Hello There, Blog!

Wow times flies when you're having fun, huh? Well, not so much having fun just on the go. If I could figure out a painless way to blog from my Blackberry I would but alas there are only so many hours in the day and they seem to be slipping through my fingers.

A health update--got some new meds and hopefully I will be on the road to recovery soon. I lost my voice today too. I wish someone would let the germs know they need to *schedule* time for me to be sick--I can't be having it happen when I am teaching and cropping and chatting. Hello germies?! I have stuff planned. Seriously!

Anyways, here's what I have been up to, sinus infection and all:

Thursday - Nap time. All day! I do not like to sleep so for me to sleep all day means it was much needed.

Friday - Did some non-scrappy stuff in the AM (who cares if it ain't scrapping, right?! LOL) and then off to crop at Scrapbook Boulevard!! I got some *work* stuff done (you know for classes, Etsy) and then did a page and a card:





I also got to work on that Wizard of Oz banner I have been trying to do from my "death couch". I am hoping to have it done this week!! I feel so terrible for taking so long. I wish I weren't sick cuz it is seriously getting old. :(

So after staying up until 130 am doing emails and such (OMG) I got up at 6am for a FULL DAY OF SCRAPPERIE!!

I met Cheryl McAdam at SB Blvd and we trekked 2 hours south to Ever After for back to back GlimmerMist filled classes!!

Elema came by to share all things Scrapbook Royalty. Here we are in our endless quest to get a picture of us together:

We also sold raffle tickets to benefit Komen For the Cure's San Diego chapter -- no word on the total yet but I know it was well over $100 raised from the raffle.


The class proceeds are also being donated to Scrapbook Royalty to help us with our operating costs. We had Fairy Fly Bys for everyone who came to the store and a goodie for everyone who took the Princess Crown Book Class from me. Also, everyone in Cheryl's class got a little goodie from me.

Elena and Cheryl met for the first time today -- pretties in pink!

Elena loved this layout in the store and I *promised* to post it:

She is the Starbuck's Queen you know!!! Don't know who did the page but everyone was loving it!

My favorite part of the day was meeting Michellene and making her a "winner". She won the Prima prize in my class, at which time she exclaimed she "never won anything":


And then she won the BIG raffle basket (Elena is pointing to Michellene as the winner!):




And then she won like 5 more Fairy Fly Bys I was giving way--woohooo!!

It was great to see familar faces in the class as well as to meet new people. All in all, we had a great time! And we made a huge misty, painty mess--don't you love crafting?!

Teah and Joanne came all the way from my neck of the woods (Victorville, Inland Empire) to enjoy Cheryl's and my classes:

Jessica and Carla were loving all the glitter!

I totally do not know how we will get all of this done in time! LOL

Michellene admiring the cute Prima stamps in the kit:

After that I went to lunch with Elena at this place called Habanero's ... OMG it was super yummy! And then to the SBR storage building to get some goodies to work on our Royalty On The Road Program for the rest of the year. Are you an instrcutor? Do you want to host an event at a Scrapbook Store, based on a class you design, to benefit your favorite charity? Well, stay tuned because we are wokring on the program and opening it up to instructors everywhere!! So far we have raised over $500 for various charities and $400 for Scrapbook Royalty! If you're interested, please send me an email at jennifer@scrapbookroyalty.org and I will keep you updated.

Now I am off to play with a goodie that was waiting for me when I got home tonight--a BRAND NEW Polka Dot Whimsy Kit!! Woohoo!

P.S. I got an email shipping notice that my QK Prize goodies are shipping next week....get ready fro some giveaways!!!!!!!

A Place for Photos

I am forever bringing ugly, overfilled bins of disorganized photos with me to crops. The result is that I get little done and I can never find that “perfect photo” I know is hiding in the box. A couple of times the bin fell over in the car and the photos I had "kind of" organized were a total mess after that.

I created this little photo keeper from envelopes and scrap chipboard to help me organize my photos before I go to the crop AND to limit what I am bringing (because I am one that likes to bring everything AND the kitchen sink!). There is room for photos from 15 different events. So at a 12 hour crop if I do one event an hour I still will have a couple of extras which is great because sometimes I am just not as inspired by some events and it is good to have the option to skip those. The fact that the book closes means I can also safely label each envelope with the event name and date on a Post-It note and not have to worry about the note falling off.

Now, if you know me then you know I am a BIG fan of page kits. So why not just put my photos in page kits? I have ALOT of photos in page kits. That is the problem - I have two rubbermaid tubs FULL of page kits that i just don't seem to ever get to scrapping. Because of Design Team assignments I am always having to create things with new paper and products, usually stuff that is not in my stash. If I put my photos in page kits the product they are paired with is "old" in two weeks. This photo holder will hold photos I just don't have in page kits yet so that I can use that "fresh on the shelf" paper for my DT projects.

I covered two 5” x 7” pieces of chipboard with patterned paper. Then I cut a 1”x5” piece of chipboard and a 3”x5” piece of chipboard and covered them both with patterned paper. I traced a plate onto the 3”x5 piece to get the curved edge and trimmed off the excess. I laid out the back page, then to the right of that the 1" strip and then to the right of that the curved 3x5" piece of chipboard.


The flap that folds around to the front is actually attached to the back cover, not the front cover. Using gaffer’s tape, I attached these strips of chipboard together with a little space between the pieces to allow them to bend at the seam.





I love the look of this striped gaffer's tape. I still call it "book binding tape" as they originally called it but I just looked at the label and it says gaffer's tape. A few years ago I totally had an argument with a lady who used to work at an LSS about what this tape was called -- umm, I guess she is right. For now anyways! LOL

I bound the two covers and several 5”x7 “envelopes together using the Bind It All and ¾” black O-Wires. To close the flap, I attached a piece of Velcro to the cover and to the flap. Now I have a cute way to keep my photos organized at crops and I’ll be sure to always find the photos I need. The Velcro closure ensures that my photos won’t fall out of the envelopes while traveling in my bag. I wish I had bought self-adhesive velcro -- several applications of glue dots did the trick though and I can open and close the velcro part without ripping off the glue dots since I used half a roll to hold them on! LOL So if you choose to make one of these for yourself, I say go with self adhesive velcro or Basic Grey magents (which I know I have but cannot find at the moment).

I think that is a cue that I need to go clean up my scrap space...Oh well, gotta create, mess or no mess!

Two Problems, One Solution!

After binding a few books I’ve found that I have leftover scraps of wires – sections of two to 4 loops of wire that I haven’t quite figured out a way to use. At the same time, my daughter was having trouble storing her necklaces, especially the bulky beaded necklaces that did not fit in the drawers of her little girl jewelry box.

I took one cover from a set of Teresa Collins Covers and punched binding holes along the straight edge. I traced the cover onto a piece of 12x12 paper and then cut it out just inside the line I traced. This made it smaller than the cover itself and I adhere it to the cover so a black border showed around the edges.

I wrapped ribbon and trims around the middle and used stickers and diecuts to create a monogram. The "K" letter was clear and instead of trying to figure out how to cover a glue dot to hold it on with I decided to cover it with glitter.

I stuck the letter to a 3L Scrapbook Adhesives adhesive sheet and rubbed (according to directions) to get the adhesive to stick tot he letter. I peeled off the letter and sprinkled on glitter. Then I took apart a keychain I made at Scrapbook Royalty's big annual fundraiser a couple years ago--I used just the acrylic cover from it that we had edged in Swarovski crystals. I used crystal lacquer to glue the letter to the acrylic keychain cover.

I threaded sections of scrap o-wires through the holes on the bottom of the cover. To help them stay in place I laid several strips of adhesive felt borders over top of the wires. When the piece is mounted on the wall, the wall helps the wires to stay put as well. In punched two holes in the top of the cover with the Pound It All and Rivet Setting Tools from Zutter and then added eyelets using my Crop A Dile. I tied a beaded chain through the eyelet holes using ribbon to create a hanger. My daughter instantly hung her necklaces on the hanger. It worked even better than I had envisioned in my head -- woohoo!

This is the back of the cover -- I threaded the wires in from the front and then pushed them all the way until the straight sides of the loops were laying flat against the front of the cover. No adhesive, no bending the wires involved.

Here you can see how I used the binding wires, no special treatments, to hang Katie's necklaces:

Supplies:

¾” Black O-Wire, Binding Machine, Pound It All, Rivet Setting Tools - Zutter Innovative

Paper, Cover – Teresa Collins

Ribbon – May Arts (pink polka dot), Floral Supply (tulle, white ruffle trim)

Rhinetsones – Swarovski, Heidi Swapp

Cardstock, Flower – Bazzill

Paint – KaiserCraft

Felt Borders – Queen & Co (pink), Prima (black)

Stickers – American Crafts

Beaded Chain – Walmart (better Homes & Gardens)

Eyelets- ProvoCraft

Diecuts – Sizzix

Glitter – Polka Dot Whimsy

“K” Letter – Autumn Leaves

Adhesive Sheet – 3L Scrapbook Adhesives

This project could also be used as a key holder, to hold lightweight photos or frames, or even to hold lanyards. For some reason we have lanyards for everything like the gym membership, my scrapbooking stuff, a whistle from when X coached soccer...guess I see another project in my future! Whatever you make, it is best to hang only lightweight items from the wires as they do bend (they are made to bend so you can close them with the Bind It All).

Until tomorrow, Happy Creating!!

Check out the Bind It All Blog to WIN BIG!!

Owire!

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for you Bind-it-All fans across this great land!

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Just release your inner poet in a scrappy Bind-it-All way, and you could get a goodie in the mail.

Three winners will be drawn on a day of fate,
check if you have won on February 28.

An Event-Full Day!

The day is over and we both are finally home, in our opposite ends of Southern California but all is well since we had a great day fundraising, scrappping, sharing, and bringing the good work of Scrapbook Royalty across the land. Literally!

Elena Etcheverry, our founder, and I spent the day running all over Southern California to visit two wonderful events for two very worthy causes -- City of Hope and the Unforgettables Foundation.

Here's Elena's drive:


View Larger Map

Okay, mine does not seem so bad in comparison but still, it was alot of going to and fro:


View Larger Map

First stop:

Royalty On the Road Event
Featuring the Princess Crown Book Class
Benefiting City of Hope
Pages From the Heart
Monrovia, CA

Pages From the Heart owner Kathy was so generous! She contacted me about teaching a class late last year and I approached her about our Royalty On the Road concept. She opened up her doors for us to hold our first ever Royalty On The Road event, benefitting City of Hope. It was originally scheduled in January, but we postponed to today so this was actually our second event but Pages From the Heart was the first store on-board. I taught our "Princess Crown Book", a Prima Certified class, as part of the event.

A class attendee, working with Prima flowers and Center Kisses:

Elena helped out and let everyone know what we do, talked about how this event was helping Scrapbook Royalty and City of Hope, and sold raffle tickets. Here's Elena's book:

It's gorgeous!! Here's Elena hard at work "Glimmer Misting":

"Queen Terri" won the big raffle bag (FILLED with loads of great goodies, albums, punches and more) from Pages From the Heart. Here is Terri with Pages From the Heart owner Kathy:

She ALSO won this set of Prima "Got Flowers?" flower bottles from Prima:

Queen Terri was just having all kinds of fun! She, her friend Donna and another friend all signed up for the Slumber Crop in San Marcos so we will see you all there!!

Donna's finished project:

Loretta (not pictured) won the Scrapbook Royalty raffle tote. From raffles we raised about $200 for City of Hope and from the class we raised $200 for Scrapbook Royalty--very cool! Thank you Pages From the Heart!


From there we traveled across the state to Redlands, CA for the Unforgettable Crop for Kids. (Elena's not nicknamed the "traveling princess" for nothing! LOL)...

The Unforgettable Crop For Kids
Benefiting The Unforgettables Foundation
Christ The King Church
Redlands, CA

This is the second annual Unforgettable Crop for Kids that Karen Wilson of the Unforgettables Foundation has organized. We raised $12,000 at this event!! Woohoo!! Plus there was a whole lot of cropping going on:


All day long there were make n takes. Stephanie Ackerman hosted a card buffet make n take, sponsored by Liz Hicks and Donna Salazar, to create cards for Scrapbook Royalty's Cards for the Troops (Mother's Day and Father's Day) card campaign. I did a fun little make n take after dinner - a mini book with Lil Davis products.

Here's the Queen of Philanthropy, raising $1300 from a Texas Hold 'Em tournament she organized to raise money for the Unforgettables:


And here is Connie, the Queen of Silent Auctions:


We had a blast there and Karen just organizes such an awesome event every year. Here's Elena and Karen at the end of the night:


Thank you Karen for all of your hard work and support of Scrapbook Royalty and the Unforgettables Foundation!

And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone who attends our events --you make them succesful with the money you raise and by helping us to bring awareness to the causes we fundraise for. We're all in this together!

Until next time, I'm signing off and taking a nap!

---Jennifer