The Paper Loft...

This is the fifth year I've been to CKC and each year it's been a little less spectacular. Old favorites have gone out of business, fewer companies come to show off their wares, and the crowds thin every year (well that last one really it's only a bad thing because the less people come, the less vendors come). I really cannot wait for the economy to turn around so it can be the magical time it once was, where my feet hurt at the end of the day from walking through so many booths and I have an overwhelming sense of guilt at the amount of money I've spent.

All recession issues aside, I still did manage to spend a little money (but far less than I usually do so no guilt this year...). I didn't take any classes this year, but I did have to buy the "Totally Awesome Layouts" class pack because, well, the layouts were in fact totally awesome.

So here's the story... I walked three whole rows of the sales floor without buying a single item. That's right... three rows of stuff that looked great, but not quite great enough to get me to stop and buy something I would have to lug through the next few rows since I could get it at home for the same price. Then I stumbled into the Paper Loft. They had some cute camping and fishing layouts but then this one layout caught my attention. Actually, it was a saying on the layout: "I loved you yesterday, I love you still. I always have..... and I always will." Now I'm not usually one for mushy things. But it really just hit me the right way.

So I looked for the kit for that one. I couldn't find it. I found others that went with it, but not the one I was looking for. Then a super sweet sales associate asked me if she could help. She told me that it was the class project and wasn't available for individual sale. Well crap. I didn't have time to take the class to get it. She said I could take a picture and then just buy the paper and try to build it at home, or, better yet, I could ask if the supervisor would let me buy the class packet. Sure enough, she did. She started telling me how to put it together, but, really, it didn't look that hard. Those who know me know I rarely need instructions at card camps and such. For some reason layout and card construction just clicks for me.

So the hardest thing about this double page layout was finding portrait pictures. In fact, that was so hard that each one of these is actually a landscape picture cropped for a portrait opening. I have three more double page layouts from the class kit and they are equally adorable. Fortunately, I already have pictures picked out for one so I hope to finish most of them tomorrow before my sister shows up for a reality TV marathon.

Since I didn't spend as much money at the convention this year, maybe I'll just have to pick up more kits over at the Paper Loft.

Thanks card and covered notebook

I just couldn't find much crafting mojo today even though I had most of the day free to do whatever I want after buying the hubby the NASCAR 2011 game. I love that he spent hours today just designing his own car! It's so cute. So I trolled the blogs, checking out what others had done. Then I finally forced myself to work on my need to do list and, rather than doing laundry, chose to make a thank you card for the neighbor. He was kind enough to weld the muffler from the chipper so that Matt could chip up the branches he pruned from the fruit trees out back. So we bought a six pack of the beer the neighbor likes for the next neighborhood "safety break" and I said I would make a card to go with so we could take him his little thank you. I finally turned out this one. I played with some We Are Memory Keepers foil I bought yesterday while checking out what was new at the local scrap booking store. I gave it an aged look with some distress ink, used the same ink on the mat, added some texture to the background and a little Stickles around the edges and called that good. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the inside. The paper is plain black on the outside, but has this delightful shimmer on the inside.

So then I puttered around for a while with no direction watching thriller and horror movies on Netflix (but no good ones) until I came across this little book I found at Craft Warehouse (for all of $1 I think). I am so happy with the little notebook I did a few weeks ago and am so in love with that paper (thankfully I have a whole pack of it that I bought at the CKC last month) that I decided to finish it off in much the same way. It's a quick project, but I'm really happy with everything except the corners on the back. If you look really closely, you'll see that I made an error on my angles and cut them wrong for mitering. Oh well, I still like it.

New inspiration from CKC and the Disney/Pixar blog hop

So I've spent the last two days at the Creating Keepsakes convention. I went by myself on Friday and then yesterday took my Mom for the first time. It was a ton of fun, but I do have to admit that after a little while, all the booths start to blur together. It's much better if you can look at a few for a while and then go do something else. Despite the blur of the booths, my mind is filled with ideas, but I have projects I have to finish before I can really start letting the ideas pour out. A co-worker announced that she is leaving and her staff members came to me and asked me to do a "goodbye book" for her. I've done several of these in the past and they are really simple. It's just a picture of each staff member and a place for them to write her a little message. Usually, they are a snap, since I've kept the format, it's just a little updating of staff names and pictures. But it's been a while since I've done one and I didn't realize how many people have come and gone, so it took a lot longer today than I anticipated. But, it's ready for the pictures of the new people that her staff are getting for me. So maybe another hour or so sometime this week and that will be done. When I needed a little break from the digital manipulation, I finally found the time to cover this little notebook I bought a couple weeks ago when out shopping with my sister. It was a "green" recycled book that was pretty blah looking. I found a package of this argyle paper at CKC that I just loved and I had the ribbon on hand. A little glitter pen (that doesn't show up well in the picture) and voila... All I can say is that covering the front was a breeze, but it took a bit of time to figure out where to put the slit for the pen holder and the circles and slit for the elastic band, but it looks pretty good. The other to-do item on my list today (other than laundry) was to writes a few cards to friends who need a little pick me up. It seems like there's quite a few lately who have been going through some rough times. So if you read my blog you know that I have a bit of a stash of cards right now, so I didn't really need to make any, but I saw an idea in the Boxer booth at CKC about a card that says "I'm all ears..." and I knew that was perfect to send to a friend to remind her that whenever she needs someone to talk to, she can call me. So I went ahead and made a new one today to send to her. I guess I was more than a little inspired by the Disney/Pixar blog hop yesterday. They did a wonderful job with that one and if you are interested in seeing the hop, it started here.