Playing With Paper!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

 My new camera arrived yesterday-Yah!!  I have been so lost without my camera.  I felt like I was missing a piece of me.  I ordered the Canon Power Shot ELPH 300HS after getting opinions on 2peas.  It is so little!!  It freaked me out at first when I got it.  But it does a nice job and is super simple to use. 

Seeing that it is Valentine's Day, I thought I would share some of the cards I made for my family.  The first one is the card I created for my daughter Emily:

 The hearts are chipboard that I sprayed with Smooch.  My daughter loves The Hunger Games and the black card with the red accents reminded me of a Hunger Games t-shirt Emily has so I thought it was the perfect card for her.

The next card is one I made for my son Richard:

 Hearts sprayed with Smooch again and placed on a piece of chipboard I colored with a Copic marker.  The "ribbon" is actually Washi tape.  And I used a scallop punch for the bottom border.

This card is for my husband - super simple but pretty.

Chipboard colored with Copic and Smooch and a piece of ribbon from SU!  Kept it simple but I like it. 

I must admit I love using a plain white piece of card stock as my background.  I do love to use colored card stock and patterned paper too but there is something so pretty (in my mind) about a simple white card.  What do you think??

A must share...

2 weeks ago I placed an order with 2 Peas and this is what I got:

 
I ordered some paper from Basic Grey, October Afternoon and a new (at least to me) company called Webster's Pages - love it all.  But my favorite is "Playground" from Echo Park.  When I opened my box and got a good look at the paper I was thrilled.  The colors are amazing and the paper design is too cute.  I am actually thinking of ordering more of the paper because it is so cute...can't wait to create a layout with it.  Thank you Echo Park - you've done it again!!

I am continuing to enjoy my re-organized office (wish I had more time to create).  I did make some cards for Mother's Day gift-here's one:

 
For whatever reason, I have really been big on using white lately.  I like the way it looks - so crisp and clean.  I embossed the card stock, punched out my shapes and added a little bit of ribbon.  Very simple card but pretty too!

A work in progress...

is how I think of my scrapbooking space.  I love my room!  When we purchased this home, I was so excited to get a room devoted entirely to my hobby (in our old home I used the dining room).   I spent forever looking for the perfect desk; bought a bunch of those Jetmax cubes and a cheap bookcase from Walmart.  And it has worked for a while but I have always wanted more!  Well, for Mother's Day, the money man (aka my husband) and I are taking a trip to Ikea to buy some new furniture.  I am going to get a new, white bookcase and a bookshelf type thing.  I am very excited.  This whole week I have been cleaning out my office and getting ready for my new stuff. 

As part of my organizational efforts, I wanted a new way to store my chipboard.  I love chipboard and have a ton of it - which was usually in several places in my office.  I wanted my chipboard in one place - so this is what I came up with:

 
 
I bought this at Home Depot for about $19.00.  It holds a lot of little and medium size objects.  I have been using it for a while but it bugged me because it's grey and I like everything to match.  What do, what to do?  A solution hit me the other day at Michaels - paint it.  So that's what I did.

 
Much better now that it's white and it matches my office!  I love to spray paint things. I am so happy with the way it turned out!

 
And now finding my chipboard is a breeze!  For all my small to medium sized chipboard letters each have a specific place identified with the corresponding letter:

 
As if having my chipboard organized isn't enough to make a girl happy, I also got a little package in the mail yesterday from Simon Says Stamps (great website to order from - reasonably priced and super fast shipping)-wanna see:

 
The twine is from Jilli Bean and it is so cool - almost has a satiny look about it.  The ribbon is May Arts - just love the colors.  The stamp is from My Favorite Things (great stamp company) - I just love the Pure Innocence stamps.  And the glue is glue because you always need that.  I have more stuff on its way from 2Peas and the Twinery that I will share when it arrives. 

Wow!  That's a long post for me!  I hope you have a wonderful (scrapbooking filled) weekend!

My scrapbooking history.

I was introduced to scrapbooking by my sister.  She was watching QVC and ordered some scrapbooking kits and ordered me one.  I think she gave it to me for my birthday and I said thank you (but secretly thought she was a little nuts).   But she didn't give up on me.  She knows me too well - she knew she could get me sucked in!!  Several months later she took me to AC Moore and my eyes were opened.  I clearly remember walking into the patterned paper section and falling in love - BIG TIME.  I bought some paper and was off on my scrapping adventure.  Thank you Susan!!

Recently, I saw a post on 2 peas about how much scrapbooking has changed in the past 10 years.  And I started thinking about my own scrapbooking style and how it has changed.  After I began scrapping on my own, I went to a CM party and started scrapping in that style.  I enjoyed the CM way for a long time but then another friend introduced me to Bazzill paper and I discovered a whole new world of scrapping.  I love how this hobby always seems to be evolving - I never get bored with it!   After thinking about all that has changed with scrapbooking since I started, I decided to look back at some of my early pages - do I dare share them with you?

 
This is the first layout I ever created - it's for my second daughter.  I was so proud of this layout - I still remember sitting in my living room in Flemington letting my creative juices go!!!  The patterned paper was some of the paper I bought on that fateful trip to AC Moore.  Cracks me up!!!  Do you think I could put anymore stickers on the page?  But I am proud of this page - because you have to start somewhere and I think this isn't a bad start.   At least I matted the pictures!! 

Shopping Spree!!

Last week (for whatever reason) I really felt the need to shop - so I did a bit on-line.  It has been so frustrating for me since Scraptasia closed.  I hate not have a scrapbooking store close-I really miss heading to the store on a Saturday for some retail therapy.  I especially miss being able to buy Bazzill - I just don't feel like the stuff you get at Mike's is the same.  So, I found this store on ebay - The Scrap Barn.

 
I got a ton of paper and she combines shipping so it wasn't to bad.  I am so happy - I don't like to feel like my stash is depleted.

I also bought some great paper and stuff from 2 peas:
 
Bunch of stuff from October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket and Jillie Bean - I can't wait to have some time to play.

Cure for the winter blues...

SHOPPING  of course!  Last week I was hanging out on 2 peas and discovered a sale at www.memorymiser.com and www.ohmycrafts.com. 

 

I ordered these cartridges off of Memory Miser and the spatula too.  I am in love with Cindy Loo - so cute and fun to play with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And because one can never have enough Bazzill cardstock (in my opinion) I bought this cardstock at Oh My Crafts last week too.  I need cardstock because I am going to a scrapbooking weekend at the end of the month, so I needed to stock up.

 

 

 

Both packages arrived yesterday and they brightened my day!!!