Tuesday, May 5, 2009

May's paper craft night

May is going to be a free for all meeting! I will have instructions available for several different paper craft projects, including the exploding box, paper bag scrapbooks and Some iris folding projects! But I am hoping that everyone will bring their scrapbooks and do a page of their choice1 remember we have 2 cricuts and several cartridges to choose from and lots of other supplies you are welcome to use!

April's paper craft night

I expected several guest for the April 19th party, however at 5pm my phone began to ring and one by one all my guest canceled!! We ended up with a ton of goodies and no guest, except of course my awesome Mom! So, we ended up having a Karaoke/wii party! We actually had a really great time! I will continue to set up for paper craft nights, even when the guest list isn't even existent!

Monday, April 6, 2009

First paper bag scrap book finished!





Today I put the finishing touches on my first paper bag scrapbook! I had my pictures stored on my computer so I went to Walmart.com" photo shop and ordered 4x6 collage pics! That way I had varied sizes to work with and only had to pay the price of one 4x6 print! Anyway, my theme was my honeymoon! I am really pleased at the results and I am now working on one using wedding pics. That one will be done tomorrow. I am really looking forward to sharing this on project on April 19th!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Aprils's Paper Craft Project

Each month I will be attempting to have a project to share with my guest and in turn share on my blog as well. This months project ..................paper bag scrapbooks! We will be transforming lunch bags into adorable brag book size scrapbooks! A perfect size to fit into your purse! Paper bags are not acid free and will cause photos to fade over time......solution? Make duplicates of your pictures.....either photo copy them or have copies made someplace like Walmart or Walgreens. I personally have had great results using my 3 in one printer. I scan, edit and print, all from my home computer!
April's project will be a great learning experience for everyone! If you do not have duplicates of your pictures for this project, feel free to come early and we can run them from my computer...hopefully I remember to grab a new ink cartridge!
If your curious, here is a site that you might like! Scrapbookie.com -- Paper Bag Scrapbook
I personally do not care for all the ribbon on hers, but it will give you a general idea!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Give Iris folding a try!




http://www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com/index.html

I really find Iris folding to be a nice change of pace in paper crafts. It's very simple and can be incorporated into scrapbook pages or greetings cards. The above link will tell you everything you need to know to get started.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Cutting Fabric with a Cricut




After watching the infomercials, I was very curious as to whether you could actually cut fabric with a Cricut. I am delighted to report back that you really can! Be aware that cutting fabric with a cricut will decrease the life of you blade. I used a new blade for my projects and had great results!

  • To prepare your fabric you must wash and dry fabric so that it is preshrunk and also to avoid the fabric bleeding at a later time.
  • Use a heat and bond adhesive like Heat & Bond and prepare the fabric following the directions of the adhesive.
  • Place the fabric (paper side down) onto the cricut cutting mat.
  • Adjust the cricut machine to its slowest mode.
  • Adjust the blade to 5 for lightweight to medium weight fabrics
  • Adjust the pressure to med-high depending on the weight of the fabric.
Choose your image to be cut and enjoy the end result. I am using my cricut to create fabric heat and bond patches for our pop up camper. We even tested a cricut created "patch" on a piece of heavy vinyl to assure a strong bond, and the results were a surprising success.

Monday, March 23, 2009

La La's Paper Crafts Club

I haven't always known the joy of paper crafting...When I was in my twenties, I was a single mom, working full time. I was lucky if I had time to keep up with my housework, let alone time to be creative!! But now my children are older, I'm happily remarried and work only part time. I now have a lot more time to get to all those memories stored in shoe boxes and old tattered photo albums, stashed away in the back of my closet!
A few years ago I was introduced to scrapbooking by a friend of mine who dabbled in Creative Memories Consulting. I went to one of her crops and really enjoyed it! That night was my first attempt at a scrapbook page. Looking back....it was pretty sad! I had no idea what I was doing, nor did I have any clue what half the tools were for! But since then my creativity has developed nicely and I am sure will continue to evolve. I have learned to use different techniques and to use all kinds of mediums to create a page I can be proud to share! I know that many of my friends and family have an interest in scrappin' but are not sure where to start or just didn't have the funds to start collecting the tools of the trade. As a result, I started scouring local stores and the web for deals on papers, glues, tools and anything else scrapbook related. I collected punches, papers, stickers, stamps, inks, chalks, scissors and the like. I only purchased items if they were on sale or clearance and I collected these things a little at a time.......I was on a mission! I now feel confident that I have enough supplies to start hosting a monthly event to share the joy of paper crafts!