Fall Retreat

Hello!

Well summer has only just begun (officially that is) for us here in South Western Ontario, but we are excited to announce that our Fall Scrapbook Retreat is now sold out!!

Thank  you to everyone that booked, we are looking forward to another wonderful event!

Elaine, Anita, Eileen and Laura
xoxo

June Sketch Challenge Winner

Hi all,

I am back with another quick post for you all today, we want to thank everyone for playing along with the June sketch challenges.  We had a few new faces join us, which is wonderful!  We hope you will all come back and join us for the July challenges, which start on the 6th.

The winner for June is .......(insert drum roll) .....  Susan Martin!


Congratulations Susan, you can email me here, to find out how to claim your prize!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a scrappy day!
Laura
xoxo

Eye Candy

Hi there!

I know today is Friday, and that usually means we have a sketch to share.  But since this is the 5th Friday of the month, and given our Sketch Challenge has already drawn to a close this month I do not have a sketch to share with you.

Check back next Friday for the next sketch post and a terrific sample form Eileen.  Okay, I haven't actually seen her sample yet, but you know as well as I do that it WILL be terrific, so I am confident when I say that!

In the meantime,  I do have something pretty to share with you.....

Can you believe I harassed this poor new (again) Mom to get me a layout to share with you.  What a big meanie, eh?  Well, I am not regretting it because it is so beautiful and these photos are so incredible... it was all worth it.  (Thanks Elaine, I appreciate it!)

Go ahead leave her some love!

Thanks for visiting!
laura
xoxo

Inspiration on Thursday

Hello all!

I have a beautiful card created by Eileen to share with you today......

This card is so lovely and creative, and honestly could just as easily be a layout. 

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Tutorial Wednesday - Cookies in a Jar

Hi there!

Happy Wednesday!  I have a neat little tutorial for you today, something a little out of the box.  We will be creating an 'Oatmeal cookies in a jar' gift item.

Do you remember last week when I showed how to make this tag?  Well today we are going to take this tag and kick it up a notch.

We are starting out with the kraft top tag, and a red hounds-tooth tag which are both the same size.

Now you are going to want to print this little instruction sheet.....
 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Grease cookie sheets. In a large bowl, beat 3/4 cup

plus 1 tbsp of butter, with 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of 

vanilla until  fluffy. Stir in the contents of the jar.

Drop cookies by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart

onto the prepared  cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10

minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on cookie sheets

for 1 minute before removing to wire racks to cool

completely. 

You are going to want to cut the instructions out one size smaller than your actual tag.

This is the die that I used for my tag, but really anything will do. You can even create your own handmade tag like I demonstrated on May 30th.

 Adhere your instructions to the back of the hounds-tooth tag.

 Now glam up the front of your tag a little bit!

 And tie it onto your jar of layered cookie mix with some twine and ribbon!  Now who wouldn't want to receive this sweet gift!  (I am taking a few of these up to my trailer for when I get the urge to bake during the summer.  It will save me from having to haul up all of the ingredients separately.)

Oh, and in case you are interested, here is the recipe for the layered cookie mix (this fits a standard mason jar).

Oatmeal cookies in a jar
2 cups of oats
 2/3 cup of  all purpose flour
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
(as it says above, you will also add butter, egg and vanilla when you
 are ready to prepare the mix).

The important thing to remember is you want to layer the ingredients into the jar so that it looks nice too.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

June Colour Challenge Highlights and a Winner!

Hello all!

Happy Tuesday!


I wanted to share a few of the colour challenge entries that we had this month. 

Have a look at this sweet card from Katie....

 

And this adorable baby boy layout from Danie.....

And this pretty first birthday layout by Brenda.....

 So much talent this month!  You can see the rest of the entries by clicking here.

I am grateful to Random.org for creating a random number generator so that I do not have to choose a winner!  So without further ado, the prize winner for this month is .....

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3 

Timestamp: 2012-06-26 01:10:17 UTC

And that means Katie is our winner as she was the third entrant in the challenge!  Congratulations Katie, you can email me here to claim your prize.

  We want to send a huge thank you out to everyone that played along!   Feel free to copy and past this badge of recognition to your own blogs.....

 Please check back on July 3rd for our new colour challenge.


Thanks for playing along!
Laura
xoxo

Sketch-y Friday

Hi there!


Happy Friday to you!

I have a new sketch to share with you.

This is our fourth and last week for June's sketch challenges.

Here is a run down of the rules.  We are offering a little prize to one lucky scrapper that participates in at least 2 of this month's 4 sketches.  Just link up your creations at the bottom of each Sketch-y Friday post, all qualifying scrappers will be entered into a random draw for a prize.  Only one entry per sketch please.  You have until Thursday June 28th at midnight to participate in any of June's sketch challenges, each linkup tool will remain open until that date!  But remember, you must play along with 2 different sketches for a chance to win!  (International participants may be required to pay some shipping fees. ) Who knows, maybe we will run this challenge month after month if you love it and keep playing along!




And now have a look at Eileen's take on the sketch.....

 I love seeing how Eileen brings my sketches to life each week, and I know many or you look forward to this new edition to our weekly sketch post, as well.  Eileen rotated the sketch to better suit her portrait shaped photos.  In case you are wondering, OF COURSE you can do this!  Love the vibrant papers she chose, and the word bubbles are so fun!  These photos were taken at CHA in January - as you can see it was all business!

Hope you play along, and thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Sketch Challenge Reminder

Hi all!

Just a reminder that there is still time to play along with our sketch challenges!  We have one more sketch coming to you Friday as part of this month's challenge.  You just have to play along with at least two sketches and link up your layouts to be entered into our monthly prize draw!

Here are the sketches for this month, to date.....

Watch for the 4th sketch tomorrow.  Play along and have fun!  Upload your layouts for each week by Thursday the 28th at Midnight.  Check back Tuesday the 26th to see if you are the lucky winner!  Good luck!

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Tutorial Wednesday - DIY Polaroid

Hi there!

It's is Wednesday, or hump day as some of us say.  The perfect day to get your creative juices flowing with a little tutorial. 

I created this layout based on a sketch (you can view all of the details should you should to, on my personal blog here)......

.......It was a great sketch to work with.  It originally suggested a circular photo as the focal point, but I really have a hard time doing that.  It reminds me too much of my very early scrapbooking days that just well, make me cringe.

So I decided to do a faux Polaroid as a way of incorporating a smaller photo and keeping the scale of the sketch the same, and not having  to deal with my little phobia ;)  .

 To start off with, choose a photo that you can easily trim down to 4" x 4".

  Now cut a piece of cardstock to 4" x 4.5".  Then cut at 1/4" along the top and two sides and at the 3.75" mark at the bottom edge.

You should end up with something like this, it measures 4" x 4.5" on the outside and the top and sides measure .25" thick, and the bottom edge measures .5" thick.    

 Adding it over the top of your photo makes a cute retro inspired Polaroid!  A nice little twist on a traditional mat.  And as in the case of this photo, as well as the one I used in the layout above, it reduces some of the background 'noise' to better focus on the subject.

Hope you enjoyed this fun little tutorial!

Thanks for visiting, you know we love it when you do!
Laura
xoxo

Scrapbook and Cards Today

Hello all!

Look at this fun cover!  The summer issue of SCT will be on our shelves for this coming Saturday's crop!  Don't forget, If you cannot stay and crop with us, you can always pop in to shop!  This issue is yours free with minimum purchase!

Thanks for checking in!
Laura
xoxo

Are you cropping with us this weekend?

Hello all!

Lat call for this weekend's crop.......

ScrapMuch? Cordially Invites you to our next

ALL DAY CROP & HUGE KIT SALE

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012

8am-5pm

at the Salvation Army Church In West Brant

29 Diana Ave, Brantford

Reserve your space on line. 

Tickets are $25 + HST and include a morning snack, 

lunch and cold beverage

PLUS loot, prizes, raffles AND our on-site store!

Bring all your scrappy supplies and get ready for a day of fun.

*We will be packaging many of our current collections and selling them to you at up to 50% off the ticket price! 

We also have a large selection of designer kits! 

DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS FABULOUS SALE!

*FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS ON KITS.

Thanks for visiting!

Laura

xoxo

A Mini Reveal

Hi there!

I want to share a mini reveal with  you!  Anita and Elaine gave me a few fun new products to play around with!

Have a look:

 First off, if you do not have an Epiphany you really should grab one.  I have a few of the shape ones already and the girls gave me the button one to play with.  I love it, it really should have been my first one!  Pop dots are always a staple in my crafting kit, if you do not use them you really should, it is so much fun to add some dimension to your layout.  And these little rubon sentiments are just plain fab!  I love them, perfect for when you do not feel like stamping.  I also keep these in my craft kit, really handy for when I scrap at my trailer and I do not have all of my stamping supplies with me.

I also received, 3 awesome colours of Mr. Huey's misters and 2 really cool masks!  I was so looking forward to playing with these.  I had so much fun and I know they will also go into my crafting kit.

Here is a look at what I created......

 This card was really easy to pull together.  I wanted to keep it clean and simple to highlight the misted chevron pattern.  I simple laid the mask over a piece of white card stock cut to side and misted away.

The only trick is lifting the mask straight up after misting.  Clean up is really easy with a couple of baby wipes, or you can rinse it in your sink if you wish.  I do the baby wipe thing since they are always close by, in my craft space.

I used a rub on sentiment and popped it off the card with pop dots.  I added a little puffed heart embellie.  I shared this tutorial previously here.  I love the simple and graphic look of this card.

 Next, I played a little with the bubbles mask, spraying it in each of the three mist colours and cutting the pieces into strips to form the base of my card.  Notice the colour coordinated button!  I {heart} this!  I am looking forward to making many more of these and even using patterns.

 I added a couple of little pop dotted fish to my card face and a fun hand printed sentiment. 

 Lastly, I really wanted to add masking to a layout as this is something I haven't really done before.  I pulled a couple of photos of my little guy playing on the beach, and some coordinating papers.  I really only had these few scraps of these papers, so they were the perfect choice as I could consider my misting and masking a pattern as well.  I started out by roughly laying down my papers and pictures so that I could sort of see were I needed to add the mist.  Then I pulled everything off and masked and misted the area.  After waiting a few minutes for the mist to try I layered up all of my pictures and papers.  This was really easy, very effective and a great way to get a layout out of a few left over bits of paper.  Again, I have to say that I love the way it turned out and I will definitely be doing this again!

So, I think when you are making your next scrappy purchase you should definitely consider some mists and masks :) .

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Sketch-y Friday

Hi there!


Happy Friday to you!

I have a new sketch to share with you.

This is our third week for June's sketch challenges.  Do you remember the rules?  We are offering a little prize to one lucky scrapper that participates in at least 2 of this month's 4 sketches.  Just link up your creations at the bottom of each Sketch-y Friday post, all qualifying scrappers will be entered into a random draw for a prize.  Only one entry per sketch please.  You have until Thursday June 28th at midnight to participate in any of June's sketch challenges, each linkup tool will remain open until that date!  But remember, you must play along with 2 different sketches for a chance to win!  (International participants may be required to pay some shipping fees. ) Who knows, maybe we will run this challenge month after month if you love it and keep playing along!

And now have a look at Eileen's take on the sketch.....

 I love seeing how Eileen brings my sketches to life each week, and I know many or you look forward to this new edition to our weekly sketch post, as well.  Eileen did a great job demonstrating how to sprinkle embellishments.  She is showing off another great example of the long title, and her journaling strips are so fun!

Hope you play along, and thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

 

Inspiration On Thursday

Hi there!

It is Thursday, the end of a busy week and for those of us in South Western Ontario a week better spent inside scrapping! He he!

I have some wonderful inspiration for you today, which is why I love Thursday!

All of these layouts are from Elaine (co=owner of ScrapMuch?).....

Thanks for sharing Elaine, we really love your layouts!

If you have a layout or card that you would like to see posted here to inspire others, email your creations to me here.  Come on give it a try, I'd love to share your work on this blog! I can even help with the photo editing!


Thank you for visiting and happy scrapping!


Laura
xoxo

Tutorial Wednesday - Double Die Cutting

Hi there!

I have a really quick and easy tip for you today. 

 First you are going to position your dies like this in your Cuttlebug or other similar tool, on top of whatever paper you desire.   I am using kraft paper.

 Now run it through your machine.

 And this is what you will end up with

I have cut a second piece with out the cut out to place behind my tag and highlight the cut out.  If you were making an accent for a layout or card you would really only need to add a scrap of paper behind the cut out,  But I am using this for another project that I will be sharing with you next Wednesday.

See I told you it was easy!

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Save the Date - ScrapPink!

hello there!

I have some exciting news to share with you!  We have secured our date and venue for our 2nd Annual ScrapPink event!

This year we will hold the event on

Annual ScrapPink Fundraiser Crop 

September 29th from 8am-6pm

at THE SALVATION ARMY CHURCH

Brantford, ON

$45 +HST

includes breakfast, lunch, snacks and cold beverages, loot, prizes, raffles and on site store SCRAPMUCH?!!

Tickets will go on sale in July, please watch for details.

You can find more details on our 'Upcoming Crops' page here.

Last year you helped us raise $1500.00 towards a cure for Breast Cancer, we are hoping you will help us do it all over again this year.

Thank you for visiting.
Laura
xoxo

Sketch-y Friday

Hi there!


Happy Friday to you!

I have a new sketch to share with you.

This is our second week for June's sketch challenges.  Do you remember the rules?  We are offering a little prize to one lucky scrapper that participates in at least 2 of this month's 4 sketches.  Just link up your creations at the bottom of each Sketch-y Friday post, all qualifying scrappers will be entered into a random draw for a prize.  Only one entry per sketch please.  You have until Thursday June 28th at midnight to participate in any of June's sketch challenges, each linkup tool will remain open until that date!  But remember, you must play along with 2 different sketches for a chance to win!  (International participants may be required to pay some shipping fees. ) Who knows, maybe we will run this challenge month after month if you love it and keep playing along!

And now have a look at Eileen's take on the sketch.....

 I love seeing how Eileen brings my sketches to life each week, and I know many or you look forward to this new edition to this weekly sketch post as well.  This sketch is pretty versatile and easy to use, Eileen did a great job demonstrating how to create an embellishment cluster.  She is also genius at the long title!

Hope you play along, and thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Inspiration on Thursday

Hi there!

It's Thursday and you know that means we have some beautiful inspiration for you!

This week it is all about cards!

Adorable, right?

If you would like some of your creations to be featured here, send them to me via email.  I will even edit and size them for you!

Thanks for visiting!
Laura
xoxo

Tutorial Wednesday - Dad's Day coupon Book

Hi there!


I thought with Father's day coming that this would be a good time to craft a little something with all of those great Dad's in mind, I came up with this little coupon book.

To get started you will want to gather the following supplies.....

 1. Your pre-printed coupons (keep reading, I have attached the                         coupons that I have used, or you can create your own)
2. some patterned paper - you do not really need a lot
3. alphas
4. and about 1/3 of a sheet of card stock

 Start off by trimming your printed coupons, they will trim down nicely to about 2.75" x 5.25".  It's is impossible to tell in the photo but I added some perforations to my coupons to make them tear out of the book easily.  This is totally optional if you have a perforater.

 Then I added a tiny bit of adhesive to the top and bottom corners to the left side of the coupons.... just to help them stay tidy while doing the book binding.

 I stacked them all up on a 3.25" x 12" piece of cardstock, that had been scored along the 6" mark.  Then I punched holes through all of the layers.

 Now the fun bit.... make the outside pretty!   You can do anything you want, I kept it fairly simple.  Some bakers twine binds the book together.

A little peek at the inside.

This project is easy enough to do with your little ones, especially if you pre- cut the coupons.  It goes together quickly which is a plus for little attention spans!

And here are the coupons pages for you, should you chose to use them.....

Please don't think I am sexist because the father / son page is about fishing while the father / daughter page is about ice cream.  It's just that I created these coupons with my little guy in mind, and adding a girly page was an after thought (for you blog readers) since I do not have any girls, and going out for ice cream was something I had not mentioned yet and I didn't want to duplicate coupons for those of you that have one of each!!

Thank you for visiting!
Laura
xoxo