February | YLA2014

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

Tags

October Afternoon, Ranger, Studio Calico Wanderlust, The Crafter's Workshop, YLA2014

This past weekend I taught the second Yearlong Album class for 2014. More fun times with sketches and I broke out the new Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer too!

Everyone was given a pack of new October Afternoon chipboard stars and hearts for this month’s class and I’m totally in love with them:

Aren’t they great?

We layered up some of the fabulous Wanderlust papers, along with some Simple Stories diecuts (stamped with my fave roller stamp):

And had fun playing with the aforementioned marker spritzer and my favourite The Crafter’s Workshop stencils to ground our photos. It all came together in a great double LO:

As always, people went their own way – used different papers, added extra photos, changed up the LO to suit them. I think that’s my favourite part of this class, everyone takes what I do and then bends it do it works for them – awesome!

I’m a busy bee again at the moment, trying to get some LO’s and canvases done for May classes so keep and eye on my Instagram and Twitter feeds for peeks of all that!

I’m planning to post some Art Journal pages tomorrow that I started in Cathie’s class last week – it was another excellent one and I love what I did! Check back tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have that ready for you.

Home Decor Hoopla

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Classes, The Paperie, Tim Holtz fabric

The past couple of years at Christmas The Paperie has had a holiday hoopla – each of the designers teach a different homemade gift idea and you go home with six ready-made presents plus the instructions on how to make them do you can do more! Genius, right?

Well, it’s always been so much fun that this year we decided to do a Home Decor Hoopla and it’s timed just right for Mother’s Day! Our first Home Decor Hoopla will be this Saturday, April 5 and trust me, if you live close enough, you’re going to want to make a point of doing this class. I really think it’s the best one we’ve had! Among other things there will be a fun photo holder, a table runner, and an etched glass vase. I’ve seen them and friends, they’re amazing.

My contribution? It’s this:

A 12″ grapevine wreath with Tim Holtz fabric flowers. I love how it turned out and the nice thing is that you can add more if you want, or jazz up the bow, or add sparkle, anything. Really, once you know how to put it together, you’ll be hooked and making them for everyone and every occasion! And isn’t that Tim Holtz fabric awesome?

There’s still room in class and it’s only $60 – that’s $10 a gift, peeps, can’t beat that fabulous price! Hope to see you there!

A little bit Distressed…

07 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Classes, Distress Ink, Ranger, The Paperie

Do you have some favourite products that you sometimes forget about? Me too. And that thought, along with a conversation I had with my friend Rae Lynn, led to a new class at The Paperie which debuted Monday night!

The first in this bimonthly series was all about Distress Ink. I, like many people I know, have them all, love them all, but they have fallen to the side a little as fun new products come out. To renew the love I taught two layouts and 6 card fronts full of different techniques to get our Distress Ink mojo flowing again!

The first LO is basic blending with a bit of “spritz and flick” to add dimension:

I used buttons and paper strips for layers, dimension, and fun:

The second LO was all about using Distress Ink in a watercolour-y way and I love how it turned out:

The 6 card fronts used stencils, layering, water ghosting, faux watercolour, and ink blending. They were fun! To see them all, check out my Flickr stream.

ghosted and stamped images Next time we do a Renewed class it’s going to be all about Distress Paint so come join us and find out how much fun they can be!

come on – let’s do this! | YLA2014

06 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, Yearlong Album

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Classes, Sketches, Studio Calico, Wanderlust, YLA2014

A couple of weeks ago the new session of my Yearlong Class started up again and so far it seems like we’re going to have a ton of fun!

All the classes are sketch based this year and we’re lucky enough to have had Mary Ann design all the exclusive sketches for us – you can only get them in this class! If you like sketches or want to learn more about how to use them to suit you, this is the last chance to sign up and get in on the good times.

Our paper this year is from the Studio Calico Wanderlust collection and I wanted to show a bunch of colours and patterns to start off the year, which led to this cover page LO:

That big black and white block was meant for a 4×6 photo but I liked how it looked on its own so much that I think I’m going to leave it as is – designer’s perogative! 🙂

The initial kit includes some amazing resist alphas stickers and cork hearts:

And some fabulous gold alphas and flair:

The January LO is fairly simple but I taught how to stretch a sketch and alter it to suit your photo needs:

We used more of those resist alphas with some enamel dots:

and gold letters with October Afternoon labels:

and finished it off with great Project Life arrow stickers:

I think there may be one kit left so if you want to get the amazing core kit and initial instructions and then join us for the rest of the year, now is the time to go for it!

As always, I’ll be posting to twitter, instagram, and Facebook with #YLA2014 so keep an eye out for sneak peeks close to the end of each month.

A bit of this, a bit of that….

30 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Card Kit, Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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!

Big Picture Classes | December Duos GIVEAWAY!

28 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Giveaway

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Big Picture Classes, December Duos, Giveaway

Just in time for your December memory keeping projects, I have a fabulous giveaway from Big Picture Classes – the December Duos Class!

I can’t wait to do this one myself – it’s definitely going to add a fun piece to my December Daily. Want to know more? Here’s the info and a video from BPC:

The “December Duos” concept is easy, stress-free, and inspiring. Every day for the twelve days leading up to Christmas Day, two of our twelve instructors will share a scrapbook layout, video message, and a page prompt in the form of a duo (“warm & cold,” “give & receive,” “near & far”). That’s a total of two-dozen inspiring ideas!

You can follow the instructor’s lead or march in your own direction as you snap your photos for the day. Then, after printing our fabulously free journaling cards and title cards, you’ll either slip the cards and your photos into a Project Life mini album from American Crafts or use them on a traditional (or digital) scrapbook page.

12 Days of Christmas: December Duos makes it easy to capture all of your most important holiday moments—in a festive new format—while keeping up with all the parties, presents, and pageants that make the holiday season magical.

Learn more and register here

Doesn’t that look like fun? ~~Just leave a comment here telling me your favourite Christmas memory or tradition to be entered to win. Contest closes midnight EST November 30 and I’ll post the winner on December 1.~~ *contest closed*

Good luck!

12 Days of Happy (momecentric.com)

Yearlong Album Class | 2013

19 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, Yearlong Album

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Scrapbook Layout, YLA2013

I promised the students in my YLA2013 class that I would post all the LO’s we’ve done so far. Except for the most recent class (October LO – UTEE resist) they are all now posted on my Flickr account, in the Yearlong Album 2013 set.

July – happy boy

And class peeps, just drop me a line if you have any questions!

Gratitude Album | Sneak Peeks!

23 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Class, Mini Album, The Paperie

Tonight I’m teaching an amazing and fun mini album class at The Paperie which I’m super excited about!

For sneak peeks of the album we’ll be working on, check this out!

For these things… (sarathings.com)
Gratitude Album: Sneaky Peeks! (thepaperie.wordpress.com)

Playtime!

15 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album, Techniques

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Classes, Perfect Pearls

I have a brand new class debuting this weekend at The Paperie – Perfect Pearls Playtime!

I’ve had lots of people ask me what else they could do with Perfect Pearls so I designed a tag mini album with space left for pictures or technique practice.

We’ll be working on black and manila Ranger tags and using the holiday release of powders from Ranger – Celebration. Plus, everyone gets a Celebration kit to take home with them, as well as full instructions for each of the seven (yes, 7!) techniques we’ll be doing.

To make the day even better, the Paperie is following up the class with a crop night. So you can take the class and then stay and play some more until midnight! And since class doesn’t start until 2, you have the morning to do all those other weekend things that need doing.

Can’t make it to class? We can get you a kit and you can still go to the crop night anyway!

This album is specifically designed for people who own a bunch of powders and also for those who don’t even know what they are so don’t feel intimidated – come play with us!

Hope to see you Saturday!