Some New Ideas

Well…new to me anyway! 🙂

I promised that I would post some of the terrific new ideas I saw while in Cape May – tonight I’ll post 2 of them.

First, I took a class on how to make little mini-scrapbooks out of old record albums. Here’s the one I made in the class (I added the photos and titles when I got home):

I just LOVE this idea and plan on using it as a class in February! You start with an old album that folds in the middle – they’re the perfect size for 12X12 scrapbook paper!

Here’s the inside of that book:

I used my daughter Emily’s dance photos.

Now…the best part. Not only do you use the album cover, you use the old record too. You anchor it inside with a brad and…it spins! Then you can add journaling or photos to the album (cut a hole so they show through) – here’s a photo with the album spun to show some musical notes instead of a photo:

The only problem with taking that class is that the albums she gave us smell VERY much like mildew – yuck!

So…I decided to try to make one out of one of my own albums (yes, I still have old record albums laying around!) and use Stampin’ Up! stuff to make an album to show our summer camping trips.

Here’s the outside:

And here’s some of the inside (lousy photo, I know – the photo of my daughter in the cut-out circle seems to be glowing orange for some reason):

And here a close-up shot of the spinner part:

I used the Timeworn designer paper, the Happy Camper stamp set and the Coluzzle to cut the shapes. The journaling is a list of all of the camping trips we took last year – I managed to fit a LOT of photos on this one!

For my class, I will offer instructions on how to make the album and we will make one using the Recollection designer paper from Stampin’ Up!. We will not embellish it or add photos – but the price of the class ($20) will include an entire pack of the paper. Here’s what we’ll make:

And the spinner will look like this:

I think it’ll be a fun class!

Another item I learned in Cape May was what I’ll call a ‘Four-Room Card’. It may be similar to a ‘Star Book’ – I’m not really sure. I just saw one in a magazine and played with the paper until I figured out how they made it.

I made a simple prototype out of the birthday Simply Scrappin’ Kit:

I think I’m going to make this a class in March. Maybe I’ll post the instructions after the class…. 😉

Make-And-Takes for Crop Classix

Whew! I’m done in my craft room for today…my back is KILLING me from being hunched over in deep creative concentration for so long!

Plus, my husband just had to take my dear son Matthew to the emergency room. He has asthma that really flares up when we have extreme temperature changes – last week it was in the 60s here in NJ and this week it’s only in the 30s. And since it’s Sunday night and his doctors aren’t in, he ended up in the ER. He has been admitted for asthma a few times and it’s just AWFUL having a child in the hospital – it disrupts the entire family and poor Matt gets so scared. He’s a good sport though, and takes whatever medicine they give him. Here’s hoping that they can just treat him and release him tonight. I’m staying here with the other two kids and Mike will give me an update from his cell phone when he has a chance.

I thought that I would post my day’s efforts while I have a moment. I wanted to come up with at least 3 simple and cost-effective make-and-takes for this weekend in Cape May – I think these are pretty good. 🙂

First, I’m going to do a sour cream container and piece of chocolate with a stamped label. I like to use white cardstock for these – it seems to be a bit more flexible than color cardstock and seems to roll up more easily without creasing. So I used white cardstock and then used Cranberry Crisp and Regal Rose ink along with the Simply Said stamp set to make a cute little Valentine favor:

I also stamped an address label and wrapped it around Hershey’s Nugget to put inside the container.

I also thought I’d put out a few more containers for other upcoming holidays. Each of these was done using Simply Said plus another small stamp:

Then I also wanted to do a card make-and-take. I was inspired by a swap I received from Kathy Hilden at Leadership last weekend. Kathy is from Shelby Township in Michigan – thanks, Kathy! I loved her color combo and choice of stamps – I just simplified her design just bit to make it more cost effective as a make-and-take (hers is much more lovely – mine has fewer layers and fewer bells-and-whistles ):

I am going to replace the moss ribbon with some cranberry stitched ribbon – I have to place a last minute order for paper anyway and will add that on to my order. There is a bit of bling on the flowers with Dazzling Diamonds – not sure if that comes through in the photo, but it really adds a lot to the card.

So…now I’m doing a 3-D item and a card…I also wanted to throw in a scrapbook page. I’m just going to do a 6X6 single page and then show how to turn it into either an 8 1/2 X 11 or 12X12 with some samples. Here’s the page for the make-and-take:

It’s loosely based on one created by Stampin’ Up! when they carried the AHA stamp set special last year. That’s Bashful Blue, Old Olive and Marigold Morning with some Real Red too. And I used Big Deal alphabet along with Simply Said again for the heart.

That’s all for now – I hear the laundry calling my name…

Cape May Projects – 6X6 Scrapbooks In An Hour

I finally finished all the sample projects for my classes next weekend at Crop Classix!

I’ll be teaching a class where we’ll make 6X6 scrapbooks in about an hour (the template was in my last post).

I thought I’d post some photos to help with the template (plus, I can point my students here after the class is over for step-by-step instructions). 🙂
First, find a 6X6 album that you like. There are so many out there – everything from plain and simple to fancy and elegant.

Here’s one I found from K & Company at Michaels for $5 (after I used my 40% off coupon):

Next, pick your stamp set and colors. I decided to use the Roses in Winter stamp set with Mellow Moss, Cranberry Crisp and Blush Blossom (I wouldn’t go with more than 3 colors – it tends to get too busy). My background pages will be Mellow Moss – you’ll need 5 sheets of 12X12 cardstock. Stamp a design on each piece of cardstock to act as a background – here’s mine:

Then cut each 12X12 sheets into 4 6X6 pages – there will be 20 in all.

Next, choose either Whisper White or Very Vanilla cardstock and stamp a design in your three colors such that you cover the entire sheet. Try not to leave any white spaces. Here’s mine:

Then cut that piece according to the template in my previous post – here are all the pieces:

Next, take the pieces and arrange them on the 6X6 pages as shown on the first page of the template. You’ll end up with 2 blank pages for the front and back pages and 18 decorated pages ready to add your photos – here are two of my finished pages for this project inserted into the album:

You can refer to my previous post to see finished pages with photos, titles and journaling.

I decided to offer 4 different designs for the class – each person can choose the theme they would like to make during the class.

First is the sample in my previous post done with the Wild About You stamp set:

Then is the sample I just showed with Roses in Winter:

Then I’m also going to offer a vacation-beach theme with Balmy Breezes:

And finally, a sort of neutral theme with Artfully Asian – I started playing with this one in Pumpkin Pie, Night of Navy and Old Olive and really liked how it turned out:

Here are some more pages in a plain navy blue 6X6 scrapbook I found on sale:

I’m also going to bring a few other samples done on little 6X6 books I found on clearance at Michaels for a dollar – here’s one:

Then I did the inside pages with Night of Navy, YoYo Yellow and Ballet Blue (I didn’t make any background pages – I just adhered the stamped and cut pieces right to the pages in the book) using the new Doodle This stamp set:

Then I found another on clearance as well:

And did another variation – instead of stamping a neutral piece, I stamped on YoYo Yellow cardstock with Real Red, Perfect Plum and Only Orange using Little Pieces like this:

I think these make great little gifts for baby showers, birthday parties, etc – all the recipient has to do is to put the photos right inside and add a little journaling. And since you’re using stamps, they can be any theme and any color you’d like!

So…now that I have those done, I have to work on some make-and-takes for the weekend as well as a door prize…let’s see if I can get them done today too…

Getting Ready for Cape May

I spent most of yesterday morning preparing a sample scrapbook for my upcoming ‘Scrapbook in About an Hour’ class in Cape May, NJ next Friday – ahhh – just one week from today! No stress…no stress…(insert deep breathing here)…

I have a great template for taking just 6 sheets of 12X12 paper and one stamp set and making an entire 20 page 6X6 album – that’s what I’m teaching at my class. If you’re nice to me…maybe I’ll post the template here on my blog for download… 🙂

I have one sample that’s already in my SCS gallery – I made one for each of my friends who went on a cruise with me last January.

Here are two of my favorite pages from that scrapbook:

I used Old Olive cardstock as the background and Stampin’ Up!’s Balmy Breezes stamp set for that scrapbook.

I just did another one using Tempting Turquoise as the background and the Wild About You stamp set in Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery – perfect for a new baby!

Since I don’t have a new baby right now, I decided to use some photos of my son Matt when he was a baby for the sample scrapbook. Here are some of my favorite pages:

This is a super-quick and easy way to fill a book – perfect for a gift with or without photos. I gave one similar to this to my neighbor for photos of her new grandbaby – since it’s already almost finished, she can just add in the photos.

For the book, I used a simple, plain white spiral bound 6X6 book from Michaels. I used ModPodge to adhere some of Stampin’ Up!’s new Loves Me designer paper to the cover and cut out the negative image of the chipboards letter “M” (from On Board Simon Lower). I inked it up and added some Close to Cocoa paper behind the letter and tied coordinating ribbon down the spiral – here’s the front cover:

I really like how it turned out – and so does my son Matthew!

I hoped to complete another book today, but my friends tempted me into spending a lazy morning at a local coffee shop – how could I turn that down? So I’m off to my craft room now to see how much I can get done before I have to pick my older kids up from school and then run my daughter to gymnastics…

Oh – and since you’ve been very nice to me (haven’t you?), here’s a link to the template (hopefully, this will work for you – if not, please let me know and I’ll try to post it another way):

Scrapbook Template

Brrrrrr…..

All of a sudden, it feels like winter here in NJ!  The temperature was in the 60’s on Monday night when I held my Stamp-A-Stack – we had to open the windows , it got so hot in my dining room!  And now it’s in the 20’s – I really dislike the cold weather.  I have a Home And School meeting tonight that I should attend, but it’s so tempting to just stay here inside where it’s warm under my toasty down throw-blanket…

I did manage to accomplish some things today.  I got caught up on all my emails and finally went to the grocery store (yes, that’s right – now my family not only has clean towels, but we also have real food in the house!).  I tried to make a ‘Roast Pork with Citrus Sauce’ recipe in my slow-cooker – the pork came out great, but the sauce…not so good.  Couldn’t get it to thicken…

Anyway, I am the coordinator for my church’s (Pitman United Methodist Church) new scrapbooking ministry – it’s been pretty successful so far.  All of the money we raise goes to Victory House for Girls – a residential home for at-risk teenage girls. 

We invite people from all churches (or no church) to attend – we have door prizes, free classes and serve dinner.  We meet on the 3rd Saturday of each month (our next meeting is this Saturday, so I need to get started!) and open up our social hall for scrapbookers to come and work on their projects and spread out their supplies.  We also have lots of donated supplies available for those who are new to scrapbooking – and we try to help them as much as we can.

Each month has a theme – this month’s theme is ‘Hope’.  I usually try to make some project relating to the theme that I can share with everyone.  Then I also try to find applicable Bible verses to share as well.

Today, I worked on a scrapbook spread about hope – here it is:

Our church building burned down a few years ago and our new building is currently under construction.  The photos were taken at the raising of the new cross back in November.  I thought this would be a great project to share for ‘hope’ – we are so full of hope every time we drive by that new building! 

At the bottom of the second page, I stamped crosses across as a border – it’s hard to see that in the photo.  I used Stampin’ Up!’s Sell-A-Bration ‘Just Delightful’ Scrappin’ Kit to make the pages – I also used some Heidi Swapp chipboard letters and Making Memories rub-on letters.  The colors in the kit are a little too ‘springy’ for me, but other than that, I’m happy with how it turned out.

I also decided to make a scrapbook embellishment using a domino for Saturday’s class and made a sample on the page.  Here’s a close up photo:

I made it to coordinate with the page and will let the attendees make it as either an embellishment, pin or magnet.  I used the Sell-A-Bration ‘Delight in Life’ stamp set along with my Stampin’ Pastels, Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds.

Aaaaah – the kids are all bugging me at once and Mike just walked out the door to have his bowling ball fixed or some such nonsense.  Looks like I won’t be going to the meeting after all….