Nat Noted -- July 8/13

Hello everyone!

It feels like ages since I've posted the last Nat Noted because, well, it's been ages. I've noticed that other bloggers have had the same problem I do: lots of time gobbled up by life.

But I'm back now just in time for CHA Summer 2013 (which has been renamed Create-N-Connect). I found some new releases that are must-haves, a few cool techniques, a few tips and one amazing layout. I hope you enjoy these finds!

1. Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair is behind 7 Dots Studio which has released three new collections for CHA Summer 2013. My favourite is 9th Wave.

Photo credit: 7 Dots Studio

2. Anna Dabrowska is also a designer for Prima. Her newest collection is called Vintage Vanity. This preview has me very excited!

Photo credit: Prima

3. A few years ago, my scraproom was filled mostly with Bo Bunny products. Then, something happened and I moved to Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye and Little Yellow Bicycle. Then, Bo Bunny released some amazing collections at CHA Winter 2013. Now, the company has four new collections for this summer and I have to say they're really good. Love the Silver & Gold collection the most.

Photo credit: Bo Bunny

4. Stencils and masks are now a big part of my scrapbooking. I must have been living under a rock because I completely missed the release of Heidi Swapp's stencils. I have to have this 6x6 confetti stencil.

Photo credit: Heidi Swapp

5. Over at Pink Paislee, Danielle Flanders used Gelatos on the Artisan paper and embellishments collection. That's a match made in heaven! If you were ever curious about gelatos, this post is a nice introduction and will make you want to buy the whole set.

Photo credit: Pink Paislee

6. I have to be honest, I don't have time to watch video tutorials. But I couldn't help but have a peek at Dyan Reavely's video. She showed a resist technique using a glue stick. Very cool!


7. Noell Hyman from Paperclipping has a wonderful post on Tim Holtz Distress Paints. She added Tim's video on how to use the Distress Paints on a tag, but she wanted to show us how to use this product on scrapbooking layouts. I have been asking this question all year. Thank you Noell!!

Photo credit: Paperclipping

8. This is a stunning layout by Stacey Young. She created the apple (a genius idea for a school layout btw) with Shimmerz and Dazzlerz. Now I want to try these products. <sigh>

Photo credit: Stacey Young (My Boys, My World)

I hope you get some time this week to sneak in some scrapbooking, cardmaking, art journalling or other paper crafting.

Take care!

Find more scrap happiness at mamanhall.blogspot.ca or follow me on Twitter @mamanhall.

Nat Noted -- March 11/13

I'm baaaack!

Christmas, work, family, and life have gotten in the way of blogging. I've missed it! I've really missed scanning my favourite blogs and finding cool things to share with you.

Even though it's been a while, I've tried -- really tried hard -- to keep this list as short as possible. I hope you like it!

1. This castle mini-album by Irene Tan from 7 Dots is gorgeous!


Photo credit: Irene Tan (7 Dots)

2. Basic Grey released the most adorable storage barrels. 


Photo credit: Basic Grey

3. Corrie Jones (You Me & Crazy) is my new favourite designer. She posted on Shimelle Laine's blog five way to use Heidi Swapp's Color Shine sprays. I love all of these techniques, especially the way Corrie draws with mists. It's so cool. This post includes photos of her great layouts and a video tutorial. Check it out! 

Photo credit: Corrie Jones (You Me & Crazy)

4. Juliana Michaels has a great tutorial on how to give doilies a vintage tea dyed look using Distress Stains and a water mister. 

Photo credit: Juliana Michaels (Bo Bunny) 

5. May Flaum has 10 great photography tips for the "craftographer." My favourite: take a minimum of  12 pictures. 

Photo credit: May Flaum

6. Jennifer Pebbles (Studio Pebbles) posted tips for organizing paper. I love the Ikea rolling cart! 

Photo credit: Jennifer Pebbles (Studio Pebbles)


7. Heidi has a great tutorial on My Craft Channel on how to to mix colours using her Color Shine sprays.

I hope you enjoyed this list. I will try my very best to bring you my list every Monday.

Happy crafting!



Find more scrap happiness at mamanhall.blogspot.ca or follow me on Twitter @mamanhall.

Nat Noted - Nov. 19/12

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Unless, you're in the U.S., then you're planning for Thanksgiving!   ;-)

The blogosphere is filled with thankful layouts and cards and banners and place holders, but I did manage to find five projets you will love!!

1. Up first is this stunning bottle cap advent calendar from Maya Road. 

Photo credit: Jen Chesnick (Maya Road)

2. Evgenia Petzer just joined Bo Bunny's design team. I love this card she made using the Love Letters collection. Can't to see what else she creates!

Photo caption: Evgenia Petzer (Bo Bunny)

3. Love this Christmas diorama that Jen Chesnick made using LYB's Once Upon a Christmas collection.

Photo credit: Jen Chesnick (Say Chez)

 4. Lilith Eckles is fast becoming my favourite designer and this layout provides a good distraction from the Thanksgiving and Christmas projects. ;-) That combination of grey and yellow is amazing. I also love the layering on this layout.

Photo credit: Lilith Eckles

5. I love coffee and bought a super cute coffee cup mini-album so I can document my love of java. So you can imagine how excited I was to see this amazing art journal page. So many great ideas here!

Photo credit: Lynn (Scrappy Happy Mom)

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Nat Noted Supersized - Nov. 12/12

My life got in the way of blogging, but I'm baaaack. ;-)

For me November is all about Movember. So far, the moustaches on the dudes around me are barely visible, but I'm sure the entertainment value will grow. You can donate here to help save the other half of the species.

I am also gearing up for Christmas, of course, and even started making Christmas cards. Let the countdown begin!

1. Love this Christmas card by Andrea Budjack. 



Photo credit: Andrea Budjack (Creative Paper Trail)

2. Here's another Christmas card by Lea L. She used PURLPLE and Prima's Firefly collection! Genius!!

Photo credit: Lea L. (Lea's Cupcakes and Sunshine)









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

3. You may know that I am a big fan of Cari Fennell from Prima. She designed this beautiful card with Prima's North Country collection. Wouldn't you love to get this card? (No pressure, Cari...)

Photo credit: Cari Fennell (Prima)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. I was too young to really enjoy the '70s (and that may be a good thing), but just old enough to remember all the good parts (like the funky guitar, The Jackson 5, and the gold lamé). This may explain why I am so attracted to Heidi Swapp's disco hearts. So cute!

Photo credit: Heidi Swapp

 

 

 

5. Irene Tan aka Scrapperlicious made this awesome bracelet using Bo Bunny's Serenity collection.

Photo credit: Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious)



 

 

6. Love Nora's tealights decorated with washi tape!

Photo credit: Nora (Just Make Stuff)

7. Lilith Eckles used dark colours (and a great combination of colours) on this layout, but still managed to make it look delicate. Can you tell those splashes were made with a stamp?

Photo credit: Lilith Eckles (Lilith's scrapbooking venture)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. I think this 7 Gypsies tray would be a great gift to give to the men in our lives and all those non-crafty types who don't always appreciate all those artistic touches we lovingly apply to our projects. 

Photo caption: Angie Gutshall (My Little Blessings)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. I love how JJ Sobey used burlap from Canvas Corp as her background combined with stamping, Authentique paper and tons of great layering. 

Photo credit: JJ Sobey (One Good Thing)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Noell Hyman from Paperclipping has a great post on using the paper you have. If you have the mountains of paper collections I do, you know how important it is to use what you have. And before CHA Winter 2013 comes around! ;-) I love this tip of altering your background paper.

Photo credit: Noell Hyman (Paperclipping)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Tim Holtz announced that his seasonal colours are now available in Distress Stains. Awsome news!

Photo credit: Tim Holtz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12. These words "Hello Kitty scrapbooking products" made my heart race a little. Check out this amazing Hello Kitty date stamp!!!

Photo credit: Melissa Stinson (The Scrappy Jedi)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13. Becky Higgins posted 10 photo ideas from her childhood. I especially like her suggestion about photographing breakfast.

 

14. Pantone chose this colour, Tangerine Tango, has the 2012 Color of the Year. I love it, but I feel a little guilty because I should have used this colour more. Well, 2012 ain't over yet and this colour is very delicious.

 

15. Beautiful. Simple. Well stated.

Photo credit: Shari Carroll (Basic Grey)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you have a beautiful week!

It's Not Halloween

I would never pretend like I'm 'on time' in my scrapbooking. But really, I'm not that far behind (that being said, I estimate that I probably have like 60 layouts to do to 'catch up' - totally doable!)

However, I did complete a summer scrapbooking challenge in June, July and August in which I finished 61 pages. 4 of those pages are my little guy Sam's 2011 Halloween. So when I saw the paper the design team was getting for the October layout, the Whoo-ligans collections by Bo Bunny,  

my heart sank just a little bit. What on earth was I going to use for pictures?!

Lucky for me, I came across pictures of Sam with his Green Lantern glasses that he got as part of a McDonald's Happy Meal a few months ago and a crown from one of his board games. For some reason, Sam LOVES those glasses.



I based my layout on the October sketch of the PageMaps 2012 calendar. I quite like this sketch because it allowed me to use a border punch, one of my favourite scrapbooking tools. I also created dimension by using foam squares and orange ribbon on a border piece.



I created my pocket by using a scrap piece of red paper and added faux-stitching. I cut a slightly small piece of white cardstock and used Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges. I used this piece as my journalling box.



Finally, I added a frame sticker from the collection but I used foam squares to add dimension.

This layout turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I'm pretty happy with this one! Come check it out in person at Auntie Em's and complete your own layout based on the October sketch to potentially win a prize!


Happy scrappin'!

Captain America

This was a hard for me this month.  My biggest challenge was that I had no Halloween photos.  I begged my son to let me take photos of him, and still, it ended up costing me $10.  And after all that, I realized that the outfit really didn't match the paper.  

This month we needed to created a pocket.  I kept it very simple, I used my mat for my pocket.  I just used my two-way tape all around, except where I inserted my journaling.  We also had to use stickers, I only used one, but I added Glossy Accents, and thread.  I also added a little punch to the pattern paper with Stickles. 

Two not so scary Halloween layouts

The challenge for the October sketch was to create pockets on your layout.  Well WOOPS I forgot to do that, so I did a 2nd layout, and then went back and added a pocket to my first because I felt guilty.  We used the Bo Bunny "whoo-ligans" collection for this challenge.

... And Ducks?!

 

 

 

Pumpkin Sitting

 

 

 

You too can join in on the challenge, simply use the page map for October in the Scrapbook & Cards Today calendar as your starting point, and using supplies that you purchased at Auntie Em's create a layout with a POCKET!  Bring your layout to the store for a chance to win!