let’s go shaker tag

Sometimes when I look through my supplies, I look for inspiration. I look at what I’ve got and see if an idea sparks – and run with it! This is a great way to get going if you’re unsure what to create next. In this case, a tag sticker (from Pipsticks) inspired my creation.

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Plannercon 2018

My manager/assistant Rebecca and I were in San Francisco last Saturday to teach a memory keeping class at PlannerCon. We had a lot of fun shopping for supplies, then setting up for class. About 100 ladies joined me as I talked scrapbooking, memory keeping, and a lot more.

Preparing for this talk really was fun and I have so many notes and ideas to share with you – I’m excited to get more into the kind of memory keeping I’m doing these days and excited to see more stories be told in my albums. Scrapbooking was my first crafting love – and while the style has evolved even today I really do love so much about it.

With under an hour and with the space constraints I couldn’t share all the ideas I wanted – so I’m building an online class to support the ideas I shared. Why am I telling you this? You’re welcome to join in the fun! You can sign up here – FREE. I will be going over techniques, simple design, and other scrapbooking fun so whether you’re brand new, left scrapbooking for a while, or just want some fresh inspiration I hope you’ll join in the fun.

This is one page from class- the how-to video will be going live soon! For now I’m back to work – loads going on behind the scenes here- and to get my wild ideas down on paper and into action so I’ve got more to share soon.

Back from teaching weekend in Orange, CA

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Miss E and I are just back, unpacked, and all dogs (and her sister!) have been collected from our whirlwind trip to Orange, CA for classes at Stamp Fever. It was an absolutely wonderful trip and if you have the chance I strongly recommend visiting and taking classes there! Not only was the staff really wonderful but all the ladies that attended were lovely and the classroom was fun to teach in.

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I taught three different classes over 2 days – a canvas, card making, and a giftable items class as well. These were so much fun – and it was great having an assistant too! Here are some photos of setting up and the shop:

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We had so much fun creating and sharing ideas. My favorite part? Always seeing how the students take ideas and make them their own. Watching ladies come up with their own spin, direction, or otherwise playing in ways that make them happy! As much as I love teaching online there is definitely something special about in person events. Of course the prep and hard work is intense – but it’s worth it! We had such a good time that we’re already plotting a return visit for spring or early summer…

Stay tuned, because I think we will try to bring more classes in California and beyond in 2017! Have a favorite store or place you wish I’d visit? Let me know!

Crafty Shopping: Sacramento edition

In my travels I like to look up stationary, craft, and gift shops. One thing I’ve always meant to do is document/share here on my blog – but I never get around to it! Today I’m getting started with Sacramento, CA area and the places the girls and I enjoyed on our recent girl’s crafty day out trip.

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Before we dig into the creative, I strongly recommend starting the day as we did at Bacon & Butter. It is ridiculously good spot for breakfast or lunch, and is in a good position to begin a Sacramento day as it is quite central. We made a loop up to Roseville and back down, in this order.

First up: Container Store (Arden Fair) Other local stops could include chain craft stores (that is a huge mall area!) This was our first visit and our brains leaked out of our ears with color love and happiness.

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The only shop open at 9am, we passed stops 2 and 3 (though all are very close) to get to it. Containers and colors and so much pretty! We restrained ourselves admirably but it was a great kick off after we had filled our bellies with a delicious brunch. Note: there is a Papyrus Shop inside the mall across the street – we didn’t want to wait an hour for it to open but it’s there and a lot of fun! That is a chain just like Container Store, so you may have one locally!

Blick Art supplies (905 Howe Ave, Sacramento)

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For fine art supplies, I’d recommend bringing a shopping list. I got overwhelmed by choices and colors and didn’t buy any! What I ended up doing was purchasing wood “canvas” blocks (see a previous post I did where I did matte gel transfer on one), sticky notes, and some fun pens. This is a chain – so you may have one locally! It’s a small location, but definite fun stop and close to my next place which was…

Paper Garden Boutique (558 Pavilions Lane, Sacramento)

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This cute little shop is one I’ve not visited in many years. You’ll want to come here if you’re looking for stamps and funky treasures.

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I really like the way they have all their displays done, and loved the funky notebooks and totes in addition to stamps and card makin stuff. From here we headed up 80 East to…

Stamp Art Shoppe (1000 Sunrise Roseville, CA)

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The Stamp Art Shop feels like a traditional scrapbook store like the ones that used to be so plentiful – oh how I miss them!!! They had a lot of stamps of course, papers and latest goodies, as well as really interesting class offerings. In fact, so interesting that I signed up for a mixed media book decorating class! The class was great and I was really delighted by the friendly staff.

Heading further east, I had to visit

Paper Source (Roseville, CA)

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I have been madly in love with Paper Source for as long as I can remember. They inspire me so much – they have awesome funky finds, beautifully themed displays, and I can always find a variety of treasures from journals to dishes to hold my buttons. We don’t have a local one so if I’m within 5-10 miles of one you can bet I head there! This is a chain, so look up in your area if you’ve got one! On this trip we found a father’s day gift, and each got a treasure for ourselves as well. They have a number of stamps and craft supplies – it’s not just stationary!

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The shopping center where this is located had everything from Whole Foods to a candy shop – loads of fun! We had a great time on our tour and called it a day at this point to make it back home before traffic got bad, but if you wanted to take things further I’d recommend:

It’s All About the Scrapbook in Dixon, CA

Stamper’s Corner in Elk Grove, CA

To find all of these places and map out my best routes I used google maps. LOVE finding placed I’d forgotten or didn’t know about using that tool. I am famous for entering key words (stamp, scrapbook, craft, art supply, cupcakes, etc) any time I am traveling somewhere and want to get a sense of what things are around.

Where will we head next? Who knows! But I’ll be sure to photograph, document, and share with you here…

Traveler’s Notebook

I’ve been real worried guys! You see, for many years I’ve used mini books created by scrapbook companies for my scrapbooks “on the go” – but all my favorites are no longer being made! Oh, sometimes you can find one, but they’re not something still being produced/new ones made. What’s a girl to do?

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A few months back I received a notebook from Cocoa Daisy called a “Daisy Dori”. Each month they release a new one – full of beautifully decorated pages ready to rock a scrapbook on the go! I purchased a few more recently – but I also realized there’s a whole world of these “traveler’s notebooks” that I had no idea existed! Talk about exciting! Here’s a link to a YouTube video I created on the subject.

I mention my own personal rules for scrapbooking on the go – and I’ll recap them here:

  • Do a little bit of pre-embellishing if working with a plain
  • Severely limit what you bring. Just a pen and some tape will get it done, but a few stickers or washi tape strips might be nice to have along
  • Remember you can always add more when you’re back home

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I’ve been keeping journals for years! What do I do with them? Sometimes I use them as reference for remembering where we went and what we enjoyed. Sometimes I use them to recall details for scrapbooking. Sometimes we just enjoy reliving memories and notes written while traveling.

I don’t worry about looking photo worthy or fancy – the wrting and details is what matters in here. Everyone traveling is welcome to add their thoughts as well! These little books take up no room, and I’m excited about having a cover that I can insert new books as old ones get filled up. I can’t tell you how fun it is to read the details of our travels that I would never have remembered otherwise.

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Aside from the beautiful Cocoa Daisy “daisy dori” books (pictured above) the set-up I’m using is the official Midori Traveler’s Notebook. You could make these yourself, or purchase them ready to go! Below are some (affiliate) links to Amazon where I found mine.

leather cover
no lines
kraft (no lines)
lined notebook
folder

And here’s a link to scrapbook.com where the supply folio I use is from.