Monday, March 31, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

I got to spend the weekend down on the Cape with the Scrap-a-Way Ladies. Beautiful newly renovated doubletree hotel in Hyannis.  Weekends with SAW are never boring...the lights went out for a few minutes but during the blackout, the ladies entertained themselves shopping by flashlight! Super glad the lights came back on...I don't think I can handle another prolonged blackout at a crop.

And there's always dancing and lots of laughs :)

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Sneaky Sunday

Ready for another sneak peek?  
This cool spring themed 2 page layout is my next class.  I will be offering it at Cool Crops Portland and Scrap-A-Way Warwick.  Class cost is $10 and will most likely be offered on Saturday afternoon. 
You will learn my favorite way to glue twine onto a page, use glossy accents to highlight and the usual inking and cutting. Some drinks may be necessary to finish the layout ;)


Friday, March 28, 2014

Around Here

Wanting this beautiful roll top desk

 Learning to play this cool game as a family

Working on my least favorite part of running my business...taxes.  Also procrastinating by planning the week's menu.

And working on kits with my apprentice/helper.
He's multi-tasking here...and now we know why mom has to QC the kits.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Goodie Tubes

Goodie bags are so "little" kid but I wanted to have something to hand out after the party.  I remembered that there were cute tube-like containers out there in the WWW, so I looked them up on pinterest and bought some to play with.  I bought 3 different kinds of jelly beans - Jolly Ranchers, Sour Patch and Bumpy Nerds - to fill the tubes with.  The caps were push on and were a nice tight fit. The tags were simply stamped with the image, the heart colored in with Red Wink of Stella brush pen, edges inked and tied on with twine.  Big hit with the kids and I did have to tell the kids they couldn't open them in the car.  Why?  When they pulled off the tops, jelly beans flew everywhere!!!
If you would like to get your hands on these tubes, I can order them.  They come in 4 sizes and packages of 12...
  • Mini (4.5"x1") - $12.00
  • Skinny (5"x.725") - $12.00
  • Standard (7"x1") - $13.50 Seen in the pic
  • Magic Wand (12" x .625") - $13.50
And for some ideas...Sunflower Seed Tube, Magic Wand tubes, Popcorn Seasoning, Easter Wands...and lots more on that blog and on pinterest ;)

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Organizing with Mixed Bags products

I've been asked by where I get the bags I use to carry my scrappy stash.  The answer is Mixed Bag Designs...they market bags that are sold via fundraisers mostly.  The three products I use the most when transporting my scrappy stash are...
1. The Grocery Bag - large and fits my 12x12 albums perfectly as well as my tonic trimmer.
2. The Duo Shopper Set - these bags are 14x14x5 and have been serving me well transporting paper.  Love that they wipe clean and water-resistant.
3. The Single Bin Car Tote - this fits 12x12 paper packs perfectly.  Mine is packed and I have been carrying it from crop to crop since the beginning of the year and it's holding up perfectly.

Our elementary school is currently running their spring fundraiser with Mixed Bag Designs.  If you would like to make a purchase and help out our school, just place an online order and key in our fundraiser code 48111 upon checkout.  Thanks!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Time Off

Took a week off from the blog to celebrate my TWELVE year old...twelve, can you believe it?  I also had the weekend off and oh time off is so nice.  For his birthday, we cleaned and re-organized his room for him...here's a before and after pic.
We then had 12 kids over at the house before driving everyone over to Skyzone for a fun night on the trampolines. I have to say, it is different having girls in the mix...LOL! Talked them into this cool pic...love the choice of socks combined with the trademark orange sticky socks.
I got some crafty-ness in with these SRM tubes, a vintage SU stamp and go-to Wink of Stella markers.  (If you're interested, the tubes come in packs of 12 and 2 sizes.)
There was also hockey, baseball, farmer's market & antique shopping, cooking, cleaning, board games, movies and everything else in between. I half wished was back in Portsmouth for their second weekend there but being home chilling with family was nice too.  I'm back to blogging and gearing up for the last few crops of the season. 

Monday, March 17, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

Another wonderful weekend with the Cool Crops Crew in Portsmouth, NH. This has to be one of my favorite locations...with the Roundabout Diner on site. The food and desserts are so yummy, I had all my meals at the diner with my partner in crime!
There was a water leak in the crop room...a water line broke in the rooms above...but the Cris, Cara and Kandi handled it like the pros they are.  Everything will be replaced and no major harm done - Well Done Ladies!!!  Also, a cropper had a medical issue and 911 had to be dialed, firefighters and an ambulance showed up to whisk her off to be checked.  I was most impressed with the fact that Cris followed along and stayed with her at the hospital until her family showed up to be with her.  It all turned out well and she came back to the hotel after a few hours but it was above and beyond...Kudos!  Just proves that Cool Crops is not just a crop to attend, once you drink the Kool-aid, you're family!!!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

It's here!

Bazzill Bulk Vuy cardstock is in. Now to sort and pack :)

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Morrocan Lamb Stew

Remember the freezer meals I prepped a couple of weeks ago?  We have been working our way through them slowly, a meal or two a week.  Last week, I made the Morrocan Lamb Stew not knowing how it was going to turn, crossing my fingers when I dumped it into the crock pot.  It smelled wonderful cooking and tasted even better when it was done.  I microwaved a sweet potato, cubed it and added it into the stew before serving.  Served it with some couscous (box mis) and pita bread.  Delicious!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The Quickstik Tool

I have been scrapbooking for over 10 years now and have never needed a tool like this. I've always managed with my fingers clumsily picking up and applying it to my layouts. I came across this Quickstik Tool by We R Memory Keepers, formerly sold under Quickutz, and now reach for it everytime I work with small die-cuts, letters and bling.  It has 2 ends  - one with a tacky end that is a picker upper and the other end has a poker and scraper tool.  This other end pulls out and has 2 ends that you can use together with the picker upper or just on its own.  Check out the picker upper picking up a tiny piece of paper that I am placing onto a larger die-cut.  Magical!
I've also found a video that reviews and demos this magical tool.  Stop by and check it out in my booth the next time you're at a crop with me.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

Spent the weekend with the "A Crop to Remember" girls in Southington CT. It was so nice to meet all the wonderful ladies at the crop and chat about kids and pets. Class as always was awesome and filled with interesting conversation.  Thanks for a great time Ladies!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Sneaky Sunday

New layout kits in stock!!!  Baseball and Favorite Things are newly designed and stocked.  Both are selling for $10 each.  
These next few are extra kits leftover from past classes and are priced from $10 - $15.
More papers are coming in weekly to be designed and kitted...looking forward to going through them and playing.  Check back soon for updates!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Dear Science Project,

Second son finished his science project with 1 d to spare. We stayed up until 10:30 (an hour and half past his bedtime) to finish up.  He set up to work on the cold tile floor when there was a nice warm padded rug not 5 feet away.  Also, there are tables that were available to us. But, I'll let you in on a secret, we are picking our battles...I mean, I'm picking my battles.  We are entering those sensitive and oh so difficult tween years.
How does everyone else complete their boards without a Tonic trimmer, ATG gun and Bazzill cardstock?
And Stickles...oh my!  He was very specific about what colors he wanted on the board - Black Diamond and Diamond, thank you very much!
Flip flaps came to mind for hiding the raw data but I drew the line there, we used a regular ole office supply store page protector but just had to pretty it up with washi tape.  Yes we had to dig up my entire stash and hunted through it until we found the right color.
And here is the final product.  One that he declared "better not win" because he didn't want to have to present it at the next level...*deep breaths* were taken at this announcement.  And true to his words, he did NOT win and is happy as a clam.  Me? I'm just glad it's over because apparently I didn't know anything about Ohm's Law, batteries and voltage drops.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Finally Scrapping

It took long enough but I finally finished a layout that is not destined to be a kit or a class.  This was me just playing around with some of the goodies I have laying around.  Chipboard from way back when that I dug out for a challenge on the Twisted Tuesday Challenges Blog.  I first colored the chipboard with chalk ink (red)/distressing ink (yellow) and then went over it with my Wink of Stella colored markers.  On the heart, I decided to cover the whole thing with glossy accents and it looks so shiny and the shimmer from the Wink of Stella pens are still noticeable. 

Next, I inked the Petaloo Color Me Crazy Wild Roses with distressing ink and colored the centers with yellow Wink of Stella brush. Then comes the fun part, I sprayed the flowers with water using my Tim Holtz mini mister and the colors just spread and meld into each other giving the flowers a shimmery watercolor look.  I let them dry on their own...kids to pick up and drive around helps with drying time ;)  Did the same with the smaller flowers but reversed the colors.
The background was inked using a Heidi Swapp stencil and some distressing inks. Some 24/7 stickers, a few drops of Color Shine, thicker letters and a die-cut and voila ONE layout completed for the year.  How many did I say I was going to get done?  Something to the tune of one a week?  I guess I better get cracking on them.  Which leads me to the question...when and where do you get the bulk of your scrapping done?

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Nailed It!

 When I saw this pinned project from the Goodwillionaire blog, I immediately pinned it and couldn't wait to get started on my frame.  I have a pile of them sitting around in a corner and so they sat for months.  3 weeks ago, I pulled a candidate (an IKEA frame that we broke the glass on) out and set off to Home Depot to get the tiniest eye hooks I could find.  It took a while to get my frozen fingers (it's cold in the scrap cave) to twist the hooks in but they're in and still there ;)
Last week, I finally ordered my 4x4 instagram prints through Persnickety Prints.  The order came in within 2 days and I am in LOVE with the heavy weight paper the photos are printed on. 
 Yesterday, I got around to tying twine to the eye hooks, chose 12 photos and hung them up.  Added some stickers from way back when...anyone recognize them?  Narratives by Karen Russell.  The words were just right.
It's not quite as fancy as the original pin but it suits me and was a quick DIY project. Picking prints to print and hang up took the longest time. 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

March Bazzill Bulk Buy

A Bazzill Bulk Buy is an opportunity to stock up on Bazzill paper at a reduced price.  New to my cardstock bulk buy?  Here's the scoop...

  • You will receive 60 sheets of cardstock, 5 sheets each of 12 different colors.
  • Price includes tax and shipping to me.
  • Price is for local hand delivery only - It does NOT include shipping to you. We can meet up or deliver at an event (check my schedule here).  Cardstock will be available for delivery starting March 14 if all goes as planned (in time for Cool Crops Portsmouth).
  • Mailing from me to you will be actual USPS cost, $9.95 in a priority flat rate box.
  • Order Deadline is noon Wednesday, March 5th
  • Payments in advance by check are appreciated or cash upon delivery.  No CC's or paypal please.
  • Does not apply towards prizes or rafffles at crops if you take delivery and pay me at an event
The cost of this month's buy is $26.  Email me (sluvs2skrap@yahoo.com) to purchase.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

Ready, Set, Crop! This is the coolest name for a crop and I got to spend a weekend with them. The crop was held in Leominster, MA and that's the area I started this gig at. It was so nice to see some of the ladies that I met when I first started out. I have to say, meeting all of you is the best part of my job...that and getting to play with paper and glue as my day job. Thanks Ladies!!!
Class was a hit as well as the Wink of Stella brushes :)
Not only that, RSC almost always happens to host an event when there is something else really fun going on at the hotel.  This time, it was the Leominster HS Icicle Gala to benefit their music program.  Guests in evening gowns and suits and their jazz band for entertainment made it an interesting night. 

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Sneaky Sunday


Ordinary Day (2 page layout - choice of teal or pink)


  I will be teaching this as a class at Cool Crops Portsmouth #1, Scrap-A-Way Hyannis, Cool Crops Portland and Scrap-A-Way Warwick.  Limited Supplies...email me to reserve your seat.
Class times TBD.  Cost $10.00.