Mini Boxed Scrapbook

Hi folks! Sorry it's late- hubby took the computer for the weekend and then SOMEONE (eyeballs her two year old) decided that being up from 12:30am-3am would be a wonderful thing on Sunday night, so I was pretty wreaked yesterday.

My newest favourite colour has got to be Basic Grey. Grey itself seems so dismal and boring- but boy was I wrong! I bought a pack of 11x8.5 cardstock and ink in Basic Grey and I have been enjoying it ever since! Of course, being as girly as I am, I had to throw some Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink to give it some feminine charm :)

So here's what I whipped up:

I made a 4.25x4.25 box in Basic Grey and cut a square peek a boo window on the top and added some silver embossed flowers along the edge. Then I have a Rich Razzleberry scalloped square and sentiment on top using a stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration flyer. Finish with some Pretty in Pink strips and some Whisper White grossgrain ribbon. The scrapbook itself is 4x4 and is accordian album style. I cut a bunch of 4x8 strips of whisper white and then scored them at 4 inches, attaching them in an accordian style. It made a bunch of pages,  so you can fit quite a bit of photos and pages in this book, but you can also cut back instead. The box height is 1 inch and the book closes nicely without bulging.

Here's the inside and what I did with the inside. I can put 2x2 photos, 3x3 or 3.5x3.5 (using digital photos and sizing them may be easier than cropping existing photos).

Okay there! (trying to place pictures is starting to be a pain in the bum! I hope they worked out okay!) Anyways, here's the inside of the album. This isn't all the pages, but they are all pretty cohesive. The bottom (last page) of the album is undecorated and attached to the bottom inside of the box. I had a lot of fun putting this together once I had the concept. I would suggest that if you just want to make the album, just go ahead unless you already have a set of pictures you know you want in it. I didn't know what pictures I wanted to put in it, so I wasted a day trying to figure it out- and then decided I'd just make it and leave it empty. So I can use it as a baby album, a gift, a just-because album or whatever :)

That's it for me for today ;) Will be working out and working on some craft ideas later today so hopefully will have some more for you during the week!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Belated Easter Goodies

Being as there was a lot of sickness over the Easter holiday, I am a little late in getting my Easter post in. It may be too late for this Easter, but would work for next year (as SU! doesn't have the Everybunny stamp set on their retired list- we know we are sure to see it again next year!) You could also use these as a base for other holidays, just change up the stamps and colour scheme.

Here are the vanilla cupcakes I whipped up for my kids' classes. There were a LOT of cupcakes. I wasn't overly impressed with the recipe, they said it should taste just like the cake mix (soft, moist and sweet), but from scratch. Mine had a weird after taste. I don't think the kids minded at all. I made little tent pop ups to place on top of the cupcakes, hiding a next of jelly beans underneath. Being as I needed to make a LOT of them, I chose simple over fancy. Especially considering kids just throw them out.

For a few practise goodies that I made the day before Easter, I tried these mini carrot patches:

I cut a good 6 inches off of my Wilton cake decorators bags (unfortunately they put their logo on the decorators bags now). It wasn't really what I was going after but I do love candy carrots. I think they look adorable :) I can't wait to try something with cocoa for Christmas with these little baggies.

Well, that's it for today. I have something super cute I can't wait to share with you tomorrow! It took me a couple of days to throw together, but I think the effort was worth it. So I shall see you all tomorrow!
Ciao!

~Brandie~

So Long, Farwell

Sorry guys! I have been meaning to share since Easter ;) My poor little guy got the chicken pox and then I came down with a cold. THANKFULLY no one else got the pox (mom can't remember if I had them as a child or not). So blogging and crafting has been put on hold.

As you will notice on my side bar, I have a link that brings you to Stampin' Up!s retired list. I haven't gotten savvy enough to figure out how to attach a pdf file, so you'll have to forgive me that. I haven't gotten any sneak peeks at the new items yet- so it's hard to tell how I feel about saying good bye to so many favourites. Most of them I put in my Starter Kit when I signed up a year ago. Flight of the Butterfly is my favourite set to enhance a card. For All You Do is my continueous go-to set, full of floral images that I adore. I guess they will be easy to replace and I don't doubt Stampin' Up! will have some amazing products to take their places, but until I see what they have in store, the retired list is very bittersweet. I am excited to see what Stampin' Up has coming out though. As sad as I have been in the past as a customer to see certain 'must have' beloved faves gone before I had a chance to grab 'em, I was always enthralled with what new and amazing things SU brought out in their current catalogue.

So enough about retiring :) Make sure if you have any MUST HAVES you grab them now. AND remember- the 2010-2012 In Colours will be gone as well (Concord Crush, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait and Poppy Parade). I can't wait to see what sort of colour combination SU will come up with to replace these fun colours!

To reminisce I have an older project I made when I first became a demo: Here's all the little trinkets I made with my Starter Kit. I chose 4/5 in colours and bought the last one as an add on. They were hostess treats. And, as you can see, my beloved Flight of the Butterfly gave them dimennsion.

Here's a Mini Magazine note card holder with coordinating note cards.

It's a great way to put those scraps to good use and a quick and simple gift for a teacher, mother or friend (or yourself - don't forget to treat yourself!)

That's it for me for now, make sure you go over your wishlists and get those retiring items before it's too late! And join me in the coming weeks to see what's retiring on the accessories side, as well as sneak peeks as soon as I am able with fresh new items coming your way!

~Brandie~

Tap Dancing Technique

Good morning and happy Wednesday all! I hope today finds you cheerful and inspired. I look outside here from my Northern Alberta home and see the snow and ice melt away and the sun blazing through my window and I know that spring is here. Time to relish in new life, not to mention get rid of the extra pounds from Christmas (and, yanno, the years before then too). It's inspiring to see the sun out side and motivating me to get out, enjoy the fresh air and walk! The cheapest way to lose weight and be healthy. Not to mention, pretty effective to those who keep it up!

Now on to crafting ;)

I was on the demonstrator website for Stampin' Up! and I stumbled across this gem of a technique. I am eager to show my Stampers 10 group this tonight and see what they come up with. I just 'had' to use the technique once I saw the video and this is what I came up with.

I also bought my first pack of Basic Grey cardstock and ink. When I opened it up and set it down, I immediatly began looking for colours that would work beautifully with it and came across this colour combo which I fell in love with. Basic Grey, Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink. I was just playing with the technique with my Dot Dot Dot background stamp 115332. I inked it with Pretty in Pink, then took my Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write marker and, using the brush end, just lightly tapped randomly all over the stamp. Then I took a scrap of 3x3 Whisper White and stamped it. It was so pretty, and used the colours I wanted that I used it as the base of these cards. I then used that stamp and created a background. I inked my background stamp with the Basic Grey, and being as it was very dark, I stamped on a scrap and then stamped again on my piece that would be going on my card, to make it a lighter shade. Then I added mini flower blooms from a couple of random stamp sets in Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink to create the background. I think they came together beautifully and used my A Word for You stamp set (117032 w 120528 c) and Basic Grey Stampin' Write marker to ink one part of the stamp for the sentiment on the outside, then the bottom part of the sentiment for the inside. It came together pretty quickly when I finally figured out what I was doing. That can be the hardest part sometimes, looking at your beautiful Stampin' Up! supplies, sitting at your desk, knowing you want to create SOMETHING, but not knowing where to start!

So I hope I inspired you today, thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Summer Smooches

Hey everyone!

That was my very first Sale-A-Bration. It was a lot of fun and I got to network with some amazing people and give away some great products, but it's over now and that's a bit sad. I didn't hit the goals I had hoped to achieve, like finding my very first downline, but alas, it is what it is and I had a lot of fun doing it! There is always next year ;)

So to keep the fun going, Stampin' Up! has introduced their Summer Smooches line. This is a suite that will be available in the new 2012-2013 Idea Book and Catalogue, but for the first time I can ever remember being a demonstrator AND customer- SU is letting their customers have a sneak peek and even purchase some select items from the new catty. The Summer Smooch Suite is fun and colourful and flirty- here's the link for you to take a look yourself:

http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/itemlist.aspx?categoryID=909 Here's a little peek at some of the products available for pre-sale. They are so vibrant and fun! I don't have any samples to show you as *I* didn't take advantage of pre-ordering (shame!) So don't be like me and get these fun items early! You only have until April 30th- then you will have to wait until the new Idea Book and Catalogue comes out.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Thursday Ramblings and Cards

Hey all! Eloquent with the naming of a blog entry I am not. So bear with me there ;)

A few things- 1. Sale a Bration is almost over THE HORROR! One pic that I saw recently was awesome:

LOL! Don't let this be you- you can click on the image at the side bar and it'll take you to my website and you can order that way. Remember- all orders of $60 get a FREE item from the SAB catalogue AND it's still only $150 to sign up- but only until Saturday folks!

2. I am hosting my first crop! EEKS! I am really excited and anxious at the same time. To be honest, I don't know what I am doing, but I got a lot of positive feed back and ideas. The school is sending out info in their newsletter so I'll be able to network with my community. It was hard to cut back, I originally had it for $140 for the day- but was told that was too much, even IF they were getting a bunch of stuff. So learning that it doesn't have to be all or nothing is helping too.

3. CARDS! I haven't actually been crafting for a bit, but I have some oldies but goodies stock piled up here to share with you:

Here are some tent fold cards. I was so inspired by the colours and the back ground stamping from the Crimped Envelope Card, I carried it over to some greeting cards. It's Pear Pizzazz, Bravo Burgundy and Blushing Bride. Other than A Word For You (117032 w, 120528 c) stamp set, the sets are retired. I just made this for the Tradeshow I was at last month. Everyone commented on how cute they were- no one bought any (sigh). At least I can hoard and use them myself ;) lol

Here's a few monochromatic gatefold cards. I had made using the flower techniques I showed a few weeks ago. I LOVE placing the buttons in the middle and I thought they were so sweet that they deserved all the emphasis instead of a sentiment. I made wide panels from Whisper White and then dry embossed them and highlighted them with ink, then used some Vanilla Shimmer Smooch to make them all sparkley. I used a Scalloped Square to mount the flowers on and these sweet, simple cards were complete!

That's about it for me- thanks for stopping by!

~Brandie~

Easter Workshop

Evening all! Off topic really quick, I just saw the ad for the Hunger Games and I can NOT tell you how stoked I am. I desperately wanting to not only see the movie, but also read the trilogy. Anyways, lol, back on topic.

I am hosting an Easter workshop tomorrow and for the past 2 weeks I have had other things going on and then creative block hit like a brick. I started making a few Easter things, but I fell in hate with what I created. I didn't like them at ALL. Then I ran out of glue :/ Go figure. So after racking my brain, google, splitcoast and pintrest, I got these things all set up :) The belly band was something I came up with just today. It's not what I wanted to do, but it's cute and it works.

This one here is the mega Matchbook that I made large enough to hold 6 mini hershey chocolate bars. I used my Subtle paper collection to wrap each of the bars, cut 1.5x3 inches (wraps them perfectly). I used Pretty In Pink, and cut it to 4.25 x 11 and scored at 1, 1.5, 5.5, 6, 6.5. I trimmed the bottom edge (that folds over, under the bow) with Scalloped Edge punch, and then added layers of scallopes in different colours. I also used the 3rd sized Label from the Labels Collection in the Occassions Mini 125598. I used the 2nd label to create the image, which was stamped using the Everybunny Stamp Set (122707 c, 122705 w). I finished it off with Whisper White Satin Ribbon, 114616. I then tucked the scalloped border up and over the top, after adhereing the ribbon to the underside of the top of the Matchbook (right under the die cut image) so I can wrap it around and tie it up :)

This here uses the 1x8 Cellophane bags, 124134 and I filled it with Cadbury mini eggs. I folded one Label (the 3rd one) in half to seal the top, then added layers using the 2nd and 1st layer, finishing it off with a stamped image. I also used the Boho Blossom Punch 119858 to create some cute, tiny blooms with the Subtle Designer Series paper collection, topping those off with some Dazzling Detail (124117). Here's the last little packaging I am showcasing tomorrow. I used Stampin' Up's Medium Flat Cello Bags (4x6), 102757 and cut a bit off, folding it in half. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I just started playing a bit. I knew I wanted to do a belly band, but I didn't want to make a box as the workshop is only 3 hours and we were doing a couple of things already. So I made the Belly Band and highlighted the So Saffron with the Every Egg standard wheel 124089 and So Saffron ink. Then I used a piece of scrap that was cut from creating labels for the other 2 projects. I put it sideways, the stamped the image and finished it off with more Boho Blossoms. Finishing off all projects I just inked the edges to add dimension, and viola! Done :) Was pretty happy with how everything turned out, especially after having creative block for the past little while.

That's it for me for today- have a great evening!

~Brandie~