Splendid Scraps

Flowers are a bloomin!

2011-09-20T12:54:00.001-05:00

Kind of... In my scrapbooking/craft room they are anyway. These are for the third Thursday sale next month but I will be listing them in my store before then. They can be used on scrapbook pages or they are perfect for hair clips as well.

As a matter of fact my daughter is wearing one in her hair right now. The only problem is she keeps taking it out and trying to put out in my hair. :) Ah, I love this age!

-B

Long time no scrap!

2011-09-14T13:47:00.000-05:00

So life's been a little crazy as of this past year... not that it still isn't, I'll just say that I'm getting a little better at managing it. =]

I'm also SUPER excited to let you all know that my close friend Sarah has decided to join me on my crazy scrapbook adventures and let me tell you this girl is motivated! We're going to be participating in the October "Third Thursday" event in downtown Waynesville next month and have high hopes! This won't be my first time joing in on the Third Thursday adventures but it has definitely been awhile and a lot has changed. Unfortunately we were not able to get into the expo next month due to some communication difficulties but we'll definitely be there the next time around.

So keep your eyes out for updates, tutorials and of course scrapbooking galore!!! =]

-B

MIA

2011-03-01T20:09:00.000-06:00

So I'm truly sorry for have being MIA for the last month... things have been crazy around here and a lot of family stuff came up that took me away from here for awhile. BUT hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things shortly! I haven't forgotten about the sewing tutorial and have so many more ideas to share with everyone I can hardly contain myself! Hope you all didn't forget about me because I sure haven't forgotten about you crazy cool kids! =P

Sewing in your scrapbooks

2011-01-12T15:18:00.000-06:00

Working on a mini tutorial about sewing your scrapbook pages so stay tuned :) How many of you sew on your layouts? If you don't, have you ever wanted to try?

Link Up!

2011-01-07T21:37:00.000-06:00

We've finally gotten a link icon to share with everyone so please share it on your blogs! In return for sharing our blog link below, we're having our FIRST link party! Please post a link to your blog entries below by clicking the "Click here to enter" link. You may post more than one since this is our first time hosting. Links can be posted until midnight Jan. 14, 2011 central standard time.

Stampmaker!

2011-01-07T20:10:00.001-06:00

I just added another option for anyone wanting in on the stampmaker amazingness! Here you can get another version of the stampmaker. This is a must have for stampers! The possibilities are ENDLESS!

So what are you waiting for???

Polaroids

2011-01-07T17:25:00.000-06:00

My mother in law found her old Polaroid camera and some old film about year and a half ago and snapped these pics at her house. They look vintage because of the way the film developed. They've been sitting on my desk waiting to be scrapped since then. I was hesitant since they're the only copies but finally sucked it up and scrapped them.

My First Swap, A Sketch and Feedback Wanted!

2011-01-07T12:01:00.002-06:00

So I'm all signed up for my first swap and I'm super excited. I've been told they're addicting, so just another thing I'll probably be adding to my "can't get enough of" list. I have to have ten flowers made and mailed by the end of February. I plan on making a different flower than my rose tutorial and don't worry, I will definitely be posting a tutorial. Just be patient... I probably won't post the tutorial until after the swap is over which is the beginning of March.

On another note, I saw this awesome sketch today from Practical Scrappers. I can't wait to try it!

If you use this sketch please let me know, I'd love to see your LO and please share it at Practical Scrappers as well and tell them Splendid Scraps sent you! You could even be featured on their website, exciting??? I think so!!! Also, if you make sketches... What inspires you and what programs do you use? I'd like to attempt making one sometime and will most likely use Photoshop, it's definitely one of my favorite programs on my computer, right up there with Lightroom for my photo editing and organization. Adobe definitely has my heart when it comes to photo editing programs. :] Don't believe me? Try out the free trial. I can't forget to mention all the wonderful brushes and fonts I have for it. Speaking of which, I should share them with everyone!

***Anyone up for some free brushes and fonts from time to time? They're great for digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapping. If you want me to share comment here and let me know, I'd love to help you all out with FREE, fun, digital goodies if there's an interest in it! The brushes I will use as "stamps" with my wide format printer. No worries, a tutorial will be posted on that as well!

Happy Scrapping!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Inspiration from Japan

2011-01-05T19:08:00.001-06:00

So I officially finished cleaning my scrap space last night and got photos taken today. So if my monsters allow, I will be posting photos of my super clean and uber organized scrap space later tonight, meaning... late late tonight, possible early morning tomorrow. In the midst of keeping my newly mobile monster out of everything I did come across this amazing layout from a scrapper in Japan. I simply cannot wait to try out all the different elements and ideas in this layout. I love it!

Clean, clean, clean...

2011-01-02T20:45:00.002-06:00

So since my post yesterday I've really been making a lot of progress on cleaning up my scrap/craft/sewing area. I also somehow managed to clean the living room, take down the Christmas decorations AND set up my daughters room with her new furniture (my old bedroom set from my mom's) all while juggling two kiddos. The hubby did help with the unloading furniture and taking it upstairs part though, so I can't take all the credit there. It quite obviously isn't just a one person job.

So I just wanted to take a few short minutes to share a layout that I finished a few days ago... =] It was my first time ever coloring a stamped image (the bird) and I absolutely love how it turned out. It's definitely something that I will be doing again, as a matter of fact I'll probably start using my stamps more just for that purpose.

Also, if you're looking for some great primary paints... head on over to my Etsy Store and snatch up this last paint kit.

Now I'm going to get back to cleaning and I hope you all are having a great 2011 so far. Please feel free to share my blog and Facebook page with your friends, the more the merrier!

*** Post linked at

Resolutions

2011-01-01T20:53:00.000-06:00

So I'm horrible at making resolutions, let alone keeping them so this year I'm going to take a shot at a couple crafty resolutions. Here goes nothing....

I will clean... clean... clean my scrap space. Starting right after this blog! (I promise) :]

I will try to use more scraps from my "scrap stash"

I will do more hybrid scrapbooking and use my Pazzles more.

I will fix the saggy table and have matching furniture by the end of 2011, even if it means painting it all.

and I will multitask better and more often.

So these are a few of my resolutions and I'm sure you can see why. So now I'm off to begin by CLEANING my craft area. Wish me luck!

New Giveaway!

2011-01-01T00:28:00.000-06:00

So we changed the giveaway! We want fans and followers and you want free goodies right? What about paper pads, artisan albums and artisan tape???

Well we've made the prize even BETTER than it was before. With one catch... we want to reach at least 250 facebook fans and 100 blog followers! If after one week we haven't reached that number, the contest will stay open until we do.

So here it goes... you tell your friends... you get points! The person with the most referrals wins, so suggest our Facebook page to all of your friends and also tell them to follow our blog! They need to post your first and last name on our Facebook page and/or post a reply to this blog post with your first and last name. Each is worth one point and if they do both then you will get TWO points! That's right! Two points for one person referred to each site. They must "like" our Facebook page and "follow" our blog or your points will not be counted. So what are you waiting for... get the word out there!

***Contest will end January 8, 2011 at midnight (central time) or until we reach 250 fans and 100 followers.

Got Paint???

2010-12-31T23:47:00.000-06:00

If not you can get it here.

Happy Scrapping! =]

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T22:06:00.003-06:00

So it's been an eventful end of 2010 this past few days. Neighborhood vandals took out our mailbox Tuesday night and it ended up about a quarter of a mile down the road under a neighbor's pickup truck. I felt extremely lucky that it was just our mailbox after talking to the sheriff and all of our neighbor's about their damage, especially since we weren't even home until Wednesday. Others had their houses and cars painted, vehicles broken into and decorations trashed. So needless to say yesterday was spent assembling a new mailbox and stand... trust me, not as easy as it may seem. Especially trying to put it IN the ground, we might as well have been trying to put it in bedrock. I hate, with a passion, the rocky soil of southern Missouri. The positive thing about it is that we now have a very pretty white mailbox with a fancy number sign. =] If vandals want to mess with it now they'll have to answer to me. Not something they want to do, TRUST ME! LOL. Then to top it off, today the entire area is in shock over the tornado that went through post. 2010 really went out with a bang to say the least! Let's just hope that 2011 brings health and happiness to everyone and our vandals are caught!

In crafty news, I'd previously mentioned my mom's sled that I made years ago. Well I finally got the photo taken and off of my camera! I think I like it now more than I have ever before.

Over the holidays I gathered up a few goodies from gifts, gratuity and even myself. The distrezz-it-all was a "me" gift that I ordered, as was the lovely pink ATG. I honestly have no idea how I'd ever live without it now that I have it. It dispenses like a dream and that adhesive is definitely not letting anything go anywhere! I also gifted myself the rest of the smooch spritz colors. I can blame that on my friend Andi, who ordered some items from me, including some smooch and the distrezz-it-all. I couldn't resist completing my collection or pass up the holiday special on the distresser. The create a sticker was a gift from my mother and father in law. I have the mini one and like it so having the larger one with more capabilities will be really nice. Especially for lace and diecut papers that are a pain to adhere adhesive to sometimes.

Then a trip with my mom to the city to go to Joann's left me with this... The blue fabric is going to be a pillow to match the new bedding set that I'll be making. Notice the pattern on the right? Unfortunately the other fabrics we have to special order, but we have them picked out and it's going to be fabulous! The orange roll was off of the remnant clearance rack and looks and feels like a basketball. I thought I could find something neat to make with it eventually. If you have any ideas feel free to share them! I think I've been trying to hard to come up with the perfect project for it. The letters I will be papering and mod-podging for Logan's room. I also got a gigantic paper mache "C" for another project, but my lovely hubby left it at my moms so now I have to wait two weeks to start on it. (Probably would have taken me that long anyway, but I am REALLY excited about it and wish I had it here to work on as I have time.)

Then these, totally amazing, beautifully rusty metal signs were on my in-laws porch. I saw them and fell in love. So shabby chic and obviously customized with our last name. =] There were four of them sitting there and my father in law gave me two. I'm not sure what he made them for but I LOVE THEM and can't wait to put them into commission decorating my home.

My mom and I also grabbed these at the store for a special decorating idea. We've been looking for the right fabric colors for months now and this had them all! Something we never would have thought of either. I will post details soon, I promise!

What goodies did you get over the holidays?

Tomorrow I will be posting some scrap resolutions (complete with photos) in hopes that publicly putting it out there will help me stick to it! See ya then!

Prayers Needed

2010-12-31T15:32:00.006-06:00

So today has been quite the day. Our area was hit by the storm system that has been reported across every news channel there is and an F3 tornado touched down. Luckily our house was off post, a few miles away from it and wasn't damaged, but some friends of mine were directly in it's path and their houses were damaged. My friend Norma's house is one of the worst I've seen so far.

Please keep her family and all the other families in your prayers! Many homes were destroyed and even more damaged.

My husbands company building also got hit as well, Fort Leonard Wood has officially been declared in a state of emergency so I'm sure my hubby will be busy the next few days (he's a military police officer). He worked all last night on patrol then after the tornado hit this morning around 10:00am he was called back in. He got home an hour or so ago and is sleeping so he can go back in again tonight to work. Some of the military vehicles it moved and flipped weigh over 20,000 pounds my husband said. Crazy!

Unfortunately there are more areas like this across the path of the tornado, through Missouri and Arkansas. Here are some more photos and a video of our local area.

fabric Fabulous

2010-12-30T10:16:00.002-06:00

Want in on another giveaway? This one's for some lovely fat quarters. Head on over to Retro Mummy for details.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Still on vacay :]

2010-12-27T21:18:00.001-06:00

Hello dear friends! I'm still visiting family for the holidays and I'm definitely starting to have scrappy/crafty withdrawals. Boo! I keep meaning to take photos of this awesome vintage sled that I made forever ago for my mom while I'm here, but every time I think about it I'm in the middle of something else or too lazy to find my camera. I will get photos of it before I leave and before my mom packs up all her Christmas decor, I promise. In other exciting news you may notice that I'm posting my first blog from my new iPad! My mom and dad are AMAZING and got me this electronic candy for school and I'm without a doubt IN LOVE with it. As a mater of fact I nearly took it to bed with me, but talked myself out of it so as not to make my dear husband jealous. Haha. Anyway, since I've been unable to share or create any of my own crafty goodness due to this lovely holiday season I will share with you this amazing, I'm totally in love with, magnetic calendar by www.justaboutthedetails.com.

Happy Scrapping!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T22:51:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was amazing and I can't be thankful enough!

Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread House

2010-12-22T22:07:00.000-06:00

Tonight Logan and I put together his gingerbread house kit that my mom got him from Joann's and it turned out better than I'd expected. Now I've made gingerbread houses before but never from a kit and let me tell you, the icing that came with it was a pain. Never again will I build one from a kit. Nothing wanted to stick to the house AT ALL! After contemplating throwing it out the window I reassessed the situation and came to the conclusion that the house pictured on the box could not possibly have been put together with just icing and still looked that good. So... out came the hot glue gun. Yes, I said hot glue gun. Now I can say that it's because I'm at my parents house for the holidays and didn't have my all my cake decorating supplies, but in reality, with the way things were going (or should I say falling off), I'd have grabbed the hot glue gun no matter where I was. The way I see it, the gumdrops on top are really the only thing Logan MIGHT want to pick off and eat and they're not glued on so we're all good. So now, I shall share with you our gingerbread masterpiece. LOL.

Nothing like the last minute...

2010-12-21T20:32:00.000-06:00

So last night I had a lot of fun at the handmade dirty Santa party with the girls. =] Here's what I made to exchange...

I love mod podge and paper... and ANYTHING crafty =] Jane picked my present so I hope that she likes it!

After getting home I had to finish two last minute mini albums that I decided to make for my grandmother and my husbands grandmother. Now I said finish, but I really meant start and finish BOTH of them since all I'd gotten done the night before was print the pictures off (my printer was being a pain... I did accidentally put the paper in backwards but hey, we'll blame the printer anyway, LOL). So for a moment there I actually talked myself out of making them, thinking there was no way I'd ever get them done and get any sleep, but I persevered and by 3:45 AM they were finished. They're simplistic for me, but in order to get them done at all I had to talk myself out of a million different ideas. Embellishments are my friend, like my best friend, but it was actually kind of refreshing to end up with something a bit different than I'm used to. Here's a sneak peek... I will post page by page photos after Christmas!

Happy Scrapping!

Paper Rose Tutorial (Four Sizes)

2010-12-20T15:22:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! After a lot of positive feedback and questions about how I made the flowers in my previous post I've decided to do my FIRST tutorial so here it goes... =]

In this tutorial I'll show you how to make paper roses in four different sizes, or how I make mine at least. =P I made my previous roses out of Pink Paislee cardstock so to test things out a bit, this tutorial uses background paper from Jenni Bowlin. I must say, although it wasn't any harder to work with, I like the final outcome and stiffness of the final product from the cardstock much better than from the paper.

So let's get started! =]

First we'll gather up our supplies, I used:

Glossy Accents or Sobo (Or any liquid scrapbooking glue)
Embossing Mat (I used the backside of my mouse pad since I don't have an embossing mat)
Glimmer Mist (Any color you want to use but I used pearl) (optional)
Sharpie
Rhinestones, Buttons or something for the center
Stickles or something for the petal edges once finished (optional)
Embossing Stylus (or rounded end of a paint brush)
Paper piercer or needle (Something long, round and thin)
Craft Knife
Tweezers (optional, to position petals on final product)
Paper or Cardstock
Punches or diecutter

First you'll need to cut out your flowers, now since I'm a very spontaneous scrapper and I like to be prepared I cut out WAY more flowers than you'll need, but I plan on making extras to have ready later so it's all good.

I used my Pazzles and cut a variety of different sizes, some five leaves but most were six. You can use different punches or a cutting machine. When I first began I didn't know what would work best but I ended up using both and just saved the cutting file so I can cut whichever sizes I want when I want. Here's the different sizes I used, they range from 1/2" to 2" as you can see from the grid underneath. The more sizes you use the better your flower will look I've found out, even if it's just 1/4" or 1/8" larger or smaller.

and here's my little piles of assorted sizes lol (like I said.... way too many!)

First I took the smallest flower (1/2") and cut short slits between each petal, be careful not to cut too far or you'll cut the petals off.

Then I took the small end of my stylus and my mouse pad and using a circular motion rubbed each petal until it curled up into a little bowl.

Then I did the same thing to the center of the flower but used the larger end of my stylus.

Next I glued my center rhinestone but you can use buttons or even brads if you wanted.

I sat that aside to dry and grabbed the next size larger five leaf flower. I cut slits between it's petals as well and used my stylus (the larger end this time) to curl the petals and center just like I did with the smaller flower.

So now you have this:

Take the center piece, making sure it's dried, and roll it closed between your fingers.

Then glue the center piece inside of the second flower.

After it dries I like to scrunch it up again with both flowers.

You'll then take the next largest six leaf flower and cut slits between it's petals and using the stylus curl it.

You'll then take another six leaf flower of the same size and WITHOUT cutting slits in it, curl it's petals as well.

You should end up with this:

Using your liquid glue, glue them one inside of the other.

Now that is the completion of the SMALL rose (about 1/2" across).

To make a medium size rose you'll need your small rose, a 1" five petal and two 1" six petal flowers.

Cut slits between the petals of the five petal flower and one of the six petal flowers.

Use your stylus to curl up all three petals and centers. If you tear your flower at ANY point don't worry about it, it will work just fine. I actually kinda like mine torn a little but the tear here was an accident lol.

Take the small rose bud you just made and glue it inside of the five petal flower and then glue that flower into the next.

Now before I glued these last two pieces for the medium flower together, I took my paper piercer and curled the petals on the last layer back (sorry the photo is blurry but you get the idea)

It should look like this and then you can glue them together.

So you've learned how to make a small and medium rose:

Let's move onto the large rose. To make a large rose you'll take a medium rose, one 1-1/4" flower, one 1-1/2" flower and one 1-3/4" flower.

Slit the two smaller ones between the petals and round them all using the end of your sharpie.

One the larger one, after you've rounded it, you'll hold each petal with two fingers (one on top and one on bottom) and using your other hand pinch the end to make it look like this.

I then used my paper piercer to curl the middle flowers petals back.

Take your medium size flower and glue it in the center of the flower on the left. Once it's glued use your fingers and bend over the outer petals towards the center.

Assemble the rest of the flower and I usually use my stylus to press down in the center to make sure it's glued well all the way through.

So now you have a small, medium and large flower.

To make an even bigger flower you need a large flower that you made and a 2" flower. I forgot to take a pic of it before but you'll use your sharpie to round out the petals and center then pinch the petals like you did before. It should look like this when you're done.

Next you'll glue your large flower onto the 2" flower base.

So now your flowers are complete, for the finishing touches you can spray with shimmer mist, or something similar.

and add glitter to the petals using stickles or a glitter glue technique. These I didn't add glitter to but on the previous ones I used the stickles pictured above.

If you have ANY questions just let me know! I'd be happy to help in any way I can. Thanks for visiting and if you use my tutorial link me and let me know, I'd love to see what you all create!

Excited =]

2010-12-19T23:33:00.000-06:00

So I made a pretty awesome handmade gift for the Dirty Santa Handmade gift exchange tomorrow =] I can't post pics yet because it's got to be a surprise but I did make a second for myself. Instead of keeping the second though I've decided to give it to my mom for Christmas. I'll be posting pics of this mystery gift soon don't worry... as for tomorrow... I can't wait to see what others have made!

Besides that I also mastered handmade paper roses, well really it's my first try but I love how they turned out!

Now I've just got to get the little monster next to me BACK to bed since she thinks it's party time so I can get a last minute Christmas gift idea/Mini Scrapbook done before Tuesday! Ahhh! Yeah, me and my last minute ideas, great huh?

New Uploads

2010-12-16T22:02:00.001-06:00

So tonight I uploaded way too many photos to post them all... so I'm going to post my three favorite's out of Kenna's second album =] If you want to see the rest of my uploads from tonight feel free to browse my gallery at scrapbook.com

New blog design! =]

2010-12-16T14:01:00.000-06:00

What do you all think? I love it... like absolutely L.O.V.E. it!

Looking for a great Christmas kit?

2010-12-16T09:21:00.000-06:00

Check out Divine Design Kits for an adorable "Christmas Past Kit"... how can you NOT want it after seeing this adorable layout? =]

Uploads of the day!

2010-12-14T23:57:00.000-06:00

Just a few uploads I got posted to my sb.com gallery today =]

Time for bed =] Night everyone!

Favorite of the day!

2010-12-14T23:49:00.000-06:00

This scrapper has been on my "amazing scrapper" list for awhile! This LO by Sarah De Guzman is simple yet amazing... I love it! Her layouts are full of unique ideas and inspiration.

Don't forget to visit our facebook page and "like" us! Once we reach 250 fans we're giving away an amazing kit, so share us with all your friends as well! The sooner we reach the magic number, the sooner you could win free scrap goodies!

Kit added to the Store! =]

2010-12-14T14:08:00.000-06:00

Check out this kit that I just added to my Etsy store! I LOVE it! =]

Etsy Store

Short & Sweet

2010-12-09T00:29:00.000-06:00

So it's been a long day to say the least. The Crafty Chicks meetup went well, although we'd all underestimated just how time-consuming making sock monkey's could be... HAHA So they didn't get quite finished. Here's the adorable monkey Norma made (she was being camera shy lol)...

I spent the rest of the evening finishing up two papers for my classes and then took a few minutes before bed snap a couple photos of Makenna's first scrapbook... so here they are! More pages to come =]

Have a wonderful night everyone! (Or should I say morning? lol)

Monkey Meetup =]

2010-12-08T10:33:00.000-06:00

The Crafty Chicks group is having a monkey meetup today =] I'm so excited! We're making sock monkey's and having lots of fun as usual! I'll be updating with pics later today!

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Our first blog post!

2010-12-06T15:49:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone! =] I've finally got the blog functional and will definitely need your all's help with it! We're going to have a blog/logo design contest. This is a great way to use digital scrapbooking elements if you have any as well! The winner of the contest will receive a mini kit FREE! The design will have to include a blogger background to the appropriate dimensions, blogger header (must match background), store logo and square avatar (prefer it to coordinate with the logo). If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at blog@splendidscraps.com

We're also giving away Paper Kits as soon as we reach 250 fans on facebook! Join us there and tell your friends about us as well!

In store news, we've recently added a special order item to our store. It's the Teressa Collins Stampmaker and an AMAZING price. We've also got one large "Back to Basics" Kit left and once it's gone it's gone!

My favorite sb.com layout of the day is....

by Cassiebox
Have a great day and Happy Scrapping!