I follow a lot of other blogs...just check out the list I follow. There might be something there that interests you. I've found tons of inspiration from other blogs as well as sketches for layouts and cards. Check them out and make sure to give the bloggers feed back...we all like to hear from you!!
God Bless,
Be Creative!!
LeighAnn
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sharing my love
I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite things. The only problem I'm having is where to start. Do you want to know about my favorite scrapbook products? my favorite TV shows? my favorite anything?
First I'll sing praises to a podcast I think I've sung praises to before...but sometimes I can't help myself. You HAVE to check out Diva Craft Lounge. Diva Danielle and Rayme the Duke of Crafts are FANTASTIC!! I try to listen to them live on Wednesdays when I'm off, otherwise each and EVERY podcast is saved in my Itunes and my favorites are on my Ipod. They interview the BEST guests and they always inspire me to keep creating. PLEASE check them out and let me know what you think. Let them know what they think as well...they have a blog too
http://scrapbooksrubberstampsandcrafts.blogspot.com/
Now on to magazines. Now, I'll admit I subscribe to EVERY scrapbook magazine on the market (I think) but I do have a favorite or two. Scrapbook Ect is my favorite. To me it's a middle of the road scrapbooking magazine and would work well for the beginner or the advanced scrapbooker.
Check out their web page and all that they have on there. It's almost as good as the "paper" edition http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/ call me old fashioned...I still like paper and books. However their website has TONS of information on it and there are paper piecing templates galore on it as well as all kinds of tips.
Now on to product. Right now I'm totally into bling. So, when I'm speaking of favorites I'm not even talking name brands here, I'm just talking what I like. I ordered some awesome adhesive mini pearls from Paper Wishes (I'll talk more about Paper Wishes in a bit) that I love and I have all these little adhesive rhinestones that I think are from Doodlebug Designs. I know I dropped a name there, but with a name like Doodlebug, how can you NOT like them? Anyway, I've been buying little "jewels" here and there. I have some rhinestones from Heidi Swap too that I can't wait to use. Part of my whole favorite thing right now is bright and cheery as well. Can't tell I'm over winter can you?!! After all the gray days we've been having, I've had to do layouts like the ones I posted in my last blog. It goes back to the happy vibe thing...who doesn't need a happy vibe?!
Now I really believe in shopping at your local scrapbook store. I don't mean the "box" stores either, though they are nice. I mean your local small business scrapbook stores. However, they are closing left and right. Here in Franklin, we don't have any and the ones that are a reasonable drive away are closing faster than I can get to them. Even my very most favorite store in the whole world Scrap N Nook that was in New Berlin, WI has closed...that one brought me to tears!! Anyway, without those stores to go to I've had to find alternative ways to find my favorite products. I tend to turn to the Internet, as with gas prices and time it's much more convenient, if you know what you want, to click a button and buy it. So, my FAVORITE online store is Paper Wishes. Check them out at http://www.paperwishes.com/ . There's a lot of reasons I'm really impressed with them. For one, they carry an amazing selection of product AND my favorite part is that they do weekly webisodes showing you how to USE the amazing products. How can you not love that?! Their customer service is bar none and if you email Sara Naumann she will email you back!! After you watch a couple of webisodes you feel like friends and they really teach you some awesome things. I highly recommend you check out their templates!! I've never seen anything like them anywhere else and I own ALL of them!!
I have many more favorites, but I think I've babbled enough and given you enough web addresses to check out. I do intend, at some point to actually write a blog that gives you all the web addresses I have for videos, and so on so that you can bookmark them and check them all out.
I have so many things that inspire my creativity that I want to share with you. I think we have so much to share with each other. So make sure you share back!!
Be creative,
God bless,
LeighAnn
First I'll sing praises to a podcast I think I've sung praises to before...but sometimes I can't help myself. You HAVE to check out Diva Craft Lounge. Diva Danielle and Rayme the Duke of Crafts are FANTASTIC!! I try to listen to them live on Wednesdays when I'm off, otherwise each and EVERY podcast is saved in my Itunes and my favorites are on my Ipod. They interview the BEST guests and they always inspire me to keep creating. PLEASE check them out and let me know what you think. Let them know what they think as well...they have a blog too
http://scrapbooksrubberstampsandcrafts.blogspot.com/
Now on to magazines. Now, I'll admit I subscribe to EVERY scrapbook magazine on the market (I think) but I do have a favorite or two. Scrapbook Ect is my favorite. To me it's a middle of the road scrapbooking magazine and would work well for the beginner or the advanced scrapbooker.
Check out their web page and all that they have on there. It's almost as good as the "paper" edition http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/ call me old fashioned...I still like paper and books. However their website has TONS of information on it and there are paper piecing templates galore on it as well as all kinds of tips.
Now on to product. Right now I'm totally into bling. So, when I'm speaking of favorites I'm not even talking name brands here, I'm just talking what I like. I ordered some awesome adhesive mini pearls from Paper Wishes (I'll talk more about Paper Wishes in a bit) that I love and I have all these little adhesive rhinestones that I think are from Doodlebug Designs. I know I dropped a name there, but with a name like Doodlebug, how can you NOT like them? Anyway, I've been buying little "jewels" here and there. I have some rhinestones from Heidi Swap too that I can't wait to use. Part of my whole favorite thing right now is bright and cheery as well. Can't tell I'm over winter can you?!! After all the gray days we've been having, I've had to do layouts like the ones I posted in my last blog. It goes back to the happy vibe thing...who doesn't need a happy vibe?!
Now I really believe in shopping at your local scrapbook store. I don't mean the "box" stores either, though they are nice. I mean your local small business scrapbook stores. However, they are closing left and right. Here in Franklin, we don't have any and the ones that are a reasonable drive away are closing faster than I can get to them. Even my very most favorite store in the whole world Scrap N Nook that was in New Berlin, WI has closed...that one brought me to tears!! Anyway, without those stores to go to I've had to find alternative ways to find my favorite products. I tend to turn to the Internet, as with gas prices and time it's much more convenient, if you know what you want, to click a button and buy it. So, my FAVORITE online store is Paper Wishes. Check them out at http://www.paperwishes.com/ . There's a lot of reasons I'm really impressed with them. For one, they carry an amazing selection of product AND my favorite part is that they do weekly webisodes showing you how to USE the amazing products. How can you not love that?! Their customer service is bar none and if you email Sara Naumann she will email you back!! After you watch a couple of webisodes you feel like friends and they really teach you some awesome things. I highly recommend you check out their templates!! I've never seen anything like them anywhere else and I own ALL of them!!
I have many more favorites, but I think I've babbled enough and given you enough web addresses to check out. I do intend, at some point to actually write a blog that gives you all the web addresses I have for videos, and so on so that you can bookmark them and check them all out.
I have so many things that inspire my creativity that I want to share with you. I think we have so much to share with each other. So make sure you share back!!
Be creative,
God bless,
LeighAnn
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Just a fun layout
This is nothing extraordinary in the technique department, it was just a fun layout. I think the colors were my favorite part...I've been in a pink "phase" for quite a while now. Which, is really funny if you know me, I'm really not a girly girl at all. Anyway...the colors in the papers made me HAPPY so I like looking at the layout. Does that make any sense at all?
This part is actually the right hand side of the layout. I love the paper...and if you ask me who it's by, I've already forgotten...I'm so not a "name brand" person. SORRY!! But I do know it came in my Memory Works Express box!! Hope that helps. :) Anyway, I was just enjoying the colors and the "happy" feelings from the paper and the picture and I HAD to use this cool acrylic word from My Acrylic Albums. I colored it with Ranger Alcohol Inks (meadow.) I thought it just look cool together. And look at this picture...look at the smiles...doesn't it just make you feel good?! It does me. We need more of this in our lives...happy pictures...happy feelings...happy thoughts!!
This part is actually the right hand side of the layout. I love the paper...and if you ask me who it's by, I've already forgotten...I'm so not a "name brand" person. SORRY!! But I do know it came in my Memory Works Express box!! Hope that helps. :) Anyway, I was just enjoying the colors and the "happy" feelings from the paper and the picture and I HAD to use this cool acrylic word from My Acrylic Albums. I colored it with Ranger Alcohol Inks (meadow.) I thought it just look cool together. And look at this picture...look at the smiles...doesn't it just make you feel good?! It does me. We need more of this in our lives...happy pictures...happy feelings...happy thoughts!!
And look at these smiling faces!! This whole layout is just happy, smiley people!! Sorry, that's the lyrics from an REM song...but that's how it makes me feel!! So I hope you look at this layout and feel the same way!! Smiley and HAPPY!!!
So, go have some fun, go smile at someone and be HAPPY!!
Don't forget to be creative!!
God Bless,
LeighAnn
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Some more to show you
I showed you the Glimmer Mist layout as I thought it really had some pop. Now I want to show you what I did with a stencil from Club Scrap.
This is just a plastic stencil (if it's made from more high tech stuff than that, forgive me Tricia!!) and basically, I just laided it down on the paper, held it securely with my left hand (I'm right handed) took a make up sponge and loaded it with dye based black ink (Whispers was the name brand) and pounced it on the stencil until it covered the paper that was exposed. On the "The Great Outdoors" I hand tore the paper around the image and attached it with foam tape. On the tree image I then took the Marvy Velvet Markers and put some white here and there, kind of where it looked like it should go, and then used my heat gun to make the markers kind of puff up a bit.
All if it was quite simple. The end result I think was pretty awesome though. The papers were from Club Scrap and I can't say enough about the quality of their papers and the idea for the marker came from Michael Strong of Michael Strong stamps. (His stamps are out of this world amazing!!) Anyway, let me know what you think of this as well!!
I hope that I've inspired you to make something. Go be creative!!
God bless and show me your creativity!!
LeighAnn
A burst of creativity!
Well all 34 pages of the scrapbook is finally finished. No, I didn't have it all done by the 6th, but they were all done by the 8th (at 6:00am on the 8th!!) I basically did almost all of it in 3 days. That's crazy I know and I don't recommend that anyone do that. I should have spaced it out a bit...but it was fun all the same and thank goodness I had three days off in a row so that I could do that. I'm not going to post all of the pictures at once. I'll kind of spread it out, maybe base it on what I want to talk about or show you (show off LOL.) I'm also going to pick a photo sharing site and put them all there and post the link here so you can actually see all of them at once. You just won't get all the crafty tid-bits there that you will here.
The reason I put "a burst of creativity" as my title of this specific blog entry is because of how making all those scrapbook pages made me feel. Yes, I got tired, but I felt so energized at the same time. I look back at the pictures of the pages and I love the way I feel looking at them. Some of the are just PRETTY!! It makes me feel good that I made something pretty. Okay, that may sound funny, but it works for me!!
This is the left hand side of a two page layout...okay, yes they are all two page layouts LOL!! Anyway, these are pictures of the girls in Santa Fe NM. I loved the paper's bright and cheerful feel and guess what...it's Dollar Tree (Miss Elizabeth) paper!! The title was done with just orange paper sprayed with Glimmer Mist in Terra Cotta. I cut the letters out with my Cricut (numbers for 2004 as well) in the Storybook font. The hat was cut out with my Cricut as well, I think it's the cowboy hat from the Paperdoll Dress Up cartridge.
This is the right hand page. The plain black square is for my friend to put her journaling in. I can't give you a "great" reason for the buttons, except that I wanted some color and something to put a little division on the page. Some fun and funky I guess!!
These close ups of the title are just to show you how beautiful the Glimmer Mist is. It's not a cheap way to embellish paper for sure, but it is beautiful. It really gave the title some pop.
I tried to use things like this through out this album. I decorated and embellished with Glimmer Mist, chalk, and little things here and there. I wanted it to be special. I know that I was getting paid to do this album, but it was about four women who travelled together every year and basically their "journey" over all these years. It meant a lot to me to be entrusted to make this scrapbook. I hope the girl who is getting it enjoys reliving all the memories that pictures bring back and that Becky's journalling reminds her of!!
That's all for this entry...just think...only 32 pages to go!! Oh some entries will be mostly pictures. Some will be more wordy. Some days will have multiple postings. Please feel free to comment and give constructive criticism. I'm always looking for ways to improve!!
God bless and go be creative!!
LeighAnn
Monday, April 6, 2009
Just a few pictures
I don't have all the photos loaded on to my laptop yet, so I will have to post more later. I don't know if that's easier for you...for me to spread my creativity out :) But here are a two layouts that I've done recently and one close up of a embellishment on one of the pages.
Here is the second two page layout of Bar Harbour.
And below you can see the shell embellishment I made using a Micheal Strong stamp with stazon ink on shrink plastic. I just stamped it and shrank it and there you have it. I did two and they are on the first layout above. I think they turned out pretty well.
This is a two page layout for the album my friend hired me to create. It's of all the vacations she and her friends have gone on. It sounds like it'll be an on going thing for me...every year to update the album.
This layout is from Bar Harbour with the title being the spoof of the way the people in Maine say Bar Harbour...Baa Haba.
Here is the second two page layout of Bar Harbour.And below you can see the shell embellishment I made using a Micheal Strong stamp with stazon ink on shrink plastic. I just stamped it and shrank it and there you have it. I did two and they are on the first layout above. I think they turned out pretty well.
Well, I'm off to work on a few more layouts. I promise I'm taking pictures of each and everyone I'm finishing now. I will post them all as time permits. I'm trying to stay "crafty" as it really does make me feel better and when I feel better, life is better.
Go make something beautiful!!
God bless,
LeighAnn
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