A new favorite....

I love to blog hop, especially when it comes to crafting.  Blogs are an AWESOME place to get ideas, inspiration, or great little product tips.  I have a few faves including Tim Holtz and Jennifer McGuire.  When I'm bored or I need a little push to get started, I hop on over to these blogs to get my creative juices flowing.  And when I am on my favorite blogs, I'll hop over to some of their favorites.  I have discovered some real jewels doing that.

I just HAVE to share my new fave blog, from across the pond.  I am an avid follower of Tim Holtz's blog and earlier this week, I was reading about his trip to England.  He taught a few workshops at a shop owned by Dyan Reaveley.  I checked out her blog and got hooked.  Lots of bright colors on her projects and all kinds of media are used.

Art and Soul

Image courtesy of Ranger.com

If you're needing some inspiration, be sure to check out her blog.  And....apparently, she has got a line of whimsical stamps coming out from Ohio's own Stampers Anonymous.  No word on the release date yet, but they can be seen here at Ranger's website: Dylusions Stamps. 

I just LOVE Doolally Doris!!  So cute and whimsical!!  I love the wings and party hats!!  Here's hopin' they come out soon and...maybe...fingers crossed...you see it here at the Scrapbook Outlet.

Happy scrappin!

More new goodies...

It's been a very busy past few weeks here at the store.  And since we've been absent from the blogging world, we've had some awesome things arrive!

First of all, the Campy Trails line from American Crafts arrived and it really is 'So stinkin' cute!?!'  It really is an adorable line; perfect for camping trips, outdoor excursions, and mountain vacations.  And trust me when I say, these photos do not do the line justice!  (And that is coming from someone who purchased the whole line!!)

If you've been to our store, you'll know that we're a teensy bit obsessed with Thickers...(Okay, maybe obsessed isn't a strong enough word...hehe)  We have a ton of Thickers and I mean a TON!!  We have over 70 different Thickers packs!!  [I told you we were a bit obsessed with the Thickers.. ;)]  Here are some of the new favorites that just arrived...

For Easter, we have the We R Memory Keepers Peep Collection.  This collection is full of bright, spring colors and adorable bunnies, chicks, and Easter eggs.  Available in whole collection packs or open-stock, this collection is perfect for all those egg hunt layouts and Easter bunny photos!!

The little ones in my family really enjoy coloring Easter eggs right before Easter and we're always looking for something to extend the fun.  Here's an idea:  make colorful personalized egg stands out of paper.  Take a sheet of the Peep pattern paper and cut to approximately 2" x 7" and roll into a tube, attaching ends,  Decorate with embellishments or personalize for your kiddos and you've got a great stand for all those brightly colored eggs.  Can you just imagine these down the center of tables at Easter dinner??

Well, we're off to make room for more new goodies that will be on their way here!  Have a great day and happy scrappin!

CHA Excitement

First of all, who turned the heat off outside?!?!  Negative 6 degrees this morning here in Alaska....er...I mean Urbana, Ohio.  Brrrrrrrr......

In the crafting industry, CHA is the event that is anticipated every year.  CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) takes place in California in the winter and Chicago in the summer.  This past week in sunny, warm, non-icy California, they debuted all of the hot-new items in the industry.  Here at the store, we are absolutely drooling over all the new paper, embellishments, and tools that have debuted and will start arriving in stores within the next couple of months.

From Bo Bunny, they released 'Gabrielle' and 'Timepiece'.  Two gorgeous collections that we jumped on and preordered as soon as we saw them.  These two lines are vintage-y and I am sure they are going to be a favorite here at the store.



Gabrielle

And of course, if you know me, you know that I'm a HUGE Tim Holtz fan.  The man is a genius and he's done it again!  Lots of cool, new embellsihments have been released in the Ideaology line.  He's also come up with Distress Stains.  These stains are good on TONS of surfaces and I have a feeling they are going to be EXTREMELY popular.  And of course, in his Alterations line for Sizzix, he's come up with new dies and embossing folders!  (Images appear from timholtz.blogspot.com and rangerink.com)

We're Thickers addicts here at the store and we've ordered TONS of new Thickers in lots of fabulous colors and style.  We've got foam, glitter, chipboard, and more!  TONS of Thickers for all!  Woohoo!!
We're also VERY excited about the new American Crafts border punch set.  This punch set has six different border punches that are interchangeable in a single punch base!!  And it all comes in a case, so you can grab and go!! 

The Campy Trails line, also from American Crafts, was also a favorite of ours.  Whimsical animals and images accompany retro colors.  Great for outdoors, camping, and travel layouts, this line is sure to be a favorite here at the store!  As Jen would say, 'It's so stinkin' cute!' (There's an embellishment in the line that actually says that!  hehe)

So many exciting new things will be arriving here next month that we can barely contain ourselves!!  Stay tuned to the blog and our newsletter for updates!  Happy scrappin!!





Cool stuff from Hambly

Okay, I gotta say, I'm a huge IKEA fan. I mean, everything in my house pretty much came from IKEA, but this is the most genius idea of something to do with their lamps, those big square paper lamps that hang from the ceiling:

Imagine what cool things you could do with just the paper around your house? 

Photo from here: Hambly Screen Prints and we're all jealous that we couldn't be at CHA this time! We'll be there later this year though, when they come through Chicago!

Digital Scrapping

Hello, Laura here! I'm not the normal scrapbooker around here, I'm the web designer. So what on earth am I doing posting here?

Weeeelll, working with this crew tends to get you interested in making your own scrapbook-y stuff, right? And I'm getting married in June and needed to send out Save-the-Date cards. Obviously, I went running to Lindsey begging for ideas and she helped me come up with a great one!

Since I'm more of a web geek and have my Photoshop skills, I just designed a 4x6 image based on Victorian postcards and had them printed as photos at Walgreens Photo. I got the postcard imagery from this AMAZING site with free, publicly-licensed images of high-resolution scanned Victorian paper cards and such on it that you can use to your heart's content.

Then on the back, we picked out a corner punch and I cut out 4x6 pieces of a pretty yellow paper. I ran them through the printer for the wording (realized after 2 cards I wasn't about to write 86 copies of this!) and borrowed Lindsey's Tim Holtz Postcard stamp for the vintage look.

For the divider, we used a Cuttlebug and made the embossing and VOILA! Beautiful, expensive-looking save the date postcards!

Both techy and crafty. I'm so proud! Thank you Lindsey!

Scrapbooking Resolution: Take More Photos

I remember as a child everyone getting annoyed at my uncle who always had a camera or video camera in our faces at EVERY family event.  Now that I'm an adult, I'm glad that he did as we have a record of memories from the past.

I don't think you can ever take too many photos.  In fact, I always have my camera handy at home in case there's an oppurtunity to snap a picture.  I almost always try to take it to any family event so I can record it.  Whether it's gathering together to watch Ohio State football games or celebrating a birthday, the camera is there.

I take pictures of my nephews and nieces silly faces, funny poses, and goofy dances.  Some of them are getting to the age where they HATE getting their pictures taken and I get an occasional roll of the eyes.

Now, you may ask what do I do with all these pictures?  Most are stored on my hard drive and thumb drive.  I don't print every single picture.  Just the ones I plan on scrapping or framing are the only ones that get printed.  And when I do print them, I do it online and have them shipped to my house.  It's definitely a lot easier and most of the online photo websites have photo editors that allow you to crop and correct pictures.  I've even printed pictures as cheap as a penny a print on sites!  Most sites allow you to upload your photos and store them in 'albums' for later use.  Some of my favorite photo processing websites are:

Winkflash
Snapfish
Kodak Gallery

And what if you want to scrap all your photos, but don't want 150 layouts of one person's birthday?  A few companies have started making 12x12 photo sleeves for your albums.  We R Memory Keepers and American Crafts are two companies that have sleeves for albums that hold 4x6 photos (or other sizes), enabling you to have photos and layouts in your scrapbooks.  These companies also make sleeves that hold larger and smaller photos in addition to 4x6 photos.  In addition to photos, you can put journaling blocks or other embellishments in the blocks!  The possibilities are endless!  We have these sleeves available here at the Scrapbook Outlet and can order additional sizes if you need something special.



Don't be afraid to stage photographs either.  If you see a paper you adore, stage a picture that would be perfect.  Case in point, my 3 year old nephew got a drum set brought to him by Santa for Christmas.  I had the perfect paper and title: 'Little Drummer Boy'.  I made him pose with the drumsticks and took lots of pictures with him playing the drums (very LOUDLY, I might add...) 

So...this year resolve to capture more memories on your camera.  Don't be afraid to take pictures and if you're like me, endure complaints from the subjects.    Take pictures of a child playing with a toy, a dog playing in the snow, or a haircut.  Take pictures of your flower garden, your house, or your car covered in the first snow of the season.  In ten years, you won't regret having records of these memories.

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Scrapbooking Resolution: Clean and Organize

Happy 2011 everyone!  Every New Year's, resolutions are made.  It may be to save money, lose weight, donate to charity, or spend more time with your family.  In addition to my yearly resolutions of saving money and getting healthier, I make a scrapbooking resolution (or two).

Walking in my scrappin' room ('The Scrap Cave' as I like to call it), I saw all the remnants of 2010's Christmas projects.  Paper on the floor, trash can overflowing, and scrappy supplies strewn about, let's just say that I am SO happy that company doesn't see that room.  It definitely looks like a bomb blew up in there! 



I resolved right then and there to be more organized and clean  in my scrapbooking. I plan on putting all supplies and materials away when I am finished.  When I get new paper or embellishments, I'll put them away instead of just laying them on the table for another time.  

There are TONS of great organizing products out there on the market.  One of my faves is the Clip-It-Up.  This thing is AWESOME!!!  Clip all your stickers, embellishments, and ribbon up and away from your workspace.  I've even got a few card-size papers hanging on mine.  The best thing is that the Clip It Up spins like a carousel, giving you easy access to anything stored on it!  This thing even comes with some great organizing dividers so you can divide by topic, color, or type.

Another one of my fave organizing tools is the Creative Options Project Box.  These boxes come in a few different sizes and colors.  These boxes are my go-to storage for weekend crops or finished album pages.  I'm notorious for scrapbooking various subjects at once and not putting my completed projects in album.  So, my solution is to keep all my finished layouts in these boxes until I get the time to organize them into albums.  The boxes are also VERY sturdy and take a beating, as mine travel frequently to weekend crops and to friends houses.

We'll have some more resolutions throughout the month of January here on the blog and in the newsletter, too.  What are you resolutions?  We'd love to hear them so leave us a comment!!

Happy Scrappin'!