What's new?

The latest trend I've been seeing in the scrapbooking magazines are chipboard. Not just your typical chipboard. But shapes, brackets, punctuation and letters of course. What does one do with chipboard, you ask! Well what is nice about it is you can decorate a blank chipboard to fit any theme. Use ink to add color and dimension. Use stamps to decorate if you wish. Ribbon is a cool effect! Of course you can use your hole punch and add on jump rings, attach brads or eyelets and even add in charms. Lots of ideas!

Lots of printed paper out there and for those who are totally intimidated by it, take a look at or even better yet, purchase Ali Edward's new book on patterned paper. Don't know who Ali is?! Oh, come on...you'd better know! She is the hip and coolest designer out there and resides just south of me here in Oregon. Read Ali's blog here. She is an inspiration to anyone who is a scrapbooker or a wannabe scrapbooker! :) LOL!

So what have you been stamping or scrapbooking lately? I hope you are scheduling time in your schedule. Treat it like an appointment with your psychologist (just way cheaper!). I find when I bring stuff out and just play, my designs get better and I feel way less stressed. My art looks way better when I have time to play and not have to design anything in particular. My latest LO (layout) is a variety of photos of Emma in different age stages, doing a variety of things (sitting, playing, standing, etc.). I enjoy mixing up photos and not scrapbooking chronologically sometimes. It sure takes pressure off of organizing everything by date! Try it; you might be so inspired and scrapbook more often this way! I am also into creating smaller scrapbooks like a 6x6. It is so much easier to complete a project that is small in size and the accomplishment you feel is unbelievable! Remember to keep it simple and not stress about design and embellishment. Use what you have and try to think creatively and make your "stash" of products go far. It is amazing what you can do on a limited budget and stash!

Summer is almost over and school is right around the corner. What will you do this year when the keiki go back to school? Hey, you can go back to school too -- art school! If you are looking to learn a new technique, just contact me and I can teach you. This is the most rewarding part of scrapbooking and stamping for me -- to teach someone something new! It is always amazing when I teach something new that they haven't tried or thought of. It is like a light bulb pops up above their head and you can see it in their eyes that they GET IT. So if you have that burning desire to go back to school too, call me and I can help you!

When I started this blog, I had the intent of writing at least every other day. Yeah, that went out the window quickly. So I figured, okay, maybe once a week. Hah! If you look at the last blog date, you'll notice some time has definitely passed between blog entries. Such is life of a busy mom, wife, employee, crafter and business owner. Is anyone even reading these blogs? Who knows....I always hope someone will post a comment or two.

Well, it's time to hit the sack. I hope that I can work in some art play time somewhere this weekend. Have a great one!

Aloha,
J-