Get to know the DTs!

This week on the blog we thought it would be fun to re-introduce the Design Team. We'll each be writing a bit about ourselves, how we stumbled upon scrapbooking, pics of our scrappy space and just for fun, a pic of our first layout.

And I don't know how it happened, but somehow I managed to go first. New girl hazing, perhaps?

So for those that don't know, my name is Florence (aka Flo) and I'm one of the two newest DT members. I'm probably one of the only girls around here that doesn't have kids. So my scrapbook is filled with other people's kids, my two cats, and every once in awhile dh and I show up in there too. I've been married to Kent for 3 years, we live in Winnipeg, and I work at a Marketing Agency (Mad Men, anyone?). I love french fries, Amazing Race, volleyball, reading, traveling and am a self-professed neat freak.

Believe it or not, until a few years ago, I had never even heard of scrapbooking. I mean, I used to decorate my albums with pretty paper and stickers, but never actually realized it was called something. And that thousands of women did it. And there were people paid to do it all day. And then my cousin suggested we do a scrapbooking bible study. Aha! The light bulb went off in my head. Goodbye extra money! Goodbye free time! Goodbye dh! So, without further adieu, here's a picture of my very first official scrapbooking layout. We called our bible study group the Joy Love Club, a spinoff of the book the Joy Luck Club. This was my title page. I know there's no picture on the layout, but it still counts, right? Well it better, because I slaved over this baby for days. Days!!!

After this little foray into the world of pastels and letter stickers, I stumbled upon Creating Keepsakes and that's when the world of scrapbooking really opened up for me. I quickly moved on from the magazine, finding it to be a little much for my style (read: too much money for cheapskate me!). Then I discovered scrapbooking blogs, forums, online stores - you name it! And somewhere along the line, I found MSS and have been happily stalking er.... posting to the forum ever since.

After months and months of complaining persistently asking for a dedicated scrap space, dh renovated our office and built me an awesome desk:

You'll have to excuse my lack of photography skills. I'm still trying to convince dh that I really need an SLR. Oh, and some photography skills would help too. I keep trying to channel my inner Marcy and Eva and it never works! So yes, the picture is crappy because it was taken in a rush early this morning before work, it was dark and my camera sucks. So does my brain apparently, because I didn't think to take a picture of the entire room. Oh well. You're not missing much. The other half of the desk is for the computer. And yes, that is pretty much all my scrapbooking stuff. Told you I was cheap!

So that's me in a nutshell. If you're still reading, then I hope I haven't bored you to death and that you've learned a little something about me. I have to get back to work, as lunch time's over. But tomorrow you get to learn all about Marcy! Ooohhh....I can't wait to see her first layout.....

A different kind of stamping project

I recently made a new quilt for my bedroom and got inspired by this piece of patterned paper to make some pillows to match.

(If you're thinking, "Leigh, this is a scrapbooking blog, why are you sharing a sewing project?", it's because I used a Red Star Stamp to make my pillows, and I love finding ways to repurpose my scrappy materials (& sharing about them!))

Here's what I did:

I ironed out some of the leftover scraps from my quilt and ironed some interfacing to the wrong side of them.



Then, I used some ink (which, in retrospect, I should have used something non-watersoluable, in case I ever want to wash the pillow cases), my stamping block and my leaf Red Star Stamp (this set would work, too.)



I stamped the leaf onto the right side of the fabric. And repeated this step many, many times, using four different patterns of fabric.



Then I cut them all out.



And arranged them on a square of fabric, that would become the front of my pillow. (The square was 17"x17" so that when sewed together, it would fit my 16" pillow forms.)



And pinned them in place.

With some brown fabric, I turned the edges under and slipped them in between the clusters of leaves, to create the branches and the trunk of the tree. Then, with brown thread, I sewed the branches, trunk and leaves (down the centre vein of the stamp) in place.

Then I repeated these steps and made a second pillow, a mirrow image from the first, with a few different details. I sewed them into pillows and am quite happy with the results.

wanna make some cards...

... with KI Memories?

Download instructions here.

Two new kits...

the main kit...

... and the add-on...

Buy them here.

New in the Shoppe

Making Memories new holiday line, Mistletoe and their Halloween line, Spook Alley. We're still missing a bit of the holiday stuff, but the majority of it's here. Basic Grey's new lines - Eerie, Eskimo Kisses and Indian Summer. Also, new Bling It On! And one little lonely sheet of Little Yellow Bicycle die-cut paper. I'm going to try to get the new KI Memories and Bella Bvld. product tomorrow. New American Crafts arriving next week.

New DT additions

So, it was hard. :(

So many talented people and I wish we could have picked more. In the end, even though there were so many talented people who submitted, we felt these two complimented the styles of the current Shoppe Girls (Jen and Leigh). And that was one very important factor to weigh in.

Welcome Nicole and Flo!!


Thanks to everyone who submitted!

Using scrappy supplies....

for non-scrappy projects.

Although I'm not a huge fan of altered items, it brings me joy to be able to use up some of my scrappy supplies for a non-scrappy purpose. And, I had the opportunity to do this recently for my daughter's fifth birthday party.

First of all, I made cupcake toppers using cardstock, patterned paper, toothpicks, my 2" scalloped circle punch, and my 1 3/4" circle punch.





In Word, using text boxes and shapes, I made circles with different colours and filled them with a saying or a picture I found online. I printed them out and punched them with my 1 3/4" punch. I glued them to a scalloped circle, with a toothpick sandwiched in between.

For the treat bags, I used regular freezer bags (the ones you tie with a twist tie) and followed the same idea, but printed the children's names in the circles and then punched a hole above their names and tied a ribbon to close the bags (I also used a twist tie and covered it with the ribbon, to make sure they'd stay shut.)




And for the craft, we made princesses out of toilet paper rolls.



We covered the toilet paper rolls with patterned paper and cardstock, drew faces and added paper frills, some bling and some ribbon. We made capes out of felt and topped them all off with glittered cardstock crowns.



All in all, an inexpensive and creative party. I think my favourite part was when the girls asked if they could keep the cupcake toppers and take them home. One of them asked me, with wonder in her voice, how I cut them out-- did I have fancy scissors? Sage jumped up from the table and ran to grab her 1.5" scalloped punch, found a scrap of paper and gave them a demonstration of how it worked! So fun!