Wow!  Did I ever have a blast this past weekend in Grand Rapids for the GASC.  I cannot get over how stunning the city of GR is!  The convention center was right downtown and there was so much to do with the kidlets, all within a few blocks.  I took a lot of photos while there so be prepared for lots of images today. :)

Here is the convention center... it was so gorgeous!

Look at that roof!

This is what I did all day. :)

  

 

I was teaching and scrapping with some really wonderful woman (and a few men).  Have I ever mentioned how much I love meeting fellow scrappers?

And want to see who attended a class? 

My mom and Harper both attended my clock class.  Look at how hard they are working!  My mom is not a scrapper and I love that she just dove right in and started playing.  Must be where I get it from!

And this lovely woman totally made Harper's day by asking for her autograph.  She is still talking about it! (thanks!) 

And my sister also took one my classes as well as a Mom-to-be class with another instructor.  She also is not a scrapper so I really admire the fact that she got into the spirit of things!

And some more random scrappiness. (scrap + happiness = scrappiness - hee hee, is that a word??)

  

 

In the above photo that is Harper being my helper.  She was a great teacher's assistant!

And I realized that there is someone who I consistently forget to photograph - my volunteers!  These woman who I affectionately dub my "Vanna's" help me in class and are amazing, beautiful woman who give up some of their scrappy time to help me.  I want them to know that I really appreciate their helping hands even if I do forget to photograph them!  Thanks ladies!!

I have tons of fun stories from the show but they will have to wait as I hear the hammock calling me.  It is saying I need a nap! :) 

More later.

 

(If you see a photo of yourself here on the blog feel free to email me for a copy.  I know hardly any of us scrappers have action shots of us at work and I happily will share them.  Just let me know which photo you are in and I will email you a full version that you can print.)

From the internet that is.  You see, it has been incredibly stormy around here the past few days and with thunder, lightening and wind - things happen!   And that thing was my internet connection!

Talk about withdrawal.  I mean, I live in the middle of no where - aka the country-side and I depend in the internet.  OK. I will admit to having a major city a short jaunt away but in reality I live with dirt roads and sometimes spotty connection to the wide world via the internet.

I have sort of been lulled lately with really good internet connections (minus the email drama of last week!) and was shocked when I clicked and nothing happened!

I resorted to the tiny screen of my husband's blueberry (affectionate name given to his blackberry - but that is another story) but seriously I hated it!  The screen and the none normal keypad are enough to make this full laptop lovin' woman crazy!!! 

So basically I was down to the essentials - just checking in to make sure I wasn't being fired from any major projects and no patience to post anything to my beloved blog via tiny screen and weird keyboard.  Sorry for that but I am sure you understand. ;)

But I do have some new stuff to share with you.  I got scrappy last weekend.

I love this page.  It looks so much better in real life.  I cut out patterned paper from American Crafts and mounted it on foam squares. Love how this looks.

And here is another page.

Love the tone on tone color of this page.  I repeated the photo on this page since it is a recent fave.

So.  That is it for now.  I leave in approx 8 hours for Grand Rapids with family in tow.  It is the middle of the night as I post this (total insomnia, possibly due to caffenine or maybe excitement, who knows?  LOL) and I really should be in bed but I couldn't resist a post here.  Plus I am waiting on the laundry....gee where is the magic laundry fairy when I need him?

I hopefully will be posting from the show.  Beth Williams will be there (whom I love) + Staci Etheridge (so funny and full of life) and hopefully I will get post some funnies of us at the show.  But you know how it is...best laid plans and all.

:)

 

Next week I will be back to more budget scrapping tips (after I sleep off the GASC of course!)

Today is a busy day for me.  I am prepping to leave for Grand Rapids, MI later this week to teach at the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  I haven't been to Grand Rapids since I was a kid so I am looking forward to it.  I grew up on the border of the USA and Canada and Grand Rapids is just over an hour away from my home town.  I could have flown but since it is driveable I have decided that a road trip was in order. 

And do you know what the best part about deciding to make the journey to the GASC via a road trip?  My kidlets are coming with me! :)  They never get to travel with me when I teach (and they really want to) but this seemed like a perfect opportunity for them to come along (and my wonderful hubby to have some quiet time).  My mom and sister are going to come along to complete our little road trip party and I have a feeling that the car trip is going to be half the adventure!

Since I know that the trip will be filled with many adventures and laughs I decided to create a mini book to record it all.  I used one of the Melissa Frances albums I picked up at the last GASC along with the perfect road trip scrap supplies - the Passport collection by Making Memories.

Here is the cover.

And here is the back.

I prepped the inside but of course it isn't anything much right now since we haven't actually been on the trip, lol. 

The album came with cream colored pages so I am using those plus I cut out some from the patterned paper - it is great that they are double sided.  The album binding is large so there is tons of room for extra pages plus the memorabilia I plan to add.

It is really great to have it all ready to go BEFORE the trip.  Maybe this way it won't take me 3 months to finish it, lol.

Everyone around here is pretty excited and we are counting down "sleeps".  Harper is going to be my helper which she has always wanted to be.  My mom and sister both plan to take a class from me. They are not scrapper but they are getting into the whole adventure of it!  I am really excited to meet all the scrappers there and have fun creating and laughing.  Magnus is just excited. :)

 

It was from this article.  But that is not what I want to talk about.

What I want to show you is this.

Hee hee.  I was frugal on this page because I love the really bright color on the back of this paper. I cut the paper out from behind the photos like I did here.  It then gave the perfect "scrap" to make a faux ribbon on the page plus some left over for something else.  I hadn't done this for awhile but this paper just called for it!

And want to see what was left over from the Make Scraps - Use Scraps challenge?

Lots of letters still left for many more pages and not much paper left!  Pretty nice to use almost all of if up!

I have been trying all day to get a chance to post this.  Ahh, finally sitting down. :)

OK.  So if you have a tight budget for scrapbooking then you need to make really plain pages right?  Wrong. (you knew I was going too say that right?)

So today the topic is - Make scraps. Use scraps.

Huh?  Well, let me show you.  (you also knew I was going to say that too didn't you?)

First let me start by telling you when I first started scrapbooking I had an almost zero budget.  And when you have almost no budget for supplies are you are just starting then you have no stash to fall back on.  One time when I was in my local scrapbook store there was a staff member helping a customer and she was explaining how she saved paper.  I, of course, being a newbie and broke eavesdropped. (she didn't mind I promise)  And what I am going to show you (the cutting part) is what she was showing the other customer.  I scrapped like this for a very long time and still do on occasion when I need to stretch a piece of paper.

So lets get started.  Oh.  And let me mention that this is a really, really long post with a million images so go grab a cool drink and put your feet up.  You will thank me. ;)

OK now lets get start.  Again.

I challenged myself to make 5 single page scrapbook pages from 6 pieces of paper.  So I gathered some papers.  Here they are.

(paper info list at the end) 

I gathers the slew of photos I printed the other night - most of which have a summer theme that will mix nicely with these papers.  Five of the papers are double sided which by the way is a great way to spend your money if you are on a budget and use them wisely.  One of the papers (darker blue) I only plan to use one side since the back of it is a brown pattern that doesn't coordinate.

First step I choose the striped paper plus the photos I am going to use.

Next, I cut it into a shaped paper making sure to keep the outer scrap in one piece.  Don't know how to make your own shaped paper?  Read this.

Set aside the scrap.  See, we made out first scrap - we will be using it later.

Next decide your photo placement.  (When I scrap I always decide this first since they are the biggest item to be added to the page.  I even stick them down and then work everything else around them.)

So this is my photo placement for the page. (all measurements of photo listed at the end)

Lightly trace around the photo placement with pencil.

Now this is where things get a bit weird but this will seriously stretch your paper.  Cut out the paper inside of the lines (where the photos will cover).  Leave about 1/2" inside the lines (so you can adhere you photos after).  You can use a craft knife or do what I do - use my paper cutter. 

I line up the pencil line on the outside of my guide on the cutter (where the arrow is).  I then start and stop my blade where I need to cut.  It is kind of hard to explain but you don't slide your blade all the way from top to bottom - only drop the blade down where you need to cut.  I do this all the way around - inside the shape.  You will get something like this.

Strange looking I know.  And it is probably easier to start with a rectangle then this crazy shape.  :)  You do get really fast at it once you have done it a few time.  Basically you want to save any paper that gets hidden by the photos.  It is totally getting wasted behind there!

Now add back in your photos covering up the "holes".  I tack everything down but the choice is up to you.

The back will look like something like this.

Now there is a weak spot in this particular page - the cross section where all the photos meet.  It causes the photos to "flap" since they are not attached to anything.  To solve this I grab a small of scrap paper and reinforce it - adhere it over this cross section.

I held the page up to the light so you could see how everything overlapped.

Now I will set this page aside.

On to the next page.

I decide on this photo placement.

So I cut this.

Once you get used to cutting out the "wasted" paper behind photos your will probably only need marks like this.

You can tack the photo down now if you want.

Next page. :)

Remember that scrap from the shaped paper I set aside?  I used it on this page. 

I am going to use if for a frame on this page.  I mark my photo placement and cut out the inside.

I now have something like this. 

This is why I love double sided paper - look at all that new gorgeous color to add the scrap pile!

I adhered the frame to the page with foam squares. 

I think foam squares are a budget scrappers dream.  Actually a non-budget scrapper dream too.  They are inexpensive but they immediately add interest to everything.  In this case I used them to lift the striped paper which really adds to the framed look.  (I buy them in both the small and regular size so they go further.)

Now you are probably thinking that it will need a lot of foam squares for this look so how is this budget scrapping?  Well look at it this way - you would need to add adhesive to quite a few spots on this page anyway so for a few pennies more you can have lift and instant pop to the page.  If you weigh the cost of adhesive verses the cost of adhesive foam squares then I bet it doesn't add much too the cost.  I am not doing the math though. ;) Can you just take my word for it?

Moving on...

I cut the branding strip off this paper - the pattern is on the back of this strip.  Yay!  More scraps.  I add this to my growing scrap pile. :)

Next, of course, is photo placement.

Mark and cut.

Now I have two papers left.

I plan to use the one that is on top for the main part of this page but I want to mat the photo with the back side of the butterfly paper.  I added this butterfly paper into the paper selection because I knew it would make for great, cheap embellishments for the pages.  Look for patterned papers that will lend themselves to this - for 65-80cents you can get quite a few embellishments with the right paper.

To cut the mat out of the patterned paper I move the photo around so I can maximize the amount of full butterflies that will be left over. 

I cut and I get this.

Then I decide photo placement on the remaining paper and cut.  I get this.

So now I get busy with all those little scraps and start decorating the pages.  :)

I also add into the mix these Heidi Swapp chipboard letters.  As you can see I had already used them but there were still tons to work with.  When buying letter look to buy from companies who understand you need 15 e's!  Heidi Swapp, Basic Grey & American Crafts are three of my faves because they always add in lots of vowels and understand that I only need one or two x's - max!. :)  Also when buying letters lon a budget look for small letters.  Large letters mean that they will be less individual letters per package.  Small letters make more titles. :)

So these are the final pages that I came up with. 

Addtional supplies - circle punch + pen + letters (to get the long blue strip I patched together two pieces and hid the seam under one of the circles)

Photos - 4x6, 3x5, 4x4

Addtional supplies - 3 brads + pen + letters

Photos - 2x3, 2x3, 2x3

Need to matching brads? Try this.

Additional supplies -  pen + letters + foam squares (blue strip is the cut off branding strip)

Photos - 4x6, 4x6 (made collage in photoshop and then printed)

Addtional supplies - 4 brads + pen + letters + corner rounder (or use a small paint bottle and trace)

Photos - 4x6, 4x6, 5x7

Additional supplies - pen + letters + foam squares + heart punch

Photo - 5x7

You will see for this last page I subbed in a different alpha.  The shape of the others just didn't work for the look I wanted. 

To make the silhouette flower/branches you see in the upper left corner of this page I cut them out from the scrap paper like this.

And then just flipped them.  They made the perfect embellishment that mimicked the design and I didn't have to spend time drawing them. :)

So that is it.  See, inexpensive pages yet they don't look plain and boring.  Well, I don't think they do.  If they do, don't tell me...shhh.  ;)

Pretty good for only 6 papers, some chipboard letters, foam squares and a couple brads.  Now that is working within a budget!

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Here are the papers I used.  

American Crafts - Serviette

American Crafts - High Tea

American Crafts - Teacup

American Crafts - Deli 

K&CO - Berry Sweet  

Lil Davis - Away We Go