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Posts Tagged ‘Scrapbooking’
OK, I Give Up! More Snow Stuff!
Aloha, all!
The last time I posted I said that I was so OVER snow. And I just sit and read about snow, I don't live in it. I can't imagine what you gals and guys who've been living with so much of it this winter are going through (well, yes, I've been there/done that – 50 inches the last winter we spent on the mainland).
But when there are grandchildren involved and their mother (a photographer) takes pictures of them, I have to give in.
Both of these scrap pages are made with Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio, and both feature photos of one grandchild each. The photo layout is one of the built-in layouts provided in the software package that comes with My Digital Studio. I modified it just a bit, added the background paper, some snowflakes from digital "stamp sets" and some journaling backgrounds made with digital "punches." All digital! Not a speck of paper wasted trying out different colors for the mats! And (best of all) no added clutter in the craft room! That's the real plus because it seems to be in a constant state of disarray as I am cleaning up after Christmas and getting the new Occasions Mini Catalog stuff set up.
If you have any questions about My Digital Studio, I'll be glad to help you with them! I've taken all of Stampin' Up!'s tutorials and have a lot of practice doing lots of fun pages (fun is my mantra for 2011!). There's also an online resource for everyone who uses My Digital Studio – MyDigitalStudio.net. Lots of great samples and discussions! If you're not quite sure you want to buy this software, go check that website out – you'll be hooked!
And whether you're making cards or scrapbook pages or anything else creative today, have fun with it!
Subscribe to the comments for this postSummer Mini Catalog Countdown – Part II
Aloha, all!
What would summer be without travel? Of course, it would still be summer. But if you have kids, there just isn't anything better than a road trip! OK, I know that there are those of you who might have had some, well, disasters doing this. But by and large, it's a great time for everyone.
And what would Stampin' Up!'s Summer Mini Catalog be without something related to travel or vacations. I think that they outdid themselves this year, with the Travel Journal Designer Series Paper and the coordinating Stamp Set, Sentimental Journey.
Our daughter and her family took a road trip this summer from their home in North Carolina to our family's cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota. What a trip they had – and grandma will be making a scrapbook of that trip for sure! We'll be visiting later them later this year and everyone will get involved in putting the pictures in the scrapbook. What fun! I think I will have to take several packs of this paper with me!
BUT – I'll have to buy it soon! Because this paper set and the stamp set will disappear from Stampin' Up!'s repertoire on Tuesday, August 31st!!
All kinds of travel are covered in both the papers and the stamp set – planes, cars, boats – and the colors are perfect for whatever activities and scenery you found to photograph while YOU were traveling this summer! Here are pictures of the products that you can buy, but only until August 31st!
Oh, and just like yesterday, a bit of a sneak peek at some 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog products! Yup, there's that Decorative Label punch again! What you probably can't tell at this small a resolution is that this scrap page is 8" x 8"! That's new for Stampin' Up! AND there are two brand new albums in the Holiday Mini from which you can choose! I can hardly wait to get mine!
A Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend
Aloha, all!
At this point, my husband is feeling quite well, thank you, and his surgeon has asked that he get out a bit if he can. This is all while we are awaiting a date for the surgery. It's going to be quite extensive, and requires the operating room to be reserved for a full day. But with all the drugs the medical types are pumping into Harry, he really is able to get out a bit. So out we've been getting him.
One trip has been to the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. This is a great trip because Harry really misses his garden at home, and he can look at some plants that are similar to what he has at home. Great for him and for us.
Meanwhile, Harry shows off the album I made for him that features his very own garden. Last week I shared the pages featuring our pets, and today I'll start showing off some of the garden pages. The overall colors throughout the scrapbook (pet pages not withstanding) are Garden Green/Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie/So Saffron. The scrapping technique for today's two-page spread is one that I use a lot with the small (6" x 6") page spreads: I take a whole bunch of photos and make them into a collage and print that as a larger photo on one page. Then, on the facing page, I feature 2 or 3 individual pictures of the objects in question. Here I'm featuring the tropical rhododendrons, or Vireyas, that are current blooming in our garden. The photo at the left shows how you can get 11 nice pictures on one small page!
The paper for this page is from the Designer Series Paper, Flocked Together. I really wish I had "found" this set earlier! This coming year I'll pay better attention to ALL the designer series paper sets so I don't miss anything. The stamp sets featured on this page – as well as on the right side page – are Paradise and Tropical Party. I originally thought this would be too busy, but I really like the effect when it's all put together in the scrapbook. You can see that I matted the photo with So Saffron and Garden Green. I didn't mat most of the photos in this album because of my time constraints. But sometimes, I just had to get out the card stock and the paper cutter and mat away!
On the right, I used a page from the Designer Series Paper Jackpot. Now, because my dear husband runs the local ACBL bridge club in Hilo, Hawaii, I already had a big stash of this Designer Series Paper. And I'll be keeping it for Bridge Club use even after it retires. But I digress. The fact is that this paper is NOT just for cards and games. Look at that lovely diamond pattern in So Saffron! OK, it's Diamonds as in Hearts, Spades and Clubs. But it's also diamonds as in a cool pattern!
As the new papers come out I promise that I'll be much better at looking at them ALL to make sure that neither I nor you just discount a set because the paper that the catalog features just doesn't appeal.
ALERT! These Designer Series Paper sets are going to retire July 1st! They are absolutely perfect for scrapbooking and, if you're a scrapbooker as I am, you might just want to stock up a bit before they're gone for good.
I only have computer time late at night as the rest of the time I'm spending with my husband. But I really hope to be back here with some analysis of the Stampin' Up! retired products lists and some suggestions for what you might want to snap up before it goes away. Meanwhile, please keep my dear husband in your thoughts and prayers!
Scrapping a Get Well Message
Aloha, all!
Last week I posted a scrap page featuring our lovely black cat, Cholla. I had it lying out on a table, and our house sitter noticed it and asked why I hadn't done something about our dog, Hoku. With all that's going on in our lives right now, creating a scrap page featuring the dog just wasn't anywhere on my priority list.
First, a brief aside about what's going on (and why I have a house sitter). My husband, Harry, has become very ill, and is a hospital on the island of O'ahu. We don't live on O'ahu, and that's made life somewhat difficult. Right now I'm back on our island – the Big Island of Hawaii – and crafting just wasn't in the picture when I returned home a few days ago. I had to get some business taken care of and pack for both me and my husband for a prolonged stay away from home.
As I spent some time talking with Harry on the phone the first few days I was back, it became apparent that he really missed his daily walks in his garden. And he'd asked me to pet the dog and scritch the cat for him a couple of times. I first thought that I'd go around the yard and take some pictures so he could see what was growing at the moment and maybe take some pictures of the pets. Pictures. Aha! Pictures go in a scrapbook, don't they?! And so I decided that I'd make him a scrapbook to have with him while he's awaiting surgery, which may not happen until next week.
This has given me the opportunity to use my craft room which I so thoroughly cleaned out last week (no, I didn't know I'd be gone for so long!) AND to focus on scrapbooking during National Scrapbooking month. The scrapbook was of the quick 6 x 6 kind, but I had fun as I did each 2-page spread thinking about the techniques I was using, and how I could share them with you. So, over the next few weeks, I'll be doing just that – sharing my scrapbook pages with you, of course with my thoughts about quick and easy techniques. The bottom line in all of this is that you should approach a scrapbooking project with the idea of having fun doing it. I've seen too many people struggle and freeze up when faced with a pile of photographs and a room full of paper and embellishments. That's OK if you're entering a contest. But, if you're like me and most scrapbookers, you just want to have a memory book that's fun to look at as time goes on. It's just not scary!
OK – so here's the first page to show off (though not the first page in the book). Of course, Harry misses his pets, and I did, indeed, have to make a page featuring Hoku the Dog, to go along with Cholla's page. The stamp set that I used for this page is D Is For Dog. Did you think I had C Is For Cat and not the dog's stamp set, too? Not hardly if I wanted to keep peace among the pets. Here's another copy of Cholla's page so you can see how these two pages go well together as a 2-page spread.
I had already made Cholla's page with the Melon Mambo, and somehow the pink wasn't going to work for Hoku the Dog. He's just not a pink person. But, even with the Soft Suede (an In Color that's going to be continuing as a standard color in the next Stampin' Up! Catalog!), I could tie the two pages together with lots of different techniques.
- I scored the card stock in the same pattern to texturize it.
- I stamped and cut out the bones from the D is for Dog set to match the fish from the C is for Cat set.
- I used Crushed Curry (sniff, going away) as the photo mats
- I used a square rhinestone brad for the dog's collar to go with the round one I used for the cat's
- I used 1/2" Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon on both pages.
The pictures are not the same size and the colors are not the same. But the two pages work just fine together!
I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post while I'm away from home. But the photos are all ready to show off. I just need to find some time for myself to write them up!
Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and I hope to be back in my craft room before long.
More Scrapbooking
Aloha, all!
As promised, here is the right page that goes with the left page in the scrapbook layout I introduced yesterday. This is my grandson, Quin, who had a blast at the Oregon Zoo. I wanted him to stand in front of the Black Bear because it had the ruler markings. But Quin wanted to stand in front of the Sun Bear, because they’re the same size. Of course, both photos turned out well enough to make the scrapbook.
Again, I used the Circle Scissors Plus, and this time I double-matted the photo with Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze Card Stock. In this case, the bear was real, though thankfully behind glass. And that cute, cute Bear from the stamp set, Under the Stars, adds even more fun to this page.
Now I have to go get packing for yet another trip across the ocean. Come to think of it, my destination fits right in with this theme: It’s a place called Bear Lake in Northern Minnesota. Hmmm, think I’ll get to use this stamp set there?? Believe me, it’s packed.
In fact, I’m packing lots of my Stampin’ Up! supplies just in case of rainy days. Our little granddaughters will be there, and grandma is going to try to get them hooked on stamping at a very young age! Yes, you call me a "pusher" 
A Bit of Scrapbooking Fun
Aloha, all!
I spent most of last weekend putting together a scrapbook of photos I took when I visited my son and grandson, son’s significant other and her son. We had two wonderful days out and about in Portland, Oregon. On a Saturday we visited the Oregon Zoo, which is a delightful place to spend a day. Then on Sunday we visited the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. I couldn’t imagine trying to please an 8 year old and a 6 year old – both boys! – at a flower garden. Wrong!! This garden has lakes and ponds, and the lake and ponds have ducks and geese. The first order of the day was to buy a very large bag of goose and duck food (of course). Believe me, no one was bored!
I thought I’d share a couple of the scrapbook pages with you. The scrapbook uses Stampin’ Up! products exclusively throughout. For awhile I thought I was going to have to use non-Stampin’ Up! alphabet stickers. But then I found some Avery Label sticker paper, and used one of the Sizzlit Alphabets that Stampin’ Up! offers in its catalog to make my own stickers. When I priced things out, I definitely saved a lot of $$$ (not counting the Sizzix die because I’ve used that a lot already for other things).
This is the left page of a two-page spread.
I had the most fun using the Circle Scissors Plus on most of the pages in this scrapbook. I could adjust it to just fit the image I wanted to cut, then adjust it slightly larger to make the mat behind the photo. Most of the papers here are all papers that are going to be retiring at the end of this month. The Baja Breeze was just the perfect color for this set of photos, and went well with the Kraft card stock, punched with the Photo Corners Punch, as an accent.
The printed papers are from the retiring set of Designer Papers, Parisian Breeze. The stamp is from the set, Under the Stars, and another stamp from that set is on the right page (which I’ll share tomorrow)
The sticker letters are from the Sizzlit Naturally Serif Alphabet die. It’s a long strip die with all the letters of the alphabet–upper and lower case–on one strip. It was very, very easy to cut the sticker paper with it, and all the letters separated from their backing with just a bit of a push from the tip of a straight pin. It’s just the perfect alphabet set for this size scrapbook page (8-1/2" x 11").
Are YOU ready to do some scrapbooking? Beginning this fall, I’ll be offering Scrapbooking Classes in my Craft Room. Let me know if you’d be interested.
A 1940 Memory Book – Part II
Aloha, all!
Now that the excitement (at least in Robin’s Craft Room) about the Stampin’ Up! "Last Chance" lists having been published, it’s time to get back to an old project and let you know what I did with it.
Back in April, I told you about having found my mother’s Memory Book from her High School graduation in 1940. Since then, I’ve been working on and off on it, sometimes for days at a time. It took me awhile to figure out what exactly I was going to do about pulling it apart and then putting it back together. I decided at some point that the "new" version of the book would be a gift to my niece, Margie – my mother’s only granddaughter - on the occasion of her graduation from a graduate program at Johns Hopkins University last month.
While I didn’t get all the embellishing done that I’d like to have done, I nonetheless finished the book in time to take it to the graduation. I wrote up a summary of what I did with the book, and thought I’d share it with you. You can click here for the summary, which also contains a link to a YouTube slide show of the pages in the "new" Memory Book.
And of course I used all Stampin’ Up! products for the project!
Now back to figuring out what to do with all the "retired" Stampin’ Up! stuff in the craft room! For sure I’m going to have a sale–probably at my New Catalog Open House in July!
A 1940 Memory Book – Part I
Aloha, all!
Last month when my cousin, Sherry, was here visiting us in Hawaii, we started rummaging through a box full of old photographs. Now I know that the readers of the Robin’s Craft Room blog are far too sophisticated about such items as photographs to have them stashed in boxes in closets. You all have them neatly arranged in wonderful scrapbooks, don’t you? No?? Hmmm. I may have a scrapbooking class for you this summer!
Anyway, there in the middle of the box was a book I probably had seen before but had never really noticed.
It was my mother’s scrapbook from her Senior Year in High School. She graduated in 1940, and here in my hands was a book that contained what was important to her all those years ago. My mother passed away several years ago. Looking through this book, though, made me feel almost as connected to her as if she were still alive. Except that I couldn’t ask her questions about it.
Here’s the cover, and over the next month or so, I’ll be sharing with you some of the wonderful little tidbits that I found behind this cover. Some of the sharing will be excepts from an article that I’m going to write about what to consider as you’re preparing a scrapbook in terms of what’s really important to preserve your memories. Think you know all the answers? I may have some new insights for you, based on my own personal experience.
May is National Scrapbooking Month. For most of the month I’ll be traveling away from Hawaii, so I haven’t scheduled any scrapbook classes. But Scrapbooks aren’t going to go away, and I’ll probably schedule something for June–just in time for Wedding Scrapbooks, of course!
Feline Help With My Orders
Aloha, all!
My cat, Cholla (pronounced Choy-a–she was originally a New Mexico cat), knows something’s up when I receive not one but TWO Stampin’ Up! boxes in the mail on one day. Successive days she’s used to. But late last week I sent one workshop order in and, within 3 hours, two of my friends/customers were visiting my Craft Room and ordered up enough for a SECOND workshop order! The supplies are all divided up, and the boxes are stacked ready for people to come get them. And a stack of two boxes is just too much for one cat to resist.
My big personal project last week and this week and probably well into next week is working on taking apart and putting back together again my mother’s High School Graduation memory book. But first I have to get my newsletter done and get some class time in for a couple of new customers who’ve bought Stampin’ Up! products and need to learn a bit more about how to use them.
So–I’ll be sending my Newsletter out later this week! A bit late this month, but it will be worth it. If you’re not signed up for my Newsletter, be sure to do so in the next day or two to be sure of getting my post-Income Tax Day 2009 News from Robin’s Craft Room! Just type your e-mail address into the box at the top of the column just to the right of my latest blog post. You’ll be added to my mailing list right away!
And, if you’re interested in what young women who graduated from High School in 1940 may have put in their memory books, stay tuned right here as I share some of that with you over the next month.
Taking a Trip and Mapping a Scrap!
Aloha, all!
Harry and I are finally back from a well-needed vacation to one of our sister islands, Moloka’i. We had been there for a short trip about 15 years ago. This time we spent more time and still didn’t see all that we wanted, despite the size of the island (small).
With a Stampin’ Up! workshop on my schedule for this evening, and with the hostess having requested that the Make and Take be a scrap page, I just had to get a quick scrapbook done to get ready for the demonstration! I decided on a 6" x 6" scrapbook as easier for me to complete a whole book in a short time and easier for the workshop attendees to finish a page in the 20 to 30 minutes we’ve allocated for the Make and Take.
To begin, while having a quiet evening in Moloka’i, I sketched out 4 scrap maps. Scrap Maps are basically outlines for placing your pictures on a page. In the case of a 6" x 6" scrapbook page, a 4" square photo is about the largest you can put on a page. To have more than 1 photo, you need to scale the sizes down even further. If you’re used to larger pages, these sizes may seem too small. But they really do work up well.
The photo above is of one of the set of pages in our new Molokai’ 2009 scrapbook.
And here is the Scrap Map that I used to lay out these pages. I interspersed the 4 maps throughout the scrapbook, rotating and flipping them at will! In some cases, I had to adjust the exact sizes to make sure that the photos fit. Scrapbooking is an art, not a science, and creative adjustments are always in order!
For the Scrapbook itself, I used one of Stampin’ Up!’s 6" x 6" looseleaf binders, and the Summer Home Simply Scrappin’ set. As you can imagine, with a 6" x 6" scrapbook there are, well, "scraps," left over! So I’ll be showing off a few cards made from those scraps tonight.
Tomorrow I’ll show off one of the projects that I’m demonstrating at tonight’s workshop. The ladies will be using materials from the Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin’ kit. Hopefully, by the end of the week, I’ll be able to show off some of the scrap pages that were made at the workshop!
If you’d like a copy of the scrap maps I made up, including some ideas for rotating them to show off different orientations of photos, just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me and I’ll send a copy off to you!
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