Recycling on Your Layouts

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to save money. One of the ways I do this is by reusing items in my home as often as I can, especially in my scrapbooking and memory keeping projects. And I don't know if you knew this, but this coming Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day - a whole day dedicated to this hobby we love. To combine the two interests (recycling and scrapbooking), Christy gave some old books of upholstery fabric swatches to Ashley Horton and me and asked us to make flowers out of them. If you are coming to the store's crop on Saturday, you might find a few of these flowers lying around (hint hint hint)...and if you're not coming, then you'll just have to settle for looking at my pictures here on the blog.

First up: My Supplies...fabric swatches, my BigShot (Any manual die-cutter will work. You just need to adjust the thickness of your cutting pads to account for the fabric and whatever dies you are using), flower or scalloped-circle dies (I used Spellbinders Nestabilities), and brads, stitching, Glubers, or whatever else you want to hold your flowers together (I used brads. Ashley finished others with stitching and other decoration, but you'll have to come to the store Saturday to see hers!)

When you cut your flowers, try to put your dies as close together as possible so you can get several flowers out of a single swatch.

Once you've cut your flowers, take them to your desk and find some supplies and a photo to match (Sorry the photo is sideways. My computer is refusing to rotate my pictures today).

One item I found on my desk is some leftover embellishment packaging. Seriously, how awesome are those acrylic casings that embellishments come in? I save nearly all of them. What can you do with them, you ask? So many, many options. You can stamp on them with staz-on ink (so you can move a stamped image around on your page and not worry about 'messing up' the page). You can die-cut them and make clear embellishments (Anybody remember Heidi Swapp's old Ghost shapes? Now you know how to make your own!). Or you can adhere other embellishments to them to use as a shiny, clear background (like I've done here with some My Mind's Eye embellishments).

And here's how I put it all together. In addition to the fabric flowers and clear packaging (sorry about the glare), I also used the B-side of a product code strip from a piece of patterned paper on this layout. So many recycled bits and pieces on here. Makes me happy.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to recycle and save some money on your projects. Please feel free to put a link in the comments to any projects you may make using these ideas. And don't forget to enjoy National Scrapbook Day!

Supplies: fabric, Big Shot die-cutter, Spellbinders nestabilities, brown ink

- patterned paper - Dear Lizzy, Studio Calio, Echo Park, Lilly Bee

- letter stickers - Studio Calico

- brads - Bo Bunny

- washi tape - Hambly

- 'jeweled' frame - My Mind's Eye

- butterfly stickers - Studio Calico

- staple - Tim Holtz

- yellow acrylic heart - Heidi Swapp

First Day of Spring Celebration!

1st Day of Spring Celebration! March 15th


Free Easter/Spring photos this Saturday!
10am-1pm
photography by Photos by Crystal in Pensacola...
Photos will be taken outdoors in our newly done flower garden, complete with a bunny and spring chicks, courtesy of Ivey's Pet Center here in Pensacola!

After the photos, let the kids make their own Easter baskets! Decorate one painted with pastel colors, with ribbons, cut outs, glitter, and your child's name! We even have camaflouge colored basket supplies! Class only $10. Please RSVP so we can have enough materials ready. 607-2527

Check out our new paper lines arriving just in time for spring! 2 New collections by My Minds Eye, some new Making Memories, new Jenni Bowlin, handmade flowers, and everybody's fave, some new Tim Holtz! All of this will be out for Saturday, the first day of spring!!


We are now stocking Cricut mats regularly! We have heard that they have been hard to find in town, so we are ordering extra each week! If you need several, give us a heads up and we will make sure to have them.



Don't forget! Count your Blessings Acrylic Album class March 27th @ 1pm!

Pocket pages, rubber stamping and Stickling on acrylic, working with chipboard and binding it all with the Bind-it-All and o-wire - You'll get you money's worth of skills out of this class!


Reminder: National Scrapbooking Day 3-Day Crop filling up fast! Less than 10 spots remain! Call or come by today to register for your space!

First Blog Contest!

Okay, here goes the first contest on our new blog!! Sign up to follow this blog, then post a comment under this post. On Tuesday morning we will randomly choose 1 comment/person to win a $10 gift certificate to the store! We will be having weekly contests on the blog where you can win some awesome prizes, and participate in some fun challenges.
Also, there is a Scraphappy blinkie in the right hand column that you can use to add a link to your blog if you want. Thanks a lot guys and good luck!

New Class added to NSD crop!

We are working on the class schedule for our National Scrapbook Day crop weekend! Here are some photos of one of the classes being offered. Dawne Ivey will be the instructor, she lives here in Pensacola, and has been published in many magazines, including some covers!! She is a member of the Duchess group here in town, and is on several design teams for some scrap websites! The techniques learned will be hand-stitching, embossing, some Cricut use, and using border punches. These techniques are great for cards or your layouts, so this class is for everyone!

The class will be offered on Friday night at 7:30pm and again on Saturday at 3pm. The cost is $19.00. All supplies will be included, and there will be an extra goody bag given to one student at each class, chosen by a drawing. As part of the class, you will also receive one clear stamp to keep. *Also, for each class you take, you will receive an extra ticket in the grand prize drawing for the weekend!!* You may take the class even if you are not attending the crop. Call or come by to sign up!! 607-2527.