Back to School Projects....

I love this little notebook. I saw it in my head and thank goodness I have access to the papers from 13 different paper mills with my The Paper Mill Store Design Team. So, it was very easy to find exactly what I was looking for in terms of paper. In this project I used papers from both TPMS and WorldWin Papers and then used my Bind-It-All to bind it together. I STINKIN' LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY Bind It All!!!
(go to Scrapbooks-n-Stickers if you want a great deal on the BIA! ----
tell Kim in the notes that Roxie sent ya!)

Anyway, I made this before my 2nd trip to North Carolina for my deadline.
I finished it, but wasn't about to photograph it in the sunlight before leaving because it was dark when I finished it and it was still dark when we left for the airport.

No biggie, I think.....I'll just do it in North Carolina. Well, wouldn't you know it....the thing of hairspray that I packed for Marinne's flower girl hairdo BLEW UP in my suitcase....saturating the tip of the pencil and various items in my suitcase.

OH MAN....DID THAT SUCK!!!!!!!

Thank goodness, the wedding clothes were encased in plastic!!!!!!!

So, thanks to Big Daddy and his photoshopping skills, he was able to produce a photo that is indicative of the project before it was ruined with hairspray, but in reality....
...well, it's not good. BOO! (but, Yay to BD for coming to the rescue!)


And here's a coordinating collection I did........pretty much a little bit of everything!


The layout matches the color pallet, but I actually used a photos from Logan's last day of school last year. (because that's what needed to be scrapped!!) But, the layout can easily be used for the first day of school, just by changing the title!

I used the Maya Road Sheers for the first time....What a NICE product!!!
The next project was an altered lunch sack gift bag.
What better to give a gift to your teacher in?!?


And why not bring an apple for the teacher, with a super cute tag attached
and some school supplies with pizazz?! An altered composition notebook
and an altered eraser both personalized with her name!!


The next project is a post-it-note holder. Isn't it cute?!?! I've been making these for about 8 years or so. I used to make them out of a real "chipboard" I bought at Hobby Lobby years ago, which was like a very thin wood.
I hand cut them with an exacto knife and put them together.

I used to make them for teachers gifts when Logan started Pre-K like 8 years ago.
But, I often did it at the end of the year, when I knew the teacher better and
made them using color schemes that matched the teacher's preferences.

It's a great thing to carry a notepad in your purse!

(Step-by-Steps for this project are available on TPMS DT - Paper Crazy Blog.)


And last but not least, is the super-cute pencil holder for the teachers desk.

I just had to stickle one boy and one girl....it just had to be done! :p


As a former teacher, many people do not realize exactly how many school supplies teachers buy for their own classrooms. ( I sure did when I was teaching full-time before I had kids! And I suspect that teachers are doing it more and more these days!) School budget cuts and the slow economy just make it worse these days.

So, I thought this was a great gift!! A pencil holder and dozens of pencils!

Add a little tag that says, "Help Yourself!" and it'll make any teacher happy!

It's nice to be APPRECIATED!!!!!

One really awesome thing about working for WorldWin Papers is this....being appreciated.

I knew last month that in addition to the payment I had received for my work, I had won a design team incentive for my Haunted House album. Remember this little beauty?!

Pretty awesome to win something, huh!?!

And when I got my $50 American Express Gift Cheque, the envelope contained something even better...
...a very sweet, handwritten note from Chris L., one of the managers of the company. Now THAT really means something.......

Reveal of the CHA project....

CHA was last week and because this project was lovingly created for the show, I had to wait until my DT Coordinator gave me the green light to share it on my blog. I had to wait for it to show up on The Paper Mill Store DT blog.

I really struggled at first designing my CHA project. I had been assigned a mini-album and I finally chose to do a Halloween album. So, I had this idea of using 3 pieces of chipboard to make the house "3-Dimensional" and then fill in between with cardstock pages as needed. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I was excited to try.

First, I drew some sketches on some pages from a white Marriott hotel paper pad. (do you think I travel enough or what?!?!) Once I had the 3 chipboard pieces figured out...it was time to put the plan into action. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I was like a woman obsessed. All I did was eat, sleep and dream about the haunted house mini.
(i know...it really is an illness......)

Keep in mind, this album is 100% my handiwork. Every single piece was drawn out by hand and then cut with a Fiskars craft knife. I spent a few hours cutting out that tree alone!! The entire album is made of WorldWin Papers cardstock and chipboard.
All embellishments are handmade except the few sequins that are in the book and the sequins I used to make the roof tiles. Everything else is handmade.

And 5 days and some 60-ish hours later....my mini was finished!

Let me know what you think.....

Now, I'd like to take a moment here and note a few things.

Number one, I had to take these photos in full sun before I sent the album. They are really bright and actually a bit overexposed, despite me trying to fix them in iPhoto. Any color that seem harsh, is delightful in real life.

Number two, I was betrayed by my most favorite white pen. For some reason, it was really rubbing off the cardstock. When I took these photos I had not realized it was happening. IRL it isn't as noticeable, but in the pics it looks awful. I went back an erased all these marks with my favorite adhesive remover square....and all was well again. But, I apologize for the messy looking photo. I've never seen this pen do that before, but most of the time, my layouts aren't rubbing against each other, as they do in this mini album. (and because the album was used in person as a display item for our booth....I didn't need to retake pictures that were clean.


Here are some close-ups of some of the details:


First: The pain was Black Soot Distress Paint by Ranger. Isn't that crackle paint look awesome. Tim Holtz is a genius and that's all I can say about that...... This was so fun to play with!! (and it was my first time and after one trial/error try, it was pretty easy to figure out!) And the glitter is Stickles, also by Ranger. (my favorite color ~ Black Diamond...oh, Black Diamond, I cannot live without you!!)

Ok, now here's the funny thing. See the spider hanging down off the tower? Well, he was made with the "spit ball method." You see, I wanted a 3 -D spider and I knew I didn't want to buy one, so I figured out how to make one. I tore up a bunch of WorldWin Papers Deep Heritage Black paper into little pieces. Than I ran water over them to make them stick together. I squeezed the water out and rolled them into a ball, but I didn't want to wait the time to figure out if that was going to work. So, I squirted some Sakura Crystal Lacquer into the ball and let that dry. It worked like a charm. Then I added the Stickles Magenta eyeballs to make him look a bit more sinister! (although, he still mostly just looks cute!)

(see photo above!)


Vellum and Acrylic moon, Crafty Board and Ruche tree.
(see my little owl peeking out?) Strangely enough, I had a really good time making these tombstones!!

The photo above and below both have the wonderful Elan Metallic cardstock in Obsidian. It has so much glitter in it! I LOVE IT!!!!! And it's available in so many wonderful colors! You should get some and play with it!

These gumdrop candies were so fun to make. I knew I needed a way to make 3-D candy and as you can see above, making the candy corn was easy. It took me a while, but I tried something that worked like a charm to make these wonderful gumdrops! You won't believe what they are!!!

Here's my GINORMOUS SUPPLY LIST!!!!!

WorldWin Papers / Crafty Board

WorldWin Papers / Deep Heritage Black / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Orange Dream / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Groovy Grape / ColorMates
WorldWin Papers / Deep Terrific Teal / ColorMates

WorldWin Papers / Sunshine Yellow / DoubleMates

WorldWin Papers / Black / Cascata
WorldWin Papers / Pink / Cascata

WorldWin Papers / Cocoa / Ruche

WorldWin Papers / Plum / Metallic Vellum
WorldWin Papers / Silver / Metallic Vellum

WorldWin Papers / Obsidian / Elan Metallics

WorldWin Papers / Black Stripe / High Gloss

Zutter / Bind It All Machine
Zutter / Black / 3/4" O-Rings

Sakura Hobby Craft / 3D Crystal Lacquer

Acrylic

Accucut / Circle Shape (only partially used for moon)

Ranger / Black Soot / Distress Crackle Paint

Ranger / Black Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Orange Peel / Stickles
Ranger / Aqua / Stickles
Ranger / Icicle / Stickles
Ranger / Diamond / Stickles
Ranger / Purple / Stickles
Ranger / Magenta / Stickles

Clearsnap / Black / Color Box Cat's Eye Chalk Ink

Tsukineko / Jet Black / StazOn Ink

Tsukineko / VersaMark Watermark Ink

Walmart / date stamp

Signo / White / Uni-ball Pen

Too Marker Products / Pink / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Clear / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Turquoise / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Black / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Orange / Spica Pen
Too Marker Products / Lavender / Spica Pen

Zig / Pure Black / Artist Pen

Marvy Uchida / Orange / Liquid Applique'

Therm-O-Web / Zots Mini 1/4"

GlueDots / Pop Up

GlueDots / Vellum

Stampin' Up! / Sun Sparkle / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Coral Crystals / Stampin' Glitter
Stampin' Up! / Razzle Berry / Stampin' Glitter

Marvy Uchida / Embossing Heat Tool

WesTrim / Black / 24 gauge wire

Horizon Group USA / Craft Sequins

Novtex / Magenta / Sequins

Stampin' Up! / 12" Guilliotine Trimmer

Fiskars / 12" Trimmer

Fiskars / Heavy Duty Craft Knife

Creative Memories / Self-healing Mat

Walmart / 1" foam brush

Anita's / Grey / acrylic paint

ribbons/fibers: Offray, Michaels, Wrights, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's

Scrappy Stuff....

Did you happen to see this?!


This is a beaded necklace strung of paper vellum beads that I made of WorldWin Metallic Vellum in Papaya. Isn't this so cool?!?!

If you missed it, since it was only up a day and I neglected to let you know....
click on this link (Paper Crazy Blog) to check it out, with step-by-step instructions
to make a vellum bead necklace or bracelet of your own.

We even have an awesome little slide show, so you can see each step!

If you try it out, drop me a pic of your creation so I can post it online!

CKC - Manchester, New Hampshire

I know, I know......

...it seems a bit silly to be blogging about my last "work trip" when I am currently gone on my next "work trip." But, since I have been so busy, that's exactly what I am doing!

To my delight, as I was flying into Manchester, I much enjoyed the scenery. It was beautiful, and to my surprise, I saw so much color. More like Fall, than like impending Summer. I snapped this at the airport while waiting for Tim to pick me up. Work was super busy, like always. Set up always takes longer than you wish it would, but it's just part of the gig. Really it's not too bad. It's kinda a challenge and sometimes like completing a giant 3-D puzzle. And it's exhausting.

So, we followed set-up with a bite to eat in the hotel bar and I calmed down w/ this.

A Stoli Vodka Martini. It was so fun. Fruity and it had a lighted ice cube in it!

Speaking of FUN....this is Kim's hubby, Tim. (Yep....Tim and Kim....aren't they just so cute!) Anyways, this is the first time I had met him and he is such a fantastic guy. The most fun about getting to know him was to see how much he loves my good friend (and boss) Kim. I have no doubt, he'd give her the moon! (and does!) He worships the ground she walks on....and it's just so sweet! I really enjoyed seeing them together and how they mesh together. They brought their cutie-pie daughter Jordan with them on this trip. She's such a sweetie. And, that girl can scrapbook!!! (more on this in a moment!)

Speaking of scrapbooking....I had my weekly WorldWin Papers deadline while I was gone, so on Thursday night....I created this beauty. It's WorldWin Cascata and Vellum and Zsiage patterned papers. I just loved the funky fold I came up with for this one!

Apparently, so did someone else.

Because I had the card in the booth to show it to Kim and someone STOLE IT!!!!
(I was kinda irritated at first, but have decided to take it as a compliment,
even though it's so frustrating!!)

Oh...and the funnest thing happened on Saturday! I was at my Bind-It-All demo table and a cute lady walked by. She looked familiar, but I don't know anyone up in NH. But, just as I was about to dismiss her as familiar...I saw her name badge.

Mary Frances F.

And then it hit me.....she's the owner of a scrapbooking message board I frequent...
www.scrapbookeronline.com !!

And sure enough, it was her!!!

I was so excited! I grabbed her and hugged her! I was so happy!

She was at the show teaching some classes using.....THE BIND-IT-ALL!!!!!
(and lucky for me her class was the "Ultimate Teachers' Gift" so I bought 2 of her
extra kits and took them home to put together for the boys' teachers! ----
look for pics of these in the next post!)

So, that was totally fun!

The rest of the week we were so busy. I didn't take a picture from Thursday night until Saturday. After breaking down the booth, we went to a fantastic Italian place down the street from our hotel. While we were waiting, we took some fun photos.

Jordan wanted to take some pics w/ my camera, so I let her. Here are Kim and I.
Thought this one was a really cute photo! Nice job, Jordan!!
Then, she wanted to take the "silly" pics! So, I played along....

...then, it was my turn to snap one of her! Then, I was telling Jordan about my boys saying "Peace Out Home Dog!" and teaching the saying and the silly motions that go with it to their little sister.

Jordan found this to be hilarious!

So...she took the pics of me doing it.


Peace.


Out. Home. Dog. And yes, I followed these pics with a fantastic dinner of Veal in a
sherry sauce with Asparagus. It was delicious!!!! (no wonder I came home 5lbs. heavier than when I left Kansas the week before!! Ha ha!)


All in all....it was a fantastic time.

And Jordan and I really bonded.
She shared so many of her purchases with me. (sweet little thing)

And best of all...she made me a scrapbook with the sweetest message ever! Jordan....you rock!!!! :D