It's almost here!

National Scrapbooking Day!

Does anyone have any big plans? One year I went to a crop at the LSS, but since then, I've usually been home. I try to sneak in a few layouts for online crops or challenges if I can. You just feel like you should at least ATTEMPT to get a little scrapbooking in if at all possible ... right?
I'm not going to try to organize anything big this year. That will be next year when I've got the store up and running ;)
But I can't let the day go by without some sort of recognition.
Soooo ...
here are a few little challenges for you if you're looking for something to do.

#1 ... Use paint, mist AND glitter on a layout.
I just schmeared on some red paint on my background. I don't pull out my paint all that often, so it was fun to play :)
Ranger Distress Stickles (Fired Brick) on my plain chipboard letters.

More Ranger Distress Stickles (in Mustard Seed) to highlight the centre of the flower.

I misted the Jillibean Soup patterned paper with Creme de Chocolat Glimmer Mist and used Red Maya Mist on the cream ric rac. This ric rac absorbs the mist so well and is just so vibrant afterwards. Leslie turned me on to this technique and I'll be doing it a LOT in the future :)

All of the supplies for the above layout came from the April kit and add-ons.

#2 ... Use the provided sketch as the inspiration for your layout.

I seem to have a thing for stacking my photos. Hmmm.

This was just a quick layout of the queer little habit Molly has of eating the face off all the stuffed animals. She actually will sleep with the stuffy face in her mouth like a soother. And generally, the rest of the animal is left along. We just have all of these stuffed "things" laying around with no faces. So strange.

I truly cannot get enough of those Sassafras border stickers. I'm using them on e-ver-y-thing.

And just a quick tip on getting more mileage out of the Sassafras chipboard letters included in the April kit ... rip the top layer off and colour them however you like. I gave mine a spritz of Jenni B Blu Vibez and then decided they needed to be a little more intense so I covered them in Ranger Distress Stickles (in Broken China).

The Distress Stickles have sure been getting a workout lately :)

This layout uses mostly the main kit from April, as well as one of the banners from the Salad Bar add-on. And some embroidery floss from my stash.

So if you'd like to participate in my NSD challenges, please leave a comment on this post with a link to your layout. Enter as many times as you like and I'll do a drawing on Monday morning for the winner.

If you're looking for incentive to play along, the winner will receive her choice of one the new Sassafras collection kits.

The 30% off sale (excluding main kit/add-on bundles) is still running in the store today and tomorrow. I only have a few of the April add-ons left, so if you've been wavering on them, I wouldn't wait to order.

Fabric Leaf Tutorial from Lesley Langdon

Leslie used the fabric and ink from the Sunday Brunch kit to make these unique leaves for her 3 Little Kids layout.

The perfect little embellishment ... simple yet stunning!

I'd love to see what you can do with this fabric. Remember to upload your projects to our Flickr Group so that we can all ooooh and aaaah over your creations :)

"Happy" card

I usually don't get around to making cards until I need them. Like ... 20 minutes before I need one, I get a bee in my bonnet.

My Will had a birthday party on Saturday for his friend Willow (cute ... right?), so of course, I didn't get to the card until about 5 minutes before we should have been leaving.

For whatever reason, I tend to grab Sassafras to make cards when I'm in a hurry. This one uses bits that I had laying out from my Sunday Brunch kit, a few scraps of cardstock and a Jenni Bowlin Bingo card that I've had for awhile now. I thought the colours of the Bingo card matched perfectly with the adorable sheet music patterned paper from Sassafras. Too perfectly though. So I matted it with a contrasting cardstock and mounted it using adhesive foam. A quick "7" cut from the Jillibean Soup paper (again mounted with more foam adhesive) and some buttons glued here and there and we're done.

Please notice the wet glue popping out from the button holes. I told you ... I was in a rush!

As is pretty standard with my cards, this one is a crazy size ... 6x6. If I'm just shoving it in a gift bag, I don't bother with an envelope and just use whatever size cardstock scrap I have for a base.

Color Misting Tips from Jing-Jing Nickel

Color misting is all the rage in scrapbooking and paper crafting right now. Look no further than Up the Street to find a bottle of Shimmerz included in the Feburary kit! It's a fun and easy technique for those of us who are not artsy! Nothing says "Je suis une artiste" like a few speckles of colored mist on my layouts, lol!!
For my "Holding on" layout, I misted the text background paper with yellow mist. The text paper is in April's first add-on kit by Jillibean Soup. Here's a trend that is pretty easy to spot, patterned papers with text tend to get a lot of love from misters, inkers, and painters in the scrapping world. It makes sense, there's not much pattern, just text, so it's versatility waiting to happen! You can see in this picture, the mask I used to create my polka dots. No doubt you will want to rush to Up the Street online store to get this mask, but alas you will not find it there. This set of mask came from Walt Disney DVD Bingo! Once my kids punched out the bingo pieces, Mama is left with this fantastic misting mask! So here's another tip, once you get into misting, you will find yourself seeing the world through masking eyes. Before you throw out anything, you will be asking yourself this question, "Can I use this as a mask?" Oh the possibilities this opens up...

Napkins

I wanted to share a few of the ways I have included napkins on my layouts. Using the Cabbage Soup add-on for this layout, I layered strips of the napkin above and below my matted photo. I seperated the layers of the napkin so that I was only using the top layer. In order to create the decorative border edge, I sandwiched the napkin layer between two scrap pieces of paper before punching it in a Fiskars border punch. Because the napkin is so thin, it still doesn't punch very cleanly, so I ended up having to trim up the messy edges with scissors.

To attach the strips to my layout, I applied a thin strip of glue and gathered the napkin as I glued it down to the paper. Once I finished applying all of the strips, I wrapped the ends around to the back of the paper and glued them to the back.

I should mention that the green Prima and corrugated alphas are available in the store. Also, the branch is die cut using the Silhouette.

This is a layout I did almost three years ago. For my background, I applied a layer of Mod Podge to the cardstock, laid the top layer of a napkin down and added another layer of Mod Podge on top ... creating creases and wrinkles as I went to mimic the look of a beach towel.

Hope these give you a few ideas on how to include those gorgeous napkins you see into your layouts :)

Merry Christmas?

I wanted to share the last layout Leslie sent me using the main kit and the Cabbage Soup add-on. I stuck a few napkins in with this one and was so curious to see what people would do with them.
Leslie used one as a backdrop for her photo and embellishments. Sooooo cute! I love how she pulled green and red elements from the embellishments to create a seasonal layout from a kit that, to me, screamed summer. Talk about thinking outside the box ;)

Edited to add ... Leslie's layout has been Removed for Publication :)

Well ... I'm off to town to get some groceries, hit the library and mail some kits. Have a great weekend!

April Kit Reveal!

Hi all! I'm a little early posting this, but I'm attending the Bellies, Babies and Beyond Baby Expo in Strathroy tonight and I thought I might as well get this done before I left.
Lots of colour in these kits ... Sassafras, Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean Soup. Lesley and Jing-Jing did a fantastic job showcasing this kit. Both also worked with the Cabbage Soup add-on. Visit the Gallery to see their beautiful work :)
The main kit ... Sunday Brunch ...
Front of papers ...

Backs of double-sided papers ...

Vintage playing cards and journaling spots from Elle's Studio. Also, my favorite ink ... Charcoal Chalk Ink ...

Beautiful trims, Maya Road pins and Fancy Pants buttons ...

Add-on Kit #1 ... Cabbage Soup ...

Jillibean Soup papers & stickers ... a little taste of Cosmo Cricket Material Girl, Maya Road envelopes, Elle's Studio vintage flashcards ...

Add-on kit #2 ... Salad Bar ...

Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety, Jillibean Soup and a little Sassafras ...

Visit the store to order the kits. Also in stock ... coordinating Jillibean Soup alphabets.

April Special .... order the main kit and both add-ons for $65.00! That's a 20% savings on retail prices! E-mail upthestreet@isp.ca to order this bundle.

I'll be back tomorrow with the winner of the April kit.