Attention - this is NOT an April Fool's Joke!! 15% off all orders through Easter!

Ladies, if you've been looking for a great scrapbooking deal, I have one for you!  I am holding a 15% off sale through April 4 on any CTMH orders placed*!   This is just my little way of saying "Thank You" to all my wonderful customers, and to help you get stocked up on some great supplies.

All you need to do to order is send me an email at bonnie.k.padgett@gmail.com with your list and the Coupon Code EASTER in the subject line by the end of the day April 4 (that's this Sunday!).  I accept cash, check, and Paypal.

Click here to check out the Spring Idea Book and jot down the item numbers of your favorites!

May I recommend a few of my top picks?
 - This paper is so Spring-y and fun, I just love it!  It's every little girl's fantasy come true!

Daydream Level 1 Kit, page 25, $9.95 $8.45, #X7108A

And these stamps are a great compliment to this whimsical paper...

Stamp Kit "Thoughts of You", page 44, $22.95 $19.50, #D1255

Just in time for Easter is this great Stamp Kit, one of a new series that will cover every month of the year -

 

Stamp Kit "In The Month of April", page 79, $18.95  $16.10, #C1405

The elegance of this paper makes a perfect compliment for almost any page, and I love timeless combination of ivory and black!

Silhouette Level 2 Paper Pack, page 27, $12.95 $11.00,  # X7090B

This adorable Ricrac set adds flair to any page, and works great for funky framing around your photos!

Ricrac Collection, page 90, $9.95 $8.45, #Z1052

And, saving the best for last, CTMH's utterly wonderful Reflections book, which has step-by-step instructions for creating over 100 12x12 layouts.  It's got great product tips and techniques, blueprints (including cut sizes), examples and more.  If you love using sketches to get those creative juices flowing, you are going to LOVE this book!  And, with my Spring sale, this is the best time to buy!

Reflections Scrapbook program, page 6, $21.95 $18.65, #9031

Don't forget - this limited time sale ends this Sunday April 4, so make sure to place your order right away, and as always, don't hesitate to call or email with any questions.  Also, all your purchases will go towards your Stamp of the Month discount*, so you can rack up even more savings!



*This 15% offer does not include Stamp of the Month, Discontinued, Constant Campaign, Personalized or Sale-Priced items.  Stamp of the Month is regular price with discounts for applicable $25, $50, $75, or $100 product purchases. If you have any questions about this sale, please contact Bonnie Padgett.

Adding Some SHINE to your Titles

I recently did a page about Hayden's love of bath time, and since the topic centers around being in the tub and in the water, I thought it would be neat to have some shiny, epoxy letters for my title, to give it a 'wet' look.   Unfortunately, in all my stash, I didn't have any stickers or chipboard letters that fit the bill, so in typical fashion, I decided to make my own!  Here's a quick walk-through of how I did it, that shows you with a few minutes of your time, and a little creativity, you can get just the look you want!

First, I started by cutting my title, "Bath Time", out on my Cricut.  If you don't have a Cricut, you can also use plan, flat letter stickers, other die-cut letters, or chipboard alphabets to spell out your title.

Next, to ensure the letters stayed put easily while I worked, I zipped them through my Xyron, which also turned them into stickers for easy adhesion later!  After rubbing the letters well, I peeled the front sheet off, leaving the letters adhered to the Xyron backing.  If you're braver than me, you can go ahead and attach them to your layout, then follow the remaining steps, but I always like to have the option of a re-do before I stick everything down to my page!  Call me chicken!

Then, I got out my Liquid Glass.  If you haven't seen this stuff, it's amazing.  It's a CTMH product (which means you can get it from your local consultant...ahem.), and it makes adding some shine and texture to almost anything a quick and easy process!

When using Liquid Glass, I typically outline whatever I'm covering, to create a dam to capture the rest of the LG as I fill in the shape.  These letters were pretty thin, so one thick line of LG covered it just about everywhere. 

Once you cover the object, let it dry flat for about 15 minutes (or a little longer if you covered a large space).  I used that time to finish sticking down all the photos and embellishments on the rest of the pages, and work on my journaling.  Once a multi-tasker, always a multi-tasker! :)  

Test a corner of your object with a fingernail to check to see if it's fully dry before moving, and then you're free to add your title to your finished page!

It creates a nice dimension to your letters, and a great shine that helps bring your pages to life.

I love LG because it is great on so many projects!  One year, for my Christmas cards, I used it to make my stamped candy canes and tree ornaments sparkle, and it's wonderful for covering the tops of buttons or other embellishments to give them an epoxy-ed look. 

Here's another quick idea -

Do you love the look of glitter letters or embellishments, but hate the mess they leave on your albums and pages (and hands, and face, and hair, and carpet, and...)  Next time you glue some glitter to your pages, cover the object with a top coat of Liquid Glass.  You'll get all the razzle-dazzle without any of the frizzle-frazzle (yes, I made that up.  Don't laugh).

Another thing I love about LG is that it's so fast and easy to use!   And of course, it's a money saver!  For only a few dollars, you get a whole bottle of LG, and you can cut your own letters for a fraction of the price of designer stickers.

I'm sure you all have great ideas on where you can add a little 'pop' to your pages!  Please comment and let us know your thoughts - I'm sure we'd all love to add some more tricks to our scrappin' games too!

Crafty Cards on the Cheap

Since crafting on a budget is such an important topic these days, I thought I'd stick with the theme on this post too, and show you how I get the most out of my supplies.

First, I started with some clearance rack cards. These were great - they were in beautiful, bold colors - pink, green and purple, and came with matching envelopes, and the best part was, they were marked down less than $2 for a pack of 12 (and these are standard size, too!).  The key to these is that I didn't find them at a scrapbook store - I found them at my local Target in the card aisle when I was doing some last minute Hallmark shopping.  I scooped up a bunch of them, even though emblazoned across the front of each was a big "THANK YOU", knowing I could put those to good use for a variety of occasions.

Fast forward to today.  I wanted to make a card for my sister's birthday, and I wanted it to be something special and personal.  I only had a short amount of time to do it in, so I started with the basics.  I grabbed:

• A pack of the Thank You cards
• My scrap paper folder (don't have one? You need one... read below to find out more!)
• My 'occasions' caddy of stamps (I keep my stamps organized by theme, so they're easy to grab when I need them)
• My new paper flowers, also made from scraps
• and, finally, My mixed alphabet bag (read below for more on this, too).

I made the card quickly, using a scrap of paper to cover the card's printed message, using my stamps to mark the sentiment, most of her name, and to add the 'stitched' detail across the bottom.  I used a left over cardstock letter to accent her initial, and put some pop dots on the paper flower, and voila!  I was done in just a few minutes.  And, the best part - no new products were used!

Next time you start a card project, look around you for the items you've been wanting to use in your scrapping or cardmaking, and just can't seem to find a home for.  Try sorting items by like colors or patterns, and you may find a whole new life for those product misfits!

Now, back to a few of my notes above:

Scraps Folder
For all pieces of paper that are at least 12" long, OR 6" wide, I store them in a paper sorter (can find at your local scrapbook store, much like an expanding photo keeper, only larger.  Or, you could use a standard office expanding folder).  I use the dividers to sort the papers by style and color, so that they're easy to find and use for my next project.   This is the folder I looked to when making my paper flowers last week, and it's where I go for cards, scrapbook pages, tags, and other accents and embellishment uses.  I find I'm more likely to use them when they are neat and sorted than when I have them tucked here and there amongst my piles of paper, virtually lost among the stacks.

Mixed Alphabet Bag
I keep a freezer size ziploc bag full of my misfit, leftover and partial alphabet collections.  When an alphabet reaches a point that it's no longer complete enough to be useful, I tuck the leftover in here.  I keep my chipboard letters, stickers, rub-ons, die cuts and more in here.  They are great for accents like what I used on this card, to start titles in scrapbooks, or for a whimsical page, they're great for the entire title or journal, to give it a hodge-podge feel.  Just another way to stretch every last dollar out of those scrapping supplies!

Have a good week, and Happy Scrappin'!

Oh, and PS - Completely off the subject, but I got a new scrapping desk at auction this weekend (again, another bargain buy!) and I'm in love! It's cozy, and girly, and holds all my basics, and because it's a rolltop, it fits in well enough with our living room decor, I can work right there while my daughter Hayden plays!  This is going to help me get so much more accomplished!  I am having almost as much fun arranging it as I will scrapping at it!

Homemade Embellishments

As much as I love and drool over the beautiful embellishments that you can find in the stores these days, there is something about the homemade variety that I will always adore.  Perhaps it's because it goes right to the heart of scrapping, for me, cataloging the times and essence of our lives. 

My latest addiction is clothing tags.  With a baby girl around, you can imagine the gorgeous styles, names and prints that accompany her beautiful little clothes.  They make wonderful embellishments, tags, fodder for titles, and more.  Even cuter are the woven tags in the back of her little outfits.  I lucked up on a lot of yard-sale clothes, which I try to keep intact, but every once in a while, a particularly rowdy dinner or overfull diaper renders the outfit unwearable for future users.   From those, I love snagging the beautiful tags for page embellishments.  Just look at the colors and patterns! 

Beach towels are another great place to steal tags from and not worry about losing the size information, FYI!

Anothe hobby I've started is collecting bottle caps.  My hubs loves Stewart's Orange Soda, and we occasionally buy Jones Soda, and I love saving the caps from all those drinks for my scrapping endeavors. After cleaning them thoroughly, I like to paint them, or cover the tops with chipboard or paper, and put a Pop-Dot behind them for a chunky embellishment on my page.  Sometimes, If I don't need that much height, I will take my crafting hammer and flatten the outer flanges, which creates a new look and still brings dimension to my pages.

These are great for adding the date to a page, to stamp or mount the first letter of a title, to use as bubbles or balloons, wheels or balls, depending on the theme of your page.  They're a wonderful place to mount flowers, or to use as the center of a large flower.  The possibilities are endless!

Share with us your favorite homemade embellishments, and we'll all have a new idea for our next crop!

Til then, happy scrapping!

Trendy Paper Flowers

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for SPRINGTIME!  It must just be on my mind these days, but I'm seeing flowers blooming all over!  Paper flowers seem to be one of the new 'must have's' for scrappers and cardmakers -  I see them in magazines, online, in stores, and of course in Archivers - the epitome of trendiness.

For those of you like me, who love the look, but either (a) don't have the budget, or (b) prefer a handmade touch to those factory-churned designer doo-dads (or both), I have a great solution!  It's also a wonderful way to use up those beautiful paper scraps you just can't seem to let go of!

For this project, I used my Cricut and my scraps to cut a wide assortment of flower shapes and sizes. If you don't have a Cricut, no worries - use your flower punches, Sizzix, Cuttlebug or any other die-cutting tools. Or you can always cut them by hand. I used coordinating scraps, and some completely random scraps.  I even used some of the scraps where I had practice-stamped, or jotted journaling notes.  Those make excellent paper flowers!

Grab a handful of those brads, eyelets, ribbon and other assorted goodies you can't seem to find a page for, some ink pads or markers, and away we go!

Once I had all my shapes cut, I next began layering 2, 3 or even 4 shapes together to see which looked good, both from a color and shape perspective.  Once I was happy with my choices, I used various ink pads to darken the edges of the petals, giving dimension to the flower.  I used markers and inks to distress some of the plainer papers and give them some texture.  Then finally, I fretted the edges, curled petals forward or backward, and folded flowers to make them three-dimensional and at a little more 'umpfh'.   Finally, I selected a brad or eyelet or other embellishment to tie the layers together and finish it off. 

These are so simple, I didn't even need adhesive for them!  They're a great project to do in front of the TV, or to get your creative juices flowing when you're having scrapper's block on a page, or have a short amount of time or space, but just want to craft a little!

These are beautiful additions to your homemade cards, gift tags, and of course, scrapbook pages!

I hope you like these fun floral creations, and I hope they bring a little sunshine and Springtime to your crafting corner of the world! 

Happy Scrapping!