.
I will be teaching a Scrapbooking Basics class on Thursday nights at the Michael's Arts and Crafts in Bridgewater Falls Shopping Center in Fairfield, Ohio. The class runs 4 weeks and will be held from 6:30-8:30PM. This is the perfect class for a beginner scrapbooker or someone who has been away from the hobby for awhile.
To sign up or for more information, see a store associate at Michael's.