quick cards to go

often people come into the store looking for some inspiration or a new product to jump start their creativity and what i usually tell them is to use a card they have already made as a blueprint for a new card, and then usually once you've started stamping and putting things down on paper more ideas will start flowing.

well, to take it one step farther, i sometimes just about completely re-make a card, changing only the paper. it's pretty amazing how different something can look even when all you switch up is a card base and the patterned paper.

here are 3 cards i made using one of my all time favorite stamps, "to go cup" from a muse. it's such an easy stamp to paper piece with and a tiny bit of paper piecing can really make something pop! i also always use a white glaze pen to make the to go lid look like plastic.

just a random, easy tip from someone who usually appreciates a good idea to help her through a creative slump!

friday five #08

umm... we'll call this a central, mountain & pacific standard time friday five! so close...

01. "up" - i actually fell in love with "up" when kerry brought me to see it at the alamo drafthouse on my birthday, but now i'm loving the fact that it's out on dvd, and i've already seen it twice! i've been renting it from the redbox because i refuse to buy it if it's going to come out in 3d like 6 months from now, but i can't wait 'til it does.

02. work! - is it nerdy to talk about how much i love my job in my stuff-i'm-digging-on-friday-five? i don't even care if it is. i've always loved my job at scraptasia and now that we are in our new location and i get to place orders over in our new "high strung" chartreuse studio from the comfort of our new rolling chairs it's even better. obvs that's just one of the million things i'm loving at work, but it's the little thing i was thinking about when i added it to this week's five, so there it is.

03. peter bjorn and john's "living thing" - in a classic morgan maneuver... i didn't really like this album on my first couple of listens when it initially came out. but, as always, it's a few months down the line and i'm soooooo into it! it's one of 3 or 4 albums on constant rotation right now and i think it has that perfect dark, but playful feel for the fall. don't expect the whistling tv & commercial fodder type of peter bjorn & john, this is a whole different animal. i've already listed a couple of these on house party mixes here, specifically "it don't move me" and "nothing to worry about", but for a different feel also try "4 out of 5", "living thing" and "i want you".

04. dr. sheldon cooper - i am not usually a half hour sitcom kind of girl, but i am a bit of a nerd and even if you aren't, you can definitely appreciate big bang theory. this is easily one of the laugh-out-loud funniest 30 minutes of tv and sheldon totally makes it for me. i don't know that i can really describe sheldon, but you can experience him in all his matter of fact, spock-like, face popping goodness here.

05. taylor swift's snl - i was pretty disappointed by the january jones episode last week, and i haven't yet seen joseph gordon-levitt's this week, but right now my love of snl has been renewed and is being kept alive by thoughts of taylor swift's episode from the week before last. i'm not really into taylor swift or know much about her (other than the fact that i dig that she is in her mid-teens and dresses, writes songs and acts like she's in her mid-teens, which i pretty rare & cool) anyway, almost every single sketch in this episode, wether she was in them or not, was hilarious. i'm not even going to try to explain them to you, you just need to get on hulu to watch the full episode!

kitty robot!

the rad girls of kitty robot asked me a couple of months ago to be their guest designer this month, i of course said yes and they sent over some of their fun buttons for me to play with! here's what came about with my somewhat limited time;

"never not" is something that i've picked up from kristina's vernacular and it's beyond appropriate for this "never not looking for trouble" layout. the biggest picture is from our trip to philly to see the get up kids a week or so ago, and the others are just a couple of the many versions of photos of us looking for trouble over the past couple of years. loved the cute set of camera buttons, loved actually thinking to use my nestabilities on a layout & loved mixing a few of my current favorite papers & thickers.

i used one of the cameos from the deer cameo set on this card and mixed paper from cosmo cricket's "nutmeg" 6x6 paper pad & 12x12. also, you can't really tell in this photo, but i got my bling that perfect dark brown by coloring over yellow bling with a super dark brown copic marker. it's an easy way to get your bling to match whatever you are working on and it dries super quick. just remember to pick a marker that is just a couple shades darker than you want the final product to look, because the transparent nature of the bling lightens it a little.

seriously? loved this snowy town paper from basic grey's "eskimo kisses" collection as soon as i saw it, and these little kissing deer are perfect with it!

p.s. you can also see my bad answers to the cute kitty robot questionnaire on the kitty robot blog.

221 sherman avenue: a before & after

so, the latest absence from my blog was due to the huge undertaking that was helping to move scraptasia (the scrapping & stamping store i work for) to it's new location, which has about 2.5 times the space as the original! when dawn found the space it was totally stripped down, i.e. no floors, half a ceiling and a lot of work that needed to be done, but we went at it and although we are still taking care of some finishes, we are open and love how it has turned out! totally worth all the 12 & 14 hour days! so, in the spirit of design sponge's before & after and oh joy!'s this or that, i bring you scraptasia's very own edition of before & after!

we went with a ridiculously rad color called "high strung" for the cash wrap & the studio area because it's awesome and because it matches our logo! jessica is going to work her magic soon and paint said logo and store name on the front of the cash wrap. the cash wrap itself is about 3 times bigger than our original and allows us space to start doing make & takes soon!

before = cement floor & empty space. after = sweet new floors in a yummy chocolate & drool-worthy stock!

we have 55 new to us colors of bazzill in our newly re-arranged bazzill corner!

we are super stoked on all the natural light and i am love with that fact that we have room to hang all our mini albums along with samples!

the contractors took out that little partial wall and we now have a huge studio/class room, tool area & a kitchen! plus a bigger ribbon wall! this is obviously one of my favorite areas of the new location!

i don't really want to call this a stamp corner, since that sounds small, but this huge stamp corner is another one of my favorite spots. so many stamps, so many inks & so many fun tools, dies & punches. even though i work at scraptasia i will still occasionally spot a stamp i don't remember, it's like a magical stamp wall, and now there are two of them!

it's been so amazing over the last week and half to have the store re-opened and see how excited our customers are to see our new space! i also can't wait for all my scrappy friends to see it soon!

friday five #07

01. monsters of folk - i don't know if i can really even explain my monsters of folk experience in terms that will be able to do it any sort of justice, but i'll try. i had heard rumblings of this "super group", but had just put them in my mental to-check-out-list until my friend john off handedly mentioned that he had a spare ticket for their philadelphia show at the academy of music, which i jumped on. these 4 guys, m. ward (solo work, she & him), conor oberst (commander venus, desparacidos, bright eyes and solo work), jim james (my morning jacket and solo work as yim yames) and mike mogis (bright eyes + 5 million other things) have written, performed, produced or appeared on like 70% of the albums i love most in the world and their degree of musicianship is INSANE (and you know i don't use caps!) anyway, the show was definitely one of my favorite performances of all time, if not the favorite. it was obvious that these dudes all really dig each other and thoroughly enjoy writing & playing music together. they performed some of their songs from their album as well as a ton of each others' songs for 2ish+ hours and it was amazing! beyond words.

02. screen printed tour posters - i have written before about my love for a good gig poster, but i just have to revisit it since the past week and a half has yielded two! kristina & i scored the amazing screen printed typewriter tour poster (pictured up there) at the get up kids show last thursday, and then i also scored an amazing one with metallic-y bits at the monsters of folk show monday. i die. now they just need a good framing so they can join the art wall.

03. new york magazine - just go ahead and subscribe now. new york magazine is the perfect length for a weekly reading, an awesome mix of news & entertainment, and it always supplies me with at least one or two interesting stories i want to share. i love it so much that i will even forgive it for this weeks cover story about how there are bands back in brooklyn. duh, nym!

04. chapstick "classic" - any of you who know me in person know that if i can't get my hands on my lip stuff it's all over. in fact john and i had to dash to the locust deli pre-show because i almost started hyperventilating sans-lip moisturizer. anyway, chapstick medicated used to be my go to love, but then they switched it all around when they changed their packaging and so i had to start using burts bees instead. it's good, but it's no chapstick medicated. anyway, on said pre-show dash for lippy stuff i made a wonderful discovery, chapstick "classic" is in fact chapstick medicated!!! rejoice with me.

05. penguin classic hardcovers - i think i have blogged in the past about my desire to read the classics that i somehow skipped in my earlier days. i started with pride & prejudice and am enjoying it so much that i'm slowing my reading down so that it doesn't end. and it's making me wonder what other classics are out there that i would love as much as this one. and now the design/literary world has given me yet another reason to keep reading; penguin hardback classics designed by coralie bickford-smith. gorgeous repeated images, printed and debossed on cloth hardcovers. so yum. my favorites are the picture of dorian gray, madame bovary, great expectations and oliver twist i am putting them on my christmas list, and have already visited them in the book store. you can drool over them all here. how beautiful will they be on their very own set of shelves?!?

a nutmeg tree...

i know there hasn't been much scrappiness on this formerly scrapbooking blog lately, but i've been working on lots of samples for the new store and we've been trying to keep them a little secret until we re-opened. well, we are getting steadily closer to the big re-open, so i'm ready to share!

i've been loving the new 6x6 mini decks from cosmo cricket and the nutmeg one is probs my fave so far. from just one paper pad and one set of chip shapes, i've made this adorable buzz & bloom tree, a mini album and 3 cards, and there is still enough for me to make even more!

for this project i sprayed the tree from buzz & bloom with the limited edition pinecone glimmer mist from tattered angels, and then used my 1 1/4" circle to punch all the circles out, distressed the edges with the rich cocoa memento dew drop and ran them through the xyron x to make them into stickers so they could easily adhere to all the circles on the tree. then i arranged the chip sticker leaves and acorn from the chip shapes on the base of the tree and powdered the backs to take care of any exposed stickiness. it was super easy, it turned out pretty cute, if i do say so myself, and now i want to make one for every season!

i can't wait for this guy to be hanging out in the store with the brand new nutmeg collection & all the other cute things from buzz & bloom and all the other companies we have fun new stuff from!

friday five #06

kerry, bacon and all kept me so busy in austin that there was no time for last week's friday five, that's why it's a vacation though, yeah? on to this weeks five!

01. where the wild things are - i was so psyched to see this at the alamo draft house theater while i was in austin and, at least for me, it totally delivered. i thought it was completely gorgeous. it made my heart hurt the whole time, and tears stream down my face the whole last 1/3 of the movie, but in an amazing way. for me it was a study in just how hard it is to be a family and the things we are all afraid of. everyone else who i've talked to who has seen it hasn't really been into it, but has at least been able to admit that it's beautiful to watch and that it's pretty amazing what they could do with 7 or 8 lines in a children's book. i can't be alone in loving it though! anyone?

02. the new moon soundtrack - so i've already gushed about the death cab single from this album, but now it's available for complete download! there's a couple of misses for me, but the lykke li song, "possibility" is warm, syrup-y and cozy and the bon iver/st. vincent track, "roslyn" is also really hauntingly pretty. it's a pretty good listen almost all the way through, especially for a cloudy fall day (or forks washington). i have to say though, bella's oh-i'm-falling-apart-and-risking-my-life-because-a-dude-left-me attitude was a little annoying in the book, but the trailer for the movie, with the stammering, rapid blinking, collapsing & screaming is really making me kind of grossed out. is it possible i'll not see it?

03. frank - austin was very much about lots of awesome food. kerry had heard about frank from someone and so her, drew and i headed there for dinner one night while i was visiting and it was amazing! they make their own sausage and hot dogs and offer them in amazing combinations. their classic hot dog stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon and then fried was so yummy that i ordered a second, haha. we were a little curious about their choice of bacon infused makers mark though. if you're in austin you need to check it out.

04. heels! - while i was in austin kerry's friends were having a mad men themed party, so we teased in some bumpits, put on some awesome mad men era clothes and kerry charmed me into some heels, which i never ever wear! i borrowed a pair of her dknyc heels and fell so in love with them that i've already purchased them and they are on their way to me now. i have to say, i might actually follow through on my autumn intention to wear heels!

05 . kerry & bacon - kerry & bacon made my austin trip completely amazing, as always ,and i can't wait to blog it and scrap it! love you guys!

falling leaves & an autumn breeze

so thanks to a little help from cosmo cricket's adorable woodgrain from their new "nutmeg" collection, which i just put out today in the soon-ish to be re-opened store, i bring you my official autumn mix. i'm slightly bummed because i realized that i included some tracks from my mix for the dares, but they still hold. let me know what you think!

in the mean time it's a combination of unpacking at the new store & packing at home for my austin trip and i'm feelin' it!

friday five #05 - the oops! it's sunday edition

01. harvest moon - so far this item on my fall to do list is going well, haha. i tried a few different pumpkin/fall beers this week, but harvest moon is still my favorite so far, and of course i forget the name of the one i had at royal tavern in philly that was a close second, but i'm sure i can remedy that sometime soon.

02. glee - seriously, still not over loving this show. there was a bum episode, but kurt hummel saved it. also, i feel bad for any other drivers on 78 west when i'm heading into work and singing/dancing/tearing up to the glee version of "don't stop believin" on my way in to work.

03. farm stands - i love stopping at local farm stands on my way to visit people. peaches, jersey sweet corn, honeycrisp apples & of course pumpkins make the best gifts! plus, we have to support the local, family run small farms to keep them around, or pretty soon there will be no more family farms in the garden state!

04. nylon guys - if you subscribe to/ready nylon, you should really hop on this train too. it's the same writers as nylon, they always put a dude we all love on the cover (jason schwartzman, adam brody and of course my fave joseph gordon-levitt up there), there's great stuff about travel, tech, music & such and you only have to deal with a few articles about chicks man!

05. re-designing cards - i've been feeling slightly creatively un-productive as of late, so to kick start the process i've been re-do'ing past cards that i love with current paper & stamps. i highly recommend it as a way to get making stuff! and speaking of making stuff, i'm going to get back to my to do list!

friday five #04

01. "meet me on the equinox" by death cab for cutie - so apparently this is a new single from death cab that's going to be on the new moon movie soundtrack. i really dig it's cozy fall feel, and it's def making it onto my newest autumn mix. i find the death cab "fans" who are upset that they are going to be on a twilight movie soundtrack amusing. here's a clue peeps; a. a band doesn't belong to just you. b. new fans are good and c. the people doing the complaining were most likely the "teeny bopper element" at death cab shows that occurred post o.c.! let's all deal with the natural development of band, k? let's be happy for their continued success.

02. all across bangs - i've got 'em. they are now close to the perfect length. i dig 'em.

03. class ideas - one of my favorite parts of teaching is when the class ideas are free-flowing and i can't wait to get my hands on the product to make samples! i'll be working on designing my "maximizing your 6X6 paper pads with eskimo kisses" this weekend and then a bunch of mini albums for the next few months as soon as some things come in, like that fun new "nutmeg" collection paper up there from cosmo cricket. i die.

04. my new pumas - the colors are obnoxious and scrumptious all at the same time. i finally have sneakers with actual support again. double win. now i just have to get rid of the tennis ball yellow shoelaces and we're in business.

05. bored to death on hbo - so other than the fact that super white haired ted danson freaks me out, i am loving this show so far. jason schwartzman plays a blocked up writer who can't get anywhere with his second novel, so he turns to solving crimes as an unlicensed private investigator via craigslist while pining away for his recently moved out ex & getting into trouble with his dude friend played by zach galifianakis, whose name i didn't even attempt to type. and, he does it all with amazing comic timing, obviously.