Project 365

As a New Year approaches I'm curious to hear about the experiences of our readers doing Project 365.  I would love to try it, but I'm a little intimidated!  So for those of you out there who've done it, tell me if it was a success or a mess for you!  If you blogged it, leave me a link!  If you are planning to do it, I'd also love to hear that!  If I decide I'm in, I'll post a link here for you in the next few days and we can take the journey together!
Happy New Years!

Happy New Year!

Just 12 hours here on the East Coast until 2011 rings in. How many of you have set yourself some scrappy resolutions/goals for 2011? I am vowing to finish my Disney album from our trip last Christmas there and to get myself organized! While we all sit back and ponder about what the new year has in store for us, we thought we'd share a few New Years Eve and resolution layouts we received.

Mary Applebaum

Bev

Storage Solutions......

So Christmas , Hanukah, and Kwanzaa have come and gone for this year. If you are a scrapbooker or paper crafter, I'm sure you had the Cricut Expression or new cartridges on your list. Hopefully, you were not a naughty little one this year and Santa brought all you asked for! If so, you may need to find a way to organize your cartridges. I know personally, I love the idea that Twinsmoms has shared in her two videos. You can get inspiration for your own storage or alter this to fit your own needs.

Check out this super easy way to get your carts organized in a way that doesn't take up lots of space.....


This is her second video. She has revised her process just a bit in this one. For those of us who have children that craft with our cricut, this is such an easy way for them to find exactly what they are looking for. Clean up is a breeze too, with the tabs, the young scrapbooker will know exactly where to put the carts.

If you have ideas on how to organize specific supplies in your scrap space, please email us at practicalsprappersideas@gmail.com be sure to put Storage Solutions in the subject line. I'd love to see ideas for sorting and storing your alphabet stickers, please submit these by January 12, 2011.

Thank you for joining us today at Practical Scrappers, practically scrapping in every way!
Blessings,

Current Calls & Contest Winners!

We have lots of projects that we are seeking submissions on for January...we'd love to see and maybe even share your work!  

Here's the list of what we are looking for:

• Layouts using Echo Park Products 
• Layouts using Glimmer Mist or a similar product 
• Layouts using Glitter or Bling 
• Layouts about snow or snowmen  
• Layouts using Border Punches  
• Hybrid Projects 
• Cards using Glimmer Mist  
• Cards using Border Punches 
• Cards using Echo Park products 
• Cards with snowmen or snowflakes  
• Cards using Glitter or Bling 
• Cards with Snowglobes on them
• Valentines created by you or your kids
• Valentines mailboxes
• The last day of January we will feature great projects on ANY topic that you've created, so anytime in January you create something you love, send it our way!

Projects can be emailed to practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com or practicalscrapperscards@gmail.com.  Either way we'll get them!  Please make sure to include a blog link if possible!

And now for our contest winners from December...

The winner of a $1O gift certificate from Stitchy Bear stamps: Stacie Craft Princess
The winner of the Studio Calico Kit:  Debbie
The winner of the Jillibean goodies:  CraftyGirl

Digi Giveaway

We've got one more giveaway this month from Stitchy Bear Stamps and another card to share with you!

Penny created this card using the Snowman digi and adding lots of embellishments to it!

You can win a $1O gift certificate from Stitchy Bear Stamps, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling us if you have a papercrafting goal for 2O1O.  The deadline for entry is January 5th.

Dixie Pieces Kit Club Feature

Dixie Pieces offers monthly scrapbooking kits that include a collection of fine papers, cardstocks, and striking embellishments.  They can be purchased in a monthly subscription or ordered each month online.  They also offer digital kits.  Their kit came with a color print out with several ideas on it of ways to use your kit for both layouts and cards.

I recently worked with their September kit: Krafty Lime.  My favorite thing about this kit was the wide variety of textures and dimension that was offered thru the embellishments.  I had never used fabric on a layout before this and enjoyed working with that to create flowers and ruffles.  I also enjoyed working with the Alexx Kesh mesh natural...which basically was like a 12 X 12 twine grid.  I used it in it's grid form but also took it apart and used it as twine.  I had never seen anything like this before, but enjoyed both the challenge and fun of using it!  Of course the minute I opened it and found the Jillibean corrugated letters you know I was excited (:  I also liked having both big and small letters to use on my layouts.

Another fun feature of Dixie Pieces is their huge online gallery full of great ideas!  It can be broken down into the most popular layouts, new layouts, or random layouts from their 92 pages of ideas.  They also have a forum that several of our readers are active on!

Here's what I was able to create using the Krafty Lime kit:

 I used my Martha Stewart fringe scissors on the fabric...made for a really fun look!

 These flowers were also created using my Martha Stewart fringe scissors and that fabric!

 This layout includes the twine mesh.

Happy Holidays!

From all the staff and designers of Practical Scrappers we would like to wish you all a very Happy Holiday! Practical Scrappers will be off until Monday, December 27, 2010 so that all of us can spend time with our families over the holidays. Check back in on Monday for some more great inspiration! So until then Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa from all of us to all of you!

Christmas Layout Inspiration

I love Christmas and everything that comes with it!  I always take tons of pictures with thoughts of fabulous layouts dancing in my head.  And then I get stuck, feeling like I am doing the same thing as I did in previous years.  Today we want to share with you Christmas  submissions from you, our fabulous readers, and a few from our designers too!

Smitha Katti

Brenda

Penny

Pia

Jessica

 Andrea Macdonald

Bev

 Mieke Nagtegaal

Sue Althouse

 Yara

Yara

 Mary Applebaum created this digital layout

Mary Applebaum created this digital layout

Wendy Crowe

Thank you for all the wonderful submissions this Christmas!  Check out our Current Calls section to see all our January calls, we can't wait to see what you send us!

December Message Board Highlights

How many of you are taking a break from your holiday wrapping, cleaning, or shopping to see what's going on in the blogging world? Yep, me too! I am cooking and having the family at my house on Christmas day so I just got done giving my kitchen a major face lift and needed a break. I went to the message board and was checking out all of the great holiday inspiration our members have been sharing with us. Things have been pretty quiet around the message board, but with all the holiday hullabaloo in the air that's to be expected. Some other events taking place on the message board; last month we had our very first one-hour layout contest and it sure was a lot of fun seeing all the different takes on the sketch. Well, we are going to try something a bit different for January! We are going to hold our message board one-hour layout contest right here through our blog! But first, we need your help...over on the side bar is a poll asking which Saturday in January would work best for you participate. The contest will take place at 9pm EST no matter which. Don't worry international members, we will email you the sketch and let you know the rest of the details once the date has been decided. The poll will be open until 5pm EST December 30, 2010. Check back on the 31st to find out the date and details of the contest.
Also, on the message board we just finished up our Secret Santa Sister Swap, and I believe all packages are on their way! Santa said that everyone had been a very good girls this year. Some new excitement on the SWAP board! The new year is approaching and Valentine's Day will be just around the corner. We are checking for interest in a valentines swap. Looking for 8 players minimum and 15 max to create some valentines. Head over to the message board and check out the thread Valentine Swap if you are interested-- you must me a member of the message board to play along!

Holiday Craft Fairs....The Do's and Don'ts

How many of your have every thought about taking your scrapbooking, card-making, or altering of projects and venturing out in world of the craft fairs/holiday fests? For the past three years I've thought about, started it, quit it, thought about it some more, and now I can finally cross it off my bucket-list to say,--I've done it! I am far from pro, and consider myself a "stage one amateur craft fair lady", but I thought it would be fun to share my experience with you all and maybe inspire someone to take that plunge and get out there.

Motivation
A lot of my friends ask me, "what motivated you to do this all of the sudden?" That was an easy response, " a $4,000.00 bill to send my son 10 year old son on a student ambassador program." That was the kick start for me! I wanted to give him this wonderful opportunity he'd been given, but I didn't want to pay for the entire trip out of my pocket. We sat down and were brainstorming some fundraising ideas and it was my 10 year old who said to me, "Mom, why don't you sell some of those projects and cards you make--everyone loves them!" The first thing that went through my head was "oh no, not this again." After thinking about for a couple of days I decided that "we" were going to do this because "we" need to. I say we because after all, this was my son's trip that he wanted. I would do what I could to help him, but I wasn't doing it alone. The deal was mom would create her projects, but he would have to help with the packing/unpacking of the car, help set up at the tables at the fairs, and give up his Saturday's to be there all day at the table to help sell and talk to people.

Where is this story going? You may not have a $4,000 student ambassador bill to pay for, but maybe you have a $4,000 family vacation to Disney you've been saving for or your have a $4,000 credit card bill that has to be paid off in six months before you get hit with some major accrued interest. The key for me was finding that motivation factor outside the fact just wanting to do the crafts fairs, but putting the label of "I need" to do this craft fair.


Know Your Market
I'm going to help you out and share with you my biggest mistake that I could have made. I did NOT know my market. Even though it was something I had thought about so many times, I never visited the place where the first craft fair was being held in it's previous years. I walked in there with no clue what the other vendors were selling, what kind of area I would have, or even if it was a show that has a good turn out. Guess you could call it "jumping in head first". I paid the price for it, too. The first show, I made $78.00 in 6 hours. It covered the $15 table space fee, lunch for my son and I, and $50 went to his fund. On the positive, it was $50 we didn't have. I had done pretty well only trying to only supplies that I had on hand, but I spent $40.00 on supplies....so my bottom line was $10 profit.


The second craft fair was a week later, but I had been to this one before, and knew what I would be dealing with...and it showed. I walked out of there with a bottom line profit that day of $350 in 6 hours.

Here are some picture from my successful craft fair:







Some Other Basic Do's and Don'ts
1. Know your products. Don't go crazy making lots of different items and only having a few of each. Find 8-12 that you are comfortable with making and make enough product of each.

2. Don't limit your product to just seasonal items. I made this mistake, too. Just because it is a holiday fair/Christmas bazaar you should have products that you can use for those "just because". I could have made a lot more sales if I would have thought about making birthday cards sets and thank you card sets. When people saw I was a card-maker they asked, and I told them "sure, I can take an order for you". They want them on the spot and want to walk away with them.

3. Don't over-crowd your table. Placing everything that you made out at one time will become very over-whelming and crowds your table. Try to go vertical and get your items eye-level rather than spreading them all out.

4. Price each item. This was something that I did not do. I feared placing a sticky price tag on my paper items so instead, I make a pricing sheet and placed it in a frame. I found that many people picked up items, flipped them over as if searching for a price, then set them back down. People don't want to ask how much something is, it makes them uncomfortable if they have to ask you for a price, then set it back down because that price may not be in the range they were willing to pay.

5. Stay involved with your table. Don't be talking to other vendors/helpers. Engage your customers and be there to answer any questions they may have. If this is an area you struggle with you can bring along more supplies to create product. Remember that marketing rule "activity attracts activity". It interests your customers walking by and will get them to stop and look at your table. If those two fail you can always arrange/re-arrange your table to draw people in.

6. If you are doing this as a fundraiser, label it. Again, this was a mistake I made at the first show, but corrected for the second. There I had my adorable 1o year old son to help me and yes we were telling people that this was a fundraiser, but it didn't help sell our product. I corrected this mistake by adding a picture frame with his picture, and a little blurb about his fundraising with a jar for donations. On top of the profit I made from the second show we also received another $72.00 in donations. People may not find something at your table for them, but they are always willing to help out a good cause.

7. Always have business cards ready. I set mine in the front of my table for people to take as well as have a stack by my bags. Place a card in every sale you have. Also, something I like to do...if they stop and ask about something grab a business card, write down on the back what it was they were looking at so they remember you.

I hope you enjoyed and learned something from my experience in holiday craft fairs. I actually have my space reserved for both of the fairs I did for next year already. I am going to give them both a try again and hopefully learn and be more successful from my mistakes. Please, if you have taken that step and ventured out into the crafts fair leave us a comment and share with us some of your do's and don'ts. We would all love to hear them!

Sketches for some ME-TIME

Get your juices flowing with these versatile sketches from our designers. If you can squeak out some me-time during your busy holiday season, take these with you and make it productive! Then title it "December Sketches" and send us your version at practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com and we'll share the joy at the end of the month. Come back and see what your fellow scrappers managed to get done in the midst of the Christmas craziness!

Practical Gift Idea....

As you are crossing off the last few names on your list, here is a quick yet fabulous gift idea to share, an altered planner. We all need a planner of some sort to keep up with our daily schedules. If you have someone on your list that never goes far without a planner, then this little gem is perfect for you.

First, you need to buy a planner, I picked this one up at the dollar store for $2. Then I matched the supplies and style of it to the friend I'm gifting. She is all victorian and I wanted this planner to reflect her beautiful spirit.

Next, I measured, cut, and inked up the paper for the cover.

I also used a little bookplate along with the year as an embellishment for the year.

Other embellishments I added included a tag with a quote just perfect for her, you really can't have vintage victorian without the addition of pearls, roses, and ribbons.

Once you see how easy these are to create and personalize, you'll enjoy creating for all your friends and family!
If you have some practical gift ideas, please share them with us at practicalscrappersideas@gmail.com, we'd love to hear from you!
Thanks for joining us today at Practical Scrappers, practically scrapping in every way!

Day Three of Giveaways: Stitchy Bear Digi Stamps

We're back with some more fabulous samples of Stitchy bear's digis.  These cards both use "Lite Brite"

Bev created dimension with her star and gel dots.

Penny printed hers twice and added dimension with layering.

If you want to win a $1O gift certificate to Stitchy bear here's what to do:

Make sure you are a follower here & Leave us a comment telling us whether you have a Christmas tree up this year and if so tell us if it is real or fake.  The deadline to enter is December 23.

Check out the contest tab to see if you are the recent winner of any of our contests!

Day Two of Giveaways: Studio Calico Club Feature

Studio Calico is the focus of our second club feature.  Studio Calico combines "the lastest in scrapbooking products with unique finds from a variety of sources, while staying true to the basics."  I love how they said this because I feel like it sums up exactly what I try to do with each of my layouts!  They also offer add on kits to either supplement the main kits or stand alone. This month they offered four different add on kits, in a variety of themes.   

I got to play with their December main kit!  My favorite thing about this kit was that it included products manufactured exclusively by them or for them but also products from other companies.  It was exciting to open up the kit and see things like a stamp and papers that were exclusive to Studio Calico.  It was great to take those products and combine them with some familiar favorites like Cosmo Cricket letters.  I also loved how unique the entire kit was...there were so many items included that I'd never seen in a store before.  Not that they aren't available anywhere else, but they weren't items you see in all the big box stores.  So with all that said, here are the five layouts I came up with using this months "Metropolitan" kit:

This layout includes one of the patterned papers from Studio Calico.

This layout includes one of the Studio Calico patterned papers  

This layout features the Studio Calico stamp that was included.  I used the "globe" stamp to create my flower and my scallop border.  

And here's that stamp again, used to create my scallop border.  I really enjoyed playing with that stamp!

I bet you are figuring out that I really enjoyed that stamp...I wouldn't have guessed I'd use it on three separate layouts!  This layout also features several of the journaling stickers they included, I cut some of them apart and used them to back my pictures.

Studio Calico has a great blog and a facebook page.  I have enjoyed the regular updates they do on Facebook providing examples from the current kit.  Their blog features weekly challenges and product spotlights, along with several other regular features. To enter to win a kit from Studio Calico here's what you need to do:  Make sure you are a follower here and then leave a comment here telling us which of their kits, found here, is your favorite...it can be current, an add on, or an old kit.  To get a second entry become a follower on their blog or a fan on their facebook page and then let us know about it.  The deadline to enter is December 21.

Christmas Tree Tutorial

Last week we shared with you some great projects using Christmas trees. Today, we have for you a tutorial creating the trees pictured below that can be used as a great gift, center piece for the table, or even as a tree topper for your very own Christmas tree.

Now these little trees can vary in sizes and you will always need to start with a square (6x6, 7x7, 8x8, 8.5 x 8.5, 12 x 12 are the sizes that I have done them). The supply list that I am going to give to you is based on starting with 12x12 piece of cardstock (for smaller sizes you will need less).

First of Three Days of Giveaways: Jillibean Soup Feature & Giveaway

Time to feature projects from another one of our favorite manufacturers!  This month we're bringing you projects from Jillibean Soup. Jillibean Soup does a lot with Kraft paper, in fact their first line of patterned paper was printed on Kraft paper.  Today you will see projects that use both their Kraft patterned paper and traditional patterned paper.  They also make adorable embellishments and stamps and you can find their corrugated letters and shapes being used on great projects all over the blogosphere.    They have a great blog and facebook page chalk full of inspiration.  Jillibean Soup was generous in providing us with a prize pack to giveaway today, so keep reading down to the bottom and you'll get all the details on how to enter to get your hands on it!

Erin

Brenda