I've been creating!

I have been hiding out in my "wizard's room" playing with distress ink, vintage images and glue. 

It's the time of year that I have family and friends birthdays, one after another for the next 3 1/2 months. Once I get the creativity going I don't dare stop for fear of loosing the "mojo".

When it comes to cards for "guys" I get a total design block...for some reason it's just harder to come up with ideas for the men in my life. 

I was pretty happy with the San Francisco card for my DS, could I get that lucky again for my DB?

YUP...I pulled together some "ice cream" ephemera to go along with this old photo of my uncle,as a young boy, licking  ice cream off a dasher that had just come out of a hand crank ice cream freezer. The wording in red reads "RESERVED for personal use only".

Ever get the feeling you are be ignored?

You would think if  a cat sat down...posed herself to create a perfect photo opportunity, she would at least work with the photographer.  The back ground was great...lighting okay and the subject was gorgeous...I ran to get my camera, got it on the right settings...I sat down to be at her level, you know all the amateur photo tricks...and she moves.

We loose the poise...has boredom or apathy set in?

She got up and walked to the other end of the table...is this a "I could care less" poise?

No this is  Cat-atude...as in "go away, I was just yanking your chain, I have no intention of poising for your camera...don't you know when you are being ignored?"

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

This Fall a friend of mine, that knows how much I enjoy old photos gave me this one of his aunt as a child. The detail of her coat, hat and shoes are amazing. I knew I wanted to use this picture in a Christmas card. While it doesn't scream Christmas...it does look very winter-y. After a few attempts of trying to make the photo work...and not liking what I was coming up with, I went looking for some inspiration...and found it in a 2008 Somerset. Frieda Oxenham had a wonderful design that I semi-scrap swiped.
The background of the card is 7Gypsies "Venice-Canal" patterned paper . "Black Soot" Distress ink for the stamp and the edges of the card. I highlighted the stamp design with the "magic pen" (gotta love the the magic pen). A glittery shear aqua ribbon runs down the side...and aqua lace across the bottom, along with the word "Merry". A large white lace snowflake (which started out life as a daisy) is covered in "Star Dust" Stickels and embellished with a rhinestone star. All topped off with a sprig of Holly on the hat.

The message inside the card reads...

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".

I hope you do just that!

It's all about the Glitz!

It was all about the glitz at the Friday night Heritage Scrapbook Workshop. I designed a few "demos" using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and talked about how to incorporate the mist onto heritage pages. In my effort to show that you aren't stuck with colors like tan, ivory and brown when creating heritage layouts, I went way out of the "box" and used PURPLE!
This is such a fun "vampy" photo, it was just the image to use with glimmer mist.
The back ground patterned paper was sprayed with "Coffee Shop" and "Creame de Rouge". The lace got a spritz on the "Coffee Shop" too.

A couple of white, Dollar Store silk flowers, were disassembled and misted with "Creme de Rouge". When dry, the color was stunning. The flower was reassembled, with a 7 Gypsies brad in the center. Smaller paper flowers from Prima were sprayed too. The bottom flower is the "Coffee Shop" and the top was the "Creme de Rouge"... Same glimmer mist color but a totally different effect on the paper Prima flowers. The flowers were layered using Ultimate Glue. I added a healthy dab of the same glue to the center of the flower and loaded it up with purple beads. The glue dries clear so all you see is the shimmering beads.

Sometimes you just need to play!

Last night at the Heritage Scrapbooking Workshop, Mary asked if I would like her to take pictures of the class...That would have been nice, but I forgot my camera! The nights I do remember the camera...I forget to take pictures. I really must get my act together. All the ladies are working on different types of Heritage projects and are encouraging each other along the way. Ann has amazing family stories, ephemera and photos which she is using to design some impressive layouts. Mary is working on a book honoring her mother-in-law, who was a poet. It is fun to see the wonderful pages they have created. We were joined by Cynthia, whose mother made a marvelous scrapbook back in the 1950s. It has been well loved and the cover is coming apart, so Cynthia is "remaking" the book.
During the class I taught different ways on how to use "Transparencies". I had a photo left over from the demo I designed for the class. With the extra photo I decided to play!
I printed a photo of Grandma Mabel at age 3 on clear adhesive film (transparency with an adhesive back), I love this stuff! You don't have to worry about how you are going to adhere the image to your project. Where do I get it you ask...Mystic Paper of course! I placed the transparency on a patterned paper that looked like an old letter. At that point I pulled out all my boxes of lace and fabric. Most of them got a "bath" in tea to give them an aged look. When they dried, I started layering.

From there I dumped out the jar of old jewelery and I found some pieces that if you squint...might look vintage. For a pop of color I added a few posies.

It turned out kind of cool...I will have to play more often!

OBTW:

If you feel like you missed out on all the fun last night...I have another Heritage Workshop this Friday the 25 of September- 4:30 to 6:30. You can sign up for the class by calling Mystic Paper.

Another OBTW:
Congratulations to the Mystic Paper new Design Team. Holly, Jenna and Surina. All very talented ladies. You can see their 12x12 entries on the Mystic blog site. Every team needs a captain...and Mystic Paper has asked me to be the Design Team captain. I'm looking forward to working with the new team. I have some very big shoes to fill...Sheri was an awesome DTC.

Born to be Wild

Nothing is more "manly" than a motorcycle.
This third card isn't exactly Wild Hogs"...but it is a cycle all the same. I found this great advertisement image posted by angelandspot on Flickr. The ad was suppose to be for bicycles, but with the wonderful font and frame it is impressive enough for a motorbike. I inked up the image with Versa Color "Split Pea"...
I was in a "green mood" while designing these cards.
My motorcycle image is from a old family photo. Two of my great uncles, one holding my aunt as a child. Okay...so it's not a "chopper", but it is still a motorbike...even if it has a sidecar. I had bought the green felt trim originally for this card, and liked it so well I used it on the "Cowboy" card too.

So bring on the "manly" celebrations...I'm ready !

Thank you Angel and Spot!

Yippie!

I enjoy making cards...I can whip up a card for just about any occasion to send to family and friends. But when it comes to making cards for men I have a real creative block when it comes to ideas. Why it should be any different, I don't know, but it is. So in my portfolio there are very few masculine cards. I have some birthdays and graduations coming up in the next few months that are going to need "man" cards. Now was the time to overcome the block! I went through my images, paper and ephemera with the goal of coming up with at least three cards that could be sent to nephews, brother, sons, uncles or dad.

I have paper that I have collected over the years in my stash so there was a lot to choose from. I found an image of a great uncle dressed to the hilt in his cowboy duds, I cut him out and inked him up with Versa Color "Split Pea" ink.

The galloping horses patterned paper is from K&Company that has been around for a while. I sanded it and added the "Split Pea" ink and some "Old Paper" distress ink. The brown background paper has the texture of leather, just the thing for a cowboy. The green trim made everything pop. I found the frame in Dover, cut around it and inked it up. What else would a cowboy say on a special occasion but...Yippie-Yi-Yo-Ki-Yay?

What do you think, is it "manly" enough?

Playing with Butterfly Wings

I've been playing...
It started with the flowers, outlined with a black pen. I had cut the flowers out for a long ago project...that I ended up going a whole other way and didn't use them. I remembered a wonderful background that Debrina Pratt had shared on her Flickr...Spark*your*imagination. I needed an image so I sorted through my collection of vintage photos and came up with this lady in an Asian costume...check out the high heals.

She needed some butterfly wings, but it had to be the right color, a bit of red and some orange...I couldn't resist the blue in these wings. Digging through my treasures, I ran across some VERY old gold sealing wax and a "sun" seal...the goal was to not burn the house down. The edges of the card were stamped with flourishes and rubbed in gold ink. At this point the lady had to have a crown...gold Dresden Borders to top her head and a bit more for a border on the bottom of the card. I'll add a message inside and send her off to a friend for a birthday card.


An "OH BY THE WAY" class schedule...

This Wednesday August 5th at Mystic Paper I will be teaching the Heritage Scrapbooking workshop 3:30 to 5:30. Come join us and bring a project to work on.

On Saturday the 15th of August from 10:30 to 1:30 I will be teaching Heritage Scrapbooking class at Mystic. You will leave with a notebook full of information to get you started creating your own family album.

Wednesday the 19th of August 3:30 to 5:30 will be another Heritage Scrapbooking Workshop. With ideas to move your project along. Call Mystic Paper to sign up.

Way too much fun!

We had way too much fun yesterday afternoon downstairs in the classroom of Mystic Paper

at my Heritage Scrapbooking Workshop. Everybody had a project that they were working on. Mary has some great poems written by her mother-in-law that she is designing layouts around. Ann had been busy since the last workshop creating beautiful heritage pages using her old family photos. Kristy worked on a page with a great color combination using a family picture. Lisa's book has family recipes, photos and marvelous family stories. Sandy assembled a layout for a family picture by layering patterned paper from Basic Gray's Periphery line.

There was a lot of "ooh-ing and ahh-ing" going on around that big design table.

You want to join in the fun...the next Heritage Scrapbooking class is Saturday August 15th. Call Mystic Paper to sign up!

Thank you Kim for the class photo!

How to get Grandma out of the box

It is no secret that I have a fondness for old photos, family history, and genealogy. It is a wonderful journey to take vintage family photos, ephemera , stories and design an album that can be passed on to your children and grand children. Heritage albums can take on many different themes. Albums using faded family recipes, or long ago written poetry and pictures of the loved ones who wrote them. An album from a recent trip to where your family came from along with old photos of the ancestors that lived there. These are albums to be cherished for generations. If you have wondered what to do with all those old family photos and other bits and pieces that are still sitting in a box since the day you got them,
now is the time to get started. I am teaching a Heritage Scrapbook class at Mystic Paper.
We will start with a class on how to get organized, copying photos, what to do with ephemera and many more questions you may have. In the first class we will cover all your question. You will receive a note book full of information to get you started. This first class will be June 24th 3:30 to 5:30. You can sign up by calling Mystic Paper, or if you are in the neighborhood...drop by.
There will be follow-up workshops with coaching and advice to help you to move your Heritage album along. We will focus on building upon your ideas to draw out your creative genius. The first follow up class will be July 8th 3:30 to 5:30. Your can sign up for this class by contacting Mystic Paper. Get those photos out of the box and into an album you can show off to your family. Your album can be big or small, a whole family or just one person...haven't they lived in the box long enough?

Stinking Cute Designs

I turned my Mystic Paper Design Team projects in to Kim, she pronounced them "Stinking Cute"! This is a very good thing from the ladies at Mystic. In fact it was my second official stinking cute (the first one was from Jennifer a while back), so I was felling pretty stinking good.

I decided to design two 12x12 layouts. My kit had included 4 sheets of the new Paper Loft heritage patterned paper. The colors were wonderful and perfect for layouts using old family photos. As an added bonus the papers are double sided.

The first lay out is of my great-grandmother Frances and her children, including my grandmother Mabel as a young girl.
I wanted to do something different with the ribbon. After placing it this way then that, I ended up rusching it.

The second lay out has poems that my Grandmother had written to my mother, as a child, for her birthday. I added some photos of my mom as a young girl.

I had just enough patterned paper and ribbon left to make a card. I used a picture from an old postcard and blinged it up with some blue rhinestones.

Design Team Captain, Sheri was up to her knees in Girl Scout cookies and still managed to get her projects done and turned in before me...she also sold out of all the cookies! Lindsey did some wonderful layouts. One with photos taken at the Zoo...now who doesn't enjoy the giraffes? Yasu has a fun layout using pictures of her scrapbook buddies.

Click on over to each of theses three talented ladies blogs to see what they have been up to.

Mr. Rogers and Old Sweaters

I received a Valentine in the mail today from my Tucson Sister. When she was up last month we talked about ideas for the valentines we were going to make for this years.

Tucson Sister said she had found an old red sweater she was going to cut hearts out of and use on her cards. The message in the inside of the card reads...

"I want to wish you a warm Valentine's Day."

I love to use old images on cards. This is a cabinet picture of my grandmother on my 2008 Valentines card.

Designed with lots of sparkly Stickles, Fruit Punch and Pink. The paper is Basic Gray "Two Scoops". I borrowed the idea for the message from Mr. Rogers.

Bed, Breakfast and Scrapbooking

I taught a beginning "Heritage Scrapbooking" class this weekend. It was held at a East Valley Bed and Breakfast, with a very limited student to teacher ratio. It involved organizing family photos and documents . Type of story to be told, selection of paper and placement of pictures and ephemera. How to use distress ink, chalk and different types of adhesive. Scanning photos and documents and a quick lesson on glimmer mist.

Okay...my Tucson sister (TS) came up to my house, spent a couple nights sleeping on an air mattress on the living room floor, made her own breakfast and I taught her how to begin scrapbooking. TS had never scrapbooked before. She makes lovely handcrafted Valentines cards every year, and designs beautiful quilts. But she has never scrapbooked. Her husband has some wonderful poetry that had been written by his mother and had been placed in a magnetic photo album... which we all learned long ago is a big no no!
We carefully removed the brittle paper from the album and semi-organized them into categories. There were quite a few poems, about a dozen photos and a few pieces of ephemera. We talked about the album and what she wanted the end result to look like.
The kitchen table was covered with glue, scissors, patterned paper and all the other scrapbook stuff that I pulled out of my wizards room to play with. Of course no scrapbook lesson could be complete with out a visit to Mystic Paper. TS added to her supply of paper, picked up a Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad , Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and breathed in all the creative vibes at MP.
My mother was here also (she got the bedroom) and between reading in the sun room and doing her crossword puzzles she would lend encouragement and creative input. We inherited all our creativity from mom...she is one heck of a talented lady. We also managed to go to lunch three times while they were here. With her talent and the inspiration she is getting from the pictures and poems TS will have an exquisite family heirloom when she finishes.

Travels with my Aunt

I received a package in the mail from my Aunt Mary. She lives in Texas, and is my mother's older sister. Aunt Mary, mom and I have done some serious traveling together. The summer of 2007 we all met up together in London and had one adventure after another. We took tons of pictures, and made disks for each other. The package she sent me had the photo disks I had made for her of the pictures I had taken...which I intended for her to keep. Aunt Mary had also had copies made of all the photos on the disk and sent those too. Which only increased the guilt I have for the fact I haven't "scrapbooked" that trip yet. Yes I know it's was way back in 2007...I've been busy! It was fun to see the pictures again, maybe it will kick start me in to getting them in a book.
Aunt Mary knows I love old photos. In the package there were wonderful photos that had belonged to her friend Helen.
Apparently Helen was going to throw them out and Aunt Mary rescued them for me. These pictures are just too fun. I will have to come up with some clever project to use them on.

Out of the Box

Today was the due date for the Mystic Paper Design Team January project to be turned in. You remember that we were each given a wooden shape (see Undecorating Christmas post)with the instructions to select our own paper, and whatever direction we took with the shape was up to us. I wanted to do something "out of the box".

The shape sat on my table for a few day before I decided to put it "in a box".

I covered the wooden shape with the Basic Gray "Pinot Noir" patterned paper. Sanded the edges and distressed it with

Tim Holtz "Frayed Burlap" and "Old Paper" Distress Ink.I sprayed a spritz or two of the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in "Sage" and "Coffee Shop" on the patterned paper. A corner of the "Chardonnay" paper was used as a frame for my image. The edges of the shape were covered with Stickles "Waterfall" to give it just a bit of sparkle.

The bird was cut out of the "Chardonnay". I back him with two layers of chip board to give him some dimension. Sanded the edges and added the distress ink. It was also edged with Stickles. The half circle medallion was treated the same way. With the addition of some blue rhinestones for Kaiser scrapbook. The rub ons are Jenni Bowlin. These are all mounted on book board covered in bits and pieces of the "Pinot Noir", "Chardonny" and "Chablis" BG. Then sanded, distressed and sprayed with the glimmer mist. I added some of Mystic Paper's great vintage look ribbon and a few more rhinestones.

I got mine turned in today, it was finished last week, but I hadn't had a chance to get into Mesa until today. Head on over to Sheri, Lindsey and Yasu's blogs and take a look at the different ways we used our wooden shape.

Merry Christmas, Ho Ho Ho, and all that Jazz

To say I "scrap swiped" this idea for my 2008 Christmas card would be an understatement.When I saw the November/December Somerset Studio magazine cover, I knew I had to find a way to make Rachel Killpack's fabulous "Christmas Star" in to a card.

I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, slowly the pieces came together. Without looking to hard I found the patterned paper. Bo-Bunny Press (Jan Lanoy) "Winter Whisper Swirl". The music patterned paper is K&Company, "Life's Journey Music". I had the white feathers left over from a long ago project and bought the silver star garland at Joann's. Then the search got a bit harder. What the heck was I going to use for the flourish in the center of the angels? I ended up getting a wooden applique, which I dry brushed with white paint and highlighted with distress ink. When it dried, I scanned the wooden applique, then printed it using the wallet size layout to get the size I needed. I cutout the scanned flourish, highlighted it with a white gel pen and covered with Crystal Stickle glitter. I went through all my old photos looking for an image I could use for the angels. I couldn't find any picture that would work. I check the Internet, nothing. I finally got on Flickr and found the exact image Rachel had used. It had been posted by Suzee Que. After printing and cutting out the angels, I used a opalescence eyeshadow and tinted the angels so they would have a bit of a shimmer. The angels and the flourish were backed with chipboard to give the card some dimension.

As my husband and I were addressing the envelopes for the card, he asked me if I had made this card before, I told him this was the first time. He said he had seen this someplace before. I told him he had...it was on the front cover of Somerset Studio I had sitting out for the last month. Yep... it was a total scrap swipe!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Waiting for Grandma

If you remember back to my "Family Connection" blog, I had spent the summer going through family photos, histories and working on genealogy. Most of this renewed interest came about because of the death of my husband's grandmother last November. Grandma's death was sudden. She was 100 years old, and in good health. These pages are in remembrance of her.

The paper has the look and feel of textured wall paper. I rub a white ink pad over the surface, and highlighted with a white gel pen. I used the same gel pen to decorate the laser cut "Waiting for Grandma".

I pulled apart then re-assembled a large white flower. The center is a brad, I covered with tacky tape, and rolled in tiny glass marbles. The "together" tag probably came off a shirt, and the love charm from a wedding announcement. Grandma is hiding in a velum envelope.

Three water is smaller than four water

These pages of the book are inspired by my granddaughter. During the summer I signed my grand kids up for two-two week sessions of swimming lessons. The kids were so excited you would have thought I was taking them to Disneyland. The first day of the first session we went to the public pool, the kids found their classes and the teacher asked the kids to jump into the pool. My DGD would not jump in, apparently 4 feet was too deep for her. She would slide in but wouldn't jump in. For two weeks, every day I explained how she was 47 1/2 inches tall and the water was 48 inches deep. I asked, "Can you touch the bottom?" Yes she could touch the bottom. Still she wouldn't jump into the pool. The last day of class, the teachers tested the kids. DGD made several attempts to jump into the pool, only to slide in at the last second. Finally the last attempt was a half slide-half jump. She came running over to me all excited that she had jumped in. I told her it didn't look like a jump to me, but we would let the teacher be the judge. We walked over and asked the teacher if it was a slide or a jump...he said it was kind of a jump. But he did suggest she take the class over. The next session of swimming lessons were at a different public pool in the city. The first day of lessons came...we had the talk about really jumping in this time. We got to the pool, and were sitting on the chairs waiting for class to start, and I pointed out the fact that the shallow end at this pool was only 3 feet deep. She went off to class, the teacher asked the kids to jump into the pool, and DGD JUMPED IN! When the lessons were over and she came over for her towel, I asked her why she jumped into this pool but not the last one. She said she jumped in because the three water was much smaller than the four water. How are you going to argue with logic like that?
The photo of the woman in the old fashion bathing suit , diving into the pool, is my great grandmother. She apparently like to jump in.

Family Connections

I spent the afternoon with my Aunt Louesa and Cousin Sandra organizing boxes of family history items.

This all started out innocently enough earlier this summer. I had asked my Aunt if she had any pictures or stories about a great-great (add some more greats) grandmother. Looking for information turned in to a twice a month get together of going through boxes and files, scanning photos (and writing the names on the picture of the people in them...if we could remember), copying documents and family stories. I enjoy looking at old photos anyway, wondering about the lives and stories of the people in them. When the pictures are of your own grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, it gives you a connection . Realizing their history is really a part of my history and for the most part these ancestors were trying to make a better life for their descendants.

By the end of the afternoon Aunt Louesa, Sandra and I had organized all the boxes and filed about 95 % of the families history. Now the next time we get together ...we're going to lunch.