Art Girlz Scrapbook Nook

World Card Making Day

World Card Making Day is coming soon!

This special day is designated as the first Saturday in October and celebrates the personal connection a handmade card creates between the card-maker and the card-reciever. Celebrating World Card Making Day on October 6th is a great way to start off the holiday card-making season. For most crafters, this is the most popular time for creating handmade cards.

Creating Keepsakes & Paper Crafts Magazine have a website dedicated to World Card Making Day. Doesn't look like it's been updated for this 2007 celebration, but there are some project ideas and photos to give you some early inspiration.

Receiving a hand-made card is special. You get a wonderful feeling that the person sending that card cares enough "to send the very best" ... and it isn't Hallmark ... it's made from their own hands. Even children can make cards with stamps and some scrap papers!

Don't worry if you are not "crafty" or you aren't a "creative" person. There are many sketches that you can find to help you. Choose one or 2 basic designs and start making cards! It does not take a big investment to make cards and an added bonus -- it is an activity that families can do together.

Decorated - Altered Lunchpail Tin

I've had one of these Lunchpail tins (mine is from BasicGrey) and I keep looking at it and wondering what I'm going to do with it. There are so many possibilities. I have so much paper and other embellishments, the sky is the limit.

But looking through some of the blogs I love to read on a regular basis, I found a REALLY beautiful altered Lunchpail tin. It's romantic, shabby chic. Sure to be really treasured by the recipient.

Check out Wild Rose Stamper's Blog for this great Altered Lunchpail Tin. I think this has given me some inspiration AND some motivation to do something with that grey tin (ugly now!).

Think about the other tins you have around the house. Do you have any items that came in a tin? We eat a Irish Oatmeal that comes in a round tin. It sort of looks like the "paint can" style tin. I've finally got one that's empty and I'm going to alter that tin. Maybe send it to my secret sister.

Have any ideas on altering tins? Have you made anything you think is really special? Please comment and let us know. Send us links. Share!

Why SCRAPBOOK?

Why do it -- I have nothing to scrapbook!

I’ve heard this from several friends who are single or have no children or pets. It appears to me that the ones that are most active in scrapbooking are my friends who have kids. Kids ARE great, you could spend your whole life scrapbooking their life. But there is so much more to scrapbook about! Even if you have kids, you still need to document YOUR life.

Yes, document your life! Just because you are single, have no children or pets doesn’t mean you have no life, does it? NO it doesn’t. Just look around, you’ll find something interesting. And you never know how your life will turn out – you will probably grow and change in ways you never imagined. Document today, tomorrow and years to come and see how you’ve changed. You may not even realize this about yourself until you really start reflecting on what you do, where you go and what you love.

What makes you happy, excited, sad or even angry? Write about all the cars you’ve owned, homes you’ve lived in, college experience & more. What are your favorites things? Like favorite places to hang out, favorite foods, favorite clothes (styles will always change!), your hairdo’s (sometimes too funny). Really when I think about it, although I have children and cute pets, there is SO MUCH MORE in my life that has absolutely nothing to do with being a mother. Do you enjoy going on trips? Is there a special place you love to visit? It doesn’t have to be exotic. How about your weekly trips to the local Farmer’s Market? Why do you go? What do you buy? These are the things that others may not know about you.

And for those future generations, it really deserves to go into scrapbooks. It will mean much more if the story is told by the person living it. Try working on a heritage album of your great-grandparents, then you’d understand how important it is to have the people in the pictures or living the life help you with the story.

I’ve always been BEHIND the camera. Raise your hand if that’s you too! It’s so sad because I really don’t have many pictures of ME anywhere or doing anything. But don’t despair, you don’t need pictures to make a scrapbook!!! Do you like to attend concerts? Save all the tickets and put them on a page and tell the stories of your concert adventures. Save movie tickets … I will laugh when I look at just how many times I went to see “Pirates of the Caribbean” (don’t ask!).

I have purchased a 12x12 album just for ME. My experience, my thoughts, my life. Whether it's my love of chocolate, favorite music, places I like to go or shop, my garden, or my job, I’m going to document it.

Start a journal. Think a bit  deeper about your life (past & present, perhaps future), and when you’ve come across something you are passionate about – scrapbook it! 

September Card Contest -- Sketches #2 & 3

Here are the second & third card sketches for our September Card Contest. Use these sketches to make a card (or many cards!). They can be any size (normally we use 1/4 sheet = 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"). They can be any theme.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER will receive OCTOBER's Kit of the Month, plus other prizes awarded to other winners. Receive EXTRA POINTS if you use items from the September Kit of the Month.

Sketch #2

POCKET CARD DIRECTIONS:

* cut cardstock 4 1/4" x 11", fold in half (4.25 x 5.5").

* fold down a flap about 1-2 inches.

* cut piece of cardstock insert for pocket about 3 3/4" x 5"

* decorate outside of pocket card and inside (removable card).

Sketch #3

* fold for this card is on left side, but could have fold at top for variety

* sketch shows stamped image, ribbon & embellishments, keeping to sketch, use your imagination for these items.

* ideas: substitute rick-rack for ribbon, flower or button could be a die cut.

Altered CLIPBOARDS

I bet we all have some clipboards lying around the house ... they are great for having a hard surface to write on while holding papers at the same time.

Going through a box of stuff out in the garage, we found some of the smaller clipboards (approximately 6x9) that are brown pressed board (or something like that).

These clipboards were a little beat up: names, dates, phone numbers and scribbling covered the front & back of them. Before tossing them, I decided we'd try ALTERED CLIPBOARDS.

OMG! These are so fun! They are addicting.

DIRECTIONS:

1) clean surface and paint with acrylic paint (as desired);

2) using Perfect Paper Adhesive or Mod Podge, cover areas with printed or solid papers, stamped images, etc.

3) add ribbons and any other embellishments you'd like and you're done!

Very quick & easy, we stamped the coffee beans using pigment ink and then embossed them for a raised effect.

Who doesn't love ribbon? We added a number of ribbons from our stash to the top of the clip.

More information about altered clipboards, scrapbooking and paper crafts:

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Web www.artgirlzscrappinattic.typepad.com

This clipboard was made for a good friend of mine ... she's definitely making history! Her favorite color is pink, so we went with that theme. Using printed papers, stamped images, magic mesh & ribbons -- the lowly clipboard was transformed into a fun accessory!

This clipboard was sort of an "accident", but you never say accident when you are crafting ... it's an opportunity!

What started out as antiquing ended up removing the paint from the front of the clipboard! So we used a gold metallic pigment ink around the edges, embossed with clear EP and then added some other colors for antique-look.

This was given to another friend and she totally loves it, and doesn't know why I said I made a mistake ... and probably can't duplicate the look ever again.

These small clipboards fit the Jr. Legal pads and are a nice size to fit into a large bag (purse). You can pick up these brown chipboard clipboards brand new for about $1.

Have some fun painting and altering a clipboard!

NEW BasicGrey HOLIDAY Collection -- FIGGY PUDDING

After BasicGrey's BLITZEN Holiday Collection was discontinued -- we were so disappointed. The waiting & wondering about a possible new holiday collection was on our minds. Guess what? BasicGrey is coming out with a new Christmas paper line -- And it's coming soon!

The 2007 Holiday Collection is called FIGGY PUDDING! As far as we can tell, it will mix/match & coordinate with the previous holiday collections (Blitzen, Fruitcake & Dasher). But these are all new patterns.

A sneak peeak at the full paper collection pack, but there's so much more to this collection -- fibers, rub-ons in a yummy chocolate brown, stickers & more.

Art Girlz Scrappin Attic  has already ordered items from this collection -- and they should be arriving in the next month.

We're so excited and hope you are too! We'd like to make scrapbook pages, cards, and some holiday gift items using these great new papers.

Queen & Company SEQUIN FLOWERS & more

Have you see the Queen & Company line of embellishments? They have a variety of really fun products: large brads, small brads, "sequin" flowers, photo turns, beads & more.

We've had some fun with these products on our Halloween page -- using the FAB FLOWERS & SASSY SEQUINS for accents. The flowers do not have a Halloween theme, but some of the colors just matched so well to our page. See our layout below:

  We have also layered the flowers and added some Prima paper flowers (black & white small flowers) to add a little more fun.

A whole collection of great Queen & Company embellishments can be found at Art Girlz Scrappin Attic -- some of these items are even in our clearance section -- up to 50% off retail pricing,

Find more inspiration on Queen & Co's Blog, their gallery has some really fun projects using  Queen & Company's SEQUIN FLOWERS, HOOK-UPS & more

Time to have some fun with your scrapbooks or cards.

Glittering Chipboard Alphabets

Love glitter! Love chipboard! What's even better than that ... putting glitter on chipboard! There are so many kinds of chipboard available today: alphabets, shapes & more. Some are printed or color matched to special paper lines and some come in holiday or special event colors.

What do you do if you just LOVE the alphabet, but the color is just not right?

1) use chalk or pigment inks to ink over the color

2) use acrylic paints to color

3) add glitter!

Adding glitter is a great way to hide the underneath color and add that WOW! factor to your page or project. As I saw on Queen & Company's BLOG they have used some of their great FONTASTICS chipboard alphabets and covered them with paint & glitter.

Try adding some of the Inkssentials Crackle or Crystal medium on top for added interest.

Great way to change the look of chipboard.

Call for Design Team at STARVING ARTISTAMPS

Jody Morrow (aka Ribbon Addict ) added this info to her blog:

Have you ever wanted to join a Design Team? Well, now is your chance because we are having a design team call over at Starving Artistamps!! If you are selected you will get to create designs with both Artful Inkables and Starving Artist Stamps!! Spread the word, post the info on your blog and good luck to all! I cant wait to see what is submitted!! Here are the details:

****** Starving Artistamps Design Team Designer Call *******

http://starvingartistamps.com/design_team_call.html

This is a chance to be on a design team for Artful Inkables and Starving Artst Stamps!

Inkssentials: clear CRACKLE Accents Medium

Have you ever used any of the clear acrylic-type products? They can be used to cover accents, add shiny finishes and can be used as a very strong glue!

Recently, I came across Inkssentials line of acrylic mediums. They have clear, crackle and antique (slight amber color). We tried the crackle accents style.

WOW! We were surprised and pleased at how this worked! It's so easy. Just one step: put the liquid crackle accents medium onto your project. No heating, no baking, no nothing ... just wait for it to dry and crack on it's own.

The instructions recommend that you use the crackle medium on heavy weight papers. Light-weight papers will wrinkle and fold as it starts to crackle. We used medium weight cardstock and felt we had a successful outcome. Although we did use a light layer of this liquid medium.

Our crackled pumpkin:

You can achieve different affects if you use thicker layers of the liquid medium.

Lighter layers will crackle smaller (as in our picture).

Heavier layers of this crackle medium would work best on chipboard or some other very sturdy base.

There is enough in this bottle for MANY projects. Fine tip helps to place the liquid crackle accents just where you want it.

A fun (and inexpensive) addition to add some WOW to your everyday embellishments.