Hotel Options for the Gulf Coast Crop-n-Shop Weekend!!

To check out more information on our
Gulf Coast Crop-n-Shop Weekend, CLICK HERE!

FOR VENDOR INFORMATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

This is a list of a few of the hotels/condos near the Emerald Coast Convention Center. There are a ton more!! If you are interested, we have a hotel guide at Scraphappy that you are more than welcome to stop by and check out!

The Ramada Plaza Beach Resort and Four Points by Sheraton are directly across the street from the ECCC.

Four Points by Sheraton
Rooms starting at $150/night
www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/destinfwb

Ramada Plaza Beach Resort
Rooms starting at $159/night
www.ramadafwb.com

Emerald Coast Inn & Suites
Rooms starting at $80/night
www.emeraldcoastinn.com

Destin West Beach & Bay Resort
To check out different villas, please visit:
www.destinwest.com

Waterscape Condominiums
Condos starting at $170/night
http://www.wyndhamvacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/florida/northwest-florida/fort-walton-beach/complex/waterscape-condominiums

Hampton Inn on the Gulf
Rooms starting at $143/night
http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/florida/hampton-inn-ft-walton-beach-FWBHHHX/index.html

Sea Spray Condominiums
To check out different available condos, please visit:
www.seaspraycondos.com

Best Western Beachfront
Rooms starting at $135/night
www.bestwesternfwb.com

Suffering for My Art!

As I nursed my slightly singed thumb at card class last month, my mind ran to all the different kinds of injuries suffered for the sake of our art. Knowing that misery loves company, this blog was born. Tools of torture or creative necessities? You decide…

Hot glue gun – fingerprints may have been permanently altered

Xacto knife sliced thumb – paid particular attention not to smudge blood on newly created book pages

Glitter everywhere (including the eyes)

 

Paint brush cleaned in your coffee cup (do not try this at home!)

 

Beads swallowed by pet (hopefully not by you), stepped on with bare feet or fingers pinched with jewelry tools

 A Bead headed pin / Styrofoam creation turned out great - loss of feeling in finger tips only lasted for a short while

Sewing needles found with fingers, toes and the occasional tuchus

A wide assortment of cuts; pretty paper turned on me, newly sharpened scissors slipped, overly industrial paper trimmers, etc.
Fumes and burns from hot encaustic wax and spray sealants
Tiny glass slivers from glass cutting mosaic scraps
Slight skull injury from sliding the piercing tool behind ear (missed again)

So remember to carefully pack your basic tool kit; scissors, glue stick, black ink pad, bone folder, several band aids, Excedrin for eye strain headaches, etc…  Instead of scaring me, reading this reminds me of some great projects. So be careful... but if you feel that creating is vital to your existence and a little pain is worth it, you might be an artist!

 

A Sunshine Christmas Mini

Using the Lawn Fawn "Sweet Christmas"- clear stamp set on Miss Caroline paper gave this cottage a weathered beach look.  I then drew a palm tree on white card stock and used Tim Holtz distress markers with a water color brush to create the palm tree. To give the palm tree the look of lights wrapped around it a Gelly Roll Clear Star pen was used.

For the cover I used a 12 x 12 thin acrylic sheet. 

This page was added to the front of the album using washi tape.

 We R Memory Keepers - "Waves", was used to create the pocket for tags or keepsakes.

On three side of this Polaroid tape was place to create a pocket.  A tag was made using Lawn Fawns "Sweet Christmas" clear stamp set and then colored with Tim Holtz distress markers.

In this photo a white Polaroid was used then stamped with Lawn Fawns" Sweet Christmas". It was then colored with Tim Holtz distress markers. A few touches were added with the Gelly Roll pen. Bakers Twine was added around the Polaroid.  *Using the washi tape was fun! 

Supplies:

-We R Memory Keeper - DOWN THE BOARDWALK - Coastlines - Waves 

-12 x 12 - Thin acrylic sheet - *These sheets can be embossed 

-6 x 6 My Minds Eye - miss caroline

-6 x 6 Authentique - Festive

-Fundamentals - tags

-white cardstock

-Lawn Fawn - Sweet Christmas

-We R Memory Keepers - clear stamps - Seashells

-Rangers - Archival Ink - black

-bakers twine

-Tom Holtz - Distress Markers

-Gelly Roll - clear star

-American Crafts - Paper trimmer - tape

Stop by Scraphappy to see the finished mini and pick up your scrapping supplies.

And as always, Christy or Stephanie are happy to help you with any scrapping questions.

Merry Christmas!

Folded Tag Project

I saw an adorable fold out tag in a friend’s shop and was intrigued with its possibilities.  Hers presented a summer beach theme and used a wide assortment of embellishments.  Ideas swirled…

General instructions are: cut a 4” strip across the bottom, score and fold every 2” alternating “mountains and valleys” so that you end up with an accordion fold. Trim out the top corners to achieve the tag shape. By trimming the first one, you can use the scrap as a guide for the other corners to give you some uniformity.

I needed 12x12 sheet of decorative paper as the base. As Christmas was rolling around, I headed to Scraphappy for some paper inspiration. The 2 sided Playground offered me a bright red and a pretty aqua. On the aqua side, the trees added more fun colors. Jillibean’s penguin paper was the just the thing to coordinate with the pretty aqua. I trimmed out some of the penguins and trees. I even found a leftover snowflake brad that was perfect for a red panel and a bow that was languishing in the drawer forgotten from some long ago project.

Having two great colors on the paper gave me the chance to work with a very traditional theme in red and a really fun contemporary theme on the aqua side. Tim Holtz’ vintage Christmas paper added a special feel to accent the red side. This was the perfect backdrop for more one of a kind embellishments left from other projects.

Some green die cut Christmas trees (3 in olive for the red side and 3 in lime for the aqua side) offered the perfect spot to add a cheerful message along the top. Since I didn’t have the alphabet style that I wanted, I drew the letters for JOY on the trees with a little bottle of red accent paint.

Then I wanted to see what could be done with a totally different theme. Since I already had some birthday pictures laid out for a page, these became part of the playful monkey birthday fold tag. I found coordinating papers in the pink scrap drawer (yes, there is a drawer for each color). By cutting them a bit smaller than the tag, you still get a peek at the smiling monkeys in the background.

This is a fun project and can be sent to someone special. What a great use of those fun little odds and ends that seem to be left over. Dig into your scraps and doodads and enjoy!

Happy December Daily!

                                   
How many of you have heard of December Daily? If you haven't, it's an album concept created by Ali Edwards (www.aliedwards.com) to document your Christmas season. Over the last few years, her idea has spread, and people all over the world are now recording their memories in December. The best part of December Daily? It can be WHATEVER you want it to be. You can make it a journal. You can make a layout (or several layouts). You can make a minibook. You can make a special Christmas album. You can just take a picture. Or write a blog post. Whatever YOU want. It's all up to you.

I decided this year to use a Simple Stories Sn@p album as my base. Christy has ordered some for the store, but if they're not in yet, that's OK! Pick another album you like. 6x6 albums are great for taking a 6x6 paperpad and just slipping the papers into the page protectors. Or cut a 12x12 paper into 4 squares and slip them in. Embellish as desired, and you've got your album prepped pretty quickly! Or choose one of the awesome acrylic albums ScrapHappy has in stock! Play with inks. Play with paint. Learn a new technique. Or keep it simple. Whatever YOU want!

Over Thanksgiving, I prepped my album. I used an 8x8 patterned paper pad from October Afternoon and cut all the papers apart to set up my base pages. I also precut and inked some white cardstock cards in the various pocket sizes to use for my journalling. Now all I have to do during December is to take pictures, print them, stick them in my album, and write some quick journalling (if I feel like it). I can embellish each day if I want to, but if I don't, then it's still All Good. My Christmas is being recorded.

I know it's already December 4, but it's not too late to start a December Daily project of your own. Drop by the store. Pick out an album and some special Christmas paper (And YES! The Christmas paper has arrived at ScrapHappy! Echo Park! Fancy Pants! And More!) . Turn on 25 Days of Christmas, and cut and prep your way to making your holiday even more special. And if you want to see the rest of my December Daily pages as the month progresses, follow me on Instagram: cdpeck. I'll be uploading my pages on an almost-daily basis (I'm aiming for daily, but Life does get in the way sometimes...).

And now, without further ado, my December Daily: First up, my completed pages for December 1-3:

 And here's a sample of the pages still to come, with my prep work complete: