LOAD Day 4 - Twist and Shout (Out)

Welcome back for another day of LOAD 2019!  Today, I am sharing my page for Day 4, using the prompt based on the twister in the “Wizard of Oz”.  The prompt was to tell a story with a twist, but I chose to focus on the twister itself, and tell a tale from my childhood about living through a tornado.

One of the things I love about doing LOAD is that it reminds me of all the stories I need to tell.  I think we often get so focused on the PHOTOS of our lives, that we forget all about the stories and events that DON’T always have photos.  And we are so busy creating pages and albums of our children, our trips, and our holidays, that we don’t always tell the stories of our own childhood or share the bits and pieces of our life that share who we are and where we came from. For me, that is the whole purpose of scrapbooking…to tell those stories so they aren’t forgotten…to share them with future generations who will want to know who we are and how we lived.  

I didn’t have any pictures of my own from this event, but a quick search of the internet turned up dozens of photos I could easily download from various archives.  I printed them at a smaller scale so I could fit more to one page, as I didn’t really think this warranted a 2-page layout.  I also found a photo of the next day’s front page of the local newspaper, so I printed that (reduced, of course) onto parchment and inked it for additional aging.

The background paper came from Basic Grey, sorry I can’t remember which line. I was looking for something distressed looking.  It probably didn’t matter since it’s mostly covered up anyway. I wanted to really add to the sense of chaos and destruction, so I skewed all the elements on the page, and even ripped and inked the edges of the journaling that I printed on parchment paper.  I didn’t think it needed a title in the true sense of the word, since the headline on the paper says it all, but I did add a date near the top, using a rolling stamp. I think the stamp’s messy imprint adds to the disarray of the page.

A word about the parchment paper….  If you follow my Facebook page, Instagram, or this blog, you may have noticed that I’ve used the same parchment paper several times lately.  If I were scrapbooking chronologically, as many people do, I certainly would not have done that because then all my pages would start to look the same.  That’s one of the things I love about scrapbooking in no particular order – I work on the pages as the inspiration comes to me, perhaps telling a story from my childhood one day, and creating a page about my son’s high school orchestra the next.  Since the pages are never side-by-side in the same book, you would never know that I went through an “eyelet stage” or an “embossing stage”, or even a “parchment paper stage”.  So as new products come out, I feel free to use them on any of my projects, and my albums are never “dated” by a certain style or technique.

I also want to give a shout out to everyone who will be at Scrapbook Expo next weekend.  I will be in the crop room most of the time, so if you are there, or if you see me on the floor, come over and say "Hi," and mention the blog. I love hearing from you! Even better, ask for a selfie and post it on your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page.  You can tag me, Crafty Neighbor, or both!  Your tag will enter you in a drawing for a cool prize pack, and everyone will get a little gift for tagging me!

Next up – our prompt is about being in an unfamiliar environment, and we can use a technique we’ve never tried, or one we don’t use very often.  I’m thinking I might do something digital!  If I do, I may make a process video.  This should be fun!

Keep crafting!

LOAD Day 3 - You Big Ol' Softy

For LOAD Day 3, my prompt was to make a page about a “Softy” in my life, or use something soft on my page. I chose to do both!  My Dad was a real softy, so I used this page to tell how the strict disciplinarian turned into a bit of a marshmallow when his grandkids came along.  

To make this page, I used papers from DCWV “Main Street” collection and a few odd bits of cardstock scraps from my stash. The photo mat is actually flocked paper from the DCWV collection, and that’s where I pulled in the “soft” item on my page. I also softened the edges of some elements with distress ink. 

I wanted a masculine-looking font for this layout, but one that wasn’t too harsh, so I used “Habitat” from a collection I downloaded at FontBundles.net.  They have a lot of great fonts that are free to download.  I used that for the photo caption tabs.  I also used Creating Keepsakes “CK Man’s Print” which was released years ago on a font CD, but which you can now download for free at FontsMarket.com.  The title “Daddy • Dad • Poppy” was made with some stickers from my stash.  They were the wrong color of teal for this layout, but I colored over them with a W7 Warm Grey Copic Marker.  

I use my Copic markers to change the colors of my scrapbooking supplies all the time…in fact, it was the primary reason I first started buying them.  I used several markers to get just the right color on my embellishments on this page.  The blue-ish chipboard heart was originally a sky blue.  First I colored it with Brown E25, but the surface of the chipboard was slick and it didn’t cover evenly, so I sanded that lightly, leaving it very distressed.  Then I colored it with BG72, G24, and BG13 in that order until I got just the right shade I was looking for.

The remaining embellishments were some hearts from a Basic Grey “Sugar Rush” sticker sheet (I colored one of the hearts with the E25 and BG13 to cover some colors that didn’t match), phrases from Tim Holtz and Heidi Swapp, plus a chipboard heart and a glitter heart that came from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Come back tomorrow for my layout with a “twist”!

We Pause for a Brief Commercial Message

Today I am in Promotion Mode.  That’s what happens when I have a lot of events and they aren’t filling up as fast as I want them to, or I just haven’t had time to take care of promoting them like I should.  Usually, I try to spread it out.  I don’t want my customers or my readers to be bombarded by emails and ads for things I’m trying to sell.  Some companies do that.  They’ll send out one or two emails every single day to remind you that it’s their annual “stock up on bath soap” sale, or “get extra points when you buy breakfast”.  It’s annoying.  I don't want to do that. 

Instead, I prefer word of mouth.  I want my customers and event participants to have so much fun at my events that they are eager to share with others and ready to come back and play again.  Don’t get me wrong, I do have to occasionally drop subtle hints, or post an occasional reminder on Facebook, and I send out roughly one newsletter email a month to let everyone know what’s going on, but lately, I have been so busy that I haven’t done any of that (or at least not much).  So I thought today I would do something I almost never do, and that is put it all in a blog post.  After all, I really don’t share all this stuff on the blog very often because the blog is more about crafting and projects, so you might not even know what’s going on.

Of course, a blog post with nothing but me hawking my wares would not be any fun at all, so today I’m going to kill two birds with one stone; I’m going to share some projects with you, and tell you how they relate to some of my events!

First, lets start with 

Cards (and other things, too!):

These cards were some that we made recently at our 3^rd Wednesday Stamp Club meetings.  If you aren’t familiar with it, the stamp club is a gathering we have here at my house (aka Crafty Neighbor Studios) once per month.  We are led by Barbara King, a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator who prepares 2-3 projects for us to do each month.  It’s a lot of fun, and we’re definitely learning a lot of great techniques!  So if you’re in the DFW area on a 3^rd Wednesday, please feel free to join us!  The first visit is free, after that, there is a $30 minimum order.  You can find all the details on Meetup.com.

Classes:

An example of our Perpetual Calendar

Recently, I’ve had a lot of requests for classes, including repeats of several classes I taught in years past.  My trusty side-kick and helper extraordinaire, Marion, and I worked up a schedule we thought would work for anyone, but I guess we were scheduling things too close to the end of school or something because we are still getting emails asking for different dates and times.  So here’s the deal…if you are in the DFW area and you want to take any of our classes, go to our Facebook page and find the post I made today about classes.  Give us your input about dates, times, etc.  We’ll use that info to come up with some more class dates – I promise!

Crops and Retreats:

I don’t have any public crops or retreats coming up any time soon.  I usually like to have one or two fundraiser crops per year, but I am not walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day this year, so no crop for that.  If you have an organization that needs to raise money, and you would like to host a Scrapbooking Fundraiser Crop, give me a shout!  I will be more than happy to organize one for you!  This is especially true in the DFW/North Texas area, but I will also help with crops in other locations as well.  It’s a great way to raise funds for your organization, and it works particularly well for schools, churches, and non-profits like breast cancer charities or social services organizations.  If you are interested, please send me an email.

Cruises:

I haven’t promoted them much here, but one of my favorite projects every year is our annual scrapbooking cruise!  The exciting thing about this year’s cruise is that we have two!  The full scoop is on our website, but here’s the skinny:

Crafty Neighbor Scrapbook LITE

Departing from Galveston, Texas

Carnival Liberty

October 3-8, 2016

Porting in Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico sailing 5 nights with “LITE” amenities, flexible crop times, and a more relaxed/fun environment.  Make your own schedule and work on your own projects.  Optional classes are extra.  Crafters and non-crafters of all skill levels are equally welcome.

Crafty Neighbor Scrapbooking Cruise

Departing from Galveston, Texas
Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas

January 8-15. 2017

Porting in Roatan (Honduras), Belize City (Belize) and Cozumel (Mexico) sailing 7-nights with FULL amenities, 24-hour open crop room, and lots of crafts, projects and demonstrations.  Participate in scheduled classes or work on your own projects.  All classes are included in the cost.  Crafters and non-crafters of all skill levels are equally welcome.

Here is one of the projects from our last cruise:

This simple layout was a make-n-take on our 2015 Scrap Cruise.
In all we had 4 make-n-takes, 1 interactive demo, 10+ hours of dedicated
class time plus games, contests, prizes, goodies and giveaways.

Garage Sales:

Last but not least, I’m sad to say I am still waiting for open dates at our Girl Scout facility for the semi-annual scrapbook garage sale.  They assure me that they will know the open dates by the end of May.  Keep your fingers crossed for a fall date.  If not, we may have to look at another facility, which would mean an increase in vendor rates, which I don’t want to do.

That’s it for now, thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the projects I shared as part of this giant advertisement! 

Accidents Happen

Let me start with an apology.  I struggled a bit with Friday’s blog post (technical difficulties) and as a result, I got in a hurry and sent it out without checking for typos!  Oops!  I am usually much more diligent than that.  I did correct the errors, but for those of you who subscribe by email, I’m sorry….

We all make mistakes sometimes.  Usually it’s best to confess them and move on.  But mistakes in scrapbooking or other crafting can be harder (and sometimes easier, depending on your perspective) to deal with.  Just last week, my Aggie Mom friends and I were decorating some wooden picture frames to sell in our Parents’ Weekend Boutique booth and we accidentally decorated some of them upside down.  I had to get my dear hubby to drill new holes in the right place!  Ooops!  

I’ve made some doozies over the years.  Some I try to fix, and some turn out to be happy accidents and I leave them be.  Here’s a few I’ve dealt with over the years.  Can you spot the changes in this first layout?

After I completed this layout, my son informed me that the dates I used were wrong.

Changes made:  replaced the file folder, including all stamping and journaling.

After I completed the "Night Ops" layout, my son came home for Christmas and informed me that I had the dates all wrong.  This meant I had to retype all the computer journaling, re-stamp all the images, and hand journal the rest.  Oh, and I had to cut a new folder because I had already ruined the other side AND it had staple marks, rendering it unusable.  I couldn't remember which die cut I used, so I tried ever die and stencil I had on hand, but they were the wrong size.  It wasn't until months later that I remembered I had been at a retreat when I cut the folder, so eventually I was able to go back and cut another one to finish the page.  This turned out to be a "happy accident" because it allowed me to do a better job of stamping the "For Your Information" stamp, my handwriting looks better, and I got to re-stamp "URGENT" as well.

I don't have pictures of the original "mistakes" on the rest of these, but the captions explain what went wrong:

This was a page I made when I first started scrapbooking.  I originally made it with a
manilla background and pastel tags in an assortment of colors.  I hated the way it turned
out, so after discussing it with several "pros", I decided to make it a dichromatic page
instead.  I love it so much better now!

That mustang wasn't on the original layout.  The journaling has changed, too.
Originally, I had a cute picture of "Fred the Fish", the unofficial mascot of the
high school swim team.  Unfortunately, my daughter informed me that the
team adopted Fred the following year, and that he was not part of the 1998
Homecoming float.  To fix it, I replaced Fred with a mustang die cut and I replaced
all of the journalling.

This layout is an example of a page I did not fix.  As you can see,
when I stamped "October 3", my blocky stamps gave less than
excellent results.  I didn't have any more of the sparkly white paper,
so I just decided to leave it be.

How do you deal with your mistakes?  Are you a leave it and forget it?  Do you turn it into a Happy Accident?  Do you fix it somehow?  Do you tell others about it?  Share your scrapping mistakes in the comments…we’d love to hear how you dealt with it!

LOAD Day 2

Yesterday, I told you a little bit about LOAD, and I mentioned that Lain was using world travel as the basis for her daily prompts.  For each day of the week, she assigned a general theme, and then on that day, she gets more specific.  Lain’s prompt for Day 2 (Tuesday), was “Airplane”. 

Monday – Color

Tuesday  – Transportation

Wednesday – Culture – test it

Thursday – Language

Friday – Landmark

Saturday – Geography

Sunday – Food

Some of you might know that I am a travel agent by day, so there were lots of obvious choices of pages I could do to fulfill the prompt, but I decided to go for my first plane ride instead.  Since I have no photos of this event, I chose to let my journaling paint the picture.  I used travel-themed papers and ephemera in layers to give it a “busy” feel.  Do you miss the picture?  I don’t.

Layout a Day!

I can’t believe it’s already February.  Do you know what February means?  Layout-A-Day (LOAD), of course!

What is LOAD?  It’s only the most fun, challenging, and best scrapbooking challenge out there!  LOAD is hosted by Lain Ehman, founder of True Scrap and Scrap Happy.  Each February, Lain brings us a month-long challenge to create at least one layout every day.  Each challenge is themed, so she gives us prompts that we can use, bend, or just throw away.  The prompts are designed to help you think outside the box – to create pages you might not have thought of creating – and to generally just get you started.  Our finished layouts get posted to a Flickr group so we can all admire everyone’s work, and in the end we’ll wind up with a whole bunch of finished pages, some fresh ideas for even more pages, and maybe even a few new friends.  Oh, and I mustn’t forget the prizes! 

In the past, Lain has also run this challenge in May and October, and I have delightfully participated, which has really helped me grow as a scrapper.  Unfortunately, I hear this is Lain’s last year to host it.  She is passing the torch to someone else.  I hope the new hostess will be as fun, challenging, and organized as Lain has been.  I look forward to participating in years to come.

So for LOAD 216 (February 2016), the theme is Around the World in 29 days.  Lain is pulling ideas from world travel to create her daily prompts.  Our prompt for Day 1 was based on the colors of the flag of the Netherlands: red, white and blue.  Being the patriot that I am, I had to do a page about Independence Day and a new tradition we’ve started in our family.

If you are interested in LOAD, you can get more info at LayoutADay.com, and you can look back at all the pages I’ve done over the years by typing “LOAD” into the search box at the top of the page, or by clicking on the word “LOAD” in the tags cloud at the bottom of the page.