I've been in Chicago since Sunday for the Craft & Hobby show. I was presenting a seminar and moderating a panel discussion on Monday so we arrived Sunday afternoon. The seminar was all about how to design then present projects for TV. I've been doing this for 13 years now, so there was lots of information to share. Kathie Stull, owner of KS Productions which produces 9 craft shows for PBS shared lots of information from the "other side of the camera" and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, the new co-host on Scrapbook Soup, wowd the crowd with info on developing online videos. We had a great crowd and lots of positive feedback.
It's now Thursday evening and I'm worn out...... 3 days of walking and talking is fun, but, strangely enough, it's also hard work. I've been going to the trade shows since 1991 and I really enjoy it, mainly because I get to catch up with friends. Here I am with Sue and Julie from Leeds in England. I grew up in Bradford which is near Leeds so it was lovely to meet friends from "home"; I got a true "Brit fix" and some Rowntrees Fruit Pastels - yummy sweets, from a new friend from Glasgow.
I also saw Kathy Cano-Murillo, the Crafty Chica who was decorating a tuffet,
Colleen and Marianne were in the Copic booth demoing markers and promoting a copy of their new book!!!! Would have loved to have seen it, but someone "borrowed" it before I got there and forgot to return it..... hopefully it will be in the stores soon :)
Claudine Hellmuth demoing in the Ranger booth
and, of course, Tim Holtz.
I found Wendy Sanger, from Tattered Angels demoing in the Walnut Hollow booth. The mists are a great way to add color to wood.
It's almost midnight and hard to keep awake, but here's a few of the over 200 photos that I took of project displays, etc. It takes quite a while to crop and reduce the file size of each photo before posting, so I'll have to wait till the weekend to add more.
Every once in a while I come across a product that I just love! As you know, or maybe not, I design Elmer's projects for the TV shows. Project design is always about showcasing the manufacturer's product and for Elmer's it's all about adhesives. They have a lot of new paper crafting adhesives to choose from, but my favorite technique was the one I developed to feature the new 3-D Pop Up Glue Spots. I used the glue spots to make ribbon roses.
Here's how you do it:
1. Tie a knot at the end of a 12" (about) piece of 3/8" ribbon. Push the knot into the center of a glue dot.
2. Fold the ribbon down as shown then push the edge into the glue dot close to the knot.
3. Continue folding and pushing the edge into the glue dot all the way around the knot to create the center.
4. Continue folding and pushing the edge of the ribbon into the outer edge of the dot.
5. When you have gone all around the outer edge, cut the ribbon.
6. Tuck the end of the ribbon under the edge of the glue dot. Voilà, you now have a ribbon rose. Store your ribbon roses on the backing sheet until you are ready to embellish your project!
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Don't forget you can use this same technique to make bigger roses. Just push additional glue dots around a center dot - you can do this on kitchen wax paper and make them as big as you want. Y'all come back now............
Sponsored by Michaels Stores,Sakura, Elmer's, Spellbinders,Westcott, X-Acto and other industry manufacturers, the new series, Scrapbook Soup will start to air on PBS stations across the US on July 21st. Please check with your local stations for days and times. Each station chooses when to air the show. We do not control which stations pick it up, but there is a station finder on the show website @ www.scrapbookmemoriestv.com. Enter your zipcode and it will tell you if its airing. If not, it allows you to email your station to request it! (Scrapbook Soup will be aired by stations which aired Scrapbook Memories. BYU may choose to air the new show later in the year. Here's a sneak peek at one of the Michaels' segments with Jo Pearson, Host of Where Creativity Happens! Enjoy!
When organizing your photos, a lot will depend on how many photos you have and how long you've been taking them. To start with, here's a clip from a short interview with Ellen Marden on the set of Scrapbook Memories a couple of years ago.
Ellen had asked us how we organize our photos. Beth replied that she uploaded her photos once per month to Shutterfly. For better or for worse I have to admit that I download mine to iPhoto and there they stay. Deleting any of them is a real challenge, so I have literally thousands.
Digital cameras allow us to take so many photographs without a second thought because we no longer have to worry about the cost of taking rolls of film for printing and developing. We do however, have to remember to print the ones we could not bear to lose otherwise, as I said on the video, our children and grandchildren will grow up to be jpegs.
So, back to the question, how do we organize our photos? I've had a camera since I was 11 years old, so I've literally been taking photos for over 50 years. I love photographs and remember as a child spending hours looking through the photographs my dad took during the time he spent in the Air Sea Rescue branch of the RAF in the early 1940s.
This is a page from the album he made. I just love how he painted his own background and he even added where and when the photographs were taken. My dad was a scrapbooker and he didn't even know it. Scrapbook albums are a great way way to organize and preserve our special memories, but, let's be honest, if we scrapbooked even half of all the photographs we'd taken, we'd need not only a separate room, but a whole house to store the albums.
Okay, I'm back to organization. Whether you have tons of actual photos (and slides) dating back to the early 1900's, or just digital photos because you're a lot younger than I am, you have to organize them and, if they are digital you have to print out the most important ones. Part of organizing is also recording the names of the people who are in the photos and where and when they were taken.
Here's what I would suggest:
1. Organize your printed photos by decade up through 1970 or 1990 depending on how many you have. I'm thinking digital photography didn't become really popular until 2000. My photos are all in separate photo (shoe) boxes labeled 1920, 1930, 1940, etc and I have a separate box for the photos (and the negatives) that my mother took.
2. Digital photographs can be broken down by year and month, if you take a lot, and also by event. For example, my albums in iPhoto would be labeled something like this:
Jan-Jun 2010,
July-Dec 2010
and events would be:
David & Chelsea's Wedding,
Dylan's Graduation,
Jovie's 3rd Birthday,
Disneyworld - 2011, etc.
3. Each time you upload photos, delete as many as you can, otherwise you will end up with so many, it will be an overwhelming task to sort through them all and you'll keep putting it off.
4. I also have an album of "Photos to Print". I drag all the "special" photos in here to be edited and printed then copied to an external drive and a CD. After backing them up I delete them from the "Photos to Print" album. I'm not sure about other programs, but any photo that goes into this album is a copy and the original is still maintained in iPhoto. I transfer photos onto Gold CD's, which are less likely to become damaged than regular CDs.
5. Reality Check: Computers crash, CD's can be easily damaged and who knows whether or not you'll even be able access information that's on a CD in ten years or so. Flash drives have become very affordable and they're also a great place to store photos, but again, who knows what we'll be using 10 years from now. So, printing your photos either individually to store in either a box or album, or in a photo book is still the best solution. I do have lots of scrapbook pages, but I keep them in page protectors in a 3-Ring album. I call them my "eye candy for the soul". The rest will be in digital albums - McGuffee Family Yearbooks (or Annuals). I make my own using Photoshop and the Unibind system - I just LOVE their coffee table book type paper which can be printed on both sides.
Well, I think I've waxed eloquent (hopefully) for long enough. Hope you found this helpful. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments section and I'll help if I can. Y'all come back now......
This month's projects feature a brand new product - Tulip Beads in a Bottle now available at your local craft stores. Earlier this year 30 Designers in our group received samples to create projects to give you some great ideas on how you can use this new product. The Giveaway this month is also sponsored by i Love to Create and you won't want to miss it - just look what you can win!
Want to know how to enter? Click on the link to the iLovetoCreate blog where you will find all the details, but don't forget to check out all the designer projects by hopping forward wherever you see this logo in the side bar
Beads in a Bottle is a self-rounding fabric paint that you can use to create beads on a fabric surface. It comes in packs of 4 colors and there's a whole lot to choose from. My first project is a Felt Folk Art bird. It's not easy to think about Christmas in July, especially when it's 100˚ outside, but it's never too soon...... it's just not Christmas without a red bird. This one can be used to hang on a tree, used as a pick (as seen here - it's stuck in a spool), or it will perch beautifully on a tree or hang from a ribbon.
Beads are a also a great way to add dimension. I added a photograph of a sunflower to a small canvas tote using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) then added black beads to the center and trios of dots around the flower. The bow was made using a plastic tie - come back in a few days and I'll show step by step photos on how to make it. It's E Z P Z - and perfect every time.
Now hop forward and enjoy! Good luck with the Giveaway and have a fun and fabulous fourth! Y'all come back now......
A few weeks ago a lady from Kentucky called to ask if I would paint a Bavarian Wedding Box for her to give as a wedding gift. She had seen one that I had painted in the October issue of Paintworks magazine - October1998!!! Apparently she is an elderly lady and doesn't have access to the internet, so she went to the local library and asked them to help her find my phone number.
Some of you may know that I'm a decorative painter and I've authored a number of painting books over the past 20+ years. In fact, I just finished two painting booklets for DecoArt, which will be in Michaels stores in the not too distant future, but more about that later. Since all my brushes and paints were unpacked, I agreed to paint the box and she arranged to have a blank bentwood box shipped to me. Ta daa, here it is:
I know that Folk Art isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I truly enjoy "strokework" and the history behind this European style of painting. From the Roses & Castles style found on the narrow boats floating through the English countryside, to the Bavarian style found on furniture and buildings in the alps of southern Germany, each country has its own style and use of color. What really stood out on this old design, were the scrolls or flourishes that are so popular today - another example of what was "old" is "new" again.
I'm loving the new "mixed media" trend, another great example of re-discovering and updating old techniques. As I searched through a mountain of magazines and tear sheets to find this particular project, I re-discovered a whole bunch of my old ideas, techniques and projects that I can re-cycle and update, so keep checking back, I may even inspire you to pick up a paintbrush too!
Don't forget, there's going to be a fabulous giveaway for July, sponsored by iLovetoCreate. Here's a sneak peek
More details on how YOU can enter to win on July 1st, so y'all come back now.........
My nephew and his wife are expecting a baby next month, so, of course we've been talking about different ways to display and scrapbook baby pictures. One of the projects we talked about was a chipboard album I designed for Elmer's for show 1407 of Scrapbook Memories. Here's a recap of the segment. Enjoy!
Don't forget to check back here on July 1st for our monthly giveaway. It's a FIRECRACKER of a giveaway brought to you by ilovetocreate and you won't want to miss it!!
Please e-mail your address to me (julie@juliemcguffee.com) by June 30th and your books will be on their way!
Our next giveaway will be on JULY 1st and is being provided by "iLovetoCreate". You won't believe the fantastic assortment of product they are donating to a very lucky winner. To support the giveaway, members of the Designer Crafts Connection blog group have created projects using a brand new product - Beads in a Bottle. To enter to win - well, you'll have to come back on July 1st....!!! You'll be glad you did! Have a crafty day! Y'all come back now.
Découpage has been around for a long time, but it's still a great way to accent lots of different surfaces and use up all those leftover scraps of scrapbook paper and wrapping paper! I created this découpaged project for show 1512 on Scrapbook Memories. You can find full instructions on our website.
Don't forget to sign up for the Giveaway! (See below.) The winner will be announced on June 20th. Y'all come back now.
This month's giveaway also falls on First Monday, the day we post Designer Craft Connection projects. The theme for this months is patriotic, so don't forget to check them out then enter to win.
I have two books to give away this month.
The Big Book of Scrapbook Pages and Cherish by Jeanette R. Lynton. At 256 pages, the first book features 500+ new designs for capturing all your memories. The second book is a beautiful hardbound coffee table book, full of inspirational scrapbook pages and layouts - a book you'll be sure to "cherish".
To enter the giveaway, please hop around our blog ring then comment here on which project you liked the best and why. You can also let me know which crafting technique, or idea you liked the best. The winner will be announced on June 20th, so you have lots of time. Sign up as a "follower" and you'll be entered twice!
Check out my project below, then use the Designer Crafts Connection logo in my sidebar to the left to hop forward. Enjoy the journey, but y'all come back now to enter the give away!
The Designer Crafts Connection theme for June is Patriotic so hop around for lots of ideas and inspiration for July 4th. This project will make a great accent piece or a table decoration, but the technique is all about creating a "Rosette". Once you get the hang of this you can make rosettes in any color for any occasion. Add to banners, garlands, gift bags and more!
1. Cut two, 2" wide strips of blue paper and two, 1 1/2" strips of red & white striped paper. These can be either 11" long, or 12" depending on what size sheet of paper you have.
2. Score each strip at 1/2" intervals. TIP: I cut one, 4" wide strip, scored it then cut it into two, 2" strips. This way I only have to score one strip, instead of two......
3. Accordion fold each strip.
4. Overlap the ends then glue the two blue strips together, then overlap and glue the opposite ends to create a circle.
5. Create a red & white circle in the same manner.
6. Folded circles have a tendency to pop up, making it a little tricky to hold the centers together to make the rosette. You can either enlist the help of a crafty friend to squish and hold the folds down while you glue a punched circle over the center, or drum roll please
You can hold them together by placing inside a circle cookie cutter!! I bought a set of four just for making rosettes...... EZ PZ......
7. Punch a circle from cardstock then glue it over the center at the front of the red & white rosette. Let dry.
8. Glue a circle to the back of the blue rosette. When both are completely dry (depending on what type of glue you use - tacky tape works great too BTW) set the smaller rosette on top of the larger one. With a little coaxing, the folds should nestle into the folds of the blue rosette quite nicely.
9. I glued my rosette to the end of a dowel which I had glued inside a wooden spool base. I decorated the spool with strips of paper, then added a star to the front and tails to the rosette. I also covered a second red circle with glitter then glued it over the front of the rosette. Gotta have some sparkle for the 4th!
Rosettes are fun embellishments and now you know how easy they are to make. Enjoy! Y'all come back now.............
