Retreat Memories 2010 & 2011

Every year Club Scrap hosts wonderfully creative Retreats in Wisconsin!  

In 2010 and then again in 2011, I made that trip and both experiences were beyond my expectations. 

I was blessed this year with the chance to go again and I grabbed it. This will be my first August Retreat and I am so excited to reconnect with old friends and meet new friends from the Club Scrap Community.

Here are some of my fondest memories from October Retreats 2010 & 2011.

2010 Roaring 20's Theme Night

2010 Workshop with Tricia

2010 Visiting GHM (Gotta Have More) Club Scrap Warehouse Shopping

2010 Pajama Party and hanging out with friends

2011 Kay's Workshop

2011 Trip to Club Scrap Warehouse for Champagne Shopping

2011 Receiving gifts during a workshop

Thanks for taking a stroll down Retreat Memory Lane with me.   

I encourage you all to make the trip to Wisconsin, it is truly a once in a lifetime experience.

I have been blessed with 3 once in a lifetimes.

Julie

ALSB'd layouts used:

Layout 1 - 2010 Retreat kits in review

Layout 2 - 2010 Connections Retreat kit

Layout 3 - 2010 Retreat kits in review

Layout 4 - 2010 Connections Retreat kit

Layout 5 - 2012 By The Numbers Retreat kit

Layout 6 - 2011 Girl's Night Out kit

Layout 7 - 2012 Bon Appetit kit

Layout 8 - 2013 Up Up and Away kit

My Special Invites

I'll never profess to be a whiz at the whole digital scrapbooking thing, but there does come a time when you simply have to step it up.

And this was one of those times.

My precious dad turned 75 in May. He's a super duper cool guy. Handy in the trades like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, etc. And smart as a whip, too. If you need advice, it's there for the asking, and it's always been spot on.

We're so blessed that my dad has been given a second chance at love! He is getting married this coming Saturday, and I had the honor of creating the wedding invites! Lots of people ask me if I'm okay with it. And I am. I couldn't be happier for the two of them. I think my dad has a case of the perma-smiles. They're a fun pair, and it warms my heart to the brim to see them both so happy.

Here's a picture of the fabulous couple.

What did I tell you about my dad's perma-smile! It's so great!

I naturally performed a search on Pinterest for "wedding invitations," and I shamelessly copied an idea that seemed to be a perfect fit for Dad and Marlene. A bit of masculinity with the western font for Dad, and a touch of femininity in a shade of blue, Marlene's favorite color.

They were also after a more casual feel, so I accomplished that by avoiding highly formal text like, "The honour of your presence is requested . . . " and "October Twentieth, Two-thousand-and-twelve at five-o'clock in the evening."

The Bon Appetit Digital kit was my go-to for the art. I love how the versatility of the digital stamps helped me make something other than a scrapbook page!

The papers were a combination of Serenity Light Blue, White, and Versailles Denim Text Weight. I liked using the text weight paper for matting so that it didn't add weight to the invite. The final touch was to stamp the outside of the invite envelope and reply envelope with the Bon Appetit UM swirl images and CS® Sapphire ink. It really gave the envies a custom look!

I also used these cool digital hand inked edges to warm up the background without having to do it by hand on each invitation. Those things are SO cool!

Now . . . off to go make a matching guestbook for the reception! Isn't this exciting?

Perusing Picture Perfect Projects

Hi, it's Thursday, so it's me, Ron, here to chat with you  today. (BTW, I worked extra-hard to come up with an alliterative title for today's post!)

A few weeks ago, I took a stroll through the Galleria during the Pro Scrappers League (PSL) Summer Camp, and I shared some really cool paper layouts, cards, and digital layouts that I found. Well, this week, I decided to just look at projects in the Galleria. I really love making projects, but I've been so busy lately, that I haven't really had any time to make anything, but I thought that a nice leisurely Galleria stroll, checking out all the really great projects would be the next best thing.

And, WOW! -- I wasn't disappointed!

Here are 5 really great projects from this year (and there are several years' with of projects there, so there's an endless amount of inspiration!):

ScrapnBarbie posted this photo of the book project from Come Sail Away - Isn't it beautiful?

Next up, Cyndy made this great 5 x 7 Expandable Folder using materials from the Bon Appetit kit. I love how she decorated it with all those cool die-cut flowers.

This Flip Flop Photo Frame from the Tahiti Kit was made by Rhonda Vlahos - such a cute project. Rhonda and her husband, George, travel to the US from Australia each year so that Rhonda can attend  Retreat in Wisconsin - it was so great seeing them a couple of weeks ago!

Cathy Gray did an outstanding job making the Tri-Panel Navajo Project - what an amazing project! (I also got to meet Cathy and Mark Gray at Retreat this year - so nice to finally meet them in person after chatting with them in the forums for a few years!)

Finally, don't you just love this colorful tag book made by Esther using the Full Circle kit? I just love these colors!!

So there you have it, some great projects from a few of our Club Scrap members - do yourself a favor and take your own stroll through the Galleria - you won't believe how much inspiration you can find there

Bon Appetit! A masking technique for cards

I'm Deb Charlesworth, and I'm very excited to be the guest blogger at Club Scrap this week.  (On the Club Scrap Community, I'm known as "deb".)  I also have a personal blog about paper crafts at Lift Bridge Cards and Crafts.  If you like this tutorial, check out my blog for more inspiration with this month's kit.

I joined Club Scrap in August 2004 - just after I got married - and have enjoyed the anticipation of receiving a new box of goodies every month since then!

This month, Club Scrap invited me to create cards from the Bon Appetit Greetings to Go kit, so I thought I would show you how I made this card:

When I saw how the panels on the card overlapped, I thought it would be cool to have a stripe from the front carry over to the other side.  To start, I used removable adhesive to adhere the white panels to my grid paper.  I then used my Club Scrap grid ruler (the 8 x 8 size here) to find the center point of the panel and align the piece of masking tape in the middle (the tape and the panel are white).

After placing the first piece of tape, I lined up the 1 1/8" mark of the ruler with the bottom of the tape to align the next piece of tape.  This piece of tape goes across both panels to create the stripe that will run across both panels.

Continue applying tape so that there are 1 1/8" gaps between each line.  Here's how it looks when it's finished.

On the front panel, I want the upper part to be white, so I covered that with a piece of scratch paper just so I didn't accidentally stamp on it before I was ready.

I used Versa Mark ink to stamp the row of chandeliers from the Bon Appetit Art Nouveau Unmounted Rubber - they fit so nicely in this space!

After the image was stamped, I rubbed pan pastels over the stripe.  I am in love with these pastels - they are so smooth and blend like paint.  If you don't have them, you can use regular pastels, too.

Continue until all of the stripes are stamped and have pastel coloring the open areas.

To add a bit of depth, I rubbed a bit of the blue on the outer edges - it blends into a gorgeous purple when you're done.

I removed the scratch paper, and stamped a sentiment from the Bon Appetit Greetings Unmounted Stamps.

Remove the tape, and admire your hard work!  I sprayed my panels with a fixative to ensure the pastel won't smear in transit.

When the card is open, the recipient will be surprised by the burst of color.

If that seems like too much work for you, this technique can also be used more simply.  Here, I masked off a single stripe.

Then, I used a combination of pastels to create color.

I stamped the image with the Palette Ink Glue Pad, and rubbed Lotus Pond's Gilded Lily Glitter over the stripe.

After the glue dried, I added a sentiment, ribbon, and a few brads for a great card!

I hope you enjoy the Bon Appetit collection as much as I do!  I'm excited to see what everyone else uses their stamps for - this kit really does go beyond the kitchen.  All stamps, paper, and embellishments are from the Bon Appetit collection.

Food (and Drink) Traditions

I was so excited when I heard that the theme for Club Scrap's June kit would be "Bon Appétit." You see, our society often commemorates an important event with food - birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and most major holidays (4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.) all make food of some kind a central part of the celebration. And more often than not, it becomes traditional to celebrate with the same foods and beverages year after year (like Aunt Sally's Pumpkin Pie or Grandma's Sweet Potato Casserole). So this versatile kit would be perfect for all types of 'celebration' layouts!

Personally, I have another food (and drink) tradition - I've been going to the same restaurant (The Greenwood Inn) almost every Thursday night for over 20 years! It started with a few friends getting together for a couple of drinks and dinner (and Thursday was pay day, so what better night to go!) but now it's more than that. I must confess - I do go there on other nights as well, but Thursday night is tradition - seriously, I've walked in on a Tuesday night and had a bartender say to me, "Wait, is it Thursday already?" I know the owners, bartenders, waiters, and many of the customers - it's kinda like the old TV show, Cheers - where everybody knows your name!

Several months ago, just for the heck of it, I started taking a photo of our drinks on Thursday night and posting them to my Facebook account. My friend Anne saw my posts and convinced me that I should start a fan page for my drink photos (she's a marketer, after all, so thinks of things like that!), so the Thursday Night Beverages Fan Page was born. And I do post a new beverage photo every Thursday night, even if I"m not at the Greenwood Inn (last October, there's a photo of my glass of wine from Club Scrap's Retreat dinner!). Feel free to 'Like' my Thursday Night Beverages page on Facebook and see my new drink photo every week!

So what better way to celebrate Thursday Night Beverages than a layout with the gorgeous Bon Appétit kit? And since I'm more of a digi-scrapper than I am a paper scrapper, I naturally used the Bon Appétit Digi Kit!

Now that I've shared one of my food (or drink) traditions with you, I invite you to leave a comment and share one of your food traditions with me. I'll pick one of the comments at random and the winner will receive a free copy of the Bon Appétit Digi Kit - I'll announce the winner next Thursday in my blog post.