It's starting to look a little like Christmas........

Before you guys blast me and tell me Halloween isn't even here yet, like my husband did, hear me out! Being in retail as many years as I have, when all the stores around you start changing out their windows, you feel the pressure to do so too. We even put out Christmas paper early this year and have already sold out, so we decided to buy more collections.

Again this year there will be the Christmas table with the Top 10 ideas from the design team, and some have already arrived to the store. We also have some ornament ideas with templates. Sherri made this banner from Maya Road acrylic house album, chipboard letters and scrolls, she also played with the applique pen. Betty brought these adorable candles in that she made using what she learned from Wendy Vecchi with grunge board. Annette totally grunged up this desk calendar/note pad set with some Graphic 45. These calendar sets will be for sale.
This is my new favorite window! I wanted something with only white, silver and brown. Two "HOT" things this year seemed to be owls and clocks, so thats what I used. My new white friend is Snow.
This was last years favorite window, I still love this window and even added some new balls!
More Christmas projects................................................

We have gotten ALOT of Christmas in.........Cosmo Cricket...................
Little Yellow Bicycle................................
CI Danielle Johnson.............................................
CI Tinsel Town....................................................................
And believe it or not, there is still alot more to come......................Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Making Memories, K&Co., Imaginise and more CI.

Remember Santa is watching you........who is naughty or nice!

A special gift for a teacher.......

This school year I have been able to help a lot more up at my son's school. I never realized how much stuff the teachers do on their own time and who many things they actually have to buy themselves for their class rooms. So I wanted to make his teacher something special to show how much we appreciate her.
The schools theme this year is "Wild about Education", "Wild about learning". So I used some cute zoo paper and the new chipboard zoo animals from Maya Road. Their zoo stamp set was made to work with the chipboard.

A little T-ball keepsake.......

Well another season of T-ball is over, this is my favorite sport to watch my son play. For over 3 years my friend Paige and I have made little keepsakes for the moms to have. Our kids have played soccer, basketball and t-ball together since they were 3 years old. This is what I came up with for the T-ball party this season.I used Simply Luxe paper, stamps from Maya Road, alpha stamps from the new Studio G $1 stamps, real simple and quick!

Some Maya Road Goodness........

I am sure you all have been looking at all the sneak peeks Maya Road has been showing, here is one of their new albums. As most of you know the convention was a little stressful, well Caroline from Maya Road sent me this album to cheer me up, and boy did it. With our new camper all I want to do is go to the Lake and scrapbook about it. Thanks Caroline for the album and all the great pep talks on balancing life.I still have a couple more pages to do, but I have had more fun doing this album, and notice all the Maya Road goodies inside. If you have not used their sheer journaling cards, you must, they make journaling fun! Also can you see Tim Holtz new metal embellishments? I added the keys to the ring and the hinges look like fish hooks.
We leave for the Lake this Wednesday, and I have already started my new album for that. I am afraid the girls at the shop think I am never coming back, but I am still around and have a lot of things in the works. Don't forget to check out the 2 classes Caroline at Maya Road will be teaching at The Crafty Scrapper August 16th, you can see them on the events page of the website. Sign up soon it is filling up fast!

4th of July project........

As Denton and I were working in the yard today, I found these firecrackers I made a couple of years ago. Have your hubby cut you some 1x6's, and 1x4's, dust off those making memories paint and foam stamps and get creative. When finished nail to a longer wood stake so it can fit down in a planter or your flower beds. Don't forget to add a little raffia and you are ready for that 4th of July party.
Denton thinks this is his flower bed, of course I am the one doing all the work. When we bought this house I put this flower bed in and filled it with all my mothers favorite perennials, she is the one who taught me all about plants and gardening. Today I added some new gray lavender and tucked some yarrow around the rocks....Nolan would kill me if he knew what I spent at the nursery today, thank heavens he doesn't know plants nor read my blog!My favorite plants are Hosta's, I cannot believe how big they have gotten this year! Next year I will have to split them, so anybody interested in some let me know. I have been eye balling this white Hosta online, but its $50 and Nolan would freak out over a plant costing $50. I shocked him with my $75 rock I bought a couple of years....he is still not over that one!

What can you embellish in your make-up drawer?

I have been so tired and busy, the last thing I thought I would have is a creative moment. But check this out, its pretty cool and can be used in so many things. I opened my make-up drawer this morning, and one of the mirrors had fallen out of the compact. I thought how cool would that be with a rubon, stamp or opaque writer. Now I am the worlds worse at cleaning my make-up drawer out, which this time is a good thing because I have lots of mirrors to play with. Can you believe I couldn't find ONE family rubon in my store, that's sad! So I stamped it and used my opaque writer, and this little embellishment cost me hardly anything!

I dare you to experiment with your make-up mirrors! Email me what you come up with and I will post on her next week, plus send one of you lucky ladies, or guys a RAK!

I have a challenge for you.........

Luxe is running a little challenge in their office. I talked to Emily from Luxe last week about our customers doing the same challenge. We are asking you to "simplify your stash". Luxe just released their new line Simply Luxe. We are challenging you to pick one of the core colors and match it to your paper stash at home and complete a layout. There will be 3 winners, each will receive a RAK from the new Simply Luxe line. Deadline for all entries is May 6th, email your entries to carolyn@thecraftyscrapper.com, then our design team will pick the winners. If you are local you can find the complete Simply Luxe collection at our store. If you are out of state you can find it HERE or call the store 972-923-3151.

Here are some matches Emily from Luxe found in her stash..............

Here are some matches Brandy at Luxe found from her stash.............

Here is a look at two of the core colors from Simply Luxe line, there are 6 papers, sticker label sheet and alpha sticker sheet to choose from in the 6 core colors.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE!

Anyone need a coaster......

This is a photo of Caroline, from Maya Road, and I when she came to visit the store. Here at the store we call her the chipboard Goddess....they have the best selection of chipboard.

This picture was taken when we were doing family night at Chick fil a!
Winter CHA 2008 when I FINALLY got to meet my scrapbook idol, Donna Downey! I really hope she doesn't think I am a stalker.
Several of us from the Crafty Scrapper spent a weekend at "Stolen Moments Inn"! This is the most awesome scrapbook retreat. And yes, I did scrapbook, I actually got 5 projects done.

A Card Caddy for Grandma......

We have taught this card caddy as a class several times, and it has always been one of the most popular classes. It also makes a great gift, even for someone who is not into scrapbook stuff. My step mom loved the one I made for an aunt at Christmas, and she kept saying "I could use that, I really like that!" So I made her this one for her birthday...unfortunately its a little late because I keep adding to it.
I sewed the top paper on every paper and even stitched the trail behind the ladybug...I love using the sewing machine on paper.
Love the Maya Road chipboard, I used it all throughout the book. My favorite are the trees, I seem to use them a lot.
If you haven't used the new stitching stuff from Bazzill, you need to try them. I used the flourish template on the April page and the paisley on the November page.


This is my favorite page, its hard to see the details. I used a Maya Road chipboard snowflake, covered it with sparkles, layered a prima paper snow flake on top and dded a clear button with a snow flake rubon on the button.

My projects from the retreat...

When I returned to the shop this week, I heard that several people didn't think I would be able to get anything done on the retreat. One even went as far to say they would be shocked if I got my glue opened....nice ladies, you had no faith in me. Well I got 5, yes 5 projects done. Here are 3 I will post the other 2 tomorrow.

This is a new Maya Road large layered book, I used the new bird stamps from Inkadinkado and added a transparency from Fancy Pants for the cover. I still need to add more to this album, but I love the pictures that Marie took.

This is a 13 page 6x6 album I made for my new nephew, or should I say his mom. There is a page for a birth picture and then a page for each month. Each page has a pull out for journaling. I used the KI Memories baby paper and lots of Maya Road chipboard, loved the new alphas Noah & Jonathan they are smaller than the others and are great for small projects.

This is my FAVORITE thing I did, I have wanted to do this for 2years. The pictures are of my husband and son both at 5years. I used Zach's life, chipboard from Maya Road, the owl is from the same set of birds from Inkadinkado which I stamped on fabric. The chipboard arrow I covered with ten Second Studio metal I had embossed. I also used the new opaque writer from Ranger...love this pen! This is all done on a 12x12 canvas so I can hang it on the wall.

Great Christmas Ideas........

Check out this magnetic board I made. I used Basic Greys Mellow papers, Fancy Pants felt cut-outs (I love this), the Love Elise Jack & Abbey chipboard letters and Maya Roads "NEW" chipboard birds. These are great to make for Christmas presents

Design Team Blog: Under Construction

The design team has their own blog. Feel free to check it out. It is still being built, but feel free to leave comments on it, or here! (it is also linked on the left)
Thanks.

Betty Did It...

...and isn't it lovely! The overall size of the back piece is 12 x 12, just to give you some perspective. The teal paper is from Luxe Designs. The front piece has a Daisy D rub on and when closed-as you can see-shows a picture of the bride carefully in place hanging from a clip and the panel with the rub on. The rings have ribbons tied off of them in the same browns and teals of the paper.


When opened, this reveals several pictures and wording. The 18 inches wide layout showcases these photos wonderfully and the use of rub ons,lace and other non paper items brings the piece together with impact! Something that does not show up well in the pictures is the sparkle of the off-white areas. They have been covered with a glaze to give an elegant effect. This will go onto the gallery on the website as well and is on display at the store.

Getting Crafty

This was a very crafty day for Annette and Me!