Sunday, February 28, 2010

I thought...

I thought I was going back to work the other night.  I thought we were meeting to work on scrapathon pages.  I thought it was stupid that the band that was storing their instruments in our shared classroom had papered the window in the classroom door because their equipment was so expensive.  I thought it was stupid because the door is locked and the lights would be out and no one coming into the scrapbook store would care about the equipment anyway.  I thought it was a little weird that Colleen called me when I was on my way in to see if I wanted her to mix up a brandy slush for me.  (The last time we met to work on pages after hours, I brought in some slushie mix.)  When we headed into the classroom, I thought "uh oh, there are people in here."  And then I thought, I know these people! 




The thought that did not occur to me was that there was a group of people having a grandma shower, for me!  The ladies and girls at the store, some of my favorite and regular customers and students, friends all.  The food was yummy, the conversation was fun, and I am so very touched that I am not just the lady behind the counter or the teacher to these people.  That was really my best gift.  But there were gifts... lots and lots of pink gifts! 



And now there is a pretty pile of pink things on my dining room table that I will wash tomorrow and put away in the dresser drawers in the empty bedroom upstairs. 



Beyond the pile of pink fluffy things, there is a baby seat, a pack and play and one of those baby play gyms, as well as several books for bedtime story reading and lots of bath and health aids, as well as diapers and more diapers. I guess it's time for Nana to get organized and time for Boppa to drag the crib out from under the basement stairs and put it up in the spare bedroom as well.  I am looking forward to having a baby in the house again.

Friday, February 26, 2010

No Photos, Bella Layouts

I just wanted to post a couple more layouts that we quickly put together in honor of our Bella Blvd. night last week.  Lynn was the only one of us that thought ahead to actually bringing photos in to put on her layout!!  Bless her buttons!  


Colleen's page.Lynn's page. My page.   


The frames with the swirls on them are also from Bella.  They are hand-painted, large frames with a 12x12 base in the frame opening that you can put whatever your current favorite layout on.  We used some clips from Tim Holtz to fasten them into place. 

I've been such a mess the last couple of weeks between that awful cold and the shower prep.  I need to hunt through photos to find some that will work on my impromptu Bella page.  I'm sure that will not be a problem as these papers lend themselves to a wide variety of themes and colors.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Copics

Where to start, where to start.  The stress and drama of my daughter's baby shower is over.  She received some lovely things and is happily washing and folding baby outfits and blankies.  And hey, since when are there pacifier wipes?  Back in the olden days, we just stuck them under the faucet!  Wow, who knew? 

And we are getting new things in at the store almost every day.  Love that!  We've received our new Bella Blvd. papers of course, new Reminisce, We R Memory Keepers, Hero Arts, Smooch, Little Yellow Bicycle, Cosmo Cricket, Best Creations, SEI, Tattered Angels, Accucut, K& Co., and Stamping Station. I am so waiting for our Basic Grey to come in and the new punches from EK.  Soon, soon, soon they will be here along with our Prima, Fancy Pants, Creative Imaginations, Bo Bunny, Sizzix, Spellbinders and more.

Oh!  We have received our Copic order.  Yeah! All of our cardmakers will be so happy.  I've only purchased a few of them, trying to be good and save them for the customers to purchase!   But with the little handful of Copics that I did get for myself, I made this.



I just wanted to play a bit with my new Copics and this background floral stamp was a good choice to give me lots of flowers to color in.  It is a Hero Arts cling stamp; we already have to reorder the accompanying flower stamp that I think will look cute layered over this.  But I do kind of like just the background stamp colored in, a little bling and a couple ribbons tied on.   I think I must never have gotten over coloring as a child. I've loved my Tombow watercolor markers for years and my watercolor pencils and regular colored pencils.  And now I think I shall love Copics just as much!!  Just have to collect a bunch more...

We finished up our class schedule.  Lot's of samples to get to in the nest week or so. 

Oh, Oh! I think our Ranger order may be in tomorrow... That means new Distress inks and more play time coming my way!  Just not anymore tonight. 

Nightie, night.

Friday, February 19, 2010

More Bella and Comments! Woo-hoo!

Before I get to the Bella....  woo-hoo I have comments!  Of course and here is the real "DUH"   I've had the comments turned on, but didn't realize I actually had anyone commenting for ummmmm ... days and days. OK, so I am never going to be geek squad material.  Just sayin'. 

So, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who left such wonderful messages. 

And now, cuz I know it's the samples that are the real thing we are always wanting to see on the blogs...  here are a few of the awesome samples Stephanie brought with her.  Most of these I think you can also see at the Bella Blvd. blog (it's listed over there at the right in my places to visit list).  









You know there are great photos of layouts in the scrapbooking magazines and there are great shots of layouts all over the blogs, but there is nothing like seeing samples up close and personal.  There is no way to capture the depth, the textures, it's just so different to see the pages in person. 

I'll leave the photos of my own layouts for another day--maybe try and actually put photos on them... now there's a thought. 

Nighty night

Que Bella~

It was Bella Blvd. night at Legacy Scrapbooks tonight!  Stephanie (the owner, designer and one-woman mastermind) came to do a little meet and greet at the store this evening.  We made a fun page, ate some wonderful goodies (thanks Robin!---Petite Sweets!), and chatted a bit about "the business of scrapbooking" which is really fascinating to me.  I've said it before, I get a weird little thrill when I've picked out a line for the store and it sells really well.  I get all like, "yeah... I knew they'd like that stuff..."  So think what it must be like to DESIGN the line that gets bought by the store and goes over so well with customers.  Now that's got to be a rush!!! 

Anyway before I get all wordy, let me get these photos from tonight posted. 


Stephanie, and Colleen with the page we made and a sample of a complimentary page.  (Hey, that's our Linda in the background---Hi Linda!!) 



And here is Bea and ""T", Kay and Kathy! 

Below is the other side of the class, hard at work!! 




And here is the incomparable Rosemary, our volunteer extraordinare and Lynn, design team dynamo! 












I have some more photos to post... but I must go stir my brandy slush right now and bake the crust for Chocolate Pudding Torte...  then I'll be back!!! 

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Easy, Peasey

So much going on all at the same time, or so it feels like.  The baby shower is this Saturday---but, Fri night is Bella Blvd night at the store. Stephanie will be there to do a make and take page and will be bringing some of the samples from their booth at CHA for everyone to see.  Can't wait to see her again! 

Plus we are beginning to get new product in every week now... and that's always fun.  Just decided on the demo(s) for the Scrap and Stamp Expo, and we'll be working up the next class schedule in the next day or so. 

Then on Sunday, it's Card Marathon day, so that's another busy day.    Here's one of the cards we'll be doing.  I think this one is my favorite of the bunch this time. 



Stamped the flowers on printed cardstock, then added some color and shading with watercolor markers, cut them out and sprayed them with some Gold Iridescent Glimmer Mist.  The stem(s) for the flowers are stamped on a light lavender cardstock and colored with watercolor markers,  Add the previously stamped flowers and then layer this onto a gold iridescent panel, then onto a folded lavender iridescent card.  I added several aqua gemstones and a greeting.  Easy, peasey.  I think for my own use, I will add a length of ribbon and maybe a couple more gemstones.  (Gotta love that sparkly stuff!!) 

Hopefully when I post next, I will have some updated photos of my studio and more cards to share!  I feel like I am on a card kick again, so I'll just ride this wave for awhile-- and see where it takes me!! 

Ta for Now!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Happy Valentines Day Almost!

Been kind of out of it this last week... a nasty, ugly cold got me.  Hopefully now my voice comes back in time for the class I am teaching today, or I'll be teaching it by much waving of my hands and pointing...

Anyway, a very happy Valentine's Day Almost to everyone!


This is an old project. When I came across these in my photo files, I thought I'd share.  I had made  these collaged vintage optician's lenses for a swap a couple of years ago.  I am not sure what or where the items I received in the swap are---so that kind of tells you why I quit doing swaps. But I remembered these!  I had such a good time making them and just loved how they turned out--it was really hard to send them away! 

You build the tiny little collages under the lense and then seal it in by filling the back of the lenses with a clear drying dimensional epoxy like Crystal Lacquer or Judi Kins dimensional glaze, add a charm or two and you can put a pin backing on or make a necklace out of the whole thing. I have more lenses...  but the projects on my desk are still calling me.

Things I can check off my list:
  • card marathon cards and instructions
  • Feb. Formula Page
  • Copic marker order
  • baby shower invites
Still on my desk:
  • Formula Pages for Mar, April and May
  • Cards from Scraps Class (design sheets and samples)
  • new product samples
  • Nature Art (card samples)
  • Pages in Progress (too many)
  • Thank you cards (for my daughter)
  • Scrapathon Pages
Probably more than my rather cloudy head can think of at this moment--so I'll pretend this is all for now!  LOL--really, just humor me. 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

It's no wonder...

Baby shower invites are done and in the mail.  My thoughts today though are not on the invite themselves.  The shower invitations were really simple and straight-forward, done in the colors she is doing the nursery in.  The other new grandma and I were making them together, so I really wanted to keep them simple.  I cut everything a day or so ago and last night we assembled. 



But, when we went to the post office to mail them this afternoon, these simple invites cost $.64 each to mail.  Because, wait for it.... they have lumps.  A small lump where the ribbon is knotted and several small lumps where the mini brads are.  L-U-M-P-S!  They are charging extra for LUMPS!!! Now, in the overall scheme of things it really only cost about $2.00 more to mail all the invites.  So fine.  But the lady at the counter explained (and we have very nice postal workers) that they (the post office) would like to do away with their jobs and make everything computerized--get your stamps through a computer, weight your own packages and get it posted via computer.  So they have become insistent that the clerks do not hand-cancel mail. 

Maybe I am turning into an old fuddy-duddy, but I want human interaction.  There was a special last year I think on one of the news channels about some of the salaries (and the huge houses that were purchased by the governemnt because they were transferring folks around the country) that middle and upper management at the post office "earn".  I think we could do with a couple less of the upper management there and keep our postal workers.  I want to have a clerk at the counter to take my money and hand me stamps.  It's no wonder that people are as angry as they are with our government, governmental offices, departments, etc. 

Monday, February 1, 2010

Lots to look foward to

I get so excited when we begin to receive the new designs in from CHA orders.  Although our first shipment of "new" designs wasn't ordered from CHA, it was done well beforehand by ordering blind sample packs of all three stamp types from Hero Arts.  We recently received samplers of clear acrylics,



clings, and wood stamps from Hero Arts,  Woo-hoooooo!   Now, there are only two each of selected items in this shipment, so there are some that are already not in stock. But, we will be ordering more this week when our rep comes in.  That means more of some of the stamps that have come in and already flown off the shelf and some stamps that were not included in the initial shipment will soon be here. 

It will be fun to start making up samples from all the new papers, stamps and embellishments that will be rolling in. 

I am a list person.  I make grocery lists, menu lists, financial lists, wish lists, gift lists, and to-do lists.  Many, many to-do lists.  On my to-do list for today is to: 
  • update my checkbook and reconcile
  • run up to the bank and to town hall
  • pay a bill or two
  • cut the papers for my daughter's shower invites
  • make a pot of homemade beef barley soup
  • get back to the sorting and organzing in my studio
  • teach the last Valentine card class tonight (prepped and cut for this yesterday)
Now, what I really WANT to do today is stay in my jammies and  make some more cards from scraps and a page or two using some of the samples of new papers.  sigh 

On my longer range to-do list:
  • card samples for Use It Up class
  • make Formula Page samples for Feb, Mar and April (and write up instruction sheets)
  • write up instructions for Card Marathon cards
  • card samples for the Nature Cards class
  • get the Scrapathon pages designed and written up
  • re-arrange studio desks in my tiny room
  • sort, mark and price items for stamper and scrapper rummage sale 
  • figure out when I can sneak a long weekend in to get out to visit my folks 
  • make some pages and cards just for me, just cuz
  • research a new printer
Lots to do, lots to look forward to.