Outside the Box

Last night's Outside the Box was so much fun!  I stayed way to long & so ended up staying up way too late (yes, I'm tired today).  For now, I will leave you with this picture of the necklace I pieced together for my version of the make & take.  It's simple but I like it :) 

We are using the Fall 2010 edition of Somerset Memories for our book of the quarter (well, whatever it is now that we are using a book for 4 months of the year...a third sounds odd).  It's really lovely and even  includes our lovely leader, Elena Etcheverry, who initiated & was part of the Lucky 13: A Year to Remember Circle Journal.  This edition of Somerset Memories magazine/idea book is very inspiring. 

Chipboard bird collages

before

after

I made these for a "bird swap" last month with my Scrapbook Club (now called Outside the Box).  They were lots of fun to make.  I started out with plain chipboard birds (from StudioCee on Etsy).  I basically collaged them using what I learned in the Collage 101 workshop I took at CREATE.  I added "Smooch Spritz" for the color & pearly sparkle, applied paint to the edge, adhered random inked words, added Diamond Dust to the wings & added some bling for the eyes. You can check out Kat's blog post for a much better look at these birdies: http://katstinkerings.blogspot.com/2010/09/out-of-box-at-urban-barn.html

As usual, since time flies, we have another meeting tonight where we will chat, show off what we've made in the past month & more.  I'm looking forward to it, though I'm not sure what I will bring for "show & tell."  Maybe the blue cowl that I knitted last week or maybe (doubtful, though) I will bring something from CREATE that I've finished.

fairy bottles, The Art Bar & more!

I went to The Art Bar in Santa Ana on Saturday for a lesson from Miss Vicky on soldering & making fairy bottles with some gals from the Scrapbook Club (plus a few others).  What fun!  You just cannot go wrong with Miss Vicky.  She's a hoot...and then some!  The Art Bar is fantastic, too.  For such a small space, they sure have a bit of everything for mixed media & more.  The cool part, well, too me anyway, is that they have a "bar" where you can buys "shots" of paint & whatnot.  How cool is that?

After The Art Bar, we went for lunch at The Filling Station in Orange.  I got so lost on the way & have no clue how I ended up finding this place.  No GPS, no map of the area, didn't call or get directions.  I do have a pretty good sense of direction but know very little about getting around Orange County.  I'll just call it my internal GPS :-) 

After lunch, we wandered through wonderful little & big antique shops.  So many fantastic things to see.  So many temptations that I passed up.  I gave in to the Red Velvet cupcake at The Perfect Circle Cupcakery.  It was well worth giving in.

When life gives you lemons, make something

Tonight's Scrapbook Club was rescheduled at the last minute. I didn't check the phone for messages & almost didn't check my email. I was annoyed at first, thinking 'what if I drove the more than 30 miles which takes at least an hour during rush hour and arrived to nothing?' Then I was disappointed. I sat. I moped. I checked out Facebook & stopped myself before getting sucked into surfing Etsy (& spending out of frustration). I wanted to make something new & different but felt glued to the chair until I got this idea while looking at the Martha Stewart website (I never thought I would reference her site here, but I really do like it). There was something on her site about embroidering & I though, 'that looks like fun, I could do that.' I didn't have any interfacing or a sewing machine but I did have plenty of embroidery floss, a drawing, tracing paper and a bunch of these cute little muslin bags. The tracing paper didn't work out quite as well as I would have liked so I ended up filling in the spots with pencil onto the muslin.
I'm not sure if this bag is quite done. I do like it the way it is but sometimes I just have to add a little something to make things even better. I'm happy I was able to take advantage of having some alone time to do something creative.

Hope all is well with everyone!
Pam

Scrapbook Club

Well, for the first time since starting back in January, I had to miss Scrapbook Club on Thursday night :( I knew about it well in advance but it was harder than I thought it would be. Anyway, I figured I would take the kid up to Pink Pineapple with me on Friday to get my class kit under the guise of her getting to play in the kids area at PP. Got my kit & it's full of yummy stuff for me to play with! Yay! I feel a little better now. When it came time to leave, it was harder to get my kid to go & I had to persuade her with a chocolate milk at Starbucks (cause that's "a mommy and me thing" as she says). Hehe... Quick stop at Michaels. Got a little something for my crafting (will tell in another post at another time) & a $1 coloring book for the kid.

Not the best pics but here is the kit:journaling pages & plastic gem things

Mixed Media Half Bracket Album from Fancy Pants
Fancy Pants paper



Maya Road Circles Translucent Sheet
Cute little chicky clip
I have no clue what I will do with my kit but I may be back with my results. I'm currently working on flowers for the class flower swap.

Scrapbook Club at Pink Pineapple

I'd been wanting to take this "class" ever since I heard about it (maybe 1 1/2 years ago?). Scheduling had been a concern since I'm not that close to Vista & I'm responsible for a little kid until daddy gets home. I finally figured out that I could do it when I had another commitment on the same night of the month but then decided to hop in & go for it last week. The class is actually what's called a Scrapbook Club (formerly known as the Scrapbook Book club). It's up at Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks & is taught/led/coordinated by Elena Etcheverry of Scrapbook Royalty. The book this month is the hot-off-the-press Designing with the Divas by Danielle Forsgren & Rayme Sciaroni. Danielle was there & told us about the book & the cable radio show she does each week with Rayme. We each made some really cute little Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) as our make n' take (led by Danielle). Rayme stopped in & chatted with the group. At the end, Elena passed out a fabulous kit with the challenge to make a mini album & to distress it. A fun evening all around. I'm looking forward to playing with the challenge. This is what came in my kit! Fun things to play around with.

Links:

Pink Pineapple: http://www.pinkpineapplescrapbooks.com/

Scrapbook Royalty: website http://www.scrapbookroyalty.com/

and blog http://scrapbookroyalty.blogspot.com/

Diva Craft Lounge blog talk radio (Designing with the Divas):http://www.blogtalkradio.com/DivaCraftLounge/2008/11/12/Diva-Craft-Lounge