pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Such a beautiful day that we took our work and reading outside to pretend these were our own personal fields of tulips.

And once I had to come inside, I could spend a few minutes away from that work and pretend it was still sunny. Love how these templates work—super quick to just paste in papers and click to make clipping masks. I used the Old Boris papers, which I am loving this week!

xlovesx

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I promise I am being kinder to stamps today. This little card highlights today’s featured stamp on the Banana Frog Blog.

Planning to relish this weekend as I’m starting a new little adventure on Monday. More about that later. Hope your weekend is a happy one!

xlovesx

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This is a first for me. I’ve officially killed a rubber stamp. It’s passed on. It is no more. Its stamping abilities cease to be. This, I do declare, is now an ex-stamp! (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it.)

Or at the very least, it has cracked, dried and worn away after many, many years of well-meant abuse.

I think this was probably the first background stamp I ever purchased—those big background stamps always seemed so expensive so I never thought I could spent so much money on one design. It’s a scribbled handwriting that actually says nothing designed by A Stamp in the Hand and I started using it as soon as I found it. Thing is, it went with everything since it said nothing! So I used it for everything. Every imaginable theme for every imaginable scrapbook page! So I stamped it with every colour of plain old dye ink I could find. Then every colour of pigment ink I could find. Then I decided it needed to be embossed, so it was slathered with rather liberal amounts of Versamark ink. And possibly I forgot to clean off the Versamark ink a few too many times so eventually the Versamark sticky finish became a new feature of the stamp itself. Not to worry—surely stamping with bleach would remove the Versamark? Turns out no, but this stamp did look pretty fabulous stamped with bleach, so not a total loss.

Well, once the surface was sticky it seemed like I had no excuse to even try to keep it pristine. So I dunked it in acrylic paint. Stamped it into ultra-thick embossing powder. And beeswax. And silver clay.

And of course if I loved this stamp so much, I had to share my love for it with others, so I used it in apromixately a gazillion scrapbook class projects over the years. Usually when I use stamps in a class, I have a class set of at least a few to share, but not this one: just one single stamp to be passed around the room. So friends and total strangers used it too, with every kind of ink and paint and whatever else they could throw it out.

Somewhere along the line I grew to love a second background stamp bought from a tiny little company that only sold unmounted red rubber stamps. Of course I could have mounted it on its own block but clearly that was too much trouble and would take up too much space. Instead I used photo splits to stick it to the wooden side of the first stamp. Professional stamp mounting, that. And then I could carry my two favourite stamps in barely any space. So now both sides of the wood could become equally engrained with a muddy spectrum of inks and paints and well, no one would try to steal this item if I left my crop gear unattended.

So while many of my rubber stamps give me pangs of guilt for the sheer neglect they receive—used a few times then practically forgotten—this stamp has now been pressed past its life. I’ve actually stamped it so much that the raised surface is no longer raised and if I try to ink it, nothing sticks. Instead, this stamp just sits there reminding me that I used and abused it beyond belief. I mean, I practically had to nail it to the table just to take the picture.

Google has just told me they still make this stamp. Jury is out on whether I will succumb to another eight years of scribbled nothingness. For now, I’ll wear this stamp like a badge of honour, I think.

xlovesx

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A new garden of scrapbook pages bloomed today, filled with Easter pages and stamping projects.

I’m particularly loving:
Tia stamping with her son’s foot
Kelly making gathered paper ribbon with a border punch
Robyn making everything beautiful in yellow
and Chelsea making dreamy digital pages that look like something that belongs in the library.

See those and more here!

xlovesx

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Loving a very chilled four day weekend. Quiet and creative here—we both have a couple projects that we’re working on, so we are quiet for quite some time, followed by a buzz of swapping ideas back and forth, followed by the quiet of trying out those ideas. Nice to have a little extra time to feed that creativity!

It turns out a weekend like this is perfect for making macarons, since they take so many steps, with waiting built in between pretty much every one. We made a vanilla bean batch following this recipe and they came out better than I could have imagined, since macarons have such a reputation for being tricky little things. Then we got a bit brave and tweaked the recipe to include cocoa powder, chocolate ganache and morello cherry jam. That batch wasn’t as perfect but I don’t think we’ll have any trouble polishing them off.

I could see these easily becoming something of a weekend tradition, but I’m not sure how our waistlines might react! So maybe just a special treat for lovely long weekends like this.

Hope your Easter is a happy one!

xlovesx

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It’s amazing how a few days sans the electric internets can throw the normal workflow. I obsessively like to keep my inbox under control. Let’s just say that is something I am still working on right now! But at least the number is now at three digits, which means possibly I will reach the magic zero soon, with everything replied to, filed appropriately, bills paid, work up to date and then I will feel positively amazing. For a few minutes.

But don’t get me wrong—email actually makes me immensely happy most days! And lately I’ve had a few of my favourite discussions—talking to beginner scrapbookers! Recently it’s been about their first few purchases, and giving a bit of advice for those investment buys. I think we’ve all been there in a crafty store: it looks fabulous, there are ideas in your mind, but the real question when you look at that price ticket is: Is this really worth it? and for me, ‘worth it’ means will I continue to use it once the initial wonder has disappeared. I can certainly speak from experience as there are some tools that I still use regularly – even daily – ten years after the original purchase. And there are a few that didn’t last a week in my good graces. So although everyone has their own favourites, I definitely have a few things I just can’t live without, and that’s something I love discussing with crafty girls just starting out in this crazy scrapping world. So perhaps I should make that list public, eh?

Although the list is just ten things, it turns out that my notes on ten things can become quite the lengthy post, so
click here to read the full post—my list of can’t-live-without scrapbooking supplies and contribute your own personal list of ten or so crafty goodies you never want to let go!

Have a fabulous weekend!

xlovesx

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Right then: back to work! Today’s to-do list seems pretty never-ending, but it ranged from the completely dire ‘clean the refrigerator’ to ‘finish final details for Scrapping Angels class’. Can you guess which I haven’t actually done yet?

The Scrapping Angels retreat is the 25th and 26th of April at Wyboston Lakes, and you can book in for the full weekend or just one day. All the details are here.

If you’re coming to my class, we’ll be making a 12×12 layout in teal, pink and green. The kit includes American Crafts Thickers, Craft Fair patterned paper, one of my all-time favourite ribbons, some giant and fabulous monograms and the pinkest, sparkliest brads I could find. Plus we’ll be using the new ‘It’s All About…’ stamps from Banana Frog. And if you’re already packing your crop tote for the retreat (or at least thinking about it), you will need:
1 landscape (horizontal) 4×6 inch photograph of something very happy
scissors
trimmer
adhesive
black pen
black ink pad
acrylic block
paper piercer
Optional:
pale pink ink pad
alcohol ink applicator (we won’t be using alcohol ink, but I also love this tool for blending regular stamping inks)
3 to 8 lines of journaling on white cardstock, no wider than four inches (if you’re happy to handwrite, you can do this in class with no problem. if you prefer to use a typewriter or your computer, write it before class and leave plenty of space between each line so we can cut it into strips.)

That should be everything! If you have any questions, just let me know. I’d love to see you there!

xlovesx

ETA: Looks like this class is now sold out – thank you so much! If there are any extra kits after the event, I will let you know…no promises though!

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A totally fabulous Monday with beautiful weather and nothing on the agenda but walking around with scrapbooking wonder women Sande Krieger and Rhonna Farrer. We may or may not have done things that included shopping, eating and taking pictures. I am sworn to secrecy.

I will tell you that if you ever need to travel to a place where you feel you will be robbed, take Sande with you. These two lovelies helped me trek back to the train station with all my luggage on the Metro and a not-so-lovely character tried to empty Sande’s handbag, but Sande kept her cool, shouted at the would-be thief and got her off our train carriage. Sande = brilliant.

Now…to try to find a way back into the normal day to day! Actually looking forward to staying in England for a while…until June.

xlovesx

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