Copper Country Cruising and Scrapping

I haven't scrapbooked since last year sometime. It's kind of crazy - I love to scrapbook, but I got more focussed on projects for the last year. I've found that I like scrapbooking ALSB style (Assembly Line Scrapbooking). Two Club Scrap members came up with the method - they would make pages out of their kits without picking pictures out. Club Scrap has instructions each month to make your entire kit into layouts for your current kits.

Club Scrap also has these great idea decks. You can find a layout you like, pick the papers, and follow the instructions to make a great layout. Sometimes, I can be more creative with these layouts by adding a whole bunch of embellishments, but sometimes I just want to get the layouts done. I like looking at the pictures later, and it's not as important to me that each layout be completely designed by me. The idea deck is great for using up older papers that might match, but you don't have the whole kit anymore. These layouts are both rotated from the sketch, which leads to a whole variety of layout options. I've actually used these patterns to create whole books, and by the time you add pictures, different embellishments, and journaling, nobody even recognizes the identical layouts from page to page.

These layouts are from my mom's visit last fall. We went Copper Country Cruising to look at the leaves, and took some great pictures. The paper on these layouts are mostly from a design classic remix of the collections paper printed on a variety of kits. The foil stickers with the gold leaves are from the Autumn Splendor kit.

Pine board book - Caardvarks challenge

Club Scrap is sponsoring a challenge at the Caardvarks blog, and I took the challenge to heart. This has been a multi-step project that has taken a little bit of time every night - mostly because each step needed to dry. This is the same project that I showed you a piece of a few days ago. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it was a creative adventure.

First, I made the inside of the book using a large piece of paper, masking at regular intervals, and then painting, stenciling, and stamping up a storm. I sliced and diced the paper to make a maze book that I then glued so it opens like a regular book. To see how I made the inside of the book, you can watch Tricia Morris from Club Scrap demonstrate this on a different size of paper. On this one, I used gesso, watercolors, the Ivory Elegance stencil (no longer available), and the Be Still rubber stamp.

The covers were made with pine boards from Club Scrap (oh no! These are sold out now, so I need to hoard my stash of these!). I painted them quickly with some acrylic paint, mostly just to seal the surface. The wood grain shows through just a little bit.

To finish it off, I stamped a variety of my favorite quotes from Club Scrap stamps on some paper from the Bistro kit (the orange) and the Written Word kit (the purple). I'm sort of in love with the green-purple-orange color scheme.

The beginning of something

I've got an idea in my head, and had a chance to start putting it on paper today. When I got the materials for a project from Club Scrap's Cruise in a Box, I knew I wanted to do something different with it, so I started work today. You can see a slice here. I didn't take any pictures along the way, so you'll just have to believe me that this started with a big sheet of paper, a lot of masking tape, and some gesso.

From there, I used watercolors, stencils, and stamps to add color to the page.

When it's done, it will be a book. More later!

Happy Anniversary!

Paul and I like to make cards for each other. These are our anniversary cards. His is on the left. He has really taken to quilling, and loves to make little bits and assemble them later into cards. He has trouble finding things in my craft room, so he has his own bag for his supplies!

My card is on the right. Since it's our fifth anniversary, I made it out of some wood panels (from the Great Outdoors kit). I covered them in paper (Surf's Up from Club Scrap), and used a paper veneer technique from one of the Club Scrap workshops to give the paper a "wood" look. Lots of stamping and other fun stuff on there.

For our anniversary yesterday, we went to the Ramada Inn. They have a nice restaurant on the water, which we can walk to. This was perfect for a Friday night. Today, we're about to go to the Harbor Haus, a bit fancier restaurant (and a bit of a drive) in Copper Harbor. Both places show how beautiful living near a lift bridge can be.

Tap Dancing in the Wild West

One of the great things about living in a small town is that anybody can do anything. Three years ago, I took up tap dancing. This past weekend was our big show, and you can see from the curtain call picture that everybody was there! I think the cast was at least 130 kids to adults. Of course, all of their parents, relatives, and everybody in the community came out for the big show. It was a blast. It's always fun to surprise people I work with with my hidden talents!

Our theme was "Who's really who in the wild west?" and it followed two clueless folks who were wrongly accused of crimes. I played one of the "gold diggers" in the show, and did a tap dancing number to a great Bob Fosse tune from Chicago (Hot Honey Rag). It was a great challenge, and great fun.