Heads Up! Craft Show Saturday (or Sunday)

Melissa Fulgham and I will be vendors at the Angola By The Bay Women’s Club  35th Annual Arts and Crafts Fair this Saturday, July 17th. The fair is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the grounds of the Angola By The Bay community. The rain date is Sunday, July 18. We are one of more than 70 talented crafters from four states who will be exhibiting. Angola By The Bay is on Angola Road one half mile east of Route 24 between Lewes and Millsboro. For more information, call 945-2700. We hope to see you there.

Triple the Scraps, Temptation

This is the second of 26 Scripture Challenges for the year. My scripture selection is from Matthew 26:41 (Amplified). All of you must keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I used Close to My Heart's (CTMH) Cocoa and Twilight inks and cardstock along with Bamboo as a cardstock base. I used the D1349 Be Yourself for my joggers and D1418 Felicity and D1222 Tiny Typewriter Alphabet for lettering. I also used a B&T scrap from CTMH’s Grace Level 2 pack for accent. I stippled the scripture reference with Twilight ink. I scalled the title strip with my EK Success corner rounder (with the corner guard removed) and my hand punch for the arrows. I popped them out a bit with foam dots.

Craft Room Creations -- Brittany's First Pages

I can't believe that it's the last week of November already! Regardles of the date, it has been a constructive day. I am especailly pleased with Brittany's first visit to my craft room this afternoon. A scrapbooking newbie, she worked with a Sizzix Big Shot using the box letter dies, and the Tags, Scallop Combo # 2 die. She also used Stickle Diamond Ice to add a hit of bling to her title, and learned how to embellish with ribbon and flowers.

Here she is with her two-page spread about her day-trip to Chicago with her fiance (Jeff), her mother and another family member. I think she did a great job with these two pages. I'm sure her fiance will be happy with this special holiday gift, straight from her heart. Don't you?

When Opportunity Knocks

I am totally excited about being offered an opportunity to teach at AC Moore's in Dover. I briefly mentioned the opportunity in my CTMH newsletter, but here are a few more details. I will be teaching the following workshops in November and December:

* Creating Background Papers (Wednesday, November 4 from 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.) -- workshop fee is $20.
* Scrapbooking for Beginners, Part 1 (Tuesday, November 10 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. or Wednesday, November 18 from 12 p.m. - 2 p.m.) -- workshop fee is $15.
* Scrapbooking for Beginners, Part 2 (Tuesday, December 8 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. or Wednesday, December 16, from 12 p.m - 2 p.m.) -- workshop fee is $15.
* More Pictures on the Page: Creating Add-Ons for photos and and journaling (Wednesday, November 11 from 12 p.m - 2 - p.m. or Tuesday, November 17 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.) -- workshop fee is $20.

I'm working on the workshop details now and will be posting them, with photos, the week of October 19th or sooner.

Age of Discovery, Part 1

The beauty of babyhood is that every day brings a new discovery. This class was "One Stamp, Ten Techniques. Of course, it screamed for more baby pictures so I used pictures of Brayden to fill the bill. I particularly enjoyed stamping a tree on two different papers and incorporating them into one in design (see "Age of" page). I also enjoyed stamping the owls on printed paper (see Discovery page), which is a new/different application for me. I'll most certainly be adapting these two techniques ot Close to My Heart. And, of course, isn't my practically perfect grandbaby absolutely adorable?

Travel Workshop Report

One of the greatest joys of scrapbooking is sharing, and that was proven at our first travel crop on Saturday, July 18. It was so successful that we're going to do it again on Saturday, August 29th. Here Dawn Johnson, Melissa Fulgham's sister, holds up her last 2-page layout. New to scrapbooking, Dawn actually completed six pages chronicling her June vacation to South Dakota during her first scrapbooking round.

"When Melissa told me I would get four to six pages done today, I thought she was wrong," Dawn said. "How long does it take to put a few pictures on a page?" But Dawn soon discovered that this art form is about telling your story with pictures, paper, journaling . . . and that it's a bit addictive.

Dawn effectively incorporated maps and memorabalia into her design . . . and has committed to attend our August workshop. The rest of her designs are below:

Travel Workshop

The second two-page spread was taken on our return trip from Port of Spain where we were on a Christian radio program. We took the scenic view home so we could get some pictures of the cityscape.

Travel Workshop

Besides performing a monodrama titled The Bride, I also did some storytelling while in Trinidad and Tobago, which is the subject of this third two-page layout. We visited schools, an orphanage, and local churches. The secondary schools we visited were faith-based. The morning assemblies were always short, so there was no seating available for the students. They stood. The temperatures exceed 100 degree Farenheit while we were there . . . David didn't tell me that until we returned home. That's probably a good thing.

Travel Workshop

This last of the two-page spread is a hodgepodge of representative photos of our trip. That layout uses 15 pictures and is ideal for a photo-rich event. I haven't embellished it yet and probably won't get to that until Friday night. I know for sure that I'll be using that layout in our Saturday Travel Workshop. I'm hopeing we can get as many as six pages done for the day.By the way, those last two pages were made out of Moon Doggie scraps from the Level 2 kit. I can probably get two or four more layouts from what I have left. So how great is that?Now that I have 2005 scrapped, I need to address my two trips in 2006 and one in 2007. I hope to have it finished before we return to Trinidad in September.

That's all for now. Have a great day.

GASC: My Favorite Things

Kim van der Sanden of My Favorite Things (http://www.mftstamps.com/) knows her stuff well enough to improvise after she discovered that her class instruction sheets were on the kitchen table in California instead of with her in Virginia. Since she wasn't as together as she usually is when she teaches a workshop, she asked us each to stop by her booth for a free stamp. As fun as the technices were, I was more interested in learning about the Copic markers mentioned in the classroom blurb. Unfortunately, she did not touch on that. However, she did give me a mini lesson about these alcohol-based markers and their use. These two 8" x 8" pages lack the bling I normally add, but I may punch them up a bit when I'm ready to use them. Under the circumstances, it was a good workshop which I am glad I took.

GASC: Expand It Techniques

SEI's Expand It -- Techniques was one of the first workshops I took at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention on Friday morning. Until the Stamps By Judith and Heather, it was my favorite workshop. We literally made a mini album from a single sheet of cardstock which we scored and creatively fold and adhered it to the design. The second piece was a pop-out design using creative folds for pictures and journaling. These are definitely techniques that I can incorporate into my Close to My Heart project base. My last workshop was also an SEI invention. It was a stamping in albums techniques workshop and the poorest of the five I took that weekend. Although it was billed as a stamping techniques workshop, we were told that the SEI bosses said they couldn't afford to have stamps available for every person. A fast-paced workshop in which participants were expected to complete 20 12"x12" scrapbook pages in 2 hours, there was much scrambling and little learning. The emphasis was on finishing pages rather than learning techniques. So, SEI earned high marks for the technique-driven workshop and low marks for the productivity-driven workshop. The half-done scrapbooking kit remains in a box in my craftroom. With so many projects on my plate, I have no idea when and if I'll return to it.

GASC: Paradise Found

Paradise Lost is one of the workshops I took at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention in Chantilly, Virignia at the end of June. This was a Quick Quotes kit with punch outs and paste downs. We made the suitcase book with what was left over. I took the workshop thinking that perhaps it would augment a scrapbook I'm trying to put together for our missions hosts in Trinidad and Tobago, but the colors don't compliment the pages I've already created with my Moon Doggie papers from Close To My Heart. We were limited by some of the products we could use, and the pace we had to maintain to complete the three pages in a one-hour workshop. My favorite effect was the chipbard sandals with the ribbon treatment. I also thought the suitcase mini book was rather cute and reproducable, but I don't think the protruding palm tree would hold up in a active household. All things said, it was a productive workshop which I'm glad I took.

Great American Scrapbooking Convention

The last weekend of June I got to enjoy two incredible days with my son, his wife, our grandbaby, and regional scrapbooking artists who attended the Great American Scrapbooking Convention in Chantilly, Virginia. One of my favorites was an Interactive Stamping workshops from Stamps By Judith (http://www.stampsbyjudith.com/). The above 12"x12" scrapbook page was created wth a solid heart stamp (for the butterflies and ladybugs), a solid flower, a snowflake, mini dots, a haypile, a sprig and a stick weed. We started by tearing a piece of paper in an irregular shape leaving a ragged edge. Then we placed it over the bottom of the cardstack and stamped off the edge of the torn paper. I loved the artistic approach. The cards were equally challenging and artistic. Of course, I did have to purchase some of their stamps . . . mainly the ones that we used in the workshop.I hope I have the chance to take another of Heather's workshops in the future. My husband just reminded me that it's time to retire for the evening, so I'll try to share more tomorrow. Have a great day.

Diane

Sadie's First Page

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Sadie is our daughter's dog. A Shepherd-Huskie Mix, she weighs in at about 85 pounds and gets around well for a 14-year-old dog. According to the UC Davis Book of Dogs, small-breed dogs (such as small terriers) then become geriatric at about 11 years; medium-breed dogs (such as larger spaniels) at 10 years; large-breed dogs (such as German Shepherd Dogs) at 8 years; and giant-breed dogs (such as Great Danes) at 7 years. (Wikepedia). According to this, Sadie has almost doubled her geriatric years. We thought we were losing her last month, but she rebounded and will be spending the day with me since my daughter is Air Guarding at the drop zone this afternoon.

On Monday night I started playing with a "Pet Pages" project and random stamped background papers and designs. I used a Jeanette R. Lynton's Reflections Scrapbook Program design layout (page 19) as a blueprint and handstamped my designs on Close To My Heart's Colonial White cardstock. Using Close to My Heart's Brown Bag cardstock as a background, I used three Exclusive Inks colors (Blush, Brown Bag and Sweet Leaf) to stamped my background papers. My puppy paws came from CTMH's Welcome Baby set (B1325). The doggie bones came from CTMH's Dog's Life set (C1316). The heart was from CTMH's Love Language (D1343)

Brothers

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As I was deciding on what to do with the second "Club Baby" double-page spread, I started thinking about Brayden's big brother Parker. I have an older brother who was cooler than cool in my kid sister eyes. I hope that Brayden and Parker will get along as well.

The nuclear family is not so nuclear anymore, especially with the "yours, mine and ours" construct. But brothers are brothers whether they are full-, half- or step-.


I appreciate Parker's capacity to love the big bruiser of a little guy who is taking so much of Mom's time and attention. But these pages prove beyond a doubt that "he aint heavey, he's my brother."


This is why I decided to make the second two-page project a brothers project, because no child should feel left behind.

I used Close To My Heart Emporium Level 2 papers to build the 2-page spread along with Sol0 "P" (B1240) and "B" (B1226) stamp sets. My journaling and title I generated on the computer and printed onto in vellum. Stickers are from theEmporium stickese pack, but I'm not sure whether they were Level I or II. The white crocheted flower is from CTMH's White Daisy Collection (Z1136), which be purchased on my website at http://www.dianecook.myctmh.com/. Actually, all of the CTMH products can be purchased on my website.



The two brothers stamped together at the top of the page next to the title is from CTMH's Family Ties -- Children collection. (C1345). I just ordered Family Ties -- Adults (C1346) and am looking forward to pairing them with the children in future projects.


I used Jeannette Lynton's Balanced Blocks layout from Cherish Scrapbook Layouts Made Beautifully Simple (CTMH Item # 9029) as a launchpoint. I normally prefer designing my projects on my computer and deciding what I'll use where. I sort of made this one up as I went along. All in all, I'm happy with the end result . . . now I suppose I'll have to make a page for my daughter-in-law . . .

Getting Started

Yesterday afternoon my daughter-in-law, Maddy, came by and we scrapped together for about two hours. She's helping me develop a Pet Pages workshop using Close To My Heart products. (I would love to see you visit my website at http://www.dianecook.myctmh.com/)

Maddy and I share many of the same interests, so it's quite convenient that she and my son moved next door. Since Maddy is relatively new to scrapbooking, our first big decision was big or little? Maddy found the 12"x12" scrapbooking page rather intimidating, fearful that she couldn't fill it up. I understood since I felt the same way when I stepped back into the genre several years ago. But we opted for the larger size to accommodate our design and technique.

Though I had hoped to finish the two-page spread before the evening was out, I discovered that I was sorely lacking a photo of my pets together. So, I grabbed my digital camera and stepped over the dogs who immediately jumped up, obviously hoping that we were going downstairs to get them treats, which they view as my sole purpose in life.

We went into the hallway where they started milling and waiting, waiting and milling, but they wouldn't remain in close enough proximity to get a good shot.

Finally, I issued the command . . . "sit!"

They looked up at my as if they were thinking, "What, are you crazy?"

"Sit!" I commanded once again. Tally was the first to sit; Bo reluctantly complied.

I positioned my camera and took the shot, but its slight delay caught Bo looking away. He was obviously tired of this nonsense, so he stood and walked into my husband's office.

Since Bo-dog was walking, Tally figured she was released as well. But I wasn't looking for a picture of their tales, so I once again commanded, "Sit!"

They turned and looked at me like I was an idiot. Their expressions revealed their transparent thoughts: "What are you saying? I don't see any treat in your hand!"

"Sit!" I commanded, one more time. Surprised, they turned around and sat in unison. This time my camera cooperated. I got a picture of the best buds together, looking at me as sweetly as I could hope. . . well, maybe Bo-Bo (the black and white dog in the front) wasn't quite as happy as Talley, but he complied.

"Do you want a treat?"

Their ears popped up, then they rushed past me to scrabble down the stairs while I remained in the hallway most certainly left behind.

I'll be posting their completed pages sometime this evening. Have a blessed day.

Diane Cook

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

~ Anatole F