Perspectives by Ali Edwards

*Yawn* grumble, grumble grumble *Yawn*

Good Morning.

Ya know, mostly.

Does anyone else think that Monday mornings should just be canceled for the rest of the summer?

Especially on the Monday after the 

MAVS WIN THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!!!!!

(A little woot woot for Dallas in there!)

Anyway... I dragged my oh-so-tired self out of bed to share my third and most favorite GASC class with you.

My last class on Saturday was Perspectives by Ali Edwards.

I personally love Ali Edwards.

Ok, so maybe not her personaly, cuz I've never  met her or anything, but I love her style & her approach to scrapping. 

The class was taught by Teri from Technique Tuesday.

Poor Teri.  

Our class was not the most responsive group.

I think everyone had just had lunch & was in  partial food coma.

But she really was excellent and super super nice.

The layouts that we did in class were very simple and totally created from PP, Cardstock & stamps.

The simplicity of them is fabulous and they are the only class project that I actually finished IN class.

The thing I love the most, though is the concept.

The 4 pages are:

I Am                             You Are

I Love                                     You Love

Here are a few closer ups

The titles are stamped on, so they could have been whatever we wanted.

We came away from class with 4 finished pages, the sketches that go with them, a small stamp set, lots of journaling cards and enough left over paper to make 2-3 more layouts.

The concept is to make a simple page using your stamps & the journaling blocks that come with the paper pack to document you & someone you love RIGHT NOW.  

I love the idea.

I also love that I ended up with a project that I can USE.  

The pages are kid-friendly, but not so cute-sy that I can't use them.

I've decided that these are a perfect addition to my on-going Project Life.

At the Technique Tuesday booth, I picked up 2 more matching paper packs 

and a coordinating set of stamps

I'm going to do a page each for Steve & I from these.

Since I'm the one making the pages, they will be from my Perspective (pun intended) with all of the "I" pages being about me, and all of the "You" pages being about him.

Not being a scrapper, he was unenthusiastic when I told him that he was part of this, but I think the idea that I might claim that he loves things like Bridezillas made him a little nervous, so he agreed to participate.  

(Kidding, he agreed to participate without me having to resort to blackmail.)

I plan to print lots to wallet size photos to illustrate the layouts with.

I'll make sure to upload pix when I get them done!

So, what are your current scrappy projects??

Prima Possabilities

Good morning!

As promised, I wanted to show you the projects that I made in my GASC classes this weekend.

The first class I took was "Prima Possibilities"

Of the 3 I took, this was my least favorite.

Not to say that it was bad, but it definitely wasn't my favorite.

Rebecca was really very very nice, but the whole thing seemed very disorganized, especially coming from a big company like Prima.

The supply lists for the Prima classes got switched, so no one in my class brought the paint brush that we were supposed to have.

She did have some donated from the other class, but there were a lot of people waiting around for a turn with a paint brush.

There was also an issue with the book pages that they were supposed to supply with our class kit. 

Evidently they didn't bring enough books to tear up.

Someone was supposed to be out buying more books & paint brushes for us to use in class, but they never did show up.

I got lucky enough to receive mine, being that I was sitting up in the front of the room, but there were several people in the back that were told to go home & print out their own.

There were also issues with the written instructions that we received.

Many people were missing a whole page and/or chunks of the text didn't print.

The missing pages did get handed out, but they were cheap b&w photo copies of a colored print out, so they were a little hard to see.

And there was no earthly way that we could get even a portion of this project done in class.  

I got 2 pages done.  

Just 2.

The rest had to be finished at home on my own.

So that all kind of turned me off.

I also didn't feel like there was a ton of actual instruction. 

The first technique with the Gesso & Glimmer Mist was a nifty one (I'll explain it further down) , but I felt like it's the only thing I really learned the whole class.  

The rest was just "put this embellishment here just like it shows in your instructions".

So, all in all, not the greatest class and not one I think I would repeat.

That being said, the amount of product that we went home with was well worth the price of the class.

This is the class kit

As you can see-- tons of pretty-ness!

We took the raw chipboard book & painted the front cover, back cover & punched sides with Gesso. 

Once the Gesso was dry, we spritzed all the painted surfaces with Glimmer Mist (Black Cherry, in case you were wondering) and blended them together with the still-damp Gesso brush.

LOVE the mottled effect.

Once those were dry,  we covered the naked chipboard with paper, distressed the edges with brown ink  & decorated!

Here's the finished album

(Well, I say finished, because all of the pages are finished.  The binding is not done yet)

 Front Cover

 Inside Front Cover

This was supposed to have had the Gesso/Glimmer Mist treatment, but by the time I realized my mistake, I had already passed my paintbrush on to someone else and didn't feel that it was worth waiting to get another one.  I just used a leftover piece of PP on it instead.

 Inside Rear Cover

Rear Cover

We were given length of lace to bind the book with, but given how fat the finished project ended up, it's not enough.
I'll have to hunt through my stash to find something else that will work.

Almost all of the supplies used were provided in class.

The only ones that I used from home were just a few large colored flowers.

The only large flowers that were in our kit were white.

Presumably, we were supposed to color them with the Glimmer Mist, but there wasn't time in class.

I did this with a few of the large white flowers, but I already had some large Primas in the right colors, so I subed in a few of those.

While I wasn't entirely thrilled with the actual class, I did get a beautiful project and lots of left-over goodies out of it, so I'm pretty well pleased with it.

Check back tomorrow for another GASC class project!

GASC

Good morning Bloggers!

It's a crazy-hot day here in Dallas.  

(99*F, in case you were wondering.

It's gonna be a looooong summer.)

I spent a blissfully happy weekend in Arlington at GASC. 

It was my first time and I LOVED it.

I took 3 classes with some beautiful projects-- I'll post those over the next couple of days. 

I feel the need to devote today to the most important aspect of GASC---

The Show Floor!

I couldn't wait to get in there and see what there was to see!

It was HUGE and there was soooo much crammed in there!

It was crowded, but not as crowded as other years, I'm told.

 Rebecca at the Prima Booth

 Melissa Frances mans her own booth!  

I got to meet both her and her husband.  

Sweetest people ever!

There were lots of nice Make & Takes to do, but I was disappointed at how expensive some of them were.

They were super-cute though!

 

There were also lots of nice demos going on.

 (Ok, so this photo is obviously cropped.  The demonstrator was super nice, but between the fact that I was focused on the cool flowers on her apron, rather than her face AND the fact that she happened to be in the middle of a sentence when I snapped the pic, it didn't come out very flattering.   Like, the kind of unflattering that would force me to hunt someone down and bash them with some large blunt object if they ever posted a similar photo of me on the Internet.  So, in the spirit of Sisterhood, I cropped.  I hope she doesn't mind.)

I finally got to see exactly how this works.  

It's way easier than it looks on UTube. 

Needless to say, I'm sold & asking Santa to bring me one for my birthday.

And sooooo very many amazing samples.  

Inspiration everywhere!

 So many ideas for acrylic shapes.  

I can't wait to use some of them!

 I thought this was so cool!  

I love the idea of ordering personalized Mr & Mrs paper for a wedding album or Thank You notes  or name paper for a new baby album!

Well, I do live in Texas now!

I love the idea of these canvas home-dec projects.  

Seems like a really nice way to bring scrapping out of the album.

 Thinking I need a sign like this to hang in the hallway.

Love the message.

 I thought the bead "doorknob" on the front of this heritage album was a genius idea!

Several companies had some of of this retro 40's/50's style supplies.  

One of the things that I inherited from my Gram is her mother's hand-written cookbooks.

I think this is the perfect way to preserve them!

Of course- I also did gobs & gobs of shopping.

Here's a some of the loot that followed me home:

I had to have a couple of new scrappy (and non-scrappy) shirts

 (Please excuse the wrinkles.  These poor shirts spent several hours mushed at the bottom of the shopping bag while I wandered the show floor.)

 I love the little messages hidden on these shirts.

 She Fights

 She Soars.  

I bought this one to wear to my yoga & ballet classes.

She Rocks.

Cuz I do.

I got some new tools:

 New colors to make my home-made glitter mists with.

 New colors of StazOn & some big flowers that were a fantastic deal at Accent Scrapbooking.

 Because I have wanted these for months

..... and cuz I wanna be Tim's baby mama....

 I was able to round out my collection with some new colors.

Super cheap Spellbinders from Art Gone Wild.

($3 each!)

I mostly use them as misting masks, but they're cute when embossed too!

Seriously- one of the coolest tools ever.

Review will be forthcoming!

Of course, I bought lots of cute stamps:

 My first Unity Stamp set.  

Now I can see what all the fuss is about.

 I'm so diggin' the retro thing right now!

Sam at the Technique Tuesday booth was fabulous. 

I think they got more of my money than any other booth.

Love them!

Ok, so I planned for this.  

I knew I was going & I saved for weeks beforehand. 

I walked in the door with cash to burn, expecting to spend like crazy.

What I didn't expect were the amazing bargains that I found!

Here's some of what I found & what I spent on them:

(And if one of you is mean enough to add these up, I beg you not to email me the total. 

I prefer to live in ignorance.)

 Grab Bags from Melissa Frances.  

$10

These weren't my best bargain, but they're so flippin' cute that I don't care.

 Ticket pads/journal spots from Melissa Frances

$1 each.

Seriously.

$1.  

 Free.

Yup--Free because I spent $25 at Melissa's booth.

 Ok, I know.

I need more paper like I need rabies.

But they were $3, $5, $8.

And I have a trip to the beach coming up in September.

That's my excuse & I'm stickin' to it.

(And if you have seen the partying flamingos in the MAMBI stack, you understand.)

 Cuz a girl just never can have too many blingy or pearly swirls.

And they were $1.

 Usually, I make my own.

Way cheaper & I can customize them.

But when you get a 4 pack of different colors for less than $10, even I can be persuaded to hop on the bandwagon.

 Huge Grab Bag kit from Jenni Bowlin.

I'm familiar with her, but have none of her products (ya know, till now).

A Grab Bag just seemed like a good plan.

And it was only $20.

Well worth it.

 I never typically buy more than 2-3 of a given paper.

I have way too much to want to re-use a pattern.

But I found these in a sale bin for $3 each.

They have 25 sheets per pack.

The colors in the "family" paper coordinate well with the beachy stack that I bought and I like the idea of being able to use it though out an album.

(And knowing my family, there will be more than enough pictures from this beach trip to fill 6 albums.)

The paper lace is something I thought I could alter multiple ways to make it look different, and when I get sick of it, I know enough other scrappers who can make use of it.

 For $3/$1 for the whole set, even if I only ever use it once, I will feel it worth the money.

And I already have plans for the cupcake stamps!

1/2 off Studio Calico?

Uh, Yeah!  

I'm on it!

I was good though and mostly only bought the State Fair line.

Because I have State Fair pictures to scrap.

Really, I do.

Another Grab Bag, this one from Quick Quotes.

I'm such a sucker for a Grab Bag.

And the fact that it came in a great big, super-cute, lime-green shopping bag didn't hurt.

 I think these might have been my best bargains of the day.

I'm a HUGE Fancy Pants fan.  

Journaling books, rub-on sheets & packs of over-lays for $1 each and huge 50 sheet paper grab bags for $5 each.

No possible way to beat that.  

Believe it or not, I did find time to eat a real meal,

Yumm. Baked Potato bar.  

Though I didn't realize how many bacon bits I had on there till now.

Maybe this wasn't as "less bad for me" as I thought.....

meet some great new people 

(waving to Pam in Houston & Kim in California!), 

and take 3 classes in between all of the shopping.

Stay tuned, I'll be sharing those class projects over the next 3 days.

Alright, I fessed up.  

I showed you mine, now you show me yours!

What scrappy stuff did you buy this weekend?