Monthly Archives: September 2012

Sketchbook!

28 Friday Sep 2012

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I spent last night at The Paperie taking Cathie’s Starburst and Pinwheel Class with some scrappy friends. We had a blast and the LO’s were awesome! Equally awesome? The stuff I came home with!

How do you all feel about classes? Are you happy to simply do them and come home with your projects or do you like to get extra stuff too?

Me? I’m all about the add-ons! Love getting a little something to carry away, especially if I learn something new and get a product so I can recreate the projects in my own way. Last night, we all got a pack of Thickers (I already had the green so I exchanged them for the black) and a 6×6 Amy Tangerine Sketchbook paper pad – pretty sweet, my friends!

The starburst LO we completed was this one:

oh dear… (design credit: Cathie Reed)

Of course, I had to make things difficult and use different papers so that slowed me down a little, but I love the end result. Cathie also showed us how to make a stencil from our starburst and how to tone down the bright papers we were using.

I had to come home to finish this one since the picture I brought just didn’t work. I’m glad to get this photo on a LO though, because it was a pretty funny day – M & P chose to colour each other, but with non-washable red marker. They had streaks on their faces for days! 🙂

The second LO featured a pie chart and again, Cathie suggested a couple of ways of doing it and some other project ideas too.

for you, mama! (design credit: Cathie Reed)

Again, I made things hard on myself and used different papers which meant time sorting out what to put where but at least I got these photos scrapped, since they probably wouldn’t have been otherwise!

M & G love to pick me flowers and on this day, shortly after the dandelions came out in bloom, they insisted on keeping them in a “vase” of water. As you can tell, I’m also in love with the Ali Edwards photo overlays from Designer Digitals. I have to force myself not to drop them onto every picture – a battle I lost for this LO!

Hope you liked them – go over and tell Cathie what you think – maybe we can get her to teach some more classes! 🙂

S.

Things on Thursday

27 Thursday Sep 2012

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1. I am so excited for this December kit from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Cocoa Daisy, as I mentioned last week. This week, there’s been an exciting update – they have posted a sneak peek and I can pre-order it! And there’s an exclusive stamp and stencil set designed by Julie! Yay!

credit: Cocoa Daisy

2. Right now pie charts are a huge trend in scrapbooking and Scrapbook and Cards Today have an awesome tutorial by Nicole Nowosad on their blog showing how to make one. Definitely worth checking out!

credit: Nicole Nowosad and Scrapbooks & Cards Today

3. Speaking of pie charts, Cathie is teaching a class at The Paperie tonight and the focus is how to make and use pie charts and starbursts on your LO’s – this is going to be a fabulous class and I can’t wait to go!

credit: Cathie Reed

4. Maya Road is a company that has some super fun stuff, including coloured zippers. Now why, you might ask, would I want a bunch of coloured zippers in my stash? Watch this video by Ronda Palazzari and you’ll find out!

credit: Ronda Palazzari and Maya Road

5. I’ve been working on my next installment for the Yearlong Album 2012 – we’ll be doing October this week – and here’s a peek!

Hope to see some of you at class this evening!

S.

 

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials

25 Tuesday Sep 2012

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Note: This is a super duper photo heavy post – you might want to grab a coffee before you start! 🙂

A while back I posted this mini album…

Let the fun begin…

…I had made from one sheet of patterned paper and washi tape. That was it. Oh, and I threw on a bit of unnecessary baker’s twine at the end.

I said it then and I’ll say write it again, this is the easiest and smallest kit you’ll ever pack for a trip or crop! A couple of people asked for detailed instructions so here they are!

You will need:

Supplies

A paper trimmer and/or scissors, a pen for journaling, one sheet of patterned paper, and coordinating washi tape – as much or as little as you like.

You could really use any patterned paper you want but I love the sheets full of cut apart elements – they just seem to cry out to be made into minis! This time around, I used a sheet from Echo Park‘s mini line, Toy Box. The nice thing about the “Jump” sheet is that it has great embellishment elements as well.

First of all, just cut everything apart and trim out any elements you need – for example, I cut apart the words and tickets, and trimmed the scallop border.

Next, lay out your pieces in order from front cover all the way to the back, then group them into pairs, with the covers being a pair and adjacent interior pages pairing up.

Next, use washi tape to adhere each set of interior pages to each other, but only use washi tape on one side.

Now, fold the pairs in half, as they’ll appear in the book, and adhere adjacent pairs together. Again, only use washi on one side. Below you will see the “play all day” pair and the “I love you” pair:

Finally, add a strip of washi tape to the front cover, on the exterior left. Add a strip to the back cover on the exterior right.

Now, sandwich your stack of interior pages between the covers and press the two pieces of washi tape together, forming a flap.

Use one more strip of washi to wrap around the whole spine, pressing down the flap you created a moment ago.

That’s it, you’re done!

I did stick in some of the borders but left the words to add once I put in my photos. Obviously, at this point you could make it much fancier and add more details and embellishments but essentially, it’s finished!

I hope you try this out and tell me about it in the comments – I’d love to see your mini!

S.

Family Pictures and a little Project Life

24 Monday Sep 2012

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The weather, though not at all fall-like, was gorgeous on Saturday so I dragged the family off to the park for a picnic and photos – I needed an undated one for the first page of Project Life! 🙂

Now, you know how Miss M feels about pictures, it’s a horrible, terrible thing I torture her with! So she was told that we need the picture and then we could go feed the ducks and play at the playground – the quicker the pictures, they longer the playing.

It didn’t work.

But I got some awesome out-takes (and one semi reasonable family picture!).

This is limp noodle M and G wondering why he has to behave if she doesn’t.

This might be my favourite one – M couldn’t look more pathetic, G is having the time of his life “drumming,” and D is already pretty PO’d at the whole situation! This one makes me laugh! 🙂

Now we’re getting to the point where G is getting fed up and M is *still* not cooperating.

This is another fave – see that sweet face on my boy? And M is glaring at the camera over her glasses – hilarious!

Now we’re getting somewhere – she’s trying really hard not to smile here! It’s only a matter of time, my friends, before I win!

Yes! One that will work and no one looks grumpy! I win! (insert big fist pump here)

On a side note – don’t you love that Ali Edwards/Designer Digitals overlay? I’m going to have to reprint the picture just like this for my PL album, I have it in there now just plain and it looks so boring!

And notice how there is no “S” on my picture? It’s the only letter I’m missing from my Studio Calico wood veneer letters so I’m trying to decide what to do there…. If anyone has an extra “S” it would save me some debating power! 🙂

Back tomorrow with a washi minibook tutorial – if I can get the paper I need!

S.

It’s Friday! and a LO…

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Family, ScrapBook

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Friday! Yay! I have a crop to go to tonight and we have both adult and kiddie birthday parties this weekend – it’s going to be a fun one! Plus, the weather is still holding, knock on wood! 🙂

I don’t know why I haven’t posted this LO yet, it’s one I did for a LO tag back in August but since I didn’t post it then, it gives me some eye candy to post for you now!

Happy Together

This is one of my favourite pics from the trip M and I took to New Brunswick in July. She and P had the best time – I only wished we all lived a little closer to each other!

I used the August Paperie club kit for this – I loved the Dear Lizzy patterned papers and chipboard pieces, so fun! Of course, I had to add some wood veneer:

I love those little people. Really love them – I have 3 packs so that I never run out! 🙂

And I had to add some hidden journaling because, as per usual, I didn’t think about it until the LO was finished so it had to be tucked away!

A great Dina Wakley stencil and some Studio Calico Shine for the background and that was it. I love the neutral background and photo with the soft colours of the embellishments – not my norm but I think I’ll have to try it again!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and the weather is good wherever you may be!

S.

Things on Thursday

20 Thursday Sep 2012

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1. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a huge fan of sketches, I just don’t find they work for me though I know a lot of people absolutely love them. That being said, this one from October Afternoon totally inspired me and I can’t wait to make a LO from it!

sketch credit: October Afternoon

2. I love Dina Wakley‘s art. And this page is awesome.

art and photo credit: Dina Wakley

3. I’m stoked to see this kit. I’m a huge fan of Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and she has designed an exclusive stamp and stencil for this – I. Can’t. Wait.

credit: Cocoa Daisy and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

4. Elise Blaha Cripe is a super fun and talented blogger who designs stamps (along with doing a bunch of other things!) which she sells through her online stamp shop. There are so many I want but the “today is” stamp is on the top of my list. Sooooo many things I can add in that blank space!

stamp design and photo credit: Elise Blaha Cripe

5. By now, you should know of my love for Christy Tomlinson and the She Art workshops I’m taking online. She’s so much fun to listen to and watch and she now has all the free videos from her blog in one spot! These are worth the time to watch, trust me!

If you’re in the capital city area of NL, I hope you’re joining me at The Paperie tomorrow for crop night! Make sure you call them and sign up – always fabulous times!

S.

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

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So, I’m back with the Tuesday Techniques after a summer hiatus but I’ve decided to change it up a little and have tutorials sometimes as well! Today is going to be a mini tutorial on my Project Life Album cover. Let’s hope it turns out because it’s the only one I have! 🙂

When I went to buy an album for Project Life, I had planned to get a really colourful leather one, but when I got to The Paperie, they had one more of these Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Camera Albums left:

To me, it looked like the perfect album for Project Life!

One small problem, I wanted some more colour – black and white is not normally my go to colour combination!

A little while ago I saw this post and video by Ronda Palazzari and I thought it was the perfect solution to my album cover! I didn’t use stencils, but I did decide to paint the cameras, some of them anyway.

I started by painting a few cameras with Titanium White Golden acrylic paint.

I wanted the colour to really pop so I needed a light layer beneath to cover the black, kind of like using primer on your walls.

It was a very thin coat and, as you can see…

…I wasn’t very particular about covering the whole area neatly. I only did three camera on each of the front and back covers and I liked the look so much that I was very tempted to leave it just like this!

However, I had it in my head that I wanted red cameras so once the white paint was dry, I broke out my favourite Twinkling H2O’s and used the Poppy colour to paint them in.

 Again, you can see that I wasn’t fussy about the neatness.

I like how the pops of red turned out, but I may add some more colour later. I’m still debating whether one colour is enough or not!

I’m planning to do a tutorial on how to make my one sheet, washi tape mini album next week. If there are any tutorials in particular you’d like to see, let me know!

S.

 

 

Awards

14 Friday Sep 2012

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So earlier this week I got a comment on one of my posts that shocked me. Miss Four Eyes, another blogger, nominated me for two awards!

To say I was floored is an understatement! It’s really an honor, Miss Four Eyes, to be on your list of five – I appreciate your comments, your likes on my posts, and your blog . You should all go check her out, she’s really quite funny and I look forward to the entertainment of her writing and life every morning!

Here are the blogs I have nominated for both awards:

1. Day Jobs and the NightLife.

This one is written by a room-mate and friend of mine from way back. He now lives in Montreal and writes about places to go in the area, especially food and drink places. The best part? He’ll give you recommendations if you ask! And one of his latest posts was a review of Raymonds,  a local restaurant here in NL he was lucky enough to be invited to review while home on holiday. I love his writing, and am generally drooling and hungry by the time I finish a blog post!

2. The Grumpy Goat Gallery

First of all, the art is fabulous! Bright, whimsical, and fun – this blog is worth checking out just for that. But it’s also hilariously funny! Cara and Pam are local NL artists who  live in a small community about an hour outside the capitol city. They own a menagerie of animals that includes goats and cats who are frequently the stars of the blog stories and might truly be humans in animal form. Really. Read their blog and you’ll understand, while laughing at the craziness of their days.

3. Candice Does the World

Candice is a travel blogger from Newfoundland and the title of her blog should give you an idea of her sense of humor. She is lucky enough to now have a job that doesn’t require her to be or live anywhere in particular and she takes full advantage of that fact! Right now, she is based back in NL, but that could change anytime, from what I understand! I met Candice briefly, just once, when Day Jobs and the Nightlife was home this summer but her blog makes you feel as if you could just sit down and have a drink with her like old friends!

4. Emily Lagore

Emily is someone I discovered on Instagram and she really is the most incredible artist. On Instagram, however, she posts her art journals and fabulous mandalas. I love her style, love her mandalas, and most of all, love how super sweet she is! She always replies to everyone’s comments and offers help and suggestions when asked. Go check her out for the eye candy, it’s worth it, and if you like watercolour paintings and portraits, have a look at her art website.

There are so many more blogs I could mention, but I also didn’t want to accidently leave someone out so I’m leaving it here. I will say that my biggest inspiration and the blogs I go to first every morning belong to my talented friends – you’ll find all their blogs on the right in my blogroll!

Another thing I have to do to accept these awards is to list 7 things about me:

1. Until last month I was a nail biter – since I’ve stopped, I’ve become a bit obsessed with nail polish. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you are probably bored of the nail shots! 🙂

2. My best friend is tall, dark, and gorgeous, whereas I’m short and well… who knows what my hair colour really is anymore! But she’s been my bestie since we were 6 and I have some awesome stories about her. Whenever I drink lemonade, she pops in my head!

3. I love to sing – but only at the top of my lungs and when I’m alone in the car! Trust me, it’s better that I’m alone during these times….

4. I have one awesome brother who has a PhD in theorhetical physics and another who has a math honours and a fine arts degree in photography. They’re quite a bit different but very much alike and are best friends even though they’re 6 years apart – it’s very cool to see!

5. I love to teach. Maybe even more than creating itself, I love to teach what I know and what I learn and what I make.

6. I hate to cook. Really hate it. Having to make supper every night? Groan. But baking? I could do that all day! (Miss Four Eyes? I could make you a cake if you trusted me with your address! :))

7. My favourite candy are Gobstoppers. Yup, those ones from Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory. It drives my husband crazy that I insist on expensive handmade chocolate but will only eat cheap candy!

So there you are – my exciting and humbling surprise, 4 of my fave inspiring and lovely blogs (5 if you count Miss Four Eyes herself), and 7 tidbits about me!

Have a wonderful weekend and take some time check out the blogs listed here and in my blogroll – you won’t regret it!

S.

 

12 on Twelve – September

13 Thursday Sep 2012

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As always, I did my 12 pics for the day on the twelfth. I missed a couple of good ones – M hiding under the kitchen table because she didn’t want to go to school and the stencil class last night – but got an overview none-the-less….

1. Rosie, guarding the front door – she loves to hang out in the porch!

2. My standard 12on12 selfie.

3. Sending in my first Project Life pics for Week 1!

4. New super glittery nails – love them!

5. The boys making funny faces.

6. Showing off their stinky feet!

7. Slides are apparently for jumping off, not sliding down…

8. M home from school – she looked happier until she saw the camera! 🙂

9. Getting my first week of PL organized.

10. Starbucks to take me through class!

11. Joan finishing up in class. I was too busy to take pics during and missed some good shots!

12. New products were put out on the shelves at The Paperie during the class so I had to stock up before I came home!

S.

 

Project Life

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

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So, I jumped on the bandwagon.

With M beginning school last week, it seemed to be the perfect time to finally try out Project Life. I must be insane to put something else on my plate but I’d really like to document our lives and her first year of school, if possible. Let’s see how it goes – I think I’m already behind! Ha! 🙂

I’m going to let you know what I’ve done so far with regards to organizing and getting it all together, and I’d love to know what you do. Tell me what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t work for you! I need this to be as simple and quick as it can possibly be and, at this point, I don’t care if there are any embellishments in the finished  product or not!

My photos are already organized on my computer in a way that works well for me so I’ve left that alone. All photos go into yearly folders and are then sub-divided into monthly folders. When I view my photos, I always do it in the daily format so it’s super easy for me to see what days I need for the week and just look through those pics.

Once I’ve decided on the pictures I’m using, I drop them into a Project Life folder which again is then sub-divided into weekly folders. I choose my photos with my templates in front of me so I can decide how many to use, or if I need an insert for more. As I choose the photos, I write in the placement on the template.

From there I do (very little and probably terrible) editing in Photoshop, send them to be printed, pack up the kiddies, and go get them!

I cut and corner round them all, inserting into the slots as marked and then add the  Turquoise core kit items I want to use. And then basically, if I have no other time, I’m done. But this way I can just pick away at it when I get a minute here and there. No pressure, since the bulk is done and if nothing else gets added, I’m still ok with that.

Yes, it’s true. I’m ok with nothing but my pics and the dates. If I didn’t go into this with that mindset, I’d never keep it up!

The other thing I do during the week is an idea stolen from my friend Liz. This summer, since it was so busy, she kept a running Word document open and simply added to it each day. Genius! Journalling is the hardest and most hated part of this art form for me but this way it’s quick and easy and only takes a minute or two in the evening. I’m planning to simply print each week on cardstock and insert between the weekly pages.

Now, all that being said, I don’t have Week 1 finished yet:

…so we’re going to see if my big plans actually work in reality!

Wish me luck!

S.

P.S. It’s 12 on Twelve today – are you taking your pics and joining in the fun? 🙂