This week at MLPA's Creative Cafe

This week's offering at Creative Cafe.   This is the quickest, simplest page EVER!  New My Mind's Eye Lost& Fount with some Cafe buttons and a foot of Maya Road ribbon.  Beautiful glittery paper, fast and cheap!

Back to School Fashion Show

This week at the Cafe

This week's project at Creative Cafe. It's a scraplift of a card in the July/August issue of Papercrafts Magazine. I think you could make a smaller version with the Martha Steward paper punch. For mine, I used Tim Holtz's bird stamp, and a sentiment stamp from Technique Tuesday.

My take on Tim Holtz Frame

I just bought Tim Holtz's book A Compendium of Curiosities and I can't recommend it enough if you like to get your hands dirty and try new things.  It's full of easy to follow step by steps and inspiration.  I loved his frame so much I decided to make my own.  Some of the tiles are stamped, some are paper scraps, and some are old family photos pulled from slides my husband's grandparents took on their travels.  I used a cool technique that simulates the look of old water damaged photos.  It took a while but I love the results.

Creative cafe at MLPA this week

Playing with Pink Paislee Artisan elements this week!  They had a "gooey" feel that was unexpected and pretty cool.  They remind me of Crayola Dough, but they're stretchy and tough.  I was intimidated by them at first, especially since they were provided by the store and I was afraid to screw them up, but I threw everything I had at them, and most of it stuck. . .

Acrylic Paint, Versa (Chalk-type) ink pads and Staz On and Misting seem to work the best.  I had a tough time getting the lighter mists to show, but Maya Mist works really well, and I suspect Smooch which is also darker would work well, too.  Copic markers and other multi-surface markers reportedly work well, though I didn't get a chance to try it yet.  I will definitely be trying it out in the Cafe this weekend.

Spring is here and the Lighting is Good!

The light was awesome on the porch a couple nights ago, so I grabbed the rest of my stuff and took some photos of the new projects I'm excited about.  Hope you enjoy. . .

more. . .

Wanted a place to keep my cards and I found this super cool box at AC Moore with an insert for stamps and things.  Paper's mostly Jillibean and October Afternoon.  Then of course I wanted to fill it up with even more cards, so check out the scraplifts from a recent issue of Scrapbook Trends Cards magazine:

I've also been working on getting more adept at using my Cricut.  Here are some birthday cards featuring my favorite new "gatorade" colored paper. . .

This week's creative cafe at MLPA

Here's a sneak peek at the page I designed for this week's Creative Cafe at Memory Lane.  The paper comes from Jillibean Soup's Chicken Noodle and the background paper is Bo Bunny.  Letter stamps are by Fiskars.  My favorite is Martha Stewart's punch around the page "doily" punch.  Journaling tag and buttons are from Creative Cafe.  Hope it gives you some cheerful inspiration!

A new job at MLPA!

I can't believe I'm actually going to get paid to scrapbook. My friend Michelle and I will be hosting Creative Cafe at Memory Lane in Quakertown, PA on alternating Saturdays! Here's a sneak peak at my first project. If you're in the area this Saturday (3/27), stop by between 12 and 2 PM to create this 1-page layout!

Help! I forgot my adhesive!

Ever wish you could get home delivery? I can't believe I left at least four things at home when I packed for the retreat. i live just far enough to consider going home for it, but not really wanting to. I'm also worried MLPA will sell out of the Maya Road items I've been waiting (and pesting them) for for a month. May consider stealing my roommate's while she sleeps... I swear I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached. I may just bite the bullet and drive to the store. Still, I got seven pages done tonight, so it's all good.

Storage or Gift Idea

I'm packing for a scrapbook retreat this weekend, and I am trying out a new storage idea for my new "fatter" flowers. I don't want them getting crushed amongst my other items, so I added them to this bead storage system by Darice that I got at Walmart. I removed half of the containers to make space for my larger flowers, and used the remaining containers to keep everything in place and store centers and other paraphenalia. The lid doesn't snap fast, so I added the closest thing I could grab - the ribbon. Tied up like this, I think it would make a really nice gift, too - if you can part with it that is!

Altered Bottle

I found this old bottle laying around, and it reminded me of something you'd see in an old movie on a mad scientist's shelf. I got creative with some scraps from Tim Holtz, MM Vintage Findings, and some cool mushrooms I got at Kate's Paperie and Junkitz Paper scraps. I smudged black ink over everything (after painting the inside of the bottle with green paint). My husband asked what I made "that" for? Don't need a reason, it was just fun!

Monkey!

After several years of continuous wear, this shirt is literally falling apart. This is one of my favorite photos.

Photoshop layers are awesome!

Playing with layers on this layout of my parents' English Springer Spaniel.

Digital Layout of Magic Wings Visit

This page uses the same photos as the mini album in a 12x12 page. Two takes on scrapping the same event.

My first Instructional Video!

Excellent Source for Tutorials

One of the sites I really enjoy visiting is Studio Calico. Here's a link to their tutorial page which showcases many techniques from some of my favorite designers.