12 on Twelve | February 2014

At the last Paperie Spring retreat I taught a canvas class where we made a Spring canvas. It was a hit and so for in store classes this year the owners and I decided I would teach a set of four seasonal classes. The first one was this past Saturday.

We had a great group, about 6 of us, which is a nice size for a mixed media canvas class. This time the canvas was winter so of course, I needed a snowman:

One of the problems most people had to work through was covering the layers. One person, after we had the first layers of items down said, “I love it! I’m done.” And then we added about 5 more layers on top of that! The number one thing I tell students in canvas and mixed media classes is this: Don’t get attached to it – we’re covering it up!

I love to add rub-ons to my canvases and the Tim Holtz remnant rubs worked great for this one, especially to spruce up the top of the snowman’s hat:

My favourite part of this canvas is the texture of the snowman himself:

I think he turned out just right!

To make this class even better, we had an awesome mix of people who all had great ideas and fun products. One person had fabulous shimmery stuff that we all added to our snowbank to make it sparkle. Someone else had a swirl stencil to mimic the look of swirling snow. And yet another person had a bunch of different quotes to share. I love classes that gel like that so thank you to all the canvas peeps!

Next up, a new spring canvas – want to join us? 🙂

Heart People

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Sara in Kid's Crafts, This & That

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kid's crafts

We had a big day here yesterday – baking and crafts! Gabe and Hannah were in their glee.

First, we made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies – a favourite with all of us. I love them because they’re easy and have little cleanup. The kids love them because they get to squish them with a fork:

and they bake in only a few minutes!

After that we made a fun Valentine’s craft, with hand prints of course. I think I’m completely unable to do a children’s craft without handprints – it’s an issue.

This one involved not only inking up hands, but feet as well.

Can you see the prints? Their hands formed the “head” heart and their feet, the “body.” We then used their thumb prints to make little hearts for the “hands” and “feet.” I traced out the heart shapes and then Gabe and Hannah cut them all out, stuck them together and added googly eyes. It’s not a good craft if googly eyes are not included!

Hannah, as always, was great to pose for me:

Gabe, well, not so much!

While we were doing all that, Heidi decided it was reading time.

All in all, I think they had a good day.

Tomorrow I’ve got a post for you about the canvas class I taught this past weekend – I even had one person tell me it was the best class they’ve ever taken! I’ll give myself a pat on the back for that one, thank you very much! 🙂

Scrapbook Steals | My Mind’s Eye Chalk Studio

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Sara in Mini Album, Scrapbook Steals

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Mini Album, My Mind's eye Chalk Studio, Scrapbook Steals

Hello friends!

I got a late but just-in-time package from Scrapbook Steals this week and my first product blog post for them is up today!

I had a blast designing a couple of fun items so go have a look and enjoy the Steal!

Simple Scrapper Show & Tell | February 2014

04 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

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mixed media canvas, Scrapbook Layout, Simple Scrapper

I am so excited to share my Creative Team work for this month – I had a blast with the templates and love how they turned out!

First, the Story Starter LO:

Isn’t that fun? I’ve been hoarding that background paper from a Paperie Kit and forced myself to use it. I love the combination of sweet (hearts), vintage (doily), and distressed (paper edges).

And that long title in alpha stickers with the journaling sideways was a fun switch up for me.

For the template only project I made a canvas for Gabe:

My favourite thing about canvases is the amazing texture and layers:

Every night when he goes to bed I say this to him:

And he laughs like a loon! Crazy boy!

Make sure you check out the Show & Tell over at Simple Scrapper today and leave a link to your own work so we can all check it out!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping.

A bit of this, a bit of that….

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Card Kit, Classes, Mixed Media

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Classes, Mixed media, Simple Scrapper, The Paperie Card

I know I’ve been pretty quiet around here but I’ve been a busy bee behind the scenes designing and making and playing! My goal for this year is to have classes, kits, and creative team work designed, prepped, and ready in advance – and not to be doing it at the last second. That being said though, I seem to work well under deadline pressure!

Right now I’m getting ready to post my work using the February Simple Scrapper Members templates:

and story starters:

Plus I’m working my way through The Paperie‘s March Card kit:

And I just finished designing the canvas for The Paperie’s first ever Canvas Class: Junior Edition!

I’m so excited to see what all the kids do with the instructions – I know none of their canvases are going to look even remotely like mine and that’s the really awesome part of this class!

On top of that I’m mulling ideas for the new Yearlong Album class while waiting for my supplies to come in and I’m trying out things for my Seasonal Canvas: Winter class. Here’s the Spring canvas from last year’s retreat class, no peeks available yet for Winter though!

And that’s it – for now! I still have more card kit projects to do and a little something fun for Scrapbook Steals so there will be lots more eye candy soon.

YLA2013 | Wrapup

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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Mixed Media Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

So this past Sunday I taught the final class of the 2013 Yearlong Album. It was bittersweet: I loved the class peeps and we had a blast getting messy and playing with mixed media this year but by this point in the process I’m a little tired of looking at the same paper and am excited and ready for the new year to start! We have some amazing new product ordered for 2014 and a new concept – exclusive sketches! If you want more details, or to sign up, contact The Paperie.

Onto the final LO’s….

This a was a jam packed class because we made 5, yes FIVE, LO’s! I was so impressed with everyone when we actually got them all done!

November was all about Primary Elements, medium transfer, Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE), and Wendy Vecchi Translucent Embossing Paste:

I love the rugged, distressed look of the transferred frame.

And the paste over a stencil is fabulous. My favourite part though, is the shine and texture:

So cool!

The December LO’s had the fun element of used paper towel collage. It looks great as a background photo mat:

And even better cut into shapes and used as embellishments:

Seriously, isn’t that colour and texture awesome?

Finally, we did the last page of the album.

I wanted to keep it simple and picture free but many people in the class added a pic and they looked great!

Most of the LO’s from past year are at my Flickr gallery under the Yearlong Album 2013 set. The ones that are missing are the couple of months where I didn’t finish adding pictures to the LO’s. I’m hoping to get those done in the next couple of weeks and then I’ll update the set with the completed album. In the meantime, enjoy the rest!

Gabe and his funny sayings…

21 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Family

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G and his funny sayings..., Gabe, kids

Gabe had a little adventure and lunch out with my best friend late last week – just the two of them. Over lunch they were talking about favourite foods.

G: I love peanut butter.

S (my friend): We don;t have peanut butter. It would make Rachel sick and she would have to go to the hospital.

G: Oh. Well, if Molly picked up a fork and stabbed me in the eye, I’d have to go to the hospital too!

I’m not quite sure where I got him…

Paperie Card Kit | January 2014: Part 2

16 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Card Kit, Mixed Media

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Canvas, Mixed media, The Paperie Card Kit

I’m back to show you the rest of my projects from the Paperie’s January Card Kit (see the others here and here).

First up is a card that would hold a gift card. I used the 7 Gypsies tag included in the kit for the focal point – I think t his would make an awesome gift for those people you’re a little stumped about when it comes to gift giving times, like the postal carrier, or garbage man.

I simply folded one of the 6×6 pieces of patterned paper in half, keeping the top strip attached. This gave me a half circle on one side so I punched another on the other side and had a perfect place to rest my ribbon.

I then cut another piece of patterned paper to fit inside, cut a couple of notches for a gift card, and stamped a sentiment. Easy, quick, and done!

Another quick project were the lunch box notes. I just cut small pieces of patterned paper, folded them to resemble a matchbook, and stapled the bottom to keep the flap tucked in.

A fun heat embossed stamp inside and they’re perfect for Molly’s lunch!

Finally, my favourite, a canvas.

As I mentioned before, I love the stamp set that came with the kit and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make this canvas. Pretty much everything came from the kit except the basics – the canvas, multimedium, paint, mist, and vintage book paper. I love the shine from the mix of gold, silver, and gold glitter embossing paper:

And of course, the title rocks!

And that’s it – lots of projects and I still have lots of product left to play with! There may still be one or two kits left if you want to pick one up, just give the Paperie a call to reserve it!

12 on Twelve (though it was actually the 13th) | January 2014

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in This & That

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12 on Twelve

I loved this mini project so much last year that I’m doing it again – it’s a great way to get an overview of daily life. That being said I’m off to a rough start and forgot about it until the next day. Sigh.