Supplies Used:

• CD tin. I originally purchased mine from Shmizz on ebay. I don’t see any for sale in Shmizz’s store these days but I think perhaps these tins would work for this project too.
• The White Letter Stickers are from the “Black & White Basics” Collection by Reminisce. You’d never know it to look at them, though, since they are green! I colored them with a green sharpie marker to make them this color. LOVE the white letters because you can turn them any color you need them to be ~ sooo versatile!!
• Goin’ Bananas Patterned Paper by Reminisce
• Robyn Stripestock Patterned Paper by Reminisce
• Ashville Die Cut by Scenic Route
• Meadow Alcohol ink by Tim Holtz / Ranger Industries (I used this to color the tin.)
• Prima Flower
• Vintage orange button
• Fiskars Paper Edgers: Heartstrings & Clouds
• Green & orange Sharpie markers

This was a fun project, and it was very quick and easy ~ just the way I like projects to be. I painted the tin with Meadow alcohol ink and let it dry. While it was drying, I traced circles on the backs of the papers using my circle template that was meant to be used with the Fiskars Shape Xpress. Then I cut around the circles with the Fiskars paper edgers. I sewed the button to the Prima flower and colored the letter stickers green. Then I attached all the pieces to the tin, and traced around the letter stickers with the orange Sharpie. So simple!

Thanks for dropping by. Hope you are having a lovely and creative day.

My husband and his friends are really into mountain biking. This past August, we took a trip to Brian Head, Utah, so they could ride in a race that was taking place there. I actually took my bike along for the trip too. It was so much fun! Even though I fell off my bike a bunch of times and got totally scraped, bruised and sunburned.

Normally when I go on these trips I take a camera, but not a bike. These guys are really experienced riders, and I am not anywhere close to their level, although I do enjoy riding the trails with my husband. It’s not quite as much fun for me when he gets together with a bunch of hardcore riders and they decide to ride down really insane terrain. To that, I say, “No thanks!” I usually have more fun taking photos of them than I would attempting to ride with them. I took quite a few photos on this Utah trip~ almost 1,000 of them all together. No, I am not going to scrapbook them all. But I am picking out all my favorites to print and scrap.

It was sooooooooooooo beautiful up there in the mountains that it was hard to take a bad picture. Everywhere I looked, there was gorgeous scenery. Pretty incredible! Utah is just spectacular.

The rider shown in this scrapbook layout is my husband. For his cycling layouts, I try to keep it simple- definitely no paper lace, ribbons, or Prima Flowers. The truth is that my husband would rather just have his photos stuck in albums. He does humor me with my scrapbooking, but I try not to press my luck and go too crazy with embellishing his bike photos. Interestingly enough, I’ve found that he seems to like the layouts I’ve been doing lately with Reminisce’s Great outdoors line. The papers are really ideal for this kind of layout, much better suited than the few-and-far-between bike-themed papers that I’ve seen. I do dream about the day when someone will release a downhill mountain biking themed collection, but until then the Great Outdoors line is the next best thing.

Supplies Used To Create This Scrapbooking Layout:

• Camping Alphabet Stickers: by Reminisce, from the Great Outdoors Collection
• Wilderness Map / Trail Map patterned paper: by Reminisce, also from the Great Outdoors Collection
• The Great Outdoors Journal Stickers by Reminisce
• The strip of Camouflage patterned paper is by K & Co.
• Black Sharpie Marker
• Gray Cardstock
• Fiskars Paper Edgers ~I think this design is called “Mountains”. It seemed appropriate. This particular design is now hard to find, but you could substitute either a pair of pinking shears or a different pair of paper edgers. There are a zillion of ‘em. If you are doing a “guy” layout like this one, it’s a good idea to avoid the ones that are too froofroo, but you have quite a few choices available.

My scanner cut off the side of this layout, so I took another photo with the digital camera. Unfortunately the light isn’t so great this afternoon and so this is another not-so-stellar photo, complete with glare from the flash. *sigh* But at least you will get the idea.

My husband and I spend a lot of time at the beach. It’s one of the perks of living in California…

Supplies Used in this Scrapbook Layout:

• Shelley Stripestock Paper by Reminisce ~ It’s double-sided; I used the side that is a gorgeous red with grid pattern. The other side is a fun vibrant stripe. Love this versatile paper! I’ve used a bunch of it and am planning on getting more.
• Hula Girl Patterned Paper From the Tropical Fusion Collection by Reminisce
• The Letters in “Manhattan” were spelled out using “Winter Wonderland” Alphabet Stickers. Yes, you can count on me to always find a way to use winter themed supplies in a summer themed scrapbook layout. This ability seems to be one of my trademarks! Haha. Guess you can’t accuse me of not “thinking outside the box”, anyway…
• The “Beach” sticker is from the Surf Shop Journal Sticker Sheet by Reminisce
• A Day at the Beach Li’l Stamp Set by Inque Boutique
• Dye Ink by Rubber Stampede
• Aqua Blue Cardstock
• Blue Prismacolor Marker (Although, I am wishing I had Copic Markers!)
• Tsukineko Walnut Ink

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Hello my lovely blog readers! I am long overdue for a blog update! And I am thrilled and delighted to announce what has been keeping me so busy- I just found out a few days ago that I am going to be part of the Clear Scraps Design Team!!! YIPPEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I am so excited to be a part of this fantastic, talented team. So you guys can look forward to seeing some new clear albums and chipboard albums from me very soon! I have also been sooo busy working on new scrapbook layouts and greeting cards. Here is one of them:

Mike & I love making blender drinks with bananas, coconut milk, oranges, and other assorted fruits- whatever is on hand. Sometimes strawberries, blueberries, and limes- sometimes not. Actually I am thinking of creating a brand new mini album featuring tropical drink recipes. Perhaps that would make nice gifts for friends, plus I think that it would be a fun project!

I originally meant to include some drink recipes on this layout, but I ended up not adding them because the stamp set I wanted to use hasn’t come in yet and I got impatient to get the layout done. Which, to my way of thinking, is much better than having unfinished projects hanging around! I am so happy with the way this turned out, and I must say that it’s a lot less cluttered than it probably would have been if I’d put the recipes on as planned. At any rate, this is a memory I definitely wanted to record, because making blender drinks has been such a significant part of our lives lately. We recently got a Champion Juicer, and ever since then we have been juicing and making tropical drinks constantly.

Scrapbooking Supplies For This Layout are Mostly By Reminisce:

• The letter stickers are from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
• The “Blue Hawaii” patterned paper is also from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
• The tropical “Hula Girl” patterned paper with colorful hibiscus flowers is also from the “Tropical Fusion” collection by Reminisce.
• The Palms green shimmer paper is also by Reminisce; it is from the “Beach Party” collection.
• The yellow banana printed paper is called “Goin’ Bananas, and it is from the “Monkey Business” collection by Reminisce.
• The “Going Bananas” sticker is from the “Wild Things” journal sticker sheet by Reminisce.
• The turquoise blue / yellow / green striped patterned paper is called “Denise” and it is from the Stripestock collection by Reminisce.
• The flower is one of the “Painterly Petals” / Cavalier 2 by Prima Marketing. There is also a hydrangea petal in the center (I got that at Michael’s) and a flower-shaped epoxy and metal brad by Autumn Leaves from the Foliage collection.
• The turquoise patterned ribbon is by Basic Grey from the Romani / Gypsy collection.
• The lemon ribbon- I can’t remember who made that or where it came from, but if you have any idea, please comment because I sure would love to get more of it. Thanks!
• The green patterned ribbon is RibbonFX.

The “Tropical Fusion” collection is one of my favorites- aren’t those letter stickers in the title just the coolest thing? LOVE how colorful and creative they are! That has got to be my favorite part of the whole layout. Love those stickers! If you need some supplies to make a similar layout or project, check out this Tropical Fusion Kit for sale by a seller on ebay. I have purchased from that seller before and received great products and fantastic service, and her kit is priced very attractively.

I also wanted to show you a tropical themed card that I made a few days ago. I went on a cardmaking spree, and completed quite a few greeting cards, but I wasn’t all that happy with how most of the cards turned out. So at this point I am not sure I want to show them to you. Out of all the cards I made that day, this one is my favorite:

This is an everyday, all-purpose type greeting card that you could send anytime. It is colorful and fun, and it was very simple to make.

Supplies Used To Make This Greeting Card:

• Blue Hawaii patterned paper by Reminisce, from the Tropical Fusion collection
• The orange patterned paper is “Wave Rider” by Reminisce, from the Surf Shop collection
• The letter stickers are from the Tropical Fusion collection by Reminisce.
• The aloha sticker is from the Surf Shop collection by Reminisce.
• The Prima flower is one of the Painterly Petals from the Cavalier collection.
• The epoxy brad in the center of the flower is by Autumn leaves, from the Foliage collection
• The orange, green and blue ribbon is by RibbonFX
• Bazzill cardstock

If you make a dark-colored card like this, make sure you have a white or light colored pen or pencil so that the ink will be visible when you write on it. I love using white pens to write on dark cardstock! Check out this Milky Way White Marker by American Crafts- one perfectly chic solution for writing with white. Love it! You can also stamp your sentiment with white ink if you prefer to stamp the inside of your greeting card.

Thanks so much for dropping by, and for your interest in my work. I really appreciate it that you took a peek. Hope you found some inspiration! Please come back soon!

One of my latest projects is a book called How To Make Paper Lace. This was a book that I originally planned to publish through a traditional book publisher. However, after much frustration attempting to do that, I decided to publish the book online, for free, instead. I am really excited about it because, as a crafter, I can see so many advantages to publishing the book online. Readers can easily click through the links I provide and see immediately where they can go to get the supplies they need. Readers can also immediately see what the supplies actually cost, and have an easier time deciding whether or not it is a project they want to try. Additionally, it is super-easy to comment on any entry from the book and ask questions, get help, give suggestions for alternate techniques or easier ways to do things, etc. And of course the best advantage for readers of all- the fact that all these projects are available for free! Hopefully having these scrapbooking and card making ideas available free of charge will allow you to take more of your money and spend it on supplies.

I have been working on this idea book for well over a year now, and I am excited to say that things are coming together nicely! The entire book has not been posted online yet, but there is plenty of material there to get you started. You can click here to see the introduction to the book. If you’d rather jump right in, feel free to start by reading Chapter 1: Materials and Supplies You Will Need To Make Paper Lace. The first part of Chapter 2: How To Make Basic Paper Lace is also available. At this point Chapter 2 is not complete yet and I plan to add some updates hopefully next week. However, there is enough information there to be helpful, assuming that you get through reading the introductory material that comes before it first. I have also begun posting the free project ideas that go along with chapter 2 of the book. The greeting cards shown here in this post are just a couple of the free project ideas. There will be more posted soon.

Keep in mind that these really aren’t the “laciest” of the paper laces I have designed; these are ultra-simple and very easy to create, sacrificing some frills for simplicity. This will hopefully be helpful for the sake of getting you started if you are a complete beginner to paper crafts in general and paper cutting / paper lace in specific. As we get farther into the book, you will be able to learn how to create more complicated designs that are much “lacier”.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I sincerely appreciate your interest in my work.

I recently got a whole bunch of new scrapbooking / art supplies by American Crafts, and I have been busy using them to make all kinds of new cards and projects! I’ve been a huge fan of American Crafts ribbon for a long time- the quality is so nice compared to most of the other ribbons I have in my stash. And of course I have been using American Crafts colorful patterned papers for a long time too; they are so fun and vibrant. I just found out, though, that American Crafts is now making cardstock! Look out Bazzill…I’m already totally excited about the new AC cardstock sneak peeks I’ve seen with all the new fun colors. Can’t wait to get my hands on some! For now I’ll have to be content to play with all these other awesome supplies though. I got some patterned papers from the “Kids” line, the “Celebration II” line, the “Elegant” Line, and the “Spring & Summer” Line. Plus I got some new yummy Thickers- the Black Tie Velvet Letters! Remarks Clear stickers, Chipboard, Details Layered Embellishments, and more. I already have tons of American Crafts ribbons and markers on hand so I am set for a few more days of play time at least.

In the top photo you can see some of the stuff I’ve already made. I made a snowflake-shaped mini album, plus a couple of art trading cards that I already blogged about, plus a whole bunch of greeting cards. Check out the Clear Albums web site for more information about the mini album. I have a complete supply list posted plus instructions for how to make the mini album. Hint: The Thickers Velvet alphabet stickers are on the front cover. They are PERFECT to use with snow-y themed patterned papers. And, how funny, I used a strip from the Shortbread paper from American Crafts “Spring and Summer” patterned paper on the front cover too. Uh, make that the “Spring Summer and Winter Snowflakes” patterned paper? Haha.

The only thing in that photo that isn’t by American Crafts is the Lumiere metallic paint, which is made by Jacquard products. I used to have this but I ran out a long time ago and I have been wanting more ever since. I thought it would be really cute to use to paint spirals to match the “Celebration II” papers, so I will hopefully be working on that shortly. (My painting studio area is still a bit too smoky from the fires to use it quite yet, it still needs a lot of airing out. So I am trying to be content using spirals I already had painted.)

I have been meaning to post spiral-painting tutorials for you guys for a long time now- you all keep asking me about how to do it and I keep putting you off. Sorry about that! Well I do actually have a tutorial in the works but I have been researching better ways to do it than what I was originally writing. So that’s why there has been a delay. At any rate the tutorial is really close to being finished and I will hopefully be posting it soon. So please check back!

Some of these cards have paper lace embellishments too. Please check the Paper Lace web site for more information about the cards with paper lace and how to make them. I’ve already posted instructions and supply lists for some of them, and I will be posting more this coming week.

Last, I am going to leave you with one more photo showing various ways to use one spool of American Crafts Elements orange ribbon. There are sooo many different things you can do with it. Mine is almost gone and I think I need to buy maybe 2-3 more spools (at least) because I have more projects planned that really need it.
Supply Lists and Instructions for 2 of the art trading cards are posted here. Supply list and instructions for one of the greeting cards is posted here. The others, you will have to check back for supply lists and instructions, because I have not posted them yet.

Thanks so much for dropping by! Hope you are having a lovely and creative weekend.

I just made some new art trading cards. These are fun and bright! They also have a hint of metallic shine, which I had a hard time capturing in the photos. (Unfortunately the photos really don’t do them justice.)

I once remember a classmate telling me that “orange and green don’t match”. Hmmph. I love taking colors that “don’t match” and using them together. Orange and green…orange and blue…purple and yellow…you can make any two colors match, if you are really determined to.

Supplies Used:

Orange Ribbon: American Crafts Essentials.

Paper: Hand painted Strathmore Bristol Board.

Paints and Dyes: Lumiere Metallic Paints by Jacquard Products, and Jacquard Fiber Reactive Dyes. Yes, you read that correctly; I really did paint these papers with fiber reactive fabric dyes. I hand dye a lot of fabrics, and when I am finished dyeing fabrics then I move on to dyeing papers with fabric dye. I can’t stand the idea of pouring dyes down the drain, so I like to use them up if I can. It takes a hefty paper to withstand being dyed. Heavy weight Bristol board is one of my preferred papers for this process, but sometimes I settle for lighter weight bristol board if that is what I happen to have around at the time my dyeing spree commences.

Metal Letters: Making Memories.

The art trading card is mounted on heavy mat board.

The edges of the matboard were inked with green dye ink by Rubber Stampede.

The circle “frame” in the center was a leftover that was created by hand painting a spin art spiral on the paper using Lumiere metallic paint, then cutting the spiral out using the Fiskars Shape X-press Circle Template.I used the spiral in a completely different project, but the little “frame” shaped scrap was perfect for framing the word “art” and the ribbon.

Here’s another mixed media collage art ATC I made. This one has a multicolored spin-art spiral as the background and a hand-stamped image as the focal point. The spin art was created using shimmery metallic paints, which I attempted to show in the photos, but I really don’t know if the “shimmer” comes across well. I suspect it does not- the metallic silver looks kind of white on the computer screen. Ack. Wish you could see these in person, because on the monitor they just don’t look the same.

Supplies Used:

I used mostly the same supplies as above with a couple of additions. The stamped image is from the Retro Shapes stamp set by Inque Boutique. The Retro Shapes stamp was stamped onto yellow cardstock. There is a tiny “crystal gem” in the center of one of the flowers on the stamped image. I got the crystal in a swap and I’m not sure who manufactures it.

This is my friend Jarried. He is a massage therapist, and he is studying to be a psychologist. He was the first friend I made when I moved out to California, and he is one of the very best friends I’ve ever had in my life. I could tell you so many stories…oh it makes me laugh and cry and feel all kinds of crazy things when I look back on our adventures together. I should write a book about them, but you’d never believe half the stories anyway.

The Journaling:

The journaling says “Call us crazy, but we LOVED living on the east side.”

To someone who’s never lived in Los Angeles, the journaling might not make sense. I’m sure I will fail miserably in this attempt to sum it up briefly, but here goes. Some people in LA have this thing about “Westside” vs. “Eastside”. There are people who are devoted “westsiders” who will say things like “I never venture east of ___________”, with “______________” being something along the lines of “the 405″ or “La Brea.” or whatever.

We always thought that was pretty silly, since there is soooooooooo much interesting stuff to do and see all over Los Angeles- why restrict yourself to one tiny area of it? But to each his own!

At one point we lived in a fabulous loft in downtown LA. Loved it. We spent soooooo many days just wandering around downtown Los Angeles, seeing everything there was to see- and there was a lot to see, believe me! I took these photos of Jarried on one of those carefree days.

Materials and Supplies Used in this Scrapbook Layout:

• White Mini Graph Transparency: Hambly
• Brick Wall Hand-Screened Patterned Paper: Hambly
• “Live With Passion” Patterned Paper: Marah Johnson / Creative Imaginations
• Blue Patterned Paper: Alaska from the Dawson Collection by BasicGrey
• Background Paper: Dream Street Papers, “Antique Chic”
• Letter Stickers: Black & White Basics by Reminisce
• Winged Heart Brad: Lovestruck by Marah Johnson/ Tattoo Collection/ Creative Imaginations
• Brick Wall Paper was heavily inked with Versa Color White Ink by Tsukineko
• Edges inked with Dark Brown Colorbox Fluid Chalk by Clearsnap and Basic Black ink by Stampin’ Up!
• Marker: Black Sharpie

Thanks for dropping by!

There was a time when Mike and I used to go see bands pretty much every weekend. Mike was in a band at the time, and a lot of our friends are in bands too. We try to go out and support our friends’ bands as much as we can. There is nothing quite like seeing live music! It’s a bit harder for us now because we live in Santa Barbara and a lot of our musician friends are in LA, so we don’t get out to see them as much now as we used to. And I am completely kicking myself- hard- because I didn’t take all that many pictures at the time. ARGH! Note to self: take more pictures! Note to YOU too if you are reading this: take more pictures! And scrapbook them, or at least put them in albums. You probably take a lot of things about your life for granted now. There will come a time when your life will change, maybe even change drastically, and if you do not take pictures now you might regret it later.

So, yeah, for some reason we have pictures of us at this venue in Los Angeles called “The Garage” but we have no photos of the band at all. Go figure. Why did we not take a photo of the band? DUH! But, at least from my paper journal I was able to figure out where exactly we were and which band we saw that night. Cool. Gotta love having a journal! Gotta love having a scrapbook even more. Awhile back I wrote an article called “Why I think Scrapbooking is an Essential Hobby For Women”. I could go on at length about this topic- how much we forget over time and how important it is to keep track of your memories, especially the things you want to remember.

Materials and Supplies used in this scrapbook layout:

• Patterned Papers: Arcade “Word Play” paper by Cherry Arte, and zebra patterned paper by Reminisce
• Alphabet Stickers: White Alpha from the Black and White Basics collection by Reminisce
• Journaling Block= White Cardstock + Blue Rubber Stampede Dye Ink plus the Great Shapes Journaling Block Stamp by Inque Boutique.
• Ribbon: ??????
• Pen: Black Zig Calligraphy Marker

No, not In the Doghouse. It’s AT the Doghouse. Mike used to be in a band (he plays bass). The name of the Studio where the band rehearsed and recorded is called “The Doghouse”. At the time, I used to rent an apartment from one of Mike’s fellow band members, and the apartment was sorta up above the Doghouse, way high up the hill overlooking Ventura Blvd. You’d never know it was up there unless you had a reason to. People drive by it all day long and never even suspect that there is life up there. It’s so beautiful up there, we felt like we had our own wild overgrown secret garden. Anyway, it was the guys at the Doghouse that first introduced Mike and Me. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Mike's band practiced pretty often at the Doghouse, and then after they were finished playing, he used to come upstairs to say hi to me and hang out. Or once in awhile I would go down and watch them play. At the time I was in design school, plus working, and I was usually pretty busy with paintings and design work and research and work. Some nights I would answer the door and Mike would say "You have paint on your face!" and I would say "Yeah I just woke up on top of my painting, must have fallen asleep." Haha.

Good times, happy happy happy memories.

Note: I scanned the layout before I wrote the journaling, because the journaling is kinda personal and not something I wanted to put on the internet. Just FYI. So, if it looks a little bare in the spots the journaling ought to be, that is why!

Materials and Supplies Used in this Scrapbook Layout:

• Blue Cardstock
• Patterned Paper: Garland Green paper From the Snowglobe Line by Reminisce
• Alphabet stickers: Reminisce From the Into the Woods / The Great Outdoors Collection
• Arrow Journaling Block: Ashville Die Cuts by Scenic Route
• Other journaling block: Designed and “Manufactured” by me. I block printed it by hand using a block of my own design. I already blogged about this process at my paper lace web site, in this post.
• “Just Hangin’ Out” sticker: Creative Imaginations / Karen Russell, Narratives Collection / Honeydew.
• Spin art paintings: Amy Solovay (me!) created using Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints (which you can’t really tell they are metallic in the photo, but oh well) plus Dr. Ph. Martin’s Radiant Concentrated Individual Watercolors, and another similar product called Luma Concentrated Watercolors which I cannot find anywhere any more (if you know where to get them please comment! Thanks!), and Winsor Newton gouache paints. I hand painted all the other little collage-y bits and pieces of paper too.
• Plus an assortment of chalks and inks, including Fiber Scraps EZ tintz Tea Stain Walnut Ink (on the journaling block.)