Then and Now

It is a time of reflection in my hobby room lately. This fall has been busy with work and deadlines. I am finally able to have my hobby room all to myself for my projects. I am still re-arranging and rethinking my set up. I started my "rethink/rearrange" last December! Wow, now it is December again! 

My reflections have focused here recently on where I started with my scrapbook hobby and where I am now with my hobby. There have been numerous changes with my scrapbook style, my reasons for my scrapbook, my scrapbook supplies, and my scrapbook room itself. My love for scrapbooking itself, has not changed. 

It is interesting to look back at layouts from the early days to the present day. During my rearrange, I took down some layouts I had pinned to my wallboard so that I could repin some recent layouts to the wallboard.

I took down layouts from 2005, 2006, and 2007. It is fun to see where I have changed with my hobby.

These are the early years. I was just getting into large photo placements, rub ons, and flowers.

I was stitching on my layouts then and I was paper tearing. I was using more earth tone colors, darker colors.

These are my more current layouts.  Here I am playing with embossing pastes, flair, paper layers, watercolor, and smaller photos. I am using bright colors and light papers, nowadays.

For me, it makes me smile to look back and see how trends played out in my older layouts to my newer layouts. I am happy to follow trends and move into new processes. The one thing that does not change for me is the happiness I have when I am in my hobby room crafting. Christmas break is coming soon and I can not wait to start playing! I have just about completed my new makeover for my hobby room. Hopefully, I can get some nice photos to share before I make a big mess this Christmas break, as I hope to spend the majority of my time off in here! :)

Thanks for stopping by to listen to my musings! ~ Tisha

Time Again for Scrapping!

What a trip August has been, not a fun adventure! Between a terrible, never ending, sinus infection and back to school work load, this scrappy gal has been deprived of her scrap room! Hopefully, I am caught up enough at my day job that I don't have to bring it home for my "after work" time and hopefully, cross fingers-knock on wood, the infection is gone-gone!

So, I have a lot of blog reading to do and I can't wait; but, here is a layout I actually did complete in August and never posted. 

This was for the August challenge at Feed Your Craft forum, Feed Your Craft Link The challenge was to take inspiration from the image or color palette or both. I took inspiration from both and created a layout.

I loved the colors and all the arrows, so I immediately was drawn to these photos of my cats begging for popcorn. I thought the sharp color of the yellow popcorn, teal tupperware bowl, and my orange cat were just about perfect for the colors of this challenge.

I love outlining photos and for this layout, I used my Elmer's Yellow Paint Pen! 

I used Color Shine Black Mist to make sprinkles but it did not work well. The droplets never dried? I kept smearing the black everywhere and decided to cover most of the droplets with enamel dots. I don't know if it is just the humidity of my house or what, but I am now leery of using that mist again.

Supplies Used:

Echo Pack Capture Life Paper

Studio Calico Printshop 6x6 Paper

Amy Tangerine Plus One Paper, Flair, & Thickers

Vellum, enamel dots, & wood button of unknown manufacture

Heidi Swap Color Shine Mist-Black

Elmer's Paint Pen-Yellow

Thanks for stopping by! ~Tisha

Maggie Holmes Styleboard Layout 4

Woo-Hoo! I got my layout done and moved on! I am always excited to finish and then start something new. Today is a share of my most recent Styleboard layout. I went a little overboard with Maggie Holmes purchases, so I will need to make another 10 layouts to use up this collection! :P

This is a simple layout to showcase some hilarious photos from my sister and brother-in-law goofing around. I have had these photos for some time, but because of the red/white colors of their clothing, I have never scrapped the photos. I just could not find any papers that clicked. I mostly want my scrap papers to coordinate with my photo colors. It is just how my brain works. I was pulling out some Styleboard papers and saw that these papers would work, according to my brain at least. So off, I went to scrapbook!

Under my title, the vellum arrow was not long enough for the length of "around". I cut the arrow in half and pulled it apart to appear as if it was longer. Kinda like adding another cup of water to the soup pot. :)

Exciting that I used an OLD clip on this layout (the little light blue clip). Sweet!!! I am not sure who the manufacture is. I have had it so long.

Supplies Used:

Maggie Holmes Styleboard Papers, diecuts, labels, and chipboard frames

Echo Park Capture Paper (woodgrain piece)

Fancy Pants Design Cork Heart

Studio Calico Chipboard Camera and Heart and Vellum Arrow

Teresa Collins Sequins

American Crafts Chipboard Thickers

Jillibean Soup Tile Stickers

Dear Lizzy Polaroid Paper Pieces

Bella Blvd Washi Tape

Have a lovely day! ~Tisha

Where The Albums Are...

I've been scrapping in 12x12 format now for 14 years. I have quite a few albums around the house not to mention mini albums galore! Where to put the albums? I decided about three years ago, that I was tired of the albums weighing down a shelf in my craft room. It was time for the albums to go somewhere else! 

So I thought about what I could do to incorporate the albums into our living space. I started by finding old magazine stands at some flea markets that would hold some 12x12 albums and some iron stands meant to hold large pieces of art work. I use them to sprinkle albums throughout the house. I thought I would share some photos of where my albums live inside the home. I enjoy seeing these albums just out and about the house!

This is my current album that sits inside my craftroom on an iron stand. I need to find some more of these stands that are deep enough to hold an album. They are hard to find for the price I am willing to pay. :)

I keep this red album in the foyer just sitting on a chair. It is hard to keep coats off it during winter and hard keeping cat hair off during summer. :)

I love these old wood magazine racks. They hold the albums so well! I just sit them around in the living room. I like to find family pulling them out to flip through. :)

I have these albums just propped on a chair in the corner of the dinning area. I can change out the albums whenever I want. I like to buy different types of albums so I have a variety of style and color.

These are just some places I have moved albums to around the house. I still have a shelf in the living room and master bedroom that hold the extras.

Happy Album Day! ~Tisha

A Different Kind of Blog Hop

Last Monday, Elise at Feed Your Craft tagged me in an ongoing blog hop that gives me a bit to talk about my creative process and then invite other crafters that are inspiring me to go next week. I am so honored Elise invited me as I am always inspired by her projects!

What am I working on right now?

Currently, on my craft table is some funny photos of my sister and brother-in-law that I am using some Styleboard papers to scrapbook. Next up are some "thinking of you" and "birthday" cards. I also have a piece of wall art that needs to be created for a gift. After this it is a mystery what will be sitting on my craft table. :)

How long does it take me to create a project?

I am such a slow scrapper, that I can't even say how long it takes me, except quite a bit of time. I am ok with this as I play in my craft room. I don't have any obligations to anyone except me on my projects. And I love that! I do know that since the iPad and Netflex came to live with me in my craft room, I am even more slow. Ha! They do keep me company, so I will not kick them out yet.

What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?

I am getting a kick out of using vellum with my craft. I am enjoying the resurgence of vellum. The other night, as I was messing around in my craft room, I remembered I had a whole collection of old vellum. I found it and am digging it! I have little bits and pieces and then I have a whole stack of 12x12 pieces from the 2005-2007 period. Remember the K&Company, Making Memories, and Quick Quotes pieces. Loving it!!!  I feel so proud when I am able to use up something really old on a current project.

I am also starting to get into Thickers. I have never sought out Thickers until this year. My Cricut died and I decided to wait to before purchasing anything to replace it. So my go to title making tool was gone. Introduce Thickers! Honestly, I may not replace the Cricut, as I enjoy just playing with what I have instead of the "designing" something that will work with what I am creating. We will see, I am not deciding what to do about the absence of a die cut machine until December.

How does my creative process work?

The majority of the time, I always start my project with my photos, then paper, then embellishments. However, I do sometimes pull out a product I want to play with and then the project takes off from there. I am not a by design crafter. I am a "pull stuff out and move it around" type of gal. Just give me some pretty stuff and let me play. :)

What inspires Me?

I find inspiration in color and patterns in my various products. I can suddenly feel the need to craft when I have a old piece of cardboard, simply because I can see a mini book cover from it's shape. Or the tangled weave of my ribbon stash will give me an idea that I must play with until I see it come together. That is just how it goes in my craft room.

This is a peak at my little crafty world. I am passing these questions on to the following three crafters who I find inspiration to continue the blog hop for next Monday. :)

Vanessa @ Different or Ordinary I love her Smash art and her recent postings of her digital work! I love how she can combine different fonts in her Smashbook and I love her digital creations she designs and sells.

Niru @ Avinash and Nandini I love her scrapbook style. I love the stitching and little bits of embellishments she puts on her work. Her work makes me think of delicate and sweetness. I am always "oohing" when I see her pages.

Lisa @ Blackbird Darlin' I love her blog title! In addition, I enjoy her 6x8 project life scrapbook posts. It is exciting to see what she will do with the smaller size. She also creates spectacular cards that inspire me to use my products.

Thanks for stopping by and I wish you a lovely week! ~Tisha

Bella Blvd Christmas Countdown Flip Book

Well, it is that time of the year that Christmas and Christmas Scrapbooking thoughts start dancing in my head! At the LSS, we are placing orders for the new Holiday lines and putting older Holiday lines on sale. Last weekend, as I was looking at product left in the store from 2013, the Bella Blvd Christmas Countdown papers called out to me. So, of course, I answered the call. :) 

I pulled some of the remaining product and created a little flip up mini book. I love creating these types of books. This one will be a Christmas Countdown flip up book. The inspiration for this book came strictly from the name of the paper line (Christmas Countdown).

For the stand, I went with chipboard. I cut the chipboard into a 3.5 inch width. The chipboard is just about 13 inches long but because I bend it into an "U" shape, it will stand about 5.5 inches tall. The stand has a base with the two sides. I do slightly cut the chipboard to get it to fold at the bottom. I use washi tape to cover the cuts. The washi tape keeps the book back and front from falling apart from the base over time. I painted the chipboard red.

All the pages in the book are 3x5 inches. Small enough to hold a 3x3 photo, or to write favorite christmas memories, or quotes, or just use as a countdown. The kraft number blocks came from an old 2011 Canvas Corp number paper I pulled from the 50% bin. (I love the 50% bins!)

I am happy with this little book and hope it inspires others to go create!  Thanks for stopping in for a look at this little Christmas Countdown book!

~Tisha

Teresa Collins-Something Wonderful Layout

I am playing with my new papers from the Something Wonderful Teresa Collins line. I love the crisp feel to this line. Sometimes I can't get enough of the vintage mood of papers and then other times, I want sharpness. Funny how that goes.

I wanted to do a layout with the photo smack dab in the center with very few embellishment. I wanted to use  the color black as a high contrast element. The photo is pop dotted over the vellum. The vellum is embossed with the Teresa Collins triangle embossing folder. The title of the layout is "love & life" and is low key in comparison to some of my typical layouts. I contemplated adding some black ink sprinkles or outlining some more triangles on the background paper, but decided against it. I wanted to keep the layout crisp.

I am not happy with my black journal label. If I was a perfectionist, I would pull the main center up and re-stick to another background sheet. Well, I lie. I did not do this because I did not have another sheet of the triangle paper. I originally had written my sentiments directly on the paper and just did not like my writing. So I covered it up with a chalk label and washi tape. I don't like how heavy that part of the layout became. But it will live this way as I am moving on. :) 

Supplies Used

Teresa Collins Something Wonderful Papers and Memorabilia chipboard and stickers

Maggie Holmes fabric frame

Fancy Pants Chalk label

Generic plain vellum embossed with triangles from Teresa Collins embossing folder

Happy Monday! ~Tisha

Old School and October Afternoon Layout

Truly excited to return to my hobby room. Today is a share of old school tool and embellies combined with new supplies and new tools. I did a drastic clearing of my hobby room last December, but I did keep some older supplies and tools that I use. This would include my old Making Memories metal elements. Oh, I remember when the Metal Trend was hot hot!!! And yes, I bought, bought! ;P And I still have lots of the metal elements from Making Memories. I just love them still!

I crossed my OA Daily Flash with a pinch of EP Capture and a dab of TC Something Wonderful for this layout. I use my homemade heart stencil to add some Viva Ferro silver paste (New Tools). 

Then I pounded some circle metal brads from my old MM metal stash for the year and word "dad".

I called this page done even though it does not have a stand out element that says, "I am the title!" I felt between the journal and photo, it did not need a designated "Title". I am cool with it.

Supplies Used:

October Afternoon paper, flair, chipboard hearts, and enamel dots

Echo Park Capture Life stickers and Sprinkled with Love Paper

Teresa Collins Something Wonderful Paper, sequins and brad

Viva Ferro Paste

Glitz Camera doodle roller and feather stamp

Making Memories Metal Alpha & Number Brads

Thanks for stopping in! ~Tisha

Pickle Jar Make Over!

What a little busy week it has been here and my hobby room feels so abandoned. I have been pulled away too many nights with outside "life" stuff.  But never fear, I had a reunion with my hobby room last night and we transformed an old commercial size pickle jar (leftover stuff from sis's wedding). It has been holding ribbons up to it's make over night.

We are preparing for our big event at the LSS I work at and I thought this huge pickle jar would be great to hold some tall stem flowers or fru fru for our guest's table. I also thought I should play with some gold paint as our guest loves gold. Why not!

I did not get any before pictures as I really did not have faith this would work. I used Krylon gold spray paint. The can said it would work on glass. I used some old washi tape to tape off some stripes on the jar and then taped off the top so no sprays would go on the inside.

Sooo, it turned out OK for my first go with spray paint and glass jars. 

Lessons learned: Be patient and wait for it to dry! Be observant and actually pay attention to how close you are spraying to the jar! Don't tape stripes over the curve of the top of the jar! Gold Sharpie pen actually helped a couple of boo-boo areas!

I also sprayed an Dollar Tree silver serving tray while I was going after the pickle jar.

I hot glued some natural fiber ribbon around the threaded top area. Inside I made a tube with some scrap paper to sit on the inside as an option.

This is the jar with nothing inside.  You can see the top area is jagged where I taped off on the curve of the jar.  But I think it turned out ok for a first go. Now I will see how it holds up just sitting around on the table, if it scratches and peels.

Thanks for stopping by and saying hello to me and this Pickle Jar! :)  Tisha

Feed Your Craft Forum Challenge

This is my layout entry for the "Goodbye Two Peas" challenge at Feed Your Craft Forum. Link to Feed Your Craft Forum  There were three choices for the challenge. I went with the second option, to scrapbook a layout about scrapbooking.

I was excited but also sad that just when I thought about what I would do for the challenge, I received in the mail my last Two Peas in a Bucket order. So it seemed that I should use the photos I took of my last order for my layout response to the goodbye challenge posted at the forum.

I originally thought I would put my journaling on a tag when I started scrapping, but then when I had my page laid out the way I wanted, the journaling just did not have anywhere to go on the layout and I absolutely needed the journaling to complete this kind of layout. So I thought I would add a second page, a 6x12 page. And I liked it!

The first page is 12x12 and the second page is 6x12. I plan to add to the back of the 6x12 my last order invoice from Two Peas. I will just fold it and slide behind the page. I had ordered some Thickers and it will be interesting in the coming years to look back at the itemized order to see the names of the Thickers and prices.

Here is where a boo boo happened but then became part of the embellishment. When I was trying to decide where to add the sticker "I will always remember", I accidentally let it touch my title. When I pulled it off, the sticker pulled some of the teal off the title letters. So, I just decided to leave it. I will say  the title is distressed. 

I will also note that I used part of the brown bag my order came in under the main cluster on page one and then I also used the "Two Peas" circle sticker that was on the bag.

Supplies Used:

Teresa Collins Urban Market Papers

Scenic Route Craft Paper

Maggie Holmes Styleboard Papers & Die Cuts

American Crafts Thickers

Jillibean Soup Sprinkles

Teresa Collins Brads & Enamel Dots

Studio Calico Chipboard Hearts

Evalicious Flair

Two Peas Arrow Paperclips

Maya Road Heart StickPen

Thanks for stopping by. ~ Tisha

Lovely October Afternoon

I am so happy to use some of the new to me Daily Flash papers for a cute photo of us girls with Dad. This page will go in my album of my youngest sister's wedding. I am just scrapping photos from the wedding as I am in the mood to do so. 

I truly love the square cards from the sheet of paper. I am thinking I need to buy some of the page protectors for the 4x4 cards to add to my pocket scrapping. I fussy cutted the camera off one card and pop dotted it over the yellow. 

The title for this page is small and low key. I like doing this on occasion when it just feels right. I did not want a lot of embellishing as I love the subway art paper and wanted it to speak on the page.

My really exciting moment was using the camera paperclip above the title. Simply because I bought a pack of these paperclips and can not ever seem to really get them to look right on a page. So it was a big moment when I got that paperclip to look cute sitting up there in the corner! Yes!

Supplies Used:

October Afternoon Daily Flash Papers, Tins, and Chipboard

Teresa Collins Tags,Button, Brad and Stickers

Evalicious Paperclip Camera

Cosmo Cricket Vellum

Generic White Paper

Happy Tuesday! ~Tisha

Card Share & Happy Independence Day!

So far, it seems like everyone is a little in disbelief that July is here. I am also in disbelief. We have been enjoying cooler weather and rain here in our little bubble. So I am treasuring being able to crack the window a bit to hear the rain when I get to play in my hobby room in the evenings! I just finished some cards to mail out this July and thought I would share.  I was happy I used scraps for these cards. Oh, how lovely it feels to use those scraps! 

I used some Amy Tangerine Plus One scraps and my new found love of bows.

I also used some scraps I had with gold stuff. I created the large gold heart by rubbing Viva Inka Gold over an OLD (did I say OLD) Cosmo Cricket chipboard shape. I am pretty sure I get a "gold" star for that one.

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the start of July!!! ~ Tisha

The Scrap System

I am so happy that I will have some time to play in my hobby room this coming week. I have a clean slate to start working on some scrappy something.  It is fun to know I get to "start" something!

Today I will share what my scrap system is. My scrappy system is new to me. Last December, I totally pulled all my scrap stuff out of my hobby room. My hobby room was a disaster! I had piles of stuff everywhere and I am not a clutter person. It was just life being too much! I had stuff in piles from my LSS job and then stuff from my stash and then stuff that seems to find it's way into my hobby room even though it does not belong in here. I hated being in my hobby room and felt claustrophobic. So what's a scrap gal to do. I 100% redid my room. The only thing that is the same is my wall paint and my craft table. I even redid how I scrap and play, my system. I'll share that today.

So, new system.  I have always stored my papers by company and embellies by type. That has not changed. However, I have changed what I will scrap with on my current work. As of December, I leave my stack of papers sitting out on my desk and my little tray of coordinating embellies also out. I did not invest in a pretty bamboo tray or embellie container until I knew I would enjoy working this way. I bought both the bamboo tray and clear container in April. It was my reward.

My bamboo tray neatly holds all my recent paper collections. I just layer them on top of one another. I have refilled my stack of paper once since December.  I just recently added a new Teresa Collins line-Urban Market.

What I LOVE about working with this system is... 

1. it keeps me in check of buying habits (my LSS part time job can quickly overwhelm me with new product) 

2. I can quickly start scrapping because my paper is "right here"(No digging through a large stash trying to find something that inspires me or is the colors I want).

3. I can quickly pull embellishments to go with my project because they are also "right here". 

My embellies are stored in a clear tray with 3 compartments. I have restocked this container once, as well, since December. I love being able to see what fun things I have to use and keep it neatly contained. I keep the bumpy stuff (brads and such) in the first compartment, tags, doilies, stickers in the second compartment and diecuts in the third compartment. 

I do store all my larger stickers and alphas in my usual area in my stash, but it is easy to just pull that when I need to do so.

Yes. I do have a stash. But No, it has not grown since December. I am actually using my papers and embellies!  I am finding it hard to believe this system is working for me. But I have said "no" to several new releases because I can see by my tray, that I have a good supply of product to work from! 

When I have used up all I can from a paper collection and embellishments, I will move it to my stash storage. It is very small amount so far that has gone into my stash. I am totally digging my new system. I can't believe I didn't start this sooner!

Here is wishing you a great week to start a new scrappy something! ~Tisha