My Mind's Eye Blog

Welcome Lisa Spiegel!

Hi everybody! I’m Lisa Spiegel and I’m thrilled to the Guest Designer for My Mind’s Eye this month! I don’t know if anyone knew, but it’s my birthday month, too, so this is the GREATEST gift ever!! (And truth be told, my birthday wish from last year came true!) I have always been a huge fan of My Mind’s Eye and have hoarded their products since the very beginnings of the scrapbook industry…I still have more than a few little Frame Up people and Quotes and the obsession with MME’s products hasn’t ever gone away! It is such an honor and a pleasure to be here!

 

A little more about me…I have been an artsy craftsy kind of girl my whole life. My mother was quite the hobbyist, painting, decorating and flower arranging were some of her specialties, so I’ve been exposed to creativity my whole life. I joined Girl Scouts when I was 8 and got bit by the crafty bug and, well, I’ve never been able to shake it. I stayed in Girl Scouts, mainly for the crafts and the camping, and even though I left it in High School, I continued to volunteer with children so I had an excuse to color and get messy. In college, I thought originally I wanted to be a preschool teacher, but in the end, I became a Recreational Therapist, with a specialty in Art Therapy, and was lucky enough to find a way to make money doing arts and crafts all day!

I began scrapbooking when I was pregnant with our oldest daughter, about 17 years ago. I couldn’t find a baby book that I liked so I started keeping a photo journal and the rest is history. I’ve evolved from Mrs. Grossman’s stickers and origami paper to the scrapping we know and love today. I slowly became more and more obsessed with the hobby and I began teaching classes at my LSS back in early 2005. Since then, my little hobby grew from a small rolling cart I stored in a closet to the huge loft above my family room I use today. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching and doing Design Team work for so many wonderful companies. I’ve been published in many magazines both online and in print. I absolutely love sharing my passion with paper and stickers and glitter and all things crafty and fun with others that share the same passion. You can find me on several message boards, on my blog at Just a Slice, and on Pinterest (follow me!!)…oh Pinterest…lol. (Don’t you just love it?)

Now, I live in the “valley” of Los Angeles, about 20 minutes from the coast, with my hubby of almost 20 years and our three daughters, Madison (16), Jillian (14) and (Camryn) 10. When I’m not scrapping, I am a Lamaze Childbirth Educator and Newborn Hearing Screener as well as a Girl Scout Leader for the 10^th year running. My girls keep me busy shuttling between their many activities like concert band, many dance classes, scouts and cheerleading. Thankfully, they love to have photos taken of them so I have lots of opportunities to capture their lives. Keeping those memories is what drives me to scrapbook. My parents did put photos of me in albums but there are no stories and for me, the story is what I want to remember. It makes me proud to know that my girls will have the stories of their lives bound in albums for them to look upon fondly as they grow.

I mainly create layouts, but dabble in cards, sewing and home décor. It’s so fun to be able to create something custom for my family and loved ones. I’m always surprised where my pages take me…I don’t often have a plan before I sit down. I am either inspired by pretty paper or pretty pictures and the bonus is, at the end, they become a unified story that I am proud to share.

 

 

 

I’m super happy to be the Guest Designer for My Mind’s Eye this month and am looking forward to a month of crafty fun!!

Lisa Spiegel

Let’s give Lisa a warm My Mind’s Eye welcome!  Leave a comment on this blog post for Lisa by Sunday, February 12 and we will give one lucky commenter “Lisa’s Favorite Things”!

October word of the month

If you were to describe your October in just one word, what would it be?  We would like to encourage you to think about it.  When you are done, take the time to scrap it. 

See what words a few of our designers came up with to describe their months.

 

Anam Stubbington: “Daily”

Featured collection: Six by Six

My word is “Daily”.. daily routine, daily school run, daily bus rides, daily hours... Due to a shortage of local school places, I spend about 3 hours a day on the bus ferrying Fay to her school and then back to bring Lily to her school. Some days it just seems to take forever and then other days it’s nice to be out but at the end of the day, it is worth the time on the buses to ensure Fay is happy and at a good school.

Supplies:  Six by Six “EveryDay Flair” pad,  Lost & Found 2 Brad & Swirl, Lost & Found 2 “rosy love blossom” paper... I used my corner rounder punch on some of the squares and mounted it all on a white cardstock and then on to the 12x12 paper.

 

Jana Eubank: “Pumpkins”

Featured Collection: Mischievous 

Nothing says October like the word "pumpkins". It's the month we go to fields to pick them out, decorate our porch with them, carve them into funny faces, roast their seeds, and make lots of pumpkin flavored baked goods. They make us happy and excited for Halloween night! I decided to scrap some pictures of my kids carving our pumpkins. Each year I love to watch them ponder and plan out how they are going to carve the faces of their pumpkins. It's very serious business around here! LOL! Happy Halloween!

We’d love to know what word describes YOUR October. 

Have a great day!

Spooky Mobile

Guess what fun thing I get to do on Halloween? I get to spend an hour crafting with a darling class of first graders. I’ve been thinking of all sort of fun kids crafts, but the problem with them is that they aren’t as much fun for me (kind of sounds silly, right). But, crafts should be fun for all involved, right?

The other dilemma is time. The kids will be split into 4 groups and each group will only have 15 minutes to finish the project. I thought the best project will be on that is precut and just needs to be assembled. It’s also fun if the kids can express their creativity and don’t have to make them all the same. It would also be fun to have the project be something they can put in their rooms or add to the rest of the home décor.

Enter the “Spooky Mobile”. I’ve been wanting to create a mobile for Good Things Utah for a while, but was leaning MUCH more girly (I’ll still do it later). Then I thought how cute would it be to have bats, pumpkins, withes and more hanging from a hoop.

Because I love, love, love Kraft for Halloween projects, I used Kraft Funday – Everyday Fun for my project. The rustic, white washed feel of the blacks and whites on the Kraft add a fun elements to the project. The embellishments are super cute and make adding the finishing touched easy!

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As you can see, I put a little more detail on these than the kids will be able to in the time allotted. The 3-d pumpkin will be flat and cut out, and they won’t be able to sew, but I think they should have a fun time.

To download the instructions, click here: Download 2011_10_25 Spooky Mobile

We will add the video from the segment in the afternoon when it is ready.

and not a pumpkin in sight...

I love the whimsical style to "Mischievous", the Latest My Minds Eye Halloween themed release. The off-white works so well with the black and organce and makes a nice change from stark white while the blue accents are a different twist to the usual green.

I used this months Challenge sketches for my layout and my cards.

and to prove that halloween colours and themes can be used for other things...

and maybe i'll do some pumpkin photos for next time.

Class Party ideas

If you're anything like me this time of year, you're feeling short on time. With the holiday's approaching, I think we all have big dreams of doing all sorts of cute and fun holiday decor items and gift-giving projects. Sometimes, simple is the best way to go. And I think class parties at our children's schools, is one of those areas where less is more. For most of these class parties, we are needing to make little treats for 20-30 kids at once. So coming up with a simple design will really help things come together quickly, and let you knock these out assembly-line style.

I decided to decorate some soda bottles and candy bars, with pattern paper from the Mischievous collection. I simply measured the area of the bottles and candy bars, that I wanted to cover up, and trimmed my papers to fit. I was able to get 4 soda bottles out of one sheet of paper, and 4 candy bars from one sheet of paper, along with a few scraps to make the center strips. I did a quick and easy zig zag stitch with my sewing machine, where my center strip was adhered, and I distressed and inked the edges of the entire piece once it was assembled. Then I adhered that entire piece to the bottles and candy bars, using glue dots. I had some fun fabric scraps in my stash, so I tore some thin strips of the fabric, to tie around the bottles and candy bars.

 

Laura Vegas 

Haunted Halloween Banner

Hi, everyone! One of my favorite holidays is almost upon us! I love crafting for the holidays, and enjoy creating small touches of holiday decor for the home. Today, I have a Haunted Halloween Banner created with the Mischievous line. This line is full of distress edges, vintage spooks, and classic embellishments. I decided to keep my panels classic, and simple. They measure 4" wide by 6 3/4" long. I chose two patterns that I alternated from the beginning to the end. I love the simple combination of black, and the vintage white. Of course, there has to be the traditional orange, too! 

I used many of the embellishments that come with this line: the chipboard elements, the decorative brads (always my favorite), and the  Mischievous accessory sheet. I did add touches of crepe, burlap flowers, glitter, and mini paper bags to add some of my favorite things! The black glitter letters are from my scrapbooking stash. I love when I can use some old, mix in with the new. As much as I love banners, they are sometimes difficult to photograph, so hopefully this image tells the story.

Here is a closer look at the individual panels: 

I added an extra panel to the beginning, and end of the banner. I used the part of the image on the Bewitching pattern paper to create a small tag for the beginning. A simple chipboard element at the top rounds out this tag.

 

Here I created a couple of star lollipops that were inspired by the star pattern on the reverse side of the Bewitcing paper. I tucked them into a mini paper bag, and wrapped them with twine. 

One thing about crepe, is that I like twisting, and turning to create different ruffles. I am not sure what I will end up with, but I do like this end result. I punched a few tickets, and created a mini banner at the top.

I think I have used this moon diecut on about three different projects this week. It has become an instant favorite, and was cut with the Cricut. The witch, and spooky word are stamps from last year's My Mind's Eye Hallween Line: Haunted. 

 

I used the Haunted stamps again, and stamped trick or treat on a small banner, and layered it over the tag from the accessory sheet. I have had this tulle flower for awhile, and simply removed the red gem from the middle, and added halloween pieces from the collection.

Simple panel with one of my favorite elements at the moment: circles. I also stitched across the middle. Well, I tried to achieve that effect. I am trying to pull out my sewing machine, and to not be afraid of it. Stitching creates another texture, and I love different layers on my projects.

If you took a peek at my tray I created for the October newsletter, you may recognize the following embellishment. The adorable owl chipboard, layered on top of a doily that I misted with glimmer mist. It is perfectly fine to scraplift yourself from time, to time!

I knew I had to use this adorable spook on one of the panels. I tied ribbon around the hat, and embellished the center with a brad from the Mischievous decorative package. 

The last panel of simple layers of vellum, and patterned paper. I used another chipboard element as my ending to the banner. 

Thank you for visiting My Mind's Eye,and I hope you have enjoyed today's project.  There is still time to create a Halloween Banner to add some spookiness to your home.  Banners are the perfect finishing details to your decor, and will be a great addition to your halloween festivities!

Melissa Bell Style

We didn’t get a chance to feature Melissa Bell’s style with you last month.  We are pleased to share her post with you today (and thankful to Laura Vegas for letting us).

September was an amazing month!  I had a great time being part of the MME design team. How lucky are we all to be inspired by these amazing women?! I know that they’ve inspired me. I feel very blessed that I was able to rub shoulders with them last month.

All month long I’ve been thinking about what “my style” is and what I could create to share with you all. I like to think that my style is simple elegance. I keep things pretty simple and clean, but if you take a closer look you will see small details that I like to add. I love using pearls, chalk ink, hand stitching, border punches and cutting out embellishments out of patterned paper.

I love celebrating holidays! Though I have to be honest and tell you that for the last couple of years I’ve been lazy when it comes to Halloween. My husband and I carve a pumpkin every year together and eat a Papa Murphy’s Jack-o-Lantern pizza, but that is it. I don’t even pull out the decorations most years. Ghastly I know! I want this year to be different, so I decided to make some fun decorations for my apartment using the Mischievous collection. I am loving this collection! I love the colors and especially the cute witch!

Witch Parking Sign

When I found this vinyl saying I knew it would be perfect for a sign and of course would allow me to use the cute witch!

• Mischievous 12x12 Paper Collection, 6x6 Paper Pad & Chipboard Embellishments 
• Wooden Board
• Witch Parking Vinyl Saying
• Bat Rub-on
• Black Pearls
• Wooden Skewer, Rubber Band & Straw for Broom
• Black Chalk Ink
• Black Paint
• Sandpaper

Instructions for the Broom:

1. Cut your skewer down to the size that you want it. I just held mine up to the witch and made a mark and then cut it.
2. Gather a bunch of straw around one end of your skewer.
3. Use a rubber band to hold the straw in place. Make it is as tight as you can get it so the straw won’t be going anywhere.
4. Cut your straw to your desired length. I would make a cut and then hold it up to my witch and then cut some more until I was happy with the length.

 

Our Halloween Traditions Coffin Mini

To help me celebrate Halloween more fully I thought it would be fun to make a little mini book to fit inside this wooden coffin that keeps track of my Halloween traditions and the ones that I want to start keeping.

• Mischievous 12x12 Paper Collection, 6x6 Paper Pad & Chipboard Embellishments
• Wooden Coffin Box
• Black Pearls
• Bat & Cobweb Stickers
• Tiny Alpha Stickers
• Black Chalk Ink
• Witch Rub-on
• Fuzzy Spider
• Black Paint

Instructions for Cutting Pages to Size:

1. I put tracing paper over the top of the inside of the box. (Hope that makes sense.)
2. I then used a pencil and did a rubbing so I could see where the inside edge was.
3. I cut out the coffin shape making sure to cut a little inside the lines so that the tracing paper would fit inside the box.
4. Used the tracing paper as a stencil to cut out paper to use in the top and bottom of my coffin inside. I also used it to cut out the paper that I used on the outside of my box.
5. I then took the tracing paper and trimmed down all of the edges a little more so that it fit more loosely inside the box. I used it as a stencil for my mini album pages.

I have cut quite a few pages for my mini, but I have yet to write down the traditions I want to start keeping. I would love to know what some of the traditions are that you keep to make October a fun and spooky month for you.

Thank you to MME for this wonderful opportunity and to all of you for your encouragement and comments!

Hugs!

Melissa Bell 

Blog Challenge 28: Layout

Wow! What a fun week it has been sharing our newest releases with you! We hope you have had a chance to enter to win them. If you haven’t, scroll down to the four posts below this one.

The challenge: Design a LAYOUT based on this wonderful sketch and use “FALL” as your theme (sketch by Anam Stubbington).

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of this post using inlinkz by Sunday, October 23, 2011 (midnight, MST). Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading. (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)

(For tips on how to best photograph your entry, click here)

The PRIZE: The winner will receive three ENTIRE collections of their choice! We will also award an honorable mention winner with one collection of their choice! All winners will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

Three of our designers have shared samples with you to help you get your creative juices going!

 

Favorite Fall Photos by Laura Vegas 

Featured Collection: Lime Twist, Alphabet Soup and Lost & Found 2 

I love fall colors, so this challenge was right up my alley. I choose a few favorite photos of me and my daughters, from a few years back, for this fall layout. I went through my stash of My Mind's Eye pattern papers, and choose papers my favorite fall colors. Brown, blue, yellow, orange, and cream. The burlap trim adds lots of texture to the layout, while the buttons add a nice homespun feel to it. I used the transparency photo frame, for a journaling block, and added my journaling strips to the inside. While I had all my papers and embellishments out, I whipped up a quick fall card, using the same elements as my layout (see post below).

 

Find Joy Every Day by Suzanne Sergi 

Featured Collection: Mischievous 

For this challenge, I decided to pull out some of these fall photos of my oldest daughter. Even though the Mischievous line is a Halloween theme collection, the color palette is perfect to document fall moments, too. I stayed pretty true to the sketch, but added an envelope in place of one of the photos. This envelope was perfect to tuck in my journaling. I love the houndstooth pattern, and punched a hole in the envelope, so this fun pattern peeked through. This helped balance the cluster of circles on the right side of the page. For the final fall detail, I added the beautiful fall bloom onto the envelope, and a bit of the gorgeous burlap ribbon My Mind's Eye added to their product line.

 

 

Granddad by Anam Stubbington

Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2

We love Anam’s layout in beautiful, fall colors and what a wonderful celebration and expression of thankfulness for a special Granddad!

 

We look forward to seeing your entry!  Upload it here:

Blog Challenge 28: Card

Wow!  What a fun week it has been sharing our newest releases with you!  We hope you have had a chance to enter to win them.  If you haven’t, scroll down to the three posts below this one.

The challenge: Design a card based on this wonderful sketch and use “FALL” as your theme (sketch by Anam Stubbington).

The rules: Use ANY My Mind’s Eye products (current or past) as long as your project has at least 80% My Mind’s Eye products.

The deadline: Add a link to your project to the bottom of this post using inlinkz by Sunday, October 23, 2011 (midnight, MST).  Please include your first and last name and project name when uploading.  (a photo of your layout or project will show directly in the post)

(For tips on how to best photograph your entry, click here)

The PRIZE: The winner will receive the collection of their choice and will be featured in a blog post and have bragging rights!

Check out these beautiful samples created by our design team:

 

Fall card by: Laura Vegas

Featured Collection: Alphabet Soup 

I love fall colors, so this challenge was right up my alley. I choose a few favorite photos of me and my daughters, from a few years back, for this fall layout. I went through my stash of My Mind's Eye pattern papers, and choose papers my favorite fall colors. Brown, blue, yellow, orange, and cream. The burlap trim adds lots of texture to the layout, while the buttons add a nice homespun feel to it. I used the transparency photo frame, for a journaling block, and added my journaling strips to the inside. While I had all my papers and embellishments out, I whipped up a quick fall card, using the same elements as my layout.

 

Autumn Time by: Suzanne Sergi

Featured Collection: Mischievous

For this card, I also used the Mischievous line to create a card perfect for welcoming the fall. To soften the card I did add a bit of the shabby blue against the orange backdrop, and a white doily for an extra layer.. I really enjoyed playing with this sketch, and it helped this card come together quickly.

 

Happy Day card by Anam Stubbington

Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2 

What a beautiful card Anam created using soft, FALL colors and a theme appropriate not only for fall, but any time of the year as well!

 

Please add your entry here:

 

Bat Specimen Art

I have been planning this project for over a month and am so excited to finally share it with you today.  Each Halloween, I get more and more excited about decorations.  It’s probably the excitement that comes with planning parties and picking out costumes for little ones.  They always make things more exciting.  As usual, I want to decorate for the holiday, but still keep with the same, classic feel of my home. 

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine created a butterfly specimen project.  Since then, I have seen a lot of projects like it, but, it was the first one I had seen and I’ve always loved that project.  When I was thinking of a fun Halloween project, it popped in my head and I knew that I had to put my own, “batty”, twist on it:

I had a lot of fun coming up with the names for my bats.  (Tamara Jensen came to the rescue with a few of them)  I have even created a bat for each of my boys.  I like to include my loved ones in each of my projects.  This was a fun way to do that without including photos.  Although, you could include photos if you want! 

As usual, I have included instructions and photos here:  Download 2011_09_14_MME_Bat Specimen

When the segment is online, I will up load it here for those of you who were unable to watch it live.

I hope you have a wonderful day!