Sorry that I have been away from the blog for so long.  Just been really busy at the store.  We just celebrated our first anniversary at store.  Thanks so much to all of you that have made our first year a success.

What do you have planned for your Christmas Paper Crafting??  Do you make all your own Christmas Cards?  Do you have albums and calendars planned?

It’s time to get started.  We have tons of beautiful papers and embellishments for whatever your paper crafting needs are.  Basic Grey, Pink Paislee, Imaginisce, Moxxie, Inkadinkado and so much more.  Make sure you watch the stores blog for tons of new products, classes and projects, www.alteredplayground.blogspot.com.  I have lot of photos on there…this program is difficult to upload photos to, so I going to direct you over to the other.

I would love to hear what you have planned for your Holiday projects? 

Kay and I just want to send out a big Thank you to all who participated in the 4th annual Rushmore Retreat that took place over the weekend.  Lynne (Scrappin’ Ladies) did an amazing job putting it all together.  It was wonderful and we enjoyed getting to know our customers better, meeting new customers and lots of people who share our passion for paper crafting.  It was an honor to spend the weekend with such amazing talent and dedicated scrappers.  We had a blast and want to thank everyone who made is such a success.  We will see you next year!!!!

Okay, I admit it…I love Halloween.  What do I love??  I love anything to do with Halloween Paper crafting and scrapping.  I love the colors, the amazing product lines and just all the fun that goes along with it.  This year there are so many wonderful products and projects out their.  I can hardly contian myself.  My head is just spinning with ideas…now if my hands could just keep up with my head. 

Imaginisce’s Hallowhimsy is a great line with embossed and glittered papers.  Darling little acrylic stamps that retail for .99 cents, how can you beat that?  Sugar coated brads in Halloween colors are a favorite of mine this season. 

Moxxie has a wonderul line called Eye of Newt with the coolest double sided papers with witch shoes, frogs, cauldrons and tons of cute, cute embellishments.

Making Memories Spellbound is total spooky fun along with Reminisce’s Halloween products.

There are so many great ones out there…I just wish I could have it all.  Almost forgot to tell you about my very favorite line from Crafty Secrets…they have cutest, sweetest vintage line of Halloween.  I adore everything in this collection.  It’s simply adorable…I love it all and have it all.

A great new collection will be flying into the Playground soon…Pink Paislee’s Vintage Moon Collection along with a the new Collections from Fancy Pants…All Fall, Daily Grind,  and more.  Plus don’t forget the Amazing Glitter Cuts from Fancy Pants with a spooky tree, pumpkin and the sweetest little owl.  Oh! by the way, the little owl in the Vintage Moon collection is so cute!  You guys are going to love all these new lines.  Most of these will be debuting at the Black Hills Rushmore Retreat on October 3, 4, and 5.  The retreat will be open for public shopping on Saturday the 4th.  One dollar donation, to the Susan G. Komen and Scrap Pink Foundations, gets you in the door for all the great shopping.  Scrappin’ Ladies, Altered Art & Scrap Playground. Stampin’ UP, TLC, Creative Memories and more will have lots of fun new product lines.

So, time for a question, sinced I haven’t asked one in a while!  How many of you love Halloween Paper Crafting?  Do you make Halloween Cards, layouts or all of those fun little Halloween Projects?? 

Do you prefer Christmas Paper crafting? 

Which ones your favorite???    I would love to hear from you.  It’s just such a fun, colorful time of year.  Tell me about your projects and plans for Halloween!! 

Have a spooky creative week!!

Up Coming Fall Retreats

Clear stamps are all the rage these days and all of the big name companies are coming aboard with their own lines of these fun acrylic stamps.  If they aren’t already your favorite item in your scrapbooking toolbox, acrylic stamps will soon become your go-to suppy when you want to create dazzling pages.  They are easy to use, easy to care for, easy to store and so easy to love!

The Benefits of using Clear Acrylic Stamps:

They are so easy to use-just peel and stick to an acylic block and get stamping.

Clear stamps and blocks make precise placement easy.

The stamps are lightweight so easy to store and transport.

They are economical to premounted wood stamps.

The artistic detailed designs will inspire your creativity to make your own designs with different sets.

At the store, we mostly carry clear stamps from wonderful companies like Crafty Secrets, Imaginisce, Basic Grey, Inkadinkado and Autumn Leaves.  We have a few wood mounted rubber stamps but all the trends definately lead to the clear market.   You get so much more for your money and they take up less space than traditional wood mount stamps.

There are tons of techniques, you can create so many different looks with clear stamps.  You can stamp on cork, stamp on felt, stamp with acrylic paint. stamp on metal, stamp on craft foam, stamp on canvas…the possibilities are endless as you can tell.

A few tips for you that I have learned with clear stamps…never use pigment ink on your stamps only dye inks.  Pigment inks stain you stamps permantly, you can still use them, they are just not very pretty anymore. 

I always keep a box of baby wipes on my work surface to wipe off the stamps as I use them.  This seems to be the quickest most effective way to keep them clean.

I always put my stamps back in the package they came in and try to keep them as air tight as possible, it also helps to keep them stored out of direct light, other wise they may become yellowed and brittle.

Grab your stamping supplies, go play and be inspired to create something Clearly unique.  No pun intended!

I found these cute little mini lunch box albums at Targets Dollar spot and decided to turn them into mini albums.  They have been a huge hit at the store, so I thought I would share the directions with you.  As of last night at Target they had a few left and were clearancing them for 50 cents a piece.  Good deal.

All you need to do is cut a piece of twelve by tweve paper in to 4×12 inch pieces.  You will have 3 pieces, but you will only need two of these.  Next, score every 2 1/2 inches, peak and valley.  This makes your accordian album.  Add photos and embellishments next.  You can go as simple or as elaborate as you wish.  I used lots of photos, prima flowers, buttons and rhinestones.  After you have decorated your accordian album, just insert into the lunchbox and adhere with red line tape (this will make sure it stays put).  Next all you have left to do is decorate the outside of the lunchbox with a few embellishments like ribbon and rhinestones. 

Super cute, super easy and the perfect little memento for summer or maybe for back to school photos on the first day!!!

Sorry about the layout of the photos..I have a terrible time with the way this program uploads the photos…I just don’t get it.  I’m working on it so bare with me!

Have a creative week and remember to take time to PLAY!!!

 

Now that we are nearing the beginning of another school year, changes are right around the corner and I feel the need to refresh my creative juices.  It seems that we all tend to put our creativity on hold during the summer months, with kids being home, company and our own traveling, so now is the perfect time to start planning your creative escape.  The kids go back in only a few weeks and it will be time to jump back in to scrapbooking, paper crafting and card making.  Start planning and dreaming now.

We have been so busy at the store with new products, ordering and planning for the Fall and the upcoming Holiday Season, that it can be more than a little overwhelming.  I honestly have not done much creating this summer and can’t wait to dive back in.  The past couple of weeks I have been creating my own Scrap Space and I can hardly wait to get in there and create and scrap the nights away.  We cleaned out a bedroom of all the junk we didn’t use anymore and my husband (awesome guy) repainted it (even with the colors that I picked he didn’t complain), help me move my table, shelves, and even all of my supplies into the room.  (Little tip, it’s not a wise idea to let them really see how much stuff you’ve collected over the years, I think I scared him).  Now my room is almost complete…just a few little decorating touches to go and it will be perfect (it could be bigger…sshhh, keep that a secret cause I don’t think he’ll let me take over any more space.)

So all of this leads me to this…I want to hear about your creative space??? Tell me about it, do you have your own space, do you share a space, use the kitchen table?  I would love to hear how you organize your papers, your ribbon and all your other stash!  I would love any feedback you have.  I hope you get the chance to refresh your creative juices this fall so you can get started with all your papercrafting ideas.  It’s going to be wonderful Fall at the store, so much fun stuff arriving daily and my own space is going to such a treat! 

The Summer CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Summer Show took place last weekend in Chicago.  While Kay and I did not attend, I have been following up on some emails, blogs, and websites that have been keeping us updated on the newest products and trends for this year.  I though I would pass them along to you.

Birds, fluorishes, circles all seem to dominate this year.  In other words, that stuff is all still HOT in the paper crafting circle.  Vintage is really coming on the scene strong with great companies like Crafty Secrets and Jenni Bowlin.  Flowers are still all the rage also.  Prima is still number one in my bag with their products.

If you would like to do some investigating of your own and check out some of the sneek peeks of what’s to come, I will leave you with some links to get to some of these great sites.  Number 1 for me is Vicki Chrisman’s blog, she has great photos of some of the booths with links to check out more of their products.  You can check out her awesome blog here at www.vickichrisman.blogspot.com .  Scrapscene has been doing a trend watch update ever couple of days…awesome photos again with great links.  You might have to scroll down a ways to find all three trend watches but it definately worth it.  www.scrapscene.com   Scrapscene is just a great way to keep up on all of the lastest and greastest ideas, blogs, designers, projects and products.  It’s always worth the read.

We have been ordering all the latest and greatest at the store and it will be arriving in the next few weeks,so make time to stop by and check out all the goodies.  We are so excited for this fall, we are going to have so much fun at the Playground with all the new products, classes, workshops and customers who keep us going strong.

Oh, by the way, if your in a creativity rut with your layouts, I encourage you to stop by Pencil Lines to check out the weekly sketches and challenges provided by some of the industry’s best.  www.pencillines.com.  If I need a new idea or some inspiration, I always stop by their site and take a peek.  There is a sketch of the week, with the designer’s take on it…along with all the other designers on their team’s take, plus all the reader’s takes.  Great site, you’ll love it!

Take time every day to create and play!!!!!

Just wanted to share a simple little project, coin envelope tag album.  Perfect for little summer mementos of your adventure’s this summer.  Easy and super fast, you can complete these little guys in less than an hour, depending on how carried away you get.

First, you need 5 little coin envelopes, 5 tags to fit inside, double sided patterned paper of your choice and some embellishments.  (Ribbons, brad, clips, you name it).

Tuck the flaps of the envelopes inside.  Then put a strip of adhesive right down the seam of the envelope, top to bottom.  Next, adhere another envelope right on top, repeat with the remaining envelopes, til you have a little accordion.  Simple.  Next, wrap a piece of patterned paper around, adhere with a tape runner.  I used a piece that was 2 1/4″ by 9″.  You will have about an inch and half extra that makes the little flap.  I rounded the corners on the flap and that part’s done.

All you have left to do is decorated your tags.  The sky’s the limit on what you want to do here.  You could even crop your photos to fit inside.  I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  I love this stuff, it’s a beautiful shimmery spray that you can add to almost anything.  It comes in tons of colors and the more you use it the more you will love it.  I love using two or three colors combined together.  Check out their website here www.mytatteredangels.com.  I played and played, used my Tim Holtz distress inks, fun stamps and few other goodies.   I also used papers from Fancy Pants.  Love their stuff, too.  I love how fast and easy this little project was and you will too.  Check out all the photos below.  If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will get back to you.

Have fun and take time to create and play!!!!!

Thought I would just check in here and wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!  I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing weekend.  In the last post, I asked what kind of scrapper you were and what type of products and companies  you crave the most.  Not much response with all that, but I will fill you in on my thoughts. 

It doesn’t matter if you are a traditional scrapper or more artsy.  It doesn’t matter what mediums you use or if you just keep it simple.  What does matter is that it’s your creative outlet and your memories that you are creating for your loved ones!!!

Some of us may scrap the yummy, juicy watermelon from today’s picnic and some of us will scrap the kids playing at the picinic.  Some more artsy, some more traditionally.  It’s all up to you and that’s the great part about this hobby…there are no rules.  Just create, just enjoy.  We all love the same things about this hobby, it honors life…past, present and future, and encourages and captivates our creativity.

So all of this leads me to the next topic…blogging.  I want my blog to be all about the people, a gathering place for like-minded souls.  I want to encourage you, get to know you and for this blog be a comfortable corner where you can put your feet up, relax, no pressure. 

I live under the same roof with 3 people and 3 animals that I dearly love, but they don’t ”get” me.  But I’m guessing that my blog readers “get me”.  Because in so many ways, you are just like me.  You love to create, love paper, even obsess over it like I do.  Do you carry your camera in your purse at all time? Do you look at everything as a possible embellishment and do you dream of the perfect scrap space, like I do??  Then readers you “get” me. 

Join me with continuing an artful journey!  Tell me about your creations, your favorite photos.  Share with me and other readers about your favorite techniques, products, what products that you would love to be able to get here in Rapid City.  Come along and CReAtE!!!!