Nothin like an Online crop...

to get my creative juices flowing! I get such a kick out of coming up with new challenges and sketches that I find myself inspired for weeks afterwards and the upcoming crop at AC Bailey is no exception. The Design team has come up with some awesome challenges and games (if I do say so myself :) and Erica's got some fantastic prizes all ready to go. Did you hear about the fantastic guests we have lined up? Saturday morning we will have a question and answer session with Jenni Bowlin and Sunday we have Tracy Weinzapfel of Helmar and Clear Scraps doing a product Q&A. (I'm so excited!) So join us the weekend of September 25th - 28th! I'll leave you with a little sneak of one of the challenges...well, at least what I came up with based on the challenge...what fun would it be if I told you what the challenge was ahead of time?

Scrapquest!

Just a quick note to invite you all to AC Bailey for our scrapquest contest going on now. It's a fun combination of a scavenger hunt and layout challenge...that is once you've found all the clues for the challenge :)

The rules are simple, find the 5 apples hidden somewhere on the site. Each apple is a link to a clue. Collect all 5 clues, follow the instructions to complete the layout challenge. All submissions are due by Monday, September 28th. (Don't worry - there will be hints flying all over the place to help you find the apples)


While your there stay a while and join us for our "Fall into Scrappin" online crop, which kicks off on Friday, the 25th of September. The design team has a bunch of fun activities planned for you, so grab some apple cider and spend a pleasant fall afternoon (or weekend) with us!

By the way the prize for the winning layout for the scrapquest challenge is an AC Bailey Monthly Goodies kit...yummy!

PS : if I reach 20 comments on this post I'll have a random drawing for a RAK from me, chock full of scrappin goodies you're gonna love!

Road trip!

Getting ready for a nice long solitary drive to Buffalo tomorrow, oh please don't let me forget my camera! I've got some pictures I really need to take and who knows when I'll have the chance again! Quick turn around and will be driving right back Saturday morning...with a van load of Magda's stuff. We are all so excited to have her and Bryan come to Jersey with us...Monika's coming over Sunday for a welcome to Jersey dinner! Marek's been out of town all week, so, yep, you guessed it..no cooking, and alot of scrapping :) I played with the August Goodies kit from AC Bailey , such a gorgeous kit, I just love that paper from Upsy Daisy!! Here are some of the cards I made with the kit.
Lately I've just been drawn to getting back to my favorite style, a grungy inky distressed wow that looks authentically old vintagey looking style. So I just let myself play a bit. I've been wanting to start letterboxing and decided the first step is a good journal to stamp my entries in, so here it is, the cover is a plain sheet of grungboard, inked, stamped ,spattered and embossed. The pages are 9 signatures made from parchment paper which were handstitched to the covers with a coptic stitch. A delicate silk ribbon is attached inside to use as a bookmark. It's amazing how "leather like" grungeboard gets when you work distress ink into it! Now all I have to do is decide on a signature stamp and go search! For those of you that have never heard of letterboxing, take a peek at this site... who knows you might even decide to get in on the fun yourself!

Blog Hop Winner!

We have a winner! Thanks to Random.org, the winner of the drawing is Audrea7! Congratulations!!!


Here's her comment:

"Hey Elisabeth! I've been kind of intimidated by distressing but these ideas really make it seem like something I can do! What wonderful tips and tricks :o) Thanks so much! I can't wait to try them."

Audrea, send me an email at paperaddict@optimum.net with the address and we'll get your prize out to you.

Congrats again and thanks everyone for visiting!

The last stop on the hop!

Welcome to AC Bailey's FIRST ever blog hop! Do we have a treat for YOU! This is an awesome opportunity for you to meet all the ACB DT members, learn lots of (hopefully) new ideas and techniques, gain some inspiration and you may even win some prizes along the way! Here is how this works, if you are already on my site via a link you already know this, but for those of you popping in here mid-stream, let me explain.
The FIRST post or START to this blog hop is on the AC Bailey blog . There you will find the instructions, all the "fine print" details and such, you will then go from that blog post, to the next DT member whose link is in the post (at the bottom), once you have visited that gal's site, you will click on the link she has in her post to the next designer and so on and so on,...following me? Be sure to leave a comment on each blog as at every site there will be a random name drawn from all who post and one lucky girl on EACH blog will win a SUPER prize. Then- when you are finished with all THAT-create a layout or project using three or more of the ideas you saw demo'd on the blogs and post that layout in the gallery in the NSD layout folder (under Scrap Stimulus Contest) section and then post how much fun you had and a link to your layout on the special NSD thread in the Scrap Stimulus Contest section of the forum! We will then draw one lucky winner form all those posting qualifying layouts and THAT lucky winner will win an AC Bailey May Goodies Kit of the Month , featuring yummy papers from the Marks Paper Company... how cool would that be?? !!
It COULD be you, all you need to do is PLAY! It's a lot easier than this sounds, try it! You will enjoy it and don't worry- we will have instructions for you all the way through this and we will be available off and on all weekend on the forum so if you get stuck yell out and we can help you-easy and FUN - and PRIZES! What more could you ask for???

So here's a bit about me: I'm a Buffalonian transplanted to New Jersey: trying to get the hang of the accent but I don't think I'm going to be able to figure it out! About the only thing that can win out over an evening at my scrap table is a Buffalo Sabres game. Saddly, they missed the playoffs this year - Again - so I'm set until the fall. I've been scrapbooking for about 6 years now and since my children were already teenagers when I started, I quickly realized that "chronological" scrapbooking was not for me. I scrap whatever inspires me at any given moment, with whatever style I'm in the mood for. I'll try anything...but I will admit to a passion for all things distressed...if it isn't inked, it's not done in my book. So...

What tips or techniques am I going to share? 3 simple things you can do to bump your distressed look up a notch:
1. Take an embossing pad, or versamark pad and run it across the edges of your paper (just as if you were inking the edge. Sprinkle some embossing powder along the edge, flick the back of the paper hard with your finger so some of the powder falls off in random spots and then heat the powder to melt.
2. Apply some glue stick to your paper, where ever you want to have a really aged, grungy effect. Wait till it sets and then sponge some distress ink over it - this adds a nice aged texture to your paper.
3. Stipple! An old tried and true technique, use a stipple brush to apply random bits of ink here and there.

Here are a few tags I made using these techniques:



OK, if you followed the DT blog posts and made it all the way here...you're almost done! Just one more stop back to the AC Bailey Forum to say hello and tell us you finished the hop!

Did I mention that a prize will be drawn at each blog amongst those that left a comment?

I love online crops!

And we're having one over at AC Bailey this weekend...What fun! (It's not to late to pop over and take a look at all the great challenges and games that are going on!) The theme of the crop is "unfinished business" and one of the challenges is to use up paper scraps on a layout...the more the better. So I grabbed my box of scraps, a one inch square punch and created a paper quilt. A piece of felt and some stickers and buttons and I had my layout...I just love the way it came out!

Monthly Crop

Last Saturday was my monthly crop and I spent most of the time playing with my January DT kit from AC Bailey. Well, I can't post any of the projects yet but I was so excited with how they came out, I took a few little snippets of pictures, just to give you an idea. Oh yeah, Distress stickles are in da house!

Some Crate Paper to share

Here are some layoutsI made this month using my DT kit from ACBailey, full of pretties from Crate Paper and Basic Grey. Some of you may recognize this little cutie: I snapped these at the store back in June during my going away party:This picture was taken a while ago, and I've been meaning to get it scrapped for Sharon. When Sharon brought my new Slice up to New Hampshire, we wanted to see what it could do, and this is what I came up with..pretty neat flowers, huh?And this is my Magda's new furbaby, Crookshanks; a totally adorable little calico kitty that loves riding on your shoulders! (and isn't averse to hanging around in your hood if you happen to have one on) The layout is based on the December sketch challenge by Brandy at ACBailey, isn't it a fantastic sketch?!

All three of these layout were made using the same package of white chipboard letters by Basic Grey-I absolutely love them! Plain white, sponged, fully inked - they look great and have a super smooth surface that takes to color really well and the little photo turns they include in the package are so sweet!

It's cold out!

I woke up this morning and couldn't believe how cold it was...this is the first day that feels like winter is really coming, it's just bitter out there...days like this make me wish I had a fireplace! Hubby's going down to the Jersey Shore to go fishing...personally I think he's crazy, he's gonna be standing in the water in his waders for hours, will probably get sick and not catch anything... I've got my 12 hour crop today so was up late last night packing and printing off pictures, hopeing that I get alot of stuff done, I'm definately in a mood to scrap, Gotta stay focused!!!
Here's a mini book I made with my ACBailey Kit for this month...gotta love Scenic Route!

Dress the table!

We're having a "Dress the Table" challenge at ACBailey, with all kinds of adorable scrappy ideas for thanksgiving. I made these hostess gift boxes using some beautiful Scenic Route paper - perfect for fall! I don't think I've used any punches as much as my fiskar's border punches...those are popping up all over my work...Love them!!!

Here's my template, if you'd like to download it and make some of these cute little boxes.

The monthly DT challenge at ACBailey for November is to use the following on a LO:

-Craft Cardstock

-Stickers (letter stickers don't count)

-Journal around an element on your LO.

I was reading the challenge late last night and all of a sudden knew exactly what I wanted to do and just had to do the LO right then and there...simple journaling,repeating my Mantra of late..."it's just a number". More Scenic Route Sonoma - I just had to use that PP for this LO :)