Month

February 2009

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Scrapbooker Blahs

I’ve got ’em and it’s not just me. I’ve noticed the following in the last week or so:
– The scrapbook message boards are slow. Like watching pain dry. This pains me.
– The CK Media “reorganization” news is harshing everyone’s mellow.
– Either the new CHA products do not excite, or if they do, no one can afford to buy them. Manufacturers are desperately calling/e-mailing retailers, who can’t afford to buy much.
– Erin Lincoln says she’s not been paid in awhile….where does that leave CKMB?
– 2peas boards have been down all night

For me personally, there’s this kinda stuff:
– I posted a restaurant rant on 2peas, expecting about 90% support, and got much less than that. Didn’t ‘splain myself well enough, for one thing. And beyond that, it’s just cranky time, I guess.
– Landry was overnight at the vet hospital getting his manly bits removed. It was practically unbearable how much I missed him.
– DH and I got our first paychecks today since pay cuts….major ouch. How do you cut hundreds more dollars from a budget that is already bare bones? {Yes, I would get rid of my internet but I need it for work, natch}.
– Lastnight to cheer myself up, I decided to cash in a $15 product credit I’ve had for 6+ months at MEMORY WORKS (it was a consultant referral reward). Got all twitterpated over the Jenni Bowlin “Farmer’s Wife” and die cut calendar cards I had in my cart. Went to cash out and it declined my card. Found out today from the bank… they closed my scrapbook spendy account back in December…due to lack of activity. What in the HAY-ELL is that about??
– Just plain tired and feeling the blues…

As for my scrapping, I’m actually kinda’ re-energized after my crop last weekend, yet there has been no TIME or ENERGY to get to it.

How can we turn this around, ladies?
– Stacey at AMR had the right idea. She started a HAPPY THREAD with a little prize. That cheered me a bit :)
SASSAFRASS LASS and new BAZZILL cardstock packs at Mike’s!!!!! And a coupon this week!!!!!
– Would a couple Landry photos help? Well, here ya go…Could he BE any cuter?!?!

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Are you having the Scrapbooker Blahs? Lie right down on my couch and tell me all about it…..

JUMBO RIbbon Ring ON SALE!

I got this e-mail from Melissa the other day and she said I could post it to the blog:
***********************************

Goooooood afternoon!!

I wanted to let you know that my new JUMBO Ribbon Ring tags have arrived! They accommodate ribbon up to 2” wide and right now they are ON SALE! If you don’t have a lot of wide ribbon, you can hang four or fivepieces of 3/8” ribbon side by side on these new tags. How cool is that?

To celebrate this new product launch, our Ribbon Ring Starter Set and Ribbon Ring bundle of 90 are ON SALE too. Today is a good day to organize ribbon.

Go to www.ribbonring.com to take advantage of these awesome deals!

Melissa Bickle
President, Chicory Chic Inc.
3550 Broken Tee Drive
Hood River, Oregon 97031
541.387.2442
www.ribbonring.com
tame your ribbon.

*******************************
Here’s a photo of the new JUMBO (yes, I must put that in caps every.single.time) Ribbon Ring. You likee?

CK Media: We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t mean we want to hear it…

THIS is not looking good, ladies….

THIS, THIS, or THIS neither….

I think a lot of you, if you still subscribe, were getting those great cheap deals on subscriptions (I hope). I’ve been buying newstand for quite awhile, just because I’m impatient, but I’m glad I’m not out any money. I think we all knew even the main, longstanding scrapbook mags wouldn’t be around for much longer. But it’s hard to see this precursor to complete failure in black and white (or whatever color a blog is, LOL).

Make sure to read the comments on that first article. Someone makes a great point about CK’s supremely sucky customer service of the last couple years. I’ve heard endless stories of customers charged double for monthly kits, items not sent, subscriptions not fulfilled, prizes not sent…not to mention CK’s message board transition that most of us “old timers” hated and caused many of us to leave.

More sad times in Scrappy World….Your thoughts?

I’m Goin’ A-Croppin’ Tomorrow

Yay, yippee, woot woot!! It’s been quite awhile since I’ve either held a crop or been to one. Actually, this weekend was APPOSED ta be an annual scrap retreat with my mom and 4 friends. But the dear friend who usually organizes it is going through some personal stuff and couldn’t handle the planning this year. I offered to take over the reins but the other girls were gone on a SCRAPPING CRUISE so I couldn’t reach them in time to reserve the lake cabin for the retreat. But since my mom was coming down anyway, I called one of the retreat girlies this week and said, HAY-AYYYYY! Why don’t we just have a croppy Saturday at your clubhouse? And she was all for it. Thus….I’m goin’ a-croppin’ tomorrow. And I couldn’t be happier. Well, okay, technically I COULD be happier. I could already be at a crop RETREAT but let’s not split hairs, shall we?

So it’s about 8:45 on Friday night and I just finished packing for my croppy Saturday. I’m getting pretty good at packing for crops. I’ve learned that it does not pay to take every thing I own. Rather, I figure out 1 big project I want to work on {this time it’s finishing up the Santa Cruz part of my San Francisco/Santa Cruz trip album}, and all the things I need to work on that project. In this case, it’s the 12×12 album with enough empty page protectors to hold the pages I’m going to complete, and an Iris clamshell case with all the papers, embellies, and Thickers I’m using for this album. Then I usually bring maybe 4 or 5 other sets of photos that are of similar theme, colors, etc. and then a paper stack and chunk of embellies/letters that I can pull from for these layouts. For tomorrow, I have photos of a birthday, a bike race (Lance Armstrong’s race came through our area yesterday!), the kids playing with the puppy, and a Superbowl party. Do you see what these event photos might all have in common? Yep, bright mostly primary colors. So I’m taking the American Crafts “Celebration” paper stack that I just got (talked about it HERE), a “kid’s life” stack, several kinds of primary and black or white letter stickers, and a handful of colorful embellies.

The one place I guess I overpack is with cardstock ~ I always pack all 3 Cropper Hopper vertical files full of Bazzill ~ because I cannot STAND being at a crop and not being to find the exact right shade of background cardstock I need. Usually, I take my Baby Bug (little Cricut) and cartridges but decided not to this time. Maybe someone else will bring theirs and if they don’t, I can get by with the Thickers and such that I’m bringing. Finally, and most importantly, I always take my Cropper Hopper Flat Pack and a mini Tote-ally Cool Tote with my often used tools, adhesives, scissors, etc., my 2 Basic Grey Magnetic Mats, and my Ott Lite. This time, I also threw in a few border punches, and my “baby X” Xyron adhesive machine. So, miracle of miracles, I got all my stuff into my XXL, Crop In Style shoulder tote, and a small rolling tote. Wish me luck that I didn’t forget anything crucial! Although the great thing is that, at crops, everyone is more than willing to share anything you might need.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Not just for the creative opportunity to make some fun layouts, and the accomplishment I’m going to feel when I finish my travel album, but the time I’ll get to spend with my mom and my friends, just gossiping the day away, laughing, listening to music, having a nice dinner, and coming home feeling de-stressed, refreshed, and gung-ho to keep cropping in the coming weeks. Going to crops always gets me motivated in my scrapping again and I’m really needing that right now.

Have a wonderful weekend, dearies!

American Crafts at Tuesday Morning and More

Isn’t this a fun paper pack?? I picked it up at Tuesday Morning….retails for $19.99, I paid $5.99.

“CELEBRATION” by American Crafts

Then I used last week’s 40% Michaels coupon on this:

“URBAN PRAIRIE” by BASIC GREY

And I got the D-RING ALBUM on the far right in 12×12 navy leather from Beverly’s Craft Store with a 40% off coupon….

I needed it for a School Days album. I was pretty pleased with myself…got $65 worth of schwag for about $38, I don’t usually spend this much in one day on such big items. It’s usually more like 40% off a $3.99 embellie pack but hey. So, do you think the employees of these stores see me coming? Miss Won’t Shop Without a Coupon, Sale, or Discounted Price? I wonder if I’m their worst nightmare or their sweetest dream? Do you shop {stingy} like me? Ha! I’m laughing all the way to the Scrap Bank.

Oh My Heck! EK Success Border Punches at Michaels

I was at Mike’s tonight after work, looking for something to use my 40% off coupon on. Didn’t take long to find sumthin’. On an endcap in the scrapbooking section was a whole rack of new punches and border punches by EK Success. I’m told no photos are available online yet, but if I find any I’ll post them. For now, I’ll do my best to describe what I remember of them. The shape punches were $9.99 and included: skull & crossbones, high heel, small scalloped circle, regular photo corner shapes and a frilly one, etc. The border punches were $14.99 and included a variety of scallops, waves, etc. I grabbed two border punches that I immediately wanted – one was like the Fiskars Threading Water punch but smaller (scallop with eyelet holes) and the other was the kind of border punch that makes it look like torn out notebook paper. Just to give you an idea, here is a pic I found of the Stampin Up! punch that does kind of the same thing, only different (ha). The EK Success punch does 5 at a time; this one appears to do 2?:

I believe they are called Slimline Punches and I also saw the ones that make these designs; also saw that pretty flutterby in the Prima section (these cards are from Michaels.com, and are the only pics related to the new punches that I could find there):

I ended up putting the baby scallop punch back since I only had one coupon. There was another border punch that makes a gentle wave with little tiny dots along the edge. I hope they don’t sell out right away so I can go back and get more. I know, I know, I need border punches like I need more patterned paper. Hush now!

Okay, here’s a pic of one of the new EK Success border punches at Mike’s….a cutie pie scalloped punch posted at 2peas by Julie aka scrapping4twins. It’s fittingly called “Scalloped Scallop”:

On another rack were some new items by Prima. There was all kinds of little bling and small assortments of flowers. I thought it was all overpriced so I didn’t get any. I think everything was $3.99 and the flowers, for instance, were only 24 to a package. It was all very pretty though, so if money is no object for ya, or if you have a coupon (!), I would def. check those out.

Word on the street is that other Mike’s shoppers have seen new K&Co. embellies and paper packs (possibly Daydreams and Wildberry?), and new Sassafrass Lass stuff. I dunno about the Sass Lass stuff….I’m wondering if they think the Friendly Forest line by Colorbok is Sass Lass?? It fooled me at first because it sure looks like their style. Well, remains to be seen. If I actually DO see any Sass Lass at Mike’s, you’ll be the first to know!

Scrapbook Message Board Withdrawals

I’m starting to shake….I’ve got the DT’s….I’ve been off AMR all stinkin’ day! It’s not their fault, it’s mine. I was messing with my e-mail address in my profile and inadvertently booted myself out. Sheesh. I finally re-registered under a new but similar name and am sending vibes to Oregon for Stacey (owner of AllMomentsRemembered.com) to PLEEZ PLEEZ PLEEZ let me back in! I miss my girlie friends!

Ack.

ETA 2/16/09 in the pm: I’m back in bidness. Stacey got me back on and I didn’t even lose my post count that I’ve worked so hard for, LOL! Thanks Stacey and Gay, my Scrap Pal who communicated with Stacey for me :)

Tim Holtz – More Coming to Michaels

I just saw in an ad in the new Memory Makers that Tim Holtz “Stampers Anonymous” is coming to Michaels in March! I know there’s a lot of Timmy fans out there. HERE is a blog post from Timmy where he gives sneak peeks of Stampers Anonymous stamps to be shown at CHA 2009. Don’t know if any/all of those will be at Mike’s….twill be interesting to see. Here is my favorite set from that post, just to whet your appetite:

Yep, two of my favorite men: Mike and Timmy! Will you be stalking Mike’s in March for these pretty babies?

Scrapbooking on “Extreme Home Makeover” Again

I remember way back HERE when scrapbooking played a role in an episode of ABC’s “Extreme Home Makeover.” Well, I was watching tonight and see it was mentioned again.

Here is an article I found about the show, where I learned that Creative Memories was part of the makeover ~ how cool!

Creative Memories Joins ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
To design new home and new memories for brave family
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Local independent sales consultant Sherri Plessinger has announced that the company she represents, Creative Memories, had a hand in making the new home featured in an upcoming episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” a dream come true for Carol Girard and her four children in Voluntown, Conn.

Pinnacles of their community, the Girard family has always volunteered to help the poor, the elderly and local children by orchestrating several annual fundraisers. In August 2007, the Girards were volunteering at a fundraiser for their church when they learned a fire had completely destroyed their home. Then in June 2008, tragedy struck again when father Tom and eldest son Marc both drowned in a swimming accident. Carol and the children have lived in a tent, a pop-up camper and, finally, Carol’s mother’s home ever since.

Plessinger said Creative Memories helped design a scrapbooking themed bedroom for the family’s 15-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, who loves scrapbooking and photography. Wall displays, digital memory books, photo-safe albums and accessories were among the many products donated by the company. “I’m so glad we were able to provide Jacqueline with the tools she needs to pursue one of her favorite activities,” said Plessinger.

“It was an honor for Creative Memories to be part of this effort to bring hope to a family who has suffered such immeasurable loss,” said Creative Memories founder Rhonda Anderson. “Our hearts go out to the Girards as they begin a new life in their beautiful new home.”

The episode of the hit ABCTV show featuring the Girard family airs Sunday, February 8.

By The Fulton County News

I really enjoyed watching the show. The eldest daughter Jacqueline, when asked what she would like in her new room, mentioned photo taking, capturing memories, and scrapbooking as her main interests. After her dad died, she found his childhood scrapbooks and was really touched to learn more about him. She loved that she could see what a happy childhood he had and it meant a lot to her to capture memories of her own life. She was only 15, but with such tragedy in her life, was a very mature young lady. When they showed her finished room, it had enlarged photos of her family hanging down from strings or wires over her bed. And her desk had an open scrapbook on it, with some tools, her camera, and other scrapbooking items…a wonderful place for her to scrapbook and remember her dad. It was a great episode. After they said, “Move that bus!” my kids said, “Oh, mom, we know which room you can’t wait to see.” I love when scrapbooking makes an appearance in popular shows or movies! Did you see it?

“Splendid” and “Summer Soiree” by Fancy Pants

I just saw ^^ this ^^ in the store over at ALL MOMENTS REMEMBERED and fell in {LOVE}. Which is appropriate, considering the theme of this line is love and Valentines Day. Here’s another view of the line, although you get MORE than this in the above kit from AMR:

You can order the Splendid 12×12 paper kit {the one in the top photo} HERE.

I’m also loving this one by Fancy Pants called “Summer Soiree.” I’m hoping Stacey will be able to carry it at AMR; she is so good about getting pretty much any product you ask for. Anyway, LOVE it! The colors are so bright and fun. With all this winter, I’m looking ahead to scrapping some fun spring and summer photos with this.

This is from the Fancy Pants website:

You can see the whole line HERE.

What do you think of “Splendid” and “Summer Soiree”?

SO Cute Valentine Page Element!

I saw this the other day over on the blog for Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine. Ain’t it KEE-YUTE!

HERE is the tutorial for how to make it. Remember, if you don’t have the Bazzill scalloped heart paper (I sure don’t), you can make your own. Just cut out the heart from cardstock, then punch a bunch of circles and adhere them to the back of the heart with just the top half peeking out. Viola! Instant scalloped heart paper! What a great project for using your red and pink scraps, too. Heck, you could use this idea in so many ways….different shapes, different colors, different holidays. Like a party hat shape covered in blue, red, and yellow circles….a Christmas tree shape covered in red and green circles….it’s endless really…

What do you think of this cute idea? If you make one, please leave a link to your blog in Comments so we can all come see! If it’s okay with you, I’ll post a picture here with a link to your blog.

Movie Review: “New In Town”

I promised you HERE and I will finally deliver. I had sick kids and a surprise work assignment that kept me up until 2am….but here we go!

If you haven’t already heard, the movie that started this past Friday called “New In Town” starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick, Jr. features scrapbooking as part of the movie. I had wanted to see it anyway after seeing some previews, but when I heard there was scrapbooking involved, I had to see it! I mean, with as popular as scrapbooking has become, I can’t think of any other feature film that has included it in this way. I won’t give you the play by play of the entire movie, I’m just sharing the scrapbooking parts, LOL! So if you don’t want any SPOILERS, don’t read!!! For reference sake: Lucy (Renee Zellweger), Ted (Harry Connick, Jr.), and Blanche (Siobhan Fallon Hogan) <- she’s the scrapper.

The movie starts with a group of Minnesota ladies scrapbooking and chatting. There were four ladies around a kitchen table that was about 3×5′ so I had to laugh. For most ladies I’ve cropped with, that would barely be enough space for ONE of us, LOL! The woman who is hosting the get-together is the main scrapbooking character and is clearly "into" this hobby. When Lucy arrives in town and Blanche drives her to the home she’ll be renting, one of the first things Blanche asks Lucy is if she’s a scrapper. At first, Lucy just says "huh?" and doesn’t get the question. Later, Blanche asks her again ~ you can tell this is really important to her ~ and whips out a thick, overly embellished mini album from her purse, proceeding to show her album to Lucy while they drive. Lucy asks if she can look at it later instead. It was quite funny, I thought, poking fun at how we scrappers truly are, giving new friends the scrapper litmus test….if they are one, they must be cool. They are officially IN without having to prove another thing to us. And whipping the mini album out of her purse unprovoked. In reality, the only scrapbookers I have know to carry a full-on album of any sort in their purse are custom scrapbookers and it’s a selling tool for them. Am I alone? Do you carry a mini album in your purse?

There were a few other references to or scenes that included scrapbooking in them. For instance, Lucy comes to Blanche’s near Valentine’s Day. Blanche invites Lucy to make cards, again all seated at that tiny kitchen table with all their gear spread out. Lucy declines (she is clearly too cool for scrapbooking), then one of the ladies hands her a handmade Valentine. Lucy gives Blanche some cash for Christmas, and Blanche gives Lucy a scrapbook….it is clear to the viewer which “gift” has more value. The movie’s closing credits had a scrapbook theme, with the pages of a scrapbook turning, showing photos from throughout the movie, with embellishments and captions. I recognized some Jolee’s, K and Company, and EK Success products. Yes, it IS sad I can recognize product by manufacturer….I’ve come to peace with that.

I noticed in the credits something like “Assistant to Director/Scrapper: Lissette Rodriguez.” I was wondering who the scrapbooker was who made the actual props in the movie and whether she’d get credit…and she did. I Googled that name and can’t find anything on her, so either Lissette is a shy scrapper without a blog (gasp!), or I remembered the name wrong. If you happen to know anything about this “famous” scrapper, tell me about it, K? Even in THIS detailed cast and crew list, I can’t find the name again and there is no “scrapper” listed……sheesh, they even have the Honeywagon Driver, but no scrapper….WTH?

Overall, I liked this movie a lot. Although it does poke fun at things that are near and dear to my heart ~ scrapbooking, being a Christian, fearing job loss to corporate American greed, etc. ~ I think, in the end, the message is that Blanche and her scrapbooking, Jesus-lovin’ friends have a richer and more fulfilling life than busy, pretty, fashionably dressed Lucy. Scrapbooking is portrayed as the backdrop for friends to get together and gossip, a way for women to share and show off what they’re proud of, and a way to make touching and special gifts for those you care about. What a relief….I was expecting some more of the nastiness that seems to get thrown our way for some unknown reason by all the haters.

I was curious as to how non-scrappers in movie media would see the scrapbookers/scrapbooking in “New In Town,” so I did a little searchy werchy and here is some of what I found….

THIS review denigrates scrapbooking:

“Hold on to your toques. The romantic comedy “New in Town,” in which Renée Zellweger plays a female executive who’s transferred from the big city to small-town Minnesota, opens with a scrapbooking scene. That’s right: a group of women sit at a table pasting photographs and little bits of colored paper into elaborately decorated bound volumes. Exceedingly sensitive viewers, as well as recent patients of open-heart surgery, are advised to avoid “New in Town,” as the excitement may just be too much…And it probably is the first movie to use scrapbooking as a dramatic device. Let’s also hope it’s the last.”

THIS is a great article from Scrapbooking.About.com with an interview with Siobhan Fallon Hogan. She is very sweet and respectful of scrapbookers.

And don’t forget THIS interview on ScrapScene that I posted before.

THIS is a fair review by one of my favorite sites for checking if movie content is family friendly.

THIS review mentions “the gossipy scrapbooking female Minnesotans,” but as a criticism of the triteness of the movie plot, not in a way derogatory to scrappers.

THIS one was cute, how it made “scrap booking” into two words, LOL: “There is also a sweet, family-friendly, small-town-values undercurrent to the story, topped off by Blanche Gunderson (Siobhan Fallon Hogan). Blanche mixes tapioca pudding and scrap booking with sincere faith in action and conversations about Jesus.”

Needless to say, if you’re a scrapbooker, I think you’ll get a kick out of this movie. It’s always nice to see things you can identify with, and see them made fun of, but in a nice way. I really enjoyed the movie for this and other reasons, including a great soundtrack, and plan to watch it again when it’s released to DVD. Please watch this movie and let me know what YOU think of it….

Awesome Tutorial for Acrylic Album

Are you intimidated, like I am, to do an acrylic album? Do you STILL have that blank acrylic album in your stash that you KNOW you should make a cool project with but you just can’t bring yourself to do it? That’s sure how I feel, as I blogged about HERE.

Well, my scrappy friends, help is HERE!! Here’s a tease….

Over on the AMR MESSAGE BOARD, we are lucky enough to have a longtime member named JULIE HOWARD aka Scrappin{Jewlz}. She is on the Design Team for CLEAR SCRAPS, one of the leaders in acrylic products for scrapbooking {they now sell clear acrylic ATCs!}. One of STACEY‘s great ideas for the new year is to run a “class” or tutorial every week on the message board. The “instructor” will post their class with instructions and photos, and hang around the board all week to answer any questions you have. If you like, you can complete the project and post your results for everyone to OOH and AAH over, or you just print out the class instructions for later use. It’s totally up to you.

Even if you’re not a big message board chatter, I hope you’ll at least come check out this awesome class along with future classes and THIS cool one already posted by CHRIS HERTEL aka Chrispea about mixing patterned papers together. Here’s a tease….

Here is the link to the CLASSES AND TECHNIQUES board. There are tons of things posted that can be a great jumpstart to your creativity :)

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