My Latest Tuesday Morning Finds

I love finding my scrapbooking supplies for less and a great place to check is Tuesday Morning. This weekend I scored a couple Tim Holtz finds. One of his stamp sets for just $6.99 - that's less than buying it at a big box store with a 40% off coupon! I also got some of his Kraft Glassine Pockets.  I've even found Graphic 45 at Tuesday Morning. 

What's your favorite place to find scrapping supply bargains?

Finished The Cover For My Bohemian Bazaar Mini

So I had been working on my cover and had left my book with some of the flowers resting on the cover on my table. The cat jumped onto the table while I was at work and knocked off one of the flowers. Anything new on the floor becomes fair game for my English Mastiff Maximus. Needless to say I came home from work to a ruined flower spray.

At that point, I put away everything for an entire week. With the husband doing some studying today I figured it would be a good day to pull it back out and work on it a little.

Well, cover is done! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I have a Tim Holtz embellishment hanging from a button by some twine that says "The Journey Awakens The Soul." Appropriate I felt since this album is for a "journey" - the cruise my husband and I took. I used a few Prima flowers, a flower I put together with a brad and some bling my sister got me. Hope you like the cover.

Next up - completing the tags for the paper bags. Then the album itself will be complete - on to picture printing after that!

Finally Found The Balsa Boxes I Have Been Wanting!

Not that I needed to even think of another project right now - my brain is full of them as it is, BUT, I have been wanting a balsa box to alter for months! I saw an absolutely amazing video on YouTube by Arlene at mybutterflykisses12 and started looking for a box. I checked Michaels (which is where everyone said they found them), JoAnns and Hobby Lobby. I even looked online and just could not find them anywhere.

Well today I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some of the #10 tags for my Bohemian Bazaar paper bag mini I'm finishing up and, since of course I absolutely cannot go into Hobby Lobby without looking around too, I found the boxes. So excited to alter one! After I finish my mini and post the video and pictures on here of my completed album.

Here is a link to the video that made finding balsa boxes a mission for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttk-8b0ZftY

Enjoy!

Found Another Great Site!

I use YouTube a lot to get ideas, see tutorials and just appreciate others art. While looking at altered journals (another project I'm planning on completing soon) I came across some mini altered journals that were part of a swap. I've seen other YouTube videos that mentioned swaps too and I've always wanted more info but wasn't sure where to find it. 

Luck for me, someone had asked how to participate in their swaps and the info was there with the video. So I have joined their swap site, which is Art and Sassy. At the bottom of my page is my badge for my profile there and you can click on the link if you want to check it out.

Hoping to participate in a swap in October. I'm planning on doing a challenge at CSI in September. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but with the projects I want to complete I am taking it slow with adding challenges and swaps to my schedule LOL.

Happy crafting everyone!

Almost completely done mini album

So here is my first Bohemian Bazaar project. It's a vertical paper bag mini for the pictures from the cruise my husband and I went on for our honeymoon. Hope you enjoy it! Video update coming soon

I Found A New Website For Inspiration & Challenges!

I'm pretty excited about a new website I found! It's CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration and the link is:

http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/

I am really wanting to start doing some monthly challenges. I think they will be a good way to live outside of my "comfort zone" and challenge myself. One place I look often to find challenges or ideas is at the bookstore. I glance through any scrapbooking magazines they have and if something strikes me I pick up the magazine. 

This past Sunday, while looking through Scrap365 at Barnes & Nobel I came across 4 different ideas/articles that I really liked so I picked up the magazine. That is the real test for me as to whether or not I'll spend the money on a magazine - how many ideas or articles catch my eye? Let's face it - that is money that could be spent on papers, ribbons and more. This issue, however, warranted a purchase. 

One of the articles in the magazine was about the site CSI. I went to the site and checked it out and decided I would sign up. My membership (which is free) was approved today and now I can start entering challenges and meeting new scrappers. 

I'll be blogging about other challenges I find. I may even devote a page to challenges in the future. I really feel like these are a good way to learn new techniques and find new inspiration. One great thing about the challenge is that it's a single page layout. This means I can design it without the pressure of completing the entire album at once. I  can do these layouts in the middle of my current project too. Sometimes taking a little break from a bigger project to put together something can give you better perspective for the big project you're working on. 

I think, for me, I am going to start a 12x12 album for my page challenges. Then if I decide to use one in a larger album for a particular event I can always go back to my "challenge album" for ideas, inspiration or to pull a page to get started.

Where do you find inspiration? Do you have some great challenge sites to share? We'd love to hear from you!

Posted by: Stephanie

My Newest Scrapping Tool!

Newest Scrapbooking Tool

The Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Posted by: Stephanie

So for a while now I have been thinking of getting a scoring board. I have been using my Fiskars paper trimmer with my bone folder for ever! Not the best option but I have made it work. With some of the new projects I am, have been and plan on doing, I really felt the time had come to get a proper scoring tool. 

I went online to Scor-Pals website and was considering ordering a bundle from them. I then checked out online comparisons of the Scor-Pal board against the Martha Stewart board. The ratings were very close but  after reading the comparison at this link:  http://craftingwithsue.blogspot.com/2009/11/scor-pal-vs-martha-stewart-scoring.html  I decided to give the Martha Stewart board a try. 

I bought it at JoAnns where the original price is $24.99 but I had a 50% off coupon so I ended up spending $13.49 with tax. Not a bad deal. You can find the same board at Michaels for $19.99 and then use a coupon there but in my case the price was only about .50 cheaper to go to Michaels and JoAnns is just up the street. 

The board is large and easily accommodates a 12"x 12" sheet of paper, it has a handy storage compartment at the top to store the bone folder and inside the compartment are common measurements for cards and boxes and it comes with a triangle tool for making envelopes that easily stores underneath. 

On my current project I have been using some pretty heavy card stock and my initial test with the Martha Stewart board - Love It! The crease was nice and sharp and easy to fold. I am so glad I went ahead and made this small investment for my crafts. Never again will I have to use my paper trimmer and bone folder. 

I highly recommend a scoring board for you projects if you don't already have one. 

Benefits Of Scrapbooking

The Many Benefits of Scrapbooking

Posted by: Stephanie

 

My kids make fun of me for scrapbooking - they say it makes me sound old. I tell them people of ALL ages scrapbook. Besides - I do have 3 grandchildren LOL. Actually I wish I had started scrapbooking when I was about 20 years younger. Although 20 years ago there wasn't as much cool scrapbook stuff as there is today. Still I would have had albums of my kids photos growing up instead of trying to play catch up now. OK - so I haven't actually started trying to play catch up with their childhood photos yet - but like I said I have 3 grandchildren now.

 

Seriously though there are many benefits to scrapbooking that my kids, sometimes my husband and many others overlook.

 

1. It is a great creative outlet. After we become adults, we get busy with husbands, kids, pets, work - you name it. We never really have time to be creative - there are only so many times you can rearrange your living room. Scrapbooking gives us an opportunity to turn on the creativity center in our brains and create something of beauty not just something practical.

 

2. It can be a great social outlet. If you have a store in your area that hosts crops you get many great opportunities to meet new people, learn new techniques for scrapbooking and have fellowship at the crops. As adults we can have such busy schedules that we have little time for socializing. We get to "socialize" at work, church and kid related activities but a lot of times that is it. Life just gets too busy. Crops = fun socialization just for us.

 

3. Life getting busy and something just for us brings me to my next point. It is something we can do by ourselves! Independent of husbands and kids. Granted if you have an older child who starts scrapping you may scrap together but that is a bonus. Most of us though scrap with our scrapping community. It's a little something that is all ours and provides us time for ourselves.

 

4. Stress relief! What an awesome bonus to scrapbooking! When's the last time you were really stressed out WHILE scrapbooking? If you are really focusing on your project you hardly have time to worry about lifes little everyday stresses. Your brain gets a break from worry.

 

5. And last but definitely not least - your memories are preserved in your own unique way to be enjoyed by you and your family and friends for a lifetime. How many of us still have boxes of photos that never get looked at? When you start scrapbooking lifes moments you can display those scrapbooks in your home or maybe make a printers tray with photos - the possibilities are unlimited. The best part is you can enjoy your photos and mementos rather than having them just "taking up space" in boxes in closets.

 

Scrap away my friends and next time someone wants to know why you do it - refer them to this article :)

Bohemian Bazaar Paper Bag Mini and Blog Update

So my Bohemian Bazaar paper bag mini is well under way and I am posting pictures and videos on our pages dedicated to those. I absolutely LOVE Graphic45 papers and embellishments. If you haven't scrapped with Graphic45 I highly encourage you to check out their website and look at the collections and staples.

With regards to our blog, there will be some updating going on so look for changes in our sidebar and updates here. One thing being added to the sidebar is a section containing links to our favorite websites and YouTube channels. Also we will be adding the addresses of blogs we will be following.

The internet is such a great place to get new scrapbook ideas and YouTube has some amazing artists who put out great tutorials. If you're just getting into scrapbooking or even if you've been doing it for a while, I'm sure you can find new ideas and projects to try.

If you have any questions about any of our projects or products we used, please feel free to send a message and we'll answer those here on the blog.

Also - look for my sister, Lisa's, bio within the next 2 weeks. She and I are working on getting her up and running on here as well!

Happy Scrapping! Stephanie

Pages Ready For Designer Paper

So here are the pages made with paper bags and card stock. Ready to cover with my Bohemian Bazaar paper!

Supplies For The First Bohemian Bazaar Album

Zutter wood covers and black paper bags.

* The bags are found in the party supply section of the store. They are $2.99 and you can also use a coupon from the Michaels app on your phone. 

* I got these covers (along with some great Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz finds) at Tuesday Morning. It was only .69 for the 5x7.5" covers. 

 

 

Starting A New Project!!

My wonderful sister, Lisa, sent me an awesome birthday package filled with Bohemian Bazaar goodies! 

Not only the 12x12 stack and chipboard pieces, but also bling, flowers and a big bag with ribbons and buttons! I am SO excited to work with this collection! 

I am going to make a vertical paper bag mini using a tutorial from Ginger over at Mysistersscrapper on YouTube. 

I will be using black paper bags and card stock - I think it will really make the paper pop! Normally I would just cut down chipboard for my covers, but I picked up some zutter wood covers from Tuesday Morning (for just .69) that I'll be using. I plan on posting photos of this album along the way so check back.