For these things, I am Grateful…

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by Sara in Mini Album, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

Tags

Blessed, Grateful, Mini Album, One Little Word, Simple Scrapper

I have never taken part in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word and had no intentions of doing so this year.

But then the word Blessed (and to a slightly lesser extent, Grateful) began following me around. Seriously, they just popped up everywhere! So I finally gave in and decided to see where One Little Word would lead me this year.

The reason I mention this now is that Simple Scrapper played a role in those words cropping up. First, I did a giveaway for the Home Blessings Class at Big Picture Classes and that came through Simple Scrapper. Second, Jennifer asked me to work on a new Gratitude mini album that debuted in the shop today.

See? Blessed and Grateful were definitely meant to be mine for 2013. And that’s only two examples of how these words have infiltrated my life!

This mini album is going to be an ongoing project for me during 2013 and I’ll be sharing updates here and there as I add to it. It’s everything I’m grateful for and feel blessed to have from Signal Hill, to my kiddies, to teaching classes, and all the other things in between.

I’ve turned my book on its side since most of the pictures I take are landscape orientation. The problem is that many of the journaling cards are portrait so I’m having to be creative to make them work!

Check out the Flickr gallery to see more closeups of my pages, plus the albums some of the other DT members made. And then go get this kit – it’s a good one, and if you live outside the US, shipping is pretty reasonable, especially considering the price hike from USPS recently!

I love how easy and stressfree this album is – whenever I have a photo during the year of something I feel blessed to have in my life, I’ll simply tuck it into a pocket, add a precut journaling card and embellish if I want.

I’d love to see what some of you make with this kit – whether you use it for One Little Word or to make a Gratitude Album, it’s bound to be a mini that really means something to you and aren’t those the projects we love to look through the most?

In other crafty news, I’m binding my Card Organizer this evening and will be back tomorrow with pics of it and the 4 cards we’ll be making on Saturday. Last time I checked, there was one spot left so hurry and call the Paperie if you want it! If you can’t wait until tomorrow to see what we’re doing, I’ve posted a couple of pics on Instagram and Twitter.

Simple Scrapper Blog Hop & GIVEAWAY! | February 2013

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Sara in Giveaway, ScrapBook, Simple Scrapper

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Giveaway, October Afternoon, Simple Scrapper, stickles, Studio Calico, Wood Veneer

It’s time for another Simple Scrapper blog hop with the Design Team and we’re showcasing the new February templates and/or Story Starters – as usual, Jennifer has outdone herself!

I used one of the Story Starters for my first LO. I had this picture of M during the first snowfall this year and it was perfect for this one:

Inspired by a Simple Scrapper Premium Member Story Starter; Template – Simple Scrapper Premium Member Template (April 2011); Patterned Paper – American Crafts, Fancy Pants, Vintage Book Paper; Transparency – Fancy Pants; Vellum, Wood Veneer – Studio Calico; Tag – Elle’s Studio; Metal Word Bands – Ranger; Stamp – American Crafts; Glitter Glue – Ranger; Stain – Ranger; Ink – Staz-on; Adhesive – Ranger, Glue Arts; Sewing Machine – Singer

Instead of writing my own list of things for her to remember as she grows, I used the Tim Holtz Idea.ology Word Bands – the sentiments were perfect for this!

I rubbed a little bit of white paint over the words to make them stand out better and then handstitched them to the LO – they’re so heavy I wanted to make sure they would stay put!

I also used some October Afternoon chipboard to make custom purple glasses just like hers:

I then coated those and the wood veneer words with Glossy Accents to make them pop.

Finally, I really wanted the snow to shine, so out came the Stickles and I added small dots to the flakes falling around her, as well as the wood veneer snowflakes:

Love the extra sparkle it gives the photo!

For my template LO this month, I pulled out a couple of photos of Mr. G that made me laugh. He’s beginning to hate getting his picture taken and his face in these is priceless!

Template – Simple Scrapper Premium Member Template (February 2013, Letter #1); Patterned Paper – Crate Paper, Studio Calico; Card Stock – American Crafts; Fabric Stars, Wood Veneer – Studio Calico; Letter Stickers – American Crafts; Washi Tape – Freckled Fawn, American Crafts; Mist – Studio Calico; Punch – Jenni Bowlin for Fiskars; Stain, Ink – Ranger; Stamp – American Crafts; Adhesive – Glue Arts; Thread – Coats; Sewing Machine – Singer; Kits – Studio Calico (Handmade, Story Hour)

I used one of my all time favourite alpha sets, which I misted and then sewed to the page – they’re not going anywhere!

And I finished it all off with lots of stars – if Studio Calico ever discontinues those wood veneer stars I may cry!

If you want some more great inspiration, I recommend you check out the other Design Team Members, they did some really awesome LO’s this month!

Simple Scrapper (Jennifer Wilson)

Margrethe Aas Johnsen

Van Nguyen

Sara Case Strickland (this is me!)

And now, the giveaway! Use this link to enter a giveaway for a one-month trial subscription to Simple Scrapper. Entries will be pooled and one winner selected at 11:59pm CST on Wednesday, February 6. You may enter from multiple blogs so go check them all out!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping. Each month members receive a new collection of sketch templates and Story Starters, story-focused prompts for pages and projects.

Currently…

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Currently...

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Classes, Currently..., The Once, The Paperie

To supplement my usual Yearlong Album, I’m also taking Krista’s Keeping Track of Life class – she’s doing this list each month for that so I’m playing along with her today!

Story Time

listening: Still playing Row upon Row of the People They Know by The Once – probably too much if M singing the line, “At the front of the bar but at the back of the line” over and over is any indication!

eating: ice cream bars, carrots, and as a treat today, Sugar Mama’s cinnamon rolls!

drinking: water and very cold Pinot Grigio

wearing: still into my jeans and tall boots. And not the most fashionable but super warm hoodies when I’m home.

Kitchen Dancing Queen

feeling: excited about my February classes and KP coming to The Paperie in March!

weather: rainy and windy, but at least it has warmed up a little

watching: not much! Too busy in January but am planning to catch up on my guilty pleasure of American Idol this evening. 🙂

reading: blogs and twitter – again, too busy but have to fit in The Sweetness of Forgetting very soon for a book club

Still loving being upside down

waiting: for product to come in so I can play! Designs for two classes are ground to a halt until I get some supplies (darn winter weather)!

wanting: warm donuts

needing: a girl’s night of scrapping, laughing, and food

thinking: about old, old friends and how much I miss them

backseat buddies

enjoying: hot baths and cold wine

wondering: if we’ll actually get the storm that’s forecast for Saturday. I really am certain we’ve had enough snow this winter, Mother Nature!

wishing: I could hop on a plane and have a Newfoundland/Manitoba reunion (Karen, Dawn, Val, Julia, Jeff? I’ll make it happen if we decide to do it!)

Final Yearlong Class 2012 – Part 2 (and some awesome news!)

30 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

2012 Yearlong Album, Classes, Kelly Purkey, Simple Stories, Studio Calico, The Paperie, Wood Veneer, Year.o.graphy

So, yesterday got away from me and I didn’t post the LO’s I promised – oops! And there was a big exciting announcement made by The Paperie which caused a Twitter frenzy among the local scrapping crowd. I’ll get to that bit later!

First, here’s how I added my own personal twist to the final bonus pages of the Yearlong 2012 album. (You can see the original LO’s here).

The things I use the most lately are wood veneer shapes and stitching and on these two LO’s, I loaded up!

For the first one, I added little birds (for my two chickies!), a bunch of stars (because they are the best wood veneer pieces ever), and a few other random pieces.

I loaded up on the stickles and the Metallic Gold Mister Huey so there’s lots of bling. I also stitched over the sticker letters so they would stay put – I hate letters that end up floating around your LO!

The second LO also has a ton of wood veneer, stickles, and stitching, but I matted it on a 12×12 background too. Normally I place all different sized LO’s in the same album but my wedding album is all 12×12 so I decided to stick with that.

All I did to make the original LO flow into a 12×12 is spray the background with coordinating mist and add stitching to the top left corner. This is my go-to quick and easy way to switch a letter size LO in a larger square – simple add a couple of elements like mist or embellishments that tie the two together and no one will ever know it’s a mashup!

I added the wood veneer doilies to tie in with the stamped doily border:

And of course, since it’s a wedding LO, I had to add the potty people and a heart!

Now, onto the exciting Paperie news….

Kelly Purkey is coming! And Krista and I get to share the teaching stage with her over the weekend! My class, naturally, is technique based so we’ll be making 4 cards with Ranger products and I’m going to try and fit in as many different products as I can – including the new Distress Paints!

If you’re in NL or are looking for a super fun weekend full of classes, cropping, and good times, sign up now and join us! Plus, it’s over St. Patrick’s Day weekend and since we do boast about George Street having the most bars and pubs per square foot in North America, you can bet there will be a party happening!

I do have to curb my excitement about Kelly a little and design and teach a few other classes before then – lots of fun and awesome things are coming your way!

I’ve been AWOL… (and the final Yearlong Album 2012 Class)

28 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

kids, Salmon Cove, Scrapbook Layout, Yearlong 2012, Yearlong Album

Yes, I vanished sometime last week, totally without notice.

Sorry. 🙂

Let’s just say that a week of prep work and then two very full days of teaching, followed up by a couple of “undone but deadlines looming” projects led to me taking an unscheduled blog break.

But I have the assignments finished, photos taken, edited, and uploaded. And I have instructions written and about to be sent, along with photos, for the final January class and, more importantly, the final Yearlong 2012 class.

For the first time ever I put pictures on the pages for the Yearlong Album. My goal with this class has always been to give a base that each student’s monthly pictures could work with so I’ve never put my own photos on. This past year has been a little different since I’ve made several Bonus Pages that aren’t part of the core album. So, for the final two bonus pages I designed, I added pictures!

The first one is an oldie from my wedding day. Love the series this shot came from since it’s on the newly built deck of the family cabin. This cabin has been in my dad’s family for a very long time and although other family members have gotten married in Salmon Cove, I was the first to get married on the Sands (the beach), and, as far as I know, the first to have the cabin factor into the wedding at all. So my dad built a new deck and freshened the place up with a new coat of paint and we had a bunch of pictures there. I like these of only me at a cabin I loved coming to as a kid.

The next one features M & G having a fun time and insisting I take a pic while they hug – sometimes, they really are cute! 🙂

My idea is to take these base LO’s and add my own extras to them – planning to have them done tomorrow so stop back for the reveal!

Everlasting Card Organizer – a new class!

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album

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Tags

Bazzill, cards, Classes, The Paperie

I have another new class coming up at The Paperie on February 9 and have been asked to post some pictures.

Unfortunately, the papers for the project haven’t arrived yet so I can’t show you exactly what we’ll be making but I can show you the inspiration!

This is another Orlando class, and another mini album from the daylong Bazzill class I took. When we presented all our projects in a sneak peek night at the store, all the customers loved this idea but wanted brighter colours, hence, the wait on papers!

Also, the store owns a Bind-it-All so the binding will be another style but essentially, the book itself will be the same – it will just look completely different! 🙂

The cover:

This will be the biggest change since we’ll have a brighter element sheet to work from with varied stickers. And what’s the fun of a new class if I don’t change it up a little? The size will be the same though, 6″x 8″ so not too big but large enough for your cards.

The inside will have 6 pocket pages with monthly calendars and lots of storage for the cards you’ll need over the year.

We’ll also be making 4 cards in this class to put in your book and start you off on the right track. All you need to do when you go home is write in your dates!

There will be a limited number of spots in this class due to product availability so call The Paperie ASAP if you’re interested and hopefully, I’ll see you there!

Yes, it’s true. I’m a superhero.

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Family

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Cats, shower curtain, superhero, superpowers

On a daily basis I hear, “Mama! How did you do that?!?!”

And I always answer, “Superpowers. I have superpowers.”

Today, I finally have the shirt to prove it:

Superpower people of the world, unite!

On another note, we finally finished our bathroom reno and I bought a cheap shower curtain to hang until I could find something I actually liked. Apparently, the cats really, really hate it:

Weekend of Fun | Dylusions Technique Tag Album

18 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album, Mixed Media, Techniques

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Archival Ink, Dylusions, Ink Spray, Mini Album, Mixed media, Ranger, Weekend of Fun

Well here it is, the last sneak peek into this weekend’s classes!

And this might be the class I’m most excited to teach – the tag mini album! I made a similar one in Orlando but amped it up and added a few more techniques especially for this class – I hope people are ready to get inky and messy!

I stuck with red, pink, orange, and yellow for mine, and added one of my favourite Dylusions sentiment stamps to the front:

Along with the main manilla Jumbo #12 tags, we are also using kraft:

and black:

And just for fun, here’s some little sneaks of a couple more pages!

We’ll be stamping, with my favourite waterproof ink, Archival:

And colouring with Ink Sprays:

Have you signed up for any (or all!) of the classes yet? You should, we’re going to have a blast! And, as a bonus, you get to go home with some great product, especially in this class! 😉

I’ll try to find time to tweet and instagram some pics over the weekend so if you’re too far away to attend or have to work all weekend (we’ll miss you Lori!) then check out my feeds to see some of the fun!

Weekend of Fun | Ranger Metallic Stain Cards

17 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Cards, Classes

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Christmas Cards, Classes, Ranger, The Paperie, Weekend of Fun

The only class I’m teaching this weekend that is exactly as I did it in Orlando are the Ranger Cards using Metallic Distress Stains – they’re so great, why would I mess with them?

The main part of the cards are, of course, tags, which are then layered on a card base. There’s the Fired Brick one:

The fabulous poinsettia die is the star here, and the shimmer from both the Metallic Stain and the Rock Candy Stickles is awesome!

And then the Broken China one:

This has the Snowman from the Christmas Blueprints set as the hero, along with the mirror sheets:

Since I loved that stamp set so much, I made a few other tags just as samples!

I went with a darker blue, Chipped Sapphire, for the Tin Soldier:

And with a brighter Barn Door red for the Tree:

But my favourite has to be the Snowflake, layered over Picked Raspberry Pink with a combo of Tarnished Brass and Brushed Pewter Metallic Stains:

I hope the Paperie has lots of these Stains in stock because I think everyone in class is going to want all three colours. And since you get to go home with one, you only have to buy two more! 🙂

See you tomorrow with the last class sneak – the day long Dylusions Tag album!

Weekend of Fun | Ranger Mini Canvases

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Canvas, Classes, Ranger, The Paperie, Valentine's Day, Weekend of Fun

I’m back again with a look at another one of the classes this coming weekend – Ranger Mini Canvases!

The ones in Orlando were Hallowe’en themed and since we’re well past that now I redid them in a love theme. These can be used as Valentine’s decorations, or as Valentine’s to give, but they can also just be pretty pieces to hang in your craft space, or a nice friendship “just because” gift.

I went a bit grungy with this first one, making the canvas and rosette a bit distressed, and then added word flags:

love

Lots of fun layers and dimension too:

The second one I decided to keep a bit cleaner and brighter:

flirt

And added to the sparkle of the tinsel twine with a glittery heart!

We still have some space available in these classes so be sure to check out the class descriptions and then call The Paperie to sign up for any or all – we really are going to have a great Weekend of Fun!