Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog

Peek-A-Boo cards with Becky Fleck!

Good morning, everyone! Becky here, your humble editor. Did you enjoy all of the sneak peeks we posted from CHA? Loads and loads of goodies to share with you in our upcoming fall issue!  We also have a fun new company to share with you tomorrow!

Today I’d like to share a couple of cards with you that use some basic embellishments in a fresh and fun way—stickers and die cuts. For the most part, both are pretty straight-forward embellishments in papercrafting, but they can do so much more besides adorn a page or card. In my sample projects, I’ve used them to create a couple of really fun peek-a-boo cards (honestly, I racked my brain trying to figure out a good name for these little guys, but the whole peek-a-boo thing sort of stuck!).

In this first card, I used a bunch of sticker words by Doodlebug Design to hold the two pieces of my card front together.

Supplies: cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); patterned paper, word stickers, pearls (Sugar & Spice by Doodlebug Design); glitter (Melissa Frances); pens (Copic); digital stamp (Pink Petticoat); adhesive (Helmar, Xyron)

In this second card, I designed it with the same principle as the first, but used a die cut mason jar to hinge the two pieces together instead. When you peek through the gap, you’ll see a bouquet of flowers in the background, which are actually on the inside of the card.

Supplies: cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); patterned paper, word stickers, pearls, glitter (Doodlebug Design); jar and label dies (Spellbinders); patterned paper (Pebbles); pens (Copic); digital stamp (Tidlyinks); adhesive (Helmar, Xyron); baby powder, soft brush

Fun, eh? Join me on Wednesday for a photographic how-to so you can make a card just like one of these! Get your stickers and die cuts ready, and I’ll see you in a couple of days! 

~ Becky Fleck

CHA Update #3!

Hello SCT friends, it's Catherine and I am back from CHA Chicago!  Despite a few travel hiccups (thank you American Airlines for that!) the team, while tired and a little weary, is armloaded with new ideas, great inspiration and some very fun memories too. 

CHA as many of you know is the trade show where we in the industry have an opportunity to look at all the product lines set to debut over the next six months in stores.  We often say it's like being a kid in a candy shop and once again this show was all that...and so much more! We got to ooohhhh and aaahhhh over some of the most beautiful products I've seen well, since the last show...lol.  We also have the opportunity to meet with the people behind the companies that bring us the amazing products and the designers that do beautiful things with the amazing products.  Time for some pictures...

New Amy Tan Sketchbook line by American Crafts and Ms. Tan herself!

New Dear Lizzy "Fifth & Frolic" by American Crafts...

We are always mesmerized by the American Crafts booth and the incredible product offerings!  There's colour, glitter, shine and more Thickers!  We also had the opportunity to chat with Amy Tan and Elizabeth Kartchner who are both the nicest girls and oh so full of talent!

We next walked into the Jenni Bowlin Designs booth and whoa...more talent!  We love Jenni's eye for design and these paper feathers were the talk of the show!

 

We absolutely LOVED this pinwheel punch designed by Jenni and produced by Fiskars.  You will want to watch your local store for these as they will be a fast sell out for sure!

One of my personal favourites from the show was "The Good Life" line from Fancy Pants Designs.  The red, yellow, blue and black in this line was a stunning combination.

We also love the versatility of the new jounaling and calendar cards.

Great new things from Heidi Swapp for the Memory File system.  Can we say brilliant?

We loved the mini poloroid frames you see in the middle section of this picture.

Color Shine!  Oh yes, new mists and new mistables!  You are going to LOVE these!!!

Last one up today is Webster's Pages.  We had the pleasure of visiting with not only our great friend Courtney Walsh here but also had the chance to meet Brandin O'Neill, the owner of Webster's Pages who is a very sweet and funny lady.  Vicki and I laughed in this booth for a long time with these ladies!

(ooops, sorry for the Starbuck's cup but it was Day 3 and a little caffeine was necessary!)

And here is a sneak of the new Best Friends line from Webster's Pages coming soon!

That's it for today friends!  I'll have a final CHA update for you tomorrow and if you are playing along with our contest HERE, I can tell you I went over on weight in my suitcase with all the products that came back with me to send to two lucky winners!

See you tomorrow!

CHA Summer Update #2

Wow!  The SCT team spent another fabulous day walking the floors of the CHA Summer trade show.  There are so many beautiful products to see and wonderful people to visit with.  Going to CHA events is like having a family reunion where you get to reconnect with people you have not seen in a while and meet all of the new people who have recently joined your family.  How lucky are we to get to experience this fun twice a year!

Would you like to see some of what we saw yesterday?  Of course you do, so let's get started.

... at Studio Calico

... at We R Memory Keepers

... Lucky 8 Punches at We R Memory Keepers

... My Mind's Eye

... Lastly here is the lovely Vicki Boutin and Claudine Hellmuth in the Ranger booth

We hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into CHA Summer 2012!

Don't forget to join in the fun with our "Celebrating our Friends and Fans Contest" running now until July 23rd.  Can you guess the manufacturer's booths that each picture was taken in? Visit the SCT website for details of the contest.

See you back here tomorrow for more CHA show floor photos!

Have a great Thursday!

CHA Summer Update #1

We are having a wonderful time walking the show floor at CHA Summer.  As always there are so many new and fun products being manufactured in this industry.  Booth after booth, the sights are amazing!

Here is some of what we saw yesterday ...

... at Jillibean Soup

and the lovely Jillibean Soup girls ...

... at BasicGrey

... at Doodlebug Designs

We hope you have enjoyed a bit of the CHA Summer show floor along with us!

Don't forget to join in the fun with our "Celebrating our Friends and Fans Contest" running now until July 23rd.  Can you guess the manufacturer's booths that each picture was taken in? Visit the SCT website for details of the contest.

See you back here tomorrow for more CHA show floor photos!

Have a great Wednesday!

Project Summer & A New Contest!!!

Hello Summer!  So happy it finally got here.  School is out and my kids are busy soaking up all there is to do in their free time.  We’ve had more of a staycation so far this year.  We are busy renovating our house so a lot of our free time has gone into home projects.  That said, there is still time for summer fun. 

My Project Summer album is coming along and I’m enjoying documenting the fun things we are doing.  I decided to only use iPhone photos for this album, as the handy camera and the fun apps make documenting the daily fun rather easy.

Some fun camera apps to check out:

Instagram

Camera + (for editing)

Snapster (some fun filters on this one)

Speaking of apps, by far the best app I’ve found for documenting our life and the things that I post via social media is called Momento.  This app tracks your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and puts it all in a calendar.  You simply scroll through to find what you said, when.  I used it when going through summer photos for my album.

On to my project

On this post I shared the cover and some drawings my girls made.  Here are a couple more pages that I’ve added in:

Obviously I kept things really simple.  A mini album should be simple.  I also didn’t want it to be lumpy at all, and since I am a girl who likes texture, that made it a bit difficult.  I did add title work cut with my Silhouette and some minimal stamping (I love the idea of a Geotag for this summer album!), and I tried to let my stitching be the bulk of the texture and use the photos and journaling as the focus.

I am loving this little album, and I’ve noticed that a few manufacturers have embraced the idea of scrapbooking smaller albums with added convenience, including Simple Stories Sn@p album concept and the Handbook line from Studio Calico.  I can’t wait to hear more about their CHA summer releases!

I hope you are playing a long and are documenting your life in a different way this summer.  See you next post!

~ Davinie

 

Thanks Davinie for sharing more of your Project Summer album!  I always love to create summer keepsakes for my kids to flip through once they have returned to school in the fall :)

Now, on to the BIG news of the day .... drum roll please ... While the SCT team is away at CHA, we are going to do what we do best ... THROW A PARTY!!!!  Beginning today, we will be hosting a "Celebrating our Friends and Fans Contest!"

I bet you are all wondering how this contest will work and what the prize will be?  Here are the details:

Starting July 17th and running until Friday, July 20th, I will be posting photographs to both the SCT website and facebook .  There will be 13 photographs in total.  The photographs will be taken from the CHA show floor and will feature various manufacturer booths.  Your job if you choose to accept the challenge is to guess the 13 different manufacturer booths that are showcased in the photographs.

There will be two grand prizes for this contest.  Both grand prizes will be mystery boxes full of brand new CHA just released product!!!

To enter to win, you can do one (or both) of the following: 

1. After all 13 photographs have been posted to the website, send a list of the 13 manufacturers showcased in the photographs to jen@scrapbookandcards.com.  A winner will be chosen randomly from all entries that include the 13 correct manufacturer's names.
2. Post a comment on all 13 photographs shared on the SCT facebook page with which manufacturer you think is showcased in the photograph.  You must enter a correct guess on all 13 photographs to be entered to win.  The winner from facebook will be the first person to correctly send an email to jen@scrapbookandcards.com with the 13 correct manufacturer's names who has also commented on all 13 photographs on the SCT Facebook page.

If you have any questions about the "Celebrating our Friends and Fans Contest!" just let me know ... jen@scrapbookandcards.com!

Good luck and have fun!  I will start posting the photographs later today!

~ Jen

Let's Get Organized ... And ... July Colour Suite!

Good Morning SCT Friends!

As scrapbookers we are always collecting!  We collect photographs, pieces of memorablia and most often lots and lots of products for scrapbooking.  At the magazine, we are often asked for ideas on how to organize all of these products without having to spend too much money.

Today we share with you organizational ideas from Jeanette Smith, one of our readers. Jeanette has created a very functional craft room.

To create a desk Jeanette used a sheet of MDF, trimmed the front edge with baseboard and supported the two ends with shelving which she uses to hold larger items.  Above her desk, she has homemade wooden boxes with removable shelves for her 12x12 papers. 

For easy viewing and storage of her stickers and rubons, Jeanette hung up an old curtain rod with a bunch of pinch clips so she can quickly grab and return her items when finished with them.

For other items, Jeanette hung a piece of pegboard.  Using different sized hooks, brackets and baskets, she is able to hang rulers, stamps, scissors, etc. and even organize her embossing powders while keeping them out of the way but still being able to reach them for ease of use.

Jeanette has other wonderful storage ideas that you can see on her blog here.   Thank you Jeanette for sharing your organizational tips!

Today is also the July release of Colour Suite!  This month Sarah Webb took on the Colour Suite challenge while Summer Fullerton has taken a much needed vacation. Here are this month's colours and Sarah's take on the challenge. 

Thank you Sarah!  For some amazing colour inspiration, visit the SCT website to see a years worth of  Colour Suite challenges and more!  

Most of the team is now enroute to Chicago for CHA, the Craft & Hobby Association conference and trade show.  While they are gone, we are going to have some fun!  We recently hosted a party on Facebook to celebrate 12,000+ fans.  During this celebration, we had such an amazing outpouring of love that we actually hit and then quickly passed 13,000+ Facebook fans!  So, while the SCT team is away, we are going to do what we do best ... THROW A PARTY!!!! 

Beginning tomorrow, July 17th, we will be hosting a "Celebrating our Friends and Fans Contest!"  I will see you all back here tomorrow to share the details of this sure to be BLAST event!!!

Have a fabulous Monday!

~ Jen