Tuesday 30 September 2014

Mixed Media Mania - Feeling Stumped?

Did you ever pull out all your art journal supplies and sit there feeling stumped?  Sometimes it just takes a quote or an object to get me started but every once in a while...I resort to youtube.
Don't get offended if you are a youtube fan...but most of the time, I am not a fan of the videos.  I just don't like sitting and watching someone gesso a page and have 15 minutes evaporate in the blink of an eye :)
So, let me share with you my hints about searching for an inspiring video on youtube.

1.  Don't type in Art Journal - you will get soooooooooooo many videos, you won't know where to start!
2.  Check out the time of the video - if it is over 10 minutes, I likely won't be watching it!
3.  Only click on the video if the picture catches your eye...regardless of the title.  Avoid the bunny trails!
4.  My biggest hint......... add the following words to whatever you're searching for 
FAST FORWARD
Yep, that's it.  
The videos usually don't have talking, they don't go on and on and on about how to gesso a page....they simply share their quick and easy page with you!

Just to prove my point, please enjoy this quick and inspirational video made by Ronda Palazzari!
She takes very little product and makes a gorgeous page!

  
Ronda will be teaching some fabulous classes here at the end of October - you can read more about them HERE
Wishing you a fabulous week!

Monday 29 September 2014

What's Up - Monday September 29

Happy Monday!
I am spending the day getting the store back together after a fabulous weekend in Calgary with Canadian Scrapbooker.  We met some new friends and even caught up with some old ones too! It is good to be back, even if it's only a few short days until we pack up and head out to a crop in Red Deer next weekend :)

There are some fabulous classes this week in the store.  Bree is teaching a super cute Halloween Wreath on Thursday the 2nd at 6pm

It is so perfect to welcome fall on your front door!!  Give us a shout at the store and we can register you to join in the fun.

And for those of you who have taken Jenn's Beginner Guide to Hand Lettering, she is offering the Advanced Class this Friday from 630-830pm. 


This is such a great way to step up your Art Journal or Scrapbook pages and Jenn makes it so easy!  Class is only $27 and all you need is paper, pen, pencil and eraser!!  

We are expecting a shipment on Wednesday this week - the metallic Distress Stain Sprays, Websters Pages, new dies, all the Bloom Sprays will be back in stock and much more!

Have a fantastic week!

Friday 26 September 2014

Spark Your Inspiration - Friday Sept 26, 2014

We have been pinning away this week... are you on Pinterest too?  Give us a follow so we can follow you back :)
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend - we are headed to Calgary to join the Canadian Scrapbooker Carnival...if you're in Calgary, pop into our booth and say hello!

Here are our 5 fave Pins this week!  






















Thursday 25 September 2014

Happy Stampers - Inks, Inks and Inks!!

One of the most common questions we hear is
"what ink do I use with ...."

There are so many kinds of inks out there.  Here in the store, we currently carry Ranger's Distress Inks, Ranger's Archival Inks, Staz On Inks, Memento, Brilliance and Versamark.  And yes, each of those inks are all different from each other!

Our staff is always happy to help you out when you have questions, but after highlighting Jennifer Maguire last week, I remembered a fantastic video she did on inks and such.
Enjoy!



Tuesday 23 September 2014

Mixed Media Mania - Karenika Style

Several years ago, I was at a scrapbook event that was held for retailers in town.  At the time, I taught for a store and was thrilled to be given the opportunity to go and take classes from amazing people in the industry like Tim Holtz (an incredible instructor), Vicki Boutin (fabulous and funny!), Liz Hicks (ah-maz-ing and totally got that my hands were my best paintbrush) and companies like Tattered Angel, Bo Bunny, Graphic 45 and many more.  It was a fun weekend and I really learned a lot. 
At the time, Margie Romney had just started up a company called The Girls' Paperie, sadly gone now :( and so we were very excited to see it.  As we wandered through the booths, we stopped and chatted with many of the salespeople and artists who were in them.  Margie had us chatting for a long time...her warm and genuine spirit had us from the get go.  As we were chatting, a layout caught my eye and I was stunned by how much I loved it.  It was nothing like most layouts I had seen before.....lots of white space and random, messy journaling....random?... messy? that was my kind of style!



After gushing over it, Margie allowed me to take a picture of it and so I went home and googled...and came across a blog that I have now followed ever since - Karenika.
  Imagine how happy I was to discover that not only did she scrapbook like me (one pagers, lots of white space, love of banners and stitching...I was in heaven!) but she also ART JOURNALED!!
I was a little bummed out by the fact that most of her pages involved drawing but was still drawn to them and found myself just wandering through her galleries for inspiration.  
I encourage you today to wander her blog or search for her work on Pinterest and feel inspired!!  
Here are some of my favourites

















Monday 22 September 2014

What's Up - Sept 22-28

Happy first day of fall!!  
You would never know that summer has ended with the absolutely gorgeous weather we are having (28 degress!!).  
Last week brought a lot of fun ladies, teens, and tweens to join in the fun here - Bree had a Project Life class, Jenn had a Harry Potter Canvas Class, and Cori-Lyn taught the Art Journal class on Tuesday and again on Sunday.
We are looking forward to some more fun things this week:

Tuesday - A shipment is due in ...including the fabulous new Tim Holtz Distress Sprays!
We also have the advanced Copic class at 6:30.  This month, we are colouring two super cute Whimsy Stamps - if you have taken a beginner's class with Cori-Lyn, you are welcome to join in the fun!

We are also expecting Stencil Girl and Blue Fern to arrive back in stock this week as we sold so much of it in Sherwood Park last weekend!
This weekend, Ivy and Cori-Lyn are packing up the store again and heading off to Calgary to join Canadian Scrapbooker for another fun weekend!  We are looking forward to meeting some new scrappers :)
Wishing you a fantastic, fun-filled and crafty week!

Friday 19 September 2014

Spark Your Inspiration - Friday Sept 19

Happy Friday!!!
It has been a pretty busy week around here and I am definitely glad the weekend has arrived :)
We started up a brand new Instagram this week and now we would like to introduce you to our sparkly new Pinterest Board as well!!
Pinterest is a fantastic source of inspiration - whenever a new line comes in, I love checking out different pins and seeing what is out there!
Here are our top 5 pins this week - hope you enjoy them!  Please click on the links below each picture to follow the Pin.
Have a fantastic weekend!








(did we mention Frank is coming to teach here in February?!)






Thursday 18 September 2014

Happy Stampers - Jennifer McGuire

Happy Thursday!
Today, I wanted to showcase a Happy Stamper that I have followed for years.


Jennifer McGuire is one of those stampers that takes a simple stamp and makes a card so quickly, you almost miss the techniques hidden in it.
Her style is crisp and clean, even when she uses Tim Holtz's Distress products!  She is a great blogger - always willing to share her techniques, organization tips, and pictures of her adorable family :)
Please check out her blog - make sure not to miss some of my favourite posts!






Let us know what your favourite post is!  And if you happen to create something from one of her fabulous tutorials, we would love to see it!


Wednesday 17 September 2014

Wordless Wednesday

I know it's supposed to be wordless...but allow me a few quick words to tell you that we have a brand new Instagram account!! We had a blast last night at our Art Journaling class - met some fantastic new journalers and even welcomed back an old friend :)
When I instagrammed our background page, I added a few hashtags as I usually do.  After class, I have a hard time sleeping so I was clicking on our hashtags and seeing what else came up. And so, today I will share some of my favourites with you.
 Check us out - http://instagram.com/scrapaddicts !  Follow us and we will follow you!  

# artjournal - from instagrammer marksqueen



#yeg - from instagrammer breezy252



#mixedmedia - from instagrammer scrapwitchlisa



#izinks - from instagrammer yvonneyam



#ScrapAddicts - from one of our instructors!


Tuesday 16 September 2014

Mixed Media Mania - Spotlight on Stencil Girl

Last weekend, we packed up a lot of the store and headed out to Sherwood Park to join Canadian Scrapbooker's Carnival... and let me tell you, deciding what to take to fit into a 10x10 booth is a tough job!!  
We really wanted to focus on items that we carry in the store that people may not have seen before but we love - we knew that Stencil Girl was coming with us for sure!

I was very grateful we made this decision because those stencils FLEW out of our booth!!  We actually came back and placed an order on Sunday so that we have some to take with us to Calgary in two weeks :)
As a mixed media gal, I love my stencils...I love the different ways you can use them and how they add that unique touch to your art journal, your cards, or even your layouts.
When we decided to open a store, we made a very conscious decision to find unique items..and Stencil Girl was one of our first finds.  They are a great company to deal with and their stencils are top quality with unique designs.  
Have a poke around their blog and check out some of their fantastic tutorials and their awesome Creative Team.  And if you see a stencil you must have, let us know and we would be happy to bring it in for you!

Monday 15 September 2014

What's Up - Sept 15-21, 2014

WHEW!!!!!!! 
We just finished a very busy and fun-filled week!!

We packed up and headed to Canadian Scrapbooker's Carnival and let me tell you.......what a fun couple of days!!!  We met so many new friends, visited with some old friends, and had a ton of fun doing it!  Those ladies at Canadian Scrapbooker know how to have fun :)  We are already looking forward to next year's show...where it will be an 80s theme!!  We get to do it all over again in two weeks as we are joining Calgary for their show as well - look out Calgary!
We wanted to send out a HUGE thank you to our staff for keeping our (empty) store running.  Also a big thank you to Bree and Andrea for helping design kits and another big thank you to Bree for doing a make and take on Friday and helping out in our booth.
Thank you also to Meaghan for your help on Saturday and to the awesome guys who helped us take down, haul back, and put away on Saturday!

This week in the store, we have our Art Journal class on Tuesday - we will be playing with the awesome new Izinks (which were a big hit at the show this weekend).  And Saturday, Jenn will be re-running the very popular Harry Potter inspired canvas for our teens and tweens.
Bree's Project Life make and take was a big hit at the Carnival...come check out her class this Sunday from 10am-1 pm.  Class includes pretty much everything but your adhesive!!


We are expecting two big shipments this week - one today and one on Thursday!

Hope to see you soon!


Art Journal Class
Tues. Sept. 16th 630-930 pm
or
Sunday Sept 21st 2-5 pm
$23.50*

Harry Potter Inspired Canvas
Sat. Sept 20th 1-4pm
$40

Project Life
Sunday Sept 21
10am-1 pm
$35

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Mixed Media Mania - Mumkaa Style

It's Mixed Media Tuesday!
Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favourite Mixed Media Artists - most people know her as Mumkaa but her real name is Magda Bolinska.  She uses many different medias on her layouts, in her art journal, and her fabulous Project Life pages.  Check out some of my favourite projects of hers!



And if you are looking for inspiration, be sure to check out her Flickr page or do a quick search for her on Pinterest!

Monday 8 September 2014

What's Up - September 8, 2014

Have you recovered from the shock of our blog post yet?!
Well, here's What's Up for the week!

We had a fantastic weekend - lots of customers coming in for the brand new Prima (Epiphany, Forever Green, Cigar Box Secrets, and Coffee Break); Kaisercraft (Teddy Bear's Picnic, Christmas Basecoat and Yuletide); and the gorgeous Dina Wakley stamps!

Friday Night Crop had a ton of creative ladies and lots of late night giggles and Bree's first Project Life Crop and Swap was a big hit too!  Bree has already picked the date for the next one and has some pretty awesome classes coming up too.

Classes this week - Jenn has a fantastic Advanced Lettering class on Thursday the 11th and Andrea's super popular Scrap A Pack is on Saturday from 10-10.  I love seeing everyone's layouts with the different papers!  Hopefully the ladies will let Andrea take some photos so we can post them!  I also have my Art Journal class on Sunday from 1-4...can't wait to play with the new Izinks!

And some sad news.... Michelle's last class with us will be this Wednesday the 10th (Stamp of the Month) :(  Michelle is such a fantastic instructor and we will miss her terribly but she is onto new opportunities so we wish her all the best!

Ivy and I went out shopping as we are heading to Canadian Scrapbooker's Carnival this weekend.  We wanted to find some awesome things for our booth and ....... we found the most incredible thing!!!  Hopefully you get a chance to pop into our booth and see it...if not, you never know when it may pop up again! 

Speaking of the Carnival, we are busy beavers around here making up a ton of kits to take with us!  We have layout kits, card kits, Project Life kits and product kits!  This will be our very first Carnival and we are so excited to join in the fun!  We are packing up a ton of goodies to bring with us - can't wait to see you!  

Let's Get on Track....

Our poor, sad and neglected blog...
Summer seemed to get us way off track so we sat down and thought about how to get back on track...
and short of hiring minions, we thought a schedule would be a great idea!!
We came up with some ideas...but if there's something you want us to blog about, we would love to hear it!
Our new blogging schedule:

Monday - What's Up - posts about what classes are happening this week, exciting things we are up to  and what product we are expecting.

Tuesday - Mixed Media Mania - we will highlight Mixed Media artists, products, companies...anything we can thing of that has joined and inspired the mixed media world!

Wednesday - Wordless Wednesday - it has been around forever in the blogging world.... No words in this post but photos that caught our attention!

Thursday - Happy Stampers - we will highlight all things stampy!  It may be the products to go along with your stamps, techniques, and stampers that make us smile!

Friday - Spark Your Inspiration - what better way to inspire you than to show your our top 5 Pinterest pins of the week?!

Tell us what you think!  And check back later for our first What's Up post!