Altered binder for my Tim stamps

My work was finally clearing out the shelves and this was heading to the dumpster (is it dating myself when I can say "I remember using MS-dos!"?) The hoarder squirrel in me decided to save it.

I was thinking along the lines of 8x8 album, but this weekend inspiration hit and I thought "let's see if my Tim stamps fit" Happy dance, they fit perfectly!

 

So here is the altered binder for my stamps. I haven't decided how I'm going to close it yet, I'm thinking hair elastic or hairband but if there are better suggestions, I'll take them.  

I covered the outside with Claudine Helmuth's gesso first because I thought it would need some "tooth" for everything to stick. 

After that dried I used Claudine's multi-medium to attach Tim's Vintage Shabby Paper Stash. I attached the lace ribbon over the seams using the same.   I cut out the butterflies on the dot grungeboard using Tim's dies.  

I then painted the grungeboard with pearl paint, and then used Faded Jeans Distress Stain. The rose ribbon is actually from Maya Road, but I covered that with Distress Stain too.  I used the alphabet background stamp from Tim's Stampers Anoynomous Going Somewhere to stamp the paper behind the butterflies.  I then completed it with the letters and heart from the grungeboard Mixed Mini plain.

Some fun places on the web

So on top of all my other hobbies, I openly admit that I love surfing the web. Here is my round up for this week.

I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest . If you've never been on Pinterest, it is a social media site where you "pin" things you see on the web. You become the curator of your boards and others who find your pins, can re-pin your finds. Being a visual person, this is an awesome find for me. Right now they are only taking people through invites, so if you want to join, send me an email and I'll send you an invite. But be warned...one can spend many hours on there!

Here is something that gave me a good laugh.  Elizabeth Kartchner of Dear Lizzy posted this the other day and I laughed and laughed. Her husband is one good sport!

And here is something to make one day. I think her's is so pretty.

And just a reminder to those who live in the GTA - I'll be teaching a Misting Card Class at Pointer Scrapbooking this Friday. Come and join me for some messy fun!

Sharing some stuff I've been doing this summer....

All Day Play

Did a layout tag with the gals from Scrapbook Star. Here is my take on the one I got. I used BoBunny and Basic Grey PP, Autumn Leaves Stamps, Fancy Pants rubons, Technique Tuesday tile, EK Sucess punch, American Crafts CS, random star brads.

Also had a shower for my lil' sister this summer. I had to make 60 of these invites! So I cracked out my MM Slice for these. PP from Basic Grey, Hampton Arts card base.

Fun layout using Bo Bunny dots PP, DCWV PP kit, Fancy Pants ribbon, stamps from Tim Holtz and CTMH, journal tag from Teresa Collins, chipboard Maya Road, flower Prima, Liquid Pearls from Ranger, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists, Slice card, Making Memories letters and Heidi Swapp journaling tabs.

Basic Grey PP, Stars diecut, ribbon, Glimmer mists by Tattered Angels, letter stickers Doodle Bug.

Entire LO is part of Scenic Route kit, journal card from Jenni Bowlin

A layout I had done many years ago as a class. Added my own jazz to it by putting large flowers, journaling with a white gel pen

One of my recent favourite layouts. I used Prima PP, banners from Echo Park, Canvas from Canvas Corp, Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels, loops from Queen and Co., ribbon random, Maya Road chipboard, wood button from Studio Calico, Mister Huey Mists in white from Studio Calico, letters from Doodle Bug.

A layout I did in a Prima class with Cari Fennel.  I added my own jazz to it, using Prima packaging to the background. I used glitter letters from Making Memories and journaling block from Pink Paislee. I also "painted the centres for the white flowers with Tattered Angels Glimmer mists (thanks to Marion Smith for the inspiration)

And finally a card inspired from my friend Melissa. Had to try it out. So I coverd the entire card in TH distress inks, splat some water and then stamped with Tim Holtz stamps. Thanks Melissa! I think I will make a dozen of these cards!

Post CHA summary

So it's been a few weeks since CHA Summer in Chicago, and I am finally going to post some thoughts and more photos.  There was so much to see and despite the fact that it was a smaller show, based on what others had said, I still missed some of the vendors booths - yikes!

So even though the show is suppose to encompass all crafts, I would say 80% of the show was dedicated to the papercrafting world (which is okay with me).  Some trends that I noticed (not in any particular order):

*woodgrain
*butterflies
*zebra/giraffe prints
*mini alphabets
*canvas
*mixed media (was the buzz word of the show and probably for awhile)
*more generic prints - could be used for more than just Halloween and Christmas
*lots of vintage feel still


So I think that sums it up , I will post more photos from the show when I get home.

As promised more (random) photos from CHA ....

Art by Wendy Vecchi

In love with grunge board in this LO

Drive by of Chicago

With Donna Salzar - not ready for the camera

Le Blanche stamps - goregous stamps, booth and art work displayed

My favourite Valentine line from Jillibean Soup

Paper wreath from Jillibean Soup

More yummines from Jillibean Soup

Make and Take from Tombow

Gelato and other mediums from Faber Castell

Me being silly with "chapstick" Gelato from Faber Castell workshop

Me with Mou Saha

Claudine Hellmuth at Ranger Booth

Me with Claudine

Mario Rossi, Wendy Vecchi, Tim Holtz  (in case you didn't know)

Maya Road cuteness

In love with the felt beads

Pssst.....

Hop on over to the Pointer Scrapbooking blog - she's giving out blog candy for commenting!

A CHA video to share

Here's a video of Tim Holtz doing a demo of his new Snow Cap mixative at the Ranger Industries booth.  I'm sorry for the poor video - it's my first one ever that I've actually posted. I now know for next time what not to do!

What an awesome week!

CHA was a blast, despite the sweltering heat and humidity. My days were filled with checking out the booths and coming back to report to Heidi, the owner of Pointer Scrapbooking, with what great stuff we saw.  With all 4 teachers there, it was great to collaborate on our ideas and wishes for the store. Lots of yummy stuff to come!!!!   Below are some photos I took and I will try over the next week to report on what we saw.

So we drove to Chicago (actually Simon drove, we chatted and slept). So in total it was about 11 hours to there including all the lovely toll booths like the one below.

The gang from Pointer Scrapbooking

Some inspiration from the show. I'll post more during the week.

Quilt made from Sticky back canvas and various techniques, plus Claudine Helmuth's studio paint.

Simply inspiring at Claudine Hellmuth's section of Ranger's booth

Wreath at Jillibean Soup

Loving this collection from Jillibean soup

Mmmmmm Gelato medium from Faber Castell

Crate Paper's booth of inspiration

I can't wait!!!

Leaving soon for the Craft and Hobby Association conference (CHA). For those who don't know, this is when all the craft vendors get together and showcase their latest and greatest items for shop owners to peruse. I'll be attending with Pointer Scrapbooking, the store I teach at. We are so lucky that Heidi the owner invited all her teachers to attend. I'm so excited, as this will be my first show ever!!!  I will try and report back what lovely stuff I spot during the week!

CKC Buffalo Review

Sorry everyone for not posting much these days, I have waaay too much on my plate.   I am happy to report that I spent the past weekend at the Creating Keepsakes Buffalo Convention with my crew of happy scrappy friends. If you've never been to a CKC, you should attend. I've been going for 4 years now, and this year did not disappoint.  I did plenty of classes to keep me out of the vendor faire which sort of helped. I will note that the vendor faire was much smaller than years previous but there were plenty of places for me to still spend my moolah!  Anyhow, below are a review of the classes I took and hopefully it will help a fellow scrapper who plans on attending another CKC.  I will note that I have a boy only, so I tend to take classes geared to that direction. I also judge a class based on how much product you get for the class price.  So here goes. I will post photos later this week, if I remember.

All Boy - Queen & Co. :  I always love their products, so this class did not disappoint for giving me solid boy layouts. 4 pages made with exactly enough product. Everyone in the class won a prize too.

Scrapping with Sketches - Creating Keepsakes: Didn't learn anything new but they did give us an entire pack of Basic Grey paper pack. Layouts were so that I could easily change it up easily enough with the paper pack to gear towards my boy photos.

Perspectives by Ali - Technique Tuesday:  Used Ali's new paper pack, part of Ali's stamp set and again, solid layouts that I will use. Nothing new learned. Teacher was a bit confusing but the layout is not difficult to do at all. I won a prize of their chalk inks but gave it to one of my crew who recently lost her scrappy stuff in a flood.

30 Minute Layouts - Prima: Despite having a boy, I love Prima Products with a passion. Cari Fennel taught this class and we made 3 lovely, flowery layouts with plenty of Prima product left over.

Boy Mini Album - Prima:  Again another solid mini album made with Prima products. Taught again by Cari, who is an awesome teacher and super nice.  The photo of the class sample is "meh" but the one we did in class is much better. Plenty of Prima product left over to play with and believe it or not - most of it was geared to boys!

Mixed Media Album - Strictly Scrapbooking:  Used My Mind's Eye paperline. The photos for the mini album were dark and did not do the album justice. Loved the end result and loved playing with the glue gun in the class.

Terrific Trends - Studio Calico:  I was so happy that they were offering classes this year at CKC. Even happier that Kelley Purkey was teaching them too (she is super nice). We misted with the Mister Huey sprays on a layout and made a card too. I didn't learn anything new, but it gave me a chance to play a bit with their products. (I also won a gift certificate as a door prize to their booth, and was very happy that I got buy stuff at their booth!)

Mixing and Matching - Faber Castell:  I was happy that this class was added. They gave everyone a kit to take home and which we didn't have to open, as there was plenty of product on the table for us to play with. I wanted to try all these mediums and loved that we got to play. Disappointed with my "art" but I will try and make them again.  I will say that our teacher was a bit flakey too but we all survived.

MIA

Sorry gang that I have been MIA the last little while. I've been so busy with life and so tired from running around that I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog. But now I have a little moment to write. I have been trying to be creative these days and made a few projects which I hope to share with all of you shortly. 

In the meantime I'll share some other work I did last month for DT/teaching.

Here is a mini album I made using Fancy Pants Like Father Like Son line and was my May project for Crop Chocolate. 

Speaking of Crop Chocolate, I had to finally say goodbye to that design team job.  It was too much on my plate, working full time, teaching at my LSS  Pointer Scrapbooking and being on this design team.  My energy now will be focusing on doing more work of my own and perhaps get more stuff published (or at least attempt to get published).

This past month at Pointer Scrapbooking I've been teaching a new class for me, called Rapid Fire Scrapbooking ( 6 pages in 2 hours). The idea being that every month the class would make 6 new pages that they would have completed for their album.  Here's a sample of one I did for the class.

I will try and post some of the layouts and creative stuff I've been up to soon!

Some stuff that has been keeping me busy....

As promised here are the cards I took with Nicky Manel in her watercolouring class at Pointer Scrapbooking.  Ignore the image though of the top right one, I totally messed up the image Nicky gave us and went on my own to do one using the technique she taught us...it's obvious I need more practice. Nicky is an awesome teacher, so if you get a chance, go and take her class.

I recently completed this kit from Basic Grey using their Curio line of paper. Awesome paper line.

There was so much left over in the kit, that I decided to go on my own and make some more cards, inspired by the kit. I didn't put any greetings on the front yet, as I like to have lots of generic cards and put sentiments on before I give them.  Here are the cards I came up with.

And as promised here are some layouts I did recently. (Click on images to get larger view)