Creative Cafe - Cool Storage - Happy Quotes

I thought I wasn't going to be splurging on any more scrapbooking lines for a while until my friend Chris showed me the new Creative Imaginations line: Creative Cafe. I LOVE this stuff and I LOVE the whole concept of the Creative Cafe line. If you're lucky enough to have a store near you, you know what I mean. The brick and mortar stores that carry this line have an "art bar" where you can pick up just what you need to finish your layouts. All the stuff coordinates and looks great together. If you don't have a store near you (like me), you can buy the stuff on http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/ or you can find the entire line here: http://qbaroo.com/justneedit/ . I'm such a sloooow scrapper, but this layout came together so easily using Creative Cafe:




And ya', there's some awesome Heidi Swapp stuff in there (love that chipboard) and a paper bag, too.

And as if the product itself didn't make me happy enough, I found the coolest storage thingy to keep all my Creative Cafe stuff together. I like storing my stuff by manufacturer - I don't know why - I just do - and this works perfectly!

This is from Cropper Hopper and they make sturdy folders like this in all different orientations. I like this one because I can fit my paper on the right side, my smaller embellishments on the top left side and my larger embellishments on the bottom left side. And it's all together! Be still, my heart!

And to finish the weekend playing with my Creative Cafe stuff, I took some of my favorite creative quotes and made this 'Quote Holder' for myself. Just something to keep me motivated and creating. Here are a couple of pics:




Creative Cafe stuff everywhere, Heidi Swapp bling and ghosts (love 'em), and pages from an old dictionary. Used the blank parts of the dictionary pages to print the quotes on.

Have a great week! - betsy

Two Frames = One Cute Album

Here's a basic idea that can be used to create a cute little album.


Take two little frames and use one for an album front cover and the other for the album back cover. Make accordian pages for the middle of the album and attach each end of the accordian to a frame. Viola! Instant album. Instant cuteness!


Here's one I made of our vacation to Rhode Island:

The frames are Making Memories tin frames.
Since I love to use a 'good idea' over and over again, you can bet I'll be making a lot of these in the future!

Have a great week!

New York City Inspiration and a Camera Bag Makeover

Back in January I went to New York City with friends Amy and Amy. I finally got the prints (yep, used a dinky little film camera) and wanted to share some New York City inspiration. Sorry about the dark pics.

I LOVE the 'new' look to M&J Trimming:



I was a little embarrassed when I asked the sales clerk when M&J got this "new look" - and she said it's been a few years now!

Here's Amy and Amy admiring the wicked cool stuff:



I fell in love with this storage piece:



Check out this lovely bunch of ribbon from another great spot:



I picked up some ribbon with the intention of sprucing up my camera bag. I've got the perfect camera bag. It holds just what I need it to hold and serves its purpose well, but gosh . . . . . . . . . it's . . . . . . . . . . . really . . . . . . . . . . . ugly.

So, I sewed a nice thick pink ribbon onto my bag strap, and tied a small piece on the handle, for a real simple camera bag makeover:



I have to admit, I did feel a bit conspicuous walking into my Nikon D80 class with this bag, but I'll get over it. Hey, my bag is pretty now!

Have a great week! - betsy

Jolie Chocolat

I visited Express Yourself the other day and found a new line of SEI papers: Jolie Chocolat. This stuff is GORGEOUS! Beautiful patterns, beautiful colors, and the sheets are embossed, glittered, foiled, etc. There's a ton of stuff in the line - here's a link to see it all: http://www.shopsei.com/main.cfm?heading=0&categoryoid=8&productoid=199&page=1

I bought some of the papers without having any kind of plan for them. They were just too gorgeous to pass up.

They were also just too gorgeous to just have sitting on my desk, so I made a creative journal with some of it. I really like the Staples No Snag spiral ring notebook. It's easy to take the cover off, remove pages, and customize the way you want. This is the fourth one I've done and I really do fill them up with all my sketches, thoughts, and inspirations.


Here's the cover. The paper is glittered - gorgeous.

Square templates (Hambly transparency) for my sketches hang from ribbon on the first page.

My own pocket page for 'stuff'.

Here's a closeup of cute new Primas I used as section dividers.

If you've seen any new line around that you think is just GREAT, I'd love to hear about it!