The Stamper

Stampin' Up! two-step bird scrapbook

Leadership was wonderful, I just need to know how to have so much fun and come home not tired.  It was great to see my downline at our Leadership meeting.  I have the most talented girls in the company and they are a lot of fun too.  This two-step birk scrapbook is one of the projects we made at our meeting.  I was a little unsure about the new style of punches Stampin' Up! introduced in the Occasions Mini catalog until I started to play and now I am in love.  The new design is easy to punch.  Because of the design SU! is able to create larger punched images and even this two-step bird image, it is like getting 3 punches in one.  (the wing of the bird could also be a leaf for a flower)  If you want to try out the new punch style SU! has made it easy and free.  When you purchase $50.00 during Sale-a-bration you can choose the Scallop trim border as your free item and you can try out the new design and see what you think. 

This scrapbook is a piece of card stock 6x12 inches scored at 2, 2 ¼, 7 & 7 ¼ inches, score the band the same dimensions.  I also attached a piece of card stock I trimmed using the scallop boarder punch to the card stock base.

I then attached two envelopes to each other with a 2x 4 3/8" piece of card stock that was folded in half and attached them to the card stock base the same way.  To finish the look I attached a 1x 4 3/8" piece to the top envelope.  Then add designer papers.  These papers come from the Designer Series Paper Stack "Sweet Pea" found in the new Occasions Mini catalog.  I added paper to both the front and backs of the envelopes.  I trim the top envelope down smaller than the back envelope.  Make sure you trim the edge of the back envelope so you can insert the card stock page.

I used the Two-step bird punch as accents.  I hope you enjoy this cute project.  I invited anyone who is interested in in making great projects like this and networking with talented women to join our STARZ group and Stampin' Up!.  SU! has a great special during Sale-a-bration.  The starter kits is 15% off and you get to choose a $47.95 stamp set for free. For more information contact me and learn how you can join on line at my SU! web site: http://wendythestamper.stampinup.net.

Envelope Album with Stampin' Up! True Friend

I few weeks ago at one of my Customer events they asked me to create a mini scrapbook they could use as a gift.  I adapted a pattern one of my down-line shared with me a few months ago and created this Envelope Scrap book album using Stampin' Up! True Friend stamp set and the Night and Day Designer Series papers. I used these colors because I thought they would work for either boy, girl, adult male or female.  

This album is created from a 8 1/2 x 11" piece of black card-stock scored at 4, 4 1/4, 8 3/4 and 9 inches.  I then scalloped the edge (the end with the 2" before score line) with Stampin' Up! scallop edge punch and added a 1x 8 1/2 inch piece of red card-stock behind scallop edge and a 1 1/4x 8 1/4 " piece of black and white designer series paper. 

You created the belly band from 2 x 11 inch piece of card-stock scored, 4, 4 3/8, 9, 9 3/8 inches.  Glue around pouch over lapping ends and add accent piece and bow to belly band.  The band will be a little big because you need to allow extra space for when the album is filled with photos.

The inside of the book is created using 3 legal size envelopes you seal them and cut one at 6, 7, and 8 inches long.  I decorated the front and back of these envelopes with black and white designer papers and then punch each envelope with a half of a 1 1/4" circle punch. 

The envelopes are attached to the pouch cover with three 2 1/4" x 4 1/8 inch pieces of red card-stock folded in half.   Glue the piece of red card-stock to the left side of the center of the cover with the fold edge to the left side.  Keepthe card-stock folded and glue the longest envelope to this flap and then glue the next red piece to that envelope and repeat until all envelopes are glued inside book on top of each other.  Add an 1 1/8 piece of red card-stock to the top envelope to finish off the look. 

Each envelope has a pull out page that I decorated and added a tab so it can easily pull out.  These pages can be used as journaling of spots for more pictures. 

I added accents using Stampin' Up! True Friend stamp set and Basic Black and Real Red markers.  Some of the accents were punch using the 1 1/4" circle punch and then an accent color using the 1 3/8" circle punch and the scallop circle punch. 

Being a mom 24-7

This weekend I went away for a weekend of scrapbooking with a couple of friends and I would love to show you all the pages I completed but the truth was I did not complete any pages.  I made a darling mini album I hope to show you once I develop pictures to go inside but no two-page spreads were completed. 

I guess you could say I relaxed this weekend.  I organized pictures and typed in journaling for a Europe Album I want to make for my daughter and I from our trip last year and then sat and looked at my title page and reorangzied it and looked at it some more and finally just kicked back and did nothing.  What a concept, I think I need more moments of doing nothing in my life, it seems like I am doing something 24-7 even it that is just being a mom.  A few weeks ago I finished this page that expressed how it feels sometimes just being a mom 24-7.

Christmas Jingle Tag Book

The theme of the workshop I did this week was gifts that are simple to make and low cost.  This is another one of the projects I made for that workshop.  It is a tag book, this one has three pages that you decorate front and back but you can make it as many pages as you want by just gluing tag books together.    I used Stampin' Up! Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin' kit to create this adorable little book.  Drop a few pictures of someone you love and you have a great gift idea. 

The Simply Scrappin kits come with six 6x12 sheets of die cut card-stock images, 3 sheets two designs of decorative, double sided card-stock sheets as well as solid texture cardstock sheets.  I cut one of the textured card-stock sheet in half to make a 6x12 piece, scored it at 4" and 8".  And then I cut one of the corners off and used it as a pattern for the other corner.  I cut the die cut border strips into 4" pieces and then used those and the decorative card-stock pieces for decorations.  I cut the decorative sheet into 3 3/4' x 5 3/4" pieces and used the corner piece as a pattern to clip the corners to make the perfect border look.   If you would like to have your own workshop we can custom a class to meet your and your friends needs, just give me a call and we can schedule a date.  I know the Holidays are a busy time but they are also a time where people like to get together so call me soon.

Looking Smart Scrapbook page

 Yesterday, I wrote about how I needed to borrow kids because mine had grown too old for adorable pictures, well I guess you can say that is what I did here.  I was scrapbooking the other night and had these great pictures of Abby I had taken and they were perfect for this looking smart scrapbook page we made several months ago in my wow scrapbooking classs I dropped them onto the page. 

My Wow Scrapbook classes are held on the 4th Friday of each month.  It is a great thing to come and create 6 page in just a couple of hours and then drop pictures onto them when you find the perfect pictures like I did here.  My next class is on Thursday night, December 3rd and Friday morning, December 4th due to Thanksgivng.  I would love to have you join me. 

This page was created with the Jackpot Designer Series paper and Stampin' Up!'s tart and tangy stamp set.  I love the Big Shot and used the Go Go Boots Alphabet and Stampin' Up! Billboard Alphabet and Scallop Circle and Scallop Circle #3 dies.

Stampin' Up! Great Friend CD frame

  This morning I had a workshop for Rory and she asked me to show some simple, inexpensive gift ideas.  I loved this CD frame idea when I saw it several years ago and I think it is a fun gift idea that is easy to make and looks so cute on a desk so I designed one using Stampin' Up!'s Great Friend stamp set and the Thoroughly Modern Designer Series paper pack.  The matching Designer papers make a great background and then I used the scraps for the accents strips.  The frame is stamped in Soft Suede Classic ink and the butterfly is Bermuda Bay Classic ink.  I used the oval frame from our Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware kit for the accent on the front of the tin. 

I had to add these adorable pictures of my nephews.  I was laughing at myself the other day when I told my husband that I needed new kids, mine have grown too old to take adorable pictures of them.  He said, I am not getting new kids until I get grandkids so I will just have to borrow other people kids until them.  There is no hope for Grandkids in my near future so I am stuck with borrowing. 

Stampin' Up! Circle Brads and Enjoy

    At my "Take Better Photos" class we made this 6x6 mini album page and I showed them how to turn a 6x6 into a 8 1/2x 11 page and then into a 12x12 page like is shown here. 

After the class I really liked the page and I had these great photos from a rafting trip Tysha went on late summer that really popped when put on these colors.  As the final accent I used the circle brads that are one of the deals of the week. 

The page is Chocolate Chip 12x12, Really Rust 8 1/2x 11 stamped with the circle from Stampin' Up!'s Enjoy and Sahara Sand accent color.  I stamped on Vanilla card-stock for the accents. 

Here is a close up on what the flower accents look like.  I stamped them with Really Rust, and added the dotted circle stamp from Stampin' Up! Enjoy stamp set in Chocolate chip ink and then added the small circle brad and popped them up on the page with dimensionals.

Wow Scrapbooking pages sneak peek

As I was writing about my wow scrap-booking sneak peek page for this Friday I realized I should write about how anyone, no matter how far away you live from me, can get these wow scrap-booking page ideas. 

I have partnered with one of my down-line Monkia and we create electronic patterns and instructions for the 3 two-page spreads I create for my wow scrap-booking class each month.  You get pictures of the pages and directions for creating these pages in your own home.  We also give you the cutting dimensions and what supplies you will need to create each set of pages. 

There are always different themes each month and these can be purchased as a group or individually.  Our Wow Scrapbook kit site is found at http://wowscrapbookkits.wordpress.com/.  We would love to have you go to our site and see the pages that are available there.  Or you can contact me for more information. 

Stampin' Up! Jumbo Grommets

 On Monday I shared that I had just done a page using the Stampin' Up! Jumbo Grommets that are a part of the deal of the week this week.  I realized that this is one of the pages I will be doing this Friday at my wow scrap-booking class so the pictures is just a sneak peek.   We make 3 two-page spreads on the 4th Friday of each month for only $30.00.  That is 6 pages you get done in 2-3 hours and all you have to do is drop your photos onto the page once you get home. 

I love this class and have been doing it for over 9 years and I still have a couple of my first customers that come and create these pages with me so we have a good time.  I hope you will join me at one of my scrap-booking classes soon.

Stampin' Up! Nursery Necessities

It is always fun to pull out a scrap-book page I have made for a class and use it in my personal scrapbooks.  I have several baby pages that I have been saving to use with a baby of mine (not that I will be having any more babies myself but I do have hope that my daughters will have a few for me to call my own someday) but I don't see a baby coming into my home in the near future except this little guy.  He is Jackson and has connections is several ways to our family.  I used to baby sit his dad when he was young and lived in Utah, my daughters baby sit him, his mom is a friend and customer and Jackson has lived at our home most of the summer since Tysha was his nanny.  We have all become attached to him and him to us. 

He is one spoiled baby with all the mothering that he gets when he is at our home.  He is also just so darn cute to take photos of and since he was right here and sometimes a willing participant I have a few really cute pictures of him growing up.   The other day I realized that I have not taken too many photos of him with the girls so we tried to get a shot or two so they all remember how close they were to this baby as he grew into a toddler. 

The page is Whisper White card-stock that we glued 3" squares to and then created a grid pattern around them using a black writer.  The Bashful Blue card-stock was cut with scissors in a wave pattern and the Certainly Celery card-stock was punched along the edge with the small oval punch.  I used a marker to color the boat from Stampin' Up!'s Nursery Necessities stamp set and ink pads to stamp the moon, and stars from that stamp set.  The colors I used were: Apricot Appeal, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery and Regal Rose.  I typed my journaling on the computer and printed it on Vellum card-stock and attached it to the page using the mini library clips.

Weekend at Wendy's memory

I really love to scrap-book and I think it is because I get to remember good times as I create beautiful pages to house lasting memories.  This page was a page I did a couple of years ago for a wow scrapbooking class here in Woodstock, Georgia and it seemed to be the perfect page for the pictures we took at this year's Weekend at Wendy's, a retreat weekend for those who have joined Stampin' Up! through me. 

When my down-line get together it is always a time of sharing and caring.  We seem to support each other as we create beautiful projects, this year was no different. 

The page is created with Sage Shadow, Really Rust and vanilla card-stocks.  I used 2 way glue and strips of light weight paper to cover parts of the vanilla cardstock to create stripes and then stamped and sponged over the strips.  Once I had the look I wanted I pealed the light weight paper away and I was left with elegant background paper.  I used Stampin' Up!'s Baroque Motifs stamp set and Sage Shadow, Really Rust and Groovy Guava (this color was an in-color a couple years ago). 

Stampin' Up! Nouveau Chic Designer Papers

I was trying to do a few scrap-book pages this weekend and when I got to the photos of Ted's dad funeral I thought of putting off scrap-booking it until another day and if you are like me the sad times seems to get put off forever so I sat down and decided to just do it.  While I was looking at the pictures I remembered that Ted has wrote Shanae an email sharing with her the funeral details since she could not be there.I pulled up the email and used that for the journaling on the pages I did of this event.  It was nice to get Ted's perspective in my scrap-books especially when the event meant so much to him. 

I also decided to include a photo of Ted's dad the last time he was out here visiting us to make the page be about him and his life and service to not only his family but our country.   I know Ted and his family was touched by the kindness of others and their sacrifice to give this world war two, B-52 Bomber pilot a warm farewell.

This page is done with Basic Gray and Sage Shadow card-stocks and Nouveau Chic Designer Series paper.  I really thought these papers and accents were just right for this event.  The flowers are made by pleating the DSP and shaping it into a flower and adding a 1" punch circle for the centers.

6x6 Seasonal Album

 The 6x6 Season scrapbook was one of my most popular project last year at my Gift Making Extravaganza so I had to design another one for this year. 

It is a little bit different this year, you get even more Seasonal pages, one for each month.  It has been designed so you can use this as one album or as two 6x6 Calendars. You can also ask for this to be prepared so you can use it for a card a month album like we did last year.  The pages are less work than last year so you can make more than one set and yet they look great and I know Grandma will love getting them. 

This class is held Friday, November 6, and Saturday November 7, from 10 am to 10 pm each day.  Class fee is $15.00 plus supply fees for any projects you want to do.  The Twelve 2-page 6x6 album supply fee is $24.00 and you can add on the album or calendars as well.   The dead line for this class is October 21st.  Just email me at wendy@thestamper.comand I can send you the newsletter with all the Paypal links. 

My Digital Studio Hoppy Album

I have been playing with this new program and wanted to share a couple other pages I have created.  This book is about my nephews Alex and Tyler.  I had a great time with them in Utah this summer before convention.  I stayed at their place and followed them around with a camera and just took photos of their everyday life. 

I wish I had photos like these of my own girls when they were young.  It amazes me how we don't take the time to photo the everyday moments because we are living them but once your children start growing up and out of those little kid stages it is the everyday moments that we miss the most.  Take the time to photo some everyday moments today, even if your children are older in a couple of years you will cherish the everyday moments of this day.  A couple of years ago I walked around my home on a Sunday and just snapped photos of what my girls were doing and how "clean" NOT their rooms were.  I laugh when I look at the scrapbook pages I made with those everyday shots.

Okay, I will get off my soap box and finish my summer story.  These two little boys captured my heart when they put on their Indiana Jones hats and whips and ran around the house singing the theme song to Indiana Jones and you might be wondering how they did that since I don't think it has words, they did not use words they sang the tune in tas and das and had me laughing as they tried to whip me and each other. Great memories and this digital scrapbook album will help me remember it always.  I think I might even give them a copy of this book for Christmas.

My Digital Studio first album

I finally finished both my first and second album and was so excited to share them with you.  Over the weekend I was showing a few customer friends Stampin' Up!'s new My Digital Studio program and how easy it is to work with and we started a sample project.  When I went back to the computer later I deleted what I thought was the sample project and today decided to learn how to export my album to put on my blog.  When I went to open my first album it was not there I just had the sample project I thought I had deleted.

I wanted to cry, I tried to find in on my computer and it was not there, I called SU! for help and found out that once you delete it from the program it is gone.  I really wanted to cry and so I did what any wife would do I went in and whined to my husband and he calmed me down and said, " let me have a look and make a phone call and see what we can do."  He called my efolder man John Mitchel and he helped me restore my project.  I really wanted to cry then.

For those of you who don't know what efolder is: a several years ago I lost my computer and all my digital photos, I had been backing them up on cd's for the most part but of course not as faithfully as I wished I had been when I lost the hard drive in my computer.  I also lost all of my patterns, ideas and business handouts I had created over the years.  We called a service to try and recover the data off the disk and they wanted thousands to try and restore

all my data.  I was talking to John Mitchel and John Williams two computer guys I know from church and they helped us restore my data and so they never had to do it again they introduced me to efolder a service that backs up all my programs on my computer on a regular basis, all my photos, all my documents and even all my customer lists and today that back up paid off because John was able to restore that program that I deleted and you get to view my first album. 

It took him about 5 minutes and another 5 minutes of download time and I had my first album back where it belonged on my computer and now on my blog.  I can't wait to print it and be able to show all of you how beautiful it is in person.  

I really like this new program and those of you who know me know that I am not a computer person, but I can do this. 

It was not hard at all and the pages that SU! has designed in the kits are beautiful.  I also like how I can use their layout or change it to fit my pictures either by changing colors or images or I can start from scratch and create my page one item or image at a time.  I know this will never replace scrap booking for me because I love paper and ink and embellishments but it will be great to make these books as gifts or use the hybrid method and add 3-d images to the pages.  I can't wait to share more ideas with you soon.

Birthday Scrappin'

Birthdays are a time that I take lots of pictures and then I don't know what to do with them after I get them developed.  I liked this layout because it was perfect to put a row of smaller photos of my daughter opening her gifts in a row so I will get to enjoy her expressions always and yet they did not take up the whole page. 

I also try to always take a group photo at birthday parties so we will remember who came.  It is a good idea to also jot down their names when you get the picture developed or even make their names a part of the file name when you file your digital images because you think you will remember who they are but if you are like me you will not.  I have pictures of my older daughters friends and I could drive you to their house but I can't remember their names and my daughter can't either.  I few notes now saves time later when you are ready to scrap book the story. 

The background on this page is a direct to paper technique and I used images from the On a Pedestal Stampin' Up! stamp set and the arrows are die cut using the Look Here die from Stampin' Up!

Playtime for teens

It amazed me how much fun my daughters had at the park.  We had some time to kill and so we stopped at a park and they had fun trying to do the things they loved to do when they were smaller.  You would think that getting bigger would make it easier but alas that was not true.  It was hard to hold your long legs up and pull a much bigger body across the bars and their hands are just not in condition for that type of play anymore.  But even with the harder conditions they had such fun and I enjoyed taking pictures of them just having fun. 

I wanted my page to reflect that fun and so I used bright and cheerful colors.  The colors you use on your page helps tell your story.  The colors I used was the new Crushed Curry and Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry and Ballet Blue.  The title is chipboard letters that were sponged with Classic inks.  And the stamp set I used was the new Lots of Bots, I just left off the words and used the images.

New In-colors are perfect together

I love the new in colors, they are so bright and cheerful and they work great together.  This Columbus scrap book page is made using the new in colors Bermuda Bay and Dusty Durango.  I loved how this layout worked so well with Stampin' Up!'s Eastern Bloom stamp set.  It was easy to color in the sticks and flower images with the markers that can now be purchased in the in-colors. 

This page is about my daughter's first year at college.  She went to Columbus Georgia music school and lived right across the street.  It was a perfect world for her and she thrived there and would still be there except they did not hire her Oboe teacher back for the next year so Tysha will be living at home and driving downtown Atlanta to Georgia State this next year. 

This is a simple layout that will work for any topic.  If you are interested in more scrap book ideas plan to join me for one of my Wow Scrap booking Classes.  The next class will be held of the 4th Friday of August at 10am and repeated at 7:30pm.

Scrapbook Layout

This past weekend I held my The Stamper Baby's Album class and one of the pages I did was the same layout as this page.  I love how you can change the whole look of a scrapbook page by changing the colors or stamped accent.  It makes scrap-booking easier when we don't think we have to start from scratch all the time. 

This page is done with the new in color Rich Razzleberry card-stock and inks.  The accent is done with Stampin' Up!  Razzle Dazzle stamp set.  The colors are Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry and Ballet Blue.  The images were inked with markers because we have in-color markers this year which makes this technique easier to do. 

Just a reminder; if you want to make wow pages like these with ease attend my Wow Scrap-booking Class that I hold on the 4th Friday of each month.  This Friday is wow scrap-booking and I would love to have you join me at 10am and create 3 two-page spreads like these. 

Ride the Train page

Stampin' Up! has some great new stamp sets in their new catalog and they also put is some of the stamp sets we have seen previewed in the mini catalogs this year.  The train set Choo Choo is one of those sets.  I did a baby page using this set and when I was going through some old photos getting ready to do book for one of my daughters I ran across these pictures of the train ride we took years ago from Silverton to Durango.  It made me take a second look and I decided it was the perfect time to scrapbook these photos especially since I had been talking to my dad recently and he had mentioned this trip. 

I love how the people from the Loads of Love fit into the train and I was able to show Ted and I, Grandma and Grandpa and the girls peeking out of the windows. 

This stamp set also has a wheel that matches it call Right of track that makes a perfect background or accent to your pages or cards. 

One of the scrap-booking concepts I adapted several years ago was the concept of scrap-booking what you want and not in date or chronological order.  This has taken so much stress off my life and I never feel behind or like I am not getting anywhere in my scrap-booking because any page I do is a memory saved.  I enjoy scrap-booking again because I can make something that catches my eye and/or combine many years to scrapbook a concept I want my kids to remember.