My Mind's Eye Blog

Mothers Day English Style!

As some of you know, I've recently relocated back to the UK from Canada and while the transition and settling has been tiring, I timed it right as I'm back in the UK just as Mothering Sunday as Mothers Day is known here arrives.

In the UK and Ireland, the annual day to celebrate motherhood is on the 4th sunday in Lent so that is why it is different to the rest of the world.

Being a mother is one of the things that has changed my life so much - some days are awesome and some days are terrible but I would not swap it for the moon.

As I've just moved, all my belongings are stuck on a ship in a port somewhere so I am very limited for supplies so I took up a challenge based on space and supplies. Currently, I have to work on a kitchen table, so I had to have my layouts made and cleared up between dinnertime and bedtime - 4 hours. I decided to only use one of the gorgeous 6x6 Stella & Rose paper pads, 3 of the metal charm packs, a pair of scissors & a trimmer and some adhesive and 3 sheets of cardstock.

This meant that I had no flowers and no ribbon so I had to be creative and these are the results.

these are your standard hand cut circles, i distressed the edges by hand and used some foam adhesive to layer them up. I made sure the photo overlapped the seam of the two 6 x 6 sheets so it looks like one continuous piece.

This is a layout that I had an idea and went for it but the end result while nice is not like it was in my head. I cut strips and curled them to make the spirals. I then made paper bows and used one as the center.  This is the layout for Ian's Mum so I have all 3 grandchildren on it but only can show my children hence the blurring.

This one is about how some parts of motherhood are hidden and treated as invisible - the exhaustion, the depression, the constant balancing act, possible lack of support or understanding.  But most of all the fact that motherhood is a tough job but for most of us we wouldn't trade it for anything. 

I made the flower by starting the same way as the spirals but them I flattened them and stuck them to a circle of paper in a spiral to make paper versions of those popular fabric rosette flowers.  I used the backing of the charms - the 'trinkets' one has some hidden journaling on it and then I used the 'bits & pieces' one I used as part of the title as as a visible journal tag.

Here are some of the flower details:

I made a quick and easy multi-use card with what was left over. I hand folded the strips, and tore the edges to give it some dimension. the twine is actually the thread used to hold the charms to the backing card.

At the end of the night, I ended up 3 layouts and a card with 4 sheets of paper and 3 charms which I will make into a card soon. So I hope I have inspired you to create with the minimum of supplies to make pages to celebrate and commemorate motherhood.

 

Urban Paper

 

Hi, I’m Jill McDonald. Together with my husband, Thom, we own Urban Paper – a hip and trendy scrapbooking and paper crafting store!

 

Urban Paper is located in The Dalles, Oregon. It is in the beautiful Columbia Gorge, 80 miles East of Portland, Oregon.  Ladies travel from Oregon and Washington to attend classes and shop in our store.  Our grand opening was in October, 2010. The store had been here for eleven years prior, known as The Picture Patch. 

I have been teaching classes and working at the store for most of those eleven years. My ladies are my world! I have such a special group of women  who have been with me through all of life’s joys and challenges. Our workshop is currently set up for 18, but can accommodate larger groups as well. One of our most popular classes is our Cookbook Club. Each month, I make a recipe and bring the food. We sample the food , and then make a recipe page. This class runs for one year, and has a theme each year. Our current theme is Cakes and Candies. I also teach a monthly card making class, and a project class (typically a mini album or home décor).

 

I especially enjoy events at Urban Paper. My most popular event is Super Scrap Sunday.  This is held on Super Bowl Sunday… for the ladies who really don’t enjoy watching football, but would rather scrapbook. Of course, I AM a football fan, so I nicely force them to answer football trivia questions to get prizes! Food, Fun, Scrapbooking and Chocolate… does it get any better than that?

We feature many lines from My Mind's Eye. Lost and Found continues to be a favorite, as well as Fine and Dandy and Alphabet Soup.  We are looking forward to making projects and using Lush 2 and Good Day Sunshine in upcoming classes... they will be so fun to work with! We also enjoy the holiday lines - you will find Blackbird and Haunted as well as Merry and Bright and Holly Jolly in stock, ready for the perfect photographs.

Our store hours are Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. We are closed Sunday and Monday – although you can usually find me here on Monday as well! We are located at: 212 Washington Street, The Dalles, Oregon 97058. Our phone number is (541)298-2767. Stop by on your next trip through the area.

 

Quick and beautiful cards

Jeannette Siciliani:

 

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose – Mabel

 

Anam Stubbington:

 

 

 

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose

 

Suzanne Sergi:

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose

 

Trisha Ladouceur:

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose

 

Jana Eubank:

Featured Collection: Fine and Dandy 

 

Amber Packer:

Featured Collection: Stella & Rose

Cute Labels...

We have now entered the spring season, and the days will continue to be light longer.  Which means that we'll be enjoying more time outside with our families, or entertaining.  Making flavored oils and vinegars at home is not only quick and easy, but looks beautiful on your table or kitchen counter.  Whether you are preparing salads, grilled meats, fresh fruits or vegetables in spring and summer, consider using flavored vinegar as a secret ingredient which will enhance the natural flavors of your dish. {Shown above from left to right, Fresh Raspberry and Thyme White Wine Vinegar; Red Chili Pepper Vinegar, Winter Thyme Vinegar, White Wine Vinegar, Sage Vinegar and Lemon & Garlic Vinegar}.  Part of the fun of making the vinegar is finding bottles, and making your own labels, recipe cards and tags.  I used My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose, Mabel, Collection.  The colors in the collection are bright, cheerful and welcoming for spring.

The Mabel "Joy ledger" paper makes for great recipe cards too!  Be sure to save your scraps to make tiny tags for gifts.  Embellish your bottles with some trinkets, as shown on the "Oh So Lovely" label.

There are many different ways to embellish your bottles, small or large.  You can even embellish some corks, too!  You will find numerous recipes, and instructions, on the internet to help you start bottling your own flavored vinegars today, all you need is your favorite My Mind's Eye collection to get started! 

I hope you have enjoyed this home decor project idea from my kitchen,

Lumpy Bumpy Layered Goodness...

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE the lumps and bumps. FLAT projects and I are never in the same sentence. The more I can fit on a page... the better! This is definitely the case with this project I have created using the new Stella & Rose "Hattie" Collection. Would you believe me if I told you that this project is a total of 30 layers deep??? Well, it IS!!!!! If you count every single layer starting at the back, moving up to the very top, there are actually 30 layers (if you count the layered chipboard embellishments as two separate layers, there are 32)!!!!!!!!!

 

Typing instructions for you on this project would take me a week I am sure so let me just walk you through it as best I can:) I should also point out that I was able to fit 2- 5"X7" and 3- 4"X6" photos on ONE 12"X12" layout using this combination of layers. This is also why I LOVE to layer so heavily as it allows me to use a plethora of FULL SIZED photos but not have to create a separate page for each one.

So obviously we had our main view, but what is so great is that the focal photo lifts to reveal 2 more photos (in this case, I have a 5"X7" on the left and a 4"X6" on the right).

The photo on the left actually has a pocket behind the mat where I was able to tuck a tag with a phrase on one side and journaling on the other (see image below with front view).

The right side photo is matted and a transparency is placed over top of it, adding yet another layer without the bulk. Now, make sure to have a peek at the decorative border... take a close look at the photo above. Well, guess what? It lifts to reveal yet a couple more photos!

I created another flap so I could house 2 more photos. This "flap" is secured down to the top of the page with the gorgeous Decorative Brads that match this particular collection.

By keeping the numerous layers relatively flat, I was able to add plenty of dimension without the bulk. Pop dots were actually only used for the outer frame of the layout and one of the Sticker embellishments.

This also allowed me to incorporate a few Lumpy Bumpy embellishments such as the Layered Chipboard (shown below) and decorative brads.

With all of these lumps and bumps with their luscious layers, I am able to not only house my treasured photos from a fabulous day trip to Stanley Park while visiting Vancouver last week, but I am able to incorporate so many of the AMAZING My Mind's Eye papers and embellishments all on one fabulous layout!

Happy Scrapping!

Blog Challenge #21 Winners!

Have you had a chance to look at ALL the amazing entries?  If not, you need to take a few moments to look through the Blog Challenge 21 photo album!  It is full of inspiration thanks to the many talented people who took the time to enter this challenge!

Every month we are faced with a challenging decision – of all the beautiful entries, which ones are the winners?  After careful consideration, we present to you the Blog Challenge #21 winners!

 

Card Winner: Anja Curvers

 

Layout Winner: Cathy Harper

 

Layout Honorable Mention: Nicole Pomeroy

 

Ladies, would you please email Amber ([email protected]) with your mailing information and the prize you would like to receive!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to share their talents with us.  We hope you will all join us for our next challenge beginning in April.

Blog Challenge #21 update

We are currently answering every entry!  YEAH – there are so many of them!  If you haven’t received an email confirmation – you will by the end of today.  We will have the photo album up when everyone has been sent a confirmation.

We will announce the winners on the blog tomorrow!

Since we have you here, we will be trying an experiment for our next blog challenge.  Instead of emailing your entry to us, we are going to use an “in link” system.  You will add the link to your entry directly to the blog post in which we issue each challenge.  That means that blog challenge issue post will also become the challenge photo album.  You will not to email your entry to us and would see your challenge entry immediately and know that we have received it rather than wait for a confirmation email.  We’ll try this next month and see how it goes.

Thank you for your support of our challenges!  We can’t wait to announce next month’s winners!

Canvas Flower Bouquet

It’s amazing what you can create when you take fabulous paper, like our Stella and Rose collection, five 6x9 canvases and creativity!

I LOVE the photo collages you see everywhere these days.  And photos printed on canvas are to die for!  I got to thinking that there had to be a creative way to use scrapbook paper to create a dimensional masterpiece.  I am so very pleased with the way this turned out.  I just need to find the perfect place for it (my bedroom or the office – tough choice).

It’s super easy to create, I used different flower techniques for added texture and variety.  I have included a pattern for the “rose” flower along with instructions for the crochet and rolled flowers in this free instruction pdf: Download 2011_03_15_Canvas Flower Bouquet_Amber Packer

I hope you will create a flower bouquet for yourself to add some color to your life!  When you are done, be sure to show off your project by uploading your photo to our Facebook page.

Have a happy Tuesday!

St. Patrick's Party Ideas with Stella Rose

Happy Monday! 
With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, I thought I would share fun ways to celebrate this day using the Stella Rose Collection. I wanted to create food, and decor that would make my kids smile, as they return home from school! 

 

Here are a few details of the party table:

I made easy, and oh so adorable Lollipop flowers! You can see the lollipops peeking underneath the large bloom! I cut the flower with my diecutting machine, and simply used the Gertie Delightful paper to embellish the centers.

With St. Patrick's Day come rainbows! The Gertie You & Me paper reminded me of a rainbow the first time I saw it! Immediately,I was inspired to create a decor item centered around a rainbow! Combining a couple of the Stella Rose papers, I was able to create a fun border on the bottom. I used white felt to cut my clouds, and used buttons from Stella Rose as the final details! Of course, I still love my Lush Black letters, so they were perfect for my title.

If I am working with a canvas, my go to technique is simply paint, and glitter! A happy combination to create this canvas full of shine!


At the end of each rainbow is a pot of gold!
 
What is a celebration without cupcakes?? I made quick, and easy cupcake toppers with the Stella Rose Gertie Ornamental paper! I love this paper!


More Stella Rose, and a little bit of stamping decorate these mini bottles!

Finally, I made a fifteen minute Chalkboard Party frame:

After the party, it is going to be a fabulous message board for my family! Love that black stripe ribbon. It makes every project something special.

I wish you a very happy St. Patricks Day, and hope that you found some "green" inspiration for your celebration!

 

Love to Play - Orange Lush Album with Stella & Rose

I am a huge fan of mini albums - the brighter the better, which is why when I saw the brand new Lush range I squealed with delight because the colours just rocked!

I worked with the Lush Album, Ribbon and jewels as the basis for my colour system and complimented it with the Stella & Rose papers and stickers. They just worked beautifully together and made my photos flow through the album.

I went with a play theme to my album to show the different aspects of play that my girls get up to and what was important to them in 2010. My girls are often very different in what appeals to them so this was a good way of linking it all together.

When I work on mini-album, i try to always use the same layout for each page just flipped as I go. This makes it easier to embellish and faster to get it all stuck down.

this is the basic sketch I used for this album - I hope you will enjoy using it too as it gives you lots of scope for personalization while still having the same basic structure to each page.

(Anam’s instructions are coming soon)