Cards on Wednesdays returns!

Awhile ago October Afternoon sent me a box of goodies. And then I was all busy with life. You know, that thing that just seems to get in the way of scrapping all the time? So last weekend I finally had a chance to dip my toe into that big box of creative goodness and make a few cards.

Some scrapping buddies of mine helped me out with a vending thingy I did at a crop earlier in the month and were superheroes that came to my rescue when I needed help. What better way to say, "Thank you," than to make some cards with October Afternoon's new Midway line and to slip a little surprise inside?

So here is one of the cards I made. (Three of the girls haven't received theirs yet, so I'll post those another day.)

Nothing super fancy, but fun none-the-less. Now, keep in mind... I made these at the scrapbook store and arrived with nothing more than my purse and my brain (and  I'm sure some people are probably questioning whether my brain was really along or not). It was kind of a "Macgyver of Card Making" of sorts. The only items available to me were: the inventory in the store; the tools in the workroom; and whatever I could find in my purse (which sadly included no chewing gum so I had to buy adhesive - hee hee!).

So armed with a sharpie, 3 items from the "buttons by the piece" bin, a few sheets of paper, a sticker, a trimmer, and some new adhesive... this is what I whipped out:

Well... this and another card that I clearly forgot to photograph during my covert creative mission. (Oops!)

ANYWAY.... 

And of course the inside needed to be just as colorful as the outside (plus it needed a pocket to hold the surprise)!

Who says card making can't be simple, easy, and fast? I bet it would have taken longer to pick out a Hallmark and not nearly as cool! *wink*



Purge much?

At the beginning of November I was a vendor at The Get Inspired Expo, a 300 (yes THREE-HUNDRED) person all-day crop hosted by the very lovely and ever so sweet Minna. When I first signed up to vend I had intended to do something different with my booth and only signed up for a half day. Well at the last minute, I decided instead to do a major de-stash and sell my extra scrapbooking supplies instead. Yes, ladies, I did a cut-throat purge of nearly 12 year’s worth of scrapbooking goodies. Whew... I can't believe I've been scrapping that long...and even more, I can't believe I'm that much older already!

I've been scrapping for about 12 years now and I've never really "de-stashed" at all. So after tripping over too many supplies for days and days I finally decided that I was going to bite the bullet, get cutthroat about it and just PURGE, PURGE, PURGE my way to a better workspace.

And it all sounded like such a good idea until...

My basement started to look like this:

About 1/8th of the basement, mid-sort.

And that pile found a few more friends, and grew a bit bigger...

And at this point, my husband suggested we might need to get a trailer to haul it all.

(Good thinking dear.)

And then the paper started to pile up like this:

Yes, that's TEN bins of paper.



 And this is what it all looked like when loaded into the trailer:

And that's just insane!

 



And then it was such a crazy flurry of activity that I totally forgot to take pictures of the booth! So, just imagine 10x20 feet of scrapbooking supplies and a whole bunch o' scrappers okay? ;)

 

So on the big day, my booth was WAY more popular than anticipated and by 10 am we were swamped... and COMPLETELY out change. EEK! Fortunately some of my scrapping buddies were right by us and willing to make a bank run for me. Then, when it came time to shut down for the day we were asked to stay, but that meant packing up and relocating and re-displaying six eight-foot tables of scrapbooking supplies in under an hour. And again these fabulous ladies were kind enough to give up some of their scrappy time to help me out. Aren't scrappers just the best?

And we sold TONS of stuff, but still had quite a bit that came home with us too. Which I had to re-sort and re-organize before putting it away.

 

And now I'm really glad that's all done with! So, if I can just clean up the wake of destruction left in my scraproom, I'll be all set and back in business!

 

Tutorials on Tuesdays: Printing on die cut accents

I love journaling spots. I can't get enough of them. My favorites are the kraft ones from Maya Road and the journaling cards from October Afternoon. And while I like my handwriting and often do my journaling by hand, sometimes I want the effect of a certain font (like a vintage typewriter as shown below).

Click to bigify.

Font: Bohemian Typewriter

Journaling spot: Maya Road

Today, I thought I would share with you an easy way to make sure your journaling will show up.

• Open a new document. (I use CorelDraw design software, but you could use other sofware like Adobe Photoshop Elements or Microsoft Word too).
• Measure your die cut that you want to print on and add a box to your new document that is the same size. Make sure the inside of the box is white and that there is an outline showing.
• Mark which end of the paper you load in the printer first. (Trust me, this will be VERY helpful later.)
• Print out the page with the box on it.
• Download a picture of the die cut from the manufacturer's web site. If it's a grouped image, crop it down to just the die cut you are using and crop it tight.
• Place the downloaded (and cropped if applicable) image inside of your box. Measure your die cut and resize the downloaded image to match the size of your die cut. 
• Turn off the outline of your box (set the color to none or white) so it won't print.  If you're using design software that allows you to place the image on it's own layer and set it to be view only (no printing) do that too.
• Layer a text box over the image and type your journaling. 
• Print the page out with the die cut and the journaling image. Now would be a very good time to pay attention to which end is up. :)
• Once you're finished, if you can't set the image of the die cut to not print, delete the image of the die cut before printing. This will make a template to help you make sure you get the orientation of your die cut correct when you run the real one through.
• Lightly affix your die cut inside of the box, over where the image of the die cut and journaling were.
• Load it into the printer (now would also be a great time to make sure you load the paper the right direction).
• Print
• Voila! You have a printed journaling card ready to go on your next layout!

Cricut Holidays is available now!

Cricut Holidays 2012

I can't help it... I still get a little giddy each time I go to the store and find an issue that I have a project in. It's kind of like Christmas morning. ...The anticipation of the issue and the surprise of seeing what the writer and the photographer have done with your layout on the shelf before you -just waiting to be opened. And I always love how Northridge Publishing stages the layouts and cards in little themed vignettes, so I was really excited to flip through this issue quick and find my layout.

... And here it is :)

Merry Christmas by Mollie Deem as seen in Cricut Holidays 2012

...And then I always wonder what the store employees and other customers think of the crazy lady photographing the pages of a magazine right in the middle of the store! (Just buy the issue crazy lady!)

You can find instructions for this layout in a previous post found here and here.

If you'd like to make your own version of this layout (for personal use only please -don't sell it or teach it in a class) you can find the cutting instructions here.

November/December issue of Creating Keepsakes available now!

The latest issue of Creating Keepsakes is on newsstands this week. (Those of you who subscribe probably already have yours in your mailbox.) If you didn't get your copy, you can always go online and order a copy here.

And I'm happy to share a project that I made for this issue with you too! (It's on page 83 for those that want to follow along at home.)

"Elf Banner" as seen in the November/December 2012 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. 

Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

Technologically handicapped

Graphics card + defective = computer not working.
Computer not working = blogging via cell phone.
Blogging via cell phone = blog with no pictures and limited words = BORING.
Sparing readers from boring = another blog hiatus.
Blog hiatus = sad face :(
(I may have had a few posts in the queue, so you may see a few of those, but that's it until the graphics card is repaired or a replacement arrives.)

Class with Dyan Reaveley!

Dyan Reaveley was coming to town (well not my town, but one about 3 hours away) to teach several classes, but I just fell in love with this canvas class sample:

 



I was on the fence about whether or not to go all the way to KC, so I posted a note on Facebook to The Scrapbooking Studio's DT Coordinator, Stacy Rodriquez to see if she or any of the gals from the store were heading down. Sadly, they were not, but Dyan jumped in to let us know her class was going to be "freakin' fabulous." And with her fun and spunky dialogue added to my decision making mix, I decided that  if she can hop across the pond and make it to Kansas, I could certainly make a 3hour drive to go see her.

Mollie Deem and Dyan Reaveley

But of course, every road trip needs an accomplice... er... uh... I mean a travel buddy. A "Thelma" to my "Louise" if you will, so I promptly rang up my friend Linda and chatted her up. I'm pretty sure I had her at, "you get to play with paints and get all inky." So now I had everything I needed... except for tickets to the class. The store was closed so I had to wait 2 more days until it opened to call for tickets, but fortunately there were 2 spots left. The plan was hatched, the tickets were paid for and all we needed next was a playlist and some snacks!

So the day came, and we headed off on our little adventure. During which we discovered that the GPS on my phone was broken and the directions I'd printed were worthless. Fortunately the GPS came back to life in time to get us most of the way through Kansas City and we'd been to the store about a year a go, so our memory got us the rest of the way.

While I really wanted to make EXACTLY the store sample, I knew that would be next to impossible and well... I'm not much good at following instructions anyway, so I figured I'd just go with the flow. So for the next 4 hours we added layer after layer of gesso, paper, and colorants in a multitude of forms - paints, spray inks, markers, baby wipes (yes, I said baby wipes!) and more. At the end of class my hands were nearly as much of a work of art as my canvas (and I looked like a member of The Blue Band for nearly a week following). Dyan warned us not to use the letters and numbers because we'd try to make them too perfect, so of course the little rebel in me went straight for those (plus, by the time I got to the stencils they were really the only ones left, ha!). Dyan came by a few times to review my use of said stencils and since I wasn't scolded, nor did she take them away, I'm assuming I must have been doing them justice :)

And at the end of four hours of furious creative activity, this little "masterpiece" was born. Quite simple to make really -once Dyan had deconstructed it. Now I just have one decision left to make... to frame it not? That's the question!

Abstract Canvas by Mollie Deem.

Class and technique instruction from Dyan Reaveley.

 

 And here's the fabulously, no diliriously happy canvas that Linda made. How can you not just look at this and smile?

Abstract Canvas by Linda Franklin

(Sorry, not the best photo/photo editing job ever.) 

 

 

Just to give you a little taste of the variety that can be generated by the same techniques, here are pictures of canvases made by some of our classmates: