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To Follow....

After the arrival of Crate Paper last week, I wasn't expecting these items to reach my porch this afternoon so quickly..Sassafras's newest collections and guess what, these are even better in person. I'm still in awe of the richness of color represented in all three of these new collections. There's quite a bit of depth in both color and pattern for each new line. Each pattern paper design encompasses layers and layers of detail. They're striking to say the least. I think you'll be happily surprised by all three collections..find them below:

{Pattern Paper}

{Stickers}

 

{Paper Whimsies}

{Chipboard Stickers}

{Layered Blossoms}

{Brads}

{Felties}

{To Be Continued: Stamps & Wee Bundles}

We have a new visitor in our home, though only temporarily. We're fostering "Powder" on behalf of the Minnesota Humane Society until he finds a permanent home. He'll be attending his first adoption event this weekend in the North Metro Twin Cities. We've had him only a week or so and he's already made himself at home with the rest of our feline friends. So cute and only fifteen weeks old. I'll post more photos of this sweet kitten a little later on. 

I haven't really spoken much about the on goings of our daily life. Lately, there's been so much happening that I haven't been able to keep up with all of it. My emotions are sort of all over the place as I continue to think about Eric and the house is going to need some major preparation work this month to make it to market by September. I just finished shipping all the Peonies Garden kits (almost all..there are three available and I'm currently in the process of contacting the first few that signed on to the waiting list). Soon, I'll be prepping and planning for class'(s) at "Right at Home Scrapbooking" in North Attleboro, MA. I'll be teaching class'(s) on October 16th, 2009. Further class info will be available soon. Stay tuned. 

Thank you to all you who provided links to images from the CHA Showroom Floor! This weekend, I'm going to sit down and review the hundreds of online CHA images that were mentioned in response to my previous post. There's lots to check out, which is of little surprise considering the size of CHA and the number of new products on display at show. Looken' forward to viewing the many images..though I have a slight feeling my printer will have run out of ink by this week's end...refill please.

Four Cards

The rush is over. I used every bit of Crate Paper's new collections to create four layouts and four cards. They'll be on display at Crate Paper's booth tomorrow. If you happen to come across an image or two of the layouts online, please send me a link. Last time I saw them, they were wrapped in paper, out of sight and on a plane to Florida. Want to make sure they arrived at the appropriate destination. I'll send a "thank-you" package to whomever is able to find them (the first to send a link). Hope they're on the wall and ready for show tomorrow. Thanks ahead of time!! 

I'm not a cardmaker per say, but I used to be a proficient card crafter way back in the beginning before starting scrapbooking. It seems that most scrapbookers have a history with cardmaking and stamping. I spent a few years making cards and exchanging them with friends via mail. I had a great deal of fun doing it, but it didn't seem enough when it came to paper, scissors and glue. After a brief run-in with one of my local scrapbook stores, I was inspired to work with a larger palette of materials and goods. Eventually, I transitioned from cardmaking to scrapbooking. Three years later, I primarily scrapbook, but will occasionally create a card when needed. Over the weekend, I created the following four cards below for Crate Paper:

Hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! Our's was quite adventurous. Will share more about it later :) To those at CHA, have a great show! 

Crate Paper Design Work

I'm once again reconnecting with the "real world" after taking refuge in my scrapbook room for two solid whole days of intense scrapbooking. I created four layouts for Crate Paper's booth at CHA. I sent them on their merry way this morning to Orlando, Florida via speedy UPS. They'll arrive at their destination Monday afternoon.  What I'd give to follow that package to Florida right now. Sign me up. I'll take a four star hotel room with full amenities and a pool for some serious lounging. My brain is toast. Laugh. Sadly, I'm stuck in Minnesota with below average weather and a not-so-happy two year old kid. There's no time for vacations. I'll be home during CHA and like many of you, I'll be tuning into the world wide web for all the latest news from the show. Luckily, there's a cozy couch here to keep me company. Maybe staying home isn't all that bad after all...nah , I'd rather follow that package to Florida. Laugh. Have a great weekend you guys! I'm revisiting my scrapbook room for round two. Be back on Sunday.

Crate Paper Summer CHA Releases Part II

The post about "high contrast layouts" is being pushed to next week. A large box arrived at my doorstep this morning with Crate Paper's newest collections. Last week, Crate Paper posted four new collections on their website: Season, Cottage, Bliss & North Pole.  You can find them here. This week, I'll be creating four layouts and four cards using each of the collections. I'll post the layouts/cards on my blog this weekend. Also, Vicki Boutin will be working with the new collections. Find her blog here. 

I grabbed a photo of each of the new collections to share with you guys here so that you can see just how beautiful the new collections are "in person". The thing I enjoy most about Crate Paper's pattern paper is that they're double-sided and if the front side doesn't work for you, the backside is a great second option. The backsides are usually a single, solid color. They're the ideal "base" for building layouts. I especially like the neutrals. There's just enough distressing on the paper to give a project an added boost of texture. Also, solid color pattern papers are usually unique because the colors tend to be different than those available in cardstock format. I keep all my solid color pattern papers separate from my main collection of pattern papers. If I can't find a color cardstock to suit a project, I review my solid color pattern paper collection instead. It's standard practice for me to use at least one "solid color pattern paper" on a project. Every six months, I filter through my personal pattern paper collection and remove what no longer interests me. If a pattern paper has a solid color backing, I transfer it to my "solid color pattern paper" collection. Now that I've been designing for Crate Paper for a few years, I've acquired a nice collection of solid color pattern papers. I've come to cherish these stylish offerings. They're practical and beautiful all at the same time. Take a peek at the new collections below (click on the picture to see full image size):

Kitting + Cooking

Now that the weekend is over, I'll be in over my head in USPS boxes and packaging tape. The Peonies Garden Kit is ready to go and invoices have been sent to all those awaiting a kit. After a month in a half of preparing this kit, I'm thrilled to finally have it available to people. There's an immense amount of work that goes into building a mini album project kit. I spend about three weeks working on the project itself, then tweak photos for another week to use with instructions. Before starting on the project, I spend days selecting product, placing orders and pray that everything I've ordered is in stock. It takes me about a week in a half to finish instructions, which typically run thirty pages long (lots of photos). After instructions are complete, I devote a solid two days to kitting. The final step involves an avalanche of boxes and invoices. My kitchen/dining area turns into a temporary packaging area - no eating allowed. With packaging tape in hand, I fill USPS boxes with purchased kits and leave them for the mailman to take away the following day. International orders are dropped off at the post office. Sooner or later, my dining room empties out and I start contemplating the next project kit. I breath a sigh of relief for all of two minutes before starting the project kit process all over again...

This time around, there's going to be a lapse of time before the next kit is available. I have classes to prepare for the month of October. Also, I also have to get the house on the market in September. Our home will soon be invaded by painters, plumbers, carpet cleaners, window cleaners, my neighbor Steve and the list goes on. There's so much I need to do before listing our home for sale, but lets save that story for another time. The next project kit won't premier until October/November. 

Have you been to Michaels lately? They're in the process of redesigning a few of their isles and bringing in a bunch of new products, including new paper pads. I picked up a paper pad from Amy Butler. It was mentioned at Two Peas in a Bucket a few days ago, so of course I had to run and get it today. Love Amy Butler. Above is a snapshot of the paper pack cover. Aren't the paper's divine?! I've already started working on a project using some of the new papers. I'm in the process of organizing a blog post about the project. I want to share some ideas concerning "contrast" and selecting papers/products for creating high contrast layouts. The post will be published and available for viewing tomorrow evening.

And just cause I felt like baking tonight (coming from a gal that would rather eat out than cook a meal in her own kitchen), I made this raspberry/blueberry focaccia desert using a recipe I found in the latest issue of "Good Housekeeping". Half the dessert is already gone...um, but it was soooo good and nobody was here to share it with me (Ethan was sleeping). I stored the rest away in the fridge. I look forward to sharing it with Ethan tomorrow.

In case you missed it, check out this fresh sneak peek over at  Sassafras's blog - "Amplify" ->

Font Addict

I have this crazy dream of owning hundreds of hand-crafted, professional fonts from some of my favorite online font resources. I'm a frequent visitor of "Veer" and "My Fonts". Both places sell high quality fonts at top notch prices. For the most part, these fonts have been created for the serious graphic designer with exceptional typography skills, myself not included. This doesn't keep me though from picking up a few new fonts every once in a while. I like having options when playing around in Photoshop.  Pro fonts make for great design.

Right now, I'm big into decorative scripts. They're are thousands of them out there and it's not always easy selecting just one. They come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Below are a sample of scripts I'm currently enjoying (and pretending to own). Take a peek, but be warned, you might find yourself desiring a new font after you get done visiting Veer and My Fonts. Use caution because you can never have too many fonts.

- Bounce Script

- So Prolix 

- Monterey 

- Dream Lover 

- Feel Script  

- Stella Ann 

- August 2 

- Peregroy  

- Kon Tiki Enchanted    

- Birthday

"Me Likey" Layout + Digital Photo Collages

There's something to be said about pattern papers that are happily inspired by lively subjects like food, birds, trees, flowers and other natural elements. Everywhere you look, the environment is playing a major role in the evolution of design. Natural elements continue to make an appearance on our pattern papers, embellishments and other scrapbook supplies. Pattern papers are printed on recycled papers and packaging is suddenly more "crafty". With the next upcoming CHA, I've been noticing more of the same, accept this time around, designs are more "kitschy" and retro-ish. There's Cosmo Cricket "Earth Love" & Crate Paper's "Season Collection". American Crafts is releasing their own nature-inspired collection called "Blue Skies". Scribble Scrabble just showed a sneak peek of their "Lulubbaby of Birdland" collection. This is just a small sampling of what's out there. Manufacturers are going "green". I recently finished the above layout using Sassafras's latest "earth friendly" collection called "Me Likey". 

In preparation for getting the house on the market, I've repacked my scrapbook supplies in Sterilite containters with attached lids. In the next couple weeks, I'll be moving my scrapbook supplies to the dining room area of our home. Right now, the collection sits in my bedroom and takes up quite a bit of space. I'm trying to turn the "scrapbook room" into a "real bedroom". The switch is going to be a gigantic change for me. I'm already worried about the difficulty involved in moving my supplies. Not everything stays perfect in a plastic box while in transition to a new location. They'll be a lot of reorganization to do after we move (which won't be until we sell the house). In a few weeks, I'll be scrapbooking at the dining room table. I'll also have a clean bedroom for once in my life. I think it's a semi-fair exchange. Laugh. Ok, not really, but I'm trying to be optimistic here...I'll definitely have more room to scrapbook projects and that's a big plus!

The placement of photos on a layout is something I still struggle with, even after four years of scrapbooking. To avoid having to play the shuffle game with three or more photos, I usually scrapbook only one, two or three images per layout. In the last couple months, I've noticed a new kind of digital product for sale at some of my favorite digital scrapbook stores - photo collage templates. I know that digital templates have been around forever, but I like the idea of someone "prearranging" photos for me in a "collage-format" so that I can focus my energy on other things like embellishments and pattern papers, which I enjoy most when scrapbooking. 

For this post, I created a photo collage using Photoshop and two ric-rac frames. I resized all my images individually (because they're all of a different size), added frames to each image and layered them as shown on a separate 11" x 8.5" jpg document file. It took quite a bit of tweaking to create a balanced photo collage. It's almost easier letting someone else do the work, hence the digital templates. I printed the photo collage on photo paper using my home printer. I'll hand-cut the collage from the photo paper and use the collage "as is" on a layout. 

Here are a few online samples of photo collage templates that are worth a peek if you haven't seen them already:

Postage Frame Photo Clusters - Designer Digitals {Katie Pertiet}

Photo Clusters No.19 - Designer Digitals {Katie Pertiet}

Photo Clusters No.17 - Designer Digitals {Katie Pertiet}

PhotoCuts-Frames V.4 - Two Peas in a Bucket {Carina Gardner}

Circular Reasoning Photo Mask - Two Peas in a Bucket {Erica Hernandez}

Nakes Stamp Sheets No.2 - Two Peas in a Bucket {Meredith Fenwick}

Cathy K's Seven Up Photo Clusters - Scrapbook Elements {Cathy Krenek}

Rina's Multi-Frame Layered "FotoKluster" - Scrapbook Elements {Rina Kroes}

If you're not comfortable working with digital templates, consider creating photo collages similar to these using various size photos and cardstock. Digital Scrapbook sites offer wonderful ideas for creating unusual layout photo arrangements. Visit their digital scrapbook galleries for ideas!

A Semi-Update

Update tomorrow...I promise. In the mean time, look what's shipping next week....

The "Peonies Garden Mini Album Project Kit" is almost ready to ship. For those that reserved a kit, expect invoices next week. Kits will ship early next week! The first round of kits are sold out. A second round will be available for purchase in August. If you're on the wait list, you'll receive an update email from me soon. 

I finished a layout this afternoon. I had planned to share the layout with you today, though it's running fairly late (around 1:00 am) this evening, so I'll continue this post tomorrow. Happy Mid-Week everyone! It's time for this tired gal to retire... 

Crate Paper Summer CHA Releases

 

 

 

Crate Paper is a releasing four new, delightful collections at CHA Summer - Bliss, Cottage, North Pole and Season.The new collections are available for viewing at Crate Paper's website : Crate Paper 

I'm adoring the new collections. I'll be designing with them in the next few weeks and will share "real life" images of the new collections once they're made available to me. I'll also share images of layouts created using the new collections. Watch for an update soon!

I'm keeping this post short. I have quite a bit of writing to catch up on. I'll be at my computer all day working on the Peonies Garden Project Kit tutorial. For those of you on the wait list, good news, more than likely, I'll be organizing another round of the Peonies Garden Project Kit - it retails at $79 + $11 S/H. Over half the kits are already sold (from the second round), so if you haven't added your name to the wait list, do so now. Simply email me with your request! 

Layouts + Storage

 

Recently, some of you emailed me concerning how I store my layouts. I admit, that for quite a while, I was hesitant to store my layouts in a scrapbook album. My layouts tend to be on the "thick side" and don't typically store well in standard post bound scrapbook albums. It wasn't until American Crafts came out with their 12" x 12" binder albums that I finally found the right kind of album for storing my projects. The albums are "solidly built" and the page holders are nice and large for storing multi-layered layouts (one layout per page holder). The page holders aren't overly "snug", which can often be a major culprit for me. A typical American Crafts 12" x 12" binder album can fit up to fifteen of my layouts. If I attempt to squeeze more than fifteen layouts in an album, the layouts will distort and bend over time. I keep my albums stored upright on a bookshelf in my living room. My albums are labeled according to "year", sometimes season. Because I'm not necessarily a chronological scrapbooker, and because I store my layouts as completed, my albums have a somewhat casual feel. All my albums are of the same color and size - "Black"/12" x 12" American Crafts Binder Albums. I have a few other sizes of the same type of album for alternative size layouts such as 8.5" x 11" and 8" x 8" (super cute binder album). 

 

Sample of Yearly Album Labels

This is another layout I created using "A Million Memories" July kit. This kit has been all about jewel tones and it's complimentary colors, yellow/gold. My kitchen and living room are of these same colors, so I've really enjoyed working with this kit. It's one of my favorite color combinations. It's the kind of color combination that survives changing trends and easily caters to a multitude of themes & subjects....think Basic Grey's newest line-Lemonade.

Frames are fabulous for building one-of-a-kind embellishments. I took a thin turquoise "Sassafras" chipboard frame and backed it with vanilla cardstock and a Pink Paislee floral rub-on. Note how I let the cardstock extend beyond the boundaries of the frame, though just slightly. I added the word "laughter" over the top of the frame and accented it with two glitter brads. It's ever-so-cute!

A hop, skip & a jump. This area of my layout was created using a series of punched pattern paper circles layered with black cardstock. I adhered them to the layout in a "leapfrog" pattern to draw the eye "upward" and around the photo collage. 

I've been working on kit instructions these last few days. I've organized all the photos and will be writing instructional content next week, so if you're waiting, it won't be long! For those of you on the wait, an update will be provided soon...I'm still on the fence about organizing another round of kits, but will be deciding shortly. Thanks everyone!