NEW CLASS STARTING-STREEEETCH your scrap!

Hi all! i'm starting a new class right here on my blog. It will be free and will focus on ways to stretch your scrapping repertoire from techniques, to journaling, to titles, and on and on. It will be completely free and a new lesson will be featured on my blog every tuesday. Come check it out!!

CHS closing :-(

I'm so sorry to hear of CHS's closing! they are a wonderful couple of ladies and a GREAT company to design for. I had so much fun working with their kits! This also means i'm a free agent! So if you like my work and need a designer or guest designer, drop me a line!!! kvenvolden@comcast.net I love having a really good excuse to create :-) Anyway, farewell CHS! we will miss you!!
Rebecca

Yikes!

It has come to my attention that i'm not properly using my college educated writing skills! my blog scored only high school reading level! AAK! i'm going to step it up with the vocab and learn some new words!

Get a Cash Advance

Christian ladies....

check out this awesome giveaway!!

http://lacedwithgrace.com/

ALTERED SPAM!

Ok, so my father in law is coming to stay with us for Christmas, and i wanted to get his present from the kids done before he gets here wednesday am... DONE! Altered spam! the joke is, he likes spam a lot, and so andy was joking as we walked through the grocery store, we should get him some spam, and i'm like YEAH! let's get him 5 spams and ALTER them! LOL. Its a disease... Nuff said! anyway, here they are!!

some recent layouts...

These are some layouts i did for a challenge at scrapbook circle
The 12 days of Christmas, a ROCKING contest, which i lost by a HAIR!!! LOL. anyway, i got a ton of cute layouts done!!!

Frugal scrapping tips

here's mine! i used them on for a crop challenge a while back... any you'd like to add?

my frugal tips

1. if you use zots glue dots paper thin, you can double their mileage buy buying the medium instead of small, they are the same price. then fold over the wax paper, so the dot is covered on both sides by wax paper and cut through the middle. you now have 2 that will work almost as well as one at half the price.

2. Keep an eye out for clearances at Joanne's and michaels they often have items at a fraction of their normal price. Sometimes they even have just plain SALES for 40-60% off...

3. Get on the mailing list for joanne's and get the flier of Michaels from the newspaper. You can gradually buy things you can't afford that way, for example, if you want punches, buy one each month till you have what you want, using your 40% off coupon.

4. Hang on to tickets and fliers and other cool ephemera which can make for a great embellishment at no added cost.

5. If you buy kits, find a friend you can swap with. when they have "used up" their kit, and you have done the same, swap kits. There's almost always plenty left to do a few layouts and you will have paper that you've not already done a million layouts with.

6. Do whatever crops you can online to win free stuff innocent0002.gif

7. invest in at least one set of alpha stamps, they are much cheaper in the long run than stickers and rubons, specially for a long title

8. If you own a diecutting machine, such as a cricut or whatever, buy fun foam or felt and make your own "thickers"

9. The same goes for felt flowers and other embellishments, MUCH cheaper than the bought variety... cheap felt though might backfire, i use at least part wool felt.

10. When you make a layout where a big part of the paper is covered up, like how i like to make a frame by cutting my patterned paper to 11.5 x11.5 AND Placing over a peice of cardstock, cut a square out of the back of the cardstock about 9inches square or so... you have enough room to adhere to the pp, but you can use the center for matting or another project.

11. keep a scrap bag going.... throw all your little peices into it, use those for cards, other layouts etc. some of my best layouts were made from scraps!

12. save tiny strips of ribbon, you can staple them on in a V fashion and make cute layouts. here's an example of what i made with a LOT of those
Reduced: 87% of original size [ 588 x 600 ] - Click to view full image


13. use older lines of pp, they often sell online at a fraction of the cost

14. set up a running search on ebay for your favorite brands or products, you can setup daily email notices. be careful not to go crazy though, watch out for shipping amounts and know retail values!!

15. mix alphabet fonts of stickers and rubons for a cool look AND to use up leftover alphas!

16. After you've seriously depleted your alphas to where you really can't use them anymore randomly place on cardstock to make a cool background, like this
Reduced: 85% of original size [ 600 x 313 ] - Click to view full image


17. download cool fonts from some of the free sites online, they can be just as cute and much cheaper than rubons!!

18. If you are interested in digital scrapping, check out some of the free sites for that, there are a number of blogs as well as sites like 2 peas that have regular freebies available for the taking.

19. do a search on google for something like "coupon code photo processing" a lot of photo processing sites onlines have free introductiory offers or just regular freebies or discounts.

20. if you print your own pictures. buy the sets of paper and ink that you can buy that's in the ink section... i use HP 95 and for about $30 i can get 100 sheets of photo paper plus the ink cartridge, where as just the ink costs at least $25 by itself.

21. DON'T BUY CHEAP PHOTO PAPER can't express enough. its a waste! i bought some Kodak paper when i was super broke, it was like $6 about half of the other brands... but when i printed with it, it curled up and the ink looked all wonky and ick! total waste of money. My favorite paper is HP.

22. Find some of the stores that buy scrapbook store excess product, like frugalities.com and dollarscrapbooking.com (i THINK, off the top of my head, might want to do a search on that one if its wrong) they have some GREAT deals... do, however watch out for shipping...

23. if you are like me and pretty much the only decent scrap stuff you can find is online wait for free shipping sales, OR wait till your total is high enough for the free shipping some sites offer, OR find someone to order with you to half shipping with!

24. if you have weird colors of brads that you never use, holding them with a tweezer, dip them into a versamark pad and smoosh on some embossing color in whatever color you wnat them to be, use a heat tool, and voila, instant usable brads. This IS of course if you have a heat tool and embossing powder, which are a good investment anyway, the embossed look is SO COOL.

Ok, thats all i can think of for now...

GETTING IN THE SPIRIT!!

Anyone else having a blast doing Christmas stuff, listening to Christmas carols, making cookies and doing the advent wreath?? I am, and i thought i'd post my favorite recipes... these are all from Allrecipes.com

The first is the classic Holly cookie... does everyone not make these??

• 1 (16 ounce) package large marshmallows
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring
• 4 1/2 cups cornflakes cereal
• 1 (2.25 ounce) package cinnamon red hot candies

DIRECTIONS

1. In a saucepan over low heat, melt together the marshmallows, butter, vanilla, and food coloring. Mix in the cornflakes cereal.
2. Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper, and decorate with red hots. Set aside, and allow to cool.

The next i don't have a picture of, but i'm guessing you can visualize it, as i think everyone also makes these!!

Chow mein cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups butterscotch chips
• 1 (5 ounce) can chow mein noodles
• 1 cup peanuts

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butterscotch chips over low heat, stirring constantly. Stir in chow mein noodles and peanuts.
2. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto foil. Let stand until cool.

How easy is that?? i also add mini marshmallows.

Another easy and DELICIOUS cookie is the WHIPPED SHORTBREAD COOKIE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup red maraschino cherries, quartered
• 1/4 cup green maraschino cherries, quartered

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine butter, flour, and confectioners' sugar. With an electric mixer, beat for 10 minutes, until light and fluffy. Spoon onto cookie sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Place a piece of maraschino cherry onto the middle of each cookie, alternating between red and green.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from oven, and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies on to wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container, separating each layer with waxed paper.

Here's another easy classic... do you see a theme here??
BUTTERSCOTCH DROPS

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (11 ounce) package butterscotch chips
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 4 cups cornflakes cereal

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter together. Remove from stove and stir in cornflakes. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Chill to harden.

Creative hearts Studio ROCKIN KIT REVEAL!!!

Woohoo!! you have GOT to head on over to CHS where you will find the most ROCKINGEST Christmas kit! its beautiful, muted, (and i have to say, muted is not normally my thing) LOADED, includes STAMPS, oh man.. its GOOD!!

Also, i posted a step by step layout creation guide for one of my designs... AND if you scraplift it, or follow the directions to make your own, and reply to my post on the blog at CHS by the end of december, i will enter your name in a drawing to win a rak from me! so hop to it! :-)

here's what i made with this kit