New Color Tool!

Have you heard about the great new color matching tool offered by Scrapbook.com? It's a really great resource for choosing a color scheme for all your paper crafting projects. There are a few different options when using it.

First, you can upload a photo and the tool will give you an idea taking colors from the photo itself. You can choose if you want to use monochromatic, triadic, complementary, etc. You can also choose the option to have the computer show you a simple layout sketch using the photo and the color scheme you choose. If you don't like the initial suggestion, you can click on different colors to change things up.

The second option is to use a color wheel tool without uploading a photo. It's a great way to choose colors for a layout that you might not normally think of. It definitely helps you design outside of the box!

Goodbye Scenic Route!

I was so sad to receive an email from Scenic Route saying they are closing their doors. From the start, they have been one of my favorite scrapbooking companies. I first met Sarah Milne, founder and designer for Scenic Route, at an expo in Utah when they were a brand new company. I took some classes from her and she was so gracious and very, very talented! I fell in love with her beautiful products there.

Right now on the Scenic Route website, they are having a huge liquidation sale. You can get products 10-80% off with prices decreasing over time. Once a product is gone, though, it's gone.

Here are just a handful of layouts I've made with Scenic Route products over the years. There's lots more in my albums, but it could take all day to scan and post them all.











Farewell Scenic Route! :(

A Little Inspiration

I have always been drawn to the beach. Since I live in the desert, I have to get my fix from beautiful mountain lakes rather than the ocean. It doesn't stop me from dreaming about a cottage on the shores of a quiet, peaceful body of water somewhere.


This perfect image I've created in my mind might be why I'm also drawn to soft blues and shades of white, glass bottles, sand and textures, and shabby, rustic items. So imagine my delight when I stumbled across "The Old Painted Cottage" blog last night! If this interests you, scroll down through her posts over the last few weeks and you will be amazed at the transformation this cottage took! I'm not normally the kind of person that can walk into a house that started out the way hers did and envision the end result. But she has pulled it off beautifully! She has such a talent for displaying beautiful vintage pieces in her home and making them look as if they were made for that exact space. I'd love to curl up in the corner of her couch for a day with a good book.

Be sure and check out her cottage store here. Also, here's another site called Blue Ocean Traders and another called Mothology. I hope this inspires you too!

Layout Contest

Well, I survived last weekend at Cindy's scrapbooking conference! We laughed so hard our sides hurt. I only got one layout done and started cutting out pieces for another. The rest of the time was spent teaching 3 classes and helping fellow scrappers with their projects, shopping, eating, and did I mention laughing? It was lots of fun, but it reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner...you spend hours and hours preparing and then it's over before you know it!

Cindy had a really cute idea for a layout contest. When we arrived, we each received a small packet of random products. Mine contained a few sheets of patterned paper (most of them didn't match each other), fibers, a plain chipboard tag, and some iron-on frogs. The challenge was to create a layout using at least three of the products in the kit.


I chose two papers that matched each other the best. The large white circle was the back of one of the papers which happened to have a grid printed on it. So I used both sides and covered up the bar code with the large tag. I traced the tag 3 times onto another piece of patterned paper that didn't look quite so hideous after it was cut up. :) I happened to have my QuicKutz with me to cut the title from a scrap of red paper I had in another kit. Then I embellished with some stitching stamps that I bought at the last conference in April and hadn't taken out of their package yet. (Don't you do that too???) Cindy also had her little photo printer there so I could print out the picture of Monkey-Monkey and I was done!

What's the story behind Monkey-Monkey you ask? Well, I bought this cute little sock friend for my sister's birthday and gave it to her at the conference.


She travels a lot for her work and we got laughing about how she should take the monkey everywhere she goes and document his adventures with her. "Monkey-Monkey in Florida." "Monkey-Monkey in Atlanta." "Monkey-Monkey enjoying the beach." Well, you get the idea. So we decided to start documenting their new life together right then and there. What better place than at a scrapbooking conference, right?

Yes, we are silly! :)

Oh, and by the way, "Monkey-Monkey" won 1st place in the layout contest. LOL!

Super Easy Layouts

I'm not really known for my fast and easy approach to scrapbooking. For some reason I must subconsciously think every layout I make has to be time consuming to be cute. I don't do it on purpose...it just works out that way. Sometimes I complete a layout after 2 or 3 hours and think, "What in the world took so long?"

Well, not so with these 2 layouts! I made them as a demo for Porter's and honestly, I was not in the mood to scrap that day. I was tired and just wanted to finish so I could go home. (Did I say that out loud???)

Anyway, this is the result...fast and easy!

Patterned Paper and Stickers: Carolee's Creations; Alphabet Stickers: American Crafts; Cardstock: DCWV

This layout came together really quickly. The basic idea came from the June issue of Scrapbook Trends. I used various strips cut from a sheet of patterned paper and some stickers. I added some buttons and journaling strips and it was done! My nephew, Charlie, learned how to take the lid off his sippy cup and the kitchen was never the same again!

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny, Carolee's Creations; Stickers: Carolee's Creations; Die Cuts: QuicKutz, Accucut.

Here's a simple layout highlighting one of my son's favorite presents he received for his 13th birthday. The "stitching" was done using a zig-zag Piercing Bug from EK Success. Instead of stitching with thread, I pierced holes in the paper with the Piercing Bug and then drew a line across the holes with a black journaling pen. Even in real life you can't tell the difference! It's a super fast way to add a little bit of dimension and it's also easy for on-the-go scrapping when you don't have your sewing machine with you.

Well, there you have it...some easy layouts you can crank out in a matter of minutes!

Time for a Scrapbooking Getaway!

It seems like it wasn't that long ago that we were all scrapping at our overnight retreat, put on twice a year by Cindy's Scrapbooking. I have been working at getting classes put together and kits to sale.

Here are the two classes I'm teaching there this weekend:

"How can Someone so Cute be so Full of Mischief?"

My niece, Lydia, is a curious child. And she is silly! She's the one who will tackle her older brother, paint on the dining room table, and cut her own hair (again and again and again)! Here's just 3 of those mischievous Kodak moments. My favorite is the sour cream moisturizer. Anything for pretty skin, right?



My next class is a clock layout. My students can choose to turn it into an actual clock or leave it as a layout. It was really fun to make with paint, rub-ons, and embossed chipboard. Nothing like getting messy once in awhile!

One night last week, the boys and I set up the camera on a tripod and spent an hour playing around. We had lots of fun and ended up with lots of cute pictures. Man! They are growing way too fast!

Well, that's it for now! I made a couple of easy boy layouts this past weekend for a demo at the store. I will post those in a day or two.