SMASH! If you take off the first S, it still has nothing to do with Mash.

Can't wait to start SMASHING!

I've been seeing these books in craft stores, and I kept putting off getting one because I have this unfocusable brain. And I told myself I had to decide exactly what I was going to do with it before I got it. And then one day I said... "karen, ... fittsineager....  it doesn't matter what you put in it. It doesn' t have to be organized...  it just has to be! Because it'll make you happy, and you can fill it with happies!"  And I have tons of those notebooks filled with magazine clippings, and sketches, and bits and tids..  like they show in the video...  ( like I  was doing pinterest the hard way...) 

 But even post pinterest, I still found myself cutting up my crafty mags and my country home mags...  etc.  THIS... my friends

TOTALLY SOLVES THAT PROBLEM ...

all in a pretty mess. *sigh* my prayers answered... Check it out!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFsArr4Z1s]

I'm pretty sure I'll be needing more than one...

Catching up on babyness

So I was re-organizing my photo collection and came across these from when Eleanor was about 7 months old. I can't believe she was such a ham already... Well, she was a canned ham, and now she's pretty mobile.

So we started kinda like this... a couple papers, a water squirty pen thing... and some watercolors.
You can see a couple stages of the flowers in this photo. I cut out 2" scalloped circles, wet them with the squirty pen (any spayer will do... even dabbing a little water and letting it soak in). After they're good and wet, crinkle em up into balls. Let em' sit a few minutes, then open em' up. Don't open em' flat because you want that wrinkled look. You can actually start to shape them at this point to how you'd like them to dry.

And though I have the worst handwriting in parts of the world... I love sloppy handwriting for scrapbooking. It just becomes another embellishment. ya know... I hate the word EMBELLISHMENT. I don't know why. It's like... too good for itself or something. embellish... maybe we should shorten it to bellish. Let's BELLISH THAT PAGE! But that page is nothing like a bell although if it chimed, I'm sure it'd sound like Elvis on a tuesday night. Saturday has a higher probability for brain-power diminishing activity. Then again... shut up fits.


Long story short... and without further interruption.

Season of love... and weddings...

So I'm working on a couple projects involving wedding photos right now.  And the photos I'm using in this week's featured layout are TO DIE FOR!  Here's the photographer's site: http://www.dibezi.net/ .   Just awesome stuff! And even though I asked this couple if I could feature their photos in a layout like... in october... I'm finally getting around to it now.  I'm gonna start organizing that TADA list in a more "like the quickness' fashion...

Anyway, so I picked two photos of the beautiful bride to feature in this layout.

I know I said last time that I was going to abandon my sewing machine in my future featured layouts because I wanted to keep it simple and doable for those who didn't have a sewing machine.... but after sneakin' my way around some scrapbook groups on the interwebs... I realize that most of ya'll are really interested in incorporating sewing into your layouts.  SO, instead of abandoning it, I'm probably going to feature it... from now on.  Because I use it almost EVERY TIME.  It's like a coffee habit that's almost impossible to break at this point.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tonSl6CyJ4&w=640&h=360]

Products I used in this layout!

• 
  
  Three different papers from close to my heart:  Green cardstock, melon cardstock, one paper from the "Dotty" collection (which is on sale right now) and one paper from the "Stella" collection. The stella paper was double sided-so I used half for the photo mat, and half for the rocky looking edge.


• 
  
  Red acrylic paint- Usually 89 cents in any craft store.  and a brush...any ol' brush will do.


• 
  
  Ivory thread for the sewing


• 
  
  The stamps are from the stamp set: Friendship Boquet


• 
  
  Watercolor pencils and water brush are also from close to my heart


• 
  
  Microtip scissors to cut em out: MICROTIP SCISSORS 


• 
  
  The brads I got from Cranberry Cat scrapbooking supplies: A great site for discounted stuff.  They even carry some pazzles inspiration products.


• 
  
  I cut out the frames for the photos with the Pazzles ahead of time.  I basically made a few rectangles on the computer and made the edges wavy with the decorative scissors tool.  Then I made an outline of that shape so I could have a double mat look on the photos.


• 
  
  OH, and an ink pad for the stamps. .. and an acrylic block to stamp with...


• 
  
  IF I forgot anything, let me know... but that's all I can think of right now...

Well, it's saturday morning, and I'm gonna go pull some weeds!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!!

 MADEBYFITTY.com

A Tubby Collage!

Yes, I'm watching some Gypsy's get married as I type this... 

as well as really missing my photo editing options on the computer...  but this dinkle laptop is I guess just barely cutting it for now...

So here's my fry day layout... goes great with an ice cream cone!  And when you want to conserve space with a chunk of photos from the same shoot... just cut out the main event and leave your less than desirable tub out of it and make a new one!

 

The materials I used are: 

1. Three styles of scrapbooking paper

2. Cut outs from magazines and books

3. Fabrc scraps (on top, and a piece of fleece for towel)

4. Ribbon and lace scraps

5. The birds are cut from a set of notecards

6. crocheted flowers - these are from Closetomyheart.com, but you can get them at craft stores, etsy, or you can make em.

6. And some brads...  I used them to hold the flowers on.

The reason I did a collage type layout is because I was trying to stay away from using anything that ya'll might not have handy. Like if you said, I wanna do something like this tomorrow, you could without having to go get one of those fancy kitchenaid mixers. 

(I STILL don't have one... it's on my "OMG how am I living this long without you!" list.)

And since Youtube doesn't allow you to steal other people's music for your videos.. (heh... I'm no theify!), I decided to use some of the house mixes I was involved in with Beatlevel back in the day.. Though Beatlevel is officially broken up, Chris (Subject English) and Manish ( Oddme) have gone on to create their own mixes... so I asked them to let me use them for my videos! So you may want to just have a dance party instead of actually scrapbooking during this video....  hahaa...

So here it is!  I'm still kinda working on the camera kinks...  I realize I have a real lighting problem in my crafty space so it's hard to find a good view... especially with my set up right against the wall...

But in this video there's a good view of the mess that is my papercrafting area... but it's all good by me...

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJgAZ4_roMI]

Have a nice weekend!

The Layered Layout

For inspiration when I'm stumped for a new scrapbook page layout, I start looking around the house... and sometimes, just sorting through books or cd's is enough. 

And when you're featuring kids, children's books always inspire.

 I also love going to the library to see the interesting ways the books are illustrated.

 You always find some really good arty tids and bits to add to your idea log!

So... today's layout is inspired by "In My Tree" by Sara Gillingham & Lorena Siminovich.

It's kinda one of those peek-a-boo books... but when I looked at the cover I thought... wow, this would make a really cute page!  And it kinda looks like it was more complicated than it really is.

And there's so many ways to take this basic idea and spin it.

This edition of THE FRIDAY LAYOUT features this

easy layout using layers of patterned paper to create this nice frame around your photo.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge4ZvEPa9bQ]

Here are some links for more information on the products I use during these scrapbooking vids...

Pazzles Inspiration:  The Cutting machine I'm using in the vid.

Cranberry Cat Scrapbook Supplies: I met these guys at the scrapbook retreat I went to in January, Great stuff, great prices!

Close to my Heart:  My favorite place for cardstock! Also, super cute embellishments and ideas!

THE FRIDAY LAYOUT, episode 1

Ok... so I've finally gotten around to some youtubing...

Since I have some three years of Easter photos lying around... and I'm sure ya'll have at least some recent ones, I thought I'd do a quick and easy page EASTER inspired.

And there is nothing used in this page that you probably don't already have around the house...

Cupcake liners are used to make the main embellishments here...

I had some leftover Easter liners from my carrot cupcakes... so I went for it!

For this project you will need:

1. One plain cardstock... I used a marigold color

2. Patterned paper... I used a couple different

3. Cupcake liners for the flowers

4. Buttons

5. Brads

6. Metal embellishment

7. 2" scalloped circle punch

8. Pen

9. Craft Thread

All items are optional... well, except for the paper... unless you're going to scrapbook on a plate or something.

This is a very easy basic layout.

You can add more to what I've done, or leave some of it out...  I mean, who am I to tell you what to do?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4I3r8xFxoU]

 

So grab your bunny ears and let's go!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Scrappetizers before dinner

So I went on my first ever scrapbooking "retreat" last weekend.
I thought I was the only one...  I thought... there can't be anyone who likes to scrapbook as much as me??
Ok, I really didn't think that, but I did think at least in my circles, and my circles once and twice removed, that there was no other.  Every time I bring up "scrapbooking" or the like to my friends or acquaintances, their responses usually include the words, "yea, that's pretty and all but who has time or patience..." So I almost gave up hope of finding a scrappy buddy.
Man, I am just filled up to my neck with cheese!
But I don't care.  Dip your cracker in me because I am not stopping.
And I'm not stopping the sepia either! Someone recently asked me to... and followed that with, "Is this 1980?" Was sepia really that popular in 1980?  Well...  I was only 2 so I didn't notice.

So what was I talking about?

OH!

Yes, the scraptastic weekend...   Ya know... you think before you go to something like this... "man, I DO like to scrapbook, but am I really going to want to do it for two days without interruption?
And the answer came to be...  "WAIT... NO...  we have to LEAVE ALREADY? ...  but... but... I wasn't.. lemme just...  PUT DOWN MY SEWING MACHINE I'M NOT FINISHED HERE BELL MAN!"
are they still called that?


Speaking of them, what a treat to have someone carry in all my stuff!  And carry it out again.  I think the one who carried my stuff in must've pointed me out to the others before the close of the thing, coz it was harder to catch one on the way out...

I only had that stuff over there--------------->

But anyway, though I missed my ROO ROO so incredibly much, spending a saturday thru sunday was still not enough time to make any good dent in my TADA list...  But also because I just take a long fitzin' time making decisions as I'm working ...
And I really can't post much of what I made there because it's mostly for other people...



So anyway,  the plus' are as follows:
1. Constant access to coffee
2. Constant access to food
3. Nice people to talk to
4. Nice people to be inspired by
5. Nice people to annoy with your noisy machines that you brought
6. Wait, that last one wasn't a plus... I felt really bad, but...  this was not fun time, this was SERIOUS TIME that happened to also be fun.  My noise had to come with... no choice.
7. Being able to stay up all night and scrap!  (I only made it till 4am... and that was with a wine break)
8. The vendors!   Great stuff and great prices!
9. Having interrupted scrap time!

Here is the blog:  Check it out if you are interested.  Kathy, whom I had the pleasure to meet and share some talk with, is absolutely magical and knows how to set up a fantastic event!
http://scrappetizer.blogspot.com/

I am going to try to make it to the one in the Poconos...  If I can sell enough on ebay and etsy, I'm there!

And that reminds me.. my etsy store will be up in the next month hopefully... just getting some small bulk made...  :)