Scrapbooking Retreat

Designed by Erica Bass Designed by Christy Herron

Designed by Keila Taggart


These are the layouts for the scrapbooking and stamping retreat that I co hosted on the 18th. The cool thing about collaborating with other people is that layouts and color schemes aren't limited to one's own imagination. This is just one of the classes that we held on Saturday.

By the way does anyone have any suggestions about getting good images of 12 x 12 pages without the image warp? I like to crop as close as possible but can never get things to line up perfectly.

One more thing. In hopes of getting more comments I will turn off the WV (word verification) but I am hoping I won't start getting the spam comments again. Call me a comment junkie but I think everyone likes a little feedback!

Other people's candy

Deb Neerman has some awesome blog candy on her site for this weekend only!!

Also check out Head, Hands & Heart for candy!!

Flocked Flowers

I bought some flocking this weekend to experiment with and I finally got a chance today to play with it. I have learned a few things about using the stuff and I thought that I would share. For those who don't know you buy flocking in similar bottle that embossing powder comes in. It is the fuzzy stuff on some of the papers and stickers that are out lately.

In order to add flocking to a project you will need Heat and Stick powder. You basically follow the same instructions for embossing: stamp image with VersaMark pour Heat and stick powder onto image and heat with the heat gun until it turns clear. Next you will pour the flocking onto the sticky image and tap off the excess. Run over it with the heat gun again to set the flocking and wha-la you are done!

Here are a few tips:
1. Use the embossing buddy on your whole page before you start.

2. When you are applying your flocking to the sticky image be at a different table than all of your other stuff ie your VersaMark pad and heat and stick powder. That way there is no mixing.

3. Make sure that when you heat the heat and stick powder on your project that everything is completely melted. That way all of your images have a secure hold on the flocking.

Agua Por Favor

Agua? Here's some Agua for you! Allison's challenge this week is to use water in the design of your card. First off I stamped the shells and masked them. I don't know if the picture brought this out enough but I used my new Moon Glows Moon Shadow Mist in Buccaneer Bay for the background. Then I brayered Tempting Turquoise to make the background very blue. Sponged creamy caramel for the sand spritzed it with water and salted it. That helped but really the dauber's shape didn't go away. Probably next time I would watercolor the sand then salt it. But it doesn't bother me enough to start over. I also painted some pearly white mica powder over the shells and that looks better in person. The matte is Basic Gray and the base is Confetti White. Oh yeah, and I embossed the saying with white ep.

Stitched Page

I saw this gorgeous page in April's issue of Scrapbooks Etc. I loved the look of the stitching on her page so I had to make a LO of my own. It looks a little crooked on the cropped image because I haven't learned to take pictures entirely centered over the pages yet. Anyhow I changed the design to be a double page LO and changed the way I matted the pictures. If you click to enlarge the image I promise the details come out stronger!

I drew my design in pencil freehand and punched holes along the line with my paper piercing tool (no guide, it was too hard to see) and stitched along the lines with embroidery floss.

The stamps used was the Sophisticate Alphabet by Quick Stampz and Baroque Motifs by SU!

Allison's Challenge -- Scraps!

I've been doing these challenges and having a lot of fun. Lately I've been preparing for a scrapbooking retreat that I'm hosting locally and I haven't had a lot of extra time but this is a great excuse to keep my blog fresh with posts! The challenge was to use only scraps to make a card. I'm not sure if it was cheating to use buttons and brads but I thought it would be challenging to use the left overs of my punched out shapes as well. And why not make it look masculine as well? The confetti white piece is a left over hand out from church that I had and flipped it over. And the rest ballet blue, soft sky, certainly celery, and old olive pieces were in the scrap file. The base was also a "left over" from something or other but is the normal card size of Sahara sand.

You don't want to miss this!

If you haven't been over to Li'l Buck's Creations aka Misty's blog you will want to see this awesome blog "booty"! (Like pirate treasure -- not her hind quarters!)

Baby Boy Card

I got my shipment of new SU! stuff yesterday. I am actually prepping most of it for a scrapbooking weekend that I am co-hosting with another demonstrator. I will post pictures of the things that we are doing after next weekend. It is really hard for me to not spill the beans and show off some of the things that I made! But since some of the people that are attending are readers, I want to keep those a surprise!

On to this card. The base I actually made while designing something for a workshop and I abandoned this pocket design and set it aside for later. I had a baby shower for a friend last night and saw that I had this base and went from there. I actually was looking for my Zoofari set but couldn't find it anywhere, so I went with the cute little elephant from Year after Year. I really wanted to incorporate the scallop square and since the whole image was too large to fit entirely I used the "stamp out of the box" technique.

One of the details I wanted to point out that is harder to see from the larger image but noticeable IRL is the embossed circles on the edge. This was entirely experimental I used my double circle punch and punched with it, since the double layer of heavy card stock was too thick it made an impression.


The next detail was the row of triple pierced holes. I flipped it over and left the relief side showing. I was really happy with the texture.

On the insert I pierced a double row on the bottom layer and also in my shipment I got some of the new poly twill ribbon and it is really nice! You've got to feel it and work with it to appreciate it. The image in the mini catalog is so small and it was pretty inexpensive so I just ordered some to try it out.

By the way, yesterday was so windy I was getting pretty grouchy about it but then I remembered that there were tornados expected around Texas and around the Mississippi and I stopped feeling bad about high winds. I hope everyone in that area is doing OK today. (And Allison, I'm sorry about all the snow. It did snow here but only in the mountains and higher elevations.)

Blog Flattery -- Case Challenge

For Allison's Suggestive Sunday Challenge I decided to case this beautiful creation by Susiestampalot I just loved the layout and I had the set so I thought this was the one. I've been blog stalking for almost a week trying to find something that made me want to copy it, especially with a set that I had. I loved her color choices but I went with the cool tones to change it up a bit.

Stamp set: True Friend, Boho Friend wheel
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black (wheel cart.), Basic Gray, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky
Accessories: Silver Brads, Soft Sky double stitched grosgrain ribbon, paper piercing template

Sunday's Swap: Blooming with Love

For our monthly swap we were supposed to use one of the new sets out of the catalog or the Occassion's mini catalog. So since I was cutting out some new sets my mom ordered I used one of her new sets. She doesn't mind because I give her a sample and she has an idea to start with. Besides I cut them out for her!

I played around with watercoloring, the main difference is I used the Aquapainter with the Future floor wax in it. It doesn't blend super smooth but I like texture.

Card stock: Blue Bayou, Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Ruby Red
Ink: Stazon Black, Tempting Turquoise, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, Gable Green, Green Galore, Real Red, Really Rust, Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Basic Black
Accessories: Tool Kit

Polka Dot Challenge

This challenge on Allison's blog was to use polka dots in any way you can. So I used Polka Dots and Paisleys Stamp Set, added a touch of a polka dot border on the saying, and pierced around two large circles. I was actually thinking about making a red/orange colored card so I decided to incorporate that into this one. The Kraft base of this card I just did on a whim.