Welcome to the new team!

I am so excited to introduce you to the new Scrap Your Scraps contributors for the next 6 monthes !

Thank you to everybody who applied for the Scrap Your Scraps Creative Team... It was a hard choice and we tried to have a nice mix of styles. If we didn't pick you this time, be sure that it doesn't mean anything negative about your work.

Here is a little more about them:

Candace

This is me.  I am a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter and a friend.  My days are filled with cleaning dishes, driving kids to practice, kissing boo boos, singing nursery songs, calling a friend, folding mounds of  laundry, cleaning the dishes AGAIN, washing tushies and toes, tucking little ones in bed, and then doing it all again.  But in the crazy, in the busy, in the sometimes unbearably frustrating there is everyday perfection.  Moments where time seems to stop, you take a picture in your mind, and promise yourself you will never forget. Everyday perfection.  It is my hope that I can inspire others to notice those moments of everyday perfection and capture them.  You can find me at my blog findingeverydayperfection.com or follow me on Instagram.

Cathy

 My name is Cathy Sanders and I live in sunny South Africa.  I've been scrapping since 2003 and am officially addicted!  Though I do have a fulltime job, I tend to eat, sleep and create scrapping when not working.  I am a wife and a mother of a teen (he just turned 13!) I love taking ordinary everyday photos and recording the memories onto a page for my album. With the amount of stash I've accumulated over the years I can happily keep going for another 10 or more years I am sure! My blog address is: http://whatsupwithcathy.blogspot.com/

 

Connie

Hi Everyone!  My name is Connie Hall. I live in Akwesasne with my  6 children and husband Robert.  I am a full time Child Care Supervisor.  I am totally addicted to everything scrappy.  I create my pages in a variety of styles. I do everything from Project life, traditional, 3D, Mixed Media and Classic. My first love is a 12 x 12 Layout followed by a mini albums and altered items. I have been scrapbooking for over 10 years but only been online 3 years.  My style changed after I lost my mother to Cancer.  My moments and memories are so much more meaningful.  I try to honor each moment in my scrapbook pages and Continue to create more moments with my family. I am very excited to be part of the Creative Team at Scrap your Scraps.  You can see more of my work at http://www.timestocherish.blogspot.ca/ .

Deb

My name is Deb. I'm an artist, designer, and photographer who loves to scrapbook. I love to share what I create. My paintings can be seen at www.dayboardman.com.

You can find Deb's scrapbooking projects on her blog: http://dayboardman.blogspot.fr/

Jeanette

 Hi! My name is Jeanette.  I was born and raised in New York City, where I currently live with my husband, son (20), daughter (almost 15), cat, and dog.  I have been scrapbooking and stamping since 2001.  I am mostly a simple scrapbooker and focus mainly on the photos and the story. I do enjoy embellishing too, and I make most of my own embellishments.  I love to write, and I've recently become involved in art journaling.

I have been a teacher since I was 17, and I've been teaching in some form or another ever since then.  I am currently teaching technology to older adults, and it is the best job I've ever had.  I love to share ideas with others, and I'm so happy to be joining the Design Team here at Scrap Your Scraps.  I hope you enjoy the projects and ideas that I will be posting.  I believe that everyone is creative, and we can all learn from one another.
Happy creating!

 http://www.scrapjanny.blogspot.fr/
 

Lisa

My name is Lisa Harris, and aside from being an elementary teacher, wife, and mom to two grown sons, I am a passionate, lifelong crafter. In 1999, I met and fell in love with scrapbooking, and I've been doing it in one form or another ever since. In 2008, I began teaching scrapbooking classes at local crops and adult education programs and eventually joined the design team at my local scrapbook store, where I still enjoy the privilege of playing with paper and sharing my creations with others. You can find me at my website, My Kreative Pursuits, where I share her love of creating kits from my own stash (both old and new), and teaching fellow scrappers how to do more with what they have.

 And we also have three fabulous returning members:

Cathy

Hi there!  My name is Catherine Martin and I am a graphic designer and illustrator by trade, though I am currently a floral designer. I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada, the tiniest province. I am 31 years old and have two children, a super active hilarious little boy and a spirited sweet little girl.  I have been scrapping since 2009 when my son was born.  I not only use scrapbooking as a way to record family memories but as a creative outlet and a chance to use my skills as a designer.  I love all things crafty and am constantly putting new projects on my to-do list!  I am very excited for this opportunity and look forward to sharing projects, learning new tricks, and getting to know others in the scrap community.
Find more about Cathy's work on her blog Nerd Girl in the Craft World.

Mandy

I am a stay at home mom in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I have two amazing girls and married my high school sweetheart for 16 years. I have been scrapbooking for over 11 years.  I was a Project Manager in the Information Technology industry at a major technology company in my previous life. I am a Stampin' Up! Demo in Canada (http://kidscollage.stampinup.net) for  the past 5 years and love teaching card classes. I love love love scrapbooking and photography!  I scrapbook traditionally, digitally and pocket-style.  My style is whatever is inspiring me at the moment. I can't say that there is any one product that I use on every layout or project but that I love patterned paper, dies and stamps!  I'm very excited to be part of this amazing group of talented ladies as a Scrap Your Scraps contributor.  My blog is http://mandyreedyk.blogspot.ca   Instagram account is kidscollage and Pinterest account as Mandy Reedyk. Thank You & Happy Scrappin'!
Find more about Mandy's work on her blog Mandy Reedyk Happy Scrappin'.

  
Tiffany 

Hi, I'm Tiffany! I'm a stay at home mother to three boys, and the wife of an Air Force pilot. We're currently stationed in Oahu, Hawaii. That means my life is plenty interesting and busy, but I still make time to record our memories, and scrapbooking is also my favorite creative outlet. I also make cards, and do pocket scrapbooking for some of our daily photos, but 12x12 layouts are probably my favorite kind of papercrafting right now.
I'm also the founder of the Facebook group, 50 Projects. It started out as a challenge to create 50 crafting projects before buying anything new. Now it has expanded a bit to include some other challenges, but the focus is still to CREATE instead of COLLECT, and to encourage and inspire each other. You can join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/50projects/ 

Find more about Tiffany's work on her YouTube channel.

We would also like to thank our previous team, Carlie, Deedee, June, Nicole and Sandi, who did an awesome job and we wish them the best for their future projects. We know they will continue to inspire us!

And the winner is...

 Random.org chose, and the winner of our Craftly Pickle giveaway is... LORI! 

Congrats, Lori, and please, give us your contact info so that Taniesa could send you your $10 gift certificate.
Thank you to Taniesa, the owner of The Crafty Pickle store!

Today, we'll announce our new creative team, lots of inspiration to come, so don't forget to come back... You will LOVE their ideas!

Make Your Own Easel Calendar

Hi Everybody,

I know you're probably all getting ready for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is just around the corner and knocking at the door!

Today I want to show you how to make some easel calendars for the coming new year.  These make great stocking stuffers or small gifts for someone special on your Christmas list.  Here are some of the calendars I made for family members last Christmas.  

Start with a plain piece of card stock which is 4 ¼” x 11”.  Score this at 2 ¾” and 5 ½”.  You need to pre-fold all the score lines.  So first fold the paper at the 5 ½” score giving it a good crease.  Unfold that and fold at the 2 ¾” score giving it a good crease.   This creates the easel card base.  So you have something that looks like this: 

Now it’s time to decorate the top front of the easel calendar.  Take a 4x6 piece of card stock and just use some of your scrap papers, embellishments or even Project Life cards.  You can decorate this any way you want.  Personalize it for the person who will be receiving it. See my pictures for some ideas. Have fun with it.  Imagine it being a small scrap booking layout.  

When you are finished decorating and embellishing your 4x6 piece of paper, you will need to attach it to the 4 ¼” x 11” piece of card stock which you previously folded and scored.  Lay this piece of paper out flat and apply adhesive to the section of the paper that is folded and scored at 2 ¾”.  This is the section that is at the very end of your long piece of card stock.  Adhere the 4x6 paper so it looks something like this:

The calendar will be at the base.  The thickness of the calendar also helps to hold the easel part in place.  To make the calendars, I used the Calendar Wizard in Microsoft Word.  Open Microsoft Word.  Click on File -> New.  This opens a new window on your screen.  Look for the tab that says  "Other Documents".  Double click the Calendar Wizard.  Follow the steps in the wizard to create your calendar.  I was able to put 6 months on each page.  Then I cut them down to size, stapled them together and adhered them to the bottom part of my calendar.  You can always buy your calendars, too.  If you don’t have Microsoft Word or would rather not deal with making your own calendars, there is a web site which has free printables.  There is a calendar or two that would probably work for these easel calendars: 

http://www.printable2015calendars.com/preview/2015_Vertical_Scrapbook_Calendar_Cards

Instead of a calendar, you could always put a sentiment like Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, or Happy New Year to make it an easel card instead. 

If these instructions seem to confusing, there are quite a few tutorials on youtube.  Just search on easel calendars.  Happy creating and Happy Thanksgiving!

  Sandi Chromey
  Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS
 

 

 

Getting Inspired - using prompts to jumpstart your creativity

Hey everyone, it's Cathy here, long time no blog!  Well I'm back and I have a new series I would like to start here on Scrap Your Scraps.  Back in 2013 Two Peas in a Bucket had a series of videos called 213 in 2013 where they gave you 4-5 prompts each week to help jumpstart your creativity.  I have watched all of those videos and it made me decide to do my own series of blog posts with prompts.  I find that when given a challenge or a jumping off point when it comes to my scrapbooking I tend to rise to the occasion and become more focused.
So for the month of November I have come up with 5 prompts that I hope will help you when it comes to getting ideas for your paper crafting ventures!

Prompt 1
Scrap a photo series.  Do you have a photo series that shows a progression or just several photos showing the same thing?  Why not scrap them all!

Prompt 2
Scraplift an 8.5 x 11 layout.  I often will pin 8.5 x 11 layouts for inspiration so I decided now would be the time to use one for a scraplift!

Prompt 3
Make a feminine layout with using a floral print.  I have a TON of floral papers and I always tend to use them when scrapping about my daughter, but there are so many other papers out there that could easily translate into a feminine layout without being obviously girly, so why not give it a try.

Prompt 4
Use your scraps to make a background.  Whether it's with a punch and leftover paper or with strips of paper use up some scraps to create a background on your page!

Prompt 5
Glitz it up with some silver!  I know gold is the trend right now, and believe me I love it, but why not change it up and use some silver instead.  Whether you use some glitter tape, silver paper, journal with a silver pen or use sequins add a little silver sparkle to your layout.

So here is my layout using all 5 prompts for November!

    Cathy Martin

Sew Inspired! - Using scraps to create quilt patterns.

This month I'm going to focus on sewing inspiration as my guide.   As a scrapper I love patterned paper, and there's not much difference between a patterned paper and a patterned fabric.  I love quilt patterns and I have been loving scrapbook pages inspired by quilts.  One scrapper in particular, Paige Evans, is especially terrific at taking large quilt patterns and turning them into scrapbook pages.  For my post this month I'm going to show a few patterns that are easy to create!

Before I get into the photos I would just like to give a small apology for the unedited quality of the photos.  I completed all this while I was sick in bed over the weekend so the pictures are not the best, and unfortunately my computer is not co-operating with me so I can't fix or edit them!

So first off to create all of my designs I used a square punch, and then divided all the squares into triangles, though you wouldn't necessarily have to split them all in half, you could keep some as full squares.

Here is my heart pattern, this would make a great large background!

Nest is a star burst design, you could make multiple star bursts to cover your page, having them just touch at the tips.

Here is a diamond pattern.  It's very simple and could be repeated across the whole page.  Now you could do this with just squares, or with the four triangles like I did.

My last pattern is a chevron pattern.  I love chevrons, and this one is so simple to make!  I know I will be using this one in the future!

These patterns are so simple to make, they take no time at all, and you can easily add stitching or embroidery thread to make them seem even more like a quilt.  I hope you all enjoyed my simple little blog post, and I hope next month I'll be feeling like a million bucks so I won't have to deliver a blog post on my sick bed!

    Cathy Martin

 I was sew inspired (pun intended) by Cathy's post I had to give this a try.  I love how hers look so much like all the beautiful quilting patterns I so often see.  I ended up using squares cut in half to form triangles and put them together to make this birthday card.

I was trying to do something a little bit different, but ended up with something almost the same.  But I really like how it turned out.  This is an 8 1/2 x 11 layout.  Again, I used squares cut in half to form  triangles and added them to my layout. 

When I get a little bit more time, I would love to try making the heart and the star burst pattern.  Thanks, Cathy, for the wonderful inspiration.

  Sandi Chromey

Inspired By SCT Fall 2014 sketch - FALL PHOTO SHOOT using LAWN FAWN

Hello Everyone

Today I am sharing a layout I created for submission to Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine for their Fall 2014 magazine.  I did not make the cut for the Fall 2014 submission call.  As soon as I saw the sketch I knew that I wanted to use all Lawn Fawn (my absolute favourite right now!) and the photos from our family's fall photo shoot.  It was perfect pairing in my eyes.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Scrappin'

Mandy Reedyk
Creative Team Member of SCRAP YOUR SCRAPS