Christmas is just 14 days away and to be honest I am almost ready.  Most of the gifts I needed to get are already wrapped and under the tree.  I have yet to get my Christmas Cards in the mail but that will happen next week! Once that is done I will get to spend the remaining two weeks with my guys and of course preparing for other family dinners.

Next weekend we will head off to partake in one of our favorite “family” traditions: Driving around looking at christmas lights. Now this is something most families probably do but I often wonder if they do it “like we do.”  We pick a weekend night (preferably a snowy one) and we get all dressed up in our pajama’s (including our slippers) and we hop in the car. We take a quick detour through Starbucks for peppermint flavored coffee and hot chocolate and then we spend 1-2 hours wandering through neighborhoods and city streets.  Of course the radio is playing christmas music and the mood is all set. For some reason I look forward to this event every year. We laugh, we sing, we admire the beauty of the lights and if we get lucky the snowfall makes it even more magical.  This is the one event we have done every year since our son was born 9 years ago and it is the one thing I won’t miss!

So to get me in the mood for the holiday season….I have been “pinning” alot of Christmas themed images on Pinterest and I wanted to share some of my favorites here with you today.  If you want to follow me on Pinterest just CLICK HERE.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

-Rebecca

Truike and her team at Paper & Pictures were the most wonderful event hosts. The Castle in Doorn was amazing and all of the attendees were so sweet to us! Here is a quick photo of one of our classrooms and our fabulous students inside the castle! You can tell from this photo how elegant and amazing this location really was. One thing is for sure it didn’t really feel like we were working because everyone was having so much FUN!

I don’t have a lot of “people” pictures but I do want to share a little bit of the highlights from Paris and Amsterdam below:

1ST STOP: PARIS

I mean you can’t really go to Paris without walking by the Eiffel Tower.  We only had 6 hours in Paris so we did not go up the Tower but we did walk directly under it and stare at all of it’s beauty.  I will say it is MUCH BIGGER in real life than I imagined it would be.

I am including this photo because we rode the Metropolitan Subway Trains ALOT!  It was our main method for transportation during our 6 hours and it was like a completely “different” city under the open streets. I was amazed how quickly people were moving about underground. New York is probably the same way but I have never been there either. We even stopped to listen to bands and musicians play down there.  Amazing.

Here is Barry in front of a busy intersection; and really every building is this beautiful. Every sidewalk and every intersection is gorgeous and there are people (probably all tourists..) everywhere with lots of activity going on.

There are cafe’s like this one on just about every block.  I never did eat a “crepe” but we did stop at a cafe similar to this one for lunch.  It was so fun and relaxing.  Perfect weather too…not hot and not cold.

Everyone rides bikes in Paris and Amsterdam.  It is common to see bikes on every corner or sidewalk.

I think this is the Hotel DeVille.  We were a little lost at this point trying to find a famous street in Paris (which we did eventually find…)

Don’t laugh and please don’t judge….but I think this is The Louvre. We are probably the only people who would go to Paris without a plan and I guess we like it that way. We wandered the streets and walked off the beaten path on several occasions so that we wouldn’t feel like total tourists. We walked a LOT but we didn’t really have a destination in mind. Turns out we missed the Champs De Lysse that Trisha (From Prima) and Samantha (From Authentique) explored the day before so I was bummed about that.

2ND STOP: AMSTERDAM

Row Houses and Buildings are everywhere in Amsterdam.  I don’t think I ever saw a single free standing building while I was there (except for Amsterdam Centraal Train Station.)

The buildings really do lean here.  The entire city is built over water and the buildings themselves are built on wooden posts.  You can’t see them of course but you can see the canals running beside all the houses here.

Some of the houses are literally right next to the water.  This is one of my photos from our Canal Tour by boat.

We stopped for cold beverages while touring the Red Light District and although we can’t show you photos of the Red Light District (photos are forbidden there) everything you have ever heard about this area is true. Coffee shops don’t really sell coffee and there are little rooms where certain working girls are waiting for visitors!

The Three Stooges  We also got to hang out with our friends from Echo Park! (Madison on the left and Jody on the right.)

There were 11 of us walking the streets of Amsterdam (see group at left in this photo) At times it was hard to keep track of everyone. Graphic 45, Echo Park, Prima, Authentique, Pink Paislee and Paper & Pictures were all on hand to represent.

I think you probably get it by now…the architecture in Paris and Amsterdam is so amazing.  Such history everywhere you look.

Here is Truike Bron (owner of Paper & Pictures) and Barry walking the side streets of Amsterdam!  Truike sure knows how to show Americans a good time!

We also got 2 hours of “free time” to shop this busy shopping district in Amsterdam and I did splurge on a cute new bracelet and ring; costing me about 22 EURO’s total…which is about $30 US dollars.

In Amsterdam this store is like our Macy’s or any other High End Department store. 4 levels of very expensive goods: Channel, Gucci, Prada, Etc.

And lastly…..I think everyone knows I am dying to get a Tattoo! This almost had me tempted….almost.  The back alley shop was keeping me from totally going for it though!

And finally….this is totally blurry but I couldn’t agree more! It’s not a job it’s a lifestyle! This couldn’t be more true for anyone who works in a field like ours. We truly love what we do and love that we get to travel to share our products and our passion with others!

Thanks to everyone who made our trip such a wonderful experience for us! We loved every second of it!

Rebecca

If you can believe this Barry and I are taking our first overseas trip and I couldn’t be more excited! Earlier this year I was invited to teach at this amazing location in The Netherlands and I just had to say YES! We are flying into Amsterdam and this “castle” is about an hours drive from the airport. We are excited to see this area and we are actually planning on doing a little bit of relaxing while we are there. I am also super excited to spend time with paper crafters in The Netherlands. Pink Paislee products are sold all over the world and being able to attend an event like this one in person is a rare treat for me;  normally I decline all invitations due to a serious lack of free time. I really need to thank TRUIKE BRON and Paper & Pictures for inviting us to attend and for encouraging me to say “YES” even when I know I shouldn’t leave the office.

We are teaching 2 different workshops while we are there and we will be having a ton of fun!  If all goes well Barry and I also have plans to take the hi speed train to Paris on our free day.

Here are a few sneaks of the projects we will be teaching:

This large Wood Shadowbox Frame is a custom frame that is not available in stores. We designed this frame for Creative Escape and this project was designed by Janet Hopkins for that event. We adapted it slightly for The Netherlands event and will be misting and stamping and more!  The exciting part is that you can’t buy this frame so the class participants will truly have a limited unique piece when we are done!

This is the Wood Album we will also be decorating along with the frame.  This Mistables class is a 3 hour workshop so there will be lots to do!

This is a sneak peek of our layout class where we will be working with products from our Mistables collection, Nantucket Collection and Vintage Vogue.  Just a little bit of everything in this class!

If by some miracle you live in The Netherlands and you are reading this blog we do want to invite you to join us!  Registration for this event is online HERE.

We’ll Meet You There!

Rebecca

My latest Pinterest obsession: HALLOWEEN.  I totally love decorating my home for fall and Halloween. I don’t often throw parties in my home but I do love adding a few touches throughout the house for our family to enjoy.  All of the items I have pinned on my Pinterest Halloween Board in the past few weeks have inspired me to get started RIGHT NOW. I seriously can’t wait to junk up my glass jars with skulls, moss, and everything creepy crawly. And…if you have ever seen my house you would know that I have a little bit of a clock obsession; and some type of witch silhouette will make an appearance this fall in my house.  :-)

So….I want to know….what are you pinning right now?  Want to follow my boards? CLICK HERE and let’s start inspiring each other!

Rebecca

Today I created this football themed layout using two papers from our Hometown Summer Collection and this layout is the perfect example of why digital scrapbooking can be so fun and easy. You literally just open up a template, drop in your photos, type in your journaling and hit save.  Maybe less than 20 minutes and no mess.

All I have to do now is print this out on a smooth 12 x 12 white cardstock sheet and slip it into an album.  I don’t even mind mixing my traditional layouts with my digital layouts in the same album.  You should try it too!

Rebecca 

So…the story begins….

About 4 weeks ago I was surfing the internet looking for antique wooden flat files (for our internal office use) when I stumbled upon this set on CraigsList. Literally this was the exact photo the seller had posted and I knew right away it might be able to work as the center island for my studio.  If you aren’t familiar with flat files they actually stack one on top of each other in sections so I knew this furniture piece was in 5 sections (1 top, 3 file sections and 1 base.)  This one is actually 48″ wide so it is bigger than most which are 36″ wide. Anyway…the price was LOW and I made an offer and guess what….it was MINE.

Now…for those of you who don’t believe in sanding and painting oak furniture then please STOP READING right now…because I didn’t buy this piece for it’s natural wood allure. Nope…I knew we could sand it and then paint it black to match the rest of my studio. As it turns out when we stacked up the base, 1 drawer section and the top section it ended up being the perfect counter top height which is what I wanted since I stand when I scrap. I was ecstatic!

So we started the transformation process and I thought it would be fun to share the photos here on my blog.

BEFORE:

AND AFTER….

We actually spray painted the handles too; originally I was going to replace them but it turns out they are an odd size that you can’t find anymore…

These bar stools aren’t really for my use; but if someone wants to come in and chat while I scrap they are totally welcome…(or maybe they will even scrap with me)

That wall is bare but maybe just maybe I can move my alphabets in here…

And…as if by some small miracle…my letter tray fits in the top drawers perfectly.  That was a nice surprise actually and will allow me to access all my small bits and baubles quickly.

These top drawers are the perfect drawer depth for ink pads…

This is on the wall opposite my mirror and is another project I am working on. We finally added chicken wire to the frame this week and now all I have to do is fill it with projects. I also have magazines and books in the nearby file racks for inspiration when I need it!

And yes…I still have this oversized hutch that also functions very well for storage.  I decided this week to move my paper up above and also added the center tray for all my scraps and things I need to file or find a home for.

So..that is the wrap up of my new and almost complete craft studio. Now I just need a large black craft mat and I can keep it on top of my new center island / flat file desk so I won’t have to worry about getting it messy…

For those of you who are worrying about all of my alphabets…have no fear…they are now in my walk in closet (attached to this room) and they are still hanging on those same IKEA rods! I am even thinking about moving them out to my open wall by the window…hmmmm…that could work.

Hope you enjoyed the tour…sorry for the long winded / photo heavy blog post…

Rebecca

My son is one in a million.  Truly he is; and he doesn’t even realize how incredible he is. This was a very impromptu layout for me today.  In fact, it has been months since I sat down to create something just for fun but I immediately had a desire to get up and document my feelings for my son after I stumbled upon this photo today.

It all started when I sat down to my computer to surf the internet…which then led me to click on my iphoto library to organize my photos.  After deciding that the organization process might take a little bit too long I started going back through some old vacation photos and summer photos (just to reminisce of course) when I came across this fun picture from the 4th of July.  After looking at this photo for a few minutes I quickly realized that my son is growing up so fast and I have been awful at documenting it the past 2-3 years.

I am making a personal vow right this second to get better about spending my free time catching up on the photos I have yet to print or scrapbook for my son’s albums.  I think I got behind somewhere back there in 2008…..BUT…he is the reason I started working in the craft industry and I desperately need to continue to tell his story.  It will be good for me and him (even if he doesn’t know it yet…)

I used a mix of the Pink Paislee Mistables Papers and Journal Tags along with the fun and bold Vintage Vogue Collection to create this layout.  I love the embossed metal tags from the Vintage Vogue Collection and I used it as the main title for my layout.

And…for the first time evah…I used a bit of molding paste to cover the corrugated die cut border that I cut on our Accucut machine.  It was my first attempt and I really kept it subtle until I get brave enough to really smear it all over my layout.

I used Graphite Glimmer Mist throughout the layout but I also wanted to show how cute these little wooden hearts are when they are misted.  So quick and easy.  And another tip…these wood shapes stick right down with a little dab of liquid adhesive or clear glue.  I actually still have some KI GLOO and I hoard it for little pieces like these.

So…go create something today and remember how important it is to treasure your little ones before they grow up to be adults!

Rebecca

I had a few hand me down pieces from my mother that I wanted to incorporate into the room.  The first one was an old “buffet” that had seen better days. In fact, my mom was using it as a place to showcase her “plant” collection and as you can see from the second photo this buffet had suffered from lots of water staining on the top.

I knew I wanted to paint this piece black and in fact told my mother I was going to do it and she still agreed to let me have it!  This piece has been sitting in my basement for about 6 months so it is a good feeling to finally have it done.  Here is what it looks like after Barry sanded it and we painted it.

We wanted to give it a rustic look so we didn’t even use a paint primer.  We simply sanded it down, cleaned it and then used a Latex Enamel paint in black right over the bare wood.  After it dried we roughed it up a little by sanding down some of the edges so that the original wood color would show through.  The only thing left to do is to spray paint the hardware and attach those to the drawers.  I can honestly say I love it so much more now that it is painted.

Next up….an old chandelier I had lying around the basement.  It was the perfect candidate for a high gloss spray paint effect.

Yes that chandelier looks good in this room!

We also added a 3/4 size antique wrought iron bed that I also received from my mom.  When she gave it to me it was RED.  Which was fun but we decided it would look better in white so a few years ago we spray painted that white and it has been sitting here just waiting for a mattress set ever since.

The side tables were a thrift store find and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM.  Only $40 each they were already “shabby” and distressed to perfection.

I do have to admit…..the comforter and the bedding pattern isn’t the most ideal option and not exactly my style but I was forced to settle because it is extremely hard to find full size bedding sets. The full / queen options are just too big. I found this one at Target and it was the only one that had the exact measurements we needed.  There is a strong possibility I will replace it later…LOL!

So…that’s it!  It is now ready for overnight guests.  Although I still need to add some pictures and accessories to liven it up I think the hard part is finally over.

-Rebecca

Before I discovered Pinterest I used to right click and save images to an “inspiration folder” on my desktop.  Now I can save all of those images online without taking up hard drive space.

If you are someone who uses catalog images, fashion photos, or decor sites for inspiration than Pinterest is for you!

I am slowly building “my boards” – and it does take time but I am very selective on items that I will “pin.”

So…check it out.  It is one of my latest obsessions!

-Rebecca

Does anyone else miss these Silhouette shapes from the old Heidi Swapp collection?  I realized this weekend while I was making this layout that these silhouette shapes are actually printed with a slightly “raised” design.  The brown outline on these hibiscus flowers are actually a little bit like thermography on a business card.  I used to hoard these shapes and I still do have a full pack of the stars because I loved them so much!

Anyway…I am still working on “preserving” some photos from our Orlando trip a few years ago.  I will probably add some journal strips to this with the location and date but I haven’t gotten to it yet and I wanted to take the photo while there was still daylight here.  My son makes scrapbooking easy for me as he always takes the cutest pics!  We actually got in trouble for taking these photos up beside the car because we had climbed up into the display area before we realized you weren’t supposed to be up there…LOL!  After a few minutes the “entrance staff” politely shooed us away.

If you can believe this I am having a friend over tonight and we have plans to get “crafty.”  I have no idea what will come of our evening but if we do get anything accomplished I will be back in a few days with another project or two to share!

Have a great weekend!