Creative Month & Origins

Eventhough I have not been scrapbooking as much as I would like this month, I have been crafting and creating almost constantly. I hosted four gingerbread house workshops with my playgroup and my boys (ages 3 & 4) made these adorable houses!



I have also completed Christmas cards orders for four customers totalling over 250 cards. Did I make my own cards this year? No. I "cheated" and ordered photo cards from Shutterfly. However, I do not feel guilty at all. Last year I never mailed cards...I only managed to address the envelopes!

New in stock is the Origins Collection from Basic Grey. I cannot wait for things to slow down a bit so that I can make something with this delicious new paper collection!

Making Memories

December is our month for making memories...not too much preserving of memories taking place at the moment. We'll be back in the swing of things soon! I am working on Ali Edwards' December Daily scrapbook, but mine is organized to cover 25 holiday memories as opposed to the specific 25 days leading up to Christmas. As I finish up the last of my custom holiday card orders (and my own holiday cards), I will share pics of my album.

New products are still be added to the online store weekly and I am very excited about some of the new lines and manufacturers that we will be carrying in 2010! January is the month each year where I try to do some serious scrapbooking catching up so I cannot wait to get my hands on some new merchandise.

I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays!

Black Friday BLOWOUT Sale!!!

Black Friday BLOWOUT Sale begins TONIGHT at Midnight!!! With a little luck, I'll be able to ship orders as early as Saturday morning!

The VERY popular Basic Grey 2010 Calendar Kit is at it's lowest price EVER!


ALL Kits are on Sale!



ALL Albums are on Sale!



Be sure to check out the Clearance section too for even more special deals!

I am IN TROUBLE!!!

Have you seen the new lines just released by Basic Grey? Oh. My. Goodness.

Here is my absolute favorite, Basic Grey Origins:



And the card kit is fabulous! I LOVE the owl card.



Sugar Rush is pretty cute too!

Chipboard Album Kit available for purchase!

The Halloween chipboard album kit pictured below is now available for purchase! Instructions with pictures included. Kit also includes: Cosmo Cricket blackboard album, 4 sheets of American Crafts double-sided cardstock, American Crafts Vinyl embellishments, ribbon, Doodlebug Paper Frills & brads.

Chipboard Album Kit on sale now for only $9.00

More Halloween Fun

Jumbo clothespins make perfect little gifts for just about any occasion. I completed a number of similar clothespins for a craft fair that was rained out last weekend. Bummer! Well, I guess I'll just be "forced" to use these to display cut Halloween photos of my own children now.


To make these, I simply paint the wood clothespins with acrylic paint. Strips of patterned paper are trimmed to small rectangles and I round the corners. Ink the edges of the paper and adhere using Tombo Mono Adhesive (my favorite!). Ribbon, flowers, brads, chipboard, vinyl, etc., all make excellent additions!

Supplies used: Patterned Paper (American Crafts: Boogieman and Howl), Chipboard (American Crafts Halloween), Paper Accents (K & Co.), Flower (Prima), Ribbon (Offray and American Crafts).

Halloween Chipboard Album

This new line from American Crafts has been calling my name since it arrived in the mail. I especially love the quirky addition of the pale blue--not often seen in Halloween paper. I am so happy that I was able to steal some time and convince my 3-year-old to join me in my craft room this afternoon.


The black chipboard album is from Cosmo Cricket and one that I have used for a number of different seasonal albums. The black chipboard is fun to play around with--I used my white gel pen for details on many of the layouts.


The coordinating vinyl A.C. embellishments were perfect for this project. I have plenty left over and I cannot wait to use them on my next altered project.



Supplies Used: Patterned Paper (American Crafts), Chipboard Album (Cosmo Cricket), Paper Frills (Doodlebug), Brads (Basic Grey), Ribbon (American Crafts, Offray)

Lovely Ribbon

Who doesn't love ribbon? A good friend of mine is not only addicted to paper crafts, but she also makes the cutest hair bows! Check out these adorable bows using American Crafts Pumpkin Ribbon Spool #2, Spool #5 and yellow ric rac.

Nutmeg from Cosmo Cricket

I need more Cosmo Cricket paper like I need a hole in my head. Do you think that will prevent me from ordering this new line once it is available? Nope!

American Crafts Halloween

I just received my American Crafts order today and I cannot wait to begin creating fun Halloween projects with their new line of paper and embellishments. Since I have not yet had the chance to make anything cute to share, I went searching for some inspiration. Check out these adorable projects created by others.


Never before have I been interested in purchasing one of these ATC holders, but this has changed my mind! I MUST buy one of these! This halloween countdown spinner was created by NAKscrap over at TwoPeas.


I have a collection of unfinished birdhouses from various craft stores and I know that I want to find the time to make at least one spooky house this year. Look at this haunted house from snowballsmom also found at TwoPeas.


I LOVE the use of die cut bats for roof tiles! Genius.


This would make a perfect teacher's gift--these are individual brownies created by danni reid. Too cute!

P.s. All of that fabulous ribbon finally arrived and I'm working on getting it all uploaded to the store.

Thank You Basic Grey

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Basic Grey for this new 2010 Calendar Kit. Without it, I do not think I could guarantee that both my parents and my in-laws will receive a handmade Christmas gift this year. Because of it, I am 100% confident that I will FINALLY be able to complete handmade gifts for both of them in time for the holidays.


The kit is very similar to Basic Grey's wonderful card kits. It includes all of the die cut pieces, chipboard shapes, stickers and rub-ons that you need to complete a beautiful 12-month calendar. Each month's layout includes space for a photo.

I've almost completely sold out of the first round of calendars that I purchased and I'm off to immediately purchase more. Be sure to get your hands on one (or ten) of these as quickly as you can as I am almost positive that they will be hard to come by pretty soon.

Ribbon and LOTS of it!

I just placed an order for over 2,400 yards of ribbon. Yes, you read the correctly. Look for all of this yummy ribbon to show up in my online store in 1-2 weeks once it has arrived.

Thank goodness these are all 15-yard or 25-yard spools of ribbon. I find it particularly difficult to part with portions of those tiny 3-foot spools of ribbon I find at the local craft stores. Now I can set aside a few yards of each new ribbon for myself and still have plenty left over to share with the rest of the world.

Now I must come up with some creative ways to display all of these 25-yard spools of ribbon heading my way. Suggestions are welcome!

Baby Hugs

Look! Another scrapbook layout! I figured I should really start using all of my delightful scrapbooking products that I have on hand instead of saving them for some future layout.

I fell in love with Basic Grey's Lime Rickey as soon as it was released. I used 3 sheets of paper and one sticker element from the 12 X 12 Collection Pack, one sheet from the 6 X 6 Paper Pad as well as embellishments including the Glazed Brads and Chipboard. Purchasing the smaller paper pad was such a great idea, if I do say so myself. It allows me to use additional patterned papers on my layout without cutting in to one of the full 12 X 12 sheets. (This is much less expensive).



The title of this particular layouts says it all. I still need to look up the exact date that these pictures were taken and add that on the orange patterned paper block to complete this layout, but I think you get the idea.

Supplies Used: Patterned Paper (Basic Grey), Textured Cardstock (American Crafts), Chipboard (Basic Grey), Brads (Basic Grey).

This Boy...

I give up! I have really tried to avoid the trend of only scrapbooking one photo on a layout, but I can't do it any longer. I now understand why so many have been scrapbooking this way. You have total freedom to design and decorate your layout almost any way you'd like. Instead of balancing my photos, I strive to balance my fun patterned papers and embellishments in a way that the photo still remains the main focus of the layout. Too fun!


Speaking of patterned paper, the paper used here is from Scenice Route. I used paper from the Metropolis line: Johnson Street, Carter Drive and Main Street. I hand cut all of the little circle embellishments and adhered some with foam pop dots for dimension. Rub-ons provided a quick title and journaling solution. After adding all of these elements I still felt like something was missing. I grabbed my handy Black Precision Pen and drew some quick lines. Complete!

Supplies Used: Textured Cardstock (Bazzill Basics), Patterned Paper (Scenic Route), Rub-ons (Daisy D's), Black Pen (American Crafts).

Lemonade Card Kit

My love of the card kits from Basic Grey continues. Here's just one of the cute cards from the Lemonade Card Kit.



I have been so busy opening new wholesale accounts and ordering lots of new product for the store that I haven't had much time to complete any layouts of my own. I have at least 6 layouts near completion--most are just waiting for journaling. Hopefully I'll be able to steal some time for myself to finish the layouts soon!

Basic Grey Product Release

No more teasing, Basic Grey has finally released their four new product lines. Yay!!!! Not only do I love the collection packs, but I especially love that each product line also has a coordinating card kit. These card kits have become my new best friends. If I continue making cards at this rate I might actually have enough cards on hand to send out to all of my friends and family next year.

Indian Summer


Eerie


Nook and Pantry


Eskimo Kisses


Everything excpet Nook and Pantry is expected to begin shipping in late August. I cannot wait!

Fancy Pants Sneak Peek

With CHA just around the corner, all of my favorite manufacturers have begun to release their product previews. How exciting!!! Here are some pictures of Fancy Pants' new collections. I cannot wait to get my hands on the Rough & Tough line of products--perfect for those 3,000 photos of my boys just waiting for me to scrapbook!


Rough & Tough


Dancing Girl


Little Sprout


Trick or Treat


Christmas Magic

Visit the Fancy Pants blog to see samples made with all five of these new collections.

CHAS 09 Sneak Peek from Cosmo Cricket

Everyone knows that I love, love, love Cosmo Cricket. I was so excited to stumble upon their CHA Summer sneak peek on their company blog. I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on these new product lines.


Earth Love Collection


The Boyfriend Collection

Jolly by Golly Collection


Which of these collections is your favorite? I think that I'm going to have to choose Earth Love. We have so many outdoor photos and this collection is perfect for those as well as many of the baby photos I have yet to scrapbook.

Check out additional photos of these new Cosmo Cricket products HERE!

Lime Rickey Card Kit

I absolutely LOVE the card kits that Basic Grey has added to their product line. For $15, the kit includes everything you need to complete 8 cards (plus envelopes and extras). The rub-on pack that came with the Lime Rickey card kit had so many extra rub-ons that I was able to add sentiments to the inside of most of my cards plus some cute images for other projects. You can purchase this card kit from my store HERE. The Wisteria card kit is also avaiable and the Lemonade card kit will be added to my store at the end of the week!

Coming Soon

Sorry it has been a while since I've shared anything new. My family took a vacation and I feel like all I have been doing since we've returned is laundry and cleaning. I have a number of layouts *almost* finished and will post something new tomorrow. Also, my Basic Grey order is set to arrive this week with the new Lemonade line and I CANNOT wait!!!

Ouch

As the mother of two young boys, I recently figured out that I had better just begin albums devoted to their injuries. I don't know how many times the two boys have been playing happily together one minute and the next minute someone is screaming and bleeding. I'm shocked out how quickly (and how often) these random ouchies occur. Clearly I did not grow up with brothers in my family.


Once again, I used Cosmo Cricket paper on this layout. The Hello Sunshine kit is just so perfect! I used a ruler and my white Signo pen to make the faux stitching. I covered a chipboard piece from the Buck Naked chipboard shape pack from Cosmo Cricket, of course. I have 3 of these chipboard packs on hand in my stash and use these pieces all of the time.

Supplies used: Cosmo Cricket (patterned paper, chipboard), Bazzill Basics (textured cardstock), Making Memories (letter plates), Signo (white pen).