Santa's wish list

Don't forget to send your Santa in to shop for all the favorite scrapbookers on his list!  We've got lots of great gift ideas and if you'd like us to point him in a certain direction for you, just let us know!!  For the extra good crafters, Santa might want to consider giving the gift of an entire weekend of scrapbooking with us from January 15-17 at the beautiful French Lick Resort.  If you've never been, the resort is a treat in itself.  Built in the early 1900s, this hotel has a rich history and retains all of its glorious heritage.  Online registration begins December 10.  Check out their website here.  Hope you can join us!

We also wanted to share this Prima canvas album we created to house this year's Christmas photos.  Because it comes with both canvas and transparent page protector pages, it provides a great background to try new techniques as well as utilize lots of different textures.  The best part--sewing in the book is completely optional!

Here's a closer look at the cover detail.  To create the Santa embellishment, use a punch out circle from a Graphic 45 Christmas die cut sheet.  Adhere it to a button, then cover it with a clear page pebble.

For the title page, use letter masks to spell a holiday greeting, then spray with Glimmer Mist.  Adding buttons to dot the "I" and adhering ribbon gives it a homespun feel.

Create this cute snowman page by spraying a canvas page with Glimmer Mist.  Paint two chipboard circles with Ranger crackle paint.  Add ribbon scarf, button eyes, pearl smile and a cardstock carrot nose to make your snowman come to life!

On this page, paint the background with acrylic paint and add a cut out from Graphic 45 Christmas paper.  Use your Crop-a-dile tool to punch holes down the entire side of the canvas page.  Tie in ribbons and jingle bells to give your book a true Christmas feel.

Here's another technique to try.  Place a crocheted doily or lace over a canvas page and spray with Glimmer Mist.  The lace acts as a mask and once removed, can also be used as a lovely accent on another page.

Use buttons to create a one-of-a-kind Christmas tree:

A few more photos of the outside:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

If you're out doing your Christmas shopping this weekend, don't forget to stop in and see us!  We have lots of great sale items and Christmas inspiration ideas on display.  If your plans are to avoid the stores this weekend, here's a great weekend project for you to create.  It uses the fantastic Christmas papers from Basic Grey, along with a small album we painted pink.  This would make a great gift album, or keep it for yourself to house this year's holiday photos.

Canvas album

We've restocked the beautiful canvas albums from Prima so if you didn't get one the first time, now is your chance! These 8x8" albums feature a plain canvas cover with 5 canvas inner pages and 5 transparent page protector-like pages. This is one of those albums where you can really let your creativity go crazy! Here's one we did, and wanted to share some techniques you might like to try.

For the cover, a liquid adhesive was used to attach a crocheted doily. The flowers are some new flower sprays we just got in, also made by Prima. The larger pink Prima roses come in a package of five, and were originally white. We sprayed dark pink Glimmer Mist on a paper towel, then lightly colored the outer rose petals for a subtle look. The title was stamped directly onto fabric and a Melissa Frances key was added for a vintage look.

Here's a look at some of the inside pages.

This page used alphabet masks (cardstock letters or letter stickers would work too) that were sprayed over with alternating pink and blue Glimmer Mists. Once the letters were pulled up to reveal the white canvas, each letter outline was hand stitched. The canvas pages are actually two thicknesses of canvas stitched together with a cotton sheet between them. This allows you to stitch through a single thickness without the stitches showing on the backside.

Another technique we tried was to print the journaling and a favorite photo onto inkjet t-shirt transfer paper and iron it onto the canvas! Outlining the journaling with a permanent marker gives it a more handmade look. Then we added more Prima flowers... and you might recognize the butterflies as ones cut out of our favorite Graphic 45 papers!

The technique used on the canvas page above was to paint directly on the canvas with a Ranger Acrylic Paint Dabber. (On the Prima website, they recommend painting Artist Gesso medium on the canvas to assure the paint doesn't soak through to the other side. It works like a charm. If you want more details on Gesso, email me here.) We also used a cute section of one of our new papers from Cosmo Cricket.

The transparent page protector pages were just as much fun as the canvas ones! We tore doublesided Graphic 45 paper so it would be smaller than the page protector to allow the canvas page next to it to show through. We also decided to put goodies both inside and OUTSIDE of the page protector to give the album a textured feel. On the layout below, the paper and a swatch of lace are inside the page protector. The photo, green photo mat and the Prima flower are all attached to the outside of the vinyl page protector.

The page below features a vintage handerchief placed inside one of the page protectors. A button sewed to the top keeps the page protector closed and prevents the handkerchief from falling out. The photo is adhered to the outside of the page protector.

My personal favorite page of the album is the one below. Since this book features pictures of my mother's childhood, I sewed some found "little girl treasures" that belonged to her into the page protector. If you don't have a sewing machine, you could easily hand stitch or staple in a similar fashion. If you don't like how staples would look, they could be easily covered by gluing ribbon over the top of them. This album works wonderfully for showcasing memorabilia other than photos!

(The charm in the very center says "Forget Me Not")

Hope you'll give one of these canvas books a try! This one has a sewing/vintage theme so it features more stitching and fabric notions, but the possibilities are truly endless. We'd love to see what you create with this album. Just email us a photo and we'd love to share it on the Bloomin' Blog as an inpsiration to others!

Circle of Friends

If you're like us, one of the best things about scrapbooking is meeting new people and making friendships through our shared enjoyment of the same hobby. In honor of all the friendships in our lives, we have a Basic Grey Circle of Friends chipboard album kit available. Here are a few photos of the project... and maybe you'll recognize some familiar friendly faces! Stop in to see the completed album.

Graduation Gift Albums

Here's an idea for a quick gift album for the Graduate in your life. Albums that document the graduate's life make amazing gifts but are often very time consuming. If your special graduate has a particular hobby or interest, consider pairing photos of the hobby with life advice. Often our children's interests are great for teaching them life lessons, even if they don't realize it at the time. They will enjoy seeing photos of themselves doing something they love and you get an opportunity to share words of wisdom.

Below is an example of this type of album recently created for my nephew's high school graduation gift. I wanted to give him a keepsake that would document his love of hunting and at the same time reflect how his approach to hunting could also serve him well in his post-high school life. The life parallel's included:

• "Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty"
• "Do what you love"
• "Be Safe"
• "Aim before you shoot"
• "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
  

(To be honest, I was initially unsure of how excited an 18 year old boy would be about receiving a scrapbook. Because each page showed him doing the thing he loves, he immediately showed it to all his other teenage friends in attendance!)What are your graduate's passions? Maybe basketball, scrapbooking, 4-H, a musical instrument, restoring a car?? Consider the skills they've developed as a result of pursing it. You'll be surprised at how quickly an album like this can be made. And your graduate will love it!

Gift albums

With Mother's Day and senior graduations quickly approaching, are you in search of a special and unique gift idea? Consider creating a mini album for your loved one. Teresa Collins has released a new line of 6 x 12" album components that you can completely customize for your special someone. Simply choose a style of chipboard covers, add the specially sized page protectors, then bind your completed album with a Zutter Binder. (If you don't have a Zutter Binder, stop by our crop room and use ours--so easy and fun!) We promise you'll end up with a keepsake you may not want to part with. If you use the Teresa Collins papers, there are many journaling prompts to help you tell your family story in a way that will speak to future generations. Here's one we created. In addition to the Teresa Collins papers, we also used the beautiful vintage lines from Graphic 45 and some from Karen Russell for Creative Imaginations.