Scrapbooks Atelier

Well, just stick it

There are so many new products for scrapbooking out there. During CHA Chicago I would go around saying: "oh, that's so beautiful....but what do you do with it" The most common answer..."well, just adhere it to your layout". OK, that's simple enough. So when I came back I looked around for one product that I had never used and try sticking it to my layout. I always loved the mirror embellishments by Heidi Swapp but never used them. So I chose the butterfly shapes and just glued them down! and I LOVE IT!! Ah, sometimes thing are so simple and I make them so complicated. Lesson learned.

Enjoying Summer

This is the first summer I have the time to enjoy the majestic beauty of Lake Tahoe. Sometimes one gets just too busy. We are so lucky to have such an immense natural beauty all around us. I've also been more involved with photography, taking daily walks with a little backpack with all my lenses. So far my photography "equipment" include a Nikon D80, three lenses including a brand new macro lens, one filter, one tripod and a 4-in-1 screen. Nothing too sophisticated. So I've been shooting mostly landscapes and macro. I must confess it's becoming addictive! I must also confess that by paying attention to where I live and looking at all the little details I've fallen in love with the high sierras and the lake.

You may already know that I use photoshop to enhance some of the pictures I take of my family, and now I've been using it to transform some of the photos, too.

This one I took with my macro lense and added textures and color modification.

For this one I use telephoto lens.

Oh, want to see some macro?

Next, print my favorite ones and scrapbook them...it never ends, does it? Let me tell you that there are so many amazing things I've learned this summer about photography. I am reading everything I can and spending long hours outdoors trying and testing. I will be sharing some tips with you starting this fall. I am just starting my experience with HDR photography so I will let you know how that goes in the next few months.

The one thing I will say is "JUST SHOOT!!!". Yes, just take that photo of the special moment, of that beautiful scene, or the person you love. Every photo is a bit of your life, of what your saw behind the lens,  recorded forever. What a great way to tell your story.

The Race for the Cure starts NOW!!!!

Hello, artsy girls!!! I had the pleasure last night of participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure team captain kick off party. I can't tell you how inspiring it was to be there with so many breast cancer survivors and community activists. Our team, Artsy Girls in Pink, did such an amazing job last year. I am so very proud of what our 27 team members, mostly comprise of papers artist but also our children and husbands, did! We walked, ran, donated money and had a great time.

Let me tell you a little bit about the party (iphone pics, again). We gathered at the Grand Sierra, plenty of fine wine, delicious food, a silent auction and a recognition ceremony. We received a candle holder and handmade candle courtesy of the Clay Canvas and Flicker. I was so lucky!! I won one of the raffles which included a gift bag with great Mary Kay products. I met some amazing people and learned so much from other team captains with more experience.
  

I want to invite ALL of you to join me this year. Our proud Artsy Girls in Pink is ready to shine! The race is on October 5th at the University of Nevada. This will be the second year for our team and my goal is to recruit at least 30 members and raise $1500 in donations. I KNOW WE CAN DO IT!!!! You may choose to walk, run or join our team from home (snooze while we run!) Registration deadline is September 16th.

As you may know, my grandmother died of breast cancer. I run for her. This year I am training to break my 5k personal record. I also run for all the women in my family, for my girlfriends and most of all, I run for my two little daughters. I hope we will win the fight against breast cancer by the time they are adults.

As of tonight you may join our team Artsy Girls in Pink, please click here

Atelier will host a party after the race with lots of give aways, great food and prizes. Two recognition awards will be given: One for the team member that raised the most money, one for the team member that recruited the most participants....THE RACE IS ON!!!!!

the best is yet to come

I am back from Chicago, sooooooooo excited to be back!!! I had such a great time at CHA. My head is full of ideas, my heart is racing and I can't wait to share with you all that I have learned and seen!!

First of all, if you had questions about the scrapbooking industry i will tell you that all the vendors, designers and store owners were so enthusiastic about the future. It was inspiring to see the commitment this industry has to make scrapbooking easier, more beautiful, meaningful and...affordable. I have a BIG smile!!!

Ok, some of the "little" new vendors we shopped from at CHA Annaheim have grown so much and had big booths and tons of great products.  I was so happy for them! I was too busy shopping that i missed my creating keepsakes contributors luncheon but I was able to say hello to many of my friends. WOW, they are so supportive! Hopefully i will have more time to work on layouts...at least i promised them i would. Here, some of the people I spent some time absorbing ALL the information i could.

Tim "il divo" Holtz showed us more of what to do with his amazing products

Tony, our Sandylion rep was so kind to introduce me to Kelli Panacci. She was so generous and sweet. You will love her new lines, directly from Toronto!

 

It was a nice surprise to see Claudine Hellmuth join Ranger to launch a new line of artistic products as beautiful paint and mediums. You may remember her for her puppets stamps.

 

I felt that designers made an effort to create products to compliment and enhance your pictures rather than attempting to be the center of attention. Better quality paper, great textures. I found great stamps, too.

For the artsy in you, new mists, paints and inks. Gorgeous mini books (i can't wait to work on some of them).I also saw how Ali Edwards like to use her alcohol inks...pretty cool. I also saw the two Heidi's, everyone from Scrapbooks etc and Creating Keepsakes.

As for the new collections, very cool stuff...think beautiful. After walking and looking at many of the booth I found myself smiling and saying :"wow, this is so simple and so beautiful!" Paper seems to be less complicated, cleaner and well defined. 

Butterflies took center stage....move over birds! I can't even mention all the vendors that we selected from  but we put 30 orders at the show and i brought back about 30 more catalogs from vendors that i didn't have time to leave an order. So TONS of new beautiful things coming in. 

However, I can show you some of the layouts done with some of my favorite lines! (Sorry, all of these are photos I took with my iphone, which had dust from the trip!)

 

Ok, so the  most amazing story is of my dear friend Melissa Frances who is a breast cancer survivor. Her hair is growing back and she looks really good! Her booth was decorated with amazingly beautiful bras embellished with papers and flowers and beads! 

 
 

Melissa is a true inspiration, she renewed my commitment to believe in myself, to reach for my dreams. These bras represent no only creativity, but the stories of many women and the power of hope.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be back with some great ideas for very cool layouts using Heidi Swapp and Keiser products. Thanks for looking!

you with me at CHA

Get on the plane...there's plenty of room to stretch our legs. We did no research, we have no expectations, no real plan

Let's surprise ourselves. I have learned that if I bring an open mind I can see products more clearly. I am ready to get energized by all the creative talent at CHA. We have only two days to see everything...'cause I am as busy as you are!  Amy is there so we will stop by and say hello at the Fiskars booth. She already spotted some products that she loved. Let's see what the trends are, the new tools, the new collections. We will see tons of samples and meet all the celebrities...but we will spend no time with them...we are on a mission...to shop for the BEST products from the BEST vendors for ALL OF YOU!  We spot Heidi Grace signing scissors, Heidi Swapp showing her new line. Tim Holtz is making everyone laugh and showing his new products (cool stuff!)

Hey!! The Quickutz booth! Theses guys are always fun to visit... Thirteen new alphabets.  The new alphabets come in 4x8 (COOL FONTS!), two new cookie cutters and several 2x2. Got them ALL. 

For the silhouette, there are color pencils and new colors of adhesive vinyl. 

One of the coolest products is their new storage binder. You can insert different storage sheets for ALL the different sizes of dies. When closed, it looks like a nice leather box. We ordered tons!

The new tool, must have - of course - a new cutting tool called "LOVE". Think of a toaster that cuts automatically (as in self-powered, no more cranks!) any die you may have. Yes, including the long dies. It is nice looking, cuts really well and the price is really good!

Look! Pink Bind-it-Alls! Well, Zutter has everything in pink. We love it! The new BInd-it-All is not only pink but as new cool features. If you belong to the Zutterrific club, I have tons of new ideas on how to use your Zutter, and there are fantastic new products that you will get at a fabulous deal!!

As for cardstock, Bazzill released an entire new collection of a new textured names "dotted swiss" and also new colors of cardstock. Metal and clear papers are also very cool. We have ordered it all for you!

As for clear stamps, tons of new patterns, even some that match chipboard pieces! Lovely designs and new inks and paints. So if you are an artsy girl, you will love ranger, tattered angels and more...i have to keep a few secrets!!

Patterned papers....OMG, to die for. Again, great stuff for boys, but also collections for those princesses. There are soooooo many new collections and so much to choose from!!! So...how about we take all our catalogs and select the BEST of the BEST?!

We have dozens of catalogs to go through...just look at the bed, just for blogging, but not sleep tonight!

Trust me, I don't really mind. 

Before I go...let me make a phone call: "Honey? Where are we going to put ALL the new product?"

. 

OK, girlies, time to go to "work".

Here, have a sneak peak of the papers you will find soon at Atelier.

Thank you for joining me today. Tomorrow, more beautiful products, more about the people we love and more of CHA Chicago!

School Pics

If you have kids in school, you probably have their "official" school pictures. I am not really sure why, but I have been reluctant to put those pictures in a page. Maybe because I felt obligated to make a "school" layout, using school papers (mostly primary colors) and using stickers that say "teacher" or "A+". Nothing wrong with that, but the four school pictures I have were taken during the fall, with softer backgrounds. This week I decided to MAKE THE PAGE once and for all! I walked around the store with picture in hand, selecting products that I liked and that enhanced the picture. No school theme. The papers are Prima and 7 gypsies. The tickets and token ( I LOVED using those) are from the latest release by Tim Holtz and the foam letters are Making Memories. Of course, flowers are Prima. I added adhesive pearls to each flower. The are light pink and of different sizes. So here it is, one of Gigi's school pictures in a layout, finally. I'm thinking about framing it. Maybe by the time she graduates from Elementary School she will have a collection of framed layouts, one for each year. I could decorate a wall in her room so she be proud of her achievements ( I would sit in her bed while she is out, look at them and be a proud mom, too :D )

Thanks for looking, artsy ladies! I will let you know about the details of our upcoming Quickutz event, our anniversary celebration and more soon!!!

Little Bugs

Have you noticed how many different collections of bugs there are? If you have a little boy, these papers are perfect for outdoor layouts. However, it is a bit more difficult to make pages for girls since some of this products are mostly blue, brown and green. Leave it to Autumn Leaves to solve the problem. An adorable collection of little bugs for girls and boys.

The button brads and some of the pattern papers are Imaginisce (they also have a great bugs collection). Funny, I used the frogs from the boy collection! I will add another layout tomorrow using the cutest worm ( I can't believe I just said that) TFL, and hope to see you soon!

Tennis? Yes!

I would describe myself as a nerd. I love science and medicine. I spent most of my life reading science books, playing instruments and day-dreaming. Sports? I must say that I enjoyed watching soccer games, like any other kid from Argentina. I loved working out but was never interested in competitive sports... Those scary volleyballs and soccer balls! During high school I was encouraged to play basketball because of my height. I was awful. So I stuck to the gym and fitness classes. I would say I was in very good shape until...yes, pregnancy. Those pounds...where do they come from? Two kids later and having gained enough weight to not recognize myself, I decided to get back in shape. OMG, that was not easy. Too heavy to run, too busy for classes I looked for something that would be fun, challenging and would make me move!

One of my friends suggested tennis. At first I just laughed. The idea of wearing a mini skirt and trying to hit a tiny ball was almost amusing. My husband thought otherwise, so he set us up for private tennis lessons. To my surprise, I liked it. And hitting the ball was actually fun. Being outdoors but not having to deal with actual wilderness (animals, sagebrush, etc), being surrounded by gorgeous pine trees and getting some sun was really good for me. I fell in love with tennis.

Of course, I would have NEVER stuck to tennis without Andres. This amazing guy is a superb tennis professional and someone who is not afraid to tell me to run, hit the ball and push me to the limit.

Andres Durandegui's Alpine Tennis runs the Caughlin Club tennis program (747-6006) in addition to the Reno Tennis Center (689-2975) at Plumas. Gosh, what a fabulous instructor and tennis player he is! Listen, I really don't like to sweat, but I do it with pride when I'm at the court.  BTW, his wife Marriela is a fabulous paper artist and the sweetest girl. If you have kids and are considering tennis lessons, at least you should give them a call to get info. For Gigi this will be her third summer taking tennis lessons and she LOVES it. It was kind of funny to see her play last year, I really admired the dedication and patience of all the instructors. She ran, and laughed and had so much fun. I have some great pics to scrapbook, too.

Now that I'm back to work it has been a bit more difficult to get to the courts, but I am not giving up. My husband also loves for me to play because I am in a better mood when I play!!!

You know, it's never to late too try something new. I will never be a good tennis player but I just love that I can try to be the best I can be. It makes me feel great about myself and helps me stay in shape. Maybe you want to join me one of these days.

Paper Jeanneous!

Not only she is the fabulously gorgeous mom of twins, a funny girl and a dear friend, Jeanne Mulligan is a girl with an amazing talent. She is the queen of doodles, a free-hand paper artist and a fantastic photographer.

It is a treat for me to see her work in my Silvia's Sketches class, which she takes every month. I learn from her  heartfelt journaling, I learn from her colors and from her use of product.

These layouts were based on my sketches (or so she says). However, Jeanne can take an easy sketch and transform it to a treasured piece of meaningful art.

For this layout Jeanne used Basic Grey papers and embellishments. She cut out pattern paper to make the wavy border. The border at the left is a sticker. Pen and pencils finish the layout.

For the following layout Jeanne used Daisy Bucket papers and rub-ons by Fancy Pants, silk flowers and a paper flower sticker by K and Company. See the detail of her title and how to cut the journaling. Each piece is inked and popped up!

She loves to make layouts with an edgy and trendy style. However, she can do beautiful easy and simple layouts like this one. I love the photography here.

If you can take two pieces of white Bazzill cardstock and create a bright and fun layout just doodleing and painting with makers...then you are the QUEEN OF DOODLES. Jeanne designed her own frames, too. WOW!!

This is one of my personal favorites! I love the photos and the papers she chose.The title is also fantastic.

Starting this month you will be able to see her at work during some of our Saturday night crops. She is the friendliest of girls and I am sure you will learn  just by watching her scrapbook.

If you are interested in sharing your work with other scrapbooker, please send me an e-mail. You could be our next guest artist!

Thanks, Jeanne for showing and sharing your amazing layouts! And than YOU for visiting me today.

Next, meet the one guy that know how to make me run!

Silvia's Sketches

Since I didn't post during May I wanted to show you one of my sketches for last month. I will be posting the new sketches for this month with the respective layouts before next class.

This is the sketch:


This is the layout:

 You know, this layout took be about 45 minutes to put together. I used stickers (yeah, stickers!) which I popped-up and that was it! Btw, I'm adding a journaling box as the sketch shows.

If you are interested in the classes coming up, the calendar should be ready by tomorrow. TFL!!