New Scrapbook Pages

Here are a couple of recent scrapboook pages I've done for my own personal scrapbook. A while back, I decided to have my own scrapbook with some of my favorite photos. I don't worry about chronological order; this is for whatever I like.

These pages feature photos of my grandson. The page with the lime green paper shows him wrapped in a quilt I made for him. It was so much fun to choose the bright fabrics! I wanted paper that brought out those colors without the business of the fabric. The heart and dots are chipboard. I painted them with acrylic, then coated them with iridescent acrylic medium. Finally, I stamped a swirl design on top with black ink.

The other page has a photo I like just because of his awesome smile! The tag shape is cut from embossed cardstock, inked with white. I had fun layering papers for this. Both of these pages have ribbon tabs left over from the kit I used for my personalized planner. (http://experimentsincreativity.blogspot.com/2008/04/personalized-planner.html)

Let me know about what you're doing to express your creativity.

Immi

New Flowers From Tim Holz

A few days ago, Tim Holtz had a giveaway on his blog. He's getting ready to teach classes on a cruise, and has some really cool collaged paper flowers he'll be using. They're called "Artful Collage Flowers" from Prima. Anyone who submitted a comment had a chance to win a drawing for one of three packages of flowers. I submitted a comment, assuming that as usual, I'd never win. Was I ever excited when I checked his blog the next day, and saw that "Immi" was one of the lucky winners! I promised Tim that I'd get to work right away, and post photos on my blog.



I got them in the mail today, and they really are awesome. I decided to do a quick tag to get my feet wet. I already had the stamped image on a manila shipping tag that I'd done quite some time ago. (Love those shipping tags!) I did some watercoloring on top of what I'd stamped, tore the bottom, and inked the edges. I layered it on top of a scrap of Asian paper I had. Both these layers were attached to black. I love using black paper to make things "pop". I used my good old-fashioned label gun for the word "trust". I attached the flower with a black snap (yes, the kind you use for sewing). I think I'll find some rough brown twine to string through the hole.



This tag would be great on a card or scrapbook page, but I'm planning to clip it to my recent antique purchase (http://experimentsincreativity.blogspot.com/2008/04/interesting-find.html) hanging on the door of my studio.



I really like these flowers, and look forward to doing some more fun stuff with them. It's going to be so easy to use them since they're already collaged. Thanks, Tim!

No More Boring Pushpins!

Why have plain pushpins when you can dress them up a little? A while back, on impulse, I bought a package of large clear pushpins at Target. I thought I could do something with them to make them a little more fun. I found that one of my punches was just the right size to cover the top almost completely. (Yet another great use for those scraps of paper I love to keep!) I also pulled out some buttons from my stash (mostly garage sale finds). I glued the punched paper and buttons to the tops. Sadly, when I went back to Target, with visions of gift sets of pushpins, they were no longer carrying them.



I thought I'd try the same thing with regular sized clear pushpins. I didn't have any buttons on hand that worked, but a hole punch was a good size for the top. For these, I also cut strips of paper and wrapped the shank of the pin. These were way more putzy, and not quite as much fun, but I'm still glad to have them decorating my bulletin board.



I also had some pushpins with much larger heads and a shorter pin. They were pastel, with flowers on top, and didn't really work for me anymore. Of course, being the pack rat that I am, I'd kept them. I found that a couple of punches were close in size to the tops, but not quite big enough. Then it occurred to me to go over the edges with Stazon ink. The pin way at the top is in the process. I've inked the edge and part of the top in black. Then when I glue the paper over it, it should look more like the red one at the lower left of the picture.



The next photo is of some magnets I did. I don't know where I'd gotten them, but I had some plain round magnets that were pretty strong. So again, out came my buttons and I glued some old, beat-up ones to the top. The metal one is not a button; I don't know what it is. For these, I used E6000, which is a strong adhesive.



The last photo shows my bulletin board. I enjoy looking at and using my new variety of pins.



Happy creating,

Immi

Minnesnowta

First off, I'd like to say I realize there is nothing original about the title of today's post. It just seemed too applicable to pass it up. When we went to bed last night, it was still raining, and just as promised, by morning it had turned over to snow. Today it snowed off & on - sometimes sleet mixed with snow, and the wind was so fierce! As one of our local t.v. anchors (transplanted from California) said earlier this week, this is "just sick and wrong!". My sentiments exactly!


I was thinking earlier today about when I began my blog, and the weather was very similar at the end of March. It was a good day to get some cleaning and organizing done. I get very excited when my husband is in the mood to organize! I gladly volunteered to go to Target to get the shelves he needed. His books are threatening to take over. Now that I think about it, our whole house is full of books. Except for the two bathrooms, every room in the house has books.


I've even got a lot of books that belong to the church library. I'm the librarian, and I've been trying to get labels on the books so they can be shelved in some semblance of order. I wheel my suitcase in, fill it with books, and take them home. Then I find Dewey numbers for them on the internet (sometimes it takes a lot of looking) and put the info on labels. When I've got a full sheet of labels, I print them out and put them on the books. Then it's back to the church building, where I put protective labels on the spine and shelve them. Slowly but surely, the library is taking shape.

I had a chance this weekend to do some catching up on the school scrapbook. By default, I've become the school scrapbooker. My boss really likes to have something to show people so they can see some of the faces of our program. We do a new one each year; fieldtrips, graduation, awards, community service, etc. It was high time I got something done; I hadn't done anything, and it's almost the end of the year.

I think we'll veg tonight with a movie. I have an idea for a post for next week, showing some fun push pins I did for my bulletin board. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow, so I can post on Monday.

Happy creating!
Immi

Really Cute Video

This is an experiment for me. I haven't uploaded a video before, so I hope it works. This was forwarded to me; I thought it was too sweet not to share. I have no idea who this little girl is, but she's really belting it out! It reminds me of what Matthew relates in his gospel. When the teachers of the law and the chief priests saw the wonderful things Jesus was doing, and heard the children shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David!", they were indignant and questioned Jesus. Jesus reminded them of the scriptures they knew so well: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise."

This little girl is having a wonderful time praising the Lord!

Have a great day,

Immi

p.s. On the topic of singing, my husband told me yesterday that I went from snoring to singing in 30 seconds. After the alarm went off, we were lying there for a few minutes, and I went back to sleep. According to a reliable source, I was also snoring. When he started stirring, I woke up and remember wondering what day of the week it was. When I realized it was Wednesday, I started singing a song I learned years ago when working with students, trying to teach them the days of the week. "Wednesday is the middle of the week day, middle of the week day, middle of the week day. Wednesday is the middle of the week day, all year long!" Our brains are strange and marvelous, aren't they!

Finished Acrylic Scrapbook

As promised, here are some photos of the scrapbook I made in the class Saturday. All the pieces came with the holes punched on the left. Most of the materials were pre-cut.
The cover is acrylic, with an image stamped in StazOn ink, using the Fiskars stamp press. The stamp press is really nice for larger acrylic stamps. Behind the cover you can see several succeeding pages.
The next photo shows the third page, which is an envelope. We traced the flap of the envelope
onto decorative paper, cut it out and
adhered the decorative paper onto the flap.
A sheet of stickers was provided for
the word "Keepers".
The third photo shows the back of the envelope and a journaling page, punched out from a 12x12 sheet of journaling shapes. We had brown ink available,and I inked the edges of all my papers with that.
The fourth photo shows the back of a transparent page (transparency weight, lighter than the acrylic covers) inserted after the journaling page. We did some stamping on this page as well.
The final photo is of the back cover with the addition of some stamping. I won't charge any extra for my reflection in the covers!

Try something creative today!

Immi

Acrylic Album

I had a great time Saturday, attending a class to learn about acrylic albums. The challenge with these is that the parts that are made out of acrylic will be seen from both sides. This means a lot of planning has to be done up front so that what is seen in succeeding layers will work with what's come before AND look as good from the back as it does from the front. Planning ahead is NOT my strong suit. I like to jump into a project and let it evolve as I go along. This class was a good way to get my feet wet, since everything came as a kit, and all the planning was done ahead of time. I also got the chance to try out some tools I hadn't used before. I am a bit of a tool junkie, so it's great to see whether or not I'd like something before making the splurge. One of the tools we used was one I'd looked at in the past, but hadn't bought. Now, having tried it, I don't think I will buy it. It's a tool to set very large grommets; they're really cool looking, but I didn't care for the loud pounding with a hammer necessary to punch the hole for the grommet and then to set it. The class also confirmed my conclusions about punches; the ones with levers are much easier to use than those without. I think a lot less force is necessary when using a punch with a lever. I did try one newer type of punch, by Fiskars. The shape is cut out by squeezing the handles together. Because of tendonitis in my right elbow, I'd shied away from those - gripping motions can be painful. I was pleasantly surprised at how little effort was needed to work this type of punch.

I haven't decided what pictures to put in the album yet. I'll post some pictures tomorrow so you can see how it turned out.

Happy creating!

Immi