TGIF - fuh real!!!

It's been quite a week. I can't believe it's Friday already, seems like just yesterday it was Monday and I was telling Lucy that I needed to plan my week out to stay on top of things. Well, I'm not sure I achieved that but I made it through!

And now I can finally spill the beans I've been holding onto since Tuesday night. I've been invited to join the ScrapGenie/ScrapDreamie Design Team!

Scrap Genie is a UK distributor of Scrapbooking Products, and ScrapDreamie is their inspirational blog. I am so looking forward to getting started on this gig, and can't wait to work with all the other talented designers.

As I collapsed into bed late Wednesday night, totally worn out from working on projects and teaching the minibook class at The Scrapbook Site, I realised that it was a happy tiredness because I so love what I do! And at the risk of sounding way too gushing, I am so thankful to have found this hobby and all the wonderful things and people it has brought into my life.

Speaking of the minialbum, here are a few more views of it. If you'd like to see all the pages, feel free to check my gallery.
And finally, I know it's been a while since I posted a Tuesday To-Do. They will be back next week!

{21 Days}

I mentioned on Saturday that Rhonna Farrer is leading an Art Journal Challenge on Two Peas. I finally got started on it today, the weekend just didn't lend itself to starting a new project. The idea behind the challenge is taking 21 days to make or break a habit through the creative process. My goal is to develop a more efficient morning routine, consisting of waking up earlier and spending less time online, among other things. Today I worked on my album cover, title page and the first day based on the Day 1 prompt.



For the first week I am focusing on waking up earlier. I think that will be the hardest part for me. If I get that mastered I'll be half way there. I'm keeping the album fairly simple and not very artsy. Since I want this to be the first thing I work on in the morning, I decided to stick with what I know best, rather than trying new techniques, because I know I would get bogged down and end up spending the whole morning working on it, which will defeat my purpose.

Coincidentally, when I read Zen Habits today, his post was all about how to be more efficient with your online time. It's amazing how the universe just knows exactly what I need to see.

Tuesday To-Do

I shared this step-by-step project on the Ranger Yahoo group last month. Since January isn't yet over there's still time to get it made before you have to start using it!

Supplies

6 or more colours of Tim Holtz Distress ink pads

Ranger Cut & Dry Foam

12 manila envelopes about 6.5” x 3.5” – you can use pre-punched envelopes, or punch your own holes at the sealed end

Seasonal rubber stamps and embellishments

Assorted patterned papers

2 nesting square punches – 1.5” and 2”

Calendar for 2008 printed on white cardstock (available here http://craftysecrets.com/images/pattern%20pics/2008%20calendar.pdf)

Hole Reinforcements

Chipboard, patterned paper, number and letter stickers for cover (optional)

Step 1:

Using a small piece of Cut & Dry Foam, apply one colour of ink all over front and back of

envelope

Step 2

Ink seasonal stamp with same colour ink, and stamp randomly over front and back of envelope, re-inking stamp as necessary

Step 3

Punch out calendar month with smaller punch, and stamp same image lightly on it

Step 4

Punch a piece of coordinated patterned paper with larger punch and use to mat month. Cut another piece of patterned paper 6”x3” and use as a mat on the envelope, remembering to punch a hole through.

Add matted month

Add seasonal embellishments and hole reinforcement

Repeat for the remaining months in the year, varying the colours, stamps and embellishments as necessary to suit the month and season. Now throughout 2008 you can add a wallet sized photo above the month, and tuck mementos from that month into the envelope!

To make a cover for the book, cut a piece of chipboard 6.75” x 3.75” and cover with patterned paper and embellishments as shown below

Other ideas:
1. Feel free to substitute your favourite inks for the ones I used. You can also do away with stamping on the envelope and simply mat with your favourite patterned papers
2. You can highlight family members' birthdays on the calendar and use a photo of them that month

If you create this project I'd love to see it, so please come back and leave me a link!

Handmade Gifts I

Now that they have been received I can post some of the gifts I made this year. For my father-inlaw I made this canvas, featuring a photo of him and hubby skiing sometime back in the 90's (neither of them are sure of the year).



I used a black 12x12 canvas. The textured edges were done by pressing a rubber stamp (which was carved by dh) into a thick layer of black acrylic paint. Other supplies: BasicGrey papers, Fancy Pants chipboard, Club Scrap stamp and flea market stuff from my stash.

For my mother-in-law I made this mini album with photos from Christmas last year. I used my latest toy, the Bind-it-all to make the book after doing the cover and all the pages. The papers are from three different BasicGrey Christmas lines: Dasher, Fuitcake and Figgy Pudding. I used Hambky rub-ons and transparency on the cover. Flowers are by Prima, and the ribbons are all from my stash.

They both loved the gifts, which was a relief, since I'm never sure how people will react to handmade items. My mother-in-law kept saying how she had completely forgotten what Christmas was like last year, so the album was a great reminder. She must have looked through it three or four times during Christmas Eve dinner!

Let's celebrate the end of summer!

Well, I'm not really celebrating, I'm already missing the warm days and hating the cooler temperatures. But at least I have this fun minibook as a reminder! I made it using papers from ScrapMode and embellishments from the August Scrapbook Takeout Kit. I taught this book as a class on the forum there.

Scrappenings

I've been trying to get myself into my scraproom all day, but it hasn't happened yet. So since I seem to be stuck online I thought I'd share a bit.

The theme for September over at ScrapGal is Change. I went kinda tongue-in-cheek with my two layouts for the newsletter

get more info here

get more info here

In more ScrapGal news, the site now has blog capabilities and the DT now has an inspirational blog for the members called GalBlog. We'll be adding challenges, techniques and all sorts of inspiration for the members. Check it out, it's gonna be a blast.


On Friday night (early morning my time) I taught this minibook for August customers at Scrapbook Takeout. The book uses embellishments from the August kit as well as papers from ScrapMode. I'll share photos of the pages soon, I need to take much better ones!

I'm also smiling with glee at a great e-mail I got earlier! Just the pick-me-up I needed.

Wearing my Fancy Pants

The great people over at Pub Calls organised a challenge to show off creations using Fancy Pants products. In my head the deadline was the 31st, and then yesterday at 6:00 p.m. my friend Sarah mentioned it was at midnight! (Note to self: stop keeping deadlines in your head!). I cleared the sun, food and wine stupor from my brain and came up with these three projects.


I'm not sure just how well I did clearing the clouds from my head! As I dug frantically through my stash I realised I had just a scrap of patterned paper left, and so I had to figure out another way to scrap a layout with no patterned paper (a rare occurrence these days). I did however have tons of their chipboard previously purchased in a moment of weakness, and I do love me some chipboard!

Week 1

I finally got around to scanning the first batch of pages from my Month in the Life mini-album. I tried to keep it simple. I used notebook pages from the stationery aisle as the main background (all the notebook paper in France is like graph paper, super cool) . A looong time ago my sister sent me some time cards (she bought them at Walmart), and I thought they'd be perfect for this project. I tried to carry the colour scheme from the cover over onto the pages. Methinks I will need to stock up on more red stickers and lime green accents soon!

A month in the life

I'm leading a photo a day challenge on the forum at Scrapbook Takeout this month, and I've decided to use the photos to make a mini album for August. My plan is to do pretty simple pages, using the photos in 4x6 format straight out of the printer. I'll share the pages in two 2-week batches, but for now here is the cover.

I made the book from two pieces of chipboard that came with a photo order (love when that happens - crafting materials for "free"). I painted it first with the light green paint, then used the Heidi Swapp flower mask with the darker green. I embossed the calendar stamp from Purple Onion onto the 7 Gypsies tag using Ranger Distress Embossing Powder in Walnut Ink. The transparency is by Hambly, the letter stickers by 3 Bugs and Chatterbox and the stamps by Aladine Atelier (a French company). I'll upload the first batch of pages later this week. In the meantime you can see all my daily photos on my photo blog or on Flickr.

Travel Journal

I planned to do a travel journal while my Mum was here, a scrapbooking on the road kind of thing to record the trip, and save ephemera so that once I was ready to scrap the photos I'd have all the information available. It worked really well while we were in Paris and doing lots of sightseeing and eating out, but once we hit the provinces and things slowed way down it just wasn't happening anymore. There are only so many ways you can record "Lazed around the house reading today"! So instead of a "summer in France" journal I ended up with a "4 Days in Paris" journal.

I used a chipboard album from 7 Gypsies. It consisted originally of 2 covers and 4 chipboard pages. I took the pages out (to use as covers for future minibooks) and made my own using cardstock. While working on the book on the road I used the spiral punch from Stampin Up! to add additional pages and ephemera. You can see additional views of the journal here

Call Me Fran