School of Scrap: 2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

SCHOOL OF SCRAP SELFIE KITS...

What is a selfie?

Well, usually it's a goofy picture of ourselves, taken with our cellphone looking into a mirror {grin}! But here at School of Scrap we have a very different definition.

An SOS Selfie Kit is a collection of supplies you assemble yourself, from supplies you already own to use right now. We like to simply that down to "shop your stash".

Christie and I wholeheartedly adhere to the "use what you have" mantra. Oh sure, everyone loves to shop for new scrapbook supplies, and have a fresh stack of papers and embellies to hold and organize. But let's face it, when you come right down to it - supplies are supplies!

Old or new, part of a collection or a la cart, gifted or purchased, it doesn't matter. If you have it, you thought it was usable. And most likely, it still is. So at School of Scrap, one of the things we do each month is to assemble a Selfie Kit. Mixing lines, combing brands, discovering long forgotten papers or reaching for recently purchased treasures.

There are no rules, just suggestions for getting started. There are no limits, just ideas to make it doable. Pare down your entire stash into a workable, usable, non intimidating kit. An SOS Selfie Kit! Then use your kit to get pages made, pictures preserved and memories documented.

Here is Christie's recent SOS Selfie Kit:

!

She chose 12 sheets of patterned papers from a variety of collections and manufacturers. Then she added 10 sheets of cardstock from two different companies. And she finished it off with stickers, Thickers, ribbons and twine, doo-dads and embellies and pre-designed titles. It was quite a kit, and a kit that was hers FOR FREE.

Why? Because some of these papers she'd bought months ago. Some of the embellies were older than her son's puppy {okay, pup Daisy is only 3 months old, but the statement is true!}. She shopped her stash, put together an awesome kit full of favorites and treasures.

Then, using exclusive School of Scrap Sketchies, she could focus on getting pages scrapped:

All totaled, Christie scrapped 18 pages in a month, using supplies she already had on hand. That's smart, productive use of time and resources. To see the rest of the pages, scroll to the end of this post.

Your SOS Selfie Kit + SOS Sketchies = SCRAP SUCESS!

We hope you'll join us on this School of Scrap journey. We're a community of scrappers eager to learn, willing to share and ready to get things done!

Click here to sign up for a FREE trial subscription to School of Scrap. Just enter your info--you do not need any payment info to check out! We know you will love it!

School has never been this much fun!

Monday, October 7, 2013

OCTOBER FREE-FOR-ME SKETCHIES...

The first Monday of each month, a new School of Scrap Sketchies will post, that will be available to everyone! It's what we're calling "Free-for-Me" and it will be used throughout the month by Christie and I, and will be incorporated into the month's activities in a variety of ways.

For instance:

a weekend challenge on our SOS Facebook page
a Make-Something-Monday {MSM} live video
a Tuesday Make-N-Take, turning a page Sketchies into a card
a Wednesday Study Hall, using supplies from our monthly "Selfie kit"
etc.

Here is the "Free-for-Me October 2013" Sketchies...

Three spaces for photos, a big corner for embellies, buttons doo-dads and a title, and a space for your journaling. Remember, I have drawn in flower but those are merely to represent embellies. Use dimensional stickers, use die-cuts, use silk flowers, use journaling blocks, use Project Life cards. Anything can go there, my pink flowers are just placeholders.

If you're a title person {I am, I admit it!} use this space to your advantage. Sticker letters, computer generated/printed, electronic cutters, die-cut fonts, chipboard letters...goodness there are many ways to get a title on your page. Use as much space as you need, or just drop in a word or two.

Here is the page I created using the Free-for-Me October Sketchies...

This page went together very quickly because I followed the Sketchies exactly. The snowflake border is a 12" die-cut from QuicKutz that I just snipped apart to use in two places. My title was done with Echo Park sticker letters, and most of the word-fetti and journaling spots are from Echo Park as well.

And the navy blue photo corners? I just used a square punch that I cut into two triangles, and snipped away the center. Easy peasie!

If you use put this Sketchies to creative use, we hope you'll share it with us. Feel free to email us a photo of your project{s}, then look to be featured on our Facebook page or here, on the School of Scrap Blog.

It's going to be a busy month. Lots of picture opportunities, numerous ideas to act upon, and as always, plenty of memories I want to document.

If you have questions about School of Scrap, the features we offer, what is available as exclusive content for members, or ideas you'd like to see implemented, feel free to contact us by email or by leaving a message below.

As we like to say here at School of Scrap..."School has never been this fun!"

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

GOODBYE SEPTEMBER...

and "Hello!" October! Can you believe it? October! What happened to 2013? We're in the final quarter of the year - YIKES!

I best get busy scrappin', because the holidays are almost upon us.

Luckily, I'm in a rhythm right now, and pages are flowing like water around here. That's School of Scrap inspiration, if you ask me {wink, wink}!

On Monday we were in the SOS Studio for "Make Something Monday". We had three new Sketchies, and a room full of eager scrappers, so a good time was had by all. We were seeking with Week 9 Sketchies, and if you haven't checked out these great page and card designs, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

Here is a sneaky-peek of the page I made, using Sketchies 9A:

To see the page in its entirety, click over on our SOS Gallery. The Gallery is divided into cards, single-page layouts and double-page layouts. And here 's a hint, Sketchies are always labeled as such:

#A = single-page layout

#B = double-page layout

#C = card layout

So Sketchies 9A will be in the single-page layout gallery...a.k.a. our "Yearbook".

My page was done using up the final pieces of my September "Selfie Kit". If you haven't heard of a Selfie Kit, this is the kit we encourage you to put together from supplies you have on hand. We show you how to mix-and-match papers from different manufacturers, we take supplies from one collection and sticker sheets from other collections. We pull from the bowels of our stashes, and pair supplies with brand new goodies. There are no rules, except that there aren't any!

A "Selfie Kit" is free for you, because you already have the supplies, we call this 'shopping your stash'. You're simply narrowing down the focus of supplies for the month, and making fewer decisions - thereby getting more things done.

Can you add something that you discover is missing? Heck yes! Can you change your mind half way through the month and swap things out? Of course! Will you get things made? YES! And the best part is - today is the day we start fresh!

Tonight, October 2nd, at 8:00pm CDT Christie will walk you though her process for creating a brand new kit to use this month. You can find the Event Page to RSVP by CLICKING HERE but even if you don't get a chance to RSVP, we'll hope you stop by the studio.

Attending is easy, just CLICK HERE and sit back and watch as Christie works her magic, and shops her stash. She'll assemble a great kit from her supplies on hand, and have a great collection to scrap from this month!

We hope to see you, we'll both be there. Christie will be pulling papers and stickers and I'll be manning the live chat. Remember, if you take a few seconds to sign into the studio you can chat with us, which makes the time even more fun!

So tonight's Study Hall is all about October's Selfie Kit. The rest of the week has more fun in store. Please pop over and LIKE US of Facebook for up-to-the-minute announcements and information. I know for a fact that we have something HUGE up our sleeve for later this week, and you won't want to hear about it too late {more winks!}.

We're here for your scrap-habit...

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Good morning scrappers and paper crafters!

When Susan and I started School of Scrap, we thought we had a good idea. We did not realize that we would have such a big response to that idea!

Within 24 hours, we realized that Ning, the network we used, was not going to work. It wasn't user friendly and lacked many of the features we wanted. We immediately got to work on a new School of Scrap site, which we are happy to say is up and running.

The new site has a private forum (message board) where we can share ideas, conversations, layouts and cards with the entire School of Scrap community. We are excited about the site, and to be ready to move on with the big plans we have! The Ning site will be shut down at the end of the day today, so please visit our new site, www.schoolofscrap.com.

You will need to create a new account on the new site, because your old account is through Ning. Once you create the account, we will send you an invitation to the SOS forums. We call the forum The Quad, and we know you will love it!

Click this link and create an account.

Stay tuned later today for a Make-N-Take from Susan, and a Study Hall video from Christie will be posted in the next 24 hours as well.

We can't wait for your feedback and input! If you have questions or concerns, please Email us here.

Stick around...we are glad you are here! We will also be blogging about how to use the site and get the most out of School of Scrap in the next week, so stay tuned!