SMASH inspired Fancy Pants Brag Book

I decided to use my new black Fancy Pants journal as a mini scrapbook of Halloween through the years. Both my SMASH book and this one are works-in-progress, but thought I'd share some pictures of the pages so far. What's fun about the Fancy Pants Brag book is the photo-sleeve pages and pocket pages already built-in! I've been decorating these pages with some Halloween themed items from my stash at home, paired with some of the cool new papers and embellishments we have in the Halloween section at the store (so cute! I love the Fancy Pants Oct. 31st line!) PLUS I found some of the SMASH embellishments work well with this journal, too! (Check out the black and white polka-dot SMASH tape on the front cover!)

New Class: Memory Box Holiday Cards

Join me Saturday 9/10 from 12 - 3 pm as we make 4 cards using colored pencil and water coloring techniques that I learned from Dave Brethauer, the owner of Memory Box rubber stamps. Dave's class was so much fun and I learned a lot! I've taken the basics of Dave's class and turned them into cards that are more "me" and now I'd like to share them with you.

In this class we will be making 3 cards using colored pencils and 1 card using Twinking H2O's for our water color medium. I will also demonstrate how to use Memory Box's dies and share a little tip for terrific texturing that Dave gave us in his class.

Having your own colored pencils for this class is a MUST, so this class is priced like so:

If you have your own colored pencils you MUST bring them and the fee for the class is $22.00

If you DO NOT have your own colored pencils, you will get a set of colors to make the cards for this class. You will use them in class and then you get to take them home (woo hoo!). The fee for the class (including the pencils) is $35.00

Bring the following tools if you own them:

a ball stylus

water color brushes or pens (2 - 3)

a pencil sharpener

Just a reminder that some of the patterned papers used here on my cards may change by class time due to the availability of the papers.

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Cindy

You Are A Teenager!!

Still can't wrap my head around the fact that I am the mother of two teenagers, crazy!! My youngest just turned 13 and the new Doodlebug Birthday line screamed for me to use it for these pictures! Even though technically, this is the boy's birthday line, it matched all the colors much better than the girly pink line from Doodlebug. I love mixing and matching the different decorative papers from the line and the 12x12 diecut sheet added so many fun elements, like the journaling bubble, brackets and cardstock diecuts. The left side of the layout is made with a border punch on the brown paper and finished with the every-handy Baker's Twine that you see everywhere these days! The brads from the line also were amazing--the cakes & balloons are actually brads! I love how this layout turned out--I feel like the fun and lively papers really capture the mood of the pictures. It helps tell the story and for me, that is what scrapbooking is all about!
See you soon! Lisa H, aka: Tall Lisa

Avery's card

Meet Avery! Avery is cat #3 of 4 if you can count them from the order in which they arrived in our house. Avery has been with us for 3 years. We adopted him from BARCS animal shelter in Baltimore City. He is another one of my son Duncan's love-at-first-sight pets. Avery was only 5 weeks old when he came home with us and we had to technically foster him because he was too young to be adopted out by the shelter. He is your stereotypical cat...Avery wants attention on his terms only, he hates to be picked up and held, and only wants you when he wants something. Nevertheless, he is very sweet, and when he wants attention he rubs up against your legs or lays in front of you belly-up so you can rub his tummy. Avery also likes to flop bellu-up in front of the dog in hopes that Sawyer will rub his tummy too.

Avery's card uses 2 patterns from the Friends Furever line and uses almost the same layout I did for my black and white Demo Day card last month. I switched it up just a tiny bit by adding some die cut pieces. I hand cut a heart from one of the papers and added some raffia too. My best friend's son does not like Avery and we think it is because he has funny eyes. So to accent the eyes on my card, I used black Enamel Accents.

3 pets down...2 more to go!

Cindy

Sawyer's card

In June, my family adopted a dog from a wonderful Baltimore-based rescue called Dogs XL. Their mission is to rescue large dogs from high-kill shelters and place them in forever homes (check them out at http://www.dogsxlrescue.com/). My oldest son fell in love with Sawyer the first time we met him. After 3 more meetings to make sure he was the right guy for us, we brought him home. Sawyer has now been with us for about 2 1/2 months. He is super cute (he's a Golden Retriever/Chow Chow/Couch Potato mix) and very sweet and has an adorable purple Chow tongue which is really hard to catch on camera because he is quite camera-shy. This photo is from the other day with Sawyer chilling in my stamp room/office.

Sawyer's card is made with 2 patterns from the Friends Furever line by We R Memory Keepers, a Cloud 9 stamp, some pearls, and some raffia.

Cindy

Repeat class: Butterfly Bonanza

For those who were not able to make it a few weeks ago, I will be teaching my Butterfly Bonanza class again on Saturday August 27th from 12 - 3 pm. We will be making 6 beautiful butterfly themed cards using products from a variety of manufacturers. Some butterflies do need to be cut out, so make sure to bring sharp scissors with you!

Cindy

Friends FURever!!

Anyone who has been following this blog knows what a FREAK I am about my dogs, not ashamed of that fact one bit! These two hounds have added so much to our family, most obviously love, affection, and humor!! Myrtle and Daisy make us laugh so much;it's almost on a daily basis that someone in the family is grabbing the camera to capture some ridiculous moment. The line used for Design Team this month couldn't have been a better choice for me, and the papers and colors did not disappoint! I always buy the 12x12 cardstock pad every month that coordinates with the We R Memory Keepers line--I love the quality of their cardstock, the colors perfectly coordinate with the line (duh!!) and it is quite a bargain to boot! I used several stamps this month also--love the "paw" stamp (and yes, it is $1!!) and the phrase & "woof" stamps add a nice touch also. Look for this line at the store and stay tuned to the emails because the new CHA stuff is starting to arrive! See you soon, Lisa H.,aka: Tall Lisa

Puppy Love

Do you think it's a coincidence that we got a new puppy and We R Memory Keepers came out with an adorable new pet line?? I don't know . . . but I do know that I LOVE this line!!! The beautiful prints and colors perfectly compliment our puppy Brody and the photos of the day we brought him home for the first time. I used the card paper from the line to create a fun little mini book on my page to house a few more photos (Yes, I got 12 photos on this layout!!!) Stamping. I always say I want to incorporate more stamps on my scrapbook pages and today I did it. The sentiment on my first page came from a Heidi Swapp/Cloud 9 set filled with loving quotes about this special member of our family. The paw prints, "Puppy Love" title, and the bling dog bone came from Queen & Co. Don't have a dog? We R Memory Keepers collection also has goodies for the cat lover!

My 2nd Demo Day card

Here is the 2nd card we will be making at my table on Demo Day, Saturday 8/20. I have a butterfly thing going on this month. This card was inspired by my good friend Emily. She always has beautiful cards and fabulous ideas to share!

Cindy

Oliver's card

Having a lot of pets, I decided that I would challenge myself this month for Design Team by making a card that represents each one of my pets using our DT line for August, We R Memory Keepers "Friends Furever". My card today represents my oldest cat, Oliver.

Oliver is a strikingly handsome, super furry, gigantic (24 pounds!!), long-haired orange tabby. We took Oliver in when he was just about 6 weeks old, having found him in a neighbor's backyard. Oliver thinks his purpose in life is to lay in your lap and get fur on your clothes. He is also the "talker" in the family, constantly meowing and speaking to you whether you want to converse or not.

For my Oliver card, I used the orange paw print paper from We R along with some cream colored paper to represent Oliver's stripes. I stamped the paw print and meow (perfect for the talking cat!) in Rusty Hinge Distress ink and added some twine and bling. A quick card but I think it represents Oliver perfectly.

1 pet down, 4 more to go...

Cindy

My {first} Demo Day card

I love butterflies and purple, so I thought I would marry the 2 together for Demo Day. Want to know how much I love purple? The color of this ribbon is the exact same color of the carpet in my stamp room/office. Wait till you see it IRL. It's delicious!

This card uses a gorgeous butterfly from a clear Stampendous stamp set called Butterfly Beauties. It happens to be one of the butterfly sets I am using in class this weekend (come join me...we will be making 6 butterfly themed cards). Call the store to order your stamp set today!

I am pleased to say that I will be providing you with 2 projects for August's Demo Day on Saturday the 20th. The 2nd card will be posted here on the Design Team blog over the weekend.

I look forward to seeing you soon...

Cindy

All New Design Team Project

Hey Creative Peeps,

Lisa Hetrick here. I hope you are all having a wildly creative and fun summer. So, this months design team is showcasing the We R Memory Keepers line FRIENDS FUREVER.

Super cute paper line for papercrafting all your furry friend projects. So... What if you don't have a furry friend? No worries. This paper line has some super cute patterns and designs that make it easy to paper craft just about anything.

So, I just picked up this new LOVELY from the store from My Favorite Things. How cute is that pinwheel DIE?

And... I thought it would be perfect to use with the new Friends FUREVER line. Check out this little visual tutorial.

I started out by die cutting the Friend FUREVER paper with the new pinwheel die.

This die is so super easy to use in your favorite die cutting system. I used the Big Shot.

What do you think for someone who doesn't own a pet. HA! Papercrafting with patterned papers is fun. Go visit this project and the entire line at the store.

The dog (and cat) days of August

Will this heat ever go away? Can you believe August is here already? Where did the summer go?

We have all heard the saying "the dog days of summer" but this month we are calling it "the dog and cat days of August" to go along with the Design Team's August products, Friends Furever by We R Memory Keepers. This line is so adorable with lots of paw prints on the papers and papers just for cats and just for dogs. The embellishments are adorable (charms, chipboard, etc) and they have stamps in the line too!

Almost everyone here at Photo Scraps has a pet (or in my case 5!) so be on the lookout this month for not only fabulous creations using the We R line, but our pets as well.

Cindy