Upcoming Classes...in Texas AND Charlotte, NC!

It's been a busy summer, to say the least. Yes, I've been crafting away in my little upstairs nook. Meanwhile, our downstairs is undergoing a pretty major renovation to create a new master bath and updated kitchen. But that's a whole other post...

Today, I'm super excited to share some upcoming class news!

First, I've been working with Tracy at The Little Blue House to create my own series of classes. It's called Fab Five and each class will feature five brand-new techniques that you can incorporate into your future projects. Of course, we'll be playing with some tools, including the best and latest from We R Memory Keepers. But we'll also be creating a great piece to take home with you...from mini books and layouts to cards and home decor.

Here's a peek at the class that's coming up on August 20:

 The class features a 6x8 mini book with a fold-over magnetic closure and spiral binding.

Inside, there are tons of layers and textures to keep things interesting. You might even spot a few of the techniques I'm sharing...

We'll be using the Beautiful Life line from Echo Park Paper (so pretty!), along with some goodies from Maya Road, May Arts, Queen and Company and Canvas Corp. This kit is FULL of fun stuff!

The class is on August 20 at The Little Blue House, and registration is open now. Stop by the shop or call 817-431-7930 to reserve your spot!

Also, registration for Stitch Craft Create Live in Charlotte, North Carolina, opened this week! I'm teaching three classes on Oct. 25-26. You can see photos of all of them on the SCCL website, but here's a peek at my current favorite that I developed just for this event:

The covers are made from cork, which is so easy and fun to work with and adds such great texture. This class features the Photo Freedom Volume 2 collection from Echo Park Paper.

If you're in the Charlotte area (or are up for a little road trip!), check out all the details here.

Hope to see you in class!

CHA Download, Part 1: Favorites

I flew home from CHA on Monday and woke up this morning to a mix of snow and sleet for my drive to work. Reality is so cruel.

But back to the trip...it was fabulous in EVERY way: oohing and aahing over all the great new products coming out, meeting the amazing minds behind all those products, trying new techniques, learning lots and, best of all, giggling all night long with sweet friends who are just as crazy as me.

I'll be devoting the rest of the week to posts about things I saw and did at the show, and today's post will showcase my favorite products and collections:


Maya Road Wood Embellishments

I always love Maya Road and, honestly, I could fill up a full blog post with favorites from this company (hmmm, maybe someday...), but these little wood rulers (called Measure Twice Cut Once) and the polaroid frames (You've Been Framed) stole my heart. Come to Mama!


Sweet Girl Collection by Echo Park

Well, you knew there would be something from Echo Park in here, right? I loved all of their new releases, but the swirly, circle-y paper in this one put it over the top for me. I want to cut that up right now!

Chic Tags - Birthday Cake Collection

I was so happy to see this booth. I'm kind of a tag-junkie, and I've been using this company's tags for a while, but they've always come in kits. I didn't realize all this time I could buy full sets of them on Scrapbook.com and ACherryOnTop.com, but I'm so glad I know now! (Why yes, I did already place an order. How did you guess?)


Elle's Studio You & Me

In addition to all their wonderful tags and titles, Elle's Studio is now doing paper! Yippee! My favorite was the chalkboard-look paper in this line. While I was checking out all the gorgeous releases, I got to meet Elle and she was so kind and friendly. She was handing out little bags of samples, which I can't wait to use. Thanks, Elle!

Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper
 

Maggie rocked this collection! The papers are beautiful -- just as you'd expect from anything that says Crate -- but what really stood out were the variety of embellishments. Not just the same old, same old -- adorable bobby pins, mini bows and a whole lotta other fun stuff. Love it!

Chevron Ribbon by May Arts

The chevron ribbon May Arts released last year was (and still is) a staple on my craft table. But this is like Version 2.0 -- vertical chevrons in bright colors and neutrals. I think I need them all. Oh yes.

Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm Collection

Really nice muted primary colors, lots of fun, on-trend patterns, like chevrons, stripes, florals. But the thing that really got me was the horse chipboard. My horse-obsessed girl is going to love this!

We R Memory Keepers 360 Tote

It's been a long time since a good crafting tote hit the market, and this one combines all the best features: plenty of pockets for organizing tools, zippered compartments on every side, 360-degree rolling wheels for easy maneuvering around all those crop tables and a bright, fun pattern. There's also a matching paper storage tote with accordion files to keep all your pages organized with no bent corners...bonus!

Jinger Adams Craft Armoire

Storage-challenged scrappers, this is for you! It hangs over a door and opens to reveal tons and tons of organization for paper, tools, embellishments, ribbon...everything you can think of, Jinger has it covered. The door even has corkboard in the panel so you can pin notes and ideas.

Of course, there are lots of other fantastic new things that I'm excited about, but I'll save those for another day and another post.

Check back tomorrow for a look at the most clever and beautiful displays I saw. Until then...

It's back!

I guess writing about my "lack of mojo" and getting it out in the open was kind of therapeutic because, after more than a week of zero creativity, I ventured back into my scrap room and I finished not one, but TWO projects!

Okay, okay. It helped that several shipments of supplies arrived for the classes I'm working on. It's kinda hard to ignore the growing stack of boxes taking over my dining room.

So what did I make? A film canister album!

The Note to Self line from Echo Park is so fun, and it's perfect with the canister. The inside fold-out is 6 panels and holds five 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 photos, which I had printed at Walgreen's -- just select a 4x6 collage print and choose two photos. They'll each print at about 3 x 4 to give you a little room for cropping. This is one of the classes I'll be teaching at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly.

Here's a look at the other class project I finished: a canvas binder album using Maya Road and American Crafts.

Lots of misting and masking in this class. Must remember to pack extra paper towels.

One more quick share...a layout I created (last month) for my first guest post on the Ella Publishing blog. I wrote about finding love for those not-so-perfect photos on your camera roll. C'mon...you KNOW you've got some of those!

Check out my post at Ella for the story of how I got past my need for "perfect." 

Thanks for stopping by!

Class Crazy!

I'm just going to say it. I have no projects to share today. But don't worry. I have a good excuse: I've been spending all my crafty time this week preparing classes for the Great American Scrapbook Convention.

I have THREE wonderful classes in development, with some fabulous and very generous sponsors, including American Crafts, Echo Park, Maya Road and Canvas Corp.

So my craft room is full of boxes, like this one...

And this one...

Projects in progress like this...

It's a very exciting mess, and I'm enjoying all the preparation that goes into making some great classes for GASC Chantilly.

That's right. I said Chantilly.

I'm not teaching in Arlington this year. In fact, I wasn't even planning to go to the convention this year because my 10th wedding anniversary falls a few days before the GASC Arlington show, and Adam and I planned a special celebration/getaway for that weekend. I had totally accepted the fact that I would miss GASC just this one time. And it was O-KAY.


But then an amazing opportunity came along, and I couldn't say no. So I will be teaching at GASC Chantilly on June 22-23.

Class descriptions and registration details will be up in the next week or so, and if you're in the Northern Virginia/DC area, I hope you'll check out my classes. I love how they're turning out!

Staying positive

Positivity is the word I chose as my one little word for 2012. I talked about the reasons why and some of my goals in this post. But it's now February, and I don't have much to show for it. Well, that's not exactly true.

For the past few months, I've been pinning inspirational quotes on my Pinterest board. All kinds of memorable sayings that speak to me and the person I want to be. When I have moments of negativity, I remind myself of these sayings and they help bring some perspective to what's good -- actually great! -- about my life.

I've been thinking it would be fun to start a journal about the ways these quotes have inspired me to be more positive. So I built my own Positivity Journal for a feature on the Epiphany Crafts blog. (Check out the post for your chance to win the tool I used.)

It's a pretty simple concoction of chipboard, patterned paper, graph paper (for writing on) and images from Pinterest. To be clear, I did not invent any of these quotes or create any of the artwork. I simply pinned them, downloaded them and printed them onto photo paper. Then I added some patterned paper and stickers -- 'cause that's what I do -- and bound it all together.

And to give myself a little further structure, I created some tabs for the different sections using my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Round 25, layered onto a tab die cut (from Papertrey Ink).

 

There are six sections, and my goal is to write at least once a month for the next six months. Each month, I'll let a new set of quotes inspire me.

Thanks for letting me share my approach to one little word. But now I'd like to hear your approach. Did you choose a word for 2012? And if so, how are you keeping it top-of-mind?

Just curious.