Monday, August 31, 2009

September's Guest Star!

We're so excited to have Tara Anderson guesting for us this month! I just can't wait to share her lovely creations with you! Good thing the reveal is tonight!

Hello there! My name is Tara. I reside in a tiny touristy town in Arizona called Cave Creek. I'm a wife to Peter, and a mommy to 2 wonderfully cute little kids, Alaina 4, and Chase 11 months. They are my best photo subjects!
Things I find inspiring right now are, pretty desserts, old books, the smell of tuberose and gardenias, blank canvases and summer rain storms. I also have a love affair with vintage office papers at the moment!
I love staying up really late to scrapbook, when my house is still and quiet. The process of creating each new page is exciting! I really enjoy using lots of new papers and embellishments and mixing in a little vintage. The textures and colors of vintage items are truly charming!!
Thanks so much for having me as this months JBS guest!

A photo of my desk. I found an old silver stand at a thrift store, painted it white, and now I use it to hold all of the extra embellishments that I want to use whenever I'm creating something new. It's always full of random pretty things that I've collected!

I adore this photo! I was dusting some of my tea cups, and starting to think about the color combination. I've never been a fan of purple, lavender, lilac, until this summer. It's definitely been growing on me! I love the combination of white and lilac mixed with apple green and pink. pretty-pretty.
I saved the little paper strip from one of the Amanda Johnson papers, and used it as my title inspiration for a new journal. The Housewife. I wanted to use alot of the scraps that I had left over from creating all of the projects and pages for this month. I ended up making 10 atc's (artist trading cards), and added them to each page. This was my favorite page from the journal! Junk-Art-Life, I love that quote, it's so appropriate for my style of scrapbooking! Maybe I'll fill my little book with the daily ramblings of a work-at-home-mom!
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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dina Wakley Inspiration!

My favorite piece of Town Square and a delightfully stitched grid made from the new memo pads . . . thanks for the inspiration Dina!
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

September Sneaks . . .

Lisa Dickinson . . .
Doris Sander . . .
Project Kit . . .
And don't miss out on Jenni featured this week on Ali's Tuesday Tutorial! Plus an awesome bonus limited edition kit!


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Monday, August 24, 2009

Bingo!

Lisa Pace has had such a clever idea! Cut the bingo images off the packing and get mini mini bingo cards! Two for the price of one as she says! Check out her blog for more details!
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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Candy Box Tutorial: Amanda Johnson

Chocolates are a nice gift that most people love receiving, but a box from the drug store seems a little impersonal. I wanted to fix up some boxes to look as extra special as the loved ones receiving them.
Step One: Wrap the lid of your candy box as you would wrap a present. Use clear tape or adhesive to hold down the edges.

Step Two: Choose from any of the wonderful Jenni Bowlin rubons to decorate the box. Cut out the rub on you choose, and position it on the box. Using a stylus, rub the design onto the box, and lift away the backing.

Step Three: Fill the box with chocolates, wrap it up with twine, and make someone's day extra special!
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

August Mercantile Contest!

We're anxious to see what you've created with the August kits! Post links to your projects here and we'll select a winner on September 9th! You'll get your work showcased here and we'll send you a set of our new rub-ons (and oh my are they ever gorgeous)! Don't delay! Enter today!
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

September Exclusives!

JBS Mercantile and . . .
Amanda Johnson papers plus Etsy tags by Ormolu!
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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Tip! with Michelle McCord

Thought I would give you a little tip about how to use your circle punch to make scallops on your page. I use my 1 1/2 inch circle punch ALL THE TIME. It is currently one of my favorite scrapbooking tools to use. I decided on this particular layout to cut the circles in half and create my own scalloped border under the picture. Very easy to do and gets near perfect results. To add to the curvy theme throughout the page, I used some of the new JBS chipboard buttons that are absolutely adorable!

I also used my circle punch to create 'embellishments' out of paper for my layout entitled "She has big dreams". I punched out the stars in the star patterned paper and randomly added them to my page.
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

July Contest Winner!

Lindsey said . . .

Be easy on me, I am still a newbie....got to start trying sometime though right?

We say . . .

Lindsey! You're our July winner! We love newbies here at JBS! Your little dress up doll is just darling and I love how you mixed up your title!

I've also been meaning to share this great shelf that Lindsey refinished. I just know Jenni would be proud!
Before . . .

And after! Gorgeous!


And I must share her pretty pretty quilt as well. The girl is multi-talented!


Email me your address at doris.sander@gmail.com and we'll get your treats in the mail!!!



And the rest of you get to scrapping with your August kits! We'll be posting the next contest soon!
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

JBS Mercantile Updates . . .

I finally got my gallery completed over at JBS Mercantile! You can see both new layouts and their detail shots HERE.

We'll be announcing the July contest winner tomorrow! You still have time to enter! Just post links to your creations with the July kit HERE. You have until 9:00 p.m. CST tomorrow, Wednesday, August 12th! GO GO GO!

And your questions answered:

Amy said . . .

I have a question about Amanda Johnson's Beautiful Bride page. What white pen did she use?

Mandi's response . . .

The pen I used is the White Opaque gel pen from Ranger Industries.

Danilouwho asks . . .

I've been trying to figure this out all morning, inbetween working of course, but what is that long black strip that is kind of like a photo strip in the layout about and in the kit??It's just gorgeous!

Doris's response . . .

That's a transparency made to look like a film strip. Creative Imaginations makes them and they are currently available in the JBS Mercantile August Kit!
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Monday, August 10, 2009

Designer Inspiration with Becky Novacek

Inspiration is one of my favorite topics. I enjoy talking about it and sharing sources with my friends and fellow crafters. I have notebooks filled with torn magazine and catalog pages, as well as many, many pages filled with sketches. Sketch books are another topic that I would like to talk about sometime…but today my focus is my torn print pages. Some of my favorites are/were Domino, Country Home, Mary Engelbreit Home Companion, Martha Stewart Living and Wedding Issues, plus JCrew, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters catalogs.

One of my favorite, relaxing pastimes is flipping through magazines looking specifically for inspiration. Tearing pages, or sketching my ideas and adding them to vintage ledger books or simple paperback albums. For me, sitting and relaxing, and putting anything stressful out of my mind really helps me to get my creative juices flowing.

I recently grabbed one of my existing books with torn pages of inspiration looking for an idea for a page. I found the page on the right intriguing and decided to go with it-

This is the page that I made that is actually a pretty literal translation. Some designs end up looking nothing like my pages, they are just a starting point, or it may just be colors that inspire me, or maybe one small detail.

On a sidenote, my inspiration books aren’t just about crafting, some ideas are home décor, cooking, baking, organizational and anything else that interests me. I hope that if you don’t keep inspiration journals, that this may encourage you to give it a try!
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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Edge Distressing Tutorial: Michelle McCord

Edge Distressing: On almost every layout I create, I use some form of distressing technique to add that personal flair to it. As for how I get my edges distressed, I use a variety of different 'tools' to achieve certain looks. Here I will show you how you too, can achieve the distressed edges.
Serrated Steak Knife: My favorite tool to use to distress edges of paper, by far, happens to not even be a scrapbooking tool! I discovered one day that a serrated steak knife from your kitchen drawer works almost flawlessly to get that random, torn, distressed look to your edges. I will admit it does take some practice to get used to it, but once you have mastered the knife distressing, you will rarely use anything else. First off I just found an older serrated steak knife from my kitchen. A non serrated knife will not really work, as the serrated edge gives the paper a more fuzzy, worn look and the smooth knife seems to just make cuts in the paper. Holding the paper in my left hand and the knife in my right, I go along the edge of the paper, only dragging the knife in one direction. If you try and go back and forth with the knife you won't achieve the real distressing look you want. Going in one general direction keeps your distressing more consistent. LIGHTLY dragging the knife across the paper edge will give you a fuzzy worn look to your edges. The more pressure you use with the knife, the more worn and the more rips in the paper you will get. So just remember if you want more distressing, use more pressure.
Sandpaper: Another one of my favorite tools is the sandpaper that you can buy from any local hardware store. Just cut off a piece of sandpaper about 3 inches by 3 inches and run that down the sides of your paper. Any grit sandpaper will work for this technique. The more coarse the sandpaper, the fuzzier the edges will be.

Your Fingernails: I am a tried and true believer of using my God given assets for creating and using my fingernails to curl up already distressed edges is one of my favorite ways to dress up a page and make it more dimensional. My layout entitled 3 uses this technique on all the different layers and gives it tons of dimension.
A Ruler: Another way to give the edges of your paper some distressing but having it be barely noticeable is using a 12 inch ruler and ripping your paper. Just line up the ruler on the paper and tear the paper TOWARDS YOU. This will give the remaining edge a more torn look, but if you use your fingernails to turn up the edges, it will be a very subtle distressing technique to try. One other technique I use before I distress is sewing along the edge of the paper BEFORE you use any of the above techniques. That sewing line will make sure that you don't rip deeply into your paper and kind of acts like a 'border' for the distressing as well. Just practice on some scrap paper, and soon you will be an old pro at distressing!
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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Product Inspiration: Lisa Dickinson

Product Inspiration - Bingo Cards
One of my favorite items at Jenni Bowlin Mercantile is the bingo cards. They are such a unique and fun product, and the wide variety of themes make them appropriate for just about any scrapbook page or card. Not sure how to use these cards? Here's just a few examples of the many ways to use this versatile product:

To reinforce the theme of your page.

In this page by Paula Gilarde she used the mini Brown bingo cards tucked behind her photos. The card titles tie into her journaling about her uncle's farm and help highlight the beautiful scenes of the farm and equipment.

I can't think of a better occasion for the Grow bingo card than graduation! This clever card by Jan Tatomir a sliced up card accented with lace, buttons, scallops, and a flower.


Jojo used the large Faith card as a bold accent on this textured page. It works beautifully with this photo that captures a sweet moment between parent and child.

As a title.

Out of letter stickers to make your title? Use a bingo card instead!

I found this fabulous page by annalouise in the JBS Mercantile gallery. I love how she cut the bold "Adore" from the large bingo card to use as a title.

And here's another great use of that Adore card! Jeniece Tackett's sweet page is obviously about love, and her use of the large bingo card as both a title and a background for her photo is just perfect!

As a page accent or embellishment.
Don't be afraid to play around with the cards, and that includes cutting them up (yes, really!)

On this sweet and simple page by Lisa Truesdell, she used a circle punch on the mini Valentine bingo cards and then layered the circles with other elements for a cool page accent.

For my page, I roughly traced flower shapes on the back of both the mini and large Birthday bingo cards and cut them out. I stitched around the edges of each in various colors of thread and used them as a funky background for the photos of my daughter.

The possibilities are endless! So pull out your bingo cards and get to work! We'd love to see what you can do, so link up your projects in the comments. Happy creating!
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Customer Spotlight: Betsy Sammarco

This month we're launching our new customer spotlight program! Each month we'll be putting the focus on one of YOU our awesome customers! This month we sent a box of happy to Betsy Sammarco and she sent us back some lovely inspiration.


My name is Betsy Sammarco and I’m usually “pharmgirl” on the boards. I live in CT with my wonderful husband, 2 great teenaged boys, our 2 pet ducks, and our sweet dog. I think my scrapbooking style changes from time to time, but the thing that remains constant is my love of documenting stories of my family’s life on the pages. I am so grateful for the friendships and fun that scrapbooking has brought me.

This is an old photo of my boys. They will be a senior and junior in high school in the fall, so these old film photos mean so much to me these days. I love this one of them just fooling around together. I treasure these old photos now!

Since my husband and I are both pharmacists, we've got some apothecary type stuff in the house. This was used to store prescription files. There are 24 cubby holes in total and I found the mesh boxes that fit perfectly at the Container Store. Each section holds a particular kind of embellishment and is labeled with a wire rimmed tag.

Thanks Betsy!

p.s. be sure to check out Betsy's Etsy Shop Trinquets . . . it's full of vintage goodness and all for charity with 100% of the proceeds going to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

and remember, next month YOU could be in the Customer Spotlight!

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

JBS Mercantile Updates!

The guest gallery is up starring Kendra Mccracken! Stunning!

I also added another beautiful layout to Becky's gallery! And don't forget to vote for her if you haven't already!

If you've had a chance to create with the July kit, be sure to link your work HERE! We're currently looking for our next Mercantile contest winner! Contest ends 8/12!

KristN said . . .

Oh MY - this may be the most stunning gallery to date!! Wow, you ladies REALLY outdid yourselves with this kit! I cannot wait to get mine. I have to know the brand & color of (goldish??) ink Keisha used when stamping on her layouts this month. Thanks!

Keisha's response . . .

Thanks so much!!!That "goldish" ink is by Tim Holtz Distress Ink in scattered straw(for the butterflies, scallops, floral stamps)!!The "Poser" layout-I used Stazon in timber brown to give it that shadow look!!

Do you have any more questions for our design team about the August kit? We'd love to answer them if you do!
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Monday, August 3, 2009

August JBS Mercantile Guest: Kendra Mccracken

When I got married 15 years ago, photos were not something that wereimportant to me. I had my memory and that's all I really needed. Or soI thought. Since photos weren't important to me, nor to my husband, wedidn't have a photographer. It’s now one of my biggest regrets.

Fortunately, my mother knew photos would one day be important to me soshe brought along her camera to the reception. I have very few photosand they are very average for wedding photos. But I'm so grateful shethought to preserve the moments for me. It adds much to the story ofthe torrential all-day downpour at our outdoor reception when I can pullout the photos of the group of kayakers trekking 10 feet away from ourreception to the nearby river!

When our first son was born 2 years later, my husband dug his old 35 mmSLR camera out of a closet and said, “I want you to have this.” Thebig, bulky thing intimidated me at first and was frustrating to learn touse, but he continued to encourage me.

I now use a digital SLR and take it everywhere with us. My family hasdubbed it ‘The Baby’. Since The Baby is always with us, I take a lot ofphotos. I enjoy making up for the error of my ways in the past byrecording every special moment possible in my scrapbooks. And I enjoysharing my scrapbook layouts with others, hoping to inspire them to record all those special moments, too.

You can read more of Kendra's delightful escapades on her blog, Traveling at the Speed of Life, and find more of her lovely creations at Fiskars.

Meanwhile, she has created this adorable block set with the August Project Kit and stay tuned as we will be sharing more of her work soon!
When I saw this adorable image on the book page included in the kit, I knew I had to find a fun way to use it. Luckily, it fit perfectly on the stack of Creative Imagination blocks so I was able to use it to make a simple puzzle on one side. I covered the reverse side with one of the gorgeous vintage wallpaper pieces. I intended to display this side in my craft room but after completing the project, I'm torn as to which side I like better!

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Sunday, August 2, 2009

Merry Christmas from Ranjini!


Ranjini created a darling little Christmas postcard as part of her JBS Mercantile Gallery this month and has graciously shared the above image with us. Feel free to download it and use it in your own creations. Thanks Ranjini!

Okay, I know it's a bit early to be thinking about Christmas... but I can't help it, some of the Town Square papers remind me of Christmas! I created this North Pole postcard in photoshop - a last minute project and I printed it out and backed the B side with some of the Red Star Candy Stripes paper and a photo of Santa Claus. I thought you all might like to use it too for your own projects. It'd be fun to send this to the little ones mid year as a note from Santa to let them know that he's watching them year round! Or, punch a hole in it and use it as a gift tag. Glue a photo to the opposite side of the card etc.

Enjoy! Ranjini
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Saturday, August 1, 2009

Vote for Becky!!!

Our very own Becky Novacek is in the running to be named Omaha's best photographer! Who could be more deserving??? If you have a spare minute, please vote for her HERE!

And now here is Becky's tip for us this week:

Hi everyone! Becky Novacek here, sharing a photography tip today. There are so many different ideas I had when I was trying to decide what to talk about….how to dress for the best photos, lighting/no flash, focus tips….but I decided to share a tip about white balance. I know that a lot of people struggle with getting their white balance right.

So, here’s my photography tip: Use custom white balance every time. I literally never choose auto white balance. For those of you who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, white balance determines the warmth (yellow tones) or coolness (blue tones) of your image. We’ve all had photos turn out really yellow or really blue, that’s what I’m referring to. If you’re not shooting in RAW, this can be a real problem. The first thing you will need to do is find the custom white balance setting on your camera. Then get to know your camera, by trying the different settings. It really is basically common sense, set your white balance on the sun setting if you are shooting on a sunny day, the cloud setting for a cloudy day, etc…

For indoor shots, you can experiment with your tungsten and fluorescent settings. Sometimes you will be in a situation with both, so you will need to know how your camera works. Much of it is trial and error at first. After a bit of practice, it will be much easier. I rarely have to give it much more than a brief thought now.

The time you will save editing your images will be worth the effort of choosing a custom white balance setting.

Here’s an example of a custom white balance shot that needed very little editing. This shot was taken with lots of sunlight coming through a wall of windows. The custom setting was sun:


Here’s an example taken at sunset with a partly cloudy custom white balance setting:

The colors are true and flattering. Skin tones don’t look too blue or too yellow.

I hope you are able to use this photography tip (if you aren’t already) and it improves your photos!

And FYI . . . Becky, Doris, and Jenni now have projects uploaded into their August galleries. Check back Monday for some new additions! Also, the blurbs have been added to everyone's galleries. I know I just love reading those. I'm always so curious to hear about the designers' inspirations and learn a little more about how they put their layouts together.

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