Sunday, October 31, 2010

Ask The Designers: Organization


Are you organized? Can you find stuff when you need it? Today we answer your question about crafty organization.

Jamie: I really believe organization is a personal thing and there is not one system or type of containers, etc. that work for everybody-- the key is finding what works for you and then sticking with it! A few things that help me are:
 

• Organizing embellishments by color-- I have small round containers that stack and I keep one for each color with all types of things in it, brads, buttons, jewels, whatever!

• I keep a few open containers right on top of my workspace that I can just throw random extra things in that don't really have any other place. That way my space is cleaned up plus those things are right at hand so I can grab them when making a quick card and use them up. And, did I mention these containers are cute? They match the Americana decor of my craft room so even though they are full of random junk, they still look good. :)
 

• Sort out often! This way I actually remember what I have in my stash and then I am more likely to use it.
 

• Don't be afraid to throw a few things away-- I know this is so hard for crafters! We just want to hold on to everything because someday we might find the perfect use for it. But I have found it really helps me to cut down on the clutter by not keeping every tiny piece of paper, throwing away photographs I didn't scrap and getting rid of supplies I know I will never use (some great places to donate these supplies are elementary schools, day cares and assisted living centers-- I usually just give all mine old stuff to my kids' school and the teachers are delighted!)

Susan: I like to think of myself as the queen of organization... but the ideas seldom com out of my head and into "real life". I have succeeded a little bit and now there are a few things I couldn't live without these days. I am big on portability and easy access. If I have to dig for something I probably won't ever use it.

• Iris 12x12 plastic bins with hinged lids - I have them in the 6-pack holder/stand as well as individuals on shelves in the closet. What I really like about them is that they are stackable. I use them for metal and vintage embellishments, adhesives, punches, paints, inks, stamps... even 'life events' that still need to be scrapbook'd. *grin* Each one of those categories has it's own bin. Love them!

• Cropper Hopper 12x12 vertical storage for Bazzill card stock and non-design team papers. They are huge space savers and portable enough to carry to my work surface to match.

• Clip It Up base + upper tier - I love this! On it I have all my Prima packaged flowers and pearls; Magnolia, Gurlee Girl, Stampavie stamps; Tim Holtz embellies; The Beary Scrap DT embellies and more I can't think of at the moment. I REALLY want the floor model!

• Making Memories wall organizer. I retrofitted mine with a second ribbon dowel and added a third dowel on the bottom for lace. I use the plastic jars from Michaels for Stickles and ribbon bits.

• Brother P-Touch label maker. 'Nuff said.

I also use plastic Sterlite drawers for smaller things on my table top. Maybe one day I'll take photos - it's nothing special, but it's my space and I can close the door!


Patricia: As much as I think I'm well-organized I still seem to end up with messes but I find that these little tricks seem to help me.

1.) I like to keep as much of my goodies as I can in clear storage containers that I purchased from Walmart. I have a whole wall of them. In all different sizes.

2.) I like to label as much as I can. Most of my inks are labeled on the sides so I don't have to go digging thru all of them to find the color I want to use.

3.) Color charts, just as most of you have the Copic color chart I also have it for most of my inks so I can see the true color of them with out having to try them to get the color of them that I want. Another chart I like to use is for my rubber stamps I have them all stamped out on white card stock so I know what I have and don't buy more than one of the same one.

4.) I like to take advantage of open wall space. I have clear plexiglass hanging on my wall with velcro on it and I have velcro dots on all of my Stickles so they all just hang there ready to go.

5.) For my ribbon storage I have really thin curtain rods hanging with some of my most used ribbon hanging on them. I have two rods handing above my Stickles, plus it looks so pretty hanging there.

6.) I also use small clear draw units to hold all my small tools and pens. They come in real handy and fit really nice on my desk.

7.) For all the small pieces like brads and charms and other small goodies I keep them all in see thru fishing tackle boxes.

8.) I have a couple of different storages for my paper. I have a hanging file bin that has a lot of my plain card stock sorted by color. I also have the 12x12 Iris containers for my designer paper but also a lot of it just ends up on my shelves, its the one thing I really have to get better at storing. 

Gini: two pictures from my studio



Kimm: Organize??? What is that? I'm a MESS! I need help in this department. I guess I have an excuse... we are under construction and a major move. I would LOVE to hear some ideas from our followers on this one.

What a great idea, Kimm! C'mon readers, tell us your favorite organization tips. We love new ideas and Kimm needs 'em for The Beary Scrap's new space!


Thanks for your support - we love getting your questions! Please join in and Ask the Designers!

Cheers,
Susan, Gini, Patricia and Jamie


About Ask the Designers

Crafting is creativity - some of it comes from within and some is learned. We're here to help you learn techniques, make your crafting life easier with product experiences, give advice and generally inspire your inner muse.

We will collect emails and comment questions, and post answers each Sunday. You can ask general questions to the design team or specific ones to any of us. If you want more info about something you've see out there in blogland or any product the has you curious, email or leave a comment and we will share our experiences and opinions. We're not here to sell you specific products from The Beary Scrap online store, although we hope you will visit for your crafty needs. Our goal is to share our knowledge and experiences, with the hope that we can help make your crafty life easier.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Autumn Inspiration

We've all had such fun with Glimmer Mist this last two weeks, we hope you've enjoyed our various projects and have inspired you to get misting! Remember, you still have a couple more days to enter our "Spritz the Glitz" challenge and we'd love to see what you came up with so link your project before 11:59 EST on October 31 for a chance to win some goodies from The Beary Scrap.

That brings me to one last Glimmer Mist project that is also based on this gorgeous autumn photo:


I love fall colors and leaves so this was easy to get inspired by. I decided to see what I could do with some real leaves from my yard and went out and raided a few of my trees to get this (reminds me a lot of our inspiration photo):


I used the real leaves as screens and misted over them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Sunflower and Tiger Lily.


After removing the leaves from my paper, I was left with just the outlines like this:


I used the misted paper with the leaf outlines to make Table Place Tags for all The Beary Scrap Gals that could be used for Thanksgiving (another of my favorite holidays, and it's coming right up!) If only we lived close enough together to share that lovely day together.


The tags are mounted on Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock in Chocolate and Burnt Orange and stitched around the edges.


With some awesome brown lace as a background, I added Prima fall leaves and some tiny brown flowers that were also spritzed with the Sunflower and Tiger Lily Glimmer Mist.


The photo has that awesome acorn and I so I had to add an acorn to my project. I stamped the acorn image, popped up the top of it to give a little dimension, added Cinnamon Stickles and then popped the whole acorn up for even more dimension.


Then I added some jute around the bottom and some rhinestones for a little more glitz.



This were quick and easy to make and would be fun on any Thanksgiving table.

So there you have it, the last of our Glimmer Mist projects! Now we'd love to see yours. We'd also love to hear from you-- if you have a question about Glimmer Mist or anything else for The Beary Scrap Designers, click on the Ask the Designers tab at the top of the blog and leave us a comment or send a question on some sort of paper crafting dilemma you might have. How do we get inspiration? How do we find the time? (Trust me, I'd like to know the answer to that one!) What is our favorite and "go-to" techniques? Whatever you wonder, we'd like to answer in our Ask the Designers post each Sunday. We look forward to seeing your questions!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Beary Scrap Photo Inspiration

I don't know where you live but the leaves are falling down like crazy where I live and they are falling down on my card this week to.
We had a photo Inspiration this week and this is the card I made.
Now here is the picture that was our inspiration.
I pulled out the fall theme and the colors from the picture for my card.
I used paper from Memory Box and Basic Grey. I used Peach Delight Glimmer Mist on the background paper. I used one the the very cute Acrylic Paper Piecing Patterns for Tear Bears from The Beary Scrap Store. I made my cute little beary with Mulberry Paper. I also cute my tree out with Tim Holtz's Branch Tree Die. I added a bunch of punched out maples leaves from cardstock with a punch from EK Success. I added Cinnamon Stickles to the edges of my card. After my card was done I added Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist to the whole card including the Tear Bear and looks so pretty.

Don't forget there is still time to enter our
Beary Sweet Challenge-Misting You have till Oct 31 to enter.

Don't forget to join us on Facebook

Thanks for looking.
~Patricia~

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Autumn Inspirations


Hi, it's Gini. Are your fingers inky? If they are not, what are you waiting for? At the Beary Scrap we still have our Misting Challenge going on until October 31st - We just want to see your projects that you have misted on. This week, not only are the Beary Scrappy Gals misting on our projects, we are also being inspired by this gorgeous fall photo. Don't you just love those colors?





I used papers from Pink Paislee's 365 Degrees line. My stamps are from Heartfelt Creations. I colored the background image with copics, and masked off the image and spritzed my sky with Glimmer Mist. Then I added Flower Soft ultrafine in Sage and the new Pine Green for my grasses. I really like the ultrafine for giving sharp detail. My pumpkins are sitting on a bed of Artglitter's Earth Elements (Morroco).


To color my pumpkins, I spritzed some white cardstock with Glimmer Mist in Jack-O-Lantern and Rustic Red. I love combining colors and seeing the results.



After I colored the paper and allowed it to dry, I stamped my pumpkins and cut them using the Spellbinders Nestabilities pumpkins. I added layers of foam dots to pop them up from the background. Finally, I added my ribbon bow, which I drug through some GM that I had sprayed on my workmat. (And yes, I do have a whole section of my studio devoted to my spritzing area). I have to admit, I was cheap for along time and would not by the large Tattered Angels misting mat (it's a whopping 2 x 3 feet!), but once I bit the bullet and bought one, I love it! Often times, I will spray directly on the mat and then lay screens or papers or ribbons on that - It opens so many doors for new techniques!


So this is a picture of my spritzing area (please ignore the mess to the sides - Isn't a messy work area supposed to be the sign of a genius?!!!) In my studio, I have a hot tub that I rarely use - but it is the perfect area to set up work stations. I have my misting area, my area for cutting and embossing with my cuttlebug, and my paper cutting area. I leave these things out all of the time, because I use them so much. Oh, and don't fret, that's not anywhere near all of my Glimmer Mist... it's just what I played with today!

I hope we have inspired you to try some new things with your Glimmer Mist, and if you don't have any yet, I know you are going to want to try it out!

Monday, October 25, 2010

BSC #12 Recap - Misting Techniques

Hi there, crafty friends! Just popping in to let you know there are still 5 days to enter our


Here is how the design team used misting products - click on the photos to go directly to each post for loads of details!
Susan (Monday)

Gini (Tuesday)

Patricia (Wednesday)

Jamie (Friday)

Remember this challenge ends Sunday, October 31 at 11:59pm (EDT) *and* we'll have a new sketch challenge up on the 1st. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see *you* in our challenges, too! You could win a $20 gift voucher (with free shipping!) to The Beary Scrap. How cool is that?


Cheers,
Susan and the whole fabulous team!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Ask The Designers: Favorite Tools


Tools - we all use 'em. Have you ever stood in the aisle at your favorite shop or browsed the pages of online stores trying to figure out what is the best tool for the job?

Today we answer your question about our favorite tools.

Gini: My Cuttlebug machine is one of my favorite and most used tools. I am always cutting Nestabilities and embossing with the CB folders. My other favorite tools are my sewing machine and my edge distressor. I think adding these little extra steps take a card to the next level. Sometimes you might not even notice some of the small touches, but you just know there is "something" about the project that stands out. 

Jamie: I have lots of favorites and I have a hard time working outside of my craft room because there are so many things I use and it's too hard to pack them up to take anywhere! But I have narrowed it down to a few and so my favorites are (in no order!):
• My punches-- I use some type of punch on almost every project, the most often used would be circle and scallop punches and my corner rounder
• Zutter Distress-it-all-- I don't know how I lived without this before! I love to distress the edges with this, it is just so fast!
• Inks-- I hardly ever leave any edges without ink on them so these are essential! My favorite are Tim Holtz Distress Inks.


Kimm: My ATG Tape Runners.  I have both the 1/4" and the 1/2".  They hold lots and lots of adehesive... and I LOVE adhesive! I never worry about my project coming apart.

Patricia: I couldn't live with out my Big Shot. I just love it and use it to cut all my Spellbinders, which I use on almost every project. I'm also hooked on the bright colors of Colorbox inks. One other tool I love to use is when the corners of the paper get a little bent I like to use my rounded corner punch to clean them up to look perfect.  

Susan: I have a few definite favorites: Cutter Bee scissors for the fussy cutting I do on my layered images. The blades are extremely sharp and cut through card stock like a hot knife through buttah. My second favorite tool is my computer - from vintage graphics to daily inspiration, the computer feeds my creativity like nothing else in my studio.

Thanks for your support - we love getting your questions! Please join in and Ask the Designers!

Cheers,
Susan, Gini, Patricia and Jamie


About Ask the Designers

Crafting is creativity - some of it comes from within and some is learned. We're here to help you learn techniques, make your crafting life easier with product experiences, give advice and generally inspire your inner muse.

We will collect emails and comment questions, and post answers each Sunday. You can ask general questions to the design team or specific ones to any of us. If you want more info about something you've see out there in blogland or any product the has you curious, email or leave a comment and we will share our experiences and opinions. We're not here to sell you specific products from The Beary Scrap online store, although we hope you will visit for your crafty needs. Our goal is to share our knowledge and experiences, with the hope that we can help make your crafty life easier.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Glimmer Mist Halloween Treats

Trick or Treat
Smell My Feet
Give me something good to eat. . .

Oh, forget it!
Just give me some Glimmer Mist to play with!

I had the strangest thought today-- wouldn't it be awesome if we could take our Trick or Treat Buckets from door to door on Halloween night and instead of candy, everyone would give out scrapbook supplies? Wow! I would be in trick or treat heaven! Especially, if there were lots of colors of Glimmer Mist involved!

Last week I told you that this Glimmer Mist thing is a bit new for me, but let me tell you, I
am now HOOKED! Check out the Halloween treat tags I made with mist everywhere--


First I started by using some Halloween Glimmer Screens and several different colors of absolutely gorgeous Glimmer Mist-- Sunflower, Jack O'Lantern, Haunted Shadow, Graphite and Key Lime Pie.



I used three different screens and when they were dry, I was left with images like this:


Then I used some Tattered Angels stamps that are made specifically to go with these Glimmer Screens-- the stamps go just over the image I made with the screens. I actually wet embossed my images using a black glitter embossing powder to give them more shine. I matted the images on Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock in Raven, Plum and Burnt Orange (PERFECT Halloween colors!) and stitched around the edges. And no, my machine was not going crazy, I kept changing the stitches as I went around, just for fun!


After that I was ready to embellish! And I went a little crazy with my Halloween Glimmer Mist colors, spritzing anything that would hold still, including a chipboard moon, some ribbon, some Petaloo Halloween flowers, a strip of crepe paper, a hand crocheted flower from The Beary Scrap and even a plastic spider ring.




When everything was nice and glitzy, I added all those goodies to my tags, attached them to a bag of treats and they were ready to go!






If you haven't tried Glimmer Mist, you've got to get some, it is definitely a treat every paper crafter needs. Remember The Beary Scrap will continue to carry Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist through their online store so check back in the next few weeks as Kimm gets new inventory up on the website and now is a great time to stock up on lots of goodies to spray that mist on during her Clearance Sale.


Don't forget to do your own misting and join us in our current Beary Sweet Challenge, link up your entry before that spooky night, Oct. 31 @ 11:59 EST, we can't wait to see your fabulous projects!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Trick or Treat for Glimmer Mist

Is everyone getting ready for Halloween?
It's almost time for the Trick or Treaters to come around.
Well not my house I wish! I live out in the middle of nowhere.
But this little guy is all ready to go get some candy.
Now you can kinda see my Glimmer Mist, I added it to the Little Yellow Bicycle designer paper from the Frightful Colletion. I also added it to the black card stock. I have the cute little Skeleton Peter from Simply Betty that I colored with Copics. I inked the edges of my Spellbinder die cut out with Colorbox Ink. I added some flowers that I also added Glimmer Mist to but I added a lot to try to make it really shine but I think I added to much because now you really can't see the shine. I added a pumpkin brad from my stash. I also have black brads in the corners. I used stickers from Jolees and Recollections.

Don't forget to enter our

Now make sure you check out the big sale NOW going on at

Don't forget were always on
become a Fan and never miss a Special.

Thanks for looking.
~Patricia~


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Get Misty with Us!


Hi, it's Gini and I have been having so much fun with Glimmer Mist! This is one of my favorite products, and we would love to have you play along with us - just make a project using a misting technqiue - Easy Peasy! Take the challenge to Spritz the Glitz!

This layout was so fun! I just kept adding more and more layers. I started off using papers from My Mind's Eye, Lost and Found - Madison Avenue. I distressed some of my edges by first dabbing on some Glimmer Mist using a sponge dauber. Next I used a Glimmer Screen and spritzed the upper left corner using Pink Ice (which was a darker pink) and then Vintage Pink for the lower corner. Then I took the same screen and sprayed it with Carmel Apple and laid it down (a little offset) to stamp the image onto my paper. So I used the screen for both a negative and positive image. I stitched on all of my layers and added tons of distressing. I hand-sewed French knots along my scalloped border. I had fun surfing the web and finding new flower tutorials, and made all of the flowers by hand.

Glimmer Misting is so much fun, there is no right or wrong, so I hope you will play along with us!

Monday, October 18, 2010

I Vant To Spritz Your Paper

Hello hello! It's Monday, and you know what *that* means... It's me again, here to show off my Beary Sweet Challenge #12-inspired sample. The challenge is to use misting on your project, and I've Glimmer Mist'd the heck outta Dracula Edwin. No, it's not garlic-flavored Glimmer Mist! I'd like to keep this little cutie around for a while, but he's already spoken for. *sigh*


I did "the usual" with my pearl Glimmer Mist - spritzed the flowers (except the velvet Petaloo), black branches and vintage vampire fang tag. The best part of my misting, though, is the dry-embossed coffin - I dipped a teeny tiny paint brush into the Glimmer Mist bottle and painted the embossing! How cool is that?! I also painted Edwin's bow tie, purple cape trim and shoe strings. I really like the effect and definitely plan to use it with other mist colors.


Here is a glimpse of the easel flap. Inside is a panel for Happy Halloween greetings.


Card Recipe
Thanks for stopping in today! All week you'll find inspiration for our current Beary Sweet Challenge on "Misting". You can use any kind of misting embellishments - even handmade ones. Come join us for your chance at a $20 gift voucher to The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,
Susan

Sunday, October 17, 2010

"Ask the Designers" Sunday

Please scroll down for our BSC #12 winners!



Oops! We've all said it while crafting. Today we're talking about The Big Fix - what we do when a boo-boo needs attention.

Patricia's says: If I make a coloring mistake on a stamp and it's to late to fix or I have tried (unsuccessfully) to fix, I look to see how else I can cover it. I recently had an image all colored up and love it but messed up the hair. The colors kinda turned to mud on me, so I added glitter to the hair and loved it much more than if the hair came out perfect in the first place.
Another mistake I have come across happens after coloring up an image and cutting it out with a Spellbinders die. I like to ink around my images, and the mistake happens when I didn't know I had ink on my fingers and it gets on the wrong parts of the die cut. If it's not too big of an area I use a white gel pen to try and cover it but if that doesn't work I like to see what other embellishments I can use to cover it (like flowers).

Susan says: Well, when I go boo-boo, I go big! It never fails that if a mistake is going to happen, it will happen at the last possible minute. You know, right when I'm close to finishing! I rarely start over at this point, although I've been known to scrap something if it's early enough and I have enough materials to replace it. It takes me a long time to design and assemble my greetings, so I rarely make time to start over. Honestly, I know I'm my worst critic so I take that into consideration, too.

I'm with Patricia in the hunt to use embellishments to cover mistakes. Ribbon is good to cover something that isn't attached as straight as I'd like or cover a bad ink distressing job. I've learned that Stickles can be wiped up quickly without leaving a shiny residue - I've used everyhing from my fingernail to the eye end of a sewing needle to pick up little bits of Stickles or 3D glue (like Glossy or Matte Accents). Sometimes, if I can't fix it,  just accept it as a quirky detail and move on. :)


About Ask the Designers

Crafting is creativity - some of it comes from within and some is learned. We're here to help you learn techniques, make your crafting life easier with product experiences, give advice and generally inspire your inner muse.

We will collect emails and comment questions, and post answers each Sunday. You can ask general questions to the design team or specific ones to any of us. If you want more info about something you've see out there in blogland or any product the has you curious, email or leave a comment and we will share our experiences and opinions. We're not here to sell you specific products from The Beary Scrap online store, although we hope you will visit for your crafty needs. Our goal is to share our knowledge and experiences, with the hope that we can help make your crafty life easier.

Please join in and Ask the Designers!
Cheers,
Susan, Gini, Patricia and Jamie

BSC #11 Winners and Top 3!

Hello friends! We want to extend a huge "Thank You!" to everyone who played along with our last challenge! We really enjoy visiting your blogs and definitely appreciate your support.

Our winner of the $20 gift voucher to The Beary Scrap is...

# 4: Cheryl Walker


Congratulations, Cheryl! Please email Kimm and she'll set you up with a voucher to go shoppin'!

We would also like to congratulate our Beary Sweet Top 3:

#8 - Juanita
#1 - Rene
#4 - Cheryl

Ladies - thank you so much for joining us! Here's a fun badge to display on your blogs:




Don't forget! Our Beary Sweet Challenge #12 -Misting!- is going on now through October 31st. Grab your favorite misting products, spritz your projects and enter the challenge. You could win a $20 gift voucher just like Cheryl!

Cheers,
Susan, Gini, Patricia, Jamie and Kimm

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Save the Date! Inking Pink Blog Hop!

Our paper crafting community spans the globe and brings all of us together under a common roof. Join us, and 25 (or more) other talented women from a multitude of design teams for our First Annual Blog Hop for Awareness that has been creatively titled "Inking Pink".

Many of us have family or friends that have been affected by breast cancer and all of us want to encourage all of you to check yourself!  For those of us at The Beary Scrap DT, we have recently found out that our dearest friend and alumni team mate has Breast Cancer.  In her honor, and for all the women battling this disease, we are "hopping" in hopes of helping to spread awareness throughout the world.

The hop will start October 26 at our Hostess Patricia's blog at http://pattyandcharlie.blogspot.com/.  From there you will be guided on a journey around the world to visit all the talented artists participating in this amazing event. Some of your fellow crafters along the hop are even offering blog candy!  Please be sure to give a little comment of love to each and every crafter along the way.

The hop will run through October 31 to give all of you enough time to "hop" around and visit each blog.

We all hope you will join us in our hop, and most of all we all want YOU to give yourself the greatest gift and do a self-check. The more you do it, the more breast aware you will be!

UPDATE:  The following is a list of the beautiful ladies blogs on the hop.


Hugs
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