Trisha Ladouceur's Class at Creative Escape

We had a great time in our last day at Creative Escape today. We did the last 4 of our classes, and the opener for the day was a wonderful album and memory box class taught by the truly delightful Trisha Ladouceur. The class was sponsored by Tattered Angels and we had the most fun ever getting ready for this class! 
We spent an hour spraying and misting parts of our project with the products from Tattered Angels the day before. Then today everything was nice and dry. 
We didn't have time to work on the album in class, but we got a fair amount of the memory box done and I have a picture below so you can see. There are still more embellies to go on the front ~ prima flowers, lace and bling ~ and other bits and pieces. Then more paper to go around the rest of the outside. 
 Look at that beautiful lace from Prima! Below is a pic of myself and Trisha. 
I hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did! See you all soon.  

Getting Started,,,,,

Today at the Creative Escape, we did something called the Technique Boutique ~ we went from table to table and and started on some of the projects that we will be working on for the next two days. Some needed extra time to dry, some needed extra time to learn the skills, some were just for fun. One of the coolest of the day was the prep work we did for Trish Ladouceur's class ~ it is full of Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glam. So a lot of drying time was needed for this one! Here is a pic of the work in progress.  
 Tomorrow all of this confusion will be turned into a a wonderful mini album with a keepsake box. I will try and get a pic up of it as soon as I can.
It actually RAINED here in Phoenix today, and the weather was perfect! We put the top down on the car and had a great time while shopping. I have bought so much stuff I will need an extra suitcase to get it home :) 

My Mecca ~

The Bazzill Warehouse
Oh my!! 
I was in HEAVEN!! ~ paper everywhere! I wanted to pitch a tent and move in. I LOVE Bazzill paper. It is the one I use every time - I love the visual weight of their cardstock, and I love the fact that it doesn't break when you bend it - it actually bends. So I got the chance to shop a little while I was there and I got to take a tour of the warehouse with the owner Doug Jones. 
 Is this the coolest thing you have ever seen???? 

So I am off in a little while to go to the Technique Boutique portion of Creative Escape. We are going to start doing prep work on the projects we will do tomorrow and get freebies from the sponsors of the event. See you tomorrow.  

Creative Escape 2010

I am off in the morning (6:30am to be exact) to the Creative Escape in Chandler, AZ. It is hosted by Bazzill Basics Paper and Heidi Swapp and it by far the coolest thing going :) . 
I am super excited to be attending, as some of my favorite teachers are going to be there ~ among them Teresa Collins (love her paper!) and Jessica Sprague (of Sprague Lab fame). 

So, I will be out of pocket for a couple of days. I will try and get a couple of posts in of the cool things we are doing. We will have 9 classed in all - counting the one hosted by Bazzill. So I am hoping to make and learn so new cool stuff.

See you soon! 

I am sooooo behind!!!

Argh~ I am leaving on Wednesday morning to go to the Creative Escape in Chandler, AZ. I am so looking forward to this and have been counting down the days to go. It is a great event sponsored be Bazzill and Heidi Swapp. 
~~~~BUT~~~~
I am so far behind at the moment, that I may not make it to the plane :(  
I am supposed to be doing homework for two of the classes that we are doing, and I haven't done that yet. I haven't gathered my supply list. I haven't even thought about what I am going to pack! 

~~~ARGH~~~
I may not ever catch up! 
But, of course, that is not going to stop me from scrapping. So here is a new LO of my daughter Heather on the day I took her to college. This is her good-bye to her best buddy and next door neighbor. 
 The paper and rub-ons are Creative Imaginations, the punch is EK Success, the chipboard accent is Heidi Grace, the flowers are Prima. 

I hope you have a great week. I am hoping I get some sleep between now and the time I have to leave! 

Hurricane Ike

 Back at the beginning of September 2008, a tropical storm formed off the coast of Africa, this little storm QUICKLY grew into a monster hurricane, tracking across the warm waters of the Atlantic and headed straight for Texas. Right after it hit Haiti, about a week before it made landfall in Galveston, I told my friends "that hurricane is headed straight for my child". 
Of course, nobody believed me! But sure enough, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island on September 13, 2008 in the wee hours of the morning. The school had ordered a mandatory evacuation on Wednesday. I told Heather "get your books and your laptop and get the hell out of there!" I don't think I took a steady breath between the time they called that evacuation and the time Heather made it home. 
 
A couple of weeks later we had to go and pick her things up from the dorm, since they would have to spend the rest of the semester at another campus. I just finished a small book with the photos I took of the devastation on Galveston Island. It was amazing to see these huge boats in the middle of the road!

 
I made this album from the Creative Imaginations Inspired Traveler die cut Mini Book. The title letters on he front I had a great time playing with. They are chipboard letters, which I painted with acrylic paint. While they were wet I dropped Liquid Watercolor in pearl white on them and used a brush to blend it lightly. When they were dry I applied to coats of Ranger Distress Crackle Medium. 
 
I love the effect that the watercolor gave, it mimics the ocean's waves. I also used an acrylic swirl which I stamped to further the wave look.   






Prom Night

This beautiful LO I just wrapped up to get it in on the Swirlydoos challenge over at scrapperlicious ~ the theme is "swirlys" so am I really thinking that this qualifies. This is from my daughter's SR Prom, which was in 2007 (I am not a chronological scrapper for those of you who don't know me). I saw this theme in a magazine years ago and I loved all those brads!
Let me just say, this took hours to do. I didn't really mark anything out in advance, except a light pencil line of the main "swirl". After that I just started punching holes and adding brads. I also filled in with some black dots to make the swirl look fuller. 
 I kept the rest of the page pretty simple, because I really wanted to focus on the line of brads. 
I also added a few small Prima flowers ~ because it is practically impossible for me to do anything without Primas. The paper is Fancy Pants, the cardstock is  Bazzill, the brads are a mixed up jumble of everything!

This is a look at my brad fetish - I just can't help myself, I love brads. 
I have two drawers full like this. It is all good though, I am OK with my sickness.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

My current obsession,,,,,

Is Webster's Pages' paper. And lace. And sparkly things, and whatever else they have. I am so in love with their stuff at the moment. It is so soft looking and so versatile. I am using it on all kinds of projects. I wanted to share with you the lay out I made with my oldest daughter's newborn baby picture. This is the hospital picture and it is dreadful. Truly a bad picture. She is going to hate that I put this on the web for everyone to see! 

Anyway, it REALLY needed some  dressing up, and the Lullaby Lane was just the ticket.  I love the colors and the whimsy of the line. The die cut paper used as the base is from another of their lines, but I can't remember which one :( 

The ribbons and lace are Webster's Pages, May Arts and Offray, the flowers are Prima, the ribbon flowers are from my LSS, the buttons are Basic Grey, the punch is EK Success.

Look at the sweet little bear. She is made out of polymer clay. I had a few of these cute little charms made a while back from a talented artist. I love using them on my pages.











Thanks for stopping by. Please leave me a comment with your blog, I love to know what others are up to. 

Little Girls Dreams,,,,,

The spring of 2005 to the spring of 2006 was my daughter Heather's Debutante Year. (it is a southern thing) I had a wonderful portrait that the photographer captured of her and my husband on the dance floor during her ball. It was after the formal presentation waltz, and we had all eaten dinner and this was more of a Daddy / Daughter dance. They both looked so much more comfortable than they had earlier in the evening! I have had this photo a few years now trying to decide what to do with it. I also had some rose petals and some greenery from her bouquet that I had pressed and dried that I wanted to use. I had an vintage frame that needed a new use, so I took it to the local frame shop and had new mats cut for the inside and the picture mounted. 

 The writing on this is one of my favorite quotes, although I have no idea where it came from ~ "like shimmering dust on Fairy's wings, little girls dreams are of magical things".



The papers are from Webster's Pages ~ Lullaby Lane and Life's Portrait. The flowers and ribbon are Prima. The die-cut butterfly is Tim Coffey for K&Co. The chipboard is Maya Road (I think!)  
I hope everyone is have a great end of summer! It is hotter than blazes here in Dallas. We are getting ready to do a rain dance if we don't get some soon,

My Wedding Album

Well, 22 years later I finally got around to scrapping my wedding photos. What's the hurry, right? Last year when I saw the Teresa Collins line "Crush" I knew that was what I wanted. It was perfect for me - it was SO pink! I bought the whole line and then some, plus embellies and bling. Then I collected some ribbon and some flowers. 
The hard part was the actual photos. I didn't have any! We got married in this little funky chapel in Yuma, AZ and it was pretty spur of the moment, with just a few friends and family there. So there were some snapshots, but no real portraits. So I had quite a time tracking down some photos to put IN the album! But my MIL and my oldest buddy pulled thru for me and it all wrapped up nicely. Here is the result.
The album is made from chipboard sheets that I trimmed one side off of to bind. The buttons are all from Basic Grey.
This transparency is one of my favorite pages in the album. This is my oldest daughter the morning of the wedding. Look how cute she was back then!
The flowers are all from Prima, with the exception of the crocheted ones. Those flowers I get from my good friend Sandy who is so generous to make them for me whenever I ask.
I made this page with a HUGE stamp from Tattered Angels. Then I added the pearls and some stickles for a little sparkle. Can we ever have too much sparkle?    

I don't think that Jade moved more than 2 feet from the cake table the entire afternoon. I love the embellies on this page. The stamp and buttons are Basic Grey. The ribbon is Offray. The flowers are Prima and Sandyvint .
Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope to see you again soon. I love to hop around to other blogs, please leave me a comment with your blog address in it :)

Prima Tag Album

While at CHA last week I was able to sit in on a Prima workshop with Marion Smith. It was a great time and we got pretty rowdy! We even sent a cheer over to Tim Holtz who was a doing a demo over at the Ranger booth next to us :)

We were having so much fun, that we didn't finish the album, so I just got a chance to get it done this evening. We got a whole bag full of goodies from Prima, including paper, ribbons, flowers, bling - the whole bit. This is what I made with mine.





































































































































































Of course each "page" has a tag in it, giving more room for more photos. I had a stack of photos left over from other projects from the last several months. I didn't want to throw them out, but there weren't enough to make actual pages out of. I was able to crop them down quickly and use them on this album.

All the supplies used in this project came in the class kit, except for the4 stamps, the ink, the buttons, the green ribbon and the binding coil. Oh, and the pink flowers used on the tags - those came from my stash here at the house.

Thanks for looking and please stop back by soon.
Anita 


PS - I don't know why there is all that space between the photos. Blogger is tap dancing on my last nerve tonight! It is not showing that way in the edit screen, and I have tried and tried to fix it to no avail. Sorry :(

Blog Candy at The Pixie Cottage

Over at the Pixie Cottage Michelle is giving away some great blog candy.The lucky winner will get to pick a paper pad, a punch, a stamp and 3 Copic markers. To check it out hop on over to The Pixie Cottage and take a look. Happy scrapping!

New Look, Again!

 Update:
I have redone my studio again since this post!
Please see it HERE in this post.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Anita 
************************************************


Well, I have rearranged my scrap studio again. This time I think I have finally got it the way I want it. At least I hope so, because my Dear Heart says he is not moving another piece of furniture in this room again :)

My saga began a year ago when my youngest daughter went off to her JR year of college. She moved out of the dorm and into her own apartment. Since I had to pay rent for her year round and she didn't plan on coming home for the summers anymore, I figured she didn't need her own room here at the house anymore, right? So I moved my studio from the den into her room. It is a little smaller, but it has a door. I really wanted that door. So I bought custom cabinets, and shelves and pulled out the carpet and had counters made and got everything in and I hated it. I almost never came in here. Now of course I didn't want to tell my hubby that!

So I waited a few months and then I started rearranging a few things at a time. Then a couple of months later I moved a couple of cabinets out and a different table in. Then a couple of months later I moved the counters and all the cabinets out and put different cabinets in. They were lower and I like them better. And I moved them around, and around. Finally, about 6 weeks ago, I hit the right pattern that lets me work seamlessly for hours, without having to get up and down all the time. All my things that I use the most are right within reach. My table is right in front of the window, so I can open the blinds and look out over the front garden. Peace reigns in the valley at last! Here is a look at the final (I hope) layout.
This is the table I work at. As you can see my sewing machine is close at hand. My laptop ~ and photo printer~ are right on the other side. The shelves on the right side of the room hold all my albums ~ the ones that are done, in progress and empty.
 This is my central work station. All I have to do is turn around in my chair and there is all my most used stuff. The drawer units are from IKEA and they are the best ever. The drawers hold all my embellies (except Primas), my punches, my dies, my most used stamps, all of my inks, and so much more.  I get a lot of questions about the Alex drawers - the item number on them is 401.962.41 and you can find them HERE
The shelves on the wall hold my lesser used items.

 Here is a closer look at the drawer units. The drawers are on rollers so they glide seamlessly.

 And last, but not least, is my Prima collection. I am starting a Prima Breeding Program. Some day we might run out of Prima's. If that time ever comes, I will have enough to breed them in captivity. My paper is stored in the shelf unit on this wall, so it is within easy reach of my work table as well.

 I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of my scrap studio. Please stop by tomorrow as I have been working on finishing the tag album that I started at CHA in a Prima workshop that I attended. I will be posting pic's of it tomorrow night.

Grand Canyon Adventure

My daughter and her friends went to the Grand Canyon for spring break this year. This is the mini album I made for her. The album itself is made from Bazzill cardstock. I have always found that Bazzill holds up better than any other cardstock for actually making an album.
The paper for this project was Basic Grey's Green At Heart.  I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! 
We live in Texas, and these kids are all going to school down on the coast. So they drove two days to get to the canyon. They literally drove all the way across Texas, then across New Mexico and then Arizona to get there. 
The night they got there it snowed 12 inches!
They spent three days driving around the canyon going from vantage point to vantage point. And freezing. 
 The transparencies that I used on the project are from Heidi Grace. Love them. 

OK ~ take a close look at this photo. What do you see? Did you notice that my kid is jumping up and down, about a foot from the edge of the cliff???? Really? Is this why I pay all that money for her to go to college????
The one really great shot of my kiddo from the entire trip. :) 
Seriously! Could my kid be standing any closer to the edge of the cliff? This is the last road trip she gets to take without me until she is 30. But, they made it back safe and sound, and had a great time. 

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Have a great day!