Life right now

Just some photos of random things in my life lately.

Memories of a late night coffee date with the boy. An accidental self-portrait, made when I was putting the camera away (why do I always look either angry or serious?). Madeleines from the French Bakery. One of my three new sets of black flats from Target (cute and comfy). A new top for Valentines' Day.

I was taken sick with food poisoning for several days last week.This not only killed any desire I had to get crafty, it also derailed my blogging train. It was pretty awful, and I'm still not 100% normal. But I'm getting there.

Thanks for the sweet words about my book. I would very much appreciate it if you would vote for me here (my name is down near the bottom).

As for my current craftiness happenings, I'm working on a Shutterfly book (got a free promo code) and I have plans to make a Valentine or two. I just got the box from 2Peas with my Pink Paislee winnings, so I may have to make up a layout or two as well. ;)

This is Why Minibook - Finished

Sorry for the long break between posts... it has been a crazy busy week!

This post is all about the book that I started (see this post for the "before" photos) to document Why I Scrapbook, per the prompt that Shimelle gave out earlier this month.

I really love the book I made... mostly because it is similar to my Bits & Pieces workshop project (hah!). If you like this project, or you like what you've seen from the B+P mini sneaks on this blog, I just want to let y'all know that I'll be offering the B+P workshop again probably later next month. Stay tuned for more details.

Anyway, on with the scrappiness! Go grab your coffee and get ready to browse through a whoooole bunch of images. Remember, I don't really do small minibooks. This one turned out to be almost 30 pages. :)

Note: the B+P book turned out to be about 60 pages... plus way more detailed instructions. Just sayin...

Here we go:

Seriously, I hope that the amount of images didn't do anything terrible to your browser.
If it did, give me a heads up and I'll do a slideshow or something.

I may add some more pages.. Like I forgot to write about how much I love the friends I make through the hobby, and about documenting my family history.. and also I probably could add some more about how I love my tools and the goodies associated with scrapbooking.

We'll see...

And to answer some questions about the book I got from the last post...

Yes, it's totally cool to "copy" the me. That's kind of how inspiration/scrapbooking works. We all inspire each other. Just please if you do copy or scraplift give credit and/or let me know about it. (I love to see what people do!)

The kraft border on the cover was made with the new EK Success Slimline Bubbles border punch. I looove it.

The big starburst is a punch that is made by Marvy Uchida. Despite the fact that I don't normally like non-lever punches, these are awesome. I think there is also a design on one of the Slice cards that is similar.

Anyway, hope you liked the book. Take care until next time!

Steampunk Tropical Expedition at Woodland Park Zoo

You may remember the last time I posted about the fun Greg and I had attending a Steampunk event here in Seattle.

(Oh yes, that's right. On very special occasions my nerd and I dress up in costume and go out. In public. It's typically awesome, and the event we attended recently was no exception.)

We were very excited when we heard that our local zoo was going to host a tropical expedition with a steampunk theme. We even got up early for the occasion. But coffee was, of course, required.

(You may note that a lot of these photos were shot with my fisheye lens. That may or may not be because I picked up a Maya Road Gear book that I may or may not be using to make a minibook about this adventure.)

When we got to the zoo, we were greeted by the free-ranging peacock. It was a little chilly, so he was just hanging out by the classroom tent. 

So there were about 20 of us in the class, all adults. Our instructors were funny, focused, and quite knowledgeable.

Everything was going swimmingly, until we went into the tropical house. And my lenses TOTALLY fogged up. Dangerously so. That's what I get for going from Seattle weather to the tropics in less than three minutes.

There was just a ton of really cool stuff to see. Among other things, we saw jaguars, frogs, snakes, birds, monkeys, and even some gorillas.

And then things got weird. (Just kidding)

We got to play around with some old school tracking devices. Very neat stuff. After we got our bearings and finished with the tracking equipment, our guides had a special treat for us.

We got to go into the (currently under renovation) carousel house. We got a private tour and even got to poke around inside the actual authentic vintage carousel.

After the class was over, we took a detour over to see the snow leopard "kittens." They were quite feisty.

And as it started to rain, we had to stop off and vist the new desert penguin exhibit.

It was very cool, except when I got roared at when I stuck my hand into one of the "educational" parts of the exhibit. I did not yip like a scared puppy, despite whatever Greg claims.

Anyway, it was a very fun time.

"this is the why" minibook - getting started

Earlier this week I had blogged about a minibook project I've begun per a very cool new prompt from Shimelle. There is more information about the project here, if you would like to play along as well.

So far, all I've done is finished the cover and put the bare bones of the book together. The cover and pages are made from a mix of things I had on hand, as well as from my most recent Studio Calico kit and an older kit from Cocoa Daisy. Also, a transparency I picked up in Paris. (Sounds soo fancy, but it's true.)

The cover of the book is a D. Reeves clear acrylic minibook, in the 4.5x6.5 size. Sadly, this company is no longer around, but you might be able to find it online or in your supply stash. This one came from  the Cocoa Daisy kit, which sadly, was circa August 2007, I think. You could also use a thinner piece of craft acrylic or you know, a Hambly Overlay. ;)

I used a white Hambly Woodgrain rub on to cover the entire cover. And yes, it did go on just like "buddah."

I hand cut the circles from the SC paper and overlaid a strip of AC paper and a strip of deco-punch kraft paper. A punched ledger paper, another hand cut half circle, and the SC label formed the basis for my book title.

I added my AC Foam Thickers and outlined them with a white AC Galaxy pen. I then added the rest of my title using my favorite ChartPak stickers.

Because this is a book inspired by Shimelle, I added a little pearl "bling" on to the edges of the label.

To finish I added a photo (scootching it under the title a bit) then added three punched black stars for a bit of pop.

I'll go a head and do a quick overview of the rest of the unfinished pages, with more details to come as I flesh out the rest of the book.

Such great texture on this Karen Foster cork paper.

Here's what the front and back cover look like side by side. I love it.

Dunno if I'll get to work on this book this weekend.. Lots of things going on. But I hope to finish it by end of next week.

Happy Friday!

My Current CHA Sneak Peek Favorites

So, it is a little bit of a bi-annual tradition for me to post my favorite CHA (Craft & Hobby Association Trade Show) products. I'm posting a bit before the show, so not all my favorite manufacturers have released their full product lines yet (I'm talking to you Basic Grey) so we might have to have a round two post...

Anyway, on with my favorites!

Hambly Screenprints

I pretty much love most of what Hambly puts out. This particular release looks quite promising.


Pink Paislee: Queen Bee

Greys, yellows and greens with a little flourish action. I'm there.


Studio Calico: Anthology

I've already pre-ordered some of this. Love love love the colors on this.

Also, I wanted to say that now that I'm not "with:" any other kit clubs, I feel free to say that I LOVE STUDIO CALICO. A really lot. I pretty much love everything about the site, the products and the people.


Tattered Angels: New Glimmer Items

Really looking forward to playing with some of these, particularly the chalkboard stuff. I'm actually hoping to see some demo videos during CHA.


7 Gypsies: Avignon Collection

How awesome are these papers? One of my favorite 7G releases ever.

I love pretty much the whole release.  Also, check out the paper tape!

And I looove the new book covers:

And the best for last. These letterpress trays. If love the idea of using them both for stamp storage and to decorate. So good. And way sturdier than the vintage ones.

Maya Road

Seriously, Maya Road, I love your chipboard best. You make minibooks like nobodies business. Especially the canvas ones. I also love quite a few of their clear stamps. The Maya Resist stuff also looks pretty intriguing.

Technique Tuesday

Lots of great designs coming out this time. I looooove the Ali Edwards sets! That camera one... So good.

And of course, the Tim Holtz releases!
First, super excited for the new Distress Inks!

And a bunch of new stamper's anonymous sets!

He also has a paper line and some die-cutting stuff coming out. I hope that he has a few more metal goodies coming too....Love the ornate frames and the hardware from the last release.

Alright, I'm sure that's enough for now. Definitely going to have to do another post. Basic Grey and Making Memories are being super stingy with their sneaks, so I'll be back next week with round two.

Happy Thursday!