Something old, something new,

You know the old wedding adage... "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue." That phrase, my Mother-in-law's upcoming marriage, and some new scrapping goodies inspired me to create a wedding layout. In May, Brentt and I will be married 10 YEARS! My how time flies! Since I've only been scrapbooking for 5 years, I never scrapbooked any of my wedding photos. So...I bought some old vintage lace from a FABULOUS store on etsy.com called $5 French Market and it found a perfect home on this layout.
The papers are the brand new Cosmo Cricket line called Ever After. Its so different than any other wedding papers- the colors are awesome. I bought it at Paper Tales in case you're in the San Diego area. The flowers and bling are from Prima.

Speaking of Prima...last weekend my friend Shalamar and I went to a class by Prima at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store. We used the paintable pages, bling, flowers and painted with Glimmer Mist to make this card: and this mini-book made from 1 12" by 12" sheet of paper,

AND this paintable layout which I'm sure will showcase some fabulous photo.... someday...And so now... all this creativity has left me with THIS MESS of beautiful new favorite products! I don't dare show you the rest of the room!!! But some goodness will come from this mess. You can already see a half done layout and a mini-book, right? Maybe make a card with the left over scraps...? Someday... hopefully this weekend.

Cheers to you and yours! I hope you have a great weekend!
Christy

Acrylic class

I've started teaching classes at Yellowbird Scrapbook store and this year, I'm holding an acrylic series. I love working with acrylic and I've noticed so many people are intimidated by it because it is a new medium. So the idea for this series is you can learn different acrylic techniques with each class. If you take one class, you'll end up with a nice wall-hanging or acrylic layout. If you take more of the classes, we'll bind them into an album at the end of the year.

All the projects are 2 sided. This first class is rather basic but we'll be building from here. Its next Monday night, February 9th and its only $15. you can sign up online here.

Side 1

Side 2

Class Description

If you’ve ever been a little intimidated by acrylic, this is the class for you. This class is packed with techniques! There’s so much you can do with acrylic and we’ll start with inking, cutting, punching, and gluing it to make this 2-sided layout. We’ll also learn about inks, adhesives, paper tearing, and how to use the Xyron create-a-sticker tool and a Crop-a-Dile. This is the first class in a series of acrylic classes. Take one and you’ll have a nice layout or wall hanging. Take them all and you’ll have an acrylic album full of your year’s memories. Every class you’ll learn new acrylic techniques.

Techniques learned in Class:

· Inking on acrylic and paper

· Adhering onto acrylic

· Cutting acrylic

· Punching and setting eyelets on acrylic using a Crop-a-Dile

· Using the Xyron create-a-sticker tool

· Paper tearing

· Using Stickles to apply glitter

Supplies needed:

Staz-On white ink, black ink (any type), white pen, black pen, Crystal Stickles, Xyron Create-a-sticker, glue dots or ATG gun, scissors, and a corner rounder.

Optional supplies: Crop-a-Dile, Zip Dry glue.

Yes, I am a Scrapbook Junkie!

WARNING: If you're not a Scrapbook Junkie like me or if you're not even interested in scrapbooking and crafts, you may not want to waste your time reading this post. This is a bad one. Its full of new products, great projects, and (gasp!) scrapbook celebrity photos!

I am, officially, no longer a CHA virgin. You know, the Craft & Hobby Association? After only 5 hours of sleep, I made the 90 minute drive to Anaheim, CA to go to the CHA show with Yellowbird Scrapbooking. I was only able to go one day but it was so amazing to see all the new 2009 scrapbook and craft products all in one place. I paired up with my buddy Mari and we had so much fun. I was dizzy with excitement and inspiration. There was so much coming at me that I wanted to remember it all so... I took 583 pictures yesterday. Yep, all that in just one day. CRAZY! So, how am I going to choose which ones to post? I don't know but we'll start with some favorites.Here I am WAITING to go in. It was pure torture to not open those doors before 9am!

So we go in and start oggling and we're wandering from booth to booth asking about the new products, show specials, ship dates and all the business, have-to-do stuff and then we get to the Jenni Bowlin booth and guess who helped us out.... JENNI BOWLIN herself! Here's a picture of she and I (a super BAD angle for me!) She was so sweet and genuine. No fake, "Buy my crap and I'll be nice to you." BS. Just a real nice girl with a charming southern accent. Here she is showing us around and showing us her new products. Great stuff!

Aren't these new pearl flowers to die for?!? They look like candy!

So then, we had to leave sweet Jenni (wouldn't want her to think I was some weird stalker or anything!). We wandered over to Basic Grey and arrived to hear that Coco just ordered some of the new Lime Rickey line for Yellowbird. Yeah! Who knows when it'll actually ship but it'll be great for summer layouts. But I have to say that the best part of Basic Grey was not the paper lines. It was this.... yep! Basic Grey is now making fabric from some of their past paper lines. Dreamy stuff! Unfortunately, they were really tight with their samples and didn't have many projects out so we didn't buy any. Maybe next time...Wandering through the hall I saw this super cool display:I loved so many of the houses but didn't have time to take pictures of them all. Or even stop by her booth (Mari cracked that whip and kept me moving! ;) ) I love Claudine Hellmuth's work and now she has a new product line here which is what was used to make these houses. Then, we went over to Prima and met the wonderful, and oh-so-talented, Jen Starr. She showed us how to use Ranger's alcohol inks on all sorts of Prima products. I just loved using them on the acrylic and the transparencies.And here's some more eye-candy from Prima.Anyways, I was exhausted by the time I got home at 10:00 last night. I have so much more to share but the kids are up so I've got to step out of my scrappy world and back into the real one. Thanks for checking in!

A little news....

I have 2 bits of happy news to share. I finally opened a shop on etsy.com. Click here if you want to view it: christyhoover.etsy.com

My obsession with creating stuff might as well make me some money, right? I only have a few things posted there for now. I'm just getting my feet wet to see how it goes before I list a whole lot of things (and incur listing fees.) I'm having a garage/craft sale on November 8th and whatever I don't sell there will be posted in the shop. If you're in San Diego and you want to come, email me and I'll send you the address.

On another note, Yellowbird Scrapbook Store is letting me teach a canvas class in November and December. I call it "A Christmas Carol" canvas. There's nothing Scroogey about this canvas, it just reminds me of a Victorian, Charles Dickens' Christmas. It's a big canvas too- 9" by 14". Its not a complicated class but once you learn the techniques, you'll be using your scrap supplies on a lot more than cards and pages. The best part is that the class is only $20! What a great gift! (But I wouldn't tell anyone if you wanted to keep it for yourself!)

Here's a photo:
It uses the new Wassail line from Basic Grey, vintage sheet music, Jenni Bolin papers, and so many embellishments that adds real dimension. Contact Yellowbird if you'd like to take the class. I'm looking forward to teaching such a fun thing!

Things like this make me want to just skip over Thanksgiving and go right to Christmas. But I wouldn't do that...probably... Anyways, first things first. We need to take down all the Halloween stuff. I'll post some fun pics about last night soon.

Thanks for checking in! Enjoy your weekend!

Be creative everyday

My goal everyday is to be creative. I have so many creative outlets that I usually have no problems finding something to do but finding the time... that's usually a problem.

Wednesday I'm providing dinner for our church's youth group so today I made 5 pans of lasagne. That really didn't take much culinary creativity so I hope that's not the only CT (creative time) I get today.

Last night I made up a load of wine charms.


These are so easy and fun! They make great hostess gifts but I'm also thinking of opening a shop on Etsy to channel some of my energy. I feel a passion to make stuff, I should probably reap a return on it somehow. But, until then, my friends and family are just going to get homemade gifts. (And I've made some terrific ones lately!)

I'm making some frames right now and getting some projects ready for Nat'l Scrapbook Day. I'm going to the all-day crop on May 3rd at Yellowbird Scrapbook Store. Should be fun! Especially, if Cydne will be there.

Time to get back to laundry and the rest of life....