Saturday, April 30, 2011

Project 12 Share

Have you been following along with Project 12?  What's Project 12?  I blogged about it HERE but in a nutshell it's a easy monthly sketch challenge that will result in a complete “year in review” album at the end of the year. I've been working diligently on mine and have a bunch done but will be sharing them on a monthly basis.  Here is my April 2010 layout.
Do share yours with a link or a pic in an email.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Spotlight: My Creative Classroom

My Creative Classroom is an "online arts and crafts learning center. Our interactive and in-depth courses are instructor led and filled with wonderful projects and techniques to help you get the most out of your supplies."  Head over and check it out. They have classes from beginner scrapbooking to how-to use your gypsy to copic coloring, etc. 

I've only heard good things of them and in fact, am just finishing up a course with them...Sketch Support with Allison Davis and had a great time.  Everything went smoothly, I got a ton of pages done and learned a LOT about sketches and how to get the most out of them as well as some great scrapbooking tips.  We were given a sketch at the beginning of every week along with a sample page by Allison.  She talks about what she did to change the sketch, the thought process, photos placement, embellishment choices, paper choices etc.  Each week was a different topic with an assignment and challenge.  Once we have finished our assigments, we shared in an online gallery and got feedback from her and everyone else in the class.  Sharing and finishing assignments wasn't compulsory.  Here's an example from week 4...learning how to embellish.

My interpretation of the sketch...assignment was to create a layout and adjust the title, journaling and/or embellishments to fit what you want to use. 
And here is my assignment challenge layout.  The challenge was to "create your own embellishments!"  I had a hard time with this and finally settled on stamping the turtle, cutting out a shell from patterned papers and making the turtle x-ing sign from an embellishment I had on hand.
Happy Scrappin!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Spotlight: The Perfect Title

Ever been stumped for the perfect title for your scrapbook page?  Hah!  I'm always stumped.  I browse through magazines, layouts etc and there are always such cool titles.  A website that I head to over and over for title ideas is The Perfect Title.  They have titles, quotes and sayings.  AND the best part is everything is categorized.  So easy to search/browse for the perfect title.  Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

What's Cooking?

Rav'n Ravioli...a yummy meatless meal that my family enjoys.  It's also quick and easy to pull together.  It's a recipe from an old Pampered Chef recipe book...Main Dishes (copyrighted in 2000).

Rav'n Ravioli

Ingredients:
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 (26-28oz) jar of spaghetti sauce
2 packages (9oz each) refrigerated ravioli
1 1/4 cups water
12 French bread baguette slices
1/4 cup butter, melted.
4 oz mozzarella cheese
1 oz fresh parmesan cheese




Preparation:
1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Chop bell pepper and onion.  Heat olive oil over med-high heat.  Add bell pepper, onion and garlic.  Cook 2-3 mins or until veggies are tender.
2.  Stir in spaghetti sauce, ravioli and water.  Bring to a boil and let it simmer ~10 minutes.
3.  Slice french bread, melt butter and dip bread slices into butter, tossing to coat evenly.
4.  Spoon half of the ravioli mix into a baking pan.  Top with mozzarella cheese and the remaining ravioli mix.
5.  Arrange bread slices, slightly overlapping around edge of the baking pan.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese over bread and ravioli mix.
6.  Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until ravioli is heated through and bread is crisp and deep golden brown.

Notes:
- I usually leave out step 1 entirely...my picky eater takes too long picking out all the greens.
- I've left the ravioli on the stove (turned off) and continued with the rest when we got home from practice/game/etc.
- To save a step (and a dirty bowl), I don't melt the butter...just slather it onto the bread slices ;)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Spotlight: Imaginisce

Imaginisce is one of my favorite scrapbooking manufacturers and at Winter CHA, I think they outdid themselves with these TWO lines...Happy Camper and Berrylicious.  Both lines have yet to hit the stores and I can't wait to get them in stock.  Click on the links and check them out...then come back here, leave me a comment on which one you like better and if you would like to be able to pre-order either of these packs.

Besides the two really cool line, they have a great tutorial on their blog on how to use clear stamps.  Very informative. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Spotlight: Sketch Savvy Blog

     Another sketch related spotlight...Sketch Savvy.  Can you tell I love sketches?  This blog is maintained by Susan Stringfellow and looks like she posts a sketch plus sample layouts on a daily basis.  Occasionally there are also SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot) cut files that can be used with the cricut machine.  
I have been scrapping at home the last few weeks and am going to attempt a layout today using Sketch Savvy's sketch for today.  I'll share here once I get it done.  update:  layout done.  I managed to even dig through my stash and use some really old stuff I've been hanging on to for way too long!!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Just Scrappin' Weekend in Westboro

 Join us for a scrapbooking weekend filled with scraps, laughs and friends
at the Doubletree Inn, Westborough, MA
from September 9 - 11, 2011

Your crop fee includes…
  • Crop Room open beginning Friday at 4pm and close on Sunday at 4pm.
  • We will close the crop room from 3am -7am to get some sleep.
  • 2 night accommodations
  • Saturday morning breakfast
  • Saturday dinner buffet
  • Sunday brunch
  • A  6’ x 30” table all to yourself
  • Full use of Tool Table – 2 Cricuts, Big Shot, and more!
  • Free Make and Take
  • On-site shopping
  • Welcome gifts, door prizes, games and daily challenges
  • On-site massage therapist (for an additional fee)
Rates:
$375 single occupancy
$275 per person, double occupancy

A $75 non-refundable deposit will hold your space!  
Deposit is due by April 30, 2011
Full payment is due by August 1, 2011.

For more information, contact:
The Crop Shop - Jean Laporte    jean.lee@snet.net, 860-490-0463
Time2Scrap – Siewleng Hiraldo   sluvs2skrap@yahoo.com, 508-363-3836