Use everyday items on your scrapbook layouts.
I am totally inspired by my friend Abby Key. She sees things in a different way than me when it comes to scrapbooking, although I’m slowly getting there. She takes things that are just ordinary everyday items and manages to put them on a layout and it looks totally cool. So I tried my hand at it. I used a strip of fabric that is printed with shamrocks and a shamrock paper doilie on this layout. When I first finished it, I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not, and I don’t think it’s “Abby worthy”, but it has grown on me. I’m calling it done! Because as Ali Edwards says, “It is OK.” I have learned so much from Ali (famous scrapbooker) on how to embrace imperfection and let things go and it has really helped me to stop driving myself crazy. A couple of years ago, I would have just taken this whole page apart and redone it if I didn’t 100% love it. But not now. My goal was to get a 5-year-old picture out of a box and onto a scrapbook page and have it be a picture of Summer and Mommy and tell her how lucky I feel to have her, and I accomplished all of those things so it is all good.
The journaling around the shamrock (also something ABBY has taught me to do!) says,
“Summer, I’m the luckiest momma in the whole world to have you for my sweet little girl.”
Of course, the photo was from 2003 when she was only 3 years old and now she is 7 - almost 8 years old and has suddenly over the last few months developed major attitude, so I just might change my mind on that sentence above. What is up with that? I thought the attitude problems didn’t arrive until they were 11, 12, 13, something like that? She’s SEVEN! Give me a break! Ah well, as I’ve said before life with my girl is never boring.
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comment (1)Weekend scrapbooking projects.
Well, I didn’t actually scrapbook. I altered things, but as long as I’m doing something in my studio I’m pretty happy. I got this little striped mini notebook at Big Lots for a buck! I loved the stripes of it so all I did was stamp my initials on it with Staz On ink and tie a bunch of ribbons to the binding coil. I love it and I’m going to carry it in my purse for writing reminders down. Anybody who knows me knows that I can’t remember shit.
I also altered this silver metal business card holder. I keep this in my purse to carry my business cards and I wanted to put some sort of rose on it to coordinate with Summer Rose Scrapbooks, so I had found these rubons at Big Lots also for a buck and while it’s not a rose it’s close enough for me. To keep them from getting scratched off while in my purse, I put a layer of decoupage glue stuff on top of it to seal the rubon. What do you think? Cute?
Oh, and here’s a little story for you on how well trained my daughter is as the child of a scrapbooker. We were in Joann Fabrics store on Sunday and I saw these HUGE cardboard-ish textured letters. Like paper maiche but stronger. I don’t know what they’re made out of. Anyway, I’m looking at them and looking for a C for my name, thinking I could alter it cute and hang it in my office/studio.
My kid comes up to me and says, “Look, mom, an S. You should buy this cause it stands for Summer Rose Scrapbooks.”
I say, “Well, Summer, that might be a good idea. I could put some smaller letters on the S that spell out Summer Rose Scrapbooks.”
So she says, “Yeah, and a picture of ME.”
And since she is the inspiration behind Summer Rose Scrapbooks, I guess that’s a pretty darn good idea, right? So I put the C back and bought the S.
I can hardly wait to do SOMETHING with it, but right now I’m working on a scrapbook for a client and I don’t have time to think about anything else! It’s due in 2 days and all I’ve got done so far is the pages sketched out. Talk about crunch time!
Filed under Scrapbooking, Projects | Comments (2)More personalized cards for Jill
I made these personalized note cards for my friend Jill. She ordered 4 sets from me, 1 for her, 1 for her friend, 1 for her mom, and 1 for her in-laws. What a good friend she is to support me! You can order a set of 6 for $12 with free shipping specifically for your family in my etsy store at www.summerrosescrapbooks.etsy.com.
*EDITED TO ADD: Someone recently asked me if I accept Paypal for these cards that I sell in my etsy shop. YES. You can also get to my etsy shop by going to the top of the column on the far right of this page you should see photos of my handmade items.
The first set is for her in-laws.
The second set is for Jill. I had fun squeezing all those kids and the dog on there! Whew!
Here’s the set for Jill’s friend’s family. Three boys! The woman is a saint!
Here’s the set for Jill’s mom.
Do you read Wonder Time magazine?
I subscribe to it and I love it. I read it when I have time, which is why I am currently reading November 2007 issue. This is my life, people. Anyway, there was the cutest article on Thanksgiving and little traditions people do at that time of year. One mother wrote in and told this story, and it absolutely cracked me up.
Their family was sitting around the dinner table for Thanksgiving dinner and they asked everyone to say what they were thankful for. Their little boy hollered, “I’m thankful for my PENIS!” And then the husband said, “I was just about to say that too!”
Seriously, that would be a Thanksgiving memory to put in the scrapbook!
Filed under Life | Comment (1)Deep Thoughts by Hooters.
The other day I wrote about my trip to CKC St. Louis here and I mentioned that I went to Hooters for the first time. While it wasn’t really my kind of place with the wings and the sports on TV and the “hooters”, I did enjoy the wet nap packages. Here’s one of them. I was just cracking up reading these things. And how cool is it that they provide you with wet naps at the tables for your messy BBQ’d fingers?
Advice from a 7-year-old
Another “Summerism” as I think I’ll call them when I gather them all into a scrapbook eventually.
The other night Summer wanted to stay up past her bedtime (which happens EVERY night) and my answer was no, as is the usual. I told her to give me a good night kiss. This is how our conversation went.
Summer: ”Only if you let me stay up 5 more minutes.”
Me: ”No! You’re not staying up. Now gimme my goodnight kiss.”
Summer: ”If you’re not gonna let me stay up, then I’m not giving you a kiss.”
Me: “Fine. Don’t give me a kiss. Just go to bed then.”
Summer: “Okaaaay, but you’re going to be sorry in the morning.”
I have no idea what that means. Maybe I won’t sleep very well without that goodnight kiss?
This kid cracks me up on a daily basis.
Encouragement card
My friend Klo is on the Pazzles design team, and she made this diecut monkey for me so that I could incorporate it into a card for my aunt with breast cancer. She’ll be having surgery next week after 6 or 7 months of radiation, so she could use a little encouragement right now. Isn’t he too CUTE?
It’s hard to see because of the bumpiness when I was scanning it, but at the bottom it says HANG IN THERE. And yes, that’s an actual stick from my backyard!
This uses Die Cuts with a View cardstock, KI Memories ribbon, fluid chalk around the edges of card.
If you have a Pazzles machine, you can get some tips/tricks on Klo’s blog here. She’s on the design team and demonstrates at expos and conventions, so she really knows what she’s doing.
Thanks Klo!
Filed under Scrapbooking, Projects | Comments (2)My husband is a genius!
I think I mentioned before how hard my husband has been working on my scrapbooking studio, and he has really outdone himself. Some of the counters he installed don’t have finished edges like this one does:
Um, but guess what? When the counters are FREE, you don’t complain about the edges not being finished! I figured I would just paint them and call it a day. Right now they look like this:
So the other day my husband says to me, “Hey, I’ve got an idea of what you can do with those unfinished edges.” Now, I usually shudder when my hubby says he’s got an idea. We usually do not think on the same wavelength. Ever. But after almost 8 years of marriage, I’m used to it. This day, however, I LOVED his idea and can’t wait to incorporate it. He suggested that I nail or glue yardsticks onto the outer unfinished edge of my counters, and then when I wanted to cut a length of ribbon or measure something, I could just hold it up against the yardstick. How cool is that? Anybody know where I an buy cheapo yardsticks?
Filed under Projects | Comments (5)Personalized note cards for sale.
I made these cards as a special order for Kathy. She didn’t want pastel colors, so I used brighter colors. You can purchase a set for yourself in my etsy shop at www.summerrosescrapbooks.etsy.com. They are $12 for a set of 6 and shipping is free. If the shop is sold out, just email me at kcsummerrose@avenuebroadband.com and I’ll make an order for you.
*EDITED TO ADD: Someone recently asked me if I accept Paypal for these cards that I sell in my etsy shop. YES. You can also get to my etsy shop by going to the far right of this page at the top and you should see photos of my handmade items.
By Design Scrapbook Boutique in Texas.
Back in December I wrote about my trip to Texas to meet up with scrapbooking gal pals for a wedding. During that trip, we all went to an awesome scrapbook store in Houston called By Design Scrapbook Boutique. This is by far the most beautiful scrapbook store I’ve ever been in. It was prettier than some houses! The owner, Tracy, was just the nicest lady. I know she must have been annoyed with us because we got there 5 minutes after they closed and were standing with our noses pressed up against the front glass windows drooling and crying because we were all flying out of Texas the next morning and that was our ONLY chance to see the store that we had all heard so much about. She finally came to the door and said, “Um, can I help y’all?” And I’m sure what she really wanted to say was, “Please stop drooling all over my windows.”
My friend Jill starts rambling on and telling her how we’ve come from California and Illinois and we’re all dying to see the store and shop and all of us were flying home tomorrow and could we PLEASE come in and buy stuff (the girl is not shy)? So the owner said, “Sure.” And we did. She said it was okay to take photos for the blog, and she even took a photo of all of us with our camera. Now THAT is what you call good customer service, people! If you live anywhere near Houston, you should check this place out. It’s phenomenal. Just go during regular store hours! Even the shopping bags were cool. I think they normally match the store’s colors but since it was December we got red & white ones for Christmas time. Here are some photos.
I loved the pink feathered Christmas tree!
Don’t you just want to curl up in this comfy chair and read a scrapbook magazine?
