Mother's Day Project

We just finished up our sample pages for the Mother's Day Make-n-Take at The Shoppe, so we're gonna share some close-ups of it today.

The sun is brightly shining this morning and that makes these pages even prettier!

A double page spread for your albums using Daisy D's papers (~or~ this would be a wonderful gift in a shadow box!)

A peek at the scallopped photo matte . . .

A giant-sized vellum butterfly . . .

A sweet, sweet poem for your mom or even for yourself . . .

And a pix of some of my tulips this Spring just cuz they match these pages so well . . .

This class is scheduled for Saturday, May 16th from 1p - 3p at The Shoppe.

Please register for class as seating is limited.

$15.00 class fee includes all supplies to create this gorgeous layout!

If you're visiting our blog from afar, and would like a class kit, please contact us!

We'll ship ya one!

The Scrapbook Shoppe . . . ph# 706*321*0202

email . . . thescrapbook@bellsouth.net

Thanx for visiting us . . . Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Blast from the Past

Today we're gonna post about a product that was popular way back when in the scrappin' world. Some of you seasoned scrappers may remember this & maybe even still have some in your stash . . .

It's a "hard-ware" type of embellishment called Magic Mesh. It looks just like the name says . . . mesh-y.

It's got a self-adhesive backing, making it easy to attach to your projects ~or~ add more hardware to it to bring it out even more!

I used some behind the 3 smaller photos on this layout with paper from Cherry Arte and then added some staple bars to the 4 corners for even more of a rugged, out-doorsy feel.

It's perfect for those "man" pages we sometimes get stuck on (cuz most guys don't want flowers or bling on their stuff) . . . It's Man Bling!

These little rolls of goodness are available in an assortment of colors - not just metallics.

So try something new on your pages and cards and tags . . .You'll be pleasantly surprised how they turn out.

We've got a shipment of this stuff on it's way to The Shoppe now . . . just in time for National Scrapbook Day . . . so be sure to stop by & grab some!

It's Time to Color!

OK . . .So we're back.
It's been a very busy few days for me since our last post.

Friday night was our "Hot Potato Crop". We served gigantor-sized spuds at our Baked Potato Bar for 30 hungry ladies. Some Baked Sweet Potatoes, too!
YUM . . .YUM . . .YUM is all I can say!

Then I actually had off 2 days in a row!
Shelley worked the March of Dimes Charity Crop all day on Saturday hosting about 20 ladies who supported that wonderful cause thru their crop fee donations. We even had 2 of our local TV Station reporters come to join us!

I, on the other hand, had date day with my husband & we spent the day in Birmingham at the Mustang Car Show. I actually really enjoyed it.
I soooo want one . . .but an old one . . .'65 baby blue convertible to be exact!

Sunday was Daughter #1's birthday . . .20 years old!
WOW!
I'm not THAT old, am I?!?

So, enough about that stuff . . .you can always go to my own blog to catch up on that ( in a day or two . . . gotta finish this up first)

We're here today to share some COLOR stuff with you . . .

Sometimes, we get stuck in our scrapbooks. And I don't mean the "How Can I Put This All Together?" kind of stuck . . . more like "How Can I make This Stand Out From My Other Pages?" stuck.

If you've been scrappin' for awhile, you no doubt have developed your own kind of "style" . . .
whether it's in the layout design you tend to drift back to

( for me, it's the strips of patterned paper I use as borders),
the way you use a corner-rounder on all of your photos,
or the same "Ho-Hum" favorite color combos you use over & over again (Pink - Yay!).

If it's the color thing for you . .. here are a few inspirational suggestions to help you bring more life to your albums . . .

Clothing
Go to the mall & check out what's hot.
Every season is marked by a new color scheme.

Magazine Covers
Covers are designed to catch your eye.
The colors are a big part of the impact.

Paint Chips & Room Idea Cards
The paint sections at home improvement stores
have walls of color ideas! Room idea cards & brochures
are great sources of inspiration for new color combos.

Product Logos
Companies pay big bucks to have logos analyzed
for their impact on people. Take advantage of
their research!

Fabric
Browse thru your local fabric stores for
unexpected color finds.

Color Websites
There are entire websites like colorcombos.com
devoted to cool and trendy color combinations.

Home Decor Magazines
The hottest designers use the hottest colors to
make magic happen in a room. Put those colors
on your pages!

And . ..

The Good Ole' Color Wheel
You might be surprised at the perfect colors
this little gadget will help you put together!
Get him back out from the bottom of
your tool bag!

Now, if you live in the Columbus area, we'd like to invite you to stop by & check out another tool that we have available for our customers to use.

It's a WONDERFUL color tool book from Prism Papers. (We * Love * PRI*SM!) It lets you actually change the "mood" of your photos that you'd like to portray . . . either warm or cool. Just with the colors you choose!

There are SOOOOOOO many choices when it comes to choosing your colors . . . so why not spice it up a bit from your signature style?!

Or - better yet! . . . Print out your photos in black -n- white and then the sky's the limit!

Speaking of black & white . . . stay tuned for our next blog entry!
We'll show you a way to colorize & texturize your pictures in a way you may not have thought of before!

Wow! What an Honor!

We got an email the other day from someone who was a customer here at The Shoppe when we first opened 3 years ago.

She's an Army wife & came in with her little one always in a stroller.
You all know that the military families here are always going just as fast as they came, so we may only see some of these scrappers once or twice before they're sent somewhere else.

Now, I'm usually pretty good with remembering names & faces, but she stuck out cuz I thought her daughter's name was so unique ~ I loved it!
Her name is Harper.

Well, it just so happens that this little girl's mommy is Stephanie Howell.

"Who the heck is that?" I can hear some of you saying to yourselves.

Well, if you're a real, true, addicted scrapbooking blogger
(that means you spend more time traveling to all the blogs & links, & links, & links than you do working, eating, & sleeping) then you'll know that she is just everywhere,
linked to everyone's blogs . . . personal, designers, & manufacturers alike!
She seems to be many, many people's favorite girl!

She designs for a few companies and if you're a Pea Person, then you'll have seen all kinds of her stuff over at 2 Peas in a Bucket.

She emailed us cuz she had seen a post I had made at 2Peas.
She remembered coming in to shop & how friendly we were.
She'll be moving back here with her family to Ft. Benning in the fall.

She said she'd like to come crop with us (she'll be in need of some scrappin' friends here!) and maybe teach some classes here at The Shoppe, too!

I'm so excited that she remembered us, much less to get a message from her! She's even left a comment on my own blog about my Secret Sister gift! (Thank you, Stephanie!) Hope we can live up to her standards!

Anyway, I've added her link to our Great Places list (I was keeping it a secret for
myself until now) so please go & visit her blog.
You can click here for it, as well.

Get to know her now thru her posts & meet her when she gets here!
She's soooo cute! Not to mention the cool stuff she does . . .

Hand-made Paper Embellishments

Today we're gonna share a different kind of embellishment that you can use on your pages, cards, and home decor projects.

They can be fun & cute or beautiful & elegant depending on what you need.

We're talking about Paper Casting . . . That pretty much means making your own paper.

We used this technique to make some sturdy little embellishments for our pages & cards.

On this Callaway page, these items are the butterflies . . .

Here's a close-up . . . .you can see much more detail.

Aren't they the cutest?!?

And here we added one to a simple card . . .

So let's get started & show you how to make these!

Here's the secret weapon that we used . . . . Plastic Candy Molds.

They come in all kinds of designs & sizes. Choose one that you like or pick up a multi-pack like this. You'll find them in the cake decorating & candy making dept.

You'll also need a couple of common kitchen tools . . . a blender, a spoon, & LOTS of paper toweling.

First thing you need to do is gather your scraps of cardstock and choose a color theme. Next - tear them into small chunks into the blender. (This is a good time to put the kids to work!)

Then you'll want to add enough water to cover the pieces . . .

Let this stand to soak for a minute or two.

After that, turn your blender on high speed & pulverize it all.

Add more paper if you need . . . it takes more than you'd think!

What you want is a mooshy-gooshy, bloppy-ploppy mess!

Spoon out your paper pulp into your desired mold . . . .Note: You'll want to pile it up into a good mound!

Using the paper toweling, push the pulp down into the mold very tightly and soak up as much water as possible . . . the more water you take out now, the faster it will dry and harden.

After that, just set them aside to dry. It may take 2 - 3 days but you can speed that up a bit by placing them outside in the sun.

Now, I'm a bit impatient. When I get a notion in my head, I'm the kind of person who wanted it done yesterday.

So I tried a hairdryer - that was taking forever & would have burned it out .

Then I had the bright idea to put them in the microwave . . . not so bright!

Only 30 seconds & it melted the mold.

So . . . after your embelly is dry & hard, just pop it out of the mold. You can then use as is, or try painting & inking them or even chalk them! Afer all, they are made out of paper!

These are some leaves we created . . .

HINT ~ If you want some graduated coloring, start with your lightest color of stock, mold a few pieces, then add some darker colors of the same family to what's left in the blender.

These little crowned pieces remind me of those pastel after-dinner mints . . .

And this is a page using the leaves from above that I scrapped for a customer who walked in with the most beautiful heritage pictures.

I'm very proud of how this one turned out! Lucky customer!

So, I hope you all will find this post a useful one.

It's a great way to use up alot of little scraps that are laying around.

It's probably not something you'll make very often, but it sure will add a nice touch to whatever you do use it on.

Have a Safe,Happy, & Blessed Easter!

Holy Cow !

Wowzers!

I can not believe how crazy these scrappers are here in Columbus!

We opened up registration for our National Scrapbook Day Crop this morning at exactly 10am.

Before 930, there were already people lining up to be able to reserve their seats for that day.
(Thank goodness it wasn't raining today!)

Now, I thought it was insane-ness last year when all the seats were sold out within 2 hours.

I don't think this year's record can ever be beaten!

All 24 seats were taken within 10 minutes!

YES . . . . 10 MINUTES !!!!!!

More people walked in and the phone would not stop.

So, you ask . . . "what did we do?"

In addition to the cancellation waiting list, we added on another crop for Friday.

That's ok . . . we've had to do that the past 2 years as well.

We have so many croppers wanting to join in on the festivities of that great day of all scrappin' days, and we don't want to disappoint anyone.

I'll be dead-to-the-world by the end of Saturday . . . .but they'll all be happy scrappers!

So, if you're some of the lucky ones to have gotten a seat, get your sombreros ready girls!

We're gonna have some fun!

"Fiesta Ole' " style!

What a Compliment!

We had this waiting for us this morning . . .


It makes us feel so good knowing that we can bring a little joy into someone's life with the little things we do . . . .

Thank You Shoppe Cropper Kelly!

(Why does that remind me of a Hostess Twinkie? . . . .Yum, Yum, Yum!)

We got Tagged!

Yesterday, I got "tagged" by Amanda and played along on my own personal blog. Part of the game is to "tag" others. Well, I tagged Sandy. . . She in turn, tagged The Shoppe.

You can go to each of our links to see what we've posted!

So here is the deal . . . We need to post the 5th photo from the 5th folder from our files on our computer. Then we need to "tag" 5 others to play along . . . .

Well, (just like at home) my files & folders are not in any kind of order that make any kind of sense. At least not to normal people.

So, this is what you guys are ending up with . . .

Now, I wish I could tell you that we're making strawberry daquiries or margaritas, but alas, that is not the case . . . (Big *Sigh*)

I can't really explain to you what it is right now . . . you'll find that out shortly . . . so watch your email for this one!

So now it's time for us to "tag" 5 others . . . .

Since this is the store's blog & we have many, many readers, we can't single out just a few.

We're gonna open it up to EVERYONE!

If you wanna play, post the rules above from this run on your blog. Let's see what our favorite people come up with!

Just remember to email those you've chosen to let them know that they've been tagged!

Calendar Desk Set

Here's a calendar project that we came across in our blogging travels.

We thought it was so cute and so easy that we'd make one of our own & share it with all of our readers!

All you need for this is one of those inexpensive clear, acrylic double frames that's V-shaped and a few supplies.

Start by cutting a decorative paper the entire size of the frame . . . we used a double 5x7 frame for ours.

Add your favorite photo and any embellishments directly to the paper ( so it will be protected under the frame) . . . Slide that all into the frame.

(We used Cricuts Graphhically Speaking cart for the Sweet Girl Tag)

On the outside of the frame, we glued down a clip which holds our calendar, some ribbon, and the post-it note pad.

We also decorated a glitzed-up pen to match our desk set.

You can easily make these by wrapping some Terrifically Tacky Tape around a regular ink pen. Then dip it all into some tiny seed beads. Lastly, sprinkle the entire pen with some ultra-fine glitter - this will fill in any gaps where there are no beads.

Make one for yourself or as a nice surprise for a co-worker, teacher, or secret sister!

Here it is again . . .

Have fun with this cute project . . . TaTa till next time!

Our 1st Blog Challenge

Yep . . .that's right. We're going to jump into this blogging world by challenging everyone who visits us here with a personal challenge . . . one that you can use for your "All About Me" books!

Today we celebrate the 1st Day of Spring!

Our days are now longer & warmer . . . greener & sunnier . . . less dreary & definitely more happy!

So our challenge to you all is to scrap a page for yourself . . . a "Feel~Good" kind of page. . . .and this is your theme: "5 Things that make You Happy about Spring"
It's a great chance to scrap the everyday kind of little things in your life . . . things YOU love!

We're also gonna share a great sketch that would be perfect for this theme . . . Use it if you'd like or choose one of your own.

We found this sketch over here at Moma's Blog . . . . her sketches are all beautifully done in color, as well as great detailing!

And . . .to give you a little inspiration to get going, the Shoppe Girls
have all listed their most favorite things about Spring.

So go visit their blogs to see what makes them happy!

Sandy, Shelley, Amanda, & Me.

Have fun with this everyone & Happy Spring!

If you email me your page, we'll try to post as many as we can: thescrapbook@bellsouth.net

Q & E

Yep . . . It's another Quick ~n~ Easy Project to share with you guys today!

Remember the Valentine's Baskets we showed you how to create simply with 2 ovals?

Well , these little purse cuties are even EASIER!

All you need is a scallopped circle and some ribbon for these little Purse Favours.

Simply make 2 score lines about 3/4" apart in the center of your circle so your purse will sit nicely.

**NOTE**(Our circles are 4", but you can easily make them any size you'd like . . . just adjust how far apart you make your score lines)

I always use a stylus and the groove in my paper trimmer for a perfect, straight, crisp line every time. (Gosh, my fingers look chubby in that photo!)

After that, punch 4 tiny holes & thread your ribbon thru for the handles and add an embellishment or two. Can't get any easier!

Fill them with little sweets or trinkets to surprise your kids, a teacher, the bus-driver . . .anyone who deserves a little "ThankYou for being You" kind of gift.

Or they'd look great as place cards for bridal or baby showers!

Here are a few that we made here at The Shoppe . . . . Enjoy!

LOVE * LOVE * LOVE the pearl handles on this one!