Technique classes

I would love to have techniques available; however, Michaels will no allow me to offer them at their stores currently. So, as many of you know, I also am affiliated with Grapevine Antiques and Crafts Mall in Brodheadsville, where I can hold classes on anything. So, ladies, my questions are: would you travel to Brodheadsville for a class? And, what techniques would you like to learn? As well as, what day and times work best for you? I'm thinking a weekend would probably work best for me since most of my evenings are already spoken for at Michaels. I need to hear from you! Tell me what you want to see by posting a response right here! Thanks!!

Setting up a comfortable crafting studio

Whether your studio is your dining room table, your kitchen island, a card table in the corner of your bedroom or a full room, there are certain things you every studio needs to include.

First is a comfortable chair. Most times when you scrapbook, create jewelry, knitting, or crocheting or whatever other craft you are doing chances are you don’t just work on your project for a few minutes. Most likely you will be sitting there for several hours creating your masterpiece. Your chair should be supportive and comfortable. Folding chairs leave little to be desired for comfort or support, especially for the long term. If, however, a folding chair is what you have to work with, add a cushion to help the comfort level. No matter the look of your chair comfort is the name of the game. My chair in my studio is the ugliest chair in the world. My kids tease me that it’s so hideous. But, it is so comfortable; I can sit there for hours and hours crafting away.

Another essential thing you must have while crafting is excellent lighting, not only to see what you are working on but good lighting also aids in preventing your eyes from tiring too quickly while crafting. You should have good overhead as well as task lighting. Remember that if you are right handed, your lighting should be on your left and if you are left handed your lighting should be from the right. This prevents you from working in the shadow.

Having frequently used tools at hand is another essential thing to think about when setting up your work area. Having a caddy with those essential tools on your work surface, easily at hand will help your creativity flourish since you won’t have to stop what you are doing, loosing your train of thought, to get the tools you need.

Organizational items in your area are always good to have, but which organizations tools work the best? That is the million dollar question and something you will have to research. My best advice is to use the area for a length of time to see what you need before you go shopping for those adorable organizational items. Start out with things from around the house that you recycle and give a new life to or the least expensive organizational items until you have an idea of what you need. I cannot tell you how many times I have purchased items for my studio to “get me organized” only to find that they didn’t work for me. A lot of times the simplest things, recycled things actually work the best -- baskets, jars, cans, and bottles are some of my best organizational items in my studio.

Things to consider for scrapbookers:

Do you want to store your paper horizontally or vertically?

Are you going to store embellishments by theme, color, or manufacturer?

Will you be taking things to crops outside the home regularly?

Do some of your tools require separate organization?

Things to consider for beaders:

How do you want to store your beads? By color, type, or manufacturer?

Separate store for findings and stringing options?

How will you display completed jewelry?

Having a separate room for crafting is ideal but not everyone has the space for such a room. If you do not have the ability to have such a room make sure you account for that when setting up your work area. You will then need a way to those incomplete projects away without marring it until you can return to it later. Being able to leave your project incomplete where you know it won’t be disturbed is wonderful, and believe it or not, you will be able to get so much more work done since you won’t have to take your project out and put it away every time you want to work on your project.

No matter the space you have, make time and space to craft!

November Classes

November scrapbook classes will begin next week. With classes in the three Michaels stores, there is a day that anyone can attend. Whether you are available in the afternoon or evening, you will find a class for you. Check our Events Calendar for exact dates, times and locations of classes.

November beading classes will begin as soon as Suzi is able to schedule them with the stores.

Bead Corner Design Academy Instructor

It's official! I am now an Instructor for the Bead Corner Design Academy! I will be teaching beading at Michaels in Easton, PA. As soon as I receive my Instructor Kit, I will be able to get classes scheduled. Watch for classes on the fundamentals of bead stringing, knotting, crimping and wire wrapping.

CONGRATULATIONS SDU GRADUATES!!

Congratulations to Vanessa, Karen, and Tracye for graduating from Scrapbook Design and You class!! All three ladies is a magnificent job learning how to scrapbook and completing pages for their albums.

Hope to see you all soon!

Organizing your Photos

There are only a few simple steps to get your photographs organized and ready to scrap. Once you have your photographs organized, scrapbooking those photographs is quick and easy. So, let’s get started.

First, gather all your photograph into one place. The living room floor or dining room table is a good place to start organizing. You will need a large space, some place to spread out with all those photographs.

Second, start sorting your photos. How ever your sort them is entirely up to you. Sort by date, event, person, holiday or vacation.

Third, now that you have your photographs grouped you need to sub-group them. So, if you have your photos sorted by year, now you can sub-group by event. (ie: Group 2006, sub-group - Easter, vacations, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, at the beach, snow much fun, etc.)

Fourth, add some tidbit journaling to your photos. As you are sorting these photos, little things come to mind, write them down. My suggestion is to put those tidbits on a sticky note and put it on the back of the photo. Never write on the back of a photo with a ball point pen. It will break the emulsion plus you will see what you wrote on the front. If you write on the back of the photograph, only use a photo safe marker, such as the Zig Photo Signature Pen. My suggestion though is to utilize the sticky notes for your tidbits because as you are working on your layout and adhere your photo to its mat and build your page if you have your tidbits of journaling on the back of your photo it’s gone. If you use the sticky notes, you can pull them off as you build your page and set them to the side to do your journaling with after your page is built and ready for journaling.

The final step is to store your photographs. How you store them is important. You want to store them as you have organized them. The envelopes that the developer put them in is a good choice. Other good options include photo boxes and photo organizers by Cropper Hopper and other manufacturers; just keep in mind that whatever you use it should be archival, PVC-free, acid free, lignin free and photo safe.

Now, get those photos organized!

Time Capsule Demonstration

Suzi will be doing a time capsule demonstration at Michael's in Whitehall, PA on Thursday, September 2 from 6pm to 8pm. This time capsule will be created using an acrylic pail and scrapbook supplies. Stop by and see how to create your own time capsule!

Paperbag Album Demonstration

Suzi will be doing a paperbag album demonstration at Michael's in Whitehall, PA on Wednesday, September 1 from 6pm to 8pm. Stop by and join the fun!

Scrapbook Demonstration

Suzi will be doing a scrapbook demonstration at the Michael's in Phillipsburg, NJ on Saturday, August 28 from 11am to 3pm. Stop by and see what's going on, play with the punches and make a border to take with you!

CROP NIGHT -- August 27

Suzi will be hostessing a Crop Night at Michael's in Whitehall, PA from 3pm to 8:45pm. A good time will be had by all at Crop Night. You will have access to all the classroom "toys" including the Cricut, Sizzix, Xyron, and a myriad of punches, decorative edge scissors! Bring your stuff and scrap to your hearts content! Best of all it's FREE!! See you at the Crop!!

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog. Thanks so much for stopping by. Here you will find ideas for paper crafting, crafting in general, our latest finds of vintage and antiques and what we're doing and where. Hope that you will stop back soon.