Party Drink Menus

30 Friday Nov 2012

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Drink menus, Fancy Pants, heat embossing

So, remember the other day I told you I was busy this week? Well it was brought to my attention that I might feel like I’m busy because I’m teaching 5 classes in 10 days.

In 10 days.

I just want to make sure you got that!

That means a bunch of instructions (which I hate doing and always put off until the last possible second), 5 lots of kits, 5 lots of prep, a zillion pictures to edit, and all sorts of last minute things to tie up.

There are two day-long classes mixed in here (though I’m only a small part of one of those) and what’s going to be a very fast paced and intense mini album class tonight. We’re cutting and putting together an entire 10 page protector mini in 3 hours – drink your coffee girls, you’re going to need it! 🙂

Anyway, this morning I get a text from a friend who is throwing a bachelorette party tomorrow night – can I make a couple of drink menus?

I had to laugh.

But they only had to be white and silver, and it was a New Year’s Eve theme. Ok, easy. And since I am obviously on a crafting roll this week, why not?

Here’s what I did:

Super simple – printed in black on smooth white cardstock and embossed the image and edges with silver powder. Easy but effective and they were a hit with the friend who requested them.

Sometimes I need to remind myself, keep it simple silly!

Oh, and I totally forgot to draw a winner for the Technique Tag from last Tuesday – sorry! The random number generator picked edyB! Yay! Email me your mailing info at sarathings(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll send the card out to you!

Project Life – Weeks 7&8

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life, ScrapBook

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Project Life

Still going strong and still loving this project!

(As always, click on any photo to make it larger.)

Week 7:

A couple of weeks before Halloween but it’s definitely making itself known in our world! We bought pumpkins, went to Sunday School, played in the park…

…and made yummy brownies. Our city also got fancy new garbage cans that can be picked up by the truck itself – big excitement for 3-year-old boys!

M also drew a bunch of “Underwater Things.” Since she almost always draws people, or people holding people-shaped balloons, I had to keep this one!

Another week of fabulous weather and I’m hanging onto it as long as I can!

Week 8:

More Halloween lead up; we decorated little pumpkins, got M to agree to braids, and she drew trees on a picture:

We had lunch at the Harbour Front Park, I took a “make your own kit” class with Krista and designed my own page kit for the Retreat. The big deal this week was Marvin the Monkey – he lost an arm. It was repaired and a sling put on – can’t have a missing arm replaced without some fanfare after all!

The space at the bottom is for a pic of the LO I made from the kit I put together in Krista’s class. I’m having Photoshop issues so it will have to wait a little!

Pumpkins and some news…

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

October Afternoon, Scrapbook Layout, The Paperie

For the Paperie Fall Retreat last weekend, the Creative Team all made page LO’s and then put together page kits to sell – and they were a hit!

We all had a budget and needed to keep them pretty clean and simple, while staying true to our own styles and that was way harder than it sounds. However, the pages the other girls did were amazing and all six kits and LO’s were very different – there was definitely a style and colour scheme for everyone.

I chose to do a Hallowe’en LO since the Retreat fell right after that event and many people scrap those pics during the weekend. Also, the October Afternoon Witch Hazel line was in the store and I totally fell in love with the Star Thistle paper! 🙂

Here’s my LO:

But of course, I’m never happy to stop where I’m supposed to and I turned it into a double for anyone who wanted more pictures or was a 2-pager scrapper. So for the additional price of a single sheet of paper, here’s what Retreat participants could make, if they wanted:

My favourite part are the letters that spell “pumpkins.” They are plain leftover chipboard, die cut with the Block 1″ Lowercase alpha using the AccuCut machine, and then I coloured them with my favourite Sakura Clear Stardust pen (the Stardust colours are amazing too). The shimmer is out of this world!

Even with all the things I’ve used this pen on in the past, I was still floored by how it worked on the chipboard! I had more people asking me what stickers those were and saying that they never saw them in store – most were shocked to discover it was chipboard and then thrilled that their kit included the pen!

Have a great weekend everyone, and hopefully, you’ll get to enjoy some crafty time! I’m swamped with upcoming classes to prepare for and excited to get them all together.

Another piece of news I’m both excited and sad about is the change happening at The Paperie. One of the co-owners, Chris, is retiring (sad) and a friend, Wendy, has bought her share of the company (happy and exciting). I couldn’t be more thrilled for Wendy and know that she’ll be amazing in her new role – I’m so excited for what is to come! That being said, I’m sad to see Chris go – she was a regular at the shop I used to work in downtown and after that, I saw her at the Paperie. Plus, she was my travelling companion to Houston last year. I’ve gotten to know and appreciate her more than I ever thought possible so it’s very bittersweet for me to see her go. But she has another new grandchild on the way, and 3 already living here, so I’m sure she’ll still be a Paperie regular to scrap all those kiddies in her life! Have fun Chris, we’ll all miss you so, so much!

Keep Calm & Love On

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Designer Digitals, Printables, SimpleScrapper, Sketches, Studio Calico, The Crafter's Workshop

I was taking a poke around the Simple Scrapper website (Krista used to be on their Design Team and introduced me to it) and I found a great printable that I just had to use.

As soon as I saw the “Keep Calm and Love On” card I laughed and knew the exact picture for it! I kept poking around, looking at some of their sketches and found the Template Jane sketch. I changed it up a little, of course – that’s the beauty of sketches! – and ended up with this LO:

Keep Calm and Love On

Used my Crafter’s Workshop stencils and Clay Mist, naturally, my faves, and a bunch of washi tape.

I layered on the Glossy Accents – remember my very first Technique post? – and the shine on the wood veneer hearts is awesome!

Glossy Accents and Rock Candy stickles – a girl’s best friends!

Finally, my favourite part, a real stroke of genius I think, my pumpkin!

shiny pumpkin!

That’s a wood veneer apple from the Studio Calico School Icons! Is that the best, or what?!? Patting myself on the back for that one! 🙂

Love how this turned out, easy to do, still looks like me even though it’s from a sketch, and the journaling is actually out in the open for once, thanks to Ali Edwards!

Do you use sketches? What’s your favourite place to find them? And do you love shiny hearts as much as me?

Project Life – Weeks 1 & 2

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in Project Life, ScrapBook

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Project Life

I actually did start Project Life the first week of September, like I said I was going to, and have kept up with it since – a big deal for me!

Since I really don’t need to bore you with all 8 weeks I have done all at once, I’m going to be nice and just show a couple of weeks at a time. Of course, it looks pretty similar to any other PL album – I just have my own pictures in it! 🙂

Here’s the title page:

Wood veneer, washi tape, and the Turquoise core kit – pretty simple!

Week 1 was jam packed with the last long weekend of the summer, M starting school, G starting swimming, and all the regular life stuff too so I had an insert:

Here’s the main spread on it’s own:

And this is the flip I made for some of Miss M’s first day of school stuff – this is what’s behind the bears picture!

My favourite pictures this week are the one of M jumping for joy before going to her first day of school and this one:

My kiddies throwing sawdust, aka. fairy dust, at the cabin. I love how the wood veneer stars turned out on the photo.

Week two had some more inserts since our fabulous, best ever in the whole world babysitter was here one night and did some crafts and also, it was 12 on Twelve:

I love how the 12 on Twelve is turning out – numbered photos on the front and descriptions on the back. I did it again for October and still love it so I think that will stay. A nice overview of daily life each month!

Again, here’s the main spread on it’s own:

It was an other busy week – last ice cream truck visit of the summer, swimming starting for M, Poppy learning to ride a motorcycle (never in a million years thought my dad would be a biker dude!), and M had a visit from a friend one afternoon.

Love those 3×4 journal cards with the alphabet, like the one on the far right – colouring in the initials of the girls and being able to customize them so easily is awesome!

I’m attempting to keep this album flat and simple and so far that’s helping me to stay up-to-date without having to stress over it. Adding to a running word document each day (thanks for that idea, Liz!) gets all my journaling out of the way and I try to sit down each Sunday to pick photos. Once they’re printed and in the book, the rest is gravy!

I’m already discovering that I love looking back even though it’s super simple and I’m only a few weeks in – I can only imagine how much I’ll like looking at it 6 months from now!

Next Wednesday, Weeks 3 & 4!

Yearlong Album Class

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

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My Mind's Eye, Simple Stories, Studio Calico, The Crafter's Workshop. Yearlong Album 2012

I was planning to start posting my Project Life LO’s today but it turned out to be Monday in every sense of the word.

That means no pics and since I have no light now, except the fake kind, no blog post about that until Wednesday. Unless tomorrow and Wednesday also turn out to be a Monday in which case I may not survive… 🙂

Moving on…

I do have the pictures taken of the latest Yearlong Album class LO’s so you can take a gander at those!

(Please excuse the terrible pictures – it was early in the morning and I was in a rush! I’ll replace them when I get a chance to take better ones.)

Here’s the double spread for November:

Simple, as always, but we do need to fit a month’s worth of pictures here so I’m kind of limited as to the space I can take up with pretty paper and stickers!

I’m still in love with this stamp set and this mist. And, of course, I had to throw in a stencil. The mini Circle Explosion worked so well here – it reminds me of throwing leaves in air and having them fly everywhere!

A pocket, as always, on the page:

And I always cut the page protector so, in this case, the flap is outside and can be opened and the pocket contents are always easily accessible.

We also did another bonus page:

Again, simple, but this one has a great list on it for journaling, plus, I made everyone do some fussy cutting, I’m mean like that! 🙂

I specifically keep the bonus pages generic so they can be added anywhere in the album you need extra space, or they can be used in any other album you might want. For those people who scrap 12×12 exclusively (this album is 8.5 x 11) the bonus pages are able to be mounted on a 12×12 sheet of cardstock and used in a larger album too.

Only one month left for monthly LO’s and then we have one final class. Most people have requested that class be catchup, questions, and a couple more bonus pages for their extra pictures.

And then, come February, it’s new album time! Open registration for that class is coming up soon so keep your eyes on the Paperie blog and newsletter. This one always fills up, and fast, so if you’re interested jump on it right away! I’m excited for the new album too – we’re going back to 12×12, it’s going to be a little less thematic for the months and so could be used for just about anything, and it’s going to be technique heavy. If you like to play with new supplies, or want to learn about different products, this will definitely be the class to take next year!

Back tomorrow, we hope, with a technique tag and PL on Wednesday – wish me luck!

A new kit and a LO update…

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook

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Classes, kits, Layouts, Scrapbooking, The Paperie

I took another class at The Paperie this past weekend – this one was all about how to make your own kit and Krista did an awesome job of showing us how to pull one together from both new products and from your stash.

Mine is a bit of a combo – I found the large patterned paper, the one on the top right, at the shop and loved it, so that was my starting point. I added 3 more papers, plus the washi tape and letter stickers I got in class, and came home to finish it off. Love all the bits and bobs that were forgotten in my scrap cave – a kit is the perfect way to get them in sight and use them up!

What I really loved about this class was being able to customize the kit to my preferences. All the colours are ones I want to use and since I owned most of the stuff anyway, I know I like (or used to like!) all of it.

I’m calling this one Carnivale!

Carnivale! a kit by sarathings

The name seemed to fit with the colours, the banners, and the fun patterns, especially the large one.

There’s lots in here but I’ve had some of the chipboard and stick pins for longer than I care to say! If I can get on the ball and pull together another kit or two before the retreat, I’ll be able to pack a lot lighter than I usually do!

Now, an update from last week. I finished the second LO from Rae Lynn’s Book of Me class and I love how it turned out! I had to hide the “s” on the end of “simple pleasures” and extend the title and it all worked out really well.

An Unexpected Simple Pleasure

Plus, I really like the dimension of the banners and the shine of the glossy accents in the camera.

And yes, Rae Lynn, the journaling is done but I forgot to take a pic!

If any of you have a better name for my kit, throw it out there – I was a bit stumped, titles are not my strong point! 🙂 Also, I am planning a technique post tomorrow, fingers crossed I get it done in time!

Going waaay back!

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Basic Grey, Design Team, The Paperie

Krista blogged her regular 5 for Friday today and one of her 5 was about how a particular card would look great “on a layout-opening up and unfolding like an accordion. It would be a nice way to hide some journaling and supporting photos.”

And I immediately remembered a certain LO I did many years ago.

The Paperie used to have an inhouse design team of which I was a member. I remember applying, then making it as a finalist. The last step I had to go through was to pick up a sample pack, a small kit really, and do a LO – all the finalists got the same kit. I walked into the store to get mine and saw Chris and Janna, the owners, sitting on the sofa that used to be in the old location. And they were watching me intently. Weird. Then I got the kit and they burst out laughing. Apparently they had been doing that all day, just watching the finalists faces as we saw what we had to work with – big, black floral BG paper from the Black Tie collection and super wide black ribbon, among other things. We were all horrified and terrified at the same time. What the heck to make with that?!?!?

Well, here’s what I did (click on any pictures to view them larger):

It was almost a year after our wedding and I had never scrapped this particular picture, taken on the deck of my family cabin. I figured flowers must go with a wedding picture, right? There were more pictures that I wanted to use as well but then, as now, I veered towards single photo LO’s and hidden journalling – so I made an accordion album behind the flower to showcase the other pictures.

And I hid another piece of that floral paper behind the main photo and added my journalling to it.

I called it done and was more than happy to be finished thinking about what to do with that paper! Obviously, it wasn’t a terrible LO since I made the design team and loved every minute of it – though I grumbled a lot under my breath since everything I did those days was full of fussy cutting….. But that’s a post for another day!

Have a great weekend everyone! I’m taking Krista’s kit making class tomorrow and heading out with the kiddies for Pumpkinfest at Lester’s Farm Market – there should (crossing my fingers) be some good pics to show next week!

An update, brownies, and a class I took…

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Sara in Baking, Mini Album, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

7 Gypsies, Baking, Basically Bare, Bazzill Basics, Bo Bunny, Book of Me, Brownies, Canvas Corp, Classes, Creative Imaginations, Graphic 45, The Collins Rep Group, The Paperie, Viva Colour

Sorry for the little blog break here – I’ve been crazy busy since returning from Orlando and there just aren’t enough hours in the day…

I’ve been completing the few unfinished projects from the show – I made 7 mini albums plus other items so there was a lot of little odds and ends that needed a final touch or two!

Bazzill – Christmas Lickety Slip Album

Creative Imaginations – Beautiful You Mixed Media Album

Basically Bare and Graphic 45 – Nutcracker Suite Easel Album

7 Gypsies and Canvas Corp – Epicurean Library Drawer

Creative Imaginations – Holly Jolly Altered Album

I’m only showing you the sneaks here of a few things but if you want the full reveal, all the details, and to hear about the fun we had then you need to sign up for the Show and Tell at The Paperie on Tuesday, October 23! I think there may be some giveaways too…. 🙂

I’m heading over to have wine and chit chat with a friend tonight so I thought I’d bring some goodies with me – brownies!

Brownie Batter!

I took two of my favourite recipes, made a change or two and combined them to make gluten free mascarpone brownies with ricotta topping. They look and smell yummy and I’ll post an update later with how they taste! I already know the batter was good….

And they really should be good because if there’s one thing I know how to bake well, it’s brownies! That’s not ego my friends, it’s just the simple truth! 🙂 But I can’t roast a chicken to save my life…. UPDATE: They are the bomb…. 🙂

yummy, yummy in my tummy!

Finally, I carved out a little time on Saturday morning to take a class from my friend Rae Lynn, the queen of clean and simple LO’s – her work is always gorgeous! She has started a new class series to do a Book of Me and the two LO’s we did are awesome!

I only took one picture with me for the class but the sweater I was wearing was the perfect colour for the papers and since Miss Smarty Pants Rae Lynn brought her camera and Canon Selphy printer, we took a snap, printed it and I was in business! It always feels good to go home with a completed LO!

i am…

I changed this second one a little – the background paper was a light tan/brown and I had a piece of Bo Bunny Vintage Double Dot paper that was the exact shade of my shirt so I used that instead. Also, I think I’m going to change the title to “An unexpected pleasure” and do my journalling on one thing rather than do a list of several “simple pleasures.” I could have had this one done but I was really uncertain about the journalling and decided that focusing on one unexpected pleasure – my camera – would work better for me for this LO. So now that I’ve settled on that, it will be done tonight, RLOK, I promise!